Nokia 5530 xpressMusic - Nokia Bloggo

The Nokia N8 could be the last N series device to feature Symbian OS: those are only rumors coming from CNET Asia. One of their sources would have confirmed that the N9 will be the first device with MeeGo.

According to CNET Asia, the Nokia Asia Pacific Marketing manager, Will Harris, declared to Joseph Hanlon that the N8 should be the last N series to have Symbian and that the following models will all feature MeeGo. It would mean, then, that Symbian^3 and Symbian^4 will be featured on X series and E series. We’ll have to wait and see.

This piece of news will make owners of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic happy. A new firmware, called 50.0.005, was launched. Among the many new features on this big update, comes QuickOffice: The free software that allows the visualization of Office files. A very welcome integration, as the software seems hard to come by, and it’s a very important thing to have in most smartphones.

Other enhancements are the kinetic scrolling also on the menus, the update of the music player (now identical to the Nokia N97 one), enhancements on the photo area and OviSync pre-installed.

In order to update it, users can use the Nokia Software Updater (or the Ovi Suite), or the option within the phone. For now,t he update is only available in the APAC regions.

With the release of Symbian ^3, with open source license during the last weeks, it seems that the work on the next OS release, the ^4 has already begun. According to the official roadmap, the OS should be completed by September 2010 and should be available on devices from the second half of 2011.

And the videos we’ll show by the end of this post show more about the Symbian ^4. Enjoy!

Intel and Nokia have come together to join the competition between Google, Apple and Microsoft when it comes to mobile Operating Systems. The two companies have merged their forces together to create a new OS, MeeGo. The first devices featuring this new OS should be seen at the second half of 2010.

MeeGo is a fusion of Nokia’s Maemo OS and Moblin, the mobile OS from Intel, both developed on Linux. Maemo is the platform currently present on the N900, while Moblin is featured on some devices such as the LG GW990, and some Acer and Foxconn netbooks. Both systems, analyzed on themselves, are still on a very primitive stage when compared to Apple’s and Google’s platforms, and that’s probably why Intel and Nokia decided to join forces.

At the current stage, the new system will be developed based on the Moblin core system, but it’ll use the Nokia Ovi Store for applications, and it’ll be managed by Lunx Foundation as an Open Source project, aiming to be developed to work on netbooks and tablets as well.

Nokia hasn’t released a phone with a 12 Megapixel photocamera yet, although the rumors claim that there is one to be launched soon in the market. People thought the Nokia N87 would have been the first model to feature that 12 Megapixel photocamera.

But according to more rumors, the 12 Megapixel photocamera phone will be called Nokia N8. The French site Tom’s Guide has revealed that the Nokia N8 (Or Nokia N8-99) will be launched during the first half ot 2010, as the first phone featuring Symbian^3.

The Nokia N8 should have a 3.5″ touchscreen display and record HD videos at 720p and an HDMI port.

With a surprise move, Nokia has decided to release the GPS navigation for free with their very good product, Ovi Maps. In fact,     despite the software being pre-installed in most Nokia smartphones with GPS, up till the announcement, users needed to buy a license in order to use the vocal guide.

Available in 74 countries and 46 languages,the vocal guides for the GPS navigation are now free, the same as the maps from 180 countries. The Ovi Maps is compatible with several devices, such as: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97, Nokia E72, among others, and from March 2010 on, it’ll come preinstalled in all new devices.

It didn’t take long for Nokia to confirm the rumors this time: the Firmware 40.0.005 for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was released, and it brings the kinetic scrolling feature to all the menus on the phone, amongst other things.

We’re still waiting on an official changelog, but we remind you all to backup the phone just for safety reasons. The update is only available for now through the Nokia Software Updater.

After the last important update for the Nokia N86 which arrived last October and implemented facial recognition, the device gets yet a new firmware. The photographic device, which has received the award of best cameraphone of 2009 from TIPA thanks to its 8 Megapixel photocamera receives a minor update. The new update is less than 700 KB heavy if downloaded directly from the smartphone.

For now we don’t know the bugfixes, but it’s always good to make a safety backup before updating the firmware. Also, another update seems to be coming for another model, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, with a firmware that adds kinetic scrolling and other new features. The new update is currently on its testing phase and will be released soon.

Nokia had a great idea in combining the lower-end of the market with the GPS devices, bringing the 2710 Navigation Edition to life. A cellphone with very basic features, it has an integrated GPS and the Nokia Maps application saved on the 2GB microSD that comes with the cellphone.

Other features are: 2.2″ screen, 2 Megapixel photocamera, FM radio and a battery that guarantees 4.2 hours in conversation and 18 days in standby. The price should be around €100 without taxes. We’ll leave you to a video and some pictures for the new device. Enjoy!

Click on the thumbnail to view the full image

The telephony part of the phone is above the expectations. The sound coming from the speakers is clear, and also the handsfree is rather good, despite the phone having only one speaker, instead of two for a possible stereo sound.

The battery is enough to last one full day with heavy usage of SMS, data connection and calls. If the GPS is used, then it lasts a little less, but it’s predictable as the GPS tends to have a higher battery requirement.