Accompanying this is a bug via which S60v3 users can download all applications for free from the Ovi Store as of now.

The procedure basically involves fooling Ovi Store to thinking you are using a C7. When you log in to the Ovi Store, select the change device button from the top right part of the page. Now select the C7. Go HERE and select the send to mobile option and enter you mobile number. On receiving the message , click the link and Ovi Store (should) open up. Now download the app and restart your phone.

[Image Courtesy - AllAboutSymbian , Thanks to Edward Umana for discovering the method]

Hey guys, so Nokia India was kind enough to send the spanking new N8 our way to test over a couple of weeks. Now i’ve been playing with it all evening but my dear friend Vaibhav from TheHandHeldBlog was just itching to take a look at the blue N8. So i’m putting up a quick photo gallery so that all you guys can check out the phone. Will be putting up a more in-depth gallery very soon.

All shots taken with the E72

However , be prepared to have all the breaking news unleashed right here as it happens. Our dear friends @MickyFin , @MichaelHell , @Fonearena are present at the event to bring a non stop live feed of information and we will be here to wrap it up nicely and give you a comprehensive look at the announcements.

To catch the action on Twitter , you can follow the tag #NokiaWorld . The guys over at Fonearena have also set up a live blog which you can access at : http://live.fonearena.com. You can also follow me at @DhruvBhutani to get instant updates from the event.

What do you think will be announced today ? The N8-01 ? The E7 ? Or maybe even the N9 ! I for one cannot wait for the event to start ! Set your clocks for 9 AM (BST) and watch the event unfold.

The guys over at Mobileperry seem to have got hold of the Ovi Store statistics till 30th June 2010.

Content

• 1.7 million downloads a day with more than 75% of downloads being apps and games
• Active users from more than 190+ countries
• 85 operators in 25 countries support integrated mobile billing with Ovi Store
• The most active countries in alphabetical order are: China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, and UK
• Offscreen Technologies has had more than 34 million downloads

Devices

• More than 120 devices are supported, 70+ of them Symbian
• 6 of the top 9 downloading devices are touch devices: 5800XM, N97, N97mini, 5530XM, 5230 Nuron, and X6 where available
• Prominent Eseries devices included the E63, E71 & E72
• 5310XM & 2700 are the top downloading Series 40 devices

Markets

• With support for 30 language variations, 90% of Ovi Store visitors are using their local language when available:
  • Canadian French
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • English (UK & US)
  • Spanish (Spain & Latin America)
  • French
  • Finnish
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hungarian
  • Indonesian
  • Italian
  • Malay
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese (Standard & Brazilian)
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Swedish
  • Thai
  • Traditional Chinese (HK & TW)
  • Turkish
  • Ukranian
  • Vietnamese

• Over 80% of these consumers can purchase from Ovi Store using their local currency
• In countries where mobile billing is available, over 2/3 of customers choose such payment method
• 85 operators in 25 countries support integrated mobile billing with Ovi Store:
  • Australia: Singtel Optus, Telstra, Vodafone (3)
  • Austria: A1 mobilkom, H3G, Orange, T-Mobile (4)
  • Belgium: Base, Mobistar, Proximus (3)
  • Canada: Bell, Rogers, Telus (3)
  • Czech Republic: T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 (3)
  • Denmark: H3G, TDC, Sonofon, Telia (4)
  • Finland: DNA, Elisa, Saunalahti, Sonera (4)
  • France: Bouygues Telecom, SFR, Orange (3)
  • Germany: Debitel, E-Plus, Mobilcom, T-Mobile, Vodafone (5)
  • Greece: Cosmote, Vodafone, Wind (3)
  • Ireland: H3G, Meteor, O2, Vodafone (4)
  • Italy: TIM, Vodafone, Wind (3)
  • Mexico: Telcel (1)
  • Netherlands: KPN, T-Mobile, Telfort, Tele2,Vodafone (5)
  • Norway: Netcom, Telenor, Tele2 (3)
  • Poland: Era, Orange, Play, Plus (3)
  • Portugal: Optimus, VPN, Vodafone (3)
  • Russia: Beeline, Megafon, MTS (3)
  • Singapore: M1, Singtel, Starhub  (3)
  • South Africa: Cell-C, MTN, Vodafon (3)
  • Spain: Orange, Movistar, Vodafone (3)
  • Sweden: H3G, Tele2, Telenor, Telia (4)
  • Switzerland: Orange, Swisscom, Sunrise (3)
  • UK: H3G, Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Virgin, Vodafone (6)
  • USA: AT&T, T-Mobile (2)

This does seem to alleviate some of my fears regarding the Ovi Store. What do you think ?

