Nokia has just unveiled a new series in its line of devices, the C Series. Along with the X and E series, the new line is more catered to the mass market, providing them smartphone features in a feature phone body.

The first device in this new series is the Nokia C5, comes with S60 3rd edition with OVI messenger pre-installed that allows users to connect to IM services like Windows Live Messenger and Gtalk.

It has a bright 2.2inch display and a 3.2megapixel camera. The C5 also comes with free walk and drive navigation courtesy of Ovi Maps. Social networking features for the C5, one of which is Facebook integration where the handset’s phonebook will display your contacts’ status updates. Good stuff!

The C5 is very slim, measuring at about 12mm thin and 46mm across (and 112mm high). Battery life is good for up to 12 hours talktime and it’ll stay on standby for 26 days between charges.

There will be 2 colour variations for the device, White & Warm Grey. It will be made available in the second quarter of 2010 globally in Europe, Eurasia, SEAP, China and MEA. Price would be around 135 Euro, which translates to about RM621 before tax.

Check out this hands-on video from FoneArena

What do you think of the new C series? Drop us a comment.

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Good news to all S60v5 users (N97, 5800, 5530 etc)!!!

Nimbuzz just rolled out a brand new version of its popular messaging app that supports Twitter!

According to them, they just did 3 great things by launching:

• the most powerful Twitter app on Symbian - adding a whole new element of “real-time”!
• a world first, with pop-up notifications for chats and events while Nimbuzz runs in the background!
• added kinetic scrolling to all 5th Edition phones - which will rock your touch screen!

The fully integrated Twitter function is better than any standalone Twitter client for Symbian, plus you get all that extra Nimbuzz goodness!
You can Tweet, ReTweet, Follow, Unfollow, Direct Message, visualize Timeline, Search, view Trends, view Profiles… you name it!

Here is a list of the new features and improvements:

* Full Twitter client - Timelines, Tweet, DM, Searches, Trends, Profiles and much more!!
* Kinetic scroll – available for Symbian 5th edition touch screen phones (e.g. Nokia 5800, Nokia N97, N97 mini, Nokia 5730, Nokia X6 )
* Chat History –see all your past conversations
* Pop-Up notification - for new chats and other events whenever Nimbuzz runs in the background
* DTMF tones in calls – now you can press 1 in a call , when the robot tells you so
* NimbuzzOut rate calculator – see the rates for calling to different countries
* Upgraded UI - new chat screen layout & contact list layout

Cant wait to try it on your Nokia touchscreen devices? Download the new Nimbuzz 2.2 for Symbian now from Nimbuzz.com

Just when you thought Symbian user interface is getting old since the new touchscreen devices are currently using S60v5 (which was ported from S60v3 with touch capability added), don scat!

The people at Symbian Foundation are actually working on new Symbian platforms namely Symbian^3 and Symbian^4

Check out the timeline above to find out when these new n good looking Symbian versions are coming.

According to Symbian.org:

Symbian^3

The second open version of the Symbian platform. It extends Symbian^2 in many ways, including graphics support for advanced layering and effects, full HDMI support for a great television playback experience and improving data performance - ideal for streaming high definition audio and video.

Symbian^4

Symbian^4 is expected in 2010. It will feature Direct UI - a complete makeover of the touch UI, Qt as the primary runtime and the majority of SHAI in place, making hardware adaptation easier than ever before.

Check out this video showing off the Symbian UI Concept posted by Symbian Foundation.

Can’t wait to see this being implemented! Come on Symbian! Speed it up!

Remember the game Mastermind?

They one that you have to break the colour codes set by a codemaker by using colour balls/pins?

Here’s a photo of the classic board game.

(Photo taken from Wikipedia.com)

Well, from the makers of MyPhone, here comes their version of the old classic game called Memo Deduction!

There three level for you to choose, Easy, Normal and Difficult. In Easy mode, there’re four colors and four memos in all. You have 12 chances to guess the right combination. In Normal mode, there’re five colors and five memos in all, and 10 chances. It’s easy for you, right? But in Difficult mode, it’s really hard. You have only 8 chances to figure out 5 memos with 6 colors.

The red pin means there is a memo with the right color and position. The black pin means there is a memo with the right color but wrong position.

I personally think that the ‘notes’ can be made bigger so its more finger friendly. I would also prefer if a menu of all colours pops up everyone i tap on a note so I don’t need to tap it repeatedly to get the colour I want.

OK! Have you got ready to challenge your mind? Memo Deduction is now available to Nokia Phones. It will be available on the OVI Store soon but if you can’t wait, grab a copy for yourself now at the MMMOOO shop for only $1.99 now.

ALERT ALERT! A damn useful app is emerging and everyone in KL, Malaysia should get it!

It might just be one of the most useful app on your phone alongside Gravity!

