Nokia is planning on cutting almost 285 jobs in the process of developing its manufacturing plant in Salo, Finland. “Salo is a crucial part of Nokia’s global manufacturing network. Plans involving changes to employees are always painful, and they are set in motion only after thorough consideration. However, with these plans our aim is to ensure the plant’s future competitiveness and its special role as one best suited to the production of high value mobile devices,” says Juha Putkiranta, Senior Vice President, Markets, Nokia.

Nokia is planning to develop the operating mode of its Salo plant to ensure production is focused fully on the high-value smartphone market, especially in Europe. The key drivers for a new operating mode in Salo plant are diverse customer requirements, faster deliveries in high-end mobile device manufacturing and the company’s transformation towards a solution-driven offering. The plans will result in the introduction of new and highly specialized manufacturing methods and also entail changes to personnel at the facility.

The planned new focus for Salo is expected to affect a maximum of 285 employees involved in production and in related support functions at Salo. Today, Nokia’s Salo facility employs approximately 2 200 people.

Nokia will support alternative solutions, such as finding new positions at Nokia for as many employees as possible. Nokia will begin consultations with employee representatives about these plans, including discussions about voluntary severance packages. Additionally, Nokia plans to stop currently ongoing rotational temporary lay-offs at the Salo plant by the end of June 2010.

Nokia has a strong global mobile device manufacturing network with ten manufacturing sites in nine countries – Brazil, China, Finland, Hungary, India, Mexico, Romania, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

[Via]

Version 200.12.87 is available for the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic. V.200.12.87 is available over the air and through the Nokia Software Updater. In case this update isn’t available for your product code please wait as it will be come available sooner or later.

Changes noticed from V101.48.128 to V200.12.87

• web browser is faster, new toolbar and more improvement
• photo gallery is faster
• Ngage application is not installed

The Symbian Foundation has just announced that Symbian, the worlds most popular smartphone operating system, is now officially open source. In 2008, Symbian Software Limited was acquired by Nokia for USD 410 million, and in April 2009 a new independent non-profit organisation called Symbian Foundation was established. The foundation includes Nokia, AT&T, LG, Motorola, NTT Docomo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone. The Symbian Foundation’s decision to make its code open source means that any organisation or individual can now use and modify the code for ‘any purpose.’

Lee Williams of Symbian Foundation said that,

“This is the largest open source migration effort ever. It will increase rate of evolution and increase the rate of innovation of the platform. When we chatted to companies who develop third party applications, we found people would spend up to nine months just trying to navigate the intellectual property. That was really hindering the rate of progress.”

Despite being the world’s most popular smart phone operating system, Symbian has been losing the publicity battle, with Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iPhone dominating recent headlines. It is believed that this announcement will attract new developers to work on the system and help speed up the pace of improvements. We hope that this will bring Symbian back on top of the food chain, and with the launch of Symbian^3 in the third quarter of this year, there seems to be a very bright light at the end of this tunnel.

So is this what the #countownsymbian was all about?

[Via]

According to Michael Hsu, General Manager of Nokia Taiwan:

“The Symbian version 4 is believed to be based on the Qt cross-platform application development framework developed by Trolltech, which Nokia acquired in June 2008,” said industry sources. “Qt will allow software developers to develop application software supporting Symbian and Maemo platforms simultaneously.”

“For terminal end products, Nokia will continue to offer Maemo-based mobile computing devices, Symbian S60-based smartphones as well as Symbian S40-based feature phones, with the prices for Symbian S60-based models likely to be more competitive in 2010.”

“By 2011, smartphones based on the Symbian S60-platform will account for 55% of Nokia’s total handset shipments, followed by Symbian S40 feature phones at 35% and Maemo-based devices at 10%.”

Source: DigiTimes

Firmware V11.0.045 brings:

• The software contains many fixes and improvements over v10 firmware including:
• More free RAM after booting (around 6MB more)
• Improved call reliability
• Browser improvements
• Music player improvements
• Improved image and video stability

Source: AAS

Changelog:

• Improved call reliability
• More free RAM after booting
• Smooth touch screen scrolling
• Browser improvements
• Music player improvements
• Improved image and video stability

Via – The Nokia Review

The main focus of this device is without a doubt the music capability. It comes with 32GB internal memory (there is a 16GB version available too), 32 hours of music playback, loud stereo speakers, decent headphones and on top of that a comes with music subscription is enabled for an entire year. Comes With Music lets you download an unlimited number of musics tracks for 12 months free of charge (network charges may apply). Not only can you download the music on the X6 but also to your computer. In order to prevent pirating, songs are DRM protected. The 3.5mm audio jack on the very top of the device allows you to use standard and high quality headsets.

Nokia has included a decent of over-the-ear headset (depending on country variant) with a remote-control in the box . The sound quality is good indeed and better than all other included headsets we’ve ever tested. In case you want to share your music with the people around you, you can play the music through the stereo speakers situated on the right hand side of the device. This together makes a good music bundle but unfortunately we missed the dedicated music control keys like on the Nokia X3, has. This would have tied a nice bow around this whole package. Other than that there is no way to search for songs. That is a complete no go, especially for a music phone!

