Few days back, Nokia had invited us to their office for a exclusive preview of their upcoming Symbian^3 device, Nokia N8.

The device which is expected to launch this month, is the first device running on Symbian^3 OS. After having a quick hands-on, I was pretty much impressed with the form factor and the build of the device.

Though the OS has a similiar look of Symbian^1, the phone has a capacitive touchscreen, thereby improving a  lot of aspects of the phone like its touch, responsiveness etc.

It features a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Lens and has support for HD video recording.

However the feature that caught my eye was the USB on the Go. You can basically connect any any standard flash USB to the mobile phone and read it. A feature non existent on any other smartphone currently.

Check out the video below for the exclusive hands on preview of Nokia N8.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1plGmAINA8

[IndiGeeks]

After Saudi Arabia, India, Germany and Indonesia played with the poor kid (RIM), it’s now UN’s turn to bully.

The International Telecommunication Union agency’s Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure says governments fighting terrorism have the right to demand access to users’ information from BlackBerry’s maker Research in Motion Ltd.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Toure says that “those are genuine requests” and that “there is a need for cooperation between governments and the private sector on security issues”.

UN wants RIM to share its data for security reasons. It would be interesting to know if RIM bows down to UN as it has to the Indian and Saudi Arabian Government.

Yesterday, at their Fall 2010 event, Steve Jobs had indirectly accused Google of boosting their activation numbers by including upgrades as well.

While stating that Apple is currently doing 230,000 activations per day, Jobs said “We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers,” referring to Eric Schmidt’s claims that Android is doing 200,000 activations daily last month.

In Response to an inquiry by Fortune, Google rubbished the allegations and stated:

“The Android activation numbers do not include upgrades and are, in fact, only a portion of the Android devices in the market since we only include devices that have Google services.”

Who do you think is telling the truth? Is Google falsely claiming 200,000 activations per day? Or is Steve Jobs making stuff up from thin air? Do let us know via comments below.

[Img Credit - GDGT.com]

Taking the advantage of iPad’s fluid interface, this app allows the user to navigate smoothly between tweets, web pages, photos, videos and hashtags etc.

The new Twitter for iPad also features many UI features like Panes etc which are custom designed for the iPad.

The main interface is completely made of Panes. Tapping on a Tweet opens a pane to the right and then depending upon the content in that Tweet, you will see  either a news article or a photo or video. You can continue to open new panes as much as you want and then navigate between panes by swiping either to the right or left.

If a tweet contains a photo or a video, you can now see it inline and pinch on a video to watch it on fullscreen.

Finally, Twitter has also worked on the gestures part of the application as well. When you pinch on a Tweet, you can quickly view details about the person and take actions like Reply or Retweet accordingly. You can also view the entire conversation around a tweet by pulling down a tweet with 2 fingers.

The App is completely free and now available for download.

Download Twitter for iPad. (iTunes Link)

[Twitter Blog]

Samsung has finally unveiled the most awaited tablet – Samsung Galaxy Tab at the IFA.Samsung is calling the tablet beyond any other tablet! Let’s see from the specifications if they can justify.

Specifications:

• 7inch TFT display
• 1024×600 screen resolution
• 380 grams
• Android 2.2 or Froyo
• video conf: flash 10.1
• 1 Ghz ARM8 Cortex processor
• Graphic coprocessor: PowerVR SGX540.
• 4000 mAh battery (HUGE)
• Memory upto 64gb
• 30 Pin connector
• 1080p hd video play
• Support multiple codecs including H.264
• Soundalive 3D sound
• Swype text input
• thinkfree documents
• Can be used a phone
• kobo zinio ebook reader
• a 3MP back camera + 1.3MP front  camera
• augumented reality
• social single hub

We are very disappointed that Samsung Galaxy Tab does not have Super AMOLED screen but TFT display. Besides that the battery seems HUGE, with 4000 mAh it will last for days of surfing and multimedia playback. Since the tablet has huge battery it uses 30 Pin Connector instead of usual Micro-USB.

The samsung galaxy tab will be out in India in October 2010.

