If you are a current Nokia 5800 owner and have a certain beef with the current resistive touchscreen your fortunes may be on the up and up.  It is being reported that the next iteration of the popular Nokia handset will sport a more accurate and easily navigated capacitive touchscreen.  According to sources at a Taiwan handset component supplier, Nokia is ordering up two million touchpanels for their new 5800 handsets that are set to ship between May and June.  Some purists and golden oldies still have a thing for the resistive screens of years yore, but with the popularity of Apple’s iPhone, Google’s G1, and I’m sure even Nokia’s N97, capacitive touchscreens are becoming more and more common (a good thing) as they are all around better for the majority and are more suited for finger tappin’.  Perspective Nokia handset buyers, is this enough to woo you over the fence?  If all goes well, look for Nokia to incorporate capacitive panels in an increasing percentage of their line up.

Source: Digi Times, *Source Image: PI Seth*

What defines the useage of the word “future”?  Is it a slick case, a next gen operating system, full touchscreen, or the ability to store 10 petabytes of information on something the size of a pencil lead tip?  The furture cannot be defined by a physical trait as it is merely a property of time.  Fabien Nauroy has dreamed up what is by far the coolest “futuristic” looking Nokia phone (concept or real) that I’ve ever seen.  I’d even stretch to say coolest concept.  At the very  least the most futuristic concept.  The E97 concept above features an AZERTY keyboard with a small LCD screen above.  The really cool part — the pull out LED on the back of the phone that functions as a storage device allowing you to go old school with media sharing by “literally” passing it around.  A little bit of the old mixed with a lot a bit of the new.  Very cool!

Source: Slippery Brick, Gizmo Watch, Coro Flot

The app store race is getting another contender in supposedly a months time.  According to Nokia executives, Ovi will be not only an “App Store” but an “entertainment channel” as it will also include audio and video making Ovi a one stop shop for all of your mobile needs.  So far the cut between Nokia and devs will be the popular 30/70 split respectively.  However, they didn’t rule out other percentages as everything isn’t quite set in stone yet.  So far Ovi has had “thousands of applications submitted from over 40 countries” give the new Nokia store a good varying selection at launch.  Of course, apps will be fitered by country and carrier for certain items.  All in all the Ovi store appears as if it will be a legitimate contender in the app store race.  Hopefully when it launches we can see some truly new, innovative, and exciting things from them.

Source: Crunch Gear, Financial Times

If you like to customize your Nokia N series phone but find flashy and overly “blingy” themes distasteful or distracting, you might want to take a look at the N-Gage theme by Dhanusaud at Daily Mobile.  It is a sleek system looking theme that blends right in with your Nokia handset ensuring you look different than everyone else without drawing too much attention to yourself.  As you can see, the theme comes with either red or blue styles.  Compatible devices include any S60v3 or S60v5 device with feature pack 1 & 2.  The Nokia 5800 Xpress Music is also on the list of handsets that can rock this theme.  Interested individuals can hit up Daily Mobile’s forum for the download.

Source: Daily Mobile

After two long and involving posts I’m taking a short break with some lighter reading.  Specifically to show you a Nokia theme that looks simply awesome: Fennec, designed and created by Ahmed at Daily Mobile.  Awesome because it just looks so polished and fit…like it were straight from Nokia themselves…though designed better.  If you have a compatible device (Symbian S60v3 Feature Pack 1 & 2…again the list for those who don’t know:

• N79, N82, N85, N95, N96, E61, E63, E71, E75

All interested individuals can pick up your copy right inside Daily Mobile’s Forum.

Source: Daily Mobile

Nokia may have the lead in market share globaly when it comes to phones, however that market share doesn’t mean they’re the best.  Most of Nokia’s numbers come from low end handsets.  What really has driven smartphones in years past is enterprise support for large coporations.  In this regard, Nokia has fallen short mulitple times.  Nokia brought to market Mail for Exchange (MfE) in order to get a foot in the door of the corporate world and is slowly trying to wiggle their way further inside.  With the latest update that they have just released many problems are addressed in hopes of finally making larger strides business land.  The features are just after the click.

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YouTube junkies, Nokia faithfuls and WinMo purists have a reason to stop the weeping this fine March day.  YouTube has released native apps for Symbian and WinMo devices.  The app makes it much easier to browser for you favorite videos such as the large woman riding a dirt bike or the guy that loves to car surf.  All are now more easily at your finger tips at speeds up to 90% faster!  All isn’t perfect however as you can’t save your favorite videos…(why?).  Still, it’s a great app for Nokia and WinMo users alike.  Get your mobile tube watching on now by pointing your device to m.youtube.com and following the onscreen instructions.  Step inside for a few pictures *property of E71 Fanatics* of the S60 YouTube app in action.  The new app will work on all WinMo devices and all Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature pack 1 and 2.  For a full list of supported Symbian S60 phones check this out.

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In what wasn’t exactly the smoothest launch for Nokia, it looks as if 3G goodness and 5800 hopefuls will soon be able to coexist in a world full of happiness, pink butterflies, and fluffy cotton candy clouds as insider reports are saying that Nokia has already fixed the 3G connection issues troubling the NAM 5800 via a currently private firmware build.  Hopefully Nokia pushes out that firmware update fast!  People who have already purchased the device will be able to update their firmware for the fix while new buyers will more than likely get one with it already pre-installed or walked though on how to do it at time of purchase.  Well done Nokia.

