Nokia establishes Symbian Foundation …WHY? … Future consequences?

The recent “Open at own risk” promo disaster (yes it was a disaster) of Nokia has left quite a few Nokia fans including me annoyed. However that certainly doesn’t mean that Nokia has turned evil.

Around four weeks ago, on June 24th, 2008, Nokia purchased the whole of Symbian (for EUR 264 million) (previously it owned 48% of Symbian). And the reason why I said Nokia isn’t evil is the fact that despite the purchase, Nokia has decided to gradually open-source the entire Symbian platform code including even its own S-60 variant, over the next couple of years, under Eclipse Public License (EPL).

Nokia went further and established the non-profit Symbian foundation (www.symbianfoundation.org) which includes leading phone manufacturers like LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson; wireless carriers AT&T, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone; plus semiconductor firms STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments. A huge ecosystem is already committed to the foundation:


WHY …. ?

Symbian OS is presently the leading most popular Smartphone platform in the world. Symbian started in 1998 and thus it also recently celebrate 10 years of its successful journey in the market (www.symbian.com/tenyears) 60% of the Smartphones manufactured today are built on Symbian platform which is a greater percentage than any other platform by far. Symbian OS represented approximately 7% of all mobile device sales in 2007. To date, more than 200 million Symbian OS based phones have been shipped, over 235 models, from 8 vendors and on more than 250 mobile networks around the world. More than 4 million developers are engaged in producing applications for Symbian devices.

According to a source, four billion people are expected to have joined the global mobile conversation by 2010. The mobile devices are now being looked upon more and more as a multi-utility gadget which is expected to provide the added functionality of a decent camera, music player a gaming console, internet browsing and virtually replace the personal computer. These advancing features must be accommodated while simultaneously lengthening battery life from model to model. That job falls largely to the OS and Open software is the basic building block for delivering this future as it accelerates and enhances the software development process to a large extent.

Since Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices the establishment of the Symbian Foundation is expected to make it the undisputed platform for mobile innovation. The Symbian Foundation will promote the Symbian OS and provide royalty-free open platform and accelerate innovation.

As the Symbian foundation says, the purpose of Symbian is to:

“Bring to life a shared vision and to create the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform - available for free.”

But there is another good reason for Nokia to make such a move … The move is also a response to Google's cheap Android (Wikipedia) platform which is already open source and threatens to potentially replace Symbian as the choice of a device-independent platform. The Open Handset Alliance (Wikipedia) is working on Android and includes Symbian producers LG, Motorola and Samsung as part of its membership.

Moreover the OS X platform which is used in the powerful and popular iPhone also pose a severe threat to Symbian. The OS X platform, unike Android, is a closed platform, and has been increaing its market share at a brisk rate.

Thus basically the Symbian foundation came together because its members felt the need to join hands in order to keep up with the ever-rising demands of the consumer and to rise above their competitors.

According to Nigel Clifford, CEO of Symbian:

“Ten years ago, Symbian was established by far sighted players to offer an advanced open operating system and software skills to the whole mobile industry…Our vision is to become the most widely used software platform on the planet and indeed today Symbian OS leads its market by any measure. Today’s announcement is a bold new step to achieve that vision by embracing a complete and proven platform, offered in an open way, designed to stimulate innovation which is at the heart of everything we do.”

FUTURE CONSEQUENCES …. ?

One can safely say that the Symbian foundation has a really bright future owing to a number of good reasons.

Firstly, because the minds of the world’s leading mobile manufacturers will unite to develop a single grand platform. This will lift the burden of developing the core OS from the individual. The move will let each phone maker shift attention to making devices unique rather than rewriting some or all of the basics. Thus the development takes lesser time and resources for each member.

Moreover each manufacturer has agreed to provide the various smart developments they have made so far to the cause:

• Nokia has agreed to contribute their popular S60 platform to the foundation.
• Motorola and Sony Ericsson will contribute the developments made in their special variant of Symbian, called UIQ.
• NTT DoCoMo will also do the same with the MOAP software it uses for many of its phones.
• Nokia intends to combine Symbian, S60, UIQ and MOAP platforms and that is an absolutely brilliant strategy as each platform contains its own pros and cons. The unison to create a single open mobile software platform will drive the development of newer and highly advanced software and incredible applications for the phones to the delight of the consumer.
• And that’s not it. There are lots of other affiliates which further strengthen the Symbian Foundation by providing services in the areas where they specialize.

