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

The N900 has a single ARM Cortex A8 CPU running at 600Mhz, a stark contrast to today’s modern Android devices running at a whopping 1Ghz. Most Android users will probably take a look at the N900 ‘s spec and dismiss it as running at “just” 600 MHz, but is this really the case?

It’s no secret that the N900 can multi-tasks like no other, capable of showing a live view of all open applications in the Dashboard, Nokia’s multitasking interface for the Maemo OS: that YouTube video playing in the browser will continue playing, showing a live view, even when accessing this so called Dashboard. Something that those newer 1GHZ Android devices simply can’t accomplish.

From the PR1.2 and earlier, the N900 could be considered  moderately fast when it comes to speed, slowing down after some heavy multitasking. With the release of the PR1.3 Update, the N900 received several improvements and features, among them also quite a performance boost. Now it’s not only capable of handling several application at a time, including plenty of eye candy, but it’s now really fast, too. When I thought about it, I realized that it was also running at that same 600MHz clock speed. Even some user that had overclocked their N900 in the range of 800 to 900MHz all the sudden realized that it was speedy at the stock 600MHz!

All of this brings us to the following question: Is a 1 GHz CPU in a mobile device a good idea? Perhaps, mobile handset makers like HTC clearly seems to think so. Is it necessary to run a modern mobile device? Definitely not, with the N900 being the best example of this, running at “just” 600 Mhz. This also clearly shows that it was never about the clock speed, but efficiency. Symbian is famously known for running running quite smooth on lower clocked hardware, now it seems that Maemo and hopefully MeeGo will soon join this group.

These are perhaps the best bits of N900 related news a N900 user could hear. The official MeeGo website is announcing that the N900 will soon be getting the PR1.3 update that will hopefully fix bugs, increase performance and add new features. Maybe there is still some chance for that Flash 10.1 on Maemo or even some OVI Maps 3 love.

What’s an even better news, is the fact that todays announcement leaves no doubt about the N900′s future: the final public release of MeeGo is coming to the N900, hopefully by the same time the first native MeeGo devices are released.

We’re extremely happy with these bits of info, as things were starting to look a bit sad for the tablet device. It looks like good times are ahead for N900 users.

Thanks to NokNok.tv, we now have what could to be the full specs of the first MeeGo device, which we are not ready to call the N9 just yet. We still have to get some confirmation on the exact name. With specs like these and an operating system like MeeGo, it would be extremely difficult for us to recommend the N8 over this device.  Although somebody who takes a lot of pictures should consider the N8. This could be simply be wishful thinking, but the specs seem about right.

Operating System: MeeGo^1
Screen Resolution: 1280×720
Screen Color Depth: 24 bit
Screen Size: 4.0 inch
Display Technology: AMOLED (RGB)
Thickness: 14.2 mm
Weight: 150 g
Input Method: Touch Screen and Slide-out QWERTY Keyboard
Data Bearers: WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g/n, HSPA+, WCDMA, EGPRS, EDGE
CPU Type: ARM Cortex-A8
CPU Clock Rate: 1 GHz
Graphics Processor: SGX540
Flash Technology: Adobe Flash 10.1
Camera Resolution: 4000×3000
CMOS Sensor: 1/1.7 inch
Camera Focal length: 28 mm
Video Recording Resolution: 1280*720
Video Recording Frame Rate: 30 fps
Mass Storage Memory: 64 GB
NAND Memory: 1 GB
SDRAM Memory: 512 MB
Maximum Memory Card Size: 32 GB
Connectivity: Bluetooth 3.0, HDMI mini C Connector, Micro-USB(OTG), etc
Battery: 1320 mAh

So, you bought the N900, what’s next? With news about MeeGo devices being announced soon, the obvious question remains: Will the N900 get MeeGo? Or will I need to buy a new handset to enjoy MeeGo? Here are are reasons why we think it the N900 might get the full MeeGo treatment.

Read the rest of this entry »

These images you see here mark the start of your typical mobile device cycle. You know, the one where your flagship smartphone gets leaked to the net several months before its release? In this case, it just happens to be Nokia’s crown jewel: the first MeeGo device, set to be unveiled before this year ends.

There has been much speculation on the OS of the device you see above, is it running Symbian^4 or MeeGo? We’ve received confirmation that it is in fact running MeeGo. Further supporting this is the 4-block on-screen menu button seen on the prototype, which is similar to the standard vanilla version of MeeGo. The screen will be 4.3” and will be available in two colors, possibly with a small time frame between the release of the second color. Lastly, what we could notconfirm was the name. But from what I understood it could end up being the N950 or N9, with one of these names reserved for the much smaller QWERTY version of the N8.

I’m pretty sure we’ll be hearing more of this device before it’s release, perhaps in a video or two?

