Nokia confirms N-Gage 2 will lack sidetalkin'

Nokia's head of developer relations revealed a few more details about the N-Gage 2 at this weeks Game Developers Conference. The phone, the sequel to their poorly received (to say the least) N-Gage gamephone which came out last year, is supposed to correct a few of the defects of its predecessor (like the fact that you have to remove the battery to swap games) and will be backwards-compatible with games for the first N-Gage. But the biggest news is the end of all the sidetalkin' (see demonstrated in the photo at right): the next-gen N-Gage will have its speaker and mic mounted on its face like a regular phone. We've got to admit that we're almost saddened to hear that Nokia is going to try and fix all the problems with the N-Gage — the foibles and hijinks of the phone always proved incredibly entertaining. 

[Thanks, Jason]