Moreover when the code will become completely open-source which is expected to be in around 2 years then the innovations will be further boosted as the code will be available to a wider community.

The carriers are also happy with the union and say that the Symbian Foundation will alleviate a great deal of market confusion and disparity. The Symbian Foundation will reduce fragmentation in the industry and holds the promise of incorporating leading technology and the most mature software into a unified platform for the entire industry.

On the whole… the foundation is a gleaming prospect as ultimately the value of a phone depends not on the hardware but on the underlying software. Nokia bought Symbian with the stated long-term intention of giving the OS away as proper open source and to me it appears to be a wise decision on the part of Nokia as it protects the Symbian OS from upcoming rivals.
The move is also hugely beneficial for us the users as it would be great for us to get more and more innovative Smartphones with lots of wonderful features. This can certainly be a reality if the super powers of mobile software development industry honestly join hands and work in collaboration.

Already, there is lots of great news about the upcoming Nokia touch-phone tagged Nokia-tube which is expected to release until next year. Having seen some of the video releases that Nokia has provided for the S60 platform and if the leaks about the configuration of the Tube are to be believed, then I must say that even much hyped iPhone will soon be given a run for its money.

I really do hope that the Symbian Foundation provides a wonderful environment to its members and marshals a new era in the mobile software industry.

Cheers!!

Press release
whitepaper

Apple releases iTunes 7.7 : A review

iTunes is Apple’s media player, media organization and sync software. Apple released iTunes 7.7 recently on 10 July, adding support for the iPhone 3G and the iTunes App Store.

This latest version of iTunes is required for the iPhone 3G, Firmware 2.0, App Store and MobileMe.iTunes is available for free download. Get the latest version here:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
(System Requirements: Mac OS X(10.4.7 or later) or Windows
File Size: 48MB)


Whats new ?

The App Store:
iTunes Version 7.7 contains support fo making downloads from the App Store. The app store will have Applications and games for the iPhone and iPod touch. However the highly awaited store has not yet been launched as I write this post. One of the most awaited applications is the all new remote application…

The Remote application:
The iTunes users can utilise the new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback remotely. The iPhone/iPod touch remote application will be available as a free download from the App Store.
According to Apple:

" The new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback from anywhere in your home — a free download from the App Store."

The software is a 50MB download.

iTunes 7.7 support:

iTunes 7.7 is available for Mac and Windows. The iTunes Music Store offers Windows users the same online music store as Mac users, with the same music catalogue, the same personal-use rights, and the same 99-cents-per-song pricing.
However, iTunes runs slower on windows and eats away lots of system resources. However there is no such problem on Mac.

iTunes Store:

The iTunes store has been enormously successful and has gained wide popularity. One can Shop the itunes store for music, TV shows, applications and audio-books. One can also download free podcasts from the iTunes store 24*7.

• Music: it has More than 8 million songs for 99¢ each with music from all five major music companies and more than 600 independent labels.
• Movies: Rent from $2.99, buy from $9.99.
• Music Videos: More than 11,000, from 99¢ each.
• TV shows: Over 20,000 episodes.
• Applications: Hundreds of apps for iPod touch and iPhone.
• Audio-books: More than 35,000 titles.Podcasts: 100,000 and counting. 100% free.
• iPod Games: lots of games at $4.99 each.

Other older Features :

Media management: iTunes keeps track of songs by creating a virtual library, allowing users to access and edit a song's attributes. iTunes supports ripping from CDs.

Library views: three different views for the music library

File format support: iTunes can currently read, write, and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC and Apple Lossless. The Windows version of iTunes can automatically convert but doesn’t support direct playback of WMA. It is well known to support a large number of ‘audio’ formats for playback.

Sound processing: There is a feature called "Sound Check" which automatically adjusts the playback volume of all songs to the same level.

