It's amazing the kind of technology that is coming to S60. I don't know if this application is available yet or who makes it, but you can see the video below for a demonstration. Waving your hand in front of the phone to the left can drag your photo gallery to the left, and vice versa. Hovering your hand while coming down towards the phone can play and pause the music player. Crazy stuff. It's in another language and I'm not quite sure what he's saying.

Check out the video...



Thanks to S60 Info and Symbian-Freak for converting the videos.

Source: Daily Mobile

He's doing it. Tying the knot. Showing his ultimate love for his fiance. Ending his life. Just kiddin marriage is a beautiful thing and a another step to an amazing partnership with his soon to be wife.

Congrats to Ricky from Symbian-Guru on his upcoming marriage this Saturday. I know many of you have become huge fans of his writings over at Symbian-Guru.com. I know I have. That was one of the first blogs I started reading when I was introduced to S60 less than a year ago. Adding Rita to the mix only sealed the deal on making it my favorite blog to read. I always loved checking out her posts over at DotSiSx about her experiences with her Nokia device.

Cut to the chase.

Ricky and his soon to be wife will be live-casting the whole wedding to the internet - specificy Flixwagon.com - with four Nokia N82's. If you haven't checked out Flixwagon yet it allows you to stream live video from your phone to the internet. I personally haven't tried it out but I'm in the process. Right now its in beta phase and only alpha testers get to try it out. You can visit their website and sign up and I'm sure they'll include you.

Like Ricky mentioned in his post, the N82 is perfect for this type of event especially because of the "storytelling rediscovered" tagline that Nokia has been pushing. The N82's camera is the fastest and best cameraphone on the market. The xenon flash will capture all the amazing moments during the reception and on the dance floor. Autofocus I've found is way faster the the N95's in dim light conditions. You feel like your using a real digital camera with the N82. I wouldn't trust any other cameraphone for quick snapshots of an event this big, and neither is the Symbian-Guru.

Head over to Symbian-Guru and read all about the wedding plans. Congrats again Ricky.

Yeah thats right. The Nokia N95 iTouch is available now! Only if your Batman though. IntoMobile.com has found screenshots of the new Batman movie called Dark Knight (which I can't wait to see) which includes a Nokia N95 touchscreen! Batman always gets the ladies an now the phone. Interesting they didn't use the N95-2 though right? Wouldn't it fit that this phone would be in black?

Now the question is - does this N95 touchscreen really work?

Who knows but I'm sure we'll never see this officially released. It would be an amzing phone though.

I just found news from Symbian Web Blog that the N95-1 has new colors. The first set of colors will be available only from the Japanese carrier Softbank, so they are not currently available for the world. Personally I think the white and blue colors look great.

I also found that a new black cover is available at Nokia centers to purchase along with a new battery. Good move by Nokia to keep their old N95 Classic users happy feeling like they have a new phone, especially with the new firmware update I mentioned earlier today.

Source: Symbian Web Blog

I know the past few weeks I have talked about the new firmware for the N95 Classic coming soon. Well it's finally here and available for everyone - this time according to Nokia.

On Nokia's Software Update page you can find a few details about the new update...

Nokia N95 software version 21.0.016 released - 26 March 2008
This software version includes Flash Lite 3 support (enabling users to watch Flash video web sites such as YouTube) and Widget support. The release also includes standby-time improvements and improvements to Bluetooth headset interoperability.

However, the website All About Symbian has found even more details about the new update. They say...

• Flash Lite 3 is included, so Flash video sites will work, including YouTube (just as on the N95 8GB v15 firmware from a couple of months ago)
  
• The Web runtime is included, meaning that standalone widgets are now possible
  
• Greater Bluetooth headset compatibility
  
• Better handling of entering lots of text into web page dialogs
  
• Speedier Gallery in every way
  
• Faster Java runtime, so Java apps start faster
  
• plus the usual miscellaneous bug fixes and tweaks, no doubt!

Click here for screenshots of the update and real Youtube in action.

It looks like Nokia has taken care of their original N95 which caught much crap in the past for having less features and a weaker battery then it's better brother the N95-2. With a few batches of updates the battery life has been improved greatly and it seems as though the features of the N95-1 are now matching the N95-2, making it a phone back in the game because it still has one up on it's brother - expandable microSD slots. For many this outweighs the larger screen. Not to mention the new variety of colors which I'll mention in another post today.

The folks at Mobile-Review have brought us a huge hands on review of the new Nokia N96. I'm sure this will be a huge hit for Nokia wise but one must ask the question - Is it really that much different than the N95? Of course more memory is possible but I honestly can't see myself using more than 16GB of memory on a phone. If it came down to looks though, I'd pick the N96 over the N95. I think it looks a lot more sleek and sexy. This review is great you get comparison pictures to the N95 and N78 and a detailed description of the new Nokia powerhouse.

Click here to read the full review of the Nokia N96.

