Gravity

Gravity is one of the best Twitter clients out there.

You’ll notice I didn’t add “..for Nokia”

This is because I’ve used Twitter clients on every major platform except iOS and I must say, its one of the best.

Gravity was initially a personal project.

@Janole working on the Anti-DrunkTweet™ functionality on Gravity (Photo Credit: Nokia Conversations)

According to an interview on Nokia Conversations, Jan Ole Suhr started using Twitter in 2008 and, after a while, really got really hooked on it.

He decided to make his own Twitter client for his Nokia N95 and E61i.

“Twitter became more and more popular and there were already a number of really good mobile clients for the iPhone that got a lot of press coverage. So I made my plan to create a showcase app for the Symbian platform: a Twitter client that’s at least as good as the apps on the other mobile platforms. This way I could justify working long hours on a Twitter client for myself, while the project would hopefully draw some attention to my little company” – Jan Ole Suhr

The application has been lauded by many for a multitude of features. Jan Ole pays close attention to feedback from his customers.

“Features in Gravity – where I had to go the extra mile – are the embedded web browser and the Youtube Video Player for Symbian^3. They all make Gravity something special and that’s why I spent so much effort and time on them.

Some other features might look minor at first glance, but actually are revolutionary: Gravity was the first app to introduce kinetic scrolling to Symbian.

An example of another such feature is the Gravity Virtual Keyboard. Although it didn’t take much time initially, I spent a lot of resources on improving it later on. I felt it was crucial for a Twitter client to have a proper keyboard “

This is the level of dedication this chap has, he made an touch screen keyboard that was better than the one on the phone.

You may have problems with Nokia, but not this app.

Gravity supports a wide range of services, everything from Facebook, Foursquare, StatusNet and a chinese microblogging service called Sina Weibo. Gravity also has support for RSS feeds (powered by Google Reader)

Some of the accounts available on Gravity, you can set multiple Twitter accounts

How do you get Gravity?

Gravity is available on the Nokia Store and as a direct download here . It’s available as a ten day free trial. You will have to purchase the app upon expiry of the trial .

We have created a guide to both installation and purchase of the app on the site. Check them out.

Once the app is installed, its time to add your twitter account. To do this

Adding a twitter account

On the screen that pops up enter your twitter credentials and you’re done!

You can add multiple twitter accounts.

The next step is setting up notifications. Gravity can notify you with an alert tone of your choice that you have received a @mention and a direct message

To set up notifications, select options (left softkey)

Options

Select Account settings

Options > Account Settings

Scroll to the right to set up the notifications

Options > Account Settings > Scroll to the right

You may also choose to enable Push Notification , this will allow you to receive tweets (and mentions) as soon as they are sent

To do this go to Options > Account Settings and enable “Push (user streams)”

Tweet!

To start a new tweet, simply start writing, there is no menu entry for “New Tweet”

If you wish to attach your location to the tweet (Geotag) start a new tweet then scroll up with the d-pad, for touchscreen devices, touch the location marker in the lower left corner next to the character count.

New tweet

To respond to a tweet, select the tweet and a small menu will pop up

As you can see, a variety of options is available. For advanced tips, leasve your question in the comments below or get in touch tweet at @E63Club or @Mwirigi on twitter

Kenneth Oyolla leaving Nokia EA

Long serving Nokia executive Kenneth Oyolla is rumoured to be leaving Nokia East Africa.

Oyolla joined Nokia in 2007 as the Head of Channel & Retail Management (EA) after an 8 year stint at consumer giant Unilever. He rose over the years to the position of General Manager, East and Southern Africa.

His departure would come hot on the heels of former Communications Manager, Dorothy Ooko’s move to Google.

It is unclear at this time whether the rest of the East Africa office will be affected in line with Nokia’s announced re-alignment of operations.

——————————————————————————————————————

*UPDATE*

The Nokia East Africa office is NOT shutting down.

Certain management functions will be decentralised but the office will continue to exist. Nokia will continue to support the East Africa office, its customers & channel partners.

Ken Oyolla has confirmed that he is leaving Nokia EA at the end of the year to take up a position at Nokia in London

M – 24/11/11

——————————————————————————————————————

In the words of CEO Stephen Elop in a press release in September

“We must take painful, yet necessary, steps to align our workforce and operations with our path forward.”

Oyolla is one of only seven regional General Managers in the mobile phone giant, and the only one of African descent.

Oyolla spearheaded Nokias push to rid the East African market of counterfeit devices. The dual SIM Nokia 101 as well as the new Asha 200 range of devices were developed for our market’s unique requirements under his watch.

During his tenure, Nokia reached out to local developers with the sponsorship of the m:lab  and various other developer initiatives.

