A lot of people want to watch video on their phone but find some video converters to be a bit confusing and overcomplicated, or they don't work properly. If you're looking for a "converter for dummies" that works with S60 devices you might want to try Nokia's rather overlooked Internet Tablet Video Converter. It's available for both Windows and Mac, it's totally free, and should work with all current S60 devices despite its Linux tablet heritage. It seems to work especially well with the Nokia 5800 as it has the same 16:9 screen shape as the tablets, and a somewhat similar resolution too.
Despite some glitches at Nokia's end, telling me the N78 was already up to date and that the firmware version available was the same as the current one, v12 - hey, I 'updated anyway'. And lo and behold the N78 comes up with v20.149 firmware after all. Something screwy obviously present there, but worth a good look over-the-air or via Nokia Software Update if you own an N78. Do a backup anyway, but in theory all your data and apps should be safe.
Just a quick link of interest - 'Renegade Fanboy' has produced a well thought out analysis of Ten Mistakes that Nokia Made in 2008, calling it an 'automated wake-up call', and drawing on links and articles from around the world. More hits or more misses for Nokia in 2008? This one could run and run....
Just in case you're not already subbed up with the QVGA or VGA RSS feeds, you might like to note that The Phones Show 74 is now up, featuring an abbreviated video version of my Nokia E63 review, my six-monthly pick of the top 5 phones in the world, plus demos of StyleTap for S60 and T9Nav. Oh, and '10 things I hate about the Apple iPhone'. No, really!
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (CEO) and Rick Simonson (CFO), discussed Nokia's smartphone strategy during today's Q4 earnings call. Nokia intend to further expand S60 on Symbian OS to new categories and market segments as well as continuing to push it on to lower cost devices. As a result they are expanding the S60 investment when compared to Series 40. Furthermore they believe the combination of Nokia's five services (Ovi) with a larger portfolio of such devices will see a change in the definition of smartphone. Read on for more details.
Third party publishers Glu have announced Age Of Empires III for the new N-Gage platform, based on the PC real time strategy game set in the glory days of various European colonial powers. UPDATE: This has now been confirmed by Nokia, though they say that the release date in the press release is wrong and it's actually due some time in the first half of 2009. (Thanks to "brain" on the N-Gage blog's comments section)
Nokia today released its Q4 2008 results. Nokia net sales of EUR 12.7 billion, down 19% year on year and up 3% sequentially (down 18% and up 1% at constant currency). Nokia sold 15.1 million converged (S60) devices, down from 15.5 million in Q3 and 18.8 million in Q4 2007, of these 8 million were Nseries and 3 million were Eseries. Nokia's industry outlook for 2009 estimates mobile device volumes to decrease by 10%. The results are set against the background of the global economic slow down.
There's an interesting interview here by Richard Bloor, chatting to Jezar Wakefield. Yep, that 'jezar', tech-guru from the days of Psion and EPOC/32 (Symbian OS's beginnings). They talk about Jezar's current role in the field of audio in Symbian OS, about options for developers, about how a modern smartphone might have to manager up to 4 or 5 separate audio streams or events at the same time, and about OpenMAX, designed to make things even easier for developers.
The C64 emulator Frodo for S60 3rd Edition has been updated to version 1.5, and now includes support for accelerometers in selected phones, which lets you tilt the phone to simulate a joystick or steering wheel (you can see a demo video below). There's also an on-screen keyboard and vibration support. Frodo comes in versions available for older Symbian devices too such as S60 1st and 2nd Edition, Series 80 and UIQ, just scroll down the same page. Apparently Frodo for S60 3rd Edition should work in theory on the 5800, though it may run very slowly as the application hasn't been optimised for S60 5th Edition yet. (For more S60 3rd Edition emulators, see AAS's special feature.)
According to a report on mobiletoday.co.uk, Sony has refused to let Sony Ericsson use the PlayStation brand on its phones. Sony Ericsson (a separate company jointly owned by Sony and Ericsson) apparently asked Sony for permission to use the "PlayStation" name as a sub-brand on their devices, in much the same way they have already used Sony's "Walkman", "Cybershot" and "Bravia". Sony said no, allegedly. (via Eurogamer.net)
With the sheer number of people now receiving the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic around the world and eager to show off how it all works, note that Warelex have updated their much-respected Screen Capture utility to support S60 5th Edition. Note that this is not just fixed screenshots, you can capture video of what you're doing on the device, for uploading later to your blog or YouTube. Connections between PC and the 5800 can be via cable, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. v3.0.7 is the version you want, currently only available from the Warelex product page.
