Location based information service WHERE has launched a client for Nokia smartphones.
WHERE uses the inbuilt GPS receiver to pinpoint your location and offers over 60 widgets that identify local services and ’stuff’ like restaurants, petrol stations, landmarks and even local weather and earthquakes.
WHERE also includes the mobile friend finding widget BuddyBeacon. BuddyBeacon shows the location of any friends nearby and lets you share your location via social networking sites like Facebook.
The app is a free download for Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N95 and Nokia N82 phones.
For any of you lucky enough to be N95 8GB owners (as opposed to us mugs who foolishly bought the regular N95 just a week before the 8GB version was announced) you might be interested to know that a new firmware update has just been released.
Changes in v20.0.016 include Automatic Screen Rotation, meaning your phone will be able to pull that crowd pleasing trick the iPhone is famed for (and which the N82 has been doing for a while) and support for more Bluetooth headsets.
There have also apparently some browser and WiFi bug fixes too, though sadly, according to all about symbian, Maps 2.0 and the N-Gage client are still notably absent. A shame, especially seeing as Nokia has the N95 8GB listed as one of the compatible phones but at least you can still download the software separately. If any of you notice any other notable changes once you have updated your handsets then do let us know in the comments.
Selling fake Rolex watches is SO dated. It’s all about flogging knock-off Nokias nowadays. At least, that’s what appears to be happening on eBay, where fake Nokia N95 8GB phones are increasingly popular.
Check the YouTube video above, where someone’s helpfully outlined the difference between the real thing, and one of the fakes – which apparently are often claimed to be the Asian model of the handset. Buy one, and you’ll soon be swearing about the weedy camera and lack of GPS, Wi-Fi, Symbian or, er, 8GB of memory.
And in any case, we bet you can get five for a pound on Deptford Market, rather than shelling out on eBay…
Sony Ericsson’s spanking new Cybershot phone – the Kxxx – emerges. No, we don’t mean it’s a particularly saucy handset, it’s just that no-one’s quite sure what it’s called.
Anyway, the new handset, which is apparently for real, was unveiled on Chinese website pconline.cn (so maybe it’s a leak from a Sony Ericsson factory?).
What is apparently true is that it looks like a K800-range Cybershot with bright blue casing. It does carry a three-megapixel camera (not five-megapixel?!?) with a dual-LED flash.
So what? We hear you say… a Cybershot phone with no five-megapixel camera? Bear with us. This beauty features a built-in GPS receiver with Google Maps, Favourite Places and more – just like a Nokia N95 8GB.
Imagine – a Cybershot phone which lets you automatically update your location when uploading pictures to your blog!
It might be lacking a top-notch camera, but the GPS certainly is an intriguing addition to Sony Ericsson’s line-up-.
You can see more pictures here.
This year it seems like the Nokia NSeries devices have been breeding like rabbits. We have the N81, N82, N95, N95 8GB and N73, and now the daddy of them all has emerged – the N96.
Pics have appeared on Flickr, originating from a Chinese source of a real-life, actual N96 handset – apparently not a mock-up or render, but actual pictures.
Jusding by the pictures, the N95 is a dual-slider with a button-less top screen (presumably for touch-screen controls?). It also has a navigation wheel like the N81’s with media controls. The OS is apparently the S60 3rd edition FP2 (i.e. Symbian OS 9.5).
Camera-wise it has a five-megapixel camera with the now ubiquitous (on NSeries at least) Carl Zeiss optics. Interestingly, there’s a stand on the back of the N96 for easier media viewing
There’s no official news on this device yet, but judging by the success of the N95 (and its 8GB incarnation), this could be the big handset of next year.
[Via Intomobile]
Vodafone has started letting its customers upload content to Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and YouTube – direct from their handset.
The operator, finally facing up to what its customers want to be able to do on their handsets, has opened up its service so that users can upload pictures and videos to their online networking site.
To do this, users must click on My Communities on Vodafone Live! and download the app, choosing which of the four services they want to upload content for.
At the moment, only Nokia N95 8GB and Sony Ericsson W910i users can do so, but expect this list of handsets to get bigger.
It’s the first time Vodafone customers (Or indeed almost any mobile users) can do this, so expect a rash of rival operators all announcing similar services in the coming months.
[Via Pocket Lint]
The official N-Gage blog has announced that the new N-Gage service launches next week (Yay!) Unfortunately it’s only on the N81 for the time being (Boo!).
While Nokia’s keeping to its promise of a pre-Christmas launch, the restriction to N81 and N81 8GB will surely disappoint N82 and N95 8GB owners hoping for some gaming action this Crimbo.
There’ll only be a few games available at launch and won’t be the full version of the service, but it’s a start. Those who want to leave feedback (i.e. complain) about the lack of support can do so on the First Access forums, which will also be opened for business.
Looks like we’ll all have to wait until 2008 for a full service on the rest of Nokia’s Nseries handsets.
IntoMobile’s reviewed the SE W960i and it’s verdict? Well it’s both good and bad apparently.
Sony Ericsson’s ‘iPhone killer’ sounds like it almost lives up to the billing but doesn’t quite surpass Nokia’s latest NSeries handsets like the N95 8GB, according to Intomobile.
This follows Mobile Review’s recent report on their experience with it, concluding that ‘it doesn’t have much going for it’.
Intomobile says the 3.2-megapixel camera does the job and the phone has a whole wealth of pre-installed applications as well as 3G/Wi-Fi but unfortunately no HSDPA, and the Media Manager software is nice and quick when transferring files.
But despite being ‘the most beautiful UIQ 3 smartphone ever made’ and offering the ‘best out-of-the-box music experience on any UIQ 3 smartphone’ it still has some flaws.
There’s no 3.5mm jack despite being a high-end music handset and only a single speaker built in (although it does have stereo Bluetooth).
However the biggest problem seemed to be the UIQ 3 OS. Like Marmite, UIQ seems to split people in a way Symbian never does - you either love UIQ or hate it. Intomobile were of the opinion that UIQ 3 still isn’t perfect and while current UIQ users will love the device, those coming from a Windows Mobile or Symbian device might struggle to get to grips with the W960i’s menu system.
So that settles it then. The W960i is a great handset… and yet not a great handset. You can read the review for yourself here.
Nokia have released updates the firmware (the built-in software that runs the phone) to both the N81 and N95 8GB devices.
The N81 update provides improvements to Wi-Fi performance and management, memory handling and camera stability, while the N95 8GB receives bug fixes to Nokia Maps and the integrated web browser.
The updates can be downloaded using the Nokia Software Updater - or at least it can if you have access to a PC running either Windows 2000, XP or Vista. Mac and Linux users are out of luck, as are people who just don’t own a computer.
Aren’t Nokia always telling us that our phones are computers nowadays, anyway? As both phones have wireless internet access and 8 GB of storage, surely it should be possible to download this kind of update straight to the phone without a PC acting as middle-man?
If you have been on Apple’s official website over the last year or so, then chances are you have already seen the ‘I’m a Mac, I’m a PC’ ads. Well BBC News Online’s Darren Waters and Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones have just featured in a cheeky parody of the ads based around the fight for smartphone supremacy between the iPhone and the N95 8GB.
It is a little drier than the slapstick of the Mac ads, but still relatively amusing and does a decent job of highlighting the differences between the two. We are still in the middle of dissecting our iPhone feature by feature but as soon as it’s done, we will deliver you the verdict that counts the most (hint, our one).
(Via textually)
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