Well spotted that man. At Nokia World 2008, jet black and red versions of the E71 were spotted strutting their stuff. And it seems that there's a fighting chance that these will make it to market at some point. Photo proof here, courtesy of the E71 blog.
For the first time, BBC World Service in English and BBC World Service's 24-hour rolling news in English (plus their Arabic news) are now available through Nokia's free Internet Radio application, following an agreement between BBC World Service and Nokia. The stations are available for live streaming 24 hours a day.
According to the BBC, their popular iPlayer service is now available for the Nokia N85 (and not just the N96) - they've quoted the URL www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ for N85 owners to go (on their phones) to get the new widget. Comments welcome if you can try this. It's also worth noting that the BBC are looking into releasing iPlayer for other Nokia Nseries devices in the near future, plus two Windows Mobile smartphones and the uber-camera-phone, the Sony Ericsson C905.
I apologise for yet another non-directly-Symbian link of interest, but Stephen Fry has just put up his latest multi-thousand word essay, returning to his favourite theme of smartphones, in which he cautiously praises the Blackberry Bold, assassinates the truly horrible Blackberry Storm and put the T-Mobile G1 into proper perspective. Good writing and I agree with most of what he says. And yes, there are loads of Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Symbian references along the way. And a few swear words too....
I just can't resist linking to this story about a new French-designed 'luxury' handset in Nokia's Vertu line. The non-Symbian (of course) Boucheron 150 costs $30,000 and is made of pure gold, but it looks to me more as if it were run over by a truck. Is it just me? Give me a $600 E90 any day - and it'll probably survive BEING run over by a truck...
After being in closed beta for six weeks, Vringo Studio is now live. This is a new Web application that "lets anyone become a video ringtone producer". Essentially, you take video clips from Vringo’s 4,000-strong clip library or upload your own, customize it and the application then creates a personalised video ringtone, a 'Vringos'. What do you think of this service or the idea of video ringtones?
A couple of interesting links of interest for you from the N82 Blog - bringing news that Slick IM, a popular free Instant Messaging utility, has been updated with full theme support, plus news of a big update to MyPhone, a commercial iPhone skin/launcher that sits on top of S60 (though its use seems to be mainly novelty value in front of easily-swayed friends...)
No, not my list, I'd have plumped for 10 resons why each is better than the other. But over on (the horribly biased!) Tube5800.com there's an interesting list of 20 reasons why Nokia's touch-screen mid-tier newcomer is better than Cupertino's finest. Don't send any flames to me - go the Tube5800 site itself! (via WoN)
So Rafe's off in the USA at Mobius for the week, while Ewan's in Paris for Le Web. Meanwhile, Ewan has been recorded by 'Cruel to be kind', chatting in depth about mobile social networking, a topic on which he'll be presenting at Le Web. You can listen to or download the 38 minute interview here.
No. 153. At 'mobscure'. Your weekend generic reading? Say no more...
Programme 70 of The Phones Show just went live and will hopefully be of interest. I do mini video reviews of the Samsung INNOV8 and i7110, deliver some comment on the Nokia N97 and then launch into a six minute critique of the N97, E71 and E90-competing Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 - it's very well built but, like the Samsungs, could do with some fixing up and optimisation.
While we wait (not too long) to debrief an exhausted Rafe after Nokia World, Engdaget Mobile's Paul Miller has done a good job of getting his hands-on thoughts on the new Nokia N97 down in print. Some interesting points (and also in the comments), even if he doesn't approach the device as an existing S60 fan. My own take is that yes, it's incredibly early in the N97's development cycle - for something 6 months from availability, it's actually looking quite stable and fast - look where the Sony Ericsson X1 was 6 months from its release...
Nokia continue their ultra busy week. Following the N95 v31 update (below), there's now a new version of Nokia Software Update (1.4.7) and new v11 firmware for the N85. Whatever next before the day's out? Source: p@sco (again, in Italian!)
As a fellow mobile video show host(!), I can appreciate the efforts of others in the field. Stuff.TV's last two shows have some interesting bits for the Symbian world. The very latest show has a feature on the best mobile games, with the N82 shown many times and Reset Generation on the N96 starring as well, plus the last but one has a big head to head between the Samsung INNOV8 and Sony Ericsson C905. I've already slated the INNOV8's reflective display in our video podcast and Stuff.TV agreed - it's the single biggest downside of the Samsung flagship.
Popular IM client deluxe Palringo has had an S60 client for a while, but as of now (v0.97) it's properly Symbian Signed, it's got cell tower location, GPS support and Wi-fi beacon detection built-in, plus a mountain of bugs have been fixed, settings added and the interface has been massively overhauled. Screenshots and download link below the break.
