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The Register: Nokia is rumoured to be on the verge of announcing the successor to the popular N95, following the discovery of tech specs on the mobile giant’s German website.

The Finnish phone giant has since closed the page, but not before a selection of sites managed to scrawl down the handset’s tech specs, which have caused many to dub the upcoming handset the N96.

According to one transcription of the Nokia website specs, the N96 is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge handset with 3G HSDPA connectivity over the 850MHz and 2100MHz bands. It also has DVB-H reception, the European standard for digital TV signals being sent to mobile phones, on board.

To refresh your memory, both the original and 8GB offering of the N95 are quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge handsets, supporting 3G HSDPA connections. However, they don’t include DVB-H.

Like the earlier model, the N96 will offer 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Assisted GPS technology too.

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PMP Today: Myvu’s known for their personal media viewers that allow you to watch videos comfortable instead of squinting at your PMP’s tiny-ass screens. They’re not exactly the most fashionable things in the world but I suppose they serve their purpose. At CES 2008, however, Myvu showed off two new media viewers that look more like sports shades instead of something out of a bad sci-fi flick. The Myvu Shades have the same “glance down” feature as the original Myvu viewers, which allows you to watch the video while remaining aware of your surroundings at the same time.

The Myvu Crystal increases the resolution from 320×240 to 640×480 and has a 35% increase in the field of view over other Myvu models. It’s also more inconspicuous, as it looks like a pair of sunglasses with earbuds attached. Both Myvu models work with all PMPs, including the iPod with video models, the Zune, Sansa-View, mobile phones (select Samsung models and the Nokia N95), and portable DVD players. Watch out for them in spring 2008!

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Absolute Gadget: If you have a Nokia N81 or N81 8GB then you will be able to get a sneak preview of the next generation N-Gage mobile gaming platform – the Finnish phone giant is lining up on of the softest launches ever as it unveils its “N-Gage First Access” next week.According to its blog, owners of the above phones will ” have exclusive access to the pre-release version of the N-Gage application and one or more N-Gage games”. Bad luck if you have an N95 – you’ll just have to make do with the sat-nav.

The launch looks like engineers need some input from gamers to improve the platform as it said on the blog that it will “open up our N-Gage First Access forums, where you can give us your feedback on the experience, make suggestions, and help us co-create the N-Gage games service.”

The company will also integrate N-Gage into its mobile social networking webstie Ovi and has promised to make games more affordable with a games rental service model and free trials.

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The Register: Nokia yesterday launched its Music Store service on two handsets – the N81 and N95.

You can access the store using one of those handsets or your desktop computer providing you are running Windows XP or Vista and Internet Explorer 6 or above.

Questions remain as to how Nokia can extract money directly from subscribers without upsetting the operators who view subscribers as their source of revenue.

Vodafone is also aiming to steal Apple’s and O2′s thunder ahead of the iPhone launch in the UK, but using a very different approach.

Rather than downloading music, customers will get access to a streaming service which launched yesterday.

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Absolute Gadget: Nokia has confirmed that trucks carrying its N95 8GB have started their engines today, and the “stunning”, “memory-packed” devices will be hitting a store near you soon. To celebrate, the handset maker has teamed up with Sony Pictures Entertainment to offer the device pre-loaded with the full-length feature film Spider-Man 3 in Europe and selected countries in Middle East and Africa region.Apart from some Spidey/Venom/Sandman action, the N95 8GB also offers:

• 8GB of built-in memory (but you’d probably already guessed that)
• 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• A-GPS for sat-nav capability
• WLAN for wireless internet connection
• HSDPA
• 2-way slide
• luminous 2.8″ (240 x 320) QVGA display

Nokia says the N95 8GB’s expanded memory offers up to 20 hours of video or up to 2,000 songs encoded using the AAC format at 128kbps.

“We’ve reached a pinnacle with the Nokia N95 and now with the addition of one of the largest ever displays, built-in Assisted-GPS and improved battery power, the Nokia N95 8GB takes entertainment enjoyment to another level,” said Jonas Geust, vice president of multimedia at Nokia.
 
Boasting up to, the Nokia N95 8GB has all the key features of its predecessor, including a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, built-in A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA and an innovative 2-way slide. The sleek black N95 8GB also boasts a luminous 2.8″ (240 x 320) QVGA display, so watching videos, browsing the Internet or viewing maps is a real pleasure.
 
The N95 8GB has an estimated retail price of €560 before taxes or subsidies.

