All About Symbian - News

The Gadget Show's verdict on the Sony Ericsson Satio

The Gadget Show's Jon Bentley is very experienced at handling and reviewing smart/camera phones and in this episode of their Web TV he delivers his verdict on the new Sony Ericsson Satio. Summary: crisp photos but nowhere near as pleasing as those from the Nokia N86, nice application bundle, frustrating resistive touchscreen, annoyingly AWOL 3.5mm audio jack. AAS's production Satio arrives tomorrow, so watch this space for a Satio/N86/i8910 HD photo and video head to head. Can't wait!

Celebrating the Dozen Best Built Symbian-powered smartphones - ever

Following on from the E52 thread, and in a clarion call for higher build quality among Symbian OS-powered smartphones, I've pooled my own and other people's comments, to produce a Top Dozen Best Built devices. With the current E52, E55 and N97 perhaps near the top of a 'Worst built' list, I think it's fair to say that terrific build quality is something to be cherished in models of all vintages. Read on.

Now, to clarify, I'm not necessarily ranking devices by good design, although quite often good design and good build quality are linked at the hip. Some of the phones listed below aren't beautiful (though, again, some are) - but all of them are built like tanks and pretty much guaranteed to survive numerous drops, scrapes and even drenchings, without missing a beat.

So, with a hefty dose of first hand experience, a dollop of anecdotal evidence and a tinge of humour, here are the Dozen Best Built Symbian OS-powered smartphones EVER. And, yes, I did do something similar a year ago - guess this chart is becoming an annual event!

[Honorary mention to the Nokia 7650, which is just about built to mil-spec. It would have been no. 1 but it was disqualified by me by being so early and so primitive that it couldn't really do anything!]

1. Nokia E51. My wife has one of these. It's sleek, it's metal-backed and it's indestructible. We've tried. It has been submersed in water at least twice now. It has been dropped, stepped on, abused in the bottom of more shopping bags that you've had hot dinners, and it just refuses to die. Apart from the smallish screen it's in many ways the perfect smartphone.

2. Nokia E61. This is what you get if you basically build a candy bar phone out of aluminium. The E61 is incredibly robust and my early example has survived being played with by 4 years of my daughter's friends. And has come out still looking like new (after a dust down with some detergent!) and working perfectly. Amazing. And the battery goes on for a week.

3. Nokia E61i. Essentially the E61 but thinner and with a camera, the E61i is almost as robust and mine was sold as-new after a year of use. Still a great find on eBay if you're looking for something that will just keep on going.

4. Nokia N73. No metal here, this early Nseries camera-centric candybar was all plastic - but the number of people who've abused it and seen it shrug everything off is impressive. A worthy inclusion here.

5. Nokia N82. Again Nseries, again candybar and again all plastic. And, famously, the subject of one of my own real world robustness tests - what a trouper. Again, will go and go and go....

6. Samsung G810. One of the forgotten S60 devices, this is chunky but built like a Terminator. It's what the Nokia N95 would have looked like if it had been designed by 1960s USSR in their fight against the capitalist Americans. It's a mean camera phone too, with 5mp camera with Xenon flash and optical zoom. I'm proud of mine and no, I'm not going to sell it to you on eBay!

7. Samsung i8910 HD. Ah yes, the current smartphone of choice for the real Symbian zealot. But there's no denying the solid hardware. And the one piece design is beautiful too, in a way - and not just when you turn that big OLED screen on!

8. Nokia E71. The slimmed down, smaller-screened version of the E61, and with GPS on board this time. And build quality's almost up to the same standard, every second hand E71 I see looks almost as good as it did new out of the box. The one piece design makes this another great bet for buying second-hand.

9-. Nokia N86. A device rather out of its time, this is the dual-slider par excellence that doesn't really fit in the 2009 smartphone world. Yet there's no denying that it's both beautiful and solid, with a metal chassis and sliding mechanism - and the tempered glass front and discrete buttons make it a joy to hold.

10. Nokia N97 mini. The metal backed redesign of the infamous N97. Of course, it's still a bit early to decree that it's a robust champion, but let's just say it's looking good so far!

