All About Symbian - S60 News

AAS Insight 93 - SEE 2009, Q3 Canalys, N-Gage

In All About Symbian Insight 93 (AAS Podcast 157) we discuss the Q3 smartphone figures from Canalys and Rafe explains that Fujitsu and Quic have joined the board of the Symbian Foundation. We move on to a retrospective of SEE 2009 with discussion of the media reaction (which send Rafe into rant mode). We finish with thoughts on N97 PR 2.0 and the closure of N-Gage (sniff). You can listen to AAS Insight 93 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.

In this podcast we cover:

Q3 Smartphone figures from Canalys
Fujitsu and Quic join the board of the Symbian Foundation
SEE 2009 retrospective and media reaction (Rafe rants a bit)
N97 v20 firmware comments and thoughts from Steve
Closure on N-Gage - thoughts and comments from Ewan and Steve

Rafe's SEE 2009 walkabout (part 1)

SEE 2009 (Symbian Exchange and Exposium) is Symbian's annual big show. In the video below you can join me on a walkabout around the show floor at SEE 2009. I share my impressions and analysis in an unscripted, one-take, walk and talk. As well as covering many of the Symbian related consultancy and developer tool companies there's also a quick look at the Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung stands.

SEE 2009 is a heavily developer and platform community focused event. If you're looking for consumer coverage you may prefer the Nokia World 2009 tour videos.

Further SEE 2009 multimedia content is available in our podcasts from the show floor.

I would like to thank the man behind the camera, Ewan MacLeod, for his assistance (filming and editing) in making this video. Ewan's recently launched the Mobile Industry Review newsletter, which is well worth subscribing too.

Part 1 covers around two third of the show floor. In part 2 of the video, which will be available early next week, we'll cover the remaining part of the show floor and draw some show conclusions.

Review: Opera Mobile 10 (beta)

As we posted earlier this week, Opera has released Opera Mobile 10 in beta form, a full S60-native alternative web browser to the S60 Webkit version. Ewan's been trying it out on some of his favourite sites and here's his illustrated review. Comments welcome. He'll be revisiting Opera Mobile 10 when the app finally comes out of beta.

"So how do you go about reviewing a web browser in the modern internet world? With so many services on S60 smartphones now coming wrapped up in their own little slice of code that talks to the web API's, my first challenge was to actually think about what I still use the web browser for? It's not Twitter, as the Gravity client handles this better than any web interface... It's not Gmail, as Google provides a more than competent standalone client (and Ovi Mail handles it nicely as well)... So how much time do I actually spend on my mobile phone's browser?"

Read on

BBC iPlayer widget gets big upgrade to v2.5

For compatible devices, the BBC iPlayer widget just got a big update from version 1.6 to version 2.5 (hat tip to Nokia Users). Speed and formatting are much better, and there are improvements in encoding and N97 homescreen widget support. More information, including some screenshots, in the full story.

Encoding / playback improvement are dependent upon the phone being used and the program being watched (it seems not all programs are converted to all resolutions / bit rates).

Get the new widget by going to www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer/ in Web on your phone.

The functionality available (playback over 3G, download ability, streaming live TV) varies depending upon your operator (Vodafone and 3 allow connections over 3G) and device (and sometimes firmware version too). The officially compatiable devices include the Nokia N85, N86, N95, N95 8GB, N96, N97, 5800 and E71, the Samsung i8510 and i8910, but iPlayer also works on other devices including the recently released Sony Ericsson Satio.

If you can help add information about possible wider device compatibility then please do so in the comments thread.

Nokia N86 8MP to N97 mini: The reluctant baton hand-over?

In which I muse on the seemingly unstoppable handover in all parts of the phone world from traditional phone form factors to large touchscreens and wonder, in particular, just how far the Nokia N97 mini actually is a step forwards from the last (and best) of the mainstream S60 3rd Edition line, the Nokia N86 8MP...

