You might have heard almost 2 years ago Nokia  sued Apple for Patent Infringement. Well, 20 months later they settle and Nokia agrees to license its patents to Apple. How much you ask? We may never know but we can be sure it was for a lot of money. According to some sources, the settlement is enough to cushion Nokia while it transitions from Symbian to Windows Phone7.

While this may seem like a defeat for Apple, some are saying that this is what they call “Sweet Defeat”, and Spells Trouble for Android. How?

A guy name Florian Mueller from FOSS Patents actually predicted this outcome.

“Apple is embroiled in litigation with the three leading Android device makers (Motorola, HTC and Samsung). Nokia doesn’t have any litigation worries at the moment, but part of its new strategy is to ratchet up the monetization of its patent portfolio. The fact that Nokia has demonstrated its ability to defeat Apple — after the most bitterly contested patent dispute that this industry has seen to date — is a clear proof of concept. Other companies whom Nokia will ask to pay royalties will have to think very hard whether to pay or pick a fight.”

If you have been keeping up with this kind of stuff, you know that Apple has suits against some of the top Manufactures of Android Devices as well.

“Given that Android is in many ways a rip-off of Apple’s operating software, Android-based devices are highly likely to infringe on largely the same Nokia patents that Apple now felt forced to pay for,” Mueller says.

So basically, Nokia most likely will go after those same manufactures looking for license agreements. Chances are they won’t want a fight and would have to settle. If not, well if Apple lost, what makes you think you can win?

“We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees,” said Nokia CEO Stephen Elop in his victory speech. “This settlement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market.”

After the news broke, Florian Mueller says, “I don’t hold shares in any tech company, but if I were an Apple shareholder, I would probably view this outcome favorably. Nokia emerges victorious, but this is a sweet defeat for Apple because its competitors — especially those building Android-based devices — will also have to pay Nokia, and most if not all of them will likely have to pay more on a per-unit basis because they don’t bring as much intellectual property to the table as Apple definitely did. So from a competitive point of view, I don’t think Apple loses much. On the bottom line its profitability may even benefit from this because Apple’s margins face no greater threat than Android-style commoditization of smartphone technologies.”

We can’t say for sure he is right but if he is… Things might look a little different soon.

Filed in categories: Android related, iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: Apple, Nokia

Apple Settles Patent Lawsuit with Nokia originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 16, 2011 at 1:00 pm.

See this man? His name is Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia. He has a problem– A big problem. As of now, Nokia has lost its dominance in smartphones world wide to Android. Symbian is a throwback OS and it looks like it. Nokia has no presence in the U.S., where the hottest Mobile OS lives. He wants to change that.

Elop wrote a memo to the company called the Burning Platform.

“Over the past few months, I’ve shared with you what I’ve heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I’m going to share what I’ve learned and what I have come to believe.

I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.”

He basically rips Nokia a new one and is now teaming with Microsoft to bring WP7 to Nokia.

Symbian is good but it’s known to be difficult to develop for. Windows Phone 7 has only been out for a couple of months and it already has more apps available than Symbian! Crazy!

No Android for Nokia

“There are no heroics in being the 20th Android phone at Best Buy,” said Dan Hays, director at consultancy PRTM. “Going ahead with Windows Phone 7 could actually serve as a differentiator for Nokia in the marketplace. No other major mobile phone developer has really stepped forward to embrace Windows Phone 7 in a big way.” -CNN

MeeGO

MeeGo isn’t going away, its just not going anywhere either. It will remain an open-source “project”. Who knows when we will see a MeeGO phone hit the market.

Micro-Kia

I think it is a great move for Microsoft and Nokia–two companies getting their butts kicked in the mobile arena– to come together.

I can’t wait to see what this will look like. Excited?

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Microsoft, Nokia, Symbian OS Related

Nokia’s Fight Part 2 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 11, 2011 at 11:18 am.

