CellPhoneBurn

The very likeable N85 has gotten a new firmware v. 11.047 to be precise. We has heard about it a little while ago and the good news is that it is now available via the NSU, which also has gotten an update. The firmware is available across most generic product codes and should slowly be making its way to others. It brings support for the Nokia DVB-H accessory, support for the 16GB microSD and the Nokia application that should automatically check for newer firmwares from now on. For those of you in India, it is likely that Nokia’s given you the shaft and the firmware may take weeks to become available even if you have a SIM free N85. Full changelog below.

New features and applications:

I left you with the following as the last part of my last post, ‘this is the week that Nokia either shines or moves to the B list of the cell phone market’. From the launch of the N97 today, all indications are that the only place Nokia is going with this is upwards. The device packs specifications equalling a fanboy’s dream, we had been waiting for Nokia’s QWERTY Nseries for long, but when they gave it to us they didn’t forget to include touch too. S60 Touch, Nseries and QWERTY make for a killer combo. Specifications to make you drool below.

N97

This mysterious counter had popped up on quite a few Nokia websites around the world two days ago. Clicking on the timer takes us to events.nokia.com/countdown, which again doesn’t say much. There are options to add the event reminder to your calendar, be notified via an email, or spread the word about it but that’s it.

I have waited for this option for what seems like ages now and I’m glad to say its finally here, not because Nokia finally woke up, but because Sujesh decided to use Python and make it happen. I am sure all of you have felt the need for the sleep mode at some point or the other, specially the ones who listen to music before dozing off at night and find the phone dead in the morning because the music player wasn’t turned off.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The above is probably one of the first unboxing videos of the 5800 Xpress Music to have come out. The video comes to us from Russia where the phone had gone on sale for the first time on Wednesday. The Nokia flagship store had a total of 120 units, all of which were sold within 30 minutes with about 900 people putting themselves in the waiting list for the next batch.

Unfortunately, the video is in Russian, but should still give you an idea of what to expect from the retail package of the 5800.

I had recently attended a Q&A on three of Nokia’s upcoming innovations - Near Field Communication (NFC), Indoor Positioning and Connected Home, and in a prior post, I had brought you my impressions on NFC, this post will cover the Indoor Positioning. These technologies are part of the legends on display at the Legends Telegraph website.

INDOOR HOME

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you recall, the third task in N96 Challenge to win you five N96 trials was to play a video on the TV via the N96’s TV-Out feature. The catch was that they want the projection needed to be full of ‘fireworks’, now of course they did not mean ‘fireworks’ literally.

As part of my Birthday celebrations, Nokia today announced that they had started shipping the 5800 Xpress Music in select countries around the world including Russia, Spain, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Finland, among others. What such an announcement usually means is that you should start seeing the 5800 in stores near you within a week or two. The price will vary from region to region, however in India it is expected to retail at around the Rs. 21,000 mark. This press release means that we could see the 5800 come out in December itself, and not January like we had earlier heard.

The Nokia Vine application, if you recall, was announced at the same time as the N85 and the N79 and was called ‘Life Vine’. A few months later the application has finally gone live and is available for all of you to have a play with. I have been using it on my E71 as well as the N96 for the past few days and have found it to be a much better alternative to the Sportstracker application when all you want to do is save the path you traveled along with the photos and video you took there. If you want it can also keep track of the music you played while creating the vine.

Fresh from a Q&A on three of Nokia’s upcoming innovations - Near Field Communication (NFC), Indoor Positioning and Connected Home, I bring you my thoughts. These are part of the legends on display at the Legends Telegraph website.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I just came across the above video on the Nokia Press website which gives us a walkthrough of the Nokia Test Centers where they subject devices to extreme tests in order to test the durability of the product. Ever wondered how come your Nokia has the reliability you have come to expect from it? Here’s why. Some of their devices may creak a little, but you have got to admit when you think of solidarity and mobile manufacturers, it is Nokia’s name that pops up.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have a strange love and hate relationship with the N96. On the days that I carry my E71, I miss the gaming, music and the camera of the N96 and when I have the N96 I can’t wait to get back to the E71 because of the battery life and speed. However, that might soon change.

Before you get your hopes up, I would like to warn you before hand that you mileage with this technique may vary and some of you might even find it to be completely useless. However, as beggars can’t be choosers and we are yet to see anything that allows copying from the browser, this work around might come in handy.

The method, courtesy of Arjun from Abhista’a Blogs is simple and combines two free applications - Multiscanner and Screenshot. All you need to do is take a screenshot of the page from which you want the text and use the Nokia Multiscanner to extract the text from it.

The third and penultimate task in the N96 Challenge is here and I am thinking Deja Vu! If you recall the last task was to stream live video from the N96 and since I had no connectivity, I shot the video using the N96 and then played it back on the TV via the N96 and used the second N96 to live QIK the stream. Now the current task also revolves around TV-Out.

The new version of Share Online is here and it is actually something to look forward to. The update brings uploading ques, a outbox to manage them, WiFi only uploads and the ability to remove Share Online from the standby screen. I’m sure a lot of us wanted this. However before all of you get excited, there is a catch. The update is only available for the N96, 6220 Classic, 6210 Navigator and 5320 XpressMusic. Download here.

The reason for this according to Senior Product Manager, Julio Castillo is that: