The N900 has intrigued the tech community and people in general with its bevy of features ever since it was first announce. But when you look at it closely enough, it seems like it is too little, too late yet again. Reminds me of the N97 really.

On the surface, N900 is an attractive package. When it was first announced, the decent sized capacitive resistive touchscreen, the new interface, large internal storage, QWERTY keypad and TV out features made quite a splash.

From the images, it also seems like there are sensors in the front. So far I have not found out what they are meant to do but they are likely to be a front facing camera and related sensors for video conferencing.

Maemo5’s interface looks good, I will tell you that. If you are looking for something that that really catches the eye and something that is different from everything you have seen so far – you have got to try this out. It supports gestures but in a few instances Nokia has gone too far in its bid to be different from the rest. Take the spiral gesture for zooming for example. I would say that the pinch-to-zoom is simple enough and if you are only mimicking a gesture, there should be no shame in it. After all, you are only making a phone like this because of the entire computer-in-touchscreen-mobile-phone craze that hit the market post the iPhone.

The way you switch between things makes me think of Exposé in the Mac OS. You get to see thumbnails of the of the things you have open and you can touch to switch to the one you desire.

Feature-wise, N900 has everything you might want. Well, almost everything. You get a 5-megapixel camera with dual LED flash that takes video. FM-tuner is built-in. The screen is 3.5inches with a resolution of 800×480, which is very nice. That should make watching movies a pleasure. Talking about watching movies, you get a kickstand too for propping it up when you want to. The TV via Nokia’s proprietary cable is the feature that may of use have wanted ever since our phones could carry multiple entire movies and play them back smoothly.

It supports the full meme of a formats for both audio and video, including – AAC, eAAC, mpeg4 , etc.  You get full data connectivity support via GPRS Class A, EDGE, multi-band WCDMA and HSPA, WLAN (802.11b/g). Network-wise it is a quadband GSM and tri-band WCDMA phone. Full specs at the website.

But my enthusiasm starts to wear off when I look deeper into the hardware specifications. It is powered by an ARM Cortex A8, which they clock at 600MHz. Application memory is a combination of 256MB RAM and 768MB of virtual memory. If you ask me, for a phone that is so very multimedia rich, 600MHz is going to be sluggish at multitasking. There’s a reason why the iPhone restricts full multi-tasking. N900 will allow you to multitask but it will definitely slow you down. And with 1GHz Snapdragon-toting phones already in the market, this is going to seem real slow real soon. Also, the new big screen is 4″ or more. But at least it has OpenGL ES 2.0 for graphics. I guess they will be pushing it for handheld gaming.

Next is the OS that fails to excite me. It is good looking and sounds promising too but any new mobile OS that comes out now – after 2.5 years of the iPhone OS and about 2 years of the Android OS – is going to be dealt with a healthy bit of skepticism. Can Nokia’s toddling Maemo5 or Samsung’s newborn Bada match up to the raw numbers of Android and iPhone users? Then why should developers bet on them? I found 50 applications on the Maemo website. There’s obviously more but only 50 chosen applications? May be Nokia is betting too much on the openness of the OS.

Developers want to sell as much as possible, so they are going to look at the user numbers and the future growth potential. The two giants are already in top gear. So the late starters are likely to stay that way.

The Nokia N900 Maemo5 phone is now on preorder from the website for $649. Availability is at end of this month (November ’09). Comes only in Black.

Update: One of our readers  has identified one of the sensors as a way to turn off the touchscreen when you are talking on the phone. So it’s basically a proximity sensor like the one on the HTC Touch Pro 2. Also, the touchscreen is not capacitive but resistive, I stand corrected. Thanks Daniel and Manojlds.

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What do you think about the N900. Would you choose it over a similar Android phone or the iPhone 3GS?

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So here we have some of the more high profile Snapdragon phones that are coming our way.

HTC HD2

After that big a whispering campaign courtesy of the leaks and the high anticipation during the launch, there is no way you can forget this mobile phone. Arguably the first device to bring the processor to the limelight, this is the phone that in a way started it all.

