Well, I’ve been waiting for this interview for quite sometime know but I understand as my guest for this interview has been busy traveling South Asia heavily and has been carrying around his N95 and N95 8GB to keep the ultimate on line web log.

Without further ado, I present you Aaron and Georgie

What first lead me to start blogging about Nokia was the need to stay in touch with friends and family while I went off on a long period of travel.

In the planning stages of my trip (14 months and counting) I didn’t even know what a blog was, but after looking into what I wanted and needed as a way of staying in touch – a blog was the only option. What I didn’t want was to be stuck in internet cafes or worrying about expensive laptops and thats what brought me to the Nokia N95, out of the box its a powerful tool but with a little tweaking I was able to use it to update my blog with pictures, unlimited text, geo-tagged pictures on a google map and more… But to do all this I had to learn from scratch spending hours trawling the web and searching forums and other blogs, in the end I managed to put together exactly what I needed and decided that now I knew what a blog was and how it worked I should start another one to share the info with others…

What are your favorite Symbian applications can you list your top 5 and why you like them?

1 location tagger

It seamlessly tags my pictures with lat long coordinates ready to pin to an embedded google map so everyone can see where I’ve been

2 Lifeblog

I use this to upload my post to my blog. Its not new and its quite limited in what it can do but it has never  once let me down. I have tried other apps like Wavelog but never quite got them to work and what I sacrifice in style options I gain in reliability. When your trekking through a jungle and want to share your experience then you need something dependable.

3 Quickwrite

I don’t think I could manage without Quickwrite it makes blogging and typing in general with a phone a real possibility, I use a bluetooth keyboard but the small screen and lack of spellchecker means that mistakes happen but Quickwrite nips that all in the bud I’ve even blogged using just Quickwrite and just the phone keys.

4 Sports tracker

Sports tracker isn’t something I use all that often but when I do need it, it is the only app to do the job. If we have a special trip planned then I fire up sports tracker and let in run in my bag. Last year we did a motorbike tour of Vietnam and I used Sports tracker to log the whole trip so I could slap it into Google Earth and see it back with geo tagged pictures, average speeds and altitudes as we climbed over Vietnams central highlands.

5 Opera mini

This is just a sweet little browser that makes surfing the web a lot faster, having to use the web wherever and whenever I get the chance it really helps to have Opera to speed things up so I can get back to what I left home for… Traveling.

What are your thoughts on the future of Nokia and the newly created Symbian Foundation?

I think its easy to see that this will only serve to benefit every mobile phone user in a massively positive way. Speaking From my past experiences of other examples of open source platforms – it’s the only way to go! With open source more users will be able to tailor their handsets (which are a very personal thing) to their exact specific wants and needs and thats got to suit everyone!

What advice can you give to new bloggers in general not necessarily in this niche?

I think that you always have to be clear why your blogging and bear that in mind with every post. Be clear with yourself what you want from your blog, set yourself realistic targets on the way to your goal. But most importantly enjoy doing it…

Which Nokia phones have you used in the past?

I have had Nokia phones for years, since the days of having a personal mobile was a new idea… I sold my pager for my first phone

• 5110
• 6110
• 3210
• 3310
• 8210
• 5210
• 7610
• 7200
• 6260
• N95
• N95 8gb

What are your two favorite Nokia smartphones of all time and which Nokia smartphone are looking forward to use.

It’s a one horse race as far as I’m concerned – My favorite smartphone has to be the N95 8gb, it was my first Nokia smart phone and I learned everything I know from it, my N95 8gb has been with across the world and back again and it has never once let me down. Its GPS has got me out of scrapes more than once and teamed with a Bluetooth keyboard it has kept me in touch with the world from some of the most remote and rural places in Southeast Asia. It is time to upgrade though because the buttons are wearing thin and its held together by it’s stick on protective cover but I will never get rid of it, when I finally part with some cash and get a new one it has to be the N97 – the big screen and full keyboard along with all the features of N95 but with nobs on means it is literally all I could ever want from a smartphone.

Soon I’m off going travelling to South-East Asia, for quite some time, and i wanted to be able to stay in touch with everyone back home, i wanted to be able to easily keep an online diary and upload pictures and even plot the pics on a map, but…

i want to keep it simple, i didn’t want to be lugging around expensive laptops or sitting in internet cafe’s for hours on end or even having lots of devices with miles of cables and chargers. what i wanted was a simple and very portable solution that fully integrates all my blogs and Facebook etc with as few clicks and hastle as possible.

So after much research i settled on a Nokia n95 8g, a wicked smartphone which in theory could do all the above.

Are you an N86 or N97 kind off guy?

N97… Every time! I cant wait to get my hands on one its perfect for my needs, currently with my N95 8gb I use a Bluetooth keyboard to update my blog on the road but with the N97’s full keyboard and big screen it will infinitely improve my mobile blogging ability. Also the big screen means every Wi-Fi hotspot is actually useable to surf the web without squinting and with all the other features I’m used to on the N95 8gb included and improved I’m already sold!

What is your favorite color, movie, music band, and sport?

Color: Pink

Movie: Blow

Music: Oasis

Sport: Motorcross

Bonus Question/Statement

Ever wondered what it’s like to sell it all and go travel the world? – That’s just what we did…

…Aaron and Georgie have been traveling the world since April 2008. We sold our house, our car and even our cat so we could go forth and live life to it’s fullest and experience something new everyday. We blog about our travels, our adventures, our love and our life from the road as we go – Our feature packed blog has something for everyone so Mucho Mucho LOVE… Come Join In…

Why not subscribe and stay updated…

The whole idea of keeping a travel blog started as a way of staying in touch with friends and family with as little effort as possible, I also wanted to keep a diary and share our pictures and movies. What I didn’t want was to be tied to a computer for our whole trip or feel like a school kid that hasn’t done his homework and needs to stay behind after school to catch up.

I had absolutely no experience of blogging and to be honest I didn’t even fully understand what a blog was but as with the traveling I dove in head first and it all slowly started making sense.

The key for us was that our blog tied in with our other web based accounts like Facebook and Twitter seamlessly and effortlessly and after a lot of trial and error we had things up and running using only a Nokia N95 mobile phone and a Bluetooth keyboard to upload with.

We have since promoted things to a laptop but the core idea is still that of ease and minimal time and effort!

