N95 review from My-Symbian

Another review on the N95, this time from Michael Jerz over at My-Symbian It's a very well structured, detailed review. Click here to see what he has to say.

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Nokia in the future

Phil posted an interesting video clip over on the S60 blogs. I followed the link through to the Nokia design community YouTube page. It's always interesting to see what passes through the imagination of the people who will be designing communication products over the next few years. Take a look:

Achieving together


Connecting Simply


Inspiring Senses


Sharing discoveries

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Steve from AAS tries out Smart2go

Here is a video clip from Steve Litchfield from All About Symbian trying out Smart2go on his N93.

I have downloaded and installed Smart2Go on my N73 but have not yet used it. I only drive to and from work daily, and around to friends at the weekend. Anywhere else I need to go around London or the Home Counties, 10 years of daily driving in field sales has given me a good knowledge of roads and routes.

Steve makes a good point in the video about the charging for Smart2go. If I were to go somewhere where I was not so confident of the routes, then Smart2Go would become a valuable application. And as I can pay for it as and when I need it, Smart2Go becomes a economical alternative to other Satnav solutions.

Edit: HTML appears to be broken, so to view the video, pop over to AAS

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MTP IP

I saw an interesting press release today, from a company called Fotonation. They're promoting some software called MTP IP. Basically, this software will allow mobile phones to transfer large files at speeds up to 10 times faster than transfer via Bluetooth. For example, a 3 megapixel picture can be transferred from phone to PC in just 0.3 seconds.

As phones gain more functionality, richer features, the option for fast file transfer is going to become ever more necessary. It will be intresting to see how well options like MTP IP actually work. Fotonation will be presenting MTP IP at a forthcoming trade show in Las Vegas during March, running on an N80 and N93.

Full press release here.

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Hiding calendar entries

The option to hide calendar entries is one feature I would like to see implemented in a S60 more than any other, right now.

You can see from the screenshot, on my phone I have Active Standby turned on. Because of this, you can see that tomorrow I have a meeting with the OWG. What I would like to see the calendar offer, is a feature where I can hide upcoming appointments.

It could work like this; I set an appointment, and one of the options is for me to show when I want the appointment to appear on the screen. Maybe choose from 7 days, 5 days, 3 days, 1 day and never. Never, because sometimes I might not want an appointment to show on the screen of the phone.

The way it stands currently, if I don't want appointments to show on the main screen I have to turn Active Standby off. But I like Active Standby, and the shortcut options. So, if this could ever be implemented in a future S60 firmware, I would certainly appreciate it.

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N800 Review

Over on Mobile Whack, you'll find a neat review they've posted up about the N800.

I have to admit, the N800 is one of those handsets that personally, I don't think I'm going to find a use for. Still for those with an interest, check the review out.

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3GSM

So I'm back from 3GSM. It was a great event. I'm upset I was unable to get a connection when in Spain, though. I'd planned to use my WIND Italia SIM. €8 a month gets me 300MB of data to use outside Italia. Perfect. At least, it was. It seems that WIND no longer offer this deal. So I found myself with no data connection for uploading pictures.

But enough of the moaning, and on with the phones. For me, the event is all about the handsets. The main hall is packed with all the main manufacturers, and some of the bit part players. Of the products on show, Nokia took the event for me. Samsung ran them close, the Ultra Edition II range looks very good. Of the other members of the big four, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, I was very disappointed, especially with Motorola. The only handset they had that could be of any slight interest was the MotoRIZR Z8 But I wasn't even allowed to take one photo! Shocking, Motorola, not the way to win any new friends.

It was good to see the handsets SE announced last week at the event, but I still don't feel any inspiration to the new line-up. After last weeks new handset announcements I had a feeling they were holding back the big announcements to the actual 3GSM event, but not so. Where's the 5 megapixel Cybershot? The Handycam phone? The Vaio phone? The PSP Phone? (Surely Sony will brand handsets with these names as they already have with the Cybershot and Walkman?) I guess we'll have to wait that bit longer.

And to Nokia. The big new handset announcements, E90, E65, E61i were all there. So was the N77, and the 6110 navigator.

I don't usually go on for the ESeries phones on this blog. After all, there's plenty of dedicated users out there with their own blogs for ESeries. But I'm a fan of S60, and I've been a user of the E60 in the past (fine handset, under rated in my opinion) So for this occasion I'm going to include some pics of the new ESeries handsets, E90, E61i and E65.

