Recent News Headlines - Hardware
The Top 5 Phones that aren't actually IN the Top 5
Regular viewers of The Phones Show will know that I periodically run down my 'Top 5' phones in the world. Astute viewers will also have spotted that I haven't done one for a while. The problem is, as indicated by the headline above, that I'm having problems recommending a single phone or smartphone, let alone five of them. Things were simpler a year or so ago, I'd simply pick the Nokia N95 (or one of its cousins, the N95 8GB or N82) and that'd be the number 1 spot sorted. The phone world has moved on though, with greater variety, greater complexity and, yes, greater disappointments. Read on... [updated with extra comments]
Getting the Care Point lowdown on the Nokia N97 camera glass and GPS
The two big hardware issues which have plagued owners of the first N97 devices off the production line are, of course, the easily-scratched camera glass cover and the very poor GPS reception. Having ordered fixes for both from my local service centre a while ago, I finally had them attend to each and managed to get quite a bit more information for the rest of us in the process. Read on...
Nokia officially acknowledge the N97 lens cover scratch issue
Thanks to Micky Aldridge for putting together a great summary of the links you'll need in following up on a badly scratched Nokia N97 camera glass cover. Notable is that he includes an official statement from Nokia on the subject - at least, you'll have something you can now print out and hand over when turning up at the local Service Centre?
Communicator head to head: The Nokia 9300i, E90, E75 and N97
The single biggest form factor for true smartphones in Western Europe in the last five years has arguably been that of the 'Communicator', a term coined by Nokia for its 9000 series, initially running on GeOS and then on Symbian OS 6 and (later) Symbian OS 7 with the likes of the 9500 and (here) the 9300i. Then came the oddball E90 and a slightly more mainstream E75, while Nokia's Nseries picked up some similar action in the shape of the N97. But how do they compare, head to head? Is there a true modern day successor to the Psions and Nokia 9210s of old?
Phones Show Chat 7 and The Ultimate Smartphone
Just live on the interwebs is Phones Show Chat 7 (the companion audio chat based around my video podcast), in which Tim Salmon and I talk about the Nokia 5730's keypad, the HTC HD2 and the Nokia N900 (and other large screen devices), comments on Symbian's place in world marketshare, plus we specify and design our own ultimate smartphone. Available also as a RSS feed and iTunes podcast.
The official Nokia E72 pre-order
The rather hotly-anticipated (and now slightly late!) Nokia E72 is now officially available for pre-order from the Nokia online shops. Here in the UK it's £359 including VAT. The E72 improves on the bestselling E71 with a better camera, new software pack (including more Ovi services built-in, plus the full editing version of Quickoffice 6 Premier) and optical trackpad.
Everything you wanted to know about the N97's v20 firmware?
Over at N97 Fanatics, Kyron's put up a lovely tech walkthrough of the improvements in the Nokia N97's firmware for the upcoming v20 release. Though there are a few things he wasn't allowed to mention, he does cover memory, performance and stability issues.
N97 mini Arrives in the UK on October 23rd
Nokia's UK Flagship store on Oxford Street has announced on Twitter that they'll be selling the Nokia N97 mini in store from Friday October 23rd... just in time for everyone arriving in the capital for the Symbian Exchange and Exposition on the 27th and 28th! [Update: Not necessarily....]
AAS Insight 89 - N86 v20 firmware, Dopplr and OTA 09
In All About Symbian Insight 89 (AAS Podcast 151), Rafe and Steve talk about the recent release of version 20 firmware for the Nokia N86 8MP. Rafe and Ewan report back from Over the Air (OTA) where they listened to presentations on Symbian approach to evolving UI and Nokia's Qt strategy. There's also discussion about Nokia's acquisition of Dopplr. You can listen to AAS Insight 89 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia 5730 XpressMusic - part 2 - Software and Multimedia
Nokia's night-life-optimised red 5730 XpressMusic gets its final verdict from me in this, part 2 of my All About Symbian Nokia 5730 review, looking at its software bundle and its camera and multimedia. I also give a summary of the device: "There is absolutely no doubting the functionality quotient of the Nokia 5730 Xpressmusic - there are buttons for everything and more applications that most geeks could comfortably embrace."
Search News Stories
Use keywords to search in the summary, title and full text of our news.
Submitting News and Information
You can submit your own news, or give us a news tip for inclusion on the site. For more information visit this page.
More information on how we collect our news and the basis on which it gets published is also available.
