The Official Nokia N97 launch presentation

An amazing video where top management from Nokia tell us what they think about the N97 and what they want to show off about it!

Nokia to launch App store?

There is a lot of buzz that Nokia might just launch its very own app store at the Mobile World Congress to be held in Barcelona from 16 to 19 February. The man behind the buzz is Eldar Murtazin, a Russian editor of the Mobile-Review. If Nokia does launch the app store rumored to be up and running behind the scenes, its defintely going to have all its bases covered in terms of taking on competitors like the Apple iPhone, Sony Ericsson Xperia, Blackberry Storm, Toshiba TG 01, T-Mobile G1, Samsung Omnia or the LG Cookie phone! The N97 is going to shred the competition if app developers start building actively for the Nokia platform.

My question to Nokia is, what happens to this and why cant we have the app store directly integrated into Ovi? Take on any comparison of the Nokia N97 done with any other phone and the only thing that the reviewer would conclude by is saying that Nokia still lacks a functional app store. I wonder what theyre going to say now? Keep your your fingers crossed until MWC 2009 :/

Battle of the Smart Phones - Nokia N97 V/s Apple IPhone

We love to hear what our avid readers and subscribers have to say and this article is entirely dedicated to them! Many of you asked for a detailed comparisons...this one goes out to you! We have picked up THE major competitor of the Nokia N97...you guessed it right, the Apple IPhone 3G. Now you will say what about the Sony Ericsson Xperia, Blackberry Storm and Samsung Omnia etc? Well, lets look at the real competition. The competition which is making friends turn into foes, the animosity between the Nokia users and iPhone users! Both these phones are top-of-the-line products from their respective companies and are in a similar price range. In this comparison what we have tried to do is to interpret the specs from a user's angle and look at the practical aspects of using some of these features. Our team has narrowed down the comparison to top 10 features which we feel make the most difference to users. Sure smart phones are primarily used to make phone calls, but they are more than just that. We envision this comparison to become a real life competition of sorts. Some thing like a new Olympic Decathlon! (Imagine if Olympics really has something like that...Phone users competing against each other for supremacy..there'll be bloodshed!).Here's starting off this debate with an in-depth analysis on using these 10 features given by the team from the point of view of comfort, convenience and usability.

Let the Battle begin!

Feature	Nokia N97	Apple IPhone 3G
Touch Screen	A large 3.5 inch resistive touch screen display of this phone is first one from Nokia that works without a stylus. The power of this screen shall be visible only after launch	A 3.5 inch capacitive touch screen gives IPhone the key edge over its competition. The multi-touch display makes moving around menus quite easy
Messaging	A 30 degree slide out full QWERTY keyboard should make it the fastest SMS device among all smart phones	No QWERTY is surely a disadvantage. Also, some of the basic symbols are not available in the direct keyboard
Imaging and Video	A 5 Mega Pixel Carl Zeiss camera is sure to put old digicams to shame. Twin LED flash adds that extra punch. DVD video recording make this the perfect all in one device	A 2 Mega Pixel camera is good to take pictures in daylight. Compact camera but it’s without any flash light. No Video recording support is surely a major drawback
Music	An audio out port and a high quality built-in speaker is the right ingredient in this phone for the music lover. Album art support and preloaded music albums give it the edge	The IPod legacy continues and all the interactivity and convenience of the IPod are part of the IPhone. The speaker phone is not that powerful and you need to relay on your headphone which are also quite great.
Storage	Inbuilt 32GB memory and support for an additional 16GB make this the largest phone storage on the planet	32 GB IPhone has just been announced but the ones available on the Apple store are only 8GB and 16GB versions.
Internet, Maps and GPS	Nokia’s Symbian platform comes with an in built browser that supports almost all sites. Assisted GPS in the N97 and pre loaded Nokia maps provide it the extra edge	The OS platform supports a mobile Safari version that has a much better browsing experience. Integration of the GPS with Google Maps also gives route info in certain countries
Applications	Nokia doesn’t have an application store for the N-Series yet. As most applications are free or third party, there is a lot of scope for improvement here.	The Apple store is one of the biggest selling points for IPhone. With almost 10k applications to choose from this is one place where IPhone has a clear edge
Gaming	The N-Gage gaming platform has been evolving with the N-Series hardware upgrades. Now touch screen games with accelerometer support such as Asphalt Racing are expected soon	Apple has a number of games running in the IPhone but no tie up with any major gaming labels
Connectivity	The phone has 3G support, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. Support for the OVI platform adds a zing to the connectivity support of the N97	With 3G and Wi-Fi, the phone fulfils the requirements of a smart phone. However absence of any online or Bluetooth sync capabilities is a hindrance in some cases
Vital Stats	150 gms in weight and 6.5 hours of talktime on GSM,this baby can surly survive for long	133 gms in weight and a talktime of over 7 hrs on a GSM network make the IPhone a part of your survival kit
Software	The latest Symbian S60 version 5 operating system has widget support and is faster and better than ever before	No one can write software like Apple does. A mini version of the Mac make the software fast and responsive
Overall Verdict	Nokia N97 is power packed, innovative and a dream device for some one on the move with this music,movies and games. An application store would compliment the abilities of this phone to large extend	Apple IPhone has tested the market for a while but has still devoid its users with the features of video recording and Bluetooth. However, the fun of applications does come out with the IPhone

