Day: February 16, 2010

“The announced but not yet released WebKit-based BlackBerry web browser was shown off via video demo twice today at Mobile World Congress. Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO, gave it a minute of glory during the morning’s general session, while an hour later it was Mike Kirkup, RIM’s Director of Developer Relations, who gave a quick walk through of what’s in store for the browser at the BlackBerry Developer Day at App Planet to those in attendanceThings are definitely looking promising here for us BlackBerry users, even when taking note of the fact the demo provided today was a recorded video vs. a live demo and you can see the browser was connected to WiFi vs. 3G. Getting data down to the BlackBerry fast has never been an issue for the BlackBerry web browser, rather it’s the rendering of the page once that data is on the device. It seems the Torch Mobile folks that joined RIM were able to hit the ground running and the BlackBerry is rendering Javascript and pages A LOT faster than any other previous BlackBerry web browser. I’m not sure if RIM has any devices on hand at MWC with the WebKit browser installed but I’ll do my best to get a minute of hands-on time with one if they do. No word on roll out yet, but the sooner the better, that’s for sure. Wouldn’t it be nice if the rollout came along with an OS update that featured some significant UI updates? BlackBerry Heaven, that’s what I’d call that.” via crackberry.com

“The version 031.012 firmware for the Nokia E55 has just been released. This brings the E55 up to date with with E52, which had the same version number firmware released earlier this month. The firmware is already available as an over-the-air update, and went smoothly on our E55. The update is a 7724KB download, and after updating there were no obvious changes. Please leave a comment if you find something new or different on your E55. At the time of writing we were unable to find any further details about the update, although it would be reasonable to assume it provides the same updates as reported by Rafe for the E52. Built-in application version after the update:

• Web 7.1.5
• E-Mail 2.1.0
• Maps 3.03 (0.1.22.103)” via allaboutsymbian.com
  

“Skype for Symbian, long in beta for S60 3rd Edition and missing-in-action for the Nokia N97 marque, has now been overhauled, face-lifted and released for both, and is out of beta. You can get it by going to skype.com/m in Web on your (N95 onwards) S60 phone and downloading when prompted. Read on for lots of screenshots from my Nokia N97, comment and links. Here’s Rafe’s first look at Skype for Symbian, from the beta released a few months ago. You might want to glance over this first. The S60 5th Edition version has been given a major cosmetic overhaul, though seemingly at the expense of a greater RAM hit.Here’s the main Skype information age for Symbian. And yes, the image for the N97 is wrong 😎 And, no, judging from the comments below, it doesn’t seem to work on anything non-Nokia – though I’m sure Skype are working on it. Skype is pretty heavy in terms of demands on the phone’s processor, especially when starting, so you have to be patient while it signs in, retrieves your Skype contacts/thumbnails (the first time – all these are stored locally and retrieved far faster thereafter) and checks statuses. There’s the option to include all your phone contacts as well, for calling via Skype if desired (and if you have Skype-out credit). It’s also very slow when downloading an existing chat history and then rendering it. Chat messages don’t seem to be stored locally and it can take up to minute for a lengthy chat history to be loaded up and rendered – guys, why not just grab the last day’s worth, rather than the last month? Just a thought. You can see why it has taken a while to get such a heavyweight application to the phone – Skype tries to fully replicate the desktop client far more than it tries to compete with the more nimble phone-centric Nimbuzz and Fring. As a result there will have been plenty of people at Skype tearing their hair out over the full client’s performance on the N97 (and N97 mini and 5800, to be fair) – it really needs faster hardware and more RAM. As you’ll see from the last screenshot, we’re back to the usual ‘Nokia really should have put more RAM in these things’ rant, I’m afraid. Skype will already be RAM-optimised, after so long in development, so all you can really do is close other hungry apps, like Gravity, Web and Photos, before kicking off Skype. Still, it works, call quality is good, and it’s great to see this app finally available for the Nokia N97, albeit 5 months later than originally promised.More photos here:

“The Nokia N900 has just received a new firmware update taking it up to v3.2010.02-8 (PR 1.1.1). New firmware updates generally contain bug fixes and optimizations necessary for the software on your device to perform properly, therefore we recommend you always keep your device up to date. Unfortunately there is no official changelog but we will update this article as soon as we know more. The new firmware will gradually make its way round to you over the coming weeks depending on your region and product code.
How To Update The Firmware
There are many ways of updating the firmware on your Nokia N900. To install the software on your device using FOTA (Firmware Over-The-Air), simply launch the Application Manager and click update. There you will see a Maemo5 update. If the firmware update is not immediately available via FOTA, you can also update your firmware using NSU (Nokia Software Updater) on your PC. Once you plug your device in, select the PC Suite option, ensuring that the phone has a Sim Card inserted and the profile is set to General. Some devices also support UDP (User Data Preservation), which will preserve all your data and content on your device during these updates. However we still recommend you do a full backup in order to guarantee the safety of your data. The N900 is known to wipe off some data when updating via NSU so please be careful and backup your content” via thenokiareview.com

HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced the HTC HD mini, an HTC Sense-based Windows Phone focused on delivering the popular experience of the HTC HD2 in a more compact design.“The demand for the HTC HD2 has exceeded our expectations, and the HTC HD mini fulfils a desire from some customers to bring the capabilities and experience of the HTC HD2 to a more compact design,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. “The integration of HTC Sense and Windows Phone on HD mini and HD2 gives customers an additional choice for an advanced Windows mobile phone that is sleek, well crafted and easy to use.” The HTC HD mini sports a high degree of usability along with its own unique and beautiful design. Precision fasteners used to assemble the phone are externally visible, displaying a high level of craftsmanship rarely found in mobile phones. And the strong design ethos continues under the battery cover where a bright yellow internal structure, offers an unexpected surprise when the phone is opened.
Availability
The new HTC HD mini will be broadly available to customers across major European and Asian markets beginning in April. The HTC HD mini utilises HTC Sense, a user experience focused on putting people at the centre by making the phone work in a more simple and natural way. This experience revolves around three fundamental principles that were developed by observing and listening to how people live and communicate. These core tenets of Make It Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected continue to be the key to the new HTC Sense experience. Like the HTC HD2, the HTC HD mini continues the same focus on people-centric communication with complete Outlook integration. It helps you stay close to the important friends and colleagues in your life by providing a single contact view that displays individual communication snapshots of your conversations, regardless of whether it was a call, text, status update or email. HTC’s Windows-based Twitter application, HTC Peep, enables you to tweet and follow your twitter stream. HTC HD mini includes capacitive touch for viewing, zooming and resizing websites, Microsoft® Office files, PDF documents and pictures with just a pinch of your fingers. Leveraging its 3G broadband connectivity, the HTC HD mini also offers personal Wi-Fi anywhere for your computer or other devices. The HD mini can also be further enhanced to reflect your needs and style by downloading a variety of applications from the Windows® Marketplace for Mobile.

“Bada’s roots stem from Samsung’s previous phones, as it hasn’t gone too far from them in terms of both philosophy and hardware. Their new S8500 (codenamed “Wave”), for one, has evolved from the Samsung S8000 Jet, as they are based on pretty much the same hardware platform (although there is something to be said for the 1GHz CPU, a tad more memory and new cellular module). Software-wise, though, the Wave is as close to the Jet as it gets. Even its positioning is not much different from the original S8000 – both target people who are looking for a balanced touchscreen-enabled phone that can do all the tricks out of the box. In a word, it’s Samsung’s vision of the “all in one” concept, and it’s worth noting that it has turned out to be extremely appealing.” Read more here:

“It’s not just the Liquid e that Acer are bringing out here at MWC 2010; the company also have a number of other new Windows Mobile and Android devices to choose from. The Acer neoTouch P300 and neoTouch P400 each run Windows Mobile 6.5.3, with the former having a 3.2-inch WQVGA touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, while the Acer beTouch E110 and E400 run Android (1.5 Cupcake and 2.1 Eclair respectively) with the E110 having a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen and the E400 having a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen.Across the board there’s 3G and Bluetooth, while on the E110 lacks WiFi b/g. No vast processor speeds here, though; at most you’ll get 600MHz. All have a 3.2-megapixel camera together with GPS and a 3.5mm headphone jack.Full specifications of all the smartphones in the gallery below, along with some extra images. Acer expect the neoTouch P300 and beTouch E110 to arrive in March 2010, with the beTouch E400 following on in April and the neoTouch P400 dropping in May 2010.” More photos here:

“Sony Ericsson announced their three new handsets in a press event held on the day before the MWC 2010 started: the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. The first one is the Symbian S60 5th edition handset, which comes up with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. The Vivaz Pro will feature 3.2″ with 640×360 resistive touchscreen display, 720 MHz processor, 5MP camera with capability of 720p HD video recording, WebKit web browser and TV out.” Read more here: