TamsS60 - the S60 Blog

Since quite a few of you are waiting for the n810, the following bit of news could be interesting - Engadget just managed to snatch up and unbox a Nokia N810 internet tablet:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/05/nokia-n800-internet-tablet-unboxed/

When looking at the box, similarities to the N71’s package cannot be denied. Nokia apparently places its latest tablet into its entertainment device range(sort of like the ever-famous Tapwave Zodiac) rather than market it as a business machine.

The package’s contents are also similar to the N71’s - you get a tiny 128MB miniSD card(decent for an N71, but for a Linux device? come on!) and some kind of headset. This time, however, a MiniSD/SD adapter was included(apparently to ease interfacing with other devices).

Should anyone of you get his hands on an N810, please tell us how you like it!

The Nokia N95 has just received a firmware update that can be downloaded via your home PC(or theoretically OTA); Nokia itself describes the change-log as following:

This software version includes battery, stability & performance improvements enabling you to run faster and longer - giving you up to three more hours of music (up to 30% increase, from 9h to 12h of music playback). This release also includes a new version of Nokia Maps which provides faster positioning, faster Map Loader, and free 3-day navigation. Free N-Gage demo games are included and other games are available via Download! With the Nokia Music Store now live in the United Kingdom, users can enjoy the convenience of instant over-the-air downloads, regardless of where they are.

After updating your device software to 20.0.015, and restoring your personal data, you can optimise the menu layout by installing the New_Menu_Structure.SIS file. Download and install this file to rearrange your menu layout specifically for SW 20.0.015. Reboot your device to see the menu changes.

Interestingly, the boys over at AllAboutSymbian’s claim a completely different feature list:

• New Welcome application

• New camera software and tweaks from the 8GB model - FAR faster shot to shot time, with 'Processing image message' during any delays. I suspect the image processing algorithms have changed too, to remove some of the remaining artificial edge enhancement in the v12 firmware.
• Long press on camera button launches camera if shutter is open
• New My Nokia SMS tips and mobile web portal system
• Demand paging (for ROM applications) with 30 plus MB free RAM after booting.
• Search 4.0 integration on standby screen.
• Old multimedia menu still there, i.e. it's not the new style
• N-Gage game previews (FIFA, Asphalt) and portal/shortcut to upcoming N-Gage client, as in N81 and N95 8GB
• Nokia Music Store client, although the store server hasn't been updated to handle the N95 yet - maybe this'll happen later today
• Keypress bug gone(!), I think
• No auto-screen rotation, looks like I was wrong predicting this, so we need Samir's RotateMe after all - someone please help him get this signed ASAP!
   
• Assorted other minor tweaks, along the same lines as the N95 8GB, with video ringtones, theme animations and a Circles Music Player visualisation.

Further information is available here:
AllAboutSymbian on the update(interesting discussion)

The beta mailing list for carbide.c++ tends to throw up interesting bits of news every now and then - the latest message in a bottle contains a mention of an UI designer for UIQ. For all those of you not familiar with the term, we are talking about a program that allows developers to create forms/menus/other user interface objects with relative ease:

The UI Designer for UIQ will be available for beta testing in late January. We’ll make it available via this Google group.

Best regards,

Dan Podwall
Nokia

On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:59:50 -0800 (PST), “Tatanka” said:
>
> Hi there,
>
> I read at newlc.com (http://newlc.com/carbide-c-1-3-overview) that
> there will be a ui designer for uiq3. Is this available for test now?
> If so, in what version?

As a follow-up on our last article on the N95 8GB hitting Austrian roads via the carrier A1; the A1 flagship store currently does not have the phone on display.

While this theoretically could be an anti-theft issue; it could also indicate that the rollout has not yet completed or that the device’s stock has been depleted.

For me, neither of the three reasons is satisfying: while Steve firmly believes that the N95 8GB is a prime target for theft(I agree here); carriers in Austria have switched over to using phone dummies for display most of the time. As for the rollout timing; the shack where the N95 8GB was photographed is tiny…so if the marketing stuff arrives there, the flagship store must have it for sure. And as for the box beefing out of stock…austrian carriers usually do n0ot remove the ads for out-of-stock products from their stores…

What do you think?

Mobile devices have seen usage as news readers for a long time. Originally, services like Plucker or AvantGo downloaded content on the desktop and pushed it out onto the mobile device. As data prices fell(and RSS/Atom became popular), the first news readers for smartphones popped up. Resco Neeews for Palm OS is among the best readers available for mobile devices…can the S60 version stack up?

After starting up for the first time, Neeews asks you if you wish to place your data in RAM or onto an external memory card. I usually choose the external card; as that reduces Neeews RAM consumption to approximately zero:

Once fully up and running, the product presents you with a list of feeds that are filtered according to your interests:

Adding your own feed is possible, too:

Selected feeds are added to the main Subscribed tab. Alternatively, you can create tabs of your own containing only a few of the many selected feeds:

The color icon next to the feed’s name shows if it contains new articles:

Feeds can be ‘extended’ to show individual articles:

Articles can be displayed with embedded images. Clicking the Read full story link opens your phone’s web browser and takes you to the news source’s web site - the full article can be read there:

The program’s feed rendering is very flexible - you can turn off your theme’s background, choose font size and enable/disable images:

If multiple web browsers are installed onto your device, you can even choose which one Neeews will use:

Interesting articles can be bookmarked - links to them then appear in a separate tab:

Articles can be updated manually or automatically. Manual updates halt the application; images always are downloaded when an article is first opened:

This review looked at version 1.23.01 of Resco Neeews on a Nokia N71. The program needs approximately 500k of memory space on your memory card; articles can eat up a few extra MB’s. Having 10MB free on your memory card definitely puts you on the safe side…

Overall, Neeews is an excellent newsreader for your Series 60 phone. If you wish to access news on the go and have a data plan, Resco Neeews is a must-have. The price of just 11.95$ makes this a complete steal…get it while the price is low!

