I was just mentioning about the SIM-free price-point of the N96, and immediately following that… here comes the fact that the BBC have announced iPlayer support for it!

N96 users will be able to both stream and download programmes from the popular service, which will be delivered in a purpose-built application. Luckily, it will be able to use both 3G and WiFi, to avoid those (potentially, depending on contract) high data costs.

It is said that the app will also be available as a download from the BBC site, though we’ll wait to see if any Operators try and restrict that (or change the N96 firmware for their variants - you never know, it could happen!).

Nokia are making sure the N96 is going to rock Mobile TV, one way or the other - broadcast, 3G streaming, or app-based download - take your pic (depending on your country)!

[Via: Pocketlint.co.uk]

Remember I mentioned about Mobile TV at IBC 2008 the other day? Well read on, and expect to see a lot more of these types of announcements over the next 2 weeks or so…..

Longcheer Holdings (a Chinese Mobile handset design house) has apparently selected Newport Nedia to provide middleware for multiple Mobile TV variant handsets that it is looking to release on to the market:

• TV350 – GSM/GPRS handset that supports the widely deployed DVB-T digital television standard using Newport Media’s NMI305 DVB-T SOC
• DT100 – GSM/GPRS handset that supports DVB-H as well as DVB-T using the NMI310 DVB-T/H IC
• IT100 – GSM/GPRS handset that supports the Brazilian ISDB-T mobile digital television standard using the NMI320 ISDB-T IC

The TV350, DT100 and IT100 were developed in order to provide a compelling TV centric user experience at price points significantly below competing 3G based products. All three handsets will be demonstrated at Newport Media’s booth (M483), inside the Mobile Zone at IBC 2008, Sept. 12-16, in Amsterdam.

So this is slicing the Mobile TV “bread” up in a different way - this time removing the 3G radio, and covering a number of the popular variants of Mobile TV broadcast - the only one I could see obviously missing is the CMMB (Chinese) standard…..

[Via: 3G.co.uk]

Tis the season of Nokia madness, when it gets a ton of devices out there for purchase - nope, hang on, that’s all the time!

Anyhoo, just a quick round-up of “prices and devices” on the Nokia UK site right now - check out some keenly priced devices, plus one very interesting pre-order…..

First out of the gate is the E71 - the seriously good-looking emailer device that is going to bring the pressure to the Blackberry Bold. This device is much smaller than it looks, and is retailing online for the princely sum of £330. I’d have one in a hearbeat - ba-dump - oh look, I’ve just clicked on buy on the website!

Moving along swiftly, there are a number of devices that are now established in the marketplace, and hence don’t have such a premium pricetag attached to them any longer. I’d draw your attention to the former top-dog, the N95-8Gb, now retailing at £400. This is one seriously good handset, and to my mind in Top 5 of all-time devices.

But what about that hot pre-order? Well, that would of course be Nokia’s all-singing, all-data-dancing N96. On the UK website at least, it is coming in at an unashamed premium, but certainly not a price that would blow your mind…. how does £535 find you? Could you tolerate that in order to own a device that has universally been praised since pretty much it’s conception?

Part of my point here is to highlight what appears to be Nokia’s very keen pricing in the UK, but also I would imagine, on their other regional sites - it might worth an online trip to your local site to see what goodies they have for purchase. For me, I am getting just a bit excited thinking about the N96……mmmmhhhhhh……16GB of memory, just for me!

As I mentioned before in my follow-up article on the Nokia 8800 Arte,  I used the Nokia 3109 in parallel with the more expensive luxury device, only to find out that, on balance, I liked the 3109 more!

The 3109 is not the newest device out there, nor the prettiest - but crucially, it’s cheap, and it works very well for the average salesperson - which in turn means that it sells very well to corporates. The fact that there is no camera only really seeks to boost its merit for those more security keen organisations.

Let’s make no mistake - this device is not cutting edge, but the two things it does do very well are voice and text - the buttons are well laid-out and tactile, even for my monster paws. Call quality is also great, thanks to a nice loud speaker. Actually, I’d argue there is another weapon in the 3109 armoury - the battery. This is a 1000+ mAh battery, which means that given there is very little in the way of data-apps or 3G radios to drain it, it really does last forever. I had a full bar days after charging!

So what am I saying? Well, if you wanted a clear, easy to use, good quality device for not-much-money, this is a real contender - the thing is, there are plenty of those type of people, who don’t need to the latest bells and whistles, who would be happy to get this Nokia for around £75 SIM free - and they would be on to a winner!

Few days ago, Samsung has announced the “European wide market availability” of its iPhone-killin’ i900 Omnia smartphone. Currently, the all-touchscreen device is available in Italy, Netherlands, and Germany; and will be available in most of European countries including UK, France, Spain from September.

And that’s about all we have from the Samsung’s release. In the rest of the text they’re talking how Europeans crave for multimedia features on their mobile phones and even provide data to prove it…

Here’s the link to the full release if you care to know more.

A new LG device has been spotted at the FCC’s website. The “VC” prefix clearly suggests we’re going to see this baby hitting the Verizon’s portfolio, and from what we can tell it will be an interesting phone, especially for the youth.

Not much is known at this stage, however we do see a presence of 3-inch 480×240 screen, a “game pad” of some sort and a detachable QWERTY keyboard. Is Verizon about to introduce a heavy texter’s dream phone or what? Plus, let’s not forget all the games you’ll be able to play on that gorgeous screen. We’re watching this one, have no doubt about it…

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

A new software update is available for the Nokia N95. From what we can tell, it’s a major update as it brings the firmware version from 21.0.016 to 30.0.015.

As usual, the new update optimizes the device’s performance and improves the overall stability. Additionally, once the upgrade is completed the N95 has more software installed and some of the existing apps are updated. Here’s what’s changed:

• Nokia Maps 2.0 built-in
• Full N-Gage client
• Nokia Search 4.0 with Google plug-in
• Share online 3.0
• Enablers for Comes With Music
• Download! application updated (v 3.1.50)
• Upgrade to Music Player
• Update for Flash Lite 3
• New baseline for VoIP (with error corrections)
• Autorotate
• Added 5th theme

To update your Nokia N95, simply start Nokia PC Suite and follow the instructions…

[Via: SymbianFreak, SymbianGuru]

Spotted while grocery shopping:

Fring keeps adding new phones to the list of supported devices. Lately we caught them adding support for the Nokia N78 and N96.

Existing users of the two devices (even though there are not that many Nokia N96 owners at present) will be able to extend the usefulness of their smartphones with one of the most popular Symbian VoIP clients. In addition, fring users can chat with their buddies on multiple IM networks or run some of the third-party fring Add-ons…

To download fring, hop over to their website and take it from there.

[Via: fring blog]

AT&T has recently added a new phone to its GoPhone offering - Samsung SGH-a137. The entry-level device prides itself with a built-in GPS receiver, which makes it kinda stand out in the carrier’s pay-as-you-go phone portfolio.

Other specs include 2-inch screen, Bluetooth support and a music player. Size wise, the Samsung SGH-a137 measures 88.9×45.7×20.3 mm (3.5×1.8x.8 inches). It is already available at AT&T for $39.99 before taxes.

[Via: MobileBurn]