Symbian
”WalkingHotSpot Turns Smartphones Into Wi-Fi Routers
Screw HotSpot @ Home—now there's HotSpot @ Wherever The Hell You Are. It seems like an obvious idea: turn your 3G Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone into a Wi-Fi router for you and maybe other people simultaneously, instead of using it as a more complicated one-to-one tethered modem requiring wires or Bluetooth. Taproot Systems' WalkingHotSpot software for Windows Mobile and Symbian does precisely this, though there are some catches: More »
industry
Nokia to Support Microsoft Silverlight Web Video
Nokia has committed to bring Microsoft Silverlight video services to its S60 devices. Further, Nokia will also add support for the video content to its S40-based handsets at later stages. Given the immense market penetration of Nokia's Symbian- based cellphones, this partnering will have a large effect on mobile content support, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Adobe is feeling a little sick right now. [Reuters]
cellphones
10 Awesome Applications for Symbian Phones
If you just got an N95, are drooling over its successor, the N96—or any Nokia E or N series phone—GigaOm has a great list of apps you should load up to the get the most out of Symbian. Here's a few: Gmail for Mobile (mercifually designed for numeric keypads); GooSync to bring your Google and Symbian Cal together; Fring does AIM, Skype, Yahoo, MSN, GTalk and Twitter, including file transfers; and Shozu lets you tag and categorize stuff for easy Flickr and YouTube uploads. What's missing? [GigaOM]Nokia's Touch UI Hands-On: Officially Way Behind Apple
When we first saw the Nokia Symbian Touch UI over the familiar S60/Symbian OS, we were stoked. Then we found out it was not a working proto but a rendering, and we wondered how far along they really were in their touchscreen UI. Turns out, not as far as we would like. More »The Nokia N96 Super Cellphone is Official: Gallery and Specs Here
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cellphones
LG KT610 Cellphone Offers GPS, HSDPA, QWERTY Keypad
LG are beating the cellphone-gasm that will be the Mobile World Congress 2008 by releasing their KT610 model ahead of the game. There are no images of the handset yet, but features that have been confirmed include a candybar design, GPS, HSDPA (3.6Mbps) and a 2.4-inch VGA flip screen, concealing a QWERTY keypad.More »
navigation
Nokia Maps 2.0 Beta Reveals Cartographic Improvements
Nokia is in the process of updating the free Nokia Maps software. Its first major revision since launch about a year ago, the small beta testing reveals all sorts of upgrades, including a better driving mode interface, brand new pedestrian mode, satellite maps and real-time traffic data. [allaboutmysymbian]Nokia, Microsoft in Talks to Load Windows Mobile on Phones
Nokia, who's supposedly super loyal to the Symbian platform, is currently in talks with Microsoft (says one of Microsoft's marketing directors) to load Windows Mobile on the handset maker's phones. Here's what Nokia already uses of Microsoft's: ActiveSync and PlayReady, but like an anxious teenaged lover, Microsoft is working "closely" with Nokia and wants to "go all the way." It's too early to determine whether or not you're going to be able to buy a Nokia with WinMo on it, but it's all but guaranteed that they'll still be selling phones with Symbian—so no worries S60 fans. [itwire]
cellphones
Nokia N-Gage Cellphone Gaming Platform in Beta...Looks OK-ish?
The prerelease of the N-Gage gaming app for Nokia cellphones is being trialled to N81 owners right now, and AllAboutSymbian has a hands on of the system, which has Xbox like Friends lists, over the air game demos, gamer points, and chat. The beta comes with three demos: Space Impact: Kappa Base, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, and System Rush: Evolution. The screenshots tell the tale best.More »
iPhone Greedily Eats North American Market Share
smartphones
Symbian Boss Calls Android Just "Another Linux Platform"
Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford just told reporters at a conference that the Android phone OS presented by Google and the Open Handset Alliance is "another Linux platform." More »Spy Shots of Streamlined New UIQ Interface
S60 Gets New Features, Stepping Out of iPhone's Shadow?
The folks at Crave UK recently got a chance to tour Nokia's R&D facility in Finland; and while they may have seen a robot dog, the real prize here was updated information on the S60 Touch UI. We already knew that the software, accused of being an iPhone clone by some, had a couple of sweet features that the iPhone couldn't compete with (namely, stylus input and tactile feedback response). What we didn't know is that the R&D team is also working on an app that translates foreign words in pictures taken with the phone's camera, and another one that identifies objects by pointing the camera at them (finding product information while shopping is one proposed use). Hit the gallery to see it all up close, and let us know what other apps you'd like to see in the comments. [Crave UK]
Symbian OS's ScreenPlay and FreeWay Enhances UI and Speeds Downloads
In addition to the touchscreen UI we saw in Symbian last week, two new features—ScreenPlay and FreeWay—are coming to add even more sophistication to the platform. ScreenPlay is their new graphics engine that allows transparency and animations without taking up too much more battery life. FreeWay is less visible, but it's a new IP networking stack/architecture on 3G networks/WiMax to allow faster audio/video streaming and VoIP calling. Check out the touch video above again just for a refresher.Nokia Introducing Touch UI to Open Source S60 OS
Today Nokia, the largest player in the mobile handset game, announced the addition of a touchscreen interface to their S60 OS. Comparisons to Apple's multi-touch input system are inevitable, but Nokia is holding its own with a few promised extras. These include silencing the phone by flipping it on its face when an incoming call is received, support for stylus-based input and a tactile feedback response.More »
smartphones







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