AAS: Articles and Features: Devices (Full)

Nokia N-Gage QD Silver Edition

2005-09-09T15:48:13+01:00

It's an N-Gage QD. That's silver. Next!

(Ehrm, we'll need a bit more than that, Ewan - Rafe)

Will we? Okay�

It'a an N-Gage QD. That's silver. Nothing else has changed. Next!

(Oi!!! - Rafe)

But it's true! And here's the perennial problem. Where the Nintendo's and Apple's of this world can create a massive demand in the market through a simple cosmetic change (think of the impact from the Nintendo Gameboy Advance "Pokemon" Edition handheld), the media and parts of the handheld gaming industry are going to see this as Finland "not understanding the market" and "using cheap marketing." The fact that everyone else does this and doesn�t get called in the mainstream is neither here nor there.

And this is a shame, because the N-Gage QD Silver is damn sexy. It's acres away from the tired orange/grey combo the AAN review unit is, and improves on the muted grey of my personal device. If you're thinking of getting a QD, then there's no real reason to choose the others. Unless you work for a certain mobile phone company.

The problem, of course, is the perception of the N-Gage, so let's tackle this for the moment. Nokia have only ever released one sales statistic for the N-Gage family, a rather shadowy reference in an annual report. But roughly translated there's about 3 million N-gages out there, and sales of 80,000 to 90,000 a month are probably realistic. A million and a half units a year is a failure? Psion, for their ten years or so as the crown holders for the PDA world, struggled to sell more than a million devices in that time span. They would have killed for numbers like that. That's a comparable number to the number of Apple PowerBooks in circulation, and it's more than the combined sales of Microsoft's "Next Big Thing," the Tablet PC's.

There's been a subtle shift in the N-Gage marketing strategy that ties in with the arrival of Gerard Weiner. Moving away from "it's a gaming device that�s also a phone" to "a phone for gamers" may seem a subtle change, but it's enough for the platform to continue to thrive.

The games catalogue is approaching 60 titles either released or in the final stages of development. These aren't minimalist titles, they're heavyweight names and brands which command instant respect. The return of Pathway to Glory, Asphalt and the X-Men for Christmas 05 may bring about a sense of d�j� vu, but I doubt you'll see the accountants complaining - nor and the gamers that loved these titles.

The Fins are no longer taking route one to market. Route one being aimed at direct sales campaigns, store fronts and shelf space. How could you with the PSP looming over the whole market like a steamroller? What's happening is Nokia is recruiting fans through the game titles, as it should be. By buying into existing fan-bases with titles such as the Games Workshop's "Warhamer 40,000," and Kevin Simbedia's "Rifts," this almost guarantees a slew of new fans coming into the system from the sidelines. With a QD and MMC game package units approaching the cost of one of the larger console games, it's almost an impulse buy for the gamer looking for a phone.

And never, ever, underestimate the strength N-Gage has simply because it is a Series 60 platform. That opens up over 3,000 applications. Beyond jaw dropping games like Stunt Car Extreme, you've got practical built-in and third party apps that turn your phone into something comparable to a laptop. While the PSP crowd go bananas over getting a web browser working on their cracked devices, the N-Gage can load up Opera, an AOL or MSN Messenger client, VPN access to desktop machines, IRC channels, FTP, Doom, emulators for almost every 8-bit platform in the world (Mame, Spectrum, NES, Genesis�) with more released every day.

Nokia still want to be seen supporting the N-Gage system. There have been many opportunities to quietly draw a line under the system, but they just roll with the punches and keep returning to battle. The experience Finland has gained here will be vital in the next few years. So what we have here is a bit of care and attention from the patriarch to reassure the family. Spit and polish to bring the bling into focus if you will. That's exactly what the Silver is. We're still supporting it, you're still buying it, we're not going anywhere, and there's more to come.

It's an N-Gage QD. That's silver. And no matter what you might think, it's doing its job beautifully and will do for a long time to come.

The true Next Generation

2005-08-07T12:46:28+01:00

I was intrigued by comments yesterday over in the Palm world, with Jeff Hawkins (come on, keep up at the back, if you don't know who Jeff is then your knowledge of mobile computing is sadly lacking...) hinting at a 'secret' program of Palm's, producing something for the next generation, when high-speed always-on Internet is a given. The idea presumably is that the Internet (and your own chosen servers/RSS feeds/portals/whatever) becomes the centre of your mobile computing experience. For example, why carry around static reference databases when you can look things up on the master�system online? Why struggle to type/scribble a long email when you can make a call or leave a voice mail in a fraction of the time? Why copy over documents and then convert/work on them and then send them back (risking damage) when you can edit the originals directly? Why mess around with map databases on expansion card when you can access bang-up-to-date maps, route planning and traffic information online? Why�keep your PIM information totally to yourself when you could be working with PIM data online, with selected colleagues and family given access to the bits they need?

And so on. Of course, the economics of today's GPRS and EDGE connectivity (and even 3G) don't quite match up to this mobile nirvana, and quite appropriately. Coverage across the whole of the UK isn't perfect (let alone the rest of the world), and it's a huge letdown when you find yourself needing to send an email, make a call or get navigation information, only to see no signal bars on your network display.

As a result, today's cutting edge mobile devices represent something of a 50:50 compromise,�mixing local applications and Internet-reliant functionality. There's still some way to go.

This trend towards working online shouldn't really have caught anyone by surprise. It's certainly what Symbian had in mind at its creation. Look back 10 years to the era of the all conquering Psions and fledgling Palms. There was no concept of connectivity, the information on your palmtop was all there was until you next got back to your PC and managed to copy things over, and local text entry was crucial.

Fast forward to the current day and the role of a modern device has changed out of all recognition, adding email, instant messaging, web, music playback and photography. Not to mention gaming, telephony and�video playback. Absolute text entry represents a much smaller fraction of the workload than it used to. As an experiment, I've been using a Nokia 6630 instead of my trademark 9500. And, apart from writing this piece (for which�I cheated slightly by using a Bluetooth keyboard), I've found that I've actually been able to do more with the smaller device. My photos have been miles clearer, the sync with Outlook on the PC has been better (support for Notes, yay!), email checks have been quicker and I've had an awful lot of fun playing some seriously addictive Series 60 games (shhhh.....)

As the mobile world shifts away from solitary uber-geeks (like me, I admit it) tapping away on palmtop keyboards, to averagely technical professionals using their smartphone to interface with their networks, their friends and the world in general, I think Jeff Hawkins is on the right track. Not that Palm are the only ones thinking along these lines � Nokia and Microsoft (to name but two) will be right along for the ride too.

When 3G�data services are�more or less universal and costs are down to a sensible level (say �15 a month in the UK), the prospect of keeping your data, your sources and your life online will start to make sense. Not that you'll do all this through whatever web browser is installed on your device. A true smartphone of the future will feature intelligent applications, integrating the Internet with local data seamlessly and efficiently. Others will be able to see what you're up to (with your permission, of course), access your images and video, share common data, compete with you in cutting edge games, wherever you are in the world.

There will have to be some technological improvements to match the new telephony, of course. Longer battery life (or, better, recharging by magnetic induction, solar power or simple movement) and faster processors spring to mind. But, as I've noticed with the way the Series 60 world has come together in the last 12 months, technology often comes good at the right time.

Those familiar with the Symbian OS world will recognise a�lot of the concepts I've just mentioned. The activities currently enjoyed by leading edge adopters, fairly expensively and with a not inconsiderable amount of fiddling around, will in a year or two be mainstream, inexpensive and an awful lot easier. And that's good news for all of us�who plan to be around to enjoy this next generation of mobile computing.

Steve Litchfield, 3-Lib

The Sendo X and a half

2005-07-21T15:52:51+01:00

The saga of Sendo and its 'X' smartphone could fill a book. Possibly two. Starting out with Microsoft, getting (ahem, now what was Ewan's word? - no, can't possibly use that officially...) err... let down by them and starting (more or less) all over again using Symbian OS and Series 60 as its base, the Sendo X was at best visionary and at worst too late and too full of issues.

As one with a soft spot for the Sendo X, I'm inclined more towards the 'visionary' end of the scale. The X's specifications, although looking a little dated now, were certainly fairly impressive even in late 2004 when the device was finally�launched. Over and above the specs of Nokia Series 60 smartphones of its time, the X offered:

Separate�GraphiX/SoniX processors, handling screen display and stereo music playback, with a built-in MP3 music player and a standard 2.5mm headphone/audio socket
Infrared as well as�Bluetooth�connectivity
A camera with�a 'flash' (actually a very bright LED)
A built-in Now! screen, bringing lots of info together and providing a mini-desktop, with user configurable 'panes'
An extra-high screen, giving an extra 12 pixels for a permanent status bar of battery/network strength and operation icons
DocView and Opera in ROM
User-installable firmware upgrades. These work brilliantly over your standard USB serial cable and don't even wipe any of your settings or files (the way every manufacturer should do it)
Oodles (32MB) of internal flash memory
A hot-swappable expansion card (no rebooting needed to swap cards), and every variety of both SD and MMC are accepted
An optional plug-in keyboard with fabulous 'gotta try it one more time' 'Butterfly' expanding action

Which certainly impressed me when comparing it to, say, the Nokia 6600 or 7610. Of course, to get all this working on top of Nokia's Series 60 interface and Symbian's underlying OS 6 meant quite a lot of custom code. Since the X's launch,�there have been�numerous serious and not-so-serious issues (crashes, clashes, that sort of thing), plus the fact that with Series 60 v1 and OS 6�being the base,�some of the Series 60 software being released these days simply won't run on the 'X'. Notable examples being Quickoffice and TomTom MOBILE, two of the 'killer' apps for the platform.

Still, despite a few quirks, the X mostly did a good job for its fans. It was sold by Vodafone, though never pushed as it ought to have been, and it�never accumulated user numbers big enough to set the world alight. Yes, the screen was a bit dim (even set to 'Ultra bright'), yes the PIM software was stuck at Series 60 v1 status and yes the camera was�about as bad as VGA cameras get, but we loved it anyway, if only because it was different. And British. With a capital B.

So what if we had to reboot every now and then just to get things working again. Sendo's limited software team were beavering away fixing issues and writing new code but somehow most of their efforts never made it into official firmware releases, possibly for political reasons. Then came the announcement of the X2, with music very much at its heart. The X was already pretty darn good at playing back music, what with SD support, proper headphone jack and a choice of several different music players (the built-in 'MP3 player' and the freeware OggPlay). But the X2 promised to put dedicated music control buttons right up front, with nice extras such as a revamped themes engine, OS optimisation, new Now! screen features and an 'Easy Start' application to help new users get connected and working online.

