Just released this morning (see my 'Install diary' below) is Ovi Maps 3.4 (build 91, if you're being fussy). This follows up the formal release of v3.3, which introduced the new interface and free worldwide voice navigation. In brief, Ovi Maps is claimed to be faster and more accurate, and, as reported below, Nokia certainly seemed to have made big strides in this area - v3.4 is hard to criticise in the performance department now. It also adds Wi-Fi positioning to the many ways location is determined, though it will take a while before Nokia's servers build up enough data for this to be useful. Read on...
There's an interesting editorial by Chris Ziegler over on Engadget today, pointing out to its USA readership that the current carrier pricing strategy really doesn't make sense anymore, with European carriers showing the way, pricing all phones at free on contract, with just the monthly amount changing. Nice insight for Americans, though it's a pity there's no mention of the even more radical way of buying smartphones - SIM-free. A few more thoughts below.
If you're a reader here then you'll be interested in keeping up with goings on over on the official Symbian Foundation blog. The site just got itself a big facelift, with the home page sporting 'channels' (think categories), a blogger sidebar (highlighted people at the Foundation), in addition to the existing panels highlighting videos, tweets, and so on. The site also now offers a way to quickly share any post via Twitter or Facebook. Good stuff, go check it out. And here's the RSS feed for catching directly.
ArsTechnica have taken a good look at network congestion on AT&T in the US and O2 in the UK to try and find out why modern smartphones that drop the data connection as soon as possible to save battery are causing so many problems for the networks, and causing frustration for the end users.'
Just catching up with some links. Worth noting is that over half the world's Internet users now use only a phone for access, according to Tomi T Ahonen, reporting on an OPK interview. Tomi's the right person to believe when big numbers are being bandied around, of course, even if the headline is set to shock most Western geeks.
The well respected 'tnkgrl' takes on the Nokia N86 here, comparing its results to those from two other top camera phones. It's fair to dsay that she was impressed though not blown away - and most interestingly of all, she also experienced the 'frame drops soon after initial capture' that I've been battling with (more description below). Comments welcome if you too have seen this.
More updates to the Opera Mobile browser (which we looked at in depth here), Beta 3 of the latest version is now available. Opera Mobile is a natively coded web browser (as opposed to the java based Opera Mini), stressing tabbed browsing, optimised rendering for smaller screened devices and faster browsing. Head over to m.opera.com/mobile to download the newest build.
Mark Suster makes a good argument that the way forward for the majority of mobile apps is not on-device applications, but in the cloud and accessed through widgets and browsers. Going down the App for everything: “It is a step backward for our industry. It is a waste for most brands. It is a channel disguised in business clothing”. A few more quotes below.
One of the more interesting design choices Nokia have made in their firmware is the dropping of two multimedia applications on the later E-Series devices, namely Internet Radio and Podcasting. While third party applications (such as Escarpod) are available, those of you looking to get the original Nokia application on your device should head over to Symbian-Guru’s latest tutorial, which takes you through the process.
Missed by us in the run up to MWC was Spotify's increased handset support for their streaming music client. They’ve now added support for the Nokia X6, 6700, 6760, E55 and Sony Ericsson’s Vivaz (and presumably the Vivaz Pro). For a monthly fee, Spotify will happily stream a huge catalogue of mainstream music to your handset.
According to the official Ovi blog, the deployment of Nokia Ovi Suite 2.1.0.87 started yesterday, containing "many new improvements, bug fixes and features", including Ovi.com and Mozilla Thunderbird contacts sync, video transfer and playback and support for device application updates. You can get the new version from within an older version(!) or from here. This replaces the old PC Suite and other variants.
Ah, so it's not just me then. Respected über-blogger Jay Montano (far from an N97 fanboy, he's a Maemo 5 user these days) has compiled an interesting and highly illustrated list of ten reasons why Ovi Maps 3.3 utterly rocks on the N97. A good read over your afternoon coffee. (Note that the software itself works on a range of phones, mind you. Do buzz me if you spot Ovi Maps v3.3 (free nav) becoming available for more than the initial eight or so devices.)
Moubail is a handy place for third party S60 5th Edition widgets, being the home of DeviceInfo, which I've used for the last year. IMDb is the latest project, providing touchscreen, Web-like lookup of information in the Internet Movie Database. Read on for some screens, links and comments.
Paul Boutin brings up an interesting question on VentureBeat today; why can’t Nokia sell phones to Americans?" Rather than a tear-down of the Finnish company, Boutin makes his starting point the geek-lust inducing Nokia 8110 that featured in The Matrix and details three area Nokia could address to conquer the continent.
Rafe and Ewan McLeod are hard at work bouncing around Barcelona, and they caught up with a number of companies at the MWC MobileFocus evening. One of those companies, Swype, promises a “faster and more efficient way of entering text on a touchscreen device”, as Rafe finds out in this Video Report with Mike McSherry and gets his hands on an alternative input system.
