Nokia N72 N-Series phone

Nokia have released the new Nokia N72 N-Series phone. The N72 is not as feature-packed as previous Nokia N-Series phones, but still comes with enough features to satisfy most people.The N72 is being pitched as a multi-media phone, and so comes complete with MP3 player, 2 megapixel camera, FM radio, and lets you record tunes direct from your CD player. It even comes in pink as well as standard black (wonder where they got that idea from?).Nokia N72 Multimedia phone From the Press release:The Nokia N72 is a sleek and stylish new addition to the Nokia Nseries range. In pearl pink or gloss black, this compact package has high-perfomance multimedia at its core, wrapped in a beautiful design. The Nokia N72 offers the benefits of versatile photography, entertainment and personal productivity to people who value style as much as high performance. A powerful yet stylish multimedia device, the Nokia N72 is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera and integrated digital music player, with dedicated capture and music player keys, an integrated browser, FM radio and support for Visual Radio.

Nokian-96

The Nokia N96 can be thought of as a classic Nokia phone, with the call connect and disconnect buttons surrounding the touch pad at the bottom of the phone. Offering 16GB of storage, the phone looks sleek and elegant, with a large 2.8" QVGA screen capable of displaying over 16 million different colours dominating its front. It looks good. It looks classy in an understated way. But you get no hint of the power that lies underneath! Personally, I think this is a good thing, as I'd much rather impress people with unexpectedly-glorious features than be all bling and shouty with chrome and dazzling lights and not much else going on underneath!

Nokia n -81

Nokia have relaunched the N-Gage, but this time, instead of a dedicated mobile gaming phone, it's now a gaming platform, from which you can download games, set up high score contests, etc. You can even rent games for 1Euro a pop, then buy the full game if you like it.
N-Gage games will work on a variety of Nokia phones, including the Nokia N95 and new Nokia N81, which is featured prominently in the video of the new N-Gage platform, showing off its nifty mobile gaming prowess.

Nokia 6111: Sophisticated GSM slide phone

For those who seek sophistication in small size, Nokia presents the Nokia 6111 phone. Featuring a stylish classic design, the soft slide mechanism of the Nokia 6111 smoothly reveals its keypad. Blending technology with a sophisticated look and feel, the Nokia 6111 comes with a 1-megapixel camera and flash, and a 6x digital zoom. The screen (128x160 pixels) supports up to 262,144 colors and displays pictures in either portrait or landscape mode. The GSM 900/1800/1900 Nokia 6111 has an estimated retail price of 270 EUR before subsidies or taxes, and is expected to begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2005.

In addition to its ergonomic design, the Nokia 6111 offers a number of new messaging options. Push to talk functionality connects to groups or individuals at a push of a button while Nokia Xpress audio messaging enables sharing of voice clips and greetings with friends and family. Pictures can be conveniently shared via MMS, Bluetooth or email.

Nokia 6270 Music and megapixels

The versatile Nokia 6270 slide phone features a 2-megapixel camera with flash and landscape mode. With a modern and refined design, the Nokia 6270 merges state of the art photography capabilities and user-friendliness into an enjoyable imaging experience for consumers.
The spacious QVGA, 262,144 color display (320x240 pixels) of the Nokia 6270 helps to manage daily life while a broad set of messaging capabilities enables consumers to easily keep in touch with others. Mobile email is conveniently at hand as the Nokia 6270 phone comes with an integrated email client that supports attachments.
In addition, the Nokia 6270's built-in music player supports a variety of digital sound formats such as MP3 and AAC, making music-on-the-go easily accessible. With stereo speakers supporting 3D sound effects, the Nokia 6270 provides a brilliant sound experience that can be shared with others. A visual radio client rounds out the audio capabilities of the Nokia 6270 phone. A world travel-friendly quadband GSM 850/900/1800/1900 handset, the Nokia 6270 has an estimated retail price of 300 EUR before subsidies or taxes. The Nokia 6270 is expected to begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2005

Nokia N82 Gets Firmware Update To V30.0.019

Following on the heels of the N95-1 and N95-2 (8GB), the Nokia N82 has received a new firmware update today, available through Nokia’s NSU application. N82 firmware v30.0.019 is now available for Euro1 product code (0558752). If you have a different product code, you can (at your own risk) use the free NSS software to change your product code, as guided in this handy walkthrough. When you get to setp 3.5, you’ll use the 0558752 product code, instead of the one listed.
There’s no official changelog as of yet, and I’m waiting for the battery on my N82 to refill to a sufficient level before attempting, but as always with firmware updates, I would highly recommend that you go ahead and apply it, as there is most certainly bugfixes and whatnot sprinkled throughout.
I will update this post as soon as I get a chance to find any changes.
Update: It’s a rather average sized update, at 123MB

