Bing is a new search engine by Microsoft. It has similar features to Google like Web search, image search, video search, news search etc.

The widget, which is now available for FREE download on OVI Store is compatible with S60v3 & S60v5 devices. You can get it by pointing your PC or phone browser to http://store.ovi.com.

Here’s a screenshot of the Bing widget on Nokia N96. As you can see, search results are categorised in tabs.

The widget looks and works the same on the touch version of S60 devices like 5800 & N97.

Get the Bing widget for your phone now!

In this ‘battle’, we will be comparing the camera samples from N97, N96 (both 5mpx) and a Sony T900 Cybershot Camera (set to shoot at 5mpx).

These tests below also mimics real world usage of the phones as cameras and find out if camera lens cover(on the N97 and T900) really makes a difference in the photo taking experience.

Here we can see the 3 contenders, (clockwise) T900, N97 and N96. Since the T900 is a proper compact camera, we will set it as a benchmark and decide if the N96 or the N97 produce photos closer to the T900 quality.

The battle consists of 5 tests: Scenery, Macro, Colour Production, Indoor Flash Portrait and Backlit Portrait. All photos below are unedited. I only resized them to 1200px wide and added captions.
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

Test 1: Scenery

Nokia N96	Nokia N97	T900 Cybershot

Test 2: Macro

Nokia N96	Nokia N97	T900 Cybershot

Test 3: Colour Production

Nokia N96	Nokia N97	T900 Cybershot

Test 4: Indoor Portrait with Flash

Nokia N96	Nokia N97	T900 Cybershot

Test 5: Backlit Portrait

Nokia N96	Nokia N97	T900 Cybershot

My verdict:
N96 - Lack of camera lens cover exposes the camera to handprints that can create bluriness in photos. Colour production is the worst among the three. Cannot expose dark subjects with bright background well. Quite noisy when photo taken in low light condition.
N97 – Great scenery shots. Able to bring out the colours of scenes and objects captured. Low light photos are good, but white balance might need to be fixed to produce more natural-like indoor ambiance. Noise control is very effective. Photos are more natural in daylight. Quality is very close to the T900.
T900 – Undoubtedly, produces the best photos. Very natural colours when light source is sufficient. Bad indoor shots.

What are your opinions? Share with us by leaving a comment or join the SymbianpOp community and chat by clicking on the “FB Community” button at the blue bar attached to the bottom of the browser.

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The ex-flagship device, the N96 and also the E51 got firmware updates too.

The new version for N96 is v30.033.

Apparently the official changelog is not found anywhere but from the Nokia Software Update website, the changelog was listed quite briefly:

• Imaging – take sharper photos through improved imaging quality and autofocus accuracy
• Mail – Nokia Email service compatibility
• Other – Improvements speed up your phone through system wide speed improvements

The new firmware version for E51 is 400.34.011.

Changelog brief:

• Increased stability in Mail for Exchange
• SMS reception improvements
• Stability and usability improvements for VoIP and WLAN
• Robustness improvements when pressing the Home key.

More info at www.nokia.com/softwareupdates.

You can update the firmwares on your phones via FOTA by pressing *#0000# n then click “check for updates” or you can get it via the Nokia Software Updater. Step by step here.

What’s Switch? Here’s a scenario.

You are using an S60 phone, say N95 or N82 or N78 or N96 or 5800…. and then you bought a new S60 phone… say… N86.. or N97… and you are frustrated cos you have no idea how to transfer all your data (contacts, SMS, MMS, media, etc) from your old phone to your new one.

Switch is your solution. It has been lying deep inside S60 phones for a while now and I see a lot of people are still unaware of this great feature.

To access Switch, go to Settings > Connectivity > Data Transfer > Phone Switch. (The location of Switch varies… if you don’t find it here, try looking under tools or utilities folder)

Switch allows you to transfer data like Contacts, Calendar entries, SMSes, MMSes, Notes, Bookmarks , Photos and Videos from one S60 phone to another. Usually the the transfer (via bluetooth) takes about 3 to 5 minutes only (depending on how much data you are transferring)

Here are 2 screenshots from the Switch menu on N97. How do you get Switch to work? Follow these simple steps:

1. Switch on bluetooth on both phones.
2. Select “send” or “transfer” on your old phone (should be the 3rd button on the Switch screen).
3. Select your new phone from the “bluetooth devices menu”.?
4. Click on “accept transfer” on your new phone and WALLAH!

It will then begin transferring and after a few minutes, your new phone will have every single data from your old phone! Try it!

What do you think of this feature?

The latest one from him is called Qi.

He recently did one for mother’s day too called ‘Rose’

Go visit tehkseven…. try them out and share some opinions here ya.

Here’s the changelog.

New Features

• Email:
  • Nokia Email client and Mail for Exchange (MfE) preloaded (User will install and configure email clients with the help of Settings Wizard)
  • Settings Wizard 5.0: offers improvements for Nokia Email and MfE setup
  • Active Standby Email Plug-in: showing new email messages on Active Standby screen
• Look & Feel:
  • Support for Audio Themes: configurable sounds for various events e.g. opening/closing slide, battery low etc
  • Setting to allow a slideshow to be used as wallpaper
  • Slide handling: Setting to allow user to configure effect opening/closing the slide has on a call and keylock
• Others:
  • WiFi Protected Setup is now supported, allowing simplified setup of WLAN security with a supported WLAN access point
  • Support of IAD (Independent Application Delivery): Allows certain applications to be updated independently over the air.

