Themes: Woodberry by O3one Kinetics – Free for limited time at Ovi Store

Hello Folks. As I said in the last theme post:

Today we’ll be showing quite a bit of themes that DM tipped us yesterday. Since I may not be on a computer until evening GMT time (moving back to Manchester), I thought that would be a good opportunity to show some very nice themes. You’re definitely going to want to check those out as they look great.

As promised, the first one I want to share from DM’s list is WoodBerry by O3one Kinetics - I’d suggest getting it now whilst it is free at Ovi Store.

It has a classic, mysterious looking dark panelling wallpaper going on there which is consistent throughout the theme. Overall, it works together and does look great.

Be warned. There’s still three more to show. 

Check out WoodBerry: http://store.ovi.com/content/188468

Themes: Ex by PiZero Design – Free for limited time on Ovi Store

The 11 O’Clock theme (BST) moves to something slightly lighter again. This is a premium theme that is temporarily free. This one is by PiZero Design.

This has a very autumn feel with those orangey-yellow bokeh light things going on there.

Download it whilst it is free at Ovi Store: http://store.ovi.com/content/191297

Check out other S^3 Themes

Themes: Sky by Hank – Free at Ovi Store

This theme is a very blue theme, with minimalist square icons of its own (though default/Anna icons will permeate if you have it).

This is called Sky by Hank and it’s Free at Ovi Store.

Note: Today we’ll be showing quite a bit of themes that DM tipped us yesterday. Since I may not be on a computer until evening GMT time (moving back to Manchester), I thought that would be a good opportunity to show some very nice themes. You’re definitely going to want to check those out as they look great.

They’ll get posted at 9AM, 10AM, 11AM and 12PM BST. I will be on twitter though @JayMontano.

Note: Although I say S^3 themes, some do work with S^1 (like this one, even the Ovi Store page shows S^1 phone). It’s worth checking.

Download it at http://store.ovi.com/content/164916

Trying Android

Pic by N8. It already hates taking pics of my Omnia 7, now another Sammy in the house. Hmmm...

Android is the mobile OS I have least experience with. To improve my understanding of the shape of mobile OSes, I’ve got an Android handset for the next two weeks or so from the UK mobile network @ThreeUK to see what the fuss is about. What is this Android that is eating Symbian sales? What is this Android that could have been Nokia’s primary OS? And finally what Android platform doesn’t do as well as Nokia offerings (general comparisons), and what Android does that we (Nokia/Symbian/MeeGo) could learn from.

The handset picked is the cream of the crop of Android handsets. It’s only fair that I try Android on what is reported by many to be the best Android phone to date, and what, unfortunately, the handset which some Nokia fans here have ditched Symbian for.

It’s the Samsung Galaxy S2 (Oh noes, I have two Samsung phones now. I can has Eldar Award? :p).

This handset comes with it’s own ThreeUK SIM with all you can eat data, so I can test out N8, my WP phone and the SGS2 together. I’ll post my findings in the next two weeks.

Accessories: Nokia N9 Silicone cases (Black/Green) :p

The closest my hand will get to a Nokia N9 for now :p

I love the N9. 
I haven’t got one yet. But to satisfy my cravings for it now, I’ve got the closest thing I can get to it :p some accessories.

You may have noticed that you can get Nokia N9 accessories already. So I thought I’d get a couple. These are some N9 silicone cases, the cheap kind, from eBay.

They have cardboard cut-outs of t he phone they’re supposed to be for.

Usual affair. Cut-outs in all the right places. The colour of the green one is most accurate above (it’s a more ‘apple-green’.

Well I don’t have a N9 to put this on so N8 will do somewhat for comparison. . I wish I had the N9 to test them out. *hint*nokia*hello* :p

Here’s the back.

You can see the case is remarkably slim. Note that the thicker edges are actually not visible – the convex screen protrudes remember? But it would still 12.1mm at the thickest point (7.6mm at thinnest) making it still 0.8mm slimmer than the N8 even at the thickest portions.

And there you go.

Now I’ve got the cases, it would be a waste not to get a Nokia N9 right :p

BTW, watch out next week for a Nokia N8 accessory we’ll be posting about. I’ve seen a lot of tweets about it, and in coincidence we’ve also been eyeing it up and have it to try out. We’ll need a couple or so days with it though. 