If you are not too impressed by the 4.3inch screen, then you might be impressed by the custom UI made by HTC. The UI has been demoed on video and it looks really great and responsive. The acceleration, the transitions and the rendering – all look smooth and fast. That is definitely where the Snapdragon shines its brightest.

But the phone might fail to generate the traction and sales that it deserves simply because of its platform. It is a Windows Mobile device and it runs Windows Mobile 6.5 underneath that great UI. What that means is a (ridiculously) low number of apps and low third party interest, which again translates to a not-so-good user experience when compared to the fast-moving Android or the trend-setting iPhone OS.

HTC Dragon/ Passion [?]

This was rumored to be the Android version of the HD2 but now it has been (almost) ID’d as the new HTC Passion. This would be more like a CDMA version of the HTC Dragon, which is a GSM phone. It has also been revealed that the HTC Passion is heading for Verizon and we could be seeing it in the flesh metal by the end of this year. Well, if they want to sell something this year they have to bring it out before Christmas.

But if this phone does materialize, this would be another Android phone that will be jostling for space at the top rung of things. Now that we have the Droid and the X10, this would likely become the third super-specc’d Android phone. [read]

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10

If you still do not know about the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10, you are clearly not coming out from underneath your rock often enough. The XEPRIA X10 was leaked and discussed frenetically before it was finally unveiled on November 3^rd.

It features a custom UI on top of Android and it is know as the ‘Open OS’. The features to be highlighted are the Timescape and Mediascape features, that give you smarter ways to stay connected with your contacts, communications and media. If you want a hands-on review of a pre-production unit, you can check out this post. Over all, Sony Ericsson has something that is pretty sleek and stylish. If they can deliver on their promises (Timescape and Mediascape), this might become THE Android phone to get. Hopefully it will be up to Android 2.0 when they finally get around to selling this phone in the first half of next year.

Acer Liquid A1

Acer’s Liquid A1 is the company’s venture into Android smartphone field and it has so far received a lukewarm response at best. After announcing the Snapdragon processor and the Android OS base, it became the first phone to bring those two together.

However, as we have seen and heard from the folks who got their hands on the device  – Acer is clearly lacking on the UI development. Plus, the physical design of the phone leaves much space for improvement. Acer’s inexperience in the smartphone category shows through too clearly for this to be a compelling device. Sorry Acer but it looks like you need to step up your game here. [read]

Unnamed Nokia Smartphone For AT&T

Nokia is rumored to be making a new smartphone for AT&T that will be powered by Snapdragon. It is not the N900 and it is something that will be up against the likes of the Droid, the HD2 and the X10. This is a little sliver of a rumor, so more details are currently unavailable. [read]

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So Samsung decided to release its second Android phone in Russia. But news can never remain buried on the Internet. So we know that it is called the Galaxy Spica. This is the same phone that the rumors were calling the Galaxy 17500 Lite. Spica is the official name.

The press release says a lot of things, as usual. You know it has Android and that it runs on an 800MHz processor. But what it does not tell you is what version of Android it will ship with when it does. My guess is Android 2.0, because the release seems imminent. [read]

Then we have the T-Mobile Project Dark plans. After a long line of rumors, spy shots and leaked marketing material, the carrier finally unveiled its twin plans. And they are right on time too because their timeline was already leaked by the rumors.

So what are the plans like? Look above. There’s the $79 Even More Plus and there’s the $99 Even More. Those are the maxed out prices. They start from $49 and $59 respectively. The first one has no annual contract and the second one has a 2-year contract. [read]

Nokia in the meantime has brought out ‘Illuvial Special edition’ phones in Europe. These are normal Nokia phones with floral prints on the back, purple backlighting and purple/pink graphics in the UI. I still think of this tech industry practice of feminizing products as highly patronizing. Plus, companies tend to charge more for these frills. Et tu Nokia? [read]

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The app store is growing rapidly and is now over 85,000 apps. Ever since the $99 iPhones became available, everyone’s been buying an iPhone. And everyone who can is making an app and sending it in. Even the American stock exchange has its own app now.

