Mobile phone network Orange has unveiled its high definition voice service on a number of handsets, which brings in a better quality of calls over the airwaves.
Orange is the first UK network to announce this service, which effectively reduces background noise and therefore improves the overall quality of a call. The Sony Ericsson Elm ‘Eco’ handset arrives with a similar feature, but its technology is built in to the phone and it’s not an over the air service.
This new feature from Orange is available on a number of handsets, such as the Nokia 5320, Nokia E5 and Samsung Omnia Pro. Other upcoming mobile phones will support the service too, where new devices will be shipped with an Orange HD Voice logo to identify the handset is compatible.
HD Voice runs from a 3G network and uses the WB-AMR (Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate) speech codec, which provides better audio quality due to its wider speech bandwidth of 50-7000 Hz - as compared to the current narrowband speech codec of 300-3400 Hz.
Orange has been successfully trialling out HD voice since June, where we first brought you news of the technology at the end of 2009.
The service is available now and at no extra cost to 3G based Orange customers, where we suspect more handsets will support this ability within the next few months.
Mobile phone maker’s Nokia has unveiled the budget touch screen 5250 handset, the replacement model to last year’s 5230 with a new design similar to the higher-end models whilst still keeping the costs low.
Nokia’s 5250 is a 2.8-inch touch screen handset, running Symbian ^1 with just GSM and EDGE connectivity with the design and look to the Nokia X6 phone - instead of the older model it’s replacing.
The Nokia 5230 was a 3.2-inch touch screen device, running Symbian S60 and is very reminiscent of the older Xpress Music handsets. It was shipped with the same connections as the newer model - where both phones have 3G and WIFI missing.
Access to the mobile maker’s application Ovi store will be on offer with the new handset, which is likely to be accompanied by Comes With Music that has just been rebranded Ovi Music Unlimited.
Nokia’s 5250 is expected to ship later on in the year with a cost of around the £100 mark and is bound to be showing up on pay as you go deals, from various network operators.
One Mobile Ring is attending Nokia’s annual symposium mid September, where we’ll bring you the low down on the new models from the event as they’re aired to the media.
Nokia has had another handset leaked in a week where we thought there couldn’t be any more unannounced phones from the Finnish mobile makers, this time around it’s the Nokia N9 - a Qwerty keyboard based device in what appears to be in an N8 chassis.
Images have cropped up on the Chinese Website Baidu, where they show the yet-to-be-announced handset in all its glory from different angles and with the keyboard exposed too.
Nokia’s N9 appears to be the slide out Qwerty keyboard counterpart to the full touch screen N8 device, with this model complementing the new N series line up of handsets with this phone replacing the N97 models.
It’s been rumoured Nokia is replacing the Symbian platform on their flagship N series devices, with the joint Intel and Nokia OS Meego. It’s been reported elsewhere the N9 phone in these pictures could be running Meegoo, with the shots of the mobile running an OS that gives that very impression.
This latest leak arrives at the end of a period of time where nearly every mobile phone Nokia is trying to keep a lid on is now out in the public domain, with no surprises or breaking news to really be had or reported upon at Nokia World come September.
Finnish phone maker’s Nokia has had another handset leaked; this time around it’s the Nokia C7 that appears to be a high-end smartphone that has yet to be announced by Nokia.
Chinese website Zol.com.cn has managed to capture on video the phone known as the Nokia C7, which is yet to be unveiled by Nokia but we suspect it will be announced at their annual symposium Nokia World in a few weeks time.
Images have been cropping up on-line of the handset for some time, although this is the first occasion that there is now undeniable and irrefutable evidence that the handset exists - with the video below proving just that.
The Nokia C7 appears to be running the Symbian ^3 OS, from a 3.5-inch multi-touch screen with a more business focussed look than the consumer oriented Nokia N8 which is due for release anytime soon.
The footage below isn’t in English, but it does highlight on the first video the build of the device in close detail and on the second video there’s a walkthrough of the Symbian platform, running on the handset.
One Mobile Ring is due to attend the Nokia conference in a few weeks time, but at this rate there will be no news with all these leaks happening.
Mobile phone maker Nokia has revamped the existing X3 musical slider phone from 2009 with a new mobile, known as the X3 ‘Touch and Type’ where they’ve dropped the slider but have kept the keyboard and added a touch screen.
Nokia’s X3 Touch and Type has done away with the whole slider mechanism from the first model, which was launched at Nokia World in 2009. They’ve moved the 12 button T9 keypad to the flush front of the device, whilst adding a 2.4-inch resistive touch screen that wasn’t present in the original X3 where a d-pad was the only way of navigating around the screen.
The original music oriented Nokia X3 was seen as the budgeted keyboard version of their full touch screen X6 ‘Comes with Music’ handset, which was shipped with the unlimited download music service where the X3 didn’t. The Nokia X6 could hold £170,000 worth of free music on the 32GB device - if compared to buying the same amount from Apple’s iTunes.
Both the 2009 model and this latest version run the Symbian series 40 OS, whilst still retaining its music focus with a quick launch media button. The Touch and Type X3 arrives with 3G HSPA access, 802.11n WIFI, a 5 megapixel camera and a build in FM radio.
No official retail dates have been announced, other than to expect the Nokia X3 Touch and Type in Q3 for around £125 SIM free and unlocked.
With all these Nokia leaks and handsets being officially and unofficially released this month, there might not be anything to announce at Nokia World come September.
