In this, part 12 of my long running series on smartphone cameras, I look at whether any or all of Nokia's fancy scene modes and adjustments make any significant difference and I work out which ones you should ignore and which ones you should remember.... Can you just leave everything on 'Automatic'?
Not exactly current news, but perhaps this might cheer someone up who's having a bad day: digging through AAS's archives reveals a series of predictions made in June 2002 by a venture capitalist giving a speech at a mobile developers conference. You can read some of these gems below, and I think you'll agree it's pretty amazing how "on the money" his forecasts have been...
To promote the N-Gage game Resident Evil: Degeneration, Nokia and Capcom have set up a dating site for the undead called Zombie Singles, which invites people to upload a photo and then "zombify" it with the site's online zombification tool. All Zombie Singles profiles are automatically entered into a contest to win a trip for two to the Tokyo Game Show in Japan, along with two Nokia N96s and a visit to Capcom.
Nokia's 'Tube' already has great battery life. But Tzer2 wants to go to the max and has penned an excellent 'how to' on maximising the battery life on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic... and on just about any other comparable phone, for that matter. Some great (if sometimes extreme) suggestions here.
Nokia's Podcasting application for S60 phones has some default podcast directories included, but these aren't very comprehensive and only include a tiny number of BBC feeds. However, if you add the BBC's online podcast directory to the app you can browse all current podcasts and subscribe to any of them with a single click. Adding the directory is very VERY easy to do, almost the same as adding a bookmark in a browser. See below for more details on how to do it (this should work on all current Nokia S60 phones including the 5800 and N95) ...
If you own (or have been eyeing up) a Nokia N95 or N82 (or similar, e.g. the 6220 Classic) but also hanker for iPhone multi-touch and App Store goodness, then you might be interested in an editorial of mine over at All About iPhone (still no relation!) in which I muse on the possibility of letting both a camera-centric Nokia smartphone and Apple iPod Touch play to their strengths in order to complement each other nicely. Please use the comment thread over on AAI etc. if you violently disagree(!)
Bought a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic? Before you do anything, read All About Symbian's guide to your first steps with the phone. Tzer2 has written the article with ordinary people in mind and tried to keep jargon to a minimum, but hopefully even advanced phone users should find something useful in it.
In this, part 11 of my long running series, I look at a specific positive from the presence of large numbers of megapixels in a camera-toting smartphone, i.e. image flexibility. And I discover yet another use for your convergence device: as a microscope! With copious examples of 'Megapixel Microscopy', I'm hoping to fire a few more imaginations with this one....
[Heavily updated] Pop into the Nokia store in Central London today and you'll find the Nokia 5800 has launched. Rafe got himself up at silly o'clock to get to Oxford Street in time for the opening, and he's been updating us over Twitter and uploading pictures as he goes. With close to 100 people queueing, the consensus is that the 5800 (the first touch based S60 phone, running 5th edition) is one of the most highly anticipated devices from Finland in the last few years. Read on for Rafe's thoughts and pictures throughout the morning, including unboxing the 5800 retail...
Samsung seem keen to get feedback on S60 application compatibility problems that you may be experiencing with their latest smartphones - they have just opened up a dedicated discussion board for this, so pop along and contribute if you have a L870, a i7110 or an INNOV8. There's also a board for older Samsung S60 phones, see their announcement for details.
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!
The sad state of Download! has been a topic of discussion in Symbian S60 circles for quite some time. Other consumer device platforms from Nintendo's Wii to Apple's iPhone have managed to show how successful software and content download shops can be if they're easy to use, so why can't this happen on Nokia's Symbian devices? Tzer2 has taken a look at the latest version of Download! on S60 5th Edition, on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, to see if it's any improvement...
BBC News has highlighted a survey that found most people considered setting up their phone to be as difficult as setting up a bank account. 95% of those questioned also said they would try more mobile services if the setup process was easier, which does imply there's lots of room for growth in the phone ecosystem. However, 61% of people would not use a phone app if they couldn't work out how to use it straight away.
Hurrah! It seems that THQ and/or Nokia have changed their minds, and the apparently cancelled Worms for N-Gage has been un-cancelled. This is great news for the next gen N-Gage as the game was very well received on the original gen N-Gage, and should be even better on the new platform thanks to the bigger screen size and better internet connectivity. Nokia chose to mention All About N-Gage's "Most Anticipated Game" reader poll in their Worms announcement, so perhaps AAN's readers managed to get Nokia to see how much demand there is for this game.
I'll admit that Nokia's DT-29 phone stand, as shipped with the 5800 XpressMusic is somewhat more professional than my own paper clip version. Aaron, over at the N82 blog has put up a gallery of photos and comments on how well it works propping up his N82 for video watching and capturing - I think he's right and Nokia should market this as a standalone accessory. [Updated: see below for the PDF template to Make Your Own]