We’re positively surprised of the X6’s built quality. Although more than half the device is made out of plastic, it doesn’t feel as cheap as its predecessor. There is a tiny metal stripe on the left and right side of the device, increasing the looks of the X6. The whole display area is made out of scratch-resistant glass which is a big plus. However, our testing device had two little issues. First, the keylock switch on the right hand side was shaking, which kept causing a rattling noise. Second, the battery cover wasn’t as tight as it should be. We don’t want to say that it was too loose but it actually didn’t feel stable at all. Holding the X6 in the hand you instantly notice how thin it is: It’s dimensions are 111 x 51 x 13.8 mm. On the other hand, however, it’s rather tall. Nevertheless, it feels fine in the hand.

On the feature list we don’t find anything new or revolutionary. A five megapixel camera on the back takes decent pictures and offers a bunch of settings like light sensitivity, exposure mode, contrast, sharpness, white balance, different scene modes and more.

Using Share Online you can easily upload pictures or video to services like Flickr, Ovi Share, Vox or many other services. Here some image samples for the X6’s camera:

Next to the camera, which records videos with 640×480 pixels at 30fps, there is also a Dual LED to light up the picture.

The main input method is via the 3.2-inch scratch resistive touch screen. For the very first time Nokia has used a capacitive touchscreen. Thus it doesn’t react on pressure but slight electrical current running through your finger. However, Nokia doesn’t take full advantage of this technology as for example multi-touch isn’t supported. Moreover, the whole UI seems to appear rather old and not as touch-friendly and as intuitive as other UI’s. Kinetic scrolling, to easily scrolling through list, is supported almost every, except for the menu where you actually need it, which is quite disappointing.

You can either use the full QWERTY-keyboard or the numeric on board for entering text. These are of course on-screen keyboards and no physical buttons. If you wish you can set the device so that it provides tactile feedback each time you touch the screen. All in all we found the touch screen to react quite decent but not as good as the iPhone other devices with capacitive touch-screens.

GPS along with A-GPS are on board the X6. Nokia Maps is of course preinstalled. This, however, is an old version. If you visit the Ovi Store you can download the latest Nokia Maps version that offers voice guided pedestrian and car navigation totally free, no matter where you are. The navigation works seamlessly and without any major problems.

In the Internet folder there are many shortcuts. One of which is the web-browser that works fine and displays the web pages just like you know them from your PC with flash and java content. However, there is no kinetic scrolling within the browser. I’d have to say that the web browser is pretty decent, but in no way is it perfect. Other than that there are apps like Facebook, AccuWeathr, Hi5, YouTube and MySpace. As the X6 runs on Symbian you can find thousand of apps on the Internet or via the Ovi Store. For connecting to the web you have the options of using W-Lan as well as HSDPA (3.6 MBps).

On the top you can find a microUSB port. This port is for data-transfer only. Charging over USB isn’t possible, and instead you need to use the former-standard 2mm charger.

The Nokia X6 is no revolutionary device with nothing new besides the capacitive touch screen. S60 5th Edition is still pretty clunky and continues to slow down the user experience. However, for the market it targets and the audience it aims for, it packs everything you need into a slim and compact design.

The Nokia Beta Labs have just released a fix to the pre-Beta touch version of Nokia Image Exchange that was released earlier. The original version unfortunately had some issues that needed immediate attention. Therefore today’s update should make the application more stable, with which they have also included some UI polish.

Nokia Image Exchange is an experimental imaging service to make browsing and sharing images fun and easy. It aims to provide a seamless integration of a mobile image gallery application and a corresponding web-service. Nokia Image Exchange explores the possibilities of the mobile phone when it is enabled with always-on data connection and utilizes existing contact information as a basis for social networking.

Nokia Image Exchange for S60 touch is available for downloading at imageexchange.nokia.com. The touch version has been tested on Nokia 5530, 5800 Xpress Music, N97 and X6. Nokia Image Exchange is also available for other devices (S60 non-touch, S40) via Ovi Store. These versions are more mature and as of now offer more features.

On behalf of Nokia Image Exchange team,
Janne Kaasalainen

Source: Nokia Beta Labs

Recently the official Symbian site launched a new webpage; countown.symbian.org, which, you guessed it, is some sort of cryptic countdown. It usded to be titeld 108 and changed to 49 now. What these numbers mean, well no one is quite sure. There is also a message in the source code of the web page reading “if you’re looking for a secret, here’s one: 108.” What do you think it could be? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so drop a comment below or join in the conversation on twitter with hash tag #symbiancountdown.

As far as we can tell this countdown refers to a major announcement

This refers to a major announcement coming soon, so please keep your eyes peeled.

We will keep you updated!

