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The guys at Nokia Care have created a handy PR1.1 (013.016)/ PR1.2(014.002)  Software Update release schedule for the Nokia N8. This list has been updated today (March 30th 2011) and will be updated regularly. For example, my N8, with the product code 059D111 is still on PR1.1 so I wanted to check where my update was and It seems that my product code is still “In creation,” while PR1.1 has been “Published.”  That means I’m going to have to wait a little longer. If you’ve been wondering what these terms mean exactly, they explained that:

Status “Published” means that the software update is available for download

• via your N8 (use Menu > Applications > SW Update > tick N8-00 Device Update and then follow the on screen prompts) or
• via PC (connect your phone via USB and use Ovi Suite).

Status “In creation” means your version is currently with our software teams and we will aim to release it in week 14. We can’t give a specific day here, but you can switch on the automatic software update check in your phone (via Menu > Applications > SW Update > Options > Settings > Auto-check for updates) and your N8 will prompt you as soon as the new software is available. There may be unforeseen delays for some products if any issues should be discovered in pre-release testing.

As for those with a product saying that it’s “In creation” they give a very interesting piece of info:

Nevertheless, the lead-time is less than 5 days – so for everybody who sees his/her product code as status “in creation” it means that you have to wait for max. 5 days.

The updated list can be found right here.

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I never used to play games on my mobile devices, leaving all of my gaming time for consoles. It was Angry Birds that opened the flood gates and got me into mobile gaming. I wouldn’t consider myself a mobile gamer in the sense that I spend hours and hours playing these games, but they’re great when I have 10 to 30 minutes to spare waiting in line at the bank or relaxing on the couch.

On one hand you have the N8’s browser and the use of Adobe Flash, which also allow of Flash-based games straight from the browser on Facebook game, classics like Bejeweled and even play roulette online. But this list is purely about applications and these are my top 10 must-have games for the Nokia N8.

1.Angry Birds

If I could only have one game on my N8, it would probably be Angry Birds and many seem to agree. Angry Birds is in a category all on its own, gaining an almost iconic status and can be found on anything that can play games. Even the unveiling of any new device can’t seem to happen without a demo a showing “how smooth Angry Birds runs on it.” Angry Birds has a very reasonable price and the fact that it’s updated regularly with free new content makes quite a good deal. No need to describe the game itself as you probably know it by now, if you don’t, all you should know is this: Get it now!

2.Angry Birds Season

The season versions of Angry Birds is a holiday themed version of the original. It’s a fresh take on the original game with frequent updates that also make it a great deal and a different look that should keep things interesting. An

3.Fruit Ninja

Fruit Ninja is simple and addictive: touch the screen and slash the flying fruit. That description makes it sound respective and pointless, but the actual result is nothing short of  amazing. Everything from the squishy, splatty sounds to the moments of pure action make for a game that’s addictive, yet difficult to put down. Fruit Ninja scores high on presentation despite it’s simplicity it makes good use of the 3D graphics.

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You know the drill: a highly anticipated Nokia handset starts shipping and everyone starts looking for deals. For a device that was suppose to come out last year, the E7 isn’t widely available as one would hope. An in the cases  where it’s available, the prices are way above the $600 dollar mark.

At the time of writing ( 25th of March 2011), for example Mobile City Online seems to have it have for $659.99. Nokia USA doesn’t even have it in stock, taking pre-orders at $679. Amazon, usually among the most popular places to shop doesn’t currently have it in stock, but is taking pre-orders at $649, while third party sellers have it any where from $649 to $799. On Ebay, the trend is generally towards $640 and up.

If you’re planning on buying from Nokia Europe, prepare for one big sticker shock. Nokia UK doesn’t seem to even have it in stock, While Nokia Spain is selling it for 629 Euros ($885) ,  Netherlands: 599 Euros ($842), Finland: 629 Euros ($885). Gulp.

From my little online search for the E7, the general trend seems to be low availability and prices generally above $640 dollars. Interestingly, almost all online stores seem to only have the Silver white and not the Dark grey version. I have yet to see the E7 being sold in other colors, which seems exactly what the E7 product manager was saying regarding the color availability.

The lowest price so far I’ve been able to find is Plemix at $615. The coupon code “YOUTUBE10” takes another $10 of making it a reasonable $605.

