Back in 2009, I asked for the Kindle app on Nokia devices, but I guess the idea wasn’t ready for mainstream smartphone users. Now as eBooks, eBook readers, in particular the Amazon Kindle are gaining lots of momentum, Nokia users are now starting to wonder when they’ll be getting the Amazon Kindle app. There are Kindle apps for virtually every platform out there, even the recently released Windows Phone 7! Strangely, Symbian, the most widely used operating system is left out.

@Smartfonefan has started  petition to get Amazon to create a Kindle app for Nokia phones. This last part for me is also very important as it would be ideal to get Kindle not only on Symbian but also upcoming MeeGo devices.

While I’m sure some people will read entire books on there mobile devices, the  beauty of having Kindle on a mobile device is the ability to read tiny portions of a book throughout the day. Kindle has a Whisper Sync feature that remembers you last read page.

So if I read 3 pages on my mobile device , it will remember this location on the Kindle devices or Kindle for PC, after a while this byte size reading can add up, allowing you to get even more reading done.

Would you like to see Kindle on Nokia devices? Please sign the petition here or let @AmazonKindle know that you are a Nokia user and would like to use Kindle on your device.

Via: Allaboutsymbian

A new over-the-air update has been released for Documents To Go Premium Edition. The updated version 2.001.346 now includes some basic PowerPoint editing AND Viewing, features the top version lacked. In the update description they also mentioned improvements for Excel.

The previous version of Documents To Go Premium Edition had both Word and Excel editing, but lacked even basic PowerPoint viewer features. Ironically the Viewer edition was able to view Powerpoint viewing, forcing many to install both the viewer end editing versions.

Once the update was installed it added a duplicate Slideshow to go icon as I also had the viewer edition installed, which can be simply fixed by uninstalling the viewer edition.

As for the PowerPoint editing you can do the actual editing by going to New>Outline.

If you still don’t have DTG, you can get the Premium version which has all the editing features for $29.99 or the Viewer edition for $9.99.

Cheap Calls to Australia

Nokia is known for it’s excellent camera smartphone’s but what many are not aware of is that under the hood, some of these are amazing music devices. We’re not just talking about devices marketed as “Music phones”: edgy look, bundled improved quality headphones (or speakers) and media keys. While some of the Nokia devices do have many of these traits, they’re actually capable of pumping out some seriously good tunes using audiophile grade head/earphones. Perfect examples of these are the N91, N91 8GB, N81, N81 8GB and even the N900.

With the N8 now readily available, we wanted to check out how it truly faired on the music front. Testing the N8 would also give you an idea of what to expect from the C6, C7 and E7 as they all share essentially the same hardware.

When we’re talking about audio quality, we’re not talking about the built-in speaker or the Dolby surround feature using HDMI out. In fact surround sound does not necessarily equal good audio quality, as many would think. In this case it’s purely the stereo output through the built-in 3.5mm headphone jack and doing some serious listening, using some audiophile grade in-ear monitors (IEM) from Shure and 320kbps MP3 and Wav files.

I started the test with Lakmé’s The Flower Duet, testing the N8’s capability to cope with a very dynamic classic. The N8 passed the test with flying colors, faithfully producing The Flower Duet with all it’s dynamic complexity while still being able to drive the Shure earphone without a portable AMP at glass breaking volumes. I was also impressed with the amount of detailed produced during the low-volume parts of this piece. Older Nokia’s were plagued with lack of ample audio headroom, but the N8 is another those devices can go loud, and I do mean loud.

I played a bit with the equalizer, but felt that using the default setting, the N8’s output was good enough to get the most out quality headphones without the need for further adjustments.

Read the rest of this entry »

As a Maemo/N900 user I‘ve gotten really accustomed to the built-in Skype support and it’s one of the most important features for me on the N900. When it came time to use the N8 I naturally wanted to install the native Skype application, since Symbian doesn’t have this functionality built-in. To my surprise there’ wasn’t any official support for these newer device. As result there were a few performance issues and a few glitches here and there.

Skype promised an updated version in December and now the wait is over: an optimized version for the Nokia C6, C7 and the N8. This means that they pretty much have what was Symbian^3 devices covered and we should see a version for the E7 once it’s out.

Need Skype for your newer Symbian device? Get it here.

In a previous post I talked about how the N900 combined speed, eye candy and impressive multi-tasking with “just” a 600Mhz CPU, impressive considering current trends marching beyond the 1Ghz CPU mark.

