Nokia Launches New Maploader v1.2 and Maps !!

Yesss... !! After months of delays , Nokia has finally launched the newest version of its maploader and a new maps client for the Nseries and Eseries phones.
The Good news is that the maps for countries like India are back !
Thank you Nokia !

Full downloads are now available for the Nokia E61i and E65, as well as full 1.0 upgrades for the Nokia N95 and E90..!!

Head over to nokia europe to download v1.2 of the nokia maploader and phone client.





I just installed it on my N95 ...and it doesnt seem much different from the older version ..apart from a new version number on the about screen. All in all ...I am really happy that nokia re-released the India maps again. So if any of you guys had your country maps missing ..now is a good time to check and see if nokia maps has maps for your country...and do let me know if you find any major improvements on the way !

Nokia Announces 5 New Phones !!

Well...nokia has finally officially announced the N95 8GB , N81(8gb), N81 (expandable memory) , 5610 xpress music , and the 5310 xpress music at the Nokia GO PLAY event held at London. Well...the N958gb and the N81 was no great surprise ,...but i had'nt heard of the others before today. Apart from this Nokia has Also announced the launch of "OVI" which would be the name for Nokia's internet services division. The also announced N-gage platform and nokia's new music store would come under this division too.As part of Ovi, Nokia announced the Nokia Music Store and N-Gage, two services that make it easy for people to discover, try and buy music and games from a blockbuster range of artists and publishers, including exclusive content only available through Nokia. Also under the Ovi umbrella is Nokia Maps, a navigation service that offers maps, city guides and more directly to compatible mobile devices. Nokia aims to bring more Internet based services to Ovi in the coming months.

More photo's from the event :

Nokia N95 8GB details outed by FCC

I am totally speechless !! It's beautiful !! A bigger screen , gorgeous black finish...Higher capacity battery.. 8 gigs of internal memory !! And it also comes with built in support for nokia's soon to be launched music store and n-gage platform !! This is gonna sell like hotcakes . Now if only they get the pricing right.. :)

Head over to Allaboutsymbian to read more.

Nokia N95 APAC Firmware V12.0.014 out !!

Nokia has released a firmware update for all the APAC users of the N95. The change log isn't out yet ..so no Idea of what has changed...but considering the .014 version ...i'm sure they must have fixed the keypress bug and other minor bugs. In case you want to update your N95 ..download the nokia software updater from HERE


And do let me know about what has changed !! :)

Updated Link

Happy Independence Day !!

Celebrating India's 60th Independence Day !!

Nokia BL-5C battery Replacement !!

Nokia is conducting a battery recall for some of the BL-5C models . More from the site..

Dear Nokia Customer,

This is a product advisory for the Nokia-branded BL-5C battery manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006. This product advisory does not apply to any other Nokia battery.

Nokia has identified that in very rare cases the affected batteries could potentially experience over heating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge. Nokia is working closely with relevant local authorities to investigate this situation.

Nokia has several suppliers for BL-5C batteries that have collectively produced more than 300 million BL-5C batteries. This advisory applies only to the 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006. There have been approximately 100 incidents of over heating reported globally. No serious injuries or property damage have been reported.

Consumers with a BL-5C battery subject to this advisory should note that all of the approximately 100 incidents have occurred while charging the battery. According to Nokia's knowledge this issue does not affect any other use of the mobile device. Concerned consumers may want to monitor a mobile device while charging that contains a BL-5C battery subject to this product advisory.

While the occurrence in the BL-5C batteries produced by Matsushita in the time-period specified is very rare, for consumers wishing to do so, Nokia and Matsushita offer to replace any BL-5C battery subject to this product advisory.

The BL-5C batteries which are subject to the product advisory were used with the following Nokia models or separately as accessories:


Nokia 1100, Nokia 1100c, Nokia 1101, Nokia 1108, Nokia 1110, Nokia 1112, Nokia 1255, Nokia 1315, Nokia 1600, Nokia 2112, Nokia 2118, Nokia 2255, Nokia 2272, Nokia 2275, Nokia 2300, Nokia 2300c, Nokia 2310, Nokia 2355, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2610, Nokia 2610b, Nokia 2626, Nokia 3100, Nokia 3105, Nokia 3120, Nokia 3125, Nokia 6030, Nokia 6085, Nokia 6086, Nokia 6108, Nokia 6175i, Nokia 6178i, Nokia 6230, Nokia 6230i, Nokia 6270, Nokia 6600, Nokia 6620, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6631, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6682, Nokia 6820, Nokia 6822, Nokia 7610, Nokia N70, Nokia N71, Nokia N72, Nokia N91, Nokia E50, Nokia E60

To check if you are one of the unlucky ones who are affected by this ..head over to :

http://www.nokia.com/batteryreplacement/en/

iPoor.... The Real iPhone Killer !!

With features like...