GEAR:

• Nokia N95 8gb
• Nokia Bluetooth keyboard
• Apple Macbook
• Cannon G9
• A Typepad blog account
• A Picasa Web album account
• A Youtube account
• And many other free services and web accounts that work secretly in the background

That’s all we have and thats more than we need, it could be done with a lot less trust me! But we are trying to  see just how far we can take it,

The key features of our blog are:

• A Geo-Tagged Google map page (pictures on the Nokia are automatically tagged with GPS co-ordinates and pinned to a map)
• A video podcast (still getting to grips with it but it’s working well)
• Huge picture galleries, just in case we loose our camera we have an online copy and also everyone can see every picture we have ever taken.
• Complete Facebook and Twitter integration. Every post we make and video we upload is send automatically to Facebook and Twitter and our friends are informed instantly.

For help or advice to do the same please don’t hesitate to get in touch and if we are passing through your area we would love to hear from you and maybe we could al go have a drink or two…

MUCHO MUCHO LOVE… COME JOIN IN!

Check Aaron and Georgie’s N95 Travel Blogging setup here

Today NMT brings you an exclusive interview with Norman from the SymbianWorld.org another premiere Symbian blog.

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

My name is Norman John and I’m living in Germany. I’m 19 years old and like almost everybody in my age I’m still going to school. Actually, it’s a long story how I finally came to my current blog. My interest for mobiles phones started with the Nokia 7610. Back then, in 2004, it was Nokia’s first 1 megapixel device. I was crazy about this device and, after I bought it, I started in a 7610 forum. There I learned my basic knowledge about Nokia and mobiles phones. After a short period I was one of the ‘best’ forum members. Time went by and in the meantime I bought a 6680. In 2006 I saw leaked pictures of the N95, the first multimedia computer, and I started to read English blogs and forums like AAS or SF. These were the first English related mobile blogs/sites I’ve read and they really influenced me. An idea began to grow in my mind and I stared a blog. Back then, I had no idea how a blog should look like, how to manage it and so on. However, time passing by I got more into the blogosphere so that started a English blog at April of 2007. This was a great opportunity as I could reach more people. A great effect was, that I improved my English mark from a 5 (which is really bad in Germany) to a 2 (good). I built up a community and had quite a few contacts. Than in summer of 2008, a friend of mine helped me to host my blog by my own and to move to wordpress.org which gave me big freedom. Since then I made some changes such as a new design and a new forum http://symbianworld.org/forum/ .  Long story short, it was a long way.

What are your favorite Symbian applications can you list your top 5 and why you like them?

I have installed a bunch of applications on my phones but here are my three favorite applications.

Shazam ID – If I hear a song I like but which I don’t know I just open Shazam ID, record the song and Shazam ID tells me the title and artist.

Nokia Podcasting – I’ve subscribed to a bunch of podcast. Before driving to school I just download a podcast I like and listen to it on my way to school.

JoikuSpot – It turns my 5800 into a Wi-Fi hotspot for my laptop. Really useful when I’m on vacation.

What’s your favorite theme and themer?

To be honest, I’m using the default theme since some years. My last theme I downloaded was in 2005 so that I cannot answer this question that good. However, recently I created a theme section (http://symbianworld.org/s60-5th-edition-themes-for-nokia-n97-nokia-5800-and-samsung-i8910-omnia-hd/) on my blog and I really like themes by Pizero.

What advice can you give to new bloggers in general not necessarily in this niche?

Well, first of all you should have fun when blogging. If blogging is a pain for you than you won’t have any success. Moreover, you should keep your blog unique. Write about things nobody else is writing about. These are the most essential things. Sometimes speed is an important factor to get in everybody’s mouth. Posting breaking news, doing SEO is important if you want to increase your readers.

Which Nokia phones have you used in the past?

This is a hard one. I’ve used pretty much all recent S60 devices from Nokia being the E75, E90, N85, N95, 6220, 5320 and so on. I also used some UIQ handsets as well as the G1. However, these were mostly loan devices so that I had them for a few weeks only. Devices, I’ve spent a lot time with are: N95, N82, N96 and finally the 5800 XpressMusic

What are your two favorite Nokia smartphones of all time and which Nokia smartphone are looking forward to use.

I think the Nokia N95 and the N97 are the two devices which changed the whole market. The N95 was the first device to combine all features such as a camera, GPS and internet into one device. Now, the Nokia N97 is the next big step forward. This device shows that software and internet are as important as hardware.

Are you an N86 or N97 kind off guy?

Nokia N97 of course. I want a big screen, a sexy design and a full qwerty keyboard!

Recent rumors, confirmed or not, have alluded to Nokia using the Maemo OS in upcoming phones in 2010-2011, what are you thoughts?

I’ve used the N800 and the N810, which are running on Maemo, in the past .As Maemo is based on Linux this would be a further step into an open OS. Having two big Operation Systems, Symbian and Maemo, Nokia would be prepared for a ‘fight’ against the other Operation Systems, Mac and Android. However, if you ask me, I wouldn’t go for a Maemo powered device. My heart sticks to S60.

What is your favorite color, movie, music band, and sport?

Colour: Blue

Movie: Matrix

Music band: I do not a specific band I listen the whole day long. I listen to everything besides of rock

Sport:  Hockey, Soccer and Basketball.

Today I present you Rita El Khoury one of  my favorite Symbian writers. Why do I like her ? because she is raw and blogs from the heart, she’s real and shares tons of accumulated knowledge. She not only is a great blogger but also happens to be pharmacist, can you believe that, yes in the medical field. I remember reading a post which really struck a chord in me, its called “Diary of a True Mobile Powerhouse” which I highly recommend to anyone but especially newcomers to Symbian. Rita is well known throughout the Symbian community and as you may know she writes for the Symbian-Guru.com alongside Ricky Cadden and also at Fonearena.com and of course she has her own personal blog over at The Dotsisx Blog.com so as you can see, Rita is all over the blogosphere but she does not spread herself thin she is a top notch Mobile Journalist and for those that don’t know she was even interviewed by the Wall Street Journal . Without further ado, I present Rita El Khoury. Enjoy

 

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

It goes back to January 2007. I had been using my Nokia 3250 for half a year and was following the blogosphere closely, which at the time consisted of Engadget, Ring Nokia, Symbian-Guru, Darla Mack, Symbian in Motion and a few others. Darla posted a tip about selecting multiple items using the pen key (oh goodness, this whole thing feels like a page from a history book now) and all I could think was "I knew this trick since the first day I got my 3250, maybe I should start my own blog". That’s how Dotsisx was born as a separate blog, until December 2007 when out of the blue I joined Symbian-Guru and got my first trial handset, a Nokia N95 8GB. Everything has been a rollercoaster ride since then.

