A large screened S60 slider, 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3.5G data - it's got to be the Nokia N95, right? But actually no, I just came across this recent video (see below) of the Samsung G810, which also adds a stainless steel case and genuine 3x optical zoom into the mix. Looks very good from here, we'll get one for review when it appears in the real world, never fear.
At the risk of inducing N82 overload, I noticed that there's new content up on Nokia's web site, with a flash front end introducing arty videos for the black N82, the Urbanista diaries and Nokia Sports Tracker. The diaries link is worth clicking through if you haven't yet played with the rather nice graphical widget that lets you see which roving blogger took which photo (with the N82) where. Sports Tracker seems groomed, from the video, to also take on geotagging of photos - comments on how this is supposed to work welcomed. Maybe it's artistic license?
I said at the time of Nokia's "Comes with Music" announcement ("all you can eat" music included in the price of a new handset) that if Apple had made the announcement then it would be like the second coming on the blogs. The FT reports today that Apple are negotiating just such a deal - but also reports a rumoured price of Nokia's offer... $80 per handset, distributed by market share to the labels.
No, no, not the v21 firmware for the Nokia N95, we're still waiting for that. But Nokia has officially unveiled the black N82, with availability quoted in 'weeks' and with a price of 400 Euros (300 pounds) before sales taxes. For the N82, the colour change from silver is not just cosmetic. The black finish solves the huge usability problem of white key legends on silver background, plus it should reduce the fingerprint problem quite a bit. Read on for pics etc.
You've got to love high end comparisons like this - Abul over at Symbian in Motion has put together a great photo shootout between the Nokia N82, the N95 and a Casio Exilim (also 5 megapixels). The shots are selected well, there's apposite comment and there's even a linked Flickr gallery with many more comparison photos.
Introducing Carnival of the Mobilists 115, for your general reading interest.
Take a real mobile power user (Leon), with years of Windows Mobile expertise behind him and a top of the range HTC Athena. Now give him a Nokia E90 and give him a few months to really get to grips with it. This post over on the XDA Developers forum goes into detail about Leon's real world findings. Find out how the Symbian/S60 communicator fared against the behemoth of the Windows Mobile world.
A few links of interest that caught my eye yesterday. Mr. Lock is a freeware, customisable auto-lock utility that's worth investigating if the inflexible built-in auto-lock frustrates you (via N82 blog). The E90 blog has a mini-review of Boxwave's Nokia E90 deskstand sync/charger/spare-battery-charger. And SymbianWorld has published an interview with one of the software heroes of the Symbian OS world, Antony Pranata, developer of Screenshot, used on every site and blog you read.
Four links of interest to the same source, so I'll group them together 8-) Over at SMS Text News, there's an item on Vyke (VoIP) being added to Nokia's Download! - although it hasn't appeared on my N95 8GB, there's an update on Scribe, the Wordpress blogging client for S60, plus a lengthy rant on how customer service can sometimes get it soooo wrong, including revelations about a secret N95 4GB, and news that Vodafone actually have a forum intervention team, scouring the Internet for Vodafone-related issues to sort out. Coo.
Oh, those inventive marketeers at WOM World. Today (Friday), at a live event in Rome (anyone able to make it?), their made-up (in more ways than one) genius of 'position art' will recreate the logo or scribble of your choice using a Sports-Tracker-ed Nokia N82. See www.theworldismycanvas.com for the full audiovisual Stavros experience, for quite a few laughs, to submit your own geo-scribbling and to find out more about the event. [Update]The recreation is now live, here.
IQ Technology has announced the winners of the UIQ Open, a developer competition that ran until the end of Dec 07, with each winner getting a free UIQ 3 phone, free marketing help and event invites. Winners included FlyingMoney Manager, Mobile Documents, Handy Weather, IM+ All-in-One Mobile Messenger, Spodtronic, MicroPool, Paintball 2, Easy Search and GDesk, many of which are AAS favourites.
Enthusiast Symbian blogger Norman John, based in Germany, has been reviewing the Sony Ericsson P1i - it's refreshing to hear a fresh opinion on this UIQ 3 smartphone. His verdict? It's a 'strong multimedia smartphone' but its 'UI is too tricky'. And he rightly says that you should ditch the built-in Opera for the also-free Opera Mini.
The Nokia Nseries PC Suite (v2.0) has apparently 'graduated' from Nokia Beta Labs, effective from today. It's not clear whether today's download contains any further updates, so comments welcome if you're feeling brave. The download shown is only 8MB, so presumably this is just a stub that then grabs the rest. Anyone care to review it?
Good to see Nokia continuing to care for the E90 (though where's the new firmware??), with the availability (via Amazon Germany, at least) of the new "Nokia Carrying Case CP-285" – "made from high quality polyurethane helps protect your device while giving you access to its buttons, ports and speakers." Photo below the break. (via Symbian World)
The makers of the free Xmas game Snowed In have come up with a similar Easter-themed free game called Eggstreme: Sizzler Supremacy. It's available for every Symbian platform (S60 3rd, S60 1st/2nd, UIQ3, UIQ2, Series 80 and Series 90). The S60 3rd version supports all screen resolutions including the N80 and E90. You can download the relevant game file by going here, and you can get the free unlock code by going here.