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Electronista: Nokia yesterday announced that it had sold just over 100 million cellphones this spring, extending its dominance of the global cellphone business. The results were a 29 percent jump over the same period last year and gave the Finnish company a record 37 percent of the 273 million cellphones sold worldwide. Much of the growth was on the back of strong smartphone sales, the company said: over 9 million N-series and 2 million E-series were sold, with specific devices such as the 5-megapixel N95 cameraphone faring especially well. Most of this was in areas such as Europe, Nokia added.

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NaviGadget: Nokia after hearing a few bad things about the GPS performance on the N95 decided to include A-GPS support with its new V12 firmware. With the new A-GPS support, your N95 will connect to the assistance server operated by Nokia which in return send back the up-to-date ephemeris data of the GPS constellation and help decrease the time it takes to get a satellite fix where GPS signals are poor even in places with no direct view of the sky.

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Reuters: (…) the cell phone industry has a new target — personal navigation device makers. (…) While a few years ago personal navigation device makers like Dutch TomTom shrugged off possible rivalry from the handset industry, they have now acknowledged the potential risk to their business.

The world’s top handset maker Nokia started to sell its first navigation phone N95 a month ago, and other top vendors are expected to follow shortly, hoping to make 2007 the breakthrough year for cell phone navigation.

The N95, with a 700-euro price tag, is not in reach of the masses despite first reports showing strong sales, but the Finnish firm aims to bring GPS positioning chips to a wide array of its products.

“I believe it will quickly go through almost the whole of our portfolio,” Kai Oistamo, head of Nokia’s Mobile Phones unit, told a recent news conference.

The GPS technology enables handset makers to bypass mobile phone network operators and at least some of the navigation phones can be used for routing when not connected to operators’ networks. (…)

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Mobility site: Nokia (…) revealed the Nokia N95 multimedia computer has been voted the ‘Best Mobile Imaging Device in Europe 2007′ by TIPA (Technical Image Press Association), the largest photo and imaging press association in Europe.

“A small mobile wonder and a camera as well,” the Nokia N95 multimedia computer was commended for its outstanding imaging functionality, comparing its features directly with those of stand-alone cameras. The judging panel noted features such as the autofocus lens for sharp, large prints, a real mechanical shutter to avoid distortion, the Carl Zeiss optics with Tessar lens that can focus at close range and the up to 20x digital zoom for distant subjects.
The panel also commented on the device’s outstanding audio, video and web capabilities and its GPS functionality. (…)

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Electronista: Nokia wants GPS navigation to be a standard feature across all its phones, its software supplier Route 66 said (…). Although the Finnish cellphone maker already has multiple phones with mapping functionality, including the N95 and the 6110 Navigator, it hopes to make a GPS chipset a standard feature of even its cheapest models as a way of separating itself from rivals. (…)
Nokia didn’t set a timetable for the transition but has noted that multiple N-series phones already have the option.

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Navigadget: Here is some speculation: according to some sources Garmin and Tomtom are looking into getting GPS enabled phone market. Well, they better: Soon all mobile phones are going to have embedded GPS chips in them so nobody will want to spend $400+ on a standalone GPS navigation system. It is already happening!

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Navigadget: As you may have already heard Nokia started shipping its first GPS integrated Nseries phone N95. We’re not sure if the N95 will fly off the shelves with its 550 euro price tag but it may well be worth the price if it does a decent job at all (or most) of its features. (…)The Nokia N95 is also a personal navigation device. It has an integrated GPS chip inside. It comes with maps of 150 major cities around the world and you can add more from smart2go, a service launched by Nokia earlier this year. To compare the value of the GPS system included in N95, you can compare it with maybe Mio H610 or Pocket LOOX N100 since they have a similar screen size. These devices range from upper $300’s to $500. But you’re not getting anything decent for less than $300.

We’re not sure what brand of GPS chip Nokia put inside N95, but the fact that it is hidden underneath a layer of plastic is going to increase its time-to-first-fix. It may take upto a minute or even more. However once that’s done it should be good. And if you’re not happy with the navigation software you can install a new one yourself or just point your browser to Google Maps which loads the maps and the directions in real time, including live traffic info. What else are you going to use that 3Mbps download speed anyways?

So if you add all that money spent on separate devices (…) it costs a lot more than the price of an N95. Yes we know our math and logic was extremely fuzzy but we just wanted to give you an idea. We think the N95 is a good deal. While Europeans can enjoy N95 starting this week, us North Americans will have to wait.

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