Today I introduce you a indeed good looking theme by tehkSeven. It’s called Touch (Zen) and works on S60 3rd Edition as well as on S60 5th Edition. I’m also using this theme on my Nokia N97 and 5800 XpressMusic and it looks awesome. There are several icon packs available so that you can find a perfect match for you. Head over to download the theme. This and many other themes are available in our huge theme section as well.

Changelog:

USB detection error fix:
-PC does not detect N97 or USB charging connection not detected.

Widget:
-Home screen online/offline widget crash fix
-Fix for “Alphabetical and Number input are mixed in facebook until end key is pressed.
-Widget UI improvement – New facebook widget fixes a problem of Home Screen background visible on soft-key area.
-Browser fixes to improve widgets stability.

MfE related fixes:
-Partial fix for Messaging/calendar entry lost.
-Mail for exchange calendar entry synchronization error fix.

UI transition error fixes (Portrait <-> landscape transition, there is a home screen corruption.):
-UI transition (Slowness and bad effects)
-Slow Touch UI response
-Picture of the device lock appears half of the screen when transitioning the UI sometimes
-Landscape: in some cases the soft buttons on touch (right hand) show the Home Screen in background (install maps.google.com)

Photos thumbnail performance and stability improvements:
-Device performance deteriorates when lots of content in the device - especially photos
-Partial fix no display backlight illumination when unlocking lock-key – CAP Genius reported already
-New version of Accueweather to improve the “Connection error” situation
-Device reset when browsing with high speed packet access (for Malaysia)
-“Browser soft key UI doesn’t work after putting Chinese character with qwerty keyboard”
-Java fixes (TCK, Pre-install app disappearing, *#7370#*)
-Operator fixes (CMCC, Hutchson and Telefonica, Vodafone)
-Ovi store client now embedded in the core image

Source: Symbian-freak

The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is basically a cut down version of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Both are equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera. As you maybe know, 5800’s camera isn’t that good and many are really disappointed of the quality. Here are four images taken with the 5530. As you can tell, they look ways better.

Sloource: Dailymobile

Announced at the Nokia World 2008 in Barcelona the N97 really has beaten big waves. However, there are also people saying that this device isn’t worth what everybody thinks. Thus, can this be Nokia’s best device we’ve seen so far or is it just a big fail? In this review I’ll answer this question and put the N97 through its paces.

Main advantages:

• Big screen
• Slide out QWERTY-keyboard
• strong battery
• interactive homescreen
• 32GB internal flash memory

Main disadvantages:

• software glitches
• Keypad with some issues

Sales package:

The packing looks really simple with a print of N97’s design. Compared to other boxes this box is smaller and has no images of the device. More over, the box is really environment friendly which shows Nokia’s new way. Things you can find in the packing:

• Nokia N97 (RM-505)
• USB like stylus
• microUSB cable (CA-101)
• battery with 1500mAh (BP-4L)
• headset remote (AD-54)
• headphones
• USB-charger (AC-10E)
• charger adapter for 2mm & 3,5mm (CA-146C)
• Ovi CD
• manuals
• cleaning cloth
• 3 months of voice guided navigation

The charger adapter is really nice and works well. You can use older charger without any problems. So you can use your car-charger you bought e.g. for the N96 easily by using the adapter. Although the N97 features TV-out no TV-out cable is included. However, some user may already own this cable. If not, and you want to use TV-out you need to buy it. If you may miss a microSD card I want to remind you that this device features 32GB of internal storage which should be enough for everybody. The stylus looks pretty cool but is frankly to short. If you like to use the handwriting recognition the stylus doesn’t feel good in the hand as it is to short. We missed a case for the N97 to protect it from scratches. For a full unboxing head over.

Size:

When designing such a handset with a 3.5” screen, a large battery and a slider mechanism one need to bear in mind the size. The final version of the N97 measures 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm. So it’s higher, thicker and wider than most handsets. Also it’s weight of 150g is affected by the huge amount of features and materials. Despite it’s big and heavy it feels, also when not as good as other handsets, relatively comfortable in the hand. Unfortunately, due to its size it’s sometimes difficult to put the N97 in pockets. Some pockets might be big enough but some pockets, from tight jeans, might be to small or to tight.

