There's an interesting tech piece over at Symbian Developers, provocatively titles 'All About Earphones' - no, not a new Rafe site(!) - looking at the electronic side of the headphone standard change in recent years away from the OMTP standard to the iPhone/Android generation. It seems that it's mainly to do with two of the 3.5mm jack pins getting switched. Audio jack geeks only, but knock yourself out here!

From the piece:

Being a smartphone user, you may have experienced a problem when your earphone broke. Then you go to the shop, find a sweet new earphone with really good look, high quality and microphone. Then you try it on your Symbian phone, only to find out that your phone recognizes it as TV-Out cable and you hear the annoying static sound coming out of the earphones. Well, I know that sucks, it happened to me too. But, why does it happen? Can this be explained? Is it possible to get it working? Well…

Lets first take a look at the TRRS jack diagram. I labelled every pin with a letter for obvious reasons.

First I will get this out of the way: C and D are always for audio channels, C – for right channel and D – for left one. In Symbian, A – is for ground (-) and B – is for microphone and other features. The reason why other earphones don’t work is because they have A and B connections switched, so B – is for ground and A – is for microphone and button(s).

There's a lot more in the piece, but the gist is above. Personally, I do always try and use the headset that came with a phone, believing that it has been tested to some degree and passed some degree of QA. At least, at the mid-to-top end of the market anyway, with in-ear headphones. I realise that cheaper outer-ear ones can often be atrocious.

See also my own 'salute to Nokia multimedia headsets', which is relevant here.

Nokia Discussions has been the semi-official 'go to' site for queries about Symbian smartphones for many, many years (or at least for Nokia devices, yes, I know there were Sony Ericsson UIQ and Samsung S60 devices as well!) And it too has now fallen into Microsoft's clutches, with an official Seattle rebrand. The domain remains intact at the time of writing, but no doubt that will get redirected at some point. The good news is that there seems to be every intention of leaving the (now unified) 'Symbian' sub-forum intact, even if there are no (or few) official employees running the board with a knowledge of Symbian anymore...

I've found the forums very handy in the past, not least when raising an issue and hoping desperately that someone at Nokia passes it up the chain to the coders. Obviously this latter action can no longer happen, but there's still lots to recommend this online community of (now) self-help Symbian enthusiasts.

Of course, AAS has/had its own forum system in the past, but it required just too much time and maintenance and fell into disuse (as you'll have noted!).

Talk about scurrying off to dig out source code and update it - the Nokia Store, for most Symbian phones, just got itself an update and you almost picture the scene at Microsoft, which has inherited Nokia's old Symbian resources and systems - Opera Software has been announced to take over the running of a software store for Symbian, but there needs to be a foolproof way for users to know about the transition (such as it is). And so we see an update for the Nokia Store client for most devices today (screenshots below), with no apparent changes or fixes but my guess is that there's almost certainly a switch now built-in that can be activated when needed in 'early 2015' to prompt the installation of the replacement Opera Mobile Store.

Here's today's preparatory update being applied:

It went on smoothly on my Belle FP2/Delight Nokia 808 PureView, but the Store update keeps looping round on my Belle Refresh/Delight Nokia N8, which is odd. Any more data points?

Quoting the Opera press release from my earlier story:

Opera Mobile Store will replace Nokia Store as the default app store for Nokia feature phones, Symbian and Nokia X smartphones, following an agreement between Opera Software and Microsoft.

Beginning in the first quarter of 2015, people who access Nokia Store from Series 40, Series 60, Symbian, Asha and Nokia X devices will be automatically redirected to Opera Mobile Store, where they will be offered the opportunity to become customers of Opera Mobile Store and have access to tens of thousands of apps for their Nokia phones.

The transition to Opera Mobile Store will enable millions of people who use classic Nokia phones to continue to have a trusted source for apps, games and content. The process of migrating customers from Nokia Store to Opera Mobile Store is expected to be complete in the first half of 2015, at which point Nokia Store will be closed.

....When the transition of customers from the Nokia Store to the Opera Mobile Store is complete, Opera is positioned to become the third largest app store in terms of downloads.

Of course, as previously noted, the existence of a new store doesn't help all those who purchased content from the Nokia Store and will soon not be able to re-download it (if the Store is working for you now, make sure you've downloaded/installed as much as possible!)

Developers make well choose to take up residence in the Opera Store, if they haven't already, but you have to wonder if the days of monetising content for Symbian are already over. Quite a few developers have chosen to make their commercial Symbian applications (effectively) freeware, even if only for 'hacked'/custom firmware devices, as a way of giving back to the long term Symbian community, and I'd encourage more to do so in the next few months. Developers should either get in touch with me or with Sebastian, who runs the AppList Store.

I couldn't resist a quick link of interest to this TalkMaemo thread, in which someone's got their hands on an unrealeased Nokia prototype from 2006 (ish), i.e. eight years ago, showing N95-like styling along with N97-style hinge and full QWERTY keyboard. Dubbed 'Atlantis', apparently, and destined to be the Nokia E80 Communicator, I can't believe that I never even had a whisper that this was in the works, back in the day. Is it just me that's rather impressed by the concept? For 2006, at any rate!