Know any good deals on the E7? Let me know.

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Nokia Social has been updated to version 1.3 (1.3.189 to be exact) and in the process gained the following new features:

• Contacts improvement:
  -Status update directly in Contact Card
  -Linked contact indicator in Friends List
  
• Share improvements:
  -Add caption when sharing photos from camera
  -Removing photo upload compression > high resolution picture upload
  
• Facebook/Twitter enhancements:
  -Retweet
  -View followers list

Nokia has also shared what features they’re working on for the next release and will probably include automatic Contact linking, Facebook notifications and new widget functionalities. Especially the automatic contact linking feature is something I’m looking for and should make programs like Socially obsolete.

Still carrier or region dependent?

Nokia Social is a great application, but the not so pretty side of this application is that it seems to block access in certain regions or carriers. I’ve talked about this before and the same holds true for Social 1.3. The application is notorious for checking what carrier your on and the SIM card you’re using and simply giving you a blank screen with no Facebook or Twitter if the carrier is not in the list.

One example is that I’m using a local providers like UTS and Digicel and Social blocks access for of these carriers. If I put in a SIM card from SETAR, a provider all the sudden I have access to all social networks. Social seems to also work fine with a Truphone SIM. I’ve said and I will say again, after buy an UNLOCKED device, a device should work with all carriers, including all of its programs and services. I really hope Nokia fixes this soon as this one of the most important application on their Symbian^3 devices.

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Nokia N8 cover

As a camera-centric device, the N8 almost begs for an “always-on” case that doesn’t require you to constantly take it out and put it back in, matching the N8’s “ready to shoot” philosophy. Could Nokia’s own Silicone Cover CC-1005 be that case?

The CC-1005, as the name suggests, is a silicone case made specifically for the N8 and is Nokia’s first foray into the silicone case business, which traditionally has only been about cases made out of leather or cloth. The 1005 is available in 4 colors, (almost) matching the 4 colors available for the N8: Blue, Black, Green and a Pinkish Red. I say “almost,” because even though Nokia is offering the Pink CC-1005 color, there is no matching Pink N8. As you know by now the N8 is offered in Orange, so it’s a mystery to me as to why Nokia wasn’t able to create a matching case. If you’re the owner of the Orange N8, you’re pretty much out of luck here, unless you decide to settle for the Pinkish Red color or choose one of the other three colors.

Compared to cheaper silicone cases you find on Ebay, the 1005 offers a case that’s not too thick or too thin, yet it still able to keep it’s shape without deforming from the simple act of taking it off. Unlike the those really thick silicone cases, that add way to much material, the 1005 seems to have gotten it just right with just the right amount of padding without looking too chunky. On the other hand there are those cases that are way too thin that wiggle and shift just from holding the device, this is not the case with the CC-1005.

Worth noting however, is the fact that this shade of Blue is quite a bit different than the Blue on the N8 itself, going for a darker  Blue instead of the N8’s more neutral light Blue. In the image above you can’t quite see  the true shade of Blue of the case, but what you can see is that the two colors don’t quite match fully. For most this should be fine and overall it does look  good on the N8, but those looking for the colors to match exactly should look elsewhere. The case is also very easy to put on or take of and doesn’t add any measureable weight to the N8. What it does add however is much needed grip as the N8 is a very slippery device.

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After a trip to Peru, I returned home finding a surprise from my friends at WOMWorld/Nokia: an E7 and this awesome custom sleeve signed by the man himself, Stephen Elop! Thinking that this couldn’t get any better, they did, by customizing the sleeve with my name and some thoughts I had back at Nokia World 2010 on the E7. A huge thanks to WOMWorld/Nokia!

Last year at Nokia World 2010, I’ve had some time to play with the E7, but this is actually the longest I’ve had the E7, enough for more random, but detailed thoughts on the E7:

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By now you’ve been warned that you shouldn’t do a hard reset on the N8 using the three finger salute.

I’ve recently been looking for a way to restore the N8 to the EXACT  factory condition, without much luck. My conclusion was that there simply wasn’t one, not even using PC Suite, OVI or NSU will do.