Built quality:

When buying a high end device the customer expect high quality. In the last years N-Series user have been quite often been disappointed. Especially the highly anticipated N95 caused a lot trouble. However, now it seems that Nokia have learned and put a lot effort in the N97. The overall feeling is much better. It feels more noble although it’s finished out of plastic. Metallic details at the edge of the housing make it much more appealing to the user. There are no creaks or big gabs. The backcover is smooth and really thin plastic. Our test unit was almost perfect but unfortunately the batterycover was on the left side, next to the slide lock, a little bit loose and not as tight as it should be. You almost cannot see it but therefore you can hear it. This is, at least for me, pretty annoying. However, not all but a few N97 have this issue. The front’s surface is one unit and there is no transition between the screen and the rest of the rousing, really good indeed. Such surfaces tend to attract finger prints but the white version doesn’t do so.

Hinge mechanism:

Something many don’t expect is the hinge mechanism which reveals the full QWERTY-keyboard. The build quality is really high and the gab between the two parts is really small. If you slide the screen up, the screen tilts up at an angle of 35 degrees. It opens really soft with a nice ‘click noise’. However, you cannot adjust the viewing angle but this angle is almost perfect for every situation - writing e-mails or surfing the web. Sometimes, however, you wish to adjust the the screen for a better viewing angle. Despite how strange the mechanism is looking it’s really solid and isn’t loose.

Keys:

Despite the N97 has a huge touch screen it still has a couple of keys. On the front, which is dominated by the touch screen, we have three buttons. Only one of them is physical, the two other are touch-sensitive buttons. The application button, the physical button, launches the menu and opens when pressed and hold the task manager. Next to it there is the touch sensitive green call creation key and the red call termination key.

Going to the left hand site of the device we have the slide lock to lock and unlock the N97 easily. Just flick the slide lock down and you lock or unlock it. It sits on the right place as it’s easily assessable with the thumb (left hand) or with the middle finger (right hand).

On the opposite side we find the volume toggle to adjust either the volume or to zoom in and out. Walking further down there is the camera button to capture a image or to start/end recording. The pressure point of the keys is good and crunchy.

Sliding the upper part up the screen tilts up and it reveals the full QWERTY-keyboard. On the left there is the d-pad for navigating through the menu or for gaming. It’s basically nice having this d-pad as you can navigate smoothly and you can decide whether using the touch screen or the d-pad. The QWERTY-keys are quite small but they are separated nicely. First one will struggle using the keyboard but after some time you will get used to it and write ways faster. Due to the hinge mechanism there wasn’t enough space for four rows so that only three rows are available. More over, Nokia rearranged the layout so that the space bar has been move to the far right.

However, this isn’t the problem. Rather the tactile feedback and the keyboard shortcuts are the big issues. Some key do give some tactile feedback but other such as the blue arrow/Fn do give no feedback. Talking about the blue arrow key. As there are three rows available only, the numbers as well as some symbols have been put on letters. If you want to type numbers or symbols you need to use the blue arrow key. Other than the E75 you cannot press and hold a letter to get a number. Pressing on P you do get a series of ‘p’ instead of a zero - nonsense. I do hope Nokia will fix it in the next firmware. Also, there are no extra keys for the most common symbols like dot. It’s really frustrating using the arrow key all the time.

To use the keyboard also in the darkness the keys have backlight of course. In completely darkness it works fine but in moderate light conditions it becomes almost impossible to read the characters as the white backlight matches up with the white colour of the keys. This seems to occur only on the white version of the N97. Other than that the backlight is really good and there is no light leak. Next time Nokia need to think about how to build a good QWERTY-keyboard. Basically they do have the knowledge as they had awesome QWERTY-keyboards with the E71, E75 and the E90.

Touch-Screen:

The Nokia N97 has a large 3,5“, bright nHD (640 x 360 pixels and 16:9 aspect ratio) TFT color display with resistive touch screen and tactile feedback. Resistive touch means that it’s based on pressure so that you need to actually press the display. Compared to Nokia’s first touch screen device, the 5800, N97’s screen is way more responsive. To select an icon just click on it and it will open. In some menus you need to highlight a point first before you can click it, so you need to double click. Basically the UI, S60 5th Edition, is pretty intuitive. Clicking on the clock for example you can set an alarm. However, here and there there are some problems which Nokia and S60 need to improve. Scrolling down a list isn’t as smooth as on other devices. They should think about include kinetic scrolling into the music library and other lists to make it more appealing. Anyhow, the icons are big and you can navigate through the whole device using your fingers. The N97 also supports tactile feedback. It’s a small vibrate so that you know that you pressed a icon or option. You can set its intensity or turn it off. Using the N97 without tactile feedback is kind of strange as you don’t have any feedback. The nHD screen is indeed really bright and sharp. Watching movies is really a pleasure and due to the tilted screen you can put it on the desk and lean back.

