The handset that Nokia sent me was the black model that’s the first time come to market.  The Lumia 800 will soon be available in several colours including a very fetching pale blue.  It’s almost identical in the hardware to their recent MeeGo handset, the N9 and is very fetching too.  The glass expanse on the front that covers almost the entire front of the handset is extremely attractive and the build quality overall is of an extremely high quality.

Internally it’s a little better than other Windows Phones with a 1,400MHz processor, the usual 512Mb of RAM but a healthy 16Gb of storage.  There are also all the features you’d expect in a modern smartphone.  Externally the handsets sports a 3.7 inch AMOLED screen and an 8 MP camera with a Carl Zeiss Lens, usually the preserve of companies such as Sony, a a dual LED flash.

There is little doubt in my mind that the Lumia 800 is a thing of beauty and every bit as desirable as the Apple alternative, if not even more so.  When you actually live with the handsets though is the experience always as pleasurable?  I set about finding out.

The Lumia 800 has had a difficult birth.  When Microsoft and Nokia first announced their strategic partnership early this year there was a great deal of pressure already on the Finnish phone maker.  Their ageing Symbian operating system was failing in the market, their MeeGo platform with Intel was going nowhere and the company was admitting it was in trouble.  Nokia needed Microsoft as much as Microsoft needed Nokia.  This wasn’t a love-in, it was more like a desperate marriage to keep both parties afloat.

Despite a huge marketing campaign surrounding the Lumia 800 rumours have abounded of sluggish sales.  The company has also had to rush out a patch to fix an issue with poor battery life.

I was definitely looking forward to trying the Lumia 800 and have been looking forward to it for ages now, right from when I saw the first leaked images.

It’s a little heavier than some other Windows Phones, at 142g, and there’s not really any indication as to why as there’s not much more here than you’d find anywhere else.  Some people do like a slightly weighty phone though so they can feel it on their person.  It’s far from heavy though and will fit in a shirt pocket without sagging.

The screen is slightly disappointing.  It actually looks small under such a huge expanse of glass.  It’s lacking contrast too with whites looking a bit creamy on medium brightness.  Finally it suffers from the curse of all AMOLED screens with the live tiles in Windows Phone looking a little fuzzy around the edges if you get close.  The camera is a little disappointing too with images looking a bit washed out.  The camera with the Xenon flash on my Own HTC Mozart is far better and even the camera with an LED flash on the new HTC Titan is a big improvement over the Lumia.

I also have concerns about the USB socket.  This sits behind a plastic pop up flap on the top of the handset, next to the headphone jack.  The effect makes for a very clean outer but I can’t escape the nagging feeling that this flap will probably break over time, especially as you need to charge modern smartphones every day.The battery, like the iPhone, is non-removable but this shouldn’t be a problem for most.

It’s in the software though where this handset shines.  The Nokia Drive satnav app is by far the best addition with downloadable maps for most countries in the world available for free.  This enables you to use your phone as an in car or walking satnav without having to worry about maintaining a data connection.  This single app makes the Lumia 800 worth having on its own.  Elsewhere the custom Nokia software is less inspiring and mostly duplicates, though happily doesn’t replace, the in built Windows Phone apps for music and mapping.

So what do I think of the Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone overall and am I disappointed?  In short I’m certainly not disappointed and I’m looking forward to using the phone in anger over Christmas and New Year.  It’s s perfect fit in the hand and very comfortable to hold when making calls, something not every Windows Phone is.  The software and hardware package overall is quite simply superb and the inclusion of a protectivive silicon rubber case and a low-profile charger means that for a first Windows Phone from Nokia I believe we can expect some very exciting things from the company going forward.

The thing is though I’ve been doing both of these pretty much since 1986 and the concept really isn’t a new one at all.

Back then I was a huge fan of UK company Psion’s mobile computers, indeed I had a whole range of them. It started with the Organiser II, their second generation mobile device (though the first one that was genuinely useful) and moved on to the Series 3a, Series 3c and finally a Series 5.

Psion is the company that had already brought the world the first integrated office suite of Quill, Abacus, Archive and Easel for the ill-fated Sinclair QL business computer, just beating Apple’s Mac (though barely) and beating the equivalent on PC’s by a good year.

I thought I’d give you a quick tour of these devices (a trip down memory lane for some) and talk about why Psion’s handhelds were important and how they’re still influencing modern laptops and smartphones today.

Despite what some people might have you believe, the Palm Pilot was far from the first mobile computing device. By the time it launched in 1996, Psion had already been mass producing mobile computers for twelve years. The 1984 Organiser and the 1986 Organiser II, which many people still think of as the original model for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the BBC Television adaptation of the classic Douglas Adams novels, was a fantastic little machine.

It had two removable storage ports you could plug additional memory into, these were later wiped by removing a label over the chip and exposing them to ultra violet light for 30 minutes (I’ll bet you’ve never formatted a disk quite that way before!)

