All About Symbian - General News

Ovi Share Gets Geotagging

Mon, 12 May 2008 19:07:18 +0100

Nokia's Ovi Share just acquired geotagging! From now on, any new images that are uploaded will get their EXIF data checked for location information. As you can see if you read below the break, this means that images can be automatically addressed and mapped. This brings Ovi Share into the same ballgame as Flickr and Picasa Web. Comments welcome on what's needed next in Ovi Share.

Established Social Networks Are Ruling the Mobile Networking Space

Mon, 12 May 2008 16:48:08 +0100

Mobile Social networks are not a big hit, according to new Nielsen Resarch (writes MoCoNews). With only 1.7% of UK mobile users using a social network specifically designed for mobile users. While users are moving to social networks via their handsets, the big winners in the connecting people stakes are, not surprisingly, the behemoths that exist on the desktop.Facebook's mobile site m.facebook.com accounts for over half a million hits and 9% of all UK mobile web users.

Ewan previews Reset Generation

Mon, 12 May 2008 16:46:53 +0100

It could well be one of the games of the year and everybody's got an opinion on Nokia's Reset Generation. Including Ewan, who has first hand experience with the developer. In this feature, he draws on first person comments and other released information to bring you a good overview of Reset Generation and its significance.

Insight 24 - Devices, News, Location-based search

Mon, 12 May 2008 11:49:25 +0100

It's... Insight number 24, aka AAS audio podcast 73, in which the usual team discuss the news of the week, including N-Gage and Nokia Communication Center (sic), three new S60 3rd Edition smartphones (black N82, Samsung i450, Nokia 6122c) and we introduce the idea and state of play in the world of Location Based Search.

Route 66 Mobile 8 gets a serious test drive

Sun, 11 May 2008 16:40:25 +0100

Guest writer Arjen Broeze has been trialling the new Route 66 Mobile 8 for over a month now and here's his very detailed review. The only real problem seems to be over-stubborn clinging to originally-calculated routes - apart from that Arjen gives this sat-nav solution a green light on all fronts. I was sceptical about the way search matches are still shown in alphabetical order, but Arjen argues that the search match filtering is good enough to do without location-sorted results.

Nokia gets slightly more Mac-friendly

Fri, 09 May 2008 17:11:55 +0100

Not directly Symbian-related, but Nokia have just brought out a Macintosh version of their Internet Tablet Video Converter. Are they getting a bit more used to supporting "alternative" operating systems, and when will we see their first desktop Linux app?

dotMobi Buys Mowser For Mobile Web Integration

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:58:54 +0100

Congrats to Russ Beattie and Mike Rowehl, the guys behind Mowser. It may well have looked dead and buried a few weeks ago, but the service has been bought by the dotMobi consortium. Reporting on Dev.Mobi, James Pearce charts out the use of their new toy, namely to drive Opt-In mobilisation of websites, integrating the Mowser Directory, and of course using the (re)formatting technology.

Promoting Mobile Services to top One Billion Dollars

Thu, 08 May 2008 08:56:46 +0100

Juniper Research reckon that the advertising spend to promote mobile services will be in excess of $1 billion dollars for 2008 (reports IT Pro), which leads me to think that the total income from the mobile services must be at least $8-$10 billion. Those are some impressive numbers. The usual culprits are blamed for the increase, including better handsets and more bandwidth.

Galileo and GPS to bring indoor sat nav?

Wed, 07 May 2008 19:44:44 +0100

The European Space Agency recently made contact with Giove-B, the second test model for its Galileo series of navigational satellites, with the whole thirty satellite constellation due to be completed by 2013. What makes this relevant to the mobile device world is a statement by ESA on the effectiveness of Galileo combined with the existing GPS system: "Higher accuracy in challenging environments where multipath and interference are present, and deeper penetration for indoor navigation."

S60 to iPhone actually works...

Wed, 07 May 2008 16:42:23 +0100

Thanks to bery95 for spotting this surprisingly attractive/fun iPhone theme for S60 3rd Edition. I know, I know, I usually hate this sort of thing, but this one has iPhone icons in surprising depth and works well on many levels under S60 (240 by 320 pixel screens, at least).

Insight 23 - Adobe, MOSH, Nokia in the US

Tue, 06 May 2008 09:40:22 +0100

It's Insight time, covering News, the MOSH ad-sponsored games, Adobe Open Screen Project and we (shock, horror) actually try to answer a user-submitted question, talking about whether Nokia could be more aggressive in the US market. Plus, Rafe reports back from the Nokia Design Studio Day in London. You can listen (and subscribe) to Insight number 23 here.

The Nokia N82 wins Gadget Show roundup

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:54:15 +0100

If you're in the UK, make sure to watch The Gadget Show tonight. As part of a big 'multimedia phone' roundup, the Nokia N82 runs away with the top prize, with the presenter commenting that the N82 had one of the best cameras she has ever seen on a phone. The video quality was also sharp with accurate colours. 8pm UK time, channel 5.

Helping clear up the frequency confusion

Sun, 04 May 2008 07:22:18 +0100

An interesting post by Matthew, a guest writer over on Darla's blog today, in which he explains everything you need to know about the differences between Euro and US 3G frequencies, which sort of CDMA you should be looking for in a smartphone, and more. Worth bookmarking at least!

Share Online gets Live Spaces support back

Fri, 02 May 2008 14:55:22 +0100

Shout me out if this is old news and I've somehow been sleeping, but I noticed that there was a new version of Nokia's (Download!) utility for uploading and sharing photos and video. Share Online is now up to v3.08(7) and, importantly, it seems that support for Microsoft's Live Spaces is back, having been removed for early variants of v3.0. The Share Online rollcall now reads: Ovi, Spaces, Flickr and Vox.

Adobe Open Screen project

Fri, 02 May 2008 13:37:56 +0100

Yesterday Adobe announced the details of the Open Screen Project. This will see Adobe, in conjunction with partners, create a consistent 'rich Internet experience' across televisions, PCs, mobile devices and other consumer electronics using future evolutions of its Flash and Air platforms. Adobe will open up Flash and Air by releasing more technical information and removing license fees and format restrictions for Air and Flash.