[Via]

Here we are again with another stereo Bluetooth headset courtesy of WOMWorld/Nokia , the most awesome guys in the world . After having used the device for over 3 weeks now , we have a pretty strong opinion about the headset and we’re bring you the entire breakdown in this post. Lets start off with the mandatory unboxing images.

BH505 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Packaging

The Nokia BH505s come in a pretty slick packaging with a focus on minimalism. You basically get a plastic blister pack with the headset fully visible and a box with all included accessories.

The accessories included in the packaging are 6 pairs of plastic ear buds of varying sizes namely small , medium , large. You also get a travel charger with the headset and a pair of manuals.

Audio Quality

If you have read our previous post regarding the Nokia BH905, you would know that we were extremely impressed by the headset. It was incredible comfortable and sounded great. The BH505 is a behind-the-ear type headset with in ear speakers so the general experience of using this is very different from the BH905.

Having used several Bluetooth headsets we were not really impressed by the BH505. The noise isolation is pretty good but then that is a given considering the in-ear design of the speaker buds. Our audio tests were focussed primarily on music playback considering this is a stereo Bluetooth headset. We did not like what we heard though, the audio quality came out harsh and bass was quite boomy. We noticed that the highs in the audio were a bit too bright for our taste coming out very harsh and causing fatigue while listening. Bass was present but we had to really push in the buds to hear it properly and this too was an unnecessary strain. We could easily get over 15 hours of continuous music playback from the headset. Audio quality during calls was crisp and clear.

Comfort Level

Comfort level was a very interesting topic of discussion. After having spoken to several bloggers about it, we have come to the conclusion that the headset seems to have been designed keeping the European market in mind. Funny thing is that all my European blogger friends found the headset extremely comfortable with Jay Montano from MyNokiaBlog even going as far as calling it the best and most comfortable headset he had ever used. On the other hand Clinton Jeff from ZomgItsCj and several other bloggers from India who tested the device seemed to agree with me on the fact that this headset actually hurts while wearing. Could this be the reason that this particular headset has not been launched outside the European market ?

Coincidently, the box highlights the BH505 as a lightweight headset but we found that the rear band which houses the battery was actually pulling down on the headset while wearing it and this caused the headset to hurt our ears while using it.

Final Remarks

In our opinion , the BH505 looks extremely gorgeous but falls short on the audio quality and comfort front. This is one headset where we really don’t know whether to recommend it or not as we have conflicting opinions on comfort levels. It is best that you should try out the device for yourself and see how much you like it. At $50, these headsets are priced very well to be competitive in the market.

I read that post on Nokia Conversations quite a few times and This is my reply to the open letter by Mr. Anssi Vanjoki.

Dear Mr. Vanjoki,

Some very strong words from your end for Nokia. Being a pro Nokia guy for so many years, I honestly wonder what caused Nokia to suddenly stop listening. You’ve had some wonderfully engineered products like the N95, N97 and even the N90 for that matter but fared badly on almost everything else.

Nokia was once bold and leading the pack when it came to innovation. Better cameras, better software, better apps and better battery life, in short better phones. Then all of a sudden, everything started falling apart. The N82 which wowed so many people and firmly put Nokia as a serious camera phone manufacturer, suddenly thought xenon wasn’t the way forward – first mistake. When you had so many people like us telling you time and again that the N82 is the way forward you simply looked the other way and said no.

The market went a change in terms of OS in 2007 with the iPhone. I wonder why Nokia did not see this coming. For a company that is known to do thorough research (I’ve seen this in almost all the product launches, meetings with Nokia officials) for it’s devices. Nokia should have been working if not ready to counter this new threat. We stuck by you even then but the S60 5th edition really disappointed. So many updates later and it’s still not right/fixed. There was a time when a Nokia S60 device was robust and rarely did something crazy. Today, it’s almost impossible to have it function without reporting an error or two. – second mistake.

Employing the Symbian OS, meant that you had one of the most widely used OS in the market and yet you lost out to some younger OSes like Mac and Android. Don’t you think there was something wrong in the decisions taken then? Ovi Store too isn’t exactly a great solution. A website like Handango has been able to better catalog apps for devices. If Nokia is really serious about the appverse for its devices, it certainly is not showing in actions. When someone like Rita has to pull out an iPod touch for reference, it alone should make you wonder where did Nokia go wrong with the applications and developers – third mistake.

