What is the first thing most of us do after buying a new smartphone? Right, we try playing games!

A friend of mine bought a new Nokia N8 several days ago, and, as a big fan of racing games, he started to play Asphalt 6 HD almost immediately. He also tried to compare the game graphics of his Symbian^3-based N8 and my Android-based smartphone (I had to download and install it even though I don’t like racing games…).

The results were very… interesting, if I can say so. We didn’t make our own video since we found a similar one in Youtube. Here it is, have a look:

The video is only 480p, but despite that it’s clear that the graphics quality of the N8 is much worse, and the Symbian^3-based smartphone really loses to its Android-based competitor… It also seems the game is a bit slower on the Nokia smartphone.

We had the same result – the game looked much better on my old Android smartphone than on my friend’s new N8. But I guess, it’s not the fault of the phone, anyway, most likely the developers didn’t optimize the game when transferring it from Android to Symbian^3.

So I hope a new version of Asphalt 6 HD will be released by the developers, and this new version will be adequately optimized for Nokia’s Symbian^3-based smartphones. I guess all Nokia fans will be very glad to meet it.

Nokia’s Q2 2011 results were really terrible. Nokia lost about $692 million, IDC’s reports on Nokia weren’t satisfying as well… Not to mention the fact that Nokia was always popular in Europe, but now it’s giving way to iOS and Android-based smartphones everywhere, including the UK.

Why does this happen? Many experts express different opinions, and unwiredview.com is sure that the reason of Nokia’s crash is the fact that Nokia’s Symbian-based smartphones are more expensive than Android smartphones with similar features.

They provided this Infographic to prove their words. The prices were taken from Amazon.de.

As we can see from the pic above, the HTC Desire (€319), the LG Optimus 2X (€333) and the Samsung Galaxy SL (€291) are in the same category as the Nokia N8, but Nokia’s smartphone is much more expensive than the others – it costs €345.

The next category includes the HTC Wildfire S (€236), the Motorola Defy (€243), the Samsung Galaxy Ace (€219) and the Nokia C7 (€256), and again Nokia’s device costs €13 more than the Defy and €37 more than the Galaxy Ace.

In the next category of cheaper smartphones including the LG Optimus One, the HTC Wildfire, the Samsung Galaxy 3 and the Nokia C6-01, Nokia’s Symbian-based smartphone is again more expensive than the Android smartphones of other manufacturers.

In the category of smartphones with slide-out keyboards the Nokia E7 (€367) costs €88 more than the Motorola Milestone (€279) and €18 more than the HTC Desire Z (€349).

The last category includes the so-called “musical smartphones” like the Sony-Ericcson Xperia Arc (€375), the HTC Desire HD (€390), the Samsung Galaxy S (€319) and the Nokia X7 (€379). Only in this category HTC’s device is the most expensive one, but the price difference between the Nokia X7 and the Samsung Galaxy S (which, by the way, looks much better, IMHO) is still tangible.

So Nokia’s Symbian smartphones are more expensive than most of Android smartphones, so no wonder most of us prefer to buy devices based on Google’s OS (especially when we remember that everyone says that Android is cool and Symbian is dying). So if Nokia wants to stay alive and to reconquer its lost market shares, switching to Windows Phone isn’t enough, they should also review their pricing policies.

The Nokia X7 is at last available in the UK. The smartphone has a unique style, some great features and Symbian Anna OS. Does it sound impressive? Of course it does, the Nokia X7 is a really cool device, and here are three reasons to buy it.

1. 4-inch AMOLED touchscreen

The Nokia X7 is the only Nokia device with such a big 4-inch touchscreen. A large screen makes it more comfortable and fun to watch movies and play games, so if that’s what you like to do, the Nokia X7 is your choice.

2. Symbian Anna

Symbian Anna is the latest update of Symbian^3 OS that comes with many great improvements and new features. It won’t appear on Nokia phones earlier than in August, and the Nokia X7 comes with the updated version of the OS pre-installed, and this is one more reason to buy it!