Today Nokia unveiled a new version of the Nokia X6 – the Nokia X6 16GB. As the name already hints it comes with 16GB internal memory and without Comes With Music. This actually causes with 390€ a significantly cheaper price as compared to the 32GB version. Other than that it comes in four new finishes: all black, all white, white with pink highlights and white with yellow highlights. Still it has a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 5 megapixel-camera, GPS and WiFi. It’s supposed to hit the market even this quartal.

Check out this cool video demo of Let’s Golf by Gameloft on the Sony Ericsson Satio. So grab a club, take a swing, and pray for a birdie. Discover a fun-filled experience accessible to anyone. Choose from among the 4 customizable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Then challenge 63 holes in 4 beautiful locations created in full 3D including Fiji Beach, the American Mountains, the English Countryside, and the Scottish Lochs.

Via

Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ – the second installment in a new family of communication entertainment phones also introduces HD video capabilities into the portfolio

London – January 21 2010 – Sony Ericsson Vivaz™, announced today, follows on from the Xperia X10 announced in November 2009, and is the second phone in the new family of communication entertainment phones coming to market in the first half of 2010. Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ will come to market in Q1 2010.

With Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ communication truly becomes entertainment with high quality HD video allowing consumers to produce and broadcast their best experiences with the latest video capture and sharing features.

* Capture – record spontaneous moments and memories in HD quality and crisp high resolution for a real-life video experience. The dedicated video key allows consumers to shoot video instantly with continuous auto focus for the perfect film every time.
* View – review video content in the standby panel or online via Wi-Fi on the 3.2 inch widescreen
* Share – upload via Wi-Fi onto YouTube™ and Picasa in high resolution while still using other features on the handset

The open platform also allows users to personalise their entertainment experience by downloading great applications through PlayNow™ and the Symbian™ Developer Community.

”Why have multiple devices that work that work in only one country or region? Put it all together, make it free, make it global and you almost double the potential size of the mobile navigation market ,” explained Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia. “Nokia is the only company with a mobile navigation service for both drivers and pedestrians that works across the world. Unlike the legacy car navigation manufacturers, we don’t make you buy maps for different countries or regions even if you’re only visiting for a few days. We offer both navigation and maps free of charge, with all the high-end functionality and features that people now expect.”

“The large-scale availability of free-of-charge mobile phone navigation offerings using high-quality map data will be a game changer for the navigation industry,” said Thilo Koslowski, Vice President Automotive and Vehicle ICT at Gartner. “Such offerings will accelerate mass market adoption for navigation solutions and shift innovation focus to location-based services that go beyond traditional routing benefits.”

For Nokia, removing the costs associated with navigation for drivers and pedestrians allows the company to quickly activate a massive user base to which it can offer new location features, content and services. This is part of Nokia’s strategy to lead the market in mobile maps, navigation and location-based services. The move is also in line with Nokia’s vision that the next wave of growth will be centered on the location-aware, social internet — as the ‘where’ people are doing things becomes as important as the ‘what’ they are doing.

According to research firm Canalys, the number of people worldwide using GPS navigation on their mobile phones was approximately 27 million at the end of 2009. With this announcement Nokia potentially grows the size of this installed user base to about 50 million by enabling smartphone owners, with compatible devices and devices that will be made compatible shortly to activate free drive and walk navigation through a simple download of the new Ovi Maps. Nokia will further grow this base as it quickly adds more smartphones to the compatible devices list. Canalys also estimated in 2009 that the installed base of smartphones with integrated GPS was 163 million units worldwide, of which Nokia accounted for more than half (51%) having shipped cumulatively 83 million GPS devices.

“This is a game changing move. By leveraging our NAVTEQ acquisition, and our context sensitive service offering, we can now put a complete navigation system in the palm of your hand, wherever in the world you are, whenever you need it – and at no extra cost,” continued Anssi Vanjoki. “By adding cameras at no extra cost to our phones we quickly became the biggest camera manufacturer in the world. The aim of the new Ovi Maps is to enable us to do the same for navigation”

“Naturally, it’s very encouraging to see Symbian excel in the click through rates – a statistic that certainly reinforces our leading position in the smartphone market. The high rate of click throughs will be in no small part to the flexibility and level and interaction available on our platform.
It is now critical that we do not rest on our laurels, but build on this momentum and strive towards our goal of making our platform completely open to the developer community, which will undoubtedly increase this flexibility and interaction. We believe that the future of mobile is indeed open, in order to instill creativity, foster innovation and ensure the developer community has the optimal platform to continue evolve the mobile phone at the rate we have experienced over the past ten years.”

