Nokia is discontinuing the Ovi Files service, effective October 1, 2010

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Yes! its true. Nokia is discontinuing the Ovi Files Service. Nokia started to build its own Internet services offering in 2007, but has ramped down several unsuccessful products lately and Ovi Files finally adds in the horror list.

We all users of Ovi Files received the mail in the same regard by India Time 0114 Hrs. Surprisingly there is no mention about the same on their official blog. You have one month from now on, to ensure you are not loosing anything. I am sure this comes as a reason of big disappointment to many as this service served very well in past.

Ovi FilesBelow is the content of the mail and also the message on official site ….


Dear Ovi Files user,

Nokia is discontinuing the Ovi Files service, effective October 1, 2010.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Please make sure to uninstall the Ovi Files Connector installed on your personal computer. To do this, execute the standard Windows or Macintosh uninstall procedure that came with your computer. You will not lose any files as a result of this service discontinuation. Ovi Files simply creates an ‘online mirror’ of the files saved on your Windows PC or Mac, so your original files will remain intact. The files on your computer are always treated as the master version, even if some are selected as ‘Anytime Files.’

You will still be able to share content between your phone and PC using another Nokia product, Nokia Ovi Suite. With Nokia Ovi Suite installed on your PC, you can do the following: sync your contacts and messages; transfer videos, photos, and music; back up your Nokia and update your device software. Please note that this is not a direct substitute for Ovi Files as Nokia Ovi Suite requires a wired connection between your PC and mobile device. For more information visitwww.ovi.com/suite.

Again, we are sorry for the inconvenience and hope that you will continue to enjoy our most popular services:


Maps
Find your way with free navigation, downloadable maps and easy location sharing. » Go


Store
Browse a wide selection of mobile apps, games, ringtones and more. » Go


Music
Download albums and individual tracks, share playlists with friends, and much more. » Go

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Nokia added Files to the suite of Ovi services in 2008 after it acquired digital locker startup Avevenu. In start, Nokia said it planned to make Files a premium service, but it was ultimately made free in 2009. Files was significant because it was the first service in Nokia’s Ovi suite that utilized the Nokia account ID.

I am trying to figure out that why this happened? Will keep you posted right here, when come to know something. Keep tuned in.

Nokia C1-00 and Nokia C2 in India-the twin story begins

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Try to remember that which local brand has released a non-dual SIM phone recently? Leave it, we don’t even know that when they ‘launch’ their phones as everyday there seems to be a new copy of E71, 5800 or Blackberry look-a-like on the roads in just 3-4k with big list of features and prominently one thing that they claim that you wont find in your long trusted brand, the dual SIM feature. We all know that what quality they offer in their other features and as about dual SIM, yes!! now we have an answer …. Nokia C1 and Nokia C2 have arrived in India by yesterday itself.

After continuous rants from the bloggers, the pressure finally seems to be mounted on Nokia about their India operations. Though Indian Launch of two cheapest phones by Nokia’s Executive Vice President Mary McDowell should not be exactly taken as some big sign about change in preferences as the visit might be more related with ongoing issue of push emails as well. But still we should be happy that some Nokia device is finally launched here in India within three months of announcement.

I was aware of arrival of her, when one of my tweeps told me in morning that she has arrived on Chennai Airport and it was clear from recent device orders arriving to India that its gonna be C1 and C2 for sure. but the announcement was made in New Delhi.

McDowell’s official world were ….

As per our deep consumer insights, entry level consumers need dual SIMs for various reasons including economizing time and costs, improving efficiency and for increased convenience. To address these consumer requirements, Nokia has launched these two devices that offer multiple SIM capabilities with a balanced feature set and ‘relevant innovations’ at affordable price points.


Let’s know more about Nokia C1-00 and Nokia C2 ….

Nokia C1-00: With the very first line, let me be clear, its not a dual SIM phone as many might be confused about. But its sure marks the first ever ‘Double SIM’ phone from Nokia.

Now what a dual SIM and what a double meant to be?

A dual SIM or dual standby as per wiki comes with many kind of adapter and first of entry category was the kind of adapter that allows only one SIM active at a time means even if your phone has two SIMs inside, you can’t receive calls on both of them. One would be main SIM and other will remain as standby (not active unless you make that active manually). So, in actual, if you are looking for receiving calls on both of your SIM, then skip it, its not your choice.

Next spoiler is, its C1-00 that is launched in India, not C1-01 or C1-02, both of which as series 40 devices with better capabilities (C1-02 even has basic camera).

Its a very basic model with a price tag of Rs. 1, 999/- and a color screen, probably its more of targeting the users, who loved Nokia 2600 or Nokia 1400. Some other regions has it in price around 1k-1.2k as well, so you could expect the prices to go down here as well very son.

