Happy new year

Happy new year to all. The coming year promises to be an exciting one in mobile technology, HSDPA becoming more common in handsets is something I am looking forward to. In the UK, the X Series from Three was a move to take the data market with a set of services that people should be able to just use, without need of understanding the technology behind it. It will be interesting to see how the other networks respond (If they bother?)

Personally I am looking forward to the release of the N95. I really hope it delivers on its promise. And there is one comment that sticks in my mind. A person from Nokia, talking about the N95 "Yeah, it's good. But wait til you see what we announce in 2007!"

With any luck some of those announcements will be at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona in February. I'm looking forward to that.

So to all I wish you the very best for 2007. And those of you who won't be out partying, keep an eye on the Nokia New Years Eve Party webcast.

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A last minute Christmas present

For Nokia N80 and N73 users. Over on S60.com news of a 2D barcode reader. Tommi raves about the possibilities of 2D barcodes. Give the app a try, download the free barcode image generator and see what you can use it for.

The barcode app is currently available to download via the downloads/catalogue app on the N73/N80.

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Merry Christmas

It's been a quiet month. And now it's time to break for Christmas and the new year. So to all, I wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy new year. See you all in 2007.

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Smartphone Grid

I love this grid. It's provided by Steve Lichfield from AAS. If you're between two minds and not sure which smartphone is for you, enter the importance of certain features and at the end of the list you'll get a recommendation of which phone you should consider. Useful resource.

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Nokia New Years Eve

Nokia are teaming up with MSN to broadcast their New Years Eve Party via MSN webcast. The Nokia New Years Eve party is a group of five concerts in major cities across the world, spanning various time zones as each heads towards the new year.

It all starts in Hong Kong's Harbour City Ocean Terminal, followed by Mumbai's Andheri Stadium, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro and rounding off the night in New York.

Acts signed for the various concerts include Black Eyed Peas, Scissor Sisters, Nelly Furtado, John Legend, and Atomic Kitten. The concerts will be streamed live and on demand at no cost to viewers through a Nokia-branded experience at http://www.nokianewyearseve.com

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Carnival of the Mobilist - Best post of the year

I was looking around this week for the latest installment in the Carnival of the Mobilist. But there isn't one.

Apparently this week was to be a summary edition, detailing the best posts of the year. Now, it is going to work slightly differently. COTM are asking bloggers to send in their best post of the year. It is your own favourite post made on your blog, written about mobile. It does not need to have been an article mentioned on a previous carnival.

For full detail on how this will work, head over the the COTM site here.

The prestige of winning best post of the year would probably be enough for most, but on top of that there will be a prize of $500 too, generously offered by Khosla Ventures.

Good luck to all who enter, the competition is sure to be tough.

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N80 to N80ie

First point, don't try this if you are bothered that you may 'brick' your phone. Don't try this if you are bothered about the warranty on your phone. It's possible you can brick the handset, and it will void your warranty. But you can now upgrade an N80 to the N80ie firmware. I found a detailed instruction list here. All the information you need to update your phone, and files to do so, are detailed in the thread.

The changes to the N80ie are minimal. I really wanted to try it out for the sake of trying it out :) You get Yahoo Go in the download catalogue, which is a bonus for those that didn't already have it. I had managed to get a file and have been happily using Yahoo Go for a while now. If anyone wants a copy of the file, mail me and I'll send it over. You also get the WLAN wizard shortcut on the front screen, which you can see in the screenshots below. The WLAN wizard is available for N80 users, as detailed here. The only difference being you don't get the onscreen shortcut on an N80 but it's just as easy to add the WLAN wizard to your active standby icons, really. You also get an additional folder added to the menu of the phone, titled Internet. Some people lose this folder when they restore a backup made to the memory card, if you do all the files are in the 'My Own' folder.

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N95 delayed?

Possibly. The N95 is a top end product, and I'll state outright now, I'd rather it be delayed a few more weeks than release with shoddy, bug-ridden firmware. This is one handset Nokia can't afford to mess up on launch. It has to work, from day one.

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N95 live pics

Finally managed to get my hands on the N95 last night, at the WM Christmas party. Still not the finished product, so it's not fair to comment too much on the software. It just increases the desire to own the phone even more. It is so light, the screen is huge, the keypad is well set out, and there are some really nice menu customisation options. The one comment last night was "S40 is dead, long live S60"

Pictures were taken, and are available at the WM forum:

N95 thread

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Seven years and on.....

Congratulations to My-Symbian celebrating 7 years online. One of the original interest sites and still one of the best.

To celebrate the occasion they are offering promotions on software purchased through their online store. Details here and here.

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Official N95 product page

N95

Is there anyone out there who is not interested in this handset? A must for all mobile geeks n freaks.

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N73 Music Edition

I have a generic N73 handset. I recently changed the firmware to the N73 music edition. I like to have music on the phone and the interface for the new music player is so much nicer than the old player.

Slight problem is the music player is always open. Nice that it pops open so quickly when you hit the media button, but a pain when you get the 'Memory low, close some applications' warning! I had hoped they were a thing of the past. It's not even as if I have many applications open, just the web browser and screensnap for taking screenshots, and Real player if I stream a video.

I found the other day there is a way to close the music player, however. If you go to the equaliser option in the settings menu of the music player and select exit, the player will close down. A quick check of the open applciations will show it no longer listed. I don't particularly mind having the music player always open, but if it's going to interfere with the operation of the handset, then I do mind. A simple 'close' option will do. Maybe in the next firmware upgrade.

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TinyTube is back

I posted the other day in this thread that Tiny Tube was no more

Well it seems it's back. You can view and search videos, film trailers, etc. Shots below:

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COTM 56

The latest edition of the Carnival has hit the web, and as ever there is a stack of good reading. Enjoy.

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Watching Youtube via Orb

Now that Tinytube is no more there has appeared another method for watching Youtube (Google, Yahoo & Daily Motion) videos on a mobile phone.

It's done using Orb 2.0 You need the Orbthis plugin. Once done you get a 'Online Videos' link:



















You can then search for a video clip:



















Once done, click on the link to the video clip of your choice and view:



















Not sure how long this solution will last, so enjoy it while you can.

Source

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