Nokia Q4 results are out and things are looking a bit better for people’s company (yes.. i said the the people’s company) with well over 1 million lumia 800 & 701 devices sold, it’s  less than the 2 million targets that they had but if you ask me  , it’s a good start for a company that changed Os and focus and with in 6 months made an amazing and sexy device such as the lumia 800. So with that good start and a cool $250 million this quarter from Microsoft all i have to say is keep it up nokia!

you find other numbers here (including how much money they lost in 2011)

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Yes boys and girls!  according to the latest online rumors the nokia lumia 900 will be out on march 18th for $99.99 on  a two-year contract. The information came from Boy genius report who said that it came from a source close to the carrier (AT&T), so we don’t know how true it is but nokia did say they will be marketing the nokia lumia 900  aggressively so the rumors may have more truth to it then anything else we have heard so far.

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Good news for everyone on facebook (so good new for everyone pretty much) Nokia has  launched a new competition on there Lndonesia facebook fan page, where you could win a lumia 800 or lumia 701 windows phone.

The best thing about  the “Nokia Time Machine” competition is however  how easy it is to enter, all you have to do is share your best memories of your first nokia device….that’s it! to enter just go to nokia’s Lndonesia facebook fan page

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A sight to the future?

We first learn about MeeGo about 1 year ago, Nokia needed an OS to replace the old decaying Symbian, and that’s when it teamed up with Intel  to deliver the OS that would rule the world just as Symbian did not much ago. But then, on February 2011 Nokia anounced a new shift in their OS strategy. They were going to parter up with Microsoft and release Windows Phone on their new handsets, ditching MeeGo, before any device running it was released.

We saw leaks of the famous N950, the one device running MeeGo and sporting a qwerty keyboard. Later Nokia would announce that they would release the N950 for developers only and the N9 (non qwerty) for the rest of us non-developers, then, there wouldt be no more MeeGo handsets. They will focus on the Windows Phones. This leaves the just released N9 in the shadows, most developers are not very interested in developing apps for an OS that is going to disappear after one device, leaving it in the hands of the MeeGo-Maemo-Linux community. Perhaps one of the best handsets Nokia has released in the last 5 years, you will soon learn why.

The simplest, the most elegant.

The retail box is the smallest Nokia has done until now. You can see how Nokia is making packages smaller every year. Inside there is only the necessary space for the N9, the charger, data cable, headset and instructions leaflets. This goes perfectly with the minimalistic style the N9 has.

The whole N9′s body is made of one pice of soft polycarbonate. The 3,9″ screen is georgeous, shiny, curved and looks like a precious gem, kind of reminds me of an obsidian stone when the display is turned off. Swiping the fingers over the screen is a pleasure, haven’t touched a smoother screen on any other handset ever. There is a micro usb port on the top, along with a 3.5mm plug and the micro sim card tray. The volume, and lock/power buttons on the right side, on the bottom you will find thespeakers and a 8MPX camera on the back with dual LED flash. The whole device feels premium in the hand, and I will say it again: it’s like holding a precious, shiny gem.

To turn it on/off you should press the lock button for 3 seconds. Took me a while to figure it out, of course, I didn’t read the instructions. After the phone has booted up you are greeted with 3 main homescreens. The first one is the news feed, then the app menu, and the multitasking homscreen. In the newsfeed you can set up your twitter timeline along with your facebook feed and news by AP. You can choose what feed to show in case you dont need to read the news on the newsfeed. If you tap on a feed you will be taken to the twitter/facebook app where you can add comments or like stuff. The app menu is classic app grid where you choose what app to open, you may edit the layout by holding the tap.

The multitasking screen shows you what apps are open in a mini window that’s running live. You can close the apps by holding the tap and taping on the cross mark. These 3 homescreen sound pretty simple, but what makes this phone stand above others is what Nokia calls ‘Swipe’ After opening an app you can do 4 kinds of swipe. To do a swipe you must put your finger on the outer border of the screen and move to the oposite directin. You may do a swipe in 4 directions; if you swipe from left or right the app running will go to the multitasking menu and continue running in the background. If you swipe from the bottom you may go to the multitasking menu or if you stop the swipe halfway, a shortcut menu will appear with apps like phone, contacts, camera and broswer. If you swipe from top to bottom you will close the app, taking you to the multitasking menu.