Now, for people making complaints about the price tag, lets see what are the offering with a brand value, reliability and best of the service from biggest mobile brand of planet.

 

It might be looking like old phones, got no GPRS\ EDGE means no MMS, just GSM 900 / 1800, No Bluetooth, No Infrared, S30 Interface and no memory card support, but other than Double SIM, it got many more things.

Design, T9 and Flashlight With dimensions of 107.1 x 45 x 15 mm, 63 cc and weight as 72.9g, its not a bad design at all. No one would be expecting metal here, but T9 keypad is as good as it can be and left bottom key works as shortcut for SIM change as well. The power down key is not at top as many might be used to and located under the cancel key. The five way scroll can be used as shortcut for Flash light as well. Scroll up twice,  Flash light on and scroll once, Flash light off.

It would be available in blue, red, light grey and green colors.

Dual SIM Yes! it has no capability to keep both the SIMs active at the same moment, but it has the capability to divert the calls means you can configure it in way that you wont be missing any call on the other number as well.

Display Interesting display of size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches this beast has. It got 16 bit colors means total of 65k colors like high end Nokia E5 is supposed to have.

FM Radio The cheap phone not only got a FM radio under the hood, but also got it with a 3.5mm jack means you could hook your phone’s FM with your PC’s speakers as well. Unfortunately there is no shortcut key for this radio though and you have to navigate through menu to find it.

Phone Book If I remember right, then older phones from Nokia at this price point never had more than 200 phonebook entries, but this one got 500 along with usual multiple fields\ numbers and image entries. Though call records are still 20 dialed, 20 received and 20 missed calls means very basic.

SMS I am not expecting S40 like smiley’s and icons here, but in place of usual 20 SMS space as we remember about our old phones, we have space for 250 SMS here, if you were discarding it at the first place.

Battery It seriously urges you that you buy this inexpensive one just for its battery. It uses the same Li-Ion 1020 mAh BL-5C batteries as were in its many leading models like Nokia 1100, but call it evolvement of technology, you received ever best battery life out of it.

Talk time for 13h straight and a standby like of Up to 1152h or around 7 weeks feels like some kind of dream. Think you will find your phone on after some summer trip, if you forgot that back home.

So, if you thought this is just a useless another double SIM phone, then think again.


Nokia C2-00: In a price tag of Rs. 2, 500/-, C2-00 actually stands as first ever real Dual SIM Nokia, not just that unique to Nokia, the second SIM is ‘hot-swappable’ means it could be changed/ removed while keeping the phone on. Note that its with only one SIM as the other one will be situated under the battery. So, obviously you got very good reason to spend some more than buying Nokia C1-00.

Let’s know what more it offers ..

Design and T9 Keypad Its plastic, but definitely much impressive looks wise than Nokia C1-00. Dimensions are a little slimmer with 108 x 45 x 14.65 mm and 67.9 cc, while the weight is slightly higher at 74 g. As you can see that keys are divided in four row with no separation in individual keys in a row. Must be a class experience to type on this grid key design.

Same way, the left bottom key serves as selection key for SIMs, while the right bottom one provide the convenience of mute button and shortcut to radio or Music player. The location of power key is again below the cancel key.

It will be available in grey, black, magenta, dark blue or white. I guess, white would be nice in hands.

Dual SIM As I already explained in first para, we got both the SIMs active here for calls, SMS, MMS or GPRS usages and very unique to Nokia, for the first time we got option of hot swappable SIM as well. I am really looking for knowing that how Nokia software will handle two SIMs together on a S40 interface as the Chinese ones and even Samsung ones freak me out sometimes.

Display The same display of size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches with 16 bit colors is included in the package, though I think a little higher resolution would have make better use of S40 interface, but anyway same 65k colors are here.

FM Radio Yes! it got Stereo FM RDS Radio with 3.5mm jack and nice to hear that it comes with Radio recording feature. You can say Hurray!!!

Multimedia You get a VGA Camera here with 4x digital zoom and ordinary 10fps video recording. Camera Image format would be JPEG, though the software will support viewing BMP, GIF87a, GIF89a, JPEG, OTA, PNG and WBMP. Impressive for the price range.

Video recording resolution will be 128 x 96 and format H.263, while the device will be capable of playing 3GPP formats (H.263), ASF, MPEG-4 and WMV.

Same time, you could think this as complete music package with support for almost all common music formats like AAC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AWB, M4A, MIDI Tones (poly 24), Mobile XMF, MP3, SP-MIDI, WAV and WMA.