Changes from 31.0.101 to 40.0.005:

• Kinetic Scrolling
• New Home “Contacts Bar”
• QWERTY Keyboard Auto Rotation (on text input screens)
• Removed Download! (Ovi Store still available)
• Replaced “Update Application” with “SW Update” as on the Nokia N97
• Ovi Contacts
• More Responsive UI

Keylock:
[Left softkey] + [Right softkey]= Keylock

Longpress on the homescreen:
[ctrl]= Switch Profile To Silent/General
[0]= Opens The Browser
[sym]= Switching Bluetooth On/Off
[*]= Activate Voice Control For Music (Artist/Song Name)
[Space bar]= Torch On/Off
[Homekey]= Show All Open Applications
[Left Selection Key]= PlayUnread Messages
[Right Selection Key]= Activate Voice Control For Applications & Contacts
[end key]= Deactivate Data Connection (if applicable)

Messaging:
[Shift]= Caps Lock On/Off
[Shift]+[Return]= Selecting Notes/Messages
[Shift]+[up/down on the d-pad]= Selecting Several Notes/Messages
[Shift]+[left/right on the d-pad]= Highlighting Text
[Shift]+[C]= Copy
[Shift]+[V]= Paste
[Shift]+[A]= Select All
[FN]= Num Lock On/Off
[FN]+[Space]= Text Input Options & Symbols
[sym]= Select Symbols

Browser
[0]= Go To Homepage
[1]= Show Toolbar
[2]= Search
[3]= Previous Page
[4]= Save As Bookmark
[5]= Keypad Shortcuts
[6]= Reload
[7]= Full Screen
[8]= Page Overview
[9]= Go To Web Address
[*]= Zoom In
[#]= Zoom Out
[enter]= Select

Real Player
[*/2]= Fullscreen/Normal Screen
[#]= Sound On/Off
[D-pad/Scroll up/down]= Volume Up/Down
[D-pad left/right] = Fast Forward/Rewind
[enter] = Play/Pause

Gallery
[send key]= Send Image
[enter]= Select
[backspace]= Delete

Ovi Maps:
[0]= Go To My Position
[1]= Map Mode
[2]= Tilt Map Down
[3]= 2D/3D Map Switch
[4]= Rotate Map Anti-Clockwise
[5]= Align Map North
[6]= Rotate Map Clockwise
[8]= Tilt Map Up
[*]= Zooming in
[#]= Zooming out

If a new version is not yet available then try using NSU (Nokia Software Updater) as it generally takes a while for the firmware to become available over the air. The Nokia N86 does support UDP (User Data Preservation), but we still recommend you perform a backup just in case. There is no official changelog as of yet, so leave some comments below to let others no of anything new you experience.

Via

Check out this quick preview of the new firmware update for the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD which is expected to be available later on this month. This is not the final update that will be released, a newer version will be released without the bugs mentioned, but this is just to give you a taste of what to expect. The update features kinetic scrolling, updated web browser and an updated graphics engine.

[Via]

Nokia Beta Labs have introduced Gig Finder, an application that helps you to find concerts and live music. Moreover, you can purchase tickets straight from your phone. Gig Finder works on all S60 5th Edition phones and can be downloaded right here. However, currently there are only the United States (USA), Canada, United Kingdom (UK), and Ireland supported.

Key features:

• Easy Search. Quickly find where to find the best concerts & other music events near you. Search by artist, genre, city, venue, specific date, date range or a combination of any.
• Buy Tickets. Direct links connect your mobile to various ticket vendors to conveniently find the best seats & prices
• Smart Recommendations. Get recommendations for live events and venues based on your music tastes (profile & on device music library) and location
• Get Directions. See where the event is and how to get there with a direct link from Maps.
• Start the Buzz. Share information about the gig to Facebook, SMS, or Email.
• Download Music. Events link directly to the artist pages in Nokia Music Store / Ovi Music (when available in your country) so you can preview or download music before or after seeing your favourite artists live.

Save the environment, lift spirits, improve productivity, educate and contribute to a healthy lifestyle: Nokia wants 2010 to be a year of good ideas that make a difference in peoples’ lives. Forum Nokia today announced Calling All Innovators 2010, an international application development contest designed to inspire creativity and change. The collaboration will encourage developers to create educational applications, and possibly utilize the Sesame Street characters, for consumers around the world.

Calling All Innovators 2010 features four categories for submissions that enhance the use of Nokia mobile devices in real-world scenarios:

- Eco/Being Green: apps that help to save the planet with innovative, eco-friendly uses.

- Productivity: apps that make your life easier, and help you to be more efficient, such as utilities, business, or personal finance applications.

- Life Improvement: apps that positively affect the daily lives of people living in developing countries by using the prevalence of mobile devices to teach children and illiterate adults critical skills, and agriculture health.

- Entertainment: apps that bring out your inner rock star, and show off the coolest multimedia features, including music, multimedia and games  because mobile also has to be about having fun!

Additionally, Forum Nokia has teamed up with Sesame Workshop, the producers behind Sesame Street, for the education subcategory of the life improvement category to encourage developers to create and offer applications to teach early literacy on Nokia devices to communities around the world. Sesame Workshop will offer guidance during the judging process and work with select developers to further enhance relevant projects.