Who needs traditional video cameras these days when you can create a whole movie or music video with your smartphone? We’ve seen movies shot with iPhones and now here’s what claims to be the first video shot entirely with Nokia’s new N8 smartphone. Filmed by Kyle Roberts, this is a fun little song from independent singer-songwriter Denver Duncan called Stalker. A behind the scenes look at how the video was shot after the jump.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, News

Tagged: Nokia, Symbian OS Related, Video

Music video shot entirely with a Nokia N8 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 5, 2011 at 9:56 am.

Chances are you have had at least one Nokia phone in your life if you were born sometime before 1990. Fast forward to today, it’s probably a Samsung, Motorola, HTC, RIM or Apple (smartphone). Even if it is from some other brand, I can bet that it is not a Nokia. Why? What happened? Nokia dominates the cellphone market around the world. Except the USA.

Nokia has noticed over the past few years their iron grip isn’t as strong as it was. It is becoming obvious that they are starting to panic. Android the Monster has invaded every land and the beloved iPhone has the minds and hearts of many especially here in the States. Blackberry still has a loyal user base and will not go down without a fight. Microsoft is making what looks to be a come back reminiscent of Michael Jordan’s return to the NBA. Palm has the highly respected WebOS. Where is Nokia? The Big 4 carriers in the U.S. do not carry many if any Nokia phones. The Makers of all the top operating systems are North American companies. The question is: Can you be a dominate force if you have little to no presence in the U.S.?

Nokia’s Market share is dwindling because the competition is better, to put it quite frankly. Even with the release of the new Devices such as the N8, C6 and N9 which look promising, no one will buy them here. Especially at unlocked prices which can be triple the price of something that is better, provided it is bought at the subsidized price from one of the major carriers.

“People tell me: ‘Oh yes, I remember my Nokia device. It was very reliable and very good. I haven’t bought one in a while,”’ Ms. McDowell said. “So I think the opportunity for re-entry is there.”-Mary T. McDowell from Nokia

So they do understand that they are as out of it as Microsoft. Both are looking to get back in the ring. But that’s not possible without the carriers. That is why Nokia has been running an application development contest with the award of 10 million dollars for the top apps! The applications that are developed are to be made specifically for the N8. AT&T are partnered with them in the contest.

“Nokia desperately needs a carrier partner if it wants a successful smartphone in the U.S. and AT&T will soon need some new hot handsets to counteract the likelihood that it will lose its iPhone exclusivity. However, the U.S. market doesn’t generally support the unsubsidized, full-price model found outside of the U.S. so at $549, the N8 won’t attract big sales numbers.” -GigaOm

Will AT&T carry the N8? Will Developers build applications for Symbian ^3, or are they too busy swimming in iPhone and Android money? If AT&T has this phone available, would you consider it?

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: Nokia, Smartphone, Symbian OS Related

Nokia’s Fight originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 7, 2010 at 11:30 am.

Today, Nokia announced a new handset, called the C5.

The C5 is a new smartphone packed into a feature phone body, boasting S60 3rd edition and a host of messaging and social networking features already built-in.  It also boasts a bright 2.2-inch display and a 3.2-megapixel camera.  It will also come with free walk and drive navigation (courtesy of Ovi Maps) and is ready for messaging with Nokia Messaging built-in.

The C5 boasts a cool new feature in its phone book, where you can see your friend’s status updates directly from Facebook, if you like that kind of thing!  You can also update your Facebook status easily and share your location with your friends using Ovi Maps 3.0.

In the way of storage you get a 2Gb mircoSD card included, but it will support up to 16GB cards, plenty of room for storing your pictures & music!  It also has a built-in stereo FM radio and 3.5mm AV connector, not to mention the Stereo IHF speaker, so it will sound good too.

The handset measures 12mm thin and 46mm across, and is 112mm high.  Nokia say battery life is around 12 hours and it’ll sit quietly on standby for 26 days between charges!!

The C5 will cost around €140 and will be available in the second quarter of 2010, globally in Europe, Eurasia, SEAP, China and MEA and will come in either white and warm grey.

Filed in categories: Gear, News

Tagged: C5, Nokia, Spotlight Gadgets

Nokia unveils the new C5 Smartphone originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 2, 2010 at 1:26 pm.