Memory It sure surprises you with the support of MicroSD card up to 32 Gb that too with hot swap feature. Maximum User Storage of 10 MB, SDRAM Memory 16 MB and NOR memory 64 MB must not be very less for such a device.

Connectivity It has not Wi-Fi or 3G, but it got GSM 900 / 1800 with GPRS\ EDGE support for both the SIMs. Bluetooth 2.1 is here for transferring your media files with ease, though I wonder if anyone will also think of connecting Bluetooth headset with it, but it supports.

Though USB charging is not here, but it has a microUSB as well.

Phonebook, SMS, MMS, Email, Chat and other features With the support of memory card, obviously the phonebook will be unlimited and SMS and MMS expected to do well with same ease as other S40 devices do. What real surprise here is inclusion of Nokia messaging Service v1.3  and Nokia Email Client means you can have Ovi Mail, Gmail etc and also chat options via Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo and Ovi Chat.

As a surprise, Ovi Contacts are not here, but this device supports  FOTA Firmware over the Air, Nokia Life Tools, Nokia Money and Themes.

Battery Don’t know what to say, but this part is a real let down for this otherwise amazing device for its price. We got the same BL-5C 3.7V 1020mAh here, but its told to provide only 4 hours of talk time that is not a very bad one, but still considering the performance of C1-00, people must have expected more from it. Standby time is also not a very higher side with 16 days only.

I wont say a disappointment here, but will say that expectations were raised by C1-00, which C2-00 misses.

We have a 2mm charger here as MicroUSB wont charge the phone.


So, this is all about Nokia C1-00 and C2-00 that would be available in India in 2k and 2.5k. Please remind me, if I missed something you might wanna know and also tell, are you buying anyone of these?

Are you waiting to buy Nokia E5 over Nokia E72? Think again

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It got many people excited when Nokia announced arrival of many cheap devices back in mid april. Nokia C3, C6 and E5. Nokia E5 was something people were most excited about and even me. I am sure that there are many, who waited this much long for E5 and pushed the purchase of E72. But when the dust gets settled, its time to analyze that how much it really is worth to wait for Nokia E5 over Nokia E72.

Call it success stories behind Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 due to probably best qwerty out there with best battery lives or the professional looks, but people still waiting for Nokia E5 to arrive in cost of 12k INR (as announced), which still stands decent 4.5k INR or around $100 below Nokia E72. But the question to ask is, if this wait worth?

Thanks to Forum Nokia, one could take a closer look over finer prints behind the specifications.

Lets see, where Nokia E5 looses points against Nokia E72 big time …

e5 Nokia-E72-Review

 


Design: It was a challenge to make a device in a lower budget keeping all the good points intact and one should praise the Nokia design team for keeping the same layout of qwerty. As I’d mentioned in my earlier post, it was more innovative to give colors to call end and receive buttons rather than keeping it strictly white as in E71 or E72 (business people don’t like colors?).

Now what have we lost in comparison to E72 here?

We lost that shiny metal surrounding the body, which was the core attraction of the Nokia E72. Also,, but the dimensions got bulkier. Nokia E72 had a 114 x 58.3 x 10.1 mm, while the Nokia E5 came up with 115 x 58.9 x 12.8 mm. Thanks to Nokia, that back cover is still metallic (plastic back covers scares me), but the extra plasticy bulk sure  doesn’t interest the user, who might have had his hands on Nokia E72.

nokiae5keypadright

More of it, we are back to D-Pad like Nokia E71 (already 13k nowadays) rather than the optical navi-wheel which was one of the biggest attractions to the E72. People who use Blackberry and cry after a year because of its bullshit trackball will surely understand  the losses.

Nokia E5 is sure 2g lighter than Nokia E72 (126g in place 128g), but absence of metal justifies that and don’t forget volume of Nokia E5 is 75cc, when that of Nokia E72 was just 65cc.

 


Display: Business devices till now, never been known for the great resolutions. Reason is, the focus always been on the text reading, which is crispier on a resolution of 320×240 only rather than bigger resolutions, so been a standard always. Same is here in Nokia E5 and Nokia E72, then what’s the catch?

A resolution is not only about the pixels, but also about the color depth. While with 24 bit colors, Nokia E72 was on the par with best of the devices, Nokia E5 took a step back with 16 bit colors means not those 16m color, but only 65000. If only these numbers doesn’t lower your excitement about E5, then next is the transmissive screen in place of transflective screen of Nokia E72, which was known to perform much better in sunlight, while E5 will go blank.


Connectivity, processor, RAM, Memory: Good thing about Nokia E5 is in this section, where its neck to neck with Nokia E72, at least as it seems on paper. It would be more reasonable to compare, when the actual unit will be in my hands, but still it got exactly same processor, exactly same level of all around connectivity.

