Symbian

The Symbian platform has been the cornerstone of the smartphone market, with a declining but still dominant marketshare - but for how much longer?

Mobile-review.com claims in a recent article that Nokia will no longer use Symbian in it's highest-end phones - instead Nokia will only use it where competing on price.

This claim, if true, together with the fact that Symbian ^4 is going to break application compatibility (devices from 2010) seem to indicate that Symbian is moving decidedly downmarket - while it's likely to still be a "smartphone" platform, in the technical sense that it will be able to run applications written for the phone (and not just in Java), I predict that Symbian's new target might be (or should be) to seriously unify the mid-range phone market. This is actually a good thing, and I hope it happens - there's simply no need (for example) to have the Nokia/Sony Ericsson "reversed" key approach, which are fossils from internally developed device OSes. This is also a good thing, because the lowest common denominator might become Symbian rather than Java.

Of course, perhaps this was all Symbian really ever was (sorry about the formatting *cough*). Mobile-review.com also suggests that Maemo is Nokia's new "high-end" OS, the true response to Apple/RIM/etc. One wonders how many platforms there can be before platform fatigue/irrelevancy sets in. Nokia should pray that Windows Mobile 7 is not as delcious as Windows 7 in its arena.

Introduction
Puzzle Quest is pretty fun.

If you haven't tried it yet, it's almost definitely available on any platform choice - it's on the Sony PSP, Nintento DS, PC (Intel GMA 950 is probably enough), Playstation Network (for PS3), XBLA (for XBOX 360), iPhone/iPod touch, and most other mobile platforms (although our affiliate Clickgamer unfortunately doesn't seem to carry it).

Anyhow, I've been playing it, on the PC (on which it looks pretty and has a easy mouse interface) although I've tested the iPhone and PSP versions (iPhone is slow, fiddly, PSP interface is not ideal). The PC version also appears to have mods - LINK - note that I have not tried them all.

History
The game was first released on the DS/PSP in early 2007, and those versions were pretty sweet - you could build characters which could annhilate an opponent in a single round (not luck based). However, at least the PC version has been... reduced, such that the best spells are now quite limited. Having said that, you can still build pretty potent characters, but the methodology isn't obvious from GameFAQs (although it's useful), and the combinations suggested from some type of mathamatical analysis are (generally) wrong.

So, how to build a dreamy character?

Classes

While I say "new", I know that the iPhone and some other versions have classes which I will not be dealing with, but in general the same principles (see end of article) should apply. For the PC version, the Knight is in the most difficult situation (although I haven't played one to 50 yet, might decide to, but I just can't see how to overcome luck consistently in the new PC version).

Assuming you don't update to 1.02, the Druid is the best, if you research Death Gaze. (Version 1.02 reduces the strength of the holy lance/unholy lance).

Wizard is second, Warrior is close behind (although both of these don't require you to research anything).

Equipment

First off, equipment. You can wear four types of items, head, weapon, body and misc. In general the best weapons need to be forged - the one who waits.com has a great section showing what can be made. To figure out where to find specific runes, use the map hosted by Infinite Interactive.

The best items are as follows:

Head: Rune of Jewels (head item) + Rune of Gods + Rune of (pick mana colour).
Body: Rune of (pick any body rune) + Rune of Gods + Rune of (pick mana colour).
Weapon: Firewalker's Staff (warrior/wizard), Holy Lance (Druid).
Misc: Rune of Music + Rune of Dragons + Rune of (pick mana colour).

Changes in the "New"

For the old versions, the key was to have enough mana (from your equipment), right from the beginning, to cast your "best" spell. For Warriors, Deathbringer. Wizards, Flaming Skulls. Knights and Druids, Death Gaze. The only spell which has not changed in the PC version is Flaming Skulls.

If you also have the appropriate skill pumped up (Warriors/Wizards, Fire - Druids, Air - Knight, probably battle), then you'd probably win right away.

Unfortunately (or, fortunately) Deathbringer and Death Gaze are now restricted to creating a maximum of 10 skulls, which means that you had better make sure you are using them only when there is a decent number of skulls (say, 10) or if you have no choice, no skulls, on the board. Otherwise, you're likely setting the opponent up (to pwn you).

