Planet Mobile

All About Symbian: Reviewing Locago's mapping and information layers for your smartphone

2010-07-29T17:39:38+00:00

Location based tools on your smartphone aren't always about the check-in. Sometimes they can be for information and discovery as well. Locago harnesses multiple sources of information (including user generated contet) and puts these layers over a competent mapping and routing tool. Let's take a closer look at it.

Sitting alongside my thoughts on check-in based location services, I've also been looking at another angle for using GPS and an internet connection. Drop yourself into a mystery location and ask yourself how you would find out things like: what has happened around you, what that castle is, and which exhibits are in the museum on the horizon. You could ask the locals or look up a tourist guide...

...or you could use your smartphone. It knows exactly where you are, and with that information it should be able to go online and find all that out for you. That's what Locago does.

Rad on for the full review.

Androinica: Android’s eBook app rush explained: Amazon expects eBooks to outsell paperbacks next year

Andrew Kameka — 2010-07-29T17:30:30+00:00

A month ago, Aldiko stood alone as one of the only usable Android apps that provided an ereading experience. Since then, the big names in the book distribution market – Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Kobo – entered the fray within days of each other. Why the sudden increase in attention for Android?

We may have a little insight into that phenomena based on a recent statements from Amazon.com, the largest book distributor online. Amazon SVP of Digital Media, Steve Kessel, expects eBooks to outsell paperback books in 2011.

“I think we [Amazon] will sell more Kindle books than paperback books in the next year [2011]“, Kessel told Pocket-Lint.com. “Sometime after that, we will start selling more Kindle books than hard covers and paperbacks combined.”

The rise of eBooks over paperback has been talked about for years, but paperbacks consistently outsold the digital versions. With the increasing popularity of ereaders, and runaway success of the iPad, digital books are finally inching closer to eclipsing physical copies (on Amazon, at least).

That explains why the eBook apps for Android suddenly appeared within such a short timeframe. Companies routinely jostle to be first to secure their position in growing markets and keep up with the competition. It’s much easier to obtain a following and build early than to enter a market late and be forced to unseat the dominant party. When one company delivers an eBook reader for iOs or Android, a rapidly-growing platform poised to appear on several device types, it’s imperative that rivals do the same.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Kobo debuted in that small window because they recognize how vital it is to get in the game early. It remains to be seen which storefront and reading app will become the dominant player.

Androinica: HTC will deliver Froyo and Sense to China soon

Andrew Kameka — 2010-07-29T16:30:42+00:00

HTC is diving head first into the mobile phone market in China, and it’s doing it with phones running a Froyo-based version of Sense. The Chinese HTC website says that the Desire will launch with Android 2.2 soon, and other HTC handsets launching in China are also expected to have the latest version of Android, according to Engadget.

Does that mean we’re actually closer than we thought to seeing Froyo released to current ROM’s? Not necessarily.

We’ve seen time and time again that phone experiences are not parallel on different carriers and in different countries. Just because an update comes to Hero users in Taiwan or the UK doesn’t mean people in Canada are any closer to a similar update. That may also be the case here because Froyo coming earlier to China may simply mean that HTC is making it a priority to have its ROM’s up-to-date for one of the world’s largest markets.

It is encouraging to see that HTC is speeding up the process to update Sense to newer versions of Android, but an early China debut doesn’t mean updates in other markets. It’s worth noting that a Froyo-based Sense ROM was leaked for the Incredible, and HTC previously said that it would start delivering Froyo beginning in Q3. We’re a third of the way through Q3 and still haven’t seen any phone officially updated yet, so don’t hold your breath.

Androinica: LG Optimus Z launched in Korea, includes everything but the kitchen sink

Chris Smith — 2010-07-29T16:20:11+00:00

Korea has been known to get some pretty sweet tech and the announcement of the the new LG Optimus Z Android phone just adds to the bunch. LG announced today that the Optimus Z will be available in Korea for SK Telecom and KT and will support some ridiculous functionality that we can only dream of our Androids to include.

The Optimus Z’s specs are straight forward; 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, 3.5-inch “Hyper HD” LCD display, runs Android 2.1 with a 2.2 update by year’s end, 5MP camera, and a “brushed metal” backing. But it isn’t the specs that make this phone unique and downright amazing, it’s everything else that is included. The Z will ship with two 1350mAh batteries, support Dolby mobile audio and DivX video out of the box, and 100 pre-loaded applications as well as 70 more that are not included in the market. Sounds awesome, but the next two are kind of crazy.

The Optimus Z will have an On Screen Phone interface that will allow the user to use their phone on their computer by connecting via a USB cable or Bluetooth. This will give then access to making phone calls as well as email and contacts. Last but not least there is a new Drag and Shake feature that allows Optimus Z users to share files by “flicking” them to each other and even syncing up to a PC with LG’s Air Sync System. Now that is some innovation.

There is no set price or date for the Z’s availibility. Hopefully LG is starting something here and can bring these ideas and features to their upcoming Android devices in the US and elsewhere. How is it even possible that the same company that created the Optimus Z thought that the LG Ally was a good idea?

Via [MobileBurn]

Androinica: Android PSA: Read security permissions before installing an Android app

Andrew Kameka — 2010-07-29T14:17:22+00:00

Hey there, Android fans. You may wake-up this morning to discover that there’s an allegedly rogue application in the Android Market that is stealing people’s data when installed. According to a security firm that happens to offer mobile security software, this app disguises itself as a wallpaper downloader, then grabs users personal information – SIM card number, SMS messages, and voicemail subscriber info – and then sends that data to a server in China.

Now, aside from the opportunistic nature of a security firm being the one to report this, there’s an obvious lesson here that thousands of Android users have yet to grasp. That lesson is that they need to read the permissions requests whenever they install an Android app. Always.

Before an app can be installed, Android displays a page explaining to users what type of functions that app wants to perform. Familiarize yourself with that screen because it is your friend. It will tip you off when an app has questionable motives, and will allow you to use common sense about which apps to install and which apps to run away from. The screen typically looks like this:

A screenshot of MixZing, which is NOT the supposedly malicious app

Look at permissions requested by the supposedly malicious app, Wallpapers:

Your Location
Network communication (full internet access, view network state)
Storage (modify delete SD card contents)
Phone calls (read phone state and identity)
System tools (set wallpaper)

Does that look right to you? Of course not. It raises suspicion that an app designed to change my wallpaper needs to know where I’m located or who I make calls to. The only permissions it really needs are Storage and System Tools, which tips me off that I shouldn’t be installing this app.

There are some Android apps that legitimately need to know that type of information. Locale changes settings based on GPS coordinates, so it makes sense that it wants to know my location; Phonebook replaces the default dialer and contacts app, so it has a right to request Phone call permission; MixZing downloads information from the web for playback, so it should request Network communication. However, some ringtones, wallpapers, games, etc., have no reason for requesting such information. Unless the app describes a particular feature that would require that permission, you have to question the developer’s motives.