There are a lot more photos in the full thread, so do click through.

The styling of the UI looks very 2006-ish. The 2MP camera and E90-style buttons and keyboard ditto. And hey, it even uses the acclaimed BP-4L battery! Terrific design for the day and I want one for my device collection 8-)

Comments welcome.

(Via My Nokia Blog)

The commercial 'qoo' applications have been very popular for Symbian in recent years, but external factors have forced something of a rethink from the developer. With service APIs changing (e.g. used by qooWeather, which no longer works), and with the Nokia Store frozen (and thus no way for developers to issue updates) and soon to close altogether, the main 'qoo' developer has followed the line of other Symbian programmers and signalled his intent to issue all applications as freeware for CFW* phones, in exchange for a donation (of any size). See below for a quote.

*CFW = Custom FirmWare, essentially replacing the existing Nokia OS and applications image in the phone's flashable ROM with a tweaked OS and extra applications. For example, featured by me here.

From the qooApps site:

Project 'Free Symbian qooApps'

Once there were some intractable problems with the Symbian Apps, I 've decided to put the apps in the future as a free, updated apps available here. Everything that you need is to use a custom firmware, like Delight 6.4.

Please support my work. All donors will receive a preliminary version before christmas'14 and they can send me new ideas or issues regarding the apps. Simply send an email with your name after your donation.

Of all the qoo applications, qooWeather was one I've used on every Symbian phone up to the current day. It stopped working/updating on Wednesday last week, due to a small API change in its third party data source - the developer is hoping to fix things in an 'unsigned' application that will install happily on any phone with custom firmware. Happily, this means most enthusiasts still reading this - so if you want to see qooWeather and the other apps fixed then please think about linking through and making the developer a small donation and/or encouragement.

Supremacy, as used in the headline above is about absolute superiority over all others. Whether it's a kingdom or sportsman or, in this case, a range of smartphone cameras. The thing is that over the last decade I've been so used, at every stage, to my Nokia flagship smartphones having superior imaging built-in, that it has been something of a shock to realise that, with the new Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the competition has caught up. Or at least, got close enough that for even technophiles there's no real difference in quality of results. Have the Nokia 808 PureView and Lumia 1020 been dethroned? Not exactly, but the thrones are now looking within reach of a pack of status-seeking courtiers....

Over the years, Nokia's smartphones have consistently had ground breaking and jaw droppingly superior cameras. The 7650 started it all, in 2004, with a VGA camera ("you mean you can take pictures.... with a phone?!"), the N93 in 2006 had a massive 3 megapixel sensor with a 3x optical zoom and stereo audio recording. At the time, the competition were still not doing much more than VGA. 2007's archetypal N95 had a 5 megapixel sensor in the body of a completely mainstream phone (and with a sensor size that matches most smartphone cameras of 2014, seven years later!)

The 2008 Nokia N95 8GB and N82, terrific imaging powerhouses for the day. The N82 even had Xenon flash...

The supremacy continued, in the mainstream, with the N82 (with Xenon flash) in 2008, the N86 (variable aperture, massive sensor) in 2009, the N8 (larger again, and Xenon again) in 2010 and finally the first 'PureView' camera in a smartphone in the Nokia 808, with 41MP, huge 1/1.2" sensor and Xenon flash, in 2012. At least, that was 'finally' in the Symbian world, with the Lumia 1020 picking up roughly the same specs and idea in the Windows Phone world, and with some cut down PureView cameras in the likes of the Lumia 930 and 1520.

And, as evidenced by a dozen detailed head to heads over the years on the All About sites, each of the models mentioned above was, for most test shots, head and shoulders ahead of the competition. Yes, there were the odd weaknesses - the Nokia 808 and Lumia 1020 aren't perfect for extreme macro photography, for example, but few would have argued against any of the models listed in any imaging or video shootout with other smartphones.

The groundbreaking Nokia 808 PureView, with a 1/1.2" sensor, larger than a lot of standalones...

And yet, at the end of 2014, I find myself testing the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and finding that it's pretty darn even with the Lumia 930 and 1520 overall (arguably even better, as was the case shouted by commenters at the time), and even within easy striking distance of the champion Lumia 1020 (and 808 PureView). I have some evidence for this below, of course. The Note 4 is a 'phablet', of course, but there's absolutely nothing stopping Samsung putting the exact same camera into the next mainstream Galaxy S phone (the S6?), so it's absolutely fair to compare these mobile imaging devices.

The tipping point was 2013's Samsung Galaxy S4 (a device I still own and is part of my day to day work cycle), one of the best cameras ever to be put into a non-Nokia phone - I threw it into a big shootout with the Nokia 808 PureView and it matched the 808, albeit helped by quite a few macro shots in the test shots. But still, it showed Nokia's grip on smartphone imaging to be vulnerable. The S5 camera was slightly better, along with the Note 3, but the Note 4's larger, higher resolution sensor and OIS, along with some phenomenal software optimisations by Samsung, has changed the game again, bringing the competition alongside the Nokia imaging juggernaut and presenting a very real threat.