Everything runs smooth and it’s really a joy to use. Of course,  there is a learning curve, but after the first 15 minutes you are set to go. Also, reading the instruction manual may help a lot . The integration is excelent. By entering your facebook and twitter account info, your contacts will be saved on your contact book along with your phone numbers agenda. You can then choose to combine them under one name. The message app will integrate facebook chat, and SMS conversations in one convenient place.

The facebook app I must say is a bit laggy and crashes very often, but lets you do most things you can expect. The Twitter app, on the other hand is great, a bit slow, but great in features, that it almost matches gravity for symbian. Still there is room for improvements.

The camera is good. The usual options are there, and, wow! It’s very fast taking pictures, but it doesn’t match the N8 in terms of quality, making the N8 the king of camera phones. Also, the lack of physical button doesn’t help either, so you have to use the in screen shutter to take pictures. This is the reason I’m keeping my N8 too, as my camera phone. The speakers sound ok, enough power and good quality, nothing outstanding. The reception and call quality is 100% Nokia.

The phone is fast, have tried opening 20 apps at the same time and there is no lag.  The battery is not that outstanding, I can manage 10 hours with moderate to heavy use, so you should take your charger just in case. There is a map app and a drive app. I still don’t understand why did Nokia made them separately.

I tried the Nokia Store, but there are not many apps out there yet, as I said before, most developers dont want to invest money and time developing apps for an ecosystem that won’t exist later in 3 years. This is also one of the reasons I need to keep my N8, since there is no Whatsapp version for MeeGo and I use it a lot. Leaving the N9 in the hands of the loyal Maemo/MeeGo community

who are very commited to this OS. However, if Nokia wants to sell the phone, they also need the help of commercial apps (hello, whatsapp?).

Is it the end?

As conclusion, the N9 represents what Nokia could have been if it had followed their own path. After the deal with Microsoft, Nokia had to let go the projects they were working and commit 100% to windows phone, they cannot keep 2 top OS, or else they would cannibalize each other, or could they?  The swipe part is the most revolutionary of the N9. There is no multitasking button, there is no close button, everything is done by gestures and this is what Nokia intended to: start a new era in UI, based in gestures and leaving buttons (either hardware of software) behind.

The N9 delivers a complete package of power and style, I’m very pleased with the design and I’m happy to see that Nokia is reusing it on its new phone: the Nokia 800 Lumia. I just hope to see more Nokia’s integration in future Windows Mobile phones, maybe we will see the Swipe in a future?

For now we can only dream what the N9 could have been and enjoy one of the last real Nokia device, keeping one shiny piece of history.

dcastrog

The Meego powerhouse is said to be available in singapore this month  from all telcos. The N9 will be sold sim free and unlocked  for a retail price of $799 for the 16GB version and $899 for the 64GB version.

info via 

Ever since nokia announced that they were making windows phone 7 there main OS I have more or less fallen out of the blogging game, mainly because I didn’t understand or support their decision however over time I came to a better understanding of why they did what they did, I didn’t support it 100% but I understood, so as nokia got ready to move to wp7 and kill off symbian, My self and many other nokia fans just stood back waited to see something from nokia to make us happy and excited again.

Then they announced the Nokia N9 and I just like everyone else was happy again, I loved nokia again, I wanted to blog about nokia again and from no way nokia were back in the game, until I really started to think about it, I stated thinking about what would be a good  reason why nokia would move to wp7 after seeing what meego could do months before anyone else did, why would you leave an OS that had much promise to go with one that little to no one likes?  I would have understood if they said meego would not be ready on time and it couldn’t ship this year or if symbain couldn’t be update to match the like of android, so they had to move to wp7 to save them self, If they said something like that I would be able to level with them and say “yes, it’s time for a change” but you can’t show me a fully operational meego device with no buttons, a new swipe home interface with the best multitasking ever seen on a phone and expect me to say “yes move to an OS that is basically trying to do the same thing that meego is doing just that it doesn’t look as good or works as well.

