Nokia says that the CO₂ emissions are equivalent to driving 71km in an average family car. To put this further in context the average plane passenger, flying from London to New York, is reponsible for around 580kg CO₂ emissions. Do note that these figures are estimates and the results depend on the calculation method, scope and assumptions used.

So how does this CO₂ emission breakdown over the lifetime of the phone? Well 74% of the emissions occur before you even get your hands on the phone (54% in production, 4% in Nokia operations in the factory, and 16% in transport), 25% during your ownership of the device, and 1% during the recycling and recovery of the device.

Image credit: Nokia

But, in terms of environmental impact, it's not so much about the CO₂ emissions that come from running a phone, but rather the CO₂ emissions that come from making a phone.

Of course, you might also want to consider the savings in CO₂ emissions that comes from using a smartphone. The chances are, thanks to convergence, a typical smartphone will eliminate one or more other gadget from your life, or the need-to-buy list. Using the phone can save on CO₂ emissions too. For example, drivers using a satnav solution, like Nokia Drive, are estimated to use 5%-10% less fuel (not getting lost, route optimisation, and regulating speed) and the communications and collaboration abilities of a phone should cut down on the amount of journeys you need to take.

Here's how Nokia describe the report:

Since 2002, we’ve consistently reported on corporate responsibility, and each year we build upon our transparency and coverage of issues. Today, our report covers the ethical, socio-economic and environmental areas most relevant to Nokia’s business and its stakeholders.

The Nokia People & Planet Report 2012 is split into Nokia’s efforts for people and the planet. The People section discusses how mobile technology can be harnessed for the good of individuals and communities, but it also covers challenges we faced in 2012 as well as how this impacted our employees and the communities in which we operate. The Planet part reports on our initiatives to minimize the potential negative impacts on the environment and the positive contributions mobile devices can make to the planet. The report is only available in digital format, as we want to print less.

The reports talks in detail about the positive and negative aspects of Nokia's business operations, and details the company's overall performance, whether it met its targets, and plans for the future.

Here are some selected highlights from the report:

Corporate taxation

• Nokia says that, "as a good corporate citizen Nokia pays the amount of tax legally due and observes all applicable rules and regulations in each country where it operates". The report notes that the company has followed the same centralised business model in the allocation of taxable income since the early 1990s. In essence, the majority of profit (and loss) is carried by the business in Finland, with a smaller portion carried in the countries in which Nokia operates. Although it's not specifically mentioned in the report for obvious reasons, this is in sharp contrast to a number of other technology companies who have been in the headlines for offshoring profits in low corporate tax jurisdictions.

Employees

• As a result of Nokia's new strategy (switch to Windows Phone) there were a large number of job losses. In order to help employees affected by the reductions Nokia established a support program call Bridge. By the end of 2012 17,000 employees had participated in the program, and almost 1,000 new businesses have been set up by former employees.
     

Environmental design

• A dedicated design for environment (DFfE) specialists work actively throughout every product development project at Nokia, verifying legal and voluntary target compliance, as well as promoting sustainable alternatives for materials and other design considerations.
    
• Over the last decade Nokia has reduced the greenhouse gas footprint of their phones by 50%.
    

Materials

• In 2012 Nokia banned the used of radioactive substances in all products, packaging, and internal production processes. This in the latest in a long line of substance nad material management policies. For example, the use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was restricted, and in 2010 all Nokia products were free from bromine and chlorine compounds related to flame retardants.
    
• In 2012 Nokia retail packaging material used 18,875 tonnes of paper (on average 52% recycled) and a futher 9,569 tonnes of paper (on average 89% recycled) in transport packaging material.
     

Chargers

• Over the last 10 years Nokia has reduced the no-load consumption of its chargers by 73% (i.e. charger plugged in, but not being actively used for charging). The best-in-class chargers have seen a 90% reduction.
   
• The average no-load power consumption on Nokia chargers shipped in 2012 was 0.098W, a reduction of 13% from the previous year.
     
• In 2012 all new Nokia devices are being shipped with four or five star charger.
     

Emissions

• 40% of the electricity used by Nokia comes from renewable sources
    
• Nokia aims to reduce CO2 emissions by a minimum of 30% by 2020 (from a 2006 baseline). The 2013 emissions figure was down 29% from 2006. 
    
• Nokia reduced CO2 emissions from air travel by 54% from 2011 to 2012 in total, and by 39% when calculating reductions per employee. In part this was due to the installation and greater use of new video conferencing facilities. 

The full report can be downloaded here [PDF].

From the developer's description:

With MeeBible you can read God's Word everywhere with your phone. Bible texts are downloaded on the fly from the web and cached for further reading. You can also download whole Bible translation via Wi-Fi network and read it offline.

MeeBible supports following Bible translations:

• New World Translation in 42 languages
• King James Bible
• New International Bible
• English Standard Version
• New King James Bible
• Bible in Basic English
• The Message translation
• Russian Synodal Translation
• French Louis Segond Translation
• German Luther 1912 and Schlachter 1951 translations
• Italian Versione Diodati Riveduta
• Portuguese Almeida Corrigida e Revisada Translation
• Spanish Reina Valera Translation
• Latvian Revised Bible
• Svenska Folkbibeln (Swedish People's Bible)
• Finnish Bible 1912
• Ukranian translation by І. Огієнко
• Polish translations: Biblia Tysiąclecia, Biblia Warszawska, Biblia Warszawsko-Praska
• Bulgarian “Протестантски (1940)”
• Romanian translation by Dumitru Cornilescu
• Arabic Smith & Van Dyke Version
• Indinesian Alkitab Terjemahan Baru

In addition to the extra Bible translations now supported, the number of languages handled also seems to have grown, see the screens below:

The two column options menu (how come other Qt developers haven't used this yet?), with new 'Donate' option, if you want to support the developer's mission;(right) picking a book to read...

When highlighting a verse in this version, there's now a 'share' option on the pop-up, showing a pretty full list of social options (right) - don't get too excited though, there's no authorisation or sign-in, you're simply handed over to the appropriate service's mobile site with the verse's text pre-loaded.

In-app purchasing donating done here through the Nokia Store - it's neatly done and a model some other freeware and shareware authors might like to try? (right) The number of Bible versions in each language has grown a lot since my first review, with no less than eight in English, my chosen language in MeeBible's settings.