11. Sony Ericsson P900. The original P800 was an outstanding physical design, I reckon - but was let down by everything being so plasticky. The P900 was a step backwards in terms of design elegance, but was three steps forward in terms of materials used, style and build quality, and so the P900 gets the nod here.

12. Nokia E90. A device set apart in terms of form factor, the use of lashings of metal and industrial strength hinges make the E90 also a long-live competitor.

With only a handful of current devices in the top 12, it's tempting to bemoan the lack of industrial design flair in 2009. Are more fashionable materials winning out over long-term-better-choices? But, as the N86, N97 mini and i8910 HD prove, it is possible to produce something both stylish and well-built, so the current generation of designers aren't totally without flair.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 22 Nov 2009

N97 and Satio get withdrawn?

Sometimes I think that convergence has gone too far and that modern smartphones are just too complex for their own good. And then I think 'Nah, manufacturers and networks just need to seed devices with bloggers and power users like you and I to help with testing before unleashing devices on the general public'. Witness the reported withdrawal of the Nokia N97 from Vodafone and Sony Ericsson Satio from the Carphone Warehouse after high returns and plenty of issues. Ah, life on the bleeding edge, it's not for the faint-hearted or for the great unwashed...

When Robots ruled the app stores

Remember all the fun developers had (still have) with certification and Symbian Signed to get an application through testing? Lots of automatic tests as well as a human eye checking for compatibility and compliance in the name creating dependable applications? It's going to be interesting comparing the reaction of Symbian developers to Apple devlopers now it appears the same system is in place for their App Store.

Okay the Gizmodo headline of "having to be approved by robots" might be a bit b-movie ish, but this is down to the volume and security game. Steve's already talked about the issue of volume in an App Store, but no matter what solution comes out of arguments like that, there's still a certain level that applications should be reaching in terms of code - don't crash; don't brick the machine; don't do anything that costs the user something without asking them; and so on.

To be honest the howls of protest can just stay as that - howls. If you use undocmented features and put a phone at risk, then that's fine... if it's just your phone. You should be allowed to do that. But to release that into the wild? I'm not so sure.

Rita's love hate relationship with the Nokia E52

You've got to love the way Rita el-Khoury splits her reviews into an unusual 'love' and then 'hate' list format. She's been trialling the Nokia E52 and here presents her '6 things she loves' and '6 things she hates'. Some of them I found somewhat shocking - specifically the build quality/light leakage photo.

Piracy is not the problem, piracy is the catalyst

Pinch Media, who provide analytic software for developers on Apple's phones, are estimating that piracy rates are as high as 60% on the iPhone (reports Pocket Gamer). You can be sure that this number is matched on Symbian, Windows Mobile other mobile platforms. The level of piracy nowadays is incredibly high. Apple's iPhone may be pointed out here, but a little bit of exploration online and every games console can be found to be exploited. Read on for my thoughts, though.

Part of the problem isn't the raw numbers, but the perception of each platform. With a closed ecosystem, the iPhone is not as vulnerable in the press to claims of “rampant piracy” as to other platforms. Given the Nintendo DS and PSP warez scene, I'd say they were at similar levels, but the PSP carries the “I'm a pirate target” flag while the DS keeps relatively quiet.

Nokia had to deal with this in the first generation N-Gage and never really solved the problem beyond “you might not be able to connect to the Arena with a pirate copy” but the machine was tarred and feathered and never recovered from the stigma.

So what can be done? This is a tough area, because there is no magic wand, and the rule is simple. No matter how big your team, or how much you invest, there are billions of people in the world, and enough free time to crack any system. And it takes just one to break it, and the copy is then released for everyone. The internet is rather good at copying digital data once it's hosted in a single place, you know.

Something for authors and developers to consider is that the piracy scene has created a phenomenally efficient distribution system – if you want to get something out there, the quickest way to do so is have it pirated. The catch of course (rather like the NHS) is that these copies are free at the point of download; so to have some sort of income stream, the cash and the user need to be separated a little bit further down the line.

