Nokia Heads in to Summer with Two New Smartphones for the Canadian Market Tweet

The anticipated E72 and the N97 mini arrive in Canada.

Toronto – Nokia announced the launch of two new smartphones in the Canadian market. The much-anticipated Nokia E72 and the Nokia N97 mini are now available to help Canadians stay in touch, just in time for summer. The Nokia E72 will be available through TELUS and work on TELUS’ 3G+ network and the Nokia N97 mini is now available through Rogers Communications Inc. and works on the Rogers’ HSPA+ network. Both devices offer integrated billing for the recently-launched Ovi Store.

“Nokia has a strong heritage of innovating mobile communication and connecting people across our open and flexible range of devices designed to appeal to a wide range of consumers. Nokia Canada has a strong and broad product portfolio in the Canadian market and we are thrilled to be bringing these two amazing smartphones to Canada with TELUS and Rogers,” said Richard White, General Manager, Nokia Canada.

Nokia E72 - Never out of touch with Nokia Messaging
TELUS customers will never be out of touch with Nokia Messaging on the Nokia E72. Modern life has become increasingly hectic and keeping in touch is an even bigger challenge than ever before. With the Nokia E72, there will be no more weekend distractions as new work emails pop up thanks to optional homescreens for work and play, making it easier to separate office and leisure time. Being away from home this summer also doesn’t mean being completely out of touch. Nokia E72 with Nokia Messaging allows people to sign in to up to four instant messaging communities at once (such as Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger). Social butterflies won’t miss a beat by mobilizing up to 10 different personal email accounts at once.

The Nokia E72 is enhanced with a 5 megapixel camera, voice commands, text-to-speech message reader, active noise cancellation, improved talk times, and the Symbian OS 3rd Edition.

“We are very excited about the new Nokia E72, a perfect addition to our exceptional 3G+ smartphone selection. TELUS continues to offer an industry-leading 3G+ smartphone line-up in order to meet Canadians’ need to stay connected with their social network and to stay entertained on-the-go,” said David Fuller, Chief Marketing Officer at TELUS. “More and more of our customers are adopting smartphone devices because of their many multitasking applications.”

Nokia N97 mini – It comes with everything!
The Nokia N97 mini is a sleek and stylish mobile computer that provides an all-in-one solution, exclusively to Rogers customers. Along with the 3.2" finger-friendly touchscreen for the style savvy user, this smartphone offers a unique pop-up display revealing a full QWERTY keyboard for those seeking quick and easy messaging.

The Nokia N97 mini also comes equipped with an award-winning 5 megapixel camera that includes a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and dual LED flash. Media fans will appreciate the nHD widescreen and 16:9 aspect ratio for watching movies. Users won’t need to worry about running out of memory with the up to 8 GB of on-board memory that is expandable up to 24 GB with the addition of a 16 GB microSD card.

"Rogers is pleased to offer the Nokia N97 mini to Rogers' customers, as part of our exciting line up of exclusive touchscreen smartphones," said Raj Doshi, Vice President, Mobile Product Management, Rogers Communications. "Customers can take full advantage of the Nokia N97 mini's features and capabilities, backed by Canada's reliable network and handset servicing."

Both the Nokia E72 and Nokia N97 mini come pre-loaded with Ovi Maps giving customers free, voice-guided drive and walk navigation for more than 70 countries. Ovi Maps quickly calculates the best way to drive or walk to your destination and helps you find places, local Lonely Planet listings, entertainment, and events nearby.

Canadians can also visit the Ovi Store to discover new apps, games and themes they cannot live without. Each week, Ovi Store continues to grow and add more great content that supports more than 30 languages in more than 180 countries. Currently, Ovi Store sees more than 1.7 million downloads worldwide per day. Ovi Store features popular Canadian content including the free Food Network Canada Mobile Recipe App that allows users to search and download thousands of recipes and meal ideas, and the new MuchMusic App that keeps users connected and current with all things music. Visit store.ovi.com for more.

Please visit telus.com for more information about the upcoming Nokia E72 from TELUS.