Android is an open platform, so there’s no walled garden protecting users from questionable practices. The benefit of having a phone that provides more freedom with apps means that you also have to take on the responsibility of policing your device. Always read the permissions before installing and think about why certain apps make certain requests.

Androinica: Viper SmartStart uses Android to start and control your car

Andrew Kameka — 2010-07-29T13:27:17+00:00

It’s unlikely that will get a car as cool as KITT from Night Rider in our lifetime, so we’ll just have to settle for the next best thing. Viper SmartStart is a new Android app that can control a car by interacting with hardware installed in an automobile.

Viper SmartStart can start your car remotely, a life-saver during those snowy Northeast winters (the physical car key must still be used to actually drive). The remote system also extends the range of your commands anywhere with a 3G signal, allowing owners to lock/unlock doors, open the trunk, turn on a security system, or be notified if an alarm goes off. That should help forgetful people cut down on the amount of times they run back to their car to double check if the door is locked, and provide an additional layer of security.

The Viper SmartStart app is free but requires purchasing the system hardware. The device costs $299 if self-installed, but it’s also available at Best Buy for $499 with full installation.

All About Symbian: Angry Birds win "Best Game in Ovi Store" poll

2010-07-29T08:55:54+00:00

What’s the best game in the Ovi Store? Nokia asked last week with ten games to choose from, and the result are available. But in a lovely nod to their ability to spot a top game, the write-in "others" category provided the runaway winner with 36% of the vote. The winning garland has been placed on Angry Birds, available for the N900. Which isn’t that surprising given that (a) it’s a runaway hit on the iPhone and (b) the N900 version sold six times as fast as the iPhone version!

That surprising statistic is even more amazing when you think of the respective sizes of the iPhone installed base compared to the N900. Next time someone shoots down the Ovi Store, consider this number, and the resulting income that could be earned.

Anyway, back to the best game poll. Top of the list from the suggested games was Doodle Jump (our review here), with 14% of the vote, followed by Real Football 2010 and Prince of Persia.

The rest of the order was Edge, Exclusion, Tropical Towers, Ninjani, Fish Farm, Click Shoot 2009 and Blokus bringing up the rear.

A fair result?

All About Symbian: Touch or keyboard, is there only one way to sort this out?

2010-07-29T08:21:29+00:00

You may recall last week we pointed out Nokia’a Conversations Blog post crying out the virtues of the keyboard. Keeping the karmic balance, this week sees the touchscreen side of the debate step up to take a swing at the arguments. And then there’s Tomi Ahonen’s take on the debate.

Ahonen has, as usual with his discussions, gone into detail on the issue of “Touch v Keyboard” with numbers, market insight, and a well thought out conclusion. Here’s how he frames the post.

Touch screens are the hot story now. They also 'seem' more 'modern' and touch screens allow bigger screens in classic candybar phone form-factors (remember, the iPhone is also considered candybar form factor, ie it is not a 'flip phone' or a slider..). So any web browsing and screen-intensive experiences like watching pictures, videos and playing videogames are all experiences more vividly with larger screens. So lets explore this a bit deeper.

As with most discussions on something that is tightly entwined with user choice and a specific device, yet where the two choices are equally valid (Mac or PC, touch or Keyboard, ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64), temperatures will run high, opinions will be black and white, but the truth will lie somewhere in the middle.

All About Symbian: Never too old for a wedding - a Day in the Life of the Nokia N82

2010-07-29T06:19:55+00:00

David Gilson turns blogger in this 'Day in the Life of the Nokia N82', bought by him for camera duties and becoming his tool of choice for an all day wedding event. Read on for his impressions of this three year old device and its Xenon flash, sample photos and even a battery report - it seems that rumours of the N82's demise have been greatly exagerated...

"With the decision made, I went to eBay. There wasn't much to choose from, but one entry looked promising; the write up claimed it was working fine and that he'd looked after it very well, but there were no actual photos of the device. You should never buy anything important on eBay unless you can see photos of the actual item, not marketing photos - real photos. I was interested enough that I contacted the seller and asked him to add photos, which he promptly did. The photos were enough to reassure me it was worth bidding for. In the end, I won myself a pristine silver N82 for the modest sum of £126."

Read on

All About Symbian: One click Qt 4.7 for the Samsung i8910 HD, plus HX8 on the way

2010-07-29T06:11:26+00:00

More significant news from the Samsung i8910 HD firmware scene, which is accelerating, amazingly, rather than slowing down. 'faenil' has organised a one-click installer for the Qt 4.7.0 beta2 libraries for non-Nokia smartphones such as the i8910 HD, in theory letting them install some of the new Qt apps (e.g. the superlative Orange Wednesdays). A quote and video from faenil below. In related news, HyperX is now finalising HX8 firmwares, including even more customisations and a fix for Samsung's longstanding Music player bugs (a video for which is also embedded below). It's all go... What do you mean, you don't own an i8910 HD?

From faenil:

"You know how important Qt is getting for Nokia to try to get all the developers back on Symbian OS, that is why I tried hard to let i8910 users be able to run Qt software, thus giving them a future-proof feature on their phone, which has been forgotten by Samsung, despite his top class HW specs. I have read you have posted some news regarding Qt for mobiles, so I would like you to know something REALLY special for the mobile community, especially the i8910 one.

I have modified the Qt libraries package for i8910 and 'madhacker' and I have made an installer for the i8910 users, so that they can have the REAL Qt libraries. As you may know, i8910 users and all the non-Nokia smartphones users are forced to install the qt_selfsigned.sis package which only gives developers the ability to use 5 capabilities of the Symbian OS... more complex software requires much more capabilities. With my package, i8910 owners are getting a full 19 capabilities, just like the qt_installer.sis for Nokia phones. Thanks to this, i8910 users are now able to use softwares like gpsp, wikitude, wordpress for symbian, ComingSoon, which were not working well using the qt_selfsigned with only 5 capabilitiess. "

For more info, see faenil's blog entry announcing the installer. Here's his accompanying video:

__________________

And here's HyperX's demo of Music player now working in the upcoming HX8 firmware:

Androinica: Android could make Google $10 billion a year and that is a complete longshot

Chris Smith — 2010-07-29T00:14:11+00:00

Here is how a CEO talks to the Wall Street Journal when he wants his company’s stock pumped up. Today, Eric Schmidt was quoted saying,

“If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can’t make money from that?”

This was in response to his statement and belief that Android could potentially make $10 billion dollars a year in advertising revenue for Google. Schmidt came to this conclusion with some very absurd numbers and small calculations of 1 billion Android users at $10 worth of ad revenue per user per year. Wow, that was easy to do. The fact is is that Android has been growing at a steady pace with an estimated 160,000 handsets activated a day. That sounds like a lot of phones and it is, but even at that pace it would take around “17 years to reach that goal”.