What’s a win for Nokia E5 here is

With Nokia E5, we enjoys doubled RAM that is 256 MB now in place of 128 MB of Nokia E72. Sure one could expect this thing to be snappy when Nokia E72 was never a let down in performance. The reason for bigger RAM might be integration of Social services in contacts and home screen widgets, but the more RAM means more advantage for sure. Next is the support of 32GB memory card while Nokia E72 supported a MAX of 16 GB only.

While business people wont care much about extra 16 GB support as both the devices are never big about media playback and video recording, but sure 256 MB RAM makes a better deal for Nokia E5.

Note that without the extra RAM, I don’t think that better social integration as in Nokia E5 ever coming to Nokia E72, even if people kept asking for. Remember Nokia 5800, which never got the home screen widgets.


Battery: May be I never exactly got that how mAh works otherwise, I could have got some idea that how a 1200 mAh battery is being told to perform better (even if with minor margin) than a 1500 mAh. Though the improvements are minor in terms of talk time, which already at a great level of 13 hours straight in Nokia E72, but battery utilizations is greatly enhanced in case standby battery life, where it stands on 26 days in place of 16 days of Nokia E72.

I guess standby time doesn’t matter that much (at least doesn’t make a difference or me at all), but it would be interesting to see with actual unit that if the claims stand right with a 1200 mAh battery. If they have implemented some good things in their firmware, then those improvements may do more wonder with God battery of 1500 mAh in Nokia E72.

And yes!! both the devices have USB charging as well as 2mm port. Did I told you that I hate only USB charging option as was in Nokia N86?

 


Camera: Nokia E71 was one of legend from Nokia and people loved Nokia E72 for the reason that it brings fun to Business people as well. One of the biggest attraction was the competitive 5MP camera, biggest in Business phones. With Autofocus and LED flash, it was able to serve you not only for personal needs, but was serving you a good macro mode to get snap fine print on business papers due to its sensor that works from 10cm to infinity. But when you look over E5, then probably in cutting cost, Nokia forgotten that why people loved a 5MP camera.

nokiae5backpanel

Camera on Nokia E5 may be a 5MP, but its a camera of lower focal length 3.3 mm than that of Nokia E72 on 4.7 mm and aperture stands at f/2.4 as usual for Full focus camera in comparison to f/2.8 of Nokia E72.

Nokia E5 has just a full focus, which means 50 cm to infinity, no macro mode therefore. Not only that but with Nokia E5, if I am right, then you will be missing the still image editor as well (though I don’t believe on it, but their official forum page says so).Video and Still digital zoom will be reduced to 4x with Nokia E5, which were at 5x in Nokia E72.

Do you think that its enough to blow the excitement around Nokia E5? Here comes more ..

Nokia E5 doesn’t has a secondary camera. So forget about the video calling and those business video meetings. Sorry


Extra features: Sure cutting the price takes its toll and manufacturers try to cut it from where its least visible or may have a direct impact.

Did you knew that you are going to miss Compass (Magnetometer Sensor) and accelerometer in Nokia E5? Not only that but you miss Line Printer Daemon Protocol, Print to file option, Lotus Notes Traveller, stereo FRM radio with RDS (just a plain FM radio here in Nokia E5) and Bass Boost.


Sure, Nokia E5 might not be all, like you felt with Nokia E72. Yes!! it brings the same solid feel and performance to people, who didn’t wished to cross the 12k INR mark ever, but don’t you think that it was more worth loosing a better camera, a secondary camera, 24 bit screen, Compass (magnetometer), Accelerometer, optical navi wheel and metallic slim body for doubled RAM, better software and 4.5k INR?

Nokia E72 Black/ Chrome stands on 16.5k or less as of now and majesty white Nokia E72 now available in India for 17.5k. What you say?

Update: Make sure not to miss my full review on Nokia E5-00 for some of the great pictures and details about Nokia E5-00.

Update: The always great review from All About Symbian again adds up the confusion about E5 as the screen is sure not a good compromise, but snaps didn’t looked that bad and if people could live with a dull screen in daylights, then the recent video of multitasking, addition of more 128 mb RAM is more than enough tempting for making people buy it.

 

We will keep on crying that why it’s late or why Nokia doesn’t come up with E6 with same features as Nokia E72 without compromise, a better camera, 256 MB RAM at least, may be Bluetooth 3.0, USB OTG, but still will end up buying Nokia E5. Yes! it will make many happy to get a powerful thing in such a price, but still …

I must say that I tried to put an end over the confusions around Nokia E5, but it breaks on…

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Nokia E72 White edition available in India @17.5k

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It was May 4, 2010, when I received trial unit of Nokia E72 from @womworldnokia and then my first request to Womworld was to send it in white, which seems much royal to me then. But I didn’t got a sneak peak of same as it was available in selected regions only. But now the wait is over, just spotted Nokia E72 White edition in New Delhi at Spice Hotspot by today only.

