New Nokia N93i digital camcorder announced plus plans to offer Vox free personal blogging service

New Nokia N93i digital camcorder announced plus plans to offer Vox free personal blogging service

Posted: 08-Jan-2007 [Source: Nokia]

[Nokia announces its new N93i compact digital camcorder and multimedia computer. In addition, Nokia announces the integration of Vox - a free personal blogging service - to its Nseries products for easy blogging and sharing of photos and videos directly from compatible Nseries devices.]
Nokia today introduced the Nokia N93i, a compact and stylish digital camcorder and multimedia computer in one. Boasting a host of advanced features - from DVD-like quality video capture to direct video uploads - the Nokia N93i enables you to record great quality video wherever and whenever you feel inspired.
You can shoot DVD-like quality videos with the Nokia N93i thanks to its MPEG-4 VGA video capture at up to 30 frames per second, stereo audio recording and digital stabilization. The Nokia N93i also boasts a 3.2 megapixel (2048 x 1536 pixels) camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 3x optical zoom, autofocus and close-up mode. With the 1 GB miniSD card included in the standard Nokia N93i sales pack, you can capture up to 45 minutes of DVD-like quality video or up to 1250 high-quality photos.
With its slim and compact design, the Nokia N93i is now even easier to slip into your pocket. It also has a new metallic finish keymat and a mirror effect cover. The 2.4" main display of up to 16 million colors has a 160 degree viewing angle, the easy-to-use joystick provides smooth video control and there are dedicated camera keys to capture images, switch shooting mode and operate the flash quickly and easily.
Integrated into the Nokia N93i is a new personal video and photo blogging service called Vox (see below) with privacy features that let you share stories and thoughts instantly with your friends, family, neighborhood or the entire world. Select your video or photos in the gallery of your Nokia N93i and upload them directly from your device to Vox in their original size.
Once you've finished filming, shape your story while it's still on the Nokia N93i with the on-device editing capabilities. For advanced editing, the standard Nokia N93i sales pack comes bundled with Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 software, enabling you to create professional quality movies on your compatible PC. These videos can then be transferred back to your multimedia computer or burned to DVDs.
Get the popcorn out and have a communal screening of your very own blockbuster or latest photos. Simply connect the Nokia N93i to a compatible TV with the supplied video-out connectivity cable, dim the lights and enjoy the show. Or if you prefer the wireless route, use the integrated wireless LAN (WLAN) technology to connect to a compatible UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) enabled device.
The Nokia N93i is far more than just a digital camcorder - work or play, it delivers just what you need. Designed to work on WLAN, 3G (WCDMA 2100 MHz), EDGE and GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) networks, the Nokia N93i provides mobile broadband internet access for browsing, uploading content, and sending and receiving emails, allowing you to stay connected on the move. You can also keep yourself entertained with MP3 music, podcasts, stereo FM radio or mobile TV video streaming.
The Nokia N93i, which is based on S60 3rd Edition software on Symbian OS, is expected to start shipping in volumes during the first quarter of 2007 with an estimated, pre-tax, unsubsidized sales price of approximately 600 euros.
Nokia, the world leader in mobile communications, and Six Apart, the world leader in blogging, today announced cooperation to bring Vox (www.vox.com), a free personal blogging service to the Nokia Nseries multimedia computer product range. The two companies will make it easy for people to upload video and photos, and update their blogs directly from their compatible Nokia Nseries devices to the Vox blogging service. The cooperation is an important step in making Web 2.0 mobile and enabling people to create and share their experiences with friends and family on the go. The Nokia N93i, also announced today, is the first product to include the integrated Vox service.
Vox is a free personal blogging service for sharing experiences with friends and family. Vox's rich privacy filters give members granular control over who views their stories, photos, videos or audio. Members can easily set any of five levels of privacy on any piece of content they share on Vox.
Vox offers rich media integration, including the ability to insert video, photos and web content into posts by connecting with popular web services people already use such as Amazon.com, YouTube, Flickr, Photobucket, iStockphoto, and iFilm. Generous storage - two gigabytes total uploads per month and three gigabytes for Nokia Nseries users - assures members that they never have to worry about deleting an important memory.
Doing all this from a Nokia Nseries device is easy. After registering with Vox (www.vox.com/nokia) and setting up account information in the device, Vox members are able to upload videos and full size photos to Vox directly from the camera or Image Gallery application. The first device shipping with Vox settings will be the Nokia N93i, and existing users of Nokia Nseries multimedia computers can download the settings file from www.vox.com/nokia for the following models: Nokia N70 Music Edition, N72, N73, N73 Music Edition, N80 Internet Edition, N93, N93i, and N95.