The Android onslaught, although crazy as it is now, could eventually slow down making a billion handsets completely out of reach. Many sites are spinning this saying that “Google is going to make $10 billion a year from Android”, when in reality this is just pure CEO fluff. I love me some Android, don’t get me wrong, but to say that “all we need is a billion Android devices in existence and poof! we have $10 billion” is a complete longshot.

Via [Phandroid]

All About Symbian: N8 available for pre-order from Nokia Italy

2010-07-28T20:13:46+00:00

The Nokia N8, the first publicly announced Symbian^3 device, is available for pre-order from Nokia Italy's web store. It is priced at €469 (£390 / $600), with availability stated as being at the end of September, just in line with Nokia's stated Q3 shipment date. Nokia Italy is offering free delivery and say that customers pre-ordering will be 'among the first to receive the new N8'. Other Nokia stores will no doubt make their pre-order processes available shortly.

More on the Nokia N8

Nokia N8 - hardware hands-on first look

Nokia N8 video overview examined in detail: part 1, part 2 and part 3

Nokia N8 - content creation and consumption on Symbian^3

The Nokia N8: Imaging champion with a five year legacy

The making of the Nokia N8's camera

The Nokia N8 seen through YouTube videos

What does the internet think of the Nokia N8?

Nokia N8 image and video samples

More on the N8's stills and video camera

Androinica: Pulse News Reader has a pretty face and flaws [Video app reviews]

Andrew Kameka — 2010-07-28T17:54:22+00:00

The war between fashion and function rages on in Pulse News Reader, a popular iPad and iPhone app that is now available on Android. While Pulse is a news reader that is much easier on the eyes thanks to a less conventional design for mobile news readers, it lacks the core function of being an adequate mobile news reader for many.

Available for $1.99, Pulse takes the feeds of websites that you read religiously, then presents them in a highly-organized manner tailored to your phone. Whether in portrait or landscape, users can scroll through a list of articles layered over thumbnails. There’s no groundbreaking experience by tacking on a tiny picture, but the overall experience of having a polished application improves on the otherwise drab experience of opening an app and scrolling through an endless list of headlines.

However, Pulse relies so heavily on that polish that it fails to meet the primary objective of being a good news source for most RSS readers. The app limits users to a maximum of 20 news sources. That may be fine for people who only browse a couple of sites everyday, but those people would probably browse those couple of sites. RSS has become a tool utilized primarily by people who have more than 20 news sources and want one central place to read them.

People who have 30+ news feeds in Google Reader or don’t feel the need to buy a new RSS app should stick with what they currently use. If you only need 20 or fewer news sites in your feed, then I suggest taking Pulse for a test drive. The app has its faults by struggling to import embedded content and limiting users to only 20 feeds, but it looks nice. The fashion over function crowd may think that’s good enough to overlook early faults.

P.S. Add Androinica.com’s full RSS feed if you decide to use Pulse

KEY FEATURES

Read RSS feeds with good visuals
Store articles for offline reading
Integrates with Google Reader

CONS

Limits users to 20 news sources

App: Pulse News Reader

Price: $1.99

Website: http://www.alphonsolabs.com/

Androinica: Bistro Cook: Don’t Burn the Fries

Jorge Parrales — 2010-07-28T16:35:51+00:00

If you have yet to discover the addictive game of Bistro Cook, get ready to put on your digital apron and go download this application from the Android Market. The concept is simple, the game play is straightforward, and the lunch rush never ends. In both game modes–Casual and Adventure–Bistro Cook is all about speed.

In Casual mode, you are behind the counter, pushing out orders as they appear along the top of your screen. The order appears below each plate. Your job is to select the appropriate food, place it in one of your four frying pans, and transfer it to the corresponding plate as soon as it is properly cooked. If you wait too long to serve the food once it is cooked, it will burn and you will have to start that order all over again. As you complete more and more orders, they become increasingly difficult, going from one item per plate to two or three (maybe four, I could never get that far). And as if that isn’t hard enough, the plates also come more quickly as time progresses. As best as I can tell, there is no final objective to “win” the game. You play until the plates get backed up too far. Your goal is to complete as many orders as possible and with the highest customer satisfaction rating, which goes down based on how long it takes for you to plate their order after the food is cooked.

Adventure mode is very similar, but has more of a “career” game play feel to it. You start with a single pan and with each order that you complete, you earn money. The goal is to earn enough money to purchase better quality pans, and after that, to earn as much money as possible. The game itself suggests that users become familiar with the process in Casual mode before playing Adventure, and I would wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment.

Overall, Bistro Cook is a lot of fun to play. First time users should definitely take the time to go through the very brief tutorials before playing. I would imagine that it could eventually start to get a little mundane after you’ve played it many times, but the process to get to that point is very enjoyable. It eventually becomes obnoxiously hard, but then again, you are supposed to lose. The worst part of the whole experience for me was that when I placed the food in the pans, the sizzling noise always made me incredibly hungry.

Key Features

Easy to learn
Great for almost any age group
Smooth, fast graphics
Submit high scores online

Cons

Could become mundane very quickly for some people
Makes you hungry

App: Bistro Cook

Price: Free

Androinica: Sprint finally has net growth thanks to the HTC EVO 4G

Andrew Kameka — 2010-07-28T15:14:44+00:00

What a difference a phone makes. Despite three years of stagnation and net decline in its subscriber base, Sprint has finally had a period of growth. The carrier announced today that in Q2 2010, it gained approximately 111,000 net subscribers (Number of customers leaving subtracted from number of new customers).

In Q2 2009, Sprint lost 257,000 customers. Sprint credits the turnaround this year to the popularity of the HTC Evo and BlackBerry Curve, but let’s be real here and say the EVO brought in the lion’s share of those new customers. It was the first big-ticket device since the Palm Pre and broke sales records that led to early shortages. Thanks to the EVO, Sprint has experienced its “best ever year-over-year quarterly net postpaid subscriber loss improvement of 763,000″ and best subscriber additions performance in five years.

Q3 could potentially be as strong. The Samsung Epic 4G is expected to be released next month, offering a 4G phone with a QWERTY keyboard and many of the same bells and whistles that have made the EVO popular.

Androinica: Updated: Stock Android 2.2 with Sense leaked and fully functional for DROID Incredible

Chris Smith — 2010-07-28T10:10:54+00:00

If you DROID Incredible users have been waiting patiently for a 2.2 Android update, especially one that works, it looks like your wait may be over. That is if you have the latest leaked baseband update and are rooted. At 1:30AM this morning a post went up on the xda-developers forum presenting stock Android 2.2 with Sense for the DROID Incredible.

The process to install it is pretty simple, or so it seems. If you have a rooted Incredible you must flash to stock 2.1, update your baseband, root with the new-fandangled unrEVOked3 tool, and then install the leaked ROM. After taking a quick look at the 50 or so pages of forum posts it doesn’t look like anyone is having too many problems with the process. So far the ROM is noted to be fully functional (as in even the Camera) and there seems to be little complaints.

I am in the process of flashing now and will update to let you guys know how things went. Has anyone else gotten this to work?

