Nokia has gone ahead and released a software update for its new devices, the N8, C7 and C6-01 to be exact. The update which is dubbed version 1.1 will bring great performance and features as well as a smoother experience.

Most of the updates do not come in the form of visible elements such as changes to UI or the addition or subtraction of applications on the device. Rather, the updates bring quality and stability to devices as well as better tweaks and a couple of new contents.

1. Users will not be able to accept meeting requests directly from email invitations.
2. There is bigger integration between maps and email. For instance, if a user receives an invitation to an event via an email, that address will be displayed on a map within the email.
3. Nokia N8 users:
   a. Quick Office 6.4 has arrived which offers editing possibilities and the ability to zoom in and out of Word documents.
   b. The addition of three new games is also included, Need for Speed Shift, Real Golf and Galaxy on Fire. In some regions, Need for Speed will be replaced by Asphalt.
   c. All these features will be free for current N8 owners via the Ovi Suite and Ovi Store.

The software update will be available on the device via the Ovi Suite but we will warn you in advance, the update is pretty large especially for N8 users so we would advise you to use Wi-Fi if you’re downloading it from the phone unless you have an unlimited data plan. The non-customized version is available now, service provider specific versions are said to be following pretty soon. We’ll keep an eye on it and let you know when those customized version become available.

Source: Nokia

Customers in UK cab get the new Google Nexus S at an unbelievable price of just £430 for the SIM free version. According to reports, both Best Buy UK and Carphone Warhouse Stores have put up the Google Nexus S on sale at a reportedly reduced price. The release date has been set up at December 22, which means the Brits are at ease to get the Google Nexus S by Christmas.

The price of this next gen superphone from Samsung in UK was initially slated to be around £550. Somehow, the price so stipulated seemed to be too high for customers and hence Google has decided to chop the price by a whopping £120 and the new reduced price of Google Nexus S stands at £ 429.95 with a top up of £10.

The contract price is narrowed down to a reasonable £30 per month on a deal covering two years. This sounds way more reasonable for most people. And this is definitely good news as the holiday time is around the corner and a brand new Google Nexus S could be the ideal hi-tech gift for yourself or your loved ones.

The question remains as to whether this new version of smart phone from Google will be available for customers independently over few mobile networks in UK or customers ought to purchase the Nexus S from Best Buy Stores and Carphone Warhouse Stores only.

The erstwhile price tag of £550 on Google Nexus S, according to TechRadar, was definitely going to hamper the marketing of the product. Perhaps this is something that has awakened the manufacturer and Google stepped in to right the path by revising the Nexus S price tag.

The reduced price is definitely going to attract buyers in volume. The new £30 per month is also going to get more folks interested in buying the new product. This mammoth £120 price slash is generating huge interest among customers in UK.

The Apple iPhone can easily be referred to as the one phone that has changed the entire mobile phone industry and the way we look at mobile phones. Gone are the bar styled phones with a traditional keyboard. Those are now replaced by full touch screens that have largely drawn their inspiration from the original iPhone. The iPhone has seen various versions over the years, and the latest one, the iPhone 4 promises to be the best so far.

The new iPhone 4 features a 3.5 inch touch screen display. Apple claim that the retina display technology employed in this screen is the most advanced yet and it produces such a high resolution that the pixels are not visible for a naked eye. The 960 x 640 resolution is one of the highest for a mobile phone screen. The phone apart from this fantastic screen also features a great camera as well.

The 5 megapixel camera used in the phone is just one of the two cameras in this phone. This along with the Facetime application means that you can do a video chat with your family and friends all for free. The 5 megapixel camera is at the rear and it is used for high quality photography. It can also do 720p HD video recording. The camera comes with LED flash that provides great lightning for better low light photography. The phone has connectivity options like 3G and Wi-Fi that lets you share the photos and videos taken on the social networking sites such as Facebook and so on.

The phone also comes with a powerful battery that offers nearly 7 hours of talk time in the 3G mode. The iPhone 4 retails from £499 for the 16 GB version to £599 for the 32 GB version.

The first HTC Desire released in March is considered one of the most sought-after smartphones in the market and not a few has called its name quite apt. Now comes a couple of new Desire offsprings that extend the desirability of these handsets to a new level of sophistication.

One of them, the HTC Desire Z, brings full QWERTY functionality to the family. This is only the second full-QWERTY Android from the Taiwan-based leader in smartphones after the HTC Dream released in 2009.

High End Features

Designing derivatives of a successful product is often a give and take proposition. The HTC Desire Z should keep people wanting full QWERTY options on a smartphone happy. But they won’t get the 1GHz snapdragon on the first Desire since it only has a Qualcomm MSM7230 at 800 MHz. No matter, you now get the latest Android v2.2 Froyo on the Z.

