Vancouver , Canada – Evidently Nokia has been giving special edition Oakley branded N97 mini smartphones to participants over at the Olympics. These devices just 200 in number have the Oakley Thunderbird Logo on them.

If you want one of these you’d better be an Olympian , hope one of them lands up on eBay !

Symbian-Guru report that Rugge has come out with a beautiful new theme which gives you the look of the upcoming symbian^3 devices on your current Nokia Touchscreen devices.

[VIA]

Nokia’s long awaited C series (Consumer series) of devices have finally been launched ! The first of the series is the C5, an affordable smartphone optimized for social networking and sharing.

Nokia Conversations have given out more information about the C5. They had this to say about the new device.

The C5 is a smartphone packed into a feature phone body, boasting S60 3rd edition and a host of messaging and social networking features built in. It also boasts a bright 2.2-inch display and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It also comes packing free walk and drive navigation courtesy of Ovi Maps and is ready for messaging with Nokia Messaging built in.

The Nokia C5 boasts a cool new feature in its phone book, where you can see your friends status updates directly from Facebook. You can also update your Facebook status easily and share your location with Ovi Maps 3.0.

The homescreen will show off your favourite three friends for easy access to calling and messaging whilst Nokia Messaging enables you to keep in touch on IM using Google Talk or Windows Live Messenger.

Storage is the mircoSD variety with support for up to 16GB cards – the Nokia C5 will come with a 2GB card in the box, plenty of room for storing music and with the built in stereo FM radio and 3.5mm AV connector, not to mention the Stereo IHF speaker, it should sound good too.

The device is small too, measuring just over 12mm thin and 46mm across (and 112mm high). Battery life is good for up to 12 hours talktime (GSM) and it’ll stay on standby for a whopping 26 days between charges.

Available in white and warm grey, the Nokia C5 will be available in the second quarter of 2010 globally in Europe, Eurasia, SEAP, China and MEA. The anticipated retail price, before applicable taxes and subsidies is €135.

SPB Software, a leading mobile software developer, announces that the Symbian version of its famous developmental game SPB Brain Evolution has received a major update and now reached version 2.1. The version for Symbian-based smartphones had been released over a year ago to become a significant selling success for SPB Software. The new version brings support for touchscreen-based devices with OS Symbian S60 v5. Controls in version 2.1 were reconsidered to ensure seamless, finger-friendly experience.

SPB Brain Evolution is a set of addictive mini-games which have to be played in sequence: only good results in a game unlock the next one. The game allows hundreds of thousands of users worldwide to improve their mental awareness and maintain their newly achieved brain fitness.

The excercises included in SPB Brain Evolution are Sudoku, Numbers, Arithmetics, Quadronica, Guess Who, Memorica, Encyclopedia, Minesweeper, Matches, Balltracker, Geometry and Pairs, the latter two being new. They help user to exercise such basic mind activities as logic, arithmetic and memory. While the training mode prepares you for the battle the marking mode allows you to register your progress. The game also allows tracking the progress in your personal brain evolution which immediately becomes available in the form of a diagram or a score.

SPB Brain Evolution 2.1 for Symbian Main Features:

• Support for S60 v5-based touchscreen devices
• 12 excercises
• Brain Marking and Brain Training modes
• A new scoring and progress tracking system
• Multiple user profiles
• Share your achievements online via SPB server and Twitter

Pricing and Availability

SPB Brain Evolution 2.1 for Symbian is compatible with Symbian 9.1, Symbian 9.2, Symbian 9.3 and Symbian 9.5. A free, 15-day trial can be downloaded, or SPB Brain Evolution may be purchased for 14.95 USD from www.spb.com. The application can also be purchased from OVI store.

When SE announced the Vivaz Pro , they set off into a battle with Nokia and the N97 mini. Both the devices share a common 3.2″  resistive touchscreen, 5MP cameras and slide out QWERTY keyboards. So what sets them apart ? Well lets compare the spec sheets and find out, shall we !

SE Vivaz Pro

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro runs the standard Symbian^1 operating system without the Nokia specific widget optimized homescreen. Weighing a light 117gms, the device packs a 3.2″ resistive touchscreen with 360*640 resolution.

Other specifications include :

- QWERTY keyboard

- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate

- Scratch-resistant surface

- Turn-to-mute and snoozing alarms

The N97 mini also runs the standard Symbian v5 however Nokia has included a widget optimized homescreen with support for live widgets displaying live content. The device 138g and has a very sturdy build quality.