World of Warcraft does this really well. It doesn't care how you get the client software, because once you have it you'll be logging on and paying a monthly subscription.

Ad-supported software also follows this money. Yes, it's a much smaller income per user, but it does work and uses piracy to your advantage. And ad-supported is something that the iPhone ecosystem does very well – witness Google's purchase of AdMob recently as evidence that there is money out there.

Or you could go down the route of having some in-game credit system which would allow a virtual currency to be spent and traded. Second Life has a huge economy built on this principle and many social games (e.g. FarmVille on Facebook) have the ability to buy additional credits to help you advance in the game at a faster rate.

Yes, piracy is around but the answer isn't as simple as “let's just stop it.” Rather than that, it's time for the industry to get creative alongside all those people who remember that buying a developed application helps you get more applications developed.

-- Ewan Spence, Nov 2009.

Ovi Store downloads rise by 70%

Bill Perry, one of the senior services managers for Forum Nokia, has blogged about the Ovi Store and some of the numbers driving the growth. Over 100 devices, in 20 countries, with the N97 and the 5800 being the top devices. The average user has downloaded 8 items and there's been 70% growth in October's downloads compared to September.

It's interesting these numbers are coming out through a personal blog rather than a full blown Nokia press release, although it does indicate that Nokia are happy for Ovi to be just there, rather than actively promoted. Maybe telling people about the success of Ovi requires a large army of success stories and they only have a handful at the moment who are happy to go public?

Of course without knowing what the September numbers were, we don't have a fixed number, but any service that can gather a 70% growth is going the right way, so let's acknowledge that something is going right.

Thanks to CJ for the link.

-- Ewan Spence, Nov 2009.

Phones Show 95 and PSC 13

Just to let people know that The Phones Show 95 is now live, with the main Symbian interest being in the 'user story' and in the 'top 6 eBay smartphone bargains' - you can watch it here or subscribe via RSS (QVGA/phone version and VGA desktop version). Also, Phones Show Chat, the audio followup show, no. 13 is also now live here. Happy watching/listening!

N97 mini wins 'Best Mobile Handset' award

The GSM Association has announced the winners of the Asia Mobile Awards 2009, with the Nokia N97 mini walking away with the only hardware award, that of 'Best Mobile Handset'. It has been a good month for the 'mini' - you may remember it was named no. 1 in my Phones Show Autumn 2009 'Top 5' as well. And, I suspect, there are a few more awards to come from various corners. Watch this space.

"The Asia Mobile Awards were created by the GSMA as a platform to showcase leadership and diversity for mobile content, products and services across Asia. Judged by a panel of independent analysts, journalists and industry experts, this year’s Awards attracted more than 100 entries from operators, vendors and the broad value chain from across the mobile industry that provide products and services that are commercially available in at least one Asian market. For the first time, this year’s winners will also be shortlisted for the Global Mobile Awards, which take place next year at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona."

Move over Apple - Nokia, App Stores need to get FAR more draconian

I've now used most of the major smartphone application stores now and have, at last, worked out where they're all going wrong. You see, Apple get stick for applying a little editorial censure and not allowing every app submitted to make it into the live App Store. But what we need is for Apple - and Nokia - and Google - and Microsoft - and Samsung, Sony Ericsson and the other pretenders - to get dramatically more heavy handed. Read on.

It amuses me when I hear of, for example, Apple blocking a certain application from making it into the App Store for some dodgy anti-competitive reason. So, for example, they famously blocked the (presumably) professionally programmed Google Voice, while simultaneously, in just one week, allowing ten (more) fart apps, a hundred hastily programmed 'reference' and ultra-niche utility apps and a thousand home-made games of dubious scope and playability. Which is kind of where the problem lies.

Now, I've nothing against Apple's policy - it's their App Store and they can let in, and keep out, anything they want, whenever they want. But picture the poor user of an Apple or (in this case) Nokia smartphone. Making a beeline for the App (Ovi) Store icon on their brand new device, they're bombarded with thousands (in the iPhone's case) or hundreds (in Ovi store's case) of items which essentially offer little but distraction from the really high quality content that is in there somewhere.