Update: I’ve got the new Android 2.2 ROM loaded on my Incredible and I have to say that it runs smoothly. One small thing I have noticed is that the homescreens and HTC’s “card” effect do not run as well as they did in the official 2.1 ROM, so this makes me think that this isn’t a final build. Other than that there are a BUNCH of goodies in this new ROM as well as the added features of Android 2.2. Keep a look out here for more information about this ROM.

Via [xda-developers]

All About Symbian: The problem with location check-in fatigue on your smartphone

2010-07-28T10:09:40+00:00

Many years ago, everyone thought that Instant Messaging (IM) would be a big winner on the mobile platform. That’s turned out to not be the case – the winner in the field of short form updates has been the status message on Facebook and the broadcasting nature of Twitter. So what happened? And are the same mistakes being made by the current slew of location-based apps that are the so-called 'next wave of innovation'? Read on...

Looking back at the IM issue, the biggest issue was that there were too many competing systems to find your friends – some people were on AIM, some on Yahoo, some on ICQ, and there was this new thing called gTalk that was popping up. You could choose to have a few of your friends available by having one of the clients installed on your phone, or you could look at a number of “all the networks in one app” solutions to try and pull everything together.

IM is still not a unified environment (unlike a system such as email, where no matter the system, you can talk to anyone on the planet with an email address). Applications such as Nimbuzz ease the pain, but the whole “separate and unconnected islands” pretty much doomed IM as the next big thing, even though it still has uses.

Checking in on Foursquare, via Gravity, which also offers Facebook and Twitter updates, just not at the same time.

With the rise of status messages and updates in the Web 2.0 world, with open API access to the data and the sharing of information between networks (in many cases automatically), this meant that there are less interoperability issues, and systems can flourish in partnership with each other, not instead of, as was the case with mobile IM.

Now look at the nascent world of geo-location in mobile.

When I turn up to a new location, what should I, as the tech-hipster be doing? Checking in to Foursquare; seeing if anyone has left an item or if a pin-badge is available on Gowalla; leaving a review on Yelp; wondering if there is a voucher on TellMeWhere; sending a picture of the location via Nokia Maps; finding my friends on Google Latitude; and probably a thousand more start-ups (Geodelic to name one) that think this location thing is a pretty neat idea.

Spotted the problem yet? That lot is going to take a good five or six minutes of browsing and client usage to check in. With no unified approach or central service that could share your location, or API’s and agreements between the services to allow the location data to be shared easily, you’re left with the choice of either trying to maintain everything (good luck with that), or choose a favourite network, perhaps with a second one for occasional use.

The incumbency advantage in geo-location services at the moment is huge. If you are using either of the “big” services (that would be Foursquare and Gowalla, feel free to discuss and pitch your ideas in the comments), it’s going to be very hard to switch to another service, even to try it out, because you’ll lose all the benefits of the service you are on, or spend more time doing multiple check-ins at the same location.

This “check-in fatigue” is going to be a growing problem as more companies find the location bandwagon to jump on. They’ll be faced with a choice of going it alone, or somehow integrating with an existing service. That puts Foursquare in a good place, but nobody else in the market.

Is this the right way forward for the location based check-in services? I’m making an implicit decision that the idea of saying where you are and having services that do interesting things with this information, is a good idea. I’ve seen how useful it can be when there is a density of people (volume, not IQ, calm down) at conferences such as SXSW Interactive – but many more people need to be using the services, services which are as easy and unobtrusive to use as possible. And that means banishing the millions of check-ins to countless services, because this is not the situation where only one service can be used standalone. The evolution of competition is sorely needed, but right now that competition is strangling the simple concept of check-in, through repetition.

Is this the right way? I don’t think so. What’s needed is a federated check-in service to be built, where you can update your location just the once, and this is fed out to all the other sites. Yes it would be a natural bottleneck and open to exploitation, but without something like this, I fear that a promising technology with many use cases is going to be sidelined in the minds of regular users.

Getting from raw numbers offline to a nice online list needs to be as easy as possible

What needs to be avoided is one company becoming the only “first step” to passing out a location to all the services. Having a common standard to describe locations (both personal and named physical places) that could then be shared around other services would negate the commercial problem of the bottleneck, it would mean that the services could still advertise and compete to be seen as the site to use, but there would be no loss in trying out new services, leading to greater adoption of this class of service.

Because greater adoption is needed. For all the noise and PR that foursquare and their ilk can generate, their membership is tiny when compared to Facebook or Twitter. Plus you have the two elephants in the room – what happens when Google Maps and Ovi Maps start really exploiting a social layer? Latitude is still an experiment, and Share for Ovi Maps feels more like a test-bed than a finalised product. That’s a huge number of eyeballs and “here I am” messages flying around the world.

Should the geo-location companies ignore this business critical issue? Or should they be thinking of levelling the playing field through the aforementioned check-in sharing and aggregation? I’d argue the latter is needed as soon as possible.

Without some changes, geo-location is going to be another little footnote in smartphone history, a footnote that includes all the other interesting ideas that never really captured enough hearts and minds beyond a few hardcore power users and social web aficionados. At the moment it is too hard, too time consuming, and does not offer enough reward to become something that everyday people would do.

Luckily, there are solutions the industry could adopt – they’ve also got historical precedent (in IM) as to the likely result if they do nothing. The question now is will anyone do anything about it?

-- Ewan Spence, July 2010.

All About Symbian: The sadly flawed Symbian world top-end line-up - looking to the N8

2010-07-28T09:18:06+00:00

In this feature, I've been taking a long hard look at the top-end smartphones in the Symbian powered world over the last three years, pointing out their flaws and frailties, and - where appropriate - pointing out what should have been done to fix things up. Yes, Symbian has been cracking along with record momentum in the mid-tier, with Nokia trouncing the iPhones, Blackberries and Android phones in terms of raw unit sales, but Symbian's partners have been scoring rather a lot of own goals in recent times. And what of the 2010 Symbian^3 crop, such as the imminent Nokia N8 - will these suffer a similar fate? I'm optimistic...

"A recurring theme in tech podcasts, especially those in which I'm involved, is to sadly bring up the essential truth that there's no such thing as a perfect smartphone - yet. Whether looking in the wider phone world or whether looking just within the Symbian ecosystem, every model seems to have compromises that go beyond what you'd expect given the form factor. Now, there are often reasons given why such and such a model lacks such and such a feature - usually down to bill-of-materials and cost (fair enough, in the lower tiers of the smartphone world), but sometimes also down to simple marketing - even to the point where a particular feature would have been 'confusing' to the target market. Add in my pet reason - that the designers simply failed to (come and ask me what I thought) really think about what their product might be used for(!)"

Read on

All About Symbian: Does Symbian have a service layer gap?

2010-07-27T12:19:11+00:00

Spurred on by his reviews of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro and Samsung i8910 HD, David Gilson looks at the huge investment Nokia has made into providing an Ovi service layer - it seems that, whatever Ovi's detractors might say, the absence of this service layer on non-Nokia hardware is desperately noticeable. He also wonders whatever became of Symbian's Horizon project - as good a starting point as any for getting applications out to all Symbian smartphones.

