Recent stories from Ideas & Opinions, Products & Services

Ovi Files now totally free – first reactions

By Mike on 20 July 2009

GLOBAL – Ovi Files has now hopped over the pay wall to become a totally free Nokia service. Ovi Files arms you with the ability to remotely access files on your home computer courtesy of an online vault of free personal storage from Nokia, accessible via your mobile or any remote computer using your web browser. So scratching the subscription adds a significant twist to its appeal, and one that has triggered heaps of reactions across the web. So what does this really mean to many, and what are folk saying. Read on for the first reactions.

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Vote for your favourite Nokia 3720 rugged phone video!

By Mike on 10 July 2009

GLOBAL – Yesterday we unveiled the new Nokia 3720 classic. This iron-willed device has been on the receiving end of some seriously tough love this week, with every painful moment captured on film. Your response to our series of videos (which were always intended to be a bit of fun) has been great, and thanks for all your comments. So having put the Nokia 3720 classic through these brutally unscientific tests, we thought we’d find out which video you liked best by putting it to a vote.

In case you missed what we did to it, we whacked it with a golf club, booted it like a rugby ball, took a swim with it, dropped it off a very big ladder, dropped it in a pint of beer, shot at it with a paintball gun and drowned it in jelly.

Click through to see each of the videos, pick your favourite and get your vote counted.
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What would you like to see in the Almanac?

By Mike on 02 July 2009

GLOBAL – Next week we’re going to be running a series of pieces highlighting our new Almanac section here on Conversations (read about what the Almanac is and why we created it). It’s still in its infant stages, and we have a bunch of additions we’re going to be making over the coming months, including a mixture of the latest and greatest, as well as some old greats. But we want your ideas.

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The science of mobile QWERTY keyboards… discuss

By Mike on 01 July 2009

GLOBAL – At the weekend Steve Litchfield over at All About Symbian posted an interesting piece entitled In search of the QWERTY king, in which he goes about exactly that.

Read on to find out more about how he got on, and voice your opinions on the science of QWERTY keyboards right here.

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Time lapse photography on a Nokia

By JBC on 29 June 2009

GLOBAL – There’s no shortage of ways to get more from your Nokia and whether you’re a tech novice or a tech expert, there’s always something new you can do. Whilst tech novices can dip into the Ovi Store for application and extension treats, the more hardcore can simply write their own apps, like Didier Stevens did recently. He scribed a simple time lapse photography python script which does exactly what it says on the tin. The script dips into the camera application on S60 and takes a snap every minute until you tell it to stop. Didier’s done two time lapse videos which I reckon have turned out pretty cool. Take a look after the jump and let us know what you think.

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Let the children sing – video

By JBC on 22 June 2009

SENGAL – Nokia teamed up with children’s rights awareness raising organisation Plan to help boost an innovative music project called Tundu Joor. The objective is to bring poor children together with well known artists to create music. Behind the music is a key message, to promote child rights. 27 Senegalese artistes have taken part following a regional call out to kids who were interested in the project. Those involved created the album Tundu Joor after taking part in a series of workshops focused on music and getting involved.

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Ovi Store poll results – over half of you already downloading content

By Mike on 18 June 2009

GLOBAL – The dust is beginning to settle around the launch of the Ovi Store, with initial reactions to its arrival ranging from magnificent to miffed. So in our recent poll we thought we’d ask you if you were actively downloading content from the Ovi Store, and how much content you’d sucked onto your handset over the first few weeks. Over four hundred of you got involved in the poll, and it turns out over 50 percent of you have already begun fattening up your Nokia phones with content from Ovi Store. Read on for all the results.

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Nokia 6700 – The little black dress of phones

By JBC on 17 June 2009

GLOBAL – The Nokia 6700 was born out of the success of the 6300, both in terms of what it has sold and how the device was received. That’s what Nokia design director, Mark Delaney, tells us in what is a fantastic insight into how the outside world influences the phones we use. Mark talks about how Nokia works with trend agencies, to understand what’s popular now, and in the future across a broad spectrum of industries, from fashion to furniture. From there, Nokia can develop an understand of what the requirements are going to be for a device, and work out how best to fullfil them.

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Nokia 5530 XpressMusic reaction

By Mike on 16 June 2009

GLOBAL – A little over 24 hours ago the new Nokia 5530 XpressMusic sprouted onto the mobile scene, first seeing daylight in Singapore and simultaneously unveiled in our Pass the Parcel unwrapping here on Conversations (watch video). Many have been alluding to the new Nokia 5530 XpressMusic as a baby brother to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, which I guess in many ways is a fair assessment. Some folk highlight how feature-packed media savvy touchscreen smartphones such as this are now becoming part of the mid-range norm, while others focus on the compact styling and low cost. Carry on reading after the break to read a bunch of initial reactions from across the web, and, of course, to leave your opinions.

Here are some of the reactions I came across this afternoon, but please feel free to highlight any others in the comments section below that you might have come across (the good, the bad and the down right barmy). And don’t be shy to leave your thoughts on the new 5530 XpressMusic inside.

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Not lost in translation

By JBC on 09 June 2009

GLOBAL – Nokia first teamed up with the folks at TED for Pangea day, but now the ambitions are stretching much further. The TED Open Translation Project brings TEDTalks to a wider world, using subtitles and translated transcripts. With over 300 translations covering 40 languages completed by 200 volunteer translators for launch, the project has already got off to a brilliant start.