Apps and updates worth downloading: YouTube Capture, Vine, Temple Run 2, and more

Finding apps in the various marketplaces can be hard enough given how flooded they are. Blackberry 10 early adopters are going to have that issue right at launch. We’ll deal with that when it comes, though. For now we’ll focus on the best apps and updates of this week, featuring Youtube Capture, Temple Run 2, Vine, and more.

If you’ve been using a smartphone for some time now, you’re no doubt accustom to the process of downloading apps. You know how to find what you’re looking for and how to make use out of your favorite apps. But what if you were starting fresh? What if you were given a phone with a new and unfamiliar operating system and none of your frequently used apps installed? You’d likely get a little overwhelmed by everything and hope to find a couple familiar faces while browsing through the app marketplace. That’s the experience that BlackBerry 10 adopters are preparing for, with an overhauled OS and one of the biggest lists of launch apps we’ve seen and little to differentiate between app options without experimenting a bit. This week, though, that’s not your problem. Enjoy the updates and new apps worth downloading for your current operating system of choice from the week of January 20-27, 2013.

Updates

Photopoll (iOS)

Photopoll is one of those apps with a name that says it all. Take between two and five pictures and pose them as the answers to a poll question. Then let your friends, family, and others respond to your question by choosing the picture that they like best. The latest version of the app does the usual bug fix routine, smoothing out some of the wrinkles of previous versions. The biggest improvement of the update comes to navigation, which now moves smoother and features animations between menus and tabs. Facebook interaction also improved, making it easier to share your poll socially.

YouTube Capture (iOS)

It wasn’t too long ago that YouTube Capture was featured in the “New Apps” section of this column. In the first update since it’s release, the quick and easy app-ified version of the YouTube upload button once again has our attention. Aside from some functionality improvements like a more sound audio sync (pun intended) and social network sharing options, the big upgrade here is the ability to upload in 1080p. It might eat up your whole data plan in a single upload, but man will it look great when you watch it.

Amazon Cloud Drive Photos (Android)

Sometimes app updates are boring and barely noticeable. Sometimes they add something you never expected. In the case of Amazon Cloud Drive Photos, the latest update is just an attempt to keep up with the pack. Taking on the biggest rivals in cloud storage, Amazon Cloud Drive Photos has added the ability to automatically upload your photos. There is also a built-in camera in the app so if you find yourself using it regularly and want to replace your standard camera app, you can. Personally, we hope the next update shortens the apps name because it’s currently a mouth full.

New Apps

Hushed (Android)

Here’s an app for those concerned with personal privacy. For anyone who has used throwaway email addresses, the concept will be familiar. Hushed provides users with a disposable, anonymous phone number to make calls or texts with. The creators of the app say it’ll be good for completing transactions on Craigslist and sites of that ilk, or communicating with anyone who you may not want to give your number to long term. If nothing else, kids of the future have the perfect prank call app now. 

Vine (iOS)

This app became the talk of the mobile town upon its release, but not always for good reasons. Despite its popularity, it got a rejection from Facebook. That’s ok, because Vine is a Twitter app through and through, allowing users to post six-second videos to Vine’s own servers as well as social networks. It gives users a chance to shoot short bursts of their lives and send them out for all to see. It’ll be interesting to see how it gets utilized exactly, but grab it and get filming to make it worthwhile.

Swipp (iOS)

Swipp takes the concept of conversation and compartmentalizes it. The app allows you to have ongoing communication with people in your area or around the world about a specific topic. See who is saying what about your interests and find out the insight that others have to offer. Swipp is being pitched as sort of an instant network of knowledge, with the goal of collecting what people know about certain topics and making it available and up for discussion like a live-updating Wikipedia. 

Finds (iOS)

Out shopping and see a deal that you can’t believe? Browsing the aisles of the thrift shop Macklemore style and come across some vintage clothes that are coming home with you? Finds wants you to share it all with the world. Show people the great savings you scored or the rare item you snagged and point them in the direction of where to find it as well – or brag about how they won’t. The idea is to connect shoppers with similar tastes so they can enjoy great offers and hidden gems together. 