The Nokia N97 mini is available for $99.99 on select 3 year plans from Rogers.
Quotes

“Nokia has a strong heritage of innovating mobile communication and connecting people across our open and flexible range of devices designed to appeal to a wide range of consumers. Nokia Canada has a strong and broad product portfolio in the Canadian market and we are thrilled to be bringing these two amazing smartphones to Canada with TELUS and Rogers."

Richard White, General Manager, Nokia Canada

“We are very excited about the new Nokia E72, a perfect addition to our exceptional 3G+ smartphone selection. TELUS continues to offer an industry-leading 3G+ smartphone line-up in order to meet Canadians’ need to stay connected with their social network and to stay entertained on-the-go. More and more of our customers are adopting smartphone devices because of their many multitasking applications.”

David Fuller, Chief Marketing Officer at TELUS

"Rogers is pleased to offer the Nokia N97 mini to Rogers' customers, as part of our exciting line up of exclusive touchscreen smartphones. Customers can take full advantage of the Nokia N97 mini's features and capabilities, backed by Canada's reliable network and handset servicing."

Raj Doshi, Vice President, Mobile Product Management, Rogers Communications
Boilerplate
About Nokia

At Nokia, we are committed to connecting people. We combine advanced technology with personalized services that enable people to stay close to what matters to them. Every day, more than 1.2 billion people connect to one another with a Nokia device – from mobile phones to advanced smartphones and high-performance mobile computers. Today, Nokia is integrating its devices with innovative services through Ovi (www.ovi.com), including music, maps, apps, email and more. Nokia's NAVTEQ is a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, while Nokia Siemens Networks provides equipment, services and solutions for communications networks globally.

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Nokia N8 Hands On -First Look Tweet

The Upcoming Nokia N8 . A Hands On From Up To Date. HDMI, USB and Lots of New Functions.

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Symbian^3 – Main Applications and Features Tweet

Mobile-review have posted an article on the Main Applications and Features of Symbian^3. Here is their final conclusion.

A lot of effort has been put in the S^3 to optimize the code and its work speed. Compared to the fifth edition of the S60 platform, everything appears several times faster, which is a great advantage. In addition, the increased RAM size allows one to run a dozen of applications and keep them active in the memory after that, which is another advantage.

As for the disadvantages, the S^3 is none other than an evolutionary development of S60 5th edition with a few minor features added (e.g. an updated player, single tap, pinch-to-zoom, HDMI output, several widget desktops). The situation is analogous to the Android updates from version 2.0 to 2.2 through 2.1, which happened within half a year or slightly more than that. What was added is a new gallery with support for geo-tags (version 2.1) plus minor updates to other functions, as well as extra speed in version 2.2. It took Symbian about two years to do exactly the same.

Unfortunately, the browser didn't undergo any significant changes and yet remains Symbian's weak spot, as well as the icon appearance, interface and its animation. The widgets and the way the desktops are organized are both beneath criticism, too. The developers must have concentrated on the unsuccessful Nokia N97 experience overlooking more fruitful solutions. Does the interface bring anything new to the market? No it doesn't. Are there any comparative advantages? There are none. For example, by adopting the idea of a video editor from the Samsung i8910, Nokia did add extra functionality to the S^3. Yet that is a single example of such successful adoption, there's hardly any other to mention. Improving the music player to the level of 2007's Apple iPhone can't be considered an advantage; it's an attempt to catch up with the competitor but not to claim the leadership.