I know some people think that they are two completely different OS and to those  people I ask: what is Microsoft’s aim with wp7? it’s to make everything simple and easy, an easy to navigate UI that keeps you connected to your friends, family and social networks…right? yes! now let me ask you this: when you look at the meego OS what do you see? A simple and easy to navigate UI, right? yes! and when you look at the notification screen on meego what do you see? A place that keeps you connected and up to date with  friends, family and social networks. right? yes!  what’s the differences between them? you ask, The look and feel! when you look at the home screen of wp7 what do you see? two rows of colored moving boxes, now look at the home screen of meego, what do you see? a new bright fresh Ui with colorful  icons.

An other difference  is that meego comes with more than half of the things that Microsoft is now trying to put into wp7 for example: Multitasking, meego was built with multitasking in mind, as a matter of  fact, the hole OS was built around multitasking and I really like that. To me being simple don’t mean plain and that is why I think meego has beaten wp7 at it’s own game but anyways back to to what I was saying.

So they announced the N9 and everyone is happy and likes nokia again, until we look at meego and wp7 and realize just how bad making the decision to move to windows phones 7 really was, so at this point everyone is a little mad and we’re all thinking “fine! move to wp7, i’m just going to get the n9..f#ck wp7” and that was a good plan but big boss Elop knew we would do that, so to make sure we all didn’t just get the n9 and forget about wp7 and making him look bad for making a bad decision, he more or less killed n9 before it even came out by making it only available in a very very limited amount if countries, Mexico &  Malaysia being the only places known so far.

So now being  die hard nokia fans means that we have to watch them hopefully fail with wp7 run back to meego and work there way back to the up with meego being the main OS, symbian on the lower priced phones and wp7 on the touchscreen feature phones.

Ohh Nokia.

Today nokia betalab released an app called ‘nokia play to’ which allows you to wirelessly enjoy and share photos, videos and music on your nokia mobile device on your Tv.  All you need is a nokia C6, C7,E7, N8 or X7,  WLAN access and DLNA capable playing device  so a TV, Blu-ray player or a PS3 will all work.

Betalabs Post:

With Nokia Play To, you can play your media simply, with no MacGyver skills needed. No time-consuming set-ups, no cables or wires. No hassle. Just a fuss-free wireless connection between:

• A Symbian^3 Nokia phone (all phone models except Nokia E6-01) and
• A DLNA device (e.g TV) connected to your home network

When you’ve got Nokia Play To installed on your phone, streaming is very quick and simple. To start, open the mobile application. Select the DLNA system you want to connect to, choose the photo, video, or music track you want to play, and that’s all there is to it. You can also browse the media content stored in your phone with DLNA player devices, like a PlayStation 3, Blu-ray player or a home theatre system – it’s just as easy.

Nokia Play to is still in beta so you can’t download it from the ovi store just yet but if you really want to get your hand on it you can download the beta at the nokia betalab site: Here

A year after being released Nokia’s N900 is still considered by many one of the best devices on the market. Specifications wise it surpasses the iPhone 4 and laps RIM’s Blackberry Torch.

What makes Nokia’s N900 so special is that it is an open source device meaning the device can be customised to the teeth down to it’s processor’ss cycling speed and even the voltage settings it uses to operate. Off course to most people this is a “huh?” moment, because obviously this seems like something a technician should be doing, but the device was made to an extent for that reason. It comes equipped with a built in X Terminal and if you haven’t guessed it by now it is Linux based. This gives a sense of freedom to the user unlike other devices which cannot be significantly tweaked.

Upon start up, you will notice the usual Nokia “Connecting People” logo (The two hands) and once you place in your settings such as Time, Date, Language and Location you’re ready to go. You have 4 home screens where you can place bookmarks, shortcuts, contacts, widgets etc. These can also be modified where you can get up to 9 home screens. Off course at your own risk

The interface is new and can take some getting used to but the coolest thing you may first notice is the multitasking ability of the device. Let’s say you open up Conversations, and you want to view some pictures in Photos then simply tap the upper left of the screen to minimise Conversations and go into Photos. Another thing to note is that the minimised windows still remain active, so if you open up a game unless the game is paused it will still run in the background.