So as I say, the age of 'Nokia imaging supremacy' is very much over, in that it's not possible anymore to proclaim a Nokia flagship to have a camera that's necessarily better than the best of the rest.

(mocked up) part of the ball-bearing (no, really) OIS mechanism in the 2012 Lumia 1020...

Did Nokia (now Microsoft) miss a trick? Well, having the custom oversampling chippery in the Nokia 808 locked into step with Symbian turned out to be a big limiting factor - the more generic implementation in the Lumia 1020 proved to be on the slow side for the mass market. The lack of a follow up, in 2014, to 2013's 1020 was also a mis-step, though in fairness Nokia's devices division was in the process of being bought up lock, stock and barrel by Microsoft, so the powers that be probably had other things on their mind. There's also the effort put in by Nokia's competitors, especially Apple and Samsung, with both now using OIS and with the latter seemingly now having mastered real time lossless zoom in video mode and intelligent digital zoom in stills mode.

So - a few data points, putting my Lumia 1020 (the 808 would have performed similarly, in terms of lossless zoom and Xenon) up against the Note 4 - the best imaging from Nokia and probably the entire smartphone industry, against the new phablet-based challenger, each in really tricky use cases and pushing the sensors and algorithms to their limit. Nothing about these shots is easy.

Test 1: Indoors poor light, high detail, zoomed

An exhibit, and hidden behind glass, with high detail in an original/old movie poster, with digital zoom allowed. Here’s the full scene:

And here's 1:1 detail from near the centre of the frame, using our famed interactive comparator, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the image fragments:

Considering the degree of zoom and crop here (and bearing in mind that I had to resample the Note 4 crop slightly to fit the 1:1 comparator), the only real difference here is in the colouring, which is often down to personal preference. Just to emphasise how well the Note 4 is doing here - with no lossless zoom, I've simply cropped out part of its standard 16MP shot, yet detail is very comparable to results from the Nokia 41MP PureView sensor.

Test 2: Event, zoomed

A typical real world user shot, at an event, but half a dozen rows back, and trying to use digital zoom (ideally non-lossy, but....) to get closer to the action. Here’s the full scene:

And here's 1:1 detail from near the centre of the frame, using our famed interactive comparator, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the image fragments:

Again bear in mind that I was doing the Note 4 something of a disservice, given that I had to resample the Note 4 crop slightly to fit the 1:1 comparator. There's a quality to the 1020 losslessly zoomed photo that's more attractive, but the amount of detail that the Note 4 camera was able to gather, despite my caveat, is pretty impressive, it's certainly in the same ball park as the 1020.

Test 3: Night time

Ultra low light, how would the OIS, sensors and algorithms react? Here’s the full scene:

And here's 1:1 detail from near the centre of the frame, using our famed interactive comparator, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the image fragments:

Again, there's very little in it - you could even say that the Note 4 version of the shot is preferable, being slightly less blown out where there are lights. And yet again it's astonishing how much Samsung is ringing out of a sensor that's half the size of that in the Lumia 1020 - at least part of this must come down to increased sensor pixel performance - remember that the 1020's BSI sensor was designed back in 2011 (and the 808's non-BSI sensor back sometime in 2008!), while the Note 4's camera sensor uses the very latest 2014 components.

Test 4: Flash, static subject

In this case, a nice Christmas tree, shot at around 2 metres. Here’s the full scene, so that you can see the context:

And here's 1:1 detail from near the centre of the frame, using our famed interactive comparator, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the image fragments:

This time it's the Note 4's camera that very slightly over-exposes, but in truth there's very little in it. The use of OIS in this non-Nokia/Microsoft camera phone really does make a huge difference in any kind of low light situation. Yes, Nokia were pioneers in bringing OIS to camera phones, but the competition is hotting up across the industry.

Test 5: Flash, moving subject

A typical party photo, I wasn't trying to stay perfectly still, though admittedly I wasn't swigging a beer bottle in earnest - for a change.... This was also shot at around 2 metres. Here’s the full scene, so that you can see the context:

And here's 1:1 detail from near the centre of the frame, using our famed interactive comparator, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the image fragments:

Xenon flash, of course means that there's more crispness to the PureView shot, the Nokia 808 and Lumia 1020 just shine in these kinds of situations. But, in the context of the shot, the Note 4 doesn't do a terrible job, with bright enough LED flash and short enough exposure and sensitive enough sensor that the end result would probably be acceptable to most general users. Your comments welcome, of course.

Summary

In addition to the still shots above, I also did some short video comparisons, looking at low light capability at 1080p as well as lossless zoom - and I was stunned that the Note 4's footage was comparable to the 1020's at every stage, from OIS stability to noise levels to sharpness. Maybe I'll come back to the video at some point in a future piece.

