The new Nokia 5800 Tube is probabily, since it was unveiled in October, the most awaited phone of 2008. The implementation of the s60 Touch UI and the very attractive price tag were the key features, to expect it to be among the best-sellers of 2009 in the mobile industry.

Nokia announced first that the phone price was expected to be of 279 € + VAT. The low price, as said below, was one of the greatest surprises.

But only one month later, rumors began to spread in forums and communities, saying that the price was to be retouched to 429 € in most countries, including taxes.

So, the phone launch is approaching and some stores are already taking preorders at the price of 429 €.

Many users are disappointed, because the price is higher than expected, but last minute news are telling that the  price could still be a (good) surprise in some countries at least.

According to latest news, Nokia’s official price is still 279 €  + VAT.  The problem is that regional Nokia divisions, in each country, will be allowed to offer the phone in a bundle with additional features/services. So, especially for Christmas, some countries are offering the phone at 279 €  + taxes + a 100 €  voucher of "Comes with Music" songs, plus a 3-months subscription to Nokia Maps.

So, here’s why in some countries the price became 429 €.

The same sources are telling that, probably starting from January, the phone will be sold, at least, in some countries, without additional services (so, without "comes with music" vouchers), for the retail price of 279 € +VAT (In Italy, this would mean a price of 335 € wich is a unusual price, so probably, 349 €).

And we all hope so, Nokia.

source: Engadget

Schmap website offers a very useful and free service, providing digital travel guides for 200 destinations throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, to Pc and mobile users

The innovative technology behind Schmap Guides lets end users publish schmaps (to share trip itineraries, local reviews and more), and powers a popular range of Schmap Widgets, syndicating more than 6 million maps a month – together with content and event schedules for travel, sports and concert tours – to a fast-growing network of websites and blogs.

Schmap is also optimized for S60 devices: accessing their website from you Nokia Phones makes you available a wide range of maps and services. Just enter your destination, and will have a list of all the services available in the city.

Schmap Staff is looking for Beta testers of their services.

To use the Schmap guides on your Nokia phones, just visit http://www.schmap.com for your phone browser.

The questions, regarding the beta testing of the services, are:

- Did you encounter any bugs?
- Was there anything that confused you?
- Do you have any ideas for improving Schmap for Nokia?
- Please note the name/model of the Nokia phone used to view the guides.

You can express your thoughts here by leaving a comment, you you can send your feedback directly to Schmap’s staff, sending an email to donald.mcmillan@schmap.com  including your bug reports.

 Visit Schmap Website here

Today and tomorrow, in London, there is the Symbian Smartphone Show 2008. A great event for all the european Symbian enthousiasts and operators! 

I was also invited here, and I would like to thank Mr. Neil W. for doing so.

But unfortunately, I am very busy with the university right now, and I was not able to reach London for this event.

However, no fear, for those of you who would like to read a live coverage of the Event, Steve and Ewan of AAS are right now in da house!

Click Here to read the live coverage from London Smartphone Show 2008.

He was among  the first customers to buy a Nokia N85 (some days ago). Today, Pietro from Jaspp.net wrote his personal review of the new Nokia N85.

Pietro has no doubts: the N85 is the best Symbian phone available today, as it offers speed, stability and a rich software suite. The N85 also has a new OLED screen that impressed him in an excellent way, and has one of the best build quality seen in a Nseries.

The only thing that is missing is the DVB-h, as implemented in the N96, but this feature utility depends on the user needs.

After the review’s publishing  on Jaspp,  Steve Litchfiled reported the news on All Ablout Symbian. Here, an user called Umberto kindly translated and summarized the whole review in English.

Click Here to read the original review (External Link, in Italian)

Click Here to read the translated review in English (External link)

This Morning I came across several good posts on symbian-related blogs. But the one that I liked most, was written by Andrew Leung of The Nokia Blog.

Those weeks, after the launch of new phones like Nokia N85, Nokia N79, N96, and waiting for the upcoming 5800 (and hopefully, a new Touchscreen Nseries), several bloggers agree that Nokia has gone some way too far with NSeries.

