Coming soon this second quarter, the Nokia N86 is a robust upgrade to your typical Nseries phone. Although it doesn’t sport the Xenon flash from the previous N82 series, the N86 hails more from the previous N85 line. It comes with a 8MP Carl Zeiss camera, WiFi connectivity and 8GB of storage. There isn’t anything that really stands out with the N86 — it’s pretty much a straightforward Nseries phone with all the bells and whistles for music, video, and Internet surfing.

At the end of the day, the N86 is a decent upgrade of the former series and is a good buy if you’ve been looking for a powerful slider.

Post from: Cellphone9

Vopium is a free software program that uses mobile VoIP and Wi-Fi technology to reduce the cost of international phone calls on mobile whilst also maintaining excellent call quality. Free and easy to download, Vopium integrates directly with the address book on the phone, automatically re-routing all international calls via the least expensive method available. In addition to heavily discounted international calls, Vopium users can also slash the costs of sending text messages (SMS) abroad as each message only costs 9p.

It’s pretty much by the book in terms of implementation – address book sync, WiFi calls but what we like is that it makes use of a system that determines the cheapest reroute from an International call.

Post from: Cellphone9

Remember Truphone, the app that turned an iPod touch into an iPhone and make calls? Well it’s out for Android!

As well as being able to make low-cost international voice calls, Truphone customers can also easily Instant Message their friends across a variety of networks including MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk and Twitter from within one Android application. Customers can also call friends anywhere in the world on Google Talk for the price of a local call, and similarly will soon will be able to Instant Message and call their friends on Skype.[source]

Truphone wants to be what Skype is for desktops and portables. Available for Symbian, Apple iPhone / iPod touch, BlackBerry and now on Android, we’re looking at a quick deployment for Android. Seems like 2009 will be the year for fast rollouts. Everyone seems to want a piece of the Google OS.

Post from: Cellphone9

The Nokia E63 is the cheaper brother to the more elegant E71. Slightly thicker with more playful colors of blue and “Space Marine” red, the E63 boasts a similar form factor sans the secondary camera, HSDPA. It also comes with a lower resolution 2MP camera as compared to the E71’s 3.2MP camera. Truthfully, this is not a bad deal if you’ve always wanted to own an E71 but could not spare the extra cash. The phone is obviously targeted to compete with the Palm Centro which caters to a more young and hip market that desires much for a QWERTY keyboard.

One thing that the E63 has that the E71 doesn’t — a 3.5mm audio output! The E71 only has a 2.5mm which means you’d have to find a third party adapter to plug in your regular headphones.

* S60 3rd Edition FP1
* WiFi, 3G (no HSDPA?)
* Quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
* Dual band WCDMA, 3 models: E63-1 900/2100 MHz, E63-2 850/1900 MHz, E63-3 850/2100 MHz
* Dimensions: 113 x 59 x 13 mm Weight: 126 g Volume: 87 cc
* 2 megapixel camera
* 2.36″ QVGA (240×320 pixel) display
* 3.5mm stereo AV socket
* Micro-USB connector
* 110 MB internal memory plus microSD socket (up to 8GB)
* FM radio with RDS
* 1500mAh battery

[photo from PhilMUG]

Post from: Cellphone9

Hola! The Sony Ericsson G705 is yet another entry to the 2008 fourth quarter releases of clamshells. The SE G705 comes with a 3.2MP digital camera and HSDPA connectivity for wireless surfing. Huge buttons and a huge screen and the rectangular form factor are added bonuses for people with big hands. This is also one of the few phones of SE that come with built in WiFi, which is a deal breaker for most people.

Here is a complete list of compatible accessories for the G705. The phone is due out this coming 4th Quarter and should be popular in the Christmas wish list.

[Photos c/o Sony Ericsson]

Post from: Cellphone9

At some point in a phone’s life, engineers would decide that it no longer needs an overhaul. The upcoming N79 is a proof of this postulate I have when it comes to “matured phones.” A phone reaches its peak (fastest UI, best real estate design, OK features) when all that’s left to add are neat covers. The N79 is a downgrade of the N82 – no Xenon flash, but it has a 5MP Carl Zeiss lens and brings forth much of the bells and whistles of the N78 and N82. Call it a midpoint in terms of features (I don’t really care – it has WiFi and HSDPA, so those are great already). In terms of design, the main difference would be a better looking (and hopefully more comfortable) keypad.

Do the Xpress-on covers really matter? I remember when Nokia was still “young” it made a killing selling overpriced phone covers for customization purposes. Today, 3rd party phone accessories manufacturers can get away with casings for about $2.00. OR … since Nokia makes so many phones, 3rd party accessory guys don’t bother much with these in-between models?

Post from: Cellphone9

Timeline follows. Latest entry is at the top.

## Lunch time!

## For pornography and other “questionable items” images can be flagged. Nokia does not monitor or moderate content. The community works to flag images and reports them to Nokia, who, in turn removes them in half an hour to 12 hours.