"As I recently wrote, the application store has become an integral part of the smartphone experience. Nokia have gone beyond the app store idea, by building up the Ovi service brand, available only to Nokia phones. It's fair to say Ovi has had mixed results, with Maps and Mail being the most notable successes. By doing this Nokia have provided Symbian users with a compelling user experience over and above the base platform.

Ever since its formation, Symbian has been a multi-manufacturer platform, but thus far none have created any type of ecosystem that could rival the Ovi brand. Of course, Sony Ericsson has the PlayNow web-based application store. However, the the breadth of content just isn't there yet, and they need a dedicated application (or at least widget) rather than using a totally web-based system."

Read on

All About Symbian: Vodafone announce Mobile Clicks innovation competition for 2010

2010-07-27T08:56:47+00:00

Got a smart idea for something on mobile? Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010 might be just the thing for you. This competition (with a prize fund of 150,000 Euros) is accepting registrations for the competition until August 22nd. They're looking for smart ideas, not just finished products, and are hoping to accelerate innovation in European mobile start-ups. More below....

Lee Epting is currently the Director of Content Services at Vodafone and knows what the completion can achieve in a wider context: "Vodafone Mobile Clicks is really about empowering ambitious, young start-ups to develop their ideas and accelerate them into market."

Unlike other "develop something for us" competitions, Vodafone Mobile Clicks looks much more attractive to the start-ups and new companies that are in the mobile space, but we’d still advise that you read the criteria and terms and conditions carefully before entering.

Last year’s winner was Layar, an augmented reality browser that has gone on to form partnerships with LG and Samsung. We suspect the 75,000 Euros they won last year went a long way to getting themselves established in the market. Here’s a bit more about them:

This year the prize fund is being split as 100,000 Euros for the winner and a second place prize of 50,000 Euros. It’s open to individuals and companies in the UK, Portugal and the Netherlands, who are in a start-up younger than three years old, or are planning to start up a new business in the near future to exploit their idea.

It’s a tight schedule with the winners announced at the PICNIC Festival in Holland on 24th September this year. Of course, the goal is not to have a finished product to show, but to have the idea presented (although I bet a very early alpha would help sway the judges).

More information and registration details at the Vodafone Mobile Clicks website. Mobile Monday London are also supporting the competition, and their thoughts are also online.

All About Symbian: The Qi standard for wireless charging now defined

2010-07-27T08:01:44+00:00

The Wireless Power Consortium has now finalized the interface definition for a low-power specification for charging devices wirelessly. The exact details will be published publicly on August 30th. The specification is currently limited to 5 Watts, more than enough for all USB-charging Symbian-powered phones. Devices that want to comply with the standard will have to pass third-party certification before the manufacturer is allowed to use the 'Qi' logo on the device or its packaging.

This is designed to make it easy for consumers to find interoperable chargers and devices.

"Our customers will see the Qi logo and know: this product works with my other Qi products," wrote Menno Treffers, a senior director of standardization at Philips who works with the consortium. "Publishing a standard is not enough. Without test documentation, certification services, and a logo license agreement, interoperability is an illusion."

Certification testing services will begin in August, meaning products supporting the standard could start appearing this fall.

(via Ars Technica)

All About Symbian: Nokia get tweety with USA customers

2010-07-27T07:32:45+00:00

With Nokia getting criticised every year for failing to put serious investment into the USA, a single Twitter account isn't exactly going to reverse this overnight, but it's good to see regardless. There's now an official 'Nokia US Care' Twitter account for people to hit up for updates and to fire questions at. Early days, obviously, but personal contact like this really can't do any harm...

"We're launching Nokia Care on Twitter today! Please ask us any questions you have about our products or the Ovi Store."

(via Mark Guim)

All About Symbian: Where to get your Data while abroad with no contract

2010-07-27T07:31:16+00:00

A little something for the mobile traveller, as the Pay as you Go Sim with Data wiki is pointed out to me. In it, a country’s network providers are listed, but only those that offer Pay as You Go data. A great resource for those who want to plan ahead before picking up a SIM when they land.

The landscape is changing, with mobile data top-ups available for some contract customers when they go abroad (especially European based travelling), and the rise of the MVNO has led to companies that cater for the traveller (such as MaxRoam), but it’s still cheaper to grab something locally – but the difference between that and the other options as listed above is getting smaller.

The PAYG Data Wiki.

All About Symbian: AAS Insight 128 - TnP, Symbian DevCo and Nokia Q2 results

2010-07-26T20:03:42+00:00

In All About Symbian Insight 128, we open with a round up of recent news including the formation of the Symbian Developer Cooperative, the retail availability of the Nokia C6, news of the i8910 HX7 firmware, and Nokia's Conspiracy for Good. Rafe talks about his experience with Track and Protect and Ewan asks whether Symbian needs a reference device. Finally we talk over Nokia's Q2 2010 results. You can listen to AAS Insight 128 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.

Multimedia from All About Symbian

In this podcast we cover:

Track and Protect
Symbian Developer Cooperative
Nokia C6 now in retail
Conspiracy for Good
i8910 HX7 changes
Does Symbian need a reference design?
Nokia Q2 2010 results - 24 million smartphones sold

Home to PyS60 Developers: My interview with Nokiadevs.com

Manikantan — 2010-07-26T15:52:16+00:00

I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Nokiadevs.com last week. You can now read it here.

In this post, I talk about my journey as a Flash Lite developer and developing on Nokia handsets. I also talk on my Flash Lite game Deep Days and some apps I created using Ovi AppWizard. Hope you like it.

Deep Days out on Ovi store My game, Deep Days from Chompgames is now out on...
Some Ovi Stats My publishing title Chompgames, has been doing quite well at...
Packaging Flash content for million hansets I have been planning to write on this article for...

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All About Symbian: Touchnote

2010-07-26T13:46:19+00:00

For all the internet connectivity, software, shiny themes and applications, there is something that is eminently wonderful about a physical object. Touchnote, from the London based company of the same name, brings both of those worlds together and Ewan Spence reviews Touchnote for S60 5th Edition application here, ending up 'thoroughly recommending' it. PS. Look out for Rafe's cute kittens....

Read on

Symbian Freak: Nokia Reports First Quarter 2010: Profit Falls 40%, Pressure On CEO Growing

2010-07-22T11:48:51+00:00

As expected, The Finnish mobile phone giant reported today a sharp drop in second-quarter profits, further increasing the pressure on embattled Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

Kallasvuo, who has spent more than half of this life at the company, may be ousted already this month, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week.

Nokia reported that second quarter Devices & Services net sales increased 3% to EUR 6.8 billion, compared with EUR 6.6 billion in the second quarter 2009. At constant currency, Devices & Services net sales would have decreased 2% yea... .. .