Nokia enthusiasts didn’t have much choice when it came the OS, either you went the basic S40 route, or as any true Nokia power user would, get Symbian. But that’s about to change. With the N8 launching soon and MeeGo devices to follow shortly after, Nokia fans are in a unique position of having the choice between 3 different operating systems: Symbian, Maemo and MeeGo. Yes, Maemo will hang around for a while, but eventually will be completely replaced by MeeGo, leaving the choice between it and Symbian.

With the impending release of the N8, Nokia powers users have  the choice of either buying now or wait for the very first MeeGo device, an OS that most of us have yet to see the final product. While only a lucky few can get both devices, most of us will have to choose where our hard-earned cash will go for the next months or years, making the choice even more critical.

The N8 sports impressive specs and Symbian is a proven OS, but its dated UI might leave you wanting for something more 2010. MeeGo on the other builds on Maemo, which has a lot of eye-candy and multi-tasks like no other, but it will certainly have less apps compared to Symbian and the uncertainty behind any new OS is sometimes hard to swallow.

Are you in the MeeGo or Symbian camp? And why?

By checking up on the facts at www.dialaphone.co.uk you can compare phones and see which operating system is best for you.

Ask a Google Nexus One owner why they chose it over the other Android offerings and chances are they’ll tell you it’s because of the frequent updates. Back in the day you had to take your phone to a Nokia repair center to get a firmware update, that’s if you were lucky. Most of the time the firmware you had the day you received the phone, that’s exactly the firmware it will have at the end of it’s life cycle. But with the increasing popularity of firmware-over-the-air (FOTA) updates, updating using your PC is becoming less popular. The best example of this is the Nokia N900, which got all of its updates using FOTA. So what exactly should can Nokia learn from Google?

The Nexus One not only provides the vanilla Google experience, but also gets lots and lots of updates. Big or small, as soon they’re available to the public, they are available for the Nexus One. This gives you the ability to quickly address issues and give your customers their most requested features that didn’t make it in the initial feature list. The latter is especially important for the mobile enthusiasts that wants the latest features and bugs fixed. Other Android devices with similar specs get the updates many many months later. Better yet, the Nexus One even gets all the major releases. I never heard of a Symbian device getting an update to the next major release.

In the case of the N900 there has been a lot of improvement when compared to Symbian devices. First of all, because every single update has been done using FOTA, it’s more user friendly. There’s even an early build of MeeGo for the N900, arguably the next major release to follow Maemo. Despite Nokia’s lack of commitment to fully support MeeGo on the N900, we still see the early build for the N900 as a step in the right direction.

A lot is at stake with MeeGo and Nokia should treat it like it’s only child, giving it frequent updates. Listening to community and knowing what they want and putting these in frequently released FOTA’s is a big lesson they could learn from Google.

Do you value frequent firmware updates?

As you might have noticed, we haven’t been covering Symbian-based devices lately, focusing completely on the Nokia N900 and the upcoming MeeGo OS.  We started The Nokia Guide to cover the Nokia devices we’ve come to know and love, which at the beginning were Symbian-based. But as the mobile market has gotten progressively more competitive, especially from Android, we feel that Symbian-based devices have lost their edge to the point where we’re simply not covering them enthusiastically; we won’t buy them and won’t recommend them to our readers. As a result we’re going to make it official what we’ve been doing for a while now: stop covering Symbian-based devices. We feel that Symbian is becoming irrelevant and upcoming Symbian^3 and^4 don’t seem to change that. Other Symbian bloggers, such as our friends at Symbian-Guru are taking it one step further.

Luckily this doesn’t affect the Nokia N900 and upcoming MeeGo devices. I’m a happy Nokia N900 owner myself and would easily recommend it to our readers. Because Maemo serves as the basis for what will become MeeGo we have very high expectations for this platform and for this reason we will continue to cover Maemo and MeeGo exclusively.

Microsoft recently scrapped their plans for KIN and are completely focusing on Windows Phone 7. Nokia should do the same: scrap upcoming Nokia N8 and it’s QWERTY-based version and focus on MeeGo and getting developers on their side.

What do you think? Is Symbian becoming irrelevant?

Bad news for some, but perhaps a necessary step in Nokia plans to step up to the competition: The Nokia N8 will  be the last Symbian-power Nseries device. Future devices, starting from the N9 will be powered by MeeGo. This in theory should leave Symbian for mid- to low-end devices, most likely in the X, C and Eseries.

This move couldn’t have come at a better time, as Nseries devices were starting to feel outdated, despite some very solid hardware. The N8 itself is a good example of great hardware and outdated feeling software, despite running the latest version  Symbian^3. Even Symbian^4 which has been drastically improved under the hood, doesn’t look all that different and certainly isn’t capable of supporting a Nokia flagship with competition from Apple and various Android devices.

What do you think, is this a good or a bad move?

Via: CNET