You'll have used your mouse to pan over the comparisons above, of course, and can make up your own mind. I'd give the edge to the Lumia 1020 (and I'd put money on the 808 being roughly as good too), though the whole point of this piece is not to knock the Note 4 camera but to praise it - for 99.9% of uses, if I'm brutally honest, there's now little reason for anyone to pick a Nokia/Microsoft flagship based on imaging alone. The competition really is catching up and the position of the Nokia 808 PureView and Lumia 1020, both very niche devices in the grand scheme of things of course, is no longer one of supremacy and more one of maintaining a slender lead.

That I'm writing this on All About Symbian/Windows Phone should be very faintly shocking, of course. I'm just being objective though, and you can look at the shots above to confirm my thoughts. Now, Symbian was executed and left for dead by a Microsoft-partnered Nokia, this happened several years ago and we don't need to go into that all over again. But Windows Phone is very much a going concern and Microsoft is pouring a lot of money into it, betting the farm on its cross-form-factor Windows 10 solution. If imaging isn't necessarily superior then why should anyone pick a Windows Phone? 

In fact, I did cover this, in a feature here - there are still plenty of reasons to go with the OS. Besides, before Microsoft's ex-Nokia imaging engineers start panicking, it should be noted that only a small number of expensive Android devices have cameras that are any good - 99% of the vast number (a couple of hundred thousand a quarter) of Android smartphones sold have cameras which are, in my experience, less capable than those in pricing equivalents from the Microsoft/Nokia stable.

But I still thought the levelling of the playing field by the Galaxy Note 4 was worth highlighting. 

We now have a date for the effective closure of the Nokia Store as-is. Or at least a latest date. Microsoft has been sending out emails to developers and publishers pointing out the migration details for their content from the Nokia Store to the Opera Store. Along the way it listed a cut off date and a few other choice nuggets...

Here then are extracts from the developer email, with notes from me:

As you know, on November 18^th 2014, we announced our plans to replace Nokia Store with Opera Mobile Store as the default app store for Nokia feature phones, Symbian and Nokia X smartphones. 

Yup, covered here on AAS.

From mid-January 2015, you will be able to start migrating your content from the Nokia Publish site to the Opera Mobile Store. 

To do that, you need to follow three simple steps:

1.  First, register with Opera. This is something many developers have already done.  If you haven’t yet registered, you can do so here
2.  Next, when you receive the invitation email from us in January, you’ll need to visit the Nokia Publish site. Here you’ll be asked to give consent to have your content migrated across to Opera.
3. Finally, you will then be asked to confirm which content you would like to migrate.

Opera will then carry out the migration within 72 hours and notify you when the chosen content appears in the Opera Mobile Store.

Now, it's good to see a one-time migration path from one Store to another for developers, but rather crucially:

Opera will continue to provide signing for your Series 40 and Java applications.  More information will be shared in January.   

Please note that Symbian and Series 60 apps will not be re-signed by Opera, as noted in previously communicated plans for the Symbian platform.

Symbian really does seem to be the poor relation here, though perhaps the complexity of the Symbian signing toolset has something to do with it?

January to March 2015 – Throughout this period, Nokia Store customers will be notified of the transition from the Nokia Store to Opera Mobile Store and migrated to Opera Mobile Store. Beginning in January, a message will appear in the Nokia Store client. From February and concluding in March, consumers will then be transitioned over to the Opera Mobile Store.

Aha - we told you so. The recent client update was to embed the code and messaging needed to handle this notification and migration process.

Consumers will be able to purchase content from the Nokia Store until they are migrated to Opera Mobile Store or until March 31^st 2015, whichever is first.   Consumers can make in-app-billing purchase transactions until March 31^st 2015.

So March 31st 2015 is the cut off date, after which there will definitely be no more Nokia Store services. Presumably, even if a user declines the update/migration process, the Store itself will simply stop working at some point after the cut off.

As before, note that there's precisely zero follow through for purchases made in the Nokia Store in the past, so don't expect to be able to re-download the same commercial content in the Opera Store, if such content even gets migrated in the first place.

So, the usual advice applies. Grab and install all the apps you'll need on all the devices you own, before it's too late. And note that some of us have been archiving as we go, you never know when a folder of SIS files might come in handy.... Plus more developers are now skipping the official stores altogether and simply making available 'self-signed' installers (e.g. through AppList) that can be used as-is or with full capabilities on devices with custom firmware.

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, as you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

Colour me as completely unsurprised, but Nokia Suite has been updated after a long gap, not to add features, but to remove them - specifically support for the online Nokia Store for applications, which is closing for good in the next few months. In fact, the update was sorely needed, since logging into the Store was broken now anyway. Sigh. Is there much point to updating? Well, not really, unless you're a completist. But it's still worth noting, if only as a data point in the Nokia/Microsoft wind-down of active support for the Symbian ecosystem.

Here's the issue for the current versions of Nokia Suite:

The update pops up in Nokia Suite, advertising "the best features and performance" - ho, ho, ho. No, that's not Santa, that's me chortling at the wording. Why on earth couldn't Microsoft call a spade a spade, and just explain that Nokia Store support was being removed to avoid confusion? It's not rocket science.

Comments welcome, of course. Am I being too cynical?

Billed as a Christmas present to the Symbian community, the Delight Custom Firmware (CFW) team has published v1.5 of its eponymous and rather excellent custom firmware - there's nothing critical that forces anyone happy with Delight v1.4 to update, but completists and enthusiasts (like me) will want to anyway! Screenshot proof, notes, quotes and links below.

You can find everything you need here in the original post. See the FAQ there, deselect the UDA and EMMC packages (you'll know what that means if you've done this before), and make sure, after booting, you both allow time for the auto-updaters to run. Also, just run the 'Delight 1.5' 'Updater' when prompted (i.e. tap 'cancel' to other versions, assuming you were already on v1.4).

Total time taken, with absolutely no data or apps loss, was about 10 minutes, but it will take longer if you're new to firmware flashing/updating or if you need to use another base language. All applications and settings were intact, including the Swype keyboard.

See also the compiler's tutorial for flashing Delight CFW and, if you're brand new to flashing CFWs then have a read through my C7 adventure here.

From the notes for Delight 1.5 here:

• cleaned unneeded/double files
• added all missing styles and transition to the old N8 video editor
• Requires a Refurbish/Hardreset: disabled the GPS background processautostart, it just takes RAM and CPU time. (It gets started automatically whenever it's needed, so it doesn't make sense in autostart)
• contacts and email widgets are using default skins
• added help files for the N8 photo and video editors
• replaced the useles weather shortcut of the email widget with GPS Data, thanks eric88 for your hint about the useless shortcut.
• added landscape support for the FM radio, thanks Márton for your suggestion!

Updated: 

• Delight App v1.4
• slightly updated SMS Themer
• menu config
• keyboards by Allstar12345 and bhavin192
• theme effects by Allstar12345
• conversation skin by Cahjoss
• the default General profile config(ringing type ringing, no touch screen vibration)
• offical Nokia Big Clock screensaver fix(for Czech, Hungarian and Norwegian), thanks habibx for the hint

Fixes: 

• Share via Twitter icon
• the default camera app image name counter will be '1' after flashing, thanks Alex for finding this issue and helping us
• removed the wrong FastTube SISRegistry entry, thank eric88 for your hint!

Plus improvements and fixes to the integral Delight App/utility.

Brilliant stuff from the Delight team, to please thank them and drop them a donation if you can.

Yes, yes, the best way to manage your Symbian smartphone, as an enthusiast, into 2015 is to use full custom firmware, such as Delight (e.g. as featured last week here), but there's a halfway house if you want to retain all your legacy set-up, avoiding any reinstallations, and yet be able to install tasty 'unsigned' applications and utilities, which will become more and more commonplace as the Nokia Store closes in the next few months. This isn't something I've done personally, but the guys at Symbian Developers seem to know what they're doing here, so I've linked to them and quoted appropriately. Worth noting, at least.

Don't be too put off by the term 'hack' (though, in essence, this is what it is) - think of it as freeing your Symbian phone from the tight installer controls put in place by Nokia back in the day. Of course, while the OS was being actively maintained (e.g. with security patches) it made absolute sense to 'stay within the reservation', avoid hacking and use the official Nokia Store for software. But with the Store about to close for the last time, with all patching long since stopped and with support itself getting on for non-existent, there's more cause to experiment and start thinking about software from other sources, regardless of the lack of any approval or certificate.

Of course, this brings an implicit danger that you'll be installing something malicious, so exercise caution as you go and don't go installing lots of new applications in one go. And do backups as you go - but the idea of freeing up a smartphone in this way, independently from the OEM, is quite appealing.

Noting that you'll need to be quite technical and know your way around a file manager, from the article at Symbian Developers, quoting the instructions for a Belle FP2 device (like the 808):

1. Download and install this application to C:\ drive: http://symbian-developers.net/wp-content/uploads/Nokia-Belle-FP2-Hack.sis

2. After the installation, SafeManager should launch. If not, launch it from the menu

3. Three popups will show up. Select No to all of them

4. Click on Other, and after that on FileMgr

5. Now open FP2hack folder in E:\ drive, select the updatedswicertstore.dat file, open the Options menu and select Copy

6. After that, go to C:/resource/swicertstore/dat/, open the Options menu and select Insert. Enter the code shown in the popup and press Ok. When it asks you to insert the file, press Ok, and select Yes when you’re asked to replace the old file in the folder.

If the folders don’t exist, just create them.

7. Download and install RomPatcher+ v3.1 for Belle FP2 from this link: http://symbian-developers.net/wp-content/uploads/RomPatcherPlus_3.1_FP2.sisx

8. After it’s installed, launch RomPatcherPlus from the menu

9. Select all of the patches (Install Server RP+ v1.7 and Open4all), open the Options menu and select Add to auto

On the source page there are similar instructions for older Symbian smartphones, so go look.