Yes sir, NASDAQ has an app in the App store. It lets you check stocks and see live activity, which are quite obvious. What is not obvious though is the fact that it shows you live tweets about various stocks from StockTweet. Now that’s something extra that is worth having. Plus the App is very well-designed. [read]

Next up we have a remote app for …get this – starting your car. That’s right folks, now you can start your car from practically anywhere with a free iPhone app. The catch? You have to buy a kit for your car for this to work and Best Buy has the exclusive retail deal on it. You have two models available. One is for $299 (for cars that have the initial system built in) and the other for $499 (for the complete system). [iTunes link]

The next one is only half new because it was already launched in the US last year. Amazon has released their iPhone shopping app in the UK. This app lets you buy from Amazon through your iPhone. It connects you to your account and also allows you to use features like one-click ordering, etc. [read]

Another Amazon app is coming soon though. I am talking about the Kindle app that is headed for us in November. [read]

So I guess these two halves make one, except that you can only buy one half right now. But the US half is already available. So that makes one too. Okay, enough with the halves.

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That’s bad for the environment either way as you end up with two different phone chargers or two similar ones as they are always sold with cell phones. It is also bad if you need to recharge the battery of your cell phone at a friends house only to find out that the phone charger is not compatible with your cell phone.

Cell phone suppliers like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Apple, Motorola and LG have agreed to produce cell phones that are compatible with standard charging devices in Europe. First cell phones are expected next year which is expected to reduce the waste that phone chargers produce each year. About 180 million cell phones are sold in Europe each year which also means the same amount of phone chargers.

According to the New York Times only data-enabled phones (which will account for about 50% of all cell phones sold in 2010) will be compatible with the new chargers which are in the beginning sold with the cell phones. Plans are to remove the cell phone chargers later on and sell them separately. It is likely that other countries will join the initiative.

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I, too, was torn. I vowed never to buy an iPhone, on account of their price and lack of certain features (saying that, I too vowed never to run Windows XP but I ended up using XP about 3 years after its release, in 2004). I was strongly considering a Symbian-based smartphone, generally seen as a phone of someone a little more tech-savvy than an iPhone user. When I got my iPhone, I was shocked. iPhones are actually very good.

Whilst they do have many little annoying flaws, such as the fact you can’t use a landscape keyboard to compose an email or SMS (not until the next version of iPhone OS, anyway), they are remarkably user-friendly and after a little jailbreaking pretty flexible. I have yet to find something I would like to do, but I can’t do.

LCARS theme on iPhone

Another popular complaint people have with the iPhone is the lack of hardware keys. However, I soon became accustomed to the touch screen, because it has somewhat of a LCARS feeling – especially after you install a LCARS theme! There are some hardware keys though: volume control, a switch to turn it on or off silent mode, the ‘home button’ and a lock button.

Still, the most popular complaint is the price. I find myself paying 35GBP a month and about a 100GBP lump sum. For that, 600 minutes and 500 texts. Pretty expensive, but I am quite satisfied with the data plan that is also included in that price.

So, do you have an iPhone? If not, why not?

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Nokia Map Loader can be used to download selected maps directly to the cell phone using a computer’s Internet connection. The maps come in different sizes ranging from a few Megabytes to 20 and more Megabytes. The size of all maps offered exceeds 3 Gigabytes which would cost a fortune when downloaded over the air directly.

Some user had problems using the Nokia Map Loader application. They did experienced interrupted downloads and criticized that they could not delete single maps once they were downloaded to the cell phone. That’s where the direct download links to all Nokia Maps come in handy. The download links point directly to the files on the Nokia servers and can be downloaded with download managers or directly in the web browser. The page does contain instructions on how to add these maps to the Nokia cell phone as well.

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• The icons and options added by the cell phone provider are removed in the process. This is usually not a problem unless they are heavily used by the user.
• You might run into problems if you contact the provider for maintenance or repair.
• The process requires manual research and the operation of several software programs
• The firmware update will erase all settings like contact information which can however be restored if a backup is created prior to upgrading the firmware.