Sample 5 MP Camera pic

There was a request in the comments section for a pic taken from a 5MP camera. This one is from an N95 which also has a Carl Zeiss 5MP camera. You can check camera details easily by looking at the picture's EXIF data. Im sure nokia will better even this in times to come...

Credits are due to TON70 for the amazing picture

Carl Zeiss and Nokia - the magic of photography

Any trip to the sandy beaches of Goa or the high reaching mountains of Kullu or the gushing white waters of Rishikesh is immortalized for life by the pictures and videos of the location. But what do you do when you forgot to take a camera on the trip.
With a 3.2 Mega Pixel camera as in the Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic or the new 5 Mega Pixel camera in the upcoming Nokia N97, carrying a camera for amateur photographers like me will soon be a thing of the past. A Carl Zeiss lens ensures that you get the same clarity of pictures that you would come in from a standard 3.2/5 Mega Pixel camera. To make life easier, Nokia has integrated a number of image management, editing and printing features in the phone itself, so that your phone becomes the one stop shop for managing all your favourite pictures. You can upload your latest albums on OVI, fire prints directly using Bluetooth, edit photos to increase sharpness and vary colour contrast. A dedicated photo key ensures that your camera mode loads quickly for that instant timeless shot.
A problem experienced by most camera phone users in the earlier versions was the absence of a flash light to take pictures in the dark or low light. With the new N-Series phones such as N96 and N97, a twin LED flash gives you almost the same effect of a real flash light.

Another great part is the excellent video recording quality that comes along with this camera. The 5 Mega Pixel Carl Zeiss lens records DVD quality videos in 16:9 aspect ratio. You don’t even need to download the videos to your laptop. Just plug in the AV cable to the TV out port in the phone and watch all the photos and videos directly on TV. A large 32GB memory card now ensures that you never have to delete another picture throughout a trip. So next time around, forget your camera in the top drawer, cause it seems like you don’t need it anymore.

Smile . Say Cheese !

N97 - Game On

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy !!

