Nokia VP, David Rivas, was in San Francisco yesterday touting Symbian^3 improvements. While we've heard and seen plenty about Symbian Three's enhanced user experience already, it's still worthy of another look considering Symbian's dominant marketshare. Besides, David provides a very detailed look as he walks us though elements like the customizable (and more finger friendly) homescreens meant to provide quick access to call features and at-a-glance data. Rivas also reiterates speed improvement claims over existing S60 5th devices (about a 3x improvement in graphics performance) that should "very very pleasantly surprise" users. Naturally, a faster UI coupled with a Symbian device running on something better than ARM 11 will also help here -- Nokia's only Cortex A8 device is the N900 running Maemo, not Symbian. David takes a veiled shot at Microsoft's new WP7 platform when discussing Symbian's true multitaking capabilities without any "tricks" -- apps are actually running in the background, not just freezing their state until you return. Multitouch screen control on capacitive andresistive (really?) touchscreen displays with Cover Flow-like album art navigation? Yup, it's all in there, as are hundreds of usability improvements (and fewer nags!) that should bring Symbian^3 up to the level of what everyone expects from a modern smartphone, according to Rivas. In other words, we'll have to wait for S^4 on early 2011 devices to see any real innovation. While the live demo was run on a laptop, we suspect it won't be long until Nokia starts showing off its live OS on a production handset. Until then, check the video after the break -- it's all we've got.
We'd heard that the NFL would be bringing the RedZone channel to phones this season, and it looks like Verizon was the highest bidder: NFL Mobile will launch on Big Red next month with the draft, complete with live streaming video of the event, on-demand video analysis from NFL Network, a pick-by-pick draft tracker, and other content. Once the season starts, customers will get RedZone, live streams of Sunday night and Thursday night games, on-demand video highlights and analysis, live home and away radio broadcasts, fantasy info, and the usual nasty ringtones and graphics. That's a ton of content, and it certainly makes Sprint's NFL package seem a little light in comparison -- we'll have to see what pricing is like and what devices this'll run on closer to launch, however. Bring on the draft!
Update: We just confirmed that NFL Mobile will be exclusive to Verizon for the next four years, which means Sprint customers are out of luck. Verizon paid a pretty penny for the rights: the Wall Street Journal values the deal at $720 million.
Being drip-fed information on the HTC Supersonic is unlikely to be as pleasant an experience as actually having one, but it's all we can do to fill the time until this beast of a phone finally makes its official debut (probably on Sprint). Today's appearance shows what looks to be a majorly insecure Mr. Blurrycam sporting gloves and gingerly handling a handset purporting to be HTC's latest and greatest. We're mostly treated to a sight of the back, which is white as our first (and most trusted) tipster had seen, and gives us a grainy first look at the camera and speaker grill arrangement. Check out the video after the break. As a bonus, we've found another source for the earlier Supersonic video -- you know, the one that got yanked from YouTube twice -- and have embedded it as well, go get them both while they're still around.
No more lengthy retiming your 5D Mark II video footages to 24P, the long awaited 5D Mark II’s firmware to enable motion capture in 24fps will arrive soon this month. Canon has informed us the upcoming firmware 2.0.3 will meet the demands of filmmakers, cinematographers, and movies enthusiasts by adding the Full HD 1080 in 24 fps-recording capability and changing 30P video frame rate to 29.97.
Also include in this upgrade are new histogram display, manual audio level control, enhanced audio sampling from 44.1KHz to 48KHz, and improving camera-lens communication when manual sensor cleaning is in use.
The firmware download is not yet available and no exact date has been released at this time, but we expect couple more weeks of wait.