The iPhone App Store tries to help out by providing 'Top 25' (/50) lists (free/commercial/highest grossing), but the first two of these tend to get taken over by the current 'joke novelties' or by whichever commercial apps have been on 'sale' most recently, respectively. Outside of the top 25 charts, it's very hard to find exactly what you're looking for. So, for example, search for 'golf', or 'diet', or 'fitness', or whatever, and you simply get shown a seemingly random selection of 10 matches. Out of hundreds, if not thousands of possibles.

The Nokia Ovi Store is far more primitive still, with just a 'recommended' pane of items and a selection of (not entirely believable - e.g. 'most popular') filters. On a number of occasions, I've been looking for a particular application that I know should be in the Ovi Store and yet it doesn't show up on (the first few pages of) any of the content lists or in search results.

The problem is, you see, one of numbers. Imagine you 'fancy reading a really good new book'. You wander into a Waterstones (in the UK) - note that this is a fine bookchain and I've nothing against them - and are presented with a dozen rooms over two or three floors, with just about every book still in print somewhere on its shelves. If you're going there for a specific quality book, then it'll take you a while to find it - and if you're going there hoping to get a few ideas for what to try next then you'll be utterly overwhelmed.

Similarly at the supermarket. You head down to the jam aisle to 'get some marmalade' and are presented with 33 different alternatives, including about 20 subtly differently flavoured and quality-graded variants under the supermarket's own 'brand'. Which one do you go for?

In each case, the chances are that you'll actually walk away, since the sheer choice is too much. Or at the very least walk away with a purchase but also a sense of unease that you didn't really end up with the best product for you.

Now imagine walking into a local village bookstore - we have one near my house. One room, only about 1000 book titles stocked and a viable way to find out what's new, what's popular and what's potentially interesting without being overwhelmed. Imagine walking into your local village grocery store. Again, one room. You ask for marmalade - they stock two brands. You make your pick - that was easy.

What's needed, I contend, is far more draconian control of what makes it into each smartphone application store. Far more heavy handed quality control. What it needs are human QA controllers, discarding submitted applications (or at least filing them away in a deeply hidden 'Other' section, from which they only be accessed by the public in answer to a specific query): "No, sorry, not allowed into the main store, its interface is too amateurish". "No, only makes joke sounds, will reflect badly on the platform". "No, only of interest to about 100 people in the world - too specialist". And so on.

The applications that do make it through this severe QA would be those that look professional, serve a real purpose, aren't too specialist, are tightly coded, are well behaved, and so on. The 'presented' contents of each app store would then solely consist of the very best for each platform - no joke apps, no pointless screensavers, no 'Model X train wheel size calculators' [apologies if you own a model X train and quite like the idea!], no specialist reference apps in 20 different languages.

With such a scheme, the iPhone App Store would end up with 'only' about 1000 apps immediately presented, a far more manageable number. With such a scheme, the Nokia Ovi Store would end up (from its current catalogue) with about 150 apps immediately presented, a number which could be browsed through by newcomers in five minutes at most.

And yes, 'long tail' advocates, note that all other applications could still be 'there' in the background, available should a user dig deep and want something really specific (by name or topic). But new users and the man in the street shouldn't be exposed to the raw, seething pool of content that seems to be de rigueur in modern application stores.

Such drastic quality control would be labour intensive*, yes, at the manufacturer/platform-coordinator level, but I reckon the results would be well worth it, with more people happier at making decent discoveries and purchases, rather than recoiling from the whole app store idea in confusion and disappointment.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 19 Nov 2009

*Ovi Store, should you be looking for a QA controller along these lines, I'm available!

Review: Skyforce Reloaded

An arcade game – and and ol' fashioned up-the-screen 2D shoot-em-up at that. On a touch screen. Surely this is as big a folly as “Can you fly the Spruce Goose across the Atlantic?” So onto Skyforce Reloaded, the almost franchise-like arcade game that's on every mobile platform, and which now makes its way to S60 5th Editon. But how does it work on devices like the 5800, which have no physical keys? Find out in Ewan's review.

