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Sony Ericsson Kurara suffers leakage, reveals HD label?

by Vladislav Savov posted Nov 5th 2009 at 7:10AM

Boy, we sure do love our early glimpses of pre-release hardware, and today we have not one, but two sources of purported pictures of the Sony Ericsson Kurara. Touted as a sibling to the Satio, the Kurara is mooted to have a 3.5-inch AMOLED touch-sensitive screen, 8.1 megapixel camera and, wait for it, 720p video recording. The image above seems to confirm this with a big "HD" inscription next to the camera lens, but that label is missing in the gallery below. We'll just put that inconsistency down to the extremely early samples on show, and start getting all frothed up in excitement over the possible UX inclusion on this Symbian S60 device when it starts selling in the first half of 2010.

Gallery: Sony Ericsson Kurara leaks out

[Via My Sony Ericsson and SlashPhone]

Read - PhonesDB
Read - Sony Ericsson Club

Opera Mobile 10 features tabbed browsing, disses WinMo

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Nov 4th 2009 at 2:37PM

Symbian freaks, do we have a treat for you! While all your WinMo-lovin' friends are out there with Opera Mobile 9.5 (or possibly 9.7), a beta of version 10 has just been announced exclusively for Nokia / Symbian smartphones. As well as being as speedy as ever (fifty percent faster than previous Symbian versions, or so it's been claimed), this release features a new-and-improved user interface and a "speed dial" page that displays all your fave sites as icons. Not too shabby, eh? Hit the read link to get the thing for your Symbian/S60 phone -- but not before peeping the video after the break.

[Via Mobile Tech World]

Continue reading Opera Mobile 10 features tabbed browsing, disses WinMo

Nokia's N97 mini gets its shipping papers

by Darren Murph posted Oct 28th 2009 at 2:31PM

Right on cue, the smaller-but-just-barely N97 mini is now ready for public consumption over in Europe. Granted, we're certainly at the tail end of October, but we can't say that we caught Nokia in a lie or anything based on what was said last month in Stuttgart. You've already committed the specifications to memory and read all about firmware 2.0, so now all that's left to do is run along, fork out €450 ($667) and wonder forever if this decision will positively or negatively change the course of your life.

Nokia's first TD-SCDMA-based 6788 ready for China Mobile's 500 million subscribers

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 27th 2009 at 6:26AM

Nokia might be hemorrhaging smartphone marketshare to North America's meddling upstarts but it still dominates in total handsets sold worldwide. Today's news can only help that cause as Nokia taps into China's homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G marketplace for the first time. The Nokia 6788 does the honor via collaboration with China Mobile, China's (and the world's) largest mobile phone operator. The handset itself brings a 2.8-inch QVGA display, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual-LED flash, 4GB of memory plus microSD expansion, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, all riding atop S60 3rd Edition -- not 5th as we're accustomed to seeing by now. Unfortunately, it won't start contributing to Nokia's sagging bottom-line until the end of December.

Nokia's 5230 inches closer to release, gets spied along the way

by Darren Murph posted Oct 17th 2009 at 7:38PM

Nokia's 5230 isn't apt to blow any minds with the likes of the HD2, Droid and XPERIA X3 on the horizon, but for those perfectly content with a touchscreen-based Symbian S60 5th Edition handset, this one sure looks purty. After dipping its toes in the FCC's expansive database just last month, a crop of new in the wild shots have surfaced to show off its 3.2-inch display (640 x 360), 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module and variety of colorful backs. Hit the read link for more pixels if you're so inclined, and feel free to take the "January 2010" release date in with a dose of NaCl.

[Thanks, Daniel]

Video: Nokia Braille Reader makes SMS tactile

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 18th 2009 at 5:56AM

Nokia labs is serving up a potentially helpful application for the blind and visually impaired. The beta app makes SMS messages visible through tactile feedback on a Nokia braille reader developed in partnership with Tampere University and the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired. It runs in the background and automatically opens when a new SMS is received. It's available to download and test on Nokia devices based on S60 5th Edition. Check the demonstration after the break, maybe someone you know could benefit.

