The Nokia E72 is the first Eseries with a 5 Megapixel camera. It has a really interesting optical trackpad that will allow faster navigation through the menus. Here is the link to the official page: NokiaUSA

The Nokia N97 Mini is the first 3G Quad-Band from Nokia, meaning that there is no NAM and Euro/Asia model but just  one that covers the whole world: brilliant! Nokia should release more phones with this configuration. The N97 has an internal 8GB memory with MicroSD slot, 5MP, 3.2” touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, FM transmitter and all the typical Nseries features like Bluetooth, WI-FI, 3.5G and 30fps video recording.

If you don’t know what Vlingo is, you are missing a  lot! Vlingo is the coolest app for Nokia devices. It lets you talk to your device and complete several tasks with just talking to it. Lets say you want to search Google, you just say ”Search: nokia n97” and Vlingo will open up a Google search for the term. Vlingo also lets you send an SMS, Update Your Facebook Status, call someone, open an app and even send e-mails. If you don’t have Vlingo, check it here: Get. There is a free version with plenty of functionality, but there is also a premium version. I use the free version and is far more of what I need.

Compatible with: Nokia N97, N96, N95, N86, N85, N82, N79, N73, E75, E55, E71, E72, Nokia 5530, 5800, X6 etc..

10. Handwriting Calculator:

The Nokia 5530 has the standard calculator, it is pretty much useless if you want to do serious math. As this phone is generally aimed at young people; young people usually are taking some kind of math. Handwriting calculator is that free calculator that will help with some complex problems. The comfortable stylus that comes with the 5530, the very responsive screen and this app, make one of the coolest calculators ever. Get

9. Shazam

Shazam is one of the coolest applications ever for any mobile device. The Nokia 5530 is basically a music device, and Shazam just makes it better. Just point the mic of the 5530 to the speakers playing that song you would like to know the name from, and Shazam will give you all the info. It really works like magic, is not one of those apps that work halfway. Get Shazam here: Get

8.  Ap News App

News are really interesting, and the best way to get them on the Nokia 5530 is with the AP News Application. This App is completely free and works really well. The AP App has almost any category you could imagine, plus amazing Photo and Video reportages. This app is that app you open when you are sitting and have nothing to do, is just entertained to browse through its content. To get this app for free head here: Get

7. Facebook

Amazingly, my Nokia 5530 did not come with a Facebook client pre-installed. I had to search for one. The Facebook client for Nokia touchscreen devices is pretty complete. It does lack some functions but is very usable. Looks amazingly well on the Nokia 5530, very responsive and fast. To get free Facebook for the Nokia 5530 just head here: Get

6. Google Maps

Unfortunately, the Nokia 5530 does not pack a GPS unit. That means that Nokia Maps is really unusable, plus, the if you install Nokia Maps, the memory card would be filled with maps instead of music. The Nokia 5530 still can be a powerful location device with Google Maps. With My Location, you will now more or less where you are and how to get to that point. To get Google Maps just head to Google mobile on your 5530 and then select ”more”  finally select Maps and download.

5. Photo Browser

The native photo gallery of the Nokia 5530 is a bit boring, with Nokia Photo Browser you can get a really cool experience browsing pics. The stunning 3D effects are just amazing while showing pictures to Friends. Generally, Photo Browser is one of the first apps I install on touchscreen devices. Get it here: Get

4. Playlist DJ

Another music app for a stunning music device. Playlist DJ is one of the smartest applications for Nokia devices,  it categorizes all your music and then allows you to listen to ”moods” of music depending on your mood. You can select between: passion, anger, tempo and happiness. You can move each of the four levels differently and accuarate different results will show. Also makes automatic playlists, lets say you want only classic music, Playlist DJ will automatically select all your classical music and create a playlist: Get

3. Tic Tac Toe and Reaction Challenge

Two games to play with friends. One of the coolest things touchscreen phones can do is allow you to play with someone at the same time. Here are two games that let you play with a friend. Tic Tac Toe and Reaction Challenge. TicTacToe for the 5530 is just the classic game, only you can play with your friend. And reaction challenge lets you play together with a friend to see who has better reaction: Get and Get

2. AccuWeather

The Nokia 5530 did not come with a Weather app pre-installed, although this should come by default, it can be easily downloaded from the Ovi Store. AccuWeather is the best free weather app for Nokia phones. Ir provides the full weather forecast in any country. Get it here: Get

