Following Vodafone's lead, Orange has now brought in their own PAYG mobile data changes, with a range of daily and weekly options, e.g. a week's flat rate mobile data for £5. Pretty impressive, I think mobile data on high end phones and smartphones is going to take off in a big way in 2007.
...except this time it is GPS/Navigation being touted as the saviour of the mobile industry. The always entertaining and accurate Michael Mace points out the fallacy of the magic technology bullet for mobile devices in his most recent blog post, along with the note that "a briefing [from] Nokia said that mobile billings are 84% due to voice, 10% SMS, and everything else accounts for just 6%."
Thanks to Tommi for pointing us to a new blog by a Nokia colleague of his on the specific (and much needed) topic of making Apple Macs and S60 smartphones work together in harmony. The author's name is Sami Lempinen and it's well worth bookmarking.
Well done to the E-series blog for trying out RoadSync and giving it a detailed write-up. In view of negative comments about Mail4Exchange, it's good to see a very fully featured alternative for users of Microsoft Exchange and fans of push email.
The Nokia Software Update team have had a busy few weeks. They've now rolled out v3.0633.09.04 (i.e. v3, rather than v2) firmware for the Nokia E70 qwerty smartphone. Spotted via the AAS forums. v3 seems to be mainly about better VoIP support, please comment as you spot other improvements.
The first major firmware update to the production N95 is now online via Nokia Software Updater. v11.0.026 is a 113MB(!) download. Once you've upgraded, please comment with observed fixes and changes.
Following on from my bullet point comparison of these two flagship devices earlier in the week, I've been filming a video/illustrated version. Smartphones Show 31 is the result, with screenshots, close-up photos and plenty of video. Anyone interested in the Nokia E90 should also note that AllAboutSymbian will be taking this to pieces over the next few weeks in the same way that we hammered the Nokia N95. Watch this space.
The GSM Association is reporting on their own initiative to allow mobiles to be used for payment systems in retail outlets - effectivly having them act as debit cards through your mobile bill. A number of operators are on board, as well as network operators, but I can;t help feeling that this is a solution in need of a problem.
Rafe'll be along shortly with his own official coverage no doubt, but in the meantime you could do worse than browse through Mobile Review's two photo-filled pages covering the main keynotes and exhibition hall. Memo to self: sell family and get to the Summit 2008...
Robin Good has posted his Beginners Guide To Twitter , the SMS based IM service from America. If you're still wondering what the buzz is all about and want to be involved, it's a good place to start... and then you can join AAS on Twitter as well!
Nokia music phones sound as good as a CD, says the Advertising Standards Agency (and which is reported by The Register). Responding to a complaint "that the AAC lossy compression used by Nokia is not CD quality." It all hinged on the ISO survey "Report on the MPEG-2 AAC Stereo Verification Tests, [which] found listeners largely unable to distinguish between the two, [so] 128Kbps AAC could be said to be of CD quality." Which will be music to the ears of the PR departments, but be ready for the audiophiles to recoil in horror.
Nokia has announced that the RAZR-like N76 is now shipping.... and those in a selected group of European countries also get vouchers for free Travis music tracks to download, courtesy of a link up with Sony. Press release follows...
Rafe was at the S60 Summit last week, of course. Here, in the first part of our S60 Summit coverage, he presents a compehensive roundup of Samsung's plans for S60 smartphones, including a look at the new i400, plus a general media gallery of photos and comments from the Summit.