Video support: iTunes did not come with video support initially. But with each new version, video capabilities are getting further enhanced and it has improved a lot. However, I still prefer VLC player for playing my video files as iTunes is still no match for VLC (click here to view my review of VLC player).

Smart Playlists support: Smart playlists are playlists that can be set to automatically filter the library based on a customized list of selection criteria.

Integrated Audio and video Podcasting support: Apple's iTunes player is also considered the dominant podcatching client. It also lets us manage podcasts on iPod.

Synchronizing with iPod and iPhone the moment it connects, can also sync with Apple TV.
Integration with other applications like iWork and iLife and Garage-band.

iPhone activation: Since the introduction of the original iPhone, users could use iTunes to activate their phone through their mobile carrier. However, a worldwide crash of iTunes’ authentication servers on the day that the iPhone 3G was released has caused major issues.

iMix: It is a user-created playlist published in the iTunes Store. Anyone can create an iMix free of charge.

Internet radio supported

Plugins: iTunes supports visualizer plugins and device plugins.


Finally….
Well since iTunes is easily available for windows, it has become a must have, not only because of the popular Apple tag behind it but also because of so many unique features and audio-format support it provides the user. Apple is expected to also released the 2.0 Firmware and App Store shortly, as well as launching MobileMe. Moreover the iTunes store which guarentees 24*7 entertainment has gained incredible success and all that it has in store is another big attraction towards iTunes.

Part-2 : " Open at Own RISK ! " gets crazier

This post is in continuation to the post made by me on July 1 {click here to see previous post} about the new Nokia promotional campaign "Open at own Risk" which nokia had been spreading through an exclusive website.

I had giving a few screen-shots of the website as it appeared at that time and it seemed to indicate that Nokia may release something nice on the coming Monday, i.e. today.

But shockingly enough, when I opened the website today to find out if there had been any launch, I was greeted by a "Notice of immediate Termination" for the website. I back-checked to see if I had made any typos in the address. No ... not the case. Better check out the site yourself here :
www.openatownrisk.com


What is more insane is that the notice says says that the owner of the website

...will stand before the trial, accused of intent to publish content driving peope insane.

Are you kidding me ??

People are still checking the site for some new developments but in vain {until now}. Maybe by the time you read this blog the site would be updated again but I would certainly try to keep a track of that.

What to say ... great creativity or foolishness on the part of Nokia ...

OK i do agree that the promotional campaign has been an interesting one and can be termed successful. Normally I do not follow these promos or write about them in my blog but this one promised something good and Nokia is quite trustworthy.

But since the release date was today and there has not yet been any change to the site, i hope that Nokia doesn't make a fool of itself. Because after so much of hype if the mobile phone manufacturing Giant fails to please us with something grand then its reputation is truly going to suffer.
Nokia, though, is still silent on what is going on.

Lets optimistically hope for the best ... !!

to be continued ...

P.S. : The original site is still available here in case you missed it : http://www.openatownrisk.com/teaser.swf

Open at Own Risk : New Promo by Nokia

While browsing the net today, I came across this really creepy looking website: http://www.openatownrisk.com

Well you do need some brains to be able to enter the site {you need to solve the simple puzzle that appears on the opening page} and then you will be shown some strange text .

And this is what you get there …

“Hundreds of years ago, scientists, artists and members of Royal families gathered to produce a clip of grand weirdness. A clip stranger and more amazing than anything that had ever been made before.But the clip turned out to o weird! People went mad from seeing it and it was too much for the common man to handle. Thus the clip was locked away, in a mysterious box with four seals.The knowledge of how to break the seals has been passed down from one generation to another, hidden within the technological masterpieces of history.Edison’s light bulb, the Wright Brothers’ airplane and Apollo 11 all held the secret of unlocking the box. A secret that can now be found within Nokia Download service, allowing the public – you, to find the key to break the seals. And see...the weirdest clip. Ever made... ”

Well I didn’t type out all that stuff ; I simply copied the page source … smart :)

OK so what is it all about … well this is actually a promotional site of Nokia … but it doesn’t still tell you about any specific product yet …
well if you look carefully there is a timer that appears occasionally on that site … it actually would count down to zero on Monday … so you can expect a big release by Nokia this Monday ...