The problem is that they are keep making useless Nseries variations. Dozens of phones, all with the same functionality and with no technological improvements. At the same time, other mobile manufacturers (Apple, Samsung, Blackberry, T-Mobile Android) are implementing real innovation on their handsets, and Nokia is losing the head of the Mobile Market  in terms of interest and innovation.

For example Apple’s Iphone with a great display, and very fast interface. Samsung made a couple of 8Megapixels camera phones. Blackberry Bold is just fantastic, and the T-Mobile Android has a really flexible and new Os.

And Nokia?

(Nokia Aeon Prototype has been showed years ago, getting old even before production)

Why there are so many Nseries phones? To mention some of the "clone" Nseries devices, Nokia N81, N 81 8Gb, N95, N95 8Gb (latest real innovator), N82, N85, N96, N78, N79, 6220 Classic, 6110 Navigator, and so on. All with the (nearly) same technologies inside, with no real improvements in the last 2 years.

And, again: I think that Nokia phones need better build quality: I cannot accept to pay 600 Eur for a phone that has a low quality keypad and cover, that is full of scratches after a couple of months, or with dust inside the screen.

Again: Why the Xenon Flash has not been implemented in the latest phones? Why the Nokia 5800 only has a 3.2 Mp camera?  Why Nokia has still not developed a Multi-touch screen, like Apple’s one? and Why our smartphones are so slow in the Symbian Os environment? and why we are stuck in a 320×240 resolution even for 2,8" screens?

The New Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic seems to represent a little step for resolving some of the mentioned problems. But again, we have to wait it’s release to point out  what improvements have been done in the last months.

Well, do not misunderstand the meaning of my post. I still prefer Nokia among the other manufacturers, and I think that the quality of their hadset is still the best. But I think that selling too many phones just made them, uhm, "relaxing" too much.

Come on Nokia, it’s time to show that you are still the innovation leader!

This is not only my toughts. In the article below, you will find the more complete critic on Nokia current strategy by Andrew Leung, and hopefully written in a better english!

Click Here to read the full article (external link)

The upcoming Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone will be the first handset to feature the new generation of Symbian Os, bringing Touch support, and other improvements over the 3rd edition series.

The Nokia 5800, formerly known as the "Tube" will be on stores probably on early 2009. However, some very lucky bloggers already have the possibility of trying it. One of those is Eldar of Mobile-Review.com, a Russian mega-website offering previews, hands-on and reviews of nearly every mobile phone in the market.

Eldar wrote, some days ago, a great article showing in-depth the new Symbian 5th edition interface. Here, he analyzes all the aspects of the upcoming 5th edition Symbian. And the article is really worth looking at, as the are a lot of screenshots, and some videos, taken from the 5800 Symbian interface.

 (Click to view in full size!)

(and notice, the new official Symbian Theme seems to be inspired to a well-known thememaking  style!, even if personally, I don’t find it fantastic at all. I think I could have done better )

Go to the article (external link)

Nokia has launched a new website, Face the task, for promoting their new Nokia N96 and to Help the WWF to save the Red Panda of Nepal. The website is video-based and is very nice. Afther seeing all the videos you will be able to enter a contest to win a Nokia N96 Limited edition. Or, if you want to be sure to have it, you can make a donation to the WWF, and if you donate 759 Euro, Nokia will send you a Limited Edition Nokia N96, in a special box that will make it unique; and you will have it before it’s released worldwide. There are only 96 Limited edition Nokia’s flagships available.

The only problem is that you can’t make the donation when you want; you have to wait until the embedded counter reaches 0.

Check it out here

A new mysterious website by Nokia was spotted today by Symbian Freak.

After opening the website, you are asked to resolve the “puzzle” you see above, combining the matching symbols. After that, you are shown a catching video talking of a strange clip that was made hundreds of years ago, that was locked away in a sealed box for the weird effects it produced….

Without doubt, this is another great marketing promo by Nokia, that always find the way to catch the attention of customers, made maybe for the launch of a new service or product…

To take a look with your eyes at that strange website, just click the link at the end of the post, but be warned, open it at your own risk!

Click to visit Openatownrisk.com!

