A chat with the designer of N96

The great thing about Nokia is that they communicate well with people, and especially with bloggers. With the Nokia Conversations website many people can get an insight at what Nokia is doing, instead of reading press releases.

This time they interviewed Daniel Dhondt, who is the designer of the N96. Enjoy the video interview:

Source: Nokia Conversations

N96, N78, N82 Black release date confirmed! – exclusive

We had a close talk with someone inside Nokia, and we got a confirmation on the launch date! The best thing is that it’s not one device being officially launched, it’s three, and that should be the minimum.

Nokia usually launches them in fours, ironic, as this digit is considered bad luck in some countries.

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S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2 fully reviewed!

Eldar Murtazin from Mobile-Review has had his mega-review of the S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2, part of Symbian OS9.3, translated.For those of us who didn’t understand the original review, we can now enjoy the English words that so well describe the upcoming platform. Eldar used a Nokia N78 to derive screenshots and opinions. Surely the model must have been a test prototype, so we can expect changes on the release firmware.

The pictures I had posted on a past article, you can read the text here, but if you prefer to check the full review, please head over to the source.

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S60 v3 Feature Pack 2 – Tons of photos

These photos have been everyone now, but let me select the ones which I believe bring innovation.

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Another Video of S60v3 Feature Pack 2

Here’s an interesting video of the upcoming Symbian OS9.3 with S60 v3.1 Feature Pack 2, provided by S60.cz

Bery from Symbian Web Blog posted few interesting points that can be seen from the video:

• • Sensor Settings:

The video shows that Feature Pack 2 has not only the common accelerometer feature to auto rotate the screen, but also snoozing alarms and silencing calls. Has Nokia learned these innovative ideas by watching from applications developed by 3rd party programmers like Samir and Tong Reng with “ShutUp” and “FlipSilent”?

• Active Standby:

The new active standby mode including the new standby theme settings with the vertical sidebar in motion. Nice!

• New Menu Views:

Feature Pack 2 brings two new menu views, the “Horeshoe” and “V-shaped” modes which are looking very nice with their large application icons.

• Photo Menu:

The new “Photo Menu” which replaces the old “Images and Videos” view is shown as the last feature.

Source: S60.cz via Symbian Web Blog

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Symbian OS9.3 with S60 v3.1 Feature Pack 2 reviewed

Rafe over at All About Symbian has reviewed the Nokia N78. The important relation between the N96 and N78 is definitely the Operating System.

I decided to provide the readers with some extracts of the software bits contained in his review. A lot of this is ungrouped, and everything is really Rafe’s words:

The usual standard suite of software is present, including the PIM trio of Contacts, Calendar and Messaging. Web, Search and various office applications are all present. Feature Pack 2 brings a number of minor updates to these applications, but it is usability changes to the user interface that get most of the immediate attention.

The most obvious user interface change is the addition of a central softkey. This, for the most part, explicitly labels functionality that was already there, but should make things clearer to new users. Multi-tasking is made more obvious thanks to a redesigned task-switcher and the addition of an ‘Open applications’ item to the top of all Options menus.

Other changes that should be popular among N78 users include support for progressive downloads (start playing media during download), faster loading Java applications, full-screen picture caller ID for incoming calls, the inclusion of Flash Lite 3 (watch YouTube and other Flash videos in the browser), and inclusion of the WRT runtime (widgets).

The N73’s Gallery application was notorious for being sluggish, especially when viewing carousels of photos (thumbnail drawing rarely kept up with on screen movements). The good news is that the carousel has been re-designed from the ground up for the new Photos application and it also benefits from the faster processor of the N78. The end result is much better performance, with little or no lag time when moving around the carousel or viewing photos. A nice touch is the inclusion of an on-screen indication of where you are on a carousel, making it easy to navigate around large groupings of photos. When viewing an individual photo, you are able to add album and tag information, as well as the usual send, print, edit, slideshow and use image commands.