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As it was a packed device, I wasn’t able to take more snaps, so taken just one.

As you can see, the package contain Ovi Navigation accessories as my Nokia E52 contained and an exclusive offer of matching white Bluetooth headset BH-216. The price is 1k above than normal Chrome or Black Nokia E72, which stands as Rs. 17, 500/- in place of normal Rs.16, 500/-.

The Hotspot guy told me that stock is limited and could run out anytime. Anyone interested?

Touch and type Nokia X3-02 brings X-Factor to S40

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When it was announcement of Nokia C3, C6 and E5 from Nokia, then out of other things, what made me more curious was the home screens of Nokia C3 and Nokia E5. The favorite contact bar, which we were introduced with Nokia N97 and Nokia 5800 was always denied the share of the same citing memory limits. I always wondered that how much tempting it would be for people to hold their fingers not touching the big contacts picture icons like they did with Nokia N97, X6 and others?

Then there was a debate started from Nokia Conversations over buttons and touch, where I even replied quite many a comments (should have got some clue right then) and when Blackberry launched its torch, then it was obvious to boil up the conversions that when Nokia coming up something like one handed touch with HW-Keypad?

So, here is the day, August 17, 2010, in contrast of expectations of some E6 with QWERTY and touch in shape of E72, Nokia sure given a new innovation to mobile world with a T9 with touch screen and that too in price of just 7.5k and the name was strangely Nokia X3-02 (probably people will call it by name of X3 touch to avoid confusion).

As Nokia says, it takes something so familiar and makes it new again.

The simple but slim looks like old T9 and S40 phones, but with a 3 row keypad rather than usual 4 rows, we grown up using and a very welcome large 2.4 screen like Nokia E52.

Read till the end, I bet you will know many more things about Nokia X3-02, which you don’t know about it at least till this point.

Special features slowly get disclosed in front of your eyes like favorite contacts bar on the home screen (photo calling available) and cool Date and time bar (we will be see in video later). It got dedicated message key, dedicated music key and a rather larger speaker at the bottom and if that’s not enough then it got brushed aluminum body. Not only this, but this only 9.6 mm thick and 78 gm device also got Wi-Fi, 3G, HSDPA Cat9 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps and a 5 MP Camera and let me mention it again, the price is 7.5k.

When we moved into more details as Nokia’s official forum page says over Nokia X3-02, then its surprising that most of the blog got it wrong or someone correct me, when I say that this might be the first S40 device to support up to 32 GB microSD card.


Till it don’t get right on high end devices, since the announcement C3, C6 and E5, its already clear that Nokia is betting big on cheaper devices now. Sure, the consumers are what on the profit side. First was the very capable, E52 like C5 in around 8k and now another under 8k device feature quad band and 3G.

Let’s go by the features now

Operating System: When we geeks hear about S40 devices, then what pushes us back is lack of multi-tasking like we seen in earlier iPhones. Only bit of multi-tasking here might be music/ radio app running behind.

But with the launch of Nokia X3-02, we also got updated Forum Nokia page about S40 platform, which talk about availability of even gesture related controls now (remember spiral zoom feature on Nokia N900?). Though not big on multi-tasking, but you will get a revamped media player, integration of Facebook and Twitter in contacts and updates on home screen, conversation view within the contacts and also chat featuring MSN, Gtalk, Yahoo and Ovi.

So, even Dumb phones got sexier now.

Design: I read somewhere some Eldar saying that its bullshit that Nokia experimenting with design material and came up with brushed aluminum and I swear nothing could be more bullshit than that line. Brushed aluminum doesn’t only make the build solid but saves it from scratches as well and in the way lengthening the life of the product. NO more scare of breaking it while opening the back cover to remove the batter.

Technically the dimensions are 106.2 x 48.4 x 9.6 mm, 45.2 cc and weight 78 gm, so finally we are getting Nokia making really slim devices and sure you could hope one day they will give something slim like iPhone or Galaxy and that too with all typical Nokia features, not some stripped bluetooth that don’t let you transfer the files between phones over Bluetooth (read Apple).

Like the tradition has began, Nokia started offering their device in many colors (may be on footprint of Dell Studio) and Nokia X3-02 is expected to arrive in Q3 means latest by September 2010 in five colors: White Silver, Petrol Blue, Lilac, Pink and Dark Metal. So, which color would you prefer?