Nokia Publishes Interactive Demo For N79 and N85, Kinda

Nokia announced the N79 and N85 only a few weeks ago, and we were mightily impressed. The N79 is a candybar handset with a 5 megapixel camera, dual-LED flash, and those neat user-changeable smart Xpress-On covers. The N85 is a dual-slider, like the N95, though this baby sports a nice OLED display and microUSB charging.
In case you were wondering exactly how these new devices work, don’t worry, Nokia has put together some fantastic online interactive demos that help you do everything from inserting your SIM card to sending a picture message. Brilliant, and they’re easy to follow along with, as well.
You can check out the N79 one here, or the N85 demo here.
Interesting, I wasn’t able to find these when perusing the Nseries website. Given that both of these smartphones are officially announced, I wonder why Nokia hasn’t made these great demos readily available?

Nokia Mail For Exchange Ready For All

Nokia officially announced earlier today that its Mail for Exchange application, previously reserved for the Eseries and a select few Nseries, will be made available for all S60 3rd Edition handsets. The news is great for business users who don’t want to be limited with the multimedia hindrances of an Eseries, but still need to be connected.
Mail For Exchange will be preloaded on most Eseries and Nseries handsets in the future, but should be available immediately in the Download! application for all S60 3rd Edition smartphones. A new setup wizard has also been implemented, attempting to simplify the setup process. The application allows users to connect to corporate or commercial Microsoft Exchange services and synchronize their email, calendar, contacts, and tasks, and even offers access to a corporate directory, if one exists.
While Mail for Exchange is free, it does require a data connection, so you’ll want to make sure you have one setup through your carrier before you use it.
While I have not personally used Mail for Exchange (as I use Gmail IMAP), I find it rather interesting that Nokia is pushing Mail for Exchange through its product line, when they also recently launched the Nokia Email beta, which uses Intellisync. I realize it’s awesome to offer choices to the consumer, but I can’t help but wonder about the differences in the two, from Nokia’s standpoint.

Nokia N82 Gets Firmware Update

Following on the heels of the N95-1 and N95-2 (8GB), the Nokia N82 has received a new firmware update today, available through Nokia’s NSU application. N82 firmware v30.0.019 is now available for Euro1 product code (0558752). If you have a different product code, you can (at your own risk) use the free NSS software to change your product code, as guided in this handy walkthrough. When you get to setp 3.5, you’ll use the 0558752 product code, instead of the one listed.
There’s no official changelog as of yet, and I’m waiting for the battery on my N82 to refill to a sufficient level before attempting, but as always with firmware updates, I would highly recommend that you go ahead and apply it, as there is most certainly bugfixes and whatnot sprinkled throughout.
I will update this post as soon as I get a chance to find any changes.
Update: It’s a rather average sized update, at 123MB:

The process went through fine, and I got the message that I was safe to disconnect my phone, but now it’s completely hosed. My N82 will not power on, but just keeps flashing a white screen. I’ve tried the three-finger salute, as well, to no avail. I’ll update this post if anything changes, but for now, proceed with caution

Nokia 6220 Classic In The House

Yo! I just got a package in from WOM World and decided to do a good old fashioned video unboxing (since we’ve not done one here on Symbian-Guru in a while - sorry about that). Inside, as you’ll see, is the Nokia 6220 Classic. We told you about this phone initially here, but just to recap, this is an S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 candybar with a 5 megapixel camera and Xenon flash. It’s got quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) and dual-band 3G (900/2100MHz), in addition to a built-in GPS receiver.
This is actually one of the first S60 devices I’ve used that’s not either an Nseries or an Eseries, so I’m anxious to see if there are any differences in terms of support or available applications. I am rather disappointed in the 2.5mm headset port, though I recently picked up a pair of 2.5mm - to - 3.5mm adapters for $5 off Amazon, so that’s not a problem.
We’ll be reviewing the 6220 Classic here at Symbian-Guru.com, so if you have any questions you’d like answered about this little smartphone, please leave them in the comments on this post, and I’ll make sure we cover them.