Feeling nostalgic for the 80′s? Remember when everyone had a Sony Walkman and used headphones instead of earbuds? The Tanto headset from Urbanears is a retro styled headset that has been modernized with a selection of colors (12 of them!) and a built-in remote / microphone so that it can be used to talk handsfree with a BlackBerry, Nokia, HTC and the iPhone. You can order a pair for $40 from Kermaloop.com

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, News

Tagged: Blackberry, Headphones, iPhone, Nokia, Spotlight Gadgets

Revisit the 80′s with a Tanto headset from Urbanears originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 19, 2010 at 4:43 pm.

We’ve been seeing some ‘reviews’ of this device, but nothing official from Nokia until now. Nokia has now announced the N900 and it will be running the new version of Maemo. That’s the operating system the N770/n800/n810 have been using; it’s the ‘other’ operating system for Nokia besides Symbian. On the OS topic, there’s been some talk of Nokia’s future direction and I think this announcement pretty much settles it. This is the future direction of Nokia smartphones.

I’ve been a longtime user of the N800, and even though I’m a iPhone 3GS lover, I’m in seriously gadget lust here. The N900 uses the same A8 Cortex CPU/GPU combination as the iPhone and Pre, each has slight differences like who manufacturers them, but basically the three devices are in the same league. However, the N900 combines that with a 800×480 resolution display, a 5MP camera that shoots 800×480 video,  and an existing Application Manager ( using .deb files! ) that has a good number of existing applications. I’ve been watching the Application Manager on my N800, and I’ve seen more apps released recently so momentum is growing. Basically, they’ve out-geeked and out-designed the Android phones I’ve seen so far. So I’m looking forward to seeing this phone in person, and although I’m truly in love with the iPhone a part of me wants this to be better.

via Wired

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Linux Based PDA related, Nokia, Symbian OS Related

Nokia’s Maemo Masterpiece – The N900 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 27, 2009 at 12:55 pm.

The Tradition Leather Case by Noreve displays the description: “Haute Couture for Mobile Devices” on its packaging. It truly lives up to this description. It’s made of real leather and has a classic, simplistic but elegant design while maintaining practicality.

I’m not usually one to go for mobile phone cases. I’ve found that the range usually consists of skins, plates or sock pouches – all of which are either annoying (skins have air bubbles, plastic scratches up easily and sock pouches make answering calls and turning off alarms rather difficult). This is neither of those three and claims none of those impracticalities. What’s more, it really is stylish.

The phone clips in nicely and you are able to use it while it’s in the pouch. The cover flips back for when you are using the phone and can fold further if you need to use the camera. There are two slots for memory cards or sim cards and the case also features steel mesh protectors on the sections over the speakers. When the case is closed it leaves the charging port, volume buttons, headset jack, USB jack and memory card slot free. It also comes with belt clip (which has an advertised 360 degrees of rotation), but I don’t wear belts so I couldn’t actually review it personally.

Even with all of these practical features, the phone maintains its description of “Haute Couture”. The external lining is leather. The case I’m reviewing is chesnut, but it’s also available in other colours. The black interior lining features a recurring embossed print of the Noreve logo.

After using the case for a few days, the only troubles I’ve had are quite subjective and minimal really: it’s difficult to open and answer a call one-handed; I feel a tad silly talking on it; I can’t turn off my alarm easily. I think these issues are a bit petty though really seeing as most people use both hands to operate their phone anyway and it doesn’t really look so odd talking on a phone with a case on it. In regards to the alarm, at least I’ll have to wake up properly just to open the case so, in effect, it’s increasing the productivity of the alarm clock.

Not everyone has an E66 but Noreve also produces cases for 49 models of Nokia. It also covers Apple, Cingular, LG, Motorola, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Universal phones as well as various smartphones. They do PDA cases, mp3 player cases, camera cases, 7″-17″ laptop cases (drool) and even portable game console cases.

