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Nokia N8 fights back with heavenly HD video sample (updated)
Nokia is doing its best to rewind the negative spin placed on its flagship N8 after one of its children went missing. As part of the effort, it just published the first un-retouched 720p video captured by a pre-production N8's Carl Zeiss lens as followup to the first sample images released yesterday. We downloaded the H.264 video's .MP4 container to view natively (that's a 600 pixel wide screencap above) and sure enough came away impressed -- though we're curious to hear the original audio that was replaced by a dramatic soundtrack. Now, we're not saying it's better or worse than other similarly equipped smartphones shooting well-lit video -- without seeing side-by-side video of the same footage it's difficult to tell. But Nokia, a company known for using decent optics, sensors, and flash units in its N-series devices, certainly won't be disappointing impromptu photogs making their first jump into Symbian^3. Just imagine what Nokia hardware coupled with a killer user experience could do. Could do. Embedded video sample after the break. Update: All About Symbian has a marvelously detailed breakdown of the N8's camera that dives deeply into the phone's optics, mic, flash, and more.
Nokia says leaked N8 has early software, shouldn't be reviewed
It looks like Nokia isn't too happy that its big N8 / Symbian^3 reveal this morning was tarnished by Eldar Murtazin's harsh preview of the device and OS a few days ago: in a new Conversations blog post, the company says that Eldar's "salacious headlines" masked the fact that he was looking at a "very early, pre-production prototype with dated software that is not yet ready," and that it only ships products that are "refined, tested, re-tested, evaluated, [and] tested again." Now, Eldar says the devices he examined had the very latest hardware and software, so it's a bit of a he-said-she-said at this point, but there's no denying that Nokia's definitely shipped some not-quite-ready-for-prime-time devices lately -- the N900 and Maemo 5 shipped in pretty roughed-out form, and the company itself has said the N97 was a "tremendous disappointment." How that recent history reflects on Symbian^3 and the N8 remains to be seen, but it's clear that Nokia's feeling pretty defensive about things; Eldar's been scooping Espoo's gear for years now and the company's never made a peep about it. Either that, or someone at Nokia is just trying to cash in on all this iPhone 4 drama by saying things like "we want our prototype back" and "we are not the Secret Police, and we want to maintain our culture of openness," but come on -- that would be a pretty crass publicity stunt, right? We want to believe.
Nokia N8 goes official: 12 megapixels, Symbian^3, shipping in Q3
And just like that, it's official. We heard back at CTIA that Nokia's N8 would see an official reveal during April, and just a few short days after surfacing in Russia, that very smartphone has indeed been announced over in Espoo. There's not much here we didn't know about -- it'll be rocking a 12 megapixel camera (with Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash), 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, HDMI output, 16GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, HD video recording, access to Ovi Store apps, free Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation, and of course, the company's new Symbian^3 operating system. The N8 touts multiple, personalizable homescreens "which can be loaded with apps and widgets," native multitasking, support for multitouch gestures and integration with the Qt software development environment. It'll also ship in a variety of lovely hues (read: five), with availability pegged for "select markets" in Q3 for €370 ($494) without any subsidies involved. Not like it'll have any other competition up in its grille by that point or anything... Update: Here's a look at a few sample images from that 12 megapixel camera. Thanks, Matija! %Gallery-91891%
Nokia N8 gets handled, survives thorough Russian preview
We heard through the grapevine back at CTIA that Nokia's elusive N8 would be announced somewhere in the wide world this April, and sure enough, it looks as if the handset has popped up over in one of Russia's eleven nine time zones. Our pals at Mobile-Review have worked their magic once more on an up and coming handset, this time landing some serious face time with the planet's first Symbian^3 phone. Despite Nokia pushing the official reveal of said OS to Q3 (from Q2 previously), we're getting an early look at what exactly is to come here -- and if this review is any indication, Nokia's woes are about to become even more woeful. In short, critics panned the new system for being little more than a polished version of what Nokia's already offering, and they clearly noted that nothing here lived up to what Android and iPhone OS currently provide. In fact, they even went so far as to wonder who is inside of Nokia purposefully dragging down the brand; granted, it's hard to say for sure how great (or not, as the case may be) the N8 is without touching it ourselves, but to say it's off to a running start would be misinterpreting things quite severely. Have a look at the source link below for more of the machine translated goodness, and don't forget to ogle a few shots of the phone itself. [Thanks, Andria]
Nokia delays Symbian^3, investors not impressed
As in any business, in the world of the smartphone there are winners and there are losers. Earlier this week Apple blew away market expectations and posted a $3 billion profit thanks largely to increased popularity of the iPhone. For the competition news is not so good, and while Nokia did manage to boost earnings per share 40 percent this year, it missed analyst expectations and, more importantly, is having to delay the release of Symbian^3 until sometime in the third quarter. The release was initially due in the first half of the year, then became a little more specific as a Q2 release. These factors have sent share prices dropping 12 percent and leaves Nokia fans waiting another few months for a taste of something fresh -- not good when there are so many other delectable options up for the taking.
