All About Symbian -

Mobile firms to be banned from selling 'locked' handsets

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 08:33:42 GMT

Some UK phone networks (notably O2, Three) have been selling unlocked smartphones for years, with the only lock-in being in the contract itself rather than in the silicon. Other companies use hardware locking to their own network and this inevitably causes cost and confusion if the user wants to switch to another network, especially once the contract has expired. Thankfully, Ofcom has at last stepped in to outlaw such practice. See the quote below.

Review: Aenkyo 'Air Wireless' 10000mAh power bank

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 16:08:00 GMT

The number one hassle with power banks on trips is that you also have to remember to take with you the right charging cable for each family device that you might need to rescue. For most of us, this means bringing along a power bank plus a Type C cable, a microUSB cable, and Lightning too, for family members with iPhone or iPads. This Aenkyo accessory is perhaps the ultimate swiss army knife in the power bank world, in that it can not only charge phones via Qi wireless, it has integral Type C, microUSB and Lightning cabling. So - quite literally - no extra wires are needed.

Jaw-dropping gallery from real world iPhone 12 Pro tests

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 12:19:35 GMT

It's all very well Apple stepping on stage and showing off some curated photos taken by their latest camera phones, but in this case we have a third party and a pro photographer taking the iPhone 12 Pro out into the wilds - and I mean wilds. Snow, ice, rain, rocks... Some of the shots he achieved with a phone camera have to be seen to be believed and I love the way he talks about how he got each shot and which phone camera features were needed. Well worth 10 minutes of your time to read through.

Not just Lumias that can be DIY-ed: Fairphone 3+

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 07:54:19 GMT

Over the years we've covered numerous devices that can be taken apart at home, replacing damaged components, combining parts from different handsets, and so on. Originally, I had great fun with the oh-so-easy to disassemble Nokia 808, then the Lumia 950 range also only needed a screwdriver, and I wanted to give a shout out to my latest 10 minutes with a screwdriver, the Android-10-powered Fairphone 3. In the video embedded below I take out the old camera modules and put in upgraded replacements. How cool is that? A whole new imaging experience and capabilities in minutes - Fairphone even provides the screwdriver!

The iPhone 12 Pro Max takes phone cinematography to another level

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 10:31:37 GMT

Featured in the iPhone 12 launch event this week, I wanted to highlight the three minute cinematographer video that was part of it. With a large (1/1.7") sensor with 1.7 micron pixels, using sensor shift stabilisation (as found on DSLRs), backed by the Apple A14 chip, capable of processing HDR video at 4k/60fps with Dolby Vision tone-mapping and grading, the camera in the iPhone 12 Pro Max should be something very special indeed. Especially in terms of video, as highlighted below.

Ceramic Shield kicks off new era in phone durability

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 08:26:36 GMT

Other than (perhaps) imaging improvements, the thing that grabbed my attention in Apple's recent online launch shindig was the use of a new 'Ceramic Shield' glass for its 2020 iPhones. This was developed in conjunction with Corning (makers of the Gorilla Glass range) and apparently has four times greater resistance to damage from drops. That's quite a mark up on what has gone before and, if true, heralds a new era in phone durability. Imagine Ceramic Shield on all phones, front and back (if needed) and at all price points - we'd see far fewer people walking around with cracked screens, a sight that always makes me shudder!

Review: Mini-review: RAVPower 65W PD 'Pioneer' 4-port desktop charger

Sun, 11 Oct 2020 14:36:00 GMT

Back in June I reviewed a lesser variant of this RAVPower champion, plugging directly into a wall socket and only offering two output ports. This, the 'Pioneer' top of the line, has a standalone unit and flying mains lead, plus offers no less than four outputs, two PD and two 'smart' USB. In short, it's a complete (mobile) mains charging solution and I was impressed. This just jumped the pile into my gadget briefcase...

Replacement recommendations: the Google Pixel 4a (video)

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 08:26:03 GMT

With a theme on AAS and AAWP over the last few years of recommending modern smartphones running iOS or Android to replace a beloved Nokia or Lumia device, here's video confirmation of another likely contender. The world of Android is deluged in handsets from hundreds of companies, but you can't go far wrong with Google's own Android devices, and they've just launched (now in most countries) the Pixel 4a, coming in at a budget-friendly £350, yet having an almost bezel-less display, loud and good stereo speakers, the trustworthy Pixel camera system... and the 3.5mm audio jack that many still love. Plus Google's promise of updates for years to come. Highly recommended.

How Google and Microsoft teamed up to try to reinvent smartphones

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 09:02:35 GMT

A really interesting professional article is linked here, writing up the coming together of Panos Panay (Microsoft) and Hiroshi Lockheimer (Google) over the course of 18 months, to repurpose the abandoned Project Andromeda hardware from Windows 10 Mobile Windows 10X to Android, potentially solving the 'long tail' app problem. Panos's catchphrase for what became the Surface Duo, "The Microsoft you love with the Android you know", is a bit tortuous, of course, but it seems that at least he's been consistent.

Telegram via Jabber, on Symbian, in 2020!

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 08:38:04 GMT

Sergey "Symnok", one of the real enthusiasts in the Symbian community in 2020, has penned a useful tutorial on getting access to Telegram messaging via a somewhat circuitous route - see the quote and link below. Using Symbian handsets in 2020 for anything meaningful is always going to be an exercise in frustration, but hey, it's good to have a hobby and breaking through the tech restrictions of a long-unsupported OS is a challenging one!

