The Nokia E7 may be all about its 4-inch screen and QWERTY keyboard but powering all this fantastic
hardware is the Symbian^3 operating system.
Anyone buying a Nokia E7 in the next couple of
months will find the Symbian Anna OS already
installed but for now we 're looking at the Symbian^3 PR1.1. Read our Nokia E7 software
and interface review and find what lies in store. The Nokia E7 is an impressive device and if
you're really to put it through its paces then you need to get to grips with the Symbian^3
operating system. Sure, it still has a great deal of
the look and feel of the older Symbian S60 5th
Edition about it but for the most part it's smoother, loads quicker and generally has a far
more intuitive interface.

The addition of three separate Homescreens
means you can create different profiles for
different needs, such as work, social media, or
just plain old having fun. You simply swipe your
finger across the screen and you'll find it moving on to the next Homescreen. In Symbian Anna
you'll be able to preview the screen before changing to it but at the moment this isn't possible. If you don't want to swipe then hitting the bar at the foot of the screen switches screens
for you. Creating completely unique Homescreen is nice
and easy, simply press Options and choose Edit
Home Screen. We created our main page to have
the clock, diary and email options on it, while a
second is packed simply with all the main apps
we like to use. In all honesty, the third page is pretty blank at the moment and simply there
waiting to be filled. Getting up and running is incredibly easy. As
soon as you insert your SIM and fire up the Nokia
E7 you'll be able to import your Contacts. Email is also quick and easy to manage, thanks to the
onscreen Wizard. What 's more, you can even choose from all the usual culprits, not just Ovi Mail,
as Google, Yahoo, Hotmail and even lesser ones
such as Virgin Media and BT Internet are all
covered. The interface allows for a whole host of apps and
widgets to be loaded, from the obvious culprits
such as Twitter and Facebook to BBC iPlayer, as
well as a whole host of news feeds that offer
frequent updates. Once you move away from the Homescreens and
into the Applications and guts of the operating
system you 'll find that Symbian^3 still owes a great deal to its heritage. Yes, going that last mile
can be little frustrating as not all apps load and
run instantly but it's still fairly easy to get around. Having played with the Symbian Anna operating
system we know what changes are coming
down the line, so while the current Nokia E7
works well it 's worth bearing in mind that everything will change in the next few months. That said, we're really enjoying using the Nokia E7 as it brings together a great array of features
and the fact you can make it into the device you
what it to be makes it even more enjoyable to
use.

Change the mood setting on you S40 device and the
mood Agent will suggest you to which song you should
listen to.
Ovi store has added a new application,
known as Moodagent, especially for Nokia's
latest touch and type devices based on the
S40 platform. The application is a smart audio player that identifies different
types of music and suggests the users according to their moods.
Users do not need to tag music to any particular mood which is
done by this application automatically, but the user has to select
what kind of mood he is in on the application. Users are free to use this application to play selected track if they
do not want to use the mood song suggestion feature.

The Nokia E7 may be all about its 4-inch screen and QWERTY keyboard but powering all this fantastic
hardware is the Symbian^3 operating system.

More often we witness only the Android or iOS apps making headlines for numerous positive reasons. As a welcome change, the Symbian platform based eBuddy Mobile Messenger app has successfully surpassed 10 million downloads in Nokia's Ovi Store. According to a recent post on the eBuddy blog, users spend almost 2,000 years per month in messaging or sending over 2.5 billion messages from their Nokia handsets. The eBuddy Mobile Messenger app has effectively soared up in popularity amongst Nokia users these days. eBuddy is a cross-network mobile application that allows its users to seamlessly chat in single aggregated interface across IMs like Facebook Chat, Hyves, ICQ, MySpace, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and more for free. It also enables users to stay connected with their dear ones even while on the go. The eBuddy Messenger app is available for download across multiple platforms such as Symbian, iOS and Android totally free of charge.