 

My main motivation to keep on blogging has changed a lot over the 2.5 years that I’ve been doing it. Now I mostly look for handsets, services and applications that fit into my everyday life as a medical researcher and a connected blogger and I blog from that perspective frequently.

 

What are your favorite Symbian applications? Can you list your top 5 and why you like them, feel free to expand the list if you want? Any favorite practices?

My list of favorite applications has been turned head over heels so much over the years, but this is the current state of it:

• Gravity: the first application I install on any device I have. Gravity makes it easy to manage several twitter accounts, keep users in separated groups, carry search items, and basically just tweet and read tweets. Big fan.
• Email: my preferred email solution has moved from the built-in IMAP Messaging, to the java Gmail client, to Profimail and now Nokia Messaging. Whatever the application I use is, Email is definitely the second most used application on any handset I have.
• X-Plore: the best file manager, bar none. Aside from the file manager, it includes a zip utility, a rar utility, and gives access to my Inbox bluetooth files. It has been on my top 5 apps list for more than 2 years now despite the huge amount of other file managers.
• Mobireader: I have invested in over 200$ worth of medical ebooks for mobireader, and although I use them less now that I’ve graduated as a pharmacist and changed over to medical research, they’re always with me ready to be consulted whenever needed.
• Best Profiles: I’m probably one of Best Profiles’ most frequent and demanding users. I’ve programmed it to follow my daily routine according to time and location, and not only does is switch profiles but it also launches/closes applications, switches bluetooth profiles, changes themes… It’s the kind of application that I program once and forget about, which makes me appreciate it even more.
• Share Online: with the pixelpipe configuration, this is the easiest and more personalized media sharing service ever.
• Google Maps: I live in Paris, which is a foreign city for me, so a quick and decent location search is a must have.
• Core Player: just throw a 700MB .avi movie file at it without any framerate or resolution conversion, and watch it play without a hiss. Love it.

What’s your favorite Twitter client for your smartphone and desktop and why?

Most of my Twitter activity is carried through the mobile, and not the desktop. I use Gravity, as stated above for any handset that I happen to have in my hands. It’s elegant, intuitive, simple, yet packs a ton of features, and I’ve been using it since the early alpha days where it only had tweets, replies and direct messages. It’s amazing how many improvements Jan Ole Suhr, the developer behind it, has been able to pump out in the past months. If I was honest, I would say that Gravity made me an active Twitterer. It’s a joy to use.

On the desktop, I have TweetDeck and Seemsic installed but I seldom use them. I basically like the simplicity of the Firefox add-on: TwitterFox, and I also use the basic web interface.

 

What advice can you give to new bloggers?

Easy come, easy go. Nowadays it’s incredibly easy to buy a domain, write a few posts, get some link love, and build a reputation. But I have been around long enough to see how bloggers who have it handed to them on a silver plate don’t stick too long. That’s why I carry a huge amount of respect to Ricky Cadden, Stefan Constantinescu and Zach Epstein. They’re the only ones I can remember from the early days who are still around, writing relevant articles and aiming to make a difference. I enjoy reading all their material because I know where they came from, and what they went through to become who they are.

My advice to new bloggers would be not to despair if your blog doesn’t get a ton of links, subscribers and readers in the first months, or even year. If you find it in yourself to push your site forward despite that, you would know for sure that you’re cut for this. If not, you’re going to stop one day, wonder about the purpose of it all, and eventually end it. I know that this is harsh to say, but it’s the truth nonetheless.

 

Which Nokia phones have you used in the past? 


My first Nokia device was the 6610, an S40 handset that I owned for 3 years. After that, I got the Nokia 3250XM, the first released S60 3rd edition device which I kept for 2 years, then I got the original N95 which I hated until I won the N82 Black and the E71. I also bought the 5800XM a couple of months ago. Apart from these, I have trialled the N95 8GB, N93i, N810, E90, E61i, N81 8GB, N96, 6210 Navigator, E75, E66, N85, and finally N86 8MP and N97.

 

What are your two favorite Nokia smartphone of all time and which Nokia smartphone are looking forward to use.

Without any doubt, the Nokia E71 and the Nokia N82 black. They are both packed to the bones with features, but the E71 remains the best handset for productivity and efficiency, and the N82 carries the best camera I have ever used, even putting my 12MP digital camera and the N86 8MP to shame on some shots.

Since I’ve already trialled the N97, the only smartphone I’m looking forward to is the E72. I believe it could be a great replacement for my E71.

 

What is your favorite color, movie, music band, and sport? 


Color: green. Movie: has to be a tie between Troy, Lord of The Rings and Notting Hill (strange 3rd choice, I know). Music Band: The Rasmus, with an honourable mention to Kyo (french rock band). Sport: I played Basketball back in highschool, I also love swimming, but I enjoy watching all kinds of sports on TV: Tennis, Football, Basketball, Rugby, Formula1, WaterPolo, Handball, PingPong, Athletics, Winter sports, summer sports,…

 

Tell us Profimail or Nokia Messaging and why?

A month ago, I would’ve said Profimail without a second of doubt, since I had trouble getting Nokia Messaging to even work on any of my handsets. I don’t know what has changed recently, but it now works. It’s a very close run between both apps with each one having a slight advantage in different aspects.

 

Tell us what are your thoughts on the Symbian foundation and the future that awaits Nokia especially in the Touch market ?

That question by itself would take a full interview and more to answer I believe the Symbian Foundation is the best thing that has ever happened to Nokia, Symbian and S60 since the iPhone. I’ve been keeping up with a lot of behind-the-scenes work in the SF, and I’m very pleased with the amount of excitement and innovation going on there. But we’re still in "concept" time, and we have yet to see the fruits. Even if the first releases are scheduled for the end of this year, I believe it won’t be until early 2011 that we see the real difference, which I’m afraid will be a bit late.