The first step that you should undertake is to backup the contents of the Nokia cell phone. This can be done with the Nokia PC Suite. The suite can be used to backup all contents of the Nokia cell phone to the computer system making it possible to restore the contents at a later time.

The Nokia PC Suite software can also be used to check if a newer firmware for the cell phone is available. It does however only check the branded firmware and not the generic Nokia firmware. The information provided by the Nokia tool can be used to compare that firmware version with the latest unbranded firmware version of the cell phone to see if updating the firmware makes sense at all (it obviously does not if the firmwares are identical).

The firmware of the Nokia N73 cell phone is already up to date according to Nokia’s Software Updater application. The current version is listed as 4.0812.4.2.1. The same information can be displayed directly on the cell phone by dialing *#0000#.

The research begins now. The first step is to compare the current official firmware for the branded cell phone with the latest generic firmware for the same model. Sites like these provide a good overview of Nokia firmware releases. If they do not list the cell phone or model use Google to find the information.

In the case of the N73 the latest firmware listed on the page mentioned above is 4.0839.42.3.1 which has been released six months after the latest branded firmware release. This means it is possible to update the firmware to a newer version. Researching the actual change logs of the firmware releases is not always successful on the other hand. Best practice would be to enter the firmware into a search engine and add words like “changes”, “change log” or similar to the search phrase.

Unbranding Nokia Cell Phones

The actual unbranding process requires additional software, specifically Nemesis Service Suite. It can be downloaded right from the developer’s homepage. Make sure to select Virtual USB Device during installation. Connect the Nokia phone with USB cables to the computer system afterwards.

You start by clicking on the Scan For New Devices button in the top right of the application. It will display the following screen:

Change to the Phone Info tab afterwards and click on the Scan button. Now click on the Read button on the right side of the screen. This will retrieve important information about the phone which we need. The most important information is the current Product Code of the cell phone which is 0544952 for the Nokia N73 test phone.

The important step begins now. Changing the product code of the cell phone will make it look like an unbranded model of the same type. It is important to use the unbranded product code of the same cell phone model to avoid breaking the cell phone.

The same website mentioned earlier to look up the latest firmware information for a Nokia cell phone does list the different product codes as well. There are product codes for different languages and – if existing – different models of the same cell phone. If you cannot find your language or cell phone in the database you can try finding the information using search engines. A search for Nokia N73 unbranded product code or Nokia N73 generic product code should do the trick. Make sure to change N73 to your phone’s model.

The generic product code for the Nokia N73 Music Edition is 0539351. Check the Enable box next to Product Code, replace the old with the new and click the Write button in the end. This will replace the cell phone’s product code on the cell phone. You can use the same method to restore the old product code again. NSS can now be closed as it is no longer needed.

Start the Nokia PC suite application again or open its window and select the Update Phone Software option from the main menu. If everything went well you will now see that the updater will list the newer firmware for the connected cell phone with the option to update the Nokia phone to it.

The updater will download the latest firmware from Nokia servers if you agree to the terms (tick the check box) and click Next. The download had a size of more than 70 Megabytes and it took several minutes afterwards to update the actual firmware. The program will display the progress in the interface. Make sure not to disconnect the cell phone at this time. Best practice is to connect it to a power supply to ensure that it does not run out of power during the process.

The new firmware changes some settings back to factory default, e.g. the time zone, language or date. It is now usually possible to restore the previously saved backup files to the phone. This is important as all contact information and messages are not shown anymore after the firmware update.

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I have spotted a Pepsi advertisement on Youtube that is airing in South-America only which has all the traits of an interesting fun to watch ad. Honestly, what can go wrong if you combine Kung Fu Fighting, Mini Me and Godzilla in an ad?