Apple granted design patent on Cover Flow
It was patent-grantin' day at the USPTO on Tuesday, and while most of the patents handed out to Apple, HP, Microsoft and others were pretty boring, it looks like Apple patent number D613,300 is going to make some waves -- it's a design patent on Apple's Cover Flow UI element. That's a design patent, not a utility patent, so it covers the look of the system and not its functionality; think of it as covering the distinctive shape of a Coke bottle and not how it works and you'll get it. That means Apple now has the ability to sue anyone using a system that looks "substantially similar" to Cover Flow, so Symbian^3 and Songbird are probably in for some changes. We'll see what happens -- it's not like anyone's called the lawyers in. Yet. P.S.- We were going to include the HP Slate here, but we went back and watched the video and ironically enough they're actually faking flick scrolling a Cover Flow view using iTunes -- an app that doesn't actually support flick scrolling. Sigh, HP.
Nokia N8-00 gets first official mention with Symbian^3 and nHD display
Simmer down, we don't have official pics yet (just the supposed leaks) but we do have the first official mention of what looks to be Nokia's first Symbian^3 handset. The culprit is the "NN8-00r100-3G" XML file sitting pretty on nokia.com right now. The first notables are a "N8-00" model and the "Symbian/3" string listed in the agent header that seemingly confirm that the N8-00 will run Symbian^3. Next is a "360 x 640 pixel" screen size. Note that the N8-00 display is rumored to be 3.5-inches making this a very similar nHD display to the one found on Nokia's current N-series flagship: the N97. The difference this time is that we're expecting Nokia's newest flagship to opt for a capacitive touchscreen display to match Symbian^3's more finger friendly UI. Unfortunately, we're not seeing any mention of the rumored 12 megapixel camera and the only keyboard mentioned is a "PhoneKeyPad" -- in other words, no QWERTY not that we were expecting one. We do see Bluetooth 2.0 and radios for WiFi and GPRS/EGPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA among the other details. Feel free to sleuth the file for yourselves in the source link below while we wait for the mid-April announcement. [Thanks, Glenn]
Nokia N8 being announced mid-April
We've just been told by a trusted source that Nokia will announce a new flagship device dubbed N8 in the middle of next month. That's not around any major trade shows that we're aware of, but it is just before the company's Annual General Meeting in Helsinki -- and naturally, it doesn't hurt their relationship with major investors to have just introduced a killer new device. For what it's worth, we just saw a leaked photo yesterday morning of a Symbian^3-based phone purporting to be the N8, so this lines up rather nicely, doesn't it? Announcement certainly doesn't equate to availability in Nokia's world, so until we hear otherwise, we'll assume that Eldar Murtazin's claim of a September retail launch is likely accurate. [Image via IT168]
Nokia's Symbian^3 touchscreen flagship leaked?
What does that look like to you? Sure looks like a probable Nokia flagship candidate for the upcoming launch of Symbian^3 to ride. Remember, we've already heard about a N8-00 said to be sporting a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, 12 megapixel camera, and HDMI-out. This unnamed device features a 12 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics, an HDMI jack next to a top-mounted 3.5-mm headphone jack, and a bottom-loading battery allowing the phone to keep a unibody design (a la the HTC Legend). The screen is big, at least 3.5 inches and possibly hovering around 4 inches. Oh, and a QWERTY is nowhere to be found. So Nokia, got anything you'd like to announce? Update: Eldar Murtazin, a man who knows a thing or two about pre-production Nokia devices, says the N8-00 is real and due in September.%Gallery-88780%
Nokia Symbian^3 UI demonstrated in detail, seeks multitouch devices (video)
Nokia VP, David Rivas, was in San Francisco yesterday touting Symbian^3 improvements. While we've heard and seen plenty about Symbian Three's enhanced user experience already, it's still worthy of another look considering Symbian's dominant marketshare. Besides, David provides a very detailed look as he walks us though elements like the customizable (and more finger friendly) homescreens meant to provide quick access to call features and at-a-glance data. Rivas also reiterates speed improvement claims over existing S60 5th devices (about a 3x improvement in graphics performance) that should "very very pleasantly surprise" users. Naturally, a faster UI coupled with a Symbian device running on something better than ARM 11 will also help here -- Nokia's only Cortex A8 device is the N900 running Maemo, not Symbian. David takes a veiled shot at Microsoft's new WP7 platform when discussing Symbian's true multitaking capabilities without any "tricks" -- apps are actually running in the background, not just freezing their state until you return. Multitouch screen control on capacitive and resistive (really?) touchscreen displays with Cover Flow-like album art navigation? Yup, it's all in there, as are hundreds of usability improvements (and fewer nags!) that should bring Symbian^3 up to the level of what everyone expects from a modern smartphone, according to Rivas. In other words, we'll have to wait for S^4 on early 2011 devices to see any real innovation. While the live demo was run on a laptop, we suspect it won't be long until Nokia starts showing off its live OS on a production handset. Until then, check the video after the break -- it's all we've got. [Thanks, Rafael C.]