As far as touch handsets are concerned, it’s not Apple that are posing a threat to Nokia, imo, despite the humongous amount of buzz they’re generating. Apple is known to improve its products in baby steps and to withhold basic functionality that other manufacturers bring. On the other hand, Android and WebOS (Palm) are looking fresh, innovative, user-oriented and simple to use, in comparison with S60 5th. Nokia is basically a late bloomer in the Touch market, and as such, they’ll continue to have struggles in this segment, until the SF settles down and releases its new platform.

 

What’s your favorite Bluetooth headset?

The Jabra BT3030. I bought this one some 9 months ago, and it has integrated my daily life very easily. I love its design, the dedicated multimedia keys, the sound quality, the provided earphones, and the fact that I can replace them with any pair I own through the 3.5mm jack. It’s definitely my most used phone accessory.

What do you think of the android OS and mobile linux in general? 


I still haven’t had time to play with Android, I hope I do so pretty soon, but I’ve read a lot about it. Given how many Google services I use on a daily basis, I’m pretty sure that I would enjoy the simple setup-and-get-going. I also don’t know a lot about developing, but it seems as though doing so for Android is way easier than Symbian.

 

People often say that the type of mobile OS is not a major concern to consumers. Do you agree and do you think it will become more or less important in the future?

This might have been the case in the past. Users wanted a device that would answer their needs, no matter if its Windows Mobile, PalmOS, S60, UIQ, or any form of Linux. I think that the new generation of consumers is much more aware, knows how to research its products before buying, and looks for reviews on the internet. As we move forward, this percentage of "aware" users will only get higher. At the same time, OS developers will try to differentiate themselves and to market their OS brand more and more.

 

What is more exciting to you – a symbian 4 device or a maemo device? 




Maemo is looking more and more enticing, but my previous experience with the Nokia N810 left me a bit on the fences. Maemo is a very user friendly platform, but it’s a platform made for the Linux elite and not the average user. The average user can get a bit out of it, but I found the developer community lacking considerably behind S60 (of course that was in February 2008). I wasn’t able to get a decent ebook reader, office document reader or editor, or image editor. I hope the new version takes Maemo to the user on the street.

On the other hand, given how many resources are being placed to push Symbian, the amount of work behind the scenes, and the refreshing ideas being tossed around, I would say that a Symbianˆ 4 device is more exciting to me than a Maemo unit.

 

What do you think of the Nokia n97 in terms of software and UI/UX? 


I have a lot of thoughts about the N97 that I’ve been trying to get out in this very long series: Demystifying the Nokia N97. I could talk about it here, but it would make this interview even longer than it is

 

Do you think Nokia needs to focus more on UI/UX? 


One word: YES. The reason why a lot of reviewers, especially in the USA are bashing the N97 is the UI/UX. They need to focus on it, not by improving it but changing it inside out.

 

Which Nokia service do you think will have a bigger impact: point-and-find or indoor positioning?

Indoor positioning requires certain equipment inside malls in order to work. I will improve the user experience, but on a very limited scale: only inside malls, probably only in developed countries. It’s not something that will change the way we interact with the world around us.

Point And Find, on the contrary, has the potential to do it. It doesn’t require special equipment, it’s user generated content, and it definitely looks like a winner in my opinion, making it easy to find movies, products, places,…

 

Rita is also on Twitter and you can follow her at @khouryrt

 

Thanks for joining the club Rita

 

It is with great pleasure that I announce Nahid, one of Symbians premier and world class themers.

Tell us a little bit about your background and what lead you to start developing Symbian themes?

First I greeting you. As you know my name is Nahid, and I live with my family in Baku the capital of Azerbaijan. I am student. This is my little background. 2 years ago I start made some themes as amateur in ownskin. (website) shared them with my friends. Then 1 year I read about a program Carbide and got it. After that I started to make some symbian themes for OS9 platform. From September 2008 i began to share my own themes in my web blog (azeriblog) and some known forums. From January I have my own website and now I share my themes there, also in many forums.

How much time did it take to develop your themes, as far as coding the actual theme and which programming language was used?

Perhaps many people think that to develop new theme is very easy. But it is not so. If you like to create a beautiful and lovely theme you must spend much time on it. So it takes 8-15 hours to me. May be over 20 hours. I must say that there are such programs which coding themes. I use Carbide.ui 3.4 for making themes and for it’s elements I use Adobe Illustrator CS4 (SVG Files), and introduction pictures I use Photoshop CS4.

Can you share for our readers what developing is on the horizon especially with these new devices coming soon?

Summer is coming and I want make some themes for hot summer days. Also I work in my new icon pack. And in near future theme lovers will see my premium themes in my blog.

What are your favorite Symbian applications can you list your top 5 and why you like them?

I use X-plore file manager more than others with made by Lonely Cat Games . So my 1st number this is. Screen shot program is on the 2nd place for me. With it I get screen shots from my themes. On 3rd place Jukebox also from Lonely Cat Games for lissening music in my phone. For protect my phone from viruses I use Kaspersky Antivirus. I love it.For connecting with my phone to internet I use Opera mini. This is very usefull.

What’s your favorite theme from your collection?

I like all my themes. So it’s difficult for me to select one of them. But some themes are special for me. They are : Carbon Iphone, Shadow, Dance, and etc.

What are your thoughts on the future of Nokia and the newly created Symbian Foundation?

I think Nokia is the best phone developer. I prefer it every time.So I think this foundation is the best in the world. And touchscreen phones are wonderfull and themes will come for these by me.

What are you favorite Themers can you list your top 3 or top 5 ?

Many professional thememakers in the world . I like all them. But if I must select my top 3 that is following :

1. Taieb (he is great)
2. Pizero (has new wonderfull ideas)
3. Dhanu Saud (will best and my good friend )

Which Themes do you enjoy that are not yours?

I use all beautiful themes which I like. Some of them :

Bloody (by Taieb), Mystic (by Pizero), also pulsar looks great, new theme of him,Stairs (by Giambi),Shine (by Dhanu) and others.

Which Nokia phones have you used in the past?

Nokia 1100, Nokia 3510i, Nokia N72, and now Nokia 5700 . I want to buy 5800 of Nokia.

The Nokia Ovi Store is out are you planning to submit your themes or wallpapers there as well?