New Games

Temple Run 2 (Android)

A game that requires no introduction, especially considering the original version was downloaded hundreds of millions of times and its sequel already hit 20 million downloads since its launch. Temple Run 2 picks up on the formula of its predecessor, pitting players in a world that’s part Indiana Jones, part Pitfall, and telling them to run until they can’t run any longer. The graphics are sharper, the gameplay is as addictive as ever, and if you’re not playing it already then you’re one of the few.  

Line Runner 2 (Android)

The week of the sequels in the New Games section, Line Runner 2 also debuted on Android this week, the understandably a little under the radar. Though it’s graphics aren’t as eye-popping and its style is a bit simplified as compared to Temple Run, Line Runner 2 is still a very solid offering that could keep your attention on its own, even if you’ve gotten a fill of Temple Run 2. Tricks and boosts keep things interesting and a unique art style is sure to make the game easy on the eyes.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/apps-and-updates-worth-downloading-youtube-capture-vine-temple-run-2-and-more/

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Mobile news recap: 4G all over, Nokia and Windows Phone wed, and more

The news cycle moves fast in the mobile world. Stories gain traction and die almost within 24 hours. So much happens, it can be hard to keep up. Let us keep you in the loop by looking back at all the news narratives that mattered this week, including Apple’s record-setting disappointment, Nokia’s engagement to Microsoft, and more.

In the world of mobile, everything moves quick. Well, maybe not everything. There are few things more painful than trying to load a webpage while the “1x” symbol is flashing where it should say “4G.” But in general, everything moves fast. That’s why we get rumors that appear, evolve, and vanish before a full twenty-four hours can even pass. A company can go from the top of the heap to the bottom of the barrel in a matter of months. A company can go from the poster child of innovation to just trying to keep up. That’s what it must feel like at Apple’s headquarters. It has been a tough news cycle for the fruit-themed computer company. As it continues to struggle, its competitors seem to get stronger. We’ll cover all that and more as we look back on the biggest narratives in mobile news from the week of January 20-26, 2013.  

More Internet, please

2012 was the first year that 4G really became prevalent. Even though the 4G LTE network is designed to make you more mobile, If you found a sweet spot where the data was flowing it became hard to leave it behind and brave the streets where service might drop. If the mobile industry has its way, in 2013, there won’t be any dead zones. Google making a big push too, as it made its intentions more clear this week. The search company requested permission to build an experimental radio network at its headquarters, which many are interpreting as a venture in mobile networks. While Google dons its lab coat to perform the experiments of a deranged billionaire with good intentions, it’s expected that 4G LTE usage will double this year. To capitalize on this, AT&T has purchased Verizon’s 700MHz spectrum, just one of its big purchases this week. The other was for the leftovers of Alltel‘s network, which marks the second time AT&T took Verizon’s leftovers this week. We’d hate to pay AT&T’s credit card bill at the end of this month.

Breaking: Samsung sells a lot of everything

If a week goes by where there isn’t a story about a new Samsung device, we will become very suspicious. The South Korean company seems to keep finding various sized pieces of plastic and LCD screens to slap onto them. This week, the Ativ Odyssey made its way to Verizon and the Galaxy Note 8 got leaked and confirmed. The Galaxy S4 got a rumored release date in April, and while Samsung didn’t confirm it, it did say that whenever it does come it, it plans to sell the crap out of it. Samsung’s aiming at pushing out 10 million units of the Galaxy S4 every month. A bold prediction, but when you’ve got the numbers to back it, why not? Samsung led the way in a year of crazy growth in 2012 by moving 213 million units. A huge Q4 for the company boosted profits, as if it needed a boost.

BlackBerry 10 still not here, but seems exciting

The hype train keeps on chugging for Blackberry 10, the new operating system from Research in Motion which isn’t out yet but will totally blow your mind when it’s here. Probably. Honestly, we really don’t know. But the mobile OS has stayed a steady part of the news cycle for the last few weeks, which is not something we could say about RIM’s current phones. A video leak this week suggested which models of the BB 10 phones would be available come launch day and just how much they would cost – around $150 – but none of the information has been confirmed. What is confirmed: BB 10 will have plenty of apps. Another 19,000 apps were submitted by developers before the submission deadline and while it’s unclear exactly how many apps will be available at launch, we know it’ll be a lot. A heads up to early adopters, though: The apps are now in a rebranded Blackberry World app store, which sports a new look to go with the name change. If all goes according to plan for Research in Motion, the company might have just a big enough hit to … sell itself to Lenovo. 