Then came Black Wednesday, June 29th 2005, when Sendo went into administration. I'm not going to dwell on the reasons for the company failing here, these things are inevitably complex. But, as chronicled on SendoSmartphones.com, the engineers at Sendo (henceforth referred to as 'the good guys') saw the writing on the wall and determined that if nothing else, they were going to get all their hard work released in one final uber-firmware upgrade or die trying. And, aside from a false start, the new firmware, 1.198.8.2, was released for the Sendo X, bringing many of the improvements that were destined to arrive with the X2.

1.198.8.2 effectively turns a Sendo X into a Sendo X and a half, with quite a bit that's worth commenting on. For starters, the 'X' is now faster and more stable, with over a Megabyte more free RAM now that the�extra Sendo�layers (over the OS) have been well and truly optimised. The Camera algorithms have been tweaked, it's still a lousy camera but at least the photos come out looking the correct colour (and 'night mode' has gone, not being needed anymore) and video capture and playback�are now smoother. The Speed Dial system has been extended to include launching applications (giving you no less than three alternative application launching systems in the one device - you're spoilt for choice here). Finally, in addition to a number of bug fixes and tweaks, there's a new application, Easy Start, a wizard to help beginners�set up�MMS, WAP, GPRS and so on.

Aside from the limitations of the camera, the 'X and a half' firmware help make the Sendo X a valid option in the smartphone world, mid-2005. Of course, there's the immediate ramification of there not being any official support or warranty, but there are plenty of Xs on the second hand market and being able to pick the Sendo X up for well under �100 and then flash it to 1.198.8.2 yourself makes for a cheap well-specified smartphone.

What of the future? Motorola haven't bought up Sendo for its current handsets (they're probably after Sendo's talent, ideas�and systems for customising handsets for different operators), so the X and a half is probably as good as a Sendo is going to get. But as smartphones come and go in the AllAboutSymbian (virtual) office, I keep picking up my Sendo X and admiring its many good points. If only... If only...

Steve Litchfield
Links: Sendo X top tips, SendoSmartphones.com

Nokia Nseries N91

2005-06-02T14:18:24+01:00

Operating frequency

EGSM/GPRS/1800/1900MHz + WCDMA
Data transfer: WCDMA up to speed 384 kbps, EGPRS/GPRS (class B/multislot 10) up to 236.8 kbps
Note: Actual achieved speeds may vary depending on network support

Dimensions

Weight: 160 g
Length: 113.1 mm
Width (max): 55.2 mm
Thickness (max): 22 mm

Display and User Interface

Color display (176 x 208, 262k color)
User interface Series 60 Platform
Automatic brightness control for display and keypad
Music keys: Play/Pause, Forward, Back, Stop.
Switch easily between music player and last used application with dedicated key.
Keys: Two configurable soft keys, Send & End, 5-way configurable navigation key, S60 keys (Menu, Edit, Clear), ITU-T (number/text) keypad, Volume (up & down), Power, Device lock switch

Music:

Audio formats (decoding)

MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, Real V8, WAV, WMA, M4A, AWB, SP-Midi, AMR, WB-AMR, Nokia Ring Tones, AMR-NB, AWB

Music Player

Intelligently designed music player � optimized for music listening
Dedicated playback keys and volume control
Enhanced on the go playlist management � edit playlists, add new music
Get meta data

Enhanced music features

Mixer, 8-band equalizer, stereo widening, loudness, stereo balance, music DRC (Dynamic Range Compression)
See what is playing when in the idle stat
Answer calls while listening to music and music pauses and then resumes again when the call is ended
Smart integration with music services (easy access to music shop)
Music user profile or sim-less operation allows for uninterrupted listening
Synch with PC and download new music over the air to your Nokia N91

Visual Radio

Flick on Visual Radio mode. Add a rich new dimension to your radio listening. It's a snap to switch and a whole new experience when you do. www.visualradio.com. Requires network support and the support of your radio station

Hi-Fi quality sound

Use the Nokia Music Headset HS-28 with remote control or use your own high quality headphone and connect directly to the 3.5mm audio jack on the Nokia N91
Connect the Nokia N91 to external speakers

Record music

Stereo music through line-in from your stereo
From FM radio
Make your own recording using voice record application

Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) DRM 2.0

For 'protection' and digital right management of music files

Memory

Up to 4GB of internal dynamic memory for music content, multimedia messages, ringing tones, images, video clips, and applications
Additional 30MB of storage for contacts, calendar notes and events, text messages.

Video and Camera:

Video

Video streaming and capture: H.263, MPEG4, Real Video 8
Image viewers: JPEG, GIF 87a/89a, WBMP, BMP, PNG
Download and play multimedia files (video and music
Stream media files from compatible media portals
Full-screen video playback on the phone to view downloaded, streamed or recorded video clips in larger size

Camera

2 Megapixel Still Image resolutions: 1600 x 1200 (default 640 x 480)
Still Images file format: JPEG, YUV, RGB
Advanced camera modes: still, burst, video and options for night, brightness adjustment, image quality, self-timer, and macro-mode.
Digital zoom up to 8x

Connectivity:

3G Near broadband speeds for faster and more responsive downloads.
WLAN 802.11b/g WLAN for hot spot connectivity at your favorite caf� or meeting place.
USB USB 2.0 full speed interface with mass storage profile (USB mini)
Nokia PC Suite Connectivity with USB or Bluetooth wireless technology

Synchronization

Local synchronization of contacts, calendar and music files to a compatible PC using compatible connection Synch contacts and calendar wirelessly over Bluetooth wireless technology

Bluetooth

Integrated Bluetooth wireless technology v.1.2
Send and receive images, video clips, graphics, and business cards via Bluetooth wireless technology
Profiles with Bluetooth connectivity: Basic Printing Profile (BPP) using Image Print or Info Print applications, Human Interface Device Profile (HID) using Nokia Wireless Keyboard application

Messaging

Convenient email client:

Compatible with Nokia Wireless Keyboard (sold separately)

Multimedia messaging:

Combine image, video, text, and audio clip and send as MMS to a compatible phone or PC
Automatic resizing of your megapixel images to fit MMS (max. 300 KB attachment size depending on the network)

Text messaging:

Supports concatenated SMS, picture messaging, SMS distribution list
Predictive text input
Support for all major languages in Europe and Asia-Pacific Instant Messaging

Browsing

XHTML browser Improved Web compatibility with support for HTML 4.01, including support for elements such as image maps, background images, and frames Support for a subset of JavaScript 1.5, which includes the most commonly used functions found on the Internet File upload over HTTP using standard HTML forms Small screen rendering option including a faster page-up/page-down scrolling style Full-screen mode, download progress bar, and adaptive history list 3GPP video streaming OMA DRM 2.0 including forward lock for content protection, combined delivery, separate delivery and superdistribution Wallet: convenient online use and storage of your numbers and passwords

Call Management

Contacts: advanced contacts database with support for multiple phone and email details per entry, also supports thumbnail pictures and groups Speed dialing Logs: keeps lists of your dialed, received, and missed calls Automatic redial Automatic answer (works with compatible headset or car kit only) Supports Fixed Dialing Number, which allows calls only to predefined numbers Conference call *

Java Applications

Java� MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1 (Connected Limited Device Configuration (J2ME)), JTWI 1.0 Over-the-air download of Java�-based applications and games *

Other Applications

Personal Information Management (PIM): Advanced Series 60 PIM features including calendar, contacts, to-do list, and PIM printing

Voice Features:

Voice dialing Voice commands Voice recorder Integrated handsfree speaker

Digital Services

Java� and Symbian applications

Graphics, icons, animations, logos Games: Possibility to download new games Ringing tones: True Tones, polyphonic tones Themes: Possibility to download new themes

Power Management

Standby time: up to 190 hours (7 days) Talk time: up to 3-4 hours Display: 176 x 208, 65,536 16-bit colours Battery: BL-5C, 900, mAh, Li-Ion

Nokia Nseries N90

2005-04-29T15:46:16+01:00

Nokia have announced the Nseries N90 - a flip 3G Series 60 smartphone. Features include a 2 megapixel camera (Carl Zeiss optics) with integrated flash, macro mode, auto focus, dedicated shutter and zoom buttons and x20 zoom (digital). Video capture is in MP4 at 352 x 416. It is a triband phone and supports both EDGE and WCDMA networks. External screen resolution is 128 x 128 pixels, and the inside screen is 352 x 416 pixels (double the previsouly announced Series 60 models). It is the first Series 60 device to feature a higher resolution screen. The phone screen can be tilted (like the Nokia 6260) and in this mode the phone screen will switch to a horizontal display view.

Technical Specifications:

Operating frequency:

Triband GSM coverage on up to five continents (GSM 900/1800/1900 networks), and�WCDMA 2100
Automatic switching between bands and modes
Data transfer: WCDMA up to speed 384 kbps, EGPRS/GPRS (class B/multislot 10) up to 236.8 kbps�

Dimensions:

Volume: 95.9 cc
Weight: 126 g
Length: 108.8 mm
Width (max): 53mm
Thickness (max) 21.8mm

Display and User Interface:

Color display: 176x208 pixels, up to 262,144 colors
Automatic brightness control
Five-way scroll key, two soft keys, application key, edit and clear keys, send and end keys, Multimedia key for instant access to your key application
Active standby screen

Imaging and Video

2 megapixel camera (1600 x 1200 pixels) with 20x digital zoom
Dedicated shutter key and camera activation slid
Integrated flash (operating range up to 1.5m)
Flash modes: on, off, automatic, and anti red-eye
Advanced camera modes: still, sequence, video
Six possible capture scene settings including scenery, portrait, night and sports
Settings, brightness adjustment, image quality, self-timer, white balance settings and color tones
Video and still image editors
Movie Director for automated video production
Image and video clip uploading to the web

Nokia XpressPrint Printing Solution

Print digital photos directly from the device to compatible printers
Transfer photos directly to compatible printer or kiosk via Bluetooth wireless technology, MultiMediaCard (MMC) or directly to
PictBridge-compliant printer via USB Data cable (sold separately)
Integrated print application is quick and easy to use; no installation, no fuss
Find out more at www.nokia.com/xpressprint

RealPlayer Media Player

Download and play multimedia files (video and music)
Stream media files from compatible media portals
Full-screen video playback on the phone to view downloaded, streamed
or recorded video clips in larger size
Played formats (decoding): MP3, AAC, Real Audio, WAV, Nokia Ring
Tones, AMR, AMR-WB, AMR-NB, AU, MIDI, H.263, JPEG, JPEG2000, EXIF 2.2,
GIF 87/89, PNG, BMP (W-BMP), MBM, MPEG-4 and eAAC+

Memory Functions

Up to 30 MB of internal dynamic memory for images, contacts, text messages, multimedia messages, ringing tones, images, video clips, calendar notes, to-do list and applications
Expandable memory: compatible with 64 MB Reduced Size Dual Voltage (1.8/3V) MultiMediaCard (MMC)*
Hot swap slot for easy reduced size MMC card insertion and removal

Note: The built in reduced size MMC reader in the Nokia N70 functions
on 1.8 Volt and therefore requires a dual voltage MMC which can
support both 1.8V and 3.0V. Use Nokia original accessories to ensure
compatibility.