Palm unveils the sleek Treo 680 Smartphone

Palm unveils the sleek Treo 680 Smartphone

Posted: 13-Oct-2006 [Source: Palm]

[Palm will sell exclusively an unlocked quad-band GSM version of the new Palm Treo 680 smartphone in four new colors. ]
New York, Digital Life Expo -- For people who are ready to move up to a full-featured mobile phone that includes everything needed to stay organized, Palm, Inc. announced the Palm Treo(TM) 680 smartphone, a GSM/GPRS/EDGE quad-band world phone.
Customers will find the Treo 680 smartphone easy to use, slim and compact, yet packed full of features beyond its stellar phone capability, such as email, web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar, contacts and more. In the coming weeks and months, carriers around the world will announce additional product details, availability and exact pricing. Palm believes this product will appeal to price-sensitive feature-phone owners who want a more capable mobile-computing device.
Palm's U.S. retail and online stores will sell exclusively an unlocked GSM version in four new cool colors - crimson, copper, arctic and graphite. For a limited time, they will come complete with a music bundle from Yahoo!, which includes a 30-day free trial to its music service. With Yahoo! Music Unlimited, users have access to more than 1 million songs to take with them anywhere.
With the introduction of the Palm OS based Treo 680 smartphone, Palm is targeting new users in the rapidly growing smartphone and feature-phone markets. Market research firm In-Stat, estimates that 25 percent of all wireless handsets worldwide will be smartphones by 2011. Research conducted by Palm suggests a substantial population of feature-phone users have not purchased smartphones, fearing they were too expensive and too difficult to use. The Treo 680 will offer an affordable, simple and fun way to get started and stay connected.
"The Treo 680 is the smartphone for everyone. It's small, sleek, fast and comes in a variety of fun colors," said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. "It's a great phone design, great for messaging and email, and provides users easy and fast access to the Internet and to their favorite music and pictures, and makes it easy for people to manage and balance their business and personal lives while on the go."
During a press conference at DigitalLife in New York City, the audience saw Palm's innovative hardware design and integrated, easy-to-use software. Known for ease of use, Palm differentiates the Treo 680 smartphone from others in the Treo family by offering the following features along with many additional enhancements:
New Design
The Treo 680 smartphone has an internal antenna and slim form factor, making the device smaller and sleeker than its Treo predecessors in the United States. It has a full, easy-type keyboard, perfect for writing SMS messages and emails, and an optimal 320x320 vibrant color screen for viewing web pages, photos, media and more.
All-in-one, Smarter Phone
The Treo 680 smartphone has a unique phone user interface that further simplifies Treo innovations, such as the ability to respond to calls with a preset text message and add new phone numbers to existing contact information, and three-way calling. The Treo 680 also has integrated email and web capabilities, so users can stay in touch with colleagues and friends. The messaging application on the Treo 680 displays text-messaging conversations as "threaded chats," similar to IM, so users can see their entire conversation with a particular person. The Treo 680 smartphone also can be used as an MP3 player and has an integrated digital camera, camcorder and video player.
Additional Features
The Treo 680 smartphone offers many additional features, including the following:
* Added memory: The Treo 680 smartphone includes 64MB of user-available storage, nearly three times the memory of the original Treo 650 smartphone. Customers can add up to 2GB of storage with expansion cards for those large music or video files (sold separately);
* Enhanced email and messaging: Exchange ActiveSync will now synchronize not only calendar and email, but contacts as well; SMS and MMS capabilities have been improved for a better user experience;
* Improved web browser: The Blazer 4.5 browser is superfast due to its smarter caching rules and includes alternate modes for viewing web pages optimized for the device or as a regular web page;
* Enhanced multimedia: Customers can use the Treo 680 smartphone to stream music, play MP3s and manage and share photo albums;
* Built-in dial-up networking (DUN) capabilities: Customers can use the new smartphone as a wireless modem via Bluetooth(r) wireless technology to connect to a compatible Bluetooth enabled laptop;
* Documents To Go: Customers can view, edit and share Microsoft Word and Excel documents on their Treo 680 smartphones in addition to viewing full-featured Adobe PDF files and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations; and
* Bluetooth 1.2: Customers can connect wirelessly to other Bluetooth enabled devices. The Treo 680 has improved car-kit and headset support, and support for multiple simultaneous Bluetooth connections.