Nokia wants to go steady with Microsoft

Nokia is totally done with Symbian. The company has been through enough pain with that operating system. It’s ready to move on to a better relationship. One that’s more mature, more refined. To prove its commitment, Nokia is putting a $1 billion ring on the finger of Windows Phone. Relationships can be a real money suck, huh? But can you really blame Nokia for wanting to go steady with Microsoft’s mobile OS? The phone maker’s Q4 results for 2012 were padded nicely thanks to sales of the Lumia phones. To prove its dedication, Nokia is bringing its PureView camera technology to a Windows Phone, which is the mobile equivalent to moving in together. This could be the start of a beautiful relationship – or a really ugly break up in just a few months. 

Apple’s Math – and math – just don’t add up

After all is said and done, pretty much nothing of interest happened this week for Apple. No new products were announced, it fell short of earnings expectations by just a smidgen while still setting records in revenue and profit while selling 10 devices a second. How successful of a company do you have to be to set records while falling short of goals? Ridiculous. And yet, the most interesting Apple news this week was about things that apparently aren’t even real. The Apple Math, a supposed new iPhone model, was revealed in a mock up early this week. It came equipped with a 4.8-inch display and was going to be one of three iPhone models introduced this year. Turns out none of that is true. Honestly, we’re glad. The Math sounds like Apple’s take on a calculator and graphing calculators already cost as much as some phones, so we don’t even want to imagine how much an Apple-made one would run.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/weekly-mobile-news-recap-4g-all-over-nokia-and-windows-phone-wed-and-more/

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Nokia outs Music+ subscription app for Lumia range

Music+ is a cheaper alternative to Spotify for Lumia owners

Nokia has updated its Music app for Lumia phones with a new premium subscription option it is calling Music+.

For just €3.99/$3.99 a month, users of the existing Nokia Music streaming service can upgrade to Music+, which gives them unlimited skips in the Mix Radio portion and unlimited downloads for offline playback.

The service also brings in audio at a higher quality and karaoke-style lyric sheets for the song users are currently listening to.

Users will also be able to stream music from a web browser, making Music+ a suitable Spotify alternative on both desktop and mobile.

Mix Radio stays in tact

Non-premium subscribers will still be able to access the 17m tracks already available through Mix Radio, which brings over 150 specially curated playlists and the opportunity for users to create custom playlists from the library.

Jyrki Rosenberg, VP Entertainment at Nokia, told the Nokia conversation blog: "It's the only smartphone music service out there offering access to millions of songs out of the box without the need to sign up, sign in, or suffer adverts in between enjoying the music.

"When you add in the ability to skip songs and save playlists for offline uses like the tube, you have something unique.

"This is for people who care enough about music to pay something for more quality and choice, but don't want to pay €9.99 monthly."

The new Music+ app will roll out in the next couple of weeks throughout the US and European territories.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/nokia-outs-music-subscription-app-for-lumia-range-1127771

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Xseed Games’ Ken Berry explains why it continues to support the Wii and PSP even though Nintendo and Sony don’t

Xseed Games is known for bringing niche Japanese games to English-speaking audiences, but it’s also got a habit of putting out games for seemingly dead platforms. Xseed VP Ken Berry talks with Digital Trends about how to keep consoles alive.

Xseed is no stranger to bringing games to the United States that are likely to reach only a small audience. The publisher was opened in 2004 in the grand tradition of game publishers like the now defunct Working Designs, the company that brought Japanese games like Lunar: The Silver Star for the Sega CD and later PS One and Slipheed: The Last Planet for the PS2 to American shores. Its goal: To release in the US the best and brightest Japanese video games that larger publishers will ignore, even if they already own the game. Xseed is notorious for picking up games abandoned by Namco Bandai, Capcom, and even Nintendo in the international market, then finding success with titles like Fragile Dreams, Sky Crawlers, and The Last Story. 

Xseed’s marquee Spring release, Pandora’s Tower, highlights another peculiar trait of the publisher, though: It releases games for platforms that have been all but abandoned in the Western market. On Jan. 15, it release Corpse Party: Book of Shadows for the PSP, Sony’s 9-year-old console that’s all but dead. That was the publisher’s second release on PSP in the past year, joining Unchained Blades as one of the last English games to possibly ever hit the system. Pandora’s Tower, an action RPG, may turn out to be the last Wii game published in the US. Why support dead platforms? Because people want to play them. 