1. Vlingo

Vlingo is the most amazing application for Nokia touchscreen devices. It allows you to search the internet, update Facebook, send emails, send SMS, launch an app or call someone by just talking to the phone. It does work, I thought that this app would just barely recognize my voice. Amazingly, it does an excellent job deciphering everything I say. I have this app first row in my homescreen to search anything quick, at first I thought it was just cool. Then I realized the convenience of searching google by just talking. Get here: Get

This is official information, the Nokia Booklet 3G will arrive the 15th of November on Best Buy. Reward Zone members can reserve theirs right now. The Booklet 3G official price is $299.99 with AT&T Contract and $599.99 without contract, a great price for this gadget. The  Booklet 3G strong points are: 12 hour battery, Windows 7, Aluminium Body, HD screen with HDMI output and a SIM card slot for immediate internet access.

Symbian Foundations official first release is Symbian^1, previously called S60 5th Ed which is the platform that runs on the N97 (Mini), 5530, 5800 etc. But, Symbian^1 is lagging behind. Newer OSs like Android and the beautiful variations  of it, iPhone OS of course, and lately Blackberry OS make Symbian look a little too rudimentary. ”Rudimentary” is really the best word to describe the latest release of Symbian, an OS that doesn’t have anything innovative, ”cool,” modern and so on. So what is the future of Symbian? Well, Symbian Foundation of course. But, will Symbian Foundation be able to step up and release a complete, great, intuitive UI in the near future? I wish they are able to release the definite Smartphone platform really soon. It is known that Symbian^2, Symbian^3 and Symbian^4 are not that far away, in fact, Symbian^4 is supposed to be ready by early 2011, Symbian^2 is supposed to be ready for later this year and Symbian^3 for mid-2010.

Here is a concept of what Symbian might look like, the video is just a concept, but of course tells a lot of how the future Symbian platform might look like. The only thing we are doubtful about is that whole Symbian Foundation silly looking graphics. If you are  like us, you can try the new Symbian Foundation theme for Nokia touchscreen phone here: Symbian Foundation Theme via: SymbianFrance

Lately, the iPhone has gotten a lot of attention because of all the impressive apps that are available for this device. And although I still think that so many apps are really useless, I do think that Nokia needs a solid base of free applications for Maemo, the N900, and upcoming Maemo devices. Afterall, apps are lots of fun. Luckily for us Nokia fans, Maemo is an open source OS, and the software developing possibilities are endless.

Currently there are 25 free apps for the Nokia N900, but when Maemo releases, there will be a lot more. Also, Ovi Store is coming to the N900, hopefully with more functionality and apps. In the meanwhile, here are some cool free apps for the N900:

5. Skype is really useful on a mobile device, for years now, Nokia users had to use different apps to get Skype on their devices. Now, Skype is native for the N900. Here is the link: Skype (coming soon)

4. Facebook for Nokia N900. With the new touchscreen phones from Nokia, Facebook was finally introduced to Nokia devices. It is a nice app on the N97, but again, the other app in you know what phone is better. With the N900 everything changes, the N900 is far more capable than the any other phone. Here is Facebook for the Nokia N900: Facebook

3. OMweather: A complete, free, cool weather app for the Nokia N900. OMWeather is a really cool widget for the N900, is shows 10-day forecast right on the homescreen of the Nokia N900. Pretty impressive: Omweather

2. Games for Nokia N900: Bounce Evolution. If you didn’t know, N-Gage is closing definitively September next year. I have to say that I actually like the fact it will be closing, the N-Gage games on my N97 are absolutely unplayable. Horrible graphics, not to mention that a 10us game is way too expensive.

Is much better if Nokia distributes their games through the Ovi Store. Hopefully, nice graphics and maximum price of 5us. Here is a game that looks really nice, it is for the N900. It has really amazing graphs, hope more games like this come: Bounce Evolution

1. Fring. One of my favorite apps, you open Fring and you are suddenly connected with the whole world. Twitter, Facebook, Skype (and almost any other VOIP), and multiple chat systems like MSN, GTalk, AIM and more. Fring is really impressive, here is the link: Fring

]]> http://nokiamobileblog.com/nokia-n900-free-apps-top-free-software-for-n900/feed/ 5 http://nokiamobileblog.com/nokia-n97-2-0-software-update-review-n97-v2-0-review/ http://nokiamobileblog.com/nokia-n97-2-0-software-update-review-n97-v2-0-review/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:38:22 +0000 edward http://nokiamobileblog.com/?p=3139 Nokia really took a long time preparing the Nokia N97 V2.0 Software Update, although keeping its promise (promised to release by October), it was released later than everyone expected.