Me? I'm firmly in the Delight custom firmware camp (this also includes the installation of any application, out of the box), but I wanted to give some credit to the slightly fiddly method above since it doesn't force you to wipe your device and start from scratch in the process.

Last covered here over a year ago, Star Browser, a Qt-based alternative to Symbian Web that aims to be highly customisable, has seen some big updates recently. There's a changelog below, along with some comments.

According to the developer, here's the changelog for the new v1.70:

• Flatter more modern Menu with Flat icons all around the App
• New Download Manager where you can track progress and cancel the download
• External Access Linkage implemented with its own settings
• Developer Settings where you can toggle the saving of JS Console Message Logging with open and remove logs features
• Network Proxy implemented into App
• Scroll Bar Colours now switch between dark and light so it's easier to see on some Areas
• Main Window now shows Page Title above the URL input, this should solve any TextInput control issues for devices with smaller screens
• New On Screen Navigation Buttons added to the Main Window, Back and Forward Left and Right respectfully of the Menu Button
• New Dialogs for User Agent Auto Reload duration switchers
• Jolla SailFish User Added
• User Agent System re-written again, should react quicker and be less of a burden on resources
• Share Area now includes graphical changes and a Direct Share to Facebook (Note, sharing to Facebook will not always work, this can be due to various reasons)
• Default Homepage changed due to the recent changes in Google which makes it disappear from the screen
• Fixed some errors in certain Switch Graphics
• New Cache Settings Area, from this you can disable Cookie Saving, clear Cookies and disable the saving of WebView Cache (the one which always takes up hundreds of MB)
• Majority of temp now saves to E:/ Cookies included (Devices without a Mass Memory and no Memory card like the X7 will Auto save to c:/ instead)
• New Visually Impaired Mode Added in Customisation Settings, this will increase the size of various graphics around the UI, including ToolButtons, Buttons, Menu, Long Press Menus
• Night Cover Dialog, Font Size Dialog, Time on the Menu Button, Extra Navigation Buttons
• Maximum Font Size increased to 35 from 30 with new + and - buttons added for more precise changes
• You can now Share RSS Feed Stories by pressing Share and following instructions
• Bookmarks now has a search system (BETA), also adds ability to export a bookmark into a basic text file
• New Window System, Old Second Window scrapped, this is a beta stage system which allows upto 6 Windows for Second Generation devices, 3 for First Gen and 2 for the Nokia 500
• New Close Dialog
• New Web Image Viewer for browsing, this works in situations like press View Full Size on a Facebook Image, it includes Zoom Buttons and a ability to save the image
• New Web Audio Player, works in the same way as Image Viewer, it supports direct streaming of MP3 and WMA files, you can download the file from the player, adjust the volume, hide and continue browsing (When Hidden the Menu will show special controls for the player, you can also adjust its volume from the devices hardware keys if volume scrolling is enabled)
• New Basic Video manager menu for MP4 files, play and Download options given (Facebook Videos are not supported, you will be given a error message)
• New support for USB OTG Keyboards, shortcut reference is available from Tips
• Tips updated with more areas, loads much quicker and should all fit in the boxes now

That's what you CALL a changelog! In use, I have to be honest, Star Browser still seemed slower and 'flakier' than Web and Opera/Opera Mini, but then it's working with bigger overheads - and, to its credit, the interface and options set is very good, so it all depends what pages/sites you want to visit.

Not one splash screen, but two!!

Two help screens introduce Star Browser and its interface....

Getting going with AAS.... (right) the start of the hierarchical settings system...

Clever - auto-dimming of the screen when the time comes... (right) uh-oh, rendering corruptions start to mar the experience...

Trying out Star Browser on the Gmail site led to more screen corruptions. Making a HTML5 browser seems to be really, really complicated, as Star Browser's developer is finding out!

You can grab Star Browser from here. Your comments welcome, did you get on better with this than me?

Thanks to reader Kurt Kaufman for noticing that Microsoft's official mobile FAQ and recovery tool (that runs under Windows) now includes support for Symbian devices. Kurt managed to recover a Nokia E6 that had previously been unusable using the tool, so this is well worth bookmarking.

There have always been official Nokia solutions for reflashing smartphones with their official firmware, of course, but it's great to see that Microsoft has taken on this function within its own utility portfolio, inherited from Nokia.

Worth a download if you have a PC, at least - there's no Mac version, unless a reader knows different? (I haven't tried an old build of the Mac NSU, but I suspect that the servers used would have been switched off by now?)

Don't be put off by the 'Lumia' part of the name, it's just a corporate rebranding thing - see the quoted text below:

From the Microsoft page:

Lumia Software Recovery Tool can help you to reset and recover your phone software at home, if your phone is experiencing software related or software update problems. With Windows Phone 8  models, you can also use Lumia Software Recovery Tool  to recover your phone in case your phone is not responding, it appears to be stuck, or it is not starting.

