Nokia have published their Q4 results (and summary for the year) and it includes some interesting numbers and a summary of what has happened. Nokia had 32% market share for the year, 34% for the last quarter and increased sales, although operating profit is down by around 200,000 Euros The Nokia 9500, and 7710 well received, and their key N-Gage titles are now available.
Cory Doctorow talks to The Feature on his views of the DRM debate going out right now. The short answer is that protection for old business models because a new one has arrived have never worked, and digital media (especially on handsets) is no different. Worth a read alongside our previous interview with Cory.
This month we want a chain reaction of Bicycle photos (taken on a Symbian Phone). Please upload your photos to the Photo Contest 20 page. Vote will start on 6th February 2005 to pick a winner. Winners Photo is displayed on Main Gallery page and can select next category.
Then Steve Litchfield wants to talk to you. He's offering to stand in a room, with three Symbian devices in 'discoverable' mode. If you can infect his phones without his knowledge, then " ...I'll hand over an obscene amount of money." More details, along with four key facts on Symbian 'Viruses' can be found here.
Of interest to 9500 owners and those considering the new Communicator, 3-Lib now has a page listing known 9500 bugs, another describing how to create a free encrypted document store and one proclaiming the Nokia 9500 to be their sole A-list winner.
iAnywhere, owners of AvantGo (the offline, web style syncing news and article service),have launched an updated version of the service. Available for Palm OS 5, Pocket PC (2000, 2002, 2003), Symbian UIQ and Symbian OS v.6.1 Series 60, you can find more details in their press release.
It's now time for you to pick your favourite photos from the 4 displayed * here *. This poll will close on 23rd January 2005 & Good Luck to all taking part.
A spokesman at Sophos, the largest anti-virus company in the world, was quoted yesterday: "Some of the anti-virus vendors have been very busy hyping up the Symbian virus threat. The simple fact is that Sophos has never received a single report from any customer hit by one of these things - it seems they're mostly spreading by anti-virus researchers sending them to each other."
Handset manufacturers will pay $1 per device that has the OMA DRM standard installed on the handset (which is pretty much every single Symbian handset) and when you purchase any locked-down music, video or media files from your operatoir, they'll pass over a percentage to the OMA (reports The Register). The Register have explained the OMA DRM in depth previously - refresh your memory.
British Telecom has publicly announced the BT Callwise scheme for mobile users in the UK. With a Series 60 or UIQ Client, you load up your account with call credit, and save close to 80% on the regular international call rates from your handset. More information on BT.com
Pure N-Gagea has a short interview with Domi Hugo, creator of the ever popular Fexplorer for Series 60. What's interesting is not the delay to version 1.12, but that Domi is working on a shareware version of one of the most popular freeware applications for Symbian to include an FTP Manager as well.
With appallingly-advised sites around the Internet spreading unnecessary fear and alarm, Steve Litchfield issues a plea for sanity over on 3-Lib. it's far, far harder to contract a Symbian OS virus than a desktop one. You're more likely to be hit by lightning or an earthquake. Just say No. And shame on the computing press around the world for all the scaremongering.
SymbianOne talked to the authors of SnapperMail, Snapperfish, about the forthcoming UIQ version of the well known Palm OS email client. The UIQ version is based around the Triplex Core mixing MIDP 2, Personal Java and C++ in the implementation. SnapperMail should be available in mid 2005.
NewLC, the Symbian OS C++ developer portal, has had a redesign. NewLC has lots of excellent content for the Symbian developer from articles and tips to forums. Great work from Eric and the team - check it out.
