After Nokia N8 was available for preorder in UAE, I had plans of posting a detailed review with videos and pictures. Days after that,  Micky over Nokiausers did an extensive Video roundup of Nokia N8 and Clinton Jeff from zomgitscj posted a handson report of his first encounter with Nokia N8. Do have a look at these articles.

Coming back to the topic, lets try to find out why you should buy a Nokia N8. Shall we ? .. But wait… first have a look at the Nokia N8 official video, and then the reasons after the jump..

(p.s. : This post contains lots of videos, so visit the blog if they are not visible in rss.)

1. Symbian^3

Yeah, Nokia N8 is first Symbian^3 device and a step ahead of Symbian 5th Edition or S60V5 or the OS which run Nokia’s touchscreens currently available in market. To be frank, I was not such a big fan of S60v5 after owning a Nokia 5800, but things got little better with Nokia N97. Symbian^3 comes with around 250 new features according to Nokia.

2. 12 Megapixel camera with Xenon Flash

We all are aware of the outstanding camera phones made by Nokia. Nokia N8 takes it not one but many steps higher. Check out the untouched image samples taken from Nokia N8. If you want more details you can check out all the FAQs  and part1 of Nokia N8 camera.

3. HD video recording

Nokia N8 allows you to shoot HD videos with amazing clarity. Nokia N8 is also being used to shoot videos for Israeli "American Idol" ( Videos can be found at Mynokiablog ). Below is the sample clip from Nokia ( dont forget to play in HD) + you can also check out part2 of Nokia N8 camera regarding video recording.

4. Video and Photo Editor

Nokia N8 comes with inbuilt video and photo editor. You can edit your videos and photos on the go, add effects and also upload them to various video sharing websites. Check it out in the video below.

5. FM transmitter

Just like Nokia N97, Nokia N8 comes with an inbuilt FM transmitter, which allow you to play audio files on your phone, via your car’s speaker without the need of any wires. Check out this cool feature in the video below demonstrating FM transmitter on Nokia N97.

6. Multiple home screens

Nokia N8 comes with 3 homescreens which are highly customizable with live widgets connected to the internet. Each screen can be customized with upto 6 widgets like shortcuts, email, twitter and facebook notificatons etc. Also, each homescreen can have a separate wallpaper. Multiple homescreen was one feature which I always missed in my Nokia N97.

7. Free Voice Guided Navigation

Ovi maps with Free turn by turn voice guided navigation is one among the many features of Nokia N8. Never get lost anywhere around the world with Nokia Ovi maps. Tripadvisor and bookatable.com  are now integrated into Ovi maps. Ovi maps can be downloaded to your device via a desktop computer and can be used offline for navigation, unlike Google Maps and hence you save data charges from your mobile carrier.

8. TV connectivity via HDMI with Dolby digital 5.1 channel Surround sound

With Nokia N8 you have got a home theatre right in your pocket. Nokia N8 can project videos at 720p along with 5.1 channel surround sound via HDMI cable to a compatible HD television set.

9. USB on the go

A very geeky solution you never knew unless you heard about Nokia N8. Now with small adapter provided by  Nokia, you will be able to connect a USB Pen drive, a Mobile phone , Portable Hard disks etc and transfer or play audio and video directly from the device. Thats right, no more need to connect to a computer to transfer media.

10. Amoled Display with nHD resolution

Nokia N8 comes with amoled display which is the best in any Nokia ever.  The screen is bright and very much readable under the sun and consumes less power. With nHD (640X360) resolution the video and photo viewing on phone is such a pleasure.

11. Capacitive touchscreen with Multitouch

After Nokia X6, Nokia N8 sports a capacitive touch screen. Capacitive touch screens are made up of glass are very sensitive unlike resistive screens and provide the usage of multitouch technology. Nokia N8 supports multitouch, so now you have the gimmicky pinch to zoom capability in Web browser, Ovi maps , emails , photos etc.  

12. Hardened Gorilla glass

Since Nokia N8 sports a glass touch screen, the durability becomes a big issue. To address this, Nokia N8 comes with Hardened Gorilla glass which is the hardest glass available in the market till date and hence prevent your glass screen from getting scratched. Why not check out the Gorilla glass below.

13. Integrated Social Networking with phone book contacts

Nokia N8 comes integrated with all the Social Networking tools. The best thing is that these will be built in your phonebook and you will be able to get instant updates on your live home screen. So now you can be in touch with your friends and family with just one click.