Multi-Touch Technology, a stellar battery life ,Mind Blowing Phonebook Simplicity and amazing widgets..!!
It even claims to improve your iQ by 17% , and help you get lucky with the opposite sex.

And the best part is ...it has a measly $9 price tag !!



So..what are you waiting for ...?? Do head down to www.ipoor.org and help them with their mission to eradicate poverty !!

These guys sure have a great sense of humor...

US 3G Nokia N95 to get More Ram and More juice !!

Ricky the Symbian Guru has just got the latest scoop on the tech specs of the Yet to be launched US 3G version of the Nokia N95.



Apparently the Battery capacity has been upped to 1200 mAH (BL-6F) ...and the RAM has been increased to a whopping 128 MB. WOW !!

This is the Update we've all been waiting for . Although existing N95 users wont be able to upgrade the ram on their phones... We can at least go in for the new higher capacity battery (If it is of the same form factor ...that is! ) . Cant wait for those battery packs to get to India. :)

Head over to Ricky's Blog top read more...

http://symbianguru.typepad.com/welcome/2007/08/us-3g-nokia-n-1.html

Hands on with Zonetag v3.0 for Symbian

Yahoo Research Berkeley has finally released the S60 v3 version of Zonetag. Zonetag was one of those apps which worked beautifully on s60 v2 phones ,letting you upload your photos to flickr or your blog , at the same time allowing you to tag them with location specific tags. The new version for s60v3 devices does all this and more .. !!!

To download the app for your symbian phone you will first need a yahoo ID . The next step would be to go to http://zonetag.research.yahoo.com/managezt.php and login using your yahoo account. After logging in you should be greeted with a screen like this.



Just click on the install button on the top of the screen and you can choose between having the link sent to your mobile (cingular and t-mobile only ) , download via web browser ..or download the app to your p.c. After choosing the correct s60 edition.. You are all set to go.




I downloaded the App using the web link method. The installation was pretty straightforward. If the app asks you for a code while installing , you have to get it from the yahoo zonetag page you logged into on your p.c .



The best part about the new s60 v3 version is that it supports the internal GPS of the nokia N95. It can automatically get your current coordinates and embed these into the EXIF data when you click a snap. But mind you .. Zonetag has to be up and running in the background , and you should have a GPS fix on the satellites if you want the photo to be tagged.



You can tag the photos based on where you want them to be uploaded and even create custom tags through the yahoo zonetag page. For example ... I create a tag named "!blog: flickr" and all the photos tagged with this tag will automatically be uploaded to my flickr account too. Zonetag even has the ability to get RSS feeds ..although you have to set this up from the "customize my tag suggestions" on the zonetag webpage. You can change the post title , set permissions and privacy levels ( if you are uploading to flickr) , and manually enter the location (in case gps coordinates are not available).


Another improvement is the addition of SCANR to the zonetag app. Scanr is a service that lets you snap any documents / visiting cards and when you upload them , it automatically scans the photos and sends it to your email in a digital format.



To conclude ..I would say this app totally Rocks !! Uses very less memory , very stable ..and very very useful !! Other options to geo tag photos would be LocR and Shozu ..both of which i have reviewed earlier... but i can safely say that this nifty little app beats them all !! Although it might not offer as much media integration as shozu does (i.e webcasts , channels etc) ..but if you want a basic app which will allow you to geo tag your photos , and upload them on the fly ..then this is probably the best application out there. N95 owners ... this is one app you must have on your handset !!

N93i v/s N95 Comparison shots.

Some comparison shots of a N93i v/s a N95 both shot at 3 mega pixels. As you can see..the pictures from the N93i appear to be a bit washed out. I don't know if its because the N95 has a more powerful flash ..or is it just the way the image rendering algorithms on the N93i are programmed.Anyways ...I felt the shots from the N95 were very vibrant ..even in Macro mode ..as you can see in the second shot.Another thing i noticed in the N93i's menu ..was the option of "Flicker cancellation". Is this what the N93i uses for noise reduction in night mode photographs ?? But sadly enough..I found the n93i's flash wanting in snaps clicked in dark areas. Both the N93i and the N95 do equally well when the object is at say 20 cms from the lens, but when its further than that ..i found the N95's flash to be more effective and the picture quality much better. Of course the N93i will kick the N95's ass when it comes to Optical zoom...But for general use ..nothing beats the N95's camera quality...Even at 3 mega pixels. :)

I've got an N93i for two weeks !!

The wonderful people at nokia WOM world have sent me a Nokia N93i to review and use for two weeks. Since most of you folks out there already know that the N93i is a dedicated camera phone with a 3x optical zoom , I would mainly be comparing its picture quality with that of my N95 and focusing on which camera shoots better at 3.2 mpx (just to be fair to the N93i ..i will set my N95 to click at 3 mpx ) under different conditions.If you want to compare any other aspects of the N93i against the N95 ..do drop me a comment here and i'll see what i can do about it.

Here are a few pics from the unboxing.






Thank you WOM world !!