“Today’s announcement is brought to you by the letter S,” said Purnima Kochikar, vice president Forum Nokia. “Teaming up with Sesame Street allows us to inspire the imagination of developers to help educate children worldwide through advances in mobile technology with quality, branded content.”

As Sesame Street celebrates its 40th anniversary, this partnership helps to extend its longest street in the world into the digital one. With an expertise in using media to reach children, the nonprofit is looking to mobile as the newest distribution channel of literacy-based content through accessible mass media.

“With Forum Nokia’s community over four and a half million developers strong we’re challenging those particularly in emerging markets to create educational tools that make a positive impact,” said Jeffrey Fleishman, assistant vice president for Media Distribution Business Development, Sesame Workshop. “We’re looking for creators who can bring a fresh perspective and local knowledge to the growing field of educational mobile applications. Our goal is to find some partners with which we can work to extend the power of Sesame Street to new platforms and places.”

One example is the regional Calling All Innovators contest taking place in Latin America at this time, where developers have been encouraged to publish their apps to Ovi Store. Finalists in this regional competition will automatically be entered into the global Calling All Innovators contest.

More details about all the categories for Calling All Innovators, special prizes and judges can be found on the contest web site at: www.callingallinnovators.com.

Submissions from developers for the 2010 Calling All Innovators contest will be accepted starting on 1 February 2010. The submission deadline will be 18 May 2010.

Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization that revolutionized children’s television programming with the landmark Sesame Street. The Workshop produces local Sesame Street programs, seen in over 140 countries, and other acclaimed shows to help bridge the literacy gap including The Electric Company and Pinky Dinky Doo. Beyond television, the Workshop produces content for multiple media platforms on a wide range of issues including literacy, health and military deployment. Initiatives meet specific needs to help young children and families develop critical skills, acquire healthy habits and build emotional strength to prepare them for lifelong learning. Learn more at www.sesameworkshop.org.

XpressCut is a simple but powerful application to cut and save songs directly on  your S60 5th Edition phone. Open XpressCut, select a song, set the start tag and the end. Once you pressed the save button it will create a new file and save the song. The quality of the new created file is good and can be send to your friends or can be used as a ringtone. Apparently, XpressCut is based on Phython and requires at least Python version 1.9.7. Install Python first and then XpressCut.

XpressCut v0.15

Python 1.9.7

The Nokia E72 is the successor of the award winning Nokia E71, which has been sold more than 10 million times globally. However, does the E72 have the potential to be a worthy successor to the Nokia E71? What are the pros on cons of upgrading to this device? Well sit back and lets take a look.

Main advantages:

• Build quality
• Battery life
• GPS
• WiFi
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• 5 megapixel camera
• Compact QWERTY Keyboard
• Form Factor
• Active noise cancellation

Main disadvantages:

• No dedicated camera key
• Small QVGA screen
• No TV-Out feature
• Poor single LED flash

Built Quality, Size and Feel:

The E72’s appearance is surprisingly good. Caused by the high quality materials such as the stainless steel battery cover, the chrome rim and the home keys area which is made out of black stainless steel. This fits perfect to a business smartphone like the E72 is. It measures only 11.4 x 58.3 x 10.1cm which is very compact for a fully capable smartphone and especially thin indeed. I must say though that the plastic parts of the device do make the device look a little cheap, compared to the plastic materials used on the E71, but the overall feel is pleasant and the E72 is pretty solid in the hand. So a thumbs up in this department.

QWERTY Keys:

The E72 has a full QWERTY keyboard with four rows. Due to the little amount of space available the QWERTY keys are rather small. At first it may be a little bit frustrating writing the first e-mail or text message, but after  a few days you’ll get used to them and find it strange how you coped otherwise. If you’re upgrading from the E71, you will notice that the keys have a better physical travel, and less pressure is needed to press the keys. The arched keys also have a very clear pressure point and give a good feedback. Almost each key has a second function being a symbol or a number which you can activate with either a long press or the FN button (next to the shift-key). Compared to the E71 the keyboard has been slightly remapped in order to make functions easier and more convenient for the user. The space bar has been given a torch function and the ctrl key has been situated better. Copy and pasting text is as easy as before and the clipboard will remember your copied text throughout the OS and in pretty much every application.

A few notes: Copy and paste is still not supported in web pages. Also previously on the E71 you had the ability to press the ctrl key and then c to copy, a to select all, etc. However on the Nokia E72, these functions require you to keep a hold of the ctrl key while pressing ‘C’, ‘A’, etc, and can get pretty annoying during single-handed interaction.