Other features -

- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off

- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate

- Full QWERTY keyboard

- Handwriting recognition

- 8GB inbuilt memory

-640*480 recording at 30FPS

Now that we have had the Nokia 5233 for almost 3 weeks, we have had a real hands on experience with it and can give you a true unbiased view of this low end touchscreen device by Nokia.

Today we will be covering the basic hardware and software aspects of the device.

When you first pick up the device, you will notice two things. First is the uncanny resemblance to the 5800 (Seriously , this thing looks almost exactly the same !). The second thing is that it looks cheap. There is a LOT of plastic all around on this device. In our previous post we have already given you an overview of all the buttons around on the 5233 so we’ll skip that part.

Moving in , Lets take a look at the homescreen, shall we ?

Now as you see above in the image , Nokia has got quite a cool homescreen here on the Nokia 5233. The homescreen allows for 20 contacts at a time which you can flick through to get to your favorite. Pictured below it is the music player widget which shows up only when the music player app is on. It is good enough for basic play/pause/next/back operations. Below it are shortcuts for four of your favorite applications. Pressing the menu key brings you to the familiar S60v5 menu layout.

Our great friend,CJ , over at ZOMGitsCJ.com has come up with a cool video showing the home screen and contacts.

Well what do we have here ! The folks over at BestBoyz , a dutch site , have evidently gained access to leaked documents showing off an upcoming device. The documents show off an X6 successor , termed the X10 which includes a side sliding keyboard.

• QWERTY keyboard
• First Symbian^3 smartphone
• ARM Cortex A8 600MHz
• Interner 32GB- oder 16GB-Speicher 32GB or 16GB of internal memory
• 256MB RAM
• 3.2-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• WLAN Wireless
• HSPAGPS
• 5-megapixel camera

Leaks like this are easily faked and we would recommend that you take it with a pinch of salt.

BARCELONA, Spain – Nokia might not have any new devices to show off at MWC but they have announced a new partnership which is bound to push the boundaries of the mobile operating system scenario. Yes , you heard it right , Nokia’s Internet Tablet OS Maemo and Intel’s Moblin OS have been merged to give rise to a new os termed as MeeGo. According to Ari Jakksi , VP Nokia “We will put all our force behind making MeeGo THE operating system” and “Nokia will ship tons of MeeGo devices, Intel, too. And others will use MeeGo in their devices. It is open, free, powerful and compatible.”

1. MeeGo is a hardware architecture independent Operating System. It will run across x86 and ARM based devices. This makes it compatible with netbooks , tablets , MIDs and smartphones.
2. Maemo 6 will be a form of MeeGo , in fact it might just be a branding choice on part of Nokia to term it as Maemo 6 as they will in essence be the same operating system.
3. MeeGo is meant to give you a unified experience across devices.
4. Applications will play an important role right from the beginning. Nokia branded devices will receive their applications of choice through the Nokia Ovi Store. Applications for MeeGo running on other devices will be provided by the IntelAppUp software center.
5. MeeGo essentially merges Moblin’s linux based core with the Qt UI toolkit which forms an integral part of Maemo. The result is that applications created using the Qt framework will be cross compatible across devices.
6. The first devices based on MeeGo can be expected by the end of the year.
7. The MeeGo project is being hosted by the Linux Foundation.

In a very interesting find by Stefan over at IntoMobile , we have positive news from the Nokia camp. Nokia’s touch devices have long been blamed for being sluggish to use , this is in part due to the use of last gen processors. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said, in an interview to the Helsingin Sanomat, that we will see a Nokia Symbian device running on the Snapdragon processor by the end of this year.

Quoting Wikipedia

The Snapdragon platform is designed for real time ubiquitous computing with low power consumption for day-long battery life. The first chipsets in the Snapdragon family were the QSD8650 and the QSD8250, available since the fourth quarter of 2008, both integrating a 1 GHz applications processor, a cellular modem and GPS.

With all the Snapdragon based devices it is pretty clear that the chipset is extremely capable and frugal at the same time. Coupled with the upcoming Symbian^3 operating system , we can hope to see some very interesting developments from Nokia.

via- IntoMobile

Well we have had the Nokia 5233 with us for about a week now and we can say that the device is quite a deal ! It is an incredible music and video oriented (basically media consumption) device at a fantastic price point. But the indepth details will be brought up in forthcoming posts as today we will just be focusing on the external looks of the device.

The basic design is a candybar with a 3.2″ touchscreen (16:9 aspect) , the touch screen is of the resistive variety with decent sensitivity. Th device is a low end one and definitely looks the part with thick plastic everywhere.

The gallery below should help you get an idea of the looks of the device. Expect a lot more VERY soon !