"Just like the rest of the AAS readership, I've been having my own hardware dilemmas. I'm not blind and I can read the tea leaves, spot the signs in the sky, test the wind of change, and so on. There's an industry wide trend towards large, media-friendly touchscreens, driven by the excitement around the Apple iPhone. Yes, yes, Windows Mobile and Symbian (in the Nokia 7710) had large touchscreens first, by several years, but you can't argue with the fact that Apple popularised the concept and made it practical for the mainstream"

Read on

microUSB marches on, Symbian theme, Horizon app store launches

It's.... another compendium of interesting links that I really wanted to flag up for attention here. Firstly, the ITU (the telecoms bit of the UN) has joined the American CTIA in agreeing on microUSB as the cable standard for phones for the future. Note that most Symbian-powered phones already use this. Secondly, there's a new, official Symbian Foundation theme (screenshot and d/l link below), which I'm determined to try out. Finally, Symbian's Horizon app-recommendation programme has gone live and is worth bookmarking.

Here's the Symbian Foundation theme download. Screenshot below:

Opera release beta of Opera Mobile 10 for S60

Opera have released a beta version of Opera Mobile for S60 smartphones. Sporting the same user interface as the recently updated Opera Mini, Opera Mobile provides an alternative browser to that built into the majority of handsets, and first impressions on the beta are good. Highlights include an easy to navigate tabbed browsing experience, a number of thumbnails cropping up to aid navigation, and a lot of performance tweaks. Read on for more.

The Norwegian browser company are doing their best to make mobile browsing faster, so even without using the Opera Turbo feature (which involved server side compression) you'll notice there's a certain zip to bouncing around the Internet, with good on-screen feedback.

We'll be giving Opera Mobile a full review over the next few days, but for now, here are some screenshots of it in action on S60 5th Edition.

Extracts from the press release:

Opera Software today unveiled the beta of Opera Mobile 10 for Nokia and other Symbian/S60 handsets. Most notable in the new Opera Mobile 10 beta is a sleek design, which Opera first introduced to the world in the recent release of Opera Mini 5 beta. The crisp, new look introduces the Speed Dial, tabbed browsing and the always convenient password manager to Opera Mobile. Opera Mobile 10 beta is optimized for both touchscreen and keypad-style navigation.

Performance was prioritized in this beta. It is twice as fast as the previous Opera Mobile released for Symbian/S60, and users will discover significant speed improvement when downloading pages, zooming and panning. Opera Turbo is also integrated, saving end users both time and money with its server-side compression technology.

Opera Mobile 10 beta is available for Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung smartphones running Symbian/S60, 3rd and 5th editions. The beta is free to download to your computer from http://www.opera.com/mobile/next/ or directly to your mobile phone from http://m.opera.com/mobile.

Google Mobile Search adds voice, and multi-language too

Google's S60 'portal' search utility, 'Google Mobile App' just got itself an update to v2.03(8), bringing voice searching - and it works rather impressively. Bring up the S60 3rd Edition utility in the usual way (e.g. by pressing 'C' on the homescreen) and then press and hold the green call key to speak your search string. Some screenshots, videos and links below.

You can get Google Mobile App for yourself by going to m.google.com in Web on your phone - the version for S60 5th Edition (with no 'C' key, among other aspects) comes up as 'Not compatible' but you can persevere as long as you're happy to get to the utility another way.

Once a search match is found, you're shown any results, optionally sorted by distance from your current location, in the usual way.

Google India has done a demonstration video, embedded here. Of note is the complexity of phrases which can be used and also the multi-language abilities - apparently Mandarin (Chinese) is now supported. Comments welcome if you've got the time to try this out fully!

From Google's announcement, on the subject of Mandarin support:

Up until now voice search has only been available in English, but the new version of Google Mobile App for Nokia S60 devices works for Mandarin speakers, too. We're really proud of the work we've done with Mandarin speech recognition, both because it's the most spoken language in the world, and because of the engineering challenge. To get Mandarin speech recognition to work, we had to learn a lot about this fascinating language — the differences between traditional and simplified Chinese, its tonal characteristics, automatic segmentation of text into words, pinyin representations of Chinese characters, sandhi rules, the different accents and languages in China, unicode representations of Chinese character sets...the list goes on and on.

