Interview with the Symbian-Guru himself

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Today is a special day, NMT is happy to have had a chance to interview one of the premier Nokia/Symbian Bloggers, his name Ricky Cadden aka the Symbian-Guru.

Tell us a little about your background and what lead you to start blogging about Nokia and Symbian?

I have a background in Business Marketing and Management, but have been blogging about Nokia/Symbian for over 2 years. I started as a commenter on PhoneScoop.com, and was pointed towards HowardForums, where I became an active member of the community. I launched Symbian-Guru.com in November 2006, after Symella was ported to S60v3 and I found myself emailing my favorite blogs with the news – I realized I might as well have my own blog.

How did the name Symbian Guru come about, does it have a special story you’d like to share with our readers?

To be honest, I don’t recall where the Guru part came from. I think I just liked how it sounded. It’s certainly a fun word to say. Guru. Say it a few times and see for yourself.

lol (laughing out loud)

What are your thoughts and wishes for the newly created Symbian Foundation?

Assuming they can keep things moving at a fast clip, I think the Symbian Foundation is exactly what S60/Symbian needed, specifically when you look at it from Nokia’s standpoint. Previously, each part (Nokia, S60, Symbian) acted as individual parties, all three of which any changes to the OS had to pass through. It’s obvious how much this has held S60/Symbian back, specifically in terms of the overall mobile market. By streamlining this process and making it easier for others to contribute, they should be able to greatly increase the agility in the marketplace. Also, in the Symbian Foundation, each member gets a vote, and only one vote – that means Nokia no longer dominates the platform (in terms of controlling the roadmap, etc), and it should be easier for other companies, such as Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and even newcomers like ZTE can realistically participate, which should increase competition within the Symbian ecosystem.

How does it feel to have one of the most famous Nokia and Symbian English speaking blogs?

I wouldn’t say we’re the most famous, but it *is* awesome to know that we have so many loyal readers, and Rita, Cheung Yuen Wong, and I definitely count it a blessing to know that we’re making an impact, helping people get a better experience with their Symbian-powered smartphone.

What are your top 7 favorite applications and why?

Nokia Messaging – I have it on all my phones, and it works awesome. Mobbler – instantaneous, personalized streaming radio anywhere I’m at. Handy Taskman – makes you wonder how people use S60 phones with just the regular task manager. Share Online – now that I have pixelpipe, it’s really nice and useful. Gravity – twitter on my phone. Google Maps Mobile – lightning fast POI searching. Nokia Maps 3.0 – pulls in favorites from Google Maps Mobile and gives voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, also syncs with my Ovi account

What advice can you give new bloggers in general? I know its taken you a few years to be one of the top bloggers but can you tell us a little about your journey to that position

The best thing I ever learned was how to schedule posts. It enables us to put together fantastic walkthroughs/reviews, and automatically post them throughout the week. It’s a definite time-saver, and increases productivity ten-fold. Sometimes, I can pump out 10-15 posts in one sitting, whereas other times, I can’t write 10 words. Scheduled psts evens that out.

What are you two favorite Nokia Smartphones of all time and which smartphone are you looking forward to use?

- The Nokia N73 and the Nokia N95-3. The N73 was a PHENOMENAL phone, with a killer battery life and the first stellar camera I had on a phone. The N95-3 is still a serious contender, if not for the outdated firmware. Today I swap between the E71, N79, and 5800 XpressMusic. It’s tough to call a winner between those three. I can’t decide if I’m looking forward to the N97 or the N86 8MP more, honestly. The N86 8MP *seems* like it will be a true followup to my N95-3 (which my mom is using now), but the N97 will certainly be a fun phone to use.

What are your thoughts on the rumors that Nokia will be joining the netbook business?

I’ve got 2 netbooks – the Dell Mini 9 and the Fujitsu P1610. I’m a serious fan of netbooks, and am anxious to see where the market heads. Personally, I don’t think Nokia will release a ‘netbook’ in the sense that we’re all likely thinking. Consider, OPK calls the Nseries ‘multimedia computers’. His idea of a ‘netbook’ might be seriously different than what’s currently on the market. I think they *do* have something rather cool up their sleeves, though, and I think it will be really really cool.

What’s your favorite color, sport, blog(not related to Nokia), movie, PC Operating System, and music band.

blue, raquetball, I really enjoy Mrs. Guru’s blog. She does a great job. Favorite movie is probably a tie between The Matrix, Out Cold, A River Runs Through It, and The Endless Summer II. I use Windows, and really enjoy it (I tinker with Ubuntu and OS X periodically, and find no real reason to switch). Counting Crows is hands-down my favorite music band ever.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share a little about myself. You’ve done a great job with your site, and I wish you much success with it in the future, as we all seek to get better experiences from our phones, and share them.

Thanks Guru, it was my pleasure ! Rita would you oblige to an interview?

Don’t forget to follow the Guru on Twitter here
Don’t forget to follow Rita el Khoury on Twitter here
To visit the Guru’s site click here