Articles tagged with: nokia

Google has released an optimised search tool for Nokia N and E-Series mobile phones. Browse to mobile.google.com on your handset and you can download a search shortcut that’ll appear on your home screen – select it and you can perform a Google search without having to open the web browser.

According to Google, the result is a 40% reduction in the time it takes to perform a search. Here’s a video to show it in action:

[Google]

The Guardian has reported that London Underground is preparing to launch a system that will allow London commuters to pay for their train journeys using a mobile phone. Transport for London, Nokia and O2 are said to be developing the specifications for a handset with a built-in Oyster card. The handset would also include wireless chip technology.

The scheme will allow tube travellers to pay for their journeys simply by swiping an Oyster-enabled mobile phone across a ticket-reading machine, and could also be used for bus journeys, trams and some overland train journeys around London.

[The Guardian]

Here's a nice little extra for Nokia N95 8GB owners - automatic screen rotation. Nokia's added the bonus feature to its latest firmware update, which has now climbed to version v20.0.016. It utilises the built-in accelerometer to rotate the screen whenever the phone is turned on its side. Previously users had to slide out the media control buttons to tell N95 to flip the display. There's also a few bug fixes in there to iron out crashes associated with the phone's browser and Wi-Fi. As ever, branded phone owners will have to wait for their network to get round to releasing a relevant version of the firmware - or get their handset debranded. Not that we told you that, mind.

[Ubergizmo]

Mobile World Congress kicks off today, so expect a rash of new smartphone announcements throughout the week. First off the blocks is Nokia with four new handsets, including an update to the N95 – the N96.

The Nokia N96 has a slick new design and now comes with 16Gb of storage and a microSDHC slot (for up to 8Gb of additional storage). The 2.8in screen can play MPEG-4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video, plus the internal DVB-H tuner lets you watch live TV, complete with a program guide. The 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens can also capture video at 30 frames-per-second. The Nokia N96 is expected to cost around €500, contract-free.

More info and images on the rest of Nokia’s new handsets after the cut.

Nokia has announced the N810 -- an upgraded version of its portable wireless internet device. The N810 Internet Tablet is intended for heavy users of web sites, such as Google, Skype, Facebook and Flickr. It connects to Wi-Fi hot spots or Bluetooth connections, but not the mobile phone network.

More info and lots of pictures after the cut... 

It doesn't look like much - it's not even a smartphone (gasp) - but Nokia's 6212 classic is the handset that's set to "change the way mobile phone users interact with... their surroundings". That's according to Nokia's Jeremy Belostock, anyway.

He's the head of Nokia's Near Field Communications (NFC) division, the technology which this phone is the first to implement. Essentially a cut down version of Bluetooth with an extremely short range, it works by simply touching devices together.

So contact details or calendar can be transferred from handset to handset just by tapping them together - provided your buddy also has a NFC enabled handset (now we know how the chap with the first telephone felt).

The E90 is Nokia’s latest Communicator phone and it follows in the footsteps of its predecessors in two ways. Firstly, it’s huge and heavy, and secondly, it looks like a normal phone on the outside, but opens up to reveal a full keyboard and large screen.

The Nokia N-Gage may be a dead duck, but that mediocre phone and lacklustre handheld console did help bring mobile gaming into the mainstream. The N-Gage does live on as a gaming platform along the lines of Xbox Live though, and is integrated seamlessly into Nokia’s latest N81 handset, along with 8Gb of memory and a powerful music player.

Proper access to the internet from a pocket-sized device – that’s what the tech world craves. And last year, when Apple launched the iPhone, we almost got it. Okay, so Apple’s handset costs a pretty penny to buy (and fair few more to run) but the beautiful design and everything-just-works operation has won plenty of fans – including us.

Which brings us on to the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. A year or two ago, a gadget like this would’ve got us pretty excited. Today, we feel charitable even describing it as a less-good iPhone without the phone facilities. So what’s the problem? Well, actually there are a few of them, but let’s be nice and look at the good stuff first. There is some, right?

Nokia released the OS2008 operating system upgrade for its N800 Internet Tablet on Tuesday, which brings the device in line with the new keyboard-equipped N810. The download takes OS2008 for both the N800 and N810 out of beta and into the final production version, but the Nokia servers appear to be getting hammered at the moment though, and downloading the 135Mb file is still proving somewhat of a challenge for many owners (though mirror sites are starting to spring up).