New Nokia N95 all-in-one multimedia computer

New Nokia N95 all-in-one multimedia computer

Posted: 26-Sep-2006 [Source: Nokia]

[New Nokia N92 HSDPA multimedia computer offers a 2-way slide concept, integrated GPS, 5-megapixel camera, 2.6" QVGA display, and supports Wi-FI, compatible microSD cards and mini-USB.]
Nokia Open Studio 2006, New York -- Nokia today introduced the Nokia N95, an all-in-one multimedia computer with a pioneering 2-way slide concept, integrated GPS functionality, a 5 megapixel camera and support for high-speed mobile networks, making it easier to watch and record videos, listen to songs, take high-quality photos, browse the internet, or catch up on email while on the move.
"The Nokia N95 brings a range of multimedia ingredients together, such as a fantastic display, outstanding photo and video capability and high-speed connectivity, making it the ultimate multimedia computer," said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Multimedia, Nokia. "This single device - which fits easily in your pocket - can replace stand-alone devices that you no longer need, whether it's your music player, your digital camera, PDA or navigation device. Most importantly, the Nokia N95 is with you and connected when you want to use it."
The innovative 2-way slide concept makes it easy to switch between different modes, going from reading maps to watching a video with a simple slide. A numeric keypad slides out from one end of the device while dedicated media keys slide out from the opposite direction, converting the display into full screen landscape mode. With powerful 3D graphics, the Nokia N95 has a stunning user interface that makes it intuitive to find the features and services you want.
With its integrated GPS at your fingertips, finding your way just got easier. The Maps application includes maps for more than 100 countries, enabling users to explore the world, find specific routes or locate services such as restaurants and hotels and covering more than 15 million points of interest. You can also purchase additional features, such as city guides and voice guided navigation.
With the Carl Zeiss optics on the 5 megapixel camera, you can capture print quality photos and DVD-like quality video clips. Photos and video clips can be enjoyed on a compatible television thanks to the device's TV out feature and support for Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) technology.
Designed for High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) networks and with support for WLAN, EDGE and WCDMA networks, the Nokia N95 provides excellent coverage and speeds wherever you may be. In HSDPA networks, browsing the internet, reading email, streaming video and downloading large files can be carried out up to 10 times faster than with 3G.
The Nokia N95 also offers a first class entertainment experience with the combination of a large 2.6" QVGA 16 million color display, impressive 3D graphics, built-in stereo speakers offering a 3D stereo effect, standard 3.5 mm audio jack, support for compatible microSD cards and mini USB for convenient data transfer. Browsing the internet on the Nokia N95 is a pleasure using the Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map, with new features such as a floating toolbar, password manager and auto complete, as well as web feeds with support for Atom and auto update.
The Nokia N95 is based on the world's leading S60 software on Symbian OS, enabling you to personalize your device from a wide choice of compatible applications that can be downloaded to the Nokia N95, including games, navigation, entertainment, productivity and creativity. The Nokia N95 comes out of the box ready to create, connect, consume and interact with some of the internet's most popular services. Use Yahoo! Search to search for and find most anything on the web, scroll though a book with Amazon's MobiPocket Reader or snap a photo and send it directly to your Flickr site.
The Nokia N95 is expected to start shipping in volumes during the first quarter of 2007 at an estimated unsubsidized retail price of 550 euros.