There are comprehensive settings, including going black-on-white, and full-screen; (right) just some of the dozens of languages supported - impressive.

Regardless of your own beliefs, there's no doubting that MeeBible is immaculately programmed, fully functionned and available at the perfect price. You can download MeeBible for free here in the Nokia Store.

The official changelog from v1.0 is:

• Added multiple accounts support
• Added multi download/upload files
• Added copy/move actions
• Fixed enterprise account login
• Other minor bugs fixed

After updating, I found I had to re-enter my Box.com credentials, but this is a one-time thing. Here's RubiBox in action:

Updating to v2.0 via the Nokia Store; (right) got to love the cute splash screen!

Logged into Box.com and viewing my folder and files; (right) using the new multiselect on a bunch of my songs...

Selecting a file for uploading to the current Box.com folder; (right) Logged in as me, but with the new multi-account support I can now log in as someone else too, without losing my details. Obviously, only one account can be 'active' in the app at any one time.

RubiBox is nicely customisable, here's one of the five panes of Settings; (right) my essential Box.com stats, summarised by RubiBox.

Good to see this free cloud file management tool updated again, and with so big a changelog. I've not been a huge Box.com user in the past, but now that the maximum file upload size has been increased, I think I might give it another try.

You can download RubiBox for free here in the Nokia Store. Why not drop the developer a line to say thanks?

From Richard's notes:

Right let’s get down to business, firstly find your location. You will need a tripod for this, otherwise the background will not match in each image and the trails will have kinks in them.

Do some test shots of the scene to make sure you are happy with the location and the frame you have chosen.

Settings

•  use infinity focus (if you have it). The Nokia 808 does.
• Set the ISO to 100 and take a shot, can you see the background and the stars, if not then reset ISO to 200 and test again. Continue this until you get an image you are happy with
• Time lapse setting, every 5 seconds take an image, with the Nokia 808 you can set it to take a maximum of 1500 images. This is plenty to achieve star trails. In fact 400+ is enough.
• Flash off of course

I also suggest you take something to drink and maybe read, you will be at location for an hour or two. Plus you might need a backup charger, I made sure I had a Nokia DC-16 attached just in case it was needed. The last thing you want is for the phone to run out of battery.

What a great idea. Read his post in full for details on how to stack the images together at the end of the day, and for a few pointers on what else might go wrong.

Comments welcome if you've ever tried something like this, or indeed if you've found a particular 808-compatible tripod that works well - Nokia's HH-23 is now apparently unavailable and never used to hold the phone that securely in the first place, so presumably most of you will be using a third party tripod attachment. care to share any success stories? I used this one for ages until I broke it(!)

What next? Trying to photograph galaxies?

(hat tip to PureView Club)

Here's the official description of PhotProc, from its sourceforge home page:

This is a photo editing application for Symbian, written in Qt. It's especially designed for the Pureview 808 smartphone. It lets you edit photographs up to very high resolutions. The editing tools are primarily aimed at amateur photographers, so: filtering for different light levels, colours etc. You can't do things like paint on top of photographs or combine 2 photographs together.

As you'll see from my walkthrough below, this is a very different beast to the onboard Symbian photo editing functions, though there is some overlap - brightness, saturation, contrast, resizing, and so on. But most of PhotProc's functions are new to Symbian.

Although most of the photo adjustments on offer are previewed fairly quickly (a few seconds), so that you can see their effect, actually rendering all your changes into a finished JPG can take up to ten minutes, which is why the processing is hived off to a background thread, with the progress off the current thread indicated by a small blue bar at the top left of the main interface.

The idea is that you carry on editing other images as needed, perhaps queueing other changes to be rendered, and then you get on with your life. Symbian's multitasking and can handle this sort of behaviour well. Later, you check Gallery on the phone and there are your new renders, to be admired.

Starting up...

Handily, PhotProc comes with a demo image pre-loaded, so that you can play around with the functions even if you haven't got any suitable images of your own...

Loading up one of my own photos...

'About' info and some details on my image....

Starting to make changes, here bumping up the contrast and saturation...

Getting advanced now, let's de-noise it a little and also apply some sharpening (hey, got to match that Samsung Galaxy S4!)...

I'm not too sure how this bit works, but you can select colours you want to 'emphasise'. Any pointers welcomed from readers...

If you know what the 'light map threshold' is then you're a better man than I - suffice to say, plenty to fiddle with here. Everything you change does get previewed on screen (i.e. at nHD resolution) and you can also zoom in using multi-touch if you want to see the effect on a particular part of your image...

Finally, tap on 'Save' and a new processing job is kicked off. Note that you can carry on using the phone, even editing other images, while the processing takes place...

Viewing the finished result in Symbian Gallery. Too sharp? Yes, perhaps. Ah well, back PhotProc I go....

File PhotProc under 'for photo geeks only', I think, but its mere existence is to be applauded. The developer freely admits that PhotProc is perhaps too slow in its current implementation, but I know he'd love feedback on this (maybe add to this thread?) and other aspects of this new application. You can download the latest installer for PhotProc here. Note that it's open source (and therefore, by definition, free).

In the 'User Stories' segment, then, there are appearances by the:

• (Windows Phone 7) Nokia Lumia 800
• (Windows Phone 8) Nokia Lumia 920
• (Windows Phone 8) Nokia Lumia 720
• (Symbian) Nokia 808 PureView
• (Symbian/S60) Nokia 5800
• (Symbian/S60) Nokia E71
• (Meego Harmattan) Nokia N9

Here's Phones Show 200, anyway - enjoy! (As usual, maximise the window and 'up' the quality, up to 1080p)

Here are the updates appearing on the editorial Nokia 700 (also seen on the 808, by the way):

6MB of this is the Email and Calendar update, 2MB is the Nokia Music client update...

Note the Belle Feature Pack 2-specific version number (see below); (right) Nokia Music was v16.40.2 up until today, so this looks like a minor update to maintain compatibility with changes at the server end.

Note that a reboot is needed. Also, when restarting email after the reboot, the application clears its previous cache of email headers, so be patient the first time, while all your headers and most recent messages are retrieved. 

And comments welcome if this fixes attachment or calendar issues that you have been having.