Interestingly enough that’s not all there is to be seen and done for the viewer. They did release a free browser widget for Nokia Mobile phones built by interactive design & marketing group AgencyNet that can be downloaded free of charge from a newly created website. Supported languages are Spanish, Portuguese and English. The Pepsimundo website itself is only in Spanish but easy enough to navigate.

How does this ad compare to the ads you usually see when turning on the television?

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The application works in principle like the Windows startup folder. The mobile phone owner selects applications that he wants to autostart and enables Powerboot afterwards. The selected applications will then be automatically started when the phone is turned on.

Powerboot offers several options on how to add applications to the startup. It is possible to pick an application from all installed applications, a running application or a Java application. There are also two modes to consider: Safe Mode and Quick Mode. Safe Mode displays a query before autostarting applications while quick mode will start them without interaction.

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The Nokia PC Suite is the standard set of software for managing your phone and multimedia and was recently updated to version 7.0 which was a marked improvement on the previous version. While it’s an improvement I would describe the software as ‘adequate’ rather then good. It does the basics, sometimes a little more but generally does little to impress, especially the media management tools and performance.

What Nokia has been working on however which is fairly impressive is the Nokia Ovi Suite which has been designed from scratch and will eventually replace PC suite totally I presume. I think it’s only being released in a few countries at the moment, if it’s not released in yours you may have to change your system language settings.

Ovi is a great example of the ‘software + services’ concept going through most of the technology industries and inspired by the success of Apple’s iPod + iTunes system.

Ovi includes all of the PC suite functions and features while having additional features and generally improving substantially upon everything including predominantly a far more intuitive and attractive user interface. The software is also connected to the online Ovi services for uploading, download and sharing media such as music, images and games.

If you’re currently using PC Suite I would really recommend giving this a try, it is an improvement in every way, even including performance.

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It is therefor no coincidence that touch panel support was one of the major improvements in this release. Besides that the new Symbian OS will support higher screen resolutions and advanced sensor technologies. Nokia optimized the operating system for longer battery life and performance.

Nokia has done a lot to create a competitive operating system to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android plattform on the same level. The first new handset running on Symbian Os 9.4 was announced in the same webcast.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic smartphone with a 3.2″ high resolution touchscreen and a resolution of 640×360 will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2008. The name implies that it will be a phone for entertainment and a direct competitor of Apple’s iPhone plattform.

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Microsoft Phone Data Manager is not a full blown backup solution like the software that comes from the mobile phone company directly which can backup data like sms, games or protocols. It is a beta product on the other hand that could see those features implemented in later versions.

The major advantage of using the Phone Data Manager is that it works with phones from different mobile phone manufacturers. That is handy for a family that possesses different phones but only one computer and basically everyone else who is using phones from different cell phone manufacturers.

The list of working mobiles include phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. About 30 mobiles in total are listed on that page that have been tested and are working with the Microsoft Phone Data Manager but there are also a few that are not working. Most cell phone owners will probably have to try and find it out for themselves if their mobile phone is not listed on that page.

Microsoft has posted a user guide on their website that walks the user through the process of installing and working with the Phone Data Manager.

It supports and can identify bluetooth and usb cable connections. While it lacks on features it could be a viable alternative for users with multiple phones from different manufacturers.

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There are some resources however, so I’ve put together this list of the best sites to find free (and commercial) applications and more:

Mosh

Nokia’s portal for free apps, games, audio and images. Accessible from your phone and computer. It has a pretty rubbish selection of applications, but if you’re looking for some semi-decent free games then Mosh has quite a few.

Symbian Freak

Symbian Freak provides news and downloads for Symbian phones. It actually has one of the best selections of freeware, some of the applications are even useful! If I had to recommend one resource is would be this.

Symbian Freeware

If you filter through all the crap you might find some decent downloads in here.

Nokia Beta Labs

Actually fair bit going on in here; a number of apps which are coming out of development are worth taking a look at.

Nokia Download!
Download! is another Nokia Portal for free and paid applications. There are few apps here, not a huge amount, hopefully Nokia has some plans to improve this aspect of their products.

My Symbian

Forums and download directory, fair bit here if you browse through.

Dot Sis

Hang out on these forums and you’re likely to find a whole lot of games and apps. If you can be bothered registering =P

Carbide

Carbide.ui is software to create user interfaces for your Symbian device. Easy to use, great for making custom themes.

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Basic functions that Nokia PC Suite 7 provides are backing up important data of the mobile phone, synchronizing all kinds of data like contacts, emails and calendars and providing Internet access for the computer the mobile phone is connected to.

That is obviously not all. The PC Suite can check the availability of new firmwares for selected mobile phones and instantly download them to the computer. Besides that you get a file manager and administration of messages, contacts and multimedia files on the mobile phone.

It’s furthermore possible to install applications on the mobile phone. My personal opinion is that it looks like the new version of the Nokia PC Suite comes with improved performance, everything feels a tad faster and more responsive.

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In case you are wondering, HandyWi is the application that can be installed on many Nokia mobile phones including the Nokia N78, Nokia N95 and the N93. A list of supported devices can be found at the developers homepage.

The process is pretty simple. The HandyWi software has to be installed on the mobile phone which will alert the user whenever a free WiFi spot has been discovered. The user can then connect to that spot and start using services like VOIP or Internet surfing for free.

This works pretty well in combination with Notebooks as well especially if your Notebook’s wireless card is not supported by the usual applications like Netstumbler or Easy WiFi Radar.

HandyWi features:

• Filtering of hotspots, separated view for public WLAN networks
• HandyWi clearly shows which access point is secure and which is not
• Single internet access point (HandyWi APN) for all applications (mail, web browser, char etc.)
• Easy account management, several user accounts possible (scratch card, prepaid etc.)
• Access to the location based media information, loaded each time you connect (works on selected WLAN networks only)
• Automatic hotspot discovery and alert feature
• Automatic connection to the hotspot which has stronger signal
• Secure RSA encrypted communication with HandyWi server
• Automatic application startup after install and on boot

HandyWi works pretty well and can be installed directly or by downloading it to the PC first.

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I was surprised that a very effective way of dealing with mobile phone theft was already available. All of the applications that I took a look at support sending a SMS whenever the SIM card of the mobile gets changed. The SMS will contain information about the new phone number and, depending on the software and phone, other relevant information like GPS coordinates.

This makes it very easy to track down your mobile phone with the help of law enforcement agencies who simply contact the phone company asking them to reveal name and address of the person behind the new phone number.

Most anti-theft software is not free unfortunately and I was only able to find two free ones that unfortunately work only on selected mobile phones:

mGuard

mGuard is a anti-theft software for Sony Ericsson phones and provides a way to send an SMS to another mobile phone whenever the SIM card gets changed. It operates silently in the background and it should be very hard to spot. Even if the thief spots the application the SMS has already been send out.

Guardian

Guardian is a advanced anti-theft software for Symbian S60 devices. It starts automatically when the mobile phone is turned on and checks the SIM card in the process. A SMS will be send containing information about the new phone number, GSM cell ID, country ID and current network). The current user will not be notified about the SMS and it will not appear in the logs or send SMS folders.

Guardian will automatically switch to invisible mode when a SIM card is entered that is not authorized which makes it impossible to access the application. It also comes with a hard reset protection that protects the application when the user performs a hard reset which basically means a return to the default phone settings. (works 90% of the time according to the developers)

Users who donate money to the project, from €3 to €500 get a few extra features. The remote control plugins sound very interesting. Once an unauthorized SIM card has been placed in the phone it is possible to send remote commands to the phone to

• Recover your sms and your Phonebook’s contacts from your stolen mobile
• Gain informations about the thief, monitoring his activities like sent and received sms, incoming and outgoing calls, phonebooks contacts added
• Track the movements of your mobile, using the gsm cell-id localization
• Protect your Privacy deleting contents from your stolen mobile (sms, contacts, images, videos, audios)
• Lock your Phone or your SIM to avoid anyone using it

This version can also store up to ten different SIM cards that are authorized which is great if you happen to change SIM cards every now and then.