Finally the Nokia N95 8gb NAM 3g badass Mother F*cker has arrived on US shores and in the customers hands. This hopefully will mark a new chapter in the Nokia and North America story. The N95-3 was Nokia just getting their feet wet in the US, and obviously they liked what they saw. Now it's time to sit back and see how the sales figures will look after a few months. I don't think the masses here in the USA are quite ready to pay $600 for a phone that doesn't have touchscreen unless Nokia pulls off a huge and successfull marketing campaign. I'm talking commercials. TV, billboards, magazines - the works. But I doubt that will happen. To be honest I've never seen another person with a Nseries handset besides myself besides of course the WWW. Now that I think of it I've never met anyone that even knows of Nseries. Customers here in the states won't catch on until the N95-3 is finally released on AT&T which is scheduled for later this year. Maybe then we might see some eyes open up. After all it will be the first 5 megapixel cameraphone to be offered out here in the States by a carrier. Unless I'm missing something from another carrier. Either way it's a great step forward for Nokia's interest in North America.

Now can we please get the N82 NAM 3g version Nokia? I think it's about time.

Click here to join the discussion with the first Nokia N95-4 users at Howard Forums.

Well I wake up this morning after a great St. Patty's Day night of drinking to see an email from Nokia saying the N82 dressed in black will be shipping within weeks. Great news for those who have waited so long for this. The N82 black will come with the new firmware that will place your photos on a map with built in geotagging and hopefully a handful of bug fixes that we currently have on our silver N82. With this release we should also be getting a new firmware update for the silver version coming in a few weeks, but I haven't heard anything in stone.

Below is a flash slideshow of a handful of new press photos of the Nokia N82 in black...

Here is the official press release by Nokia. In the article they talk about an application called Sports Tracker which is already available on Nokia's website. I show you guys in another post if you haven't checked it out yet.

Nokia N82 in black - Postcards from the cutting-edge

Multimedia computer excels as travel companion with photography, navigation and Internet connectivity

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N82 in stylish black, bringing a blend of state-of-the-art imaging, integrated navigation and high-speed Internet connectivity to the Nseries range of converged devices. This jet black multimedia computer enables people to "geotag" the images they capture - allowing them to not only be saved by date, but by location as well. This adds to a line-up of compelling photography features, including a 5 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash. Not only does the Nokia N82 take great pictures, array of advanced connectivity features makes it easy for consumers to share their discoveries, journeys and locations. The Nokia N82 in black is expected to start shipping within weeks, with an estimated retail price of approximately 400 euros, before taxes and subsidies.

"The Nokia N82 is made for storytelling," says Juha Kokkonen, Director for Nokia Nseries devices. "As one of Nokia's leading-edge connected camera, the Nokia N82 in black captures people's journeys and discoveries. With built-in A-GPS it even helps people to find new places by pairing 'contextual' information with a wide array of connectivity features such as Wi-Fi and HSDPA. We make it easy for consumers to quickly share those moments as they happen."

When it comes to camera capabilities, the gloss-black Nokia N82 is set to wow world travelers and photography enthusiasts alike. The 5 megapixel camera, powerful Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics, ultra-fast camera activation, autofocus with a dedicated assist lamp, fast reloading between shots and DVD-like quality video capture all ensure that special moments can be captured "picture perfect" - even in low light conditions.

Taking advantage of its integrated A-GPS functionality and high resolution camera, the Nokia N82 automatically tags images with capture location metadata, making it possible to view the capture location on a map either on the Internet or on the device itself. When it comes to sharing, consumers can upload their pictures or videos directly from their Nokia N82 to services like Share on Ovi, Flickr or YouTube. By installing Nokia's exclusive and free Sports Tracker application, consumers can share their whereabouts and travel route with others on the Sports Tracker website - including the capture locations of images. The Nokia Sports Tracker is a GPS based activity tracker that runs on Nokia smartphones. Information such as speed, distance and time are automatically stored in the application, and can be shared with others.

So after all the build up and waiting for this new black variant are you still excited about getting one or are you just loving your silver N82?

This is a brand spanking new free instant messaging application called Octro for your Nokia smartphone. It's late here where I live so I don't have much time to test it out or show you screenshots yet. I installed it and managed to login to my Google Talk and AIM screen names just fine and chatted with a few friends. I'll get a chance to test it out more tomorrow and see its effects on the battery life and all that. Usually I use Slick instant messenger, you can read my review here. Keep in mind Octro uses data instead of texts, so make sure you have an unlimited data package.

Here's a list of it's many features Octro can do....

• Always on connected to Google Talk/Jabber with MSN, AIM, ICQ and Yahoo transports
• Complete VOIP product. Access to PSTN.
• Supports Low Bandwidth Codec (even works with EDGE/GPRS/CDMA).
• Streamlined UI. Optimized for one-handed operation. Today Screen on Pocket PC. Home Screen support for Smartphone.
• Extremely fast P2P file transfer. Quick picture messaging.
• Low CPU usage. Only VOIP product that works on Treo 700w (300 MHz processor).
• Secure and Encrypted connection to GoogleTalk. Google Talk messages are encrypted using industry standard TLS/SSL.
• Message Archiving in your GMail Account.
• Share files with your buddies (automated file transfer).
• Access your computer remotely. Install OctroTalk for Windows on your desktop, and share a folder with OctroTalk on your Mobile.
• Support for GroupChat/Conferencing. OctroTalk lets you create/join Jabber conference rooms.