Display: People already not expecting big from a cheap touch and type device that is first of its kind to showcase a 2.4” touch screen. Not on higher side of resolution, it just fare with a 240×320 screen, which has a color depth of 16 bit means 256k colors.

Its a transmissive LCD that would be glossy for sure, but I am not getting mention of its being scratch resistant anywhere, so better be careful about that, they are expecting light touching not gaming kind of.

Camera: Earlier Nokia X3 offered a 3.2 MP camera, but Nokia X3-02, which we call Nokia X3 touch now, is much more generous to offer a 5MP camera. But its not one of the greatest for sure.

As expected, there is no flash, not a single LED. The 5MP has a resolution of 2592 x 1944 and aperture f2.4, but the camera focus range just starts from 50 cm and goes to infinity means nothing like Macro mode. It got 4x digital zoom and Picture format is JPEG only.

But you get video recording that is on 640×480, but got better frame rate of 18 fps, which could record in two formats H.263 and MPEG-4. Not bad for a device in this segment.

Memory: Series 40 device never known much demanding over memory due to non-multi-tasking nature, but still it got adequate specs. Maximum User Storage of 50 MB, NAND Memory of 128 MB and SDRAM Memory on 64 MB. Impressive for a S40.

And while most of the blog seems to mentioning that it supports up to 16 GB microSD card, office specs says it supports up to 32 GB, which makes it first S40 to support 32 GB I guess.

Connectivity: That’s something so so special about this device. People already overwhelmed over its looks and touch, but its bigger underneath. You are getting Quad band support here means GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GSM 850, GSM 900, WCDMA Band I (2100), WCDMA Band II (1900), WCDMA Band V (850), WCDMA Band VIII (900) and much more than average HSDPA Cat9 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps. Even my Nokia N82 didn’t got such support. Not only this, but you have Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) available that supports WEP, WPA, WPA2 (AES/TKIP).

Now hold your breaths, although not advertised, but their official page says that it got USB-OTG 1.3. Is it the same, I am thinking? Nokia N8 has the same OTG profile, so??? Should we be prepared for some upcoming video displaying the same feature? Will they ship the cable together?

I am sure even Geeks could find it an affordable alternative to keep with them as a 3G modem and storage device, isn’t it?

Messaging: With support of around 600 kb size of messages, S40 devices been center of attraction for messaging only and this one sure has no reason to disappoint. You are getting Nokia Messaging 3.0 here and with the integration of twitter/ facebook, you also have the leading IMs in pocket. Social media is in reach of everyone now.

It supports IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, but asking for PUSH will be sure a joke on this price point.

Browsing: If some device supporting connections at a speed of 10 mbps, then browsing capabilities becomes a must. Nokia X3-02 comes with WebKit Open Source Browser and Opera Mini that will support Flash Lite 3.0. So even if not much big expectations, you could find it doing all the tasks at a satisfactory level for sure.

I am yet to see if the browser will support spiral zoom like Nokia N900 here with resistive touch.

Ovi Services: Though things could be region specific, but as much their official page says, it will support not only FOTA, but also Nokia Music Store, Ovi Music, Ovi Store, Ovi Sync, PictBridge, Themes and VoIP.

Isn’t that exciting for a sweet little device?

Battery: No one expected a bigger battery in a S40 device, when such device already known for much better power management due to lack of multi-tasking basically. It has a BL-4S 3.7V 860mAh battery that supports 5.3 hours talk time on 2G and 3.5 hours talk time on 3G. It has a music playback of big 28 hours and video playback of 6 hours. Average for music series, I guess, but there is a great news too.

Nokia X3-02 not only supports regular 2.0mm Charger Connector, but also supports charging over USB.


It will initially be offered in China, Ireland & UK, Russia, Australia & New Zealand, Singapore, Germany, Spain & Portugal, France, Mexico and Saudi & Yemen. Other markets will follow later.

This was all about next coming Nokia X3-02. So, if you were thinking that its about only some specific people, which will say “hurray” when their dumb S40 devices sudden get magic of touch, then think again… isn’t USB-OTG and an up to 10 mbps 3G modem could lure the Geek inside you?

So, this was Layman’s take on Nokia X3-02, what you think, let me know.. I am all ears for you.

Nokia N86 Camera insights – All about it

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My last weekend with Nokia N86 and sure this comes the time, when I should write about the specific thing for what I asked for a trial of Nokia N86. The Camera … I am not saying the 8MP camera only as most of the called it … its much more than just the megapixels. We will see in next why …

But before starting I must tell you that all these stuff are purely tech and will be of more concern for people knowing a thing or two about camera technology …

What a Bad Ass Nokia N86 camera is?


