The Nokia N97 is all about widgets and for this reason Nokia has created the “Online as it happens” Widget contest. With the simple tools they give you, you’ll be able to create useful or simply wacky widgets for your chance to have your widget developed and made available for download from Ovi Store.10 Winners will be announced and each will receive a Nokia N97 with their very own widget pre-installed in the device. Winners will be selected by a jury, and the selection is based on the creative execution along with the feasibility and usability of the widget for the Nokia N97. Start creating a widget right here!

Below the widget we created that displays the amount of magnitude 2.5 or larger Earthquakes through a beating drum.
 Direct link here.

Here at The Nokia guide, we’re big music fans, as a result, the music features of our Nokia devices are very important to us. Having many or cool music-oriented features means nothing if the device itself is unable to produce a high quality audio signal the 3.5mm audio jack. When it comes to music, the N91 is pretty much still the Gold standard. Things seem to look promising for the N97 according the review at GSMArena. The review says that:

“The audio quality of Nokia N97 is just great, save for the disturbingly high intermodulation distortion levels. The handset fared excellently in all other parts of our test achieving some pretty impressive scores. The frequency response has been greatly improved over what the N96 could deliver. It now closes on perfection, deviating by no more than 0.27dB throughout the audible range. The noise level, dynamic range and stereo crosstalk readings are also very good, comparable to the best in class. Here go the results so you can compare it to some of the other handsets we have tested.”

The N97 seems to be performing quite admirable in the audio department, should be nice if you have one of those fancy In Ear Monitors.

Images courtesy: GSMArena

Nokia Eseries devices traditionally come with free out-of-the-box QuickOffice editing, while  their Nseries siblings only come with document viewing. (Updating to document editing is possible though by paying a little extra.)  Quickoffice, today announced it will be offering free upgrades to the latest version of Quickoffice for users on certain Nokia Eseries devices, including the E51, E52, E55, E63, E71, E72, E75 and E90.

By using Quickmanager you can download Quickoffice 6 as a free upgrade!

Quickoffice 6 includes more advanced document viewing and editing functionality of Microsoft Office 2007 documents, ZIP file support, password-protected file handling, Excel 2007 chart viewing and multiple usability enhancements.

Apparently these’s more to come as they also mention that: “Subsequent software updates released by Quickoffice for these select devices will also be available on a continual basis, including PowerPoint 2007 format support. Quickoffice 6 will initially only be available in English and a fully localized update will follow in the near future.”

Quick update: Newegg currently has the  Nokia BH-102 for $1after $24 instant discount and $15 mail-in rebate (expires 6/30/09), which is 98% off the $40 original price. Shipping is free.

The Nokia BH-102 Bluetooth Headset features up to 10 hours of talk and 7.5 days of standby time. Use this rebate form.

Via:Gizmodo

Despite earlier reports, it seems that the N97 will include a pouch in the package, at least for certain regions. Nokia tends to have different packages depending on the region, with the APAC (Asia-Pacific) packages being the ones with the most included accessories. These images from Pemix clearly show the N97 with a pouch included in the package. Considering the listing is for a HSDPA 900 / 2100 MHz device, we can conclude that some non-NAM (North American) device include such a pouch, most likely APAC versions. Judging from the two pictures, it doesn’t look like we are talking the same pouch here. The post does say that it’s a”Leather pouch” and the pouch in which the N97 is pictured in doesn’t look like leather to me.

There you have it, looking for an included pouch, make sure you get an APAC N97.

Update: Owners of the NAM and some EURO versions of the N97 that didn’t include the pouch can now buy the same original version included with the APAC version. This black pouch, called the Nokia CP-382 can be purchased here from Mobilefun.

As for the other Nokia original case for the N97, specifically the CP-323, can now be purchased both in Black and Grey.

Update: Vaibhav Sharma from the Symbian blog talks about the N97 pouch in his first impression of the device. Lot’s of pictures of the new pouch.

Currently the E71 is considred one of the best mobile phone deals around and is seen by many as one of the best Nokia devices of all time. The lack of 3.5mm headphone jack and a better camera are just about the only things needed to make it “just right.” Allaboutsymbian has uncovered information about the upcoming E72 that seems to address the camera. But we’re willing to bet that the now standard headphone jack will be included. The E72 is rumored to have S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 with the latest version of Nokia’s messaging and email software. Think an updated E71 with the software of the E75. From the looks of this, it won’t be long before Nokia makes it official.

Update: Nokia has released the E72 and  5530 XpressMusic. The press release can be found here and here.

Phones from the likes of Apple, Palm and RIM tend to keep a data connections alive at all times, but on Nokia’s S60 handsets, things are done a bit different. These are set to leave it up to applications to initiate a new data session each time they need to communicate, hence the “Allow connection to network?” message every time an app needs to connect the internet. In some ways this is handy for folks who don’t have unlimited data and want to control their monthly usage. By using a connection only when needed you do save on battery life.

