The Symbian Blog

Nokia N97 Mini Unboxing & N97 Comparison

Vaibhav Sharma — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:49:55 +0000

Things have been a little hectic for me lately, but that will not stop me for bringing you the N97 Mini unboxing, filmed in Helsinki on the first day of ‘The Way We Live Next 3.0′ event.

The video is divided into two parts, the first is a good old unboxing and the second is a N97 Mini overview and comparison with the N97. If I sound a little tired, it is because of all the interview and demoes that I had earlier in the day. Stay tuned for a lot of ‘TWWLN‘ content in the coming days. But for now, its all about the Mini.

Live From The Way We Live Next – Day 1

Vaibhav Sharma — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:05:39 +0000

Follow ‘The Way We Live Next 3.0′ live right here on The Symbian Blog. Follow all the updates from #TWWLN via Twitter as well – @TheSymbianBlog.

We have made a few changes and the live blog will now be an aggregation from me, Rafe from All About Symbian and Micky from Nokia Users.

Sessions Over:

09.40 Keynote +Q&A by Mary McDowell, Chief Development Officer
10.05 Keynote +Q&A by Purnima Kochikar, Forum Nokia & Developer

Sessions Left:

11.00 Keynote +Q&A by Shaun Puckrin, Symbian Foundation
11:25 Keynote +Q&A by Peter Schneider, Devices R&D
13:00 Keynote by Henry Tirri, NRC

The Way We Live Next

The Way We Live Next 3.0 At Nokia House

Vaibhav Sharma — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:37:25 +0000

I have the immense pleasure of telling you that in a few minutes I will be boarding a plane for Helsinki to attend this year’s ‘The Way We Live Next 3.0′ event at Nokia House. ‘The Way We Live Next 3.0’, in Nokia’s words, aims at providing a dynamic experience, co-created by the community, arranged by Nokia and focused on developing new business opportunities. It offers products, services and solutions that connect communities, help realize potential, entertain and celebrate people’s lives.

At the event we will hear from a host of speakers including Peter Schneider, Head of Maemo Marketing at Nokia, Mary McDowell, Nokia’s Chief Development Officer, Purnima Kochikar, head of Forum Nokia & Developer Community, Henry Tirri, head of Nokia Research Center and Teppo Paavola, who leads the Mobile Financial Services team (Nokia Money). We will also hear from Shaun Puckrin of the Symbian Foundation.

Apart from the various keynotes, I am also looking forward to the demo area where Nokia will be showing off some of the latest devices, applications, services and concepts. But the thing I am especially glad about is the opportunity of meeting many Nokia employees who create the devices, services and apps we use and trying to understand their perspective.

Above all is the sheer thrill of visiting the Holy Grail of mobile, the Nokia House. If there is something you need to know about anything Nokia, let me know and I’ll try and get an answer, as they say – from the horse’s mouth.

To keep up with the latest as it happens follow me @TheSymbianBlog on Twitter. To read what the others at event are saying, follow the hashtag #TWWLN.

The Nokia Digital Design Blogger Meetup Is Today – Get Your Questions In

Vaibhav Sharma — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:09:52 +0000

I have the pleasure of letting you know that I have been invited to a Nokia Digital Design Bootcamp in New Delhi today. The meetup will be an opportunity for us to understand what goes on behind the scenes the create the Nokia UI that we recognize in an instant today.

I especially glad and excited to attend because we will be joined by senior members of the Nokia design team including the Head of Digital Design at Nokia, Nikki Barton. On the agenda is a discussion around Nokia’s Digital Design strategy, the story behind the icons, how gestures are changing the way be use devices and lastly is home screen personalization.

If you like information in the tabulated form:

Nokia People Joining Us:

Nikki Barton, (Head of Digital Design)
Robert Williams (Design Manager), Nokia Design Studio, London, UK
Younghee Jung, (Senior Design Specialist), Nokia Design Studio, London, UK
Juliana Ferreira, (Design Specialist, Interaction Design), Nokia Design Studio, London, UK

Agenda:

Nokia’s Digital Design Strategy: Consumer insights and how Nokia brings them onto the mobile platform.
The story behind icons.
Gestures: new ways to interact and integrating the same into Nokia interfaces. Movements which when associated with a device, making it more human and natural.
Home screen personalization: How people see their home screen differently.

I am sure all of you will have questions, so please put them down and I will try my best to get answers for you. I will also be tweeting live from the event, so make sure you follow @TheSymbianBlog for the latest. You can also follow the #NokDesign hashtag for updates from other bloggers as well.