Mr Vanjoki, have you seen the battery life of the devices Nokia makes vis-a-vis the competitors. There was a time when Nokia was generous with the battery size and battery life. With the N97mini and subsequent products, it seems to have completely given up on that. With so many features on a device, I don’t know why did no one in Nokia not think of the battery life. There can be no excuses for this. If you want us to do things with our devices then give us the battery life to do it too. The N97mini just doesn’t last more than a day, the N900 half a day at max; the N8′s prospects don’t seem bright either. I hope Nokia realizes that equipping some of their best devices with puny batteries is like sending a bunch of soldiers to war with rubber bullets. Your competitors are fast grabbing this position which you have vacated. How long before it is completely lost – fourth mistake.

Hardware is another issue with the last bunch of Nokia devices. How is that the Eseries is doing things correctly and Nseries is bungling up one after the other? I thought the various teams always exchanged notes so as to create better products. Under-performing hardware will always create problems on the software front. The S60 is a very efficient platform when it comes to hardware. Something we know with experience. So when an N97 is made, and given so many pretty add ons, it quite natural that it will need more processing power and better RAM management and phone memory. It’s funny that nobody thought of it within Nokia. it might not be so different for many touch devices from Nokia. The non-touch devices on the other hand are still good and quite well equipped. Today’s devices need to be ready for tomorrow’s challenges. I guess Nokia forgot that. – fifth mistake.

Probably the biggest mistake lies in the fact that Nokia allowed itself to be complacent. It stopped reacting to competition, thinking that it was only a phase, atleast that’s the feeling I’ve had. No brand, in my knowledge, has so many bloggers writing for it out of choice, expect Nokia. As bloggers we cover all aspects of your device and a lot more. There is one thing that we also do, we give you feedback before your retail customers come to you with complaints. We are power users, early adopters and market mavens, it is in your interest to listen to what we bloggers say about your brand and your products and services. We don’t do it for money and therefore you can be assured this is genuine stuff we are saying. What’s in it for us… well we do it because we like your brand/product/service; we believe it might be a great thing; we understand the utility of it and also because as bloggers we stand to benefit from the little bit of recognition that accrues as a result of our actions. So all in all it is Nokia that stands to benefit more than us. So why has Nokia not been doing this? Free advice ain’t a bad thing you know. Listen to us, we only want the best for you and the consumers.

Mr, Vanjoki, I understand that it is impossible for you to follow each one us and our trains of thought.  It is also very difficult to know who is right and who isn’t. But I think of late all of us bloggers have been saying one thing, in different ways. By stating the above issues as mistakes, I’m not saying Nokia is bad or trying to evoke any negative feelings, but at the same time I also want you to know how frustrated we as consumers are with the current offerings.
I have been a Nokia loyalist for quite sometime and my blog will clearly convey that, but lately it’s Android and BlackBerry that seems to be worth becoming my next phone.  Imagine how many people around the world are thinking on these lines and how many have gone ahead and made that change.

I wish you luck in your endeavor. I hope the slumbering giant awakens soon. Nokia has a lot to gain and a lot to lose and I honestly hope that it achieves the former.

Regards,
Aditya Singhvi
Chief Editor – Aditya’s Phones
Chief Editor – Symbian Life-Blog
Contributer – Fonearena.com

This has been posted as a comment on the post by Mr.Vanjoki also and I hope that he does respond to the same.

]]> http://symbian-lifeblog.com/2010/07/a-reply-to-mr-anssi-vanjoki-open-letter.html/feed 1 http://symbian-lifeblog.com/2010/06/symbian-to-meego-what-does-that-mean-for-you.html http://symbian-lifeblog.com/2010/06/symbian-to-meego-what-does-that-mean-for-you.html#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 09:11:27 +0000 Aditya http://symbian-lifeblog.com/?p=2881 Continue reading]]>

A couple of days back, we told you that Nokia will be changing to MeeGo based phones for the Nseries of devices from N9 onwards. This is not something unexpected from Nokia, considering Symbian had been under fire for being an old looking OS.

Symbian was hived of into a separate entity, by Nokia in 2008 and named the Symbian Foundation, tasked with creating a newer, better more robust Symbian. now, exactly two years later, Nokia decided to drop Symbian from its Nseries line up of devices. let’s understand why this has happened.