To make matters worse, the forged equipment is also worse. Instead of +8 mana, a rune now gives +2 mana.

The weapons have also been toned down. Firewalker's Staff only adds half the damage it used to.

Finally, for spells with recharge, it appears that they recharge only when the opponent takes a turn, not when you get a "free turn".

Strategy

What do you do? Well, if you're a Druid, you can forge equipment so that you can cast Evaporate immediately, or as soon as you get a blue/yellow 4-in-a-row. Then cast Gust of Wind (you should have at least 40/50 yelllow). Reincarnation is also useful. In any event, because you can fill your mana reserves, you can then cast Death Gaze quite easily, and since Death Gaze doesn't use yellow, random skull matches afterwards will still do lots of damage.

For Wizards, just watch for the 4-in-a-row green/skulls or blue/red and use flaming skulls as appropriate.

For Warriors, look for 4-in-a-row red/skulls, or simply do Beserk Rage to get skulls on the table then hope that a Deathbringer sets them off.

Skill distribution

Druid:

39 earth (for 45 green mana, note that you can get +2 from a quest)
10 fire (for 30 red mana, note that you get +4 from a quest)
every thing else to Yellow (for Holy Lance).

Warrior/Wizard: everything to Red (for Firewalker's Staff)

So, principles: 1. Find spell/equipment. 2. Distribute experience to maximise the spell/weapon. 3. always have a dragonhorn (rune of music + rune of dragon forged item)

Symplification obviously hasn't been updated for some time, and the way things are going it's likely that they're not going to be.

It's not just the "new" job (and sometimes World of Warcraft, hehehe) - it's also that since that new job started I've been using a blackberry (with an unlimited data plan), and that single device provides basically all of the functionality I need.

For example, I have an N80 - but as it's music playing capabilities were rendered useless by an ipod shuffle (which is about the same size as the adaptor it needed for me to plug proper headphones in - and has much better sound quality through my super.fi 5 pros), the only thing I use it for nowadays is to actually make phone calls. Yeah - not even SMS.

Indeed, assuming you have Gmail App (for email) and the newest version of velvetpuffin (for instant messaging - disclosure, I've acted for the owner of velvetpuffin before) I don't think there's actually any reason to have a smartphone - anything which has data (preferably 3G) and supports those applications will do! So - buying a phone will become something which is almost -completely- about how you feel about the device.

And this is from the perspective of someone who actually uses a smartphone as a smartphone... (which is a whole other reason to think that "smartphones" are a waste).

It is, of course, possible to argue that I've just lost the faith, and it's also perfectly accurate to point out that phones are branching out even more than ever before (GPS, for example) - but unfortunately I suspect that it's all about usability, and the swiss-army knife device is likely to be inferior to the "real deal" (e.g. look how the prices of standalone GPS devices have fallen, and think about how much easier it is to have a nice big screen when being directed; or consider something how the creative zen stone plus manages to have a screen and 2GB in a device basically same size as the shuffle).

So - bye for the moment, and thanks for all your clicks! I'm likely to create some other website soon, because that's kinda fun. Don't know what it'll be about though... hmm. I did recently buy a new camera...

[sorry about that - I was getting too many spam comments - send me email if you have something to say, and I'll update accordingly ^.^]

According to news.com.com (*koff koff horrible url*) the iPhone is going to be announced on the first day of WWDC.

Cool.

This means that Nokia (and the other usual suspects - Moto, SE, Samsung, etc.) still have more than 2 months left. For Nokia, by their usual standards, this means that if they are going to have a direct iPhone competitor (touchscreen etc.) it has to be announced within the next couple of days.

We don't think the announced yesterday Nokia 5700 (pictured above) is it, although we do admit to liking some of the new styling cues.

Quick! Touchscreen device with symbian, multi-touch (like this!) tech, blackberry connect, 3.5mm plug and the music quality of at least an ipod shuffle, and I'm sold (if I were planning on getting an iPhone, and the multi-touch actually works such that our concerns about painful interfaces are misplaced).