Digital Trends spoke with Xseed vice president Ken Berry about his publisher’s strange business choices, the benefits of publishing on seemingly unpopular platforms, and what’s next.

Xseed has been one of the more adventurous Wii publishers in the United States, pushing games like Fragile Dreams, Sky Crawlers, and others that didn’t enjoy big Internet followings like The Last Story. Why has Xseed stuck by the platform?

We have to be platform neutral and willing to publish the best games available to us, no matter what the platform. With that said, we’re especially proud of the titles we’ve published on Wii since so many of them are category leaders or significant in some way—Victorious Boxers: Revolution was the first boxing-dedicated game, Sky Crawlers was the best flight sim, Fishing Resort was the best fishing game, Little King’s Story was arguably the best strategy game (or whatever hybrid genre it would classify as), Rune Factory: Frontier was one of the top ten most played games on the system for a very long time. Ju-on: The Grudge was… well, let’s not talk about that one.

The same could be said of the PSP. Just this month Xseed published Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, a game targeted at an even smaller niche than the usual RPG crowd since it’s also a horror game. Why stick with the PSP? 

The PSP is unique in that it was so wildly successful in Japan relative to other territories that when developers are making content for it, they don’t consider the international market at all since they are banking on Japanese sales alone. Even now there are still a lot of new games being made for that system as developers want a sure thing rather than transition over to Vita just yet. This creates an abundance of great PSP games in Japan that don’t get localized for overseas, so if we find compelling content and can make the numbers work out somehow. Even with somewhat low sales expectations, we’re willing to take the risk. First, because we’re gamers and want to play these games in English ourselves, and second, our initial investment is small enough that if it sells even remotely well then the title can be profitable. 

Why are publishers so reticent to continue publishing on platforms like PSP and Wii so quickly when those machines have huge, established audiences? What makes a platform “dead” in your eyes?

It’s a combination of retailers not wanting to stock software for older platforms as they reallocate what precious little shelf space they have to software for new hardware, lower anticipated sales volume and lower sales price for each unit sold. All the excitement, and higher price points and profit margins, are with the new hardware so focus shifts quickly for both retailers and publishers. A platform isn’t truly dead until all new software ceases to release on it, which in this day of digital distribution could take a very long time.

With the exception of Solatorobo, Xseed has all but abandoned the Nintendo DS. What was different about that platform compared to the PSP and Wii that pushed you away from publishing there? There are plenty of import-only DS games that US fans are still clamoring for.

Cartridge-based media is much more expensive than disc-based, plus with the PSP we had the great additional revenue from the PlayStation Store digital sales as all new UMD releases had a digital version for sale from day one.

Why do you think The Last Story for Nintendo Wii was so successful for Xseed? Do you think Pandora’s Tower will match its sales? 

I think it was successful mainly because it was a fantastic game with a great pedigree of [Final Fantasy creator Hironobu] Sakaguchi-san and Nintendo behind the development. Informed gamers had been tracking it since its first public appearance in Japan and knew that this was a gem to add to their gaming collection. We do not expect Pandora’s Tower to match its sales as we will be even farther along the Wii’s lifecycle by the time it releases, but we do still expect a strong showing thanks to the great support from the fanbase for these JRPGs on Wii.

What are the challenges in marketing a game for a console that’s fallen out of the popular dialog with gamers and the press? 

The main challenge is how to market the game in stores on a retail level because you’re not sure if and how much support the retailers are going to give a title on that platform. We really need to focus on driving demand with the fans and having them dictate to the retailers with their pre-orders, which titles need to be supported.

It was unusual for Nintendo to license one of its Japanese-published titles to a third party in the US. With Pandora’s Tower, it’s becoming a trend. Do you foresee being able to continue working with Nintendo on projects like these on the 3DS and Wii U? Do you feel like Xseed’s relationship is unique, or do you get the sense that Nintendo is more open to working with others?