Breaking News From Nokia’s Official Website:

Nokia to acquire Symbian Limited to enable evolution of the leading open mobile platform
June 24, 2008

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced it has launched a cash offer to acquire all of the shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own.  The net cash outlay from Nokia to purchase the approximately 52% of Symbian Limited shares it does not already own will be approximately EUR 264 million.

The Guys from All About Symbian are always writing something interesting. I usually visit their blog more than once a day, and I always find something interesting to read.

Today Rafe is trying the new N78 by Nokia, and the first part of his detailed review is online, talking of the Hardware and Connectivity. I would suggest you to take a look at it, if you are interested in buying one ( and even if not).

I’m already waiting for the second part.

Those pictures, altough some apparently strange details (vodafone brand on a prototype?), seems to be authentic. They show three new phones from Nokia: The N85, already seen yesterday, the rumored Nokia N79 ( but it seems a nonsense, as the N78 has still to reach the stores), and the long-awaited 5800 Xpress Music, codename Nokia Tube: a veeery long phone, with a vaguely familiar (ehm…) design and touchscreen interface.

But to be completely honest, why we had to wait 2008 to have a touchscreen Nokia with stylus, since it’s an already old technology? Somebody tell them that stylus are annoying, and today’s touchscreens are made using multitouch, using fingers. And it has not to be a very expensive solution.

[Thanks to: TalkaboutNseries and P@sco]

Following the info that I got some days ago, Some pictures of a new N-Series were spotted today on the net. This device, altough it still looks as an early prototype, is following the design of the latest Nokia N81, N78 and N96. Its name, as we know from some rumors, could be Nokia N85. It is a slider phone, with a 5 Mpixel camera, and GPS module. Any other info is still unknown. Check out the pictures below.

[found via : Engadget Mobile]

Steve Litchfield on All about Symbian tells us today that the new Nokia N96 can be pre-ordered (meaning that it will be shipped at the time it is released) trough Expansys Uk. That sounds pretty good, meaning that the release date of the new flaship of Nokia is approaching. But if only you had the idea to pre-order it now, you should know that it’s not going to be cheap: 700 Uk £, meaning 875 Euros, or 1400 US $.

That sounds ways too expensive, and the suspect is that the online shop is trying to get the most they can while no other shop has the Nokia N96 available. A reasonably lower price is expected to be available at the official release date. Somebody says that it could be something around 600 Euros, but still nothing official on this side.

[Via: AllAboutSymbian]

Just Another Phone Blog is reporting today some very interesting news brought by Eldar of Mobile-Review. He claims to have seen the entire new colletion of the upcoming phones from Nokia and Sony-Ericsson. The most interesting seems to be a new N-Series model, the Nokia N85. This phone would have a WQVGA display, and, he says, it’s enhanced for video playback. This device is also “much smaller than the N96″ but it would perform “much, much better” also being “Cheaper”.

Other phones are coming as well, The Nokia Tube for example. Eldar says that the Nokia Tube “isn’t working well”. Also a 5-6 phones line designed for women, including candybars and Clamshell.

I specify that, of course, these are only rumors, and we are talking of early prototypes, so still nothing official, even if they come from a trusted source.

[Source: JAPB]

Many Weblogs are reporting today some rumors about the implementation uf TAT’s Kastor UI in the next firmware updates of the Nokia N95-1.

But what is the Kastor Ui? Simply, it’s an User Interface with advanced animated transitions in 3d, that would completely change (and improve) the feel of the S60 interface. Just take a look at this video:

However, those rumors don’t seem to be too serious. The newer versions of the Symbian Os, starting from FP2, already have some graphic implementations that are in some way similar to the Kastor UI.

And, I think, it would be a strange strategy for Nokia to update their “old phones” with such new features, just because this would make the new devices less attractive compared to the “old” ones.

But also, the implementation of the Kastor UI would surely be appreciated by many users of S60 phones, as many of them are claiming that the S60 interface seems today a little outdated, especially if it is compared to the eye-candies brought by the Apple’s iPhone… ( but, I have to say, Iphone users can’t have my themes installed on it, and should be very sad for that )

TAT Kastor UI Web page

[Via Symbian-Freak]