Nokia N97 mobile phone review

As we take our first look at the Nokia N97 it certainly comes off as an impressive device. Despite being only the second device by Nokia to sport a touch-screen and the first ever in its N-Series it is no less of a finished product. Like all phones of the N Series it is a class above the other Nokia phones, with a 3.5-inch screen, a 5MP camera, and a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. Apart from the keyboard, the number of physical buttons are minimal, at just three. 

The first thing that strikes you after you start up the device is a new widget-oriented home screen, where you can  add / remove widgets to personalize the display. The widgets appear as six horizontal bars, of which the first is fixed as a time, date and profile display, and the other five can be moved around. With preloaded widgets for News, email, weather, Facebook, and so on it is easy to get relevant content at a glance.

The touch screen isn't all. The phone also comes with an inbuilt GPS, and a magnetic compass for a wonderful navigation experience along with Nokia Maps, which comes preloaded with data on Indian Cities. Also included is a proximity sensor which turns off the touch screen when you are making a call, and an accelerometer for auto-rotation of the screen. Storage comes in the form of 32GB memory which can be expanded by up to 16GB, yes, that's 48GB on a mobile! Enough for the phone to run out of digits to show how many pictures can be taken. WiFi support enables a faster internet experience and lower costs when at home. A TV-Out feature is also present, but even with a device which costs as much as this one, a TV-Out cable hasn't been provided.

While the phone doesn't support  multi-touch, the touch features themselves are utilized quite well, and with a handy QWERTY keyboard around, available for use along with the touch screen, you wont miss much.

For a widget-centric design though, having just five predefined bars for widgets is a limitation. With Android's rather more powerful support for widgets, Nokia will need to do better in this department. The interface does have a few glitches, such as new menus items sometimes popping up out of place. These all are more of software issues, which we can expect Nokia to hopefully fix with firmware updates, which with their Firmware Over the Air feature, should be a trivial task.

The Nokia N97 doesn't take much getting used to, and most people will be able to immediately start working (or playing) with it, and even with the default suite of applications available in it you will be able to get enough done. As we get more familiar with the Nokia N97 we will take a deeper look at some it its key features and functionality.

This article is adapted from Thinkdigit.com

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This site presents a thorough comparision between Nokia N97 and iPhone 3G. Have a look.

Nokia N97 vs. iPhone 3g Head To Head! How Do They Match Up?

HP Still Getting Heat on Nvidia Chips

Months after the issue first surfaced in the US, HP laptop owners continue to complain about defective Nvidia graphics cards that could cause laptops to fail.

Some customers say that they have been treated unfairly by HP, in part because their laptops are not included on a list of affected machines that was issued last July by HP, so they are ineligible for a free repair or an extended warranty.

One laptop model with overheating problems is the Pavilion dv9500 line, with screens going blank or overheating, leading to system failure, customers wrote on one HP board. The laptop model isn't on HP's list of affected laptops, and in some cases HP is asking users to pay for repairs.

HP isn't moving quickly to add new laptops to the list of affected PCs, customers wrote. Users are asking HP to examine and update the list of laptops affected by the issue. Laptop failure may also result from components unrelated to the issue with graphics cards, but a trend among posted complaints points to laptops with Nvidia parts, said Matthew Hilsenrad, an HP laptop owner.

"I hadn't seen any post of ATI chips going bad, only Nvidia chips going bad," Hilsenrad said. "A whole lot of people [on the boards] who bought the laptop around the same time seem to have the same problem."

Hilsenrad owns a Pavilion dv9500 model with a Nvidia GeForce 8600 series graphics card, which he bought in September 2007. Many laptops not included in the list - including the HP Pavilion dv9500 and dv9600 series - bought in 2007 are now experiencing similar problems, Hilsenrad said.

He was asked to pay around $400 to replace a motherboard when overheating rendered his laptop screen dysfunctional. He called HP to request a fix, but the PC didn't fall under the extended warranty that HP issued for affected laptops.

After haggling with an HP case manager, he got the laptop repaired for around $215. However, the case manager said the affected laptop list could be updated to include the model he owned, in which case he would be refunded the amount.

Another poster, Salman Fateh, reported system failure and a blank screen on an HP Pavilion dv9500 with a Nvidia 8600 series graphic chip, which was purchased in October 2007.