We at the Club wish him the best in his future endeavours.

Opera Mini Updates

Opera Software has  released the Opera Mini browser in version 6.5 for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Symbian S60 and Java-enabled phones.

As an added bonus, the Opera Mobile 11.5 browser is now also available on Symbian S60. Fresh off the heels of releasing Android versions, the new browser now enables consumers to keep better track of data costs when surfing the Web.  By saving up to 90% of data cost, Opera Mini lets you save money on your data charges.

Opera Mini 6.5 and Opera Mobile 11.5 both contain a nifty feature to keep track of your data usage.

The data counter, located under the “Help” menu

menu in both products let you keep a tally of your web surfing usage. Two different counters, one for total usage and one for temporary usage, let you stay in charge of your data usage if you need to watch the data cap or costs.

So, what’s the difference between Opera Mini and Opera Mobile? Glad you asked! With Opera Mini, the cost-saving compression is always turned on. There are computers located in cool locations such as Iceland that squeeze the webpages down before sending them in smaller (and thereby cheaper) packages to your phone. This also enables less-capable feature phones to view full webpages, where the built-in browser can’t.

Another newture in the update, the new bookmark icon, the Star

The star lets you easily add bookmarks or new Speed Dial shortcuts for easy access to your most used websites. Speed Dial is the super-handy way of reaching your most-used websites, through nine thumbnail icons greeting you as soon as you start the browser. Time saved, hassle saved.

Opera Mobile has cost-saving features too, but here you can turn them on and off, making the browser more like the Opera Turbo feature in your Opera desktop browser.

Teddy Bears and Talking Drums — A Connecting People film

From Rio to Nairobi, Berlin to Mumbai, and everywhere in between, mobile technology continues to change our world in exciting and unpredictable ways. People all over are embracing the possibilities that are emerging from this ongoing revolution, shaping — and being shaped — by it in the process.

Quite a number of familiar faces in this video, Mark Kaigwa, Rachael Gichinga, Mutua Matheka, Valentine Njoroge, Jessica Colaco just to mention a few.

Seems our little town, this “Silicon Savannah” we call Nairobi is pretty important to Nokia.

Enjoy.

Nokia World 2011

Nokia World is the company’s annual event for customers, partners and developers.

At this years event, they took the opportunity to introduce their new range of Windows Phones, the Nokia Lumia as well as its new Asha range of S40 devices.

Stephen Elop presents the Lumia 800.

We’ll start with the Windows phones.

Nokia Lumia 800

Externally, the 800 shares the same polycarbonate body as the Nokia N9.

Unlike the N9 which has no buttons on the front of the device, the Lumia has 3 capacitive keys on the front, necessary for operations of the Windows Phone OS

The Nokia Lumia 800

It is available in cyan, magenta and black and features Nokias best social and Internet performance, with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9.

It features a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display blending seamlessly into the reduced body design.

The real news for us at the E63 club is the 1.4 GHz snapdragon single core processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor.

This is currently one of the most powerful processors on the market promising amazing everyday performance on the device.

The Nokia Lumia 800 has an 8 megapixel AUTOFOCUS  (Hallelujah! They’ve stopped putting fixed focus cameras in high end devices!! ) camera with Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music.

It also features an Xbox Live hub for gaming and Outlook Mobile for secure corporate e-mail.

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 800 will be approximately 420 EUR [ approx Ksh. 59,000/=], excluding taxes and subsidies.

The full datasheet for the Lumia 800 is available for download here. 

Nokia Lumia 710

The  Lumia 710 is the “wananchi” version of the 800.  It has the same 1.4 GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor as the Nokia Lumia 800,  but has a smaller internal memory (8GB vs 16GB on the 800) and a 5 megapixel camera  (the 800 has an 8MP shooter) all enclosed in a slightly bigger body.

The Nokia Lumia 710 is built to deliver high performance at an affordable price.

Nokia Lumia 710

Unlike its big brother, it  can be personalized with exchangeable back covers. The Nokia Lumia 710 is designed for instant social & image sharing, and the best browsing experience with IE9. It is available in black and white with black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow back covers.

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 710 will be approximately 270 EUR [approx Shs. 38,000/=], excluding taxes and subsidies.

The full datasheet for the Lumia 710 is available for download here. 

Both smartphones include signature Nokia experiences optimized for Windows Phone, including Nokia Drive, which delivers free, turn-by-turn navigation with a dedicated in-car-user-interface and Nokia Music which introduces MixRadio, a free, global, mobile music-streaming application that delivers hundreds of channels of locally-relevant music.

In an update that will be delivered later this year, Lumia users will also gain the ability to create personalized channels from a global catalogue of millions of tracks.

