Monday, 10 October 2011

Hear the Symbian Belle story, as told by its designers [VIDEO]

As Symbian Belle gets ready to start rolling to Symbian handsets near you, Nokia has released another story in its blog about the latest update of the platform. The company got the Belle designers to talk about the background of their creation in this nice 4-minute video.
gsmarena 002 Hear the Symbian Belle story, as told by its designers [VIDEO]
So if you want to know more about the action going on behind the scenes here’s your chance. You will also learn what Nokia’s top priorities when creating Touch UIs are and what makes great user experience according to the Finns’ R&D team.
Now take a comfortable seat and hit that play button.

Source

CyanogenMod 7.1 finally gets released




After a long wait, the CyanogenMod 7.1 has finally been released. Although originally planned to release last weekend but some issues with their automated build system prevented that from happening.


The latest version adds a host of improvements that can be found here and is now supported on 68 devices. Quite a few of these are from Sony Ericsson, something that was possible because the company reached out to CyanogenMod developers and provided them with devices, technical assistance and drivers. Samsung did something similar a while back.
Click here to see if your Android device is supported and then start the download. Support for more devices, such as the HP Touchpad and the LG Optimus 3D will be added soon.

Nokia 603 with Symbian Belle Leaked



Nokia is all set to announce the first Windows Phone devices at Nokia World. But it seems that they will also be releasing a Symbian handset. The phone in the picture above is the Nokia 603 which runs on Symbian Belle.
The device had previously appeared on UA (User Agent) profiles and FCC documents. The promo pics show the phone supporting 6 homescreens.
The rumoured specifications of the phone are as follows:
  • Symbian Belle OS and Nokia Browser 7.4
  • 1GHz ARM 11 Processor
  • Touchscreen with 360×640 Pixels Resolution
  • microSIM
  • 5 Megapixel EDOF Camera
  • EDGE, GPRS, HSDPA
  • Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
  • Interchangeable Covers
via | source

Thursday, 6 October 2011

Reactions from public figures on Steve Job’s death


“The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.” - Bill Gates
gsmarena 001 Reactions from public figures on Steve Jobs death
“Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.” - Mark Zuckerberg
“Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.
By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.” - President Barack Obama
“From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met. On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple.” - Sergey Brin
“I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts are with his family and the whole Apple family.” - Larry Page
“I want to express my deepest condolences at the passing of Steve Jobs, one of the founders of our industry and a true visionary. My heart goes out to his family, everyone at Apple and everyone who has been touched by his work.” - Steve Ballmer
“Tonight, America lost a genius who will be remembered with Edison and Einstein, and whose ideas will shape the world for generations to come. Again and again over the last four decades, Steve Jobs saw the future and brought it to life long before most people could even see the horizon. And Steve’s passionate belief in the power of technology to transform the way we live brought us more than smart phones and iPads: it brought knowledge and power that is reshaping the face of civilization. In New York City’s government, everyone from street construction inspectors to NYPD detectives have harnessed Apple’s products to do their jobs more efficiently and intuitively. Tonight our City – a city that has always had such respect and admiration for creative genius – joins with people around the planet in remembering a great man and keeping Laurene and the rest of the Jobs family in our thoughts and prayers.” - Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City
“Today the world lost a visionary leader, the technology industry lost an iconic legend and I lost a friend and fellow founder. The legacy of Steve Jobs will be remembered for generations to come. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and to the Apple team.’ - Michael Dell
“Samsung Electronics is saddened to hear of Chairman Steve Jobs’ passing and would like to extend our deepest condolences.
Chairman Steve Jobs introduced numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry and was a great entrepreneur.
His innovative spirit and remarkable accomplishments will forever be remembered by people around the world. We would like to again express our sincerest condolences to Mr. Jobs’ family and his colleagues.” – Choi Gee-sung, Samsung CEO
“Steve Jobs was a great visionary and respected competitor. Our deepest condolences to his family and to all of the employees of Apple.” - Research In Motion
Source 1 • Source 2