The V2.0 update for the N97 finally came yesterday, some users were reticent to update their devices, but as always (and you know I am reckless;) I just plugged my N97 without thinking twice and updated my device.

Everything went perfect, absolutely no problems during the update. Nokia has really succeed at making the updating process a safe and reliable operation.

So? What happened after I updated my N97 to the V2.0? I knew more or less what this super-software update would bring to my N97, but always, the possible thought of Nokia doing something wrong was on my mind. Here is how the V2.0 behaves in the N97:

First, kinetic scrolling, the biggest improvement: It was known that Nokia would add kinetic scrolling to the N97, I thought it would be basically in the menus, but no further than that. Amazingly, the kinetic scrolling is so embedded into the N97, that is present in places where you will never ever need it. For example, on the original task manager as shown below, you can actually scroll the ”Exit” and ”Open”. This is just an example of the many other places were kinetic scrolling is added, but you don’t really need it. It is a good thing, finally real kinetic scrolling all over the interface. Looking back, is funny to see how we had to aim for the tiny scrolling bar to scroll, so…tedious!

Another improvement is the ability to move the clock widget around, for some reason, the first versions did not allow to configure this.

A lot of improvements were made all over the device. For example, many apps were subtly redesigned. Take the drawing app as an example, the music player too was redesigned. Also, some shortcuts were added. For example, taping on the AlbumArt now brings the volume control. A long press of any blue second function key brings the symbol rather than repeated characters. And, now copying/pasting is more even throughout the device, assisted by the ”Shift” key.

To make the N97 more ”iPhone” like, Nokia added in the V2.0 a really interesting application called Vlingo. Vlingo is a really cool and free application that  enables you to use your N97 by speaking to it. You can search google, update facebook, send messages, call people, e-mails and more by just taping and speaking. The voice recognition is amazingly accurate, its magic.

So what about the technical part? The N97 has some problems with its memory, but Nokia did a great job fixing this problem. Although not completely solved, of course that adding memory hardware wise would have been better since the beginning, the Nokia N97 on 2.0 has plenty of free memory. I have lots of apps, contacts, SMS, emails etc… and at this moment my N97 has 44.0MB of free memory, *really* that is enough. The N97 also feels more snappy, opening menus and apps is faster. Overall, the speed improved substantially.

However, not everything is perfect. There are two main things that have been reported with the N97 v2.0. First, I have experienced personally that Gravity just doesn’t work. By some reason, it won’t open on my N97 v2.0. Another problem, ( I have not experienced) is the Photos app getting corrupted.  It was reported by some users; however, I have 800 pics on my gallery and no problems so far.

The battery life is also a mixed bag of opinions, many people reported that the v1.2 held the battery better. But, according to Nokia, and my own findings, the N97 did improve with battery life. I can tell by how my N97 has one-two more bars at the end of my day.

Did the N97 improve? Yes, substantially. The N97 has a subtle feel of being another device. However, I still think that Symbian^1 (s60 5th ed) is staying too rudimentary. For example, what is the purpose of the right/left sliding on the N97’s home screen apart from hiding the content? What if we could open an app, of course with nice transitions, by sliding the finger left/right. Or, if we could open a specific website, or just do it iPhone like and open a search screen. Also, throughout the UI, the  whole thing needs more eye-candy. Anyway, that is something that either Symbian Foundation or Maemo will fix.

But lately, I have changed my opinion about the N97 Mini. First I thought, is it an upgrade for the N97? No, is not, therefore, N97 users should not be worried, they already have the better device. Now, the N97 is an expensive and big device, the form factor and design really amaze many people that at first sight just decide it is too big and ”technologically advanced” for them. There, is where the N97 Mini takes place. The N97 Mini has a more sophisticated look, remarkably smaller, and sleeker: the N97 Mini is aimed at another market.

The N97 Mini is the perfect phone for everyone, the size is standard, as well as specifications. The N97 Mini has really caught my attention, in the following months, we will see weather or not was a good idea from Nokia to release an N97 Mini. What do you think?