Continue reading Video: Nokia Braille Reader makes SMS tactile

Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 5th 2009 at 9:54AM

While Nokia wouldn't invite us to Nokia World this year, we were fortunate enough to discover a pair of its new X6 handsets on the IFA floor here in Berlin. On hand were two engineering prototypes, one of which was peeling away from its plastic shell while the other seemed less responsive to our finger-taps. Still, it's clear that the capacitive touchscreen is far more responsive to human touch than the resistive screens found on its N97, or the 5800 XpressMusic especially. This was made abundantly clear when using the on-screen keyboard although some of our swiping gestures were inexplicably ignored in other elements of the interface. But given the choice of the screen being awesome or super-awesome (remember, we're comparing it to Nokia's resistive touchscreen legacy), we'll have to settle on the former for now. Of course, underneath you've still got S60 5th, for better or worse, pumping away inside a chubby little candybar -- no screen tech can change that. See the action in the video after the break then jump into the gallery to see it sized up with a few of its S60 cousins five times removed.

Gallery: Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better

Continue reading Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better

Nokia X6 confirmed to sport a capacitive display, we can finally exhale

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 2nd 2009 at 12:23PM

Ladies and gentlemen, our long, global nightmare is over. Alright, that's a significant overstatement -- but Nokia's lack of capacitive adoption has unquestionably hurt opinion of its 5800 and N97 models, the first to use its touch-ready S60 5th Edition platform. Happily, afterdawn.com is reporting -- and we've been able to independently confirm -- that the X6 will indeed be using a capacitive display, something that we suspect will significantly improve usability if you're not interested in using a stylus (or plectrum, as the case may be) to navigate your way through the interface. For the record, Samsung's already proven that S60 5th is totally doable with capacitive tech on its i8910 HD, so we're sure Nokia's going to be able to pull this off with aplomb -- the real question might be whether this signals a wholesale abandonment of resistive across the range. Since resistive's cheaper, we wouldn't be surprised to see it continue to hang around on the low end for some time to come, but at least we've now got the choice. Sadly, it's too late to save the N900's screen -- but now that Maemo's made the bold leap into GSM telephony, maybe we'll see some worthy capacitive action the next time around.

Video: Nokia 5230 touchscreen seen lagging the competition

by Thomas Ricker posted Aug 25th 2009 at 4:47AM

Ok S60 5th edition fans, here you go: another touchscreen Nokia slate to admire before it could be leaked by Eldar Murtazin. The new 5230 brings a 3.2-inch touchscreen riding HSDPA data, A-GPS, 2 megapixel camera, microSD expansion, and Bluetooth 2.0 with the promise of 33 hours of music pumped over its 3.5-mm audio jack. It will launch in two flavors in Q4: a €149 model and €259 Comes with Music version. Backside pic and video demonstrating the importance of long pink finger nails for navigating its resistive touchscreen after the break.

Note to Nokia: you really should review your marketing videos more carefully unless the severe lag / unresponsiveness seen when scrolling at 36 seconds is a feature.

Continue reading Video: Nokia 5230 touchscreen seen lagging the competition

How would you change Nokia's N97?

by Darren Murph posted Aug 15th 2009 at 2:02AM

It's the phone that Nokia should've used to introduce the world to Symbian S60 5th edition, but is it the "hero"-type device that it was marketed as? Nokia's N97 is undoubtedly expensive, debatably beautiful and thoroughly polarizing (as two of our own found out). While it's impossible to say the handset was introduced to go head-to-head with Apple's iPhone (the whole "only sold off contract" thing kind of hampers that), there's little doubt that this phone was Espoo's most significant attempt yet to make a name for itself in the full-touchscreen smartphone market. If you handed over the handful of C-notes required to take this bad boy home, why not tell us exactly how you feel now that you're an owner? What would you like to see changed on Nokia's next attempt? What measures up? What falls short? You've got one shot (maybe two, depending on the mood of our comment system) -- don't screw it up.

Sony Ericsson Satio arrives at the FCC

by Nilay Patel posted Aug 14th 2009 at 11:21AM

Well well, it looks like the mythical Sony Ericsson Satio is soon to go from beautiful fever-dream to actual reality -- it's popped into the FCC database with test results on GSM 850 and 1900, otherwise known as EDGE. Yeah, that sort of sucks, but we're still holding out hope, since we don't know the full story -- it could be destined for a lame existence on AT&T, it could be sold unlocked, or it could be a Canadian or Latin American model. Seriously, though -- it's the Satio, and the government has one. You know what that means.

