You can get Google Maps 4.0, a 1.6MB download, by going to m.google.com in Web on your Symbian smartphone.

From the official Google blog post on Buzz:

"The new Buzz layer allows you to see buzz near you or anywhere on the map. You can post public buzz directly from the layer, and even attach a photo from your phone. Also, try visiting a mobile Place Page to read recent comments or to post buzz about that place. You can access Place Pages from the web app as well, by tapping on the place name in any location-tagged post."

A Symbian-optimised mobile Google Buzz web site is 'coming soon', apparently (and is available now for iPhone and Android). You can find out more about Google Buzz by going here. 

It's interesting that Google's approach, based on a 'new' social system, follows Nokia Ovi Maps 3.3's own location sharing features, integrated with the existing (and huge) Facebook. It's worth noting that, like Latitude itself, which doesn't seem to be integrated into Buzz, just because Google's behind something doesn't necessarily mean it will become a roaring success....

Finally, here's the official Google Buzz intro video:

Steve Litchfield

In this podcast we cover:    

• New firmware for the N97 mini (v11), X6 (v12.x), 5730 (v200), and E52 (V32).
   
  
• OTA firmware timings question
   
  
• New Ovi Store Client
    
• Greystripe and Ovi Store
   
  
• Ovi Maps and 1.4 million downloads
    
• Symbian goes open source

"Recently, I published my survey of Twitter applications in the Symbian world. However, thanks to AllAboutSymbian readers, a lot more applications were brought to light, via comments. Another area that required adding to the feature comparisons was location-based tweets, courtesy of Gravity."

Read on

Read on

Symbian's journey to EPL

The transition process involved three key steps: firstly sanity checking the code to ensure it was ready for EPL (patents, IP, license headers etc.), secondly working within corporate processes (e.g. requirements process within Nokia, general legal requirements and changes in package ownership) and thirdly co-ordinating the release both internally and externally (messaging, how open to be).

With a relatively small team it was important for the Symbian Foundation to manage it resources. There was a balance between fulfilling the open source promise and maintaining the ongoing feature development of the Symbian platform, especially given the major upcoming steps, such as the switch to Qt for the applications framework.

The completion of the process means everyone has access to the source code of the world's leading mobile platform. For the manufacturers it is the start of a 'new world'. Rather than being closed and purely reliant on internal innovation, it opens them up the whole world and new ways of open working. It integrates their way of working into a wider world of ideas and innovation.

What is the #symbiancountdown?

Last week the msyterious #symbiancountdown appeared on Twitter and the Symbian website. We offered you an an acrostic paragraph clue in our speculation.

As we now know it was a count down the full release of the Symbian^3 platform into EPL. The countdown number represented the number of packages remaining to be EPL'd. The number went down as the packages were uploaded to Symbian's Mercurial repository.

We asked Chris Davidson to explain both the #symbiancountdown and its origins.

See also

Symbian completes transition to opensource - including our video interview with Lee Williams

Symbian CEO Lee William Tweets

Platform transition FAQ

The completion of the open source transition marks a critical milestone for Symbian as it seeks to build the enablers for the future of mobile, based on openness and innovation. Read on to view our video interview with Lee Williams and for further information.

The move to open source started when Nokia bought out the remaining shareholders in Symbian Ltd. and created the Symbian Foundation with the intent to move all Symbian code to open source. The move to open source was expected to take two years; in the intervening time, the code was made available to Foundation members under the Symbian Foundation License (i.e. free, but not open source).

The Symbian Foundation begun operations on Januray 1st 2009, but did not have its inaugural board meeting until February 5th (a year ago tomorrow) and began work in earnest on April 1st 2009. Less than a year later, the transition of the entire operating system to open source is complete. 

We spoke to Lee Williams, asking him about the announcement, the challenges involved and the implications for the Symbian and mobile ecosystem:

Implications

The Symbian Foundation estimate they are releasing 40 million lines of source code into open source. This makes it one of the biggest ever contributions to open source. To put this into perspective, Android has around 11 million lines of source code, the Linux kernel has 11.5 million lines of source code and Firefox has around 2 million lines of source code. (As the primary contributor to the Symbian Foundation, this automatically makes Nokia a leading open source company.)

If you printed out all the source code on A4 paper you would have a pile of paper 133 metres tall (almost three times the height of Nelson's Column). If you laid the A4 paper sheets end to end it they would reach 250 miles (400 km).