Getting started with the update for the Nokia Music client

_______________

And below is the Email and Calendar update appearing on the Belle Refresh-powered editorial Nokia E7. Note the different version numbering and file size, this is because the update has had to be slightly tweaked for each Symbian platform. This version should also appear for the likes of the C7, N8, and so on:

Belle Refresh devices still getting updates as they approach their third birthday - impressive!

Great work by Nokia and Accenture again, I wonder what's next from their programming teams for Symbian?

The two main contentions from the critics were around distant detail and macro shots, so I did one of each. And in each case I put the Nokia 808 up to 'Superfine' (in terms of detail and JPG compression) and also ramped up the colours to 'Vivid'. And I then ran the 808 at full 2x PureView zoom (it's 3x in 5MP mode, remember). 

Distant detail

In overcast, dull light (UK weather, but hey, it gives the phone cameras more of a challenge), I shot a small sign across the road. Here's the full scene:

And here are the crops from the Nokia 808 (left) and Samsung Galaxy S4 (right):

As before, in my zoom test in the previous article, the Nokia 808 PureView was born to do this sort of thing and the detail on offer is natural and impressive. More than before (2 pts behind), the Galaxy S4 is quite a way further back, merely doing its best to interpolate detail. In fact, were I scoring this comparison out of 10, I'd give the 808 9 pts and the S4 5 pts (i.e. 2 pts less), which just goes to show that results of these comparisons will naturally vary slightly according to the subject and conditions. With the light being less than perfect, the Nokia 808's larger sensor and optics come into play in a big way. In bright sunlight, the Galaxy S4 does a bit better, but will always still be a few rungs behind.

Extreme macro

Again in overcast, dull light, I shot a similar dandelion as in the first test. Here's the full scene:

And here are the crops from the Nokia 808 (left) and Samsung Galaxy S4 (right):

Again I stand by my original comments about the Samsung Galaxy S4 being stunning for macro photographs, as here. Even at full sensor resolution (2x zoom/8MP, equivalent to using the 34MP mode), the Nokia 808 simply can't focus close enough to match the Galaxy. Both shots above were taken as close as I could reliably get a focus lock.

My overall conclusions remain the same though, in regards these two very different smartphones. The Nokia 808 PureView will always produce more natural, 'purer', more detailed photos, and will produce them with more flexibility for those who know what they are doing - as long as the subject isn't closer than about 40cm. 

Under 30cm, the edge goes to the Samsung Galaxy S4, which can accurately focus down to about 7cm and with the full sensor resolution available across quite a narrow field of view.

With such different conclusions based on what the subject matter is, it's perhaps no wonder that my 7-scene test caused a stir with its results - every single one of us would devise a different set of test scenes/subjects! Seven landscapes and general subjects would produce a landslide win for the 808, while seven macro shots of flowers, food and small pets would produce a big win for the Galaxy S4.

Here's the summarised changelog (from the stable v3.7.x):

• Improved reliability with a number of important error corrections, especially in maps view, messaging view and in backup and restore.
• Fix for calendar sync issue with S40 phones, when phone and PC is located in timezone, where Daylight Saving Time (DST) is applied in winter (for example Australia).
• Several improvements for content migration to Microsoft SkyDrive. We have fixed several issues related to Microsoft SkyDrive migration, this improves overall reliability of migrating data from Symbian, Meego and S40 phones to Microsoft SkyDrive.. 

Good to see Nokia Suite continuing to be maintained, and straddling the world of local connectivity and cloud storage, too.

Comments welcome - I'd love to know how many readers still use Nokia Suite and how many are now 'all cloud'? I have to confess that the only time I really touch Nokia Suite now is when trying to find a particular maps or app update that proves elusive 'over the air'!

The previous installed SkyDrive uploader (from last year) was a mere 115k and was listed as v1.07. This new version is 381k and is listed as v10.2(17), so a much more sizeable piece of code. This now handles the uploading of all photos and contacts (so be careful about bandwidth if you have a lot of photos and/or you choose to upload at original resolution).

Here's the update appearing on my Nokia 808:

Checking and updating...

A rather monochrome splash screen! And signing into my live.com account...

A somewhat scary lst of permissions need to be granted, but they're necessary because of the contacts sync, of course; A friendly warning - I headed straight for Settings...

...and always plump for 'Actual size', since I may actually need to access the photos from the cloud at a later date and don't want to find that they're all down at VGA or similar! Tap 'Upload' to start the whole process, if you're brave enough!

As with the Belle Refresh version of this tool, note that it can take a long time to upload both contacts and photos. You may want to set it going overnight and on Wifi?

You can get the update on your 808, 701 or 700 by going into SW Update on the device and letting the update list refresh. No restart is needed.

Comments welcome if you installed and ran this - did all your contacts make it across to your new live.com account?

Minor notes

• As usual, I've cropped in to each photo so that we can see differences more clearly. For a detailed explanation of my testing methodology, see here.
• The various smartphone cameras have very different angles of view, i.e. some cover a much smaller arc in front of the lens. This, in part, explains why the subjects - all cropped to the same degree - appear different sizes in the comparisons. The other factor is, of course, the resolution the photos were taken in.
• The Nokia 808 was set at 8 megapixels (in its PureView Creative mode), to better match the resolutions of the other camera phones here (9MP, 6MP, 7MP and 9MP respectively)
• All phones were left on default/auto throughout, apart from manually controlling flash on/off for the low light test. 
• The Lumia 920 photo in the 'pub' test was taken with the generally excellent third party app CameraPro for logistical reasons (in that the Windows Phone app is feature-light and doesn't have a 'self-timer' option!) 
• Other smartphones considered for inclusion included the Sony Xperia Z, rejected because of its appalling noise reduction blur (see here) and the HTC One, rejected because it would produce images with not enough detail (see here).

Major notes

• The whole point of this test is to look at the quality of colour and amount of resolved detail that a new user would experience. There is zero allowance for fiddling with settings (ISO, exposure, sharpening, contrast, and so on) - all the phone cameras here can produce better results with knowledgeable fiddling, the Nokia 808 more than most, of course, since it's a more powerful sensor and there are more settings to fiddle with.
• I also only allowed the Nokia 808 to use its PureView zoom in one test, so as not to bias the article too much in favour of this technology. In addition, I did have to use this zoom implicitly to even achieve the macro photos in tests 4 and 5.
• In answer to some of the criticism to this feature, there's now a companion mini-test, with the 808 being allowed to run custom settings, for your interest.

