Armed with the new HP iPrint Photo utility, Steve Litchfield walks you through the process of printing photos directly from your Nseries phone - no wires, no fuss. What could go wrong? See also the PS for those without a Wi-Fi-enabled printer.
Nokia’s Beta Labs have updated the Gig Finder application, with the feedback received from the users. This current build fixes a number of bugs and increases the size of the database used to find music gigs depending on your location and music preferences.
Yes, yes, we know that Quickoffice, like all good carpet and furniture showrooms, have always got some offer or other 'on'. But I notice that the full editing version of Quickoffice Premier for Symbian is only £6 in the Nokia Ovi Store today, plus a similar amount ($9) on the main Quickoffice web site. Anyway, if you've been putting off the upgrade to the editing version then maybe today's the day?
Alpine Electronics today announced a strategic partnership with Nokia and Navteq to bring a new car integration technology called 'Terminal mode' to car 'infotainment' systems. It integrates Nokia smartphones with in-car systems allowing, not only the usual call functions, but also the use of smartphone-based services (e.g. Ovi Maps navigation) and content (e.g. music) via the high resolution screens and audio systems embedded in the car. The integration also offers the opportunity for automotive-specific widgets on the phone, including fuel levels and engine status.
Nokia and Skype today made the formal announcement of the availability of Skype for Symbian. The application, which was released last month, is now available in the Ovi Store. The application implements a full Skype client including full support for instant messaging, account management, sending text messages and file sharing in addition to the Skype voice calling features (Skype to Skype and Skype Out).
The Symbian world's answer to 'Brain Training', SPB Brain Evolution has received a major update, bringing support for S60 5th Edition touchscreen-based devices with OS Symbian S60 v5. The title includes a set of "addictive mini-games which have to be played in sequence: only good results in a game unlock the next one". The game allows you to "improve your mental awareness and maintain your newly achieved brain fitness". Or you could just read a good book. Only joking - more details below.
How long would it take you to find some who has “made a success” out of an application store for any mobile device? Not long, I would think, because these stories are picked up and passed around to “prove” that App Stores work. A case in point is this post on Into Mobile, highlighting the success of an app for Google Android with 6,500 paid for downloads, earning $13,000. But is that the way forward? Read on for my thoughts.
Qik today announced, via its blog, that it is making Qik Premium available for select Nokia devices through the Ovi Store. Qik is an application / service allows you to stream video live from your smartphone to the web. Advantages of the premium version include improved processing on uploaded videos (higher quality play back and improved speed on low bandwidth connections), unlimited storage space and the ability to download videos (that you have uploaded to Qik) to your PC.
In an epic tale of heroism and 'making do', I lead you through a series of hopefully thought-provoking segments, showing that perhaps there's more to a smartphone than feeling compelled to buy the latest £400 hardware. In the process, I point out the potential benefits of one of Nokia's unsung heroes, the E61i, my main smartphone through the summer of 2007 and a device to which I was recently reintroduced. Reality bites home in the end, though, and I conclude that there's an equal acknowledgement to be made in terms of progress made by Nokia and Symbian over the last few years.
In All About Symbian Insight 107 (AAS Podcast 171), Rafe, Ewan and Steve chat about some the information from the Anssi Vanjoki interview. We respond to some of the questions around what Nokia could have done, the implications of device families, and the awareness of the issue. Steve then reports back on Ovi Maps 3.4, before we finish with a discussion of how Nokia is like Batman (thanks Ewan). You can listen to AAS Insight 107 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
While at MWC I spent some time looking at the new Symbian^1 handset - the Sony Ericsson Vivaz and its sister device, the QWERTY equipped, Vivaz Pro. Over the next week or so we'll be featuring a number of Vivaz videos to give you a closer look at Sony Ericsson's latest Symbian handsets. In the first video there's a general overview of the hardware and the 'panel' powered homescreen, while the second video looks at some of the homescreen UI additions compared to the Sony Ericsson Satio.
Following on from Mobile World Congress the Symbian Foundation has released two videos demos of the Symbian^4 UI framework. The first video shows off the customisable, widget-centric, homescreen and the second shows off a number of UI elements and interactions via the Photos application. They demonstrate how some of the key parts of the UI are laid out and how some of the primary interaction mechanisms will work.
As I wrote six weeks ago, work has been progressing to convert the old open source Escarpod podcast catcher into an application that can be part of the (also open source) Symbian^3 operating system. Now, exclusively, with kind permission, I have much more on the app, appropriately just called 'Podcatcher'. Read on for a detailed walk through, screenshots and a link to download it for yourself, to help test it on existing devices. Note that Symbian^3 itsel f won't appear on devices until at least the summer, but at least we now know that it'll have podcasting functionality, a relief to many in the Symbian ecosystem, including me!
In part 3 of our MWC interview with Anssi Vanjoki, EVP of Markets at Nokia, we discuss the future. How "for the great masses of the world, the first computer they will have will be an extension of the phone based on Symbian". How MeeGo's rich contextual crossing of the real and virtual world will use a map-based user interface and will create "the possibility for people to live in the media."
In the second half, we hear about the three "buckets" (types) of competitors, the importance of open standards and ecoystems, and a three-fold answer to how we should judge Nokia's future business performance (KPIs).
Just released this morning (see my 'Install diary' below) is Ovi Maps 3.4 (build 91, if you're being fussy). This follows up the formal release of v3.3, which introduced the new interface and free worldwide voice navigation. In brief, Ovi Maps is claimed to be faster and more accurate, and, as reported below, Nokia certainly seemed to have made big strides in this area - v3.4 is hard to criticise in the performance department now. It also adds Wi-Fi positioning to the many ways location is determined, though it will take a while before Nokia's servers build up enough data for this to be useful. Read on...