Messaging

Easy-to-use email client with attachment support for images, music and documents (view jpg, 3gp, MP3, .ppt, .doc, excel and .pdf files) *
Compatible with Nokia Wireless Keyboard (sold separately)
Multimedia messaging: combine image, video, text, and audio clip and send as MMS to a compatible phone or PC; use MMS to tell your story with a multi-slide presentation
Automatic resizing of your megapixel images to fit MMS (max. 300 KB attachment size depending on the network)**
Text messaging: supports concatenated SMS, picture messaging, SMS distribution list
Predictive text input
Instant Messaging *

Visual Radio

Listen to music and interact with your favourite radio stations
Find out what song is playing, who sings it, and other artist information
Enter contests and answer surveys, vote for your favourite songs
Download the songs you buy direct to your phone
Find out more at www.visualradio.com *Requires network support and the
support of your radio station

Connectivity

Integrated Bluetooth wireless technology v.2.0***
USB 2.0 full speed via Pop-Port� interface
Nokia PC Suite connectivity via USB and Bluetooth wireless technology
Local synchronization of contacts and calendar to a compatible PC
using compatible connection
Remote over-the-air synchronization
Send and receive images, video clips, graphics, and business cards via
Bluetooth wireless technology

Browsing

WAP 2.0 XHTML/HTML multimode browser
Improved Web compatibility with support for HTML 4.01, including support for elements such as image maps, background images, and frames
Support for a subset of JavaScript 1.5, which includes the most commonly used functions found on the Internet
File upload over HTTP using standard HTML forms
Small screen rendering option including a faster page-up/page-down scrolling style
Full-screen mode, download progress bar, and adaptive history list
3GPP video streaming
OMA DRM 1.0 - including forward lock for content protection, combined delivery, separate delivery and superdistribution

Data Transfer

EGPRS, class B, multislot class 10 (UL/DL = 118.4/236.8 kbps)
Note: Actual achieved speeds may vary depending on network support
GPRS, class B, multislot class 10
Speech codecs: FR, EFR, WCDMA, and GSM AMR
Transfer data from one Series 60 phone to another

Call Management

Contacts: advanced contacts database with support for multiple phone and email details per entry, also supports thumbnail pictures and groups
Speed dialing
Logs: keeps lists of your dialed, received, and missed calls when your phone is turned on and is in your home network
Automatic redial
Automatic answer (works with compatible headset or car kit only)
Supports Fixed Dialing Number, which allows calls only to predefined numbers
Conference call *

Java Applications

Java� MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1 (Connected Limited Device Configuration (J2ME))
Over-the-air download of Java�-based applications and games *network footnote

Other Applications

Advanced Series 60 PIM features including calendar, contacts, to-do
list, and PIM printing

Voice Features

Speaker Independent Name Dialing (SIND)
Voice commands
Voice recorder
Integrated handsfree speaker

Digital Services

Java� and Symbian applications
Graphics, icons, animations, logos
Games: Possibility to download new games
Ringing tones: True Tones, polyphonic tones
Themes: Possibility to download new themes

Power Management

Battery: Lithium Ion Battery 970mAh BL-5c
Talk Time: Up to 3.5 hrs****
Stand-by Time: Up to 11 days****

�

�

Nokia Press Release:

Twist and Shoot: Nokia N90 makes its premi�re

Part of the Nokia Nseries high performance multimedia range, the Nokia N90 brings Carl Zeiss optics into the mobile arena Amsterdam, Cancun, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur � Nokia today proudly presented the Nokia N90 multimedia, an advanced and inspirational multimedia device. Starring Carl Zeiss optics and a full set of advanced digital camera features, the Nokia N90 is targeted at high-technology enthusiasts who value the ultimate in connected mobile photography. The Nokia N90 boasts a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus and 20x digital zoom, integrated flash, macro mode for sharp close-ups, and high quality video capture with on-phone editing capabilities.

�We foresee that already this year, the camera phone market will grow to be over four times the size of the digital camera market,� said Juha Putkiranta, Senior Vice President, Multimedia Imaging, Nokia. �And not only is the market growing at an enormous pace but, as fantastically highlighted by the Nokia N90, camera phone functionality is also developing rapidly to meet the needs of the more demanding picture taker. With its pioneering multi-hinge twist-and-shoot design, we have brought ease-of-use and high quality photography into mobile telephony.� Facilitated by its two screens, the Nokia N90 features two ergonomic modes for instant photo and video capture.

Simply twist the unique rotating camera barrel, and automatically the 2 megapixel camera is ready to shoot high quality photos, in a snap. A dedicated capture key and the cover display (128 x 128 pixels) of up to 65,536 colors as a viewfinder make the snapshot experience ever more effortless. Unfold and twist the main display (352 x 416 pixels), and the Nokia N90 is ready to shoot high quality video in MP4 format using the high-resolution (352 x 416 pixels) 262,144 color landscape display as a viewfinder. Dedicated record and zoom keys, including up to 8x digital zoom for video capture, provide for very convenient one-hand operation.

Capture
The Nokia N90 is packed with advanced camera features that ensure high quality photos and videos every time. With autofocus, pressing the shutter key halfway automatically focuses in on the target, after which pressing the key all the way captures the image with amazing clarity. Furthermore, the macro mode feature provides for striking accuracy when taking close-ups.

Print
Printing great quality images is now possible directly from the Gallery with just a few pushes of a button. With the Nokia XpressPrint printing solution, users can select from a range of mobile printing options, including PictBridge, where the handset is connected directly to a compatible photo printer with a USB cable; wireless printing over Bluetooth wireless technology; or by extracting the Reduced Size Dual Voltage MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC) from the side of the phone and inserting it into a compatible printer. Store Photos and video clips taken with the Nokia N90 can conveniently be stored on the phone�s internal 31 MB memory or the 64 MB in-box RS-MMC. Users can also easily store captured content at full resolution using the Nokia PC Suite Image Store, which, when connected, automatically saves images and video clips to the PC.

Share Images and video clips can also be instantly shared via MMS, email or by uploading them to web albums directly from the new improved rotating Gallery, which also allows on-handset editing of captured images and video clips. In addition, video clips can easily be trimmed further on the PC with the in-box Adobe Mobile Video Editor software.

Part of the Nokia Nseries, a new multimedia device range that combines rich functionality into one device, the Nokia N90 capitalizes on the convergence of imaging, smartphone features and 3G. 3G-enabled features, such as two-way video calling*, video sharing* and push email, are further complemented by an organizer, video streaming, Internet browser and add-on software. Based on the leading Series 60 Platform, the Nokia N90 is a tri-band phone for GSM 900/1800/1900, EDGE and WCDMA networks, and is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2005.

Nokia Nseries N70

2005-04-27T16:43:24+01:00

As part of their Nseries announcement Nokia today unvieled the N70 a 3G Series 60 smartphone with a 2 megapixel camera. Clearly focused on imaging other camera features include improved desktop and printing connectivity, an integrated flash, x20 zoom, and an improved on board gallery application. Other features include a a stereo FM radio (with support for Visual Radio) and music player. The phone is expected to be available Q3 2005, an EDGE variant will be available at a later date.

Nokia Press Release:

Slide and Shoot with the Nokia N70: the smallest 3G Series 60 smartphone with 2 megapixel camera

Nokia N70 is part of the Nokia Nseries high performance multimedia range

Amsterdam, Cancun, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur � Nokia today introduced the Nokia N70 multimedia, a beautifully designed, compact and easy-to-use 3G smartphone with versatile mobile photography, personal productivity and entertainment features. Incorporating a complete smartphone feature set, as well as a 2 megapixel camera, flash and front camera for video calling, the Nokia N70 comes fully equipped with stereo FM radio, a digital music player and new 3D games.

�The Nokia N70 perfectly illustrates our commitment to offer powerful, all-inclusive handsets that aid people in their daily lives. In addition to advanced smartphone and entertainment features, mobile photography is extremely easy and enjoyable with the elegant Nokia N70,� said Joe Coles, Director of imaging product marketing at Nokia. �The number one reason why people today purchase new handsets is the camera. Indeed, we foresee that by the end of 2005, over half a billion people worldwide will own a camera phone.�

Easy mobile photography
The slide and shoot design makes mobile photography fast and simple. The rear camera slide reveals and automatically activates the 2 megapixel camera, ready to instantly shoot photos or video. The intuitive slide is complemented with an integrated flash, 20x zoom capability and a range of capture scene settings for optimizing image quality in various environments, including Scenery, Portrait, Night, and Sports. Furthermore, the dedicated shutter key on the side of the phone enables users to capture images like they would with a regular camera, allowing for greater stability and ease of use.

The storage, management and organization of images and video clips is convenient and efficient with the Nokia N70. With the Nokia XpressTransfer storing solution, all new photos and video clips can be automatically copied to the PC. Photo albums created on the phone are also automatically saved in similar albums on the PC. Furthermore, the Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition software offers users an efficient way for organizing or editing photos
and video clips on the PC.

The new improved rotating Gallery provides for enhanced browsing of images and video clips. Images can, for example, be organized into slideshows, with the viewing experience further heightened with added background music. Images and video clips can also be instantly printed from the Gallery with the Nokia XpressPrint printing solution using a USB cable, wirelessly over Bluetooth connectivity, or using the Reduced Size Dual Voltage MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC).

Smart productivity
An excellent and powerful tool for personal and professional information management, the Nokia N70 offers a full set of smartphone features, including very easy-to-set up email functionality with extensive attachment support, Internet browser, video streaming and 3G-enabled features such as two-way video calling* and video sharing*.