Answers From The N97 v2.0 Q&A

Vaibhav Sharma — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:45:18 +0000

We have just wrapped up the Q&A about the N97’s new 2.0 firmware. We had limited time, so I could unfortunately not get through all the questions that you had asked. With that said, here are the key aspects I’m sure you would like to read about.

On the reworked RAM management – “We reworked the application memory mapping model, which uses the RAM more efficiently and reduces the memory errors”. It will help third party applications as well.

On an early and a later build of the v20 firmware being released via the NSU – “There are no different SW versions out! All are the same. But admitting here as well that we had a build problem for our MEA versions, so we needed to re-build those….” (Q’s by Steve from AAS)

On VOIP/Skype/Internet Radio – “We have already VoIP into PR2.0 and we are working on the Skype to get the best user experience out to the field”. “We are currently evaluating the internet radio feature for N97, but it is still in early phase”. (Q by Micky from Nokia Users)

On Installing Nokia Messaging & Others on the E: drive – “We have choosen the C: drive, since it has memory paging and therefore makes the apps running faster and smoother”. (Your’s truly)

On the possibility of Virtual RAM – “With PR2 we have taken big steps to improve the memory handling mechanism and the PR2.0 memory status will allow users to run the apps in a smooth way. Getting virtual RM is not an easy task, we encourage users to install the apps into the big 32Gb memory and not get everything into the C drive”. (Your’s truly)

On threaded messaging and smiley support: “Our platform is under continues changes and improvements, stay tuned for the next releases, you will love them”. (Q by Ibrahim Jogee from The Nokia Review)

On the Browser getting numeric shortcuts to options like bookmarks: “With a touch device it is much more easy and convenient to use the finger than using the keypad to get a bookmark started”. (Your’s truly)

There was a bit of discussion on bugs and a few other subject, click through to Nokia Addict for the complete transcript. Our questions were answered by Frank Zillikens and Catalin Gheorghiu from Nokia. Frank headed up the N97 v20 Firmware, and Catalin works on the Firmware Development Team.

I would like to thank both of them for their patience and answers. They have kindly agreed to take more questions, so if there is still something that’s troubling you, please make a note below. Also, they would also like some feedback on the new 2.0 firmware, as Catalin said, “Many of the PR2 improvements came from your ideas, you can see that already”.

Have Questions About The N97’s v20 Firmware? Put Them Down Here!

Vaibhav Sharma — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:42:09 +0000

At 17:30 GMT today I and a few other invitees will be attending a Q&A around the N97’s v20 firmware. We will be joined by Nokia representatives Frank Zillikens, the Lead Firmware Developer and Catalin Gheorghiu, a member of the technical team responsible for the recent firmware upgrade to talk about:

Where you see the N97 going in the future.
How you’re getting on with the device.
What you do and don’t like about v20.
What further improvements you would like to see.
Why certain aspects of the Firmware are like they are – This is the one I’m really interested in.

I’m sure you have questions, so please put them down below and I will try and get an answer for you. Although I doubt questions like, ‘When will v20 be out for my region?’ will get a specific answer. Time is running out.

Download Opera Mobile 10 Beta For Your Symbian Smartphone

Vaibhav Sharma — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:32:29 +0000

The first beta of the Opera Mobile 10 for Symbian devices is now available for both S60 3rd and 5th Edition devices. The browser supports multiple tabs, a speed dial and a very speedy performance which gets an even bigger boost when you enable the ‘Turbo’ mode which uses server side compression akin to its sibling Opera Mini.

The browser also features on screen keyboards QWERTY keyboards (both Portrait and Landscape) similar to the Opera Mini application. The tabs are very easy to navigate and the whole interface seems snappy with more than a hint of eye candy.

(Speed Dial)

(Website rendering is quick, you can double tap to zoom)

(The QWERTY keyboard is a pleasure)

(Tab management is intuitive, tap to switch)

(The settings menu slides in with a bit of eye candy, is easy to navigate)

(Opera Turbo enables server side compression like the Opera Mini)

(Landscape mode is available as well, kinetic scrolling is minimal)

(There is sadly no flash support, there was a video after the second paragraph)

I will be playing with this release a little more over the next few days and will let you know what I think, meanwhile I suggest you go ahead and download anyway, its free after all. If nothing else, think of it as a native Opera Mini on steroids. The beta is free to download to your computer from http://www.opera.com/mobile/next/ or directly to your mobile phone from http://m.opera.com/mobile.