The device runs smoothly at it’s normal processing frequency, but as I said before if you do not like this speed it can be tweaked at your own risk and void of warranty off course. The highest speeds I’ve “seen” the CPU get to are around 1Ghz and a claimed 1.1Ghz. The most I’ve put it to was 1150Mhz but this speed did not suite me, I’m pretty comfortable at the stock 600Mhz Those high speeds are recommended if you’re going to run PS1 games or the MyPaint app so that you get little or no lag while using them, when done, it’s best you revert to stock to prevent over heating of your device

Now let’s get into the apps. Basically everything in the N900 is an app, from Conversations to Photos to the Phone. Yes the Phone is an app.

MicroB Web Browser: This is a fast and efficient tool for browsing the web via GPRS, EDGE, 2G, 3G, Wifi, etc. It is flash enabled but only up to V9.4, however there is a 3rd party application to trick the browser that you’re using the latest version and still view media. In can be rotated into portrait mode but it goes partially fullscreen and looses the “X” and “<” buttons at the top of the screen and I rarely use this orientation. There is no need for anti-virus because this is a Linux based device and with the new firmware upgrade PR 1.3 web surfing has become smoother and faster. Surfing on this device is the same as using a PC or laptop browser, there is no “mobile” only websites. Facebook is seen on the N900 just as on your PC, facebook chat at the bottom of the screen and all.

Media Player: This plays all media except pictures, and though the codecs are limited it can be extended to incorporate more media formats. I don’t have much media so if just playing songs and watching videos is your poison, then this will do the job fine. It can be used as a widget, and sound is clear with the dual speakers though not too loud and sound is even better almost magnificient with the headphones.

Calender: Very well organised and allows you to do many things such as set tasks, make notes, set colours over certain activities so with a glance at your week or month view you can tell what’s important and what can be left alone for a while. This can also become a widget where you see useful information on your desktop such as tasks and birthdays with the current date as well. One of the best I’ve used but that does not go for much since this s my first “smart phone” device.

Photos: Very straight foward, has a filtering option so you can set which folder you want photos to be viewed from. I have it set to “All Images”. Geo tagging is available and photos can be shared to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter etc. once the plugins are installed and to other devices over Bluetooth. There is a built in photo editor that can perform the basic cropping, resizing, contrast adjustments etc.

Contacts: Practically unlimited, from here once connected to the internet you can see who’s available online. You can use, Skype (built in), MSN, AIM etc. as your messenging services but only with Skype you can make video calls using the front camera.

Phone: This allows the basic phone capabilities, nothing major and can be viewed in portrait mode and landscape. The dialing pad features large numbers for ease of dialing.

Maps: Ovi maps is pretty simple to use but certainly not the best mapping system. I can’t use it to guide me around Trinidad but it works and can be improved later on.

Camera: The N900 sports a 5mega pixel camera with Carl Zeiss Lens and double LED flash. It takes great High Resolution photos for just the average snapper, but not the best. Third party apps can be downloaded from the repositories to improve photo quality. e.g. Fcam

Email: This allows you to set up multiple email accounts and get notifications on your device upon receiving a new email. I pursonally have no need for this and when I had it set up I found it battery consumptive and just signing into Hotmail or Gmail was just personally suitable.

Conversations; This is where all your conversations are stored and where they can be started. Lets say you talked to a hot chick last night but you forgot what you told her, just go here type her name and view the entire conversation. You can do the same in Contacts. You can send SMS messages from here and it should be noted that all convos are displayed in thread view and each message is not in a seperate area. It’s like IM.

Clock: Shows the current date and time, sets alarms, the usual stuff, nothing major to find here.

Calculator: Both Scientific and Basic. Accurate and user friendly.

