Nokia has announced that it is buying out the 52 percent of Symbian that it didn't already own and opening up the platform. Nokia and a number of other companies including AT&T, LG, and Samsung have also announced the creation of the Symbian Foundation.
Now, open source software is great for developers because it mean that anyone can easily look at the code, tweak it, and write applications designed to run well on the platform. But ther's also a huge benefit for telecom companies. Nokia will provide access to the Symbian OS royalty-free to members of the Symbian Foundation. And anyone can join the foundation for a nominal $1500 annual fee.
Symbian currently has about 60 percent of the mobile browser market share. The move to make the platform open source should help Nokia and Symbian maintain that lead in the face of challenges from the LiMo Foundation and Google's Linux-based Android platform.
Google has released a version of Google Gears that runs on Windows Mobile 5.0/6 devices. What does that mean? It means that you can access web applications like Zoho Writer or Buxfer on your mobile, even when you're offline. You'll need to go online at some point to synchronize your data, but once that's done you can open and view your documents while you're on the subway or on the ocean floor (the two places we're pretty sure there's on internet access available).
This is pretty big news for Windows Mobile uses who are tired of dealing with Office Mobile. Zoho's online office suite offers most of the features you'd want from a word processor. And it's free. Right now you can't edit Zoho Writer documents in offline mode, but Zoho plans to add that functionality soon.
In somewhat related news, Microsoft and Nokia have signed a deal to use Silverlight in some of its phone and internet tablets. Right now, Silverlight is primarily a platform for displaying rich media content on the web (like Adobe Flash), Microsoft eventually plans to add offline functionality to Silverlight (like Adobe AIR or Google Gears). That means we could see offline support for online applications coming to Nokia devices one day as well.
Social video site Seesmic has announced some cool new features at DEMO08, a conference that showcases new software and web projects. Even though it's still in private beta, the so-called video Twitter now allows you to instantly see video responses to posts as an uninterrupted stream.
Now Seesmic also has a mobile application for Nokia's multi-talented N95 smartphone. Rather than being a live stream application such as like Qik, mobile Seesmic posts will be pre-recorded video snippets. You will also be able to view Seesmic videos on the mobile application.
While we're happy to see Seesmic branching out, we can't help but hope they touch more mobile phones than just the N95. Perhaps they can expand to additional Nokia handsets or even better yet, to Windows Mobile.
The largest mobile phone maker in the world, Finland's Nokia, has made a major move by acquiring TrollTech. You may not have heard of TrollTech, but you've probably used their software. They are the make of an application development framework called Qt. This framework is used for creating GUI programs and other programs that are used in applications. TrollTech's Qt is used in notable software packages such as Skype, Google Earth, and Opera, among others.
What does this mean for the average web/computer user? Basically Nokia's acquisition means in the future we will be able to enjoy awesome applications that work on our computers, Nokia mobile phones, and on the Internet. Current platforms that are similar to Qt include AIR, Flash, and Java.
The acquisition needs to be approved by TrollTech shareholders and regulatory, but it looks very probable that the acquisition will go off without a hitch.
Nokia Sports Tracker is an amazing application for Nokia N series smartphones that uses GPS to enable users to track their activities. Do you have a friend who has a Garmin ForeRunner? These are amazing GPS watches because they give you exact statistics about distance traveled, average speed, elevation gain, etc. Well Nokia Sports Tracker gives you the same information by using the GPS in your Nokia phone (such as the N95).
Nokia has taken the next step by allowing you to share this information with your friends by developing a Facebook application. Now you can share your latest workouts and routes directly in your Facebook profile. Information such as your speed, distance and time are automatically stored to your training diary.
Enjoy sharing your route, speed, and distance with your friends with this smart new Facebook Application.
Users can now download the official installer for OS2008 for your Nokia N800 Internet tablet. What can we expect in the new release? Well for starters:
The sluggish Opera browser has been swapped out for a speedy Mozilla based browser
If you're on an N800, the processor speed has been bumped up to 400 Mhz
Built in Flash 9
FM Radio software
A Beautiful new UI
Improved RSS reader
and much, much more.
The most noticeable difference for us was the speed bump to 400 Mhz. The N800 was a tad sluggish before but is now very zippy. The new browser is a huge plus as Opera was always a problem on the N800.
We love the N800. It's a great device for staying connected when you don't feel like lugging around your laptop or just need to check your email/RSS feeds real quick.
If desktop VoIP calling program Gizmo Project previously had a reputation as a Skype Killer, it's now official: Skype is dead. Gizmo has always done things Skype couldn't--like custom on-hold music, SIP compatibility, meta-IM with support for Yahoo, MSN, and Google Talk, and a slew (that means dozens) of other things. Indeed, some of us here at Download Squad haven't had Skype in our startup items for a year or more.
Gizmo Project 4.0 beta just hit the wild. New in this edition are a reworked avatar system, tabbed text chatting, a totally redesigned user interface, and video calling, a feature that we got a first look at with an earlier beta release last month.
