Tag: symbian^3

Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 7 – Connectivity


Hello and welcome everyone to the Nokia N8 Review Week here on Fone Arena! Each day of this week, one of our team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flagship with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is Sunday, my name is Rita El Khoury and I’m going to tell you about the Nokia N8 connectivity and what you can expect of it. Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions on that matter, leave a comment!

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Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 3 – Symbian^3 And UI

Hello and welcome everyone to the Nokia N8 Review Week here on Fone Arena! Each day of this week, one of our team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flagship with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is Wednesday, our names are Rita El Khoury and Sloan Bowman, and we have joined forces to tell you about the Nokia N8 software and what you can expect of it. Since the software/UI is a very objective and personal matter, we thought we would give you two real-world opinions of it, sometimes we’ll agree, other times we’ll have radically opposing impressions. Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions on that matter, leave a comment!

After tackling the Hardware and Camera in the previous days, two aspects where the Nokia N8 excels by anyone’s standards, we come to the most controversial aspect of the N8, the software or Symbian^3 and its UI. Symbian^3 is the first major software leap since Nokia brought S60 5th Edition on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Upon introduction, Symbian^3 was described as an evolutional not revolutional progression, meant to fix all the major issues that plagued Symbian’s first iteration with a touchscreen UI, and which were most heartfelt on the Nokia N97. Continue reading “Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 3 – Symbian^3 And UI”

Tip: Quickly Toggle Bluetooth And Screen Rotation On Symbian^3

One of the things that boggles my mind beyond belief on Symbian^3 is that there still is no way to quickly toggle Data, Wifi, Bluetooth and the automatic screen Rotation. Sure you can click next to the battery, then on the connection symbol, then choose what method you want, then turn it on/off, but does it have to be this ridiculously tedious? Seriously, would it have been THAT difficult to build a widget with 4 icons that allows you with a single press on each of them to toggle these 4 options on/off? SPB Software includes a connection widget in their SPB Mobile Shell so it sure must be easy for Symbian to do it themselves, ‘ight?

Anyway, ranting aside, we must be thankful to independent developers who, like with MusicBar, fill the void on Symbian. Two nice toggles have lately appeared with compatibility for Symbian^3, one for Bluetooth and the other for the screen rotation, and are both incredible handy additions to the Symbian^3 homescreen shortcuts widget.

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MusicBar Updated For Symbian^3, Camera Compatible Now

You might recall a few days ago I talked to you about an application called MusicBar that allowed you to set a specific button on your Symbian device to access music playback controls on your screen, no matter what application you’re using without disrupting your workflow. The main problem with MusicBar was that it had to use the Camera button on the Nokia N8 for example, hence preventing you from autofocusing while taking an image. Well Nicholas Usanov-Kornilov has updated MusicBar to 1.0.1 to fix this issue.

The new version of MusicBar brings a few improvements amongst which the support for the Symbian^3 selection UI. Now, when setting up the application, as previously explained in my first post, the Exceptions menu have been fixed and you can finally scroll down to the middle of the list and tick the Camera. By doing so, you prevent MusicBar from launching only when the Camera is active, that way you can use the Autofocus key to get your music controls in all applications, yet still use that to focus on an image while in the Camera. It’s perfect. Of course, if you want to disable MusicBar in other apps, you can also do so.

If you were previously doubting the usefulness of MusicBar, you shouldn’t even flinch with this update. It makes it a killer tool to add to your N8 or C7 or other Symbian^3 phones without the problem of messing with the camera functions.

You can download the new version from Nicholas’ website (russian page or Google translated page), but remember you have to register to download and you need to sign it before installing it.

Nokia N8 + Full USB Keyboard = Awesome wpm !

Just when we were struggling with the Nokia N8 T9 keyboard, we spotted a spare PC USB keyboard lying in our office . We decided to connect the wired keyboard to the N8 using the USB OTG feature. It will certainly boost your wpm score( words per minute) . Michael already showed that you can control the N8 with a Keyboard and Mouse via Bluetooth. But we are kinda surprised that it works over a wired connection too. BTW a USB Mouse works as well .

Check out the video below to see the Keyboard in action . Time to take the N8 to your next presentation.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tljJSqD4cKY

Nimbuzz Launches v3 For Symbian, Brings Support To Symbian^3

Ever since I got a Nokia N8 unit for trial, I tried installing Nimbuzz on it, and the experience wasn’t quite optimized for the device. I ended up testing a beta version of their v3 which brings full support for Symbian^3 and many other nifty features and improvements. Just today, this new version has been announced and is live on m.nimbuzz.com so I can talk to you about it. First of all, these are the new features highlighted by Nimbuzz for their v3 release:

  • Customizable tabs: select which tabs you want to see and in which order.
  • NimbuzzOut call rates are displayed in real time before placing the call.
  • Recent calls tab: see all your received, missed and outgoing calls.
  • 2 new chat styles: with avatars and without.
  • 3 options to view the Contact List.
  • My info tab: gives you quick access to your profile, NimbuzzOut credits, accounts,  suggested friends and friend invites.
  • Facebook Connect: removes the 400 contacts limit and connectivity issues
  • Sort contacts by status.

