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Descarga.

• Price. Android phones need more processor power and internal memory, so they save money on other materials and components. With the same amount of money, you can buy a Symbian phone with better materials and hardware features than any Android device.
• GPS. Ovi Maps are far better than Google Maps. It is not needed to be on-line to use Ovi Maps, and you can get guided voice directions anywhere in the world.
• Camera. Usually, Android phones do not have dedicated camera buttons, including the controls on the touch screen. Sensors, optics and overall camera, video and picture quality are worse than their Nokia counterparts.
• Battery life. Symbian was designed for a low energy consumption. Symbian smartphones have a better battery life than Android ones.
• No data plan required. Today it is becoming more and more common to contract data service to use it on your smartphone. Symbian devices can be used in this way, with a permanent connection, but it is not needed, you still can use most of it without one. Android phones are more “internet” directed devices, almost every Google service needs a connection.
• Form factor. There is little difference among Android models, vast majority are touch screen phones. Nokia Symbian catalogue has touch screen models, sliders, full qwerty and every usual form factor you need.
• Support. You do not buy an Android phone. You buy a Samsung, HTC or a Huawei device, and guarantee and support are done by those companies. Nokia has the best support service worldwide.
• Fragmentation. There are different Android versions, sometimes with overlaying manufacturer or network operator software. This fragmentation makes difficult for programmers to adapt their creations to different screen sizes or Android versions. As a result, you can buy and download a non working program from Android Market to your phone.
• Privacy. Android ‘with Google’, includes the usual Google apps. This company already has a lot of personal information from its users derived from the search engine. I am afraid to give Google, or any other big company, my mobile information: search, mail or location. With Symbian you are not relying so much on Nokia, for example, I have the option to use Ovi Store without having an Ovi email account.

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This decision involves a new strategy:

• Nokia makes a very big bet on Qt: it should be good enough to develop the new UI’s for Symbian and Meego. Moreover, it will have to handle also the default applications. Nokia starts to eat its own dog food.
• Third party development will be in a similar level to Nokia rivals. Developers won’t deal directly with the mobile operative system but through Qt api’s.
• Nokia lowers the entry level barrier. QML is similar to Javascript, so it’s simple and fast to start to program with it.

There are a lot of things that could go wrong with this new strategy, but on paper it looks very good. Developers will have one SDK, working over Linux, Mac or Windows, to make desktop or mobile apps with a Javascript like language.

One more thing. If Nokia accomplish these tasks over Symbian and Meego, if they can execute properly, Nokia has a weapon of mass destruction. It’s easy to picture a Qt Quick port for iOS, Android or Windows Mobile. Qt already supports WindowsCE, and there have been individual projects to port Qt to Apple iOS and Android. By next year, Nokia could have on the street a more attractive tool, a better SDK than any of its competitors. None of Nokia rivals is doing anything like this, and only HP/Palm WebOS will have a similar entry level for developers. Even if you are a developer targeting Android only, it could be easier and faster to use Nokia Qt Quick than any other tool. With last week decisions, maybe Nokia has already won the developers battle.

Main features:

• Displays course and speed.
• Current position appears against most points in nearby surroundings.
• Nearest landmarks are displayed, and their distance and bearing from your position.
• GPS status.
• Statistics of a particular trip or part of an expedition.
• Anchor alarm & alerts.
• Night mode.
• Configurable power saving mode.

Download Explorers Tracker trial here.

• Change the company name. If they want to gain hearts and minds they have to change the name. NokiUS is a good one.
• Use a modern mobile operative system. Like Linux or BSD. Well it doesn’t need to be modern, but it has to look like. You have to use a lot of effects and transitions, and transparencies. It’s hard to notice it on small screens, so you have to use a LOT.
• Use intuitive software. The operative system has to be intuitive, the phone is supposed to be smart, but the user is stupid for sure. Don’t use notifications or any warnings, the average user is not going to read them, and it’s too hard to choose between ‘accept’ or ‘cancel’. Use a generic fail message with cool words like ‘force close’. The force is good, use the force.
• Don’t care about developers. They are not wealthy people so they are not going to buy any phones from you. It’s worse, they will ask you for free phones. Create some wonderful success stories and they will come. From time to time, you have to treat them badly. Everybody knows mobile developers are masochist, that’s why they are mobile developers.
• Fix Ovi Store. You need hundred thousand apps or more to be considered a modern company. You don’t need good apps, so you can create a few simple apps and make 4 or 5 different versions changing the icons and the screens colours. People won’t notice, and this way you can grow the app number easily.
• Make compelling devices. Use lots of RAM and the fastest chips available, don’t care about the price or energy consumption. You can use the same design forever, but every new model needs to be faster and with more memory than the previous one. Do something modern like restrict the apps installation to the internal memory.
• Use proper batteries. Use 600 or 800 mAh non replaceable batteries. Every modern smartphone has to shut down before the end of the day. That way the user feels it’s been a productive day. If your phone lasts for two days or more it’s because is slow and old fashioned, and because you are not working enough to drain it.
• Forget the sub $100 smartphone. Close the mid and low ranges, the whole series 40 and everything cheaper than 400$. Forget about developing countries: they are still developing. Focus only on wealthy people who can pay 1000$ or more, over two years contracts. Make agreements or just bribe the networks operators to reach the market fully subsidized, that way the customer doesn’t notice is being ripped off.
• Link the phone to services. First thing the user needs to do before using your phone is to give his credit card number, otherwise the phone doesn’t work. Second, he has to authenticate online against all Ovi services, otherwise the phone self-destroys. Operators will love the bundled data service part.



]]> http://www.paniccode.com/2010/10/what-nokia-should-do/feed/ 9 http://www.paniccode.com/2010/10/sms-alert/ http://www.paniccode.com/2010/10/sms-alert/#comments Fri, 22 Oct 2010 06:48:40 +0000 Oscar B http://www.paniccode.com/?p=263 Continue reading →]]> SMS Alert is a Symbian^1 S60 3rd ed. application that assigns different SMS alert tones to any contact or group of contacts. In the tab Contacts you should choose Contact or Group of contacts, define the message tone and fill in all required fields. You have the opportunity to assign SMS alerts to the profiles. This means that the chosen tone will be ringing when the proper profile is active.
Apart of the chosen SMS alert tone, you can set the ringing volume and ringing type. You’ll always recognize the SMS message sender, as the tone chosen will be played when you receive an SMS.

Download SMS Alert here.



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