Read on

Swiss Manager Pro launches

CellPhoneSoft, UIQ specialists until a year or so ago, have launched their new flagship title for S60. Swiss Manager Pro 3.0 is a 'task manager, system information tool and file manager in one' (I've pasted the feature list below, along with a screenshot). It also includes a 'memory cleanup function' which sounds interesting. Comments welcome if you've tried this and/or want to review it formally for AAS(!)

"Swiss Manager Pro is compatible with all Symbian S60 smartphones by Nokia, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson, working equally well on keypad-based phones and on the latest touch-screen devices, like the Nokia N97 and X6, the Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD), and the SE Satio.

Major features:

Task manager, system information, file navigator in one application.

Full control over running and installed programs.

Advanced memory cleanup functions to maximize free memory, both manually and automatically.

Useful system information (device characteristics, system uptime, status reports, and much more).

File manager providing fast and convenient operations (copy, move, delete, rename, etc.).

Status icon displaying time, free memory, CPU usage, battery level, and drive usage.

Floating menu for instant access to all major services.

Fully customizable Favorite list for convenient application launch.

Recent list providing automated access to the most frequently used programs.

Key-press shortcuts for all major functions.

Many options for full customization and convenient use."

Rafe speaks up at The Way We Live Next

Our very own Rafe has been caught on camera yet again - this time with Brad Rees (MediaCells) and Micky (NokiaUsers.net), talking about their thoughts of the The Way We Live Next 3.0 event, held in Espoo, Finland on the 10-11 November. I've embedded the 6 minute video below, but here's the YouTube link as well.

Nokia officials 'reveal' Nseries future and Symbian-Maemo transition

Nokia has (allegedly) officially spoken up (albeit at a Maemo-only event) about its plans for Maemo to take over new Nseries models by 2012, reports Ben Smith over at TRMP. According to the Nokia representatives at the event, although further Nseries Symbian-powered smartphones will appear in the meantime, it seems that after 2012, Symbian OS will power the new Xseries and Eseries smartphones and Maemo 5 will power the eye-candy-heavy Nseries top end. Of course, IF that is to happen, there's an awful lot of work needed by the Maemo team - watch for our analysis here both on All About Symbian and All About Maemo. Updated: Nokia official statement on the report below.

Nokia commented later today: (via various blogs, e.g. here)

“While it is our policy not to disclose details of our product roadmap, we’d like to explicitly communicate that we remain firmly committed to Symbian as our smartphone platform of choice. Any speculation on what our 2012 roadmap, including operating systems and product branding, are completely premature.

As we have stated earlier, Nokia has multiple platforms to serve different purposes and address different markets. Symbian is more successful than ever in bringing smartphones to the masses. Maemo is our software of choice for devices based on technology that you’d typically find inside a desktop computer. It delivers a different user experience and enables us to widen the market we can address.”

In other words, the change is being dismissed as 'premature'. Maybe someone in the Maemo team is being somewhat dressed down at this very moment for getting carried away?

Twitter welcomes MMS as Orange turn on UK Twits

As well as switching on SMS support for Twitter users in the UK (and joining Vodafone and O2 in supporting the service), Orange have added their own little twist into the mix by allowing pictures taken on your smartphone to be shared on the micro-blogging service via MMS.

Twitterers on smartphones can already upload pictures using email or a Twitter client such as Gravity but the use of MMS makes it much more convenient for the majority of users, and assuming you have an MMS bundle, it should cost less (although if you have a data bundle with no MMS, stick with the upload route!).

That might not be the end of it though, as Steve O'Hear writes at TechCrunch Europe:

However, SMS and MMS integration is just the start, say Orange. The telco, which operates as a quad-play in some countries (IPTV, fixed line, mobile and broadband), plans to work with Twitter to “create a range of simple but innovative new services” right across its offerings. One idea is to put Twitter on the television through ‘interactive’ Twitter feeds that appear alongside particular TV programs. For those of us who regular follower Twitter during shows like the UK’s X-Factor, this may make some sense.

(Also congrats to Steve O'Hear on the new editor role at TC:EU)!