The Lens: Everyone talk about Megapixels and says that what if your N82 has 5 MP, mine has higher, what’s the difference? Dude! Its just not about Mega Pixels. But lets start from that ..

Mega Pixels 8 MP means 8 millions of pixels in one particular pics that makes the resolution of 3264×2448 (=79,90,272), but beyond that there is Carl Zeiss; the most renowned name among the lens manufacturers and the Tessar Lens.

Aperture You can notice the changes in my Nokia N82 Tessar and Nokia N86 Tessar … Nokia N82 had Tessar 2.8/5.6 while Nokia N86 got Tessar 2.4-4.8/4.6. Sorry about the condition of my Nokia N82, but its more than 2 and half year old now and has seen lots of things.

What these numbers mean? Its about aperture, the opening that allows the light to pass in. Larger aperture means better performance for low light conditions and lower means better in illuminated environment. It actually says that Nokia N86 has a variable aperture, while Nokia N82 has only one setting F2.8, Nokia N86 boosts on three options F2.4, F3.2 and F4.8 as their specification page says.

Not only me, but many other people trying to find that where are the settings to control the aperture manually, but it seems that they decided to keep it automatically controlled only (after all they were making phones not DSLR).

Wide angle Do you know that Nokia N86 was the first phone ever to offer a 28mm wide angle lens? As the GSMArena link says, it offers your around 20% more larger view angle means you could expect much better landscape and scenery shots now. Wide angle lens get lower focal lengths that reflects in numbers (4.8mm which was 5.6mm in Nokia N82).


Mechanical aspects: 

Shutter speed When you talk about taking instant pics and get irritated of blurs then you must be actually talking about the term shutter speed. Not exactly sure that how much it was in Nokia N82, but Nokia N86 sure has a high shutter speed that could go max up to 1/1000 secs, sure you can’t drop your eyelids faster than this 😉

Camera Cover Nokia N86 got Slide Lens Cover for Protection & Camera Activation and the difference in mechanism could be spotted in the above pics. Sure its way smoother than we seen in Nokia N82. Good news.

Dual LED Flash Technically they call it Third generation of Dual LED Flash and even if many might be pissed off over Nokia for dumping Xenon over LED flash, it had its part of sense. LED is more favorable for phones due to lower power consumptions and size and for the consumer side, the profit is video light. Let me show you two videos: one with Video Light and one without video light.

 

I am sure you could spot the difference.

 

But adding to the conversation of Xenon Vs LED, I would also like to show you the difference of color re-production with a LED Flash and a Xenon Flash.. or may be its feature check out

 

And as AAS pointed out, Xenon also do well about freezing the objects at the moment better than LED. Check out their post for sure, though my results are opposite about illumination where N86 is better and natural.

Though I am still trying to find the way to use LED as a torch without any software, just from some hotkey like it was in Nokia E72. Anyone got anything?

Dedicated Camera Key Yes!! with Nokia N86, we got the camera keys again. After using Nokia E72, I really felt that how important it is to have a dedicated camera key and that should be well built too. After years of using Nokia N82, I really found the metallic camera keys of Nokia N86 a superb and solid upgrade over Nokia N82.


Software aspects:

Well! Living with similar software world for years spoils you this much that in first sight every symbian looks same to you and you think that things not moving. May be even I might have thought so, when first seen the interfaces, looked similar, familiar.. but it was to take a few days, when it started revealing that how much improved things have became with special focus over Camera improvements.. and its about each and everything.

Speedy processor makes processing of photos after shooting them like instant. Panorama mode was never like this much smooth. Everything feels like the way it should be even if symbian interfaces feel older than we might have seen in Maemo or other OS’s, but they work and they work superb.

Unfortunately, I lost the part of post, I was writing over software aspects… writing it again ..

Starting from the settings, there are the usual options available…

Menu –> Tools –> Settings –> Applications –> Camera –> Image

Menu –> Tools –> Settings –> Applications –> Camera –> Video

Even more details about the quality ..

After that we get around ten options, when we customize the toolbar displayed on right of the screen, when we open the camera …

 

Camera view is the old one, but one could notice the details

The left bottom side has the battery icon and then quality icon next to that (showing 8M means 8MP now), in next to that its the count of remaining photos that could be snapped with current remaining free space, I am not exactly sure about the icon next to that, but that’s probably says the same the remaining space.. the last icon is GPS one. If its not showing x then it means that location is locked and you are ready to go with GPS info tagged inside the pics.