The Nseries has been under fire for quite some time now, primarily for not being able to showcase the technological brilliance of Nokia in terms of features, software, etc. With rivals like Apple, Samsung and HTC making tremendous headway into the touchscreen category, Nokia unfortunately has been forced to play catch up.Adopting resistive screen technology, implementing S60 5th edition – which does look like something adapted, rather than created specifically for touchscreen devices; and a bad set of hardware meant that Nokia could never really challenge the new favourites.

The S60 5th edition despite being a good OS, suffered from quite a lot of issues and never really delivered on the user experience front. The N97 and the N97mini hastened this process and to be honest it is only after the X6 launch, that this process might have slowed down a bit. But the fact remains that the X6 came in a little too late to help Symbian and Nokia in general. Having to face a lot of flack for being behind the times in the tech domain – Nokia responded with a slew of devices, with one in particular slated to be their flagship device, the N8. The N8 is the first Symbian^3 device from Nokia and now, the last in the Nseries family. Symbian^3 is a functionally complete OS, something that the Symbian Foundation had stated a while back. While the new iteration visually looks similar, if not same as the S60 5th edition, it seems that there has been a lot of work put into the new OS.

It is important for the Finnish giant to take care of its devices in order to compete against its rivals: from South Korea the Samsung Wave has just been released, running on a brand new platform, Bada. Most devices in this article should be available at Phones4u.

A look at the video put up by Michael Hell on Fonearena, gives us a glimpse of what the new OS can do:

So what does this transition mean.

Symbian per-se will not be dropped off from the rest of the line up, this something we all know. Having matured, this OS will still continue to serve on the Cseries, the Xseries and the successful Eseries. The non touch version of Symbian that does duty on many Nokia devices still continues to be one of the best OSes on non-touch phones and there is little doubt in that. It does need a few new features and some advancements, but rest assured it will remain a mainstay for Nokia’s QWERTY, and non-touch devices. the touchscreen devices will continue using the S60 5th edition (aka S^1), while the future devices will migrate to the newer S^3 platform. This will allow Nokia to bring down the cost of it’s smartphone and thereby build up volume and turnover.

What it means to you: Symbian is not being dropped completely by Nokia, it is being expanded. Look forward to many new exciting (Symbian)smart-phones at unbelievable price points and with the right features.

MeeGo, the OS being developed jointly by Intel and Nokia will become the mainstay for high-end Nokia devices and Nseries in general. MeeGo will be primarily provided on devices that will provide a much more PC like internet experience, it will be more tuned towards doing more with a ‘phone’. MeeGo is also likely to use next generation mobile phone technology, meaning faster processors, bigger screens with better resolutions, etc. This platform will also allow Nokia to integrate Ovi much better and also expand their lineup of products. This means an iPadesque device from Nokia, netbooks and what not.

What it means to you: MeeGo will be the new OS for your next Nokia mobile-computers/smart-phone. Better features, better user experience and definitely more than just a ‘phone’. Phones that will be comparable to an Apple in user experience and better than it in terms of features. Look out for those Snapdragon devices from Nokia!

Symbian S^4 will bring about the evolution of S^3, meaning faster, more functional, better Eseries, Xseries and Cseries devices. Who knows maybe the Sseries are the S^4 devices? S^4 will definitely change the landscape and consolidate Nokia’s offering and allow it to better develop products. It’s safe to assume at this point that MeeGo will the weapon of choice to bridge the divide between hand-held devices and PCs as such. While Symbian based devices will be pure smart-phones, engineered and developed to serve as phones that can do that little bit extra.

What it means to you: S^4 will represent the next generation of smart-phones. A more user-friendly UI, better feature set, better hardware and a better Nokia smart-phone to have. It will be a true touchscreen specific OS from Symbian.

All in all, the coming few years will be exciting for Nokia, Symbian and MeeGo. As consumers it will be an even better time for us. We will see better software complimented with great hardware, more features and overall, a better experience of owning a device. Nokia definitely is banking big time on this strategy as it’s quite in line with how convergence is taking place.

If you have any comments, opinions or would like to add to this, please leave your comments below.

For a in-depth read on why Nseries is headed there, I strongly recommend you read Rafe Blandford’s brilliant article titled, The changing shape of Nseries – no scaremongering, just the facts.

The Nokia BH905 is Nokia’s top end , do-it-all bluetooth stereo headset which has been designed to obliterate the competition and appeal to the audiophile masses. Well with that overblown introduction aside, lets start off on an honest , unbiased review of the Nokia BH905 !