"HP will not honour the extended warranty for this model. HP should honor customers and replace all laptops with defective Nvidia GPUs," Fateh wrote in a separate HP forum.

Customers echoed Fateh's opinion, saying that unless HP addresses the issue quickly, their laptops would become paperweights.

"HP needs to add the rest of these bad GPU units on the list, get them all repaired," wrote a poster with the screen name Sarah Locker on HP's board. "I don't want to blame HP for Nvidia's manufacturing fault, but it appears now that HP is the one that is dragging their feet."

HP didn't immediately comment on this story. Officials from Nvidia were not available to comment either.

Nvidia last July said that some of its graphics chips were overheating due to packaging material and the thermal design of some laptops. HP subsequently issued an advisory warning of possible laptop failure and a list of models affected by the Nvidia parts.

HP also issued a BIOS patch to keep system fans running longer to prevent overheating, and offered to repair laptops depending on certain symptoms. The affected laptops included some HP Pavilion dv2000, dv6000, dv9000 models and Compaq Presario V3000 and V6000 series laptops. HP also offered a 24-month warranty extension to affected customers in North America.

Other PC vendors, including Dell and Apple, had to address issues related to faulty Nvidia graphics cards. Like HP, Dell issued a software patch to control heating problems, but it attracted a fierce response from unhappy users, who accused Dell of shying away from addressing a larger problem of bad hardware. Apple offered a free repair of laptops with faulty Nvidia graphics cards.

Tech news from pcworld.in

DSLR Battle Heats Up: Nikon Launches New D5000

Nikon Europe announced the introduction of its latest DSLR, the D5000. The D5000 has inherited the D90’s groundbreaking HD movie capability, Nikon’s proprietary D-Movie function (the D90 was the first DSLR to sport video recording). The 12.3MP sensor has sensitivity between ISO 200 and 3200 (can be extended to ISO 100 and ISO 6400 equivalent). The feature being touted is the 2.7-inch vari-angle LCD that allows you to take pictures easily from any angle. When combined with live-view (the ability to see the frame on the LCD screen) it 1gives a high degree of flexibility in composing shots with off-beat perspectives and macros.

The display can be closed to protect the monitor or place it in the standard position for regular shooting using the viewfinder. You can even reverse the monitor for effortless, perfectly-framed self-portraits. A 4 fps continuous shooting mode makes it a fast camera and it can shoot 67 JPEGs or 11 RAW files continuously.

Nikon has retained the 720p movie mode from the D70 but the rival’s 500D goes all out with full HD 1080p video recording. When taking still shots, the camera offers four types of contrast AF (wide area, normal area, face detection and new subject tracking) to make capture as easy as possible. In subject tracking AF mode, the camera will even restart tracking the subject once it leaves the frame and then returns, so your target will always be in focus.

With a total of 19 scene modes, the 5000D is more newbie friendly. To quote the press release, ‘simply turn the dial to ‘scene’, choose the appropriate scene mode setting and the camera will do the rest for you. The camera will even display a sample scene to make the scene selection easier for you’. Sensor cleaning is implemented with airflow control system (Canon uses vibration to get rid of dust on the sensor).

The press release did not specify the list price, but websites reported a price tag of $849 (approx. Rs. 42,450) for the D5000 with the 18-55mm VR kit lens. The Canon 500D has a list price of $899 along with the 18-55mm IS kit lens.

By PC World Team at pcworld.in

Dual-Screen Laptop has Touchcreen Keyboard

Asus plans to demonstrate at CeBIT a dual-screen laptop which replaces the keyboard with an additional touchscreen display.    

The Taiwanese manufacturer said the prototype could be used as a conventional laptop, a multimedia hub or an an e-book reader.

The dual-screen laptop, which may not become a commercial product, is the result of the ideas contributed from users from around the world as part of Asus and Intel's Community Designed PC project.

"The dual panel offers a flexible working space in which users can adapt to suit their prevailing usage scenarios, for example adjusting the size of the virtual touchpad and keyboard," said Asus.

The use of the touchcreen provides an input mechanism that's both flexible and intuitive, according to Asus. The company said the system could be controlled using hand gestures, handwriting recognition and multi-touch.