Input methods:

Besides the full QWERTY-keyboard there are still two other input methods. First it offers a standard numeric keypad we know from all non-touch-screen devices. The buttons are big and due to tactile feedback it’s as if you’re using hardware buttons. Of course you can use T9 to speed it up. The other input method is handwriting recognition. Although I’m still wondering who will use that this function it is included as well.

Writing with the finger is quite hard but using the stylus it’s a little bit easier. However, as mentioned before the stylus is to short to write properly. Anyhow, the N97 recognized my handwriting pretty well although my handwriting is quite bad.

Camera:

On the back there is the 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and Carl Zeiss lens. The lens is protected by a shutter. Sliding the shutter down it reveals the lens as well as the Dual LED flash. More over it opens automatically the camera application.

On the right hand site of the camera application you have a toolbar. You can take a picture either hold and pressing the hardware capture button on the top or by clicking the capture button on the screen.  However, before you take a picture you can access the extended toolbar which offers you plenty of options. It’s not offering you all options you know from a professional camera but it comes pretty close. You can adjust the white balance, colour tone, sharpness and the contrast. More over, different scene modes like close-up, landscape or sport give you the best mode for a certain situation. Although photography isn’t the N97’s biggest focus and it’s early firmware the image quality is pretty impressive. Of course, it doesn’t reaches the quality of a professional camera or of the N82 but it’s good indeed. For bad light conditions you find a Dual LED flash which lights up the picture. Well, it’s not as good as a real Xenon flash but it’s okay. Ah, before I forget, you can downscale the quality and also record the GPS location. Here you can see some image samples:

Video recording is also possible with VGA (640 x 480 pixels) resolution and 30 frames per seconds. This is unfortunately nothing special as we have seen this two years ago already. HD like quality instead of DVD would be much better but let’s come back to the facts. You can use the LED as a video light, select between different colour tone or white balance and record up to 1 1/2 hours. Unfortunately, the focus is set to infinity instead of initial focus. That means that objects close to the lens are blurred out. Let’s hope Nokia fix it soon. But other then that the quality is good, the colour is vivid and the tone is good. Here is a videosample:

Music:

With the 32GB of onboard storage which can be expended to up to 48GB the N97 would be the perfect musicplayer. On the top there is the 3.5mm audio jack for standard headphones. You can browse your songs by Artists, Albums, Playlists, Genres or Composers. Of course you can view all songs and use a search function. However, first of all you need to refresh your library which takes, depending on how many songs you have, some seconds up to more than 20 minute. After that you can start listening to music. If you have to many songs, for example 2700, it takes 30 seconds to open up the library.

The ‘Now playing’ screen is showing the album art (if available), title, artist, progress bar, options and the music controls such as play, fast forward and rewind. If no headset is connected the music will be playbacked via the two stereo speakers on the left long edge. The speakers are really loud and the sound quality is good. It’s not as good as 5800 XpressMusic’s speakers but they’re fine.

Of course you can create playlists, turn on/off the shuffle mode and improve the audio quality by choosing between six equaliser modes which you can also edit.

Another nifty feature is the built in FM-transmitter. Using the transmitter you can transmit your music form your N97 to any FM-radio. Well, the quality isn’t as good as the normal radio or CD but it’s fine. There is some background noise. You just need to select the same frequency on your N97 as well as on the radio and you can start. You can also listen to radio with your N97. Therefore you need to plug in your headset as this has the antenna built in. Unfortunately the N97 has no virtual radio which allows you to listen more than hundred channels world wide.

Homescreen:

The homescreen is one of the main focus points. Instead of a static homescreen Nokia decided to go a new way and to implement internet-based widgets and shortcuts on the homescreen. There are five slots in which you can place your favorite widgets. Contacts and applications shortcuts are available as well as a Amazon, Facebook, Reuters, AccuWeather, E-Mail, RSS feeds and some more internet widget. These are always connected to the internet and update continually. If you wish you can switch to ‘content offline mode’ to disable the updating of the  widgets. Unfortunately you cannot set a certain interval in which the widgets should be updated. Either they are updated continually or they aren’t at all. This needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Of course you can set a wallpaper to customize the homescreen. As this screen is really personal you don’t want everybody to see it. So you can swipe it away and you will see a screen without widgets. Unfortunately, there is only one page for widgets available so that you cannot have more than 5 widgets. The spectrum of widgets is currently really small.