In other news…McCain has finally bought his first cellphone…though he has no clue how to use it he admits…

Source: The Nokia Blog

Remember the small little issue with Nokia’s latest 5800 NAM edition not working so well in 3G mode?  Well, in what would be one of the more odd things to go wrong digitally speaking, Nokia has finally broken their silence over the whole 3G issue plaguing 5800 NAM handsets.  According to Nokia’s statement, they are working on the issue relentlessly and have determined that the problem handsets are isolated in Chicago and New York…odd I know.  So far, no one from many of the other major cities where the 5800 is on sale in have reported any problems.  Owners of problem handsets are urged to call Nokia up and give them the full rundown as to further the resolution process.  Nokia’s full statement can be found after you venture inside.

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In what is sure to disappoint many Nokia faithful, Nokia’s 5800 NAM has been pulled from the shelves a mere 7 hours after going on sale.  Many lost and directionless people are left scratching their heads and asking why.  The answer is no surprise and has been identified so far as an issue with the handsets connecting to 3G signals.  Seems as if they are perfectly happy staying on the good ‘ol 2G network.  The owners however have a problem with this and are taking their new found loves back to the store.  Nokia knows about the issue and is currently working on a fix.  How soon we’ll see the 5800’s back on shelves is currently unknown.  Hopefully they get things sorted out quick.

Source: Nokia Blog

If Nokia’s CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo knows what he is talking about when he was quoted saying ”We are looking very actively also at this opportunity, the answer to that could be a “Yes”.  Hmmm, just think, sitting down with your shiny new Nokia laptop and getting onlookers gathering around you wanting to know what this mystery box is.  It really isn’t that far of a stretch seeing as how they already have the whole cellphone thing pretty well down as well as some notable tablet devices.  Stretch the screen out a tad bit more, add a keyboard and you’ve pretty much got a laptop.  While the laptop cat was let out of the bag, sadly the little kitten following that would leak more information out wasn’t so fortunate.  Looks like something we’ll have to follow.

Source: Phonescoop, Reuters

In a techie’s life, there’s nothing better than products jumping ahead in the schedule and coming to market early, saving you countless hours of what is almost surely complete torture filled with uncontrollable drooling, shaking episodes, and other unexpected events.  If you are a Nokia fanatic and mobile connoisseur, today is your luckiest of days as flagship Nokia stores will start selling the 5800 XpressMusic at 3:00 TODAY!  So if you’ve been waiting for the miraculous appearance of Nokia’s heavily hyped beauty, it’s best that you head on over to a Nokia store near you and pick one up.  Don’t forget $399 dollar bills so they’ll actually let you leave the store with it…

Source: Boy Genius

Nokia’s bread and butter, pride and joy, cream of the crop, call it whatever you want.  The much hyped Nokia N97 is coming!  Mark you calendar folks for June 2009.  That is the month in which the N97 will be available to mere mortals.  If you’ve somehow forgotten, the N97 is a 3.5″ 640 x 360 pixel touchscreen beauty featuring haptic (vibration) feedback.  According to Nokia’s announcement at the 2008 Nokia World Event back in December, Nokia will in fact just barely make their 2nd quarter release date as June is the last month in the second quarter.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute guys.  It isn’t that much longer folks.  

Source: Mobile Burn

The question mark above doesn’t display a question of certainty, but instead a question of what is Nokia thinking!  MWC is by the biggest mobile conference in the world with scores of vendors and journalists from all over the world…in one place…to see new cell phones.  So, what does Nokia do with their most unknown about device?  Announce it at a small obscure show called the “Nokia Showcase 2009″.  Now I can understand wanting to distance from the pack and announce products at a show that is all about you and your company.  However if you’ve already announced a majority of your phones at another monster show, such as MWC, it doesn’t make much sense at all to keep a desirable handset such as the N86 out of the main spotlight.  Readers may be saying, “What about the N97″…old news.  The N97 has more or less lost its luster.   We’ve known about it for many many weeks now.  Heck, you could probably school most Nokia reps about their own phones.  Whatever Nokia is smoking in their little laboratory is surely affecting their judgement.  What do you think?  Justified, plausible, or completely and utterly ridiculous?  Those of you unfamiliar with the N86 both in words and pictures can come up to speed right inside.

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Announced at MWC, Nokia’s Ovi application store is the latest manufacturer based app store to join the party.  The Nokia N97 will be the first Nokia handset that will have access to Ovi, however, “ton of S40 and S60 customers can start the downloading mayhem in May”.  Cool beans!  Nokia is open to ideas and change and is looking to the Ovi users for feedback.  As customers’ choices for apps change over time, so will Ovi.  The 70% developer share that Apple started seems to be a good number as Ovi will be giving 70% of revenue developers while keeping the rest in house.  Not a bad deal at all.  So Nokia faithfuls.  You’re day of downloading happiness is soon coming.  Are you excited yet?

Source: Engadget