## Uploading of photos demo. You can comment via website or via your mobile phone. Ovi page very similar to Flickr if I may reiterate. It even shows EXIF data of photos. if location tracking it turned on in the phone, GPS, Assisted GPS or cell ID kicks in and determines geotagging data. Nokia does not own copyright to these images. Photographs belong to the one who took it.

## Demo of Share on Ovi mobile site. Basically the same thing, but smaller.

## Ovi allows you to use widgets, similar to Flickr and post your slideshow on your blog.

## (checks Ovi site. Hmm looks like I’ve signed up for this before). Anyway, the Ovi page allows you to create channels ofr privacy purposes. Channels allow you to filter who sees your items. You can also share audio recordings such as lectures and other sounds and basically you’ve just created a podcast. You can share over 100 different media formats. You can even share Microsoft Office documents. Yeah, yeah, they’re going the Google way like Google Docs! Full resolution downloads of photos can be made. You can subscribe via RSS to uploads of your friends / channels.

## Vast majority of media is not uploaded apparently. From media sharing, media hosting and social networking. Share on Ovi is basically a way to upload photos and videos immediately wirelessly. Service is free. The app can be downloaded from the Nokia site. Free bandwidth and storage for uploading photos. Website is http://share.ovi.com.

## In room survey of people who take vacations and take photos with them. Obviously a way to introduce Ovi.

Post from: Cellphone9

Timeline:

## Discussion of Ovi. Ovi Share included for all Ovi services including N-Gage, music, photos. Q&A follows. Differences between the E66 and E71 is really just about the keypad options but the features are essentially the same.

## Security: Encryption of the Eseries devices in internal memory and with the memory card. “Lock and wipe” feature for SMS. An SMS can be sent via you or your IT manager to wipe out the phone in case it gets lost with the send of a single SMS.

## Preview of the new browsing experience. Embedded VPN client for the Intranet with automatic VPN setup over WLAN. Flash support in browser (YAY!).

## The new Home Screen. The old home screen added a lot of functionality and customization. The new one improves on this: Personallized application shortcuts, configurable email accounts, plugin customization, home screen notifiers. Inteligent contact search allows you to type in names directly from the keypad from the home screen without having to go to the address book. Effortless mode switching. A “free time mode” and the phone turns into a “free time phone” which doesn’t show anything to do with business (!!!). Provides access to other services to “free time” apps like the music player, N-Gage, new wallpaper.

## Enhanced calendar: you can basically see more in one screen. Column arragement of tasks and meetings within the month view.

## Personal email setup works the same way Mac Mail works — just type the username and password and you’re set. For business email, preloaded with access to Microsoft Exchange: push email, push contacts, push calendar, corporate directory, device management. Supports also Nokia Intellisync: completely revamped – uses less data, saves battery, better UI.

## Nokia Eseries – Everything the Professional Needs. I think this is a preview of the widgets application for the Eseries. 1.5 billion email inboxes in the world. Only 4% are “mobilized emails”

## Sandra Bullock photographed with the E71. Paparrazi go around to photograph the phone, not her (speaker’s joke)

## Demo unit of E71 is placed beside me. Wow. This baby’s really thin. Emphasis on good battery life. Price is 350 Euros. Only 10mm thin. “world’s thinnest QWERTY device”

## Nokia E71 Preview. Available July 2008. Made of stainless steel. Available in grey and white. Concentrating on size of the product – unit is ultra thin. Emphasis on keyboard usability with “pillow type shape.”

## Nokia E66 Preview. Accelerometer to turn unit from general to silent mode.

## Just walked in. grabbed a donut. Really good. Keynote has already started with Nokia reps presenting the two new phones we previewed last night. Eek, I’m a *little* late (Blame it on the roti that didn’t agree with my stomach).

Post from: Cellphone9

Today, Nokia announced their top of the line enterprise model, the E71. Though it hails from the previous oh-so-thin E61 design, the new E71 looks more elegant and is a tad thinner and sharper on the edges. The Nokia E71 also comes with a dual home screen feature which gives the user easy access to two home screens including shortcuts – one for business and one for work.

Two notable things – the E71 comes with the standard Bluetooth and USB connectivity but it also comes with IrDA support for compatibility with older devices. Perhaps the only negative thing we can say for now with the E71 is that it comes with a 2.5mm audio jack instead of a 3.5m jack. We’re thinking that it is standard for the E series to come with this type of adapter whereas the Nseries phones come with a 3.5mm jack.

The Nokia E71 is due out in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

Here are the full specs:

HSDPA Connectivity
WiFi 802.11b/g
Built in GPS and Nokia Maps
One Touch Email Access
Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email
Mail for Exchange
Bluetooth with A2DP support
2.5 mm AV connector
3.2MP digital camera
Two Home Screens
110 MB internal storage // up to 8GB microSD support

Post from: Cellphone9