The Nokia Phone Blog

More Leaked N9 Pictures Surface

ang — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:48:41 +0000

One of the N9's latest leaked pics.

It’s that time again: time for new spy shots of that ever-elusive N9. Nokia hasn’t officially announced the N9 yet, although considering the quality on these leaked pics, that could be soon.

And right now, the N9 looks like it’s got potential. It’s an angled slider (like the N97 of yore) with a keyboard that has four rows, generously-sized buttons, and ample space between keys. The only drawback is that tapered-edge fad that Nokia’s attempting to usher in with the N8.

Slashgear reports that the N9′s body will be “fully metallic”, and from the looks of it, will come with a large touch-screen. It will run MeeGo (Nokia and Intel’s collaborative OS effort) and could very well be one of Nokia’s better high-end devices.

Check out the rest of the pics at Slashgear.

Smoking Deal on a Nokia N900: $131.14 With Trade-In

ang — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:23:06 +0000

Buy the N900 for $131.14 after extra-large rebate.

Holy cow. NokiaUSA has a new summer promotion for the Maemo-powered (and now Android-powered) N900 – buy the phone for $479, trade-in your old phone and get a $280 rebate + trade-in credit. This might be the deal of the summer here.

Let’s look at the specifics.

The N900 costs $479, retail price. You can apply coupon code ffsummer2010 for 15% off, knocking the price down to $407 and change. Shipping is an additional $3.99, so now we’re up to $411.14.

Go to the trade-in page here. Enter your phone (if it has no trade-in value, you get a tree planted instead), your details, and finally apply coupon code summer280. Nokia will send you a $280 rebate plus the value of trade-in. My E72, for example, was worth $90 – a pittance compared to the value on eBay or Craigslist. I don’t see any limitations on the value of the phone itself, so you should be able to send just about anything.

Final calculation is $411.14 – $280 = $131.14 for a Nokia N900.

Nokia N900 Summer Promotion Page

Via SlickDeals

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Running Android on the Nokia N900: A Fun Diversion

ang — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 04:36:19 +0000

Welcome to Android!

What happens when you mix the most prevalent open-source mobile OS with one of the most “hackable” phones out there? You get Android, on the N900.

This isn’t a how-to, as there is a better guide to setting up Android 2.2 on your N900 here (note: you’ll need a microSD card and some time). Think of this as a first impression.

And first impressions are good. Thanks to the efforts of the NITDroid team, Android on the N900 has a lot of potential. For the time being, however, it’s only a nice diversion.

So how is it? Currently the user interface, keyboard, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, Live wallpapers, apps, and the media player are all working on the N900. What’s missing is the actual phone, power management, GPS, 3G, camera, and a couple of odds and ends. No phone and power management are currently deal breakers, after all – what’s the point of an alternative OS that doesn’t have the ability to make phone calls? And there’s still a number of wacky bugs – like screen flickering when opening up the phone options menu as well as a wacky control scheme involving the Camera key, lock switch, and light sensor. Using the light sensor as a button should be a bannable offense.

The installation process is fairly painless even if you’re unfamiliar with Linux. Just open the directions (see above) in the browser, and then switch to the terminal application and paste in. One of the nice side benefits of the method above is the ability to dual-boot or multi-boot, preserving Maemo while installing Android onto your microSD card. Don’t feel like dealing with Maemo’s lackluster email client? Switch to Android and load up K9. Tired of floating leaves and billowing blades of grass? All you need is a reboot (well, maybe two) and Maemo is back in the palm of your hand.

Either way, the speed at which progress has been made so far on the project is pretty astounding, and I have complete faith that Android will eventually run at 100% on the N900 someday, and probably sooner rather than later.

I should note that this isn’t my first exposure to Android. Longtime readers may remember that in December, I bought myself a Nexus One which I used for several weeks before selling it and returning to my N900. It’s not that the N1 wasn’t a good phone – it was an excellent phone – but I felt I needed a physical keyboard, and just…more control.

But lately I’ve found myself bored with Maemo, and somewhat frustrated with its shortcomings. Maybe my needs have changed, or maybe I’m just getting old, but I think I’ve reached a point where I’m simply looking for an operating system that works well without the need for hacks or workarounds.

So I’m eager to see what kind of improvements Android can muster for the N900.