Symbian Freak: Texas Instruments Brings First WLAN Adaptation Package To The Symbian Platform

2010-07-22T08:12:18+00:00

As long-time proponents and committed enablers of the open source community, TI supports the Symbian Foundation's vision of a proven, open and comprehensive mobile software platform. Their recent collaborative efforts resulted in Symbian's very first WLAN adaptation package - a contribution critical to the success of Symbian's goal for the one-click connectivity outlined in the Symbian^3 platform scope.

For the Symbian Foundation, the WLAN adaptation package represents another major milestone in fostering one of the largest open source transitions in the industry. For TI, this package represents the introduction of the TI WiLink™ 6.0 WLAN driver (running on WL1271) as a key component of Symbi... .. .

Symbian Freak: Technology: ARM And TSMC To Bring Faster, Better And More Efficient Mobile Processors

2010-07-22T06:24:05+00:00

ARM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. today jointly announced a long-term agreement that provides TSMC with access to a broad range of ARM processors and enables the development of ARM physical IP across TSMC technology nodes.

This agreement supports the companies' mutual customers to achieve optimized Systems-On-Chip (SoC) based on ARM processors and covers a wide range of process nodes extending down to 20nm.

The agreement provides TSMC access to optimize the implementation of ARM processors on TSMC process technologies, including ARM Cortex processor family and CoreLi... .. .

Symbian Freak: How Your Symbian S60 Smartphone Can Help You Feel and Look Like A Pro Cyclist

2010-07-21T08:19:49+00:00

Do you currently cycle for fun or as a hobby, but want to go to the pro level? If you want to get there, or you've decided to take your bicycling seriously you must be willing to put in the time, energy, and the training.

However, you must also acquire the necessary pro cycling equipment. When you look at the pros at an event such as the Tour de France, they have the best of the best for equipment so that they can adapt to the weather conditions, terrain, as well as the length of the race.

Whether your goal is to win a bicycle race or bike all daywhile touring, there are least six ways your Symbian powered smartphone can help. You can plan the route, track your activity, get cadence from the built-in accelerometer and enjoy in some ni... .. .

Symbian Freak: Symbian Developer Cooperative Launches And Joins The Symbian Foundation

2010-07-20T06:35:49+00:00

The Symbian Foundation today welcomes its newest member, the Symbian Developer Cooperative (Symbian DevCo), a non-profit, independent organisation founded to raise the profile of individuals within the Symbian community and give them a full voice in the governance of the Symbian platform.

Participants in Symbian DevCo, known as Associates, enjoy the same rights and benefits as employees of other member companies. Symbian DevCo launched today, along with its web site at symbiandevco.org.

The organisation is open to all individuals and participation is free of charge. The Symbian Developer Cooperative will provide a focal point for passionate individuals within the Symb... .. .

Symbian Freak: Investors Lose Patience: Nokia Conducting Search For A New CEO To Replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo!??

2010-07-20T06:23:36+00:00

With 40% global market share, the Finnish company remains the world's largest cellphone marker, but has struggled to keep pace in the smartphone market against well entrenched rivals such as Microsoft and Research In Motion and especially against newcomers such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone and numerous phones based around Google Inc's Android platform, not to mention Palm which is here since the beginning and keeping the pressure on too.

In a response to this growing competition within the mobile business, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal that cites "people familiar with the situation" Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo may be in his last days as CEO of Nokia Corp. as he struggles to find traction for the company in the market for high-end smartpho... .. .

Symbian Freak: Symbian and Nitobi Simplify Cross-Platform Development

2010-07-19T19:38:31+00:00

Symbian Foundation, the non-profit organization responsible for the world’s leading open source smartphone platform and Nitobi, creators of the ground-breaking PhoneGap mobile application development framework, today announced an open source collaboration designed to simplify mobile application development.

By integrating Symbian’s web application creation tools and Nitobi’s PhoneGap 'write once, run anywhere' platform, mobile developers can now easily make app store ready applications for all major mobile platforms.

The companies will be showcasing this capability for the first time at OSCON, the open source convention, at booth number #700. In addition, Nitobi has contributed PhoneGap to Symbian, which is included in the in the Symbian^3 plat... .. .

Symbian Freak: Firmware v10.0.021 For Nokia C6 Now Available Through Nokia Software Updater!

2010-07-19T19:17:05+00:00

Good folks from over at Nokia's software department are very pretty productive nowadays as we got lot of software updates lately and Good folks from over at Nokia's software department are trully very busy and productive nowadays not just because of finalizing Symbian S^4 User Interface but also because of the lot of new firmware updates that company has rolled out lately and I'm sure there are many more to come.

Anyway, the last one is the new software version for the Nokia C6, affrodable smartphone that combining the benefits of a 3.2 inch touch screen with a full slide out keyboard. Firmware version v10 is now available through the Nokia Software Updater for most of the generic product codes from EMEA region and AP... .. .

Symbian Freak: VIDEO: Sony Ericsson Vivaz Family To Get A Pink Sister Soon!

2010-07-19T18:45:04+00:00

According to official Sony Ericson blog, the Vivaz family will soon get the Light Pink variant which is expected to be available in selected markets end of this quarter.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz is company's second phone in the new family of communication entertainment phones that feature the new design philosophy 'human curvature', first introduced with the Xperia X10, which will become a consistent feature of Sony Ericsson’s portfolio going forward.

Designed to mirror the shape of the human body, and at the same time delivering a precise and compelling phone interaction, Sony Ericsson Vivaz is instantly recognisable. Cre... .. .

Symbian Freak: NetQin Mobile Releases Mobile Guard v2.4 For S60 3rd and 5th Ed Devices

2010-07-19T10:50:29+00:00

NetQin Mobile Inc., a global leading mobile security service provider, has just released NetQin Mobile Guard, a free mobile application, for S60 the 3rd and 5th devices. Featuring a package of system optimization, web management, and proactive defence tools, the application provides users with total control over the amount of internet traffic and improves the system's overall speed.

NetQin Mobile Guard v2.4 is designed to optimize system performance while minimizing the power consumption, and keeping users in control of the amount of internet usage.

The product also features mobile optimization scans to allow users to have their phones running at optimum speed. This includes an Operating System Scan that scans for bas... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia Kinetic: A Seriously Magical and Playful Concept Phone

2010-07-19T10:19:33+00:00

Well I am really not sure what it is so appealing about these shiny concept phones that appear from time to time but I'm sure most of you agree with me that it is really pleasure to look at, although we know it's hard to expect that such phone will land in the shops anytime soon.

Anyway, to meet our future vision, Jeremy Innes-Hopkins, a creative designer from London who is currently studying product design at Central Saint Martins worked with Nokia to make a conceptual kinetic phone to show where mobile phone trends are heading in near future!?

Nokia Kinetic is a magical mobile phone that makes receiving a call, text or email more playful, by convening digital information into kinetic movement. Spontaneous, magical and undire... .. .

Symbian Freak: First Screenshots Of The New But Not Greatly Improved Symbian S^4 Homescreen Interface

2010-07-19T10:16:42+00:00

Couple of months after Nokia has submitted a proposal for a new framework for Symbian-powered UIs to the Foundation's open community, we finally got the first screenshots of the new but not greatly improved Symbian S^4 homescreen application, mainly thanks to the folks from Symbian Developer Wiki.

Screenshots show a nice array of eye candy and some actually useful bits, like minimalistic status bar with a quite small, battery, reception indicator and clock in the middle.

Also it seems that home screen now support continuous wallpapers implemented on pretty much the same way as to the Nokia N900 and to make the switching between this m... .. .

Symbian Freak: Weekend Reading: GPS Technology In Smart Phones Is Set To Explode During The Coming Years

2010-07-18T09:17:44+00:00

With cell phones increasingly becoming the nexus of the burgeoning markets for navigation and Location Based Services (LBS), the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in such platforms is set to explode during the coming years, according to iSuppli Corp.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, 79.9 percent of cell phones shipped—amounting to 318.3 million units—will incorporate GPS functionality, up from 56.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009—or 187.8 million units—iSuppli predicts.

"The smart phone is the key product driving the technology industry today—and social networking services and applications spurred by GPS-related features are critical elemi... .. .

Andrew Grill: The 2010 Australian Twitter Election

Andrew Grill — 2010-07-18T04:34:49+00:00

Symbian Freak: Dev Tip: Public Beta of Nokia Signing Symbian Apps for Free

2010-07-17T18:59:26+00:00

To assure end users that the data on their mobile devices is protected, it’s essential to properly package and sign your applications whenever possible but with the wide range of choices for developers, the question becomes: Which packaging and signing solution is the right one for your application?!

In an attempt to make it easier to publish apps in Ovi Store, Nokia recently simplified the tools and the process, and removed some of the cost associated with developing mobile apps for distribution in Ovi Store.

Developers must make initial investments to create Symbian apps; for example, obtaining a Publisher ID and paying a third party to have the application Symbian signed. Currently, thi... .. .

Symbian Freak: Weekend Reading: Apple's Attempt To Draw Entire Smartphone Industry Into Its Self-Made Debacle Is Unacceptable

2010-07-17T07:33:02+00:00

Just to be clear, I'm not someone who is ardently anti-Apple, not at all, I just can't resist to that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is considered one of the greatest marketers in history which means that nothing he claims can be trusted without checking twice and it's hard not to be angered and frustrated knowing that Mr. Jobs usually only telling the half-truth at best.

Anyway, Nokia has just released an official statement about their antenna design and their engineering philosophy in direct response to Apple's Friday press conference on antenna issues and said that their engineering devoted thousands of hours to study how people hold their phones in order to prevent the so called dea... .. .

Symbian Freak: Sony Ericsson Reports Second Quarter 2010 Results

2010-07-16T08:46:30+00:00

Struggling mobile device maker Sony Ericsson, today reported a net profit for the first quarter, boosted by product launches as well as company cost savings.

As of June 30, 2010 Sony Ericsson retained a net cash position of Euro 609 million, an increase of Euro 46 million sequentially mainly due to operating results, tight financial management of working capital, as well as positive currency effects. Market share in unit base for the quarter remained flat and is estimated to be around 4%. Sony Ericsson maintains a forecast of slight growth in units in the global handset market in 2010.

Bert Nordberg, President, Sony Ericsson commented, “Our second quarter results show that the company continued the momentum seen in the first quarter as a result of our foc... .. .

Symbian Freak: Mobile Phone Service Subscriptions Reached 5 Billion Last Week

2010-07-16T08:26:14+00:00

This week marked yet another milestone in the internet becoming mobile when the 5 billionth mobile subscription added to the count, largely thanks to emerging markets like India and China.

According to Ericsson estimates based on industry information, the 5 billionth subscription was added Thursday, July 8. In the year 2000, about 720 million people had mobile subscriptions, less than the amount of users China alone has today.

Mobile broadband subscriptions are growing at similar pace and are expected to amount to more than 3.4 billion by 2015 (from 360 million in 2009). Studies show that soon 80 percent of all people accessing the internet will be doing so using their mo... .. .

Symbian Freak: SQRXZ: Mindblasting Jump 'n' Run Puzzle Game For 3rd Ed, 5th Ed and UIQ 3 Devices

2010-07-16T06:44:23+00:00

SQRXZ is a nice platformer with puzzle elements. Hop around, collect stars, stomp on enemies, avoid traps and reach the exit in each level. The game offers 15 levels of oldschool platform fun reminiscent of the classic Amiga era.

SQRXZ (2010) is a remake of a game with the same name and has been created by Rodolphe Boixel (Thor), Shahzad Sahaib (Kojote), Simon Butler and Brendan Ratliff (Syphus). Minor support came from Marcus Vesterlund himself who also gave permission to redo his game.

A remake should be usually bearing improvements, so does Sqrxz 2010. Beside the “classic” graphic mode, there is a new mode with “deluxe” graphics. The main gameplay has modified in a way that you need to collect all items to open the doo... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia C6-01 Accidentally Appeared On Official Nokia's Netherlands Website

2010-07-16T05:55:25+00:00

OMG, I can smell a kick here ;o) poor webmaster of the Nokia's Netherlands website has managed to accidentally reveal official photos and specifications of yet unannounced Cseries devices and make it available for public access a bit earlier than expected!?

Leak is definitely not according to Nokia plans, so in case you understand Dutch better hurry up if you interesting in, I'm pretty sure Nokia will remove it as soon as possible.

Anyway, Nokia C6-01 looks pretty much the same as its younger brother, the Nokia C6-00 that combining the benefits of a 3.2 inch touch screen with a full slide out keyboard but this variant is equipped with quite better eight megapixel cam... .. .

Symbian Freak: Minor Firmware Update For Nokia E75 Now Available As FOTA And NSU Update!

2010-07-16T05:16:28+00:00

I know, I know, I'm a little bit late on this one, but you know what they say: "It's better late than never", so just in case you didn't read it elsewhere already I would like to let you know that Nokia has rolled out minor firmware updates for their latest full QWERTY Eseries device!

New firmware version for Nokia E75 is now available as FOTA update and through Nokia Software Updater as well for most of the generic product codes from EMEA and APAC region and is expected to be available for the rest of the world (NAM and branded devices) shortly.

According to pretty short bulletin of the changes issued by Nokia, software version 211.12 brings just a minor phone and app performance improvements including; e-mail cli... .. .

Symbian Freak: OVI Store Continues To Improve But Significant Challenges Remain

2010-07-15T23:18:26+00:00

Nokia's Ovi Store was launched a little over one year ago, May 26th 2009. Almost immediately the company issued a statement apologizing to users who were unable to access the service due to "...extraordinarily high spikes of traffic..."

Since then there have been substantial improvements and the store no longer suffers from the kinds of outages reported just after its launch. And volume has continued to scale with downloads passing 1.7 million daily in April.

Developers recognize the improvements over the past year and more than 80% said they would be sticking with Nokia and Ovi with the expectation that their experience would continue to improve. But having 20% of Nokia's "top" develo... .. .

Symbian Freak: Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta For Symbian S60 Phones Is Out Now

2010-07-15T18:24:42+00:00

Opera Software today unveiled the new beta (10) of Opera Mobile web browser for Nokia and other Symbian/S60 handsets.

With new features such as accelerated speed and geolocation capabilities. The Opera Mobile 10.1 beta also contains the latest version of the powerful Presto rendering engine, Vega graphics library and their own Carakan JavaScript engine.

In addition to the new engines and geolocation, this beta also has updated kinetic scrolling, virtual keyboard and auto-rotation to landscape making your browsing exp... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia Opening Its Java Runtime Under Terms Of Symbian Foundation's Eclipse Public License

2010-07-15T11:02:14+00:00

If you here for a long enough than you already well aware that I am not huge fan of java applications, or to be precise MIDlets. Apart from the stone-age user interface and general slowness, the most annoying issue are endless, annoying and worthless security prompts!

Ironically most of the phone users don't even understand what the heck the prompts are saying and confirms all of them without thinking twice whether they really know it's safe to do so or not.

However, it's also important to say that Java is deployed on more than 2 billion devices. It is s the most wide-spread mobile runtime in the world ensuring the best market reach for developers and widest selection of mobile services and solu... .. .

Symbian Freak: China Plans To Approve Nokia's Online Mapping Services

2010-07-15T08:51:31+00:00

China plans to give mobile phone giant Nokia a licence to offer online mapping services, making it the first foreign firm to be approved since new rules were unveiled in June, an official said Wednesday.

Ovi Maps covers more than 180 countries with car and pedestrian navigation for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries. There are more than 6000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world.

The official at the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping told AFP that Nokia's application to operate its Ovi Map service would be given the green light, though final approval wa... .. .

Symbian Freak: Fishlabs's Rally Master Pro Now Available For Free On SE's Satio And Vivaz!

2010-07-15T07:53:29+00:00

It is one thing to stuff a lot of nice hardware into a mobile phone (PowerVR SGX equipped Symbian smartphones) but it is quite another story to make all this power available to the developer and attract them to make the games which take the most advantage of the hardware!

Sony Ericsson did an amazing job here and gave all necessary support and tools to Fishlabs's engineers to port their Rally Master Pro from iPhone to Symbian featuring almost the same functionality on Satio (only automatic acceleration when using touch controls due to single touch on Satio and no multiple simultaneous sounds due to lack of layered sound capabilities).

According to Fishlabs CEO, Michael Schade, the new and updated version available for Sony's high-end Symbian phones is 'the best version' of the racer, with 'better than PSP qua... .. .

Symbian Freak: Smaato: Android Gains In CTR But Symbian Still Dominates!

2010-07-15T06:29:24+00:00

The Smaato Metrics for June show further significant increases by Android in global click through rates (CTR), while leaders Symbian and Feature Phones both suffer a dip in CTR Index.

Smaato serves over 8 billion ad requests in its network of more than 6,000 registered mobile publishers and over 40 mobile ad networks.

In the US, Smaato's metrics reveal that while Symbian still dominates the region in terms of CTR (and despite small market share of handsets), Android has closed the gap with a CTR Index of 192 (118 in May), while Apple iOS drops down to fif... .. .

Symbian Freak: Minor Firmware Update For Nokia 5230 Now Available As FOTA And NSU Update!

2010-07-14T22:10:52+00:00

Just want to give everyone a quick heads up that latest firmware update (v21.0.004) for Nokia 523, company's cheap and affordable full-touchscreen Smartphone is now regularly available for most of the generic Euro codes as 'Over The Air' update and as usually, it should be progressively available at the Nokia service points and through the NSU as well.

The new firmware is meant to provide further performance improvements and new functionalities to the handset, and it is already available for most of the generic European and Asian product codes.

There is no detailed change log at the moment and I can't see any noticeable changes or improvements but as you would imagine, the firmware update is always recomm... .. .

Symbian Freak: VIDEO: Nokia's Terminal Mode Technology Demoed On Nokia N97 And Volkswagen's Passat CC

2010-07-14T21:48:45+00:00

Couple of week ago, Nokia and CE4A (Consumer Electronics for Automotive) working group have released the Terminal Mode technology specification as a proposed industry standard for the integration of mobile applications into the car environment and now thanks to god folks over at Engadget we got the first glimpse of Terminal Mode in action!

At MobileBeat 2010, Volkswagen's engineers showed off the video which shows VW Passat CC’s head unit connected to Nokia N97 which is completly controllable through larger touchscreen on the head unit.

Unfortunately, according to Engadget and VW’s engineers this technology is still a couple of years away from commercial integration into vehicles so don’t expect to see it as an additional equipment for the latest generation of VW Pas... .. .

Symbian Freak: Hard Truth: Of Smartphone Owners, Only A Third Will Consider Getting A Nokia

2010-07-14T07:01:16+00:00

According to the latest wave of YouGov's Smartphone Mobile Internet Experience study YouGov study, the Finnish mobile telecommunications giant is now lagging even further behind its competitors than six months ago. Of smartphone owners, only a third will consider getting a Nokia as their next handset, compared to 46% in December 2009.

On top of that, only ten percent of smartphone owners expect to purchase a Nokia, a drop of nine percent over the last six months.

In contrast, Apple continues to hold onto the lion's share of the market, with 56% of smartphone owners considering and 41% expecting to get an Apple handset next time roun... .. .

Symbian Freak: AuthenTec, leading provider of security, identity management and touch control solutions Joined The Foundation

2010-07-14T06:44:15+00:00

AuthenTec, a leading provider of security, identity management and touch control solutions, today announced that it has joined the Symbian Foundation, which, together with its ecosystem, is creating the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform.

The source code for the Symbian platform is available to all under the Eclipse Public License.

“The Symbian Foundation welcomes AuthenTec into the community," said Lauren Sarno, Member Programs Manager at Symbian. “Our semiconductor members are at the heart of such important functionality as long battery life and to... .. .

Andrew Grill: Reputation Online Live: Navigating the online monitoring jungle 9th July in London

Andrew Grill — 2010-07-07T07:33:31+00:00

Home to PyS60 Developers: Hot news from Ovi, Nokia

Manikantan — 2010-06-23T15:43:54+00:00

Today Ovi team published an article that talks about its latest offerings,

•   Public beta of Nokia signing Symbian apps for free
•   Availability of Nokia Qt SDK 1.0
•   Availability of Nokia Smart Installer for Symbian
•   Ovi Store intake for Qt apps

You can read more about this news here. I think the first item of this bulletin is the highlight exploiting which developers can obviate the Symbian-signing costs.

________________________________________________________________________________

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Andrew Grill: Going beyond the social media buzz conference July 14th in London

Andrew Grill — 2010-06-21T11:19:04+00:00