Not Symbian, but hopefully of interest to any ex-Psion or ex-Nokia Communicator users, it seems the general form factor has been revived, with a new startup, PsiXpda, with photo below, offering a clamshell high spec, QWERTY-driven part-PDA, part-laptop. And, impressively, far from being vapourware, it's available next week. See below for links and details.
Live this morning are The Phones Show 96, embedded below but of only tangential interest here perhaps, featuring an extended news, an introduction to the Nokia N900, a user story taking in iPhone, Nokia N97 and HTC Hero, and AAS's kevwright giving his Top 10 iPhone apps. Also live is Phones Show Chat 15, the hour long weekly audio podcast, in which Tim Salmon and I talk about our Nokia N97-centric (seemingly) universe(!), about Podcasting, about the Nokia E72 and about implications from Nokia's Capital Markets Day.
There's a handy new set of video tutorials for Quickoffice Premier 6.0 over on the main Quickoffice site, including 'Editing spreadsheets', 'Editing cells', 'Formatting spreadsheets' and 'Editing Word documents'. The content is a little clumsy in places because of the need to apply to both touch and d-pad-driven interfaces, but it's still well worth a look. And Quickoffice's perennial half-price offer still seems applicable - if you don't see it, try bringing up the page from a different PC or IP address.
A fun discussion with Om Malik and Nokia's Services EVP Tero Ojanpera has been posted on GigaOm. Malik rightly points out that, given his previous coverage, this wasn't going to be a chat over tea and cream cakes for the Finn. Still, it's a good sign that it did happen. My comments below.
Symbian and Orange are teaming up in the 'Symbian Developer BootCamp' in London on January 13th 2010. This is completely free and is "the ideal place to gain insight and hands-on experience with the Symbian Mobile Platform, leveraging our Runtime tools including Web, Adobe Flash Lite, Python, and QT". Intriguingly, they "will also have a limited number of Symbian devices to give away, these will be distributed on a first come, first served basis." Wonder how long those will last!
Nokia have filed suit in San Francisco against a number of LCD manufacturers (including Samsung and LG) claiming they colluded to fix pricing on LCD panels (reports Bloomberg). In Nokia's words “the liquid crystal displays were incorporated into Nokia mobile wireless handsets... [and] artificially inflated the price of liquid crystal displays ultimately incorporated into LCD products purchased by Nokia, causing Nokia to pay higher prices.”
As I observed almost a year ago, the pairing of a Symbian smartphone and an Apple iPod Touch makes a huge amount of sense in terms of their complimentary strengths. And now Mike Macias is rightly making similar observations, pointing out that the Nokia E71 armed with JoikuSpot (for sharing its data connection via Wi-Fi) makes a perfect partner for the latest 2G iPod Touch. The best of both worlds? Food for thought, at least!
UK Gaming site Pocket Gamer has delivered a well thought out and researched piece about piracy and online content. While primarily about gaming and the new rush for downloadable content, the landscape is remarkably similar to the software markets for smartphones. Looking at all angles, the final statement "...whatever excuses any of us have employed for justifying a pirated game are well and truly dead." is one that we'd stand by here, but it covers some new ground in the world of App Stores, current estimated levels of piracy and public opinion.
For anyone else waiting for an iSync plug-in for the Nokia N97 mini, to enable Mac syncing, note that Jim @ Worded Wonders has produced one, currently best described as in alpha status, see his blog post about it here. Comments welcome if you've got time to try this today. Of course, if Nokia could just put in 10 minutes effort and do an official one....
Knowing he owned a Nokia N86 and iPhone, I arranged for Nokia Creative guy James Burland to get a review Turbocharger 3400 from Proporta - this is the revamped device, not the original white one I reviewed two and a half years ago. As it happens, James has published the review over on All About iPhone, so go read it there, I too can vouch for the usefulness of the bigger Proporta charger.
Just to note a flurry of relevant updates from the Symbian world. Google Mobile App just got updated to v2.3.9, bringing a slightly slicker interface and extra shortcuts - get it from m.google.com on your S60 3rd Edition smartphone. Ovi Maps just got a minor bug fix update to 3.1.09 wk44 - if relevant to your installed copy, you'll be prompted to update (I was on the N86) - or look for it in 'Sw update'. And, should your phone not already have Ovi Contacts built-in (many do), there's a new standalone installer that includes data compression and better power saving features.
It may be ancient by 2009 standards, but it's still a very powerful beast. I'm talking about the Nokia N82, with accelerated graphics and Xenon flash. And it's the subject of a lengthy and passionate essay by Eric of Eric's Corner. Well worth a read - it's a classic phone in many ways, even if it has been eclipsed in recent times by the equally camera-centric N86 (which was, incidentally, conceived by the N82's designer). (via WOM)
I'll be accused of cherry picking links again, but what the heck, it's nice to see a USA tech web site giving space to the Nokia N97, in this case pitching its camera against that of the HTC Touch Pro 2 (Tilt 2) and the (also 5 megapixel) Motorola Droid. As perhaps might be expected, the N97 rather runs away with the test, but then the Nseries cameras haven't been in doubt for a while.
UK customers on Vodafone take note! The company is promoting their Vodafone Live! service with a bundle of 28 chrismassy ideas, and you can find out those ideas on the Live! portal. Just to make it a bit more attractive the network are having a Free Mobile Internet Friday tomorrow for all internet traffic. Both 'pay as you go' and 'pay monthly' customers will not be charged for using the internet tomorrow.
Finally a version of the Facebook widget has appeared for S60 3rd Edition, in the form of a download for the wide-screened Nokia E71 and E72 (anyone able to verify it also works on the E61i and E63?). Supported devices will find Facebook in the Ovi Store now, according to Clinton Jeff, who provides details and screenshots here.