Feeling the post-MWC blues? Not enough smartphone hardware talk to get you through your Monday trudge? Fear not, we've grabbed a pair of Qualcomm demo videos from this year's event in Barcelona that show off its MSM7x30 smartphone platform (first announced in November of last year). It has now made its way into some demo devices and its early performance points to a very happy future for all of us mobile media vultures. Equipped with the same CPU as resides inside Qualcomm's Snapdragon, this system-on-chip comes with an HDMI output and the ability to play back 720p video on both its host device and your nearest HDTV. There's also some very welcome 3D gaming on show as well as YouTube playback using Flash 10.1 (smooth and silky), but our attention was captured by a nifty picture browser provided by Scalado. It allows you to view up to 1,000 images at the same time, zoom into each individual one, or sort them by name, color and other attributes. Being able to handle all that, with only minor perceptible lag, shows we're looking at what's shaping up to be a pretty beastly chip. Check it out after the break, and expect it to show up in a lust-worthy smartphone near you by the end of 2010.
We heard (momentarily) that Sprint was fixing to roll webOS 1.4 out to Palm devices starting today, and it seems as if one particular Pre Central forum member has stumbled upon the software early. We've already shown you the full changelog, but if you're too anxious to wait for your own OTA alert, hit up the source link for a deep dive into webOS 1.4 screenshots. Oh, and there's a video recorded within 1.4 just after the break -- huzzah!
Maybe it's the lack of a banging soundtrack, but we're finding ourselves somewhat underwhelmed by these first video appearances by the highly anticipated Symbian^4 user interface. What we're shown is a now familiar layout for touchscreen devices, with a trio of home screens that can be customized with widgets and live information trinkets such as a clock and a weather app. It is, as promised, very touch-centric, but it is by no means revolutionary. Both videos are titled as mere "first glimpse" offerings, however, so the eternal optimist in us likes to believe that there'll be plenty more to get excited about as we move closer to that early 2011 launch. See them after the break and let us know what you think.
When people say the smartphone market is growing, they don't usually mean literally, but looking at the massive popularity of HTC's HD2 whopper, and the anticipation surrounding Dell's Mini 5 and LG's GW990, it's pretty safe to say there is a market for oversized and overpowered (is there such a thing?) handsets. The Moorestown-powered GW990 has made another video appearance, this time showing off its multi-screen functionality and not altogether smooth pinch-to-zoom skills. We're reminded this Mobile Internet Device (a title that's inscribed on its case) will run Moblin (now known as MeeGo), before a HD2 is whipped out for a showdown between super-sized smartphones. It's really quite a sight. After all that excitement is done, the video continues on to take a look at the forthcoming GT540 Android handset and Mini GD880, giving you all the more reason to click past the break for a viewing.
Even as American carriers continue to resist it, a variety of Canada's GSM networks support video calling on so-enabled 3G handsets -- but currently, the problem is that you're only able to video call other phones on the same network. Fortunately, Rogers, Bell, and Telus have been hard at work playing nice long enough to ensure that their respective video calling services play nice one another, and they've just announced the successful completion of inter-carrier trials. The companies are quick to point out that this makes them the "first inter-carrier partnership in North America" to support 3GPP-compliant video calling, something that should hopefully make AT&T and T-Mobile feel at least a fleeting moment of shame. No word on exactly when the service will be available to end users.
We're only a few breathless days away from the Devour hitting some retail locations ahead of nationwide US availability in March, so what better way to fill that gap than with an official teaser video? Moto's Rick Osterloh is our tour guide in a seven minute hands-on demo of the device, which takes us through the major attractions on offer. He firstly calls out the Qualcomm CPU inside and points to the phone's responsiveness, which is (quite naturally) followed by a couple of instances of perceptible lag between his input and the phone's reaction. All the same, it does look like a sprightly little machine, and the inclusion of Blur, Google Maps Navigation with turn-by-turn voice instructions, and Moto Phone Portal makes for a compelling software package. Head past the break to see them in action and to catch another eyeful of the hardware as well.
Even as American carriers continue to resist it, a variety of Canada's GSM networks support video calling on so-enabled 3G handsets -- but currently, the problem is that you're only able to video call other phones on the same network. Fortunately, Rogers, Bell, and Telus have been hard at work playing nice long enough to ensure that their respective video calling services play nice one another, and they've just announced the successful completion of inter-carrier trials. The companies are quick to point out that this makes them the "first inter-carrier partnership in North America" to support 3GPP-compliant video calling, something that should hopefully make AT&T and T-Mobile feel at least a fleeting moment of shame. No word on exactly when the service will be available to end users.