14. Highly improved Email client : Nokia Messaging

Nokia N8 comes with highly improved Nokia Messaging client with MSExchange and push email support. I think this is the first email client which provide you an option to search the server address book. The client support Full HTML and also multitouch capabilities. You can also configure multiple email widgets on your home screen. Check out below how cool it is

15. New Ovi Store

Nokia N8 will launch with a completely redesigned Ovi Store. The whole look and feel of the Ovi Store is changed and searching and installing application is going to be super fast. You can view more details about the Ovi Store at all about Symbian.

16. Web TV

Nokia N8 is also a portable TV in your pocket. You can watch live streaming (around 30 fps) of many popular channels. Channels like CNN , IBN live etc will come bundled with Nokia N8 along with many local channels. More channels support will be provided in future.

17. Availability in different Colors with full aluminum casing

Are you really tried of those regular phone colors and want something different. Nokia heard you and have provided 5 different colors for Nokia N8. You can now choose among Orange , Blue , Black , Grey and Green color for your phone (personally , my favorite is Blue ). Also the colors are built into the anodized aluminum casing which means that if try to scratch your phone, you can just wipe it off without any evident scratches and loss in color.It even survived a 3 meter drop from a balcony. Aluminum build gives it a really premium look in hand. You can check thehandheld blog’s review about it.

18. Completely reworked Music Player with Cover Flow

Nokia N8 comes with a completely reworked music player. Albums are now present in a cover flow which scrolls super smooth ( at 60 fps) , and let you find the song you are looking for very easily. Check out the first 1 minute of the video.

19. DIVX Video support

Nokia N8 supports DivX codec out of the box. That means you no more need to install any DivX player or Smartmovie to play an avi or any divx file. The video will play directly without any need for conversion, and you can project it on a TV using HDMI cable.Check out Nokia N8 playing .mkv 720p file via usb

20. World phone with Bluetooth 3.0 and Wifi n support

Nokia N8 is a penta band world phone, which means that it will work anywhere in the world. It also comes with latest connectivity options like Bluetooth 3.0 which provide super fast transfer of files via bluetooth and wifi n support for super fast wifi speed.

Ok so this was my list of around 20 reasons for buying a N8 . Do you think I missed out something or you would like to add something ? What’s your reason to buy a Nokia N8, let me know in comments.

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If you are still unaware of what a Nokia N8 is capable of and why you should get it, I have an upcoming post explaining the features and stuffs you need to know in details. I currently don’t own a Nokia N8, but will be surely getting one soon.

So people, if you are among the ones waiting for Nokia N8, go ahead and pre-order one. Also do mention in comments which color you will be getting ? I am sold off to Blue one , What about you ???

Here are your options

Nokia N8 video

Update :

Emirates computer has just confirmed the details via twitter account

So AED 2K to 2.2K translate to around EURO 440 ~ EURO 470.

My favorite color seems to be Nokia Exclusive. …

So will you be getting a Nokia N8 ?

Via : emirates stores twitter account

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If you are unaware of what this post is all about, let me explain you a little bit. Nokia, the name once used to be a synonym of high end “Mobile Computers” and now, its a synonym of growing frustration of Nokia fan community. It all went wrong with Nokia N97, in which the list of bugs superseded the feature list by number of folds . The lack of creativity in design, and re-release of same models with different feature list made the companies position even more worst. With the early announcement of company’s flagship, they just made fans wait for around 7 to 8 months (compared to iPhone’s wait of couple of weeks or so).

With Symbian guru and world of nokia ditching Symbian and blaming it all on Nokia, I think there was nothing better that Nokia could do. The newly appointed head of Mobile Solutions, Mr. Anssi Vanjoki, penned down a post on Nokia Conversation, taking full responsibility of a completely different user experience for future Nokia devices. His post shows his emotional attachment with Nokia and also displays the assurance Nokia is ready to give to its fans.

I just want to wish Nokia and Mr. Anssi Vanjoki best of luck. Unlike others, I wont be ditching Symbian, even though I had many many frustrating moments with my Nokia N97. I know Nokia is good at listening to complaints, just that they take hell lot of time to act upon them.

Are you with Nokia ??

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You can download the firmware over the air by dialing *#0000#, then selecting Options—>Check for updates.

The changelog is as follows : ( via allaboutsymbian )

• Maps 3.3 with free Navigation built-in
• Default screen brightness raised to 75%
• Default theme now the jet black ‘Nseries 2′, giving longer battery life than the previous ‘Nseries 3′
• RAM optimisations
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Update: Changelog via symbian-world.