Their range is incredible. I’ve seen a few “designer” cases for laptops and phones etc but they tend to only cover one or two models (and it’s never the models I have). Noreve, on the other hand, cover almost everything. They also keep the same stylish, simplistic design across the range (which means that they’re all leather and, yes therefore, expensive).

The case is currently retailing at USD$53.04 which may seem pricey, but it is an extravagant product and the monetary gap between this product and its competitors is easily matched by the gap in practicality and style.

Check out their website and have a browse. I know cash is probably tight right now but we all need to splurge on something once in a while and, if it has been a while, why not get something that adds a little style to your life while providing some basic protection for your phone (or PDA, camera or laptop).

Filed in categories: Miscellaneous

Tagged: Case, Fashion, Nokia, Phone

Noreve Tradition Leather Nokia E66 Case Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 24, 2009 at 1:00 am.

The Nokia Podcasting application, developed by Nokia comes with the sis file already preloaded onto the memory card of some of the more recent Nokia phones. It’s also free for download from the Nokia website and it’s available for all E or N series phones that have WLAN and is compatible with some others.

I’m currently using a Nokia E66. It’s beautiful, it’s edgy and, even though it slides, I like it better than its QWERTY keypad brother, the E71. But that’s not what I’m reviewing today. A Symbian application that comes with the handset is Nokia Podcasting.

Once I began listening to podcasts, rather than loading them onto my (now dead) iPod photo, I experimented with the Nokia Podcasting software. I discovered that it’s extremely different to and far more inconvenient than, say, using the iTunes store on an iPod touch.

To begin with, the first thing you have to do is download, copy and install the file. If you’re reading this article in the category of Symbian software, I’m assuming this isn’t an issue. But you’re the minority. Everyone else out there uses their phone for texting and calling and most of them get their tech department to set up email for them because they haven’t figured it out yet. Let alone figured out that there are installable freeware applications that are created for them.

Once this application is installed, you have the joy of using the search function. It is a terrible function. The search engine they use is either out of date or sponsor-only. I searched “Dane Cook”, “Howcast” and “Homestar runner” and nothing came up.

I thought my access point settings might be playing up so I searched “yoga” (which is what they use as the example in their trusty 16 page manual) and, lo and behold, ten podcasts. But, unfortunately, it’s not what I wanted to listen to.

After exhausting all my other ideas for searching (“trance music”, “music technology” and “home decoration”), this left me with one other option: to manually key in an OPML link (Nokia suggests http://www.opmlmanager.com in their user guide). Here we hit another snag.

You have to create your own OPML file of the channels you listen to. Then you have to download it to your phone by either hosting it or using the data cable. Then you have to subscribe to the channels you want and then you can download individual podcasts. I tried to imagine my mother trying to do the same thing (when I think of ease of use for anything computer/phone related, I try to imagine my mother figuring it out) and realized that it’s actually quite a difficult and fussy process.

Once that was done, however, the beauty of this application started to show.

You can easily tell whether a directory is up to date (globe) or requires a connection (arrow).

You can select your access points, memory storage and whether to update directories and channels manually and automatically (including how often).

You can keep channels organized within directories.

It notifies you if you’re downloading a podcast that is in an incompatible format to your handset.

You can view the type, size and progress of downloads and easily view. Arrows also indicate what is currently downloading.

and like most Symbian applications, you can run it in the background against other applications.

All around, it’s a great program for podcasts that you’re familiar with and regularly listen to, however, I wouldn’t suggest it for browsing new listening material or impulse downloading programs. Apple have marketed their apps well and have made them accessible to everyone, not just the technically savvy. I believe Nokia should have worked on marketing their applications (not just this one) to the layperson by improving usability and ease of set up. That said, I like Nokia Podcasting and once it’s up and running, it’s easy to maintain, useful and fun to use.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Nokia, podcasting, Software, Symbian, Symbian OS Related

Nokia Podcasting Application Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 25, 2009 at 2:29 pm.