[via Engadget]

In any case, rest assured that my comments in "Why you want to buy the N80" remain as accurate as they were on the day I wrote them. The competitive market has undergone a somewhat radical change, however - the range of products is diversifying rapidly, with phones becoming much slimmer (e.g. Samsung's Ultra series) and new market niches being created (e.g. Motorola's Fone, which is a -great- idea).

Even the niche which the N80 is in (Smartphone with no touchscreen) is becoming croweded, what with the availability far more models from Dopod, and a new windows mobile 6.0. But the N80 is still a pretty good buy, as it has become one of the most affordable choices with that featureset.

But it isn't significantly -better- than the competition any longer, and indeed Nokia must produce a "better" handset for upgraders - so what does Nokia have as a response? Why - the Nokia N95! It seems to be really really good - something which is a worthy upgrade in terms of features - which is pretty amazing given the featureset of the N80. The N95 adds GPS, a 5MP autofocus camera (marked with the Carl Zeiss trademark, in case that interests you) along with a substantially larger screen (2.6" vs. 2.1"), while maintaining the smorsmagord (sp) of features already in the N80 (WiFi, Symbian, memory expansion slot). It's also probably going to be physically prettier, although that's hard to say without access to an actual object (*nudge*hint*).

However, there are certain "soft" features which could have well been included in the N80 but were not, and that is the subject of discussion today. What does the N80 do badly, in spite of itself, and what should the N95 include? Here is my list of the most important improvements which will nevertheless never (well. are less likely to) appear in a feature list:

Interface speed - This is much better than the older symbian phones, it's probably marginally more responsive than the 6630/N70, but not close to the newer Nokia Series 40 phones (e.g. 6280) and I think this will actually be improved as the N95 is supposed to include a faster processor. Hopefully there won't need to be too much of a sacrifice in terms of battery life - being able to use the phone for at least a day without recharging is probably the test.

Audio - The audio output is not ideal, because of several things:
1. There is a very subtle background hiss when attached to sensitive headphones when playing music, and there's a very obvious hiss when changing between tracks whatever headphones are in use. I would also say that the included headphones aren't very good, but I suppose asking for that might actually result in a significant price increase. (and I don't have a personal interest in the matter, as I use either Etymotic ER4p's or UE 5 Pro's. :p)

This is also true for the N73, but is hopefully (I don't know) not an issue for the N91. This hiss is correctable - just use a resistor - for example, the one included with UE5's. Nokia would be able to do it better by adding something like that within the circuitry of the phone - if a resistor is added, the only thing which needs to be increased is the amplification ability.

2. The audio quality itself is not so hot. I suppose that this would be expected in a "multifunction" device, but it was a little disconcerting to note that the N80 sounds worse than my old 3G ipod, which is pretty (5? years) old.

3. Music player interface - please please please either use the space in the music player to display the album art, or resign the music player interface such that there's no obvious space. Even better, provide both.

The music player interface, apart from this, is potentially the best of
-ALL- portable mp3 players on the market, because ipod wheel scrolling (and the U10's d-click) lose as compared to being able to type the name of the song you want (assuming you have at least 2GB of songs). The player also lists what's coming up next, which is a sweet touch. The other thing which might be interesting to add is some easy interface to select the upcoming songs - the best implementation of this I've seen is the "party playlist' feature in iTunes.

The N95 makes it even better with dedicated start/stop/forward/backward buttons.

4. Jack sensing - please at least make it an option for the music to stop playing when headphones are removed or the adaptor is removed. It's something which the phone does detect in any case.

Apps/phone software - the apps and the integral operating system that the phone shipped with have also improved, but several things could change for the better:

1. Calculator - Work out a deal with mtvoid, pretty please, and include Calcium as part of the package. It's an excellent calculator.

2. WiFi access - the current interface sucks. Really. It's not actually difficult to create creating access point profiles - but finding out how to do it is really tough. This is why you have usability specialists right? Make profiles creatable more easily! Bonus points if an easy way to authenticate with "free" Wifi hotspots which require you to access a webpage to enter information is implemented.