Furthermore, additional applications can be installed from various sources**, while organizer information can easily be synchronized with compatible PCs.

Entertainment on the move
Equipped with a digital music player with stereo audio, FM radio and support for Visual Radio, the compact 126 gram Nokia N70 also doubles as a great pocketable music device. For an even more playful multimedia experience, theNokia N70 supports S60 and Java 2D and 3D games, some of which are pre-installed in the phone or on the standard in-box RS-MMC.

Measuring just 108.8 x 53 x 17.5 mm (95.9 cc), the Nokia N70 is the smallest ever 2 megapixel 3G smartphone based on the leading Series 60 Platform. The Nokia N70 is expected to be available in the third quarter of 2005. Additionally, a variant of the Nokia N70 for EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution) markets will be available at a later date.

30 Minutes With The Nokia 7710

2005-04-27T16:19:09+01:00

Putting the Nokia 7710 together for the first time is most like putting together a gaming device, and with about as much excitement as you have when you get your GP32 or Gameboy in your hand (this is a good thing, Nokia)! Using it is so similiar to using a Palm OS device that it's almost odd realising this is a model�using Nokia's Series 90, on top of the latest iteration of the Symbian OS.

The Calendar functionality is clear and useful�and the Nokia 7710 allows you to sync with Lotus Notes, Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Address Book. The Spreadsheet and Word Processor applications are good to have, aimed mainly at the target market of corporate users, but neither of the documents I made on the phone open in MS Word or MS Excel on the desktop, probably due to post-SP2�issues, as with early 9500 firmware. The documents opened fine in Open Office, by the way. File manager is totally intuitive, allowing file moving and folder allocation from its interface.�Image gallery is laid out in thumbnail format as standard, with list view and details also available, and you can also create folders here to organise images as you like.

�

Messaging is simple and intuitive. With the Nokia 7710�s large 65,000 colour and touch input screen, messaging is fast (if you�re handy with handwriting recognition, even faster) with the qwerty layout input area. When you set the phone up you are prompted to allow an SMS out, this asks a server somewhere to tell your phone everything it needs to know to connect to the Internet and send MMS messages. This is a real step forward, and is the first phone I�ve used that has this as standard.

�

The Nokia 7710 comes with a large number of extra applications, including the first pre-installed anti-virus kit I�ve seen on a phone. The navigation is a bit unwieldy with so many applications, so the handy grouping function allows you to quickly create your own personalised folder array.

The SlovoEd dictionary is large,�coming with German, French, Italian and other data sets, ready to translate to or from each. Unfortunately it's trial software, along with some of the other bundled applications. These trial applications all use a "3 tries and it�s over" system, so you don�t get much time to really discover if you�d actually want them. The trial software titles also include�Slurp, Photobase and�Mobix Music Maker.

Many 7710�programs (such as the 3rd party PDF viewer) are regional installs, so if you�re buying this�device in the States, or Korea or wherever, there will be some differences in the pre-installed application roster.

The Nokia 7710 comes with Visual Radio, an FM radio with really excellent reception. The visual part refers to broadcast information that streams down once you define a "Visual ID". The radio comes with an easy channel grabbing facility with all regional station variations, but no matter which I tried, I couldn�t find a "Visual ID" so this will have to remain a mystery for now.

The handset also comes pre-installed with the standard Real Player, which will play your MP4 and 3GP files as well as MP3�s, although the on-board Music player is better for that. Video playback is very good but as you can imagine it's a big battery and memory sucker, so if you�re playing a game or running anything else memory intensive in the background, be sure and save/close it first.

Next up is Typepad. Yes that Typepad. Here�s a client on your device for making Blog Posts without resorting to web interfaces or Java midlets. For me as a moblogger this is perhaps the most impressive pre-install on the 7710. The Typepad interface is just like your post creation on the proper Typepad site, and with a quick connection to the Internet via GPRS your post is up without the need for creating an account. For me, posting to "7700 test" allowed me to post anonymously to a blog that had already been set up!!�All in all, I think the addition of Typepad software on the phone is excellent� I wish there was a Wordpress equivalent.

The built-in Opera web browser is as fast and�shiny as usual, and allows you to browse in landscape mode with rich graphic resizing, and the ability to visit sites running Macromedia Flash 6! Did you hear that? Flash 6! What this�means is that you can grab Flash games from wherever you like, saving them to your memory card and opening them from within the browser. The last time I was able to do this (and I became sorely addicted to Flash gaming) was on the now discontinued Sony Clie TH-55. If you�re into the Nokia 7710 as a multimedia device it really comes into its own here.

�

The 1 megapixel camera is sharp, really sharp, and the compression algorithm used is far superior to most Series 60 smartphones, such as the numerically-similar 7610. For examples of the 7710's imaging capabilities, including video and audio, visit [link needed]moblogUK where I am testing the phones imaging suite.

Overall, if you don�t mind your phone a bit on the large side (although not too big to be uncomfortable) and want a wide range of multimedia functionality, you could do a lot worse than the Nokia 7710. With all of the multimedia applications specified above, as well as the good synchronisation features, I for one am exceedingly impressed with this handset. Remember this is the first Symbian Series 90 phone to hit the market.�Now, if only it had Wi-Fi as well...

Links of Interest

The Nokia 7710 in the AAS Device Database.

Alfie Dennen's Original Review on his blog.

Ewan interviews Alfie about his Moblog service.

Skinning the Series 80 powered Nokia 9500 and 9300

2005-02-25T16:30:37+01:00

Introduction

After the success of Epocware�s "Colours" application for the 9210, and the modern love affair of being able to customise the look and feel of applications to suit individual users desires, it appears that Nokia have dropped the ball in regards to customising the 9500. With its limited colour choice and simple wallpaper changes, there doesn�t seem to be a lot of scope to play around. Fortunately behind the scenes, Series 80 is far more customisable system than expected. Let me tell you about skinning...

In this article we�re going to look at what�s called "skinning," a term used to describe changing the desktop to another look. What you should realise is, of course, that the basic view of the Series 80 desktop is, in fact, a skin. There are just no notes on how to change this yourself included with the phone.

Where Everything Goes

All the skin data is stored on the Z: drive (which we can't look at on the device), but fortunately it is reproduced in full in the Series 80 Software Development Kit (SDK) as this includes an Emulator. The standard Nokia skins consist of 11 graphical files (MBM files), with these MBM file containing almost 250 separate images. There are 2 SKE files containing information on images for the messaging application, and a single SKN file containing information on the location of the MBM files, which fonts are used, and which colours are displayed.

The zip file download for this tutorial contains all the files you will need to install a new skin. The actual process of installing the skin is copying a skinpath.txt file to c:\system\data\skinconfig. Very important, do not edit this file in Notepad or Documents on the smartphone as you will corrupt it and the skin will not work, causing your phone to revert to the default skin. Once you�ve copied the skinpath.txt file, place the contents of the Skins folder (from the tutorial zip file) into c:\System\Skins\ while preserving the rest of the directory structure The files in C:\system\skins\0x101F8EDB\ contain all the data about our new skin that Series 80 needs.

But how do we make the contents of the Skins folder? Unzip the "editable" folder onto your PC. In the "editable" folder are 11 more folders, one for each MBM file (the folder names match the MBM file names that exists in the "0x101F8EDB" folder). These folders contain all the bitmapped images from the MBM files in numerical order. When you come to recompile the MBM files with your own images, make sure you get the order correct or the skin will not work, display incorrectly, or possibly soft reset your device. These BMP files are what you need to edit in your image editor to make your own skin, you can change as much or little as you want. When making your own MBMs I'd recommend using Dazler's MBMWhizzard application available, which you can download from his site, along with a tutorial on how to use it.

So far I've be using Symbian�s command line tool, bmconv.exe, application, but typing out the command line to merge 103 bitmaps into one file is murder.

Editing A Skin

You�ll want to read this in conjunction with the reference lists at the end of this article.

First get the background image you want to work with, I thought I'd start with some thing simple as this Matrix Wallpaper. When choosing your wallpaper remember that the clock on the Desktop always has a solid colour background, so you will need to select a design where this will not effect the aesthetics. Resize or crop your image until you have an 800x200 pixel image. This image is going to be sliced and diced a million ways to make all the elements. It�s rather like making a digital jigsaw.

Now open bitmaps 1-4 of Skinappview, create a new layer on each and overlay your image. Your skin should only occupy the non-white areas, so get your graphics package to copy the image (overlay) only if the area underneath is not white. Similarly with bitmap 9, this is the top left corner of the screen. Once done you are now ready these nine images into one MBM image.

Next we need to make your desk wallpaper (which will fill the white area that we avoided in Skinnappview). Crop the first 92 pixels from your 800x200 image. Now copy the next 463x200 pixel section into a new file. Crop 6 pixels from the top and then save the resulting 463x194 image as a jpg image. When you install your skin, set this image as your wallpaper to complete the effect.

For the CBA panel (that�s the column on the right which shows the options for the four soft buttons), copy a 200x200 pixel section following on from the section used for the wallpaper and save it as all 3 images in the skincommandbar folder. This is the second completed MBM Image, so go ahead and compile this as well.

For skinapptitle, overlay the image in bitmap 5 with a 640x480 selection of your chosen wallpaper starting at point (92,0) on the image. This removes the thin coloured bar at the top of the desk screen, so needs to be this exact section to fit in on the desktop. Bear in mind that certain views will cause this image not to fit in if you are using a strong pattern or picture.

Now all that remains is to edit the relevant items in skinwidget, skinscrollbar and skindialogframe to fit in with your colour scheme, then compile those images into MBM files. There is the mildly mammoth task of editing the orange.skn file to correct the colours to be as you desire (this skin is based on the Orange skin file, hence the filename orange.skn). I'd recommend taking a few screenshots then adjusting the colours in an art package such as Paint Shop Pro, and then using the colour values (which will be displayed by your graphics application) from your mockup in your .skn file. The second appendix to this article lists all the colour values that have been worked out so far. We�ll edit this and keep it up to date as we discover more.

Now we can take these MBM files, and the SKN file, and drop them into the C: of our 9500, and there we go.