Nokia Link is the magic that connects your Nokia N9 to your computer

If you just bought yourselves a shiny new Nokia N9, you are probably eager to connect it to your computer and fill those 16 or 64 GB with tons of multimedia. And, boy, does Nokia have the tool for you.
gsmarena 001 Nokia Link is the magic that connects your Nokia N9 to your computer
The Finnish company has just posted an article on their blog, dedicated to Nokia Link – the software kit that makes the connection between your N9 and your computer seamless. Available as a free download for Windows 7, Mac Snow Leopard and Mac Lion, Nokia Link only takes a minute to set up.
You then plug in your Nokia N9 and the transfers may begin. To borrow a quote from Nokia itself “No fuss. No hassle. Just simplicity.”.
To be honest, we don’t see anything simpler than mass storage mode, but we’ll let this one slide just because we like MeeGo so much. N9 owners, please proceed this way to download Nokia Link and get going.

Source

Monday, 3 October 2011

Nokia Maps for WP7 revealed in screenshots


The wapxap.com team have uncovered the placeholder listing for Nokia Maps on Windows Phone devices. The market place listing shows four screenshots for the new mapping solution being developed by Nokia.
The description reads as :
Nokia Maps helps you to be a local anywhere you go. See where you are and discover places nearby in a snap. Get reviews, uncover new destinations and reach them with smart routing for public transport, walking and driving.
Nokia’s mapping service is known to offer best in class offline turn-by-turn navigation for free. This is expected to be one of the key differentiators of Nokia’s Windows Phone devices from those made by other OEMs.

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Microsoft look to the community for the key features in the next version of Windows Phone: Apollo


Following the introduction of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, Microsoft have dubbed the next iteration of their mobile platform ‘Apollo’ and they’ve taken to asking their users as to what features they would like to see as the OS develops.
gsmarena 001 Microsoft look to the community for the key features in the next version of Windows Phone: Apollo
For starters, it’s great to see Microsoft taking this approach, if you’re in camp Android but have used iOS or WP7, you might have found that restrictive elements of both OS’s intrude on your general phone usage from time to time. That being said a more enclosed platform allows for greater security, management and control, so it’s a double edged sword.
The first iteration of Windows Phone did what it needed to, by making large enough waves that potential consumers took it seriously and were prepared to part from what they knew and dive into the unknown. However it didn’t take long for users to feel the restrictions of such a young OS.
As updates have rolled out, we’ve seen the skill set of Windows Phone steadily improve, but until now, had no real control over which features we wanted and which we had thrust upon us. Now, however Microsoft’s approach to the next incarnation of the OS, Apollo, is a far more personal one. They’ve given power to users and created a customer feedback page with the express purpose of determining, what features the users want to see on their next WP7 devices.
gsmarena 002 Microsoft look to the community for the key features in the next version of Windows Phone: Apollo
Microsoft want to hear what the people want
A popular request off the bat is greater language support. In the top 10 requests alone, three ask for language support (for Arabic, Thai and Persian, in case you were wondering). Other desired features include screenshot support, USB storage support, the full Bing feature set available to customers outside the US and device backup functionality, which includes application data backup, SMS/MMS backup and settings profile backup.
gsmarena 003 Microsoft look to the community for the key features in the next version of Windows Phone: Apollo
the top 10 requests at time of writing
To see the rankings in real-time, follow this link. You also get 10 votes to allocate to whichever ideas you think would be the most beneficial, or if you prefer you can submit your own ideas into the mix as long as you can explain them in under 25 characters or less.
Of course this might just seem like an elaborate means of keeping unhappy users quiet by thinking that they can rectify their problems with the OS through this forum, however we’re inclined to fully trust the motives behind the site in this case. As Microsoft points out, ‘Please do not send any novel or patentable ideas, samples or demos which you do not want to grant a license to Microsoft’, this leads us to believe that they will take every suggestion seriously and are fully prepared to implement the ideas that score the highest. So, if there’s a feature on there you know you need on your Windows Phone device, get voting.