The v20 Firmware For The N97 Is Now Available

Vaibhav Sharma — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:19:16 +0000

It is time to fire up the Nokia Software Updater now. The long awaited v20.0.019 firmware for the N97 is now available and I cannot stress the importance of this firmware enough. It will transform the N97 experience and will lead many to say that this was the firmware Nokia should have shipped the device with. The update is currently only available via the Nokia Software Updater and is a 134 MB download. We should also start seeing the over the air rollout soon. The N97 features user data preservation so you can upload without the fear of loosing data but I suggest a clean install after formatting the device (*#7370#) for the best experience.

It brings better RAM management, better internal storage management, speed improvements, stability and the biggest improvements of them all being all round kinetic scrolling across all lists. The update will also bring a few new widgets among other things. There is no official changelog yet, so I will keep updating as I find new things.

Incidentally, the N97 Mini will ship with the same firmware.

[Thanks Anuj]

Get The Default N900 Wallpaper For Your Device

Vaibhav Sharma — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:21:18 +0000

There is something about the default N900 wallpapers that makes the device come alive, the inherent freshness is indeed refreshing. Since Nokia’s touch devices also have fairly large screens (with a slightly lower resolution), I figured it would be a good idea to load these up on my N97 and I am glad to say it did look good.

The S60 5th Edition software automatically resizes the picture to fit the image in the landscape mode and it crops out a part of the image to make it look good in portrait. So if you like what you see, take a pick from one of these wallpapers (full size uploads on flickr) or simply click here to download the entire set in one go.

Interested in Maemo and the N900? Make sure you check out our sister site MaemoCentral.com for the latest.

Sports Tracker Breaks Away From Nokia To Form Sports Tracking Technologies

Vaibhav Sharma — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:02:17 +0000

A few days ago I told you about Ovi Journeys, that was described as the evolution of the Sports Tracker application. On the same post, I received an anonymous comment pointing us to the Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill, which revelaed that four new companies have been created through the Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill IPR spinout and that a company called Sports Tracking Technologies Ltd was one of them.

What this means is that the two member team of Jussi Kaasinen and Ykä Huhtala, the core developers behind the hugely successful Sports Tracker application have come together to start their own company Sports Tracking Technologies. This explains the apparent lack of development of the application and the subsequent stagnation. Nokia therefore is no longer directly behind the application but will turn into a client of the said company. The reasons for this lull, as explained by Jussi Kaasinen were intellectual property issues relating to the migration. We now also know that the team at STT has grown and is working on ‘feature enhancements and compatibility refinements for products and services which promise to remain wholly sports-centric‘.

These are interesting developments indeed and I am pretty interested in seeing what new functionality does the team bring to Sports Tracker. We currently do not have a timeline for updates, but I hope to see some action on this front soon. With this I would like to wish the team at STT the best of luck in their endeavors.

[Decipher This Update] Major Compete Is A Website & An Online Treasure Hunt

Vaibhav Sharma — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:35:16 +0000

The image that I told you about is becoming more interesting with time. With a bit of prodding I have been able to figure out that words ‘Major Compete’ in the picture actually translate into a URL – www.majorcompete.com and that it has nothing to do with the October 23 event that Nokia is holding in London.

It is actually in the nature of an online treasure hunt. If you fire up www.majorcompete.com in your browser you will see the following page. The first word sure seems a lot like Maemo. If this is going in the direction of the N900, I am going to love it.

UPDATE – It just hit me that the missing words on that parchment could be – Maemo Project, which would lead to MaemoProject.com a website based around the movie Paranormal Activity. Hit this link for information on how to crack the code.

Decipher This!

Vaibhav Sharma — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:14:39 +0000

I’ve just received a very interesting image in my mail from the good people at WOM World. Unfortunately that is all there is to the email. If it is any help, the subject reads ‘Something to get your juices going’.

My first (and the obvious) guess is that the image marks the start of a competition, the real question is a competition about what? My mind is hoping that this involves the N900, but reality puts it closer to being around the N97 or one of Nokia’s services.

What do you make of this image?

UPDATE – This seems to be centered around a October 23 Nokia event involving Ovi Maps and the recent ‘Good Things‘ functionality.

UPDATE 2 – Well well, with a bit of a hint I’ve found out that that Major Compete translates to majorcompete.com and that this has nothing to do with the October 23 event! More here.

Nokia Music India Gets Festive – Offers 100 Free Tracks

Vaibhav Sharma — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:41:25 +0000

Just after offering 5 free tracks of your choice for free, the Nokia Music Store India has decided to get even more festive and is now offering 100 free tracks from across different genres such as Bollywood, international and devotional. You can get downloading by simply clicking through to this link.