It has the same radio connectivity options for a high end smartphone with quad band GSM and 3G with HSDPA/HSUPA data speeds even if you only get class 32 GPRS/EDGE speeds on 2G. You also have WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA where the first Desire only had the older WiFi iteration without DLNA or “n” for a wider coverage. Local data transfers get Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0. GPS is also supported.

Flagship Multimedia Features

Multimedia features start with 3.7-inch S-LCD capacitive touchscreen with WVGA (480 x 80) resolution, 16 million colors, accelerometer and proximity sensors as well as multitouch input technology.

The HTC Desire Z images with a 5-megapixel autofocus shooter with LED flash, face detection, geo tagging and video recording at 720p high definition. There’s a Stereo FM receiver with RDS and 3.5mm audio jack. All your multimedia files can be stored internally with its generous 1.5 GB user memory or in a 32GB microSD card which it supports a 1300 mAh Li-ion battery that yields up to 9.8 hours of talk time on 2G with 430 hours on standby.

The most interesting feature of the Nokia X3 Touch and Type is without a doubt, the keypad. This generic looking mobile phone may be easily passed up on a store shelf, but at a close look, one will see the functional value of the handset.

As stated, the keypad is pretty unique in this phone. The X3-02’s layout is a four column, three row setup, as opposed to the more conventional three column, four row keypad that is seen in most candy bar handsets. But this is actually well made, at the three left columns are the numbers one to nine while the last column is basically the bottom row of the old layout.

Quick Adjustments

There is no doubt that using this device is easy. While it does take a moment for any user to register the fact that the spacebar button is on the lower right area of the key mapping, it becomes quite intuitive after a while. One can easily see why Nokia has called this handset the X3-02 Nokia Touch and Type, it is because of the fact that typing on this device is easy.

And users will certainly want to type. One of biggest functions on the device is the ability to connect to social networking sites and tools such as Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging apps. These are all integrated in the operating system and thanks to 3G and WiFi support, getting online is a breeze.

Touch Capabilities

Of course, the Nokia X3 Touch and Type (like the similar Nokia C3 Touch and Type) is more than just the typing aspect, it also offers touch. This comes in the form of a 2.4 inch resistive touch screen that allows users to easily navigate the handset without much trouble. While it lacks gestures or multi touch, the screen is quite responsive and has excellent visual quality that users will certainly appreciate.

Continuing its dominance as being one of the biggest mobile phone manufacturers in the business, Samsung has yet again launched another Smartphone that sports the famed proprietary Bada operating system.

The device has been named the Samsung Wave 723 and isn’t only pleasing to look at, but also packs in a whole lot of impressive features. This mobile also features a leather flap that serves as a protective cover for the screen which is reminiscent of the Samsung Star released a couple of months back. Let’s have look.

First Up

The Samsung Wave 723 is equipped with a 3.2” TFT display which makes use of the capacitive touch screen technology. The resolution is formidable at 240 x 400 pixels and it even supports up to 256 thousand different colours. Similarly, the touch capabilities of the display are also noteworthy, making full use of the TouchWiz UI’s touch features.

The mobile supports GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 for 2G and functions under HSDPA 900 / 2100 over the 3G network. As for its dimensions, the Samsung Wave 723 measures 109.5 x 53.9 x 11.8 mm.

Stay Connected

With this addition to the growing Wave family of Smartphones, you can stay connected to the rest of the world through a variety of options. For starters, the device supports Class 10 for both EDGE and GPRS and even enables 7.2 Mbps for 3G HSDPA connectivity. If this isn’t enough for you then perhaps you’d be glad to know that the Wi-Fi compatibility of the Samsung Wave 723 is at 802.11 b/g/n.

The Bluetooth connection of the mobile also features A2DP and the microUSB port already makes use of version 2.0. As expected, the manufacturer has decided to do without an infrared port which is quickly becoming an obsolete piece of technology.

Without a doubt, the Blackberry’s and iPhone’s are dominating the Smartphone scene. However, Nokia is also striving to live up to the demands of Smartphone enthusiasts hoping to reach the top spot as well.

It is fair to say that Nokia’s effort won’t be put to waste at all. For the past years they have been consistent in giving exceptional mobiles to the consumers. Therefore, it is not impossible for them to deliver remarkable Smartphones as well and the Nokia E5 is one Smartphone from this Finnish manufacturer that falls into this category.

Let us discuss the features and see if it is enough to tackle the other popular brands.

Appealing Mobile

At first glance you would notice the resemblance of the Nokia E5 to some Blackberry mobiles. However, though that is the case, we can still say that it has a distinct look of its own. It measures 115 x 58.9 x 12.8 mm which makes it pocket friendly.