Ever since phones with camera LED’s hit the market, users debated if the LED’s really had any ‘reson-d-etre’ except acting as a torch. The images below were made with a Nokia N71 in a room approximately 10m wide; and are uploaded in an unaltered fashion(click for full version):

Night mode
With flash

Without flash

Normal mode
With flash

Without flash

In the end, none of the four pictures can really compete with a digital camera - but that’s not what a mobile phone camera is intended to do IMHO. The images shot in normal mode are almost worthless; the LED flash barely managed to light up my suit 1.5m away. Night mode images still have very high noise levels(see fullsize images); but are bright enough to be at least barely usable. The LED flash did nothing except distort the colors of my suit.

Thus, today’s lesson is: if you can keep the camera steady long enough, use night mode - your images will become significantly better! The LED flash did not show beneficial effects anywhere - let’s just keep using it as torch…

TamsS60 covered the Nokia N95 8GB a few times in the past; and I can now offer you the first N95 8GB spotted in Austria:

The image above(sorry for quality…didn’t have my digital camera on me) was taken in an Austrian post office(in Austria, post offices act as phone outlets for the formerly government-owned carrier A1). It advertises a black Nokia N95 8GB that can be purchased for 400€ along with a contract.

Customers willing to sign up can take the device with them right there…the device was in stock and ready to go.

P.S. A friend at 3 has informed me that the N95 8GB will become there available in the near future(last week of December or January 2008) - so don’t switch carriers just yet :).

Nokia’s Mike Trujillo has just sent me a notification that a new beta of Carbide.c++ is available online. For all those of you who are new to the term, Carbide.c++ is an Eclipse derivate that can be used to create S60 and UIQ applications. Anyways, here goes:

The wait is finally over! We will make this message brief but we hope that you take the time to review all the material prior to downloading the Carbide product. There are many changes to the beta program that we hope will greatly improve your experience during the beta program.

A short summary of the changes:

• We will be providing the beta builds every 2-3 weeks
• We will also provide “development builds” each day.
• Users are encouraged to log bugs into our bug tracking database (Bugzilla)
• More information on the new beta program is found here.

Here is your step-by-step procedure for the beta:

1. Watch the welcome video
2. Read the release notes
   NOTE – We have not tested the BETA 1 release for all use cases. You may experience some problems in more complex projects. We recommend that you start with small projects and work your way up to larger ones.

3. Learn about the new procedures for submitting bugs
4. Download the product (links on the Google Group welcome page)

Please route all comments and suggestions to the Google Group –

http://groups.google.com/group/carbidecpp-beta

Apparently, whac-a-mole seems to be a very popular game not only with Palm OS folks, but recently also with Nokia. My Nokia N71(which is NOT synced with a PC) is stuck with a very old firmware revision - and Nokia’s european firmware update page offers only the Nokia Software Updater for PC’s. Even after searching all across the Nokia web site, I did not find a way to download a file that lets me update my Nokia N71 without the help of a PC/workstation’s USB port.

This is problematic for a variety of reasons - first of all, Nokia’s update spoftware is compatible only with Windows NT systems - Mac and Linux folks are left running to a Nokia Care point(official quote from Nokia):

Microsoft Windows 2000 (SP4 or later), Microsoft Windows XP (SP1 or SP2) or Microsoft Windows Vista (Home, Professional and 64bit) are supported.

Nokia Software Updater is not compatible with Windows Media Center, Mac, or Linux operating systems.

The next problematic point is that many users do not have USB data cables. From my point of view, S60 smartphones are not as closely-connected to their “home PC” as other devices are. For example, Palm’s Treos live off syncing often and make the process easy - they even bug users repeatedly to sync them after a hardreset(!!!). Series 60 phones, on the other hand, seem to be used as “island systems” by most people - and some carriers even leave out the USB cables from the packages.

Of course, users can always run to the next service point - but is this really what you expect from a next-generation smartphone vendor? IMHO, a company as big as Nokia must be able to offer its customers a possibility to update their phone’s firmware in an over-the-air fashion. Palm can do it for their Treos…so why can’t Nokia do it, too?

Access has just released a b eta of a Garnet virtual machine for Nxxx web tablets.

This virtual machine allows owners of Nxxx internet tablets to run Palm OS applications on their device as if they were using a real Palm OS-powered device. While this operating system definitely isn’t as technologically advanced as a mobile Linux, many applications for this OS have been under active development for a very long time. This leads to excellent stability; and could make Palm OS applications worth the one or the other look.

Please get the full scoop at our sister site TamsPalm:
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2007/11/13/palm-os-goes-nokia-n770n800n810/

Further reading:
Palm OS application reviews