Nokia has announced that the E71 handset is now available here in the U.S. The E71 measures a mere 0.39 inches think making it the slimmest QWERTY device on the market right now. The E71 comes with a large color display, a QWERTY keyboard for those of you that must have keys, and a unique one-click switch mode function that changes the E71’s look, feel, and application set from business to personal use.

Key specs of the E71 include:

• Built-in Assisted-GPS, Wi-Fi
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• 3G Support
• Nokia Maps 2.0
• Mail for Exchange and Intellisync
• Support for Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail
• Calendar, Contacts and To-Do lists
• microSD slot

The E71 is available for an unsubsidized price of around $500 dollars.

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Technorati Tags: Nokia E71

If you’re interested in the new T-Mobile 3G network, then you should definitely take a read at this PC Magazine article which talks about the first 3G phones available for the carrier. First off - please remember that while both T-Mobile and AT&T utilize the same radio technology, they use completely different frequencies. Thus, unless your 3G phone supports a variety of frequencies for UMTS/HSDPA, you’re out of luck when it comes to using your T-Mobile phone on other 3G networks. You will be able to use 2G networks of course.

The phones covered in the article include the Nokia 6263, Nokia 3555, Samsung SGH-t819, and Samsung SGH-t639. It looks like the initial phone selection is .. how shall we say it.. sucky? PC Magazine did somewhat like the Nokia 6263.. but again - don’t expect anything awe-inspiring. It’s also important to note that the 3G network is only available right now in New York. Rollout nationwide will proceed as the year goes by.

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Technorati Tags: PC Magazine, T-Mobile, 3G Network, Nokia 6263, Nokia 3555, Samsung SGH-t819, Samsung SGH-t639

Nokia announced today the new Wireless Loopset which is compatible with T-coil equipped hearing aids or cochlear implants. The Wireless Loopset is designed to help hearing aid users enjoy better audio quality and handsfree operations of their mobile and/or audio devices.

The Nokia Wireless Loopset features:

• Background noise filtering
• Bluetooth connectivity
• Vibrating alert
• user adjustable sidetone level
• Optimized volume range and frequency response
• Comfortable neckloop
• Single button for call handling

Another cool thing about the device - the design and development was inspired and developed by Nokia employees who are hard of hearing. What better way to design and develop a product than by those who can directly use such a product.

The Nokia Wireless Loopset will be coming out in the first quarter of 2009 for an estimated price of 200 EUR.

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Nokia whips out fashionable mobile phones with the introduction of their new Supernova mobile phone product lineup. Three of the four new stylish phones can be further customized with exchangeable Xpress-On covers.  The four new phones that make up the Supernova product lineup including the Nokia 7610 Supernova, 7510 Supernova, 7310 Supernova, and 7210 Supernova. Here’s what you need to know about each phone:

Nokia 7610 Supernova:

• Slide design
• Xpress-On covers
• Theme Colorizer lets people identify and capture any color and further tailor a look by applying captured colors to the phone’s key illumination and wallpaper
• 3.2 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and 8x digital zoom
• IM support
• TV out
• Dedicated music key
• FM radio
• MP3 player
• Nokia Music Store support through Nokia Music PC Client
• Available in the third quarter for an estimated price of 225 EUR

Nokia 7510 Supernova:

• Fold design with push to open side key
• Xpress-On front and back covers
• Magical light effects with hidden-until-lit display and reminder light
• 2 megapixel camera with NIPS, LED flash, 4x digital zoom
• 512MB microSD card
• 2.2 inch QVGA display
• Nokia Web browser
• FM Radio
• Enhanced MP3 player
• Nokia Music Store and Nokia Music PC Client
• Access to Nokia Maps 1.2
• A-GPS support
• Available in the fourth quarter for an estimated price of 180 EUR

Nokia 7310 Supernova:

• Xpress-On covers
• 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom
• TV out
• IM support
• Preinstalled games
• FM RDS radio
• MP3 player
• Available in the second quarter for an estimated price of 155 EUR

Nokia 7210 Supernova:

• Slim design
• Available in bubble gum pink or vivid blue in gloss finish
• SD memory card slot
• MP3 player
• 2 megapixel camera
• Access to flickr
• Available in the third quarter for an estimated price of 120 EUR

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Technorati Tags: Nokia, Supernova, 7610 Supernova, 7510 Supernova, 7310 Supernova, 7210 Supernova

Nokia also announced today (well more like yesterday now), that the new Nokia N78 is now available in the U.S. The N78 includes features such as :

• Integrated Assisted GPS
• 3.2 megapixel digital camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• 20x digial zoom
• MPEG-4 VGA video capture at up to 15fps
• High-speed HSDPA connectivity on 850/1900MHz networks
• Free three month trial navigation license for Nokia Maps service
• Digital music player
• Integrated FM transmitter
• MicroSD memory card slot
• Widget support enabled via Web Runtime technology
• Up to 70MB internal memory
• 2.4 inch QVGA (240 x 320) resolution display
• Symbian OS
• Measures 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm and weighs 101.8 grams
• Up to 24 hour music playback time
• Wi-Fi support
• USB 2.0 support
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

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In case you didn’t hear about it earlier today - Nokia announced plans to acquire the remaining 52 percent of Symbian Limited, makers of the popular Symbian OS, for approximately EUR 264 million. In turn, Nokia will turn around and team up with several companies to create the Symbian Foundation - an effort to unify the Symbian mobile platform and “set it free”. That’s the right - the Foundation’s charter is to unify Symbian, S60, UIQ, and MOAP software and then provide a royalty-free open platform. Other companies in the Foundation include AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics. Texas Instruments, and Vodafone.

While Symbian is the most widely used mobile phone OS, it’s very clear that the competition is gaining on them. It’s increasingly evident that companies are positioning themselves to be the platform provider of choice. Just look at Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS, Apple’s OS X for the iPhone, and Google’s Android platform. Each of these three competing platforms take different routes to delivering software to their respective hardware platforms. Both Microsoft and Apple are going their traditional routes with Microsoft licensing their OS to hardware manufacturers and Apple controlling both the hardware and software specifications for a relatively closed yet powerful platform and experience. Google hopes to gain market share by making their platform open and free to use (with money coming in from potential ad revenue). To combat these approaches, Nokia and the other companies had to do something - and that something was the founding of the Symbian Foundation.

According to the Foundation’s website, these companies are “coming together .. to bring to life a shared vision and to create the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform - available for free.” Membership within the foundation will be open to all organizations for an annual fee of $1500. The resulting Symbian Foundation platform will be available to members under a royalty free license. The platform itself will go open source in the next two years and will use the Eclipse Pubic License. The platform code will be available to all for free.

Of course - no one knows how all of this will pan out in the long haul. Will all the companies in the foundation be able to work well together? How will competing interests within each handset manufacturer play out in the OS world? One thing is for sure - things are getting more and more interesting in the mobile front.

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Technorati Tags: Nokia, Symbian Limited, Symbian Foundation

PC Magazine has published a review of the Nokia N95 mobile phone here on their website. The 95 multimedia smartphone features the following:

• WCDMA 2100 + E850/900/1800/1900MHz
• Measures 99 x 53 x 21 mm and weighs 128 grams
• Up to 100MB internal dynamic memory for messages, ringtones, images, video clips, etc
• Up to 8GB internal flash memory for multimedia content such as music, pictures, ringing tones, map data
• 2.8 inch QVGA (240 x 320) TFT display with ambient light detector and up to 16 million colors
• S60 3rd edition platform
• Dedicated media keys
• 5 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics
• UMTS, HSDPA support

Here’s the verdict from PC Magazine:

An evolutionary upgrade of Nokia’s popular unlocked N95 handset, the N95 8GB is a good choice for anyone who wants a top-notch multimedia smartphone but can live without a QWERTY keyboard.