Also integrated in Nokia Music is Gigfinder, an app that provides the ability to search for live local music, share discoveries on social networks and buy concert tickets.

The Asha Range

In line with Nokias strategy to reach the next billion, Nokia introduced its new Asha range of mobile phones.  Derived from the Hindi word for ‘hope’ – Asha , according to the press statement,  ”signifies Nokia’s focus on positive user experiences and connecting millions of people to new opportunities that help them reach their aspirations”

We assume those millions include us Kenyans, so here are the devices

 Nokia Asha 303

First up, the 303.

The Nokia Asha 303 combines a large 2.6 capacitive touch screen with a high quality QWERTY keypad. Its powered by a 1Ghz processor, which will offer fabulous performace but is a rather odd choice given Nokias S40 operating system doesn’t support multitasking.

The device also features 3G and WLAN for a fast Internet experience.

As with any recent Nokia device, Social networks, email and IM are at the center of the experience, easily accessible from the homescreen.

Internet access on the 303 is powered by the cloud-based Nokia Browser, an Opera Mini alternative  which by compressing the web by up to 90%, provides higher speeds and a more affordable access to the Internet.

The massive processor is a plus for those who will use the device for gaming. We are pleased to note Angry Birds is available on the device.

Angry Birds!!

The 303 will also have, pre-installed,  Facebook Chat, Whatsapp messaging and the latest release of Nokia Maps for Series 40 (in selected markets).

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 303 will be approximately 115 EUR [approx. Shs. 16,000/=], excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The full datasheet for the Asha 303 is available for download here.

Nokia Asha 300

Next up, the Asha 300.

Nokia Asha 300

According to Nokia, the  Asha 300 is “a touch device which also offers the convenience of a keypad”.

The Nokia Asha 300 has a powerful 1GHz processor and 3G to deliver a faster Internet and social networking experience.

It also has the Nokia Browser for fast, affordable and localized Internet access.

Users have fast access to messaging, email and instant messaging from the home screen and can swipe to access apps, music or games from the Nokia Store.

The Nokia Asha 300 also arrives preloaded with Angry Birds Lite and features a 5 megapixel camera, a music player, FM radio and Bluetooth connectivity. It can handle memory cards up to 32GB

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 300 will be approximately 85 EUR [approx. Shs. 12,000/=], excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011

The full datasheet for the Asha 300 is available for download here. 

Nokia Asha 200

The Asha 200 is Nokia’s latest dual SIM phone with Easy Swap functionality, allowing consumers to easily change their second SIM without switching the device off.

Nokia Asha 200 range

It is a fun and colorful QWERTY phone designed to meet the needs of young, urban consumers who want to constantly stay in touch.

Asha 200

The Nokia Asha 200 features integrated social networking, email and IM,

The 200 can carry thousands of songs with support for 32 GB memory cards and provides a battery for an amazing 52-hour playback time.

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 200 will be approximately 60 EUR [approx. Shs. 8,500/=], excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The full datasheet for the Asha 200 is available for download here.

Nokia Asha 201

The single SIM version of the Nokia Asha 200, the 201 is ideal for young consumers who wish to stay socially connected, are price conscious and like listening to music.

Asha 201

The Nokia Asha 201 has great music features including a high performing loudspeaker, enhanced stereo FM radio and ringtone tuning. With the Nokia Browser you get even faster, even better and more affordable access to the Internet.

It supports up to 32 GB memory cards and provides a battery for 52 hours of music playback time. The Nokia Asha 201 also supports push email as well as the popular Whatsapp messaging app.

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 201 will be approximately 60 EUR [approx. Shs. 8,500/=], excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the first quarter of 2012.

The full datasheet for the Asha 201 is available for download here.

That’s its for now in terms of devices.

We will continue our coverage of Nokia World throughout the week in future posts.

In our opinion, the Future is bright for Nokia.

Meltemi – Nokia’s possible low end solution

The Wall Street Journal today reported that Nokia is shifting its programming efforts toward creating software for its low-end phones.

Unconfirmed reports state that the project is a Linux-based operating system code-named Meltemi, the Greek word for dry summer winds that blow across the Aegean Sea from the north.

It has been assumed that “Meltemi” was an internal codename for  Nokia’s upcoming Windows Mobile phone.

If true, the project will be led by Mary McDowell, Nokia’s executive vice president in charge of mobile phone division.

This move seems to be in line with Nokia’s strategy, specifically its renewed approach to capture volume and value growth to connect ”the next billion” to the Internet  in developing growth markets.

This strategy was to be driven by Nokias Symbian platform, but the variant used on its feature phones , Series 40 (s40), is taking a beating from competing low-priced android devices, a move to Meltemi may solve this problem.