Available widgets are:

• AccuWeather
• Amazon
• AP News
• Bloomberg
• Calendar
• E-mail widget
• Facebook
• Favourite contacts 1 & 2
• FM transmitter
• Hi5
• Music player
• Share online
• Shortcut 1 & 2
• Slideshow
• Music
• various RSS feeds

The RSS feed widget could have been better as it shows for example only the SymbianWorld.org feed. However, it would be better if it combines all your feeds so that you’re always up to date. I hope that Nokia will add further widgets in due course. Some 3rd party applications like Gravity also offer a widget but currently there aren’t many of them.

Connectivity:

On the connectivity side it has GSM, 3G, WCDMA, GPRS, HSDPA, WCDMA and HSCSD. Than, for the connection to the PC and other devices it features microUSB, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support and W-Lan. In the test all connection worked fine. No problem to connect to a Bluetooth Stereo headset, to the PC via bluetooth and to transfer data between the N97 and the PC. Transferring 100MB from the PC to the N97 took about 1 minute and 32 seconds. If you take a look at the N97 you won’t find the standard charger socket.  Now you can charge the N97 via the microUSB cable which is a big plus.

Internet:

The N97 provides the user with an excellent internet experience. Using W-Lan or 3G you can surf the web on the 3.5” screen and with the QWERTY-keyboard it becomes a pleasure.  The browser supports almost all websites from WAP, WEB, HTML, XHTML and Flash Lite. Once you entered the URL the browser goes  automatically to the fullscreen mode. You can navigate either with the d-pad or with your finger. Dragging the site is no problem and you can scroll easily up and down just by flicking your finger over the page. Even YouTube videos aren’t a problem and you can watch it in the browser. However, if you like to see it full screen you can either go to options and click ‘full screen’ or, according to the notification, click the video. This however, causes that you will be pointed to the mobile version of youtube - nonsense. To zoom in you can just double click or tap the right down corner and use the zoombar to zoom in and out. Unfortunately, the browser crashes form time to time which hangs together with the little amount of RAM.  You can subscribe to RSS feeds, save URLS and sent also URLS to friends. All in all the web experience have been really improved compared to the 5800 but there is still room for improvement.

GPS:

Nowadays all flagship features GPS. And so does the N97. It comes with Nokia Maps 2.0 and three month of free voice guided navigation. The whole service is for free only the voice guided navigation must be paid. So you can test the service 3 months for free before you device whether to purchase the voice guided navigation or not.  Maps are also for free and can be downloads straight to your N97 or via the Nokia Maps Loader for your PC. Nokia Maps offers you almost everything any other navigation solution is offering. Different kind of map modes like 3D, 2D, Satellite and Hybrid make it really easy to navigate. When navigating you also can choose between various different views and adjust the volume.

Also build in is a digital compass which shows you truth North. So the map always shows you the direction you’re actually heading. This is significant when you’re using pedestrian navigation. Before using it you need to calibrate it. According to the manual you need to take it in your hand and draw an eight with the device. The thing is, however, that it can take several seconds until a minute. Instead of doing this you can flip the N97 several times, this works as well. All in all Nokia Maps is a good navigation solution. However, you can also use other navigation solution such as Garmin Mobile XT without problems.

E-Mail:

Out of the box the Nokia N97 comes with the standard and old S60 client. It doesn’t take long creating a account as the device helps you. You just need to enter your password as well as your email address and you are done. This works in most cases but especially users of selfhosted domains like symbianworld.org need to enter the password, email address as well as the pop3 and stmp details. Attachments aren’t problems for the client. However,  by default it isn’t displaying the html format. If you want to see the html version of the email you can do so by opening the Attachment.html file. If you want you can download a more advanced e-mail client as well from the Ovi store.

Business:

Also when the N97 looks like a Laptop it doesn’t come with any special business applications. Like all other S60 handsets it comes with the standard but powerful calendar, a file manager, a converter, a dictionary, a calculator, a Zip application, Adope PDF and Quickoffice. This is basically what you need to retrieve or sent a business mail. You can create and open zip files, read PDF, Word, Exel and Power Point files. However, although this device is such a high end handset it comes with the read only version of Quickoffice so that you cannot edit or create any files.

Battery:

So much features also needs their energy. The BP-4L battery has 1500mAh and is really strong indeed. Depending on the usage the battery least quite long. I’m using W-Lan, UMTS, the music player and bluetooth every day and the battery holds up until the end of the day.

