Nokia today made an announcement that clarifies and simplifies its developer and software platform strategy. Nokia will focus on Qt as the sole application development framework across both MeeGo and Symbian, reinforcing and accelerating Nokia's previous commitment to it. Nokia will also develop its own future UI applications using Qt.
The planned and future development of the higher layers of Symbian OS itself will also rely heavily on Qt; Nokia says this will "allow a continuous improvement of the Symbian experience" and, critically, will be compatible with the existing Symbian^3 platform and devices. This will mean that existing Symbian^3 devices will be included in future updates and will receive many of the user experience and application improvements originally planned for Symbian^4. Going forward, Nokia will simply refer to the platform as 'Symbian', without any version specifics.
I'd been meaning to write up the Socially app for S60 and Symbian for a while, but now I don't have to because Vaibhav beat me to it. In this case he's showing how to automatically sync Facebook photos and birthdays into your Symbian Contacts application on the N8, but compatibility is surprisingly wide. With Nokia Social on the new Symbian^3 devices being somewhat limited in its Facebook integration, Socially promises to help extend the concept, plus it has a few extra tricks up its sleeve, as Vaibhav reveals.
Symbian utility specialists Cellphonesoft have come up with another possible touchscreen front-end, this time based around a single touch in the top left corner of your screen, which brings up their new 'Instant Menu', with application shortcuts and some utility functions. Some more details below.
Nokia today announced the Nokia Digital Radio Headset (DAB) accessory for its Symbian^3 handsets (N8, C7-00, E7-00 and C6-01). Using Symbian^3's USB OTG technology it allows you to listen to and control DAB radio. DAB radio offers clearer reception, higher quality audio and a larger range of stations than traditional FM radio. The DAB headset will be available from Friday 22nd October, with first availability via the Nokia UK shop, at a cost of £44.99.
Swype, an alternative text entry system, is now available, via Ovi Store, for Nokia's Symbian^3 devices (Nokia N8 and Nokia C7). It replaces the current landscape QWERTY keyboard. Words are entered by tracing one continuous finger path, spelling out the word, across an on-screen QWERTY keyboard. The system also includes feature such as auto-capitalisation and spacing, intelligent editing, custom dictionary and much more. Swype provides, potentially, a faster text entry method, albeit with a small initial learning curve.
Let's say you worked in Nokia marketing and had a great idea. Given that the company was sponsoring the X Factor, one of the largest entertainment shows in the world, each year, why not have an X Factor application? One that could be promoted before each ad break, riding the current wave of app-frenzy, showing off what the phones can do and also getting an even wider audience for the content? Fabulous. Meanwhile, back in reality....
Based on Web Runtime and a little clunky round the edges, but nevertheless free and available now in the Ovi Store is Nokia Shopping List, screenshotted below, with multiple lists to help you with your weekly/daily/special shopping trips. As usual with this genre of application, you just cross items off as you buy them, then clear the list at the end, ready for next time round the supermarket/mall.
One novel promotional idea the Ovi guys and gals had a few months back was to produce a promotional magazine in the Issuu 'virtual' format - here's issue 1 of the 'Ovi Guide', from the Spring. Issue 2 has just been released at a whopping 44 pages and, though biased towards marketing Nokia's products, does have plenty of app mini-reviews, plus some useful tips and pointers in it. Moreover, it's glossily implemented, embedded below on this page (if your browser window is wide enough!) and well worth a detailed look.
We apologise for the never-ending stream of news items about the N8, but it's hard to shut up when exciting things appear day by day. In this case it's Nokia's home-grown Panorama application, first seen in the likes of the N86 8MP and N900, but now customised for the N8 and made available in the Ovi Store. See below for screens and a sample of its output.
Nokia has just released an official iSync plug-in for the N8, meaning that Mac owners can now do a full Contacts/Calendar sync to the Mac Address Book and iCal. See below for some screen proofs and notes - there are some changes to the way Calendar sync works with iSync on Symbian^3 phones.
After two years of absence, Nokia's in-house Internet Radio application has finally been ported officially to S60 5th Edition, appearing in the Ovi Store, as shown below, for the likes of the Nokia 5800 and X6. Interestingly, it's not shown in the store for the N8 just yet - doubtless that's coming up shortly too. The usual warnings over using it only over Wi-fi apply - don't use it over 3G unless you're sure your data tariff can handle it!
SPB have updated their streaming TV application, SPB TV, to v1.5 and along with some bug fixes, the application is now free to download. Previously a number of streaming IP TV stations were free, but now the whole TV guide is available to every user. You can grab your copy at SPB. More below.
OK, so Google's headline stretches the truth a little - the photos of Antarctica aren't actually from a StreetView car - for errr.... obvious reasons! And, of course, on some continents coverage is a lot more patchy than others. But, regardless, kudos to the Google team for their untiring work to bring the visuals of the world to the (mobile) masses. Some quotes and links below.
Opera have released the next build of Opera Mobile, the native code version of their browser for Symbian. v10.1 beta 2 is now available from their website. The update is primarily to gather feedback on a new javascript engine which should see speed improvements of up to 4 times, as well as ensuring compatibility for Symbian^3 and the new army of N8 users.
Following on from my initial review of Pixelpipe's Send and Share client, I met their CEO, Brett Butterfield, at Nokia World 2010 to find out what was new. Send and Share has had some significant additions that all add together to make the application even more convenient to use.