Thanks to the guys at Nerdattack, we will be able to check out traffic conditions in the city before we leave the office, go for parties at night or going to work.

If I’m not mistaken, the app is currently only supported on S60 v5 touch devices so if you are using a Nokia 5800, N97, 5530 or N97 mini then probably you should get it when it’s out on the OVI Store.

The widget has a very simple and straight forward interface. Once it’s launched, a list of street names will appear and with just a tap, traffic images will be displayed.

*Live images are grabbed from ITIS btw.

Check out these screenssssssss.. damn nice right? See how the arrows are toggled by just tapping the arrows icon on the top right of the screen.

According to NerdAttack, the app has been submitted to OVI Store and is awaiting approval. Wait for it yo! I’ll try to update u guys once the app is up.

I have mentioned this a hundred times yet I think I still have not mentioned enough of how much I love the themes produced by Pizero.

Remember the last theme he brought for us was Solstice, but that was months ago.

Few days back Pizero released one of his latest themes called Ovi.

The idea is adapted from Nokia’s Ovi suite of services of course and check out screenshots for S60 touch and non touch devices here.

Download Ovi theme for S60v3(N96, N78, N85, E71 etc) and S60v5(5800, 5530, N97) devices now!

Many of us are using Symbian touch devices like Nokia 5800, Nokia N97 etc. Many of us are also using messengers like MSN, GTalk, Yahoo and Skype.
So how many of you are actually chatting on these messengers using your phones? I know I do.

These are my top 3 favourite chatting/messenger apps for S60v5 devices. We shall analyse them in 3 categories: Interface, Usability/Functionality and Stability.

Showing only 3 apps does not mean I have not tried other apps like Nimbuzz, IM+, Agile Messenger etc.. just that they are not as good as these 3 here

3rd place: FRING

One of the most famous messenger app is Fring. It’s available for multiple platforms like Symbian, iPhone etc. It comes with many features like Facebook and Twitter integration, friends finder, file and photo sending, Fring calls, etc. I used to like it when I was using the N96 but the touch version is too cluttered and it disconnects from 3G very frequently.

Interface: 2.5/5
Usability/Functionality: 4/5
Stability: 2/5
Total score: 8.5 out of 15

Download from Fring.com
______________

2nd place: MSN Messenger

MSN China has did it once… building an MSN Messenger app for users. It was great as it has 90% of the compute version of MSN Messenger… but for a period of time, it didn’t work and thus the news died down after that.

Fret not! The app is now brought alive again and is again usable on touch devices! I love the interface as it resembles the original MSN, has sound alerts and other features like contacts profile photo, search contacts etc. One thing I dont like: The buttons and text are too small for fingers to touch.

Interface: 4/5
Usability/Functionality: 3/5
Stability: 3/5
Total score: 10 out of 15

______________

1st place: Palringo

Palringo was famous with it’s push-to-talk apps back in the N95 era. They have slowly evolved into a messenger app and now they support most of the messengers out there like MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, Facebook etc. The interface is very simple, loads very quickly and easy to use. It has never got disconnected from 3G since the day I started using it til now. IT still has features like sending photo and voice(utilising their famous push-to-talk) technology.

1 thing that i dont quite like is that it lacks of the ’search contacts’ feature.

Interface: 3.5/5
Usability/Functionality: 4.5/5
Stability: 5/5
Total score: 13 out of 15

Download from Palringo.com

What do you think of these FREE messenger apps? Do you have any favorite messenger apps that you use on your phone? Leave a comment and let us know!

Remember the post about Youtube mobile got smarter?

Now they have made the S60 app smarter too! Well not smarter but now it plays videos in fullscreen!

This is the default main screen. Notice the buttons on the right? It used to be there during playback too.

Search results are presented in filmstrips that can be swiped left or right. Tap on any of the thumbnail and the video will go fullscreen.

See how the controls take over the whole screen overlaying the video but it’s kinda upsetting to see the videos are not optimized for fullscreen playback yet.

Anyhow, just point your mobile browser to m.google.com to get the app

The most popular native Symbian Twitter client, Gravity has been receiving a lot of updates since it first launched back in March.

Through these few months, features added were profile viewing, twitpic previewing, instapaper support, mobipicture support, fullscreen option and many more.

The latest version of Gravity, v1.20 build 5570 was released few days ago and it adds large fonts options so that you dont have to squint your eyes reading twit updates from your friends. Other updates that come with this update: more stable API proxy, preview of flickrm yfrog and img.ly

Here’s a screenshot of the timeline with large fonts (and white theme for improved readability)

Get Gravity for your Symbian phones now (if you are still using web or any other twitter apps) at Mobileways.de now!

One of the reasons why every phone that I change to is a Symbian OS operated phone… is because of the “Switch” feature. If I’m not mistaken, Nokia added this feature to their S60 phones since the N95.