I can’t speak on behalf of Nintendo, but I think this is more a special one (or two) time deal rather than any kind of trend. We had special circumstances for The Last Story where our president at the time had a very good working relationship with Sakaguchi-san from their days together at Squaresoft, and our parent company was involved in the programming for that title. Getting The Last Story to market for us was a very smooth process, and since it worked out so well for both us and Nintendo, Pandora’s Tower was just a natural extension of that “one time” deal.

Are there are any other Wii games that Xseed is considering publishing before leaving the system behind? Please say Captain Rainbow.

I think I’ve said this before in a previous interview, but I really mean it this time when I say that I think this will be the last Wii title we publish. Of course things could change if a great Wii title were to fall upon our lap or digital distribution for that platform took off, but as of right now Pandora’s Tower will probably be our final Wii title.

Xseed recently started looking for a Mobile Online Game Operations manager. How will Xseed approach the mobile gaming market? Are there older iOS and other mobile titles from Japan that Xseed thinks will connect with its audience here?

Our parent company, MarvelousAQL, has a very successful mobile business in Japan, and they are the one taking the initiative to start up a new mobile business in the US. They have a great catalog of mobile and social games that they can start bringing over from Japan, and they will publish those with original titles that are being developed here. Our mobile offerings may be more oriented for the mass market than our console RPG fare, but we will always look for games that we think our core fanbase will enjoy.

Has Xseed considered localizing games for even older consoles that are now more accessible to players thanks to digital distribution? Would Xseed ever consider localizing a Super Nintendo or PlayStation game for example?

Afraid not. There is a limit to how far back we can go when localizing games, mainly due to the technical side of having access to the original source code and development team in order to implement the localization programming. Even if the technical side worked out somehow, the challenge then becomes the business side as games that old would likely sell for $4.99 or $9.99 tops, meaning that we would have to sell hundreds of thousands of units to justify the costs and manpower. Too much allocation of resources for too small of a payoff, so our time and energy is better spent on more recent releases.

What merits do you see in releasing unlocalized imports like MonkeyPaw has done on the PlayStation Network?

There’s definitely a great merit for the gamers that get a chance to play games that they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. From a business standpoint, it’s a great almost risk-free business, if you can find and license the right content.

So… how about a localized Retro Game Challenge 2 on eShop? Please? PLEASE?!

I think you’re asking the wrong people. We loved the original game so much that we really went way above our comfort zone on the investment it took to bring the game over here. It was an incredibly expensive project due to multiple IP owners and the extensive localization programming necessary as it was never intended to be sold outside of Japan. Our love for the game blinded our business reasoning as it was about three times as expensive to license as a typical DS game at the time, and it came back to bite us in the end when sales didn’t live up to our expectations. Even if the IP holder was open to us licensing the sequel, we can’t go into a project knowing that we’re going to lose money, no matter how much the gamer inside us wants to.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/keeping-nintendo-wii-and-sony-psp-alive-an-interview-with-xseed-games-ken-berry/

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BlackBerry Z10 SIM-free pricing to be about £480

The BlackBerry Z10, which is all set to make it to the grand stage this week has been the talk of the town lately. After we got to see some press images of the smartphone and got treated to a tutorial of its OS we not got to learn more about the pricing. The price tag of the BlackBerry Z10 was revealed by a screenshot of a major retailer's inventory system.

According to the Carphone Warehouse, the BlackBerry Z10 will cost £480 (about $760). The listing in the company's database clearly shows the pricing of the white variant of the smartphone and the attached BLAZ10WHI product code too aligns nicely with the earlier leaks from the retailer.

The leaked price is said to be for a SIM-free version and the smartphone will naturally be available for far less on contract.

RIM might have somewhat hard time impressing the audience at its January 30 event. After so many leaks there's hardly much left to announce, but hopefully the company will have a few more aces up its sleeve.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_z10_price_leaked_will_carry_a_price_tag_of_480-news-5419.php

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Samsung announces Galaxy Duos I8262 for the Chinese market

Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Duos I8262 smartphone in China. The device has been designed exclusively for the local market and is unlikely to ever become available elsewhere. The Galaxy Duos I8262 will be powered by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and as the name suggests will have a couple of SIM slots.

The smartphone sports a 4.3-inch, 480 x 800 pixel display, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 768 MB RAM. The Galaxy Duos I8262 also features a 5 megapixel rear camera, 4 GB storage, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, Wi-Fi, microUSB port and a 1,700mAh battery.

