All About Symbian - - General News

Review: Monster Nokia Purity WH-920 In-Ear Headphones

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:01:00 GMT

My first impressions of Monster's headphone style weren't good, with some outlandish cyan over-ear cans shown off by the Monster CEO at last year's Nokia World. Happily, the reviewed in-ear equivalents are a hundred times less garish, especially since they're black. There's plenty of photos and comment below, but in short the audio quality is superlative - depending on the playback device. Balancing this, device compatibility is distinctly spotty and the price is.... rather high.

AAS Insight #203: Belle, Maps Suite 2.0

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:00:00 GMT

In All About Symbian Insight number 203, we share our thoughts on the Nokia Belle software upgrade after a week of use. Steve offers some solutions for common Belle upgrade problems, David compares the Java version of the game TinTin to the Symbian version, Rafe talks about what's new in the latest beta release of the Nokia Maps Suite 2.0 and the team share some concluding thoughts on the Nokia 500.

Review: Nokia Dual USB Car Charger (DC-20)

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:23:00 GMT

Power hungry smartphones are always looking for a recharge. So a car charger is going to be high on the priority for a lot of people. But which one should you get? One option is Nokia's DC-20 unit, which initially draws the eye with its twin USB charging ports. And while USB car chargers are never going to generate much excitement, the Nokia DC-20 is a diamond amongst the rough competition.

Nokia's MWC mini-site and keynote details

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:03:51 GMT

Nokia has announced details of its Mobile World Congress activities on Nokia.com. Exactly what Nokia is announcing is open to speculation (strictly no comment from the AAS team, as usual!), but the company is set to hold a press event on Monday 27th. There's also a developer day and, as part of the GSMA conference program, keynotes from Thom Brenner (VP Applications) and Stephen Elop (CEO).

Nokia plans changes to its manufacturing operations

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:57:19 GMT

Nokia has announced planned changes at its factories in Komarom (Hungary), Reynosa (Mexico) and Salo (Finland), to "increase efficiency in smartphone production". These three factories will now focus on "smartphone product customization" and device assembly is expected to be transferred to Nokia factories in Asia, where the majority of component suppliers are based. Around 4000 employees will ultimately be lost.

The curse of continuous auto-focus?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:16:00 GMT

How's that for a controversial title? What I examine below is that there's more than one way to arrange focussing when shooting video on your smartphone - the rightly popular system of having continuous auto-focus does a good job a lot of the time but also manages to infuriate occasionally too. How bad is the problem, what are the alternatives and can I offer any tips for Symbian or Windows Phone users?

Camera shootout: Nokia N8 vs Apple iPhone 4S vs Samsung Galaxy S II

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:26:11 GMT

I've been very impressed by the technical knowhow of 'theycallthislife' and there's a new post up comparing the cameras of the Nokia N8, Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S II, the three best camera phones in the world right now. With good example shots that can be examined in full detail and with interesting analysis, it's well worth a ten minute read. As to the winner, let's just say that the iPhone 4S comes closer than any other contender has in the eighteen months the N8 has been available....(!)

A day (still) made of glass!

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:36:28 GMT

Corning, the company behind the Gorilla Glass in our smartphones, has produced another of its inspirational 'here's the future' videos and, as with the original one, it's well worth watching. There are two versions of the video, actually, I've embedded the expanded one below, complete with video guide to all the (probable) tech used. Seems like touchscreens really are the new buttons? [PS. Watch out for the medical sequence - it's something we're used to seeing only in Sci-fi]

AAS Insight #201: Q4, Belle and Social 1.5

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:42:13 GMT

In All About Symbian Insight number 201 we look forward to the release of Nokia Belle for existing Symbian handsets, with each of the team highlighting an expected benefit. We also discuss Nokia's Q4 results and device shipment numbers. Steve brings news of the addition of 360Cities to Nokia Maps, Rafe talks Social 1.5 and David shares his thoughts on CNN's Symbian application.

Worldwide phone and smartphone stats, Q4, 2011

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:51:00 GMT

Most of the numbers are now in for Q4, 2011 and, while some are estimates, we now have a pretty good idea of the state of the mobile industry for the last quarter. Phones grew 6% year on year, smartphones by a whopping 63%, with the latter now at 36% of the overall market. The top three companies were the same by either metric - Apple, Samsung and Nokia are way ahead of the rest.

