As part of a new series for absolute beginners (AAS regulars, we're looking at your friends and family here, I suspect, or others coming in via Google), here's my first cut at 'Getting started with the Nokia 5230'. We'd genuinely like your feedback on improving this format of article. What else does a complete 5230/Symbian/S60 5th novice really need to know up-front? Your comments will be built into updates of this piece and into future versions for other popular 'entry' smartphones. Thanks!
You may remember that I've been following the adventures of Andy, aka 'HyperX', in his attempts to produce wonderful things with modified firmware for the power house Samsung i8910 HD. His latest adventure, in video form below, shows a whopping 62 full applications running at the same time. Also impressive is 194MB of free RAM after booting. Gulp. For the record, I'm now on HX 3.29 on my i8910 HD - and yes, there's probably a part 3 coming to my own HX journey. Walking on the wild side indeed - the performance of some parts of S60 with 62 apps all running is a little patchy, as you'll see in the video!
In All About Symbian Insight podcast no. 112, Ewan returns with a bang and, together with Steve and Rafe, brings you up to date with developments in the Symbian world. We start with news of the WordPress Symbian client, the beta release of Nokia Bots and the recent upgrades to Nokia's Ovi Store. In the second half of the podcast there are hardware thoughts on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz (Steve) and Nokia 5230 (Ewan). You can listen to AAS Insight 112 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
If you thought my text reviewsof the Vivazhereon AAS were a little generous to Sony Ericsson, then you might appreciate my Phones Show 107 review of the phone, where - maybe - it's possible I got out of bed on the wrong side that morning. Or maybe the Vivaz really is that flawed... There's also your Desert Island Smartphone (poll) results. Enjoy.
If, like me, you'd like to see the Symbian freeware scene grow and grow, why not take a look at this appeal over on the Symbian Foundation blog? Craig is trying to amass votes so that the idea of a freeware test system can get progressed within the organisation - take a look and add your tuppence worth if you agree that it's a good idea!
It's all very well making up ridiculous, improbable stories to accompany April 1st each year, but what of the real stories that have surprised us in the past, any of which might well have made a decent April Fools story in their own right? Below, Ewan and I list a number of contenders. You won't be an April Fool for reading!
In our latest video Ian Hutton (Technology Management at the Symbian Foundation and chair of the Feature and Roadmap Council) explains how the Symbian Foundation's roadmap is put together. We learn about how its community driven nature is directed and driven through external package owners and internal technology managers. Ian also talks us through some of the big themes for the next few releases of the Symbian platform including improvements to the user, developer and device manufacturer experiences. Watched as a whole it is also a great introduction to how Symbian is seeking to shape the future of mobile.
You'll have seen my previous 'retro' article, looking at pimping the Nokia E61i, an early 2007 device that can now be picked up for pocket money but which still has a unique form factor. The same applies, but 'in spades', to the Nokia E90, released only a few months after the E61i but sporting the full Communicator form and also S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, plus SDHC support. Like the E61i, it too had a few performance bottlenecks, so how did I get on pimping the Nokia E90 to 2010 standards and might it possibly challenge the mighty (ahem) N97?
If our own news posts and Rafe's analysis of Nokia's finances and the success (or not) of their smartphone production has left you wanting more, harder detail, then note that Nokia has today published "Nokia in 2009", which includes its "2009 Annual Accounts, the Review by the Board of Directors". It's in pdf-format on Nokia's web site. (Shareholders may also request a hard copy of the document free of charge through the site.)
Two years ago the Nokia N95 8GB was on top of the world, the N96 was the newest offshoot, the E61i was the best bet for the common man in the business world, and their 2.8" screens were deemed massive. And, the oddity of the E90 notwithstanding, we were happy. Weren't we? These phones did all we asked them to and the the world was good. And yet, less than 24 months later we find the smartphone world dominated by 4" screened, touch-only devices that bear little resemblance to the champions of 2008. Is it all the iPhone's fault, or is there more to the change? And where do smartphones go from here?
In a departure from traditional All About Symbian conservatism, Steve Litchfield goes exploring the world of firmware modding, specifically looking at the Samsung i8910 HD, a flagship smartphone in terms of specifications that has been under-curated by its manufacturer. Can a third party, armed with no source code whatsoever, really mess around with the files in the firmware to produce a better device? Short answer? Yes. Four times the free disk space on C:, focussing in video capture, and more. Here's the tale of how the i8910 HD gets transformed with HX 3.17...
In All About Symbian Insight 110 (AAS Podcast 174), Rafe and Steve share news of the arrival of Ovi Map's free navigation on the N86, and the release of the Silverlight for Symbian Beta. Steve tells us about a community firmware release for the Samsung i8910 and introduces a discussion on the death of Wayfinder; Rafe talks about Navteq True (next generation digital mapping data collection) and shares some initial thoughts on Windows Phone 7 Series. You can listen to AAS Insight 110 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Some say he can light a fire in the wild just by staring. Some say his favourite food is sprouts. All we know is he's called Ewan Spence. Part 6 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). We set him a series of challenges (also known as a real world test of the Nokia 5230/Nokia Nuron), all delivered by the Stig. In part 6, Ewan answers all the questions that have been either emailed in or left in the comments for previous videos.