Three Great N900 Tweaking Tools: Shortcutd, Tweakr, and Phone Speakers Switcher

ang — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:30:18 +0000

Shortcutd, Tweakr, and Phone Speakers Switcher.

There’s quite a few tweaking programs for the N900. But these three all bring something new to the table when it comes to managing calls and button presets.

Shortcutd

Shortcutd allows you to map your camera button to several predefined actions, OR a custom shell command. There’s options for both long and short presses, and I have both of mine mapped to “Launch Phone”. This lets me quickly open up the Phone app faster than sitting there waiting for the accelerometer to rotate the screen (I turned this feature off because it was so laggy). I love it.

You can also use your proximity sensor as a “button” (essentially by covering it for either a short or long amount of time), but I’ve had some negative experiences with it so I try to avoid the sensor as much as possible.

Tweakr

Tweakr is a collection of random options smushed together. The crown jewel is the “Snap icons to grid” setting, letting you lock desktop icons into place. Nokia, for some odd reason, did not include a sort or snap to grid option, and without Tweakr we’re simply left with icons that are sprinkled all over the place.

Another key setting that Tweakr lets you muck around with is the Power key. Normally, hitting it once brings up the phone menu, and holding it down turns the phone off. With Tweakr, you can disable/enable any or all power key functionality, or switch it up slightly. I’m not quite sure if double-tapping the Power key normally locks the phone, but you can either enable that or opt to show the menu instead.

Finally, there’s an option to mess around with the phone profiles. Tweakr lets you copy the General profile, but it looks like it just renames it instead. So I guess consider that a feature.

Phone Speakers Switcher

Phone Speakers Switcher is an interesting little tool that gives you several ways to activate the N900 loudspeaker during a call. I’ve been testing out using the proximity sensor to automatically turn on the loudspeaker when the phone is away from my face, and it’s been working fairly well. It’s a little weird to get used to though. And I swear sometimes my proximity sensor is a bit finicky. If the sensor’s not your thing, you can always use the Camera key, or slide open the keyboard to activate the speaker.

Other options include using the Camera button to end the call (probably not the best idea in my book) and opening the dashboard when the speakers are activated.

What’s Coming: Nokia’s Mysterious C0 Phone

ang — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:00:51 +0000

Nokia C0: The model number remains a mystery.

There’s been some sightings of a new phone in the wild: a Sidekick-ish slider branded with the mysterious “C0″ designation. Nokia uses zeroes to indicate prototype phones, and the C probably means it’s destined for the C-series line of medium-end phones. That hasn’t stopped people from calling it out as the elusive N9, a phone that’s been in the rumor mill without any real concrete info.

Could this possibly be the N9? That’s tough to say, but there’s a lot of evidence against it:

The C0 is running Symbian, not MeeGo. Nokia has stated that Symbian is being dropped from the Nseries line.
It’s a C0. N-series prototypes were labeled as N00′s.
The N8, the N9′s predecessor, already broke the 12 megapixel barrier several months ago. Offhand, I can’t think of a single Nokia successor phone that went backwards in megapixels.

It does, however, look eerily similar to the N8. Maybe a C8?

The specs are pretty meaty. There’s onboard NAM 3G (850/1900), an 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, front camera with LED flash (something new there), 4″ capacitive multi-touch display, and HDMI out. The C0 has the spring-loaded hinge reminiscient to that seen on the N97, and a nicely-spaced keyboard with four rows. It’s also fairly thin.

All in all, it looks good. Great even. If the stars align and it – somehow – ends up becoming the next MeeGo-enabled device, I’d buy it. Until then, expect speculation to run rampant.

Check TechnoBuffalo for an in-depth video look at the device.

Nokia Drops Symbian on N-series Devices

ang — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:53:53 +0000

The end of an era: No more Symbian on N-series devices.

It’s official: the Nokia N8 will be the last N-series phone with the Symbian operating system. Instead, the company will shift over to MeeGo, a love-child OS of Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin. It’s the end of an era!

