Recently announced was the news that T-Mobile will carry Ovi, but only, it appears, after a long negotiation with Nokia (reports MoCoNews). The software and services space, traditionally the exclusive realm of the carriers is opening up to the handset manufactures, and specificallyNokia . "My life would be simpler if they would have not come to my space. It is still not the happiest thing to have someone try and take your cheese away," was the quote from T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan.
The long awaited firmware update for the N95-3 (US version) is now available according to Symbian-Guru (sources from Howard Forums and N95Users). The update brings the US version of the N95 up to speed with its world siblings. It adds demand paging, Flash Lite 3, Web Run Time, Idle Screen Nokia Search and significant performance improvements.
In AAS Insight 26, the latest All About Symbian podcast, covers opinion on new devices (HTC Touch Diamond, Apple iPhone 3G, Blackberry Bold), looks ahead to the S60 Summit, gives a first impression on the Nokia N78, the N-Gage games transfer issue and the launch of Nokia Maps 2.0.
The Indian industrial giant Videocon is apparently interested in buying Motorola's handset business. Videocon already have licences to build 3G phone networks in India, and see potential benefits from also owning a handset manufacturing unit. Motorola currenly owns half of UIQ Technology and manufactures UIQ3 handsets, so such a sale may have implications for the Symbian world. (via Mobile Burn)
In its latest hardware feature, All About N-Gage takes a brief look at the N95 as a games machine. It turns out to be actually rather good, due to N-Gage and S60 games working in horizontal mode, and being able to use the multimedia controls as N-Gage gaming buttons. Those new to the N95 should also see the links to AAS's review of it as a general phone, which are at the bottom of the page.
Perhaps the clearest photos yet of the new, tweaked Nokia E90, with the lower profile keyboard, have emerged at the Swedish site Daily Mobile. Scroll down its page for the all-important revealing side shot. Apparently the keyboard is retro-fittable for existing owners complaining of screen damage caused by key contacts - although comments so far indicate that the new keyboard is even harder in operation... (Thanks to kflyer)
The Finnish online electronics shop Verkkokauppa.com has started shipping its first Nokia N78 smartphones to customers, with a sim-free unlocked pre-tax price of 367 euros (the Finnish price behind the link is 448 euros which includes 22% local sales tax). The price includes a 1 year subscription to Nokia Maps Navigation for the Nordic region. It shouldn't be long before the N78 rolls out to other countries too.
Nokia have responded with good news on the N-Gage Game transfer issue that AAN highlighted earlier this week. They say they 'have been working on a solution that would allow people to transfer purchased N-Gage games to a new Nokia device' and are working with Nokia Care Centers on an intermediate solution. It's excellent to see Nokia to respond in a positive and timely manner. Read on for the full statement.
The hugely popular Nokia N73 has another new firmware update available. v4.0812.4.x was released released yesterday via Nokia Software Update and includes support for mobile TV (when used with Nokia's SU-33W receiver) and Express Mail clients, plus updates and improvements to Nokia Maps and improved Java support.
Don't you just love these early-bird, pre-order prices? I can't resist mentioning that Expansys now have the Nokia N96 up for pre-order - £697 inc VAT. Gulp. In fact, make that an extra big gulp. Don't panic though, I'm sure the price when available will be more reasonable!
Ferrari World Championship seems to have been a high profile game announcement that was followed by a very low profile release (e.g. it's not even in Nokia's Download! system) - but unnecessarily so, since it turns out to be great fun and one of the best Java games to yet appear. Cross-platform and running on just about any phone or smartphone, here's my full and illustrated Ferrari World Championship review. Highly recommended.
[Update: this is now live, no password needed] Nokia's latest Flash-based novelty site is about to go live. The Mapsters are a small tribe of robots and err... aliens, who specialise in trampling on perfectly good cities and turning them into two-dimensional maps. For a preview go to www.themapsters.com/preview and use username 'mapsters' and password 'preview'. And there we were thinking that Nokia's Maps were created by the Navteq people.... (watch out for the jaw-dropping Flash earthquake effect in the opening sequence)
With version 1.76, out an hour ago, Sports Tracker's name continues to seem a little restrictive - Nokia just added support for user-shot video clips (taken during your walk/run, which then appear on the Sports Tracker web site), plus support for devices like the N78 and N96. Comments welcome on how they've handled video resampling during the scan and upload process - if at all. Comments also welcome on whether videos are compatible with the Sports Tracker widget.
[Updated] Nokia has announced that Maps 2.0 is finally available, after several months in (a very wide) public beta. The press release, with official changelog over v1.2, is below, plus also the less formal changelog for the full v2.0 release over the v2.0 beta. See also my preview of the Nokia Maps v2.0 beta. And here's the all important download link (build 2102 is the one you want). Nokia Maps (as referenced in my recent Location Based Search feature) is a core product for the next five years and has enormous potential, both standalone on devices and as part of (Maps on) Ovi.