Test 1: Full sunlight, medium distance

The Herald from the BMA, looking at the rather faded BEA logo on its paintwork from 20 metres away.

I took the exact same shot with all five smartphones and then present here the central crop, to show the level (and quality) of detail captured. Clockwise from top left: Nokia 808 PureView, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S III, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia N8:

This crop comparison instantly shows why you have to be a little careful in scoring camera tests. At first glance, the crop from the Galaxy S4 looks dramatically better, but then you realise that this is because of the extreme (though very clever) noise reduction and sharpening algorithms that have been applied by Samsung. Images treated like this do look better for general users, mind you, so this shouldn't be discounted.

You can tell where the algorithms have been by looking at the artificial dark border around each letter and the artificially pure blocks of solid colour. The Nokia 808's image is most close to reality (faded paint etc.) but I'll acknowledge that it looks a bit 'soft' here by comparison. The SGS III's version is much the same as the GS4, but at lower resolution, while the N8 produces a generally accurate image, spoilt only by some noisy artefacts. The 920 doesn't fare too badly - again noise and digital artefacts spoil the effect.

Nokia 808 PureView: 8 pts; Samsung Galaxy S4 7 pts; Samsung Galaxy S III 6 pts; Nokia Lumia 920 6 pts; Nokia N8 7 pts

Test 2: Hazy sunlight, distance detail

The Lands End pub from the end of its gravel overflow car park, looking at signage on the building:

I took the exact same shot with all five smartphones and then present here the central crop, to show the level (and quality) of detail captured. Clockwise from top left: Nokia 808 PureView, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S III, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia N8 (click any hyperlink to download the original JPG):

It's a similar story here, though looking at more extreme detail in the distance, pushing the resolution of these camera phones to the limit (see also the zoom test below). It's a choice between the natural looking N8 and 808 shots and the processed versions in the two Samsung Galaxy phones. The casual user would probably look at these crops and give the win to the Galaxy S4, and in truth it's impressive how much detail is coaxed out of the relatively tiny sensor, even you can't overlook the over-sharpening. All five phone cameras did quite well here, mind you, and scoring is going to be subjective.

Nokia 808 PureView: 8 pts; Samsung Galaxy S4 9 pts; Samsung Galaxy S III 8 pts; Nokia Lumia 920 7 pts; Nokia N8 9 pts

Test 3: Full sunlight, zoom allowed

Looking out my window at distant roof detail. Note that digital zoom in most cameras is normally frowned upon, but the artefacts aren't as ugly as they used to be, with extra resolution now being used to smooth out jaggies in the detail. Plus, general users tend to use zoom anyway, not knowing it's supposed to be a bad idea, so I think this is a valid test case.

I took the exact same shot with all five smartphones and then present here the central crop, to show the level (and quality) of detail captured. Clockwise from top left: Nokia 808 PureView, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S III, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia N8:

The Nokia 808 PureView was born to do this sort of thing, of course, boasting lossless software zoom from its 41 megapixel sensor, so it's not surprising that its image is almost perfect, with zero artefacts. What's surprising here is that the Galaxy S4's camera gets close - its crop is obviously 'enhanced' but again a general user would pick it as looking clear and detailed - you have to look at brick and leaf detail to really appreciate that you're not looking strictly at reality.

The other phone cameras struggle slightly more, with the N8 next and the noisy Lumia 920 and the blown out SGS III crops bringing up the rear.

Nokia 808 PureView: 9 pts; Samsung Galaxy S4 7 pts; Samsung Galaxy S III 4 pts; Nokia Lumia 920 4 pts; Nokia N8 6 pts

Test 4: Full sunlight, tricky macro shot

A very tricky macro shot, here, with a pair of tiny flowers, lit strongly against a shady background, one reflecting sunlight back and the other not:

I took the exact same shot with all five smartphones and then present here the central crop, to show the level (and quality) of detail captured. Clockwise from top left: Nokia 808 PureView, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S III, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia N8:

All the phone cameras struggled with getting the exposure right here. In each case, I could have fiddled with exposure manually and gotten better results, but we're explicitly comparing like with like here, and using full auto settings. The Nokia 808 PureView is particularly weak on extreme macro shots, since its optics don't allow focussing closer than 15cm or so. The shot above is with some PureView zoom added in and it still doesn't get anywhere near as 'close' as the other phones.

The two Samsung Galaxy devices best the best showing in terms of capturing the blue flower, with the Lumia 920 managing only a weak violet and the N8 hardly managing any colour at all. As I say, a very tricky shot to get and my fingers were itching to reach for those exposure icons!

Nokia 808 PureView: 5 pts; Samsung Galaxy S4 8 pts; Samsung Galaxy S III 6 pts; Nokia Lumia 920 5 pts; Nokia N8 4 pts

Test 5: Another macro, easier lighting, looking at detail

Much easier lighting this time, and with a subject which should reward a camera with an eye for detail:

I took the exact same shot with all five smartphones and then present here the central crop, to show the level (and quality) of detail captured. Clockwise from top left: Nokia 808 PureView, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S III, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia N8:

All five devices did a much better job here, with the Nokia 808 again being hampered by not being able to get as close as the other smartphones. Striking though the Lumia 920 and N8 images are, the crops from the two Galaxy phones are simply stunning, perhaps because the sharpening algorithms really, really like dandelions!...

Nokia 808 PureView: 5 pts; Samsung Galaxy S4 10 pts; Samsung Galaxy S III 9 pts; Nokia Lumia 920 8 pts; Nokia N8 7 pts

Test 6: Low light, static indoor scene (no flash)

I set up a low light environment in controlled conditions at home, with flash disabled on each device. In each I focussed on the 'i' in the word 'family':

I took the exact same shot with all five smartphones and then present here the central crop, to show the level (and quality) of detail captured. Clockwise from top left: Nokia 808 PureView, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S III, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia N8 (click any hyperlink to download the original JPG):

As you perhaps might expect, low light conditions start to favour the phone cameras with biggest sensors, able to gather more light, plus the Nokia devices also have the Carl Zeiss optics, which do help keep things clear when the going gets tough. The Nokia 808 crop is perfect, with the white backdrop coloured by incandescent light from the table lamp, and all the tiny blue detail visible. Stunning. The N8 and Lumia 920 also do their best, but end up with a backdrop that is 'too' white - in the 920's case losing blue leaf detail too. Both the Samsung Galaxy smartphones fare badly here, with a reddish cast where there was none in reality, though again you have to admire the sheer detail in the GS4's version.