Guardian is a pretty sophisticated tool and I would definitely recommend to donate to get the additional features.

Now of any other free tools for mobile phones that add anti-theft protections to them ? Let me know about them please.

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• Nokia PC Suite Error 1305: Error reading from file (1)

Two download options are available. You can either download the Skype for your mobile client directly by using your mobile phone or by downloading it to your computer first and transferring it afterwards to the phone. My Nokia N73 is not currently supported but shown as coming soon which means I cannot try the application yet.

You do get access to your Skype contacts which means you see when a contact is online. Chat is supported as well as calling contacts and other phone numbers. This is in the beta limited to the following countries: Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden and UK. Anyone can receive calls however which makes this client useful even if you cannot use it to call others yet.

You pay the normal national or local rate if you want to call Skype contacts and an additional Skype-out fee to your destination. This does only make sense if you make international calls. If you receive calls on your mobile phone with Skype for your mobile installed you pay the Skype-out charge for a mobile call in your country.

Add to those the data rate charges of the phone operator. Skype is giving an example:

A person with 20 contacts, who’s online for 1 hour, IMs for 10 minutes and has a 20 minute call each day will use about 1MB of data per month. The more data you use, the higher your charges may be.

I first thought this was a bit low but then I realized that the phone calls do not seem to use any data.

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There’s nothing wrong in wanting to beat iTunes. However, the way Nokia is going about things, you’d think they were trying to scare away all their customers. It’s a case of how do I frighten thee? Let me count the ways.

Let’s start by getting to the site. I accessed the site using Firefox and was told that the music store does not support the browser. You can only get to the site using IE6 or higher. That’s strike one. To transfer the music to your phone, you need to have Windows XP or Vista. That’s strike two since it shuts out all the Linux and Mac users.

Assuming you fulfill the first two criteria, the fun doesn’t stop there. Music on the site is only available in the proprietary ‘wma’ format, so your phone needs to have Windows Media Player to play your tunes. At $1.70 a song, it might interest you to know that the songs are DRM enabled as well. So, you cannot play the song anywhere else except for your phone.

In my first para, I mentioned Nokia was looking to topple iTunes. Their most brilliant strategy to do that? The songs cannot be played on iPod. That’s right, the most popular portable media player will not play any of these songs. Brilliant marketing strategy isn’t it?

To quote Andre Yoskowitz at Afterdawn, “I’m not sure who at Nokia thought that offering expensive, DRM-crippled music that cannot be played on iPods was a good idea but they should not have a job.”

How many of you would be willing to purchase music like this? What do you think of Nokia’s marketing strategy? What’s your opinion on these kind of arm-twisting tactics? Let me know.

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I did not want to uninstall the Nokia PC Suite because I did need it from time to time. The Nokia Phone Browser entry in My Computer is connected to the PhoneBrowser.dll and all that has to be done is to unregister the dll in windows to remove the entry in My Computer.

Open the command line by pressing Windows R, typing cmd and hitting enter. Now navigate to the folder where the Nokia PC Suite is installed. In my case it was C:\Program Files\Nokia\Nokia PC Suite 6 so I did type “cd C:\Program Files\Nokia\Nokia PC Suite 6″.

The command to unregister the PhoneBrowser.dll and remove the Nokia Phone Browser entry is “regsvr32 /u PhoneBrowser.dll”. Refresh the My Computer window to see the change which should be visible immediately.

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You should have Nokia PC suite installed for this to run, but that comes with your phone, or you can download it via the Nokia website. After you’ve installed it, head on over to Nokia Beta Labs (everyone seems to be coming out with beta labs lately) and download Nokia Text Messenger.

Following installation you will have two viewing options, you can either leave it in the sidebar, giving you a three message preview, or you can leave it floating around for a five message preview. I’ve always loved viewing messages on the PC, since it is a lot faster, especially when you reply. I takes me at least 2 minutes to write 150 characters, on my PC I shoot it out in about 10 secs.

Found via Sizlopedia

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