[via]

As of October 1, Files On Ovi will no longer be available for use. Nokia also advises you to uninstall the Ovi Files Connector installed on your personal computer. To do this, execute the standard Windows or Macintosh uninstall procedure that came with your computer.

In an email, Nokia writes:

Dear Ovi Files user,

Nokia is discontinuing the Ovi Files service, effective October 1, 2010.  We apologize for the inconvenience.

Please make sure to uninstall the Ovi Files Connector installed on your personal computer. To do this, execute the standard Windows or Macintosh uninstall procedure that came with your computer. You will not lose any files as a result of this service discontinuation. Ovi Files simply creates an ‘online mirror’ of the files saved on your Windows PC or Mac, so your original files will remain intact. The files on your computer are always treated as the master version, even if some are selected as ‘Anytime Files.’

You will still be able to share content between your phone and PC using another Nokia product, Nokia Ovi Suite. With Nokia Ovi Suite installed on your PC, you can do the following: sync your contacts and messages; transfer videos, photos, and music; back up your Nokia; and update your device software. Please note that this is not a direct substitute for Ovi Files as Nokia Ovi Suite requires a wired connection between your PC and mobile device. For more information visit www.ovi.com/suite.

Again, we are sorry for the inconvenience and hope that you will continue to enjoy our most popular services.

This is not the first time that Nokia has discontinued any service. Earlier Nokia had discontinued NGage which was adored by users but due to lack of attention from Nokia became obsolete. Another service I can remember being shut down is Nokia Friend Finder. Almost similar to Foursqaure, where you could share your location with your friends, due to lack of attention from Nokia and users, Nokia shut it down too. Imagine with the current location awareness craze, it could have been hit, if integrated to foursquare.

However, when we asked few Nokia users, no one actually used Ovi Files. Did you use Ovi Files? Are you disappointed with it?

Microsoft has just announced in their blogpost that they have reached the final stage for Windows Phone 7. That is, Releasing to Manufacturing (RTM). What does this mean? Well, Microsoft has done their part; the OS is now ready. Now the manufacturers can integrate the final version of the OS and release the device. Yay.

From the blog:

Today is the day that the Windows Phone team has been driving towards, and we’re very excited to say that we’ve reached the biggest milestone for our internal team – the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Phone 7!  While the final integration of Windows Phone 7 with our partners’ hardware, software, and networks is underway, the work of our internal engineering team is largely complete.

The other night we saw Samsung officially releasing a teaser video of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Today, the tablet hits the FCC.Here’s what we know about the tablet now:

• has a GSM radio (will come to AT&T)
• 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz 802.11 a/b/g/nWiFi, which can reach speeds up to 150Mbps.

There’s a possibility that Samsung Galaxy Tab might come to all the carriers like Samsung did with the Samsung Galaxy S.

Samsung will unveil the tablet at the IFA today. We eagerly await the announcement.

Touted to be the successor of T-Mobile G1, T-Mobile G2 is rumored to arrive somewhere between late September and early October for a price of $199 with a 2 yr contract and $499 for an unlocked version.

T-Mobile G2 is an Android 2.2 device with HTC Sense on top of it. It features a 3.7″ Active Matrix OLED display powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm chipset, has a Slide-out QWERTY keyboard and packs in a 5MP camera with autofocus. The Phone supports 3G HSPA+, WiFi + Hotspot capabilities and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.

[TMONews]

This new generation iPod touch features the amazing Retina Display that was introduced with iPhone 4, a Front Facing Camera with support for FaceTime, Apple A4 Processor, 3-axis Gyro, iOS 4.1 with Game Center and a rear camera with support for HD Video Recording.

The new iPod touch will come in 3 different variants viz 8GB, 32GB and 64GB which are priced at $229, $299 and $399. It ships from next week and pre-orders opens up today.

[Img Credit - Engadget]

iPod Shuffle:

iPod shuffle has now got buttons, VoiceOver, playlists, Genius Mixes along with a wearable clip. It provides around 15hrs of music playback and has a storage space of 2GB.