New Nokia N8, E7, C7, C6-01 officially with Anna

I just wanted to update this again as I’ve received some mail asking whether new Symbian^3 handsets were already coming out with Anna. As far as we know, this should have began some time in July.

Just today Paul tipped us that on Nokia’s site, both the E7 and N8 pages have updated specifications to say “Symbian Anna Operating system”

http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/devices/nokia-n8/specifications

http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/devices/nokia-e7-00/specifications

3 days ago when the Symbian^3 handset promo videos, Nokia replied to our comment confirming again, Anna for current devices in stores, and for original owners, this month of August.

Google takes a pop at Nokia – Android for Next Billion, and only ‘modern’ OS for under $200

Nokia as you know tries to cater for various price points. Whilst the high end is now in ‘transition’, the mid particularly low s40 focuses on bringing features to those without deep pockets. That’s part of Nokia’s strategy in connecting the Next Billion.  Symbian brought a lot of features for not a lot but Android is beginning to creep in. Now, to continue with the Google-Android whining, A post by John Lagerling appearing on several blogs titled “We can protect the values of Android”. The core value of Android is to be yet another channel by which to grab your information to shove you more ads. Everything else comes secondary.
This all spawned of course from google’s initial cries that Apple, MS and Oracle are strangling them because of course google should be allowed to have infringing code in their phones.
At the post, there’s an dig at Nokia’s Symbian as Lagerling calls Android “The ONLY operating system, modern smart-phone operating system, that exists on devices that costs 200USD or less”.
Knowing that Symbian delivers at lower price points than Android, Largerling makes a differentiation of “modern”, calling Symbian out there again for being old or dead.
Next, he says THIS is what is enabling the next Billion to get on mobile internet (not just a Nokia thing, though something Nokia keeps mentioning. BTW, Nokia sells nearly half a million ‘dumbphones’ per year on their own, so next billion can be quick to achieve).

Without going into too much detail, I do think that we have very strong paths that we can take to protect the values of Android that we have built through the open-source Apache 2 license with our partners. Obviously, Google doesn’t build — we don’t build phones and devices, but we had a vested interest in protecting the values of the Android ecosystem.
So when our partners are being attacked by aggressors, which we see as materially unfounded, it’s something that we join up together with our partners to resolve. And we have, I think, several options that we can take that will help protect the values of Android.
So again, we want to protect innovation. Patents were supposed to be there to enable innovation and monetization of innovation. When it’s being used in a prospective which is more to, as we see it, stifle innovation, it’s not something that is good for consumers.
Android is the only operating system, modern smart-phone operating system, that exists on devices that cost $200 or less. That is what is enabling the next billion of users of the Internet on mobile in the world.

Nokia can’t survive simply on lower prices alone. Android is getting stronger and stronger in the high end, but more importantly eating away at the mid and lows. I’ve even commented that sometimes on price, the Android gives a better overall experience. It’s one of the main reasons UnwiredView’s Staska attributes to Q2 earnings.
Sources: znet

Video: Bright Sparks. Supported by Nokia

Using the Nokia N8, Nokia challenged 80 creative bright sparks around the world to create an advert in 48 hours for Global Angels, a charity for disadvantaged children across the world. These creatives are called Young Lions, and the competition is part of Cannes Lions 2011, a festival that celebrates creativity.

As well as supplying N8s, tripods, steadycams, macro lenses were also provided.

Here was the winning advert. Unfortunately not in 720p. But good idea.Omar Sotomayor and Gastón Soto.

Winners and Losers of the Nokia-Microsoft “alliance”

So a lot has been made about this ‘alliance” (I hate that word) a lot of negative comments mainly from the Nokia enthusiasts side and also employees and developers that work on Symbian. Nokia and Microsoft make this sound like the best thing since sliced bread but the markets don’t seem to agree, because of the time I am writing this post Nokia’s shares have tanked 12%.

With that in mind I decided to compare the losers and winners of this supposed alliance to, so here it goes :

Winners:

Microsoft: Of course they are one of the biggest winners in this, they get Ovi Maps for FREE which Eldar has claimed on Twitter. It will most likely be rebranded as Microsoft or Bing maps and other WP7 OEM’s will be allowed to use it for FREE !!!!! WTF NOKIA They will probably troll though Nokia’s huge patent portfolio and grab what they can, they also get Nokia’s hardware expertise, which is second to none basically I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft bought Nokia for cheap in a few years.

Samsung : Samsung must be celebrating hard right now, it is obvious now that they will become the largest Handset maker in the world and dethrone Nokia, because the transition that is taking place from Symbian to WP7 will simply take too long for Nokia to respond. I don’t think Nokia will retake that crown either, there is no way. During the transition period no one will buy a Symbian device it would suicide. I personally wouldn’t recommend any Nokia devices until we see some WP7 phone’s, which I am not holding my breath for either.

Apple: Well what can I say Steve Jobs is obviously laughing right now, they have accomplished what they couldn’t do to Microsoft in the PC race which is to disrupt the market place and basically kill Symbian and Nokia couldn’t counter attack. Microsoft counter attacked Apple in the PC business buy just spending bucket loads of money. There is a real possibility that the Mobile OS game is between iOS and Android actually scratch that it already is, the rest will have small shares if they are lucky.

Google : Despite Gartners claims that Symbian is still the worlds most used OS, Android will take that next week maybe, I mean who is going to buy a Symbian device now ?!?!?! Would you recommend one to your friends or family, I know I wouldn’t so yeah Symbian’s market share will completly evaporate sadly. Developers also will have no interest and move on to iOS and Android.

Eldar Murtazin : For years this guy has been doing the best job possible for his employers Samsung and he has succeeded in a way, Samsung’s path to becoming the biggest handset maker is too easy to screw up now, just sell more Galaxy S variants and you are there.

Losers:

Intel: I sort of feel sorry for them remember their alliance with Nokia at last MWC ?……..yeah that went well. An analyst called MeeGo the biggest Tech Joke right know and I made fun of him, but do you know what it is a frackin joke and don’t want to see it anymore Nokia where never interested in it they toyed with it but their execution was amateurish. Oh yeah and where do Intel go from here they are sort of struggling in the tablet and Smartphone are only time will tell…..

Symbian, Qt, MeeGo: Man I feel sorry for every developer that has worked their bums off of getting apps to work for Symbian which was always harder than any other platform. I was very interested in developing for Nokia using Qt but that will not anymore. Whats more annoying is the thousands of Symbian and MeeGo engineers working at Nokia that will get the boot now, how many of those people had amazing ideas that where put forward but where rejected by effin corporate bureaucracy, thats what drove Nokia to Microsofts arms in the end. We can sort of blame ourselves a bit  as well, I mean we where sooooo convinced that MeeGo was going to be amazing and the new UI on Symbian will be hit, but in the end we where thinking with our hearts rather than our heads, it was never going to work with Nokia at the helm any other company would have executed that strategy perfectly and on time. Nokia’s snail pace development is shocking put that together with Microsoft and you will have something that is truly the laughing stock of the market.

Nokia fans: How can we ever believe that Nokia where actually going to execute the whole Symbian/MeeGo ecosystem together with Qt, it was so good to be true and we believed them, but I wish we hadn’t the number of times Nokia have promised and not delivered is beyond believe. Remember the first Maemo 6 device with an iconic user interface coming out middle of 2010, yeah that never happened. The Nokia N8 took ages to come out and when it did the UI was average if you are being nice, What about the Nokia E7…….forget it they will be lucky if 7 people picked it up. Nokia never held any of their promises for the last 3 years and we forgave them and trusted them that MeeGo was amazing. When the leaked pics of the Nokia N9 came out it received unanimous praise from the tech media even Engadget started getting excited about MeeGo but they screwed it up like Nokia are famous for for the last few days. Nokia dropping todays bombshell is like you catching your girlfriend sleeping with your best friend after years of her telling you she loves you.

Nokia: Oh yeah I almost forgot the company that got itself into this situation in the first place. All I can say is they screwed it up for the last few years and they screwed us over as well.

All is not lost though, if Microsoft can develop WP7 fast enough then we could have some cracking devices in the future from Nokia.

One thing is for sure though Nokia will never become the wolds biggest cell phone maker again at best they will be as big as Motorola if they are lucky ……..ouch

MyNokiaBlog unboxes a Samsung Omnia 7 WP7 phone. Hell not frozen yet.

So, this morning I went to the T-Mobile store in Manchester and got myself a Samsung Omnia 7 which runs Windows Phone 7. I got it because Nokia are of course, have shifted focus to Windows Phone so, like Andre, have picked one of these up so we can learn about the subject we’ll be talking about ((in addition to the usual Nokia, Symbian, MeeGo, Qt stuff – btw Andre has an Impressions/Opinions post on his early experience with his Focus)

I’ve done a quick unboxing video, photos below. You’re seeing it pretty much the first time I’m seeing it. I will go through software later, but through the course of my usage I’ll be giving demoes of the Omnia 7 in action.

The main reason I’ve picked the Samsung Omnia 7 is because it’s the only one available on T-Mobile. I was very tempted by the HTC 7′S  (on O2)  massive 4.3″ display after watching @stevelitchfield’s review, I thought against it. Plus it was the majority recommendation of twitter folk 

At the T-Mobile Store. Served by a cool guy called Chris, who just happened to previously work for Nokia.

Their wonderful non functional display unit

Ah, look at that beut!

What’s in the plastic bag?It’s not a very big box. Very minimalistic.

Slide the box open

Quick photo with N8. I will still be using it of course. I’m just having the Omnia 7 for educational purposes. It’s an odd feeling – was probably one of the least excited I’ve ever been about a new phone. I thought it would have been because it’s not Nokia, but not really. I’d be quite excited if it was an iPhone or some high end Android. Yeah, I said it. Only because they’re so highly regarded at the moment. I still have my doubts. Let’s see if the real experience proves me these as my personal misconceptions.

The package is just stacked up. Phone on top, manual underneath, accessories at very bottom.I’ll do device shots some other time, as well as of course, demoes of Windows Phone 7. Man, tell me one month ago I’d be making this post and I’d call you crazy.

Nokia to be dethroned as number 1 smartphone manufacturer?

In December, Electronics Giant, Samsung was said to have been trying to oust Nokia from their top spot as number 1 manufacturer of phones world wide. The time frame for this? 3 years. Note, that Nokia has been number 1 since 1998 (12 years), toppling then Supreme Motorola (which would have all but disappeared were it not for Android).

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/13/us-nokia-smartphones-idUSTRE75C18O20110613

Did you know however that Nokia has been number one in another category for 14 years? It’s the range that they pretty much invented and only until 2008 began showing decline. Smartphones. Nokia had the communicator series back in 1996.

Reuters are reporting that Nokia will be dethroned from their smartphone crown.

“Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will become the world’s largest smartphone maker this quarter, overtaking struggling Nokia Oyj which has lead the market since 1996, Nomura said on Monday.”

They’re still number one seller in total of all mobile phones. Is it really surprising given that Nokia hasn’t even announced a flagship device for 2011? The only new handsets are the somewhat midranged X7 and E6. Plus of course there was the effect of Symbian being issued with EOL in the yes of the media, operators and distributors of Nokia Symbian phones.

What’s worse is that Nokia isn’t just moving to number 2, but to number 3 position. Nomura also sees also Apple overtaking Nokia and pushing it to number 3 in rankings. Apple already has over taken Nokia in revenue back in April. In Q4, Nokia sold 24M smartphones. That’s great. Apple sold 18M.

During Nokia’s transition, Q2, Q3, and possibly Q4 too will look terrible. June 21 at Nokia connect may give us at least something positive to look forward to. It’s doubtful that it will sufficiently positively impact Q3. Until Q4 all will look lost. All I can do is just hope Nokia pulls it off and get back on their feet. There was never any real reason why they couldn’t have trampled all over their competition, snuffed out iPhone and prevented Android from ever getting anywhere, instead from tripping over in 2007 through to 2008, and 2009, and 2010, now on hands and knees. From a time when every single manufacturer COMBINED could not equal Nokia, tough competition, complacency, indecision and incompetent management leads us here.

If another set of analysts from Gartner, IDC and Pyramid Research are to be believed, if Nokia gets things right with Windows Phone, WP will be beating iOS by 2015 (Pyramid Research even goes on to say beating Android too).

Source: reuters