Entries Tagged as 'nokia'

Symbian + Nokia = OpenSource

(update  — AllaboutSymbian have a great over view.. well worth the read here)

Well its been a busy few hours in the press release world for both Symbian and Nokia.

Nokia are going to purchase around 52 percent of Symbian shares it does not already own.   And then with that purchase they have also announced….

http://symbianfoundation.org/

“Open software is the basic building block for delivering this future.
With this in mind, industry leaders are coming together to establish Symbian Foundation, to bring to life a shared vision and to create the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform – available for free. To achieve this, the foundation will unify Symbian, S60, UIQ and
MOAP(S) software to create an unparalleled open software platform for converged mobile devices, enabling the whole mobile ecosystem to accelerate innovation.”

Now this is a big heads up to the following players, Apple with their SDK, MS with the Windows Mobile and Google with Android.  Consider the companies that the new Symbian Foundation has on board already…

docomo, ericsson, fujituse, lg, mororola, saumsung, sony plus telcos such as at&t (taking each way money with IPhone as well as Nokia) vodaphone, orange and others.

Now with a unified development application environment in play over the next year or so leveraging off the large market share that Symbian already has and then shifting development into the OS Community Nokia have managed to pull of what I think is a very clever and long term strategic development.

Watch this space kiddies… mobile is going to get much more interesting yet.

Adobe Device Central Update…

CS3 Device Profile Update #6  (get it here)

Number of device profiles included: 173

This is the sixth device profile update for Adobe Device Central CS3. This update contains 63 new device profiles from all regions of the world, many released in the last few months, as well as updates to 110 existing profiles.

……………….

Of course it is horribly out of day as is the case with these things these days missing phones and flash versions as well.  But it will help.  The other thing to do is realise that most people never upgrade their firmware anyway so you can take device central as a decent place to start.

New Maps Loader Nokia Betalabs.

Map Loader 2….  boy those people at nokia beta labs have grabbed that beta labs concept by the horns haven’t they.  Now they have a new way of buy maps… wait for it… you can use your PC.    I was hoping this was going to be the route loader for OVI type thing (guess I will have to keep waiting)

few quick things – firstly you will need to uninstall your old maps loader (i couldn’t get it to work until I did) Secondly.. you no longer need to be in USB mode to transfer maps which is much easier. And it imported my current licences just fine as well.

The only issue I still have is that there is no version numbering on the Maps in the Map Loader.  So I have no idea if I need to download a new map or not!

but here is the blub and the links anyway

With Map Loader 2.0 you can buy navigation and city guides directly from your PC!

Map Loader 2.0 includes a web shop where you can purchase and download navigation, traffic information and city guide licenses directly to your device. There is no need for activation, just download and you are ready to explore your world.

The new “Services” tab will let you browse through Drive*, Drive&Walk*, Traffic* and City Guides before deciding what to buy. In addition, the clear and easy to understand graphical representation will show what region is covered by the license. You will see exactly what you buy before buying.

Selecting “Guides” will let you browse through City Guides and Multimedia Guides from all over the world. Selecting one will show you information on the contents and you can download them directly to your device. It has never been so easy to find the right guide for your destination!

New connection mode

Map Loader 2.0 now supports PC Suite connections. This means that you can connect several devices over USB or Bluetooth connection. Mass storage mode is also supported for older Nokia Maps versions and memory cards. In mass storage mode the new “Services” tab will not be available and Map Loader 2.0 will behave like Map Loader 1.x. On startup, a popup will show connected devices and will let you choose the drive/device to use. Make sure you have the latest PC Suite installed (http://www.nokia.com/pcsuite).

Shop

After selecting a navigation license or downloading a guide you will be transferred to the payment page. Enter you credit card data; confirm payment and the license will be downloaded to your device. Your credit card data is sent over a secure https connection. You will also receive an email receipt.

Purchased licenses

In the bottom of the “Services” screen, there is a list of your previously purchased licenses and their expiration date. This will help you to see when it is time to renew you licenses.

Feedback

Download Map Loader 2.0 and let us know what you think! Make sure to uninstall any older version of maploader before installing Map Loader 2.0. Note that this is still a beta, so there are some limitations:

  • Not tested on S40, so please don’t use it :)
  • In “Drive & Walk” the navigation region “Russia & Ukraine” is only navigable in Russia.
  • Disconnecting and reconnecting a device while Map Loader 2.0 is running can sometimes lead to unexpected results.
  • Make sure your phone time is correct before buying any licenses.