Click here to try out Octro for your Nokia and let me know what you think. I''ll give a better in depth review tomorrow and compare it to my favorite IM application Slick.

Here are two major factors that I've seen criticized about the Nokia N82. The battery itself is 1050mah, weaker that both the Nokia N73 and newer versions of the N95. The two stereo speakers are both on the right side of the N82, but in my opinion for good reasons. It makes me wonder why the speakers on the N95 are positioned the way they are.

The first thing I'll talk about are the speaker positions. As you can see in the picture above the speakers are on the top and bottom of the right side. I've seen people criticize Nokia for it's odd positioning, but in my honest opinion they nailed it on the head. As we all know the N82 came with built in auto-rotation of the screen, the first phone to do this by Nokia. On the N95 you need 3rd party solutions like RotateMe or Landscape Pro. Because of this new feature I find myself using the phone in landscape mode more and more. Of course for the viewing the internet, but more often now for reading texts and emails, as well as navigating through the Music Player. While watching movies in landscape it makes more sense to have the two stereo speakers above the landscape display coming from the left and right. I find it odd that the N95 would have the sound coming from the top and bottom left, but I'll talk more about that in the next paragraph.

Like I said before with the auto rotation built in I'm always using the music player in landscape mode now. I'll put it down on my desk and keep it in landscape. I think this is how Nokia designers meant the phone to be used. Of course when your typing a text your hand will be covering the bottom speaker in portrait mode, but thats only for a short period of time. Talking to someone on speakerphone is perfect, the sound only comes out of the top speaker, so blocking the bottom speaker doesn't matter. I think Nokia did a great job with the speaker positioning on the N82.

Sorry for getting off topic but this leads me to a little rant about the N95. While listening to music through the stereo speakers I find it odd that the speakers are placed on the left side and right side of the phone. When you open the slider to reveal the music controls, the phone goes to landscape. While using the music player the phone with the controls, the speakers are on the top and bottom left. Doesn't seem logical since stereo sound is considered to be coming from the left and right. Seems like a design flaw to me.

As for the battery life Nokia really dropped the ball here. It's not god awful like the N95-1, but a letdown if your coming from the N73. That's a reason why the N73 was so loved, it had great battery life. A few hours of stereo bluetooth and moderate web browsing really drains your battery on the N82. I find myself not able to get through a full day if I'm going to be using stereo bluetooth for more than 1.5 hours and normal use of the rest of the phone's features. It's a godsend that Nokia gave us the 3.5mm stereo jack cuz I would've really hated using this thing if not. If you don't plan on using stereo bluetooth for long periods of time then you should be able to get through a days use just fine. On a normal day I have my email set to check every 30 minutes, browse the web for about an hour, send and recieve around 20-30 texts, listen to a few hours of music through wired headphones, and talk for maybe a half hour. I still have about 2 bars left when I get home from work. If I plan on going out in the evening and take lots of pictures I make sure to plug in the charger for about a half hour before I leave just to be safe. I find that the xenon flash uses a lot more battery than the N95's LED flash, for obvious reasons.

Of course this all can be improved through firmware updates. The N95-1 now gets acceptable battery life with recent updates. But one thing bugs me still. The highest screen brightness on the N82 is under 3/4 of what the N95's is. Many people including myself are begging Nokia to fix this in a new firmware update. If they do fix the brightness problem they'd better make sure they improve the battery life as well. Overall I'd give the N82's battery life a 6.5 out of 10. Ten being the N73.

How do you feel about the speaker placement and battery life of the Nokia N82?

I think the dust has finally settled with the announcement of the Nokia's newest lineup. You already know the two Nseries devices pretty well if you've visited a mobile website in the past month. The N78 is the successor of the N73 and the N96 could be called a slightly upgraded N95. Now I want to find out what everyones opinion is on these devices, and see if your going to skip out and just wait for the supposed touchscreen device that is going to be announced later this year. Or maybe your just loving your current device and aren't planning on getting rid of it anytime soon. Of course many are on the fence about this cuz it's too soon to say, but I'd like to know what everyones thinking right now.

Let us know your thoughts in the poll at the right column.

Personally, I'm really liking the Nokia N78. I'm a huge fan of the candy bar style phone, one solid piece. North American 3g, a great camera, and Feature Pack 2 are all factors really pulling me to it. Like I've said before the xenon flash on the N82 is just too much to lose. The N96 is definitely off my list because of the weak battery and unnecessary double slider.

For now my decision would be to stick with my current device and if I had to choose it would be the N78. I'm very interested in touch screen, but at this point who knows what's in store in that department.

What are your thoughts on the newest Nseries devices.

According to the reliable website Nokiausers.net, the Nokia N95 Classic has an update. Right now it's only known to be available at Nokia Care Centers in the UK, but should have widespread availability in the coming days. No word on if it's available at the USA care centers or not. The new firmware version is v21.0.016.

New features include real Flash in your browser, small improvements in maps, gallery, contacts, calendar. Of course the biggest is Flash, I'm sure leaving Nokia N95-3 users furious. Nokia sure is taking care of their old school N95 customers, making sure not to keep them out of the loop after their weak battery debacle.