Prerequisites for your computer (PC):

• Microsoft Windows 7 or newer.
• USB cable to connect your phone to the computer.
• Minimum 4 GB free storage space.

Supported phones:

• Lumia phones 
• Asha and Series 40 phones that have USB interface
• Series 30+ phones that have USB interface
• Nokia X2 platform phones
• Symbian phones

Step 1. Download and install Lumia Software Recovery Tool to your computer. If possible, make sure that your phone is fully charged.

Step 2. Start Lumia Software Recovery Tool, and connect your phone to your computer with a compatible USB cable. If prompted, select the correct USB mode on your phone:Nokia Suite or Modem.

• Note! Using Lumia Software Recovery Tool erases all personal content on your phone. If possible, create a backup of your phone’s content before starting the installation. You will find the instructions on how to backup and restore your data in your phone's user guide.

Step 3. Follow the instructions shown on the tool. The latest version of your phone software will be installed, and your phone will restored back to the factory settings. This process may take some time depending on your internet connection, and you cannot use your phone during the installation.

Anyone tried this yet? 

Just as long as the new official firmware doesn't boot our Symbian phones up with a Microsoft logo or Lumia branding....(!)

When it comes to podcatchers on Symbian, there are two that work well - the eponymous option(!) and Poddi. Happily, both are now effectively free, as noted by me when I noticed that the latter has now been added to the wonderful AppList store/tool, linked below. Comments welcome, do you still use Symbian for your on-the-go podcast listening and which app is your favourite?

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, as you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications! If you haven't hacked or added custom firmware to your Symbian smartphone by now then you're 'doing it wrong', by the way...

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

There are other directories and collections of Symbian installers online, but the AppList Store is by far the slickest - and now pretty well stocked. Some applications within its ranks still point to the Nokia Store, but as the latter is shut down for good in a couple of months time, it's expected that all links will be internal or to developer servers.

Here's the update shown, and working:

The pop-up when you go into AppList this morning; (right) auto-installing the update

The current home page in AppList - oh look, an update for Vine (of which more in a separate story here on AAS)

Perhaps it's the new freedom away from the Nokia Store and Microsoft that's encouraging developers to get cracking again for Symbian - but I was heartened to see Vine for Symbian pop up in the AppList Store today. It's a fully functionning client too, you'll have hours of fun browsing round and watching the six second Vine video clips, liking and re-sharing, etc.

From the AppList description:

Explore a world of beautiful, looping videos. Vine experience is available now on Symbian. 
This is full featured (except video uploading) Vine client for Symbian devices.

Features:
+ Login & Register
+ User self & popular feed
+ Like/Unlike, Comment/Uncomment, Revine/Unrevine
+ Follow/Unfollow, Sent Follow Requests/Accept or Deny Requests
+ User & Tag search
+ Notifications
+ Check for update option in user profile page
+ Future updates

Technical Features:
+ Version: 1.0 (you can update from app to future updates)
+ Nokia Smart Installer included 
+ Self signed by Qt

Here's a walkthrough:

I first discovered Vine's availability through the AppList store; (right) as with Gravity before it, Vine is commercial software that's administered via a registration scheme online (i.e. totally separate to Nokia/Microsoft etc.) Once paid up (it's only 2 Euros), your email account is held online on a server and checked by the application if you ever need to reinstall etc.

Of course, you'll also need to log into Vine with your account in the usual way; (right) logged in and starting to browse vines....

Tapping any static thumbnail (or swiping right) brings up/animates the vine, with performance  fine on the small Symbian resolution devices, as you might expect.

Here's one I liked - a stop motion video of a leaf decaying...

You can also use other aspects of Vine, including searching for users and keywords/tags...

Good stuff. You can find this initially in AppList on your device or here on the web.

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

cuteRadio, an all-purpose Internet Radio client, has had a few issues in the last few months, not least its piggybacking to some degree on TuneIn - but this is in the past, API issues are now sorted and, with one small caveat, you'll be rocking 24/7 with cuteRadio on Symbian again with the latest update, fresh from the AppList app store.

If you've used a previous version of cuteRadio, of course, you may already have the update, since there's a mechanism in the application, but just in case, here's the changelog for v0.3.3:

• Improve retrieval of stream URLs from playlists
• Fix SSL handshake errors
• Refetch the stream URL from playlists when resuming playback
• Replace TuneIn with cuteRadio REST API
• In-app updating added
• Search fixed
• Disabled predictive text in source fields

Some screens of cuteRadio 0.3.3 in action:

The only caveat to all this is that you have to set your access point manually, due to the way cuteRadio latches into the video streaming APIs in Symbian. Thus, you need to go into Settings/Application settings/Videos/Access point and pick something suitable, i.e. your Wi-fi network - chances are that this is already set up. If not, you'll get 'Symbian-34' errors until this streaming setting is done.

Comments? cuteRadio seems pretty powerful and with a very full directory (including all the BBC stations - yay!) Grab it in the AppList store client or here on the web.

fMobi was always the best Facebook client on Symbian, keeping track of Facebook's numerous changes better than most software. And it still works today. Better yet, it's now free and available in the AppList Store for Symbian (what do you mean, you're not using this? You're 'doing it wrong'....)