Bugs:

Unfortunately the N97 has also some software glitches. Contacts you sent to the N97 will be mixed up. That means that the first name will stand at the end and the last name at the beginning. More over, the devices is sometimes quite slow. If you turn the volume up or down the this happens not immediately but with some delayed. Furthermore, the handsets crashes or closes sometimes applications and needs really long to get a network signal after the boot up. I hope Nokia will fix it in die course.

Usage:

The N97 is based on the popular operation system Symbian. It’s running on S60 5th Edition. Thus it’s open to 3rd party application offering you a lot applications to download. More over, you can personalize the whole device from the homescreen until the whole menu structure. You can decide whether you want to have the homescreen completely blank, with shortcuts or whether you want to have a grid or list view in the menu. Moving around icons and creating new folders is no problem and with themes you can give your phone a personal touch. For some new users there might be to many folders and applications. The icons already say what they stand for and furthermore you can read the application’s name. Unfortunately, some icons look like application although they are subfolders. This is quite irritating. So some applications might be hidden for the first time. The N97 has a ARM 11 434MHz CPU which has causes some discussion. Some say that this CPU is to slow for such a flagship device. Indeed, the device is sometimes slow but I cannot say whether to blame the RAM, CPU or the firmware. Nice transitions, which are switched off by default, make the menu even nicer.

After the first start several application will turn on helping you setting up the device. They help you to create an email account, transfer your data from your old to your N97 and create the proper internet access points.

Software, Applications and Games:

For this review we used firmware 10.0.012 which is the first firmware. We expect that many of the mentioned glitches will be fixed with the new firmwares. Other than that the N97 comes with many extra applications like the Facebook application which allows you to handle your facebook account on your N97. Other applications are Qik AccuWeather, Traveler and more. If you’re a gaming geek the N97 isn’t a device for you. It comes with two games, Spore and Guitar Hero, pre-installed but these aren’t game which will blow you away. Also N-Gage isn’t quite ready for the N97 so that you need to wait until N-Gage will be available for the N97. The Ovi Store, Nokia’s answer to Apple’s Store, is also on the N97. However, the content in it isn’t really good and there more ringtones and wallpapers than games and applications. Looking for freeware apps and games you will find just a small amount. As the store is rather new we expect to see more and better content soon.

Verdict:

The Nokia N97 combines everything in a more or less compact formfactor. It’s a internet tablet, a camera, a mp3 player and a social media tool. However, neither of this things it can do perfect. Well, there are better camera phones available and the iPhone has a better browser but the N97 is a masterpiece in terms of convergence. If you need a device that solves all task the N97 will suite you. However, there are also devices such as the I8910 and the Sony Ericsson Satio which are worth taking a look. In my opinion the Nokia N97 is, despite its price of 600€, the device of the year.

“The results of this poll should be a wake-up call for educators and parents,” said James Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media. “Cell phones and the Internet have been a real game-changer for education and have opened up many avenues for collaboration, creation, and communication. But as this poll shows, the unintended consequence of these versatile technologies is that they’ve made cheating easier. The call to action is clear: Parents and educators have to be aware of how kids are using technology to cheat and then help our kids understand that the consequences for online cheating are just as serious as offline cheating.”

Kids have always found ways to cheat, but the tools they have today are more powerful than ever. In this poll, kids reveal that they’re texting each other answers during tests, using notes and information stored on their cell phones during tests, and downloading papers from the Internet to turn in as their own work. Because the digital world is distant, hard to track, and mostly anonymous, kids are less likely to see the consequences of their online actions, especially when they feel they won’t get caught.

Common Sense Media is asking parents and educators to step in to help kids develop a set of guidelines to follow in the digital world and to understand that the rules of right and wrong in their offline lives also apply in their online lives. For parents, it’s important to understand and embrace the media their kids are using and have a frank discussion about cheating and its implications. Educators need to be hyper aware of the amount of hi-tech cheating happening in their schools, talk to students about it, and establish rules and consequences for the classroom that reflect the reality of our kids’ 24/7 media world.

Other key findings from the poll include:

• 41% of teens say that storing notes on a cell phone to access during a test is a serious cheating offense, while 23% don’t think it’s cheating at all.
• 45% of teens say that texting friends about answers during tests is a serious cheating offense, while 20% say it’s not cheating at all.
• 76% of parents say that cell phone cheating happens at their teens’ schools, but only 3% believe their own teen has ever used a cell phone to cheat.
• Nearly two-thirds of students with cell phones use them during school, regardless of school policies against it.
• Teens with cell phones send 440 text messages a week and 110 a week while in the classroom.

In conjunction with the poll, Common Sense Media is releasing a policy paper, “Digital Literacy and Citizenship in the 21st Century,” which lays out its vision for educating, empowering, and protecting today’s kids so they can develop the skills, knowledge, and ethics for today’s digital world.