Ordinarily, Gizmo Project's creator, SIPPhone Inc., does a good job of getting features to their Mac and Linux editions in a hurry (though 4.0 beta isn't yet available for Mac). In this case, however, the Nokia N800/N810 version is also ready to rock, which really excites us, since Nokia's Internet Tablets have built-in cameras that are ideal for video calling.
As with previous versions of the Project, you can still make outgoing (and receive incoming) telephone calls, and make yourself reachable via a sipphone.com URI. So, with the last nail in Skype's coffin being hammered in by the good folks at SIPPhone, we're asking ourselves if we'll ever need to run Skype again. After all, with services like GrandCentral supporting Gizmo Project, and with the availability of a native Gizmo Project client for mobile phones, it looks like Gizmo Project is ready to bury eBay's redheaded stepchild.
Have a Nokia N770/N800/N810 Internet Tablet? Do you keep staring at it's tiny web-surfing screen wishing it could run some of the same applications you used to love on your old Palm Pilot? Now you can.
Last week we mentioned the fact that ACCESS is getting closer to releasing its Linux-based operating system for Palm devices. In order to ensure backward compatibility with older PalmOS applications, ACCESS designed a PalmOS Garnet emulation layer. And since it runs on Linux, and Nokia's tablets run on Linux, it was apparently pretty easy to port the PalmOS emulator over to the Nokia Internet Tablet platform.
The Garnet emulator doesn't replace Nokia's user interface, but runs on top of it as a launchable program. Once it's up and running you can access basic Palm apps like the calendar and contacts, and install third party software by hotsyncing with your computer over a network connection. The emulator also uses Palm's Graffiti handwriting recognition.
The folks over at TabletBlog have put together a quick video demonstration, which you can check out after the jump.
We've noticed a vicious cycle: Nokia introduces a cool new phone. Then six months go by. Then six more. Finally, Apple releases an OS X update to roll support for the cool new phone into iSync. Only problem is, by the time the iSync update hits general release, the phone isn't new any more. For those of us living on the cutting edge, this just isn't acceptable.
Fortunately, it appears Nokia has begun creating its own iSync plug-ins and releasing them into the wild on a very prompt basis--like weeks after the phones arrive as opposed to months. Grab the plugins from Nokia's European web site. Just about every Nokia phone, including the N-Series and E-series, are supported.
It's been a busy week here at Download Squad headquarters. And we assume you've had a busy week too. So if you've fallen behind on your tech news, here are a few things you might have missed during the week ending September 29th, 2007. Download Squad interviews Evan Jones of 360desktop - Video
Ever get the feeling that there's just not enough space for all the shortcuts, temporary files, and widgets you need to live a contended life? 360desktop lets you use a panoramic photo as a desktop background. Since panoramic photos don't fit too well on a 1024 x 768 pixel monitor, 360desktop creates more virtual desktop space by letting you scroll beyond the edge of your monitor.
Download Squad's Ted Wallingford has been spending some quality time with his Nokia N800, and he has the video to prove it. Sure, the N800 isn't technically a phone like the iPhone, but put that puppy near a Wi-Fi hot spot, fire up the VoIP and anything's possible.
Download Squad's Gordon Finlayson has a few questions about Facebook developers. So he sent e-mails to a handful of said developers. And he was labeled a spammer, his account was banned, and Facebook lawyers told him the immortal soul of his firstborn child was now theres. OK, we made the last part up. But Finlayson does have some interesting thoughts on Facebook's over-aggressive anti-spam policy.
Resident developer Alex Hung offers up some valuable advice for honing your skills even when your current job is far too easy for you. Only the strong survive, and one day you're going to be looking for another job. So why not contribute to open source projects, take evening classes, or actually show your bosses that there might be a better way of doing things.
Most of the threats to our computers come from the web. So while firewalls, anti-virus, and anti-spyware applications are great, sometimes what you really need is a way to protect your browsing session. At least, that's the premise behind ZoneAlarm's latest security offering. Preview of Nero 8 - DLS interview
Nero is set to release the latest version of its popular CD/DVD burning suite next week. We got a chance to ask Nero technical director Craig Campbell a few questions about what sets Nero 8 apart from Nero 7. In a nutshell: a few performance enhancements and a whole bunch of visual tweaks.
Here are a few more of our most popular articles from the week:
Though Nokia's Internet tablet, the N800, has been on the market for quite a bit longer than Apple's iPhone, we here at Download Squad have been thinking about the N800-iPhone comparison since Steve Jobs first demoed the iPhone back in January.
Indeed, there are a few things you can do with the Nokia product that aren't possible on the iPhone. Namely, you can make and receive VoIP calls using Gizmo Project and Skype, choose from a plethora of Debian/Maemo packages to run on the N800 (the N800 is Linux-based), listen to FM radio, and participate Google Talk video conferences.
