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...
No, not my list, I'd have plumped for 10 resons why each is better than the other. But over on (the horribly biased!) Tube5800.com there's an interesting list of 20 reasons why Nokia's touch-screen mid-tier newcomer is better than Cupertino's finest. Don't send any flames to me - go the Tube5800 site itself! (via WoN)
AAS's month of trying to destroy Nokia smartphones concludes with me taking an unscheduled fall and hurting myself rather nastily. An N82 helped break my fall, yet still works perfectly. After Rafe's attempts to drown an N95 8GB and an E71, how much more do we have to do to break one of these things? Summing up, I reckon that robustness is a factor often forgotten by other gadget blogs and reviewers.
Programme 70 of The Phones Show just went live and will hopefully be of interest. I do mini video reviews of the Samsung INNOV8 and i7110, deliver some comment on the Nokia N97 and then launch into a six minute critique of the N97, E71 and E90-competing Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 - it's very well built but, like the Samsungs, could do with some fixing up and optimisation.
Yes, the Nokia N95 Classic has had a firmware update, to v31 (from v30), two years after the phone was first available. Impressive. Screen proof and any observations below - a whopping 140MB update. More later (if I can spot any changes!) and the usual cautions over backing up to memory card (blah) and this not applying to network-branded devices (blah) apply....
In an All About Symbian exclusive, I present part 1 of my two part review of Samsung's brand new S60 3rd Edition FP2-powered i7110. An OLED-screened candy bar, it's incredibly well built and spoilt only by a silly video bug and a strange control key design. In this, part 1, I look at its hardware. In part 2, I'll go through its software and present my overall opinion of this latest device.
As a fellow mobile video show host(!), I can appreciate the efforts of others in the field. Stuff.TV's last two shows have some interesting bits for the Symbian world. The very latest show has a feature on the best mobile games, with the N82 shown many times and Reset Generation on the N96 starring as well, plus the last but one has a big head to head between the Samsung INNOV8 and Sony Ericsson C905. I've already slated the INNOV8's reflective display in our video podcast and Stuff.TV agreed - it's the single biggest downside of the Samsung flagship.
While not directly S60 powered, the accessories announced at Nokia World yesterday certainly would sit happily alongside any smartphone. With a focus on 'enhancing the mobile experience,' the Finns presented a Home Music Station, the Internet Stick and the Nokia Extra Power DC-11.
Rafe Blandford will be reporting back in detail from Nokia World over the next few days, but in the meantime, watching the coverage across the Internet of the new Nokia N97, Ewan's apprehensive that there's a fight brewing now that the Nseries has a touch champion and that the battle field is becoming more level.
Nokia today announced the launch of the Nokia N97. It is the first touch-enabled Nseries device and has a horizontal tilt-slide form factor. It transforms from a touch slate to a landscape QWERTY device. The device, which has an Internet and entertainment focus, runs on S60 5th Edition, has a customisable, widget-based, home screen and full support for Ovi services.
It features a 3.5 inch (360 x 640 resolution) touchscreen with haptic feedback, 5 megapixel camera (with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash), A-GPS and compass sensors, comprehensive connectivity options (WiFi, tri-band HSDPA, Bluetooth and USB), and 32GB of internal flash memory. Read on for more.