Nokia 808 PureView: 10 pts; Samsung Galaxy S4 7 pts; Samsung Galaxy S III 5 pts; Nokia Lumia 920 5 pts; Nokia N8 8 pts

Test 7: Low light, dynamic (people moving) scene

I set up a simulated 'pub' scene, with flash allowed on each device. I tried to keep moving in the same realistic fashion for each shot - think typical pub/party. And yes, I know the top's still on the bottle - you wouldn't want me drunk in charge of a camera test, would you?!

I took the exact same shot with all five smartphones and then present here the central crop, to show the level (and quality) of detail captured. Clockwise from top left: Nokia 808 PureView, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S III, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia N8:

Xenon flash, of course, rules wherever there are moving people, and the Nokia 808 crop is, again, perfect - look at the writing on the bottle, look at the bottle top detail. The N8 doesn't fare quite as well, but the bottle is still fairly crisp. The LED-lit alternatives are blurrier, though again I was surprised by how close the Galaxy S4 camera got in terms of being 'acceptable' to most people in the context of an overall scene. Also note that the 'red' shifted backdrop isn't anywhere near as intrusive on the Galaxy phones with flash employed.  The less said about the Lumia 920 crop the better - the one thing Nokia's 'PureView phase 2' tech isn't good at is shooting moving people indoors....

Nokia 808 PureView: 10 pts; Samsung Galaxy S4 7 pts; Samsung Galaxy S III 5 pts; Nokia Lumia 920 3 pts; Nokia N8 8 pts

______________

In summary

Adding up the points give us a rough idea of overall ranking here:

• Nokia 808 PureView: 55/70
• Samsung Galaxy S4: 55/70
• Nokia N8: 49/70
• Samsung Galaxy S III: 43/70
• Nokia Lumia 920: 38/70

It's at this point that I swear, I honestly swear that the result wasn't fixed in any way. I always leave the points totting up to the very end and that ways it's a nice surprise for me too.... You all know how much of a fan of Nokia camera hardware I am, and so it should be strongly noted that:

• this is the first time anything other than the 808 has trounced the 2010 N8
• this is the first time anything's even got close to the 808 PureView, let alone equalled its overall score

It's very impressive what Samsung has eked out of the tiny 1/3.2" sensor in the Galaxy S4 and shows what modern BSI tech and superlative image processing algorithms can do. In fact, it's also a slightly damning condemnation of the Nokia Lumia 920's image processing - with an ostensibly identical sensor and superior optics, it manages to produce dramatically less detailed images at every turn. I think we all expected more from that device and I haven't given up hope that its firmware can still improve matters.

Of course, saying the Galaxy S4 has as good a camera as the Nokia 808 PureView is a little misleading. Ultimately, the latter is more flexible and powerful, especially in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing with the Creative settings, but the point is that casual, every day users will probably find that the Galaxy S4 exceeds their expectations in terms of imaging at every turn*.

* The one possible fly in the ointment is that there's a fraction of a second 'shutter lag' in the launch Galaxy S4 firmware, but reports from testers of the next firmware version are that this lag has gone, so I'm giving Samsung the benefit of the doubt here.

Credit to Samsung then, who have just raised the bar in terms of 1/3.2" camera performance for the rest of the industry.

_{(Thanks to Clove for the Galaxy S4 loan)}

Getting 'live TV' on your smartphone isn't really about watching your soap operas on the bus, it's about short bursts of 'live' in the place where you are. Two particular examples for me recently were:

• watching the last ten minutes of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix while out and about in the car (don't worry, I pulled over!)
• dipping into live world news a few times a day around the house, perhaps while doing chores - the smartphone becomes the mini TV that goes into every room, etc.

With that in mind, what exactly are the options on Symbian? Do bear in mind that I'm talking from a UK perspective, mind you - I can't try out native TV stations/streams from other lands for obvious reasons, just as people outside the UK shouldn't be able to get hold of UK TV streams.

SPB TV

This longstanding application ties into (in practice) a few dozen open TV streams from around the world, and uses a network of servers across the world to maximise throughput to its client software on all platforms. The interface is fairly slick, the buffering delays of the order of only about ten seconds when starting to play a channel, and you can even browse the channel guide during playback.

In recent years the channel selection has got more and more culturally diverse, with fewer English language channels, presumably due to licensing issues. You can still stream France 24 (in English, despite the name) and Euronews though, plus niche streams like 'NASA TV'.

Browsing through available channels in SPB TV...

Typical playback quality, quoted at 350kbps.

You can tap to change channels while playback continues, adjust volume, mute or return to the channel browser full-screen.

TV Catchup

This 're-broadcast' service for terrestrial UK TV has been in trouble with the law in the past, but that seems to be a thing of the past now, thankfully. You have to register with the site and it does check which ISP or mobile network you seem to be 'coming in from', all of which helped TV Catchup achieve its current respectable status.

The main attraction here is that it's very mobile friendly, with a choice of high (wi-fi) and low (cellular) quality streams of over 50 'free to air' UK channels, served up by its mobile web site, m.tvcatchup.com. The only (very minor) snag is that the code used seems to conflict with Symbian Web - you'll have to switch over to Opera mobile in order to be able to stream video seamlessly. It does all work rather brilliantly though.

Log in (only takes a minute and is a one-time thing), pick a stream quality....

...and then browse the channels and pick one.

Typical playback quality over wi-fi. Probably only QVGA, upscaled, like SPB TV, but it's watchable if you're desperate to see... err... this rather dreadful game show!

CNN International

I'm cheating with this one slightly, in that it's not 'live TV', but it's almost as good as, for news anyway, in that you can dive into this every day or two and get potted TV highlights from the world news, picking and choosing from the various categories. The icon you want is the little video playback one on the main toolbar, leading to all the CNN video content.