The statistics may be impressive, but what really matters is what it enables. It means that the Symbian platform has open code to go with its open governance model. This makes it much easier for companies and developers to start using the code, learning from it and contributing to it. It fulfills the promise of the Symbian Foundation that any company or individual can jump in and directly influence the future direction of the platform. It enables companies to take the code and use it for any purpose they can envision; it means we are much more likely to see non-phone devices powered by the Symbian platform.

The move to open source is the keystone in the the Symbian Foundation's belief that a philosophy of openness will allow it to to provide 'the foundation for unlimited mobile development' and allow innovation to occur faster than ever before.
 

Where can I get it?

All 108 packages making up the Symbian platform are available from the Symbian Foundation web site (tiny.symbian.org/open). They are made available under the EPL license.

You can also download complete development kits for creating both software (Symbian Developer Kit) and devices (Product Development Kit). These kits are from the Symbian^3 release, which is currently being finalised and will be feature complete later in Q1 2010.

Example source code (from Symbian^3 Homescreen package)

From the press release:

Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, said:

"The development community is now empowered to shape the future of the mobile industry, and rapid innovation on a global scale will be the result. When the Symbian Foundation was created, we set the target of completing the open source release of the platform by mid-2010 and it’s because of the extraordinary commitment and dedication from our staff and our member companies that we’ve reached it well ahead of schedule."

Read on

In addition to David's review, another AAS guest reviewer, Julian Grail, has been looking at SMS Chat as well:

"I have been using SMSChat for about a month on a Nokia N97 with the latest firmware.  The application installed without any fuss or bother, which is always a good start.  I have always been a big fan of Nokia Conversations so I was very pleased to be given the chance to try SMS chat on my N97. I have around 900 text messages on my phone and I found that the first time the application was started, it took a long time to load and sort the messages - this could be down to my hardware, but I did find it frustrating.  I also found that the application tried to be too complicated; having many menu options and choices. A good example of this is that when you select a contact from all of your messages, you are presented with a menu of choices which requires another screen press to get you to your SMS conversation - which is the core purpose of the software.

My biggest gripes are: firstly, the lack of built in help, which, given the price, is a big omission; and also the fact that the application does not integrate into the contacts or messaging applications, which means it has to be loaded separately (and on a RAM-restricted device like the N97 this can cause problems) - in fairness to the developers, they may be precluded from doing this by Nokia but it would be nice if this application added functionality to the existing core applications instead of reinventing the wheel in certain areas. Overall it is a nice application, not sure that its worth $14 to me."

You comments welcome on the app or on both reviewers' remarks!

"To get this latest release, open up the Store application on your device and click “accept” when prompted to install the new software. You can also check out http://store.ovi.com through your Nokia mobile browser."

Please let us know about your experiences in the comment thread.

At the time of writing the update was not available for the E55, the E52's sister device.

Disclosure

This is all possible because of the support of the Symbian Foundation. We're planning more content coverage from MWC 2010 than ever before. Getting to Barcelona, taking all the camera and production equipment, accommodation, and travel - the costs mount-up, especially when over 50,000 mobile industry people converge in one city! As a result, this extra Mobile World Congress video coverage on AAS and MIR will be brought to you courtesy of the support of the Symbian Foundation. However, I also want to underline that all editorial control remains with All About Symbian and Mobile Industry Review.

What can you expect to see?

• Hands-on with the latest devices and gadgets.
   
• First thoughts, views and updates direct from the show floor delivered via video, text and Twitter.
   
• Interviews with the major players in the Symbian ecosystem.
   
• Walk-about style videos at MWC (see our earlier Nokia World videos - LINKS).
   
• Mobile developer showcases and profiles.
   
• Behind the scenes look at what really goes on at MWC.

Ewan MacLeod (Mr. MIR) and I will be on the ground in Barcelona from Saturday to Saturday. We're aiming to video anything that moves with a Symbian connection as well as providing some general coverage. We'll be publishing video both before, during and after MWC week. Ewan Spence and Steve Litchfield will be managing the usual textual and audio content and keeping on top of the news from the UK. They'll be sharing their immediate thoughts on All About Symbian, as they do every year.

What would you like to see?

Got questions you want answered? An area we must cover? More information of an area of interest? Let us know, via email, Twitter, or in the comment thread below.

If you're going to be in Barcelona and want to be included in our coverage, please get in touch. We're especially keen to hear from any developers as we want to get their opinion on Symbian, mobile development and the future of mobile.

You can expect to see our extra video coverage of MWC on:

• All About Symbian (here)
   
• Mobile Industry Review (announcement post)
   
• Mobile Developer TV

Once again, thank you to everyone at the Symbian Foundation for making this extra content possible for us here at AAS, and MIR. 

Rafe Blandford