Navigational Keys:

Above the full QWERTY keys you have the directional-pad, left and right selection keys, the send and end keys as well as the home key and three one-touch-keys which are now a standard on all Eseries devices. The actual size of the keys is good, and there is no problem pressing them as the pressure point is well situated. For the first time, Nokia has introduced an optical navi key in the centre of the d-pad. This means that it is touch sensitive and that you can select and navigate just as well with the optical navi key. This is a great addition and gives this non-touch device the cheeky pleasure of swiping around the UI. However, you cannot scroll fast and that easily with the optical pad as you need to scroll over and over again. Instead, what Nokia could implement is the ability to scroll faster by either holding the shift key down during scrolling or by simply holding the optical navi key in the direction required. Of course, the standard d-pad can also be used in the traditional manner which works great or even better. In case you don’t like the optical navi key you can switch if of or even change its sensitivity through the options menu. Personally I would deactivate the optical navi key as it may annoy one after some time.

As already mentioned the three one-touch keys allow you fast access to your calendar, contact book and your e-mail account. More over you can access even more function with a long press of each key. It’s also possible to change the function and to assign two other function to each key. This is extremely handy for serial multitaskers, as you have even more keys to start up your favourite applications from anywhere or during any application. A long press on the home key brings up all open application. For the particular ones amongst us, I would just like to mention that there is a slight light leak under the Home key. Besides this the device looks pretty sealed and refined. Finally to keylock the device, the method has been changed to right selection key plus left selection key, and is not the same method used on the Nokia E71.

On the top of the device you have a silver power button which can also be used to change the current profile. You also have the option of switching to power saving mode, which is a great added touch. A volume rocker on the right hand side also has a voice recognition button between it that can recognise practically every application and contact with ease.

Multimedia:

The multimedia functionalities of the Nokia E72 are much improved from its predecessor, and in fact, bring it almost up to par with the latest Nseries handsets. The E72 is the first of the Eseries range to come strapped with a 5 megapixel camera, and although there’s no Carl Zeiss lens, the quality of the images is decent. As you hover your thumb over the trackpad, the autofocus instantly initiates and pressing the centre button will then capture your image. I did experience a few blurs to begin with, but the key here is to make sure you continue to hold the camera still until the captured image is displayed on the screen.

The flash is also a big improvement from the E71 and the single LED is pretty powerful. Nonetheless it’s just one LED and not as bright as a Xenon flash or a DUAL LED flash. Video recording is done using a 640 x 480 resolution at 15 fps, this may sound slow compared to the current standards, but in my opinion it’s enough, especially for a business orientated mobile phone. To ensure that you have enough memory for images, videos and music you can expand the memory with microSD cards to up to 16GB.

The speaker is now situated on the back of the device, next to the camera. I’m not sure how this will affect you guys, but for me this drastically reduced the volume of the ringtone, as many times I have my device resting on a desk. I can’t say I have missed many calls but I have missed the odd few. On top of the E72 there is a standard 3.5mm audio jack for regular headsets. The E72 also sports a Home Media Server application, which is great for showing off all your media to friends and family over WiFi onto a PC display or a TV. Note that you need to have a home media setup currently in operation with your home network, I personally use the Playstation 3 as my home media server, and it works great with this device. I can seamlessly browse photos and videos off my device onto my large TV display. However, the classic way, TV-out, isn’t supported despite a 3.5mm audio jack. We would like to see this feature implemented as this would be nice to show not only media but also word, exel, power point and PDF files on a large TV-set.

The Nokia E72 has a 320 x 240 resolution 2.36″ TFT display, which isn’t groundbreaking to say the least, as these days 3.5″ capacitive touch-screens are available with AMOLED technologies and with WVGA resolution. However as the device is a candybar QWERTY the 2.36″ screen is ideal. I must say though, I would have loved to see the AMOLED display from the Nokia N86 here, it would have added a great touch. Nonetheless, for style or feature oriented people this is rather a no go. We hope to see a better solution with the successor of the E72.

Connectivity:

Also in terms of connectivity is the E72 state of the art. So you can go online with either WiFi, GPRS, UMTS and also HSDPA for fast internet access on the go. The five megapixel pictures can be uploaded to Ovi or Flickr immediately and with HSUPA which will not take long. Bluetooth is of course also on board which you can use for connecting with bluetooth accessories, phones or your pc. Also you can use the microUSB cable to transfer data from the E72 to the PC or versa.

Default E72 Browser on the left and Opera Mobile on the right. Note the header is not displayed correctly in the default browser. I tried many things but could not rectify this issue.

However, when it comes to the browser Nokia seems to be still in 2008. Although the browser shows the web pages like you know them from your desktop, it still spoils the web-experience on it. This is mainly caused by the small 2.36″ screen which also causes that one need to scroll a lot.  The browser sports some features to help the navigation such as a mini map that shows you the whole web page and marks the area you’re currently in. Other than that you can subscribe to RSS feeds and watch flash videos. Overall we consider the E72’s browser to be fine for fast web searches and for checking the latest news but not for spending lot of time browsing the web. An alternative for faster and smoother web browsing could be Opera Mobile, a  free browser.