Two-box solution or one? Symbian/iPad versus the Galaxy Note

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:14:00 GMT

12 years ago, I remember demonstrating to a packed room of enthusiasts to delights of pairing up my Psion palmtop with the Ericsson SH888 (titanium, indestructible), which possessed an infrared modem, meaning that I could get my palmtop online at a whopping 9.6kbps via Circuit Switched Data (this was before GPRS!) It was a working two box communications solution and it's with a certain nostalgia that I remember it as I look a modern 'two box' solution. How do the pros and cons of splitting one's electronics work out in practice?

How would you improve the Nokia N8?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:46:00 GMT

It's somewhat amazing that the Nokia N8 remains in the top tier of smartphones a full 16 months after release - it's fair to say that this is almost entirely due to its camera, with perhaps build quality and gadget-complement contributing too. But no phone can go on forever. If you were Nokia and wanted to produce an "N8 mark II", what would you add/tweak? What's practical? What's worthwhile?

1.5 billion Series 40 phones, plus half a billion Symbian too

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:05:56 GMT

The news that Nokia just handed over its one and a half billionth Series 40 phone was interesting - and impressive - and got me thinking and fact-checking. Just how many Symbian-powered smartphones have been sold, in total, i.e. in the last decade? Turns out it's now well over 500 million, i.e. over half a billion Symbian smartphones have already been sold and are... out there in the world somewhere. Some thoughts below.

Nokia Q4 2011 - in the heart of transition

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:55:57 GMT

Nokia has released its Q4 2011 results, reporting an operating loss of €954 million, with net sales of €10.0 billion (down 21% YoY). Nokia's Devices and Services division's profits were €203 million. Margins in devices and services were 3.4% (down from 12.7 % on Q4 2010 and up from 3.1% in Q3 2011). Total smartphone device sales were 19.6 million, compared with 28.6 million units in Q4 2010 (down 31% YoY) and 16.8 million units in Q3 2011 (up 17%, QoQ).

AAS Insight #200: Retrospective

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:33:32 GMT

After just over four years, we've reached the 200th edition of the AAS Insight Podcast. To celebrate, we look back to the first and hundredth editions of the show, marvelling at the changes that have taken place, but also finding some surprising similarities. Each of the team also chooses their personal favourite Symbian device from the last decade, with the emotional attachment factor being just as important as technical capabilities.

Accessibility and Nokia Screen Reader

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:10:00 GMT

In this guest feature, the 'almost blind' Nickus de Vos tackles an area that's often ignored: accessibility, looking at Nokia Screen Reader (NSR), enabling anybody with visual impairment to still use the main functions of a Symbian smartphone. If you have the right model, that is - NSR is currently only supported on the Nokia C5-00, Nokia C5 5MP, Nokia 700 and Nokia 701. What can NSR do, how well does it work and are there any caveats?

AAS Insight #199: Nokia Social, Sisvel

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:37:48 GMT

In All About Symbian Insight number 199 we start with a discussion about the recent release of version 1.4 of Nokia Social and the additions and updates it contains. We also discuss, briefly, some of the third party options for accessing Facebook and Twitter. Steve shares news of Sisvel's recent acquisition of around 450 Nokia patents and the team consider the implications. In the last part of the podcast we revisit some of our favourite Symbian^3 devices.

A view on Symbian in the Indian market

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:54:00 GMT

Following on from our editorial on the state of Symbian in the UK High Street, we have a guest feature from Aditya Singhv, editor of worldofphones.net, looking at the current status of Symbian and the wider phone market in India. The editorial also comments on some of the key differences between the UK (Western European style) and Indian mobile markets. It's a timely reminder that there are huge variations in the global market.

Sisvel acquires over 450 Nokia patents

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:15:14 GMT

Sisvel International, a specialist company in managing intellectual property and maximizing the value of patent rights, has bought more than 450 patents originally filed by Nokia. 350 of these cover essential parts of the 2G (GSM), 3G (UMTS/WCDMA) and 4G (LTE) technologies. The other 100 or so cover video encoding optimization technologies. The acquired patents remain subject to certain prior agreements and Nokia is pre-licensed for all the patents as part of the acquisition.

The DIY quad-pod phone stand

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:23:12 GMT

In the spirit of my own cardboard (DT-29 copy) phone stand, Aliqudsi, over on My Nokia Blog, has had a brain wave and used two bulldog/binder clips to create a four legged, stable stand for his N8, though it will also work for any other similar device, ostensibly for holding the camera phone up for stable filming, without worrying that it will fall over. Clever stuff...