Share online, which allows the upload of media to online services such as Flickr, Share on Ovi, and Print online, which allows you order prints directly from your phone which are subsequently delivered by post, are all available out of the box and serve as ways of getting photos off the phone. Share online is particularly important here, as it integrates with both the Camera and Photos application, allowing for one click uploads to the web. Read more

Nokia’s fantastic four in Sydney – Australia

Nokia sheds more light on its upcoming phones, software and services at the recent Showcase Nokia 2008 event held in Sydney, Australia.

 

NOKIA unveiled some of its much-anticipated mobile phones, including the N96, the successor to the popular top-of-the-line N95 It also previewed three other feature-packed phones – the N78, 6220 Classic and 6120 Navigator.

The dual-slider N96 is optimised for video and TV thanks to its large 2.8in screen, 16GB of internal memory, built-in DVB-H tuner and support for high-quality videos in a wide range of formats.

N96

The N96, which supports common video formats including MPEG4, WMV and Flash video, can store up to 40 hours of content.

And for added convenience, the phone features a ”kickstand” on the back that allows for hands-free viewing.

The storage capacity of the N96 can be further expanded with an optional microSD card, such as the new Nokia 8GB microSD which increases the available memory of the phone to a total of 24GB.

The phone has a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, dual flash and video light. It can also record DVD-quality video at 30fps (frames per second).

N78

The phone also has an integrated GPS, so users can tag their pictures with location data and share them with their online communities.

Its lesser sibling, the N78, features a 2.4in display, 72MB internal memory, an integrated GPS, WiFI, HSDPA, a 3.2-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, and a microSD slot.

The novelty of the N78 is its integrated FM transmitter that allows music to be played on any FM radio, in a car or at home.

Guiding hand(phone)

The 6210 Navigator is the company’s first GPS-enabled mobile device with an integrated compass.

6210 Navigator

Combined with an accelerometer which measures changes in direction and orientation, the built-in compass makes it easy to follow the map on the phone when strolling about on foot.

Also, the integrated Maps 2.0 application will plot the quickest route to the desired destination and illustrate it on the map.

The phone is ready for use out-of-the-box, even without a SIM card, and local maps will be preloaded on the 1GB memory card that will be bundled with the phone.

6220 Classic

The 6210 Navigator also features a 3.2-megapixel camera, MP3 player and stereo FM radio.

Moving on, the highlight of the 6220 Classic is its 5-megapixel camera with Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss lens, which Nokia claims is on par with many single-purpose digital cameras on the market.

It features an integrated TV-out which allows photos on the phone to be viewed on a TV.

Plus, the phone’s high-speed HSDPA connection makes it easy to update blogs and upload photos and videos online.

Also, the phone uses Adaptive Multi Rate-Wideband speech coding technology to give a more natural sound to human voice in phone calls. This helps when having a conversation in a noisy environment, according to Nokia.

All the phones are expected to be available locally in the second half of the year.

New Maps

At Showcase Nokia 2008, Nokia also announced it has updated its mapping and navigation software, Maps 2.0, by improving its pedestrian navigation, adding multimedia city guides, offering satellite images, and redesigning the user interface.

The pedestrian navigation feature or “Walk” will help users find their way when they are on foot by giving them visual turn-by-turn guide. It also helps you to locate yourself by giving information about the surrounding buildings, streets and parks.

In newer handsets, like the 6210 Navigator, it will point the direction in which you are walking by using the handset’s built-in compass for orientation.

Users will also be given the option to purchase multimedia guides that feature photos, videos and audio streams, which are supposed to make the journey more enjoyable.

A beta version of Maps 2.0 can be downloaded from www.nokia.com/ betalabs.

Meanwhile, Nokia’s Ovi Internet services gets a boost from Share on Ovi, a new free personal media sharing service that makes it easy to upload, manage and share files through a mobile, desktop or other connected device.

Share on Ovi offers allows users to socialise, interact and collaborate and is designed for more than 100 different media types with unlimited storage and unlimited uploads.

To sign up for an account go to http://share.ovi.com.

Source: The Star Online

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