Google’s drive for world domination around your country has been going nicely, judging from the fact that Street View just went live for virtually all the UK. Yes, every last track, every last estate road – it’s all there in glorious technicolour on your smartphone. Google Maps for Mobile itself is available from the usual m.google.com/gmm and to see Street View you need to long tap on any location and pick ‘Street View’... 

The last year or so has seen one of the biggest changes in distributing mobile applications – the rise of the App Store. It has had a huge effect on all areas of development, especially in the gaming sector, which thrives on snack-sized gaming sessions. Here in San Francisco at the tenth Game Developer Conference (GDC), a number of sessions and panels have been specifically focussed on this new distribution channel. To call it a new channel... 

Nokia is currently transforming itself from a hardware company to a hardware+services (solutions) company. At MWC 2010, we spoke to Tero Ojanper  Read More →

After resisting the persistent trend of touch screen smartphones, David Gilson reports on his experience of living with some S60 5th Edition touch screen phones , namely the Nokia 5230 and N97. Could it be that, like me, he finds the biggest strength of touch screens isn’t that they respond to touch?  Read More →

Continuing from our previous Sony Ericsson Vivaz videos we look at some of the key design charcteristics of the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro (human curvature, light reflection effects and material choices), compare the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro on video, take a brief look at some of the different colours that will be available and get a demo of the handset shooting video and uploading to YouTube. Taken together these videos help you get a clearer picture of Sony... 

As noted in Rafe’s Maps interview thread , Nokia isn’t keen to put resources behind creating a version of Ovi Maps 3.3 with free voice navigation for older S60 3rd Edition FP2 and FP1 (and vanilla 3rd Edition) phones. A good question is why Nokia doesn’t then just make existing navigation licenses free, thus having much the same effect. It seems that they’ve gone much of the way to ‘free’ for older devices, with... 

In this interview, recorded in Barcelona at MWC 2010, we talk to Christof Hellmis, Director Navigation & Routing Solutions at Nokia, about Ovi Maps and Nokia’s location strategy. It is clear that location has an enormously important role to play as a key enabler in the future of mobile – and this piece will give you an insight to Nokia’s viewpoints and attitudes. We  Read More →

In Insight 108 , (with Rafe away) Steve, Ewan and guest  Read More →

While I’ve previously pitched the  Read More →

Just a little weekend link of interest: a writer with the marvellous name of Hagop Kavafian for the NokiaLB site has produced a detailed and fairly insightful review of the Nokia E55 . Do take his opinion of the E55’s camera with a pinch of salt though – I don’t think he really understood the idea behind EDoF (Extended Depth of Field) and I’m tempted to suggest that there might have been dirt on his E55’s camera glass….... 

This month saw the start of the Microsoft Browser Ballot in EU countries. As part of the deal with the Competition watchdogs in Europe, Windows users are being presented with a randomised “ballot” screen of alternative browsers, including Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome, as well as the company’s Internet Explorer product. Is there any implication to the mobile market in this decision? Maybe…  Read More →

According to the official Ovi Blog, the enormous HRS system is beginning to appear in the homescreen of Ovi Maps 3.3 (and beyond), offering hotel searching by proximity to your current location, with navigation to a hotel handled within the application. There’s also integration with other phone functi ons, to allow real time availability checking and booking. Initially HRS is appearing in just Germany and Finland, but other countries should... 

Armed with the new HP iPrint Photo utility, Steve Litchfield walks you through the process of printing photos directly from your Nseries phone – no wires, no fuss. What could go wrong? See also the PS for those without a Wi-Fi-enabled printer.  Read More →

Nokia’s Beta Labs  Read More →

Yep, that’s our very own Matt Radford (late of All About iPhone) writing as a guest over at The Really Mobile Project and talking about a topic close to all our hearts – the cycle of lust-buy-disappointment (and hopefully) enlightenment-productivity that we all go through as part of obtaining our next smartphone. It’s a Link of Interest and a good read for your afternoon cup of coffee .  Read More →