Nokia Debuts Three Symbian Smartphones

Nokia announced three new smartphones, which will run Symbian Belle.  Photo: This Is My Next.

Nokia hasn’t quite completed its transition to Windows Phone 7, so it’s still got a few Symbian phones up its sleeve … even if Symbian is all but dead here in the United States.

Nokia announced three new handsets Wednesday, each with a specific claim to fame and running Belle, the latest version of Symbian OS.

The Nokia 600 is the cheapest of the bunch. It features Nokia’s loudest speaker to date, which can blast tunes at 106 phons, and an FM transmitter. It also is said to have a 60-hour battery life.

The Nokia 700 is Nokia’s tiniest smartphone. The third model, the 701, is said to have the brightest display on the market (even in direct sunlight): a 3.5-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display. It also sports an 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting HD video. The 700 and 701 both feature a 1-GHz processor.

Earlier this year, Nokia announced it would abandon the Symbian OS in favor of Windows Phone 7. That stunned a lot of people and left Symbian developers feeling alienated. Following the announcement, Nokia said it had a 12-month timeline for the OS swap, so we won’t be seeing Nokia WP7 devices until 2012. The company said it would release about 20 Symbian smartphones in the interim.

All three models announced today have NFC capabilities, which makes it dead easy to wirelessly share photos and videos, connect to accessories like speakers, or share contact information with Nokia-toting friends.

The 600, 700, and 701 are each available in a variety of hues, ranging from metallic gray to eye-popping flamingo pink, and will be priced at €180, €270 and €290, [$260, $390 and $419] respectively.

via This Is My Next


Nokia Nearby tells your S40 where the action’s at

Just because you’re packing an S40 or S60 device doesn’t mean you should have to miss out on the haps. That’s why Nokia Beta Labs is debuting a pilot app called Nokia Nearby, a hyper-local search app — geared toward emerging markets with a heavy concentration of S40 handsets — that helps you find restaurants, movie theaters and other locations within close range of your current location. Fortunately, GPS isn’t required for the service to work properly, which makes it even more tempting to at least try out. Glance at the video below the break to get a quick demonstration, and move over to the source link to download the beta program.

Continue reading Nokia Nearby tells your S40 where the action’s at

Nokia Nearby tells your S40 where the action’s at originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia Needs to Stop Making Symbian Phones RIGHT NOW

Hey look! There are three new Symbian phones out today. What? Where? Why, they’re over there, next to the pennyfarthings and the ham radios: the obsolete section. What the crap is going on here, Nokia? More »

Nokia to announce Symbian Belle update on Wednesday, crafts a countdown timer

Well, that must be embarrassing: Nokia gets a fancy countdown clock set up on its Facebook page as a teaser for something new on Symbian, and the file it set up still says “belle_fb_TeaserMain” in it. It doesn’t anymore, but the cat’s already out of the bag; on Wednesday morning Espoo will most likely unveil Belle, its forthcoming bump up from Symbian Anna. We’re unsure of the exact details that’ll be shared, though we’ve already seen enough of the new update to know what to expect: with a couple lengthy videos, multitudes of screenshots and a leaked version of Belle floating around somewhere, there isn’t much of a mystery left to shed light on. That said, we’re still hoping we’ll see some device announcements as well as dates and device compatibility. Perhaps Mr. Elop just wants us to think it’s Belle, in which case this would be the best teaser of all.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Nokia to announce Symbian Belle update on Wednesday, crafts a countdown timer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocket-Lint, GSM Arena  |  sourceFacebook  | Email this | Comments

Engadget Mobile Podcast 100 – 08.21.2011

We’re 100. 100! If you’re like us, you totally can’t believe it’s been more than two years since we first started Mobile Podcasting but you totally can believe it at the same time because that’s just how we roll: dedicated. To celebrate we’ve brought along Engadget Chinese editor Richard Lai and Noah Kravitz of TechnoBuffalo to weigh in on stuff like the Xiaomi phone and Symbian Belle leaking its way into the world. And…a couple of other things. We’re old. It’s a mobile party. You just got your pentaband invite to click on the play or download links below. Don’t sleep on it: before you know it we’ll be 200.

Hosts: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen
Guests: Richard Lai, Noah Kravitz
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Daestro – Light Powered (Ghostly International)

00:02:45 – HP will ‘discontinue operations for webOS devices’, may spin off Personal Systems Group
00:21:55 – Google acquiring Motorola Mobility
00:42:45 – Motorola’s new Droid HD makes cameo alongside Droid Bionic
01:04:30 – BlackBerry Bold 9930 review
01:05:43 – AT&T streamlining individual messaging plans August 21st, leaving unlimited as the sole survivor
01:15:00 – Xiaomi Phone hands-on (updated with video)
01:25:40 – Symbian Anna now available for download on Nokia N8, E7, C7 and C6-01
01:26:30 – Symbian Belle download leaked to N8 community, quickly pulled from site (update: Anna available on NaviFirm)
01:30:57 – CNET: RIM in talks to squeeze out BlackBerry music service
01:32:50 – Motorola Photon 4G review
01:36:53 – Samsung Hercules, HTC Ruby available from T-Mobile on October 26th?
01:38:56 – Samsung Hercules gets its Telus on in leaked glamour shots
01:39:38 – HTC Holiday prototype shows up on Craigslist, gives us reason to celebrate (update: AT&T-bound)
01:45:55 – Why is LTE equipment being installed in an Apple Store?