So, what about the trusty *#7370#? I decided to take a leap and just try it. The result? While it does reset your device, I can hardly call it “restoring to exact factory conditions,” because it deleted all of Nokia pre-loaded images, HD demos, Dolby Digital Surround Demos and all of my the Web TV widgets. All gone! Luckily I do have a backup of the mass storage, which will get me all of the pre-loaded images and and Dolby/HD demos, but fact remains that *#7370# does a lot more damage than I initially hoped. Especially some of these Web TV widgets can NOT be downloaded on OVI Store and are pretty much gone.

I was able to get the three included Web TV widgets, which are: CNN, National Geographic and Paramount Movie Teasers. They can be download here.

Judging from the above, if you’re planning on resetting the N8 with either the hard reset three finger salute or soft reset in the form of *#7370#, you’ll reset the device, but in the process delete some unrecoverable files.

Last week I wrote 13 Reasons Why I Love The N8, but hey, it’s not perfect. As I wrote in that post, there is a lot to love about the N8, but if you’re considering of getting one, you should be aware of the less than ideal sides of the N8. These are my personal findings

1.Exposed Camera Lens: This has got to be my biggest issue with the N8. Worth noting is  that the piece of clear plastic you see on the back is not the actual lens, but an added protective clear cover to protect the vulnerable lens behind it. Fact is that light has to reach the lens to capture images and this very same light has to pass through to this clear piece of plastic in front of it. Good image quality is dependent on getting lots of light and therefore a clear and clean cover and lens are key. Problem is that this cover is always exposed. Fingers touch it almost all the time just by holding the N8 and than there’s the dust that constantly collects in this area.

The N8 is a very robust piece of technology with its gorilla glass and metal body, but the exposed clear cover is on the other hand a weak point, requiring me to sometimes baby the N8, always thinking were I put or how I hold it.

The plus side to all  of this is the  that the  camera is available to you, without the need open any lens cover and the fact that the device can be made a lot thinner. The camera is one of the N8’s biggest features, but perhaps also the chink in such a robust armor. Getting it scratched could ruin that top feature of the N8.

2.Screen Auto-lock CAN’T be disabled: Previous Symbian^3 devices allowed you to disable the auto-lock feature, but on Symbian^3/N8 there is simply now way to turn this off. No matter what you do, the N8 is always going to auto-lock it’s screen requiring me to use the lock switch or pressing the menu button and than the “Unlock” button. Imagine having to this several time a day and you’ll quickly see how this gets annoying. There are several  temporary solution to this, like PocketLock.

When I’m sitting at my desk I usually have my N8 near me and every few minutes I like to check my emails or twitter, requiring me to unlock the device each time. This can wear the lock switch out and it can become annoying. The best solution would have been the ability to not lock the screen, until I lock it with the switch. 

3.Nokia Social  is network/SIM card dependent: I bought an unlock N8, meaning I should be able to use it anywhere. Problem is that Nokia Social doesn’t recognize certain smaller local carriers, as a result you simply can’t use it. If I use a Truphone SIM it suddenly works. I’ve written about this issue right here.

4.No Kick-stand: Nokia devices were one of the very first to introduce the kick-stand. Everything from the N96, N900 to the N810 had a kick-stand that allowed me to  hold the device upright to watch a video or simply as clock and twitter. A kickstand shouldn’t add much bulk to thin device, it just requires a piece of thin metal to hold the N8 upright. As a result I have to lay it flat on the desk or hold it in my hands. This could have been also quite handy when connecting it to a TV using HDMI out. I really miss a kick-stand on the N8.

5.Speaker position: The N8 has a loud single speaker, but when you put the N8 on a soft surface like a bed, the speaker is covered and you can barely here something.

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One annoying issue with the N8 and all other Symbian^3 devices is the inability to disable the Screen/keylock time-out. This means that the screen locks after a predefined period. There is no way of turning this off. To unlock it, you’ll either have to press the menu button and then press “unlock” or use the lock switch. This can get frustrating after doing this several times a day.

One cool way to solve this is PocketLock, which uses the front light sensor to detect whether to lock or unlock the device. When you put it in your pocket for example it will detect this and lock the device, when you take it out, it detects the brighter light and unlock it.

I found another cool way to use this app. When I’m sitting at my desk, the N8 would lock after a few minutes. With PocketLock I can just swipe my hand in front of the light sensor and the device would unlock quickly without ever touching it!