The highlight of the design is the noticeable QWERTY keypad that is located under the display. The buttons of the keypad are evenly spaced out for better typing. The screen measures 2.36 inches and has a resolution of 240 x 360 pixels. It is also compatible with 256K colours that will surely improve your viewing experience.

The look of the Nokia E5 is very sophisticated and classy. The design sends out a message that it can be used by professionals for work and business. On the other hand it is also for those who want to have an elegant, simple, yet functional mobile that they can rely on to satisfy their needs.

Picture Perfect

Nokia is also proud that the Nokia E5 offers a 5MP camera with a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. Anyone can use this mobile to produce wonderful photos. It is good to know that this mobile can be used for both work and for fun as well.

Finally, after much lobbying, Orange users who have an HTC Hero can finally update their mobile operating system to version 2.1. This Google Android update has been long in the making and has inspired many customers to plead and complain about the delayed update on a certain Facebook group. The update is scheduled to be up and live by the end of this week.

The delay has certainly irked many consumers, basically because Orange has not been up front and transparent about the release date of the patch. News of Google Android version 2.2 also make their loyal subscribers think about how much delayed they are going to get the upgrade, if at all. The official press release of the two companies issued last Tuesday stated that the cause of the so called delay may be attributed to extensive testing all across Europe.

“We apologise for the delay in Orange Hero customers receiving their Eclair update. Testing the update across European markets took longer than anticipated. However, we hope to receive final approval by the end of the week and Orange handsets should start updating from next week.”

Of course, this makes plenty of sense, updates are hard to roll out, most especially if they have the potential of rendering key functions useless. After Orange and HTC’s guarantee that they did indeed conduct a thorough test and that the version 2.1 update is now ready, it should quell any doubts of the operating system’s efficiency after the update.

The first part of the update is already being distributed across channels for the Orange HTC users. The new press release at least confirms when the second part of the update will reach subscribers.

Sure, Orange and HTC have a way of not following through with update schedules for the HTC Hero, but in light of the first part of the update being released, the second element is surely not so far behind.

One of UK’s largest online retailers, eXpansys, has announced that they will be offering the Acer Stream smart phone this coming August 9. The device is expected to bring in a new era of Acer devices.

While the Liquid series of Android smart phones from Acer was quite interesting, no other device from the computer manufacturer is as compellingly engrossing as the Stream. And by engrossed, we mean it in both the hardware and the form factor. The handset itself simply looks good –a definite first for Acer. While the beTouch and Liquid devices were decent smart phones, the Stream is a solid notch above all the rest. The phone’s form factor, color and texture give it a balance in design that is hard to deny.

Specs wise, the Stream matches up nicely with the Google Nexus One and the HTC Desire. The phone also packs a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, a 5 mega pixel camera, plenty of internal storage, the Android operating system (according to reports, will come loaded with Android 2.1 Éclair. An update to 2.2 Froyo is expected to be made available soon), support for GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, microSD cards and more. Basically, it’s the whole smart phone package.

Acer is also going to feature the Acer Touch 3D user interface. With the handset’s 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, running the graphics and effects on the handset will be a breeze.

With several Android devices already available on the market, Acer’s latest offering is a testament to how influential the Google operating system has become. It is expected that several more Android smart phone will be released before the end of the year, making this year the most prolific in terms of the number of Android devices released within the period.

In what seems to be a region isolated case, UK network subscribers are having trouble with their iPhone devices. Apparently, even when the device’s data roaming features have been manually switched off, it still manages to access roaming services when outside of the UK and thus, causes excess amounts to appear on subscriber’s bills.

The exact causes of the issue and the nature of the problem is being kept strictly under wraps, with no representatives from either Apple or the network operators willing to step forward to comment on the issue. The only good thing here is that networks are already aware of the problem and most will be willing to refund overcharged data roaming charges. As for users who have not paid the billed amounts, they can bring up the matter with their network in order to have the charges fixed.

So far, similar reports are not being reported in other countries so it is hard to determine if this is a problem with the iPhone itself or the UK networks. Since the case does not seem present for other mobile phones, it can be assumed that the problem lies with the combination of having an Apple iPhone and being a UK subscriber. Some believe that the case is also more based on the iPhone OS itself, as no specific model of the iPhone is mentioned.

As always, for UK subscribers travelling outside the country, regardless of network and mobile device used, they are advised to ensure that their data and roaming settings are properly set prior to leaving the country. There is currently a cap for roaming data that would allow subscribers to keep the charges at a low rate. Those who will need more web access may opt to have the cap removed. It is best to consult with your network operator regarding any other special arrangements that can be made.