I registered user there. I have some ideas of it in the future.

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

First producdion and one of great models OS9 platform N73 is my favourite. My brother used it. Second choice of mine is N81 (8 GB). Some months ago 5800 released by Nokia. I like it very much and going to buy it.

What is your favorite color, movie, music band, and sport?

I like black and blue much. But I have themes with every color. Usually I like to watch comedies, to lissen pop music. My favourite sport is football. Also like basketball .

Thanks for invitation.

Azərbaycandan size salamlar, çox sağ olun.

Well, it certainly took me a little while but I finally got him. Xavier has been one of my favorite themer and I’ve showcased a lot of his work previously so its with great honor that I present you Xavier one of Symbian premiere themers without a doubt.

Tell us a little bit about your background and what lead you to start developing Symbian themes?

Hmm, I really like Symbian OS and I was admin on one polish symbian forum, then I was really impressed with piciar themes for 2nd and start to make some themes by myself J

How much time did it take to develop your themes, as far as coding the actual theme and which programming language was used?

Theme designing is no programming.It’s just GFX  style.like web layouts, OS interfaces, but it’s for phone. I’ve started developing themes with Carbide.ui 3.2.I’ve using it and Adobe Photoshop(for Backgrounds) and Inkscape(for highlight and other vectors).And now nothing is changed

Can you share for our readers what developing is on the horizon especially with these new devices coming soon?

I’m looking for 5th edition phone to test my themes.I’ve S60 3rd now and I don’t see every part of Symbian 5th interface in Carbide.I don’t wanna to develop themes which are untested by me.It’ll be terrible for me.

What are your favorite Symbian applications can you list your top 5 and why you like them?

1. X-plore(that’s the first app which I install on my phone)

2. Best taskman(ram monitoring and apps shortcuts)

3. Screenshot(Screenshots for my themes previews)

4. Opera mini(Nice browser)

5. Vbag(I love GBA games)

What’s your favorite theme from your collection?

I think it could be Fractals theme but it was published with less 3rd party icons.I made every themes In my taste.



What are you favorite Themers, can you list your top 3  ?

1. babi

2. piciar

3. Ahmed

What advice can you give to new developers/themers?

I don’t  know, thememaker must love the themes J

Which Themes do you enjoy that are not yours?

A lot of them.but I’ve one special theme a lot time a go on my old 6600 – Black OSX by depp07

What Theme do you want to develop that you have not had time to start?

Ha Full SVG with Photoshop technology

Which Nokia phones have you used in the past?

6600, E50 and now E65



(One of my favorite themes of all time – Undertow)

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

The best nokia smartphone was Nokia 6600.amazing but old phone.Now I meaning about Samsung’s S60 devices.

What is your favorite color, movie, music band, and sport?

Colour – Blue

Movie – Requiem for a Dream

Music band – Tool, RATM, Maybeshewill, Mogwai, Sweet Noise
Sport – Football, WRC

Thank you for participating

mobile phones like the nokia n97 have more features than you can imagine.

Here are some post that previewed some of Xavier’s Themes

1. 8 Themes that will knock your socks off

Well today is a very special day, not only its July 4th but today I present you one of my teachers in blogging Mark Guim, the very respected webmaster of the The Nokia Blog, yes that’s right the one and only Nokia Blog where I actually started blogging about Nokia. So student interviews the teacher awesome. Without further ado – Mark Guim.

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

I’ve always been interested in creating web sites. My first project, I was 16 and wanted to create a directory of cool unknown sites.  It didn’t get as much visitors as I wanted. http://is.gd/1m6Lx

I started blogging about sneakers because I thought the whole scene and culture was very interesting. Unfortunately school got in the way and I lost interest. http://is.gd/1m6NG

I became very interested in gadgets especially phones from Nokia. I started blogging about it on 2006 getting about 100 views to now about 250,000 views per month!

What are your favorite Symbian applications can you list your top 5 and why you like them?

My absolute favorite app right now is Pixelpipe because it lets me share my photos and videos immediately from my phone and tweet it at the same time.

Share Online – I like that I can quickly view and comment on my Flickr friends’ photos. It automatically updates in the background too.

Gravity – This is the best twitter app on S60. I use it to follow news using the search function.

Google Sync –  Syncs my contacts and calendar on phone, computer, and the web automatically. Love it!

Ovi Maps – If I ever get lost, I know how to get back home using the turn by turn navigation.

What’s your favorite theme and themer?

I usually stay with the default themes and just change the wallpaper. I get them from  http://interfacelift.com

What are your thoughts on the future of Nokia and the newly created Symbian Foundation?

I love playing with gadgets and phones. I don’t really get into the behind-the-scenes stuff. If there’s a cool new shiny toy in front of me, I’ll play with it then write what I think.

What advice can you give to new bloggers in general not necessarily in this niche?

My advice is to new bloggers is to publish articles that are original and provide better value to readers like guides and reviews.  Stay away from reporting news because there are already RSS feeds and now Twitter for that…. unless of course you have a big exclusive scoop.

Which Nokia phones have you used in the past?

Here is the history of the phones I used daily: Nokia 6680, Nokia N70, Nokia N80, Nokia N93, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia E71, Nokia N85, Nokia 5800, Nokia N97

What application are you waiting for Nokia to develop and why?

I would like to see a better gaming experience. When I borrow my wife’s iPhone, it’s so easy to find a game and get addicted.

What are your two favorite Nokia smartphones of all time and which Nokia smartphone are looking forward to use.

I really love the Nokia N97. It’s a multimedia power device which I’m already used to with Nseries devices, but the addition of a Qwerty keyboard for faster messaging.

Are you an N86 or N97 kind off guy?

I prefer a real qwerty keyboard, so I’m a Nokia N97 kind of guy.

Recent rumors, confirmed or not, have alluded to Nokia using the Maemo OS in upcoming phones in 2010-2011, what are you thoughts?

I’m not really interested with behind-the-scenes stuff. I rather play with the actual devices when they come out then share my experience. Hopefully others will find it useful in making buying decisions.

What is your favorite color, movie, music band, and sport?

Red, The hangover, Kanye West, Basketball

Mark thanks so much your interview, it was awesome.