Click here for the original article and a link to the official changelog.

I wonder if the Nokia N82 will be getting an update similar to this as well.

A while back ago Google announced that IMAP email support is now available, making it possible to keep your Symbian powered smartphone and Gmail inbox perfectly in sync. I posted the instructions to setup Gmail IMAP back when we first got the news, but Steve from AllAboutSymbian.com has taken a more in depth look at how this works.

I personally think the built-in email application is the best solution as well, but there are a few things on Nokia's side that can be improved. For instance, there should be an option to download all text in the emails, not just the headers. This will give a much better user experience, especially for those that need effeciency. The newer phones like the N82 and N95 have plenty of memory for this. Another problem that I've seen on both phones is once the email program connects to check for new mail it doesn't disconnect on its own, leaving the data connection constantly connect and draining your battery. Viewing full html in emails might be a lot to ask for, but that would be awesome to have.

One more thing I want. Shortcuts. While viewing the inbox, push 1 to retrieve new. Push 2 to retrieve all. Push 3 to mark highlighted emails as "read" or "unread". Push 5 to reply, etc etc. Instead of having to go into the options and selecting what you want. The UI of your phone should be all about simpicity and efficiency. I know this can't be that hard to implement, but I doubt Nokia would ever do this.

And the last little thing that bothers me. When my phone checks my mail, it still alerts me if I have new email even if it's marked as read on the Gmail server. When I go to the inbox it shows as read, therefore it's not new. Not a big deal but a little annoying.

Click here to check out Steve's article over at AllAboutSymbian.com.

What would you want changed or improved in the built-in email application?

Well the flamboyant and lively Stavros, the king of "position art", has made his greatest masterpiece. Using his Nokia N82 to track his steps via GPS, video, & photo, Stavros wandered around Rome creating a path that is layed out on a map which can be viewed at his blog.

Click here to head over and check out his art.

This article was originally featured over at The Nokia N82 Blog, but I wanted to share it hear as well since these battery tips apply to all S60 handsets including the N95. Here is the article.

The other day I saw an old local metal band play down the street from my house. The band split a few years ago, so it was nice to see them get back together for a reunion show. About 600 heads showed up, keep in mind its a small venue so it was hot, muggy, and packed. I decided I wanted to take pictures of the band and try to capture some video, just to see how the Nokia N82 does in conditions like a hardcore and metal concert. I'll be writing another article soon about my results with some photo samples and maybe a video. In this article however, I will talk about my experience with an extremely low N82 battery, and give tips to get the most you possibly can out of it. Pretty much squeeze as much juice and as many photos and videos imaginable out of your Nokia N82.

When I arrived at the show, dummy me didn't have a fully charged battery. It was down to three bars. After calling and texting a few people to see where everyone was at, I was down to two bars. I started realizing I should save some battery life now, and fast - so that I can get all the media captured I wanted. First thing I did was drop the brightness down to the lowest setting and changed my backlight timeout to 5 seconds. I'm pretty sure that helped significantly. I started thinking of other things I can do. Double checked that I didn't have any unnecessary applications running in the background, turned off my auto retrieval of my email accounts and turned off WLAN search, and just stopped playing with the phone in general.

Once the band finally came on to the stage and startd playing it was time to start snappy away with my N82. I got some great shots with this trusty little camera - I mean phone - I'll show you more later. About 12 shots in I realized I was down to 1 bar and got a battery low alert. Crap! What else can I do to save battery life. Keep in mind I was taking shot after shot, back to back in low light conditions. Not just here and there, contstant. First thing I realized is I didn't need a signal or reception. I wasn't planning on making or taking any calls. So I went to my profiles and set it to Offline Mode. This is pretty much like pulling out your sim card. All other functions work on the phone, just no signal. I made sure to close down Location Tagger as well. If you haven't heard, Nokia has a beta release of Location Tagger that allows you to tag photos with GPS coordinates. This is just until the N82's next firmware update, in which Geo Tagging is supposed to be built in. Anyways, I did one more thing to make the battery life stretch. Went into my camera settings and switched the "show captured image" to off. Doesn't seem like much, but the time it takes for the image to process and then the preview to show is drastic when it comes to hanging onto that last bar. Instead it processes the image you shot and then goes back to the viewfinder, ready for the next capture.

So basically thats all I can think of to save battery life, and sure enough the phone didn't die. I got lots of shots and some great video (although the audio sucks). And no battery low warnings besides that first one. Amazing! After I got that first warning, I took about ten minutes of video and around 30 photos, and again - no more battery warnings. Phone never died on me, and the band's performance lasted about an hour.

Here's a simple rundown of what I did. Maybe some of these battery life tips will help you when you run into this situation on our N82, or any S60 phone for that matter.

• turn off email retrievals
• close any unnecessary applications running in the background
• set your screen brightness all the way down, as well has your light time-out
• don't use any gps
• turn off wlan searching
• don't text or call unless its absolutely necessary
• turn of the "show captured image", or image preview in your camera settings
• in drastic times, set your phone to offline mode under the profiles.

