N95 US Edition Launched

And we have with us the arch rival of all da people who bought the n95 out there,, the N95 US Edition. Major Changes include US HSDPA, 128MB of total RAM and a 1300 mAh battery. With 80 MB of free RAM. Nice.

Coutesy Symbian-Guru.

N95 or N95 8GB..?

The N95 8GB can be said to be a N95 with all it's problems solved. Everything that had gone wrong with the N95 has been taken care of in the new version (batteries etc.) Another thing is that the buttons have also been changed to a thinner look along with a bigger screen. The N95 8GB also looks much more mature than the previous version as you can see in the picture.

Read more about this review from MyNokiaBlog.

MWN - Mobile Wrestling News continued...

Some pictures so that you can compare these phones yourself without me trying to coax you(dere r sum ppl who think jus'd dat! blieve me!!).

Havn't read the prequel to this sequel?? Read it ->here<-..




psst..the iPhone's about to be released in Germany...

Read the next part of this story ->HeRe<-

Images courtesy Daily Mobile.

We have 6! Only 2 more GBs to go..

WOM-WORLD just got a brand new San Disk 6GB micro SDHC which they test drove on the N95 & N76 and much to the aniticipation of people everywhere it's officially been announced that it's supported. And so all present N95 owners are finally one step closer to reaching 8GB status.

Courtesy Wom-World.

Symbian Review

Every Symbian developer knows that the most of mobile applications for new Symbian devices have to go through the special certification, a Symbian Signing. For many small development companies this new initiative of Symbian has turned to a plaque and made the development of Symbian applications not interesting financially. Symbian market becomes to be dominated by companies, not single developers.

In this article we want to give some tips for Symbian application developers.

What does the Symbian Signing bring?

There are some benefits and some drawbacks as always.

Beneficial is this mobile software certification system first of all for the consumer. Buying the certified applications the consumer can be sure that there is a certification authority that has tested the application, so it can not crash the system or include viruses.
The main drawback is felt by the developers. They have pay more, wait unpredicted time for the certification and have to fill out many papers to pass the Symbian Signing.

Read the rest here.

Courtesy Symbian-review.

N93i - the rest of the story..

Continued from here...
Problems

There are a lot of problems with the new N93i, mostly coming up due to the new design and form. For instance the mirror screen up front has been designed to facilitate using minor features of the phone without opening it and for seeing incoming call IDs. But when you stand outdoors the visibility of the screen reduces drastically - so much so that you'll have to bring it up to your eyes and twist and turn to get an angle that let's you see the screen. Problems with the form factor also arise such as a misalignment of the front face of the phone as well as some play..mostly towards the left. But on the looks front it really does looks good..!


Improvements

The new improvements include a joystick for side control when using the camera, buttons on the screen for added user friendliness, good Zeiss lens cover, stylish sim access and a battery similar to the n95 - but which lasts noticeably longer.


The Metal keyboard scores way high on looks and durability but is in the pits for usability..a real pain for my poor lil' fingers they've been. There isn't much of a divide between the buttons except a flimsy rubbery thing and the delete button is microscopic, you'll have lots of trouble with that little thing!!

Camera
Easy to use, with design elements of a handy cam, the N93i's Imaging Capabilities are similar to that of the the N93. Noise reduction is the same though the stereo effect has been found to be comparatively lower. Another bug that i found was that the brightness decreases upon zooming using the optical zoom. This is a real bad situation, because there isn't much use with a Optical Zoom camera if you can't get more detail into it!

Another thing i took note of was that the subject can see himself on the front screen and get an idea of what he looks like when the picture is taken. And girls could use it for putting on make-up and applying lipstick..creative of me isn't it?...

Speakers

The speakers are garbage compared to that of most other recent releases from Nokia.. it doesn't even come half way near to what the speakers of the Nokia 5700 can do! What good is a N-series multimedia phone if you can't even use it for hearing music?? Nokia seems to be losing it's touch here...

And so in the end the N93i is yet another expensive phone in the market today, and will be so until the next Nokia N-Series handset comes along.

N93i Wares:
Games ( Symbian S60 v3 )
Softwares ( Symbian S60 v3 )

looks some what like a transformer doesn't it?? or like a lap top computer perhaps ???

Quickoffice Premier v4.5 (Upgrade) for S60 3rd

Our favorite Mini-Office suite is back again in a different avatar.. this time as the Premier version with a premier pricing - 50$(handango). Tagged as version 4.5.14.8, the upgrade weighs a full 2.4MB and recquires atleast 3MB free for smooth working.

One of the problems that the demo version had was that its a very non-functional demo... if you open an existing file I don't believe you can edit it at all. Its not a bad little editor, though, and it will open large Word and excel files without difficulties... my problem is that its SLOW.Guess I'll have to stick to my laptop for real writing....Unlike most other competing mobile office products, Quickoffice preserves documents during editing preventing document corruption and loss of formattingn and i believe that this little function has been made more perfect in the premier version.

New Features Added in v4.5:

1.Advanced spell check with free dictionaries available in multiple languages.