More often we witness only the Android or iOS apps making headlines for numerous positive reasons. As a welcome change, the Symbian platform based eBuddy Mobile Messenger app has successfully surpassed 10 million downloads in Nokia's Ovi Store. According to a recent post on the eBuddy blog, users spend almost 2,000 years per month in messaging or sending over 2.5 billion messages from their Nokia handsets. The eBuddy Mobile Messenger app has effectively soared up in popularity amongst Nokia users these days.

IT'S official: Singapore had the third-highest smartphone penetration in the world last year,
based on findings from a global study released yesterday. And, contrary to popular ground sentiment, the accolade of top smartphone operating
system here went to Nokia's Symbian, followed closely by Apple's iOS for the iPhone. The study of 43 markets worldwide by market-research firm TNS showed that 72 per cent
of Singaporeans with cellphones used smartphones last year. This contrasted with the

We have to say from the outset that while
Microsoft and Nokia have penned an agreement
to make Windows Phone OS the platform of
choice on Nokia Windows Phone devices, it 's not been announced yet when the first devices will
officially ship. However, with Microsoft offering a
host of new features in the next major update
we thought it worth checking them out. Check out our Nokia Windows Phone roundup 1: Multitasking: This looks like being a big one, as it allows for the fast switching of applications, as
well as allowing for functions to run in the
background, such as file transfer and music
player. 2: Live Tiles: Live Agents will run in the background and deliver real-time updates, such
as Push Notifications and Deep Linking, which all
sounds very important. 3: Better phone integration: Microsoft is claiming this has been greatly improved, giving
developers greater flexibility to do more with
their apps via Live Tiles. 4: Better Camera functionality: Microsoft is allowing developers access to the camera stack,
which means Nokia will easily be able to add it 's camera top-tech without having to 5: Better Motion Sensor library: Developers will be able to develop apps and games that take into not
only the camera but also the gyroscopic and
compass, so we should see a host of augmented
reality games appearing. 6: Internet Explorer 9: This will deliver a faster and cleaner browsing experience than ever
before on Windows Phone OS. 7: HTML 5: This will allow for faster rendering of webpages and make life a whole lot smoother for
developers and end users alike. 8: Windows Phone Marketplace: Microsoft are looking to make changes with a dedicated games
Marketplace, better parental controls and even a
new beta distribution service. 9: Angry Birds: Is coming to Windows Phone and will be available at the Windows Phone
Marketplace beginning on May 25, 2011. 10: Skype: Another app that has been missing from the line-up will also be coming later this
year. By the time the first Nokia Windows Phone rolls
of the production line most of these will be fully
integrated into the OS. In the meantime let us
know what you think about the changes
Microsoft have planned for the operating system.

We have to say from the outset that while
Microsoft and Nokia have penned an agreement
to make Windows Phone OS the platform of
choice on Nokia Windows Phone devices, it 's not been announced yet when the first devices will
officially ship.

Nokia will add a third touch and type phone
to the current X3-02 and C3-01. According to a website called Hackintos, the device,
possibly called C2-06, is expected to be a
slider phone with a keypad as well as a
resistive touchscreen.

It is also expected to
support Dual SIM but no information is
available on whether it will be GSM only or CDMA as well. The keypad on the device also shows off the ability to type in Hindi. The operating on the device is expected to be the same as the X3-02
and the C3-01 i.e., Symbian S40. The rear of the device features a 2MP camera but doesn't
house a flash. Rumours on the Internet claim that the device lacks 3G as well as Wi-Fi but thankfully
supports Bluetooth. Based on information available so far, the device should launch in the
price bracket of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 8,000 since other such devices are at the Rs. 8,000 mark.

