Category: Platforms

Software Related to mobiles

Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 3 – Symbian^3 And UI

Hello and welcome everyone to the Nokia N8 Review Week here on Fone Arena! Each day of this week, one of our team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flagship with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is Wednesday, our names are Rita El Khoury and Sloan Bowman, and we have joined forces to tell you about the Nokia N8 software and what you can expect of it. Since the software/UI is a very objective and personal matter, we thought we would give you two real-world opinions of it, sometimes we’ll agree, other times we’ll have radically opposing impressions. Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions on that matter, leave a comment!

After tackling the Hardware and Camera in the previous days, two aspects where the Nokia N8 excels by anyone’s standards, we come to the most controversial aspect of the N8, the software or Symbian^3 and its UI. Symbian^3 is the first major software leap since Nokia brought S60 5th Edition on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Upon introduction, Symbian^3 was described as an evolutional not revolutional progression, meant to fix all the major issues that plagued Symbian’s first iteration with a touchscreen UI, and which were most heartfelt on the Nokia N97. Continue reading “Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 3 – Symbian^3 And UI”

Samsung Continuum announced, hitting Verizon on Nov.11th for $199.99

We saw that coming, and we are talking about this phone from a few weeks now. Samsung has officially announced the Samsung Continuum, which is the world first phone to come with dual LED display. Samsung announced the device officially during the event in NYC. Continue reading “Samsung Continuum announced, hitting Verizon on Nov.11th for $199.99”

HTC Paradise leaked again, headed to AT&T

Remember the HTC Paradise we saw in the wild a few months ago? Now the phone has made its way through FCC once again, and this time FCC also posted several shots and user guide of it, and it’s also confirmed that the Paradise is headed to AT&T. HTC Paradise is an Continue reading “HTC Paradise leaked again, headed to AT&T”

Verizon announces Motorola Droid PRO and Motorola Droid 2 Global

Motorola and Verizon officially announced the Motorola Droid Pro back in October, but Verizon didn’t give us any information about the Motorola Droid Pro. Now Verizon has officially announced that they will launch the Motorola Droid Pro on November 18th for $179.99, and now the device is up for pre-order. Continue reading “Verizon announces Motorola Droid PRO and Motorola Droid 2 Global”

T-Mobile HTC HD7 out of stock

T-Mobile officially launched the HTC HD7 yesterday, and after a few hours of its launch, the HTC HD7 is now out of stock. It means that T-Mobile is selling the HTC HD7 like hotcakes, or maybe they only got a few devices in stock. HTC HD7 is a very good device, and also a successor to the HTC HD2, which is also a pretty good device. Continue reading “T-Mobile HTC HD7 out of stock”

Taptu Launches My Taptu – Social News Aggregator

Taptu today launched My Taptu a simple Social News Aggregator for iPhone and Android smartphones.  My Taptu organize  feeds from Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn,  online sources in all in one beautiful little app. My Taptu arranges your content in highly personal and visual ‘streams’. You can view them at a glance and click read more if you  want to read them in detail. Continue reading “Taptu Launches My Taptu – Social News Aggregator”

Tip: Quickly Toggle Bluetooth And Screen Rotation On Symbian^3

One of the things that boggles my mind beyond belief on Symbian^3 is that there still is no way to quickly toggle Data, Wifi, Bluetooth and the automatic screen Rotation. Sure you can click next to the battery, then on the connection symbol, then choose what method you want, then turn it on/off, but does it have to be this ridiculously tedious? Seriously, would it have been THAT difficult to build a widget with 4 icons that allows you with a single press on each of them to toggle these 4 options on/off? SPB Software includes a connection widget in their SPB Mobile Shell so it sure must be easy for Symbian to do it themselves, ‘ight?

Anyway, ranting aside, we must be thankful to independent developers who, like with MusicBar, fill the void on Symbian. Two nice toggles have lately appeared with compatibility for Symbian^3, one for Bluetooth and the other for the screen rotation, and are both incredible handy additions to the Symbian^3 homescreen shortcuts widget.

