Nokia N810 internet tablet

The long expected successor of Nokia N800 internet tablet - Nokia N810 made its first official appearance today. It was announced today by the Finnish company at the Web 2.0 Summit 2007 event in San Francisco, California.

Nokia N810 is sporting the same sparkling touchscreen 4.13" display with 800 x 480 pixels resolution we saw in its predecessor. The most exiting upgrade over the former model is the added GPS receiver with preinstalled maps. According to the manufacturer it should be perfectly adequate for navigating your way around. The other great news is that Nokia N810 will have a full hardware QWERTY keyboard which will surely greatly facilitate text input. Unfortunately, the N810 retains the same VGA-only snapper we saw on N800 but this time it's front-mounted.

Nokia N810 Internet tablet

The new internet tablet relies on Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth connection to a mobile phone to get internet access. Although it does allow its user to make internet calls as well as almost any other internet activity you can do from a personal computer it lack mobile phone functionality, meaning that you cannot carry out regular calls on it. This is the only reason we don't add Nokia's internet tablets to our specifications database, despite the abundance of request we receive in our mailbox.

Nokia N810 comes complete with the adequate 2GB of internal memory which can be expanded up to 10GB through the memory card slot. The device will start shipping as soon as mid November at an estimated retail price of USD 479 (excluding local taxes).

Nokia makes Touch UI for Symbian S60

Nokia breathes life to the S60 user interface for Symbian OS with the announcement that the widespread and popular S60 platform, used in all the brand's smartphones (plus a handful of smartphones of other makes) is now going to get all "touchy". The new UI will accommodate various input methods such as finger and stylus based operation.

One of the must-have features of any touchscreen device is the keypress feedback. The new touch-based user interface for S60 smartphones, announced at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London, will take care of that as it flaunts touch feedback via slight vibrations. Best of all, current S60 applications should run smoothly as usual on the new touch-enabled handsets, while newly developed ones will make better use of the enhanced functionality.

The S60 Nokia concept touchphone

The new S60 platform will also make additional use of various sensors - from motion to proximity and light - allowing the new devices to "enter a new kinetic world and offer completely new opportunities for application and game developers".

The new S60 web browser will boast full support for Flash video, allowing even more seamless integration between the mobile devices and the mobile Web (read YouTube and the likes) creating a true multimedia-on-the-bounce experience.

We cannot help but feel overexcited by the announced technology upgrade. Nokia already hinted in one of its Go Play Event commercial videos that a touch screen S60 smartphone is in the works and today's announcement is a welcome confirmation. Obviously, touch-centric will be making headlines for quite some time to come, with the technology available to all S60 device manufacturers during 2008.

Check out this Nokia flick for some visuals on the Nokia concept touchphone.

Google Docs now mobile read documents on your phone

Techquack reported earlier today that Google Docs is now mobile.

This new interface contains one Search Box, Recent Documents, your folders and your documents. Instead of Displaying the extensions, there is an icon for spreadsheet, doc, ppt that is getting displayed.

Checkout docs.google.com/m on your phone

Neonode N2 review: Simply cool

It is impractical, imperfect, overdone, striking, unique and beautifully crafted! Neonode N2 is loveable at first sight.

Generally, a handset is not manufactured until it has gone through an arduous period of development and maturing. OK, we said handset, not Neonode N2. The second Neonode kinda went straight into labors. You don't believe it? The N2 was first mentioned on its main designer's private blog. The note was even accompanied by an ultrasound image.

Ultrasound only revealed that the new-born was going to have rounded edges

So, an unusual device came to life in an unusual way. What's more, we dare say that if there is one exceptional mobile in today's uniform world at all, it must be the Neonode N2. The device is unique in so many ways, we must be extra careful not to overlook any of its unprecedented features: extraordinary body construction, simple and distinctive design, unprecedented pair of holes, unique interface featuring almost "extraterrestrial" navigation, and a calling system, which is so unusual, it's almost funny.

Neonode N2 official photos

At first glance, the Neonode N2 specs sheet may seem rather dry and standard. It's not until you have the device in your hand that you understand what this phone is really about. Neonode N2 is tiny, compact, and solid. At the same time, you'll simply have to read the manual, its introduction at least. Otherwise, you won't manage to even confirm your own PIN code.

Have you ever seen a handset with such holes? And have you ever seen a gadget so neat? It's a phone after all, but they didn't let the earpiece spoil the front view of the device.

Key features

• Unique to the last inch
• Great looks
• Solid construction
• Synchronizing options
• Excellent headphones
• Acceptable camera
• Small size

Main disadvantages

• Problematic universal port
• No EDGE or 3G
• No email
• Limited 3-rd party applications compatibility

Nokia N81 preview: Hands on N-Gage

The Nokia N81 is an exciting Symbian smartphone that comes loaded with multimedia capabilities and promises tons of fun. Flaunting 8 gig worth of storage, the Nokia N81 8GB comes in the slider form factor and features a nice 2.4" 16M color TFT display, 3G with video calls, Wi-Fi, a 2 megapixel snapper, stereo speakers, several dedicated music and gaming keys and finally, a unique Navi wheel D-pad that is unlike everything you've probably seen around in mobile handsets.

While we are currently working on the actual exclusive in-depth review of the Nokia N81 8GB (thanks to importgsm.com who provided us with the handset), we decided to lose no time but share with you our first impressions on one of the hottest multimedia handsets this winter season before the actual review is ready. We hope that in a few days we will be able to provide you with a full review.

The Nokia N81 all over

Taking a peak at the back - a 2-megapixel-only camera is somewhat dissapointing, there's no autofocus either

The Nokia N81 has an intruiging streamlined design

Designed to impress

The Nokia N81 measures 17.6 mm in thickness and weighs good 140 g. However it's surprisingly pocketable and it's real joy having it in our office. You may notice a rather strong resemblance to the Nokia 6110 Navigator, which we reviewed earlier. Now, as you may probably know there are two editions of the Nokia N81 to be produced - a vanilla one that comes with a microSD slot and a 1GB or 2GB microSD card in the retail package, and Nokia N81 8GB edition, which we got for testing.

The N81 is rather nice and comfortable to hold

The front panel of the Nokia N81 8GB is dominated by the large 2.4" 16M color TFT display with QVGA resolution. As you know Nokia displays are our favorites. Currently, probably only the iPhone display outmatches those.

Nokia N81 has a great large display

You will probably notice that all the keys are flush with the design lines. It must be noted that some of them are rather hard to press - some of them need a good, hard shove in order to get them to work. Otherwise, pretty much the whole bunch of the keys has a good tactile feedback. And when we say "bunch" we really mean it - the front panel hosts as many as 11 keys without counting the alphanumeric keypad that is. While some of them may seem touch sensitive at first sight, they are not (except for the Navi wheel that is).

The keypad looks as a touch sensitive one • that on top the display is actually the gaming keys

The alphanumeric keypad is totally flush but yet nice to use

Have you seen lately a Nokia with hardware keylock?

The gaming keys and the music keys get revealed only when they can be put to use

Samsung G800 hits it officially

Today, the most heavily equipped Samsung cameraphone finally saw its official announcement. It is no wonder that Samsung G800 has been in the spotlight for a long time before its official appearance as it is among the best phones on the market in terms of multimedia capabilities. It is Samsung's cameraphones flagship featuring a stunning 5 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom. Other camera niceties include wide dynamic range, xenon flash, face detection and, naturally, auto focus. The digicam-like lens cover ensures scratch resistance and also benefits the phone's looks greatly.

Samsung G800 official photos

If the camera features of Samsung G800 are not enough to impress you by themselves then other features might just do the job. The slider phone comes complete with a 2.4" 262K color display with QVGA resolution that should provide great picture quality. Connectivity options are also quite a lot - GPRS and EDGE, both of class 10 and HSDPA (3.6 Mbps) assure network data transfer, while USB v2.0 and Bluetooth v2.0 should be enough to take care of other connectivity needs.

Samsung G800 official photos

The tri-band Samsung G800 comes complete with 160MB of internal memory which can be expanded through the microSD card slot. As of now there is no information of the retail price of the handset but we will probably find it out soon as the phone is going to hit European markets no latter than November this year.