Navigation:

Navigating using Ovi Maps on the Nokia E72 is a very good experience. The E72 sports a built  in compass  which enable automatic screen rotation for the direction in which you are facing. This is a great feature, especially when navigating on foot, and the Nokia E72 comes with a lifetime subscription of City Explorer allowing you to use walk navigation absolutely free (may differ from country to country). Besides the regular GPS the E72 supports also A-GPS that accelerates the GPS fix. Ovi Maps is much improved with the new version 3.0 and it has some great optimizations in terms of battery life. Driving navigation is precise, and automatically adjusts the route instead of constantly telling you to turn around like it used to before. Overall the experience is good and I would happily use Ovi Maps as my main navigation tool. However as its a charged service I will continue to use alternative free solutions, and I cannot understand why, after paying hundreds of Euros for a device, this service is not free.

Business:

Like all the other Eseries devices, the Nokia E72 comes with a full license of Quickoffice suite, allowing you to create, edit as well as read your documents on the go. It only comes with v5 not the new Quickoffice 6, but this can easily be upgraded for free by accessing the ‘updates and upgrades’ section. The Adobe PDF reader is also present along with a comprehensive dictionary, multiscanner and a zip tool. Two new additions come in the form of a WiPresenter and Font Magnifier, the latter allowing you to change the size of the default font throughout the UI, a great addition for those that find the screen small. The Psiloc WiPresenter utilizes either Bluetooth or WiFi to manage a Power Point presentation from a distance, while simultaneously displaying notes on the smartphone screen. I personally haven’t used this application yet but note that it is only compatible with Microsoft and Widcomm Bluetooth drivers.

The E72 uses Nokia Messaging for sending and retrieving emails. Nokia Messaging helps you to set up a new email account in just a few steps. There is no need to know the IMAP server any longer but just the username and the passwort.  Lotus Notes Traveller as well as Mail for Exchange are supported by this power horse. Unfortunately, Nokia Messaging doesn’t automatically displays e-mails  in the proper HTML format. However, it gives you the option of viewing emails in  HTML format with one further click..

With Modes you can also change between two modes, e.g work- and homemode. That means that you can customize two modes with each different surfaces with different themes, backgrounds, shortcuts and enabled applications. So you can switch between two modes with just one click and leave the work behind.

The contact search allows you to easily and quickly search your contacts by easily typing the first letters on the homescreen. So for example if you search for Womworld, you just need to type in ‘Wo’, saving you time and the need to jump into the phonebook.

Power Management:

The Nokia E72 comes with the same BP-4l 1500 mAh battery as the Nokia E71, however with the optimizations of S60 3rd Edition FP2, the E72 boasts 12.5 hours of talk time and a whopping 20+ days of standby. It can also play music for 37.5 hours before refueling.

The Nokia E72 comes with an environmentally friendly multi-voltage charger that helps you make a big energy savings. If you forget to unplug, this green performer uses just 10% of the standby power used by conventional chargers. With the High Efficiency AC-8 Charger you can use a charger that surpasses Energy Star v.1.1 standards and make the most of the power during charging. The E72 can utilize both the MicroUSB port and the proprietary 2 mm port to charge the device, which is a great plus, especially considering the various charging accessories you may have already purchased for your mobile handset.

Verdict:

The Nokia E72 is a strong business device with a strong battery life. It has almost every relevant business application in a very professional and classy outfit. Moreover, it sports some great multimedia features such as the five megapixel camera and Home Media Server, creating the bridge where ‘E’ meets ‘N’. Nonetheless, we are left feeling slightly disappointed of the rather old and clunky web-browser. But would we recommend this device? In short YES! If you are looking for a compact QWERTY candybar, this is by far the best device on the market today. Remember this device not only gives you that QWERTY keyboard, 5 mp camera and full Quickoffice license, but it packs it all into a device that’s only 1 cm thick, half the thickness on the N95. The E72 is currently availble for about 340€, depending on where you buy it.

If you want uninstall multiple apps on a S60 device you can do it only one after the other, not several at once. This  is without a doubt a pain and takes some time.  With BatchUninstall, developed by Think Change, you can uninstall multiple application at once. You just need to select all apps you want to uninstall  and click ‘Delete Selected’. Batch Uninstall works on all S60 5th and 3rd edition devices.

Download BatchUninstall

There are thousands of Symbian applications available with more and more applications being added by the community each day, and when you first buy a new  phone the first thing you want to do is load it up with a complete set of apps, personal to you. But what you usually find is that some applications become surplus to requirements because some features built in to the new device is more capable than before. That’s why today we have decide to bring you SymbianWorld’s top 5 apps for the Nokia E72.

Gravity

Gravity is our number one recommended app, and not just for the E72. Gravity was the first fully-featured and native Twitter client for the S60 platform. It supports multiple accounts, Twitter Search, Laconica, Ping.fm, posting of pictures via MobyPicture & TwitPic and wraps everything into a gorgeous looking interface. Now, Gravity has become so much more than just a simple Twitter client, with Facebook integration, support for multiple accounts and even Twitter lists.