2.Read text easier than ever with sharper fonts optimized for smartphones. That is a real necessity when you take smartphones into mind.

3.Record live voice notes in PowerPoint to more conveniently add and share your review comments.

4.Performance optimizations for handling documents with large amount of text. I

Compatible Devices:

Nokia N75 (S60 Erd Edition), Nokia E90 Communicator, Nokia 6120 (S60 3rd Edition), Nokia N73 (S60 3rd Edition), Nokia N77 (S60 3rd Edition), Nokia N93 (S60 3rd Edition), Nokia N93i (S60 3rd Edition), Nokia N95 (S60 3rd Edition), Nokia 6290 (S60 3rd Edition), Nokia E61i, Nokia E65, Nokia N76 (S60 3rd Edition), LG JoY, Samsung SGH-i520, Nokia 6110 Navigator

To see nokia's page about this application go here.

The product requires a registration key to unlock the full version. Your registration key will be provided at the time of purchasing and will be displayed on the software download page and within your confirmation email. If you buy it that is..

Psst..u can get an alternate office suite over here.. it's app number 23...

Behold the N93i!

Just like a cruiser bike the n93i comes thumping in, in a much more elegant way than the previous N93. Both are equally powerful handsets with minute differences here and there - especially in the looks and it's feel.

The handset was sent to me by WOM-World(thanks guys) and these are my..

First Impressions...

It comes with a large mirror backed screen featuring a smooth silver outline that reminds you of the much hyped Apple iPhone. Coming in a two-tone color design with a dominating Camera Housing it's definitely way up in my charts in looks. The Build Ergonomics are excellent and it definitely feels expensive(unlike the n95).

It comes featuring the new screen technology of OLED which is incorporated into it's mirror finish front, upping it's points in the style segment. The beautiful sculpting and styling makes it an elegant and durable phone - a first for nokia!

But ofcourse we all know that Nokia never creates a perfect phone for fear of affecting the sale of their other phones. And (probably)because of that the N93i too has it's share of complaints and bugs. More about them in the coming posts..

N93i Wares:

Games ( Symbian S60 v3 )

Softwares ( Symbian S60 v3 )

Using MGMaps on the N-Series (incl. stored maps)

This is a great application for all those users who don't have a Nokia Map available for their home town and have been longing at those beautifull maps on Google. Ofcourse we can use Google Maps on the mobile but the data rates that come with it would have made you think otherwise..well not any more!! WIth MGMaps you can use a whole range of maps on your phone, varying from Yahoo!, MSN!, STreet Maps, and ofcourse Google.

The following page will give you a real deep understanding on how it works...all thanks to our dear friend Reef Reid... and Cristian Streng ofcourse for creating this excellent app.

Download and install Mobile Gmaps to your Nokia N95(or other Nseries GPS enabled phone). Download map tiles and configure Mobile Gmaps to use them as "stored maps"

Assumptions:

You have a Nokia N95(or other Nseries GPS enabled phone).This is the first attempt at installing Mobile Gmaps and stored maps (eg. not previously installed). You are running Windows XP SP2 as the OS on the computer for which you will be executing the perl script and downloading map tiles.The PC you are using to download the map tiles has a native internet connection and does not rely on the use of a proxy. The microSD memory card in your phone has sufficient free space for the stored maps. You know how to establish a connection between your N95 and your PC (bluetooth or USB cable), or you know how to transfer files to your microSD memory card. You will use the software and process that follows to achieve the desired outcome. You understand english(if not, you've persisted well and are probably attracted by the pretty colours on the page while not understanding a word).

If "no" to any of the above, then it's possible that certain "steps" will fail and this brief instruction will not cater for every alternative software or process. I can only say that the following worked for me and I took the points from the forums that "tripped" other people up. (lol @ the disclaimer of sorts...)

What you will Need to Download:

N95 Alpha JAD File: mgmaps_n95-1_34_02-signed.jad (Current at the time of writing)
N95 Alpha JAR File: mgmaps_n95-1_34_02.jar (Current at the time of writing)
Perl Script: MapTileCacher.perl (current at the time of writing)
Perl for Windows: ActivePerl version 5.8.8.820
WGET: wget for Windows

Go here for the full instructions!

This and that - V12.0.013

These are certain things that i've started noticing after I installedu
the l8test N95 firmware.

1. The gallery button flashes on and of when the backlight goes of and
when the screen saver is activated. It looks real neat..reminds me of
the range indicator LED in the n73.

2. It fails to register about a quarter of my key strokes..and it
ain't a hardware problem!

3. Unlike popularly said the music player doesn't start with 2 strokes
of the multimedia menu - it is activated with a single long press of
the same key.

Those are all the differences noted till now..if you have any
suggestions feel free to comment.

P.S: I've heard that the v12.0.014 update is here.

Personalising the N95 - the Vaja way !!

Pamper your N95 with the new leather cases from Vaja. Known as the
"Ivolution Holster" these cases are way cool and are practically the next
best thing to naked ;)
They gaurantee to give you some really serious bragging rights(as if havin a
n95 wasn't enuf :D).