Ovi Store: Apple has their own and so does Google so now Nokia has theirs, unfortunately games and applications are limited for the Maemo platform. Their are a couple fun games though like Angry Birds, Bounce Evolution, Zen Bound, Tower Bloxx, Brain Evolution etc. You can also find useful utilities here like Level, Anglemeter, Banner etc. Clicking the application takes you to the Ovi Store website so you can make purchases or download stuff for free directly and only to your handset.

Notes: Just a simple application for writing text.

Settings: Here is where you get to take a peak at what’s under the hood and change around some things. Again nothing major here. You can set up VoIP and IM accounts here and GPRS connections.

App Manager: Here is where you get your hands a little wet with loads of applications at your disposal but usually not made by Nokia, so download and install at your own risk. Do not enable the Extras-Testing and Extras-Devel repositories though, they are the most unsafe. You can use the App Man to uninstall stuff that you installed and also update things OTA (Over The Air via WLAN).

PDF Viewee: View PDF files, pretty straight forward, fast and user friendly,
TIP – Click the page number at the bottom of the screen, type in what page you’re looking for and get going.

File Manager: View files and folders on your internal storage (27Gigs) and you memory card (if installed). You can move things around, and share them via Bluetooth or Twitter, Youtube, Facebook etc.

RSS: Subscribe to various RSS feeds and get updates via an internet connection.

Backup: Create a backup of your Application List, Calendar and Contacts, Settings and Bookmarks. Restore these at anytime an internet connection is recommened for restoring Apps. Backing up should be done before Firmware upgrades and Flashing.

X Terminal: This is where your hands will get dirty if you wish but for Noob users playing around here is strongly unrecommended. Only use this if you are sure about what you’re doing.
Follow this link for some useful commands.

So now that you have an idea what you’re dealing with, lets talk about the Pros in functionality.

Well first off the N900 is pretty simple to use once you get used to it. You tap in blurred areas to get out of windows or tap the top left icon to minimise the screen. Fast and effective, this device delivers from social networking to deep in customisation. Bottons don’t get in the way or are difficult to access, the stylus comes out easily and clicks back in for a firm fit. The resistive touchscreen is very well built and has pressure sensitivity so it’s not just one level of pressure it recognises but around 3 making it more accurate than the compactive touchscreen found on the iPhone series. The keyboard though a bit cramped for some works fine for me because I hardly do much typing except for this review which is being done on my N900. I admit it could have another row of keys but that might of made the device unstable when open and being proped up by the kick-stand to the back (great feature). For me the speakers and resolution fit perfectly together and the in-ear headphones if used while watching a movie add a great touch providing an amazing experience. 3D games run smoothly also and the device can already use Multiboot to run Android aka NitDroid and MeeGo (though MeeGo is not fully usable). You really can’t lose out with this device unless tweaking isn’t your cup of tea.

One draw back is that you can only use Adobe Flash V9.4 and it can’t be upgraded at the moment and while using it, it drains the battery significantly. Generally the battery is pretty good considering what the device is capable of but some complain that it dies too fast, while I’m satisfied with my 15 hours plus battery life. I admit I don’t use the device extensively all the time and I’ve done things to lessen power consumption (previously discussed here) so my view on battery life might not be the best one. Another draw back would be the Ovi Store, currently there aren’t many apps here but that can be ignored since there are so many private developers willing to create apps for free and a few ask for donations for their work. I would donate if I were you, because they do GREAT work! At the moment those are all my drawbacks on the Nokia N900, for me the pros out weigh them, and I know I missed some pros and some cons but some other cons are a bit technical to go into so for more information I suggest you visit http://talk.maemo.org where you’ll find all the information you need and becoming a member is vital if you are a N900 owner because if you ever run into problems, the guys there including me will be able to help. Look me up on TMO @RenaldoTT

Hey this morning nokia Wom world invited my self and numerous other blogger to a Nokia E7 Q&A session with Product Manager of the new nokia E7. Everyone had great question to asked and the PM answered to suit.

Here are some of the questions that my self and other bloggers asked with the answers that the PM gave below….enjoy

Does the raise ends on the top and bottom of the e7 interfere with typing?