It’s been a week since I started using the Nokia N85 and in that time, I’ve found a lot to like and some things that left me wanting more. This last part of my series on the Nokia N85 will focus on:

• Built in applications
• Week wrap up

Although the Nokia N85 is called a smartphone, it doesn’t quite feel as like one to me. I know it has WiFi, a GPS and a camera. But one of my personal requirements for a smartphone is an easy input mechanism. The N85 does not have a touch screen or a keyboard, so that makes things a bit difficult for entering appointments, addresses, etc.

Let’s look at some of the other applications included on this phone…

GPS

The N85 has a built in GPS receiver, that requires a view of the sky to get a fix on the satellites. This phone also includes an application called Maps. Turn by turn voice guided directions requires paying a subscription fee, but you get a 3 month free trial to test it.

When you start the Maps application, you are presented with a globe that you can roll and zoom. I was using AT&T on Edge and it was a bit slow updating. Then at one point, it got stuck and wouldn’t zoom in or out.

By pressing the Left soft key (Options), you can search on popular destinations like gas stations, rest areas, etc and get driving or walking directions to their location.

Of course you can also enter your own addresses to navigate to, or navigate to the address for one of your contacts. The turn by turn spoken directions are handy, but street names aren’t spoken. The male voice just speaks the direction to turn, not the road name.

I found the GPS to work really well, but since it can be difficult to see the display in sunlight, it can be hard to see the GPS info on the screen.

Misc. Applications

Some of the other included applications are an Adobe PDF viewer, unit converter, Zip compressor, Quickoffice and a notes app.

The Adobe Reader application doesn’t work very well on the N85. One of the more obvious reasons is that this phone has a small display, so you have to scroll around a lot to see all the document. But the other reason is that it just doesn’t work worth a hooey. I tried several simple PDFs and you can see the results in these screen shots… Notice the large blocky Black sections? That’s not in the PDF file…

When I was able to get a PDF to load correctly, the resulting image quality was jaggy. Not good.

The unit converter isn’t anything super special, but little apps like this always come in handy from time to time.

The QuickOffice suite will allow you to load Excel, Word and Powerpoint files for viewing on the N85. If you want edit or create capability, you have to pay for a license…

I didn’t have any issues with viewing Excel or Word files, but I didn’t have much luck with powerpoint files… Again, a phone with a screen of this size, really does not lend itself well to working with documents.

Wrap Up

As usual, a week of using one phone ends with me ready to try something new. I’m just never happy… what’s up with that? The Nokia N85 does have a lot going for it. I really like the size. It’s almost perfect in that respect. The 5MP camera which takes very nice macro shots is a real plus too. I can’t fault the GPS or Wifi either for that matter. But when all is said and done, it comes down to the lack of a real keyboard. That tends to be a real deal breaker for me. If I didn’t text as much as I do, the keyboard  probably would not matter to me, but I do, so it does. So there you go… Even though the Nokia N85 isn’t going to work out for me personally, I still highly recommend it as a great little full featured phone.

Filed in categories: Wireless

Tagged: N85, Nokia, S60, Smartphone, Symbian, Symbian OS Related

A Week with the Nokia N85 Smartphone – Day 6 & 7 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 12, 2009 at 4:52 am.

This part of my series on the Nokia N85 will focus on:

• The camera
• Capturing video
• Listening to audio
• Playing games

Camera

The N85 has a 5 megapixel digital camera with a Carl Zeiss auto focus lens and an LED flash. To use the camera, you slide open the lens cover over the lens. You can launch the camera application, but without opening the lens cover, you’ll be unable to capture images. I learned this the hard way duh…

Opening the lens cover will unlock the phone and allow you to take pictures right away. The on-screen icons should be familiar if you’ve ever used a digital camera.

There are even several scene modes that you can use if desired.

Captured photos can be saved in albums, tagged with GPS coordinates and played as a slide show.

Images can also be emailed and individual photo details can be edited.

Here are a couple example pictures. The camera does a pretty good job. I was happy with the macro capabilities. There are two things that do annoy me about the camera though. The main thing is that it is very hard to see the display (viewfinder) outdoors in sunlight. This makes it really difficult to take pictures and videos when you can’t see what you’re trying to capture.