The E90 should appeal to all communicator fans. It is packed with virtually everything you could want in a mobile phone. The E61i seems to give the one thing E61 users have ever asked for, and that's a camera. And the dark horse of the range, the E65. I can see this handset just slipping itself quietly into the pockets of many business users over the coming months. It is sleek, it is slim, it is compact. It feels good in the hand, has S60 simplicity. A winner.

Two other handsets, the N93i and the N76 were there. It was good to get hands on with the handsets, but they don't do much for me. I'm not really a fan of clamshell phones. The N93i is a niche product, but to be fair it looks good. The N76 is extremely slim, definitely RAZResque. Bit wide though, something I never liked about the RAZR either.

Finally, it is not new, but there was my handset, the N95. There's not a lot more you can say about this handset, apart from hurry up Nokia and get this out on the market. I'm starting to get impatient!

Onto the pics:

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S60 and sub folders

I'm just back from Barcelona, and I have some interesting pics and items to upload later on. But before I do, I've been catching up goings on whilst I've been away, and I found a very useful snippet on the S60 blogs. How to create a sub folder for S60 phones.

Currently, if you want to store items in a folder, and inside that folder create sub folders for further storage, you can't. So if you had a media folder, nad inside you wanted to seperate video, music, pictures, etc, you can't. Well, at least you couldn't. There is now a work around, which was posted on the Nokia discussion forums. Excellent work by mechanimal82 for finding the workaround

1. Create a new folder and call it whatever you want your sub-folder to be.

2. Move this folder to be in position 1 (top left of the main menu)

3. Place an app in position 5 (the default position for when you open up the menu)

4. highlight the app in position 5 and then press options (so that you can see the option to "Move to folder" ).

5. Now with the option menu open, press the power key and select "Offline". You'll notice that the menu is still open, and that the folder you created is highlighted in the top left of the screen.

6. Now select "Move to folder" and select which folder you want to contain your sub-folder.

And it works. See the screenshot below. I have a misc folder no located within my applications folder, where I can throw all the apps I never use. Fantastic work:

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Nokia N77

Nokia have confirmed release of the N77 today at the 3GSM conference. Full spec will be posted later, but the main feature of the handset is built in DVB-H support for digital TV. For other Nokia handsets announced, check out the 3GSM Blog

Stylish and affordable Nokia N77 to accelerate DVB-H mobile TV mainstream adoption

Nokia today introduced the Nokia N77 multimedia computer offering an optimized mobile TV experience in a compelling and compact form factor with complete Nokia Nseries functionalities. With the Nokia N77, the latest integrated DVB-H device in the Nokia Nseries range, operators now have greater choice of devices as they further develop their broadcast mobile TV platform to launch and attract more subscribers. The Nokia N77 enables living room TV as viewers have come to know and understand, but is now available in a small and beautifully designed package to take on the go.

"TV is the biggest media in the world and we are mobilizing it with the Nokia N77. The pocketable and affordable Nokia N77 further drives broadcast mobile TV based on DVB-H technology towards the mainstream market phase. The ability to watch live television on a mobile device has never been so easy," said Jonas Geust, head of Nokia Nseries Players Category, Multimedia, Nokia. "The wide 2.4" flat screen with up to 16 million colors and high quality stereo sound makes it the ideal personal mobile device for enjoying live TV and music on the move."

See what happens next
The dedicated TV key on the Nokia N77 gives you straight access to a world of DVB-H TV. It even remembers the last channel you were viewing when you switched off the TV. You can also set reminders to alert you when your program is starting and access it at the push of a button. Through the Program Guide in the mobile TV application you can view program information up to seven days, browse TV channels, purchase new channels if desired and select the TV program you are interested in.

By utilizing built-in interactive service functionality, like SMS voting for deciding what music video will be played next, it is very easy to make your voice heard. You can also take full advantage of 30 seconds replay and continue live TV watching after the replay clip.

Your music, your soundtrack, your way
With up to 2GB of memory and integrated stereo speakers, the Nokia N77 also features great mobile music experiences. The Nokia N77 offers storage of up to 1500 tracks. Enjoy your favorite DJs or discover a rich new world of music with Visual Radio. With support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA, no song should go unheard. For enhanced personal sound quality, simply connect the in-box earphone buds or use the Nokia Audio Adapter with standard 3.5 mm connector to hook up to a compatible headphone.