Samsung is not expected to showcase the smartphone in the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2013 as the device is designed exclusively for the Chinese market.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_announces_galaxy_duos_gti8262_for_chinese_market_-news-5418.php

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From birth to death: why Nokia's Symbian was once the future of mobile tech

Nokia's PureView 808 is the last of the Symbians

It's official: Nokia's 808 PureView is the last of the firm's Symbian handsets.

Symbian has been on death row for a while - we reported that Nokia had put it into "maintenance mode" back in October, and at the beginning of 2012 Nokia's then-new boss Stephen Elop said it had "competitive challenges that there was [no way to solve]" - but its demise was only confirmed this week during Nokia's latest earnings announcement.

As The Telegraph reports, Nokia had previously said that "Q4 2012 was 'the last meaningful quarter for Symbian'", and this week it confirmed that "The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia."

We won't miss it - Symbian's been looking rather dated since the arrival of the iPhone OS in 2007, never mind the latest iOS, Android and Windows Phone variants we have today - but that doesn't mean we won't wave it a fond farewell. We've gone through an awful lot of Symbian phones over the years.

Nokia is now concentrating on Windows Phone

Where Symbian came from

Symbian came from another firm we have fond memories of: Psion, whose Organiser computers were powerful and futuristic.

Well, they were at the time. In the late 1990s Psion Software joined forces with Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson to create Symbian from its EPOC OS. Symbian made multiple products - S60 for Nokia, UIQ for Sony Ericsson - and until the iPhone came along, it powered some of the tastiest handsets the world had ever seen.

Remember the Nokia N95 or its Communicator mini-laptop, Sony Ericsson's P990i or W810i? I had one of those latter ones, and at the time having a fully-fledged MP3 WalkMan living inside my phone felt awfully high tech.

So what went wrong? It's easy to say "the iPhone did it", but while Apple undoubtedly benefited from Symbian's problems it didn't create them. As Psion's first employee Charles Davis told The Register in 2011, Symbian was plagued by disagreements. "Owner-licensees "went for maximum differentiation in the end - UIQ was completely different to Series 60. This hampered Symbian's ability to innovate, and it stopped the aftermarket. We could have had an App Store 10 or five years before Apple."

Symbian grew messy. When Cisco considered adopting it, they discovered that not only did Symbian come in multiple, incompatible versions, but that - as Davis recalled - "we hadn't sorted out backwards compatibility at that time so apps written for Symbian 7 wouldn't work on Symbian 8." Cisco decided to go elsewhere.

The burning platform

Despite its many partners Symbian's one true friend was Nokia, especially outside Japan - but Nokia neglected what Stephen Elop would later describe as a "burning platform", failing to take the iPhone threat seriously enough quickly enough, inventing but not shipping devices awfully like today's iPhones and iPads and getting bogged down in bickering and bureaucracy.

As one designed told the WSJ: "You were spending more time fighting politics than doing design." Qualcomm's CEO found that Nokia would spend so much time assessing potential opportunities that by the time it made a decision, "the opportunity often just went away."

There's a truism that the most dangerous time for a company is when it's really successful, because that's when firms think nothing can touch them. IBM suffered from it in the 80s, Microsoft in the 90s, and Nokia did it in the 2000s. In Nokia's case the disruptor was Apple: not only did it not see the threat coming, but when the iPhone actually arrived it still didn't see it as a real danger.

MeeGo was a failed attempt at Nokia developing its own successor to Symbian

Nokia's focus was on dumbphones, because that's where the money was. It isn't there any more.

Whether you see Stephen Elop as Nokia's saviour or the architect of its downfall, it was clear from his "burning platform" memo that Symbian's days were numbered. Writing specifically about Symbian, Elop said it was "an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop" that was hindering Nokia's ability to "take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead."

Elop pulled the trigger, but what really killed Symbian was Nokia's belief that the smartphone space was a war of devices. It wasn't.

As Elop explained, "The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem."

In Symbian, Nokia had an OS - but what it didn't have was time to build an ecosystem to rival Apple and Google. Elop believed that building one around Symbian would take more time than Nokia could afford, so he bet on Microsoft's ecosystem instead. It's too early to say whether the move saved Nokia, but it certainly signed Symbian's death warrant.

