This is the third e-Learning Stuff Podcast, Mainly Phone Stuff.
e-Learning Stuff Podcast, Mainly Phone Stuff
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Nokia has bought the rest of Symbian and has “given” it away to the community via the Symbian Foundation.
Probably in response to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, Nokia has purchased the rest of Symbian and has announced, according to the The Register, that it will be then “giving it away”.
Nokia has bought up the bits of Symbian it didn’t already own and is chucking the OS into an open-source foundation along with the S60 UI layer, accompanied by Sony Ericsson and DoCoMo, who are throwing in UIQ and MOAP(S) respectively.
The BBC adds:
Nokia, which already owns 48% of the UK-based firm, intends to develop its software to compete with Google’s planned Android operating system.
This is an interesting response by Nokia to the “threat” posed by Android and the iPhone.
At the recent JISC RSC SW HE Conference I took a fair bit of Qik video, here is one I took of Andy Ramsden of the University of Bath discussing what I was doing and Qik.
[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.503064&w=425&h=350&fv=] from qik.com
Nokia has confirmed it is working on a new phone which it hopes will match and exceed the functionality and capability of Apple’s iPhone.
The Register reports
Nokia has confirmed that it’s developing a touchscreen-equipped handset to take on the Apple iPhone, and has shown off pictures of the upcoming phone to drooling onlookers.
It looks like it will support Java and Flash and include a DVB-H digital television tuner as well.
It seems like every new phone released with a touch interface is touted as the iPhone killer, however nearly all (well all) don’t live up to the hype.
My experiences with the LG Viewty certainly demonstrate to me that it is not an iPhone killer, it will be interesting to see if this Nokia “Tube” can meet the challenge.
I am currently at the JISC RSC SW HE Conference in Bristol today. I am trying out a new video streaming service, Qik.
Qik allows you to stream live video to the internet from your phone. Qik also records and stores the video so you can view it later.
Both the live video stream and the recorded videos can be embedded into a web page or a blog post in a similar manner to Youtube videos.
Unlike Shozu which allows you to post a recorded video from a phone online, Qik allows you to stream the video live. So as you film, it is available online on the web.
It is similar to Ustream or Stickam, however those services generally use a computer to capture and stream the video, Qik uses a phone. I am using a Nokia N95 with a 3G data connection to do this and works quite well. The Nokia N95 also has wifi capability so you can use wifi if you have that connectivity available.
You can see all my Qik videos here.
With the growth of GPS and the falling in cost of the GPS chips, it will soon be likely that all new mobile phones and mobile devices will have GPS capability.
BBC Click reports
GPS devices are getting smaller, and over the next couple of years more and more mobile phones will come equipped with chips that communicate with satellites in space, providing pinpoint data about your location, in theory at least. In fact, mobile market leader Nokia expects to ship 35 million GPS-phones in 2008.
I have been using a few GPS devices recently and they work well in their own ways, a Nokia N95 which can add geo-data to the pictures it takes; a Nokia N810 which can tell me where I am and for an extra €99 will show me the way to where I want to get to; a Windows Mobile PDA, the Acer C530 which comes with GPS and Co-Pilot software which tells me where I am and how to get to my destination.
So where are you?
A week or so back I managed to get my hands on a Nokia N810 as part of our MoLeNET project, one of many mobile devices we have got to support the project. These devices are for two main reasons, firstly from a learner support perspective, if they have them, how do they work and how does our mobile content play on them? Secondly to evaluate them from a college perspective so that if and when we get more mobile devices for our learners we can go with a device we have used, checked and know works. We can also use that information to advise and recommend devices to learners.
So what do I think of the Nokia n810?
So far I have been quite impressed with the Nokia N810, it is a neat smart device, which works as you expect it to work.
Browsing is good, as are other internet applications. It either uses wi-fi or you use a Bluetooth connection to your phone and use your phone’s 3G data connection. Thing to remember is that it is not a phone!
I found the keyboard though small, much easier and better than any mobile phone keypad for typing in text and the predictive text entry means you can go quite fast.
Haven’t yet tried video on the device as in an actual video file, tried it with an online video, BBC’s iPlayer, and the Flash video playback was very poor, jerky and unwatchable. I am guessing that is a similar reason why Apple have not implemented Flash on the iPhone and the iPod touch – though I have also heard it was more down to PDF reading and implementation!
Battery life is good and much better than a lot of UMPCs out there, so it has that going for it.
The Register has a really detailed and good review of the Nokia n810 on their website.
Nokia’s approach for the N810 is pretty simple: phone screens are too small for decent web browsing, so surely a separate portable device that has a bigger screen and Wi-Fi connectivity is needed for serious portable web access.
Their verdict?
Taken at face value, Nokia’s N810 not a bad box of tricks. For surfing the web, email and as an internet communication device it is a handy little gadget, while the operating system is easy to use, feature rich and robust. The relative abundance of software is another plus. But that lack of a SIM slot does niggle just a bit.
I believe that the Nokia n810 is a great portable internet device for learning and I really like it.
I don’t believe it is suitable as a device to give to learners, for two main reasons, number one it is expensive for what it does, two, it is too “delicate” and “stylish” and I don’t think it is robust enough to be given out to students in the way that a PSP or even an iPod touch could be given out.
BBC reports on how Microsoft has signed a deal with Nokia to put Silverlight on Nokia phones.
Silverlight is seen as a competitor to Adobe’s Flash, which is already used by popular websites such as YouTube.
The software will first be available on Nokia’s high end smart phones running a Symbian operating system.
Read more.
BBC News is reporting on how Nokia want you to replace your paper maps with a map on yur mobile.
Nokia has launched navigation tools designed to make the paper street map obsolete for pedestrians.
The firm’s next generation of digital maps gives real-time walking directions on the mobile phone screen, just like sat-nav systems which guide drivers.
“Nokia is taking navigation services out of the car so it can always be with you,” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, president and CEO of the firm.
“Struggling with oversized paper maps will become a thing of the past.”
Photo source.
I have always been intrigued by the Nokia N series as a potential platform for mobile learning. So much so that I had in fact placed an order for the N800 on Friday.
Of course on Friday, Nokia announce the new Nokia N810, luckily for me the order hadn’t been processed so I was able to change it to the N810.
The N810 is as you might guess is an improvement on the older N800. Key improvements are a full QWERTY keyboard, a faster processor and GPS.
For me this makes the N810 a real device for mobile learning. For connectivity you either use a wifi connection or a bluetooth connection to your phone, so mobile browsing is possible, especially if you have a 3G phone. You can also play movie, audio and look at photos.
Is it an iPod touch, no, but the phone connectivity does give it an advantage over Apples’ innovative iPod.
You can read the press release and see some nice photos.
Thanks to Handheld Learning Forum.