Of course, the N800 isn't a cell phone, so in some way it seems almost silly to compare the two devices. The N800 doesn't do SMS messaging like Apple's phone. Nor does the N800 support phone calls without going through VoIP software. But both of these devices have great web browsers, newsreaders, and e-mail capability, so the comparison is natural.
We've put together a hands-on video with N800, which includes some tips for better e-mail, moving files to and from the N800 with Bluetooth, running Gizmo, and running Quake 2 courtesy of the open-source Quetoo distribution. You can view the video after the jump and decide for yourself whether or not Nokia's handy tablet is really an iPhone killer.
At the beginning of the month, we wrote about how Nokia's N800 tablet might compare with the iPhone. The results to our very unscientific poll, showed a strong preference for the N800. Of the 1,027 respondents, the N800 won by a landslide - 65% to the iPhone's 35%.
Now that the iPod touch is here, let's do a side by side comparison with it and see how the N800 fares, after the jump.
Let's face it. Social networking on cell phones sucks. Web browsing on cell phones is a pain, and nobody has made it easy to participate in the social apps trifecta (profile, friends, and chat) on a mobile device. Despite this, mobile devices are still the best place to participate in social networks because they're always on-net, and they're personal. Plus, they have all the tools needed to support social network action: a built-in camera, a microphone and earpiece, and a texting apparatus. Hello MySpace, right?
Well, if MySpace didn't suck on mobile devices, that is.
Enter Mig33. This Australian startup has created a rich, easy-to-use social network for cell phones that runs as a native app. We tried it on a Nokia N95 and it installed by downloading it from Mig33's WAP download site. It ran exactly as described. With the Mig33 client running on your mobile device, you'll be able to browse other users' profiles, send chat texts, participate in a multi-user chat room, and I.M. with your buddies on MSN, AIM, and Yahoo. You'll also have VoIP capability do you can gab it up with your Mig33 buddies. Not a bad combination of functionality--and the best part, Mig33 is free to join.
Okay, it's not really a phone -- but Nokia's open source N800 tablet has a lot of great things going for it, not least of which is it's $100 cheaper than the iPhone and better still, it's not part of the AT&T network.
If you can get past the fact that it is not a phone (or already have a perfectly good cell phone), here are some features that might sway you to a) get over your iPhone envy and, b) purchase a device that some believe outperforms and outfeatures the iPhone:
Excellent 802.11 and Bluetooth radios.
Razor-sharp 4.1", 800x480, 225 pixel/inch color touchscreen.
Built-in stereo speakers.
640x480 Webcam.
FM receiver.
USB 2.0 connectivity.
Two full-size SD card slots with a supported capacity of 2GB each.
USB and line-in interfaces to record and playback podcasts.
Supports Flash 9 and Skype Internet calls which allow users to better browse YouTube videos, play online flash games, and make free Internet calls to other Skype-enabled devices.
Optional equipment: Nokia navigation kit to use the N800 as a navigation device.
Since the N800 is open source, there are many third party applications which extend its usefulness and fun factor, such as:
Pidgin - full-featured internet messaging client, with AIM, MSN, Yahoo and Jabber support Canola - media player with network streaming FBReader - e-book reader Claws Mail - full-featured email client Obscura Photo Manager
Other than the killer light touch screen on the iPhone, the N800 has all the right stuff. What do you think? Would you rather have an iPhone or geek out with an N800?
Just when you thought you were going to get away from the rat race of a freeway commute and take the train, Nokia and EA have found a way to get you back into the driver's seat. A version of Need For Speed: Carbon has been released for Java-supporting mobile phones such as the excellent N73. On Nokia N-series phones, you can grab the racer by launching the Download! option. Then strap in and hit the gas. Just be careful not to lean too hard into the passenger next to you on the subway as you drift around all those tight virtual curves.
And while you're checking out Carbon, you might want to sneak a peek at Need For Speed: Pro Street, which will be available for your mobile on October 31.
Nokia has announced that it is buying out the 52 percent of Symbian that it didn't already own and opening up the platform. Nokia and a number of other companies including AT&T, LG, and Samsung have also announced the creation of the Symbian Foundation.
It's been a busy week here at Download Squad headquarters. And we assume you've had a busy week too. So if you've fallen behind on your tech news, here are a few things you might have missed during the week ending September 29th, 2007.
At the beginning of the month, we wrote about how Nokia's 
Let's face it. Social networking on cell phones sucks. Web browsing on cell phones is a pain, and nobody has made it easy to participate in the social apps trifecta (profile, friends, and chat) on a mobile device. Despite this, mobile devices are still the best place to participate in social networks because they're always on-net, and they're personal. Plus, they have all the tools needed to support social network action: a built-in camera, a microphone and earpiece, and a texting apparatus. Hello MySpace, right?
Just when you thought you were going to get away from the rat race of a freeway commute and take the train, Nokia and EA have found a way to get you back into the driver's seat. A version of 