The home page, with textual stories. Tap the videos icon...

...and get a similar carousel, this time with movie clips in the category of your choice (see the pick list, top-right).

As with SPB TV, each video is accompanied by a five second static ad, in this case an offline one promoting a Sky TV cable show.

Typical playback quality. Again, think QVGA up-scaled.

Royalty on my smartphone....!

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Compared to a few years ago, coming up with only two (and a half) options for UK residents left me feeling rather short-changed. Are things better in your part of the world? Do please chip in with the comments, add links to relevant apps, etc. Thanks.

Update: You can ignore part of the story below the line now. Detective work by the community has revealed that the culprit is that the needed WMDRM (Windows Media Digital Rights Management) plug-in has been accidentally disabled or overwritten by one of the many platform updates issues by Nokia - and we're not sure which. 

You can download the plugin here as wmdrmdlaiplayerhttppluginv1.2.1.SA_.S60.sis and it should re-install on both Belle Refresh and Belle Feature Pack 2, restoring the iPlayer DRM compatibility. Well, until the BBC do eventually stop serving up licenses....

Don't worry if you'd previously installed it - it won't do any harm installing it again, over the top.

Phew! Sorry for the premature alarm. 

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As of now, certainly for my test devices (E7 and 808), if you try and download a programme from BBC iPlayer, the download of the .WMV file succeeds, but then the DRM license can't be retrieved from the BBC's servers, implying that something's been finally unhooked at the Beeb's end. Ah well.

You'd have thought the BBC wouldn't even show the 'Download' option anymore if viewed in Symbian Web? Maybe the web team haven't got round to 'fixing' that yet? Actually downloading the video programme files works fine...

... and you can access the .WMV files in your usual download folder...

... but then however many times you tap on the filename, there seems to no longer be a connection possible to the BBC's licensing servers.

Interestingly, as you'll see from the comments below, some Symbian users are still able to connect to, and receive licenses from, the BBC's servers. It's not clear whether success or failure is dependent on the connection ISP (e.g. my Wi-fi takes the phones via Virgin Media) or on the device product codes. My guess, then, is that support is gradually being withdrawn - kind of the opposite of a 'roll out'? In time, I expect no DRM licenses to be served.

It's a sign of the times, obviously, that Symbian fell out of favour with the iPlayer team, who are evidently pushing solutions for the mass market iOS and Android platforms. Quite sad though, after almost five years of happy BBC viewing on Symbian, starting with the Nokia N96, I believe?

Here then is a run through of F1uptodate, which, judging from its language support, is as international as the sport itself:

Picking a language to use and (right) a fairly heart warming introductory letter from the developer (don't worry, this is only shown once)

The main menu within F1uptodate, complete with countdown to the next event (and its sub-event, in this case third practice - this can be customised); (right) general settings, applying to the comments page (below) and 'live'/scheduled features

There are comprehensive (current) driver and team databases, all linked up with photos and (handily) direct links to each driver or team's Twitter account. Provided you're signed into the big 'T' on the web, you can also follow them from here, of course.

Here's a corresponding entry in the team database, all up to date, of course (F1uptodate hooks into numerous online APIs); (right) the F1 calendar, showing the current Grand Prix weekend in yellow.

Digging into the Calendar shows a circuit overview and GMT timings for all the sessions; (right) the 'Live' section includes comments from Twitter on the track action - curiously, the 'Standings' pane remained blank, possibly due to failure in one of the feeds used.

Finally, there are the all important current results and standings, for teams and drivers, all here in glorious AMOLED-friendly white-on-black. Superb stuff.

At this price(!), highly recommended for anyone with a hint of petrol in their veins. You can download F1uptodate here for free in the Nokia Store.

Here's the quoted changelog for v2.2, according to Symbian Tweet:

1- Added Swipe Feature [ Right / Left ] on the bottom toolbar to open [ Expandable Windows- Installed Applications - Preloaded Features (Lock Screen - Show Open Applications - BatteryWindow - etc) ].

1a) Swipe Feature is available everywhere in mobile by default.

1b) Exception Apps List: To disable Swipe Feature in ‘Marked / Selected’ applications.

1c) Exception Apps List shows all installed applications, tap on application name to ‘Mark / Un-Mark’ it.

2- Status Pane Buttons [ Select one of two ways to access Status Pane Buttons ]

2a) Select available everywhere [ With Exception Apps List ].

2b) Select ‘At selected applications’ [ With Availability Apps List ].

2c) Both lists [ Exception Apps List / Availability Apps List ] shows all installed applications, tap on application name to ‘Mark / Un-Mark’ it.

3- Added Tactile feedback when touching Status Pane Buttons / Toolbar Buttons / Music Control Buttons / Expandable Window Shortcuts.

* Tactile feedback (Vibration + Sounds) follows active profile settings.

4- Enhanced Battery level readings when changing mobile battery with a lower capacity battery.

* You have to recharge mobile battery until it is full every time you change mobile battery with a battery has a different capacity.

5- Enhanced Preloaded Stylize Presets & preloaded icons.

6- Internal enhancements for a better quicker performance.

Impressive stuff from the developer, Mr Alshahaway, can Belle Extra Buttons go any further? Is there anything else left to add? 

You can buy it here in the Nokia Store.

A good point about battery monitoring, by the way. With replaceable batteries feasible for most of us, and quite often of different nominal capacity (and even voltage), it's vital to charge fully in order to calibrate what the OS thinks is "100%".

Comments welcome!

The DC-18 is really intended to be matched with the Nokia Asha 501, just as the Nokia DC-16, with it higher capacity battery (2200mAh), is intended to be paired with Nokia's Lumia devices, but everyone will have their own preferred styling and combination. The square form factor and relatively svelte size (57 x 57 x 14.9mm) of the DC-16 makes it an ideal candidate to live in a bag or coat pocket, ready for those inevitable recharging emergencies.

Charging is activated by pulling out the microUSB cable, and stops when you return the cable to its storage position. Pulling out the cable also causes the battery symbol in the centre of the device to light up, showing how much power is left in the charger's battery. The DC-18's internal battery can be recharged using any standard microUSB wall charger.