Priced at $49, the new iPod shuffle comes in 5 different colors.

iPod Nano:

The Click Wheel has been removed and Multi-touch has been added. It’s around 46% smaller and 42% lighter than its predecessor and features hard volume buttons with FM Radio, Voiceover, Nike+, Pedometer. The new iPod Nano has 24 hours of audio playback with support for 24 languages.

The new iPod Nano features the same colors of iPod shuffle with 2 additional colors:  Graphite and Red color and comes in 2 variants viz 8GB and 16GB which are priced at $149 and $169 respectively.

[Img Credit - GDGT.com]

Apple has released the next version of its iOS, iOS 4.1. The notable changes in this version are High Dynamic Range photos, Support for HD videos uploads over WiFi, TV show rentals and the Game Center.

The iOS also has a number of bug fixes like the Proximitity sensor issue, Bluetooth, performance enhancements for iPhone 3G etc.

This update will be available for iPhone and iPod touch next week as a free download.

[Img Credit - GDGT.com]

The best and the fastest way to input text on screen has arrived on Symbian. Nokia Betalabs have just announced that they are proud to bring Swype on your Symbian S60v5 devices.

Though in Beta, Swype  for Symbian includes support for English US, Spanish, Canadian French, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Key features

• Standard QWERTY keyboard layout makes Swype easy to learn
• Use a stylus or finger – Swype’s amazing input path analyzer allows you to go fast and sloppy. Just make a reasonable effort to trace through the word and Swype will do the rest
• Double Tap Editing – Make a mistake? Double tap on a word to bring up a list of other possible matches.
• Auto-Spacing
• Auto-Capitalization
• Auto Spelling Correction
• Automatic Help – Swype detects when you may be having trouble or might benefit from a particular feature and prompts you with helpful tips and instructions
• Instant access to Symbols, Numbers and Editing functions
• 65,000-word Learning Dictionary – Chances are the word you are typing is already in the Swype dictionary. If it isn’t, just tap it out once followed by a space and Swype will remember it for future use.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZOvlMyAMGQ

Download Swype

Motorola has now announced Motorola Milestone 2 in the European Market.For those who joined late, this is the European version of Motorola Droid 2.

The official specs are:

• Android 2.2 Froyo
• MOTOBLUR
• 3.7″ WVGA touch screen
• QWERTY keyboard
• WiFi, GPS
• 720p HD video capture and playback
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 5MP camera with dual LED flash
• 1GHz processor
• 8GB internal memory and a microSD card slot with an 8GB card

The device will be available for purchase in Q4. We do not know at what price the device will be made available. We will keep you posted. Till then check out the video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCm-AB5UhVY

Nokia has posted a new video about a project from Peter Ash, who has created a hamster-powered phone charger.

In the description of the video, Peter Ash stated that they had a hamster called Elvis which was quite energetic by nature. It was so annoying that it used keep them awake at night just because Elvis wouldn’t stop playing in his wheel.

This got Peter thinking about ways to put Elvis’ energy to good use. Thus with the help of  few gears and a turbine, he created a Hamster powered charger.

Pretty Innovative, Isn’t it?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NyOIvWiI0k

On the occasion of “Ramadan”, Vodafone has launched a special Ramadan Pack which contains several value added services pertaining to Ramadan.

It comprises of a Quran alert service which will offer users with verses from the Holy Quran as well as the timings of Sehri and Iftari, Special caller tunes, Song dedications, Ramadan related recipes and information etc.

Additionally users can also call 5674786 to subscribe to caller tunes, ringtones and dedicate songs from the Ramadan Voice Portal. The subscription charges for caller tunes is Rs 30/Month & Song charges is at Rs 15/song.

In one of the rarest of occurences, Apple has decided that it will livestream today’s event.

However there is a catch, users would either require a Mac running on Snow Leopard or an iPhone/iPod touch/iPad running on OS 3.0+. So if you are a Windows User, sorry! you will probably not be able to watch it live.

The streaming will be available at www.apple.com at 10 am PDT (10.30 PM IST).

From Apple PR:

Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.

This broadcast is the property of Apple and is protected by US copyright law and international treaties. Any reproduction or distribution is strictly prohibited without prior written approval from Apple. Please contact Apple Public Relations with any questions.