Nokia whipped the covers off the gorgeous new Nokia X7 last week, giving the X Series a fresh new flagship and adding another new face to the
upper echelons of Nokia's Symbian^3 smartphone range. But how does it stack up
against the Nokia N8 or Nokia E7, for instance?
Here we look at the top 10 things you need to
know about the Nokia X7.
First, though, the basics. The Nokia X7 is primarily
a gaming device, which is why it carries the 'X' branding, while the fact that it carries a higher
number than any previous X Series handset
means it sits at the top of the range, above the
Nokia X6.
So what does it offer to back up its range-topping
billing? Here are the highlights:
Bold design: while the Nokia E7 and Nokia N8 share a similar design philosophy (despite being
significantly different in size), the Nokia X7 goes a
notably different route, boasting a far bolder
angular design well suited to its gaming
aspirations.
Stainless steel construction: we shouldn't be surprised by now, but the Nokia X7 ′s stainless steel chassis has a confidence-inspiring sturdiness
about it that should see it happily withstand its
fair share of knocks, as will the Gorilla glass
display.
Screen size: and speaking of which, that 4-inch screen is of a size and quality befitting the Nokia
X7′s top billing. It comfortably eclipses the Nokia N8′s 3.5-inch panel, and so is a more natural fit for gaming and watching movies, while it 's also an AMOLED screen, so you lose nothing when it
comes to quality. 8-megapixel camera: the Nokia X7 may be mainly about consuming media, but it's no slouch when it comes to creating it either. You get 8
megapixels of snap-happy shooting power, along
with the ability to shoot video clips at 720p. It 's not quite a match for the Nokia N8′s 12- megapixel sensor, but then again very little is.
Symbian Anna: Nokia's long-awaited update to Symbian^3 was unveiled alongside the Nokia X7
and its stablemate the Nokia E6, and both will
ship with the latest OS already on board. Other
Symbian^3 smartphones, such as the Nokia N8
and Nokia E7, aren't being neglected either, but they'll have to be updated to the latest OS.
Top typing: unlike the similarly sized Nokia E7, there's no slide-out QWERTY keyboard here, but thanks to the aforementioned Anna update to
Symbian, you do now get a virtual keyboard in
both landscape and portrait orientations, and the
size of that 4-inch screen makes typing as
painless as you could hope to expect.
Game on: that huge expanse of screen is just perfect to show off the latest high-quality games,
and the 'four-vented' design of the Nokia X7 makes for comfortable gaming when held in
landscape mode. Nokia even gets you started by
including Galaxy on Fire and Asphalt Five on
board as standard.
Speed: another vitally important component when it comes to gaming is speed, and the Nokia
X7 is more than up to the task thanks to the
combination of a 680MHz processor and the
reduced power demands and improved
performance of Symbian Anna.
Storage: the Nokia X7 is meant for media consumption, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense not giving you somewhere to store it all. Nokia
has shoehorned just 350MB of internal storage
onto the Nokia X7 to get you started, but you can
add up to 32GB more via the microSD card slot.
Battery: we get the feeling you 'll be using your Nokia X7 quite a lot, and it seems Nokia has the
same feeling, as it's kitted the X Series top-ender with a battery capable of delivering as much as
50 hours of music playback, 9.5 hours of talk time
and up to 450 hours in the unlikely event that
you just leave it on standby. So how do you reckon the Nokia X7 stands up to
its Symbian^3 compatriots in Nokia's smartphone portfolio? Does it deserve its billing as a gaming
superstar? Let us know in the Comments below!

Nokia launches more Symbian models Meanwhile, Nokia has unveiled two new Symbian models, after announcing earlier this year that Symbian had no
future, given the company's new plans to partner with Microsoft to develop Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