A few more things I could have done is turn off the automatic screen rotation and lowered the power saver timeout settings.

Thats about everything I can think of. Let me know if you guys have any other ideas, the more the better.

To see more photos of the band I watched, click here and check out the article.

The Nokia N78, which I'm seriously considering getting when it comes out, has just passed through the FCC. It will feature North American 3g, 3.2 megapixel camera, gps and wifi built in, plus Feature Pack 2. A huge upgrade to the Nokia N73.

Here are all the documents in PDF format.
Request for Confidentiality
Photos External
Photos Internal 1
Photos Internal 2
Test Report 1
Test Report 2
SAR Report
User Guide

Source

There's been a lot to cover the past week, and I've been pretty busy. So here I will link to a few articles that you might find interesting.

North American Nokia N78 Not Stripped Down Afterall, As Reported Previously
A few weeks ago a handful of websites were reporting that there would be a stripped down version of the Nokia N78, which was going through the FCC. The lack of NAM 3g and WiFi was being claimed. Apparently NokNok.tv is proving those reports wrong, saying that phone was a chines version. Click here for the full report.

Nokia Music Store Opens In Finland And Germany
Well the Nokia Music Store is making it's deput for Finland and Germany customers. Not sure how it's gonna do, Nokia has so much competetion in this market. To find out more on how it works, check out this video by James from Nokia Creative.

Nokia N95 8gb North American Version Released With 6 Months Free Nokia Maps Navigation
Well The N95-4 is finally here, USA Nokia fans rejoice. The bigger screen, black body, and better build quality is what you get. NAM 3g is also included. Be prepared for slow transfer speeds because of the internal 8gb, no memory card slot. Click here for the article at Symbian Guru.

Bluetext by Psiloc Reviewed At Symbian Motion - Control your phone from your Vista desktop
I don't have Windows Vista, so I don't know how this works. It does look like a great application and I'm hoping they make a version for Windows XP and Linux platforms as well. Click here to checkout the review.

Black Nokia N82 Spotted On Video
A few days ago I reported over at The N82 Blog that the Nokia N82 black version was spotted again. This time on video.

Mobitubia Youtube Application Gets A Crucial Update, Get The Newest Version
Another update over at The N82 Blog, click here for more information.

This beauty has gotten many looks from people who have never even seen an Nseries before. At first most people think its a shiny, classy looking digital camera. I have to stop and tell them its a fricken phone! They are shocked, mainly because they see that it has xenon flash. Once I show them how the photo came out on the phone's 2.4" screen they are amazed, especially at the night shots.

This phone looks way more slick than the N95 or any other Nseries handset. When I first saw pictures of the N82 before it came out I was extremely turned off. But in person this thing looks amazing. The reflective surface on the front can get alot of fingerprints, but are easily wiped off with your shirt or cloth. Not to mention it feels solid in your hand. Texting with one hand is huge for me when I'm busy and it's a breeze on the N82. It's not top heavy like the N95, I always felt like I'd drop it if I trying to open the slide and text with one hand. The tiny keys are spaced out just enough on the N82 to ensure you don't make any makes, and you can feel them very well when your not looking at them. Running your thumb over the keypad almost feels like running your hand over braille. Once you get used to the keypad your set to text at high speed. The d-pad is a little creaky after you use it for awhile, but it personally does bother me as much as a slider does.

Along the left side of the phone your you have the charger and usb ports, along with the microSD slot. The right side has two speakers, one on the top and the bottom. I'll talk more about the speaker positioning of the N82 in another post. The camera, gallery, and volume keys can also be found on the right side of the phone. Along the top you have the power button and the audio jack. It's great that audio is on the top instead of the side, it's just so much better when in your pocket or on the car mount while driving. The best thing is there is nothing sticking out along the sides of the phone, everything is flush with each other. Same goes for the scree. At of all the Nseries handsets that have came out, this has to be the most 'pocket-able'. Sound wise the speaker quality is weaker compared to other Nokia devices, but the sound from the earpiece is crystal clear.

The back of the phone is solid and smooth and looks like a beautify digital camera. The battery cover is on extremely tight and the material they used is some kind of hard plastic. The camera is raised slightly, but not as annoyingly as the N95's. The switch for the lens cover is also very small, I've never accidentally open the lens. The spring in it is solid, giving great feedback when you get the lens open. The xenon flash is protected by a hard glass and indented into the phone to ensure nothing will touch it unless you poke at it.

Overall the build is great and my only gripe is the creaky d-pad. The left and right softkeys can also be a little bigger, especially on the right side where it's so close to the multimedia button. The left side is really not that bad. To stereo speakers can be a bit louder as well, especially for such a multimedia powered phone.

In a few days I'll take a look at the internals of the N82, once I get more time to play with it. So far it's extremely fast and responsive, making the user experience great.

Andrew from The Nokia Blog has just unboxed his Nokia N95 8gb NAM Edition, proving that North American 3g does indeed work. Of course it works. What I want to know is - what firmware is it? Does it play full Flash in the browser just like it's European brother?