Review: Nokia 5300 Xpress Music packed with features

Story Highlights

• The Nokia 5300 Xpress Music costs about $300

• Music player controls well placed, songs easy to load

• Memory card slot inconvenient, only 5MB internal memory

• Phone has a top-notch 1.3-megapixel camera, but no flash

By Kent GermanCNET.com
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(CNET.com) -- Music cell phones have become a hot commodity in 2006, with almost every manufacturer getting into the game. Sony Ericsson's Walkman handsets in particular have emerged as favorites of mobile music fans, but Nokia has countered with its quality N-series smart phones that come packed with multimedia features. But let's face it, not everyone needs a fancy smart phone such as the Nokia N91 so we're glad to welcome the new Nokia 5300 Xpress Music. Packed into a unique but user-friendly design is an exceptional music player and a broad range of features including a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and an expandable memory slot. And yes, it delivers on performance as well. As of this writing, the GSM 5300 isn't available with a U.S. carrier, so it will cost you. But even at $300, we reckon it's worth it.
At first glance you might think there's nothing cutting edge about the Nokia 5300's design. Yes, it's a bit boxy and a little bulky (3.6 by 1.9 by 0.8 inches), but it's lighter than it looks (3.6 ounces), and ultimately it's a form factor that deserves closer inspection. First off, the 5300 Xpress Music is a slider phone. Though Nokia is just starting to ease into the slider craze, it hasn't stopped the company from succeeding here. The slider mechanism slides up and down with one hand, yet it is sturdy enough to feel comfortable in the hand. Our only quibble--and this is a small one--is that the 5300 feels somewhat top-heavy when the slider is up. As with most slider phones, the 5300 won't cradle against the curve of your head, but we've never considered that quirk to be a big deal. Durability is a key theme with this phone; its midsection is wrapped in a rubberized covering that extends down to the navigation controls. We also like the offbeat red-and-white color scheme--call it the Austrian phone--but there's a black-and-white version for more traditional tastes.
The picture-perfect QVGA display measures 2 inches (320x240 pixels) and supports 262,144 colors. Equal to the gorgeous screen on the Nokia 6126, it offers an eye-popping array of colors, and displayed everything from graphics to texts to games beautifully. The simple but attractive menus are also a treat to view, and we love that Nokia provides a description of unfamiliar applications if you hold the cursor over the corresponding icon. You can change the font size and the backlight time, and even though you can't alter the brightness, the display is plenty bright as it is.(Compare music phones)
Below the display are the spacious and user-friendly navigation controls. As previously mentioned, they are covered in a rubberized skin, which makes them quite tactile and easy to find by feel. A five-way toggle also acts as a shortcut to four-user defined functions, and there's a selection of additional shortcuts on the standby screen as well. There are also two soft keys, which are programmable for one-touch access, and the Talk and End buttons. Our only complaint was that the backlighting on these keys is a bit dim. To reveal the keypad buttons, just slide up the front face. Spacious and brightly backlit, the individual buttons are raised above the surface of the phone. Such texture is unique for a slider phone, but it's a welcome change as the keys are easy to use even if they are a tad slippery.
Lining the immediate left side of the display are dedicated music controls that give easy access to the music player. Once inside, you can play, pause, fast-forward, and rewind your tracks. Fortunately these buttons are also covered in the rubber skin, so they're every tactile and easy to find when you're not looking at the phone. The left-facing keys may be unintuitive to some users, but we didn't mind. On the right spine of the bottom half of the slider is a volume rocker and a dedicated camera shutter. The rubber texture extends here as well, and raised ridges make the volume rocker easily accessible when holding the phone to your ear. As with many other camera phones, the Nokia 5300's ergonomics give it a camera-like feel when you hold the phone horizontally with the shutter control facing up. The camera lens sits on the back of the phone, with a self-portrait mirror, but we're disappointed there's no flash. The infrared port sits on the right spine, while the power control and ports for the mini-USB cable and the charger rest on the phone's top end. Finally, the headset jack is in the top-left corner.
Our only real design complaint concerns the placement of the Micro SD card slot. You must remove the battery cover to access it, so make sure you sharpen your nails. Though you don't have to remove the battery as well, it's still a bit annoying.
There's a lot to talk about when it comes to the 5300's features, but we'll get the basics out of the way first. There's a large 1,000-contact phone book with room in each entry for five phone numbers plus a PTT number, e-mail and Web addresses, a job title and a company name, work and home street addresses, a birth date, a nickname, a formal name, and notes (the SIM card holds an additional 250 names). You can organize callers into groups or pair them with a photo for caller ID purposes. For a music phone, the choice of polyphonic ring tones was small--you get just 10, 64-chord tones--but they're assignable to contacts as well. Other standard offerings include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a voice recorder, e-mail and instant messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a to-do list, a notepad, a calculator, a countdown timer, and a stopwatch.