So there you have it people, Mark Guim coming live and direct, so don’t forget to follow Mark on Twitter @thenokiablog

Thank you for participating Mark

Good morning everyone, today I bring you one of the most renowned themers the Sybmian community has ever seen, he needs little introduction and I’m sure you will recognize his name and at some point or another have used one of his theme. Without further ado – Giambi

Hello and welcome to NokiaMobileTalk its great having you here.

Hi Jorge! Many thanks to you for your interest in me / my themes, I’m really pleased to be here!

Tell us a little bit about your background and what lead you to start developing Symbian themes?

I always spent my free time in graphics creations: is my passion, and my job is another. Some years ago I created themes for SonyEricsson phones and not for Nokia/Symbian, because my pc was very “slow” for the necessaire software… When I bought a new pc, I started to create themes for Nokia (in 2007) for 3rd edition (because few themes / themers did not give me satisfaction, and also because I wanted to do something “new”), then 3rd FP1 and FP2. Lately I have not enought free time for creating themes, but Carbide is always installed on my pc, so… eh eh eh… is not expected that…

How much time did it take to develop your themes, as far as coding the actual theme and which programming language was used?

Usually, I spent at least 15 / 25 days to create a new theme, using Carbide.ui (actually ver 3.4) released by Nokia for Nokia developers.

Can you share for our readers what developing is on the horizon especially with these new devices coming soon?

Now I’ve got (also) Nokia 5800 and I’m studing the new version of Carbide, especially the plug-in for 5th edition’s phones… to do “some experiments”: so… work in progress!

What are your favorite Symbian applications can you list your top 5 and why you like them?

1. Best Profiles
2. Best Blacklist
3. Nokia Maps
4. X-plore
5. Nokia Photo Browser

(But my REAL favourite application is THEMES!)

What’s your favorite theme from your collection?
Edge, Easy, Stairs, Absolute.

What are your thoughts on the future of Nokia and the newly created Symbian Foundation?

In my opinion, in the last year Nokia has lost share in favor of more efficient phones. The 3rd edition is too different from 2nd: the new of certificates has slowed the diffusion of Symbian devices instead of Windows Mobile and (now) Apple OSX (the REAL bet won). Also the 5th edition is focused on certificates: I hope Nokia take a step back with the Symbian Foundation, giving a “total” open source OS for developers community in favor of the final users and their use experience.

What are you favorite Themers can you list your top 3 or top 5 ?

1. Ivanov
2. Babi
3. Flahorn
4. Atlantis
5. P@sco

What advice can you give to new developers / themers?
Make only… not well made themes, but VERY WELL made, choosing sober color in favor of legibility, nice drawing, and (not last) using every part that Carbide offers to us: there is a big difference between a theme hurt and one VERY WELL made, and how we see… Try to ask to Babi!

Which Themes do you enjoy that are not yours?
Actually: Ultimate and NewOS by Babi, Disparity (dark and light) by Shilca, Prestige and Touch Zen by T7. All they are for 5th edition.

What Theme do you want to develop that you have not had time to start?

Depends on the moment: now Stairs Blue, for example…

Which Nokia phones have you used in the past?
Why only Nokia (eh eh eh )? 7650, 6600, 6630, N70, N73, 6120c, N95, 5800…

The Nokia Ovi Store is out are you planning to submit your themes or wallpapers there as well.
I don’t know yet, I am going to informe about the laws of the Italian state, before doing this.

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

Only one at now: Nokia N95 is the best ever (I my opinion). May be I’ll buy the new Nokia N97, but I don’t know yet: I don’t like some hardware features to N97(the same as 5800 I already have), instead of the new iPhone 3Gs that in Italy have the same price. Actually, my first phone is iPhone 3G… We’ll see…

What is your favorite color, movie, music band, and sport?
Blue, Schindler’s List, Jamiroquai, Soccer (of course, from a good Italian, eh eh eh!)

Thank you for participating

Well its interview time again and this time I bring to you one of the brains behind Snaptu, which is by far one of my favorite applications. I’ve had the pleasure of communicating back and forth with Simon and I must say he’s one funny guy. Without further ado, I present to you Simon Davies

Hello and welcome to NokiaMobileTalk its great having you here.

My pleasure, and thanks for tweeting me the invitation (and doing it from Snaptu, very diplomatic!)

Tell us a little bit about your background and what lead you to get involved with Snaptu?

Well, I used to be in tech venture capital in the run up to the dotcom boom and out the other side. We floated the company and one morning I woke up and I was rich!! The next day the markets tanked and it was back to bread and water; car brochures in the bin. I’ve since been in operational management, most recently in the area of ‘virtual application’ provision across corporate networks; the same technical principle behind Snaptu’s consumer service.

How did I get involved in Snaptu; the best way… I went to a party. Actually it was a barbecue in August 2007 held by a rowdy bunch of Amazon employees. I ended up in a fascinating conversation with a guy called Ran Makavy who said he could make an iPhone like application experience that would work on absolutely any phone, with no bespoke device optimisation work required. One of my VC portfolio companies had tried and failed to achieve this back in the late ’90’s, so I was very impressed when by December he’d done it. By February I was on board.

Can you introduce your Team and give an overview of your overall news aggregation habits?

Sure. While Ran and I were chewing on burnt chicken wings, there were three other great guys working on the concept; Lior Tal, Barak Naveh and Micha Berdichevsky. Between them they cover legal (patents), business development and amazing software and communications technology skills. Anecdotally I will tell you that in their mysterious pasts they have designed SMS systems for military jets (sounds crazy, I know), flight simulation systems and mobile IM. Ran was part of mobile IM company Followap that sold to Neustar for $139m in 2006.

News aggregation habits? Well you’ll forgive me for plugging the Newsreader app on Snaptu here. Basically it has a fairly extensive feed catalog, or you can just enter a url. But the best thing is a Google Reader import feature; so I pressed one button to pull in my top ones (All About Symbian, Best of Symbian, CNET, Engadget Mobile, Into Mobile (did you read Stefan Constantinescu’s return piece!!),  Mashable!, Mobile Entertainment, mocoNews.net, Techcrunch… and of course Nokia Mobile Talk, which is in our catalog btw). I generally read all these from my Nokia 5800 when I’m in bed, at the airport or generally having to wait around. Anything I like I hit the tweet button.