Data package content, corrections or changes :

• Corrections to TOP ~15 issues reported in the field
• OTC cases fixed:

• Wrong Cherry number used in Russia and Spain
• “System error” displayed occasionally at first start-up. Reported e.g.  by Vodafone.

Genius cases fixed:

Contacts performance improvement:

• #144324: Voice dialing not working when there are 2000+ entries stored in Contacts.
• #134637: Phone prompts “Memory full” when searching for names

Localisation & language variant specific:

• #154188: Message editor crashes and writing fails if predictive text input is On. (Arabic UI, v15 language variant)
• #146139: Scrolling to left and right works the wrong way around in Photos – Captured when using Arabic UI
• #147509: QWERTY keypad input does not work correctly with Calculator. (Chinese language variants: v19, v25, v26)
• #139207: “Slide to Answer” localization error  (Hebrew)
• #140654: Localisation error in Bluetooth Audio – “Set as (un)authorized”  (Czech)

Misc:

• #141675: “Security module error” shown in display occasaionally at start-up
• #147863: Occasionally device hangs and restarts soon after start-up.
• #137558: Device keylock opens (although it shouldn’t) when dialing a number using a carkit. (CK-300, CK-600, also some non-Nokia, factory installed car kits)

Others:

• Default Nokia tune is played as ringing tone for incoming calls instead of the one user has defined in Profile settings. Also sometimes device ahs stopped alerting for incoming calls. Both issues are now fixed.

Why this firmware update is important for me ??

Well, this gave me a chance to hard reset my Nokia N97, which gave me around 50Mb free memory on C:\ drive at first boot. After installing all the programs which I generally use, updating Ovi store , Nokia messaging etc, now I am left with 41 Mb. I wont be installing any other program. Let me see how long it take for C:\ to come back to less than 10 Mb ( The usual problem in Nokia N97, where C:\ i.e phone memory keeps depleting slowly ) .

I will keep you posted.

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For fact, this is a fully working quad band GSM watch that can receive calls or make calls. It has a 1.5 touch screen interface so you save yourself some effort and time when typing on this small screen. But that is not all – you also have a camera that can shoot as many as 104 videos. The lens for the camera is discreetly concealed at the side of the watch so you have to look hard to observe it. Video and game enthusiasts will like the MicroSD slot that comes with it as well as the whopping 100 hours of use. With this duration, one can be able to play as many MP3 files as possible without losing power. Also, it comes with wireless headset, so all the headache while pairing the device, is taken care of.

It appears that the Kempler and Strauss was made to give users the full functionality of a phone but strapped to the wrist instead carried in the hand or in the bag. It makes a good companion for people who will like to use phones without been noticed or take pictures without much fuss of holding and pointing with the bulky camera.

The hi tech world awaits this brilliant item. The company has not set a release date yet. If the product is finally out, the entire computing and horology industry will be eager to see how two dissimilar technologies could be finally merged into one workable product. This may be the bringing of even more innovative merger of technologies.

Video

Have a look at the full video of this watch here. I am sure you would be left impressed.

However,  this phone watch is not waterproof as M500.

via : K&S

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As a background, net neutrality refers to guidelines that simply state that users have the power to control the content they view and use on the internet. This guideline has been in use since the Internet was developed but over the years ISPs using their big marketing position have tried to control what users get. In many cases, these firms have discriminated against competing services so that users only get partial versions of the information they actually need to stay informed.

Net neutrality has generated more talk because ISPs want FCC to give them the authority to decide what information gets to users. They want to control the content, the speed at which it reaches you and even at what time.

The question that arises is, how does the ISP determine what the consumer need? How much he needs and even at what tine he needs it? The arguments against the ISP submissions are that, individuals have peculiar needs that cannot be accurately determined in advance. The opponents to this ISP suggestion believe that FCC is simply enforcing a rule that has exited previously and that the ISPs stand no particular disadvantage with the conversion of the guidelines into rules.

By net neutrality, all players in the internet business including phone manufacturers offering competing services to the ISP stand the equal chance of generating sales from their services and products.

How will the service providers respond if these conventions are turned into rules? Will they have to rebrand their products, charge more fees or simply offer consumers what they can afford? The extent to which the rules go will answer all of these questions.

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Ownership of this super phone entities the user to several benefits. For instance you have access to over 20,000 AT and to WIFI Spots across the country. That’s not all. You also have tons of preloaded POIs.