Apple is rumoured to launch new generations of iPod touch, Apple TV and their 99 cent TV rental store.

Microsoft has now rolled out Hotmail ActiveSync for both iPhone users as well as iPad users.

For the uninitiated, Hotmail ActiveSync brings the Exchange ActiveSync capabilities to all the Hotmail accounts and users possessing a supported phone will be able to sync their email, calendar, and contacts onto their handset.

With this release, iPhone and iPad has joined the huge list of mobile devices like Windows Mobile 6.x, Windows Phone 7, Nokia E-Series, S-Series and N-Series phones which support Hotmail ActiveSync.

As for support for Android devices, Microsoft stated that

“Hotmail team will add Android to list of supported devices in the coming months after testing is completed.

Access from Android 2.1 is NOT supported due to known client issues on Android 2.1.  but there are users successfully syncing from Hotmail via the default application or the Touchdown application on Android 2.2.”

To enable Hotmail sync on your iPhone/iPad or any other supported device, just follow the steps iterated in the ActiveSync Guide here.

[ZDNet]

Hey all you E72 users, here is some awesome news for you!

Nokia E72 has just got a firmware update to v051.018 from its previous version v031.023.

The major changes in this new firmware seems to be the addition of Microsoft Office communicator and Nokia Messaging for Instant Messaging/Nokia Chat 2.0 along with some layout changes and Improved Email, Calendar and Contacts experience.

The Complete Changelog of v051.018 firmware is as follows:

Corrections or Changes :

• Browser upgrade into 7.2.6
• Freestyle Baseline 3.0 (latest version) update
• QuickOffice upgrade into 6.2.439
• New languages introduced, Office 2007 compatibility
• OVI Music client Inc9Br5 update
• Music 3.0: full album purchase, PIN less activation
• Lotus Notes Traveller 8.5.1 update
• Smart Connect 1.3.55 update
• OVI Store 1.6 update
• OVI Files widget 1.2.3.0 update

Removals:

• Windows Live removal

Improvements:

• New chat functionalities for the users
• Microsoft Office Communicator added to vanilla SW UDA content
• Nokia Messaging for Instant Messaging / Nokia Chat 2.0 added to vanilla SW UDA content
• Improved Email, Calendar and Contacts experience
• Performance improvements
• Stability and usability improvements
• Menu layout changes, among other things:
• Maps moved to Main menu from Applications – GPS folder
• Help moved from Main menu to Applications folder
• Main menu re-ordered
• SW update moved from Phone folder to main level of Control panel folder.
• Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Bloomberg moved from Internet folder to Applications folder
• No changes to vanilla memory cards
• Altogether 450+ errors are fixed.

You can update your Nokia E72 to the new firmware v051.018 using either the built-in OTA (Over The Air) method, or by using Nokia’s Software Updater on your PC.

Nokia E72 has support for UDP (User Data Preservation) but still we highly recommend you to backup all your phone data, before updating the firmware of your phone, so that you don’t lose any data accidentially.

If your device does not detect any new firmware, then you might have to wait for a while, since the update has probably not yet reached the region product code of your device yet. The firmware update will eventually roll out to all product codes of Nokia E72.

Have you upgraded your E72′s firmware to v051.018? Noticed anything new that we missed out? Let us know via comments below.

[a2phone via ZCJ]

Nokia has released special apps on Ovi Store to commemorate the occasion of “Ramadan“.

Among the apps include Quran using which you can read and listen to the Holy Quran, Boyoot Allah through which you can find out the latest mosque, Arabica using which you can learn how to read Holy Quran, Hadith and Duaa, Prayer Time using which you can keep track of prayer times and the Qibla direction etc.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU7SErYXD94

To download these apps, simply head over to Ovi Store either on your Nokia Phone or on your desktop and download/install it.

The device which was first spotted a fortnight back, is touted to be the successor of the first ever Android Phone “T-Mobile G1” and will be the first HSPA+ phone on the T-Mobile network.

Though not much is known about the device yet, some of the initial specs is as follows:

• 3.7″ Active Matrix OLED display
• Android OS w/ HTC Sense.
• 1 GHz Qualcomm chipset.
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
• 5MP camera with autofocus.
• 3G HSPA+
• WiFi + Hotspot capabilities.
• aGPS.
• Bluetooth 2.1 + Enhanced Data Rate.