I can come up with many other such attempts. Yet the final conclusion will remain the same. The S^3 appears an intermediate version of the platform unfortunately, one that has been delayed several times. What is presented in the end, has been available in other OS' for a long time, Symbian is just trying to catch up with the competition (e.g. the newly released social services in the phonebook could be seen in the N97 prototypes two years ago). For the Nokia fans who are satisfied with S60 5th edition it is a great improvement (it's faster, more stable, adds some new features), but for the whole market the platform comes out outdated, both in terms of its interface and many inbuilt software capabilities. It is functionally inferior to iOS 4 (e.g. in terms of games, social services, interface, e-mail functionality, amount of third-party software), Android (e.g. in terms of interface, extra phonebook and calendar features), Bada (e.g. in terms of interface, Social Hub functionality, etc.). Unfortunately, the number of updates in this version of Symbian is not enough to qualify for its own name; Nokia used to call such updates Feature Packs. Now the company is trying to make a splash since it is lacking resources and that is all it's got. All the effort has been put into S^4. However, taking into account the fact that the latter is based on S^3 to some extent, the company won't be able to build a new platform from scratch. Nokia is also dissipating its energy on MeeGo, which doesn't leave much chance for improving the services and platforms. All those observations put together provide the necessary justification for the meager Symbian update that we have.

The S^3 platform is a real gift to the competition from Nokia itself. Products based on S^3 will be widely advertized and have huge sales, which should have an impact on the product generations to come after them. Let me explain that. Having bought a phone with the outdated interface, the customers will soon get acquainted with the alternative interfaces and OS functionalities. And Symbian will only lose from such comparison, even in the low-end. There's no need even to mention the new Android version due at the end of the year. The new Symbian is inferior to the already existing solutions.

In addition to the traditional forum discussion option, we have prepared a questionnaire, in which you can personally evaluate the level of improvement in S^3. I believe it to be an objective measure of whether the new Symbian platform is bliss or miss. The Symbian and Nokia people will have an opportunity to get your feedback and draw conclusions otherwise unavailable to them due to their firm belief that the Nokia name can be selling products for years by itself, without having to make major improvements to those. It will also be a measure of how objective our editing team and I personally are. That is why I would like to kindly ask you to spend five minutes to answer the questionnaire and write a few lines on the forum. I don't ask for that often but will appreciate your time and opinion. Thank you in advance.

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widgetizer.avi Tweet

widgetizer.avi

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Nokia N8: First hands-on reactions Tweet

GLOBAL - Last week, Nokia released the Nokia N8 into the eagerly waiting hands of the tech blogerati. Coinciding with the Nokia Connection event in Singapore, journalists across the globe were given their first hands-on experience with the device. Were they impressed with the 12-megapixel, Symbian^3, HDMI-port-toting handset? Join us after the jump for a full rundown of reactions.

Kicking things off, Duncan Geere, over at Wired UK, was impressed by the sheer size and responsiveness of the N8’s jaw-dropping screen:

“The display is crisp. It’s an OLED running at a 640 x 360-pixel resolution, and measures 3.5 inches diagonally. It’s a capacitive touchscreen, and I found it responsive, if a little inaccurate at the edges. Nokia told me that this isn’t the final version, so it’s possible that might improve before launch.”
Duncan makes an interesting point that should be taken into consideration: the Nokia N8s on display weren’t running the final version of the OS. When it comes to launch, later this year, a few tweaks will have been put into place.

Speaking of the new OS, in the shape of Symbian^3, Phil Barker, from NokNok.tv, was suitably impressed:

“What about the brand new Symbian^3 OS, we hear you cry? We’ll be bringing you more on it tomorrow, but first impressions are extremely positive. The first thing, when compared with our trusty Nokia N97 Mini, is just how fast it actually is. Even when running a couple of intensive applications – Ovi Maps included – it responded incredibly quickly.”
Andrew Orlowski, over at The Register, also has a thing-or-two to say about the new OS:

“The most immediate improvement is performance. Menus open smoothly and without delay. Nokia has dispensed with the too-slow transitions; transitions are there, but are actually so subtle you don’t notice them. And the N8 doesn’t break sweat when the phone is flipped through 90 degrees, even when this entails some reordering of the screen elements from portrait to landscape.”
Moving on to the next killer feature on the N8 – in the shape of the camera, we think it’s fair to say that Andrew Lim of Recombu’s first impressions were positive:

“A 12-megapixel camera sits on the back of the N8 and produces fantastic shots from what we saw. We’ll make sure to test it out fully when we get a final model. Note that there’s a Xenon flash – yay.”
Ben Smith, from the Really Mobile Project, was also taken aback by the quality of the pictures the Nokia N8 produced:

“Picture quality from the camera is as impressive as promised – the Carl Zeiss optics have paid off and the Xenon flash recharges quickly (within half a second). The camera offers face tracking too, which worked well with several faces simultaneously. Image file sizes are smaller due to the better quality and lower noise images the device creates.”
Vladislav Savov, Engadget, also piped-up about the camera and the video capabilities of the handset:

“There’s no getting around it, this phone is indeed a terrific performer when it comes to video, and a 30-second clip we recorded took no longer than a couple of seconds to process and return us to a position where we were ready to film again. The camera is similarly snappy (we had to do it), with Nokia claiming a half-second delay between shots. Our unscientific experience seemed to corroborate the claim.”
The design of the Nokia N8 was another head-turner. Built using anodised aluminium and available in five different colours, it’s certainly unique. The Nokia N8 also manages to pack a smorgasbord of features into its svelte frame. Gareth Beavis, from Techradar, had this to say about the size and shape of the handset:

“The phone sits nicely in the hand despite the larger size, and you can’t help but feel that the overall impression is increased by the sleeker look from no removable battery cover.”
All About Symbian and T3.com not only managed to take pictures of the device but also managed to grab a video with the handset. Here’s what Rafe Blandford, over on All About Symbian, had to say after his first hands-on with the Nokia N8:

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Nokia N8 hands on video Tweet

Nokia N8 hands on video

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Symbian – 10 Things you need to know… Tweet

GLOBAL – If you have a Nokia smartphone, then the chances are that it will be running a form of Symbian as its operating system. It’s the software that keeps everything going and includes many of the applications that come installed out of the box. But there’s a lot more to Nokia’s operating system of choice than meets the eye – join us after the break to find out more.

A long history The roots of what was to become the Symbian Operating System (OS) go back over 20 years. British company Psion started developing the predecessor to Symbian, the EPOC OS, for its well-loved digital organiser devices in 1987. EPOC was so-named because it signalled the start of a new epoch; but the rumour spread that it also stood for ‘Electronic Piece of Cheese’.

One OS to rule them all In 1998, smartphone manufacturers allied to develop and re-work the software for use in phones, with the first Symbian device released in 2000. The Nokia 9210 Communicator, the first ‘open’ Symbian phone, allowing owners to install their own applications, was released in 2001.

Phone Juggler Symbian is especially notable for being the first smartphone OS to feature pre-emptive multitasking. It’s obvious what the ‘multitasking’ bit means, but ‘pre-emptive’ means that the operating system can interrupt applications and give resources to another without shutting them down altogether. In practice, it means you can load up your calendar, for example, and then have it running in the background on very low resources until an alarm is due or you bring it back to the front.

Top Ticket It may have started as an electronic piece of cheese, but Symbian has become a very big cheese indeed over the last ten years. Nearly 81 million Symbian smartphones – from many different manufacturers – were sold in 2009, according to industry analyst Gartner, giving it 46.9 per cent of the market.

And very new After nine ‘full’ releases and many more interim releases for specific devices, Symbian Software Ltd. was acquired by Nokia in 2008. It relaunched Symbian – under the care of a foundation – as a software platform that anyone was free to use later that year, with the code becoming fully open-source only a few months ago, in February 2010.

Open Source Symbian is an open-source operating system and software platform. That means anyone can download it from the site and use it free-of-charge – it’s at developer.symbian.org. Of course, though, there’s a bit more to creating your own new smartphone than downloading the platform. The move to open source means it will be used for more devices and is intended to spark faster, greater innovation from both phone manufacturers and developers.

Founder’s Footsteps Symbian is administered by the Symbian Foundation. This independent, non-profit organisation looks after the code, co-ordinates development efforts and communicates its advantages to people. However, they aren’t the main software engineers. Like other open source software, Symbian is actually written by an army of developers, sometimes working for phone manufacturers or software and service vendors, sometimes completely independently.

