Symbian

Nokia CEO confirms Symbian updates expected until 2016, at least

by Mike Macias 05.26.2011

I know many Symbian haters are rolling their eyes at the title of this post right now but what did you expect? Symbian, the 2nd most used mobile OS in the world, to just disappear into oblivion? Well that very much so can happen on the sales charts. Actually, it will happen eventually. But one thing is for sure, Nokia will not just abandon millions of its users and decide to stop supporting Symbian devices. Not now, not in 2013, try 2016.

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Application updates and notifications coming to Nokia’s Ovi Store

by Mike Macias 05.21.2011

The Ovi Store, soon to be named Nokia Store, has lacked a very important feature since it was born. There was no way to find out about application updates or find version numbers of apps in the Ovi Store, leaving users clueless to new updates and features for their favorite apps. This has always been one of my biggest gripes about Nokia’s app store solution but it looks like this will finally be resolved. The Handheld Blog is reporting that Nokia will update the Ovi Store next week and the possibility to update apps will finally be implemented.

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Not impressed by Nokia’s upcoming Anna firmware? Take a look at Symbian Belle screenshots on the Nokia E7

by Mike Macias 05.13.2011

Update: Belle for Nokia E7, N8, C7, E6, now official. Click here to learn more. Nokia has been showing off the upcoming firmware for Symbian^3 devices called Anna, also known as PR2 to hardcore Symbian followers. Some don’t seem too impressed by the firmware saying it should have shipped with the N8 at launch last October. Well, all is not perfect in this world. If Anna doesn’t impress you, take a look at these screenshots I spotted of Belle. Symbian Belle is the next big firmware update after Anna. Symbian fanatics like myself would call Belle PR3 before Nokia introduced the new firmware naming scheme.

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Nokia announces pink N8 this week, ships this week – with or without “Anna” update

by Mike Macias 05.07.2011

Am I reading this right? The Nokia N8 pink was announced on Monday and today it looks like Amazon has it in stock and ready to ship out for Monday arrival. Nokia N8 Unlocked GSM Touchscreen Phone Featuring GPS with Voice Navigation and 12 MP Camera–U.S. Version with Warranty (Pink) Now I know what you’re saying. “It’s just a color change, nothing new”. Agreed. But still, Nokia has been known to take awhile to release certain colors. Look at the E7. We still don’t have all the colors available here in the USA. Interesting thing is it looks like this N8 will not be shipping with the Anna update, also known as PR2. Look at the icons in the photo. It’s the same “old” icons and not the new theme .....

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Nokia X7 leaked by Three UK in a hands-on video, E6 video spotted

by Mike Macias 04.10.2011

Speculation around Nokia and their upcoming announcements on April 12 has been running rampant the past few days. The craziest rumor I’ve seen is a 1Ghz Symbian device being announced and 12 new Symbian devices. Nokia has already told us a 1Ghz Symbian phone is in the works but I don’t think it’s ready just yet. Save that for Nokia World in September. As for 12 new Symbian devices… I feel that’s possible this year, but not right now. What we can expect to be announced this Tuesday is the Nokia X7, E6, and maybe even a detailed look at the updated Symbian UI coming this summer. How can we be so sure the X7 will be released? Well, the company Three from the UK spilled the beans. Take a look…

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Longtime Symbian fans have to face the facts, you knew this was coming

by Mike Macias 02.18.2011

We knew this was coming. Last Thursday night I published an article about Nokia’s future and the path I hoped they would take. They had a few options. Keep Symbian around and create a dual-smartphone ecosystem with MeeGo or ditch the plan entirely and adopt Windows Phone and/or Android. It’s been pretty clear to me for awhile that Symbian would eventually have to be pushed down market to the power only lower-priced smartphones if Nokia wanted to remain competitive in this fast changing market. I was sure they were going to do just that with Symbian and blow our minds with an amazing MeeGo device this week. I thought they would announce some major deals with other companies to bring new services like Netflix, Amazon MP3 marketplace, a Kindle app, .....

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Hands-on preview of TwimGo – a free Twitter app for Nokia N8 and Symbian touch devices

by Mike Macias 12.28.2010

TwimGo is a free twitter application for Nokia E7, N8, C7, and Symbian touch devices that will be available in the Ovi Store in the near future. It’s well known that Symbian users don’t have many options when looking for a decent Twitter client. TwimGo is a much welcomed addition to the Ovi Store. We got our hands on TwimGo before its release to give you a quick preview and some screenshots of it running on the Nokia N8.

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Pushing the Nokia N8 to the limit with a multitasking torture test

by Mike Macias 12.22.2010

One thing Nokia needs to shine more light on is Symbian’s ability to perform real multitasking. By that I mean multiple applications performing their own processes without pause at the same time in the background just like a computer. While other smartphone operating systems are just starting to catch up and boast their version of multitasking, Nokia sits in the corner with a tiny voice hoping that people notice. Heck, I’ve ran into longtime S60 users who never realized their phone can multitask. This goes back years folks! Think Nokia E90, N73, N80, etc etc. The Nokia E71 was a champion at multitasking. Even with over 30 applications open the phone would not slow down a bit. Not like you’d ever need that much running, but it’s nice to know .....

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Foundation closes up shop, Symbian is not dead

by Mike Macias 12.17.2010

It was bound to happen. The Symbian Foundation was created by Nokia in 2009 so that phone manufacturers besides Nokia can take advantage of the open source mobile operating system known as Symbian. This was done in hopes of making Symbian more widely used and in turn more applications, games, and themes would be available for Nokia smartphones. At first some big players were on board with the plan until the onslaught of Android by Google overshadowed the Foundation and eventually Nokia was the only one left. Today the Symbian Foundation officially closed up shop and Symbian is now solely in the hands of Nokia. Is this good for Symbian and Nokia? That depends on the way you look at it. Surely it doesn’t mean Symbian is dead, as many .....

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Nokia: Push notifications for 3rd party applications coming, API available for developers

by Mike Macias 12.08.2010

The guys over at Forum Nokia posted an article today introducing their new Notifications API for 3rd party applications on the Symbian & MeeGo platforms. It’s now available as a plug-in for the Nokia Qt SDK. This is great news for Nokia developers and Nokia owners alike. There is now a simple and streamlined way for devs to implement real push notifications in their apps without having to do too much of the leg work on their own. This will also help with memory efficiency and battery life on Nokia smartphones.

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Official YouTube application available for Nokia N8, Symbian touch devices

by Mike Macias 12.07.2010

Until now Nokia N8 and C7 owners haven’t had a decent YouTube viewing solution. With the launch of the Nokia E7 sometime this month the timing couldn’t be better. There are a few 3rd party applications I’ve tried out but nothing worth mentioning. Symbian users will be glad to hear the official YouTube app is out for the Nokia N8, C7, E7, and C6-01.

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