[CellPhone Signal]

The awesome Angry Birds game is landing on Android platform this Friday.

Rovio Mobile, the makers of Angry Birds stated that they would be a massive beta release distribution this weekend to all the people who have signed up on their request form which is present at android.angrybirds.com.

However if you are one of the impatient ones, here is a first look video of Angry Birds running on Motorola Droid.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp-7FB61hq0

[Droid-Life]

Motorola A1680

Motorola A1680 which will arrive on China Unicom’s WCDMA network, runs on outdated Android 1.6 (sigh!) and features a 3.1″ AMOLED High Resolution resistive touchscreen, a 5 MP camera with Autofocus and Digital Zoom, FM Radio with a 3.5mm headset jack, GPS navigation services, Motorola’s app store SHOP4APPS and support for Bluetooth, 3G, WAPI and WIFI1 high-speed connectivity.

This device also packs in an intelligent handwriting recognition software bundled with SoftStylus™ handwriting system, an email client, GPS navigation, Document scanning and translation plus Baidu search and Youdao dictionary support and a File Manager etc.

It has an onboard memory of 256MB DDR( internal) and 512MB (external) with support upto 32GB Micro SD cards. The phone is currently available for 3,080 renminbi ($453).

Motorola MT810

Designed for China Mobile, Motorola MT810 runs on Android 2.1 with China Mobile’s OPhone OS 2.0 on top of it. The device has a dual touch screen, a 3.2″ resistive touchscreen with a capacitive touchscreen on top of it as a transparent cover.

Apart from that, it has a 5MP camera with LED flash, digital zoom and auto-focus, D1 Capture, 720p HD video playback, several preloaded business applications like QuickOffice, Document Scanner, Translator etc,  support for China’s CMMB mobile television format and access to China Mobile’s Mobile Market through which you can install from a huge catalog of 7000 apps and thousands of mobile themes.

Motorola MT810 comes with an onboard memory of 256 MB which can be expanded to 32GB using microSD cards and is priced at 5,980 renminbi ($879).

Motorola XT806

Arriving on China Telecom, Motorola XT806 runs on Android 2.1 and has a 3.2″  super-sharp 300dpi display.

It comes with a 5MP camera with built-in LED flash, HD video recording with playback support, FM Radio, preloaded business apps such as QuickNotes and support for text, voice recording, videos, pictures, sketches and screen snapshots. It can also access Motorola’s app store SHOP4APPS through which you can install apps from a decent catalog of 1000 apps.

The device has support for CDMA EVDO and GSM dual-mode/dual-standby and is priced at 6,180 renminbi ($908).

Starting tomorrow, select Palm Developers will be allowed to play with the new SDK and develop webOS apps on it.

webOS 2.0 Feature Highlights:

• Stacks: Palm is coming with a true multitasking scheme called as “Stacks” which will automatically groups related activities (cards) that are in a single workflow together.You can drag and drop those activities manually else it will be be automatically organized.
• Just Type: Palm has renamed the universal search in the webOS as “Just Type” and opened up API for the app developers, thus allowing the ability to have custom search engines.
• Improvements to Synergy: Developers will now be able to use Synergy for creating custom address books, IM services, and calendar events for the apps they create.
• PDK plugins: Palm has dropped the beta tag of PDK Plugins and have integrated it directly to the SDK, allowing application developers to port app logic from other platforms with more ease.
• Palm has included various HTML5 Enhancements like Geolocation Support, application cache functions, image data and gradient use with Canvas and Javascript Services for low-level networking, filesystem access, and binary data processing.

All these new features does look very impressive. Isn’t it? It would be interesting to see what kind of devices (Mobiles devices/Tablets) will appear on webOS 2.0.

[Engadget]

This update which is available for both iPhone users as well as iPad users, brings along 15 new levels to play, new achievements to unlock and a brand new golden egg to find.

So what are you waiting for, head over to App Store and download them.

Download Angry Bird for iPhone ($0.99)