However, by disabling the software-based keyboard, the laptop can also be turned into an e-book, which can be held like a conventional book in which pages can be moved through touch or gestures.

Also, the two panels could be combined to form a larger display for watching widescreen movies.

Nokia May Drop DRM from its Music Service

Nokia has revealed it may consider following in the footsteps of Apple by removing digital right management (DRM) from the music available through its Comes with Music service.

Nokia Comes with Music -- which is currently only available on a handful of mobile phones, including Nokia's XpressMusic 5310 handset -- allows users to download as many songs as they want from the Nokia Music Store for 12 months after they have purchased a compatible Nokia handset. Nokia says that users can then keep the music after the year is up.

The Nokia Music Store features tracks from four major record labels. However, the DRM prevents the tracks from being transferred to another digital music player or from being burned to CD.

A handful of Nokia phones feature the Comes with Music service.

Adam Mirabella, director of Global Digital Music Retail at Nokia, told Channel News Asia: "We have dialogues going with all of our partners and DRM-free is also on the roadmap for the future integration of Comes With Music.

"We always knew digital was the answer, but for all this time, we've never been able to figure out a model that actually makes money, given the fact that music is so available on the net or so freely available that people were getting the music they wanted, but not actually paying for it," he added.

Apple announced at the start of the year it would be offering music tracks in its iTunes store that were DRM-free.

Samsung’s New Mobile Phone Comes With an 8MP Camera

Samsung Mobile today announced the introduction of what they claim is India's first 8-megapixel touch screen camera phone, the SAMSUNG Pixon (M8800). The Pixon features the latest camera functions found in Digital Cameras, like Advanced Shake Reduction, Blink detection, Smile detection, Face detection , Panoramic shot etc. The photographs taken on the phone can be edited and users can even make a photo memo by scribbling on the photos.

The phone facilitates easy mobile blogging and makes it fun to see and share pictures - just by tilting the phone, pictures will scroll through for a great viewing experience.  It has video recording capability and TV output for both PAL and NTSC systems.The other touch screen phones in the Samsung product portfolio include Samsung OMNIA(i900), Samsung TouchWiz (F480) , both having 5 mega pixel camera resolutions as well as Samsung i780 ,which is a sleek smart device featuring a full QWERTY keyboard and full touch screen.

The 8.1cm WQVGA large full touch screen has Samsung TouchWiz user interface for intuitive tap, sweep, drag and drop operations  as well as live Home Screen Widgets like weather info , Google search etc. This 3G phone comes with an onscreen QWERTY keyboard and on screen handwriting recognition for emailing, messaging and other inputs. Samsung Pixon supports a wide range of video player formats including DivX, Xvid and mp4. It also sports an advanced Music Player with SRS 3D surround sound.

The SAMSUNG Pixon is priced at an MRP of Rs.28,750/-

Transcend introduces 1.8” Portable SSD in India

Transcend has announced the availability of its new 1.8-inch portable solid state drive (SSD) – the SSD18M in India. The Transcend 1.8-inch portable SSD is available in 3 different capacities of 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities. According to a press release, the SSD18M offers greater resistance to shock and vibration and comes with both eSATA and USB2.0 interface options.

The release further claims that the eSATA interface provides a maximum read speed of 90MB/s and write speeds of 50MB/s. The SSD18M features dimensions of 80mm x 50mm x 12.5mm and weighs 50g. The SSD also has built-in ECC (Error Correction Code) functionality.

The prices for the 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models are Rs. 7,000; Rs. 12,000 and Rs. 20,000 respectively and all the models come with a two year warranty.

The release quotes Austin Huang, Regional Head - Sales, SAARC & APAC, Transcend, " Unlike traditional hard disk drives, this handy device (SSD18M) is made of reliable NAND flash memory that contains no moving parts, which not only eliminates the possibility of mechanical failure resulting from vibration and shock, but also provides substantial weight savings and reduced power consumption."

SuperSpeed USB 3.0: More Details Emerge

Intel's Jeff Ravencraft, who is also president of the USB Implementers Forum, discussed more details about USB 3.0 today at the Storage Visions conference in Las Vegas.
The focus of the new spec is three-fold: Retain backward compatibility, increase speed, and provide better power handling.