All of the software you would expect for a mobile computer was already there including a diary, contacts app, clock, alarms, calculator and the device was fully programmable. In fact there was quite an extensive user base who wrote custom apps, not just for the Organisers, but also for the Series 3 and Series 5 computers that followed them.

Three years still before the Palm Pilot was launched, Psion had moved to a clamshell design with full qwerty keyboard and larger screen. Their Series 3 handheld was an instant success and they could be seen being used by yuppies everywhere (I wasn’t a yuppie). Their programing language had evolved and was now even more powerful and flexible.  A variant of Basic, it focused on database creation and query and the Series 3 soon became home to a wide range of third-party professional apps from medical and industrial information to education, science and more.

At this point Psion began to diverge into industrial handhelds, and they still operate in this market today. Before they finally abandoned the home handheld market though they launched the Series 5. This computer had an ingenuous folding clamshell design where the keyboard slipped outwards from the case to maximise the available space. This keyboard was completely revolutionary and, although Palm was clearly winning the handheld wars by this point, laptops for years to come would owe some of their design and ingenuity to the Series 5.

The Series 5 also sported a touch screen, the first Psion handheld to do so and, as it featured more power and yet more additions to it’s native programming language, saw just as many practical applications as its predecessor.

The operating system for the Series 5, EPOC, which was written from the ground up for this device, was later renamed Symbian and still exists to this day in Nokia smartphones. Psion entered a strategic alliance in 1998 with Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson to bring the mobile OS to a wider market. The project was inevitably doomed and eventually Nokia bought the OS outright for use on its mobile phones.

As if the company’s innovations weren’t good enough by this point, in 1999 they released a sub-notebook device called, you guessed it, the Netbook.  This pre-dated modern netbooks by almost a decade and while it wasn’t a huge success, was still popular in business sporting several additional models including the company’s first full-colour device and one running Windows CE.

I don’t own any Psion devices any more but I do remember them fondly. With my Organiser II was able to keep a diary and planner, organise all my contacts and carry them with me and more. The Series 3 and Series 5 allowed me more control over my life with mobile spreadsheets and word processing documents. I was able to do financial planning and more on the move. So when you use your smartphone or tablet today, think back to how it all began with one small British innovator.

Many employees didn’t like this announcement though, primarily the 1,500 workers employed on the Symbian side of the company who are now worried about their own futures. Many of these workers all took advantage of flexi-time to leave work early yesterday, apparently in protest at the wholesale move to Windows Phone.

Bloomberg reported that shares in the company fell 14% today, which is the largest drop for the company since last summer.

 It’s not all bad news though, as the first concept image of a Nokia Windows Phone have leaked to Engadget, you can see it below.  I think you’ll agree that if Nokia release handsets that look this good then the fortumes of both Nokia and Microsoft can be turned around.

Nokia has had mixed fortunes in recent years and its CEO was forced to admit they’d fallen years behind their rivals.  While the company was working on a new smartphone OS, MeeGo, it could never have had it market-ready in time to get back in the race.

Nokia is still the world’s largest phone manufacturer and needs to maintain this position.  So far uptake of Windows Phone has been lukewarm.  This is due to a combination of factors that include smartphone fatigue, Android’s current dominance and a poor set of enterprise features.  Nokia is the partner Microsoft need to make Windows Phone trendy.  It looks very much from this image that Nokia will not be letting them down.

Nokia phone owners who want to access the contents need to restore them to the phone in order to do so. That’s not very practical considering that some users may have switched to other phones in the meantime.

The free open source software NBU Explorer offers help for users who want to access their Nokia phone backups on the PC. The software program is easy to use and offers to parse, extract and view the contents of the backup.

Nokia NBU, NFB & NFC backup file (produced by Nokia Content Copier) and ARC backup file (phone side backup to memory card) parser, extractor and viewer. It can help you to check content of backup or extract files from it. Requires MS .Net Framework 2

Nbu backups can be loaded into the application via the file menu. The program displays the contents of the backup file automatically, with options to browse and view the contents directly in the application window. It is for instance possible to view images that have been taken or stored on the phone directly in the interface.

It is furthermore possible to extract backup contents to the local system, so that they become accessible directly.

NBU Explorer is a helpful application for users who want to access Nokia phone backups directly on their PC to access SMS, pictures, contacts and other contents.

The application requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0. It is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems including 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Figures from IDC and published by Engadget show that the league table now stands as…

1. Nokia
2. Samsung
3. LG
4. Apple
5. RIM

…and given their recent and ongoing troubles, we can expect to see Nokia lose the top spot very soon.

According to IDC, Apple is now shipping 14.1 million handsets every quarter worldwide.  Further down the list, Sony Ericsson is apparently struggling but the company’s phones have lost their appeal in recent years.  It’s the first time Sony Ericsson has not been included in the list since 2004.