One of the first improvements you will notice in this new version is that the screen estate is better used in landscape mode and is suited for Symbian^3 devices.

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Nokia C6-01 Starts Shipping Today

Nokia seems to be fixing it’s time-to-market problem pretty well recently. The C7 started shipping in record time recently and now the C6-01 which was announced at Nokia World is also shipping worldwide. Nokia said in it’s official blog today “The boxes have been filled, the vans loaded and the factory gates opened,Soon they will be with retailers and operators near you” Continue reading “Nokia C6-01 Starts Shipping Today”

Nokia N8, The Initial List Of Fourteen Wins And Fails

The N8 (or Nate as I’m growing used to call it) is here. It’s been released, it’s shipping, and people all around the world are receiving their units. Finally, after too long a wait, I have an N8 in my hands, for a proper test and review. Following my “The N8 is Perfect, There, I said it” assertion, there really is very little I can say to top it up. Or can I?

The N8 landed in my hands 2 days ago, and while I still maintain that it IS the perfect handset for the photography and multimedia buffs, I had mentioned that it doesn’t target me, and I’m not particularly thrown towards buying one. So, over the last 48 hours, I’ve gone from awe to oh to ouch and back to awe several times with the N8 in my hands. Here is the compiled initial list of N8 wins and fails, in my book.

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The Nokia N8 Is Perfect, There, I Said It

If you’re a BMW car fan and you go ahead and buy a Mercedes Benz car because of one cool feature, then expect it to act like a BMW and get mad because it doesn’t, you’re an idiot. Stick to BMW, or accept the different approach. The same can be said about phones. You don’t buy a Blackberry and expect it to be 100% like an E71, you don’t get a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and blame it for not having the iPhone’s multitouch. Every brand has their strengths, their weaknesses, their approaches, their concepts, their target audience.

That’s why, my friends, the Nokia N8 is perfect. I know well enough to accept that it’s not perfect for me because I like physical keyboards and I want medical applications. It’s not perfect for the iPhone/iOS hundreds of thousands of apps afficionados. It’s not perfect for many. But that doesn’t mean “it’s not perfect period”. It is. For its target audience, for those who adhere to the Nokia approach, to the touchscreen-only build form factor, to the slowly growing Ovi Store, those who need top-notch multimedia playback and recording features, those who take a picture of everything and anything in their life. The N8 IS perfect.

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Nokia C6-00, C6-01 and C7 Full Specs Comparison

At Nokia World today, Nokia announced the C6. Wait. Isn’t that already available and just right now getting into the hands of people? Yes. But you see, that was the old C6, or C6-00 if you want, with Symbian^1 and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The new C6, or the C6-01, is a Symbian^3 phone with no hardware keyboard. Confused?

Err, yes, so am I. For the record, I simply do NOT get this new naming convention. I thought they changed from their 4-digit 6230 kind of names to avoid confusion. Well, they reached new levels of confusion all-together with this!

Anyway, after the E7 vs N8 specs comparison table we brought you earlier, we thought it would be appropriate to show the differences between the two C6s and the other new Cseries device, the Nokia C7 (or C7-00 I think). Oh well. The full table is below with green highlights for the device that beats the others in some aspects. Continue reading “Nokia C6-00, C6-01 and C7 Full Specs Comparison”

Nokia E7 vs Nokia N8 Full Specs Comparison

Announced just today during Nokia World, the Nokia E7 is being presented and perceived by many people and bloggers as essentially a Nokia N8 with a Qwerty minus the awesome 12MP camera. And to some degree it is, but to some other degree it isn’t. See, Nokia always likes to complicate things, so we had to go spend more than an hour digging around Press Releases, Images, Spec Sheets to pinpoint every single difference between these two new Symbian^3 beasts.

Below you’ll find this full table comparison, highlighting in green the areas where one of the two beats the other. Continue reading “Nokia E7 vs Nokia N8 Full Specs Comparison”

Nokia C7 Leaked Pics And Videos

Nokia C7 runs on the latest Symbian^3 Operating System and it has a 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen display. It comes with an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, Micro USB, 3G connectivity and much more.

Recently the leaked pics and videos of Nokia C7 was found all over the web. This handset runs on the latest Symbian^3 Operating System and it has a 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen display. It comes with an 8 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash, HD (720p) video recording, Flash Lite 4.0, Micro USB, 3.5mm headphone jack, 3G connectivity, 1200mAh battery and much more.

Nokia C7 does not have a Carl Zeiss optics. This handset is expected to be launched at the Nokia World 2010. The guys at Zol has shared some leaked pics of this device. Check out the pics and videos below.

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