The Symbian Foundation released this video showing a hypothetical phone UI, which basically looks like a mashup of MotoBlur and Palm Synergy with a dash of augmented reality and Google maps navigation for good measure. This isn’t an actual future UI, but how fast would you line up for a Symbian phone if it were?

Via Brighthand

The Gartner group has predicted, via research, that Android based phones will overtake the iPhone and jump into the number 2 position in popularity in as little as two years.

Currently the iPhone sits in the number 3 slot behind Blackberry and Symbian.  Gartner further suggests that RIM, makers of the Blackberry, will lose close to 7% of their market share at the same time Android sees a 12.9% increase.  This would leapfrog Android into number 2 and leave the iPhone at number 3.  The loss RIM would take on would cause them to drop down to the 5 spot behind Windows Mobile.

These are nothing but predictions, but they are ones which are seriously making me want to try out an Android phone.

Via Yahoo

I recently posted about my love/hate relationship with the Nokia E71x. It’s gotten a bit more contentious lately, due to various and mysterious software issues. Calendar entries that refuse to accept date changes, programs that freeze repeatedly, games that malfunction…it has been frustrating to say the least.

Cue Nokia PC Suite and their backup suite. My first thought was that perhaps a backup and then full restore might smooth out the quirks, plus it would provide an excellent test of the backup system. If that did not fix my issues, I could reset the phone, rebuild it, and then back up my “clean” setup. I’ve done this before on Windows Mobile phones, iPhones and Palm OS devices and have never had a major issue…until now.

PC Suite backed everything up without a hitch. I followed the convoluted hard reset instructions, looked up the code to authorize the reset, and the phone was wiped. I plugged it back in, started up PC Suite, and set up a restore from my backup; it threw out that an error occurred, but the log didn’t list anything. And now roughly 1/3 of my programs are MIA, mail for exchange isn’t working, and I have no idea what else has/has not carried over. Easily the most disastrous backup I’ve ever used.

Any thoughts from the Symbian experts out there? I’m about to drop  kick my phone across the room, so any tips or calming words would be helpful. And let this serve as a warning to anyone else…make sure you carefully investigate any backup system before you attempt anything drastic, and keep careful records of important data in case something goes awry!

Rita El Khoury (Dotsisx) of SymbanGuru.com has two of the hottest new Nokia phones, the N86 and the N97. Yesterday she posted a drool-worthy photo layout sure to inspire some hardcore gadget lust. Not only are her photos amazing, but the subject matter was enough to make me regret my decision not to take part in the gadget deal Wayne posted the other day. Ah well…

Put a bib on, and hide your credit card!

The N97 and N86 are the first two devices in the Nseries line-up that are really well-built. We’ve had cheap plastics, shiny elements and flacky build quality on Nseries for a long time, and finally someone stepped up the game and brought Nseries to the premium design and material that they deserve. Both devices are heavy and give an impression of class when you look at them.

Black And White Nokia N97 And N86 Picture Gallery

Simple rivals or symbols of a culture clash?

There was an interesting blog post circulating the interwebs over the weekend. The author, Tomi Ahonen, posits that the differences between the United States and the international cell markets have influenced what phones find success domestically vs the rest of the world. It’s a very long piece, so take your time…maybe start slow cooking a pot roast. Dinner will be done around the same time as when you finish reading the piece…but it is worth reading.

What I found really struck me was that among the ideas in the author’s main thesis was the idea that “American” phones are not as SMS-centric as euro ones, hence the lack of Symbian love in the United States. He also argues that what worked successfully in the USA (the RAZR, the iPhone), needed to be tweaked for the rest of the world, and that the rest of the world needed to tweak their phones for success in the USA.

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One of the most anticipated phones coming out this summer is the Nokia N97,  It is only the second Nokia device to offer the Symbian S60 series 5 operating system and a touch screen.  And, it is the only series 5 device to feature a full QWERTY keyboard.

Matthew Miller over at Nokia Experts recently got his hands on one of these fantastic looking devices.  While he may not have been the first person in the United States to post his thoughts, he does offer quite an extensive and detailed look, going over the hardware, software, touchscreen, keyboard, and plenty more.

In his review, Matthew looks at both the pros and the cons of this latest device, noting:

I like the hardware of the device more than I thought I would so far and plan to test out the camera (still and video) a lot more this weekend at our soccer tourney. I need to spend more time with the keyboard since I currently do not find it to be that great, but I am adaptable. $650 to $700 is a hefty price to pay and I think Nokia could have done more to make the device better (RAM, keyboard, several apps and widgets). That said, Nokia stated there will be some big updates coming to the N97 in the future so I am curious to see how much these add to the device. I like my E71x and 5800 and think most users may be happy with these lower cost alternatives that meet just about all their needs. As a power user who enjoys the S60 platform the N97 may be just the ticket.

Check out Matthew’s full review, here,  And if you have tried the N97 or the new Symbian S60 series 5, let us know what you think.  Do you agree with Matt’s concerns?  Write in and let us know.

Do you own a Windows Mobile phone? Do you want to watch Hulu and youtube in your browser? Then you should be interested to hear that Skyfire is finally out of beta as of this morning. Now, I will be honest: I’m not a huge fan of Skyfire. Or, at least I wasn’t a fan of the beta. Has it improved enough to deserve space on your device? Read on for my first impressions.

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Attention Developers! Rhomobile’s mobile application development contest can put $10,000 in your pocket. The contest is promoting Rhomobile’s Rhodes framework, which allows developers to write native applications for the iPhone using HTML and Ruby.

After you’ve written your iPhone application, the Rhodes framework will allow you to run the same application on BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android mobile phones!

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One last new Nokia to tempt you this afternoon, and then we are done. Say hello to the 6710 Navigator, a little powerhouse designed with getting you there safely in mind. The Quad Band 6710 features a screen which has been “optimised for outdoor use”, a “2 GB MicroSD card (with pre-loaded mega region maps)”, “support for synchronisation of Nokia Maps 3.0 [included] with Maps on Ovi”, and yep – the Carl Zeiss 5MP camera optics that I have come to love.

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Ah, here’s a Nokia that got some 5MP camera lovin’: the 6720 Classic. Other highlights include Quad Band, integrated A-GPS, and many of the internal multimedia goodies (as well as available external multimedia accessories) that we have come to expect from the N series. Nice one, Nokia…

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Holy cow! It appears that the E71 has snuck off and had a love child with a Windows Mobile phone! Okay, maybe not, but tell me if that’s not what Nokia’s new Quad-Band E75 kind of looks like…

I’m not sure how well it will go over with people who like having their QWERTY keyboard on the front of their device, but for people who like a compact form factor which hides all kinds of functionality, this may just do the trick.

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Last night I put my BlackJack II up for sale on eBay in anticipation of the 3G iPhone release. It sold just a few hours later, so I am all set for when it arrives in June (hopefully ).

But this morning while perusing my usual tech news websites I saw a link to The Boy Genius to a review of Nokia’s revision of the E61, the E71. In 2006 I actually considered an E61 because of it’s large, gorgeous screen and spacious thumboard, but ultimately decided against it because it was so wide. This new model though looks absolutely fantastic!

I’ve been switching between the BlackJack II and the N95 8GB for the past two months, simply because the Nokia was faster, had better signal strength everywhere, and has an excellent 5 megapixel camera, a feature I have noticed myself using a lot more often these days. Oddly, my Exchange email seemed to work better and emails come through on the Nokia too.

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