Recent News - Miscellaneous - Page 45
There's a Time to Tinker and a Time to Stop
It's all very well going through the tweak - buy something new - tweak - buy again cycle, but Steve has been musing that sometimes it pays to just sit and enjoy a fully mature, tweaked smartphone without having to keep putting yourself through the bleeding edge agonies of reinstalling apps, settings, tweaks, etc. - for the umpteenth time.
Creating and Sharing Video from your Mobile
Ewan's been pioneering video-from-your-mobile for a while. In this feature he looks at all the various options, working out their pros and cons. Perhaps not surprisingly, the solution that works best is the one from a phone manufacturer, but each of the other solutions will also find fans - it's still very early days in this field.
Top Travel Tips
Skype, the 5320, Widgets and One-handed use
It's All About Symbian Insight 22, a.k.a. audio podcast 71, in which we cover Skype Mobile, the new Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, new announcements in the world of Web Runtime and widgets, plus a discussion on whether touchscreen devices that require two hands to use will take off in the mainstream. Listen here.
Which upcoming N-Gage game are you most looking forward to?
Now that all the beta-testing games have been re-released, we can look forward to completely new titles on the N-Gage platform. But which one are you most looking forward to? Click here to let us know in our latest survey...
Symbian in the news
Yes, it's that time in the month. PDA Essentials magazine is out, issue 74, this time with a two page feature on N-Gage, a two-page tutorial on location tagging your photos on the N95, plus a review of the Sony Ericsson W960i as part of an iPhone killers group test. Good reading, as usual!
It's an m.web - A Top Ten Mobile Web Sites
With Mowser's impending demise, a lot of discussion has been centred this week on the future of the mobile web. Ewan reckons that it's stronger than ever and has produced a rundown of his Top 10 mobile web sites as evidence. What's especially interesting is that some of these m.versions are more useful than either the full desktop-designed site or the service's own downloadable client. Comments welcome: what other m.sites have you found that are also worthy of a mention?
The N95 8GB gets ASR!
The Nokia N95 8GB just got a firmware update, to v20.0.016 (from v15). Apart from a few bug fixes and optimisations, the main changes are the addition of Automatic Screen Rotation (driven by the accelerometer, as on the N82) and support for more Bluetooth headsets. See below for details and comments.
Nokia in Quarter 1, 2008
Nokia has released official figures for Q1, 2008, revealing growth in 'Devices and Services' of 50%, year on year, net sales up 35%, overall phone market share of 39%, smartphones sales up 24% to 14.6 million in the quarter, with 10 million Nseries handsets and 2 million Eseries. Geographically, unsurprisingly, market share was down in North America, static(ish) in Europe and growing in emerging markets (e.g. China). Here's the full Nokia statement, tables and their own analysis.
The USA goes all DVB-(S)H
Never mind small local trials of DVB-H mobile TV, never mind twiddling with cell towers, the Americans just love doing things bigger than the rest of us. Yesterday they launched a huge satellite dedicated to covering the whole of the USA with DVB-SH signals, reports PhoneMag. This is a satellite-friendly (higher frequency), extended version of DVB-H, the new Euro and (arguably) worldwide mobile TV standard. See also DVB-SH at Wikipedia. So look for DVB-SH compatibility in the next generation of smartphones. Now, why can't we have a huge European satellite to serve the same purpose?
Comes With Music? Why not 'Comes With Everything Else'?
Krisse delves into the economics and logistics of Nokia's upcoming Comes With Music system, explaining how it's possible in today's climate and then goes on to ask why other types of digitally protected content couldn't also be bundled in? Games? Applications? Videos? Thankfully, a line is drawn before we get to 'Comes With An Indian Takeaway'...
Casing the Nokia N82
In the latest of my semi-definitive (is such a term an oxymoron?) series of case reviews, I look at solutions designed to carry and protect the Nokia N82, from silicone sleeves to holsters to in-situ flips. If you own a case which you think performs better or have spotted something on the web that you think might fit the bill, please comment!
Confused about N-Gage? Help is at hand...
As the new N-Gage platform has finally (and properly) launched, All About N-Gage has updated its Frequently Asked Questions section to answer our readers' most common queries. If you can't find the answer you want in the FAQ, post about it in this item's comments thread and we'll try to get back to you.
Comparing audio recording - N93 vs N95 vs N82
I've been comparing the audio quality in recorded videos in a selection of top Nseries smartphones. What differences are introduced by the move from stereo to mono and by re-using the main phone microphone? What about mike component quality? What about differences in automatic gain control?
