Nokia Chat Released

Nokia Beta Labs have just released their own version of Instant Messaging software for some of their Nokia S60 handsets. The application let's you chat to your friends, show them where you are using Nokia Maps and arrange to meet them.

Initial impressions are it is very much beta, slightly buggy, but the potential is there to finally integrate many aspects of socialising into one converged application, IF Nokia can pull it off.

Go over to the Nokia Chat website to download and try on the application yourself. The compatible list of handsets are:

Tested with:
Nokia N95 8GB, N95, N82, N81 8GB, N81, N76, E71, E66, E51, 6290, 6120 Classic, 6110 Navigator

Should work with:
Nokia E90 Communicator, 6124 classic, 6121 Classic, 5700 XpressMusic

N95 V21.0.016 Firmware Available via NUS

The latest version of firmware for the original Nokia N95 is now available via Nokia Update Service. It took a while and now it has arrived, coincidently along with a beta version of PC Suite too (early reports say this is buggy).

Unfortunately my net connection at home is down so I can't get it yet. My ISP has sulphur in their servers, how that got there I don't know. The sheer incompetence, really! Also as I'll be busy for the next few days (social commitments) I doubt I'll be able to get it until the weekend! Frustrating indeed!
For now keep your eyes on some of the blogs on my blogroll for more info and feedback regarding this update.

Nokia N82 Camera Comparison

The second part of my Nokia N82 review is finished and can be found on Symbian In Motion. In this part I compare the differences in the picture quality of the Nokia N82 and the N95, there is also my Casio Exilim on hand to give some sort of 3rd party alternative.
Interesting to note, it shows the difference and lack of the N95's capture capabilities even though it is a 5MP camera just like the N82.

N95-1 v21.0.016 Available Now...

Recently there have been debating on the issue of the V21 firmware for the original N95 on our favourite micro blogging social website Jaiku. Although there has been some misinformation due to some regurgitating news (see my post on the V21 firmware here), something personally I hate doing myself. But now there is some light and truth in those regurgitations it seems.

Yes the V21 firmware is available according to PseudoFinn at Nokia Users the only catch being currently only at Nokia Service Centre. This means it is still not available via the NSU (Nokia Software Updater) yet. But surely it will be available very soon.
The update is available to all generic Euro and Middle Eastern product codes, if you have any of the following product codes, it should be ready for you:
0561829
0536065
0561270
0555020
0561019
0555012
0557077
0545831
0557061
0536074
0555029

The change log for this firmware update is already available and it includes some very interesting features, including Flashlite 3 support and Widget (web runtime) as well as general stability improvements. The full list compiled by N95 Users forum can be found below:

New features

• Flash Lite 3 support added
• Widget (Web runtime) support added
• Default year changed to 2008

Improvements

• General stability improvements.
• Pre-defined access point kept after switching to different type SIM card.
• Localization improvements.
• Standby time improvements.
• Improvements to BT headset interoperability.
• Improvement to Calendar data restoring.
• Switch from landscape to portrait mode & screen rotations improvements.

Browser

• Improvement to long text writing to web page text boxes.
• Browsing from WLAN wizard improvement.

Media Player

• Localizations improvements in Music player.
• Windows Media Player recognizes device as Nokia N95.

Gallery

• Image rotation improvement in album view.
• Gallery & Slideshow performance improvements.

Messaging

• Improvement to SMS reception.

Java

• Midlet installation improvement.
• Improvement to Java application start.
• Java midlet certificate checking improvement.

Navigation

• General improvements to Maps application.
• Localization correction to Search in Maps application.
• Improvement to Navigate To -function when started from search application.

SIM

• Contact names with accents and more than 11 characters can be copied to SIM card.

Keep your ears and eyes peeled for news when this update becomes available via the NSU as yours truly will be updating and letting you know on the vital information concerning the matter.

N95-1 V21.0.001 Spotted

There has been recent talk about the V21.0.001 firmware for the Original Nokia N95, which is available to developers currently. This version includes the support of Flashlite 3.0 within the S60 browser, which means support for viewing video from Youtube and other similar sites within your S60 browser.
This feature is currently available for the N95 8GB running on v15.0.015 firmware.
Hopefully we will see it for public release soon.

Video below of the new firmware in action courtesy of The Nokia Blog


As soon as it is available for public release (here's hoping very soon) I'll have the details on here. So stay tuned.

N Series Picture Special

If you've been following my posts on the N81 8GB Special Edition on Symbian in Motion you'd have seen the pictures special I put up on there.
Since I've got my N800, I realise there hasn't been any feedback, review or pictures of it from myself. This needs to be remedied immediately!
For one reason or another my Casio Exilim has come back to life. As I have had a pretty lazy Saturday I decided to take some pictures of all the N Series devices I have at my disposal currently.


There are far too many to post link to, but you can visit my Flickr account for all of them, or just use the slideshow below. So I'll stop talking and just leave you with just pictures. Enjoy!

N95 + Photoshop

As we all know the Nokia N95 has an awesome camera, but how much do you use yours to actually take some decent photos? I personally snap away whenever I'm out, buildings, landscapes, wildlife & flowers (not that there is much of that in the city) and of course various social events.
So how good are the pictures and what exactly can you do with them?
I decided to take the challenge.

It was a nice sunny day, long overdue and I hadn't got much to do during the weekend. Mobile9 forum was up to date, and the members where enjoying themselves in the usual manner they tend to do.


I popped to quickly snap a few flowers I noticed that had bloomed in my garden. So I took a few pictures using the "close up" setting, tried to keep as still as I possibly could and snapped a few shots.
Then I proceeded to my PC, synced the pictures and decided to edit them in photoshop and jazz them up a bit.

Only after I finished did I realise that I had my camera on the 3 Mega Pixel setting, well it was done so I couldn't change it now, and they actually looked pretty good as you'll see if you click on the pictures below for the fullsizes.

Warning they are pretty big file sizes!





Not bad for a camera with a phone, I mean a phone with a camera!