I finally found time to take my Smartphone Choosing Grid into 2009, adding devices like the Nokia N96, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, HTC Touch HD, Blackberry Storm and T-Mobile G1 into the mix. As usual, simply tick your preferences and have your perfect smartphone picked for you! How accurate is it now? Feedback welcomed below...
News of the FCC's approval of Samsung's S60 flagship for official use with North American networks is quite significant, or so reckons our friend Ricky Cadden - I'll let him discuss its appearance over 'there'. Mind you, the big question is, when will Samsung get its bug-fixing, firmware-updating act together so that sites like AAS can actually finish their detailed device reviews? Watch this space...
Over on All About N-Gage, we're asking readers to take part in an end-of-year survey to find out which phone they use for N-Gage, and which announced N-Gage games they're most looking forward to in 2009. Click on the link to find out more...
Ewan continues his idiosyncratic look at Nokia's new OLED-screened Nseries for the masses, the N85. In this third part, he looks at multimedia, focussing(!) on the camera, multimedia playback and some interesting UI notes and toys along the way.
The N79, which Rafe and I have played with at length (though admittedly not day to day), has received a truly huge firmware update to v11.049, with hundreds (I kid you not) of tweaks and bug fixes. Kudos to S60 Inside for getting the first detailed changelog online. As usual, if this isn't on Nokia Software Update yet, it soon will be, for non-network-crippled N79s, at least.
Now this is what you call a long term review. One year of hard use and over 3000 photos later, Eric's Corner presents a long, detailed look back at how the Nokia N82 has stood up to every day life. Along similar lines, did you know that since July 2006, I've taken over 1,300 videos with my Nokia N93 and since January 2005, I've (apparently) taken over 8,000 photos with the 6630, N70, N93 etc. Rafe calls me an 'edge case'. Hmmm....
Having heard many a user refer to 'upgrading' from (for example) a Nokia N95 8GB to an N85, I thought it worth examining an important way in which all is not necessarily positive when going from an older phone to a newer one. With SPMark benchmark figures to back up my arguments, I'm rather disturbed by the hardware inside Nokia's current and upcoming (announced) ranges.
Just in time for a last minute festive present, the Nokia N85 and N79 have commenced shipping in the US, and will be in various stores, including Amazon and Nokia's own flagship stores for around $550 and $400 respectively. Unlocked handsets can also be purchased online and direct via www.nokiausa.com.
Buzz seems to be growing in our forums that Samsung are getting their act together in terms of firmware updates for their S60 phones at last. Nothing over the air (yet), but firmware HJ7 (though from mid October) is now being offered via the latest version of their PC Suite. Join in the drama if you're feeling brave!
For completeness, note that The Phones Show 71 is now online, with a video version of my musings on the Nokia N82 and robustness, plus (from the non-Symbian world) a detailed hands-on review of the HTC Touch HD and why TouchFLO needs to take over or die, plus a walkthrough of web browsing on the Android-powered T-Mobile G1.
In which I explain, for beginners, how to get hooked up to a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and dramatically increase the speed of text entry on your phone... It's a very quick and simple solution, once you've gone through the initial two minute setup process...
With Christmas fast approaching, it's high time for a detailed hands-on head to head between the three smartphone platform flagships: Nokia N96, HTC Touch HD and Apple iPhone 3G. Can I pick a winner? Do I need to? Plenty of opinion, facts and device lowdown here, but your comments most welcome.
... In which I get all picky about the quality of video capture on Nokia's latest devices, the N79, N85 and (here) the N96. Is there a problem, and if so then is it down to changed premises, settings or lack of graphics acceleration hardware? For once, I'm really not sure and would love folk with more technical/photographic expertise than me to help out in the comments, as we try to get to the bottom of the issues.
In this, the second part of Ewan Spence's chatty look at the Nokia N85, he carries on from part one's look at the hardware and styling of the device. Running S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, the N85 sees tweaks to the interface and some of the built in applications to help the user experience. How successful have Nokia been?
Released a few minutes ago, the Nokia N96 just got its v12 update, to v12.043. See below for any changes or observations. The update's about 3MB over-the-air (a block-patch process using Red Bend's software, as usual, this seems to work really well) or about 120MB via Nokia's Software Update. Comments welcome if you're tagging along too...