But for those with an unlimited data connection this can be more of a burden. Keeping a data connection alive should allow your data-dependant apps to launch a lot faster, but again be aware that battery life will suffer. To enable this option, simply go to Settings>Connection> Packet Data and change the Packet data connection to “When Available”

For newer S60 devices like the N97 and 5800 XpressMusic it should be Settings>Connectivity> Admin. Settings>Packet data.

Do you prefer a always-on connection or one that’s used only when needed?

Via: BGR

With the N97 just now arriving at retail stores, it will be a bit difficult for buyers to get their hands on a White or Black N97, especially during the first two weeks. As strange as it may sound, getting a genuine Nokia Carrying Case CP-323 will prove to be a lot harder to find than the N97 itself. Nokia buyers are well aware of this: after securing their long awaited device, it sometime may take weeks and even months to get your hands on the matching Nokia case. This counts for other Nokia accessories as well.  In some ways you can even say that Nokia accessories have achieved an almost “rare item” status. Unless of course you happen to live close to one of the Nokia flagship stores.

As the N97 doesn’t include a case or pouch, many new users will without any doubt be looking for one of these matching Carrying Case CP-323 , without much luck of finding one.

A quick check on the Net at  popular places like Ebay or Expansys doesn’t show any sign of the CP-323, while other sites just show them as pre-order items. Previous experiences with these accessories has shown that despite the pre-order status they won’t be available for quite some time. This leave us without a case to protect the device or resorting to other less-than-ideal options.

Personally I think Nokia should have at least included a pouch, even the 5800XM included one! Other than that Nokia should make sure that matching accessories reach retailers at the same time as the devices themselves.  What’s been your experience with Nokia genuine accessories?

Update: Owners of the NAM and some EURO versions of the N97 that didn’t include the pouch can now buy the same original version included with the APAC version. This black pouch, called the Nokia CP-382 can be purchased here from Mobilefun.

As for the other Nokia original case for the N97, specifically the CP-323, can now be purchased both in Black and Grey.

By now we know that the Nokia N97 support page is up, indicating that N97 has begun shipping. In typical Nokia tradition, this should make the N97 available in about 2-3 weeks. In some cases it will even pop-up in some random town much earlier than this.

But what’s ahead? If Nokia’s latest press release  is to be believed, we can expect a few extras for the N97. It says that: “The beauty of this Nokia device is that taking it out of the box is just the beginning. As with any computer, people can constantly improve and refresh their Nokia N97 with new features, functions and fixes so they can do even more with the device.” We can safely bet that they are talking about the familiar firmware upgrade that fixes bugs, improves performance and adds new features. Nothing new there.

But the press release goes on saying that: “An exciting roadmap of new features and functions is planned to roll out in the second half of 2009.” Are they talking about new features and services for all devices or something specifically for the N97? Considering the fact that it was a N97 press release it looks like Nokia could be planning some new features and functions for the N97. Apparently these won’t ship with the device, but should roll out in the second half of 2009 as some kind of a “feature pack.”

All of this makes sense as Nokia has been actively updating their devices with firmware updates and even using alternative ways to do this, just look at the recent Flash lite 3.1 update for the 5800 XpressMusic. This could just be taking it to the next level! One reason for the release in the second half of 2009 could be that they were already pushing the N97 towards a strict deadline and bringing these updates at a later time would help them meet this deadline.

But the question question is: what new features could they add to the N97?

Confirmed: An entire set of new features are coming for the N97, including built-in Skype integration. We’ve also received information about built-in support for several social networks.

Yesterday I talked about Badaboom, the video encoder that uses your Nvidia graphics card to encode your video at an accelerated speed. It does it much faster than then traditional method of using the CPU. Only problem is that you do need a Nvidia CUDA card and of course the program isn’t free. Up till now our all-time favorite has been SUPER, but It’s impossible to get a a playable VGA-quality video on the 5800 XM using that program.

Our new favorite is called Videora Nokia Converter and it’s free! There are versions for the N95, N96, N97 and 5800 XpressMusic, although after choosing the 5800 XM version it included presets for the aforementioned Nokia devices. Best part of this program is that it’s able to produce VGA (640X480) video that’s playable on the 5800 XpressMusic. My search for a good video encoder has led me to different programs that simply couldn’t  output a 640×480 video that the  5800XM could play. It’s only when I lower the quality to QVGA do I get a playable result. For this reason Videora Nokia Converter is quite unique. Playing video at full VGA quality adds that last bit of quality that is certainly vissible when compared to QVGA video (320×240). Give it a try and let me know what you think.

What’s your favorite video encoder to get your video on your Nokia device?