Source: CommonSenseMedia

The Nokia Music Store is now available in Poland. On Music.nokia.pl music fans can buy their favourite tracks and albums from the Nokia Music Store, choosing from over 4.5 million tracks (about 400 000 CDs) by Polish and international artists representing all music genres. The music is provided by major and independent labels, and includes a special exclusive offer to buy Moby’s latest album, or download David Guetta’s “When love takes over” music single, before they are widely available.

Nokia Music Store is an online, easy-to-navigate music store that lets you browse and buy music, using recommendations and searching your favourite artists, tracks, or albums directly. Use the Internet connectivity in your phone, log on to Music.nokia.pl (or click to the Nokia Music Store’s icon in your mobile) and enjoy access to the entire NMS music collection. The Nokia Music PC software helps you organise and transfer music between your PC and a compatible device, but also discover, play and download music directly from Nokia Music Store. The Nokia Music for PC is available at Nokia Music Store, on http://europe.nokia.com/get-support-and-software/download-software/nokia-music-old/download and on CDs provided with Nokia mobile devices.

Music at Nokia Music Store can be bought with credit cards and pre-paid vouchers. A single track costs PLN 3.49 and an entire album costs PLN 34.9. Store users can listen to a 30-second clip before buying any track.

Source: ZOMG its Cj

Santa Clara CA, U.S. and Espoo, Finland - Further uniting the Internet with mobile phones and computers, Intel Corporation and Nokia today announced a long-term relationship to develop a new class of Intel® Architecture-based mobile computing device and chipset architectures which will combine the performance of powerful computers with high-bandwidth mobile broadband communications and ubiquitous Internet connectivity.

To realize this shared vision, both companies are expanding their longstanding relationship to define a new mobile platform beyond today’s smartphones, notebooks and netbooks, enabling the development of a variety of innovative hardware, software and mobile Internet services.

Taking advantage of each company’s expertise as leaders in their respective fields, these future standards-based devices will marry the best features and capabilities of the computing and communications worlds and will transform the user experience, bringing incredible mobile applications and always on, always connected wireless Internet access in a user-friendly pocketable form factor.

The Intel and Nokia effort includes collaboration in several open source mobile Linux software projects. Intel will also acquire a Nokia HSPA/3G modem IP license for use in future products.

Source: Press

Do you want to have fun in the pub? If so you should take a look at Igor’s latest application. XpressBeer is not a new application but it’s the first for S60 5th Edition.  It looks as if you’re drinking beer using your N97, 5800 XpressMusic or the I8910 Omnia HD. The accelerometer based application is written in Phython and of course for free. Just install Python on the internal memory as well as the XpressBeer file.

XpressBeer

Python 1.9.5

In pretty much all Java games for S60 5th Edition, so for the N97 and the 5800, you do have an on screen keyboard. However, due to this keyboard you do have only half the screen size available and you cannot enjoy the application. It seem that’s just a little problem but it’s really annoying and a lot users don’t know how to fix it. Here’s a small and easy guide how to hide the keyboard.

news@symbianworld.org

Source: Flickr

Our huge download section increases almost every day. For all you owning a Nokia N97, 5800 XpressMusic or a Samsung i8910 Omnia HD we are offering you a huge spectrum of freeware applications. Recently we added GraphViewer and PC Remote. GraphViewer is a  graphical calculator that allows you to plot equations using the build-in functions, calculate its derivate, show a table with the functions critical points and even many more features. As the name already tells, PC Remote is a handy application which enables you to use the directional keys and page-down/page-up keys. So you can control presentations or pictures on your computer via Bluetooth. Actually it’s not as powerful as SmartTouch but it’s fine. If you want to download further application visit the download section.

]]> http://symbianworld.org/1597-graphviewer-pc-remote-and-more-added-to-the-download-section/feed/ http://symbianworld.org/1594-nokia-5530-xpressmusic-pictures/ http://symbianworld.org/1594-nokia-5530-xpressmusic-pictures/#comments Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:22:10 +0000 Norman John http://symbianworld.org/?p=1594

With the 5530 XpressMusic Nokia have announced a cut down version of the 5800 for the average user. Featuring a touch screen with tactile feedback, a 3.2 megapixel camera, contacts bar an much more. Here are some high quality pictures of the 5530 XpressMusic. Enjoy!