"USB has been the most successful interface in history of personal computing," Ravencraft noted. "Over 6 billion products are in the market, and over 2 billion ship a year now."

Compatability

Backward compatibility shows up in the new standard. USB 3.0 maintains the extensive device class driver infrastructure of USB 2.0, and a USB 2.0 devices will work via a 3.0 connector.

Performance

Performance improvements are notable, too. "We have research that shows that after 1 minute, 1.5 minutes waiting for a transaction, users get impatient.," says Ravencraft. "The transfer times have to get much faster." Hence the evolution of USB SuperSpeed's Sync & Go concept.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0's 5Gbps data rate (compared with Hi-Speed USB 2.0's 480Mbps) should help--and with very clear real-world advantages. For example: A 25GB HD movie will take 13.9 min to transfer with USB 2.0, and 70 seconds with USB 3.0, says Ravencraft.

Practically speaking, the implications are tremendous. Imagine not having to wait hours on end for your full-drive data backup to complete, or not having a lengthy delay when off-loading 32GB flash memory cards from your digital camera.

Power

As for power consumption, "power today is king for portable devices. It is the pinnacle, the focus for the PC, the notebook, and all devices. All of these new specs had to be optimized for power efficiency," says Ravencraft.

For example, there's no longer any device polling, so connected USB devices can enter a virtual sleep mode; more power will be able to go to the device (which will hopefully eliminate some of the power issues we see today with portable hard drives that require extra power from a second USB port); and USB 3.0 will no longer broadcast information to all connected devices, thereby saving power, too. Plus, when a device's battery is drained, it will now still be recognized by a laptop, for example, so you can charge it (this doesn't work with USB 2.0).

The intention is for SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to provide headroom for the next five years.

"We've designed the protocol so it should operate at up to 25 gigabit per second data rates if the pipe supplies that type of data rate," says Ravencraft. "I don't think we'll get to that over a copper wire, but we might look at an optical interface next. And we're ready if it does."

Ravencraft expects host controllers and device controllers by mid-2009, and consumer products by early 2010. His estimates are more conservative than those offered by Symwave, which is demonstrating USB 3.0 at CES 2009 in conjunction with Seagate.

Imation Introduces Dual-Layer 50 GB Blu-ray Discs in India

Imation India Pvt. Ltd. has announced the availability in India of the TDK LoR's (Life on Record) new Blu-ray Discs capable of recording at 4x speed. The four new TDK LoR Blu-ray Discs include the BD-R25 (single-sided, single-layer, 25GB) and BD-R50 (single-sided, dual-layer, 50GB) write-once type discs, as well as the BD-RE25 (single-sided, single-layer, 25GB) and BD-RE50 (single-sided, dual-layer, 50GB) rewritable discs.

The press release said TDK LoR Blu-ray Discs incorporate a recording layer comprised of inorganic material. The discs are further highlighted by TDK LoR's exclusive DURABIS 2 hard coating technology, an ultra-smooth cover layer created through the innovative spin coating method, and a host of other advanced TDK LoR technologies that enable the creation of high-reliability media.

A TDK LoR 4x 25GB Blu-ray Disc can be fully recorded in 22 minutes, and a TDK LoR 4x 50GB Blu-ray Disc can be fully recorded in 45 minutes, cutting the recording time in half in comparison to 2x Blu-ray Disc media.

A recording layer boasting high sensitivity is utilized for compatibility with 4x recording (144Mbps transfer rate). 4x recording reduces recording time by half compared with the previous 2x disc. 4.7GB of data can be copied in less than 5 minutes, which is comparable to a DVD-R recording speed of 16x.

Since the area of the laser spot on the Blu-ray Disc is small (about one-fifth that of the DVD), scratches or dirt on the recording surface can have an especially detrimental effect, causing errors. DURABIS 2 overcomes the issue by offering significantly higher resistance to scratches, and exceptional resistance to dirt and grime (particularly fingerprint smudges).

Previous write-once optical media such as CD-R and DVD-R utilized organic dye for their recording layers. Write-once type BD-R media is based on a completely new concept for the recording material wherein a two-layer structure composed of silicon (Si) and copper alloy (Cu) inorganic materials is utilized. When heated by the recording laser beam, these melt and the Si and Cu alloy become a composite to form recording marks. Because the material is inorganic, it is not affected by light, and offers superior archivability.

