With Nokia's impending reorganisation, I started wondering what I'd do about the devices and visions from the current different divisions within the company. What would you do when integrating three separate hardware divisions? Read on for some of my thoughts...
Well done to Rafe and the team out in Amsterdam for winning WOM World's special Nokia quiz (against Symbian Freak and Mobile Burn) in handsome style. Best of all, the prize is a clutch of Nokia N82s for trialling. Congratulations all!
PDA Essentials magazine issue 69 is on the streets now in the UK, with a head-to-head of 'Smartphones under £250'. The Nokia 6120 Classic stole the show (and no, I didn't write the review) with the top score of 9/10 and with the editor declaring that it "is a great smartphone that simply works well and has the features to match".
A while back, Proporta kindly sent over the 'Freedom Mini GPS' for review, a tiny 30g GPS that could happily sit in the tiniest pocket or on a key ring - and I just hadn't got round to writing about it yet. Time moves on and there's now a 20g "Freedom Keychain GPS SiRF Receiver" that's even smaller. If you want to get your hands on either of these accessories, read on...
Nokia and Telecon Italia today announced that Ovi services will be enabled on Nokia handsets, starting with the N95 8GB and N81, offered by TIM. TIM services will be offered alongside Nokia's Map, Music and Photo services. TIM joins Telefonica and Vodafone who have made similar announcements endorsing Nokia's Ovi vision.
Kudos to programme Barak Harel for coming up with a viable way for mere mortals to 'sign' low level utilities for S60 and Symbian OS. Having started trying to sign RotateMe a week or two ago and given up in frustration, this sort of Windows utility is extremely welcome. You'll still need a Symbian 'key' and 'cer' file, but other than that it's supposed to be totally automatic. Anyone tried it yet?
Nokia has announced 'Comes With Music', a revolutionary program that enables people to buy a Nokia device with a year of unlimited access to millions of tracks from a range of artists from Universal Music Group (more publishers to be added). After the year is up, you still get to keep the music, too, on that device at least.
In practical terms this is a music subscription that is bundled with the cost of the device allowing for a consumer perception of a device that comes with unlimited free music. For more commentary read on.
Nokia has agreed to buy out Avvenu, a supplier of Internet services that "allow anyone to use their mobile devices to securely access, use and share personal computer files, even if their host computer is turned off." Avvenu will become part of Nokia's new 'Services and Software' reorganisation, starting on January 1st. The full press release is below.
Nokia World starts in an hour or so (for 2 days) and we have Rafe and Ewan at the event, recording video and audio hopefully. You can also watch the main keynotes yourself on the web - in particular the opening hour or so with Nokia chiefs Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and Anssi Vanjoki [URL now fixed!], starting at 8.15 GMT, although with the N82 already announced, your guess is as good as mine for what they'll talk about or launch - maybe they'll flick the switch on N-Gage? I'll have my N95s on 'Refresh', just in case!
Nokia has announced an official beta of 'Internet Radio', curiously only initially officially compatible with the N95 variants, N82 and N91. It works brilliantly and immediately, with no fiddling with (or searching the 'net for) Shoutcast playlists and comes with a full directory of hundreds of compatible stations. The full press release follows, with some screenshots.
Some commentators have reported that the camera photo quality on a Nokia N95 that's been updated to v20 firmware is worse than on one that still runs v12 firmware - I disagree, and here's why: the N95's camera is now capturing an image that's closer to real life and not presenting an artificially sharpened view of the world. Read on...