Handy Taskman

Handy Taskman is a great utility brought to you by Epocware. It replaces the native “show open apps” feature and gives more control during multitasking. It also has a nifty sidebar that feature that displays available RAM, phone and expandable memory remaining. Handy Taskman also lets you create a favourites list, allowing you another shortcut menu to access all your favourite apps.

Facebook For E71/E72

The new Facebook for E71/E72 is not the greatest solution to say the least, however it is the best solution available for the social networking addicts. It brings many new features when compared to the default mobile version of the site, including the very handy notifications alert. To find out more, check out my Facebook for E71/E72 Review over at The Nokia Review. Also check out Furtiv, an Ovi Share add-on, that integrates well with the built in service and lets you upload directly to Facebook and other social media services.

Qik

The Nokia E72 is the first Eseries device to come with a very impressive 5 megapixel camera, and what better way to utilise this feature than by streaming your experiences LIVE with the rest of the world. Qik is free service to sign up to and lets you stream live videos from your mobile phone to your own Qik Channel that you can share with friends and family. Qik also gives you the power to broadcast to partner sites like Mogulus, Justin.tv, and Twitter. Ever wanted to become a news reporter? Now you can with Qik, an indispensable resource for breaking news.

YouTube

Although it is still not possible to login or interact with comments, etc, YouTube for S60 is still a very useful application to have on the Nokia E72. The application loads videos quicker than the default browser and never needs to buffer once playback has commenced. With nice little transitional effects, YouTube for S60 is a great little application that brings millions of videos into the palm of your hand.

And thats the Top 5 Apps for the Nokia E72 brought to you by SymbianWorld.org. Are these applications installed on your Nokia E72? Let us know what your favourite applications are or what you instantly install when a new device arrives in your hands.

Inside the DC-11 there is a 1500mAh battery to provide you with enough power for at least one full charge. However, before you can charge a phone or any other external device you need to charge up the DC-11 via the 2mm charger first. This takes about three hours from empty to full. Apparently the DC-11 doesn’t come with a charger as Nokia assumes that everybody has a 2mm charger at home. All new phones, however, do not come with a 2mm charger so that some DC-11 user need to purchase a 2mm charger first. Once the DC-11 is charged fully up you can start charging external devices such as phones or bluetooth-headsets as long as they have either a microUSB or 2mm port.

Along the sides and ends you can find one microUSB cable and one 2mm cable which are wrapped around the length of the DC-11 and slide into the ends securely. So you can charge all new devices ( N900, N97) but also older devices (N95, N93). On the top of the DC-11 there’s nothing but a small LED and the power button. This white LED will flash while it’s being charged or while an external device is being charged. Once it stopped flashing it’ll go over to glow. This means that either the DC-11 or the external device  is charged fully up or that the DC-11 has no juice left.

The question that came to my mind was why shouldn’t the customer just buy a spare battery for their phone instead of the DC-11. Well, a spare battery has of course its advantages as it’s cheaper and of course smaller. Nonetheless, you need to switch off the phone in order to swap the battery and you can power up only one phone. Whereby the DC-11 can charge multiple phones and also accessories like bluetooth-headsets.

The DC-11 is priced at about 40€ and can be purchased through shop.nokia.com or via other online retailers. If your phone runs out of energy during the day the DC-11 is a perfect choice and the hero of the day. It’s not only really efficient but looks also really stylish.

Nokia’s Inspiration – Designing for the World

Axel Meyer highlighted that observation is a key element in the design development.  They spend time with people at home and when they are on the move, observing how people use their mobiles in their day-to-day lives. Of course the designers cannot just concentrate on only one design, one group or one region.

Each Nokia design is guided by these key principles:
•Beautifully fits your lifestyle – how you work, play and where you live
•It’s something special – attention to detail makes it a joy to use and look at
• It is not one design for everyone – people can choose the one that best suits their lifestyle

Global Team, Local Inspiration

The lifes tyles, the needs and the taste differs from region to region.  Reflecting this Nokia have a global design team of around 320 people representing 34 different nationalities. This unique group includes industrial designers, materials specialists, psychologists, researchers, anthropologists, engineers and interaction design specialists.
Based in four main design studios: in Espoo (Finland), London, Beijing, and Calabasas (US), this team creates a global mix of ideas and perspectives. They also visit different locations around the world to immerse themselves in lifestyle, design and cultural trends, bringing these local insights back into the studios to inspire and influence exciting new design.

Looking Ahead

As crazy as it sounds the designers at Nokia are working always in the future and also shape the future. They always working years ahead and they have a major impact on how we use mobile communication in our lives in the future. Again, here you can see how important observation is as they constantly looking for new ideas and signals.

Stay tuned for the second part and learn more about Nokia and their design philosophy

The SymbianWorld team do wishes you happy Christmas. We hope that you will enjoy
the following days whether you have holidays, you’re with your family, friends or alone. Enjoy the best time in the year.

Best wishes,

Norman John & Ibrahim Jogee