Gizmodo: series 60

Gartner Says iPhone Now OK for Biz; BlackBerry and Window Mobile Mess Selves

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:56:58 EDT

Today Gartner reversed its opinion on the iPhone: Before, it said the iPhone wasn't business-friendly, but today, the firm grants it "appliance-level" status, meaning that with the upcoming enterprise-friendly iPhone 2.0 update, it'll officially be safe enough—and functional enough—for hardcore suit-wearers.

We journalists tend to think of Gartner as a good place for stats and opinions, but IT honchos look to the company for guidance on how to spend their multimillion-dollar budgets. In this case, Gartner explains its decision in terms that IT buyers will appreciate:

"Appliance-level" status permits the iPhone to be used for PIM, e-mail, telephony and browsing applications. It also permits the device to be used for other dedicated functions where the software is supplied by a third party, functionality is kept to a restricted set, the software supplier offers support for a backup platform and IT development resources are not needed to program custom code locally residing on the device.

But this here's the deathblow, dealt by Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst Ken Dulaney:

"The iPhone will thus match up initially in several segments against its main smartphone competitors—BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60."

[Gartner]

Apple Dashboard Widgets on Nokia S60 Phones

Jason Chen — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:05:55 EDT

With Nokia's Web Run Time, due to be released in the next S60 operating system update, Nokia users can actually run slightly modified Apple Dashboard widgets right on their phone. The basis of this is that Nokia's widgets and Dashboard widgets both use the WebKit browser engine (the same fact that also allowed Nokias to use some of the iPhone webapps), so porting Dashboard widgets over is a pretty straightforward and manual process. No specific date on the Web Run Time rollout, but it could be as early as January, which is likely before the iPhone will get widgets. [NokNok]

Series 60 Phones Get Their First Trojan

Jason Chen — Mon, 21 May 2007 20:40:12 EDT

If you're using a S60 phone from Nokia, watch out. Kaspersky Labs has just discovered the first trojan, Troja-SMS.Symb.OS.Viver, that will affect the S60 OS. If you mistakenly download this from the internet and install this on your phone—which is easy to do, since it's mislabeled and disguised as a useful photo editor or video codec pack—the virus will start sending out SMS messages like nobody's business.

Why should you care? Because these SMSes are sent to premium ringtone downloads and other services, which will cost you between $1 and $10 per message. Ouch.

If you really want to keep your phone safe from Trojans, check out the video above from our time at CES. – Jason Chen

First Trojan-SMS virus for S60 Smartphones [Unwired View]

Nokia N-Gage Series 60 Gaming Details: It's Better Than We Expected

Jason Chen — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:01:08 EDT

Remember the new N-Gage software we told you about a month ago? The ones that were playable on Series 60 Nokia phones? We've got some new details on it.

The easy way to describe the whole experience is Xbox Live Arcade for mobiles. You've got an Xbox Live kind of system with usernames, friends lists, gamer points, profiles, and arcade-like games from studios like EA and Gameloft. What does this mean to you, the Series 60 user? Well, if you've got one of the select Series 60 phones released recently—they haven't specified which yet—or any new Series 60 coming up, you'll be able to load this suite onto the phone and start gaming.

Compared to the Nintendo DS and PSP, the games aren't nearly as good (of course). But compared to standard mobile games, they're great.

Here's how it improves on Xbox Live.

First, it's going to be subscription free. Nokia doesn't charge you for it, and the only thing you'll be paying is for the game itself (from the game providers). That is, unless game publishers decide to release something like an MMORPG and charge subscriptions.

There's also an emphasis on free trials (like XBLA) so you won't have to plunk down money for a crap game that you didn't want. Plus, there's going to be TV-out on some Series 60 phones, which means you can play these same games on your TV as well.

What's also cool is that some games will be cross-platform PC/Mobile compatible, meaning you can play with your buddies on the phone while they're sitting at their computer. However, you don't have to have a PC in order to play this—all this is over the air (OTA) downloadable.

The only thing we ask is not to be forced to buy a Series 60 phone to take advantage of the platform (we've got a billion other phones we're currently using). Or at least not have to wait 'til Fall for it to be released. – Jason Chen

N-Gage

Nokia N75 Multimedia Smartphone Due on Cingular Any Day Now

Gizloco — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:50:09 EST

"Sources" say the Nokia N75 is about to hit Cingular in the next few days. While this should please people who use cellphones as a status symbol, us gadget geeks have known about its existence for a few months now. The specs remain as impressive as when we first heard about it (based on Symbian Series 60, 3G friendly and 2-megapixel camera, along with the other standard cellphone goodies), so it actually might be a case where the phone looks good and performs well, too, which is kind of a rarity nowadays.

While price and exact release date haven't been announced, it's a good bet to assume that this won't be a cheap $99 job, what with its fancy pants OS and all. I guess it hinges on how comfortable you are with using what amounts to a smartphone on a regular cellphone's body. We judge not here. – Nicholas Deleon

Cingular Preps Nokia N75 for Take-off [CrunchGear]