3. application stability - I get software (including snake) killing themselves sometimes when messages come in or the phone rings. This really shouldn't happen. I also can't zoom more than 50% in the gallery without getting an "out of memory" message. Messages like that are also not uncommon when using the browser.

4. Calendar - please include tasks categorization.

5. Clock - support for NTP servers please! Given the "connectedness" of the phone, this should be included.

6. USB transfer - I bet you didn't know (unless you own an N80) that it's only USB 2.0 in terms of conformance to that specification - transfer speeds of the N80 are limited to USB 1 speeds (i.e. super slow.) I hope that the N95 actually supports USB 2.0 in terms of it's higher transfer speed. Note that this is not deceptive marketing or anything like that - for some reason the USB-standards body said this is kosher.

--

I think that this list of items actually demonstrates that Nokia did pretty well with the N80. Hopefully the N95 will also be basically all that is promised... although for my audio "woes" I might be best served by just going to get a new ipod...

Unfortunately, as you all know, S60v3 (Symbian 9.1) broke compatibility with all existing symbian apps, rendering the Nokia 6280 a decent choice. We've lamented the lack of S60v3 apps before, but the tide is changing.

And at the frothy bits right in the front of the rising crest is mtvoid's Calcium, which we've included in our much downloaded Symbian S60 Freeware bundle for the longest time.

We've previously lauded Calcium as a "Replacement for the standard phone calculator ... (which) ... sets new standards for usability, and is also very very pretty. ," and really, there's simply nothing more to add, except to note that this port not only includes the same spiffy functionality but also a (we think?) newly rendered UI which, while fundementally identical, is nevertheless even gummier. Mac OS X fans will be pleased.

So - go forth and download it! (We'll be creating a Symbian S60v3 Freeware bundle in short order, but for now just hit mtvoid's site ;) )

[Source: Michael Ahokas from mtvoid! Thanks mate!]

It's like July 2002 again. The Nokia 7650was just released and expectations for it were high - the first real smart phone! but-but- there were no applications to be seen...

This anomaly was corrected, eventually, and by the time 2004 swung around there was a healthy freeware community providing applications to compatible devices, as well as a whole slew of commercial applications capable of doing almost anything, in spite of the fact that each particular S60 device released was just a little different and required just a little tweaking.

Then came the S60 3rd Edition with exciting new features like WiFi. Of course, it also broke application compatiblity; this time almost completely (although arguably "security" is a pretty good reason for that, in this day and age.)

So, that lack-of-application malady which afflicted the Nokia 7650 so is back with a vengence. Things are getting better, with every passing day, but as a quick comparison shows that the difference is still stark.

At least now sites are starting to list S60 3rd Edition games in their own category... see my-symbian and the Symplification application and game stores...

[via Darla Mack and Tommi's S60 blog

This initiative will attract a critical mass of open source software developers to build a consistent, web browser engine as the clearest path to minimize fragmentation in the mobile browser market. With nearly 100 million smartphones deployed worldwide, a common open source solution driving mobile web browser consistency will deliver on the long-awaited promise of full-web browsing and a true web experience for smartphone users around the globe. - Lee Epting, vice president Forum Nokia

Hopefully that happens. We think that it might, not because of the open source initiative, but because the browsers based on the S60webkit (see review here) might be the best (mobile) browsers on the market now and for the forseeable future. Opera Mobile took the early lead, but that was because Nokia's offering of the time was pretty abysmal.

The biggest threat is probably still Opera - with the release of Opera Mini 2.0, which is compatible with almost all java-enabled phones, it seems that fragmentation might be about to come to an end. If, however, S60webkit is ported to java... (although from a technical perspective that seems unlikely; part of the reason Opera Mini works is that it is partially predicated upon thin-client mentality.)

This is the beginning of the mobile browser wars; only now is most of the world beginning to get access to the 3G (and other) wireless broadband technologies which will eventually allow an acceptable (roughly comparable to the desktop) user experience.