Symbian^3 is pronounced ‘Symbian Three’ and is (unsurprisingly) the third full platform release from the Symbian Foundation. It brings a faster user interface, improved graphics support for advanced layering and effects, HDMI support for high-quality television playback and better data networking. The forthcoming Nokia N8 will be the first phone to feature Symbian^3.

Symbian^4 is currently at an early stage, though the speedy pace of development means that the foundation expects the first devices in early 2011. The focus of development is on a new user interface – the Direct UI. For developers, Qt – already built into Symbian^3 – will become the standard environment in which applications are written. Qt is an application framework which makes it easier for developers to adapt their code to lots of different devices.

The Door’s Open The Symbian Foundation welcomes ideas for the platform – new devices, features and applications – and not just from people with heavyweight programming or electronic engineering skills. The Symbian Ideas website allows you to submit new proposals or comment and vote on other people’s.

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Nokia vows to defend smartphone territory Tweet

Finnish handset maker launches its N8 in Asia; highlights its smartphone market share.

Finland's Nokia Corp. on Monday vowed to defend its number one position in the lucrative "smartphone" business, where it is under fierce pressure from Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry.

The Finnish giant's latest top-end device, the touch-screen N8, was unveiled at its annual Asian trade event in Singapore.

The regional launch of the N8 comes exactly one week after Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled an upgraded version of the phenomenally successful iPhone in San Francisco.

Click here to find out more!Smartphones are advanced handsets capable of Internet surfing, video recording and other multimedia functions on top of voice and text messaging. The N8 is based on the company's updated Symbian operation system.

"Nokia's leadership has been questioned in recent months," Jo Harlow, senior vice president for smartphones, said in an opening speech at the event.

"However, it is often overlooked that we continue to have the largest market share in mobile devices and the largest share in smartphones, which is the fastest growing segment," she said.

Nokia is still the world's top mobile phone maker but the company has struggled to find an answer to the iPhone and Blackberry in the smartphone sector, where profit margins are much higher.

In April, Nokia announced it managed to boost the company's smartphone market share to 41% from an estimated 40% in October-December 2009.

In absolute figures, it meant Nokia sold 21.5 million of the 52.6 million smartphones sold globally during the first quarter.

For the first quarter, Nokia's net profit rose to EUR349 million ($425 million) from just EUR122 million a year ago, when it was hit by the global economic downturn.

"The mobile telecom business as we once knew it, no longer exists," Harlow said.

"Today's smartphones are capable of doing things that were considered impossible not long ago."

source

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Express(the proximity communicator) Tweet

We found a new use for mobile device.Using Text,audio and Emoticons, we made them into a Proximity Communicator.
Let your imagination run wild with what you can do with it.A great way to communicate in a distance of 5 to 20 feet.

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N8 Connected to LCD Diplay videos Tweet

N8 Connected to LCD Diplay videos:

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Nokia X5-01 Demo By MXPhone Tweet

Nokia X5-01 Demo By MXPhone At Nokia Connection 2010.

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Nokia N8 with Symbian^3 OS Hardware Tour Tweet

Nokia Symbian^3 features a number of technical specs that make the high-end Symbian 3 smartphone standout from the crowd, including a 12-megapixel camera with a large sensor, durable glass Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash, 720p video recording, Dolby 5.1 surround sound feature for a theatrical experience when connected to a home entertainment center, USB host, GPS, front-facing camera, and more.

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Nokia X5 Music Shuffle by Spinning and Shaking the phone Tweet

At Nokia Connection 2010 they announced the X5-01 qwerty music phone.

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Episode 159: Hands-on with the Nokia N8 Tweet

I sat down with Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian (that's him talking) to check out a pre-production unit of the Nokia N8. See what you think...

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Damian Dinning on the Nokia N8 Tweet

As part of the N8 show and tell in London on 14th June, Rafe and I took 5 minutes with Nokia imaging legend Damian Dinning to delve deeper into the new Nokia N8...

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Nokia N8 + Bluetooth Keyboard + Mouse Tweet

Having some fun with two Nokia N8's, a Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard. thanks to Christoph Mahr from Nokia Austria (@cmahr on twitter) for the Demo and hands on time! check out www.fonearena.com for picture galleries and Previews shortly!!