Head over to The Nokia Blog to check out his unboxing photos and leave him questions.

Will you be picking this up? Personally I think it looks great with that huge screen. I can deal with the slow usb transfers. The most I load at once is music, just set your phone down for a few hours and pop in a movie on your TV. Your music should be transfered when it's over.

Got this shot with my n82 just now. These giant machines move cargo around the yard and keep the world's economy flowing.

Thanks to Wom World I got a new Nokia N82 in the mail Friday to play with for a few weeks. I already have one that I bought used and beat up, so it's nice seeing a brand new one. I haven't really talked about my thoughts on the N82 here, besides that I love the xenon flash. Right now this phone is almost perfect for me, only thing that sucks is the lack of NAM 3g. Will Nokia ever surprise us?

Anyways here are some great photos of my unboxing and some sample photos I took of the Nokia N82. I'll be uploading more shots throughout the weeks to this Ovi Channel. Stay tuned for a review of the new Nokia photo service called Ovi. If your reading this in a reader, load the website fully to see the flash slideshow below.

Throughout the next few weeks I'll be looking at the Nokia N82's features and cool stuff you can do with this phone.

For more on the Nokia N82, check out www.then82blog.com

I'm not sure myself what I mean by 'special customers'. All I know is that there are reports from all over the internet that the Nokia 95 8gb NAM 3g, also being dubbed as the N95-4, is available through the Nokia store in New York. If you read below, Mobile City Online is offering a preorder for$689.99, and I can help you get free shipping on that too.

I don't think it's available just for anyone-yet. Apparently they only called a handful available to loyal customers that are on some kind of list to let them know when a few are ready. They started getting the call yesterday that they can have one shipped Saturday. I guess maybe they are loyal buyers and were offered to be the first notified a while back ago. Be glad though your not one of those luck few. Nokia is saying it's $866 out the door! Thats a hard pill for me to swallow, especially with the lacking of xenon flash. The Chicago store is calling a few of their loyal customers and offering the deal for $800. Click here for the juicy conversation over at Howard Forums.

Retailers should be expecting this phone to arrive in about 4 days. Mobile City Online is offering a preorder for $689.99 with a US warranty. Not a bad deal right?

Update: If your interested in this preorder deal at Mobile City Online, let me know and I can help try and get you free shipping. Email me at mike@calialive.com and I'll let you know what I can do. So much for 'special customers' right?

We're still not sure if this model will have the latest firmware that it's European brother has with full flash and demand paging but I expect it will. I'll keep you guys and gals posted on all of this as the actual release draws closer.

Are you thinking about jumping on board and grabbing this phone?

This has to be one of the coolest accelerator applications I've seen come out. Believe me we've seen a handful of useless accelerometer applications. Don't get me wrong, there are some good ones, but I think I'd be using this one the most. Basically with ShakeLock you just shake your phone to lock and unlock your Nokia N82 or N95. It's that simple, which makes it so beautiful. It's not gonna work unless you give it a good shake, so don't worry about it unlocking in your pocket. Keep in mind this is only the first version, so it will only get better with time.

Best thing is this application is freeware, but donations are encouraged. If you donate you get the latest updates to the application, so I think it's worth it to give a few bucks. This application is already signed, however, before installing you have to set your phone's date back one year, install ShakeLock, then you can switch the date back. Has something to do with the certificate being expired, good thing you can get around it.

Click here to download ShakeLock for the N82 or N95.

Also, if you haven't aready, it looks as though you need to have Python installed on your Nokia Nokia. You'll end up needing Python anyways since a lot of developers are using this method to make applications. Click here to install Python.

I first read it at Symbian-Guru's blog.

What are the people that buy new Nokia phones supposed to do? Your currently selling millions of handsets. Theres a tons of applications out there that aren't signed by Symbian. They look like great apps, but we can't try them. Why are they taking so long to get through Symbian Signed. Why can't we sign them ourselves. I know your systems are all messed up right now, but when will they be fixed. And when they are fixed, can you make it easier for us to sign our applications. It's a pain in the ass. Some 3rd part developers have made solutions, but why should we have to rely on them. With new phones like the N82 and N95, also comes new S60 users. They have no clue how to even get started signing applications.

If Nokia is so "open to anything", why are we not able to try out new applications? Most of them are freeware and open source.

Check the bottom of the article for updates.
Well last night I went home and checked if the new firmware for the Nokia N73, specifically 4.0808.4.2.2, was available. And hell yeah it was. I must have an APAC product code but I'm not sure. Either way reports are saying the new firmware will be available for all product codes within the week. Hopefully the reports are true, as I know there are still many N73 users that haven't upgraded to a newer phone and are extremely glad they didn't because of the new Nokia N78 coming out.

Well here's my take on the new firmware.

For one it's faster. Not a huge difference, but it's noticeable. Everything from retrieving email on an edge connection to starting up applications. One huge improvement is the Gallery. The last firmware took forever to load my pictures so I can scroll through with the half circle. With the new N73 firmware I can fly through them, almost as fast as the N95. Also in the past the images would take a few seconds to load once you click on them. You would be able to see them, but they go from blurry to crisp in up to 5 seconds sometimes. Now it's under a second. Not to mention the camera seems a bit snappier. Getting an auto focus doesn't take as long, same goes for the camera startup. When you take a photo and want to send it or upload it, navigating through those menus is almost more of a joy.