Mandarin speakers can now search by voice for complex queries like 清华大学附近的水煮鱼 (which translates to "water-boiled fish near Tsinghua University"). Although this only works on the Nokia S60 at the moment, we're working on adding support for Mandarin speech recognition to our products on other mobile platforms, such as Android and iPhone. And bear in mind that this is a first version of our system in Mandarin, and it might not be as polished as our English version. For example, if you have a strong southern Chinese accent, it might not work as well as for people with a Beijing accent. However, our system will improve over time, so please give it a try!

(hat tip to Clinton Jeff for the YouTube link for the second video clip)

When is a phone not a phone any longer?

In this feature, I look at the creeping size increases in modern 'phones' - at what point do they cease to become phones and turn into media 'tablets'? I postulate a definition that refers to the way in which these devices are used - proving that the Nokia N900 and HTC HD2 definitely aren't phones at all and throwing doubt on the N97 and iPhone in the process. Controversial? Moi?

"There have always been large mobile devices, of course. The original Psion Series 5 palmtop, by modern standards, was a huge beast. As were the first few all most generations of Pocket PC. But these were unashamed two handed devices. Either held in two hands and operated with thumbs or by holding in one hand and using a stylus.

Then we had the rise and rise of S60, from about 2004 to about 2008, its classic heyday, with a determinedly one-handed interface, enabling (for the first time) 'smart' operating systems to be used 'on the go', in traditional mobile phone form factors."

Read on

Ovi Store re-downloads thankfully widened

Posting on their official Twitter account, Nokia's Ovi Store team have widened the qualifications for re-downloading purchased content, restoring the situation to how it was immediately after the system was trialled a month or so ago. They posted: "OviStore Redownload update: Re-DL poss on replacment device if same model or compatible one". So, as long as you're signed into the store and have a device that's compatible with the one you bought the original item for, re-download should be possible. Which all sounds eminently sensible - at last.

Backing this up, the posted a link to Forum Nokia's device spec tables.

Having, essentially, the re-download system locked to just your Ovi username brings the Ovi Store into equivalence with the Apple and Android app stores - which I've long felt is something that needed to be in place. Now - how is it working out for you in practice? I imagine there are crossover pains for people buying items before this latest store software update?

An Obituary for the N-Gage

With the announcement that Nokia are closing the N-Gage service, Ewan has been looking back at the troubled gaming strategy from Finland, from its launch in 2003 to today's ticket to Dignitas in an Obituary for the Nokia N-Gage (2003-2009). We'll pass on any messages of condolence to Finland you may wish to leave.

N-Gage

(aka the Next Generation Gaming Platform)
Died aged 6 of neglect and misunderstanding,
October 30th 2009, Helsinki, Finland.

Born October 7 2003, Helsinki, Finland to a proud parent company, Nokia, the N-Gage had a difficult birth as it struggled to overcome physical defects that, while revolutionary in vision, left many people wondering what had happened during the design and testing period of the initial handset – concerns that would be repeated throughout the life of N-Gage.

I've made mistakes and its no disgrace,
the final page that I can't erase
even though I look back on my past,
could have loved you more could have made it last
Time has changed me I hope you'll see,
no one could bring your love to me
The fork in the road looks more like a knife,
when the cards have been dealt and pains in your life
my time has come there ringing the bell,
so long my love, goodbye and farewell.

Lost Love, by T. P. O'Connell

The full obituary can be read here.

Farewell N-Gage - Nokia to shutter gaming service

In a low key announcement, via the N-Gage blog, comes the news that Nokia plans to shutter its N-Gage gaming service. Nokia say they will 'no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform'; instead games will be provided via its Ovi Store service. Current N-Gage games can be purchased until September 2010 and the N-Gage website and Arena service (online elements) will be available throughout 2010.

The closure of the N-Gage service is a blow to Nokia's service ambitions. However it is also fair to say that N-Gage really pre-dated the Ovi strategy. As a result, in both vision and execution, it did not fit fully fit into the Ovi service portfolio, especially after the launch of Ovi Store earlier this year.