Given its capacity, the DC-18 is best suited to providing a quick top up, rather than a full recharge, although for devices with smaller batteries, such as the Nokia Lumia 620, it should just about stretch to providing a single full recharge from empty.

The DC-18 will go on sale in July, in select Middle East, African, Asian and European markets, for an estimated price of around €15 (before taxes).

Key specifications

• Weight: 65g
• Size: 57 x 57 x 14.9mm
• Battery capacity: 1720 mAh

The photographer behind CameraCheckChannel is Martin Roth, by the way, in case you wanted to put a name to all this.

As usual, maximise the playback window and up the resolution, though note that 4K video is very bandwidth intensive, don't try streaming it unless you know that your connection is up to it! Plus the chances are that your video screen isn't anywhere near 4K resolution in the first place - if in doubt, stick to 1080p, which is perhaps more manageable!

Still impressive that this exists in 4K though, and that it was created on a phone (with help on the desktop to stitch the photos together, of course):

How Xenon flash works

There's nothing proprietary about using Xenon flashes, of course, they've been around in standalone cameras for decades. Whereas LED flashes are just that - very bright LEDs and are very simple, Xenon flashes require rather more in the way of electronics. 

Essentially a (large) capacitor's charge and voltage is ramped up such that it can discharge into a narrow tube filled with Xenon gas. The electrons in the gas jump to a higher energy state and then, a micro second after the discharge, jump back to their original energy state, emitting light as they do. Xenon is chosen because the state transition emits light in in several spectral lines, giving the appearance of a 'white' flash - other inert gases would produce light that's too red or not visible to the human eye at all.

Add in a reflector and you've got yourself a Xenon flash, capable of lighting up a room. My usual rule of thumb used to be that a Xenon flash is ten times brighter than LED and a hundred times shorter in duration, though recent advantages in LED flash technology have meant that the factors are probably nearer five and fifty nowadays.

The Xenon bulb on the Nokia 808, probably the most powerful flash ever put into a smartphone...

Advantages and disadvantages

The use of Xenon certainly isn't clear cut, as you can see from my table below:

A lot really depends on what you want to photograph in low light. If it's just your food or something (close and) properly posed then LED flash may well suffice. Whereas if you're shooting moving people (especially kids) then Xenon is a must...

Examples of LED vs Xenon flash

In practice, it's fairly easy to tell a Xenon-lit shot from an LED-lit photo. Take the same photo in an indoor social situation (e.g. down the pub) and the Xenon-lit shot will be ultra-crisp, faces and bodies are frozen in time, but the background to your main subject is usually quite dark, since the camera (phone) is exposing for the subject in focus. Here's an example from the 2010 Xenon-equipped Nokia N8:

In contrast, the LED-lit scene will be just that - more of a scene, with the background showing up evenly, but with your main subject usually slightly blurred through their natural motion (breathing, smiling, whatever), with this example shot on the 2012 Nokia Lumia 920:

Quite a dramatic difference between the two shots, though which you'd consider the better photo depends entirely on what you wanted from the shot in the first place.

It should be noted that most phones, including those with Xenon flashes, also have a 'night portrait' scene mode, in which the flash is fired but the shutter's left open for longer than strictly needed, in order to gain some of the context, the background, and thus (in theory) get the best of both worlds. This can work well for posed shots, but you run the risk of still getting some blurring around the Xenon-frozen parts of the image. As a result, 'night portrait' is very much a scene option rather than the default.

Here's another typical Xenon-lit example, showing the people crystal clear and frozen in time (complete with beer, mid-slosh) but with the background almost irrelevant:

Although not a huge party animal(!), I do like to document my extended family growing up, and trying to snap sub 5 year olds in the act of doing something unbearably cute in a dimly lit living room is absolutely a job for Xenon. 

For the young, tech-savvy 20 somethings too, they're eating out most nights, partying several times a week, shooting casual shots in often badly lit clubs and apartments, and most of the photos will be of other people. Living, breathing, moving people. Which means that trying to freeze movement with an LED flash is, again, doomed to disappointment. 

Yes, it's obvious from the above examples that Xenon-lit photos are rarely perfect - backgrounds are dark and you almost always get some degree of 'red eye' that has to be taken out later, on the phone or on the desktop - but they're, overall, better than LED-lit alternatives.

Which brings us to the physical requirements. The Nokia 808 PureView has two (count 'em) bulky cylindrical capacitors powering its Xenon bulb (shown at the top) - but then it has space to spare because of the physical size of the 1/1.2", 41 megapixel camera unit. However, even putting aside future flat capacitors, there have been other Xenon-equipped smartphones without too much of a 'bulge', not least the niche Android handset, the ill-fated Motorola Milestone.

The Lumia 920 is almost 11mm thick, but still fits in the hand well, and one would assume that a successor will be of similar form factor. 11mm is fine for fitting in a modest Xenon-compatible capacitor underneath the physical display, albeit not to the 808's specification. The latter also sported an LED for focus-assist, video lighting duties and 'torch' mode, and it's safe to assume that future Xenon-equipped smartphones will also have this flexibility.

Add in some intelligence in the camera software and maybe we really can have the best of all worlds, with the algorithms deciding when to fire the Xenon flash and how much extraneous context illumination to allow in, to fill out the scene?

Either way, I'm convinced that 2013 could be the year of Xenon. Whether the smartphones come from Nokia, Sony, Samsung or someone else. And in the meantime, if you fancy playing with Xenon again yourself, why not dig out your old 2007 Nokia N82 and have a blast down the pub?!

From the firmware's page, here's a summarised list of the main attractions:

Send protected files like signed sis files via bluetooth.
Custom log age setting
Kinetic Scrolling
Reboot from menu
LED Notification (Charge light blinks as well as D-pad for notifications, useful if the E6 doesn't have the new d-pad design)
Profile Name editing
Metadata editing (Edit Album, artist etc in music player)
Browser Download Resume after close
Read Theme effects from E:/effects for custom effects
UI Speed boost (reduce delay and increase max cpu usage from 70% to 90%)
Battery Saver mod
Keylock vibration off
No boot animation (Disables handshake animation resulting in fast startup)
Using Meteor effects by Jin Hao by default
N9 fonts (Nokia Pure)
Only English and French present, to save space
Remove QuickOffice, F Secure, Vlingo, Microsoft Apps, MS Lync, MS Shared, MS Communicator

Email cache to E:
Browser Cache to E:
Around 320MB free space on C:

Quite a list, and I'll focus on many of these below. Note that, normally, theme effects are off by default on E6 firmware, because the animations don't run smoothly due to the higher resolution screen. However, theme effects are fast enough on the E6 with this firmware, at least they are after the first (caching) load for each.