HARDWARE

The BH 905 comes in one of the prettiest packaging i have seen in a long time. The headset is neatly packaged in a leather case with a HUGE amount of accessories added in for good measure. The amount of adaptors included with the headset show that it is definitely meant to be used with high end audio equipment along with your cellphone.

Now onto the description of the headset , the basic design has a leather covered headband with the earcups having a chrome finish on the outside. The leather extends to the earcups with a cloth centre which we personally didn’t like.

The cloth centre shown in the image above had a tendency to tear apart from the leather which showed that the joint was not as seamless as it could have been. A bit of a worry in such a high end headset in our opinion. Though we should also add that the other joints in the headset were absolutely sturdy , no issue whatsoever.

Controls / Connectivity

Switching on the device was as simple as switching it on and allowing it to connect with your PC or Cell phone. Yes , these babies also connect to a PC We had loads of fun doing chores around the house while enjoying the amazing audio quality of these streaming music from the laptop. Connecting it was a very simple affair as they auto connect to the Bluetooth connection detected. Note that when using the wired connection, the Bluetooth connection is automatically disconnected and you lose connections made with your cell phone. The unit is capable of running on power just from a wired connection and do not require an extra amp to drive them. There are standard music controls on the right side which can be used to control the music player on your phone and on the PC as well.

Active Noise Cancellation / ANC

On the left ear there is the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) switch which activates the 10 microphones to cancel out surrounding noise. This particular technology has been developed in collaboration with Wolfson Technology. What Nokia has done is basically included 10 …. yes TEN microphones into the headset and 8 of these are given the task of detecting and cancelling out ambient noise. The remaining two are instrumental in providing audio communication.

The Active Noise Cancellation basically listens into the surrounding and detects ambient noise. The harsh noises from these are cancelled out then by generating white noise in the headset. This is setup works quite brilliantly. We were able to hear music perfectly in the Delhi traffic and that i think proves that it works

Sound Quality

I am personally a big fan of the Metal music and even play a bit. So to test out how good the BH905 sounded in live music , i actually connected these to my amp via the adaptors provided and played a few riffs.

I can say that they sound pretty good. The lower ranges were a bit muddy but i did like them. Coming to music , i played a wide variety of music on these and the general consensus was that the bass was very good , mids were also pretty ok though the highs were a tad bit bright for my taste. However as music is highly subjective , i would recommend you to try these out yourself before investing in them.

Call Clarity

The BH 905 stereo headset has more focus on music however it also definitely does have call connectivity in mind. In typical Nokia fashion , the call quality is excellent with clean audio quality on both ends. When connected to the PC , these also act as a Skype headset. + 1 to Nokia.

Battery Life

Battery life is a no brainer on the BH 905 , it ROCKS ! We could playback music over 2 days ( about 10 hours each day ) with the ANC switched on.  With the 905s with you , you will not have to hunt for a power socket for your music at the end of the day.

Overall

I personally think that Nokia has done a commendable job and the BH 905 is definitely worth a look. The impressive package , excellent audio quality are totally worth the price premium which is paid for these. Another point to be mentioned is that these offer an extremely comfortable listening experience. In fact , this is the first time I have been able to tolerate an over the head design

I would personally rate this a resounding 4.5/5

Good Job Nokia ! And a very special thanks to our dear friends at WOMWorld/Nokia for providing the review headset.

Then as time passed, and the king grew old, he needed someone worthy to take the throne and crown, but sadly there was nobody worthy enough from his lineage to carry his legacy forward. Soon others began to vie for this title and though they were stronger and better, non could quite surpass the regal qualities of the old king.

This old king was the favorite of many subjects and to this date continues to be revered amongst a dedicated lot.

Yesterday, things changed, it now appears that the old king’s successor might have finally arrived. He seems to carry all the qualities to make him King and rule over all that he surveys. Perhaps now, there will finally be a definitive king – one that will reclaim what his family has claimed as their own for ages.

Sounds like quite a story, doesn’t it? This is the story of the N82 (the king) and his successor, the N8. If the N8 can slay his opponents – Satio, Samsung Pixon12, and some lesser devices like the Omnia HD, Vivaz and more.

The N8 if is as good as the N82 was (actually better) then the N8 can claim the title of being the best camera in business. A title which carries a lot of weight, trust me!

We at Symbian-Life Blog are very happy and perhaps excited even, with the launch of the N8. Since we love and venerate the N82 for it’s imaging capabilities, there is a lot of expectations we have with the N8. But we also feel that the N8 seems qualified to meet these expectations.

What do you think, is it the return of the king?

Let us know…