Improvements

• Correction for occasional CMLA (Content Management License Administrator) certificate corruption. (These certificates are needed for e.g. Mobile TV and N-Gage license purchases)
• Energy management:
  • Shorter lights/screen timeout when lockswitch activated. Backlight dims as soon as keylock is enabled
  • Media Keys surrounding the rocker key lit only if a media application is open
  • Right Softkey changed from “Hide” to “Exit” for Music Player for EM savings
• Photos/Camera/Imaging:
  • A number of improvements made to the Camera image quality
  • The device SW version information is now stored in the image MetaData
  • Default recording quality for video is changed from ‘TV normal’ to TV high’
  • Noise reduction of recorded videos
• Media/DRM:
  • New version of Music player: Performance and “Comes With Music”-related improvements
  • FlashLite update for improved YouTube compatibility – improvements in rendering of Flash Video
  • General Media player &streaming related usability & performance improvements
  • OMA DRM v2 content can use device clock if no secure clock (i.e. NITZ) is available
• Browser:
  • Empty bookmark folders removed from Browser bookmarks (i.e. the “Download…” folders)
  • Link to Ovi.mobi is included in Browser bookmarks
• Others:
  • Vibra enabled when charging
  • When gaming in landscape mode, stereo audio will be played through correct speakers
  • Updated Themes
  • Slide triggered keyguard activation: When closing the slide, pressing any key within 2 seconds will result in keylock not being activated
  • Several error corrections based on Care and operator feedback
  • Several application baseline updates

You can either get this update Over The Air(OTA) or using the Nokia Software Updater. Click on the links for step by step guide on the respective methods.

Source

Ewan Spence from AAS has come up with a very comprehensive article that compares both from the hardware aspect.

Physical Dimensions

Imaging and Video Recording

Ewan sums it up by mentioning that both the device are actually very similar and no doubt the N86 is derived from the N85.

Click here for the complete article.

When she told me about it I told her that she can actually update it’s firmware over the air.

Now for those who are still updating firmware via the Nokia Software Updater, probably you can try this.

Go to menu, click on ‘Tools’.

Go to ‘Utilities’.

Then click on ‘Device Manager’.

In there, you will see the current firmware version and some extra information.

Then go to options, and click on ‘Check For Updates’.

If there is a newer firmware version for your phone model, you will be prompted to download and install it. Do so, and the phone will install and restart by itself… then you’re done!

Be sure to backup your important data first… although you may not need to so if you are using N96 cos updating firmware does not erase contents anymore.

(This OTA firmware update thing works on most new Nseries too. So give it a try if you own one.

Hi, some of you N79 owners may already know this if you spent time exploring the camera menus, but if you haven’t, then hope this will help.

Tip 1: How to customize your toolbar

If you go to Options in image mode, you’ll see an option to customize the toolbar shorcuts that appear in the right column in camera mode.

As you can see, you can select and change any of the six shortcuts available. So if there’s a feature you want to access more quickly, you can elevate it to the shortcut level.

Tip 2: Burst mode

If you select sequence mode from the shortcuts list, you will see a range of options other than the standard single shot mode. As you can see in the screenshot above, burst mode lets you capture six quick images in succession, which is great for fast-moving action or other such scenarios. You can also hold the key down and continue to capture images in burst mode until the memory runs out.

Tip 3: Scene modes

If you are taking everyday photos, the standard auto mode setting is a good option. However, if you are taking a certain type of photo, scene modes give you more specified options. Select the “A” icon from the shortcuts and you’ll see the options above, from close-up to portrait to night mode.

Tip 4: Video light

Your N79 has the capability to shoot in low- and no-light situations, which means you can shoot video at night, in a dimly-lit club and wherever else you might want to shed some light on things. The default setting is off, so all you need to do is select the icon highlighted above to switch the video light on.

(Tip 2, 3 and 4 works for N85 and N96 too)

Do you have some other tips and tricks for the Nseries camera?

Source

As you can see, I am updating the firmware via Over The Air (OTA) which means you can download the update wirelessly on 3G or GPRS connection.

To update via OTA, go to menu > tools > utilities > dev. manager and select “check for updates”

Alternatively, you can still update the firmware via the Nokia Software Updater(NSU) on your pc. Here’s a step by step guide.

Changelog for this update(thanks to MR G):

NEW FEATURES IN THIS RELEASE

Switch 4.0 – improved switch application to transfer user data from/to other devices

IMPROVEMENTS IN THIS RELEASE / GENERAL AREAS
- Still image quality is improved, with fixes for color haziness and motion blur that appeared under certain conditions
- Many fixes for conditions that can lead to application crashes or instabilities
- Improved overall Bluetooth interoperability Improved overall Bluetooth interoperability
- Now compatible with Nokia Email service (application available as separate download)
- If user sets brightness to maximum value the display backlight now does turn back on after screensaver mode
- The device autolock no longer locks the device while viewing or recording videos
- SMS no longer gets auto-converted to an MMS message if there are more then 20 recipients
- Music Player “Refresh Library” no longer hangs if General Settings Date separator is set to “:”
- Now only one message alert tone is played per synchronization with Mail for Exchange, instead of one per message
- Fix for issue with alarm snoozing when alarm was set and device was powered off
- Theme no longer jumps back to default theme after using USB mass storage mode
- CSHelp texts are now updated to resolves several identified issues

KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE
- During boot, we recommend to wait for battery bar to show up prior to using media keys to ensure they are responsive.
- Ngage pre-selects wrong access point in certain operator networks, in these instances user needs to reconfigure Ngage access points manually from within Ngage settings menu