Appendix 1: List of MBM files and what they contain:

MMSFORM.MBM - Images relating to the media applications regarding what opens the MMS file you have received.
MSGEDITORVIEW.MBM - Borders and lines used by the messaging application.
SKINAPPTITLE.MBM - The Application title bar background, note only 2 images contain data, the rest are blank, I don't know why.
SKINAPPVIEW.MBM - Images on the left hand side panel and title bar as used in various guises, images 1-4 and 9 are the ones you should edit, remembering to keep your design out of the white-space.
SKINBORDERS.MBM - Borders for various panes.
SKINCOMMANDBAR.MBM - The right hand side Control Button Area background (remember display.mbm all 9210 skinners), contains 3 identical images (no idea why 3) sized 200x200 pixels.
SKINDIALOGFRAME.MBM - Image files for all the dialogue box frames and tabs.
SKINGENERAL.MBM - General images used in various places on the device.
SKINMENU.MBM - All the images used for borders and graphical extras on the menus.
SKINSCROLLBAR.MBM - Frighteningly enough all the images used to make the scrollbars.
SKINWIDGETS.MBM - Icons and small images used around the device.

Appendix 2: List of SKE Files and contents.

MmsUiFormDefaultSkin.ske - Details of the images in MMSFORM.MBM and colours to use with it for use with MMS messages.
MsgEditorView.ske - Details of the images in MSGEDITORVIEW.MBM for the messaging application.

Appendix 3: SKN file values

The SKN file is just a plain text file editable on your PC or device. It contains colour data for all the applications on the 9500 (apart from applications that assign their own colours for themselves), information on the SKIN*.MBM files, and information on fonts used on the device. Below is a list of colour numbers and the relevant application that is effected by that change.

You do not need to include every colour in your SKN file, any that are not included will use the default colour from the default skin. The values should be in decimal format 0-255 and are RGB. Hence to set the main background colour to a bright red I would use a very small SNK file of three lines�

[code]
2�255 0 0
[/code]

You can add in as many lines to your SKN file as you need, just remmber to stick to the syntax of�

[code] [red component] [blue component] [green component]

�on each line.

[code]
[color_section]
0 calendar/calculator/sheet bg colour
1 calendar/calculator/sheet normal text colour
2 Telephone/messaging/contacts/control panel/file manager/documents/clock/images/music/standard? bg colour
3 Desk Icon text/telephone/messaging/contacts/control panel/file manager/documents/notes/clock/app title/images/music text colour.
4 unknown
5 unknown
6 messaging/telephone/control panel/file man highlight
7 desk/messaging/telephone/contacts/control panel/fileman/ highlight text colour
8 unknown
9 greyed out variable text
10 unknown
11 unknown
12 dialog bg colour
13 unknown
14 unknown
15 unknown
16 dialog title colour
17 unknown
18 menu top bg colour
19 menu top text colour
20 unknown
21 menu top highlighted text colour
22 menu background colour
23 menu active option colour
24 unknown
25 selected menu item
26 unknown
27 greyed out menu item
28 highlighted greyed out menu item
29 unknown
30 unknown
31 unknown
32 unknown
33 unknown
34 unknown
35 unknown
36 msgbox text colour
37 msgbox bgcolor
38 unknown
39 unknown
40 unknown
41 unknown
42 unknown
43 unknown
44 unknown
45 unknown
46 unknown
47 unknown
48 unknown
49 unknown
50 unknown
51 cba text colour
52 unknown
53 app icon text colour
54 app titlebar (status?) text colour
55 unknown
56 cba greyed out text colour
57 unknown
58 unknown
[extra_color_section]
0 unknown
1 unknown
2 dropshadow colour 2
3
4 drop shadow colour 4
5 drop shadow colour 3
6 drop shador colour 1
7 drop shador colour ?
8 border bottom right
9 unknown
10 unknown
11 unknown
12 unknown
13 unknown
14 unknown
15 unknown
16 unknown
17 unknown
18 unknown
19 unknown
20 unknown
21 unknown
22 unknown
23 unknown
24 calendar/calculator/file select in fmanager highlight colour
25 unknown
26 unknown
27 unknown
28 unknown
29 unknown
30 unknown
31 unknown
32 unknown
[extended_color_section]
0x101F892f unknown
0x101F809a unknown
0x101F892a unknown
0x101F892b unknown
0x101F892c unknown
0x101F8974 unknown
0x101F8094 unknown
0x101FAC6A unknown
0x101F8091 unknown
0x101F8092 unknown
0x101F8099 unknown
0x101F8093 unknown
0x101F8098 unknown
0x101F8097 unknown
0x101F809c unknown
0x101F809d unknown
0x101F809e unknown
0x101F8929 unknown
0x101F87B4 unknown
0x101F87B5 unknown
0x101F87B6 unknown
0x101F87B7 unknown
0x101F87B8 unknown
0x101F87B9 unknown
0x101F8975 unknown
0x101F8976 unknown
0x101F8095 unknown
0x101F8090 unknown
0x101F8096 unknown
0x101F8930 unknown
0x101F8931 unknown
0x101F809b unknown
0x101FAC35 unknown
0x101FAC36 unknown
0x101FAC37 unknown
0x101FAC38 unknown
0x101FAC39 unknown
0x101FAC62 unknown
0x101FAC63 unknown
0x101FAC67 unknown
0x101F87E2 unknown
0x101F87FD lhs panel clock colour
0x101F87FE unknown
0x101F87FF unknown
0x101F8800 unknown
0x101FAC5C unknown
0x101FAC5D unknown
0x101FAC5E unknown
0x101FAC5F unknown
0x101FAC60 unknown
0x101FAC61 unknown
0x101FAC68 unknown
0x101FAC69 unknown
0x101FAC70 unknown
0x101F8801 unknown
0x101F8802 unknown
0x101F8803 unknown
0x101F8804 unknown
0x101F8805 unknown
0x101F8806 unknown
0x101F8807 unknown
0x101F8808 unknown
0x101F8809 unknown
0x101F880A unknown
0x101F880B unknown
0x101F880C unknown
0x101F880D unknown
0x101F880E unknown
0x101F880F unknown
0x101F8810 unknown
0x101F8F05 unknown
[/code]

Download the Matrix skin and templates...

Series 60 Phones

2005-02-14T15:46:54+01:00

Nokia 7650
The Nokia 7650 was the first Series 60 phone. With a built in camera this phone was one of the first to support MMS to its fullest extent. With GRPS and dual band GSM this is a European phone. On board software includes an agenda and integrated contacts together with e-mail and messaging clients, as well as games and much more. The phone supports third party programs, written in Java or C++. The phone can be sync'd to desktop clients via bluetooth or infra red.

Nokia 3650
The Nokia 3650 is the second Series 60 device from Nokia. Series 60 is a Nokia UI which uses the Symbian OS. The Nokia 3650 has a built in camera and supports both still imaging and video capture an playback.The phone has GPRS support and is triband and has support for bluetooth. The phone supports the MDIP 1.0 Java langauge and has support for polyphonic ringtones. Expansion is provided by an MMC card slot. E-mail and internet acess (via XHTML browser) is fully supported. The 3650 is described by Nokia as aimed at the Youth market.

Nokia 3660 and 3620
Nokia's 3650 sucessor is a small upgrade. The main enhancement is a 64k colour screen.

Nokia N-Gage
The N-Gage is Nokia first dedicated gaming device. Running both standard Series 60 games and programs it also support a N-Gage only locked MMC format for the distribution of Rich Games. This Gaming Device with a phone is tri-band, and supports Bluetooth and GPRS for multi player gaming. The device is also an FM Radio and MP3 music player.

Nokia N-Gage QD
QD (Latin for Every Day) is Nokia's second gaming phone. It cures the main problems of the first phone (it has no side talking and can hot swap MMC cards), but removes the Radio, MP3 player, USB connectivity and adds a seperate Okay button instead of a push down onthe rocker. Memory, OS, Tech Specs and Screen Depth remain unchanged. Both units are 100% compatible with each other.

Siemens SX1
The first Symbian phone from Siemens and the first non Nokia Series 60 device. The Siemens SX1 supports stero sound, and has more memory the the 3650, 760 and N-Gage. Its keys are arranged up each side of the phones screen. The phone is tri-band, has GPRS and MMC for expansion. Due for launch in the Q4 2003.

Samsung SGH D700
The first Symbian flip phone. The D700 features a rotating screen and camera so that the device's screen can be turned back to front. In its flip closed size it is currently the smallest Symbian handset available. The phone is the second Series 60 device outside of Nokia's range. It is unclear whether this phone will ever be publically available. Samsung announced the D710 which may be a replacement to this model.

Nokia 6600
It runs Series 2.0 which runs on Symbian 7.0s (previous Series 60 devices used Symbian 6). The device has a standard keypad arrangement. It is a triband world phone with GPRS and a MMC slot for expansion. Due for launch in the Q4 2003.

Sendo X
The Sendo X from British manufacturer Sendo is one of the most advanced smartphones on the market. Featuring a heavily customised Series 60 1.2 (additions include the Now! screen, customisation elements and improved usability). The phone boasts SD and MMC card support (the first released phone to do so) and memory cards can be hot swapped. The camera has a built in LED 'flash' to help take better pictures in the dark.

Panasonic X700
The X700 is Panasonic's first Symbian phone. This flip phone feature built in picture and video editing. Support for the miniSD memory card format. It runs Symbian 7.0s and Series 60 2.0

Samsung SGH D710
Samsung's second Symbian and Series 60 phone has a slide design similar to the first Series 60 phone the Nokia 7650.

Nokia 7610
Nokia's first megapixel camera phone. With support for reduced siezed MMC and the first phone to ship with Nokia Lifeblog - Nokia's multimedia diary software. The 7610 is available from Q2 2004. The phone runs Symbian 7.0s and Series 60 2.0.

Nokia 6630
The first Series 60 3G phone. Features include a megapxel camera, RS-MMC, Bluetooth, WCDMA, GPRS, and GSM network connectivity. Runs Series 60 2.0 with feature packs 1 and 2.

Nokia 6670
The sensible key layout version of the 7610 does have a lot going for it, with tri-band coverage, mega-pixel camera and camcorder functio, 8mb internal memory and space for an RS-MMC card,

Nokia 6260
Nokia's first Series 60 flip phone is aimed at the business user. The phone includes a dedicated push to talk button and the camera is located on the size. Other business focused features include always on e-mail courtesy of Blackberry technology which Nokia licensed.

Nokia 3230
Announced at NMC 2004, the 3230 appears to be the first true mid-range Series 60 device, targeting those looking for imaging, video playback, and the create your own crowd with ringtones and basic video editing software on board.

Sendo X2
Announced at 3GSM 2005 the Sendo X2 is the second Series 60 phone from Sendo. It is aimed at the music lover (Sendo term it a music phone) and it supports MP3, AAC and AAC+ out of the box.