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Technorati Tags: Nokia N95, 8GB, PC Magazine, Review

T-Mobile HotSpot@Home customers will be happy to hear that the company has introduced two new mobile phones for the service - the Nokia 6301 and the Samsung SGH-t339. This brings the total number of HotSpot@Homes compatible mobile phones to eight including three smartphones and several Samsung and Nokia phones.

The Samsung t339 features stereo Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a built-in music player, and IM support while the Nokia 6301 features a 2 megapixel camera with video capture, stereo Bluetooth support, and a built-in music player. The Nokia 6301 also comes with a stand-up charger allowing the phone to be docked similar to home cordless phones.

Specs to the Samsung t339 include the following:

• Wi-Fi-enabled; supports T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
• T-Mobile myFaves-enabled
• Music player (supports MP3, AAC and AAC+)
• Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
• 1.3 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and video capture
• Expandable memory with microSD (support for up to 2GB)
• Instant messaging; supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live
• Speakerphone
• Tri-band 850/1800/1900 MHz; GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMA
• Display: 176 x 220 pixels, TFT, 262k
• Dimensions: 3.62 x 1.83 x 0.78 inches, 3.3 ounces

Specs to the Nokia 6301 include the following:

• Wi-Fi-enabled; supports T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
• T-Mobile myFaves(SM)-enabled
• Music player (supports WMA, MP3, AAC and eAAC+)
• Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
• 2.0 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and video capture
• Expandable memory with microSD (support for up to 4GB)
• Instant messaging; supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live
• Speakerphone
• FM radio
• Tri-band 850/1800/1900 MHz; GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMA
• Display: 240 x 320 pixels, TFT, 16 million colors
• Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.7 x 0.5 inches, 3.2 ounces

Both phones are available today with the Samsung t339 going for $49.99 after an instant discount of $110 (with a qualifying monthly rate plan) and the Nokia 6301 going for $79.99 after an instant discount of $50 dollars and a mail-in rebate of $50 dollars (as well as a qualifying plan).

Technorati Tags: T-Mobile, HotSpot@Home, Samsung t339, Nokia 6301

Nokia also introduced a new Bluetooth headset design called the BH-212. Features of the BH-212 include the following:

• Compact ergonomic design
• Single button for basic call handling feature
• Talk time of up to 11 hours
• Send/end key, volume up/downj buttons, mute functions
• Soft U-hook, small ribs on the U-hook act like a hinge when the slides of the hook are gently pressed
• green LED for status
• 250 hour standby
• Small and lightweight
• Measures 53 x 20 x 9mm and weighs 13.5 grams
• Supports Bluetooth 2.1

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Nokia announced two new smartphones to join their E series product lineup - the E71 and the E66. Calling them “multimedia computers”, both devices are “email-optimized” with the E71 featuring a full QWERTY keyboard and the E66 featuring a slider design. Common features to both handsets include:

• Easy to install and use email with support for systems like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and others
• Support for Microsoft Exchange via the Mail for Exchange email client software
• Supports Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email
• Includes latest Ovi services including maps, music, and media sharing
• Support for HSDPA, wireless LAN
• Assisted GPS
• Support for up to 8GB expandable memory
• 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera
• Built-in encryption for both device memory and for memory card
• Integrated VPN support

The Nokia E71 features:

• Stainless steel case and etched graphics
• Available in two colors - grey steel or white steel
• Designed for both one handed or two handed use
• Enhanced calendar, contacts and customizable home screens

The Nokia E66 features:

• Stainless steel accents
• Smooth sliding design
• Enhanced calendar, contacts and customizable home screens
• Orientation sensor - automatically optimizes for full screen viewing or silencing the ringer when the device is turned over
• Available in grey steel or white steel

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Technorati Tags: Nokia, E71, E66