Gamasutra have posted a long and interesting interview with Nokia about their upcoming N-Gage platform plans, along with a photo of a smart concept device. Thanks to Engadget for the heads up.
It must have been tough at the bars of 3GSM, because the latest N-Gage competition, Snakebite, sounds just like something invented after all the beer had been drunk dry. Simply post a score online from Snakes before the 28th of Feb and you could win one of many reptillian prizes (including a snake-bite kit, a Snakes T-Shirt, '277 Secrets Your Snake Wants You to Know' or even a copy of Whitesnake's 'Snakebite' album. The mind boggles...
Interesting to see quality software still being developed for Nokia's somewhat orphaned Series 90 platform. Best TaskMan is something of a must-have for 7710-owners because of the lack of built-in task switching/reporting.
Programme 5 in the popular TV-style Smartphones Show is now online, with a feature on what makes smartphones smart and cool things to do with them, a look at the competition, in the form of the Orange SPV C600, video from our Rafe from 3GSM and some basic Symbian UIQ/generic tips.
Will and Freddie spill more about the behind the scenes at 3GSM in the Symbian Blog Diary of the event. Day Four sees them look at the stands and, amazingly, they're great fans of the one from Symbian.
A quick update for freeware fans. No nag screens, no reg codes, no hit on your wallet. There's a much updated table of S60 freeware over on 3-Lib, with over a dozen new entries in the last month.
Guido van Rossum, the creator of the Python programming language that holds a lot of the cool stuff on the Internet together, has been personally enthusing over the recent Nokia S60 port of the language, which allows users to create innovative smartphone applications extremely rapidly.
NTT DoCoMo has launched a Japanese version of the S60-based 6630. Dubbed the NM850iG, this smartphone has a slightly different keypad layout, with the appropriate Japanese characters catered for.
TechDigest is carrying a report that ALK's CoPilot Live sat-nav software (previously Windows Mobile only) is coming to Symbian/S60, and for free. Subject to a monthly T-Mobile contract on a Nokia N70, anyway.
Over on Phone Scoop's 3GSM coverage, there are more pics of the M600i and W950i, and even a good video of the latter, demonstrating music playback, selection, multitasking and message sending. I'm sure Rafe will be along soon with his own scoop, though...
Interesting interview over on Yahoo, with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, talking about the fight to make Windows Mobile devices as affordable as those using Symbian OS. Some fighting talk here, though even he admits that Symbian are currently 'dominating' the sector.
Following on from Nokia and Sony Ericsson's agreement on DVB-H (digital mobile TV), Philips have announced a new DVB-H solution on (incredibly) a 7 by 7mm chip. If this isn't in an awful lot of smartphones within a couple of years then I'll eat my hat.
Symbian have announced some interesting 2005 and Q4, 2005 figures. Almost 34 million smartphones running Symbian OS shipped in 2005, the fourth consecutive year in which shipments have grown by more than 100%. Over 10 million shipments were in Q4. Here's the full press release, which goes into a lot more detail.
Guy Kewney, over at NewsWireless.net has found a fascinating piece of technology at 3GSM. An organic led screen (oled) which offers low power consuming, flicker free video at an incredibly large pixel densisty. Impessive pics are over on his site.