Source: Dailymobile

On June 18th, two days ago, in four German Nokia shops there was the opportunity to buy a Nokia N97. Each shop had a limited amount of 50 devices which were all white unfortunately. The presale started at 5pm and already half an hour before a couple of customers came along to be one of the first to get the N97.

In front of the mal there was standing a N97 fan club which was supposed to attract attention. Of course this was all set up by Nokia but unfortunately they didn’t done a good job as they were standing around unmotivated and they didn’t interacted with people passing by. Inside the store there was just one person demonstrating the device. He was really busy demonstrating so I think two people demonstrating the device would be better.

Everybody who bought a N97 also got a cool shirt saying I love N97. Talking with some of the person who just bought the N97 said they bought it due to the huge touch screen, internet and the full qwerty-keyboard. Compared to the presale in London or to the Apple iPhone launch event this presale wasn’t that special . No people lining up, no N97 branding or augmented N97 in the window.

Well, Nokia tried to make it special by having security bringing the N97 into the store. Nokia’s team was really kind and open for any question what I really appreciated. All in all Nokia tried their best but unfortunately they didn’t delivered.

A short video:

Further pictures:

]]> http://symbianworld.org/1592-nokia-n97-presale-in-words-pictures-and-video/feed/ http://symbianworld.org/1591-unboxing-the-nokia-n97/ http://symbianworld.org/1591-unboxing-the-nokia-n97/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:12:54 +0000 Norman John http://symbianworld.org/?p=1591

Today I received the Nokia N97 finally. It will be available in the next weeks in more than 75 countries. In the following days and weeks we will cover various topics giving you a closer look at the N97. First of we will unbox the N97. The packing looks really simple with a print of N97’s design. Compared to other boxes this box is smaller and has no images of the device. More over, the box is really environment friendly which shows Nokia’s new way. Things you can find in the packing:

• Nokia N97 (RM-505)
• USB like stylus
• microUSB cable (CA-101)
• battery with 1500mAh (BP-4L)
• headset remote (AD-54)
• headphones
• USB-charger (AC-10E)
• charger adapter for 2mm & 3,5mm (CA-146C)
• Ovi CD
• manuals
• cleaning cloth
• 3 months of voice guided navigation

The charger adapter is really nice and works well. You can use older charger without any problems. Although the N97 features TV-out no TV-out cable is included. However, some user may already own this cable. You can navigate with Nokia Maps for free for three months. If you may miss a microSD card I want to remind you that this device features 32GB of internal storage which should be enough for everybody.

Unboxing video:

Unboxing pictures:

TuneWiki, a freeware application, has been added to the Ovi Store. TuneWiki is a next generation social media player; it promotes a social network that allows users to add, edit and synchronize lyrics to audio files in all languages; and displays location based charts and maps of music played around the globe. However, there are some issues. Loading the music library takes pretty long and their is no haptic feedback available so that you don’t know whether something is going on or not. Lyrics aren’t available for all songs and sometimes there aren’t timing information.

The Nokia E75 was launched at the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona. According to Nokia the E75 is an enlargement of the 9300 and should replace the Nokia E71 as a business-flagship device. In this review we’ll take an in depth look at the E75 and find its advantages and disadvantages.

Main advantages:

• built quality
• compact form factor
• slide out qwerty-keyboard
• connectivity features

Main disadvantages:

• heavy
• small display

Sales package:

Before you can take a look at the E75 you need to unbox it. The box of the E75 isn’t really big and doesn’t look neither funky nor any special. Indeed it looks like all other E-series boxes with it’s grey shape. In its inside you can find following accessories:

• Battery with 1000mAh (BL-4U)
• Charger (AC-8E)
• microUSB-cable (CA-101)
• carring case
• 4GB microSDHC card
• Stereo-Headset (HS-43)
• 3 months of free voice guided navigation
• Bounce activation code
• User manual & sheets

The box contains almost everything you need - from the battery, a stereo headset to a 4GB memory microSD card and a leather case. This is pretty much all you need.

Size:
Like previous E-Series devices also the E75 is really compact. It measures 111.8 x 50 x 14.4 mm and feels extremely pleasant in your hand. It’s not big and also not too small, actually it’s the a good size. However, as the E75 has a lot metallic details around it’s surface and a stainless steel battery cover it puts 139g on the libra. And indeed, you can also feel it when holding it in your hand. Compared to the 5800 and the N96 it is clearly thinner and not as wide as the two others but also much heavier.

