So AAS forum member 'kflyer' emailed me a few days ago, "wondering whether viruses can really affect a current smartphone. I've read your view on this
question, but AAS itself has adverts for AntiVirus clients!" As it's a long, long time since my last rail against the fraudulent anti-virus industry, I thought it high time for an update. Read on.
Yep, it's Monday, so it must be... AAS Insight day. In Insight 11, Rafe and Ewan are joined by guests Stefan (Constantinescu) and Ricky (Cadden), chatting about Nokia's Trolltech purchase, Motorola's apparent intention to do something with its handset division, all matters Lenovo, Microsoft and Yahoo, plus a look forwards to next week's Mobile World Congress. And all in about half an hour! Impressive.
So you've a messaging-focussed Nokia E61i smartphone and you keep eyeing up the models in the rival Nseries? Is it possible to have the best of both worlds? To whet your appetite for MWC, at which I hope that at least one crossover device will be launched, here's my guide to (nearly) turning your E61i into an Nseries powerhouse. Qwerty and media? No problem.
Joining Rafe, Steve and myself on the latest All About Symbian Insight Show is Stefan Constantinescu from Into Mobile. Discussion this week centers around the differences between the Exx and Nxx series devices - fundamentally the same software, but wildly different smartphones. We also have a reader question submitted by Andrew Currie, asking us about our thoughts on the retail experience of smartphones.
The worlds of mobile and social networking keep circling each other but (the hibernating Jaiku aside) never seem to really hit it off. Ewan Spence has been looking at Zyb, an online sync host and social network that launched recently. How integrated is Zyb and is it worth signing up for yet?
AAS forum member Andrew Galpin answers one of the big FAQs of the last few months - how do you 'sign' an unsigned utility for use on your smartphone? Thanks, Andrew, clearly done, but all readers should both note that this sort of thing isn't for computing beginners and that a more elegant solution is just around the corner (see the header note).
One area which is often overlooked but in which Nokia has been steadily improving our smartphone lives is the 'Switch' application (a.k.a. Data Transfer), ostensibly letting us transfer all our 'stuff' from one S60 phone to another. Vaibhav has been documenting Switch's use in keeping two smartphones in sync and has been relishing all the options and control. Worth reading if you're about to switch or if you have two devices (husband and wife?)
Amazingly, at 5pm GMT today, Bluetooth will be exactly 10 years old. I have to admit that, apart from music transfers and the odd Nokia Software Update, I hardly use wires in my computing set up at all. Internet comes from Wi-Fi and 3G and the vast majority of device to device transfers (syncs/installs/GPS connections/etc) happen via Bluetooth. Even small kids know that Bluetooth is the free way to send content between phones. Here's the official birthday link - Congratulations, all!
If you're in any way technical and want to get to grips with the ins and outs of audio codecs and the practicalities of streaming and decoding internet radio then you could do worse than check out Menneisyys' latest cross-platform epic analysis in the forums. Warning: not for the faint hearted!
Craig Loxton, the guy who guested in the latest Smartphones Show, has been busy - he's set up a Symbian Help group on Google Groups , presumably intending to run it much like the old, beloved EPOC Digest back in Psion days. It'll cover S60 and UIQ matters and is open to all.
