OK, so the N96 itself is a late prototype and some bits aren't working yet, but Cellulare Magazine (in Italy) have completed a ten minute video preview, thankfully in English, showing just about everything you need to know about this upcoming S60 flagship. Embedded below and well worth a watch!
If you're in the UK, make sure to watch The Gadget Show tonight. As part of a big 'multimedia phone' roundup, the Nokia N82 runs away with the top prize, with the presenter commenting that the N82 had one of the best cameras she has ever seen on a phone. The video quality was also sharp with accurate colours. 8pm UK time, channel 5.
Kudos and respect to the Shelbinator for putting together a pretty definitive guide (with supporting text, but you need to watch the video) on how to set up the Nokia N95 (or N82 or N93 etc) with a pro-audio external microphone. Filed away for the next rainy day looking for weird adapters in my local RS or Tandy store! (via Mobile Jones)
Hardened Nokia N95 'classic' fan Andrew Galpin has just spent a week with the black, 2.8" screened 8GB version. What were his impressions and conclusions? Like me, the acknowledgement of the bigger screen, the quadrupled free RAM and the bigger battery were tempered with as many reasons why the 'classic' N95 still holds the edge.
I've had a report in that the USA-spec Nokia N95 8GB has had a big firmware update made available. If you're in the States and have access to Nokia Software Update, please check and comment! What's new? What's fixed?
Smartphones Show 58 is up today, with a four way test of the top camera (smart)phones in the world, looking at the 5mp Nokia N95, N82 and Sony Ericsson K850i and the LG Viewty. Plus a review of the Nokia E90-competitor, the i-Mate Ultimate 9502.
It's All About Symbian Insight 22, a.k.a. audio podcast 71, in which we cover Skype Mobile, the new Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, new announcements in the world of Web Runtime and widgets, plus a discussion on whether touchscreen devices that require two hands to use will take off in the mainstream. Listen here.
With the announcement of LG's Secret, with 5mp cam, auto screen rotation, DivX VGA video playback, TV out, Office viewers, etc, I've been musing on what makes a smartphone 'smart'. How does my Nokia N95, for example, compare? I've been playing with the Secret's older brother, the Viewty and have been able to draw some conclusions.
The developer site Forum Nokia has published the official detailed technical specifications for the recently-announced Nokia 5320 XpressMusic smartphone. It's a Symbian S60 3rd Edition FP2 device with a QVGA screen, 369mhz processor and a rather generous 85MB of free RAM. As mentioned before, the main standout features are dedicated music and gaming keys, 24 hours music playback, N-Gage compatibility, a dedicated audio chip and a low launch price (220 euros plus taxes).
What two devices are black, metal, quad-band, Wi-Fi, GPS, qwerty and 3mp cam-equipped? That's right. The Nokia E90 and the i-Mate Ultimate 9502. Here Steve has pitched them headlong at each other, to see how the two titans fare. If you've been eyeing up the Ultimate, make sure you read this!
Nokia just announced a new S60 music and gaming focussed smartphone, the 5320 XpressMusic. There's a new 'Say and Play' feature (voice-controlled music playback), up to 24 hours of playback time (almost double that of the N95 8GB), a dedicated audio playback chip and USB2 transfer speeds for loading music on in the first place. Some thoughts, PR details and images below.
The battles between Nokia's three Nseries flagships have raged on and off across the Internet for many months. Steve's used each of the N95, the N95 8GB and the N82 as his main device for long stretches of time and here presents a real-world summary of attributes and differences. Is there a winner? Only just. Comments welcome if you've also used all three or just have an opinion!
The Nokia N95 8GB just got a firmware update, to v20.0.016 (from v15). Apart from a few bug fixes and optimisations, the main changes are the addition of Automatic Screen Rotation (driven by the accelerometer, as on the N82) and support for more Bluetooth headsets. See below for details and comments.
In Smartphones Show 57, I challenge Stavros at Position Art (unsuccessfully - but then he is a genius), I cover Google's native S60 Search utility and there's an in-depth video review of the Samsung i550 business smartphone. Here's the main Smartphones Show 57 page, the high res YouTube version, and the QVGA (low res) and VGA (high res) RSS feeds.
In the latest of my semi-definitive (is such a term an oxymoron?) series of case reviews, I look at solutions designed to carry and protect the Nokia N82, from silicone sleeves to holsters to in-situ flips. If you own a case which you think performs better or have spotted something on the web that you think might fit the bill, please comment!