By the way the upcoming releases of Nokia include the Nokia N96 expected to release o the 31st of this month. Others in the upcoming release category are include N77 ,N78, 6210, 6220, 6120 and also the N81[8 GB].

However, the biggest expected release is a Nokia touch phone [codenamed TUBE] which is expected to release late this year and is expected to be tough competition for the iPhone ... well that would certainly be amazing but for the time being let see what Nokia has to give us on Monday.

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 : A personal review

Well I came across the Mozilla Firefox Browser only around an year ago and the first thing I noticed and really liked about it was its comparatively higher speed than the other available browsers. As I got acquainted with more of its features, I realized what an amazing browser it is. Thus I dumped the Internet Explorer Browser which I had been ignorantly using till then. and now I fully support the “Spread the Firefox” campaign.
Actually it is not just me but the whole world is slowly becoming a fan of this small, fast and easy to use ‘opensource’ browser which scores over its rivals in so many aspects has gained global appreciation.


The huge popularity that this browser has gained was evident when the new version 3.0 was released on the 18th of June at 10:00 PST. Mozilla had been hyping this day as the DOWNLOAD DAY for around a week and had urged the people around the globe to download the new version on the release day itself so that a new world record could be created. The response was amazing : a whopping 8 million downloads on the very first day . It is being claimed by Mozilla as a new world record for release day downloads.


And ofcourse one can download the latest version here :


The servers reported serving almost 9,000 downloads a minute day on the “download day” and exceeded the first day download mark for Firefox 2 of 1.6 million after just five hours of availability for Firefox 3 ... Over 700 community launch parties were registered on http://www.mozillaparty.com You can find out the present number of downloads of firefox here

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/

I too got a taste of the latest version too. It claims to be {and is !! } even faster than the previous version and boasts of malware protection and many other features. Some of the new features which I liked are :


1. QUICK BOOKMARKING AND EASIER TO SORT BOOKMARKS :
Now we can quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click on the star icon in address bar and a second click lets us file and tag them. Tags are keywords that we can associate with our bookmarks to sort them by topic so now we can quickly access our recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as more frequently visited pages with the new smart bookmarks folder on the bookmark toolbar.

2. AUTO-CHECK FOR ADD-ONS:
Various add-ons are available for further enhancing the firefox browser and the add-ons of the 2.0 version may not necessarily be compatible with the 3.0 version. There is no need to hunt for the add-ons anymore. Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugins versions and will disable older, insecure versions. Earlier version we had to go to install required plugins from http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/addons.html and other such sites.
Users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager. The Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of Add-ons available from the community add-ons website. When you first open the Add-ons Manager, a list of recommended Add-ons is shown.

3. ONE CLICK SITE INFO:
Click the site favicon (the small icon before address) in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. When a site uses Extended Validation SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company you're connected to.

4. IMPROVEMENTS IN TABS :
Tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quick-menu. To drag a tab simply click on the tab and pull it along the tab-bar. Right click on the tab bar for a variety of cool options. You can even undo closing of a tab and Firefox will also prompt users to save tabs on exit.

5. SECURITY AND PROTECTION :
Malware Protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. The content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown. Clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate. To improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled. Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.

6. NEW DOWNLOAD MANAGER:
The revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and you can see and search on the name of the website where a file came from. The active downloads and time remaining is always shown in the status bar as your files download.
Users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.

7. FULL PAGE ZOOM :
Zoom in : ctrl ++ ; zoom out : ctrl -- ; additionally there is a feature which allows us to zoom only the text portion.

8. FASTER :
Improvements to JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.

9. EATS UP LESSER MEMORY:
Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned.


Yes it is true that some bugs have been reported for 3.0 version already. But that is and always will be the case. As a matter of fact updates are constantly made available and it keeps improving with each and every update.

One can confidently say that firefox is currently leading from front in the battle among opensource softwares and the rest. What I believe is that ultimately it is going to be the former which come out as the victors just because of the way they are spreading and gaining wide acclaims.