AT&T today officially confirmed that they would be carrying the Nokia E71 on their network in the form of the E71x. The E71x comes in black and, in contrast to the E71, runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (S60 3.2 on Symbian OS 9.3). The phone supports the US 3G bands (850/1900 Mhz) and retains the WiFi connectivity and GPS from the E71. It comes with a variety of AT&T services including AT&T Navigator (turn by turn GPS navigation), AT&T Music, XM Radio, CV-stream, Xpress Mail, Mobile Instant Messaging and Video share. The E71x will cost $99, on a 2 year contract, after a mail-in rebate ($50).
Nokia is apparently clearing down stocks of its older smartphones - in this case what I'd call 'classic' smartphones - the still awesome N82 (in black or silver) is in the Nokia UK shop at the bargain price of £199 including VAT (sales tax), SIM/contract-free and unlocked. Staggering. The black version's there too, though 'Out of stock' messages have popped up recently - your mileage may vary. Anyway, grab them while you can. Xenon flash, candy bar form factor, accelerated graphics, you know you want to....
In a follow up to my popular series, from August 2008, investigating the practicalities of a S60 smartphone owner switching to an Apple Mac as the desktop counterpart, I report back after a couple of months of living the Mac life for real. What improvements have their been to the software available and does using a Mac and OS X now offer a more seamless smartphone experience than a PC and Windows?
In All About Symbian Insight 63 (AAS Podcast 120) Rafe gives some insight into iPlayer, Steve talks about YouTube's S60 client application and both talk about their views on Samsung's Omnia HD. You can listen to AAS Insight 63 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Virgin Mobile, a UK MVNO (virtual network), is selling the Nokia E63 for £149 PAYG. The news is worthy of note, both because of the low price and its availability on a 'pay as you go' basis (rather than a contact). A similar example is the Nokia 6124 available on Vodafone for £75. Both of these demonstrates how Symbian devices are becoming more affordable as they are further pushed down into the mid tier market, potentially increasing their addressable market.
After almost eighteen months of silence, a Nokia forum moderator has finally made an official statement about the status of N-Gage on the N73, N93 and N93i. In short, N-Gage will NOT be coming to those phones. As many predicted, the relatively older OS versions and less powerful hardware on those models apparently weren't up to the job of handling next gen N-Gage games. The low sales of the N93/N93i wouldn't have helped either. Our editorial thoughts on this issue are below. (Click here to see which phones ARE getting N-Gage.)
Long-time Arena user Clintonjeff has been one of the first in the world to receive the new business-oriented Nokia E75 smartphone. This is the first Eseries device to be compatible with N-Gage, and CJ has looked at how well it copes with gaming. Apparently not very well. There are quite a few "issues" such as the N-Gage icon being hidden too deeply in the menu system (in the "Media" folder!), restricted gaming key options, and a client that doesn't work in horizontal mode. Check the link out for more details and see below for CJ's E75 N-Gage video. It's a real shame that N-Gage is making such a disastrous debut on Eseries. If anyone from Nokia is reading this, take a look at CJ's article and make note of what needs fixing (the problems would mostly be very easy to fix too).
It seems the E75 fairy missed AAS out (an admin mistake, apparently), but fear not for Clinton Jeff has stepped up to the plate with a nicely opinionated and illustrated look at Nokia's latest Eseries qwerty slider. A man after my own heart, he has torn into the device in his first 24 hours and presents a long list of pluses and minuses.
Running S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, Nokia has launched the 5730 XpressMusic, with E75-style side-sliding qwerty keyboard. There's a 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and GPS, plus the “Say and Play” feature first introduced in the Nokia 5320. It has the same customised home screen to directly access contacts and Ovi services, as seen in the Nokia 5630. More below, including photos.
In All About Symbian Insight 62 (AAS Podcast 118) we briefly discuss the recently released S60 5.0 SDK (and consider broader uses), follow up on kinetic scrolling on the N97, get Ewan's view point on Monopoly for the N-Gage. In the last part of the podcast Steve and Ewan relate their experience of video recording on the N85 versus the N95. You can listen to AAS Insight 62 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Six months on, it's time for another update to my semi-definitive(!) table of S60 hardware through the ages, over at 3-Lib. As ever, it's not perfect, so be gentle with me and if you can fill in any of the 'Unknown' blanks then please get in touch at slitchfield@gmail.com. Thanks.
The Nokia Events site is showcasing an upcoming Nokia virtual launch (online only) event, which is related to music. It's likely we'll hear about new XpressMusic device(s), as well well as updates around Nokia's music strategy. The announcement will be made at 10am CET (9am GMT). DRM-free music in the Nokia Music Store, updates to Comes with Music, new market roll out plans, price cuts? Let the speculation begin!
Here's the final batch of high resolution images from Mobile World Congress 2009 from Rafe. Immaculately done as usual, click through any image for the full size JPG. Featured here are the Nokia E55 (compact qwerty keyboard), the Nokia E75 (side-sliding qwerty) and Nokia 5630 XpressMusic (mid-range music phone, with 'Say and Play'). Enjoy. See the comments threads on the individual galleries.
In All About Symbian Insight 61 (AAS Podcast 117) we look back at some of the software highlights of MWC (including a quick N97 mention), discuss the Nokia Netbook rumours / ideas, talk about Ovi Contacts and go over the latest N-Gage developments. You can listen to AAS Insight 55 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Rafe's been busy sorting through his snaps again - in these three gorgeous galleries he brings us close-up photos of the Nokia N86 8MP (great build materials, arguably best camera ever in a phone), the 6710 Navigator (GPS, compass, zoom strip) and the 6720 Classic (active noise cancellation), all launched at the event. Click through and enjoy each of these. And then buy Rafe a humungous beer the next time you see him.