There is also a new application called Mobile TV. I really want to try this out, but apparently it needs a bluetooth TV reciever, which I'm going to do more investigating on. I'm sure whatever it is, it doesn't work here in the States. I'm thinking it's along the lines of the N96's live TV features, but not built in. Don't quote me on that though.

Some people have said this update will help with N-Gage games, but I haven't checked on it yet. We've been hearing reports that N-Gage will be available for the N73 within a few weeks.

One thing that does bother me a little is we have less free RAM at startup. I used to get around 20mb, now I'm getting around 17-18mb. Not a huge difference. I have noticed though that applications aren't leaking as much memory. Before when I opened the camera or gallery application, then closed it, I would be left with around 12mb of RAM. Now it's around 13mb which is surprising because like I said we are giving less RAM out of the box. I haven't gotten any 'memory full' errors yet with heavy web pages, with the gallery and music player open.

Overall I'd recommend the update. Update: I'm not gonna recommend it, but I'm still glad I updated. I'm started to find out there is significantly less RAM available after using it for a few hours. I must stress though I haven't recieved any memory full errors during moderate to heavy multitasking. The more I use it, the more I realize the phone is faster. Keep in mind I have all my apps installed and all my messages and calendar entries. So it's not like the phone has nothing on it.

Have you tried the latest N73 firmware yet? Will you be upgrading?

Another Update: Aparently Nokia decided to pull this firmware from the NSU. It's no longer available. WTF is going on?

Steve Litchfield from All About Symbian decided he wanted to make himself "the ultimate theme", through his eyes. Once he got started working on it, he realized he needed an expert so he turned to PiZero.

Here's what he wanted...

• A specific 'sunrise' graphic, (somewhat artily) suggesting warmth, increasing light, and an 'everything's going to be OK' feel(!)
• The theme had to be vector, rather than bitmap-based, so that it worked on ALL S60 3rd Edition smartphones, whatever the screen size or aspect ratio
• No custom icons were to be used. Although these are all very pretty in other people's themes, they make switching between themes/devices tricky as you don't instantly recognise application icons. In addition, sticking to default S60 icons meant that the theme file was smaller and the theme itself (hopefully) would be slightly faster and more efficient
• Tied in with the subject matter, the background had to be light enough to act as a torch at night time, without being too 'artificially' white/bright.
• All text had to be black - I can't stand themes where text is grey on black, or grey on white, or similar. Contrast is everything when you're squinting at a small smartphone screen. In addition, black on a light background works much better when viewing a screen in sunlight, where there's no backlight to help and you're relying on natural contrast and transreflectivity

Not alot to ask for right? Here is Sunshine by Pizero, available for all to download. It's simple, bright, warm, and clean. No custom icons are included to make sure the phone runs on full speed. Personally I don't have a problem with custom icons, even on my old N73.

I don't usually go for orange and yellow themes, but this one is pretty nice. I usually prefer dark blue or black themes, it helps especially if you have a few scratches on your screen.

Click here to check out the free Sunrise theme for S60 smartphones.

What would be your perfect theme? I'm actually thinking of starting a service here at Symbian Addict where I make custom themes for people for a minimal fee. Would you be interested?

Good news for Nokia N73 Music Edition users. Looks like another update is available, or will be available soon. I personally haven't tried it yet, but aparantly an update (version 4.0808.4.2.2) is available for EMEA and APAC product codes. The update is supposed to be fore all product codes within the next few days.

According to Symbian-Freak it's not a huge update. Camera seems to be a bit more stable with a faster load time and autofocus. I'm sure there are also a handful of small bug fixes, but nothing official has been announced yet.

Stay tuned for more info this week on the N73 4.0808.4.2.2 firmware update.

Oh, and how bad does this piss off N95-3 owners? I know they've been waiting for an update for awhile. Actually, has the N95-3 ever recieved a firmware update?

I'm trying to keep up with the Nokia 95 User Group over at Flickr, brought to you buy James at Nokia Creative. Last months winners brought some amazing photos, I specifically like the color shot winner. This month overall doesn't impress me as much, but there are a few awesome ones like the Landscape shot pictured above. Pretty amazing huh? Click here to check out the rest of the winning shots over at Nokia Creative, and be sure to head over to the N95 User Group at Flickr and join if your a Nokia N95 owner.

Oh and one more thing...

Has Your Nseries Replaced Your Digital Camera?
Before I finish this article, I want to direct your attention over to Ricky's website at Symbian-Guru.com. Today he's asking a good question. Has your Nseries device replaced your digital camera? For me personally it has. I'm not a avid photographer, but I love taking lots of photos. The only thing missing for me is the optical zoom. But on the rare times I need it, I'll grab my digital camera. Head over to Symbian-Guru and let him know your thoughts.

Get back on your side asshole!

YOUR GOING THE WRONG WAY!