Much more than just entertainment
With practically all the applications you would expect from a true Nokia Nseries multimedia computer, including a 2 megapixel camera (1600 x 1200 pixels), the Nokia N77 is much more than just live TV - it's the key to an entire world of multimedia computing. Work or play, beneath its good looking exterior it has just about everything you need. Designed to work on 3G (WCDMA 2100 MHz), EDGE and GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) networks, with the Nokia N77 you can manage your day on the go with email, calendar and to-do lists.

The Nokia N77, based on S60 3rd Edition software on Symbian OS, is expected to start shipping during the second quarter of 2007 in countries where DVB-H services are available

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3GSM 2007

3GSM starts next week and I'm gonna be there on the Tuesday and Wednesday. I will post most generic stuff to the 3GSM Blog, but all the NSeries and S60 stuff will be right here. I'm aiming to post pictures 'on the fly' to the blog. If there is anything in particular you want to see let me know and I'll do my best to track it down.

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Rotateme

Rotateme is an application that allows you to rotate the screen layout of your S60 phone into widescreen, a feature that the E60 had, and that all S60 phones should come with as standard. There is a thread over at the Mobile Review forums here.

I've not had a chance to try it out myself yet, but one of the posts on the thread contains some screen shots.

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Nokia & Smart2Go

VIa a press release from Nokia, which is copied below. Nokia are to make the Smart2Go navigation and mapping platform available for download free of charge, from February 10th. Initially available for S60 and Windows Mobile, Nokia hope to expand the range upon which the platform will work in the near future.

Press release:

Nokia today announced that it is making its smart2go mapping and navigation platform, available for free download (www.smart2go.com), enabling millions of people to use the most comprehensive map coverage offered on a mobile device. The platform allows for mapping and routing in over 150 countries and has support for full turn-by-turn satellite navigation in over 30 countries. The application allows people to view where they are on a map, search for points-of-interests (POI) around them and create routes to get them there free of charge. Nokia plans to start offering the smart2go application for free, on Saturday, February 10th, for selected Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices initially and has plans to roll out support for most of the major mobile OS platforms including Nokia S60, Series 40, PocketPC, Linux and other Windows Mobile devices.

Nokia plans to pre-install the smart2go mapping and navigation application on all future Nokia Nseries multimedia computers under the name "Nokia Maps". Current owners of Nokia devices may also download Nokia Maps to their supported devices. And now, by paring your non-GPS enabled mobile device with a Nokia Wireless GPS Module LD-3W or other compatible GPS module, Nokia Maps can provide the same fantastic navigation experience for a broad range of Nokia devices.

The platform contains over 15 million POIs that help people explore the most interesting sights, restaurants or accommodations around them. Customers can select their favorite locations and send them to friends by multimedia message, Bluetooth wireless technology, infrared or e-mail. They can also send map excerpts and routes or save map screen shots to the gallery on the device. Recognized brand names like McDonald's will have the option to place branded icons across the world's digital maps downloaded onto millions of mobile devices.

"People will trust and use maps if they have those maps with them when they need them, and smart2go allows consumers the full freedom of which maps they want to carry with them. By offering Nokia Maps and smart2go for free on your mobile device, cost is no longer a barrier for anyone to enjoy the convenience of maps and routing on-the-go," said Ralph Eric Kunz, vice-president, Nokia, Multimedia. "Nokia is on track to build the world's most connected location based platform for mobile devices which also opens up interesting opportunities for future services."

smart2go is a hybrid map solution: Map data from Tele-Atlas and Navteq can be downloaded directly via wireless network (e.g. GPRS/3G/WLAN) and stored on the devices memory card as needed. If all the desired map data is stored, no network connection is needed for mapping, routing and navigation. For managing downloads of bigger sizes there is an additional PC desktop tool available.

smart2go comes with the option to upgrade to full fledged turn-by-turn navigation. With just some clicks, customers can turn their device into a voice guided navigation system by purchasing a navigation license. There are various licenses available: from a one week to a three year term. When traveling to a new country for holiday one can download the relevant maps via PC in advance and subscribe to the navigation service for the duration of the holiday at affordable cost.

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Series 60 3rd Edition Feature pack 2

Read here for an excellent overview on the Feature pack 2 for Series 60 3rd edition. All you need to know is there, and if you do have questions add a comment to the bottom of the posting.

The official press release for S60v3FP2 is here.

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Quiet time

The blog is gonna go through a period of quiet time til next Tuesday, as I'm off to Rome for my birthday. With any luck there will be a stack of things to talk about when I get back, as the run up to 3GSM starts. I'm looking forward to 3GSM almost as much as the release of the N95!

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