14 DAY TRIAL // November and the Black Friday have come and gone, and now December is here, with a wide range of promotions for those interested in purchasing a new mobile phone during this period, but also with a series of novelties in the smarpthone area, as well as with new rumors and updates in the mobile software. First of all, we'll take a look at what Nokia did during this week, as it announced on Wednesday a series of plans and forecasts for the next year. The most important part of the announcement was the one regarding a new user interface for the Symbian platform, and one should expect it to arrive sometime in spring 2010, as soon as Symbian^3 is here.
Symbian users should rejoice already knowing that the OS is about to see some nice updates, but also due to the series of updated applications they received during the past few days. Among them, we can count the new Beta 2 flavors of Opera Mini 5 and Opera Mobile 10, which are also available for BlackBerry (Opera Mini) and Windows Mobile phones (Opera Mobile), an updated Shazam application, and Google Maps 3.3 (for Windows Mobile too). Still in the Symbian area, we should mention the nine new phones DOCOMO has launched or will launch shortly.
The Finnish mobile-phone maker Nokia also delivered to the developing world a new version of the Qt cross-platform application, namely 4.6, launched the Nokia E72 and N97 mini on the US market and also released a new firmware version for its Nokia E75 handset. At the same time, the company was reported to plan for 2010 the launch of a single handset powered by the Maemo operating system (Nokia was referring to the Maemo 6 platform here, we hope), and to not exclude from its future plans the selling of its handset division.
Another handset vendor that made it into the headlines quite a few times during this week was HTC. First of all, we've seen a leaked list of the company's future Android-based devices in an Android 2.1 ROM for the Hero, as well as new YOU commercials for HD2, Tattoo and Touch2. The said list of HTC phones confirmed in a way some already rumored phones, like the HTC Passion for Verizon, and made room for new devices, including an HTC Espresso, said to be a sliding version of the HTC Hero.
Another HTC mobile phone that emerged this week was the Touch.B / Rome, which was seen in a series of leaked photos, and proved itself on video to be the company's already rumored device that would run under Qualcomm's BrewMP platform. The HTC DROID Eris, Verizon's second Android handset, was confirmed recently to receive an OS update in early 2010, after being included in Big Red's BOGO promotion, which means that the carrier's users can enjoy it for free on a two-year contract upon the purchase of select handsets.
Samsung is another leading handset maker that had a busy week, with the announcement of the 50 millionth touchscreen device sold, and with the lowering of prices for its phones in Korea upon the arrival of the iPhone in the country. At the same time, the company launched the 'Samsung Diva Collection 2010', aimed at female phone users, unveiled the I8910 HD Gold Edition, and got its Windows Mobile 6.5-powered Samsung Omnia II launched on Verizon Wireless' airwaves, a long-awaited device that can be enjoyed in an unboxing video already.
Canadian mobile-phone maker Research In Motion released the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 SP 1, and also uncovered a new PDF vulnerability in the solution, one that is present with older versions of BES too, starting with the 4.1.3 iteration. The company also released new BlackBerry Widget Tools for developers of apps for its BlackBerry smartphones, which, by the way, now have a native Nimbuzz application available for them, and that can be purchased for half the usual price from AT&T during the holiday season.
Motorola's DROID handset, available from Verizon in the US, sees great traction on the market, and has just arrived in France as MILESTONE. Those who already purchased the phone can now enjoy a multi-touch Internet browsing experience with the Dolphin Browser, as well as Exchange 2010 and 2007 support from Intermedia, as well as a new commercial from Verizon, saying that DROID “is not a princess, is a robot.” Motorola CLIQ, the other Android phone from the company, has received a firmware update from T-Mobile, and we also stumbled upon leaked images of Motorola's Sholes Tablet, some of which came from China, as well as upon some new details on Motorola A555 Calgary.
On the OSes area, a few details on Windows Mobile 7 surfaced, as well as new and updated apps for users of the WM platform, including eWallet 7.0 (also available for BlackBerry), Resco Photo Manager 7.0, Bing Mobile, and MobileNavigator 7 (funny how they all got the same version). Android users learned that the 2.0.1 flavor of the OS had been included in the latest release of the Android SDK, and that they could now enjoy the BeamReader PDF Viewer, Stitcher Smart Radio, or the Layar 3.0 augmented reality browser.
Other news that might be of interest to some include the launch of the 1GHz WM-based LG eXpo on AT&T, a Nokia N900 that got torn to pieces, a firmware update for the Sony Ericsson Satio, or the fact that users consider Nokia X6's touchscreen as the handset's best feature. There is also a rumor on T-Mobile getting the iPhone, one on a Nokia N87 12MP, and another one on the Google self-branded phone, as well as one on some porting of UIs from a maker to another. As said in last week's roundup, in case you have any suggestions on how this weekly summary should look like, please feel free to post a comment below.