The same can be said about Nokia’s latest wave of (Symbian) devices. Symbian, known for running acceptably on very low-clocked hardware, still continues this  tradition but with the addition of a new element: Speed! While 512Mb of RAM combined with a 1Ghz CPU are fairly typical Android specs, the N8 for example, is fast with “just” 256MB of RAM and a 680Mhz CPU. Using the final hardware (and software) of the Nokia N8, I was amazed at how fast it worked: applications opened in the blink of an eye yet it could maintain this speed with several application open. Even animation remained smooth and I could zoom into those 12 Megapixels images without it even breaking a sweat. I was impressed. All of this with just 256 MB of RAM on a 680MHZ CPU?

The lower clocked CPU even as an added plus. The Nokia N8 is one of few modern smartphones that can last an entire day with heavy (or even a bit more if you’re careful). All of this applies to other devices from the current “wave” like C7 and E7 as they all essentially have the same internals. Finally we can forget about that device with the N, the 9 and the 7.

Are you happy with the performance of the current wave of Nokia’s Symbian devices?

Are you on the look-out for a new handset? Check out the best mobiles phones on offer at www.phones4u.co.uk.

Cheap Calls to Pakistan

I really love Nokia Messaging, Nokia’s excellent push email service. What I like about this service is that you can setup up to 10 of your email accounts online on the Nokia Messaging website and by simply entering your login credentials it would automatically setup all of your email accounts: in my case that’s 3 Hotmail accounts, 1 Gmail, OVI mail and Yahoo mail.

That’s just a single password and email to setup  6 email accounts automatically! At least that’s how it works on the N900. I also like that emails are pushed immediately to the device, through Nokia’s Messaging servers, always beating other email services in speed.

I tried setting up Nokia Messaging on the N8, using the traditional provisioning SMS, by going to http://email.nokia.com/, selecting my device and entering my phone number.

Read the rest of this entry »

The OVI Blog has a great contest going on, perfectly fitting this holiday season. They want to know “How you would use a Nokia N8 to stay connected this December?” Basically it comes down to:

1.Tell them how you would use a Nokia N8 to stay connected this December in a short blog post (max 200 words) or a short video (max 2 minutes). Please check the contest rules if you want to know more.

2. Check back on Dec 13^th to see which top postings were selected.

They’ll send Nokia N8 devices to loan out for the holiday season to a few lucky users and if you show them and all the Ovi fans, how you used the Nokia N8 with Ovi to help you over the holidays they will give the Nokia N8 as yours to keep as a New Year’s treat!

This is my entry:

“As the family gathers to share presents, everyone is happy,

But sitting in the corner, both the laptop and camera share a frown, a bit unhappy,

Last holiday season they were the hit, the center of attention,

But now that I got an N8, there seems to be a bit of tension!

The laptop says: “I’ve got an HDMI port too and I can go online, but he just won’t notice”

The camera: “Yeah, I’ve got the 12 megapixels and I’ve got auto-focus!”

As I take my pictures and upload them to Flickr,

Both of them seem to get angry and bitter and bitter,

When they see me share pictures using USB-on-the-go,

They decide scratch its screen and put it out the door

If only they knew about the gorilla glass screen,

They’d know that even with keys in your pocket, scratches remain unseen,

Before they can get close I put the N8 in my pocket,

The laptop is quickly reminded, that he’s not that mobile and better stay close to the wall-socket,

They decide to just sit close to the Christmas tree and decide maybe it’s time to step down,

But they hope that by the next holiday season they are still around.”

You probably know the drill by now: a hard reset will nicely remove all programs and customizations and restore the device to factory defaults right? In the case of the N8, it’s a totally different story. A hard reset on the Nokia N8 is done by performing the following action:

1) Turn off the N8

2) Press and hold “Volume Down” + “Camera Key” + “Menu Key”

3) Press the power button, while pressing and holding the key combination in step.

This indeed performs a hard reset of the N8, but as many have found out (including myself) is that will remove:

1.OVI Maps

2.OVI Store

3.Social

4.And some Dolby content will stop working with the device or dissappear. The worst part is that there’s no way of restoring OVI Store and Social Networks. OVI Maps Beta can be installed from Nokia Beta Labs. If you care for those Dolby Demos, back these up as soon as you get your device!

Reinstalling the firmware using Nokia Software Updater or OVI Suite won’t fix this either. The only way I could truly restore my N8 to it’s original factory state was by reflashing it using Phoenix. Let this be a cautionary story for you: Don’t do a hard reset on the Nokia N8!

Via: My Nokia Blog