Step 1 was to grab the firmware files as a '7zip' archive from mediafire, following the link on 'Nokia E6-00 v3 - 111.140.58 -Belle Refresh Enhanced by Luna Updated'. As usual, if you do the same, watch out for misleading 'download' links and dodgy ads on these download servers. 

I also needed Phoenix 2011 - I'll leave you to source this on your own if you copy me, since it's not supposed to be in user hands. All About Symbian takes no responsibility for any damage you may do to your phone, or indeed to your Windows PC. Delving into the world of custom firmwares is officially frowned upon by Nokia, but seems to be overlooked provided that all parties recognise that all warranties are instantly voided.

With the firmware moved into a RM-609 (the product code of the E6) folder inside /Nokia/Phoenix/Products, start up Phonenix in the usual way, I connected up my E6 (turned on) and picked the relevant USB connection from the drop down list. I also needed to 'Scan product' on the menu.

I used 'Firmware update' from the 'Flashing' menu and then tapped on '...' to open up the product code firmware files. In this case, we should see 'Euro_silver' - and no, this firmware isn't available for languages other than English and French. The SW version shown is Belle Refresh, the same as the last official E6 firmware build.

Note that this isn't intended as a tutorial for using Phoenix - there are plenty (slightly less mainstream) parts of the Internet offering such guides. In fact, YouTube has a few video walkthroughs, should you find this the easiest way to learn.

In my case, I had to also click on 'Options' and remove the 'emmc' package (in the old days, preloaded memory card content), finally clicking on 'Refurbish':

The flashing process takes a good ten minutes or so, with the E6's screen showing 'Test mode' through the most dangerous part:

Once flashing is complete, it's important to let the post-install routines work their magic:

The E6 then restarted and then we're in business. I headed for 'SW update' first, to see what Nokia was offering me, over and above this 'Belle Refresh Enhanced' firmware. I still want most of this, but note that I used the options menu to 'select items' and then deselected 'Microsoft Apps 2.01', since this was part of the very streamlining option that this firmware embraced in the first place:

Having applied these updates (and restarted, again), I noticed one thing if I left the phone for more than a minute or two - the 'Big Clock' screen saver is enabled by default. Don't worry, it only stays on for a minute or so (to save power), but is rather cool to see on a LED-backlit screen nevertheless:

In fact, after testing, I found that having a screen saver at all was interfering with the normal screen time out on my test E6, so I disabled it. Your mileage may vary.

But onto the interesting bit, the changes that this firmware brings. Let's start with the 'Meteor' theme effects. Note that swiping between homescreens shows these off quite well, but do note that I needed to bring each homescreen up at least once so that Symbian has it cached properly, before the animations work smoothly:

Very cool, though (as with all theme effects on all phones) I turned them off after an hour or two and the novelty had worn off - they simply waste too much time!

Another animation caught mid-flip (tricky on a web page like this!), in this case a menu flipping up...

As usual, theme effects are turned off using a 'hidden' menu option in settings/themes/general - another of Symbian's 'lovable' quirks? (right) With this firmware, I can set the length of time my call/data log aggregates over to any time period required (the limit is normally 30 days).

There's now a handy 'reboot' option added to the power button menu and (right) I can now edit ID3 information directly from Music player, should I spot a mistake or want to add extra information.

The kinetics of the interface have been tweaked, such that scrolling now goes on forever, i.e. there's no 'friction'. Plus the interface is just that bit snappier, with more CPU priority given to the UI, which is very interesting; (right) using the official 'Software version' means that most Nokia software will still recognise it and assume it's still the official build.

You'll also have noticed in the screenshots that the font looks different - this firmware uses 'N9 fonts', also known as 'Nokia Pure', which looks great on the E6 screen, with its very high pixel density, to such an extent that I didn't feel the need to bump up the 'Font size' here from 'Normal'. Mind you, several core applications do their own thing in terms of respecting this setting, so.... ; (right) although Font Magnifier was left in the firmware, I had issues connecting up to Psiloc's servers and then, when it did get through, it turned out that Font Magnifier doesn't work properly with this firmware, so best avoided. It can be 'deleted' from the application manager.

As shown in SW Update above, a new Nokia Store gets added up front - and then, when started, it prompts for yet another update - sigh. It all installs cleanly though, including signing in properly and picking up my account here...

Ditto Nokia Maps here, working best (in terms of screen real estate) in Drive mode on the E6; (right) as usual on any Symbian build, I install both Opera Mini and Opera Mobile - you never know when they'll come in handy on nHD-screened devices, but on the E6, they're downright essential because they can run full-screen, without losing screen area to toolbars.

All my other usual downloads proceeded normally, with Nokia Internet Radio being one highlight and Poddi another, though I was put out that Poddi's playback controls don't, repeat don't support the E6's d-pad. In the end, I reverted to Podcatcher, which works fine with the E6 hardware.

The 'Belle Refresh Enhanced' page concludes with these thoughts:

Recommendations:

Install an office suite like Quickoffice 6 or Pixel Smart Office on drive E
Install a fast PDF reader like PDF Eagle or use Pixel Smart Office as PDF reader
If you love the Anna theme on the e6 like me, search for the mignight silver theme and use that.
Remove excess homescreens for better battery life and less memory usage E.g Email widget is not really needed as E6-00 has an email button on keyboard.
Use attached Blackbery Bold Wallpapers I found.
Use Battery Info for E Series widget for a rather accurate battery monitor.
Avoid installing stuff on C: when they are compatible on E:
Do not install Microsoft Apps Update.

All fair comment, though I'd add my usual 'Pimping the E6' shortcuts and assignments too. Having Gravity and Podcatcher on one touch key 'long presses' is a huge time saver, in my reckoning.

Comments welcome - have you tried this, or another, E6 custom firmware? Do we have a winner? Any showstoppers?