• (qwerty is very easy, you can rest your thumbs on the curve)

Because of the overall size and what the device is meant to be (The Ultimate Business Smartphone) wouldn’t a 1GHz Snapdragon processor work better than 680MHz processor?

• (I am not expert of this processor topic, but The raw numbers in the processing power should not be compared as such. The processing power manifests itself in the speed of the UI (with graphics acceleration), which we believe to be very competitive.)

The e7 is design more or less just like the n8 but with a bigger screen and a QWERTY keyboard, wouldn’t such an identical design reduce the appeal of the n8?

• (We have now four great Symbian^3 devices, so there is one for anybody)
• (i understand that but the n8 is the flagship it should be better than the other in all areas, Announcing the e7 is basically slapping the n8 in the face is it no)
• (Nokia E7 is the best phone for business with qwerty and Nokia N8 for entertaiment with great camera)

Does the E7 have a removable, replaceable battery with a pop off back like other nokia devices or is it like the N8?

• (no, battery is unremovable)

In the specs description, I could only see “internal 16gb” memory, does that mean it doesn’t have expandable memory space? A microSD slot or something like it?

• (no memory card, but USB on the GO works very nicely, so you can connet huge memory stick to your device)

Would you say that E7 is faster than the n8?

• (both Symbian^3, both are FAST)

How are Microsoft Office files handled within the E7? I mean to ask, what software has Nokia licensed to provide the capability to edit Word documents, Excel, PowerPoint, etc?

• (QuickOffice, you can create, edit and pinch the documents ( Word documents, Excel, PowerPoint)

why buy the e7 for 495 when you could get the n8 which has a better camera for 429.00?

• (my opinion is that you buy device for your need, and if you want best camera then Nokia N8, if you want qwerty then Nokia E7)

What makes the E7 the ultimate business smartphone? Why would business men be attracted to this phone?

• (we have really focused to Eseries legacy with Nokia E7, so all those business features will be great, MfE, Microsoft® Communicator Mobile for business IM.)

I know you also worked on the E75 (one of my fav phones btw) would you say that the e7 is a better all round devices? because the e75 was good at everything

• (yes, Nokia E75 was my baby so agree with you, but now we have also touch screen. So Nokia E7 is also very good at everything)

There will be another  nokia E7 Q&A tomorrow, so if you want to know about the e7 just by tomorrow  but you will have to wait on till then to get the link.

Hey guys, I’m here to tell you a little bit about the X3 Tocuh and Type mobile phone from Nokia. At first I must admit I was a bit sceptical because the X3 not the X3 Touch and Type seemed lacking for a modern day phone, nothing exciting about it, but with the Touch and Type I felt a form of excitement just by looking at it. The sleek design and array of colours make it a joy just to gaze at. Being Nokia’s first phone to combine a touch screen and number pad it sure does give a calming factor since the price is not that high, but the specs are good enough for an average user who just wants a beautiful phone with modern technology.The 2.4 inch TFT resistive touch screen with 240 x 320 pixels and 256 thousand colours gives a very clear display and the number pad is boasted to making the texting experience a fast one. The only thing I found odd was the placing of the hash and aster-ix buttons which have always been at the bottom of the number pad but are now to the top right next to numbers  ”3″ and “6″. I will have to get a hands on use of it to see how I feel about this but it shouldn’t be a problem. I love the layout of the buttons though. The phone literally does bring back to life the bar phone form factor. Hopefully we will get one to review hands on. At present it sports a 5 mega pixel camera with 4X digital zoom and video capturing capability at 18fps.

Hopefully my favourite games from Gameloft, one of which is Real Football 2010 won’t have a problem operating on the S40 OS and with 5 hours talk time when you’re bored and not feeling to chat you can indulge yourself in your favourite tunes flowing from the base of this amazing piece of modern technology. In closing this phone is not for someone who is big on gaming and web browsing. It’s for the average user and maybe even the mature users since the UI (user interface) is laid out with large icons to help guide you around the phone. It has what you need for daily activities and what you want for entertainment purposes. This is a great phone at a great price. Look out for my review on it soon. Good bye and thanks for reading.