My antidote to all this industry stuff is the blog of a friend who is travelling the world for an undefined period (www.luddo.net), and also the blog of one of our Snaptu fans, “The Longest Way Home”. He’s been travelling for four years looking for a place to settle. Last post was about eating pig faces in the Philippines! He’s great for a chat on Twitter (TLWH).

What are your favorite Symbian applications? Can you list your top 5 and why you like them?

I can honestly say that 90% of what I need is on Snaptu (Twitter, Facebook, News, cricket, soccer, pub guide, movie reviews, Google Calendar and Picasa, Sudoku, Accuweather…). The one thing I really use outside these are GPS enabled map apps; Google Maps or Nokia’s pre-installed Navteq; I’m not fussy which.

What can we expect from Snaptu in the future?
One of the key strengths of Snaptu is that all the applications actually run on central servers. This means we can (and will) add new applications and features, improve look and feel and present all this to the user without any action on their part whatsoever. In the next few days we’ll be seeing some new Twitter features which will all appear “as if by magic”.

What else will you see? We’re getting some serious sounding enquiries from network operators from all over the planet, so I expect to see some of them offering a pre-installed white label version at some point. What they particularly like is the consistency in speed and user experience we give from a smartphone down to an old S40 “dumb” 2G device, and also the fact we can design and launch applications very quickly. Snaptu as a platform is a market/marketing led organisation’s dream.

Which Nokia phones have you used in the past and which one/s are you currently using?
My main phone is the 5800, which I’m really pleased with. Sometimes it flips into landscape when I’m least expecting it and I have to ‘flick’ it to get it back to portrait. In my drawer I have an N73 and going way back I fondly remember what I called the ‘banana phone’. Was it the 8110? My first phone I remember was the 2110. If you look on GSM Arena it’s the very last Nokia phone listed. It was THE only phone to have in those days. Life was so simple!

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

The 5800 has been a lot of fun, but I think rather than the N97 I would like a turn with the E72. At the end of the day emails are the main order of the day (and tweeting now), so a full qwerty job, and no need to rotate the phone sounds good.

Mac or PC what kind off guy are you?

The PC has always been the workhorse of any job I’ve had. But I will confess to trying to write a space invader game in Assembly Language for the Apple II!

What is your favorite color, movie, music band, and sport?

Navy Blue, Little Miss Sunshine made me laugh most recently, still searching and cricket. Before my two little kids came along I was big into paragliding, going as far as living in Chamonix in the shadow of Mont Blanc for a wild year!

Thank you so much for joining our club, I really really enjoyed this one and I look forward to the continued development of one of my favorite applications – Snaptu

To download Snaptu just point your browser to http://m.snaptu.com and prepare to enjoy the ride

Perhaps you know who FCA00000 is or maybe you don’t. In short, he’s the man who broke Symbian Security Platform and NMT brings you this exclusive interview.

Going back in time, he was a very active developer that created a lot of useful system patches for the Siemens SX1. That mobile phone was very popular, it was running a Symbian 6.1 system and some people tweaked and hacked it to get the most out of it. FCA00000, was one of them.

Later on, he found an exploit for Symbian S60 2nd edition and also worked in a project to port Linux to the SX1. But the main reason he’s well known in Symbian world it’s because he opened the door that put down PlatSec, the Security Platform on the latest Symbian.

The main advantages of a hacked Symbian phone are to avoid the signing process every modern application with certain capabilities has to accomplish and to tweak the operative system. Of course, a hacked device has also a bad side: the risk of malware and piracy are probably the main ones.

NMT: What made you hack Symbian S60 3rd edition? What was the reason to do it?

FCA00000: When Symbian started the protection system based on capabilities it was needed to sign applications. People think that’ was the main reason to hack the platform. That’s far from truth: I already had broken the 2nd version, so It seems logical go one step further. To be honest it was not so easy as it sounds, It took me 3 months to find the vulnerability. And I was lucky, very lucky.

NMT: What do you think of the Symbian Foundation, their open source conversion? Do you think open source is not attractive for hackers?

FCA00000: Symbian and Nokia have always complained about the lack of independent developers. Developers have always complained about the difficulty of Symbian programming. So Symbian Foundation is an attempt to attract programmers.

Symbian kernel and the applications developed by Nokia had a lot of interesting information closed until now. I think that opening the code will produce sophisticated and powerful applications; more low level apps (I don’t mean lower quality level

On the initial meaning of “hacker”, is supposed to be a person who likes to play with the basics of a system. That’s why the Foundation is a benefit for hackers. It will call also the bad guys? Yes. That’s why the Symbian Foundation has to deal quickly with all the discovering that will appear.

NMT: What do you think about the iPhone? Palm? Android?

FCA00000: There are 200 million Symbian phones and 20 million iPhones, how could Apple have so much publicity? That’s a fail for Nokia and Symbian. Their handsets are more attractive, no doubt about it. A proof for that is the great number of applications that exists and are installed.

Another point is that Symbian users are not so technical (and evangelizers) like the iPhone/Android ones. My father and my sister have Symbian phones and they didn’t installed any application. They don’t know they can do it. The main point is the hardware, not the software.

Android is another thing, actually is focused into programmers, and I doubt it can be successful out of this group of people.

Time ago I read that Symbian is like a Finland forest: vast, magnificent and monotonous. Apple is like a California Garden: nice, appealing and not useful. Android is like greenhouse seeds: changeable, with great potential and perishable out of it’s own ecosystem.

Palm Pre, RIM, OpenMoko,… I think they have a very strong competition. Develop a mobile phone it’s not so easy, it requires a permanent develop team.

NMT: Every time somebody tells me about Android developed by less than hundred engineers I use to smile and think about you. You were on a team making a Linux port for the old Siemens SX1, could we see in the future similar projects for other phones?

FCA00000: The project was the result of two great programmers: Vovan888 and Serrge. I just did a little. We will have to wait the rise of another two people like them. Meanwhile, only Nokia could do such thing, and I don’t think they are thinking of doing it.

NMT: What do you think about piracy? Would you recommend anybody to work as a mobile programmer?

FCA00000: Last question first: I don’t think anybody is earning too much being an independent mobile programmer. Another thing is that AT&T contracts you to create a program, or Nokia is buying your app or you are signing with the CNN.