Microsoft and Nokia announce Office coming to Symbian

by Nilay Patel posted Aug 12th 2009 at 12:26PM

We didn't expect too many fireworks from Microsoft and Nokia's joint teleconference this morning, and, well, we didn't get any. As expected, Office Mobile is coming to Symbian, along with Office Communicator Mobile, SharePoint, and Microsoft System Center, and the two companies also said they'll be working on "future user experiences" for Nokia customers. Don't get too worked up about that, though -- Nokia said it was "deeply committed to Symbian," and that "there are no such plans" to work on a Windows Mobile device. So much for that. We did ask whether this partnership would affect Nokia's rumored Maemo plans, and we were told that development is Symbian-focused for now, but that there might be "other business opportunities" in the future, so at least that door remains open a hair -- but for the most part this is all about Microsoft and Nokia trying to stake out a stronger enterprise position, not anything else. Video after the break, if you're having a hard time taking that nap.

Continue reading Microsoft and Nokia announce Office coming to Symbian

Nokia and Microsoft to announce an "alliance" tomorrow -- what? Update: Office on Nokia phones

by Nilay Patel posted Aug 11th 2009 at 6:59PM

We're not sure what to make of this, but we were just invited to a joint Microsoft / Nokia teleconference during which the two companies will announce an "alliance." Yeah, there are some pretty wild possibilities there -- Nokia going WinMo? Redmond going Symbian? The creation of MaeWinMo? -- but considering the featured speakers are Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's business division, and Kai Öistämö, Nokia's EVP for devices, we're guessing the real announcement will be something more pedestrian, like native Exchange support on Symbian or possibly that upcoming Atom netbook running Windows 7. Otherwise, hell -- Nokia would be supporting three different mobile OSs, and that seems just a little too crazy, even for Espoo. We'll see -- it all goes down tomorrow at 11AM Eastern.

Update: This is probably unrelated, but Microsoft's Mac BU just called its own presser for Thursday, so if you're looking to spend the night weaving wild nonsensical conspiracy theories, we'd say all the pieces are in place.

Update 2: Told you it was nothing too out there -- the Wall Street Journal says Microsoft will announce it's working on a version of Office for Nokia phones. Anyone surprised? Didn't think so.

Sony Ericsson 'Jalou' next in company's Symbian lineup? (Update: maybe, but this isn't it)

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 6th 2009 at 11:54PM

We've yet to see a Satio or XPERIA X2 or X3 at retail, but it looks like Sony Ericsson have yet another full touch phone in the works as it tries to revitalize and reinvent itself with a renewed focus on Android, Symbian Foundation, and Windows Mobile for its smartphone lineup. What we're looking at here is claimed to be a spy shot of the Jalou -- that's a retail name, not a codename, by the way -- which is said to run S60 5th Edition (just like the Satio) with WiFi, GPS, and some form of HSDPA on board. The Sony Ericsson fan base is pretty notorious for crafting beautiful, very believable concept devices using nothing more than Illustrator and an overactive imagination, so we'd urge caution here -- but other than a display that seems to have been blacked out, it all seems believable enough. The bigger question might be whether the world's ready for two Symbian-based touchscreen smartphones from Sony Ericsson in the next few months.

Update: Yep, sure enough, that "notorious fan base" we just mentioned came out swinging with this one, a heavily-modified concept based on the W995. In other words, if the Jalou exists, this isn't it. Thanks, synn!

Nokia E72 exhaustively reviewed ahead of launch

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 6th 2009 at 5:58PM

Say you've got a Nokia E71. Say, further, that you fully intend to upgrade to the E72 the moment it's available (we can't say we blame you). If you'd like to know more about the phone by the time it arrives on your doorstep than most people do in the lifetimes of their devices, we might recommend grabbing pork sandwich, a 64-ounce Coke, and your favorite blankie and curling up with mobile-review's epic "first look." Spec-wise, the new model is an outright slam dunk over the one it replaces, and it seems that mobile-review generally agrees -- sticking points were few and far between though he seems ambivalent on the optical d-pad, and it's also worth noting that the keyboard is now based on the E63's design rather than the E71's. Even if you don't want to read through the somewhat roughly-translated text, it's hard to argue with mobile-review's great photography -- and it's not like you're seeing an E72 in the flesh today, so you may as well have a look, eh?

[Via Nokia Experts]