SymbianOS community support on Telegram

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 06:53:00 GMT

A rare post here on this long forgotten OS, but there ARE people still having lots of fun playing with Symbian-powered phones, notably the mighty Nokia 808. There have been various Symbian enthusiast forums over the years, but I wanted to note that there's now one on Telegram, the popular group chat application. Ironically, there's only fledgling access to Telegram on Symbian itself, so you'd have to have another smartphone on another OS, but I suspect that even Symbian die-hards have something else on hand in 2020, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Eco-champions: Fairphone 3+ is a trivial DIY parts upgrade from the '3'

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 10:41:17 GMT

Lumia 950 and Nokia (S60/Symbian) owners will like this one. In terms of taking the back off, replacing battery and other components easily, there's a lot to like about the Fairphone 3, launched originally last year, in 2019, and reviewed by me over in Phones Show 386. Well, Fairphone just announced the Fairphone 3+ and the kicker is that it's just a Fairphone 3. With upgraded cameras and microphones that are still separate modules and also available to buy for existing owners, for a nominal 70 Euros. Turning the '3' into a '3+' in just a couple of minutes with the provided cross-head screwdriver! Now, just imagine the whole industry using this philosophy more...

The new phone camera top dog? The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 09:31:05 GMT

The title of smartphone imaging king varies from year to year and according to who you ask. DxOMark has been much criticised in the past (often by me) but its standardised tests do at least provide a benchmark between current models. And they rate the brand new Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra, detailed below, the very best they've ever tested. Which means, given the timing of the test results to coincide with the device launch, partly that Xiaomi worked with DxOMark to optimise the phone's imaging to excel in their test cases, but also means that the phone camera really is quite special.

A video verdict on the Surface Duo from a parallel universe?

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 09:31:03 GMT

I headed to our summer-house with a view to doing a rant about the new Surface Duo and it turned into a mini-Phones Show. I've embedded it below for your interest. Not really the fabled (Windows) Surface Phone of old, not quite a 2020 Android flagship, and very definitely not as good as it should have been - this is my unusual, part-fictonal take on the Surface Duo!

'Nearby Share' is rolling out via Play Services

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 07:11:26 GMT

Back in the 2000s, Nokia (on Symbian) debuted the idea that one could 'tap to share' between devices. The idea was that your phone and A.N.Other device would detect each other via NFC (i.e. very close by) and then the two phones would transfer whatever it was you wanted to share using Bluetooth. All very slow by modern standards, but back in that day files were a lot smaller (e.g. a 2MP photo at a few hundred kilobytes) and the system worked after a fashion. Or you could send explicitly via Bluetooth if you and the recipient took the time to pair with each other.

Another top option launches for your next smartphone journey - the Pixel 4a

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 15:24:00 GMT

I've written several times of my top picks for an onward journey from Symbian (AAS) and Lumia (AAWP) smartphones, most recently here. And today comes a slightly (COVID-19?) delayed great option from Google. I've been looking forward to the pure-Google Pixel 4a for some time and it's now official, with everything most of us need apart from Qi charging, yet with many years of guaranteed updates, all at a low price of £349 (in the UK).

Qualcomm announces 'Quick Charge 5', four times faster than QC 4...

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 08:42:57 GMT

Four years on from the Quick Charge 4 reveal, Qualcomm has announced Quick Charge 5, with support for more voltages and higher currents, plus support for dual cell batteries. It all adds up to quick charging up to four times faster than Quick Charge 4, but with more protections in place to make sure nothing goes wrong. Happily, it's all backwards compatible with Quick Charge 2, 3 and 4, so in theory you can plug and play with phones and chargers of different generations.

Gorilla Glass 'Victus' announced, significant scratch and drop protection

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 16:02:10 GMT

Gorilla Glass has been ubiquitous in the smartphone world for a while now - and Corning, its creators, improve the aluminosilicate formula with each generation, making it less likely to scratch and less likely to shatter when impacted in a phone drop. Corning just announced the next generation, 'Gorilla Glass Victus', see the promo video 'proof' below.

Underestimating the appeal of ultra-wide angle cameras...

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 07:00:00 GMT

Camera 'angles' are an odd thing. Back in the day (2005-2015), all a phone camera needed to do was shoot a single, standard (90° or so) photo of a scene, as well as possible. Job done. Various smartphones experimented with zoom (notably the famous 808 and 1020 pair), and from 2015 smartphones with extra telephoto lenses started to appear. But LG went in a different direction with its G5, building in a 130°+ wide angle camera as the phone's 'secondary'. And the idea caught on, with as many dual camera phones coming out in 2020 with 'main and wide angle' as 'main and telephoto'. Could it be that I, for one, underestimated the appeal of a true wide angle camera?

'PureView take 2's creator working on 'universal' imaging at Adobe

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 08:36:40 GMT

Back in 2016, I postulated that Google's Pixel camera software, usually referred to as using HDR+, was effectively 'PureView take 2', doing oversampling in the time domain rather than the physical, as on Nokia's famous handsets, and I followed this up with various imaging comparisons (e.g. here). The architect of HDR+ was Marc Levoy and I covered his recent leaving Google earlier in 2020. But he's now popped up at Adobe, starting a couple of days ago. Most interestingly, he's said to be working on a 'universal' camera app, though of course it will be months before see any fruit from this.