Here's the brief description in AppList:

The best Facebook client for your phone. 

Chat or share status. Checkin. Upload photos. Comment and like your friends' posts. Look at your friends photos & albums and much much more!

More than 25 languages included!

Also in AppList by the same developer, also now free, is fChat:

fChat is the fastest, coolest, simplest and the most beautiful chat for Facebook.

You can chat with your online friends and you can also search offline friends and send messages to them too!

- (Home screen widget) [temporarily] removed to make chat working with latest fb changes
- White and black theme
- Adjustable font size
- Audio alert

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

Reviewed positively by me back in the day, Micropool was always one of my favourite Symbian games - and it's now completely free, via the ever-growing AppList on-device store. Seriously, if you haven't got AppList installed then you really are 'doing it wrong'. Micropool is a top notch addition to the store and a big thanks to the developer for adding it as freeware.

Here's screenshot proof:

From the AppList description:

MicroPool is an award winning pool simulator. The key strength of Micro pool are great atmosphere, realistic graphics and sounds. The extremely fast loading time and the convenient user interface makes it a good companion for your free time.

Features:
- 4 pool games (8-Ball, 9-Ball, Killer and Speed)
- 3 tables
- Adjustable opponent strength for beginners and pros
- Wonderfully simple user interface

And here's part of my original review:

But let's not get too negative. Micropool is smoothly and beautifully animated, with crisp sound effects, realistic gameplay and it behaves impeccably when put into the background under Symbian OS - Botond FM really have game behaviour mastered - many is the time I've realised after a day or two that I still had Micropool sitting patiently in the background waiting for me to take my shot - without having had ANY effect on processor load or battery life. In fact, even leaving the game in the foreground pops up a message after a bit to announce that it's going to turn the display off and let the OS dim the screen in the usual way, to save power. Very nicely done.

In a theme that I'm going to come back to in an editorial, Micropool is also one of those game titles which effectively have infinite game play - no two games are ever the same, partly explaining why I've not only become addicted to the title, I also never get tired of it. There's always a new frame to win, a new pattern of balls to weave and blast my way through.

If you only ever download one pool game for Symbian (there are several) then grab Micropool (which has been 'on sale' now for two years!) - it's the best of the bunch by far.

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

The premier ball-rolling maze game for Symbian just went free too, thanks to the developer and the AppList Store. MicroMaze was very well thought of in our original review, and it's now available without charge in the AppList store client on your Symbian smartphone. Terrific physics, terrific design and terrifically addictive!

From the AppList Store description:

Labyrinth games are maybe the best time killers: You guide a ball through a maze just with tilting the phone.
MicroMaze attempts to be the best of them with sophisticated graphics, physics and unique gameplay.
Challenge your skills and have many hours of fun with 80 challenging levels in 6 worlds!

And from our original review:

Six different surfaces (worlds in the language of the game) aren't all. Sometimes it's not a hole you have to avoid, but a massive valley that's spanned by a tiny bridge – with no guard rail. Or you have to navigate over trapdoor holes which open and close. Get the timing wrong and it's as fatal as a drop in the gallows. Great game mechanics and all nicely brought in to ramp up the difficulty as you continue to play. A right-of-screen timer adds a slight sense of urgency, but as long as you're not getting things horribly wrong then time shouldn't be an issue.

It's clear that Fetter knows how to program a game so that it keeps on rewarding the player. There's no feeling of grinding through the numbers, it just stays fresh right until the end. Like most marble games though, it's tough to feel any replay value (beyond passing it to the kids in the back seat of a car journey... which is just evil). There are also enough levels in here to make it great value for money. Definitely recommended.

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

I covered, last last year an update to the Nokia Store client that came without a changelog but which contained a payload destined to kick into action when commanded to, in this case to start warning users that the Nokia Store is closing and that in future the client itself will just forward users to the Opera Store mobile web site. Screenshot proof below.

From my earlier story:

Talk about scurrying off to dig out source code and update it - the Nokia Store, for most Symbian phones, just got itself an update and you almost picture the scene at Microsoft, which has inherited Nokia's old Symbian resources and systems - Opera Software has been announced to take over the running of a software store for Symbian, but there needs to be a foolproof way for users to know about the transition (such as it is). And so we see an update for the Nokia Store client for most devices today (screenshots below), with no apparent changes or fixes but my guess is that there's almost certainly a switch now built-in that can be activated when needed in 'early 2015' to prompt the installation of the replacement Opera Mobile Store.

As of today, anyone going into the Nokia Store client on their Symbian smartphone will see:

It remains to be seen whether anyone will head over to the Opera Store - in terms of ecosystem breaks this is a pretty big one. Mind you, surely every Symbian user already has every application that's available that they're interested in, and it's not as if installed apps will suddenly stop working.

For longer term store native support, of course, I'd still recommend AppList.