From what I have seen of the music on offer, there quite a few popular tracks in the mix. So if you have been wanting to try out the Nokia Music Store experience, this is a great opportunity to do just that.

Ovi Journeys – The Evolution Of SportsTracker Is Coming

Vaibhav Sharma — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:22:39 +0000

I have just gotten off a Q&A session with the Ovi Maps team and representatives from Digital Globe, the details of which I will share with you shortly. But there is one thing I am really excited about – Ovi Journeys.

Ovi Journeys, in the words of the Ovi Maps team is going to be the ‘evolution of the Sports Tracker’ application and even Nokia Vine, if you will. Nokia Vine never really got started but Sports Tracker remains an application that I love, specially for recording journeys. The way it works is that it runs in the background and records the track you have followed on your trip, geo tags the videos and photos that you take while on the trip and presents them on a map outlining where you went and the exact spots where you took the images and video. Quite simply the best way to record a journey.

Recently support for Sports Tracker has been wavering, specially for the touch devices. Now we know why, Ovi Journeys is coming! I hope they keep the option of exporting data from the application, its great to import it into Google Earth at times and trace your route on the computer. Nokia Vine did not have that option and I missed it.

What would you like to see in Ovi Journeys?

Ovi Maps Q&A Later Today – Get Your Questions In

Vaibhav Sharma — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:41:34 +0000

Last Wednesday I told you about DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite launch that will bring high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery to Ovi Maps in order to improve the global driving, hiking and walking navigation capabilities. Today, I’m glad to say that I have been invited to a Q&A about the launch and what it will mean for Ovi Maps.

I am also glad to say that we will be joined by the CEO of Digital Globe to talk about how the satellite will improve the Ovi Maps offering and also by representatives from the Ovi Maps team. I already have a few questions in my mind, but if there is something you want to know, please leave it in the comments section and I will try and get an answer for you.

How Many Of Us Actually Upgrade The Firmware – Issues & Suggestions

Vaibhav Sharma — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:32:37 +0000

Periodically upgrading the firmware is the best care you can provide to your device, it not only helps improve performance, at times it adds functionality that previously did not exist. I am certain most of our readers are power users like myself, who probably upgrade device to the latest version within days if not hours of its coming out. But what about the not so savvy users? Do they ever upgrade? Chances are pretty bleak. So what can be done?

But before we get to that I was looking for a bit of perspective on firmware updates. Have anyone of you ever updated a friend’s or a relative’s phone’s firmware? Have you ever told them that there exists such a thing? Personally speaking, I try and let that everyone I meet know about this basic concept, for quite a few I even do it myself, if its a new device I do it then and there via OTA. But clearly a handful of users trying to spread the word isn’t helping too much.

Considering the fact that one of Nokia’s strongest plus points is the support they provide to the handset even months after the purchase in the form of firmwares that keep coming out. When the N97 came out, I was confident that Nokia will do justice to it, sooner or later and the v20 firmware promises to do that. What about the experience of the person who will never update the firmware himself?

WHAT NOKIA DOES:

Over the last few months Nokia has started to emphasize the importance of new FW’s via service like My Nokia, even informing people when new firmwares come out.

They also have included a ‘check for updates’ application to help in the process.

User data preservation and over the air updates have become the standard in all new devices.

WHAT NOKIA SHOULD DO:

Enable automatic updates. The device should be able to automatically update without the user having to press a key. But if they were to do this a lot of people will cry foul, at least the power users will. Therefore, the work around to this is:

– During the initial setup ask people if they are happy with automatic updates. Most people will be, the powers can shut them off there.
– Then, when the phone detects the presence of a new FW, it should prompt the user telling him that the firmware update is downloading and if he does nothing, it will be installed automatically at a particular time or the next time they connect the phone to the charger. The power users if required, can shut it off here.
– Then 15 minutes before the firmware installs, inform the user via a popup that the install is scheduled to commence in the next 15 minutes. This will give users a chance to cancel if they have something important planned for the next few minutes.

There will still be a few users who will not be able to update because of a lack of data connection or a few other reasons. Educate them about FW’s. Put a small poster in the retail packaging of the device telling users about firmwares, their benefits and how to update. This should be separate from the user manual.

Release a detailed change-log at the same time as the firmware. The OTA update should also become available simultaneously with the NSU client.

Make the Nokia Care Center firmware update experience better. The turnaround time should be within a maximum of two hours, preferably less.

Make the Nokia Software Updater compatible with the Mac OS.