Tomorrow, March 5th, the fine people of WOMWorld, aka Nokia's Nseries Marketing Team, will be meeting at The Old Crown in London between 6:30 and 11:30pm to hang out and mingle with Nokia fans. Sounds like a good chance to chat with fellow Nseries users and grab a beer while your at it. Aparently there will be some type of camera toss (a chance for a free N82 comes to mind, but don't quote me.)

For all the details head over to WOMWorld and let them know you might show up.

This is one of the first real good video reviews I've seen of the Nokia N78, thanks to Rafe of All About Symbian. There are a few really cool things in this video that stand out for to me.

First is the geo-tagging of photos. Geo-tagging is nothing new. It's coming in the next firmware release of the Nokia N82, and a beta version of Location Tagger can be downloaded at Nokia Beta Labs for GPS enabled Nseries phones. But what you see in this video is just awesome. You can have the option to view a tag cloud of all the locations of your photos. Click on the location, and all the photos you took will show up in the Gallery (now called Photos). I think that's pretty damn cool. You also have the option to "view on map", which pulls up Nokia Maps with the photo you selected.

The next great thing is the speed of the Gallery. It's in the same layout we're used to, a half circle. But the load time is almost instantaneous. Even on the newer phones like the N95 and N82, we still get a delay of the thumbnails loading in the Gallery. Obviously a huge upgrade to the N78's predecessor, the N73.

You also get a look at the Naviwheel and the D-pad, along with the Multimedia features, Nokia Maps, & the Photo Suite that allows you to view photos on your computer. It looks pretty slick, but only time will tell how memory hungry the new Suite is.

Overall it's a great review and makes me want the N78 more and more. There are however a few things that are turning me off about the phone, but I'll talk about this more in another article.

For now, check out the video review of the Nokia N78, and be sure to head over to All About Symbian to leave your comments after you watch the video.

Well the guys over at Mobile-Review.com have got there grubby hands on the Nokia N78, and in turn have posted a huge review of the new Feature Pack 2, which will be available on all new Nokia smartphones from here on out. Best thing is the review has screenshots galore, which are where these screenshots came from. Update: Check the end of the article for a new video demonstration of Feature Pack 2.

There are a ton of new features mentioned in the article, some of them big, some small. You can now have a vertical active stanby, which I find really cool. Picture Id for callers is now full screen. There is a new menu layout. The task switcher has been revamped, maybe there won't be a need for a third party task manager anymore? Also timed profiles, a feature that was so loved in S40 handsets, will make it's way to Feature Pack 2.

Keep in mind that the whole review is in Russian and Google's translator seems to be not working with this review. You can head over to Babelfish and translate the article there. Just insert the url of the review into the box and bam, you have English. The translation didn't come out great, but it does the job. Plus, you have a ton of screenshots that pretty much speak for themselves. Click here for the full review of Feature Pack 2.

I first read about this at Symbian-Guru.

Update: Thanks to a reader here at Symbian Addict, we bring another website that has tons of screenshots of S60 3rd Feature Pack 2. Click here to check it out.I can't seem to figure out what language that is, if someone knows please let me know.

You can also find a great video demonstration of Feature Pack 2 below...



Thanks again for the anonymous tip!

Yesterday I posted this over at The N82 Blog and I wanted to share it here as well. I can't say how excited I am about seeing the rock band Foo Fighters this Thursday night at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles. They've been one of my favorite bands since I can remember. I'll be using my N82 extensively, uploaded photos and videos to Ovi (Nokia's version of Flickr, I'll tell you more about it later). I'll have a link here on the blog where you can check out photos and videos throughout the night, and hopefully try out the Qik application, which allows you to stream live video from your phone to the internet. Not sure if my Edge connection will be fast enough for that though. I'm also not too sure of where I'm sitting, hopefully close enough to get some good footage. We might go out afterwards and get some more pics of the afterparty. Friday shall be a rough day at work, but it'll be well worth it. Anyone else into the Foo Fighters?

Also, if anyone has gotten footage of any bands or music artists from a live concert with the Nokia N82? Interested to see how the quality comes out.

Rumor has it that the Nokia N95 NAM 3g version, aka the N95-3, is coming to AT&T stores in the second quarter this year. Some people would say this is good because it will make the N95 more available with cheaper prices for people that don't like spending $500 bucks a phone that doesn't have touchscreen. But then of course you get a phone thats locked down like the N75 was, with laggy firmware thats restricting. Solution? Unlock and unbrand it like many have with the N75. Personally, I think this is great for Nokia. I'm sure a good chunk of people will learn who to unbrand it so it's just like having a Nokia phone that never had ATT firmware installed in it. Only thing left is you might have a AT&T logo on the front of the phone. But who cares if your saving hundreds of dollars right?

This rumor is brought to us by the reliable sources over at Engadget Mobile. If I'm not mistaken, this will be the first 5 megapixel phone sold by AT&T. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

What do you think about this? Is this good for the consumers and Nokia? How locked down do you think this will be?

Things that come to mind. Share On Ovi, Share period. Applications like Qik, Shozu, and Emtube. I don't think At&t can prevent the installation and use of those applications. How about Nokia Maps and GPS?

Only time will tell.