But you are not jack ? Right. What’s the fun in buying the coolest gadget on the planet without any games to play around. A high resolution 640x480 resolution, 128 MB RAM and MEPG 4 support ensure that the Nokia N97 gives you the most awesome mobile gaming experience. Be it the strategies of Tetris 3D or the fun of twists and turns of racing in Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, the N-Gage platform available on all N-Series phones is sure to blow your mind away with new 3D graphic acceleration, multi-player mode and even online arenas to compete with other players. The new games like Resident Evil and World Series poker challenge are already a rage among mobile gaming enthusiast. The Nokia N97 comes with the largest touch screen till date in the N-Series. Some of the other new features like A-GPS, QWERTY keyboard and MPEG-4 support open a new world of opportunity for N-Series game designers and players as well. Nokia games, Vice President Jaakko Kaidesoja believes the future of gaming is towards touch screen games and we couldn’t agree more. It’s probably time to toss out your Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Finally, you have one device that does it all and does it all with speed and style.

So let the games begin!!

Check out preview of some of the upcoming games on the N-Gage platform.




Check out what Jaako Kaidesoja, VP from Nokia games has to say about the Nokia N97 and the N-Gage platform here:

Keep your Touch powered!

The new generation of touch screen phones use finger touch, have large 3.5 inch screens and are the latest rage among smart phone users. One will of course worry about the maintenance of their precious darling screens! And your fingers operating the phone means an increased exposure to dust particles causing precision problems due to continuous usage.
Two new technologies for touch screen phones are resistive and capacitive screens which work on different principles but try to achieve the same final outcome। Resistive touch screens, such as the one available in the new Nokia N97, work on the principle of connection between two layers। The connection between the two screen layers helps the controller calculate the strength of the action. Capacitive touch screen are similar to the multi-touch technology in the iPhone that judge user action based on sensors. Ok enough of tech gyan, lets move on to some काम की चीज़ (useful talk)!

Some of the common problems that can occur in touch screen phones, if not handled carefully are

Scratches – A large screen size makes the phone vulnerable to scratches. A major cause for scratches is dust particles that can stick on the screen and create minor scratches in the screen. The resistive touch screen is protected against scratches especially caused by dust particles. However, all touch screen phones are vulnerable to external elements such as sharp pieces of equipment.

Non Response – The response to a user action requires the right calibration in the touch screen. With constant use, the calibration can shift sometimes causing non-response in case of pressing minor screen elements. This happens more in case of phones where stylus is not used. The new touch screen technologies have alleviated this problem to a large extent.

Dirty Screen – Recall the time when you had to pick up your phone while having dinner....aggggg! Doing so could have caused a problem with older touch screens. The new resistive touch screen help users overcome these problems as these screen have been tested and verified to handle most of these conditions.

But all is not wrong in this big bad world and as the old doctor says, prevention is still better than cure ! Hence if you are buying a touch screen phone its important to take a few preventive steps to ensure a long and stable life for your phone.

Install Scratch guard – Scratch guards are available with most mobile phone vendors that install another thin and resistive layer over your standard touch screen. The scratch guard helps prevent your screen from direct scratches and you can replace it easily in due course of time to keep your touch screen as good as always.

Clean with scratch resistive cloth – Every touch screen phone comes with a scratch resistant cloth similar to the ones available for cleaning spectacles. Its advisable to use these on a regular basis to clean the dust from your screen.

Finally, touch screen technology has come a long way in the past few years and with companies like Nokia investing in building high quality and long life touch screen phones.The future of the mobile phone world seems to be simple – Touch!

The fun in getting lost

Take the path less trodden. Explore that inner street. There is fun in getting lost and finding your way back. With the Nokia N97, you can extend your adventure with the A-GPS onboard and the electronic compass inbuilt. Download maps online and be the master of the city. The Nokia N97 puts directions and locations at your command.

A-GPS stands for Assisted-GPS which means that you will never lose signal. Conventional GPS has difficulty providing reliable positions in poor signal conditions. Cases like when it is surrounded by tall buildings (resulting in multipath), or when the satellite signals are weakened when a GPS device is indoors or under trees. An A-GPS uses an assistance server so that it can connect to the server based on which cell site it is in. Also, the inbuilt electronic compass intuitively tells the N97 about directions so that maps start to make so much more sense. 

Find ME!!