Full details of the top five companies with market share and manufacturing information can be found below, click on the image to view it full-size.

Apple have had their eye on overtaking RIM for some time, and this figure confirms a recent boast made by Apple supremo Steve Jobs.  Market leader Nokia still accounts for 32.4% of the market, though this has slipped from last year’s 36.5%

The software integrates itself on the other hand tightly in the operating system which is something not all users want. This often results in leftover entries after uninstalling the Nokia PC Suite which can afterwards only be cleaned up manually which takes lots of time and searching to find them all.

The official Nokia PC Suite Cleaner is an alternative to cleaning up a computer system after uninstalling the PC Suite.

The program is provided by Nokia. Official uninstallers are often a sign that a noticeable percentage of all users are experiencing difficulties uninstalling a product from the computer system.

This is similar to antivirus software uninstallers that are provided by the program’s developers.

Nokia PC Suite Cleaner removes file and Registry leftovers of the Nokia PC Suite from the computer system.

With Nokia PC Suite Cleaner, you can:

• Remove old or unnecessary Nokia PC Suite-related files from your PC to make way for a new installation
• Clean both Nokia PC Suite files and registry data

It is recommended to perform a standard uninstallation first and run the Nokia PC Suite Cleaner afterwards to remove the leftovers that the uninstaller missed. It is also recommended to backup any data that might still be needed. This can for instance be phone backups or firmwares that are located on the computer system.

Nokia PC Suite Cleaner can be downloaded from the Nokia website. It is compatible with all Microsoft operating systems from Windows XP to Windows 7 plus limited support for Windows 2000.

Get over to the other side and get updated in the mean time.

Nokia X6 To Land In The UK This Friday

If you have been eyeing Nokia’s latest touchscreen music phone – the X6, it is coming to the UK Friday. As is usual with many phones there, it has found a carrier who will be offering it for free against a long-time contract. This time it is Orange for £35/month.

For the SIM-free version you will have to pony up £449, which is roughly around $670 at today’s exchange rate. You can pre-order it from shop.nokia.co.uk from today. [read]

Skype Nokia N900 Demo Video

Nokia N900 comes with Skype built-in. So now you have more reason to buy the N900 for $649, that is if you can wait for the next shipments to arrive. The last I heard of it was that it was pre-ordered to capacity and new orders were behind huge queues. At least now you can get one for $480 on Amazon ($530-$50 mail in rebate). [read]

Skype has demoed Skype for Maemo on an official video. Since Skype is already available on Linux, this port could not have been all that hard to execute. [read]

UK Retailers Pull Satio, Big Bugs Need Squashing

Bad news folks, Sony Ericsson’s Satio is now as good as off the shelves right now. This decision had to be taken after numerous customers came in with complaints about freezes, mysterious powering down of the phone and other problems. The two major retailers of the Phone in the UK – Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U – have decided to offer replacements to customers who are returning the Satio.

Official word from Sony Ericsson is that the issues will be fixed before Christmas. The bugs are apparently to deep for normal updates to tackle. Well, I guess that’s what we get for lusting after a too-good-to-be-true 12MP camera phone.

Kurara Reviewed, Is OKAY

Like he promised, the man behind mobile review has posted a more detailed look at the Kurara. From Murtazin’s post, it is clear that the phone sounds good on paper but it is pretty ordinary in person. It definitely fits the bill for an understudy of the Idou and should be priced somewhere around half of the high-end offerings. That said, if this phone is priced right, it could become a hot-selling phone for those who are looking for an entry-level touchscreen experience that is slightly better than the Samsung options.

The ARM Cortex Ab with 256MB RAM still is powerful enough to breeze through the Symbian UI. So that part is covered I suppose. Read the extensive review of it right here.

O2’s ‘Free’ HTC HD2

The Brits are at it again. They are really good at giving away phones for free as long as you promise to pay them a hefty sum. If you are in the market for the HTC HD2 and if you are in the UK, you can get it for free from O2 against a long-term contract. You will have to pay a nice £45 per month on it though. So far, I do not think the HD2 retailing SIM-free there. So O2 looks like the only option right now. [read]

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?

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]

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.

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.

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?

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.

Update: The third party program to download Nokia maps to the local system without Nokia Map Loader is no longer available. There does not seem to be a free alternative available at this time. The only option for users is to use the official Nokia Map Loader application linked above to download maps to their computer that they can then transfer to their Nokia pone.

• 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.

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?

Update: The video has been deleted on YouTube, it is no longer available on the popular video hosting website. The account that has uploaded the video has been deleted as well. The video itself does not seem to be available as a copy on the site, which is often the case when a video goes down.

Here are related videos that you may enjoy. The first is a French Pepsi commercial.

A Dr. Pepper commercial featuring Godzilla.

Nike’s famous Ronaldinho commercial.

Please let me know if you find the original Pepsi Kung Fu commercial on the Internet, I’d like to embed the video again on the site.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.