The other problem with the camera is the shutter button on the Right side. It is very mushy feeling and kind of hard to press. You have to press the button halfway to auto focus and then all the way to capture the picture.

Video

In addition to capturing still images, you can also use the N85 to take videos.

Like the still image display, the video display shows you the necessary information.

There is even a night shooting mode.

And White balance settings.

Capturing video suffers from the same problems that I encountered while capturing still images. Hard to see viewfinder outdoors and mushy capture button. The capture button isn’t as big a deal though as you just have to press it once to toggle the  start and stop of video recording.

The main camera on the back can capture 640 x 480 resolution, MPEG-4 video and the camera on the front records at 176 x 144 resolution using the H.263 codec.

Main camera video sample (.MP4, 11mb)

Not bad video for a cell phone.

Front camera video sample (.3GP, 96kb)

Typical grainy low resolution video.

You can watch videos on the phone and find other videos to watch too.

Music

The N85 has a nice set of audio programs too.

There’s a digital music player for your .MP3 files, a Podcast player, FM and Internet radio players and even a nifty built in FM transmitter.

Music can be copied to the microSD card and organized into folders for artists and albums. Music sounds pretty good through this phone and I like that it has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

It’s also cool that you can turn the N85 into a music player by sliding the display down (to the Right while in landscape mode) to reveal special music control keys.

If you enjoy listening to FM radio, you can do that too. You have to plug in a set of earbuds or headphones though in order to tune stations though. It uses the headphone / earbud wire as an antenna.

If you are more inclined to listen to streaming Internet radio stations, you’re in luck. There’s an app for that too. It can stream using your phone’s data connection, or via WiFi. There is a station directory based on genre, or you can add your own station address manually.

Games

This little phone can play games too.

There is a large selection of trial games that you can install either on the device itself, or on the microSD card.

The games are pretty fun and are great for wasting time while waiting in a checkout line. I tried several, including the oldie but goodie – Tetris.

The Nokia N85 makes a great little media device with its built-camera, camcorder, music player, FM radio, streaming internet radio player and games. You definitely won’t be bored with this phone. My only complaint is with the shutter button and even that isn’t a major complaint

The next part of my series on the Nokia N85 will focus on:

• Built in applications
• Wrap up

Filed in categories: Wireless

Tagged: N85, Nokia, S60, Symbian

A Week with the Nokia N85 Smartphone – Day 3, 4 & 5 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 9, 2009 at 1:00 am.

You know how it is when you get a brand new phone, you have to adjust to the location of its buttons, navigation of menus, etc. That’s what I’ve been doing the last couple of days with the Nokia N85. This part will focus on:

• First impressions of the user interface
• Making and receiving calls
• Browsing the web

User Interface

Prior to buying the N85, I had been using the N80 off and on. Even though the N80 is over 3 years old and very chunky in comparison to current phones, I have always enjoyed using it because it just plain works. There is also something about Nokia phones that has always impressed me… they seem to be able to hold a signal better than most other phones.

A quick look at these two phones shows that the N85 is a sleeker version, updated with a thinner and shinier body. While I do like the thinner body of the N85, I find myself missing the individual buttons of the N80.

As you can see, the buttons on the N80 are all seperate physical buttons, while most of the buttons on the N85 are not. What’s the big deal? I can’t really put my finger on it (pun intended). I’m probably just being picky as usual, but for me the N85 feels slightly awkward to use. Interacting with the phone feels stiff and not as comfortable as on the N80. The N85 is also a bit ‘creaky and cracky’ when pressing the various buttons.

The Navi wheel on the N85 does have two unique features. One feature is touch sensitive. You can actually turn on a feature that will allow you to slide your thumb around the Silver ‘wheel’ to scroll through menu items. Think iPod nano touch wheel and you get the idea. In reality, the feature isn’t all that great. I turned it off after a day or so playing with it because it acted a sort of hurky jerky.

