It may not be a full production, boxed unit, but you won't believe how much detail Rafe has been able to get into in this, his hands-on with Nokia's latest and greatest, the N85. Look out in particular for the comparison photos between the N85 and other recent Nseries handsets - including the N79.
Following on from the launch of the N85, Ewan mulls over the use of a consistent design language in the N81/N96/N85/N78. It may not be to everybody's taste, but he reckons that it'll help a lot in the High Street, with quicker recognition of the brand by potential purchasers.
The gradual roll out of Ovi.com and Ovi services continues. Newly available is Ovi Sync which syncs contact, calendar, to-do and notes between your handset and the Ovi.com web site. The front page of Ovi.com is now personalised to show synced information and, optionally, images streams from Flickr and Share on Ovi. Read on for more.
Forum Nokia has published the official tech specs for the upcoming Nokia N79 and Nokia N96-3 (which is a variant of the N96 for the Americas). Oddly they don't list free RAM for either device, but that's possibly because the release firmwares aren't finished yet. You can also see the tech specs for the original Nokia N96 too.
Thanks to Rita for pointing all of us to Wapedia, something I'd totally forgotten about but which seems now to be much better and really useful. It's a low bandwidth, regularly converted version of the full Wikipedia site and it works really well in a mobile browser. Here's the full write-up by Rita over at the Symbian Guru site.
S60.com do like giving away themes occasionally and it's reassuring to know that they'll have been checked exhaustively rather than thrown together in 5 minutes. And in this case, their Windmill theme is available for all S60 handsets, from Nokia 6630 to N95. It's the latest download in their Exclusives section (needs free login first)
Utility developer Warelex has produced Wi-Fi enabled versions of its popular Mobiola Screen Capture, Mobiola Web Camera and Remote Control applications, claiming that the new connection method is "much better for presentation and frame rate". In addition, there are two new applications that I'd not heard of: Mobiola Headset and Mobiola Headset for Skype which (as they sound) make use of a S60 phone as a PC headset. Also worth noting is that Warelex is now part of SHAPE Services, another established Symbian OS developer.
T'Zer takes a look at the latest N-Gage release, but isn't at all impressed with what's on offer. It's not as good as The Sims: Pets that's also available on the next-generation N-Gage system and it's "possibly the worst game on the platform." Why? Read the review to find out.
With the influx of a series of new S60 phones from Samsung, there are serious questions to be asked about software compatibility, both intentional and unintentional, from the viewpoint of Nokia, S60, Samsung and the many third party developers. Richard Bloor has taken four of Samsung's latest handsets and tested their compatibility with a typical 'power user' set of applications. The results make interesting reading, especially so for the companies involved. Many challenges ahead, methinks....
S60 followers in virtual world Second Life might want to visit the Nokia Island today as the August edition of the 'Nokia Connected Worlds' virtual meeting is being held at 11am SL time (7pm UK time). Running for three hours this month, with a discussion of various social networks opening the event, followed by the Virtual Business Panel, with music from DJ Ren Diqui for the final hour and after part.
The Nokia 6650, previously a T-Mobile (EU) exclusive handset, is headed to the USA and will be carried by the operator AT&T. The AT&T variant supports the 850/1900 WCDMA bands and features AT&T Navigator and Music services. The 6650, which we reviewed here (T-Mobile variant), has a 2.0 megapixel camera, cover screen UI, integrated GPS and a high capacity (1500 mAh) battery.
Samsung's stream of S60 devices continues with the camera-centric G810, complete with optical zoom. Andew Galpin and Steve each take a week with the device in order to assess whether it can triumph over Nokia's N95 8GB and N82. And does it matter that it's 'not a Nokia?'
You might recall the discussions over Scott Foe's look at the future of gaming from the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. Well now you can see the whole talk online via the online video service, Vimeo. There's a number of areas that the article glossed over, so here's your chance to see Foe's unfiltered thoughts.
iPhone 3G owner and blogger Tarek Esber has had enough of Apple's device and has gone back to an S60 phone. Here he lists in articulate detail the nine reasons why the S60 device is superior for his needs. An interesting read (via this week's Carnival of the Mobilists)
Yesterday's N79 and N85 launches were different in that there was no physical event - the whole thing was virtual. Leaving aside the preview day and annoying leaks, does the use of a virtual launch represent a successful new style for Nokia? Ewan thinks so and was quite impressed, reckoning that Nokia has found their own 'voice'.
The puppy simulator Dogz is now available from the N-Gage application's showroom section. If you can't see it in the showroom, select Options and then Update Now. If you still can't see it, click on Available Games and then scroll to the bottom of the list. (Thanks to ccraig for alerting us!)
Popular web broadcast service Qik, which allows users to stream live video from their handset to the internet, picked up a round of funding this morning from business partners Marc Andreessen (Ning) and Ben Horowitz (VP at HP). There's no word on how much was invested beyond the rather bland '[it's] significant.' Andreessen and Horowitz now join the board of the company.
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