Eldar Muratsin of mobile-review has very deep connections to industry insiders, and has been known to protect his sources proactively.
Unfortunately, it looks like he made a big mistake: one of the screenshots posted as part of a dumbphone review may give away the identity of a Nokia insider:
All I can hope is that the source won’t get caught – ah, and we now know that final hardware seems to be finished…
via JAMPB
Don’t ask me what the fokls at MobileCityOnline were thinking when they posted this offer:
Maybe this was done as the shop is now on vacation – whatever it was, we now know that the box will cost 500$ OTC…
Just in case anyone of you still isn’t 100% sure that the Tube is real – an official press image of the box has just leaked via a Czech web site:
A news service called pocket-lint claims that the device will be officially introduced October the 2nd; at a press event which will also bring along the deployment of the Cones with Music service.
Controlling mobile phone games via device motion is not a new idea: as soon as camera phones became available, developers used the cameras for motion detection and moving crosshairs.
Ninja Strike is a Japan-themed game that puts you into the role of a ninja who must throw shuriken to free his “sensei”(aka teacher):
The game mechanics are rather simple. The arm at the bottom of the screen is moved around at a fixed speed (you can NOT influence the movement!!!), and you hit fire whenever you think that an enemy is “in range”:
Advancing from level to level is easy – all you need to do is survive and score an increasing number of kills:
At later levels, colorful enemies appear on the screen. Shooting them allows you to access a variety of special abilities like multiple shuriken or a “laser targeting sight”. Unfortunately, powerups expire rather quickly (indicated via the diamond at the bottom of the screen):
After having survived a few levels, enemies start to attack. You need to press the 5 key in time in order to block off attacks – the maximum time you can block is very limited, and the blocking process itself is annoyingly slow.
The plot and new game elements are explained in short “text slides” between the levels:
Finally: the camera interaction is limited to firing off shuriken. Performing a throwing motion in front of the camera fires off one shot – this has worked pretty well on my Nokia N71.
This review looked at version 1.04 of the game on a Nokia N71. Ninja Strike needs 4135KB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card.
In the end, Ninja Strike is a very weird game – as the movement of the “hand” can not be controlled, the game is both an action game and a reaction tester. The motion control was rather unimpressive and is best left disabled. If the concept sounds appealing, get the free trial – the full version of the game costs and can be purchased at ClickGamer’s for 7 Euros (as of this writing).
As I am currently on my way to a three-day corporate vacation, I have access to a popular Austrian economy magazine courtesy of the OEBB. Today’s issue of the so-called Wirtschaftsblatt contained a few figures I considered worthwhile of sharing – enjoy:
On online ad spending
Nokia is said to spend 10-25% of its total advertising budget for on-line activities according to unspecified insider sources. Don’t ask me where that money goes – enthusiast web sites definitely don’t see any of it…
On netbook sales
2201 Netbooks were sold in Austria in July 2008 (Austria has about 8 million inhabitants). The amount of sold devices is said to increase steeply, as Microsoft has ganged up with a big Austrian carrier in order to peddle these devices in response to Android (I mean, WTF? Netbooks against Android phones?).
20 minutes worth of usage time outside of a lab setting is not nearly enough for creating a serious review of a mobile phone – analysts claiming to be able to do this IMHO are deceiving their customers. Thus, our coverage shouldn’t be considered the last word…should Nokia feel like providing us with a sample, a full review will be added to the parts below:
Nokia N96 – size
Nokia N96 – physical
Nokia N96 – camera shoot-out
In the meantime, however, I have to state that the N96 I handled left me extremely dissatisfied. The build quality is abysmal, and so is the camera.
People currently owning a Nokia N95 8GB should NOT upgrade: their current device is significantly better from a build quality perspective, and also makes better images.
The downward trend started by the N78 continues with the N96: if Nokia continues to peddle crappily built devices for insane prices (sorry, but this is how it is): the market-leading position will fall very soon (deservedly). Palm did something similar a few years ago and failed badly – Nokia now seems to head into the same direction (obsolete OS owned by manufacturer, drooping build quality)…
What do you think?