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Engadget Mobile Podcast 100 – 08.21.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Aug 2011 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Symbian Anna now available for download on Nokia N8, E7, C7 and C6-01

Just a day after popping up on NaviFirm, Nokia’s Symbian Anna has finally arrived for download, right on schedule. Available for N8, E7, C7 and C6-01 users, the new OS brings a fresh new UI and a virtual portrait QWERTY keypad to Symbian smartphones, along with split-screen messaging, richer maps and speedier browsing. The update also brings NFC capabilities to the C7, in particular, allowing users to share contacts, photos and other goodies by simply tapping their handsets together. If you’re interested in upgrading, you can download Anna using the latest version of Ovi Suite (3.1.1), or with an OTA update, though availability and method of delivery vary from market to market. Find more information in the full PR, after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Symbian Anna now available for download on Nokia N8, E7, C7 and C6-01

Symbian Anna now available for download on Nokia N8, E7, C7 and C6-01 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 05:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Symbian Belle download leaked to N8 community, quickly pulled from site (update: Anna available on NaviFirm)

For a very short period of time there was pure bliss for Nokia N8 users with a knack for tinkering around; Symbian Belle, a coveted update to the still-unreleased Anna, was spotted in a user forum, leaked and available for download. Alas, it was not meant to be, as enough users experienced issues installing the new firmware that the files had to be pulled until it can be resolved. According to DailyMobile, the folks behind the update will try again tomorrow, so anyone interested may want to keep a close eye on it just in case it goes live again. As any other unofficial firmware install, it’s not for the faint of heart; you’ll want to be confident in what you’re doing before you get started. Head below for another eight-minute video.

Update: It looks like Symbian Anna is now available for N8 users, with early variants of the firmware showing up on NaviFirm. No word yet on when V22 will be available via Ovi Suite or as an OTA update, but if you’ve already upgraded, let us know how you’re finding it in the comments.

[Thanks, Daniel]

Continue reading Symbian Belle download leaked to N8 community, quickly pulled from site (update: Anna available on NaviFirm)

Symbian Belle download leaked to N8 community, quickly pulled from site (update: Anna available on NaviFirm) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia still ahead of Apple in smartphone sales, according to Gartner

Whoa there, Apple, we know you’re starting to feel pretty darn good about besting Nokia and Samsung for the title of world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, but hold on for just one minute. Gartner has a different idea of how the numbers game really works, and its interpretation makes all the difference in determining who earns the title. Rather than measuring the number of units each manufacturer ships out to the distributors (as IDC, ABI Research and Strategy Analytics do), Gartner gauges its numbers by how many devices were actually sold to end users instead. Thus, Nokia still keeps its title — for one more quarter, anyways. The firm is confident Espoo won’t be the top smartphone contender for much longer, thanks to the company’s grim Q3 outlook as it continues to await the transition to Windows Phone. But hey, there’s always Q4, right? Right? Check out the full press release after the break.

Continue reading Nokia still ahead of Apple in smartphone sales, according to Gartner

Nokia still ahead of Apple in smartphone sales, according to Gartner originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia’s Chris Weber promises US-centric push for Windows Phone 7 devices

Nokia’s US prexy Chris Weber’s been making the media rounds lately, talking up the company’s Windows Phone near-future and offering a peek at the marketing blitz to come. In an interview with VentureBeat, Weber confirmed the death of Symbian and the N9’s North American release, but was much less straightforward when asked about the WP7 launch, saying only that a US focus is paramount to the OEM’s global success. The MS-blessed smartphones are set to debut “in volume” next year, at which point Nokia hopes to have ironed out its complex negotiations with carriers, bringing aggressively subsidized handsets to market. Nokia’s chief also engaged in a bit of mobile OS grandstanding, touting Microsoft’s live tile integrated approach as superior to the “outdated” app focus popularized by iOS and Android. And if you’re wondering just how the OEM plans to differentiate its hardware in this cluttered wireless market, expect to see phones with an emphasis on “state-of-the-art imaging technology and battery performance.” Here’s to hoping Weber’s words don’t come back to haunt him when his bet goes live next year.

Nokia’s Chris Weber promises US-centric push for Windows Phone 7 devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashgear  |  sourceVentureBeat  | Email this | Comments

Nokia to retire Symbian in North America, going all-in on Windows Phone

Nokia to retire Symbian in North America, going all-in on Windows Phone

We know that Symbian isn’t dying any time soon, but here in the US of A the little OS that couldn’t quite captivate our picky buyers will soon be mighty hard to find. Speaking with All Things D, Chris Weber, President of Nokia’s US operations, said “When we launch Windows Phones we will essentially be out of the Symbian business, the S40 business, etc.” That means no more full-price or business-focused devices in the US, and no more Symbian love. This is at least in part thanks to the failure of the Astound to find a solid foothold, but Nokia’s upcoming Windows Phone offerings (like the Sea Ray) will at least follow in its footsteps, being sold with proper carrier subsidies and riding the wave of a giant advertising blitz. Will it work? According to Weber, it has to: “The reality is if we are not successful with Windows Phone, it doesn’t matter what we do.”

Nokia to retire Symbian in North America, going all-in on Windows Phone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAll Things D  | Email this | Comments