The 3 mega pixel camera will be a welcome feature for many outdoor enthusiasts as it comes with geotagging features. Any picture taken is marked with the location which is quite useful if you intend to recall your visits or simply send the photos to someone telling them about the names of the scenes without saying so I the mail.

The device can be used as a standalone system but you have the option of a car mount. You can install on the dashboard or on the windshield.

If you park in a congested lot, you will find your way back to your car in case you are lost. This feature so works because as soon as you remove the device from the car, the position of the car is logged on the system.

For busy users, the multifunction GPS has preloaded Points Interest to minimize downloading at initial use. For demanding consumers, you have the option to subscribe to data services that offer more information. Despite the subscription, you have AT&T offers its Yellow Pages service. For a more advanced service, you can have real time fuel price update and weather reports.

I think before release, Nokia 5800 navigation edition has got a big competitor in US atleast.

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Of particular note in this rankles is the form factor design – Nokia made the 6350 a clamshell which has the effect of comfort and easy use in the palm. Aside the aesthetics, clam shells are quite light and facilitate use of the phone. Following in the pattern of recent manufacturer releases, the 6350 will allow easy connection to favorite social networking sites like Facebook. You can also reach your YouTube listings in no time as it will work over the 3G HSDPA connectivity provided by AT&T.

It’s a surprise that NOKIA located the music controls outside the phone. Perhaps the reason is to allow easy and quick access to your favorite sound even you have closed the clamshell. The talk time of 4 hours is something that is quite disappointing on this set. With advances in battery technology over the years, the expectation was that NOKIA will give users something more enduring in power.

The Nokia 6350 answers two basic questions of users – a cheap phone yet sophisticated in function. That’s what the cell phone is. The phone will particularly suit students or low income users who cannot afford to splash so much to get a hands on experience of what a modern phone has to offer. For existing phone users who need to just make and receive calls, this phone satisfies that need too.

Do you Know ?

The major differences in Nokia N97 Mini are as follows :

• 3.2" touchscreen compared to 3.5" touchscreen in Nokia N97
• 8GB inbuilt memory compared to 32GB in Nokia N97
• Different layout QWERTY keypad compared to Nokia N97
• 1200mah battery compared to 1500mah battery to Nokia N97
• No camera lens cover as compared to Nokia N97
• Overall smaller size compared to Nokia N97
• 450 Euro launch price compared to 550Euros for Nokia N97

Other specification:

• 5 MP autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• Bluetooth , wifi , GPS
• Applications like OVI store and OVI lifecasting built in
• Kinetic Scrolling in every menu
• 640X480 screen resolution
• Personalized home screen with Widgets
• Dimensions: 113 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm
• Weight: 138 g
• Talk time: Up to 7.1 hrs
• Standby time: Up to 320 hrs
• Music playback time: Up to 28 hrs
• Video playback time: Up to 3.5 hrs

With the release of Nokia N97 mini, Nokia has actually tried to get a portfolio of touchscreen lineup, where people of different age group, different taste and different basic needs are able to find a device which fit their lifestyle. However, again coming back to price, it do seem a little overprized, hence I would suggest people to wait for few weeks before buying this device where the price will consolidate around 400 to 450 USD .

Pictures and Videos

Nokia N97 Mini Demo Video

Nokia N97 Mini hands on

Pictures

From Nokia

• Product page
• press release
• press photos

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Keep yourself updated

There are number of ways to keep yourself updated with the latest happening around the Nokia world 2009. I know that physical presence is no where to be compared with virtual presence, but still you could be the first one to know what’s happening around :

1. TWITTER : Twitter is the fastest way to know the news. Nokia conversation has created the official hash tag #nw09 for the event coverage. Make sure whenever you are posting something about the event, add this hash tag in your tweet.
2. Roomatic.com: Roomatic.com is the best way to follow the hashtags on twitter live. The details are provided in a small iframe which keeps on refreshing automatically whenever a new tweet is available. Just go to roomatic.com and add the #nw09 and thats it, you are done.
3. Visit Nokia conversation for  various other options to get the lastest updates.
4. Visit Nokia events for live webcast of keynotes and you take active part in discussion also.
5. Follow tecfre.com on twitter or add our RSS feeds for detailed updates about the devices and services launched at the end of the day.

So , guys keep your fingers crossed for some ground breaking announcements from Nokia. Check out the Nokia world 09 coverage at tecfre.com till now.

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