The TamsS60 team now owes the Austrian Samsung press team an apology: the INNOV8 has actually begun to ship. Please consider this an apology – even though the folks probably won’t care, as they never heard of S60 before…
Expansys has now begun to ship 8GB versions in the United Kingdom – as of now, the retailer has 27 units in store and is willing to ship them ASAP:
The price of 535 GBP corresponds to either 673 Euros or about 1000 US Dollars – a price similar to what other high-end N-Series devices have cost as they hit the road. A bundle with a T-Mobile UK contract costs about 230 Euros (a very humane rate) – it looks like Samsung seems to have hit the price points well.
The Austrian branch of Expansys charges 714 euros, and plans to ship the device in 5 days. The American branch still hasn’t quoted a price…
Further information can be found here:
http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=171578
I have recently had to travel by train a lot due to personal issues: regaining the time lost traveling by working on new content for my dear readers is a way to better cope with the hardship. Unfortunately, my trusty old Nokia N71 (powered by Hutchison/three) has issues keeping a connection stable while the train is moving fast.
However, this wouldn’t be Tamss60 if we wouldn’t have a solution: I observed that my EDGE-only Treo 680 had no such issues. It thus looks like UMTS signals are more sensitive to movement and unsuitable terrain – forcing the phone into a GSM/GPRS-only mode could theoretically help.
Easily said, quickly done – follow the steps below:
Open Settings
The first step involves opening the phones Settings application, and navigating to the network tab:
Disable UMTS
Adjust the settings so that they look like in the screenshot below – but be prepared that the phone will reboot once to reset itself:
Once the reboot is done, your phone is restricted to non-3G networks. It will log into the Hutchison network without issues, but will work at slower and more stable 2G/2.5G frequencies.
Now that my N71 is restricted to GPRS, it works a little more slowly – but I have yet to see a connection breakdown. The train already drove through a few tunnels, and the network stayed up…if that isn’t a good tradeoff, what is?
Traditionally, the boys at AllAboutSymbian’s performed a pub meet the day before the big smartphone show starts. This event was pretty enjoyable last year, but is now replaced by an official Nokia event:
An evening with S60 is a touring event that is held all over the world: it brings together power users, the (specialized) press and the S60 development team:
The Evening with S60 will be held on Monday October 20th from 7:30 PM to 10 PM at the Nokia Flagship Store », 240 Regent Street. Come join us for an evening fun with good food, drinks, people and of course cool technology! This is a night you don’t want to miss!
It’s a casual night where you can experience the following:
* Network with other S60 mobile enthusiasts from the area
* Share your S60 experiences with our engineers, architects ad marketers
* One-on-one demonstrations
* Food and drinks
* Cool giveaways
* And much, much more!
Further information can be found here:
https://www.s60.com/events/eventPage.do?eventId=51&catId=237
P.S. I will not attend this event due to flight schedule issues – I arrive the day the conference starts…
Nokia’s N95 once was the best camera phone on the market: its 5MP sensor (ganged up with a Carl Zeiss lens) delivered images unseen before on a mobile phone. Since then, Nokia didn’t increase the sensor resolution (probably for noise reasons) – does the N96 improve over its predecessor?
Specs-wise, the camera is unexciting. The lens delivers a decent basic aperture of f2.8; the flash is handled by a rather unimpressive set of flash LED’s. By the way: don’t bother to try and use the stand for macro photography…the phone can’t focus on objects that close…
Our first real-world test involved an out-door landscape (click images for bigger versions, N96 always on the left). One can immediately see that the current firmware of the N96 has huge issues with bright images – the flooding in the image is simply insane:
The N95 8GB manages to preserve a lot more detail:
Next up: architecture. The N96 once again tends to overexpose images significantly (and seems to have a poor dynamic range):
As usual, details are lost on the N96:
Finally, here’s an indoor comparison between the two devices:
In general, one can say that the N96’s images are more aggressively post-processed than the ones created by its predecessor. The N95 8GB delivers sharper images with more detail, but has more noise – images from the N96 are much softer, but noise-free. This accurately reflects the N96’s targeting – it is intended to be used by “unexperienced” users who aren’t interested in getting out the last nit of detail…
P.S. Here are the four images as produced by a Nokia N71 with a 2MP fix-focus camera:
Keeping your sources safe should be a #1 priority for an analyst – unfortunately, some agencies have not yet grasped this concept and instead protect themselves by running to the cover of press freedom laws.
