Rafe Blandford looks into his crystal ball and looks ahead to the world of Symbian in 2006. He also takes a wistful look back at how his predictions for 2005 fared. Also, a sneak preview of the cover of the December 2006 issue of 'Symbian Magazine'!
Microsoft are catching up is the summary of Russell Beattie as he looks at the strides the HTC devices and Windows Mobile has made in the smartphone space. His final thoguht echos a lot of enterprise users: "...the N80 and its generation will be one of Nokia’s last chances to get it right when it comes to smart phones, and their integration with PCs. If it doesn’t sync, and doesn’t work seamlessly with my network, then the next rev of Microsoft’s phones - including the Treos - are going to start to make a dent in Nokia’s smart phone lead."
If you're the sort of person who installs software from strange Internet sites and random people bluetoothing applications, then you need to be aware of Symantec's updated list of Symbian OS trojans. If you never trust unknown programs though, you can rest a little bit easier.
Fancy running an Apache Server on your S60 device so anyone in the world could log onto a site hosted inside your phone? Well Nokia Research have made it possible, with their Apache powered Mobile Web Server Software. The code itself is still internal to Nokia, but if you want to let Forum Nokia know you'd like it, I'm sure they'd appreciate your opinion (via Butt Ugly). There's a number of other projects at the Research Centre, including Python, NNTP newsreaders and a mobile games server.
Steve's been running in depth tests on the multimedia performance of the Nokia N70 and N90, in comparison to the Windows Mobile-powered competition. Here's the group review.
Over on Symbian.com, David Wood's latest 'Insight' editorial is on the way the huge success of Symbian OS smartphones will inevitably spark a renaissance in home-produced applications. Back to the way things were in Psion's hey-day?
Ewan takes a good look at the free beta of ShoZu, a utility to aid uploading of your photos to a photo blogging service, and concludes that it's technically impressive but that it doesn't yet have all based covered in terms of functionality.
Steve's been hankering after an active standby screen for his Nokia 6630, and Best Desk seems like a very capable contender. Here's his review. Summary: very configurable, very capable, but also very new.
A curious use for the traditional Nokia Series 60 Standby screen, courtesy of Steve Litchfield and a bottle of Hardy's. Inspired thinking or Irritating art? You decide, comments welcome.
Tom Hume has been putting Yahoo! Go through its paces on his blog, and Hume's conclusion is that "Overall, Yahoo! Go seems rather niche. It's a nice stake in the ground for Yahoo! to demonstrate that they're taking mobile seriously, but practically speaking how many high-end Series 60-owning folks make use of so many Yahoo! services, want to use them when they're mobile, and want to pay for the privilege?"
Steve's been taking a long look at the Nokia N70 and is confident enough to label it as the phone currently on top of the pile. Among shipping smartphones, anyway. Find out exactly why in our big Nokia N70 Review.
There's now yet another free way to take Series 60 screenshots, for use in tutorials, guides and (yes) web pages. Best Screen Snap is here, and looks pretty comprehensive.
3-Lib has added extra weightings, future-proofing and software catalogue attributes to the big, free, Grid. Which is your perfect smartphone? Let the Grid decide!
