Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Nokia N95 8GB mobile phone review

Nokia’s N95 8GB model is the successor to the not already 1-year-old Nokia N95 mobile phone, but did the phone really need a rehash so soon and what should we expect from the new model? We have a play and find out.
The 8GB model is the second generation of Nokia’s “multimedia computer” and, aside from the increased memory - one of the few phones on the market to match the iPhone’s 8GB capacity.
But Nokia hasn’t just added more memory, there are plenty of improvements here to make you want to come back for more.

The design has been tweaked slightly, as well as being given a black finish and the screen is now considerably larger than the first version. The N95 sports a 2.8-inch QVGA TFT, rather than a 2.6-inch one.

On the back and there have been changes with the camera as well, you still get the 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, but gone is the shutter with the slide cover that many complained opened in your pocket. Now flush with the back of the case, the camera is operated by a dedicated button and software. You still get the MPEG4 VGA video as well as a front camera for video calling.

GPS hasn’t been left out of this tweakfest and so it gets A-GPS (standing for Assisted) functionality meaning the phone element of the device can help locate you quicker while the GPS chip locks down on the satellites above. You now also get maps downloaded on-board rather than always having to rely on downloading on the go.

Finally HDPSA connectivity means fast connection to online services are faster than GSM or EDGE as found on the iPhone and BlackBerry models.

On the music and games front, the new look N95 8GB version also works with Nokia’s Ovi offering giving you access to Nokia’s movie store, and its N-Gage gaming platform. European buyers will also get the rather disappointing Spider-man 3 pre-installed, although we would recommend deleting the spidey borefest and fill it with something more interesting.

Source : http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk

Posted by martin in 10:41:15 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Update: Nokia ships N95 phone with GPS

Nokia has started shipping its N95 mobile phone in Europe and Asia, the first in an expected series of devices from the Finnish company with built-in GPS (global positioning system) capabilities.


The N95 is rich in features and carries a price tag to match: At €550 ($732) before taxes and operator rebates it is one of the priciest additions to Nokia’s Nseries range. Nokia calls it a “multimedia computer.” No plans were announced to sell it in the Americas.

The mobile phone is a slider-type device with a 5-megapixel camera for shooting photos and 30-frames-per-second video. It has a 2.6-inch TFT display with 240 x 320 pixel screen resolution, and comes with an MP3 music player and a MicroSD memory card slot.The phon works on HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) networks, as well as wireless LANs, EDGE and WCDMA networks, and it’s based on Nokia’s S60 software and the Symbian OS.One of the main selling points is its built-in GPS, which allows users to find out where they are, get directions, and search for nearby hotels and other services. It comes with about 150 maps for cities worldwide, and city guides and audio tours are sold separately.


Nokia becomes one of the first major handset makers to include GPS, but it’s unclear how well it will perform, at least in this first iteration, said Chris Jones, a principal analyst with Canalys.com in Reading, England.Looking at the phone’s design, the GPS components appear to be buried deep in the device, according to Jones, which means the N95 may take longer than ideal to pinpoint a user’s location.

“When you walk out of a tube station you want to have a [location] fix in a few seconds rather than minutes,” he said. “From what we understand it won’t be in the seconds because the GPS is inside the handset.”

The route-finding function won’t be of the “turn left, turn right” variety found in car navigation systems, either, Jones said. Rather, the directions will be in text format or a line drawn onto a map.Users will be able to buy more sophisticated directional software separately from Nokia, he said. Nokia acquired the technology when it bought Gate5 AG last year.

Source : http://www.infoworld.com/

Posted by martin in 06:56:48 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Nokia N95 update speeds apps with virtual memory

Nokia has posted a software update for its N95 handset which, it claimed, makes the “multimedia computer” load applications more quickly and play music for three more hours on a single battery charge.

The update, version 20.0.015, focuses on “battery, stability and performance improvements”. Among them is the addition of “on-demand paging”, essentially a way of parking blocks of memory to the handset’s solid-state storage to make room for others - virtual memory, in other words.

The upshot, Nokia said, is that users can load more applications and switch between them more quickly than they could before.nokia n95 hsdpa handset Nokia’s N95: play with it for longer Users will also be able to re-arrange the S60’s menu layouts courtesy of the New Menu Structure app that comes with the update.

The update’s battery tweaks make for longer gaps between re-charges, with the Finnish phone giant quoting an extra 30 per cent music playback duration post-update. That takes the N95′s continuous music play time from nine hours to 12.The software also includes a new version of Nokia Maps, which builds on the previous update that added Assisted GPS - helping out the handset’s GPS receiver using triangulation sent across the network - with even faster positioning.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/

Posted by martin in 06:44:14 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Monday, January 7, 2008

Nokia Provides New Optmised Menu Layout for N95

It would seem that there is another addition to the v20.0.015 firmware update for the N95 released today:After updating your device software to 20.0.015, and restoring your personal data, you can optimise the menu layout by installing the New_Menu_Structure.SIS file . This file will rearrange your menu layout specifically for SW 20.0.015. Reboot your device to see the menu changes.

Interesting, I wonder what this change brings, and why it wasnt included in the firmware? Unfortunately the firmware update isn’t yet available for my Carphone Warehouse N95 - so I cant see what the new firmware brings or what happens with the new Menu Structure. If somebody would like to try it and let me know..

Here are more details on the N95 Firmware Update:This software version includes battery, stability & performance improvements enabling you to run faster and longer - giving you up to three more hours of music (up to 30% increase, from 9h to 12h of music playback). This release also includes a new version of Nokia Maps which provides faster positioning, faster Map Loader, and free 3-day navigation. Free N- Gage demo games are included and other games are available via Download! With the Nokia Music Store now live in the United Kingdom, users can enjoy the convenience of instant over-the-air downloads, regardless of where they are.

Source : http://igadgetlife.com/

Posted by martin in 09:43:13 | Permalink | No Comments »