If this is done, I think it will go a long way in improving overall customer satisfaction. Nokia is already working towards improving their notification system and I hope that this step is only the tip of the icerberg. Do you have any other suggestions?

Nokia N900 Unboxing Video

Vaibhav Sharma — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:47:43 +0000

We told you about the Maemo Central launch today morning and since then there has been considerable activity on the N900/Maemo front, considering the fact that today is the first day of the Maemo Summit. The N900 has been unboxed on video, we also now have details coming in about Maemo 6 (multitouch and capacitive touchscreens are a go). Nokia has announced the official port of Qt to Maemo 5 and word is out the Portrait browsing is coming to the N900 by Christmas.

If Maemo or the N900 interests you, just head across to Maemo Central.

Introducing MaemoCentral.com

Vaibhav Sharma — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:54:39 +0000

A little over a month ago when Nokia introduced the N900, I asked you what new direction should The Symbian Blog take? Quite a number of you took the time to reply (thank you!) and were keen on Maemo and N900 coverage, so that settled the first question as to whether I should covered the aforementioned subjects. The next question was how do I do that? Should I expand the horizon of The Symbian Blog and include Maemo as well, or launch a new website.

I thought about it and as much as I wanted, I couldn’t get myself to cover Maemo on ‘The ‘Symbian‘ Blog’ on a regular basis. Therefore it was time for a fresh new website and thus MaemoCentral.com was born – your one stop destination for all things Maemo. News, reviews, tutorials and more about the Maemo platform.

I have been updating Maemo Central for a few days now and since today marks the start of the Maemo Summit, I though it would be a good time to soft launch it. The Symbian Blog will meanwhile continue to run full force, like it always has. We will still cover important Maemo/N900 stories here, but Maemo Central will be the place where all the in-depth action will be.

MAEMO CENTRAL

Updates:

In order to keep up with all the latest Maemo Central updates you can subscribe to the free full feed RSS and even follow us via Twitter @MaemoCentral.

Feedback:

Maemo Central will be under active development over the new few days so I will greatly appreciate any feedback you may have. Please use the contact page or the comments section to get in touch.

Hope you have a pleasant stay and do let us know what you think.

Use This Link & Get 5 Free Songs From The Nokia Music Store

Vaibhav Sharma — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:50:06 +0000

If you have been wanting to try the recently launched Nokia Music Store India but have not purchased a handset that entitles you to free downloads, there is some good news for you. Hit http://music.nokia.co.in/myn5free to get 5 tracks free from the Nokia Music store. Click on this from your mobile phone and it will open the Nokia Music Store application.

The Nokia Music Store has some exclusive content such as Sona Mohapatra’s (who also performed at the Nokia Blogger’s Bootcamp in Bangalore) new track so make sure you choose wisely. As you may recall, the Nokia Music Store India currently only allows voucher based downloads, so it is great to see Nokia India take such initiatives. Additionally you can also choose from free tracks of the week.

Nokia’s Imaging Satellite Launch Tomorrow

Vaibhav Sharma — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:19:49 +0000

Boeing will launch Digital Globe’s WorldView-2 satellite aboard a Delta II rocket procured from United Launch Alliance (ULA) tomorrow i.e. Thursday 8th October in California. The launch will be broadcast live and in high quality on a dedicated channel, with the feed kicking off at 1115 PDT (1915 BST). WorldView-2 is the first high-resolution 8-band multispectral satellite commercially available. The new bands support greater levels of feature identification and extraction, more accurate change detection, and a realistic mirror image of the world’s natural colors.

If you are wondering what does any of this have to do with Nokia, then read on. In Feburary this year Nokia and Digital Globe had entered into an agreement to bring the real-world perspective of high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery to Ovi Maps in order to improve the global driving, hiking and walking navigation capabilities for consumers who use these applications.

The idea behind the integration of Digital Globe’s high-resolution world imagery content is to increase the functionality of Ovi Maps by revealing more details than standard street level mapping views, and also providing peace-of-mind for precision and accuracy in off-road navigation — a feature of special interest to hikers and walkers.

All of this will be done through streamlined technology integration and development of a proprietary format for delivering imagery to Nokia. Users will then have quick, easy and seamless access to a wide range of global high-resolution imagery from DigitalGlobe’s comprehensive ImageLibrary sourced from its high-resolution satellite constellation and aerial network. All of this will in turn help take turn-by-turn, street-by-street and city-to-city navigation views to a new level.

I can’t wait to see the impact.

[Hat tip to WOM World for the heads up!]

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