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Nokia Eseries… 10 things you need to know Tweet

LONDON, England - The Nokia Eseries is all about business. These are not mere phones, folks, they are the nerve centres of corporate communications. They are offices away from the office. They track the pulse of the Stock Exchange and the current of commerce. And ermm… they need to be good at making phone calls, too. Business devices are all about messaging, flexible communications and reliability. We’ve picked out 10 of the Eseries’ myriad talents we think you should know about.

Twiddling Thumbs Eseries is all about business communications. When you’re trying to prepare an RFP for the MD ASAP, what you want is QWERTY. All bar three of the Eseries range come with full keyboards to make flexing your thumbs to create email on the move fast and accurate.

Frequent Fliers High-powered business users need bands – and not the sort that come with a drum-kit and guitars. The Eseries has got it covered, with a minimum of tri-band and most likely quad-band communications: so you can go ahead and collect your air miles without worrying that you might ever be out of touch.

Mail Man Eseries devices run Nokia Messaging, which will give you access to all the POP and IMAP you can throw at it. It’s also happy to talk using Mobile VPN, Nokia Intellisync Mobile, Mail for Exchange and Lotus Notes Traveler, enabling you to connect to corporate, or personal, email swiftly and securely.

Management Speak Roaming Eseries users often have to hold meetings while they’re on the move and stay in touch with multiple members of the team. Eseries devices support conference calling across the range, plus group distribution of text messages. As you’d expect, they also handle call waiting, call divert and call hold without breaking a sweat.

Battery Powered The last thing you need when you’re closing the deal is a power cut. Eseries devices are built to last. The Nokia E5, for example, boasts a whopping 18h 30m of talktime – that’s more talktime than you get standby time on a lesser phone. Talking of standby, you get 705 hours on the E5. We’ve owned pets that didn’t last that long.

Safe as Houses Eseries takes security seriously. Set up the Remote Lock feature, available on most recent Eseries devices, and – if it’s lost – you can simply send your device a message to stop prying eyes unearthing your business secrets. You can take it even further, too, by setting up encrypted memory cards or using mobile VPN.

Full Capacity The latest Eseries devices might be slim enough to slide inside a suit pocket, but that doesn’t mean they can’t pack plenty of storage. The Nokia E5 will take MicroSD cards up to 32GB. Enough for you to carry more PowerPoint than your competitors. Keep the chairman’s video address to investors next to your heart. Or your complete MP3 collection.

Office to Go There’s no point having a mobile office, if you can’t look at office docs on the move. Eseries has you covered here, with QuickOffice on board enabling you to open and edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel docs and there’s Microsoft Mobile Office in the pipeline.

Out of Hours Business users are people too, sometimes. Your phone should let you relax at the end of a busy day, so you need a decent digital still and video camera, a music player and radio. The Nokia E71 is a good example of mixing business with pleasure: as well as all the corporate features above, you’ve got a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus, a VGA video camera, support for six different digital music formats and an FM Radio.

E is for… You might be thinking Enterprise or Executive, and they are certainly useful memory aids for remembering what this series is all about. But no.. Nokia won’t be drawn on what the letters stand for in its model naming conventions: E just stands for E in this case.

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Nokia N8 hands-on Tweet

Nokia N8 hands-on

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Nokia E73 Mode for T-Mobile USA review Tweet

Here's a look at the new Nokia E73 Mode QWERTY smartphone for T-Mobile. This Symbian/S60 powered phone is based upon the E72, but features a slightly updated look and 3G support for T-Mobile. Todd checks it out for us in this video tour.

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Shiny Hands-On: new Nokia N8 - the hardware Tweet

We glimpsed a prototype of Nokia's N8 today. The flagship smartphone takes over from the n900 as the latest in the N-series range and will hit the UK in September.
We take a look at the hardware in the N8 including the uber specced camera, and just why the colour doesn't scrape off. Are you convinced by the need for the bump on the back?

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