3. Unusual design

Most of the modern smartphones look like each other. Just have a look at all those HTC phones or Motorola phones – almost all of them have the same design with not that significant differences. And the Nokia X7 is completely different with its unique recognizable design and stainless steel body, which is stronger and more durable than the standard plastic ones and will survive even if you drop it

Nokia is going to sell applications for Windows Phone 7 together with the Symbian apps from its own marketplace until at least 2016.

In his recent interview to Anna Shipley of Nokia Conversations Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO, said that Nokia was going to support Symbian and invest in it at least till 2016, which means the apps for this platform will also be available till 2016. He also mentioned that the WP apps will be sold in Nokia’s app store, together with the applications designed for Symbian and Series 40.

“Indeed: in our online store the applications for Windows Phone, for Series 40 and for Symbian will all be collected together,” Elop said.

The main shocking thing about this news is the fact that till now only Microsoft could sell WP apps. However, looks like Nokia has a special treatment…

By the way, Elop continues to promote its Symbian-based smartphones. During the same interview Elop mentioned that he was using the Nokia Oro – the new luxury smartphone made from gold, hand-wrapped leather and sapphire crystal (which costs about $1125, by the way!) and running the same old Symbian^3.

Source

Nokia will soon start producing new smartphones based on Windows Phone 7 (and its newer versions perhaps), but won’t forget and leave Symbian behind at once – it will take a few years to completely switch to Microsoft’s product.

In his interview to Anna Shipley of Nokia Conversations, China Edition, Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop, said that Nokia will continue to invest in Symbian and support it for a few more years — till 2016.

“We’re in a period where the investment in Symbian absolutely continues,” Elop said. “Even as we go through a transition towards our primary smartphone platform, Windows Phone, you will see that continued investment. And I know there’s been questions about — so how long does that continue — and we’ve now been very clear about that, that software updates to Symbian devices are expected until at least 2016. So there’s a long history still to be paved for Symbian in the future.”

By the way, during the interview, Elop was also asked about the phones he uses and said that he uses many, including the ones made by Nokia’s competitors, “so I will always have a few competitor products to experiment with, to make sure I understand what’s going on in the market.” He also mentioned carrying the new Oro in China and added, “This particular device is something we are very proud of because it brings some very fine materials together with a very proven platform — so it’s something I’m using in-particular today.”

And here is the video of the interview.

Nokia Germany’s website has published very interesting photos – now we can have a look at the updated Symbian^3 Homescreen, which will probably come with the new update of the OS – Belle.

The main features of the new interface are the widgets that now will have different sizes. Nokia had promised to realize this feature in Symbian Anna, too, but for some reason they never kept their promise.

Let me remind you that earlier the Symbian^3 widgets had fixed sizes, so the user could only change the number of the widgets of the screen and give preference to the most necessary ones. Now you’ll be able to reduce the size of less popular widgets, so all of them will find their place on the screen.

However, I would like to note that nothing was officially announced concerning this new Symbian release, so, unfortunately, there is a chance that it’s just a Photoshop error, nothing more…

Symbian^3 Belle is the third major update of the OS, and, according to preliminary information, it will be released this fall. They say it will bring many other interesting improvements (Android-like notifications, for example), too, so we’re all waiting for it impatiently, and some designers are already creating concept smartphones based on Symbian Belle.

A popular YouTube channel techpinas has posted a very interesting video comparing three Symbian^3-based smartphones – the Nokia C7, the Nokia N8 and the Nokia E7. The video will help you discover what these three smartphone have in common and what their main differences are. You can also compare the design of the phones and understand which one you like most of all.

The Nokia C7 has a unique design, but for some reason many people say it’s just the simplified version of the Nokia N8. In fact, these two smartphones really have much in common, but there are things that the C7 lacks. For example, it doesn’t have an HDMI output, and its camera is 8 megapixels, not 12 as the N8’s camera. Besides, the C7 uses LED flash (and the Nokia E7, too, by the way) instead of xenon. And – one more important thing – the Nokia C7 has an NFC support. And, well, the price of the Nokia C7 is way lower than the N8’s.

On the other hand, the Nokia E7’s camera also isn’t as powerful as the N8’s, but the smartphone has some features the devices from the N series lack. First of all, it’s the full QWERTY keyboard, though the display of the E7 is a bit smaller than the one of the N8. The Nokia E7 also has a slight advantage in text messaging and working with email and Internet.

All three smartphones have built-in Ovi Maps, FM Radio, Bluetooth that supports wireless stereo headset and a MicroSD memory card slot.

So each of these three Nokia smartphones has a number of unique features. The Nokia N8’s key feature is its camera, the E7’s key features are the screen and the QWERTY keyboard, and the C7’s key features are the NFC support and the low price.

And here is the promised video (7:58):

I hope this information and the video above will help you understand which smartphone is the best choice for you.

Ovi Maps v3.07 is now available at Beta Labs, so all Symbian^3 phone users can get and test it.

Many changed were made to the application; let’s try to find out more about them. First of all, Ovi Maps was modularized into four components — Maps, Drive, Check-in and Guides, and the access these modules has been made much easier.

The search option was also improved and a new tab was added to make it easier to access your favorite locations.

The Place pages and Guides were redesigned and the weather info was integrated into the Guides section (displayed on the top of it now). When you open the Guides section, you see all the available guides and services, including the weather forecast, depending on your location, which is automatically determined. You can also tap there to get more info about the weather forecast.

Additionally, it is now much easier to switch between different views – just one click is needed.

Mark Guim made a video demonstrating the new Ovi Maps v3.07 on his Nokia E7. Here it is:

Don’t forget to share your opinion about the new Ovi Maps v3.07 with us. Oh, and don’t forget to leave your feedback at Beta Labs, too, so that the developers can continue improving the application!

Source 1, source 2

The number of people who suffer from hearing disabilities is very big throughout the world, including the 190 countries where the Nokia Ovi Store operates (20 million deaf people only in South Africa, the U.S. and the UK). So many hearing people try to find an easy way to learn the basics of Sign Language so to communicate with deaf people more easily.

In June 2010 AppCraft launched some free Nokia applications that were to help those people learn the Alphabet of Sign Language, and thanks to that app, more than 17,000 people really started to learn it.

And now a new Nokia application has been released to help both hearing and deaf people learn the basics of Sign Language. The application is called eSign and it runs on Nokia S60 5th and Symbian 3 phones. Right now, until May 11, the application can be found for free in the Nokia Ovi Store.

The application is designed for making the studying process interactive and more interesting, so it’s easy to use and includes some fun educational games, thus it can be used not only by adults, but by children as well. For now the app can teach you the Sign Language Alphabet, but its developers hope that soon they’ll add new features, thus making the program more advanced and cool. Right now only American, Canadian and South African Sign Languages are available.

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Nokia Beta Labs have introduced a new application called the Nokia Drop – an easy way to push content to your Nokia device (Symbian^3 and S60 5th Edition phones) from your web browser. Three features of the application are ready at the moment; they give you the opportunity to change your Nokia’s wallpaper and send URLs and image files to your phone.

The application seems to be quite useful. For example, let’s have a look at the wallpaper changing process. It usually takes us many clicks to put the wallpaper we want. And if we see a picture in the Internet and want to put it as wallpaper, it will take an eternity to transfer it to the phone and to set it. The Push Notifications and the Nokia Drop application now make this process much easier and faster: If the application is installed on your phone and the browser extension is installed on your browser, you can easily send pics from websites to your phone without a Bluetooth connection or anything.

With the Nokia Drop application it will be very easy to send interesting links to your phone, too, so you won’t have to write the long address in your phone’s browser.

The application has been tested to work with X6-00, 5228, 5230, 5235 Ovi Music Unlimited, 5530 Exp Music, C6-00, N97, N97 mini, N8-00, C6-01, C7-00, E7-00, 5233, c5-03 and 5800. Enthusiasts have also tested it on the Nokia C7 (also known as the Nokia Astound).

You can take the beta version of the application from here.

And let me add a couple of videos that can interest you. Here is the official video of the Nokia Drop application:

And here is an interesting demo video from an unofficial source:

Source 1, source 2