An interesting closing paragraph from Kevin Tofel’s observations on developing for Symbian OS sums up some of the issues facing Nokia and Stephen Elop over the next few months and years. Tofel was covering the event for GigaOm, and has talked to a number of developers to ask “what’s it like to develop for Symbian?”
In case you didn't watch the two-plus hour live streaming of the Nokia World 2010 keynotes yesterday, don't worry, for you can watch the best bits at your convenience, below, a special edited version from the Nokia Conversations team. In addition to footage of the main speakers, you also get to see lots of the attendees and their devices - bonus points for picking out any familiar faces! The main speakers featured are Niklas Savander, Anssi Vanjoki and Purnima Kochikar.
Having seen All About Symbian get a serious freshening up this week (design, discussions, structure, etc.), today sees The Phones Show also getting the spring clean treatment... in err....the autumn! As of Phones Show 120, released today, the show is 720p HD - and yes, it's still all filmed on phones. In this case the Samsung i8910, but it's appropriate that show 120 covers my verdict on the top 5 720p-shooting smartphones. You might recognise the no. 1 in the list - and you'll also recognise the E5, the subject of my hands-on video review.
The Nokia N8, the first first Symbian^3 device, is now available for pre-order in Nokia's UK web store. It is priced at £429 SIM-free, with availability scheduled for the end of September. The store is also offering the N8 for free on a £35 18 month contract (Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2). The UK is a key market for Nokia and is expected to be one of the very first countries to get the N8, which is, perhaps, reflected in the pricing being at the upper end of expectations.
SPB Mobile Shell has been a popular homescreen replacement for Nokia and Samsung S60 5th Edition phones, but the Sony Ericsson Vivaz's alternative front end was seemingly more of a challenge to displace. SPB have now officially released Mobile Shell for the Vivaz and Vivaz pro today. Both devices have graphics acceleration and plenty of RAM, so performance definitely won't be an issue. More below....
The Symbian Blog have published an interview with the Klomptek, the developers of Track and Protect. The interview covers the background history of the company, but also gives an insight into the development process and some unusual use cases. The latest version of Track and Protect, 2.08, which was released last week, improves the registration process, adds support for the Nokia N8 (one of the first third party applications to be fully optimised for the new device) and has additional language support.
We don't normally link to official manufacturer user guides going online, but I'll make an exception in this case, since both the Nokia N8 and Symbian^3 itself are going to contain items that are new to even hardened Symbian watchers. The N8 user guide is a 4MB, 122 page PDF file and, although still briefer than we'd like it to be (to mention every function), does contain instructions for using things like WebTV and USB-on-the-go.
There is a great rant over on Mobile Fanatics, about battery life in mobile devices. The author makes the case that poor battery life is down to lack of optimisation by developers, citing Android as the worst offender. Furthermore, he blames mobile platforms being based on the Unix/POSIX/Linux family of operating systems, stating that these systems were never planned to have been run on mobile platforms where energy is at a premium. Read on for commentary.
The saga of continually improving user firmware for the Samsung i8910 HD continues with the release of two new firmware alternatives. From HyperX, featured before on AAS, comes 'HX-V8-32', rolling in faster application icon display, extra keyboard options, numerous small bug fixes and better compatibility with Nokia's Symbian software. From 'faenil' comes 'n2o4', nicknamed 'The Queen'(!), Read on for screens, links, changelogs and more...
In a report from the IFA Consumer Electronics show, Reuters quotes Y H Lee, Samsung Mobile's head of marketing, as saying that the company is concentrating on "Android and Bada for its mobile devices". Samsung see that there is some "specialised demand" for Windows Mobile, but is "not seeing visible demand for Symbian". Reuters further reports that, although the company remains ready to introduce Symbian devices, it currently has has none planned.
Orange UK have announced a new service called HD Voice, which will give superior audio call quality over its 3G network on selected phones. Available free of charge, the service will initially be available to a small set of phones; Nokia's 5230, X6 and E5, plus the Samsung Omnia Pro. Having listened to test calls, it is a vast improvement, but not quite up to the claimed "Crystal Clear" quality as claimed. Click through to read our commentary.
Nokia's marketing campaign for the upcoming Nokia N8 is starting to kick off. Released today is a (potentially) viral video showcasing a prototype hamster-powered charging accessory for the N8. The charger in question was the result of Peter Ash's GCSE coursework. Originally it was powered by Elvis the hamster, but we suspect, five years on from the original construction, that Elvis might have left the building. So it's Elvis mark 2 in the hot wheel.
If you are interested in speaking at the Symbian Exchange and Exposium (SEE) you’ve got till this Friday to get your submissions in to see2010.org. The organisers are looking for both single presentations and panel discussions, and you’ll need to submit a 300 word pitch through the site.
Released a day or so ago and looking mightily interesting is a detailed promo video for FX Studio on the Nokia N8, embedded below. An add-on through the Ovi Store (similar to the way iMovie is an add-on for the iPhone in its App Store), FX Studio superimposes 3D animated special effects on real world videos, using augmented reality-style black and white markers to control the integration. Watch the video below and you'll see what I mean.
You may remember Rafe talked about SugarSync in the last AAS Insight podcast? Now Rita el-Khoury (whose Symbian blogging death has apparently been exagerated!) has employed a little lateral thinking to combine SugarSync with Dropbox to provide a native client-based way to get at the latter's files. Pretty neat, though it's S60 5th Edition only and limited in terms of capacity (for free).