As told by one of my friend on twitter, I noticed a probably bug in Nokia N86. After taking an image with GPS info on, even when you close down the camera, you find a GPS icon on the right top of your phone screen, when nothing is using GPS right then. Not sure what it is..

I find myself specially hooked up with panorama mode of Nokia N86. Its nothing that we haven’t seen it earlier, but it never seem to be this much smooth and perfect in any earlier camera. Earlier only right and left key, now have became four ways. The speed of processing makes it instant to move on after it takes one shot and the results..

Though things get changed with moving object and situations a little, but its sure not a fault of Nokia N86.

 


Image editing options are like they were always… very basic.. same contrast, brightness, frames etc..

But what’s the big deal here is the basic video editing options..

So.. what you say… wow!!!


Do you know what impressed me about Nokia N86 most? It was the macro mode performance of wide angle lens. Its just not the pixels, but see the finer details in next few random samples I took in my office…


So, what’s say? Do you still believe that there was nothing in this world better than Nokia N82?

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Nokia N86-New Customization Options

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When I took Nokia N86 in hands then it seems just the same software wise as I have seen with Nokia N82 or any other Symbian OS v9.3, S60, but this time it was rel 3.2. Let’s see what made me excited about it.

When taken the first look, it was like any other non-touch home screen, I would have seen. Same vertical top configurable icons on standby and then a list of services like Chat, Mail, Calendar, Sharing .. just the same, we are so used to see in other Nokia Smartphones series …

In the first look, it was just the flash based screen saver that was new and good thing to me about Nokia N86 (though thanks to my twitter friend, I got the same on my Nokia N82 as well) and really made me realized that I should have explored my Nokia N82 much more.

But the magic begins, when I went more inside, inside the customizations .. ..

Even the themes option was much more richer and cooler than Nokia N82 or Nokia E52. There were plenty of options for standby itself in terms of four standby themes and sure vertical Icon bar became my choice and still the same.

I seriously looked back in Nokia N82 and Nokia E52 that are with me, but these were sure new options that I seen and now I wonder if there was something such in E72 or other devices that I have gone through. Don’t remember that anything such was anywhere. Why I am so happy about it? See yourself the new look of the screen, just after the vertical icon bar standby screen.

I really wonder that if Vertical Standby screen is a much better idea than the traditional horizontal ones.


Not only standby themes were new, but even our Menu view got some new options ..

May be most of the people are happy with grid and list views only, but what about these two new options?

 


Call Image option works in both ways, either you call or receive and there is more of it, you can even set a video as your ringtone for some particular person. Isn’t it cool?

Video Ringtone Call Image


Loads of event options: You can set tones for many things here like when the battery is charging, when battery is empty and like that ..

Not just that but the theme options extends to much more …

Here is what kind of Audio theme you want to choose for whole phone use experience …

This is where you define that what background your phone will carry, while calling someone. ..

This is the place where you choose.. you can check the left pics of N82 that how much more options are here now ..

Sure, the animated Time screen is my favorite, but many might have liked Slideshow more, though I still think that if someone was using the Music player option as ‘power saver’ 😉

Even the kickstand that seems to be a new showoff for probably the biggest non-touch screen, have plenty of options to configure about.

And it found the lovely feature that was not available in the times of my Nokia N82.. the over the air update ..  though mine has already the latest one. I love to get updates myself 😦 don’t you?

I used video calling as well, with my youngest brother on the other side using E52 and same complaint.. why can’t Nokia start using more than just VGA for front cameras? I mean I understand that better pixels will ask for more data, but you can make that vary from settings.. at least people who have better data plans, wont complaint .. yourself check how the pics might look like in low light conditions..

Yeah!! you are fully allowed to use the pics above for scaring your kids .. he he he

Obviously, it inherits Full Quick Office and PDF reader from Nokia N82 .. and Zip too.

What I wish more for.. if Nokia  starts adding popular services like Flicker, Picasa, Facebook etc in their list of Share Online services by default.

    

Lots to say about … but how could I have left the mention of FM transmitter even if it has a very simple interface …

The camera interface wont be covered all in this post itself, but keeping it short.. it adds much expected Panorama mode

I really really think that if Android or iOS has something like this panorama mode… just see what results it could obtain from even a newbie …

Options for customizing the much richer toolbar now…

It also adds geo-tagging, though I was just surprised to see record location option in my Nokia N82 as well. Just for that purpose, I installed Location Tagger from Nokia Beta Labs, is that brings Record Location in or it was the last firmware update? Anybody?

If you think that these were the minor updates then one more feature is here .. Face Detection

For people finding about the most important feature of Nokia N86 camera .. the variable aperture… check out the exposure setting thing..

So, anything I missed that is new in Nokia N86? Sure tell me… I wanna know…