Clearly Nokia will look to push its gaming strategy forward under the Ovi Store umbrella, but it is a long way from both dedicated gaming unit (N-Gage first generation) and a gaming focused platform and community (N-Gage second generation). N-Gage was never able to move beyond a niche community. Its ease of distribution advantages has been overtaken by the rise of App Stores; similarly online service elements are now relatively common. Furthermore the lack of graphic acceleration hardware in recent Nokia S60 phones have left N-Gage games looking lacklustre, in eye-candy terms, when compared to the iPhone and other mobile gaming platforms.

Key points

Nokia will no longer publish new games via the N-Gage service. Instead games will be made available via the Ovi Store. Nokia term this an 'evolution of their mobile gaming service', but there's no getting away from the fact that represents a failure of the N-Gage service.
N-Gage games can be purchased until September 2010. Other parts of the N-Gage service, including N-Gage Arena, will be availale throughout 2010.
The N-Gage application will continue to ship on some older devices. However new devices will not ship with the N-Gage application.
All current N-Gage will continue to work. The online (Arena) elements will continue to work throughout 2010. However, subsequently, the online elements of N-Gage games will no longer work.
Nokia's future gaming strategy will be based on Ovi Store distribution.

Nokia are 'actively working on offering more community elements through Ovi' and will 'encourage developers to use community features in their applications'. This suggests Nokia will, in the future, offer common community / online elements, perhaps based on N-Gage technology, to developers publishing their games through the Ovi Store.

More details and comment shortly.

Further information, including a list of frequently asked questions, is available on the N-Gage blog.

Your Friday reading links

In case you're after some weekend reading, have a scout through these links: Rita el-Khoury waxes lyrical about how she gradually fell in love with the (white) Nokia N86; Jay has written up the WOM-invited blogger interview with Nokia's Ovi Maps/Good Things team; away from Symbian but very definitely of competing interest, is the qwerty-driven Motorola 'Droid', here's BGR's exclusive and lengthy preview; and finally, Ewan MacLeod has started up a (free) weekly mobile industry newsletter, subscribe away!

Handy PhoneGuard launches

Epocware just released Handy Phoneguard (for S60), described as "an advanced smartphone protection solution that allows the phone’s data to be locked or completely wiped to prevent unauthorized access and use, as well as sending SMS notifications with the new phone number in case the phone becomes stolen or lost." Screenshots (for 3rd Edition and 5th Edition) and press release extracts below.

From the press release:

"Statistics shows that almost half of all crimes committed in the street are mobile device theft. In addition, many people accidentally leave their phone in a store, on a school desk or in a taxi. With any of these scenarios, there is the possibility that someone will steal sensitive data, and use the phone under the owner’s service plan, running up a large phone bill that the owner might be responsible for. Handy Phoneguard minimizes worry and the effects of negative financial impact by providing full-time protection for the data stored on the S60 smartphone. It even assists in getting the phone back by remotely sending SMS alerts with the new phone number — a strong, combined defense to protect the owner’s sensitive, personal data and financial obligation if the phone goes missing.

Handy Phoneguard allows users to configure the S60 smartphone to automatically lock after a certain period of time. To eliminate risks of private data unauthorized use, the application stores the chosen folders (Calendar, Contacts, Log, Messages, Photos, etc.) under password protection. Even if the device is missing, Handy Phoneguard will remotely support the smartphone security and ensure the stored data’s safety. The owner can block any access to applications or folders by sending a “LOCK” command, as well as completely wipe the data by texting “WIPE”.

Handy Phoneguard is available for 19.95 USD (14.95 EUR, VAT included) via download from http://www.epocware.com and http://www.penreader.com.
Supported languages: Brazil Portuguese, Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified PRC ,Chinese Traditional Taiwan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German ,Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norvegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Spanish LA, Swedish ,Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian."

Screenshots (S60 3rd Edition)

Screenshots (S60 5th Edition)

The Phones Show 93 and Phones Show Chat 10

Just a quick note that The Phones Show 93 and The Phones Show Chat 10 are both now live, with plenty of Nokia/Symbian content that you might be interested in. In particular, you might like to note my 'top 5' choices in the former... See also the RSS feeds for the MP4/video and MP3/audio shows.