All About Symbian - - S60 Content

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.

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!

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.

'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.

Looking back to the Nokia 808 and 1020 - plus imaging through to 2020

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 09:57:46 GMT

You'll have heard many of my thoughts on the Nokia 808 and Lumia 1020 before, of course, but here's a chance to hear them again - in the context of the modern smartphone world, and a lot more, though on someone else's podcast! Adam Doud asks some good questions and I do my best to answer them! The podcast is embedded below, if you've got a spare half hour.

Five YEARS after Windows 10 Mobile's wireless Continuum, Samsung's DeX looks to go ...

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 10:07:37 GMT

Yada yada. Same old story. But it bears repeating. Symbian's smartphone OS and Nokia's hardware was way ahead of the competition for half a decade, from 2004-2009, arguably. Then we had Windows Phone, again ahead in responsiveness and UI, along (again) with Nokia hardware innovation. We all know how the story played out here, but I'd argue that the Lumia 950/XL were also ahead of their time in some ways, in 2015. Both in their imaging hardware and algorithms but also in the Continuum system, extending the OS to use Desktop UI elements and hardware through a dock, a simple cable or - in this case - over Wifi. I used Continuum wirelessly many times to compatible monitors, TVs and adapters and, five years later, Samsung's rival DeX desktop system is also (apparently) about to get a wireless option. So welcome to the desktop party, Samsung.

Live tiles, widgets. Could iOS 14 finally master the idea?

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 07:41:00 GMT

The arrival of genuine homescreen 'widgets' in iOS (see the screenshots below) has prompted more thought about the concept and about which mobile OS has mastered them, if any. Symbian and Android both had home screen widgets in 2009, while Windows Phone reimagined the idea completely for its 'live tiles' in 2010. And, a decade later, the iPhone joins the widgets party. But have any of these mobile OS really delivered? I say no. Or at least, not yet, with iOS 14's new implementation looking promising for the future.

Delight 1.8 custom firmware (CFW) released for the Nokia 808 PureView

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 09:54:09 GMT

Some phones never die. And the Nokia 808 is still going strong in some hands, thanks mainly to the untiring work of developers of custom firmware, who get around broken servers and certificates to keep an unsupported platform functioning in 2020. Here's news of a brand new version of Delight CFW for the Nokia 808.

Top 10 tips for taking better photos on your phone

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 09:36:00 GMT

I get asked every so often to condense my years of (ahem) photographic wisdom into digestable form - and set against the background of phone camera hardware and software which is constantly improving. It has been six years since I did something along these lines on AAS or AAWP, so let's put that right now. Your typical 2020 smartphone camera system will take pretty good photos in full 'auto' on its own, but what can you do to take the next step?

Enhancing your photos through artificial intelligence

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 10:16:56 GMT

Linked and quoted here is a completely incomprehensible (to me, and I'm a physicist with an imaging speciality!) article from Microsoft Research, in which it proposes (and demonstrates) ways of improving old photos using modern AI techniques. It's fascinating stuff and you really only have to look at the pictures, thankfully. Most notably the system involves taking an old photo, cleaning it up, then using a 'reference' image with the colours and textures that you'd like applied to the old original. So you get the authentic/desired look, in full colour if you want, all from a scratched and battered monochrome original from decades ago. Clever stuff. Anyway, I thought it interesting!

Throwback: Mobile camera tech was amazing even before iPhone and Android

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 09:01:27 GMT

It's not just me that fondly remembers the dawn of smartphone photography as mainly a Nokia affair. Ask the average phone user these days and they'd guess that the iPhone was first to have a camera, but the likes of the Nokia N93 and N95 were hitting the imaging ball out of the park long before an iPhone even existed. Then the N8 and then 808 (and 1020) moved imaging forward to a point that phones only overcame in the last few years. So it's good to read a 2020 article on an Android fan site that acknowledges this Nokia (and Symbian) legacy.

PitlaneOne UWP belatedly (COVID-19) ready for F1, 2020!

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 07:34:00 GMT

For (Symbian and) Windows 10 Mobile, this is a notable update for F1 fans... The pandemic has caused a VERY late start to the F1 season, but there are still plenty of races to follow. Developer Sebastian has been keeping tabs on the revised schedule and his PitlaneOne UWP application is now fully updated for the year, in terms of driver and team databases. New for this year are the return of the chequered flag to end races, shark fins on the back to help fans work out which driver is which (numbers), and more 'manual' starts.

A six way imaging head to head: Realme X3 SuperZoom vs Nokia 808/1020, etc.

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 06:39:00 GMT

The arrival of the Realme X3 SuperZoom, another smartphone with much hyped zoom camera system had me scurrying for some zoom favourites of yesteryear for AAS and AAWP readers, plus I also threw in the current champions, the iPhone 11 Pro and Huawei P40 Pro, for good measure. Six contenders then and I'll throw various zoom and low light use cases at them. Note that it's not all about extreme zoom, as I contended in an editorial last week, sometimes it's about zoom versatility.

Continuous zoom to make a come back in smartphone cameras?

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 06:17:00 GMT

Long time AAS readers will remember the Nokia N93, a unique multi-form factor smartphone with a barrel camera that included a genuine continuous 1-3x zoom lens system. It worked superbly, at least in good light, with the caveat that the reduced aperture when zoomed meant that evening and night shots suffered. Partly because of this, Nokia (and then the world) moved to computational photography and smart cropping into large, high megapixel sensors in order to try and zoom without the same degree of aperture loss, cuminating in 2012's Nokia 808 and 2013's Lumia 1020. But now comes news that a continuous zoom lens system may be making a come back, 14 years on from the N93...

"When phones were fun..."

Sun, 14 Jun 2020 08:57:17 GMT

I'll just leave this here - Michael Fisher has gotten hold of a load of old S60 and Series 90 smartphones from the early 'noughties' and done a video about them - these old handsets rarely made it to the USA in the day, so this is the first time he's seen most of these designs. And there's more coming, apparently.... Do forgive the odd tech slip-up by him (e.g. "Symbian S40") - it's still worth a watch, for old times' sake!

The all-time PureView shootout...

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 08:24:02 GMT

Long time Nokia fan Abdulla Zaki has put together an interesting cross-generation 'PureView shootout, showcasing (among others) his Nokia 808, Lumia 1020, Lumia 950 XL and Nokia 9 PureView. He pits them all against each other, shot for shot, with interesting results. OK, so he doesn't go down to pixel level, but he does a great job at commenting on dynamic range and colours. As to the winner, well, you'll have to watch the video!

Juha Alakarhu on the Nokia 808, Lumia 1020, and more...

Mon, 25 May 2020 07:15:00 GMT

A blast from the past, but I had the pleasure of interviewing Juha Alakarhu on my most recent Phones Show Chat podcast, published yesterday and embedded below. Juha is, of course, the man who co-crafted the cameras in the Nokia 808 and Lumia 1020 (and various Nseries and the Lumia 950 before and after) - and is respected as something of an imaging guru in the industry. Do have a listen, he reveals some of the background to the two champion 41MP camera phones, including just how hard the 1020 was, in particular, having to combine the 808's power with the expected OIS after the Lumia 920's release.