Keys:

On the front of the E75 there are 25 almost flat keys. 12 of them belong to the standard numeric keypad. The 13 other keys are:

• Left soft key
• Right soft key
• Red-end key
• Green-answer key
• Calendar key (one-touch-key)
• Messaging key (one-touch-key)
• Home/Menu key
• Clear key
• Up on the d-pad
• Down on the d-pad
• Left on the d-pad
• Right on the d-pad
• OK, the middle of the d-pad

The keys aren’t separated and the size of the keys isn’t any big but nevertheless typing is easy and fast. The pressure point is clear and you feel a nice click. The red end key works actually also as the powerbutton to turn the device on and also off. Also you can change your current profile by clicking on the red-end key.

On the right long edge you have the volume toggle to adjust the volume or to zoom in and out. Between this toggle we have the voice command key. This one should be a little bit more raised as it is hard to click it. However, I haven’t used this function during the whole test. Then we have the capture key to record a video, capture a picture or to launch the camera-application by clicking on it for 5 seconds. Actually the positioning of the camera-key isn’t ideal as it is a little bit to much in the very middle. Having the capture button more on the right side, like all standard cameras have it,  would be much better and easier to handle.

The one-touch-keys, messaging and calender key, are indeed pretty handy and useful. So you can jump immediately to the calendar or your e-mails. But what to do when you don’t use the calendar? No problem, you can edit the entries and personalize the keys. So you can use the calendar key as the ‘music key’ or ‘clock key’. You can even select two functions for one key ( short and long press).

E75’s main feature is the horizontal slide out full qwerty-keyboard which many won’t expect. The keys aren’t separated and feeling on which key you are is quite hard at the beginning. The keys are compared to other qwerty devices really big and after some days of using them you will fly over the keyboard. Again, the keyboard is completely flat but this isn’t a deal. In total you have four rows. The numbers are on the upper row together with letters. By holding on the numbers for three seconds or clicking on the blue arrow you write numbers instead of letters. Same thing with symbols like €, & etc. All in all the qwerty-keyboard is excellent and writing on it with both your thumbs is easy and fast. So emailing and using twitter is a pleasure. In the middle of the keyboard there is a thing  which looks pretty gallant. This has actually no specific function.

Built quality:

When buying a Nokia E-Series device everybody expect a high-quality processed product. And indeed, Nokia have fulfilled our wishes of such a devices and they put the E75 into a nice and precious housing.

The batterycover is built out of stainless steel and the camera is rounded by metallic looking details. The front’s casing has metallic details and the d-pad fits also to the rest of the device. Actually, everybody I showed this phone liked its design as well as the metallic details. The slider works pretty well although the gab between the two parts could be a little bit thinner. Opening and closing it is easy with one hand. The slider is solid like a rock, no wobble at all. There is only one downside. Around the device there is a little light leak. So you can see a little light when the slider is open and when it’s dark. Besides of that there are no more issues. This is one of the best-build devices I’ve ever hold in my hand.

Multimedia:
Although the E75 belongs to the E-series it still has some nice multimedia features to offer. The 2.4” screen displays 16 million colours by a resolution of 240×320 pixel. Indoors it is extremely bright and nice and also outdoors with height sun intensity you can read the display really good. Anyway, looking at the screen you see that there would be enough space for a 2.6” screen which would fit more to that flagship device. The 2.4” display is a little bit to small for viewing videos, websites or word documents. In terms of memory the E75 comes with 50MB built in memory and a 4GB microSD card which is fine for some media.

N-Gage:

As the first E-Series device the E75 supports Nokia’s gaming platform N-Gage. Using N-Gage you can download games, trial them and if you like them you can buy these. Some games are good, others aren’t worth buying. The E75 comes with an activation code for Bounce so that you can start enjoying N-Gage immediately.

Camera:

On the back of the E75 you can find a 3.2 megapixel (2048 x 1536) with autofocus and 8x digital zoom. As well you can find a little mirror for self portraits and a single LED flash. To open the camera application you just need press and hold the camera key for five seconds.

Once you opened the camera application you have quite a few preferences to choose from. For example you can choose between different kind of scene modes such as auto, close-up, portrait, landscape, sports, night, night portrait and a user defined mode. This allows you to set the best mode for a certain moment. Close up is ideal for capturing intricate details of small objects between 10 and 60cm. And there is still more, a sequence mode to capture for example every 10 seconds a picture or to capture 6 and more pictures at a time. The quality of taken images is pretty fine. Well, having good light conditions pictures come out relatively well. There is no noise or blur at all and the objects are really sharp. If the light is to strong however, the colours are a little bit watched out. Of course, you cannot expect as good images as from a professional camera. Here some samples taken with the E75: