I am not a developer, but I do use a lot of applications on my devices. Nokia made several developer announcements today that look to be designed to keep developers or bring more to the Symbian platform. All About Maemo has a good post covering the announcements that I recommend you check out. Unfortunately, I still think the Ovi Store is the lamest online application store of any mobile platform and don’t see any improvements being planned or talked about. With highly profitable stores in the iPhone App Store and Google Android Market I really wonder if developers think it is worth continuing with Symbian. Nokia made five key announcements today to try to encourage continued development and these include:
Availability of the Nokia Qt Software Development Kit (SDK) 1.0
Individuals can now register as Ovi Publishers
Public beta of Nokia signing Symbian apps for free
Availability of Nokia Smart Installer for Symbian
Ovi Store intake for Qt apps
The new Nokia Qt SDK allows for cross-platform development for Symbian and Maemo devices and as we know Symbian will continue to be developed for years as MeeGo powers the higher end devices. The Symbian signing change is nice and should hopefully get a few more apps out there. I know I had to manually sign iSMS to get threaded text messaging on my E71, but it was a real pain to go through that process.
All these announcements were made to make it easier for developers to get their apps out to users. Nokia recently released a tool to make website RSS feed app/widgets, but this site was denied because we have Nokia in the name. I actually think populating the Ovi Store with a ton of RSS feed widgets is a bit of a waste anyway so I didn’t try to pursue or get this resolved.
I would like to see some improvements in the Ovi Store myself. I just fine the whole interface to be rather slow, a bit cumbersome to use for explorer apps, and the highly touted recommendation section to offer up lame and undesirable content. I have only purchased a couple of things since it launched and mainly use it to see if I can find new stuff to then go purchase outside the Ovi Store.
I already wrote that I WILL be buying a Nokia N8 as soon as they are released, preferably the orange color one. Over the last few weeks Nokia’s N8 product manager, Chris Bennetts, has been starring in a series of videos showing off different aspects of the device. The videos may not be as slick as what we see from Apple’s marketing department, but Chris is close to the N8 and offers some good information on the device.
I have embedded the three videos below with links to the excellent All About Symbian video breakdowns that I recommend you check out.
Nokia N8 video – Part One
Follow this link to the All About Symbian video examination for more information.
Nokia N8 video – Part Two
Follow this link to the All About Symbian video examination for more information.
Nokia N8 video – Part Three
Follow this link to the All About Symbian video examination for more information.
The football World Cup 2010 on your Symbian smartphone
With the football World Cup 2010 (eh, what, is something happening today?) starting this evening and going on for all eternity a month, you’ll be wondering how you can keep track of the goings on in South Africa on your smartphone.
SPB Software was one of the first places I used to visit for optimizing my Windows Mobile device and turning it into the device I wanted. Spb Software has come a long way over the last couple of years and now has software for all the major smartphone platforms, including Symbian. One of the foundational applications that I used on all of my Windows Mobile devices prior to HTC’s TouchFLO UI (and sometimes even in place of this) was SPB Mobile Shell. I was very pleased to receive the news last week that SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 was coming to Symbian S60 5th Edition and is now available for $29.95.
If you are familiar with SPB Mobile Shell on Windows Mobile then you know how much customization and functionality is in this application so I figured it was a bit easier to show this off with a video so I have the YouTube video I created below to walk you through the software. I also included an image gallery below of several screenshots, but there is even more than that available and I recommend you at least give the free trial a chance if you are at all interested in customizing the main user interface of your S60 5th Edition device. I personally tested it out on a Nokia N97 mini.
Installation and initial setup
The install file is quite large at about 7 MB, but since it is a user interface for the device I installed it right into the internal memory location on the N97 mini. It ran perfectly and I never experienced any lockups or freezes, even though I was testing a pre-release candidate.
You can install and then launch SPB Mobile Shell and then just start using it with the default settings. I imagine some people may do this, but the reason to use an application like this is to fully customize the user experience to your personal tastes and I doubt there are any two exact same SPB Mobile Shell setups across the spectrum of users.
Key features
As you can see in my video above, there is a ton of customizable functionality in SPB Mobile Shell and the software gives you a fresh device while we wait for Symbian^3. Here is a list of the widgets that are included with SPB Mobile Shell 3.5:
Shortcut to apps
Photo Contact
Wireless Control Switches
Battery
Phone profile
Analog clock
Digital clock
Tasks
Picture frame
Birthdays
Bluetooth/WiFi/Flight mode
Emails/SMS & MMS/Missed call
Backlight
Alarms
Agenda/Calendar
Weather, 5 day forecast and current weather conditions
Launcher
SPB Menu
Contacts
Photo contacts
Smart search
Call log
Contacts carousel
Home screen backgrounds
Skins
There are two main components of SPB Mobile Shell, including Professional Home and Lifestyle Home and you can easily switch between the two by simply flicking upwards or downwards on the display. This works if you have both enabled, but you can also just choose to use one if you never use the other. Each of these components is customizable to your liking and gives you access to many types of glanceable information and the ability to launch utilities and applications quickly.
Using SPB Mobile Shell 3.5
SPB Mobile Shell is a UI built on top of the S60 5th Edition interface and you can always switch back to the Symbian UI if you desire, but I think after you customize your device you will stick with Mobile Shell 3.5.
SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 supports OpenGL and provides a 3D carousel of your contacts, which is pretty slick and some nice eye candy. Even though the functionality can be overwhelming at times, keep in mind the software is focused on multiple homescreens, widgets, photo contacts/speed dial, and an application launcher. At times you can get lost down in the menus, but I found out on my Windows Mobile devices that you eventually gain a full understanding of the application and setup and then have a tough time trying anything else when your device is customized and optimized for you.
Conclusion
SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 is a wonderful way to customize your Symbian S60 5th Edition device. As we see some people complain about the user interface of Symbian it seems that this application can address many of those concerns and give you a fresh device without having to buy a new device. You may find the setup a bit overwhelming at first, but as you use it and set it up it really turns out to be a straight forward utility that is quite pleasing to use.
SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 is fast and responsive to touch and I am using it now as my main user interface on the N97 mini. We do not see a lot of these types of user interface utilities on Symbian so I was pleased to see SPB Software bring over just about everything that they have developed on the Windows Mobile platform.
Ratings (out of 5)
Features: 4.5
Stability: 5
Customizability: 5
Ease of use: 4
Overall: 4.5/5
Pros
Extremely customizable
Fast and responsive
Stable
Fresh user interface without needing a new device
Cons
May be a bit overwhelming at first with all the settings
SPB Mobile Shell for Symbian
Nokia’s user interface has been crying out for a makeover for way too long. Luckily, a third-party developer has stepped up to save the day.
Nokia says Symbian 3 phone to hit shops in third quarter
The world’s top mobile phone maker Nokia on Tuesday released details of its first smartphone based on Symbian 3, the much-awaited updated version of its aging operating system.
Nokia Announces the Nokia N8 Symbian 3 Phone with a 12-megapixel Camera
Nokia today announced the Nokia N8, Nokia’s first device to debut with Symbian 3 software, features a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash and a large sensor that rivals those found in compact digital cameras, as …
(AFX UK Focus) 2010-04-22 11:45 BRIEF-Nokia says Symbian 3 launch delayed to Q3
HELSINKI, April 22 (Reuters) – The chief executive of top mobile phone maker Nokia, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, told television channel CNBC on Thursday: * Says to launch Symbian 3 in Q3 VS earlier Q2 * Says Nokia Siemens Q2 guidance shows confidence in venture (Reporting by Helsinki Newsroom; news@reuters.fi; +358 9 6805 0244))
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