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?

I got to play with the Nokia N97 at the recent Nokia Developer Summit 09 at Monaco and I’d like to say thanks to WenDee and Julien Fourgeaud for giving a very detailed runthough of the device.

Here’s my simple review of it.. after playing for 15 minutes. Heh.

The N97 that I got to play with was the black variant. I personally prefer the white one. Well, the body was very solid as there were no creaks when squeezed. The green and red touch buttons were very responsive while giving haptic feedback when pressed.

One thing that disturbed me was the tilt screen. The angle of the tilt was too steep that I had to bend my hands down a little in order for the screen to face me directly. This also means that I cannot get a clear view of the keyboard since it has been tilted down. Hope you know what I mean.

As the N97 I played was still a pre-production set, the backlight of the full qwerty keyboard was not working but everything else was OK. The speaker was as loud as the 5800. It’s a fingerprint magnet but I am sure it will not be that obvious on the white one.

Check out the video below.

Hi all, finally a native Twitter client is released for S60 phones like N96, N85, N79, 5800 etc.

Just launched today on their website, Gravity spots a fantastic interface and is a full featured Twitter client that supports multiple accounts, Twitter Search, Laconica and TwitPic.

What an awesome interface on the 5800. Haha… On the main screen you get access to your timeline, Twitter search, images(from your phone) and an option to add a new account.

More screens! Timeline and Replies screen… of course there are others like “followers, favourite, own tweets”

Simply click on each twit and it opens up a submenu using the accordian style effect which gives you options to reply, retweet, unfollow, and buttons to visit links mention in the twit you selected.

Here’s 2 screnshots of Gravity on non-touch S60 phones.

Check out this video below of Gravity on my 5800…. recorded using another 5800. lol

Go download the trial version of Gravity now!

I’ve been trying out Buddycloud for a few days now and I think it is a very very good app.

It allows you to update your friends on what you are currently doing (kinda like Twitter) but better!

Buddycloud adds context to the places you visit in the real world and makes it fun and easy to share these on sites like Twitter and Facebook. You can bookmark and tag locations that mean something to you. For eample: Home, The Pub, Joe’s House and Favourite Coffee Shop.

It tell’s your friends where you went, where you are now, and where you are going next! (That’s of course if you allow your location to be updated in your status.)

As you move around, Buddycloud automatically places you back at previously saved bookmarks, and updates your Buddycloud friends, Facebook and Twitter. It also shows you other people and places nearby. Short status messages can also be pushed into twitter.

Buddycloud is also about knowing where you were in the past and future. A simple future location can also be set. A simple example:

• Status message: Wow, that was a long week. Anyone up for a pint? (also pushed to Twitter and Facebook)
• Previous place: Work
• Current place: On the road in Southwark
• Next place: The Anchor Pub

One thing I really like about this application is that it constantly updates the list of people nearest to me so I can make friends with other Buddycloud users in the same city, town, state and even country! (See how it tells me the distance between me and another user in Muar, Malaysia.)

Buddycloud is slightly different to other friend-finder type services. It uses multiple location sources. Cell Towers, WiFi, GPS and bluethooth can be used in combination. This means that it works well indoors where GPS based solutions fail. It also incorporates group chats so that you can chat with other people in the area.

I clicked on the 4th tab and I see lists of groups that I can join in the conversation… with this feature, I can chat with anyone anytime anywhere! (make sure you have unlimited data plan so you wont get charged a bomb by your telco)

Here’s a screenshot of one ofthe groups I was chatting in.

Buddycloud is not only for Nokia 5800, it is also supported by all Nokia Nseries and other Symbian phones like N96, N73, N95, 6210, and even Samsung Innov8!“

Get Buddycloud now!… don’t forget to add me! My ID is “smashpOp”… or if you are in Malaysia, just click on the “friends nearby” tab and you will see my name there.

Go download it now!

It’s quite shocking to see an unannounced XpressMusic phone being previewed so quickly but hey, Mobile-Review just did it. They have already played with one of the first prototype set of the 5730XPM.

The 5730 XPM is a candybar music smartphone with slide out qwerty keyboard targeted at the mid tier audience. It features a 3.2mpx autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a single LED light and a backlit qwerty keyboard!

I’d say that the design is quite edgy as the font type on the keypads and the keyboard look very digital and the built is in metallic, although it does come in 2 XpressMusic colours, Red and Blue.

From the article we can actually see that the OS, running on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 has little new updates and some additinal features are included like Say&Play and there is a probability that it will adopt the Contacts Bar feature from 5800 too. We’ll have to see when it’s announced in April. The price will be around 220 Euro before tax.

Check out Mobile-Review for full prveview.

I specially made this banner for discussions and posts on apps for S60 5th edition phones like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the N97.

First up, Nokia Hongkong has put up a lot of applications for the 5800 on their website.

Apps include Touch Piano, Avatar SMS, Touch Guitar, TVB Widget, Mail for EXchange and Touch Manouver.

If you have the 5800 currently, then go and download these apps NOW!

If you dont have one yet… then you will have to wait for it to be launched in your country and buy it and then install these apps k? lol

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic apps on Nokia HK

Yes… few more days and it will be my 1 month anniversary with the Nokia flagship device, N96.

I guess it’s time I write about the 3 things I love and hate about it.

Let’s start with the things I like on the N96.

- The big screen… I think all phones should have screen as big as this(touchscreens not included).. 2.8″ is what I think should be the standard for all mobile phone screens from now on.. and it better be… or else many of us will have to squint our eyes in order to read SMS or to surf the web.

- The SUPER LOUDSPEAKER… I have never thought a phone can be as loud as this. Once I showed my friend a video on the N96 and he had to give it back to me after like 10 seconds cos he couldn’t stand the ear piercing loudness on the N96 at 100% volume… hahah but it was good though… cos he commented that the sound was damn loud but it doesn’t break… and the bass was good too.

- The new vertical bar shortcuts on main screen… Yes it has been around since the N78 but not my N82. ahha so yea its new to me. With the shortcuts aligned to the side of the screen, I can now put up my nice wallpaper while having the shortcuts on. Very handy. It links to more apps and options in the phone too. Imagine accessing some settings in the “tools > settings > phone > general” with just 2 clicks.

I hate:

- The build quality of the N96… I admit it is now a lot more solid looking then my old N95 but seriously.. it makes no difference. The top part of the phone (the part with the screen) moves about 1mm up and down when its not slided out.  Very disturbing. Other than that, the backplate/cover of the phone is very flimsy and thin that it feels very plasticky

- Super slow… I have upgraded the firmware twice within 1 month of usage. Nokia knew how slow it was thats why they rolled out 2 updates to fix it… but somehow opening new SMS, replying SMS and switching from a running app to the main menu takes about 10 seconds respectively. Sometimes it only takes about 5 seconds which makes me go “WOW, why suddenly so fast?”. haha

- The camera… Somehow I feel that my old N95 took better pictures. At times, when you take photos at dark places, the photo will turn to black and white.. literally… yea I don’t know why this happens but every time I point my phone to a dark place the photo will lose its colour.. and I had to change the white balance in order to bring out the colours again. .. but anyway, the N96 can really take good photos provided if the lighting and ambience is good especially close up shots.  I can say that it surpasses my old N95 and N82.

Skype released their very first java version of the of the famous software for mobilephones sometime ago and recently they have launched a newer version, but it still in Beta stage.

It worked well on my N82 and N96. Eventhough its not a Symbian app, it still works very smoothly as if it was made for the operating system.

With Skype Mobile, you can now chat with your friends in Skype on the go, via 3G, GPRS, Edge or WiFi. You can also direct your Skype calls to your mobile but that will require Skype credits.

Try it and chat away with your buddies while you are not in front of your computer. It’s a nice looking app. Free too. So why not right?

Remember to add me to your buddy list! My ID is “smashpop”

Get Skype.

Hi all, this is my 6th post on the XpressMusic device.

This is how it looks like in camera mode. On the right you can see 5 keys. Exit, switch mode, flash, settings and options.

That’s me snapping myself with the 5800. lol…

Upon pressing and holding the camera key, the screen turns into a viewfinder very quickly. I’d say its probably 0.5 secs faster than my N82. Auto focus bracket is the same as other Nseries and the camera shutter sound too.

I didnt try recording videos with it.. but there are 2 modes in video recording… standard (4×3 ratio) and wide (16×9 ratio).. nice to play on the 5800 widescreen.

Here’s a video of the 5800 taking a photo of the N82.

Prefer to watch it on Youtube? Click here.

Recently I found out something that I have missed all these while, something that I have always seen in my previous Symbian phones but didn’t bother to explore… hahaha… it’s theme effects.

Tools > Settings > General > Personalisation > Themes > General > Options > Theme Effects.

Basically it does nothing more than adding animations to your menus, icons and screen rotation (depending on the theme that you are using).

Speaking of themes… here’s my current favourite theme.

It’s called Nighty Purple by Cuff. I like the dark background, the light purple selection background for icons.

You can download it for free if you like. Just click here.

I have 2 news for you. Good news and Bad news.
Which one do you wanna know first?

According to Reuter’s Paul Bolding, the most talked about Nokia phone, the latest XpressMusic model, will be released for 7 countries by year end.

Good news:

The 5800 XpressMusic will be release in India, Indonesia, The United Arab Emirates, HongKong, Taiwan, Russia and Spain by year end.

Bad news:

You will have to wait til 2009 if you are not from the 7 countries mentioned. HAHA

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