Archive for June 13th, 2009

Nokia N97 – Launched

A while back we took a sneak peak at Nokia’s latest offering, N97. The set was officially launched on 12th June at a grand launch ceremony held at Marriott Karachi. Along with a tilting 3.5″ touch display, QWERTY keyboard and a fully customizable home screen, the Nokia N97 promises to offer instant access to the full range of Ovi services. The N97 is expected to be sold in Pakistan at a retail price of PKR 58,000 only.

The device was announced at a glamorous press event where two European models brought the phone at the venue and the Finnish First Secretary, Deputy Head of Mission H.E Miia Rainne handed over the phone to the GM Nokia Pakistan Imran Khalid Mahmood. Also present at the ceremony was Henri Mattila, Head of Category Marketing, Nseries Middle East and Africa.

Delivering on Nokia’s vision and thought leadership based on mobile convergence, Nokia Nseries has aimed to present the best in class mobile computers to its internet savvy consumers. Today, we take great pride in introducing the newest addition to Nokia Nseries – Nokia N97. We have combined the most-advanced smartphone capabilities in this device to enhance the internet entertainment for our consumers and at the same time ease-of use with one-touch access to their favourite online content.

Imran Khalid Mahmood

GM Nokia Pakistan

The Nokia N97 is Nokia’s first device to feature a personalizable home screen, which can be customized with a range of widgets which bring live information directly to the device. These widgets include key social networking destinations like Facebook and Hi5, news services like the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as shopping and weather information.

The Nokia N97 is the first device to ship with the Ovi Store, which offers easy access to applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services, and much more. Ovi Store has paid and free content from a range of global and local content providers and developers, including Paramount Pictures, Facebook and Qik, as well as a selection of Twitter applications.

The Nokia N97 is an important step towards our vision of delivering a highly personalized Internet experience. Fuelled by a multitude of music, maps, games, media and applications via Ovi, the Nokia N97 transforms the Internet into an experience that’s completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its owner.

Henri Mattila

Head of Category Marketing

Nseries Middle East and Africa

Entertainment Ensured

The Nokia N97 also has direct access to the huge catalogue of music in the Nokia Music Store. With multiple high-speed connectivity options and 32GB of storage (up to 48GB using a microSD card) it is possible to directly download and store tens of thousands of songs on the handset. And you can listen to your favourite music on the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905, which Nokia also launched today. This headset brings crystal clear sound, eliminates background noise, and is the ideal accessory for listening to music and making calls on the Nokia N97, as well as being compatible with a diverse range of other mobile and music devices.

High-quality images and video clips at 30 frames per second (fps) can be captured using the 5 megapixel camera with integrated Carl Zeiss optics. Images can also be geo-tagged to specific locations and shared instantly with friends or uploaded online via Ovi Share, Twitter or Flickr.


Google Mobile App for S60 – Quick Access to Google Services

Google recently announced the release of Google Mobile App for S60 (3rd Edition), which allows quick access to Google search and offers shortcuts to a number of Google’s other services. Features include a homescreen shortcut and automatic location context, via GPS or cell positioning, for searches. Incidentally Google’s S60 YouTube application was also silently updated to version 2.0.17. Read on for more details.

Note: Thanks to Saleem Khan for sharing this useful link.

Google Mobile App for S60

Google Mobile App for S60 is, effectively, an update from and an extension to the Google S60 Search application announced last year.

The homescreen shortcut uses either ‘c’ key or the ‘pencil’ key depending on which device you are using. There’s an optional prompt that pops up a reminder of the shortcut (see first screenshot – it used just be the pencil key on supported devices), but this can be turned off if you wish.

Google Seat application Google Seat application Google Seat application

Above is an example of a basic Google search for ‘pub’. With ‘My Location’ enabled an appropriate set of local results is offered automatically. The My Location feature ties in with and uses ‘My Location’ from Google Maps (Latitude). Either the device’s GPS or cell-positioning can be used to obtain current location information.

Read more »