Continue reading “Tip: Quickly Toggle Bluetooth And Screen Rotation On Symbian^3”

JoikuSpot now supports Sony Ericsson Symbian handsets

With JoikuSpot  you can turn your mobile phone to a secure WiFi HotSpot, and connect your laptop or iPad to internet using WiFi and using your mobile phone as a 3G internet modem. JoikuSpot Premium comes with connection securing with a password, full internet and email protocol support, VPN, and no forced landing pages. As your phone becomes the WiFi internet router, you do not need external USB modems, cables or MiFi for internet connectivity.  JoikuSpot enables “1-click internet”. 1 click to turn a phone to a WiFi internet HotSpot, and another click in the laptop to connect to the web via JoikuSpot WiFi access point. Continue reading “JoikuSpot now supports Sony Ericsson Symbian handsets”

Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 2 – Camera

Hello and welcome everyone to the Nokia N8 Review Week here on FoneArena! Each day of this week, one of our team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flagship with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is Tuesday, my name is Sandeep Sarma, and I will be covering the N8’s camera . Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions please feel free to comment.

Continue reading “Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 2 – Camera”

Android 2.3 SDK launching on November 11th?

Android 2.3 is around the corner, and Google will launch it anytime now. Our friends over at IntoMobile are saying that Google will officially launch the Gingerbread SDK on November 11th, and now Adobe Flash Android app is also suggesting that “Please install the upcoming 11/9 update (ver. 10.1.105.x) to ensure that Flash Player loads properly with future OS updates.” So may be IntoMobile is right about it. Continue reading “Android 2.3 SDK launching on November 11th?”

Windows Phone 7 running on HTC HD2

HTC HD2 owners were waiting for the Windows Phone 7  update for their device, but HTC crushed their dreams by saying that HTC HD2 will not be upgraded to the new Windows Phone 7 OS, but don’t worry because there are hackers out there who know that HD2 is capable enough to run WP7. So XDA China ported WP7 into the HTC HD2, and you can also see the image above in which the HD2 is running Wp7, and after the break, you will see a proper video of HTC HD2 running WP7. Continue reading “Windows Phone 7 running on HTC HD2”

Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 1 – Hardware

Hello and welcome everyone to the Nokia N8 Review Week here on Fone Arena! Each day of this week, one of our Team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flaghsip with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is monday, my name is Michael Hell, and i’ll tell you a bit about the Nokia N8 hardware and what you can expect of it. Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions on that matter, leave a comment! Continue reading “Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 1 – Hardware”

MusicBar Updated For Symbian^3, Camera Compatible Now

You might recall a few days ago I talked to you about an application called MusicBar that allowed you to set a specific button on your Symbian device to access music playback controls on your screen, no matter what application you’re using without disrupting your workflow. The main problem with MusicBar was that it had to use the Camera button on the Nokia N8 for example, hence preventing you from autofocusing while taking an image. Well Nicholas Usanov-Kornilov has updated MusicBar to 1.0.1 to fix this issue.

The new version of MusicBar brings a few improvements amongst which the support for the Symbian^3 selection UI. Now, when setting up the application, as previously explained in my first post, the Exceptions menu have been fixed and you can finally scroll down to the middle of the list and tick the Camera. By doing so, you prevent MusicBar from launching only when the Camera is active, that way you can use the Autofocus key to get your music controls in all applications, yet still use that to focus on an image while in the Camera. It’s perfect. Of course, if you want to disable MusicBar in other apps, you can also do so.

If you were previously doubting the usefulness of MusicBar, you shouldn’t even flinch with this update. It makes it a killer tool to add to your N8 or C7 or other Symbian^3 phones without the problem of messing with the camera functions.

You can download the new version from Nicholas’ website (russian page or Google translated page), but remember you have to register to download and you need to sign it before installing it.