* shop content depending on Nokia Maps version

New Snow Chase…

Well I spent all day yesterday out on another snow chase.

Firstly I approached the bank to get a load to pay for the fuel, lucky for me I wasn’t going alone and was taking a 4y/o with me as she had never been to the snow before having lived in Darwin for the last few years. (On an amusing side note, she has for reasons that escape both me and her father started to refer to me as Captain Wolf. I can live with that, I have been called worse!)

But to keep things on a technical nature so that I can justify putting details onto the blog I have a few new goodies… They are a KML of a Toboggan Run (which has the distance at 600metres and the max speed at 16kph!), the video of said run and a whole pile of new photos. The trip was the same route as a few weeks ago so the trip KML has changed really. Apart from the fact that I was stuck behind the same stupid slow guy for 50k’s who refused to go above 60 at ALL! (will put up video shortly!)

And on to the media….

The Toboggan Run (KML File on the KML Page here)

More Photos here.. http://flickr.com/photos/wolfcat_aus/

Snow Girl 5

Snow Trees

And the Drive home which is once again the webcam attached to the Asus R2H to recorded the whole trip. This time I have New Order’s The Beach as the soundtrack, simply because it is the same length as the video was meant to be (of course it is 20 second to short but what can you do).:-)

Another comparison….

This time from All About Symbian, who put the Iphone 3g and the n95 8gb head to head.

“it’s clear that the iPhone 3G, despite the 2008 refresh, is still rather outgunned by the N95 8GB, but there are wins for the high profile device from Apple. It’s cleaner, more elegant, has a larger screen, a great text input method and more foolproof desktop connectivity. And that shortlist of wins is probably enough for a lot of purchasers, especially those with lesser ambitions and a deep lust for shiny Apple hardware.

But the Nokia N95 8GB, as with the original N95 (on latest v21 firmware) and now also the N82, is simply awesome as a piece of technology, winning on overall data connectivity, multitasking, camera, video camera and in general as a smartphone tool for anyone with a smattering of technological knowledge. Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, the N95 8GB can, for short periods, replace phone, camera, camcorder, music player, navigation device, laptop, games console and Blackberry, among others.”

Firstly the above article gets the price points correct. Not the $199 garbage that media organisations around the world have swallowed.

There are a lot of features that are missing. My 16y/0 nephew uses bluetooth on his phone to transfer files (namely mp3’s) between friends all the time. Not going to happen with the Iphone is it.
Not running background apps is not going to work as well, no GPS logging like sports tracker are going to be possible unless of course Apple release something 🙂

Take the wikipedia info for example..

  • Color: Black or white (16GB model only)
  • Size: 115.5×62.1×12.3 mm (4.5×2.4×0.48 in)
  • Weight: 133 g (4.7 oz)
  • Tri band UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
  • Assisted GPS, with fallback to location based on Wi-Fi or cell towers
  • 2 Megapixel Camera features geotagging (producing geocoded photograph)
  • Battery has up to 10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 5 (3G) or 6 (Wi-Fi) hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 300 hours on standby.[20]

That is it… that is all that is really new in the Iphone, the rest is software (which apple are going to control to the nth degree). Sure it looks nice. But the phone added 3g and is being sold in some new places and that is it.  Nothing new to see here people… get over it.

I could go on… and I most probably will… but not now, it is bed time.

Iphone – Don't Believe the Hype.

For me the Iphone comes down to this point. Don’t believe the Hype.

Take this from PC World

“Think of mounting your iPhone on the dashboard, and using the iPhone’s GPS/Google Maps functionality to get to the mall, and then using some sort of iPhone……

An iPhone/GPS device looks to be yet another disruptive technology pairing by Steve Jobs and Apple’s talented engineers. It will be interesting to see how the device lives up to the promise, and how competitors scramble to answer the latest Apple broadside.”

What a load of crock… the N95 has had a gps for years now.. I know I use mine all the time. I send Twitter messages with embeded coords all the time. I geotag all my photos and put the non personal ones up on Flickr. Wow the Iphone is so new and cool. There are a number of mash ups around the trap for doing GPS stuff with your phone. BIG F”ING DEAL APPLE.

I think most journalists are being very lazy today. Oh lets read the Apple press release and call that news. It is not news.

And my being lazy today is to only put this one example in.

(Ok.. the other one is that everyone is talking about the 10 hours talk time, sure it is 10 hours, but only on 2g not 3g, that is 5 hours – details here http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html)

Sure the Iphone is a sexy device I will agree with that. But, and it is a big but, there are better devices out there. Touch is not the be all and end all and even then there are touch devices out there by people other than Apple. The reason that touch is not the be all and end all… Phones are 1 handed. You use one hand to make a call (ie speed dialing, texting e.t.c) so you can still pick your nose or drink your coffee.

Look at some of the issues with the Iphone. Fixed battery. Power users are going to find this a problem.Image the case you use your phone for a few months and the battery goes flaky (it does and will happen). Now in the real world you go out buy a new battery plug it and you are away. Time taken 5 minutes. In the mac world here is the case. Take you phone to mac shop if you are lucky get a “loner” phone. Wait a week or so, then get your old phone back. See this works with an Ipod you can do with out music. Can you do with out your phone for a week!

2Mg Camera, seriously that is not good these days as most entry level phones carry this size. Non upgradable user memory, most phones these days take mmc or similar cards to have more memory or apps stored on them (yes my n958gb does not upgrade and it annoys me). Also there is no front facing video camera so video calling is out… you might be able to do it in theory, but in practice it won’t work. (and I have already spoken to a few people that do use video calling and they were shocked at this).

Let the flame wars begin.

Nokia Maps – a few small things..

A couple of things to note….

1- The beta will expire shortly and no longer allow you to access satellite images. You will need to upgrade to the final version. (care of betalabs)

2- The Final version has had a change (there is is a new version number on download) everything still works, but I can’t see any difference, but will drive around and see if anything has change. (AllAboutSymbian)

Download here – http://europe.nokia.com/A4984199


And they Nokia have changed the name of the Sports Tracker widget to Maps+Photos+Video, of course they have left of gps e.t.c… but hey I don’t work in the naming department. – And I think it may have improved as well so here is the new Widget….

In order to view the Nokia Nseries Widget you need JavaScript and Flash Player 9+ support

MultiTouch Engine using Nokia N95!

NeuTouch – MultiTouch Engine using Nokia N95!

more details on Symbian-Freak – but the video is just cool to show what you can do with a phone, a cardboard box and some very clever programming.

Second Life on your mobile….

The Vollee beta now gives you the opportunity to access Second Life whenever & wherever you want to.

http://www.vollee.com/secondlife

haven’t had a play yet, but it is an open beta which is out for the following phones…

HTC AT&T Tilt TyTN II (8925),LG CU500,LG CU515,LG Shine (CU720),LG LX550 (Fusic),LG LX570 (Muziq),Motorola ic902,Motorola KRZR K1m,Motorola K3,Motorola RAZR V3m,Motorola V3xx,Motorola V6,Motorola AT&T RAZR2 V9,Motorola Sprint RAZR2,Nokia 6120 classic,Nokia 6233,Nokia 6280,Nokia 6288,Nokia 6500 slide,Nokia 6555,Nokia E65,Nokia N73,Nokia N75,Nokia N95,Nokia N95 8GB,Pantech Duo (C810),Samsung A827 (Access),Samsung M610,Samsung MM-A920,Samsung SGH-zx10,Samsung SGH-zx20,Samsung SPH-A900,Samsung SPH-A900M,Samsung SPH-M500,Samsung SPH-M510,Samsung SPH-M520,Sanyo Katana DLX (SCP-8500),Sanyo M1,Sanyo PRO-200,Sanyo PRO-700,Sony-Ericsson K850i,Sony-Ericsson Z750a.

Perhaps I should go and finished actually making my avatar in second life, then I can have a play then.  Oh wait thats right I gave up on SL and my FL was taking up to much time….

More N95 KML goodies…

New update to my Sport Tracker account… this is the KML of the flight from Adelaide to Melbourne.

I had the phone in flightmode and “forgot” to turn it off.. and so have the gps trace for the plane taking off and then most of the way home until it lost the signal somewhere over Victoria. If this page is blank you may need to refresh it to see this Flash app. Or you can just download the KML of the flight from the KML’S page… (look up it is in the Nav section of the site..)

Now the interesting thing here is the Sports Tracker account seems to have a slightly different path to Google Earth. If I look at the downloaded KML address I can see the approx track of the aircraft as I could see looking out the window… but that is not what Sports Tracker shows me. All very strange, seeing as the KML that I uploaded consisted of me choosing export from Sports Tracker and renaming the file once it was in Google Earth, the Sports Tracker version was simply upload to service. I will have to keep an eye on this discrepancy.
http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=218181