Nokia X10 Symbian S^3 QWERTY slider revealed in leaked documentation?
Some supposed Nokia X10 "release documents" have been caught on video and are now making their presumably illicit way around the web. Of course, this would be pretty trivial to fake, so do please put on your skepticism pants before reading further. The docs detail a QWERTY sliders handset dubbed the X10, a seeming followup to Nokia's capacitive-equipped X6, but which runs Symbian S^3. In fact, it claims to be the first phone to do so, with a ARM Cortex A8 600MHz processor to help it out in such a mission, along with 256MB of RAM, 32GB or 16GB of internal storage and a 3.2-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen. The 5 megapixel camera listed is a far cry from the 12 megapixel N87 flagship that Nokia's said to be prepping for this new OS, but we're happy to see a front-facing camera for 15 fps video calls. Don't believe a word of it? We hardly blame you, and you can check out the video for yourself after the break to confirm or allay your suspicions.
Nokia N8-00: first Symbian^3 handset with 12 megapixel camera, 720p video, and HDMI leaked in summer roadmap?
Nokia's already tipped its hand for the year Twenty Ten by publicly stating its intent to deliver a sleeker, more attractive, and faster Symbian UI; fewer nags; and at least one Maemo handset before the year is done. What we've been missing though, are the details. While we still don't have the complete story, it is beginning to take shape according to alleged leaks received by Tom's Guide. First up is a new naming convention, something already telegraphed by Nokia's Xseries launch and Cseries trademark. According to the French language site, Nokia will end the use of monikers like XpressMusic or Classic as it simplifies around the following five ranges: C: voice-centric handsets. X: targeting youth, entertainment. E: business focused. N: high-end. S: limited editions. Tom's Guide claims to be privy to 14 new models, a few of which it spilled the beans on today. Click through for the gossip.
Symbian Foundation talks about its move to open source
As we'd figured out last night, Symbian's big reveal for today was the completion of its move to a fully open, royalty-free platform -- meaning you no longer need to be a paid-in-full member of the Foundation to see all the code -- and they're ready to talk about it and spread the word far and wide. Though Symbian's certainly not getting as much share of the mobile discussion these days as some of its smaller competitors, it's certainly important to keep in mind that these guys have software deployed on literally hundreds of millions of devices, making this perhaps the largest-scale conversion of a closed operating system to open source in history. Because the code has been licensed under the Eclipse public license rather than the harder-core GPL, device manufacturers will be able to continue to tack on custom features and hardware support without open-sourcing it, which should make them less gun-shy about throwing weight behind the platform -- and considering how badly these guys need to get back into the spotlight, that's a good thing. Follow the break for the Foundation's intro video to the wide, wide world of open source and Symbian^3, the first version to be fully spread out for everyone to see. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Symbian's revealing something tomorrow, but what? (update: open source!)
Oh, Symbian, you tease! For an organization as committed to openness and sharing its roadmap (and its code) as the Symbian Foundation, it's pretty unusual that they'd be counting down to a big unveiling of anything -- but sure enough, they've been tweeting decreasing numbers with the hashtag "#symbiancountdown" starting back on January 26 with 108. Today we're down to 12 (it's hard to say what sort of jacked-up counting system they're using here) with a note of "what will tomorrow bring?" so it looks like we can expect this all to go down in just a few short hours. One thought is that they could announce that Symbian^3 has gone Functionally Complete, a key milestone in getting it pushed to devices -- but that's a shot in the dark. Don't disappoint, guys. Update: Looks like it may be the full source for Symbian^2, the Foundation's first open release. Update 2: They've gotten around to tossing up a blog post about it, and it's actually Symbian^3 that's going open here, which "will soon be feature complete." Good times.
Symbian provides early glimpse at 2011 Nokia smartphone experience
We've been pretty hard on Nokia with regard to its miserable S60 5th (aka, Symbian^1) user experience as compared to the competition. Fortunately, Nokia's bound and determined to freshen things up in 2010 with two major updates scheduled for the first and second halves of the year. At the moment, Symbian^3 (that's Symbian three) is expected first with Symbian^4 coming before the end of the year (functionally complete in Q3 with S^4 devices shipping in early 2011 according to the symbian.org wiki page). What we've got above then, is a UI Concept proposal for the latter. As you can tell from the pics, Symbian^4 promises to deliver an entirely new user interface: navigation is streamlined and platform apps will be reorganized and redesigned to leverage next gen graphics meant to deliver visually appealing transparencies and transitions on Symbian devices. The experience is based on Direct UI and built upon Qt and Orbit -- a strategy that Nokia hopes will lure developers to the table by making apps easy to build and update with broad scalability across Nokia's entire lineup of handsets. Note that the concept is open for discussion (and thus change) so voice your opinion now. And no, responding "N900 FTW" doesn't count. One more image after the break.