The business-oriented E6 and consumer X7 are scheduled to launch in the second quarter. Despite previously outlining a future built around Microsoft's WP7, Jo Harlow, the head of Nokia 's Smart Devices business, said "With these new products and more Symbian devices and user enhancements coming in the near future, we are confident we can keep existing Nokia smartphone customers engaged, as well as attract new first-time and
competitor smartphone users." The new phones incorporate the Symbian Anna update, which Nokia plans to also roll out for its existing Nokia N8, E7,
C7 and C6-01 models over "the coming months." The company said "this update offers a host of usability enhancements, including fresh, new icons, improved text input,
a faster internet browsing experience and a refreshed Ovi Maps application with improved search and new public
transport routes," and added that "Symbian Anna greatly enhances the user experience on Nokia smartphones and
makes the Qt business opportunity with Nokia even greater [for developers]."
Mobile market leader takes on iTunes
The company also touted in a separate press release new growth in its Ovi Store, describing an "approximate 200- million-strong Symbian consumer base has seen the Ovi Store catalogue grow to more than 40,000 apps, with about
1,000 added per week." Given the size of the Symbian installed base and Nokia's still very large market share of all mobile phones, it's surprising
that the platform hasn't even caught up to the 65,000 titles available for the iPad, let alone the 350,000 apps for iPhone.
And now, a warning
Nokia ended its press release with an unusually long notice that points out its "intention to form a strategic partnership
with Microsoft to combine complementary assets and expertise to form a global mobile ecosystem and to adopt
Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform," and notes a string of 37 "risks and uncertainties." These include "our ability to succeed in creating a competitive smartphone platform for high-quality differentiated
winning smartphones or in creating new sources of revenue through the proposed partnership with Microsoft," "our
ability to maintain the viability of our current Symbian smartphone platform during the transition to Windows Phone as
our primary smartphone platform," "our ability to build a competitive and profitable global ecosystem of sufficient scale,
attractiveness and value to all participants and to bring winning smartphones to the market in a timely manner, "our
ability to implement our strategies, particularly our new mobile product strategy," "unfavorable outcome of litigations,"

The new Nokia X7 has
been outed by Three in a
promotional video for the
network, and comes with a
good look at the
forthcoming Symbian UI improvements. The new Nokia X7 looks to
be a pretty decent handset
on specs alone, coming
with an 8MP camera with
dual LED flash, a large 4-inch Clear Black OLED screen and a
pretty nifty metallic chassis.

(especially for Nokia N8 users)
is the new Symbian UI shown off deals with a lot of the issues we
found in our N8 review. The homescreens now have a more dynamic scroll about
them, the widgets are overhauled and more interactive (and
of different sizes) and the internet browser is reportedly
much, much faster. We're also 'treated' to a portrait QWERTY keyboard... but it's
not like other manufacturers have managed to put that in for
over three years or anything, is it, Nokia? We're now looking forward to the Nokia event tomorrow
with a heightened level of fervour than before - will we get
a date when Nokia N8 owners will finally get the user
experience they should have had from the start

This is a public service announcement for those
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) watchers out there thinking
that next week there would be a London event
to reveal some juicy news about Symbian:
there is no actual, physical event taking place.

But there will be some news. You may have seen the invite posted on
various web sites (pictured left), inviting the
recipient to "discover what 's new with Symbian smartphones." Even we picked up the story about what Symbian news could be in store for Tuesday, April 12. We also took the time to get in touch with
Nokia to get more detail. It turns out this was
something of a blog storm in a teacup. Here is
what a Nokia spokesperson had to say: "The announcements next week are all online activities," he wrote mocoNews in an email. "The interest has been generated by a teaser campaign and the fact that here in the UK we
have arranged to meet a few of our analysts
on Tuesday. The wider media have combined
these items to 'create' a nonexistent London Launch." He noted that there will be some Symbian
announcements made that day at 10 AM
Finnish time (4 AM U.S. Eastern time) but not in
the form of a webcast or any other kind of big
presentation. We'll be sure to cover those. The amount of attention this non-event has
received speaks miles about the dangers of
blog-chatter, but perhaps even more about
how curious people are to see how Symbian
progresses as Nokia works to create new
Windows Phone 7 devices —and the ecosystem to handle them. HTC, by the way, will definitely be holding an
event in London on April 12.