One of the other things that i found amusing is the fact that the
phone when equipped with the vaja case takes on the look of a US
Edition N95. And all these days i was sad thinking of how i'd show my
face in front of those with the US phone.

Another thing that I like most about all Vaja cases is how perfectly well
they are designed for their particular SmartPhone. Rather than a standard
"sleeve" design that would work with all the models, Vaja has taken a
different strategy - they create cases that are completely customized to the
device.

The Vaja case adds bulk to the N95, but because the leather is thin it
doesn't make any difference.

As usual the Vaja leather is superb. It's superbly soft with excellent
finishing, it lies perfectly taut on the phone, giving it a really
beautifull face-lift. After using the N95 for a few minutes with the
ivolution holster, the regular matt finish looks extremely boring.
Another feature that demands to be praised is that the standard
buttons are cloaked by a leather and fabric jacket that morphes the
buttons to a way cooler design. I loved the way how the leather bends
and weaves around the phone in a smooth curvy kind of way.

Chek 'em out guys and you'l know why I'm so happy, I always liked my phones
to be as close to the real thing as possible and not like people in jackets
looking like Eskimos with all that thick covering. If you don't get what i
mean you could go here. Check out the post, especially the 1st pic shown there - it looks like a burger with a n95 fillet!

Well, fear no more with these chic casings from Vaja. They'l protect your
phone and look good doing it!

Pros: Looks Good, Feels Good, Beautifull Leather, superb fit, gives it the look of a US edition n95 or even the 8GB if you try.

Cons: Tad too expensive - but the value ain't bad, there are some creaks initially - but they soften up with use.

Verdict: Go For It!

MSN Live! on the Nokia N95!

The title kind of rhymes doesn't it ! Wow - this could be the start of a beautiful relationship between me and poems ;)

Anyways, moving onto the topic, i just found an app for incorporating MSN Live! onto out N95s. I installed the Windows live app and I now have an authentic MSN Messenger running on my N95.

I tries to run and it did run albeit slowly, but that's probably because I only has a plain vanilla GPRS signal - EDGE in Kerala is only available rarely(don't even think about 3G!People will laugh at you!!). It looks good but I'd prefer the Agile Messenger any day.

You can Download Microsoft Windows Live Client v1.0.614 to your PC here.

or

You Download the client directly to your mobile from http://file2mobile.com/get and enter this key: 853651.
Important: Install dep.sisx before the other file.

New Version of Nokia Maps - v1.2

A new version of Nokia Maps is now available for the N95, in addition to a new version of the Nokia Map Loader. Unfortunately the Map Loader's working also recquires the installation of the .NET framework 3.0 on a Windows XP computer, don't ask me why..

You can get the updates here.

I recommend downloading both of them as having the latest version always has it's benefits.

THe new app is very different on my N95. Start-up splash screen shows Nokia Maps and there is the usual network question to click through (I have mine disabled).

The globe screen is also different, scrolling East/West and North/South now follows the long and lat axes and there is a three dot icon in the lower left that cycles red until a lock is achieved, when they all turn green. The cross-hair did NOT zoom in automatically to my GPS position either, so I had to do this manually with the * key and when I did this, none of my map data was available. SO i had to re-install all the maps... such a pain..

Which is when i found that there are new maps available for the new Nokia Maps..to download these this is what you've gotta do:

Method 1

1 - download and install Maps 1.2 to your phone BUT DON'T RUN IT YET.
2 - download and install Map Loader to your PC, connect your phone and run it.
3 - select the option to delete/remove the existing maps from your phone.
4 - Disconnect your phone and run the Maps program once allow it to get a fix and then exit Maps
5 - Reconnect your phone to Map Loader and download your maps, you should now get the latest maps.

Method 2

1 - download and install Maps 1.2 to your phone BUT DON'T RUN IT YET.
2 - download and install Map Loader to your PC, DON'T RUN IT
3 - connect your phone in mass storage mode and find the old maps folder, should be in E:/Private/20001f63 - Delete it
4 - Disconnect your phone and run the Maps program once allow it to get a fix and then exit Maps
5 - Reconnect your phone to Map Loader and download your maps, you should now get the latest maps.
In N95 the GPS receiver is located in the bottom of the device, below the numeric keyboard. When using the receiver, slide the numeric keypad open
and hold the device upright in your hand at an angle of about 45 degrees, with a clear view of the sky. Make sure, that your hand does not cover the GPS receiver.
Establishing a GPS connection may take from a couple of seconds to several minutes. Establishing a GPS connection in the car may take longer.

If your device cannot find the satellite signal, consider the following:
- If you are indoors, go outdoors to receive a better signal.
- If the numeric keypad slide is closed, open it.
- If you are outdoors, move to a more open space.
- Check that your hand does not cover the GPS receiver of your device.
- If the weather conditions are bad, in such a case the signal strength may also be affected.
- Establishing a GPS connection may take from a couple of seconds to several minutes.
- Avoid to use screen saver when GPS connection is establishing.

That's ol folks, have a great mapping time.. :)