Nokia 6670

2005-02-03T16:10:53+01:00

The 6670 is one of the new releases, and is actually in the shops now for around �325 without a contract. It is the successor to the 6600 and bears a striking resemblance to the 7610, but without the quirky keypad. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm completely confused by Nokia's naming conventions, but I guess when you release as many phones as they do, it's difficult to come up with sensible names.

The packaging on the 6670 is the, what now appears to be, standard Nokia sized box, with everything packed neatly away and covered with acres of plastic, I know I'm sad, but I like opening these boxes and finding everything neatly laid out like that, I just think if they go to that much trouble with the packaging, the product is going to be amazing!

The 6670 certainly lives up to it's packaging, and produces a much better first impression than the old 6600 did, it's sleek silver case and clear plastic keypad looks really good, and once you have managed to pull the sticky protector off, the 65k screen looks very clear and bright. Compared with the 6260, the 6670 seems almost bare, apart from the standard Nokia connector on the bottom and a power switch at the top, the sides are completely free of any buttons or switches. This does give it a very stylish look; the only other blemish on its smooth case is the 3.7mm lens for the camera situated on the back. I�m not sure about the shape though, it�s miles better than the bulbous look of the 6600, but it reminds me of the exclamation marks Vodafone use in their adverts!

�

To fit the 900mAh battery you unlatch the rear cover, which along with the front is changeable, so you can personalise your phone if you so wish. Under the battery we find one of my pet hates, unlike the 6260, Nokia have taken a step back and hidden the RS-MMC memory card beneath the battery, which means you have to power the phone off every time you want to swap cards. Now you may think this is a trivial complaint, but this phone is billed as a multimedia device, and having to switch it off every time you want to put some new music on the card is a real pain. Yes you can transfer it by Bluetooth, but frankly, I have better things to do with my time!

Once powered up, you are presented with the standard Series 60 screens, with all the usual applications in place, including the new Presence and positioning tools from Nokia. There are one or two extras that are worth mentioning that set this phone apart from the crowd and a couple that seem to be a complete waste of time. In the former category is a complete set of Office viewers in the form of QuickOffice, not the full program which allows editing, just the file viewers, but a step up from the 6260 in that an Excel viewer is included along with Word and PowerPoint, I never understood why this wasn't on the 6260 as it is very useful if people are in the habit of emailing you worksheets. All three viewers find attachments sent to you in e-mails, and with a bit of jiggling you can view documents transferred to the phone via the PC link as well. Another useful addition is the NetFusion Web Browser, which seemed to do a pretty good job of rendering pages on the sites I tried, but what happened to Opera? I thought this was going to be on all Series 60 phones. All of these comms related programs are no good if you can't get connected to the Internet, so it's nice to see Nokia thinking of the users and including a Settings Wizard that checks your Sim card to see what network you are on then goes away and sets the phone up for MMS, SMS, Web and Wap access, along with the settings for e-mail. This is a big step forward, and should make life a lot easier for first time users. Full marks to Nokia.

In the not so useful category, we have video and photo editing programs, and Nokia's Lifeblog application, none of which offered anything worth mentioning and seem a strange addition on what is supposed to be a business orientated tool. I suppose it might be useful to be able to edit a picture you have just taken, but the options are limited: - lighten, darken, crop and add text is about the extent of the options.

In day to day use the phone performed well, the keypad is not so easy to use as the 6260, as the keys are much smaller, but the navigation pads is much better, especially for gaming. The battery life is good, it easily lasted five days on standby, and as with the 6260, recharges every 3/4 days of reasonably heavy is the norm. The phone ships with Nokia's PC Suite, which allows managing the phone from a PC and synchronising PIM data. Once again, full marks to Nokia, their PC Suite has gone from strength to strength, and is now an ideal way of managing your phone.

I've left the biggest difference between this phone and other Series 60�s to last. Nokia have equipped it with a 1-mega-pixel camera, which also has a 4x zoom. I have to say that the quality of pictures when viewed on the phone is outstanding; you can see the difference over a VGA system immediately. However, as soon as you transfer the pictures to a PC you realise that any phone camera is going to have severe limitations, it's not just the amount of pixels that determine a good camera, it's as much to do with the size and quality of the optics, and any camera phone is going to suffer here. See the comparison pictures above to get some idea of what I mean. For taking quick snaps and sending them to your mates, a VGA system is more than adequate as it uses much less storage and is far cheaper to send via GPRS. There is nothing wrong with the camera in the 6670; I'm just not sold on the idea of more pixels without improving the rest of the camera as well. The video function allows a much longer time for recording than the 6260, but again the videos are really only any good viewed on the phone, once transferred to a bigger screen, they are hopeless.

The 6670 is a good phone, it's a worthy successor to the 6600, and with its ability to read Office attachments straight out of the box, it's a good bet for business users, but I still think the 6260 has the edge. For me the mega-pixel camera is no big deal and I much prefer the clamshell form factor, so the 6260 is still the best in my view. One thing�s for sure though, at the rate Nokia is releasing new phones, it won�t be long before something else comes along to threaten its position at the top of my list.

Nokia 9500 Review (Part Five)

2005-02-03T16:10:28+01:00

The Other Applications

Of course the key to any personal computer is how you use it, not just the main above-the-line advertised applications. The Nokia 9500 has a number of smaller applications we�ve not looked at, many of which might be just the thing you�re looking for. These little apps may not seem the things that sell a computer, but when you have an invaluable function hiding in one of them, that�s what will keep you using a device.

Clock

Yes it tells the time, but the Clock app has two other great features, both of which are tied to the 9500's �world� database. It�s possible on one screen to see the time and details of another Major City, anywhere in the world. Not having to work out what time it is somewhere does help if that�s the sort of calls you have to make. Having the telephone area codes and sunset times is just a bonus.

Secondly, there are also multiple alarms, with different frequencies and times. I�ve always enjoyed the �Ring only on a workday' setting, where you can set up your working days as Monday to Friday. Not having to remember to switch your alarm off for Saturday morning may seem trivial, but not at 6.30am it isn�t!

Presentations

The final office suite application I�ve relegated to this final part of the review. Not everyone needs access to Presentations on the move, making it something of a niche application. The good news is that it's a pretty capable presentation package, at least by twentieth century standards. The fundamentals; adding new slides, creating titles and bullet points, inserting images, shapes and tables, are all here and pretty well implemented. Corners have been cut though, with the outline mode suffering from oversize fonts and zoom support minimal throughout.

A slideshow mode does a pretty good job of stepping through your slides, although the 9500 doesn�t have a 'monitor out' socket, so to make any real use of Presentations, you�ll need a special adapter to put into a standard VGA Projector. Nokia have made available a Bluetooth unit that should do the trick and when we get a review copy of the unit, we�ll let you know how it performs.

If your presentations depend on fancy animations and sound effects, the 9500's Presentations application is going to disappoint, but for those of us with more humble needs, this could be a useful utility.

Backup

We covered backing up to your PC in Part Three, but not everyone has access to a PC running the Nokia PC Suite Suite, so having this little on-board program to back up your data to an MMC card is actually quite useful. Even though I have my PC Suite running regular backups, I still maintain an MMC card purely for a backup.

If a device is mobile, then you can guarantee that the one time you need access to your backup, you�ll be hours (if not days) away from your PC� and that card backup might be just what you need to keep you going

Data Mover

A lot of people buying the 9500 are going to be upgrading from the 9210, and this is where Data Mover comes in useful. Running the application, you�ll get some text screens explaining what is going on, and you�ll be asked to beam a small application (Data Collector) onto your 9210. Run this on your 9210, connect to it using IrDa with the 9500, and watch your information get poured into your 9500.

Of course, if you know what you're doing, you can transfer your information and file set using PC Suite, with a combination of synchronisation and manual file transfer, but Data Mover is probably simpler for anyone unsure what to do. Having a simple route for upgrade might not be a point to talk about when you can mention Wi-Fi, but getting people up and running with a new phone is of paramount importance. Even though it�s an application you�ll use once and never look at again, Data Mover does the job perfectly.

Data Transfer

Absolutely useless for the individual user, but very, very tasty for a team of you in an office who all have 9500s. This little application allows you to synchronise your contacts and calendar information with another 9500, over Bluetooth or infrared. Not everything gets shared, because one of the options you have in the calendar is to mark an entry as �private� so it will not be synchronised � so you can hide all your night time encounters from your colleagues. It�s just as simple to use as the Data Mover application. Run the app, choose who to sync to and press �sync.� It works, does the job, and should prove a big selling point to many.

Modem

Finally, the modem application. For all the singing and dancing of the 9500, this little gem brings a little bit of realism to the device. Yes, you have email on the phone, and Word (Documents) and Web. And yes you can (with some caveats) do all your office work from the device. But deep down, a lot of people will still carry around a laptop because, well, they have to. For work reason, personal reasons, or just so they can have it with them on the plane to watch some DVD�s.

And the 9500 is still the perfect phone, because with a flick of a button it turns into a standalone modem that connects to your computer with Bluetooth, infrared or a direct cable connection, and talks to the world over GSM Data, GPRS or EDGE. So no matter the bells and whistles, someone out there is going to like the 9500 just because it�s a nice fast modem for their Windows laptop�

In conclusion

Summing up a device of the scope (and price) of the Nokia 9500 in a single paragraph isn't easy; after all, even this review had to be spread over five parts. There's certainly a lot of functionality on all fronts, most of which works as advertised. There are the disappointments, to be sure, such as the slightly smaller keyboard, the compatibility problems in Documents and Sheet, the lack of speed when launching new applications, the font size limits in several main apps and the inflexibility in Messaging. But thankfully these are mainly software issues and most will be addressed by Nokia and Symbian in future firmware updates. Most importantly, there are no real showstoppers. If you're prepared to work around a few of the 9500's foibles, you'll find that it really does live up to its Communicator moniker, giving you (more or less) everything you ever wanted, all in the one device.

Living With the 9500 - A Long Term View

2005-01-14T17:09:29+01:00

The Nokia 9500 has been around for a good few months now, so we thought that after our monster review, it would be nice to ask some of the rest of the All About Symbian team what they thought of Nokia�s new high end business machine. Both Hayden and Jordan were long term users of the 9210, but left for other phones through �shiny gotta have it syndrome� or the 9210 wearing out. So how does the 9500 compare?

Hayden "Switchblade" Smith

Now I'm a sentimental bastard, and if it weren�t for the fact that it died, I'd still be using my 9210. So there I am pondering over my list of the differences between my beloved 9210 and the 9500, preparing to rant at full steam (He�s good at that � Rafe).