Even though Symbian isn’t gone forever (it’ll still pop up in Nokia’s lower-end budget phones) I can’t help but wax nostalgic here. My first Symbian N-series phone was, incidentally, the first N-series phone ever made: the N90. (It was also the subject of my first post on the Nokia Phone Blog) It was gigantic, heavy as hell, and more suited to a brick than any phone I’ve ever owned. But I loved it. And I loved the fact that I could take fantastic pictures (at the time), watch LOST on the flip/swivel screen, and play all kinds of fun games (mostly NES games). The sheer potential of the N90 was revolutionary.

Of course, times have changed, and N-series phones have come and gone, from the first Nokia smartphone slider (N80) to the first DVB-H phone (N92) to the first flip (N75, which probably didn’t live up to standards), all the way to the immensely popular N90. And now the N8, the 12-megapixel shooter orphaned by its own creators.

I see it as a good thing, though. Symbian is a throwback to the past. Touch-screen smartphones have become the de facto standard, and let’s face it: Symbian Fifth Edition didn’t cut it, and it looks like Symbian^3 (which I had to say, looked just like Fifth Ed.) didn’t cut it either. I can’t say I’ve used MeeGo, but early impressions are looking very, very good. And Maemo was, and still is, an excellent operating system. Update: Anssi Vanjoki, the new head of mobile devices at Nokia, has stated that Symbian^3 will not be available on any future Nseries devices – however, a “Symbian^4 Nseries device is a strong possibility.”

Nokia to use Linux for flagship N-series phones (Reuters)

Deal: Nokia N900 for $369 Shipped at Dell

ang — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:50:35 +0000

Grab the N900 for the low-low price of $369, shipped.

Dell, it seems, is doing a slam-bang job of clearancing out Nokia phones. The latest deal is the absolute cheapest price that I’ve ever seen on a Nokia N900: $369 with free 3-5 day shipping.

To get it, first go to Dell and add the N900 to your shopping cart: Nokia N900 at Dell

Then click the “Proceed to Cart and Checkout” button.

At checkout, apply coupon code LL17PBSTFKZ440 in the “Coupon Entry” section. you should receive a $230 discount making the final total $599 – $230 = $369.

The N900 is one of Nokia’s megaphones, combining a speedy processor (well, for its time anyway) with 32 GB of internal memory, a 5 megapixel camera, touch-screen, and the Linux-based Maemo operating system into one device.

It’s probably thicker than your typical phone, but handles a surprising amount of pretty much everything, thanks to a good number of free apps available in the repositories. It’s also extremely hackable. However, if you’re expecting mass quantities of applications on the same level as Android or iOS, you should probably look elsewhere.

Nokia has been pretty good about getting updates pushed to the phone, even though some basic features such as specific-caller ringtones and MMS have been left out.

If you’re a power user, or someone who craves customizability, then I’d say the N900 would be your phone. But if you’re new to the smartphone game, I wouldn’t recommend the N900.

Original Nokia Phone Blog N900 Review
Revisiting the Nokia N900, Two Months Later

What is Wrong With Nokia?

ang — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:59:48 +0000

Nokia certainly knows how to break bad news. They released a press release on Wednesday with the title “Nokia lowers Devices & Services second quarter 2010 outlook and updates the full year 2010 outlook”. What the heck is going on over there?

Reading any of Nokia’s financial reports is a daunting task, so let me break it down for you:

Nokia continues to expect industry mobile device volumes to be up approximately 10% in 2010, compared to 2009 (based on its revised definition of the industry mobile device market applicable beginning in 2010).

The number of phones that are going to ship in 2010 will grow by 10%. This is good.

1. Nokia now expects Devices & Services net sales to be at the lower end of, or slightly below, its previously expected range of EUR 6.7 billion to EUR 7.2 billion for the second quarter 2010. This update is primarily due to lower than previously expected average selling prices and mobile device volumes.

2. Nokia now expects Devices & Services non-IFRS operating margin to be at the lower end of, or slightly below, its previously expected range of 9% to 12% for the second quarter 2010. This update is primarily due to a lower than previously expected gross margin.

3. Nokia now expects its mobile device value market share to be slightly lower in 2010, compared to 2009. This update is primarily due to the competitive situation at the high-end of the market and shifts in product mix. This is an update to our previous target to increase our mobile device value market share slightly in 2010, compared to 2009.

As for Nokia, they’ll be selling less, making a smaller profit, selling less compared to everyone else. Bad, bad, bad.