Feature rich yet cheaper mobile phones from China

Looking for an all-in-one cell phone? Don't want to pay much? The only boundary line: they are Chinese, but don't think they don't. Ranging from car entertainment, digital photo frames to high end mobile phones to surveillance equipment, all will drag your attention. Let's take a look on mobiles.

VoIP Phone, Watch Phones, Dual/Tri/Quad-Band Mobile Phones, , Special Mobile Phones, Magic Voice Phone, TV Mobile, Nokia/Motorola/Sony Ericsson/Samsung Mobile Phones, WIFI Mobile Phone and a lot to name. A single Google search will produce a lot.

Mobile Phone With TV Function: Most of them have dual sim cards dual standby, dual sliding, bluetooth,  TV, FM radio and dual camera, MP3 and MP4 player, price ranging from as low as 120$. Imobile Phone V311 - GSM 900/1800/1900, Imobile Phone V318 -GSM850/900/1800/1900MHZ, Imobile Phone V306 - GSM900 / 1800mHz ( Hand Shaking Function), Imobile Phone V280 - GSM 900/1800MHz (Lady TV Phone).

Samsung Shipped Infected Digital Picture Frames

For the second year in a row, some of those digital photo frames lying under the Christmas tree may come with a nasty surprise.

Samsung says that CDs that shipped with many models of its digital photo frames may have included a malicious Trojan horse program that gives cyber criminals access to the PC.

The malicious software, known as W32.Sality.AE lies in the XP version of Samsung's Frame Manager 1.08 software, which ships with many other models of Samsung frames.

A malware reaches a host PC only if Frame Manager is loaded from the CD, which can convert the digital photo frame to a USB monitor. It doesn't affect Windows Vista users. W32.Sality.AE has been known in the security community since April and is detected by antivirus software.

CDs with malicious code may have also shipped with the digital photo frame models SPF-75H, SPF-76H, SPF-85H, SPF-85P, SPF-105P, Samsung wrote in an alert (pdf) it issued in late November.

Samsung recommends users to download and install the updated version of Frame Manager XP software available from the Download Center at Samsung.com.

Earlier this week, Amazon.com issued an alert saying the worm affects Amazon buyers of the SPF-85H 8-inch digital photo frames sold between October and December 2008 for about US$150.

The story was first reported by German publication PC Professionell earlier this month.

This is not the first time that viruses have shipped along side digital photo frames. Last year, retailer Best Buy Stores said it had sold digital picture frames that were contaminated with a computer virus. The digital picture frame was an in-house brand called Insignia, and that specific model with the virus was later discontinued by Best Buy.

Story from http://pcworld.in/

Nokia to use Linux in More Mobile Phones

Nokia is considering using Linux software on some of its handsets.
According to vice president Ukko Lappalainen the software would be viable for use on its top-of-the-range devices, which currently use Symbian software on its mobile phones and Linux maemo with its internet-tablets including the N810.
Lappalainen told Reuters: "In the longer perspective, Linux will become a serious alternative for our high-end phones".
However, Lappalainen revealed that Nokia would develop its own Linux software rather than opting for Android - Google's Linux-based platform.
"I don't see anything in Android which would make it better than Linux maemo."

Nikon reveals Expensive and powerful new SLR

With a 24.5 megapixel sensor that covers ISO 50-6400, Nikon’s new DSLR camera- the D3x, has got quite a number of ‘cameraphiles’ salivating. Maybe it’s the fact that the camera can shoot 5 frames per second at full resolution or just that since its presence was leaked a while ago, the D3x has been much awaited; but we expect this camera to make quite a buzz once it actually hits the markets.

According to a release issued by Nikon, the D3x can record images as TIFF, JPEG or the RAW format, NEF in either 12 or 14 bit compressed or uncompressed formats. The release goes on to say that the camera also features Scene Recognition System, which continuously analyzes information from the 1,005-pixel RGB light sensor, to refine auto exposure, auto white balance and autofocus calculations. Nikon's 3D Color Matrix Metering II helps ensure accurate exposures and when used in combination with Active D-Lighting, it creates realistic contrast while compensating for lost shadows and highlights.

The D3x is expected to be launched this month and will cost a cool $8,000 (Rs.3,92,638).