This is farewell

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/from-birth-to-death-why-nokias-symbian-was-once-the-future-of-mobile-tech-1127653

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From birth to death: why Nokia's Symbian was once the future of mobile tech

Nokia's PureView 808 is the last of the Symbians

It's official: Nokia's 808 PureView is the last of the firm's Symbian handsets.

Symbian has been on death row for a while - we reported that Nokia had put it into "maintenance mode" back in October, and at the beginning of 2012 Nokia's then-new boss Stephen Elop said it had "competitive challenges that there was [no way to solve]" - but its demise was only confirmed this week during Nokia's latest earnings announcement.

As The Telegraph reports, Nokia had previously said that "Q4 2012 was 'the last meaningful quarter for Symbian'", and this week it confirmed that "The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia."

We won't miss it - Symbian's been looking rather dated since the arrival of the iPhone OS in 2007, never mind the latest iOS, Android and Windows Phone variants we have today - but that doesn't mean we won't wave it a fond farewell. We've gone through an awful lot of Symbian phones over the years.

Nokia is now concentrating on Windows Phone

Where Symbian came from

Symbian came from another firm we have fond memories of: Psion, whose Organiser computers were powerful and futuristic.

Well, they were at the time. In the late 1990s Psion Software joined forces with Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson to create Symbian from its EPOC OS. Symbian made multiple products - S60 for Nokia, UIQ for Sony Ericsson - and until the iPhone came along, it powered some of the tastiest handsets the world had ever seen.

Remember the Nokia N95 or its Communicator mini-laptop, Sony Ericsson's P990i or W810i? I had one of those latter ones, and at the time having a fully-fledged MP3 WalkMan living inside my phone felt awfully high tech.

So what went wrong? It's easy to say "the iPhone did it", but while Apple undoubtedly benefited from Symbian's problems it didn't create them. As Psion's first employee Charles Davis told The Register in 2011, Symbian was plagued by disagreements. "Owner-licensees "went for maximum differentiation in the end - UIQ was completely different to Series 60. This hampered Symbian's ability to innovate, and it stopped the aftermarket. We could have had an App Store 10 or five years before Apple."

Symbian grew messy. When Cisco considered adopting it, they discovered that not only did Symbian come in multiple, incompatible versions, but that - as Davis recalled - "we hadn't sorted out backwards compatibility at that time so apps written for Symbian 7 wouldn't work on Symbian 8." Cisco decided to go elsewhere.

The burning platform

Despite its many partners Symbian's one true friend was Nokia, especially outside Japan - but Nokia neglected what Stephen Elop would later describe as a "burning platform", failing to take the iPhone threat seriously enough quickly enough, inventing but not shipping devices awfully like today's iPhones and iPads and getting bogged down in bickering and bureaucracy.

As one designed told the WSJ: "You were spending more time fighting politics than doing design." Qualcomm's CEO found that Nokia would spend so much time assessing potential opportunities that by the time it made a decision, "the opportunity often just went away."

There's a truism that the most dangerous time for a company is when it's really successful, because that's when firms think nothing can touch them. IBM suffered from it in the 80s, Microsoft in the 90s, and Nokia did it in the 2000s. In Nokia's case the disruptor was Apple: not only did it not see the threat coming, but when the iPhone actually arrived it still didn't see it as a real danger.

MeeGo was a failed attempt at Nokia developing its own successor to Symbian

Nokia's focus was on dumbphones, because that's where the money was. It isn't there any more.

Whether you see Stephen Elop as Nokia's saviour or the architect of its downfall, it was clear from his "burning platform" memo that Symbian's days were numbered. Writing specifically about Symbian, Elop said it was "an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop" that was hindering Nokia's ability to "take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead."

Elop pulled the trigger, but what really killed Symbian was Nokia's belief that the smartphone space was a war of devices. It wasn't.

As Elop explained, "The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem."

In Symbian, Nokia had an OS - but what it didn't have was time to build an ecosystem to rival Apple and Google. Elop believed that building one around Symbian would take more time than Nokia could afford, so he bet on Microsoft's ecosystem instead. It's too early to say whether the move saved Nokia, but it certainly signed Symbian's death warrant.