Finnish phone makers Nokia have leaked their upcoming X5-01 handset on their own Ovi application store, weeks away from their annual Nokia World symposium when it’s reportedly due to be announced.
The Nokia X5-01 has appeared on the Ovi store website, which is their own online repository for their Symbain OS apps. The handset only appears upon selecting which particular phone the user owns, when downloading an application from Nokia’s store.ovi.com.
The mobile phone has a square chassis in much the same way as the Motorola Flipout, where the X5-01 is rumoured to have a slide-out Qwerty keyboard with a 2.4-inch display and runs Symbian OS 9.3 Series 60 - with the image confirming those exact hardware specifications.
This latest leak by Nokia comes only a week after their upcoming flagships N8 mobile shipping date was outted by a phone reseller, where we doubt this will be the last leak as their London event draws ever closer.
We have just discovered Nokia is to have a bloggers event in London later on this week, with even more rumours speculating they will be unveiling another handset before their larger event in September - we’ll keep you posted as to what is unveiled, if anything.
Mobile phone network Three has unveiled a trio of new handsets on their new One Plan tariff, the Sony Ericsson Zylo, Nokia E63 and Nokia 5230.
These new smartphones are all free on Three’s £25 a month One Plan tariff, which allows for 2,000 minutes a month to any network, a further 5,000 minutes to any other Three mobile phone number, 5,000 texts and 1GB data allowance - which is one of the most competitive deals around today.
The Sony Ericsson Zylo is their recent 2.6-inch screen Walkman phone, with a slide out T9 keypad along with a 3.2 megapixel camera and memory that can be expanded to 16GB from a microSD card. The phone’s form factor has a human curvature design which makes it comfortable to hold, and SE has even brought in the FLAC music codec for the first time in a Walkman mobile on the Zylo.
Nokia’s E63 builds on the success of the E71 BlackBerry-esque handset, only bringing this more affordable phone to a wider audience with its more budgeted materials. The E63 still has the large Qwerty keyboard, which is accompanied by a 2.4-inch display and a 2 megapixel camera - where there’s also free 6 months Spotify premium account access.
The Nokia 5230 is their large touch screen music orientated mobile phone, which runs their Symbian platform and has access to the Ovi store and is also accompanied by free 6 months access to premium Spotifyaccount
Latest social networking phone from the Finish Fone makers
Nokia’s new C6 Qwerty based keyboard mobile phone has gone on sale, via their own website at a cost of £289 SIM free and unlocked. The new mobile phone is also around on a contract with O2 and Vodafone, or just on a pay as you go deal with Vodafone.
Nokia’s latest mobile has a similar look to their flagship N97, along with its cut down version of the N97 Mini. The C6 tips up with a 3.2-inch 640×360 resistive touch screen, along with a slide-out physical Qwerty keyboard and a 5 megapixel camera whilst running their own Symbian S60 OS.
The budget social network orientated phone from Nokia has a wide range of social networking features built-in, along with access to various email systems from Gmail to Yahoo.
C6’s Qwerty keyboard slides out from under the screen, unlike their previous N97 handset whose keyboard slid opened in an angular fixed position when exposed.
Nokia’s on-line store was the first to show the C6 arrival within the UK, with other resellers and mobile phone networks closely following suit as the phone starts to arrive them with all.
The joint venture mobile operating system by Nokia and Intel has just been given a public viewing on an actual working mobile phone, with aspects of its expected feature set seen that will likely be in the final version.
Nokia’s new N Series platform has been detailed on a developers preview build, running on an open source Aava Mobile handset. The code is still being actively developed in version 1.1, which is scheduled for an October release but as to when the OS will be finally deployed to an actual Nokia device hasn’t been confirmed yet.
The team behind the MeeGo IU are creating the handset reference user experience, along with design principles and interaction guidelines at the moment with the screen shot and subsequent video showing all their hard work.
Under the heading of “Day 1” of the MeeGo handset user experience project, team MeeGo has listed elements that could be seen and used in the final UI. These are the items such as the status bar, clock, network, Bluetooth, 3G connection, notifications, and battery charge. Along with the home screen, lock screen, application launcher and virtual keyboard with apps such as the dialer, SMS, browser, contacts, and photo viewer.
If the video below is anything to go by, this OS looks very promising and one that could possibly rival Android if properly utilised fully by developers.
Nokia has made public it will stop deploying Symbian on its N Series handsets, instead the Finish phone makers will be using MeeGo as the main platform for their flagship mobiles. MeeGo is the joint operating system venture by Nokia and Intel, by the merging of their two Linux platforms of Maemo and Moblin, respectively.
The last flagship Nokia mobile phone that could be running Symbian^3 may be their upcoming Nokia N8, where the last MeeGo or Maemo derivative handset was their N900 tablet, unveiled at Nokia World last September.
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year Nokia and Intel jointly announced MeeGo, where they are expecting the OS to be used across phones, netbooks and tablets such as the N900.
Nokia’s Symbian^3 N8 is due out in the next few months, where the 3.5-inch touch screen Nokia N8 will feature a 12 megapixel camera that is capable of HD video recording. Symbian is still expected to be used by Nokia, but only on their mid-tier ranges downwards with their flagship handsets now only running MeeGo.
Clearer calls from now on
Successor model announced
*sigh*
Hand on video of upcoming unannounced mobile
X3 loses slider, gains touch screen 
Finnish fone faux pas 