:Nokia said it will
continue to sell smartphones using
its legacy Symbian software for a
long time after its first phones
using Microsoft's Windows go on
sale. Symbian is due to be replaced by
Microsoft's Windows Phone over
the coming two years under a plan announced in February, raising concerns Nokia
could drop Symbian phones -- which have lost
market share, but generate strong profits -- too
early. In a letter addressed to Nokia developers,
Purnima Kochikar, Vice President, Forum Nokia,
talks about future of Symbian, its strategy for
MeeGo and the Microsoft deal. Dear Nokia Developer, Much has been said in the last few weeks about
Nokia's announced strategy. I've heard from many of you with encouragement, concerns and
questions. Please do continue the dialog with me
and the Forum Nokia team. I want to take a moment to focus on what these
announcements mean to you, how Nokia plans to
support your development needs and how this
translates into opportunities today and in the
future. First, let's recap what it is we announced; the three main areas of our strategy: 1. Plans for a broad strategic partnership with
Microsoft on Windows Phone
2. Connecting the Next Billion
3. Future disruptive technologies What about Symbian? What about Qt? Understandably, these are the first questions that
come to mind. Although Windows Phone will
become our primary smartphone platform, we
will continue to deliver a great deal of value from
Symbian. We 're making investments that will help us to engage and attract existing and new
Symbian users and allow us to launch new
competitive smartphones. Over the past weeks we have been evaluating
our Symbian roadmap and now feel confident we
will have a strong portfolio of new products
during our transition period i.e. 2011 and 2012.
These devices will take advantage of the strong
integration of devices and services as well as our strength in areas such as imaging and location-
based services. They will also include
improvements in hardware performance such as
GHz+ processing capabilities and faster graphics
speeds. To further enhance the competitiveness of these
products we will deliver updates to the current
Symbian user experience. The first major update
will arrive in summer, delivering a new home
screen, new flexible widgets, new icons, a faster
browser, new Navbar and a fresh look and feel to Ovi Store and Ovi Maps, including integration of
social media services in Ovi Maps. You may have seen some of these updates in the
latest product we launched at CTIA Wireless this
year, the Nokia C7 Astound. Those plus the rest of
the enhancements will be delivered to all users
over the air in a simple update available from the
Home Screen, and Nokia Astound users will receive the remaining enhancements not already
in their device at the same time. I've been asked many times how long we will support Symbian and I'm sure for many of you it feels we have been avoiding the question. The
truth is, it is very difficult to provide a single
answer. We hope to bring devices based on
Windows Phone to market as quickly as possible,
but Windows Phone will not have all language
and all localisation capabilities from day one. In many markets, including markets where
Symbian is currently the lead smartphone
platform with significant market share such as
China, India, Russia and Turkey, we will continue
to make our Symbian portfolio as competitive as
possible while we work with Microsoft to introduce Windows Phone. For that reason
certain markets will play a more significant role in
selling the 150 million Symbian devices than
others and we will be selling devices long after
Windows Phone devices from Nokia have
already started to appear in other markets. That is why we cannot give you the date when Symbian
will no longer be supported. What I can promise you is that we will not just
abandon Symbian users or developers. As a very
minimum, we have a legal obligation, varying in
length between countries, to support users for a
period of time after the last product has been
sold. Our intention is that when users come to the end of the natural lifecycle of their Symbian
device they will make the change to a Nokia
Windows Phone device and so it would not be in
our interests to undermine their Nokia
smartphone experience. Operators have also
been very supportive in their commitment to help us continue to sell and support Symbian devices
while we make the transition to Windows Phone. We currently stand at 109 operators in 34
countries and no doubt they continue to
recognize the opportunities in a platform that has
great localization, differentiation and flexible
billing services, while we start to build great new
devices with Microsoft. Qt, the development platform for Symbian and
future MeeGo technology remains critically
important and Nokia is committed to investment
in Qt as the best toolset for those platforms and
we are focusing on future developments in part
by our plan to divest the commercial licensing business, used mainly by developers of
embedded and desktop applications beyond the
mobile market. Additionally we are readying app analytics, in-
app advertising, in-app purchasing, a new
browser and hardware enhancements. There are
a lot of new things for developers to take
advantage of in these soon-to-be-released APIs.
We are continuing to explore Qt for use in other strategic investment areas as well. So in short, there are some very exciting things
happening in Symbian and Qt, lots of new devices
and platform improvements and we believe
consumers will be downloading great developer
apps from these devices. All together, this means
your investment in Qt is a safe choice for skill competency, monetization opportunities and
brand awareness amongst our millions of users. The partnership announcement has many of you
wondering how Forum Nokia and Microsoft will
support you in the future. As we carefully plan
this with Microsoft we will be able to share more
information. However, we are listening to your
concerns and comments. Nokia and Microsoft share a view and commitment to make the
transition as smoothly as possible for developers. The second pillar of Nokia's strategy, 'Internet for the Next Billion' also highlights our increased focus on opportunities for developers, especially
Java developers. Nokia sells over one million
features phones a day; a staggering number by
any measure. Developers can already distribute
Java apps to approximately 600 million Series 40
devices. We intend to drive more innovation and
improvement in Series 40 developer engagement.
We are continuing to develop easy-to-use tools
and software developer kits to make it simple,
easier and more affordable for Java developers to
work with us. For example, there is free signing for Java apps; the new SDK for Touch and Type UI
is in the market now; plus we have plans for
increased proxy browsing capabilities on our
device and support for web apps. Consumers around the world are hungry for apps
on Nokia devices. The disruptive technologies area of our strategy
includes our work on MeeGo and Nokia Research
Center, Nokia's future looking, global labs. You will hear more from us on MeeGo in coming
months. Finally, there is still $10M up for grabs in the
Calling All Innovators contest. The deadline is
approaching March 31 so be sure to submit your
app. If the content of your app is applicable to
consumers in the US and Canada, you could get a
piece of the $10M in cash and prizes. Giving out these big checks and seeing your apps get
downloaded by millions of consumers is the best
part of my job! In the coming weeks and months, we will
continue to update you on our progress with
Symbian, Windows Phone and Series 40 and new
programs to assist you in building success in Ovi
Store. We are excited about working with you in
each of these areas. In the meantime, we'll look for your next great Qt or web app in Ovi Store!
Best regards,