This is farewell

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/from-birth-to-death-why-nokias-symbian-os-was-the-future-of-mobile-tech-1127653

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From birth to death row: why Nokia's Symbian OS was the future of mobile tech

Nokia's PureView 808 is the last of the Symbians

It's official: Nokia's 808 PureView is the last of the firm's Symbian handsets.

Symbian has been on death row for a while - we reported that Nokia had put it into "maintenance mode" back in October, and at the beginning of 2012 Nokia's then-new boss Stephen Elop said it had "competitive challenges that there was [no way to solve]" - but its demise was only confirmed this week during Nokia's latest earnings announcement.

As The Telegraph reports, Nokia had previously said that "Q4 2012 was 'the last meaningful quarter for Symbian'", and this week it confirmed that "The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia."

We won't miss it - Symbian's been looking rather dated since the arrival of the iPhone OS in 2007, never mind the latest iOS, Android and Windows Phone variants we have today - but that doesn't mean we won't wave it a fond farewell. We've gone through an awful lot of Symbian phones over the years.

Nokia is now concentrating on Windows Phone

Where Symbian came from

Symbian came from another firm we have fond memories of: Psion, whose Organiser computers were powerful and futuristic.

Well, they were at the time. In the late 1990s Psion Software joined forces with Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson to create Symbian from its EPOC OS. Symbian made multiple products - S60 for Nokia, UIQ for Sony Ericsson - and until the iPhone came along, it powered some of the tastiest handsets the world had ever seen.

Remember the Nokia N95 or its Communicator mini-laptop, Sony Ericsson's P990i or W810i? I had one of those latter ones, and at the time having a fully-fledged MP3 WalkMan living inside my phone felt awfully high tech.

So what went wrong? It's easy to say "the iPhone did it", but while Apple undoubtedly benefited from Symbian's problems it didn't create them. As Psion's first employee Charles Davis told The Register in 2011, Symbian was plagued by disagreements. "Owner-licensees "went for maximum differentiation in the end - UIQ was completely different to Series 60. This hampered Symbian's ability to innovate, and it stopped the aftermarket. We could have had an App Store 10 or five years before Apple."

Symbian grew messy. When Cisco considered adopting it, they discovered that not only did Symbian come in multiple, incompatible versions, but that - as Davis recalled - "we hadn't sorted out backwards compatibility at that time so apps written for Symbian 7 wouldn't work on Symbian 8." Cisco decided to go elsewhere.

The burning platform

Despite its many partners Symbian's one true friend was Nokia, especially outside Japan - but Nokia neglected what Stephen Elop would later describe as a "burning platform", failing to take the iPhone threat seriously enough quickly enough, inventing but not shipping devices awfully like today's iPhones and iPads and getting bogged down in bickering and bureaucracy.

As one designed told the WSJ: "You were spending more time fighting politics than doing design." Qualcomm's CEO found that Nokia would spend so much time assessing potential opportunities that by the time it made a decision, "the opportunity often just went away."

There's a truism that the most dangerous time for a company is when it's really successful, because that's when firms think nothing can touch them. IBM suffered from it in the 80s, Microsoft in the 90s, and Nokia did it in the 2000s. In Nokia's case the disruptor was Apple: not only did it not see the threat coming, but when the iPhone actually arrived it still didn't see it as a real danger.

MeeGo was a failed attempt at Nokia developing its own successor to Symbian

Nokia's focus was on dumbphones, because that's where the money was. It isn't there any more.

Whether you see Stephen Elop as Nokia's saviour or the architect of its downfall, it was clear from his "burning platform" memo that Symbian's days were numbered. Writing specifically about Symbian, Elop said it was "an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop" that was hindering Nokia's ability to "take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead."

Elop pulled the trigger, but what really killed Symbian was Nokia's belief that the smartphone space was a war of devices. It wasn't.

As Elop explained, "The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem."

In Symbian, Nokia had an OS - but what it didn't have was time to build an ecosystem to rival Apple and Google. Elop believed that building one around Symbian would take more time than Nokia could afford, so he bet on Microsoft's ecosystem instead. It's too early to say whether the move saved Nokia, but it certainly signed Symbian's death warrant.

This is farewell

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/from-birth-to-death-row-why-nokias-symbian-os-was-the-future-of-mobile-tech-1127653

Read More