Unfortunately ranting is rather hard. The only glaring problem is the lack of a Spellchecker in the Word Processor, and my only real complaint is that it's too small. No longer is my phone a useful weapon in an attack situation, no more can I club my assailant unconscious while using the speakerphone to call 999. On a serious note the size issue leaves me finding the device slightly harder to type on which, coupled to the awful tactile response of the keyboard, means typing is awkward. It�s easier on a desk but on the move the design leads to many typos.

Nonetheless as I sit here in a train below the English Channel on my way to France, I can't help being impressed with it. The multitasking functions far better than before and I'm using the media player to listen to some ambient funk MP3s while I use the word processor to type. Even better I can now close the device and the music keeps playing at speakerphone volume. The 9500 is a fine replacement for my long in the tooth Walkman (which after 4 years is starting to flag). A totally competent replacement for the 9210 which despite keyboard issues is improved in almost every area, it's faster, the screen is clearer (and I remember being similarly impressed comparing the 9210 one to my laptop), and the PC suite a big improvement over the last one too.

Though little third party software is available (always the way with a new device), I'm already finding most of what I need. I can edit my website on the 9500 and upload it easily, a task which I never found apps I was happy with for doing this on the 9210. I can chat with my friends using IRC, ICQ, MSN or other popular networks, all over a variety of connections from Wi-Fi to dial up. Perfect for keeping in touch when I'm abroad in hotels.

Some things change your life, and others you change your life to fit them. The iPod is a perfect example of the latter. I know a few people who got them because they are fashionable, and now seem to go out of their way to find reasons to use it because it's only an expensive overhyped Walkman when the Sun goes down. The Nokia Communicator on the other hand does change your life. The 9210 was so useful and replaced a laptop, a mobile phone and numerous bits of paper that I carried with me wherever I went. The 9500 replaces just one item - the 9210 - but in 3 or so years I had it, it became invaluable.

Just as I see the 9500 becoming.

Jordan "Jizzo" Holt

We've all been waiting for the 9500 to arrive for quite some time now. I wasn't sure what to expect before it was announced, as past Nokia upgrades on different Symbian phones didn't offer much of an improvement. So I was pleasantly surprised to see Wi-Fi and Edge included on the spec sheet and a smart new looking Communicator.

I've now been using the 9500 for a little over a month. I must admit that I half expected it to be something completely new and revolutionary with all new bells and whistles. When I actually started using it for the first time I realised that it's still very similar to the 9210. Technically a lot has changed, the CPU has got faster, the UI has been updated, but all the basic applications that were so useful in the pervious model remain. With a fair few new additions to the hardware like Wi-Fi and GPRS. The lack of GPRS really was what stopped me using the 9210I � so this addition alone was welcome.

There are at the moment a few teething problems to note. The refresh of the screen when opening an application isn't what you'd call lightning quick and I've seen many people complain about this. Personally I don't see this as a big issue, the application or screen refresh takes 3-6 seconds which on the face of things isn't that long. Internet browsing (even via a 1mb ADSL connection over Wi-Fi) isn't particularly quick and is something that needs addressing. I'm not sure if this is a problem with early firmware that could be later fixed, but again it's certainly not something that would make me choose a different smartphone or OS.

On the software side of things applications are still a little thin on the ground, but we are starting to see a steady flow of useful applications. The bundled software CD-Rom has all the basics such as ZIP Archiving from Epocware, and an Adobe Acrobat software. And SFCave even works now the OPL runtime has been ported - which seems to have been the main reason for me buying the 9500 (Well SFCave is getting the more use than any other application at the moment).

To sum things up, at the moment the 9500 is actually more than I need, even to the point where I�m questioning if I actually need to carry a laptop around to some places. There are other devices that offer the same if not better specifications than the Communicator, but in my opinion none of them come close to the 9500 with it's "real" keyboard and solid applications, and compatibility with my PC and the existing 9210 software libraries.

First Steps With Symbian

2005-01-04T02:00:32+01:00

First Steps With Symbian OS

So, have you got a nice shiny new smartphone phone for Christmas? And you've found this site? Good. Let's take a few first steps in the big wide world of Symbian.

What phones are Symbian Powered?

Series 60 (The Nokia Interface)
Nokia N-Gage, 6600, 3650, 3660, 7650, 7610, Siemens SX-1, Sendo X and many, many more.

UIQ (Sony Ericsson Interface)
Sony Ericcson P910, P900, P800, Motorola A920/A925/A1000 (on the "3" Network).

Series 80
Nokia Communicator 9210, 9210i and 9290, Nokia Communicator 9300, 9500.

What Can It Do

Lots. These smartphones are pocket computers, that have just as much power as the early Pentium PC's that were dream machines just five year ago. You've got storage memory from 4MB on the 7650 and 3650, all the way up to 1GB with an MMC card in the Nokia 9500. As a rule of thumb, a 100K application�Symbian OS is about the same as a 5MB application on a PC, so�even a small-memoried�smartphone�should comfortably hold 15-20 reasonable applications or games.

What Are Good Applications To Start With

For Series 60
Symbianware have Stacker, an application that takes the applications and compresses them so they take up less room in your phone's memory. WildPalm have a Gameboy emulator, that allows you to run Gameboy games on your phone. Finally, look at Epocware's Handy Book, that can allow you to read Palm .DOC format eBooks - there are thousands of books available from Memoware.

For UIQ
Cesinc's QuickOffice�lets you open, read and edit Microsoft Word and Excell Spreadsheets on your smartphone - muh more useful than the built in file viewers. OggPlay is a replacement music file player - the OggVorbis format is much more efficient than MP3, see 3-Lib for more details. Finally, for some fun, have a look at Cascata Games, for a wide selection of classic board and strategy game. Checkers and Omar Sharif Bridge are particularly recommended.

Where Can I Visit
Well you've found here! So make sure you visit the Forums and join in with the chat, ask questions, and get involved. My-Symbian is another community site, which focuses on software releases and updates. Mobitopia provides a wide ranging look at the whole Mobile Device market, not just Symbian, and it's a good read as well.
Enjoy Symbian, and enjoy All About Symbian. You've got one of the greatest and most powerful phones on the market. Stick with us and find out how to get the best out of it.
For Communicators
FreEPOC have a lot of free software. Two highlights include�ABP�(A Banking Manager) and Vexed (a lovely puzzle game). RMR Software have lots of good quality apploications. RMRTask is a full To-Do application, with a lot of functionality.�

All I Got For Christmas Was This Symbian Smartphone

2004-12-31T20:13:47+01:00

Now all the festivities are over, there are probably a lot of new Symbian OS owners coming to the site and trying to work out what their new phone can do. So we thought that between us we'd be able to give you a little bit of an introduction. The short answer is your phone is a computer and can do anything it's programmed to do. The slightly longer answer is that there is such a rich tapestry to Symbian OS that even this site is finding more and more to write about everyday - but you couldn't do worse than start with our Quick Guide to Symbian OS. You've joined probably one of the quickest growing technological areas for 2005. Have a look round our site (and don't forget the Forums) and welcome to All About Symbian.

Nokia 9500 Communicator

Leaving aside the obvious, including consummating your love affair with the Communicator in an orgy of opening and closing the unit and generally admiring it, and syncing over your PIM bits and pieces, the first things to do are those that you couldn't on your old smartphone or handheld, be it an ancient Psion, a clunky old 9210, a cool-but-limited P900 or a common-or-garden Series 60 device.

Multitasking may be a geeky computer term that you've logged but never really got your brain around, but with the 9500 it's time to sit up and take notice. Owning a handheld that multitasks properly means almost never having to wait. It also means that you can switch between different instances of the same program, for example three Documents, cycling between them with a single press of the appropriate hardware button. The trick to achieving all this is to only 'exit' a program when you're absolutely sure you're not going to need it again for a while. The rest of the time, simply launch applications from Desk (or documents from File Manager), leaving them open in memory for quick access later on. You'll find a quick list of things currently in memory (RAM) on the left hand side of the main menu in every app, ready for browsing and switching. Or you can simply use the usual Desk shortcuts, whichever happens to be faster.

Next up is impressing the heck out of yourself by getting online at true broadband speeds. If you've got broadband on your desktop, of course, this won't be very novel, but for the rest of us, why not excuse yourself from Strictly Come Dancing and go 'war driving'? Essentially you cruise round your neighbourhood, looking at your 'Control panel | Connections | Wireless LAN | Networks' display. When you spot a 'Good' signal, look at its details. There's a good chance that it's marked as 'Open', which means that you're in luck. Switch back to Web and choose 'Easy WLAN' as your access point, picking the network name you just found. Surf away, at speeds up to ten times those of your desktop dial-up link. Of course, the 9500's processor's not up to rendering really huge pages, but you'll still be impressed how quickly things come up or download. And all for free, too.

Proper multimedia support is also something you may not be used to. Nor will you on the 9500 unless you dip into your pocket again. Run, don't walk, to your nearest (or online) accessory stockist and get the HDS-3 stereo headset. Being able to play crystal clear stereo MP3 music files in the background while you're working in Messaging or Documents or Sheet -wherever you are - is just so incredibly cool.

Finally, wander round your home or office, muttering 'It's a phone... [open it] No, it's a laptop... [close it] No, it's a phone...' ad infinitum. Guaranteed to really impress (and annoy) everyone in sight....

N-Gage and N-Gage QD

The N-Gage Arena is probably your first port of call (after visiting All About N-Gage!). Get yourself a sign-in name and don�t forget this is going to be your screen name in all the online games you play, so make it something you can be proud of. There are two areas in the Arena you should visit straight away.

The first is the Demo Games area, where you can download and install single level versions of Pathway to Glory (a wartime strategy game), Asphalt: Urban GT (an arcade driving game) and Colin McRae Rally for free. Unless you got those games for Christmas. All of them are great adverts for the N-Gage and straight away you�ve got three really high quality games to play � all the time thinking, "this is on my phone�"

Check out the Fan Packs as well � these allow you to customise the look and feel of your device, with themed wallpapers, sounds, ringtones and MMS animations.

Of course, the main thing you need to realise is that your N-Gage or N-Gage QD is a Series 60 device, which means you can read up on the Series 60 section once you�ve finished the demo games and fan packs from the N-Gage website. And if you�re browsing the web and see Series 60, that means you.