That said, my experience is that mobile programming is entertaining and fun. If you like to program, go ahead. My opinion is the market is going to rise fast.

About piracy Nokia did the right thing protecting the platform. It had the bad luck of leave an open door and all the uninvited people came to the party that way. Moreover, there are not so many cracker groups, but they are very good. When I analyzed the N-Gage protection I knew it was well done. When I analyzed the N-Gage crack, I congratulated the reverse-engineers. But Nokia reacted, and they did it the right way. Sincerely, I don’t think piracy on mobiles is a disturbing subject.

NMT: What’s your favorite Symbian game or application? And your favorite Symbian phone?

FCA00000: Several, one is MultiScanner, a program to take a photo, scans the text and you have the translation to other language. My favorite game is Townsmen, but I have to say I use the phone to talk and watch some movies on the train, not so much. In 10 years I only have owned 4 mobiles, besides I saw a lot. I like the Nokia E90 and I think the N97 is brilliant.

NMT: A hacker question, are you working on something?

FCA00000: I made some patches to modify the firmware and I thinking of a project to modify pictures in real time. For example to take photos with the clouds dissapearing or with people always smiling. Photo cameras are not programmable, but phones are.

I’m waiting to see the Symbian Foundation code, that way I could modify the programs, for example to avoid so many questions: why do I have to accept 5 warnings to install an application?

Finally, I would like to say the mobile programming world is just starting now. We are going to small computers that, besides other things, let you talk with other people. My computer cost me 700 euro, the same as the N97. A lot of opportunities are coming, there’s a great demand, who will make the best offer?

Thanks for listening.

No, thank you for sharing with us

Defend London it’s a Symbian game that recreates the WWII Battle for England. The player can use Spitfires, anti-aircraft guns, jeeps and even play as a commando or fight on the German side.

Defend London shows real iconic buildings of the city in 3D, and is made with advanced features, like the use of Open GL, atmospheric effects and hardware acceleration on phones like the Nokia’s N93, N95, N82 or E90. You can fight against a friend via bluetooth and in some levels the control is made through the accelerometer, just moving the phone. One of the more interesting features is the pseudo-multitouch on the Nokia 5800, a tactile phone not supposed to be multitouch. We’ve been talking with his creator about this feature and other things.

NMT: What do you do for a living? Did you make Defend London alone?

MobileGamesPro: I’m making mobile games since 2004, sometimes for companies, sometimes for me, for Mobile Games Pro. I did several Java games so I decided to jump into the 3D world with Symbian. Initially I was doing an anti-aircraft game, but soon I started to add more options: flying planes, multiplayer, driving jeeps over mountains and the commando mission. It became the longest game I’ve ever did. I did Defend London alone, I started by the end of 2007 and it was finished on April 2009, all by myself.

NMT: Why a Symbian game? What do you think of Symbian?

MobileGamesPro: When I started to program it seems the trend were 3D accelerated Symbian phones like the Nokia’s N93, N95, E90 and N82. Unfortunately that stopped. I guess Nokia didn’t make more to assure NGage games compatibility in all his models.

Besides that Symbian problem, we have the piracy problem. People look at mobile games like something you can download from Internet and install for free, there’s no buying culture. You buy something you can touch, not the software, software is free. Unfortunately for me, this is the culture we have. With the Apple App Store arrival things seem to be changing, that’s why I’m porting the game to the iPhone, searching for more success, with Symbian I’m selling one game per day, that’s nothing. If Ovi Store is capable of make the people buying mobile apps, instead of pirating them, Symbian will be interesting again.

NMT: What about the multitouch on the 5800?

MobileGamesPro: With the 5800 launch I had to adapt the game to the tactile screen. In the game is important push two buttons at once, for example to go up and turn to the left at the same time. Initially I thought that it was impossible because the 5800 is not multitouch, fortunately I discovered the trick to make it multitouch and that saved the game playability.

The bad side is that Nokia is not putting 3D chips on his phones and counting the large pixels number on the 5800 that makes the game slow. You just can play it with low graphics and 12 frames per second. It should be perfect with the Samsung Omnia HD, which has hardware acceleration, but some users tipped me that doesn’t start. I think it’s something trivial to fix, but I can’t fix it until I have that phone.

NMT: How Nokia or Symbian could help independent developers like you?

MobileGamesPro: Two quick ideas:

1. Contract 10 expert programmers to solve technical questions in their forum. What are 10 salaries for Nokia? Nothing.

2. Do not ask for signing to enter Ovi Store.

NMT: What do you think about iPhone? Android? Palm?

MobileGamesPro: To me, an operative system is just the icons that let the people reach my game, so I don’t care about them, what is important is that the app stores of the system generates well sales numbers. It would be nice to have only one operative system, that way, instead to convert my game to some of them, I could be making Ciclis 3D, a game I want to make from sometime now.

NMT: Defend London is not in Ovi Store, what do you think of the Nokia app shop?

MobileGamesPro: It looks good, it seems they overcome the initial glitches. The main problem is they request the applications to be signed, that requires a company certificate, and that requires to be a legal company, a lot of things an individual can’t afford easily. I can’t make such investment right now.

NMT: What do you think about piracy?

MobileGamesPro: Recently I did a Google search for Defend London and I discovered a few forums distributing it for free. One of them had more than one thousand downloads in just one day. I asked the forums administrators to remove it, but for every forum that does it, you have 10 new posting it. There’s no way to stop it.

Singers and actors complain about piracy, but they can earn money with concerts or the cinema. Meanwhile, a mobile programmer with a pirated game is simply screwed.

A lot of people complains there are no good games for Symbian. I also didn’t understand why there are no more 3D accelerated titles for these phones. I can see clearly now: Why? To have them all pirated?

NMT: Tell me your favorite application or game in Symbian. What’s your favorite Symbian phone?

MobileGamesPro: I liked a lot Carmageddon in my old Nokia 6680. I also like an app to use the phone as a torch. My perfect Symbian phone could be one with 3D acceleration, Xenon flash and torch. I’m currently using a Nokia N93 two years old and I’m happy with it, except for night photos.

NMT: Do you think one day you could be making a living programming for Symbian phones?

MobileGamesPro: I already did it, working for a company. With my own games is difficult, I will keep an eye at the evolution from Ovi Store and the similar ones from Samsung and Sony Ericsson.