The other feature of the Navi wheel is the LED that surrounds the center button. You can turn on a breathing feature that will slowly fade the White LED on and off. It’s sort of like the power LEDs on Macbooks. Just a little eye candy…

Navigating the interface is not difficult. The main menu is accessed with the dedicated menu button in the bottom Left corner that looks like two planets revolving around each other. Pressing it will present you with one screen of icons in grid view. You can also show these icons in a list, horseshoe or v-shaped list views.

Making and Receiving Calls

There are several ways to initiate a call with the N85. If you have a Bluetooth headset, you can use voice dialing.

From the home screen, you can just type in the number you wish to dial with the keypad or hold down a number on the keypad if you have 1-touch dialing set up.

Another way to dial is to look up a number from your contacts list. Go into the contacts application and start typing a name using the keypad and the list will continue to filter as you type. Then you can go into the desired contact and select the number to dial.

When a call comes in to your phone, you will see the number along with their photo if the person is in your contacts list and has a photo associated with them. You can silence the call and have the option to send a predefined text message to the caller.

When you miss a call, you’ll see a message on the display and have the ability to see details about the call.

You can also view the call log, which includes incoming, outgoing and missed call lists. Press the Green call button on any of the entries in these lists will dial the number associated with that log item.

Like other Nokia phones that I’ve tested, this one does very well at holding a signal. I haven’t had any dropped calls yet and the audio quality on both sides of conversations is as good as can be expected here (Columbus, Indiana) on the non-3G AT&T network. Am I dissing AT&T? Yeah, a little…

I did find out that you will want to extend the phone (slide open the keyboard) when you are making or receiving calls with this phone. Calls do not sound as clear (to the other party) when the phone is closed even though I believe that the microphone is built into the bottom edge of the top sliding part of the phone.

Browsing the Web

For the browsing part of this review, I mainly used the built in WiFi because it’s much faster than EDGE speeds.

Browsing with the N85 is only a so-so experience for two reasons – text input and screen size. Typing in web address can be really frustrating using the numeric keypad.

And the small display can be a challenge as well. To see the entire main column of The Gadgeteer, I had to zoom the display to 50% normal size. The image above on the Left is at 100%. The image on the Right is 50%. It’s still readable, but not really comfortable.

Rotating the display to the landscape orientation does help considerably though.

Since the N85 does not have a touchscreen, you use the Navi Wheel to move around a tiny pointer icon to click on links. It’s not hard to use, but if you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPod touch, the N85 will make you feel like you’re trying to surf with your hands tied behind your back.

I would say my main issue with surfing is that I groan every time I have to enter any text such as a user name / password or web address. Using the keypad to enter even a few words gets tedious very quickly for me.

As you noticed from the screen shots shown above, you can watch YouTube videos on the N85 as it has support for Javascript and Flash Lite. When you click a video link, it will load into Real Player. It works pretty well through WiFi.

As a phone, the N85 does a decent job and I don’t have any real complaints. I would like to be able to use voice dialing without a Bluetooth headset though *. As a web surfing device, I wouldn’t use the N85 unless that was the only device I had nearby and I didn’t need to do any intensive surfing.

The next part of my series on the Nokia N85 will focus on:

• Using the camera
• Capturing video
• Listening to audio
• Playing games

* Reader Kenneth Wong pointed out to me that you don’t need a Bluetooth headset to use the voice dialing feature. All you have to do is hold down the Right select button above the Red end key. Thanks Kenneth!

Filed in categories: Wireless

Tagged: Nokia, S60, Smartphone, Symbian

A Week with the Nokia N85 Smartphone – Day 1 & 2 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 2, 2009 at 1:00 am.

The Android G1 was a cool phone, but you and I both knew that I wouldn’t stick with it very long. What can I say, I get bored easily. So, this week I’m going to be trying out the Nokia N85 smartphone. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a newer Symbian phone, so I’m excited to see if it will keep me interested enough to stick around after the week is done. 

Day 0

This first post, otherwise known as Day 0, will provide a short tour of the physical features of this phone. The rest of the series will delve into more detailed usage of the these features.