The results of a terrible glitch at symbian-freak’s has leaked out the IMEI of the device of an informant – but have produced images of Nokia’s upcoming E75 in the process.
Even though the images show nothing we didn’t know before, they can be considered the definite proof of authenticity of the boxen.
Further information can be found here:
http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/008/09/e75_real_photos.htm
Two new E-series devices have been disclosed to the world via a Nokia promo video leaked to YouTube. The video has since been removed from YouTube (and is now hosted at DailyMotion.com) – if this isn’t a sure-fire way to prove that it’s authentic, what is?
Nokia E72
The first of the two boxen is called Nokia E72, and looks very similar to the immensely successful E71. symbian-freak’s christexaport speculates that it will be a CDMA version of the aforementioned box – which i personally consider highly likely.
Nokia E75
AT&T’s Tilt probably was the box that inspired the Nokia N75 – it is a slider with a QWERTY keyboard that slides out below the phone in a fashion similar to the HTC S740.
As of now, nothing more is known – stay tuned for further info as we get it!
Being based in Austria has some unfortunate side effects: I am talking about things like press departments not knowing about S60. Apparently, the press departments on other countries are far more advanced – symbian-freak just posted a nice camera comparison between the Samsung INNOV8 and Nokia’s now-classic N93.
Nokia’s image processing algorithms have never been too good: apparently, the company believes in creating images that “look good” rather than images that are very rich of detail (similar, to some extent, to my Olympus E520).
According to symbian-freak’s, this manifests itself in sharpening halos and excessive noise/moire reduction (leading to washed-out images). Samsung’s INNOV8 can’t hide its Samsung heritage (the company has a long history of producing decent digital cameras) and performs significantly better…
Get the full scoop here:
http://www.symbian-freak.com/reviews/photography/n93_vs_innov8/giants_battle__nokia_93_vs_samsung_i8510.htm
As cameras developed, the filming capabilities of mobile phones evolved much faster than their still image capabilities. VGA-capable phones debuted 2 years ago, subsequent releases quickly put them on par with consumer digital camera movies.
Thus, Nokia’s announcement of a music video shot only with N-Series devices shouldn’t surprise anyone:
…/
“Each of the Nokia Nseries devices I used was perfectly suited to the kind of experimental, ‘out-there’ shots I wanted to capture for ‘Surfing at 32ºF’. For example, as a highly compact slider, the Nokia N95 slotted neatly into the customized pouch I attached to my fishing-line monorail, while the flip-out screens on the Nokia N93 and N93i allowed me to cover the lens with DIY color filters quickly and easily,” said Hodgkinson. “Everything I imagined, the Nokia Nseries devices let me create. I really wanted to push the Nokia equipment to its limits, and each responded brilliantly. I’ve taken Nseries devices underwater, attached them to helium balloons and dangled them 100 feet above the Los Angeles River . . . and I’ve never lost a shot.”“Surfing at 32ºF,” the second video directed and shot by Hodgkinson using Nokia Nseries devices, continues to stretch the capabilities of Nokia’s high-end mobile devices. Hodgkinson chose to use only the Nokia N93, Nokia N93i and Nokia N95 as his arsenal to shoot the music video, as well as a “behind the scenes” video – all three of which feature top of class Carl Zeiss optics and a variety of on-device editing capabilities. …
Eskimohunter is a band based in Los Angeles. They produce music they describe as shoegaze – I would describe it as a mixture of rock, ambient and pop which I personally find pretty cool (as much as I can hear of it on the MSI Wind).
Both videos(the video itself and a making-of) can be viewed at YouTube’s:
The Video
Making-of
According to The Boy Genius Report (an usually well-informed Engadget spin-off), AT&T’s Nokia N75 is finally on its way out and will be declared EOL shortly. The device will be replaced by the 6650:
When looking at the document in further detail, one can see red and silver versions of the phone. Thus, it is very likely that the device will drop in two color versions (T-Mobile had just one).
Further information on the box can be found in our hands-on “review” of the Nokia 6650 – the device isn’t too bad, but can’t verse the built quality of the now-legendary N71…