Purnima Kochikar

Vice President,
Forum Nokia

Threatened by competitors gobbling up the market share in India, Nokia is planning to
aggressively launch 40 cell phone models — 12 of them smartphones — in 2011.

"We will be launching 40 models in 2011 of which at least 30% would be smartphones, " a Nokia executive close to the development told . It is learnt that Nokia is looking at launching entertainment as
well business smartphones in India. Globally, Nokia has been facing tough competition from the likes of Apple and Blackberry for
smartphones. In India too, IDC figures indicate a fall in Nokia's market share, though the company does not agree with these figures.
D Shivakumar, vice president and managing director of Nokia India, said things will hot up after
mid-April. "On an average Nokia launches about 40 phones in a year across all categories, " he said.
Nokia recently tied up with Microsoft and will launch a smart phone based on the Windows 7
platform within a year. It is expected that the phone will be launched simultaneously in India,
one of the biggest markets of the Finnish firm. Nokia that works on the Symbian platform, has
been finding Google's Android phones a tough nut to crack. In India — as all over the world — Apple's iPhone and Blackberry have increased their market share over the last two years in the smart
phone category, say industry experts.
Nokia would be launching more models (12) in the smart phone
category just to retain an upper hand. The price range is not known,
but the sheer number of models is likely to be greater than both the
major competitors put together for the current year.

The good:
The Nokia Astound boasts a sleek, premium design and affordable price tag. Call quality is good, and the phone's 8- megapixel camera takes great photos and video. The bad: The smartphone can be sluggish and the Symbian 3 operating system is still behind the curve in ease of use and functionality.
Specifications:
T-Mobile, GSM / WCDMA, 4.5 oz, 3.5 in
The bottom line:
The Nokia Astound is a beautifully
designed and affordable smartphone for T-Mobile, but there are other budget-friendly options available with better performance and that are easier to use