Despite the music focus, the 5300 comes with a raft of business features including full Bluetooth with a stereo profile, an infrared port, a speakerphone, PC syncing, a mini-USB port and a unit/currency converter for international travelers. Support for push-to-talk networks is also onboard, but since the phone is unlocked, you may not be able you use it with your carrier's PTT services. For example, Cingular typically doesn't allow unlocked phones access to its PTT network. Though the 5300 comes with a Micro SD card slot that supports cards up to 2GB in size, the internal memory is a skimpy 5MB of shared space. True, you're more likely to use a memory card for storing multimedia files, but we still think 5MB is much too small for this caliber of phone.
Now, it's on to the 5300's star attraction: its superior music player. Though a lot of cell phones have experimented with mobile music, few of them get it right, beyond the Sony Walkman phones (Read review). But the Nokia 5300 has everything we look for a in such a phone--there's stereo Bluetooth and a large selection of features, it's easy to transfer files to the phone, it's user-friendly with a simple interface and well-designed controls, it has few restrictions, it offers plenty of memory, and last, but certainly not least, it offers exceptional sound quality over stereo speakers. The player supports, MP3, AAC, AAC+, and WMA files.
As previously mentioned, the 5300 has large and tactile controls that give easy access to the media player. With a press of the exterior Play button, you can play your tunes; another press stops the player. While that method will open the player in a minimized form, you can access the full interface by going through the main menu. On that note, the player's design is minimalist, but it's still attractive and easy to use. It displays the track name and length, artist, and album name, while an icon mimicking the navigation toggle indicates how you can use it to control the player. Features include shuffle and repeat modes, stereo widening, an equalizer with five settings (two are customizable), an airplane mode, and the option of saving tracks as ring tones. And we're especially happy to report there's stereo Bluetooth as well.
The 5300 has an first-rate 1.3-megapixel camera that takes JPEG pictures in six resolutions: 1,280x1,024; 1,290x960; 800x600; 640x480; 320x240; and 160x120. You get a variety of camera settings including three quality modes, five color effects, a note mode, a 10-second self-timer, a sequence mode for shooting three photos in rapid succession, adjustable white balance, and an 8X zoom. The only thing missing is a brightness setting, but we're willing to overlook that omission. And as for camera sounds, you can turn them off but you can't choose a particular shutter tone. The aforementioned camera ergonomics and the slick camera interface make for a great user experience.
The camcorder shoots 3GPP videos in two resolutions (176x144 and 129x96) with sound. Other options are similar to the still camera, and you can mute the sound if you wish. The default mode lasts just 6 seconds, but you can also shoot longer clips, depending on the available memory. Image quality was pretty good for a 1.3-megapixel camera phone. Object outlines were distinct, but colors were somewhat faded. Video clips were fine--a bit grainy, as expected, but suitable for short clips. Besides saving photos to the phone, you can also send them via Bluetooth or a multimedia message or use the USB cable to transfer them to a computer for printing.
You can personalize the 5300 with a large variety of screensavers, wallpapers, themes, color styles, animations, and sounds. Gamers get Java (J2ME) support, but your choice of included titles will vary. We found Snake III, Pro Snowboard, and Music Guess on our test phone. The latter title asks you to match the tunes with the song on your playlist. (Check prices)
We tested the quad-band (GSM 900/1800/1900) Nokia 5300 world phone in San Francisco using T-Mobile's service. Call quality was quite admirable, with excellent clarity and little distortion or interference from other devices. We felt the volume could be a bit higher; it was a little harder to understand conversations in noisier environments. Callers didn't report any significant problems, but voice-response systems had trouble understanding us unless we held the phone very close to our mouth. Speakerphone calls were fine, but voices were slightly more distorted on our end. We didn't have any issues with calls over a Bluetooth headset. Lastly, we had no problem getting a signal, and we were glad to see support for EDGE data networks.
Music quality was excellent and a step above most music phones. The stereo speakers put out sharp, clear sound with much more volume than voice calls. Sound quality diminished at the highest volume level, but we hardly consider that a sticking point. Music also sounded great over the included wired headphones, but the headset connection was a little loose. We liked, however, that Nokia chose a standard 2.5mm connection.
Getting music on the phone was a breeze with the included Nokia PC suite. We transferred 46MB of music in 3 minutes, 45 seconds, which is pretty fast when compared with the Motorola Razr V3i. The software, which you can use to sync your phone or to transfer a variety of file types, was easy to install and use, but with one tiny caveat: after transferring tracks, you'll have to update your music library in order to access the new tunes directly from the player.
The Nokia 5300 has a rated talk time of 3.2 hours and a promised standby time of 9.3 days. Our tests revealed a talk time of 3 hours and an MP3 playback time of 9 hours and 15 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests the Nokia 5300 has a digital SAR rating of 0.8 watts per kilogram.
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