Nokia, Connecting More People

To every blogger around, there’s no doubting the fact that Nokia has the best interaction programs with mobile sites and blogs, as well as consumers and followers. And I am not the first person to say that.
Between the S60 blogs, WOMWorld, a US Mobile Blogger Program, the S60 Ambassadors, Nokia has their hands in reach of a wide, real wide audience. The level of interaction that comes out of it is astonishing. Through the S60 blogs, we have come to read the thoughts of those who are involved with the company itself, true employees from the mothership, who aren’t afraid to voice their opinions. Through WOMWorld, we have come to discover more bloggers and people who share the same passion, agree with us on certain points, disagree on others. It’s no doubt that Nokia isn’t only “Connecting People” through voice calls and sms, they are also bridging the gaps through a nice 24/7 community that they helped develop and maintain.

Nokia, Connecting More People

To every blogger around, there’s no doubting the fact that Nokia has the best interaction programs with mobile sites and blogs, as well as consumers and followers. And I am not the first person to say that.
Between the S60 blogs, WOMWorld, a US Mobile Blogger Program, the S60 Ambassadors, Nokia has their hands in reach of a wide, real wide audience. The level of interaction that comes out of it is astonishing. Through the S60 blogs, we have come to read the thoughts of those who are involved with the company itself, true employees from the mothership, who aren’t afraid to voice their opinions. Through WOMWorld, we have come to discover more bloggers and people who share the same passion, agree with us on certain points, disagree on others. It’s no doubt that Nokia isn’t only “Connecting People” through voice calls and sms, they are also bridging the gaps through a nice 24/7 community that they helped develop and maintain.

Relate 2000 videophone (1990s) : here's looking at you

Videophones have been a dream for many years, and with this telephone the dream almost became reality. This videophone was the first one BT made commercially available, in the 1990s. It promised callers the chance to see, and be seen by, the person they were talking to.
The snag was it didn't work very well. The technology of the telephone was good, but the network's bandwidth wasn't broad enough to carry all the pictures, sound and colours at once. A caller could see the person but the image would shift very jerkily from one frame to another, which was quite disconcerting.
The telephone was designed with a flip-up screen on the right, where the video played. They were available for £500 each or two for £900 - but with such poor image quality, and with so few others having them, take up was minimal

First desktop videoconference system (1990) : attending virtual meetings

The Picturephone experiment in the USA during the early 1970s had been a failure. But by the 1990s four new factors had come together to make widespread videoconferencing a realistic proposition. These were: the growing use of the personal computer (PC) placed a screen on virtually every desktop; falling prices for image capture devices connected to PCs making digital photography and video affordable; use of the Internet provided a low-cost means of connecting voice, images and people in real time over unlimited networks; and last - but not least - international standards ratified in 1996 and 1998 ensuring the compatibility of all equipment.
In fact, the first PC-based video phones were demonstrated by IBM and PictureTel as early as 1991 but the system was expensive and the results less than convincing. Even today videoconferencing is by no means universal, partly because the extra equipment necessary to provide full-screen pictures and sound as good as normal television costs as much as the PC itself and requires a special ISDN or broadband telephone line

The first videophone service (1970) : a million within ten years...

Despite far from encouraging market research findings, AT&T executives in the USA were convinced that their Picturephone system would eventually be a winner. Following a six year trial, a commercial Picturephone service made its debut in Pittsburgh in 1970, with AT&T executives confidently predicting that a million sets would be in use by 1980.
They were wrong. Take-up was painfully slow and the service was later withdrawn. Despite its improvements, Picturephone was still big, expensive and uncomfortably intrusive. There was also doubt as to whether people actually wanted to be seen on the phone at all (indeed, there's quite a lot of research in the industry which proves they don't!).

World's first videophone system (1964) : seeing as well as hearing

Videophones, transmitting a picture of the speaker as well as his or her voice, are older than most people think. Commercial systems were used in France and Germany during the 1930s but they were cumbersome and expensive.
Even the American company AT&T's Picturephone of 1956 was crude - transmitting an updated still image only once every two seconds. By 1964 AT&T had developed a complete experimental system, the 'Mod 1'. To test it, the public was invited to place calls between special exhibits at Disneyland and the New York World's Fair. In both locations, visitors were carefully interviewed afterward by a market research agency.
The findings were not encouraging. It turned out people didn't actually like Picturephone. It was too bulky, the controls too unfriendly, and the picture too small.

Video from the phone

Television proved it was possible to send moving pictures along wires. This raised the further possibility of what had always sounded like a great idea - videophones on which callers could see as well as talk to each other. But there were some problems with that vision. There was a technical problem. Television pictures carry a lot of signal information - more than ordinary phone lines can accommodate. There was a human issue, too. The truth is that people don't always want to be seen on the phone. But it took the pioneers of videophones a little while to learn that lesson.