PocketLock is a free app and can be found in the Ovi Store.

Despite Nokia’s recent switch to Windows Phone as their main smartphone OS, there’s still a lot to like about current Symbian based devices, with the N8 being my personal favorite. Not only is it available NOW, but it can be had for a relatively low price ($399 or in some cases as low as $350), upcoming software updates should give it  fresh new look and it has all the features you’d expected from a modern smartphone. But what makes it so special for me? Here are the 13 reasons why I love my N8.

1.Audiophile Music Quality: If you’re serious about music you probably have your audio files in high resolution 320Kbps MP3 or even lossless formats like Wav and chances are you have one of those high-end In-Ear-Monitors. The output of the device producing the audio should also match the other elements in the chain as the overall quality is as good as the weakest link. This is one of the reasons why I love the N8. I’ve listened to Black Berry’s, Android-based devices and even the iPhone and nothing comes close to some of these Nseries devices, especially the N8. I’ve dedicated a separate article on this topic, proclaiming the N8 “Audiophile approved.” If you’re serious about music, you’ll like the N8!

2.Long battery life: The general trend in the smartphone industry has been an ongoing march towards faster and faster devices with larger and larger screens, but battery life just doesn’t seem to be able to keep up. With this ever growing need for faster devices, the obvious solution has been making bigger and thicker devices to put in bigger and thicker batteries. But who wants that? It’s really been an almost daily ritual to charge my external batteries and always have them with me while on the go. The N8 completed changed my usage pattern and shows how important and liberating a device with a long battery life can be. With heavy usage, a single charge usually lasts me an entire day. In some cases it does come close to two days. It really is a treat be able to leave all those power accessories at home and have just that single device with you without having to worry about running out of juice.

Another interesting feature is the power saving mode. When the battery reaches a certain critical level, it asks you if you’d like to activate this mode, basically adjusting allowing the devices to last even longer. You know how some devices warn you about low battery, only to completely die on you just minutes later? My experience with the N8 has been that this mode actually seems to make a dramatic difference in the sense that a low battery means that I can make a few quick calls or check those last tweets and emails before it turns off completely.

All of this is done with what I normally would consider a small battery at just 1200 mAh. I can clearly remember all those comments about the N8 having a small battery and that it wasn’t user-replaceable. Somehow, Nokia did manage to squeeze such a long battery life out a relatively small battery.

3.No screen protectors: Getting a new phone usually meant getting a screen protector. If you’ve ever tried applying of these things, you’d know what a pain these can be. It’s an extremely difficult procedure and even when all goes well, you could still end up with some small bubbles. Some can even be really expensive, costing in the range of $15. Despite protecting the device, it takes away a certain smoothness that can only be had without the screen protector. With the gorilla glass on the N8 I didn’t need to worry about screen protectors, putting the device face down or anything like that.

4.The Clock: The N8 has this cool screen saver clock that stays on, even when the device is in sleep mode. I always tend to check the time and this is really handy as I can just look at the N8 and know the time. The minimalistic design of the clock is very classy. From what I understand it uses almost no powers and thus won’t affect battery life. A small but cool feature I haven’t seen on other devices.

5.Offline Navigation: It’s no secret that Nokia’s Map is the best in the industry and it’s not bad either that its completely free, but where they really push ahead of any other competitor is the ability to download all content for a specific country or even the entire world and than use the phone for navigation without using any data. I’ll be heading to Peru in less than a week and I can simply download the data using my PC or via Wi-Fi on the N8 and use it completely in offline mode while there. No other mobile navigation service has this completely offline mode.

6.Dual Charging: The N8 can charge via either the 2mm Nokia connector or microUSB. Most of Nokia’s accessories don’t use microUSB, but instead Nokia’s own tried and true 2mm Charging connector. My Nokia BH-905, the BH-214 and even the BH-505 use the 2.0mm charger and not microUSB, probably due to size and space constraints. But the result of all of this is that you’ll probably end up with a microUSB charger for your device and a Nokia 2mm charger for your accessories. Why not have just one charger? With the N8 I can just keep this one charger for both my accessories and my device. Besides, having 2 connectors increases my chances of finding the right charger. You’ll be surprised at the remote places were people just happen to have a 2mm Nokia connector. microUSB makes sure the N8 is future, basically the best of both worlds.

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