Series 60

If Series 60 ran on computers rather than phones then it�d be massive, with over 18 million units out there. The surprising thing is the number of people who have no idea what Series 60 (on top of Symbian OS, of course) can do, and that you can add a huge number of extra applications to the phone.

Of course with all these applications going on, you�ll find navigating the Menu screen of icons can get a bit awkward. So rather than tap the button to take you there (technically this is the System button), hold it down. You�ll get a little pop-up strip of icons that show all the applications currently running. Scroll through and click on one and you�ll be taken straight to it. Of course this assumes that when you�re finished with an application you�ve just tapped the Menu key to go somewhere else. Try not to actually 'Exit' applications if you can help it, to make getting back to them much quicker.

A number of Series 60 phones ship with the Opera Web Broswer (mainly the newest ones) but if you�ve not got it on your device, then you�ll want to pop along to�Opera and grab one of the best mobile web browsers on the planet. But no matter the browser you have, don�t forget that you can get All About Symbian on your phone by going to http://mobile.allaboutsymbian.com/.

It�s always worthwhile browsing the All About Symbian Software Store to see what�s new and interesting. I�ll point out two apps you might like to look at. Like any computer, your Series 60 phone has a system of folders and files that make it run. And like any modern computer interface, Series 60 tries to hide this from you as much as possible (which is most of the time). Domi Hugo�s Fexplorer is a freeware File Explorer that allows you to browse your phone, launch files, cut, copy and paste them, and generally feel a little bit more in control.

Agile Messenger is worth a look as well. While Series 60 devices have email, they don�t have anything that allows you to connect to MSN Messenger or any of the other instant messanging systems (such as Yahoo, AOL and ICQ). It�s free, and only uses a small amount of bandwidth while you�re chatting.

UIQ

While Series 60 grabs the limelight and the headlines, it�s often the UIQ devices that show what Symbian OS can do. There are only a handful of phones at the moment: The Sony Ericsson P800, P900 and P910 and the Motorola A925 and A1000 are the only commercially available models right now.

But there are�a lot more third party applications available for UIQ than Series 60. Maybe that�s because UIQ is much closer to a �proper� computer than the 'aimed at the mass market' interface of Series 60. In any case your first port of call should be to grab a copy of SMan. This is an invaluable system tool, showing you running processes, applications, free memory and more details on your phone than you can shake a stick at. We�ve reviewed it as well.

Just like Series 60, Opera is well worth a download. Sony Ericsson has an arrangement with Opera so any Px00 owners can install the web browser for free from the Opera UIQ Page.�The touchscreen interface of UIQ coupled with the ability of Opera to reshape a web page to fit the 208 pixel width screen gives you an almost PC-like browsing ability.

There�s a huge range of add on software, and we�ve already looked at some of the best freeware apps for UIQ (which includes SMan) in this article.

The only real fault of the UIQ devices is endemic in modern pdas and smartphones � the stylus is way too short to be comfortable. If you�re an old Psion Series 5 or 5mx user, the best thing you can do is dig the pointer out from that device and slip it inside the carry case. Alternatively a quick search on Proporta�s Stylii Page�should find you our recommended pointers.

External Articles

Steve Litchfields Top Tips for the Nokia 9500, N-Gage and UIQ Smartphones.

Nokia 6260 Review

2004-12-20T16:49:06+01:00

The last review system I had was a HP Ipaq, which turned up in a box the size of a small car, so it was quite refreshing to see the Nokia arrive in a box not much bigger than a couple of paperbacks. Once unpacked, the most obvious thing you notice is that, for the first time, Nokia have gone for a flip style phone, but true to its quirky design roots, the 6260 has a few tricks up its sleeve. The lid not only flips, but with a quick twist, it swivels round and folds back on itself, to form a mini tablet. This is nothing new in PDAs and Laptops, Sony have been doing it on high end Clies for years, but it�s the first time I have seen it on a phone. You can also stop the swivel halfway, and with the camera lens being on the side, the 6260 can be used like one of those mini video cameras with a flip out screen.

Closed, the phone is almost exactly the same size as an Ericsson T68, so it fits easily into a pocket, and doesn't make too much of an unsightly bulge. Opened, the flip is dominated by the bright 65k screen, which is the standard 176*208 pixels. Just under the screen, still on the flip are the standard soft buttons, the Menu and Edit keys and the navigation D-Pad. The base is taken up by the normal phone keypad and a large area that looks for all the world like the sort of wrist rest you see on a laptop. With all that spare space, its a shame the keys weren�t made a bit bigger, but it does give you a button free area to hold when in the camcorder mode. On one side of the base is the camera lens, and the other has the call volume controls and a dedicated shutter button. Along the top is a standard Nokia Charger socket and the hands free plug.

Under the battery cover on the back we find another first for Nokia, the reduced size memory card is hot swap-able, no more removing the battery to change cards. The phone is supplied with a 32mb memory card, and although Nokia only specify up to 128mb cards can be used, it swallowed my 512mb card and worked perfectly. The SIM card slides neatly under the memory card, but you do have to remove the battery to change this.

On the subject of the battery, Nokia have excelled themselves here, unlike any other Series 60 phone, this one switches off the screen when the flip is shut which means that the battery life is much better than, say, a 6600. In the three weeks I have had the phone I have got up to five days use before needing to charge it! Obviously this rather depends on what you are doing, but even for reasonably heavy use, charging every three days is quite feasible. When you do need to charge it, any standard Nokia charger will work and only takes about an hour from almost flat.

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In common with other Series 60 phones, the 6260 has only 6mb of memory built in, which, initially looks to be a bit sparse, but Symbian applications tend to be very small, and as long as you have a memory card to install extra applications and data such as multimedia files onto, it's not a problem. Everything can be installed to a card, Ring tones, MP3 files, Video files, Images and Applications, so the internal memory can really be left well alone.

The phone is running the latest version 2 of Series 60, and looks almost identical to every other Series 60 phone I have used. There are obviously some differences internally though, as some third party software doesn't seem to work, most notably Active Desk and Active Today, which interfere with the call terminate and screen switch off when the flip is closed. Also I have heard of some camera or call related applications misbehaving or not even starting. My advice would be to check before investing in any add-on applications that they are compatible. Most authors are working on updates though, so this shouldn't be a problem for long.

According to TaskSpy, a neat free app that gives all sorts of details about what�s going on on the phone, the 6260 uses a ARM 1040 processor running at 123MHz. Whatever, it is plenty fast enough, there is never any lag in opening applications, searching contacts is instantaneous and even rendering web pages is pretty nippy. Note that the web browser is Nokia�s own, and not Opera as on the 6600. As far as video playback performance goes, the PC based conversion software does a good job, I was able to playback some recorded TV shows without any dropped frames, and the file size for an hour long show, shrunk from 577mb to a much more manageable 22mb on the phone.

A few more details for you, the phone has Bluetooth 1.1, IR, a VGA camera that supports up to 30 seconds of video, an FM stereo radio and MP3 and video playback (sadly not stereo!) using the Real Player Client. It comes with all the standard Series 60 applications, plus PowerPoint and Word viewers and a VPN client built in. The viewers are especially useful as it allows any documents sent via e-Mail to be opened for viewing, fire up Quickword or Quickpoint and any e-mail attachments show up in its browse list for reading. If you have a Bluetooth equipped projector you can even run a full scale presentation from the phone, or just check over changes someone has made to a slideshow. There are also a few network dependant utilities such as Presence, Chat, Push to Talk and Positioning which I have not been able to try out.

A copy of Nokia�s latest PC Suite is included in the box, which has improved beyond all recognition from the last time I used it. Now it�s a very slick application that controls everything from syncing PIM information with Outlook or Lotus Notes, to converting Multimedia files. It connects over Bluetooth, Infrared or cable and makes managing the data on your phone a very simple affair. All my contacts and Diary entries came over from Outlook without any problems, and even notes in Outlook were copied across, something Microsoft can't do on their Smartphone yet. The only glaring omission is that your Inbox can�t be synchronised, something I have found useful on Windows Mobile devices via Activesync.

In day-to-day use the phone is as good as you would expect any Nokia to be, placing and receiving a call is simple, Bluetooth headsets work well, supporting voice dialling, and even playback of MP3s through the headset, though I can�t think why you would want to, as the quality is pretty bad. Another good point is that signal reception is far better than my XDA II or MPX200. Call volume is very loud at maximum and the speakerphone works well. Battery life, as I have said before is very good, and the PDA and multimedia functions of the phone work really well, navigating your calendar or to-do list is quick and intuitive and always having a FM radio and camera available is quite handy. With the installation of Quick office and using my Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard, I can see this as direct replacement for my XDA II.

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Nokia make a big fuss in their promotional literature about the flip and swivel form factor, and with good reason. At first I thought it was a bit of a gimmick but the more I use it the more convinced I am that it�s a good idea. Fold the screen to its tablet mode and reading e-books or web pages becomes much easier, you can carry it in your pocket like this, and a quick glance shows you the phone status, tilt it up slightly and you can sit it on a desk to watch a video or, using the Bluetooth keyboard, enter lots of data. Swivel it into camcorder mode and you can take self-portraits or use it as a camera. Then spin the lid round and close the flip to protect the screen. All it really does is give the device a little bit more versatility, but I can't see any downside, so why not?

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Going back to the camera, whilst only being VGA quality, it does produce some good results, at least as good as the competition, and has a 2x digital zoom in both still and video mode. It won�t replace your stand-alone camera, but for quick snaps it�s more than adequate.

Over the past three weeks I have used this as my main phone and PDA and it has performed faultlessly, I have used it to play music and video, read e-Books, surf the Web and catch up on RSS feeds. It has managed my schedule, organised my tasks and allowed me to keep up to date with the news on the radio. I have taken pictures, and videos, kept my expenses up to date and checked some documentation in Word files that were e-mailed to me. I have also written this review on it using the Bluetooth keyboard. In short it has done everything my XDA can do and more, but in a much smaller package.

Is it better than any other Smartphone out there? Well it�s certainly the best Series 60 phone I have used, and, although it pains me to say it, it's far better than the MPX200 (not as stylish though). The Calendar and To-Do applications are streets ahead of Microsoft�s offerings, and the inclusion of viewers for Word and PowerPoint caters for business users straight out of the box. I haven�t tried the new Motorola or the SPV's yet, but from what I have read there doesn't seem to be anything there to worry the 6260. It can also hold its own as a multimedia device and a stand-alone PDA. The breadth of applications available for Series 60 means there is unlikely to be anything this phone can't do in the near future and gets my full recommendations as the best available at the moment.