Hardware Specifications

OS: Symbian 9.3 S60
Bands: Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, WCDMA 850/1900/2100 MHz
Data: GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA/WiFi
Memory: 74 MB internal, 8GB microSD flash card included
Display: 2.6″ 16 million color QVGA Active Matrix OLED, 240×320 pixel resolution
Camera: 5 megapixel  (2584 x 1938 pixels) with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and dual-LED flash
Video: 640×480 VGA, up to 30 frames per second
Bluetooth: 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP
WiFi: 802.11b, 802.11g
Audio: 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
Battery: 1200mHa, Estimated 4 hours talk time, estimated 12.5 days standby time
Size: 4.o5 x 1.97 x 0.63 inches (103 x 50 x 16 mm)
Weight: 4.5oz (128g)

Package Contents

Nokia N85 Smartphone
Battery
AC Adapter
micro USB cable
Video connectivity cable
3.5mm earphones and controller
Getting started guides

Out of the box, I was impressed by the size of the N85. It’s very close to the same dimensions as the Palm Centro as you can see from the image below.

For me, this size is pretty much perfect because it is comfortable in both your hand and your pocket.

The N85 has a shiny Black plastic face that attracts fingerprints and smudges like flowers attract bees. The non-touchscreen display takes up most of the front surface of the phone. Above the display is the speaker, light sensor and a front facing secondary camera.

Below the display is a collection of 9 buttons. The buttons that you can actually see include Call and End keys, the Navi wheel / scroll key with the center select button and to the Right of that is the small multimedia key.

The four buttons that you don’t see when the phone is in idle mode are the two buttons that map to the bottom screen menu items, as well as the Menu key and Clear key C which are located along the bottom edge. To activate these buttons, you just press the case in that area.

On the back side of the phone, you will find the easy to remove battery cover, the camera lens and LED flash.

There’s a protective slide cover for the camera lens. Sliding this cover open exposes the lens and also launches the camera application.

I really like the fact that sliding the cover open will immediately start the camera application and will allow you to capture images straight away without having to navigate various menus in order to launch the camera application.

On the Left edge of the phone, you will find the microSD card slot and lanyard attachment point.

On the opposite edge, you will find two speakers for stereo sound with 3D effects. There is also a camera shutter button, key lock switch and the volume / zoom button.

The top edge has the micro USB connector for charging and syncing. Next to it is a 3.5mm stereo earphone jack and the power button.

To access the numeric keypad, you slide the display upwards. The sliding mechanism feels like it has a spring assist, which makes it pretty easy to slide it open and closed.

The only issue I have with this design is that to slide the display up, you have to use your thumb on the screen to move it. That means smeary fingerprints all over the screen.

Sliding open the screen will ‘wake’ up the phone if it is in idle mode and will not require that you press the screen unlock buttons.

It’s important to note that the keypad does not have individual keys. Instead, it has one flat surface with the buttons under it. It has good tactile feedback and is backlit, but I personally prefer separate keys. That’s just me though…

The numeric keypad isn’t the only keypad on this phone. If you slide the screen in the opposite direction, it will expose four short side keys.

These keys have different functions depending on the application that you’re in. In the image above, you can see that the keys have play/pause, stop, next and previous track functions for the music player. When using the web browser, they can be used to zoom in and out as well as to play/pause and stop music that you may be listening to in the background. They can also be used in game mode.

So far I’m loving the size of this phone. It’s perfect for sliding in my pocket when I take walks at work. The phone is solid, has a good heft to it and feels good in my hand. It does exhibit some creaking noises when I apply my ever popular gadgeteer squeeze test on it.

My main complaint so far is the flat keyboard. I’ve never been a fan of that style and am not sure this phone will be the one that changes my mind.

That’s it for the hardware tour. I’ll be back with my Day 1 and 2 impressions, which will include:

• First impressions of the user interface
• Making and receiving calls
• Browsing the web

Filed in categories: Wireless

Tagged: N85, Nokia, Smartphone, Symbian

A Week with the Nokia N85 Smartphone originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 23, 2009 at 1:00 am.