1. This update is primarily due to lower than previously expected average selling prices and mobile device volumes.
2. This update is primarily due to a lower than previously expected gross margin.
3. This update is primarily due to the competitive situation at the high-end of the market and shifts in product mix.

And now the reasons for the rather poor showing:

Why is Nokia making less money? Because the average selling price (ASP) is dropping. This is either because Nokia is selling more low-end phones or selling less high-end phones. Nokia is also selling less phones to begin with. There’s a ton of explanations for this one, but I’d say better competition all around, especially from Android phones, is mainly responsible.

Why is Nokia’s market share lower this year than last year? Because of a “competitive situation at the high-end”. Now we’re talking. So the reason IS because of the high-end phones, the smartphones, the converging devices. Nokia only released a few smartphones this year:

Nokia X6/X6 16GB
Nokia C5
Nokia C3
Nokia 6700 Slide

The bottom three are not what I’d call high-end. The X6, the best of the bunch, currently clocks in at around $250 USD but originally retailed for $450 USD.

It comes down to one thing: Nokia’s new smartphones can’t compete, and Nokia’s old smartphones can’t compete. And when that happens you start losing customers. Of course, there’s still hope for the N8, C6, and E73 – especially the N8, which ships with Symbian^3, the update to Symbian Fifth Edition.

Press Release

NokiaUSA Goes Nuts With New Promos

ang — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:23:03 +0000

Get a free Nokia Booklet 3G with purchase of $999 or more.

There’s all kinds of weird stuff going on lately at NokiaUSA.com, Nokia’s American retail site. Namely a couple of odd promos that leave me scratching my head.

The first one is pretty straightforward, if not a little surprising at first. Buy $999 worth of stuff, and you get a free Nokia Booklet 3G. That’s right, the Nokia Booklet 3G. Same one that used to be 575 Euros, or $836 (back then). Now it’s being hailed as a $549 value.

I’m not too surprised by this development. The Nokia Booklets that I saw languished at Best Buy with nary a soul even giving it a quick glance. People just ignored it. Which is too bad, since it had some interesting features. But in the end it was overpriced, and the 600 mhz Atom processor didn’t help either. And the 3G aspect never really caught on.

To get the Booklet deal, you’ll need to enter the code freeshipgrad at checkout. The fine print states that the netbook will ship out 14 days after your purchase.

Next up is a trade-up deal for the Nokia N900. Essentially, you buy the N900 for $479, and trade in one of your old phones. You’re supposed to get an automatic $50 discount for the trade-in, plus whatever the trade-in value is. So you could trade in some crap phone (I’ve got several Nokia 5100 series TDMA phones from the Stone Age that would do the job) and end up getting the N900 for $429. Just one caveat to the whole thing: the trade-in page is broken.

Finally, Nokia recently had a promo where a purchase of $299 or more would net you a free phone. Basically, a Buy One Get One Free. Sounds great, right? Except the “One Free” was a mystery phone with a mystery value of up to $429. It’s since been pulled.

Nokia Announces T-Mobile-Exclusive E73 Mode

ang — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:47:39 +0000

The E73 Arrives at T-Mobile on June 16.

Nokia’s latest phone announcement is the E73 mode, a QWERTY-packing smartphone that’s practically identical to the E72. It looks like they even recycled the same data sheet. It’s headed (exclusively) to T-Mobile, and carries the elusive WCDMA 1700 mhz band.

I’m a little torn about this announcement. On one hand, it’s great that T-Mobile is getting another very capable smartphone (a phone that’s easily one of the slickest, slimmest devices that I’ve used). On the other hand, the E72, which the E73 Mode is based on/identical to, was pretty much shunned by users. I was one of the luckier ones, and had only two real issues with the E72: random reboots and the keyboard. I have to admit though, the battery life was exceptional.

So will the E73 be a direct clone of the E72, just with some different radio frequencies? Hard to say at this point. The only differences I noticed were the weight (E73 is slightly heavier, at 4.5 oz vs. the E72′s 4.41 oz), battery life (E73: 13 hours vs. 12.5 hours on GSM), and support for T-Mobile’s Visual Voicemail feature.

The E73 Mode is set to arrive at T-Mobile on June 16. Pricing is currently unknown, and T-Mobile doesn’t even list the phone on their website.

Data Sheet
Press Release