Nokia Energy Profiler...

... is a Forum Nokia application that allows users to monitor battery usage. While it is intended for developers to measure how much battery power their apps consume, everybody can use it to take a look "under the hood" of the phone.

It is a surprisingly complex application, and by that I mean full of features, not necessarily difficult to use.

It offers a nice graph view of battery usage and a large number of settings that can be modified. To make benchmarking even easier, it has built-in screenshot capability. It also offers various charts and tables for comparison between different recorded moments.

You can see a very good quick-start guide and download here:

http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/resources/development_process/power_management/nokia_energy_profiler/

N95 V.20.0.015 firmware is out

The long awaited firmware update for the N95 has arrived. V20 brings a number of improvements, some more noticeable than others.



The first striking thing I noticed was the reduced start-up time. 24 seconds, compared to 35 on V12. After that I saw the Search application integrated in the active-standby screen. A nice time-saver, Nokia. Bravo!



Menus are the same (i.e. not N95 8GB or N81 style, which I am happy for) and now we have an N-Gage app and a Nokia Music Store app in the menu. Applications now start in like half the time, which brings us to the real treat: more free RAM. Yes, that's right. I got up to 30.7 MB which is more than enough for even the most extreme multitasking. It is rumored that the battery life has also been increased through optimization of the software, but I've yet to test this.
The camera now takes 1.5 maybe 2 seconds to start, which is a huge improvement. The flash seems a bit more powerful too, and the processing time is reduced, making it great for quick shot-to-next-shot activity. The battery indicator is shown, so you know how much juice you have left for photos and video.



Oh, and one more thing. We can kiss that ridiculous missing-key-press-bug goodbye. Key presses now generate timely and precise results.
I did however find a problem. This may be strictly my case, but when I connect my phone to PC in mass-storage mode, and more precisely when I select "Eject" from the memory card icon in My Computer, I get that "Cable can now be removed" popup for a split second, after which it vanishes. If I try to remove the cable after it vanishes, it says that "Data might have been lost...". Pretty annoying if you frequently use mass-storage mode.

Overall, this is a fantastic update. It's about 116MB, and the whole process took me 10-12 minutes so I definitely recommend that you upgrade.

Nokia Nseries PC Suite 2.0 beta

Once taken down for tweaking, the 2.0 version of Nseries PC Suite is back at Beta Labs. It is a bundle of all the other software pieces released independently so far.

The downloading and installing is done by a Web installer. You just tick the the components you want to install and they are downloaded and installed. Simple as that. Oh, and remember to uninstall your classic PC Suite first. I had a bit of a headache 'cause I forgot.

The new layout is pretty cool, I for one like it much more that the old Suite one. You can browse by the "Music", "Internet", "Photo/Video" and "Tools" tabs.

Download it from here: http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/nseriespcsuite

N810 ships!

The new Internet Table, Nokia N810, has been released to stores.
It promises to surpass the N800 in terms of specifications and functionality (it has GPS).

Press release here: http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1169511

N82 official announcement

To all you camera-phone lovers out there (and me), the Nokia N82 has been announced. It looks like a combination of N73 and N91. Sort of.

Key specs:

-5MP camera with Xenon(!) flash

-100MB internal memory (+microSD card)

-1050 mAh battery

-2.4" QVGA 16M colors display

Press release: http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1168264

More images: http://www.nokia.com/A4138058?category=n82#

Two gorgeous new phones

According to the recent press releases, Nokia is planning to launch 2 new S40 3rd edition phones, one in Q4 2007, and one in Q1 2008. Make that 2 new very stylish S40 3rd edition phones.

Both are variants of the 8800.

Key specs:
-2 inch OLED QVGA display 16M colors
-1000 mAh battery
-3.2 MP camera, QCIF video
-1 GB built-in memory

Seems you get quite a lot in the package:
-Nokia 8800 Arte phone
-Nokia Battery BL-4U
-Nokia Charger AC-6 (microUSB)
-Nokia Connectivity microUSB Data Cable CA-101
-Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-803
-Nokia Desk Stand DT-19
-Leather Pouch
-CD ROM with Nokia PC Suite software (version 6.83)
-User guide
-Nokia 8800 Arte story booklet

Nice, a microUSB charger is included.


The Nokia 8800 Arte




The Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte

Press release: http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1167998

Photos: http://www.nokia.com/A4136017?category=8800_sapphire
http://www.nokia.com/A4136017?category=8800_arte#

Data sheet: http://nds3.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Press/Press_Events/Virginia/downloads/Nokia%208800%20Arte%20-%20Data%20sheet.pdf

http://nds3.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Press/Press_Events/Virginia/downloads/Nokia%208800%20Sapphire%20Arte%20-%20Data%20Sheet.pdf

Nokia AudioBooks beta

Well, another day, another beta app. This one's a little different, though. It helps you do something we all wish for: reading books without actually having to read them.

Audiobooks are sound files with a voice reading the text of the book. Basically, you can buy audiobooks or download public ones. The Nokia apps will do the rest. For detailed info, go to: http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/audiobooks

You can convert wav and mp3 files to play in the phone counterpart application. The resulting format is awb. I found the sound quality very good considering that the resulting file is about 8 times smaller than the original.

The on-phone program works like a media player. You have volume control, FF, RW, play/pause.

Interesting features:

-possibility to add a cover image for the book

-possibility to add bookmarks for quick visiting later

-possibility to resume listerning where you left off

Beta MOSH client available

Nokia Beta Labs just announced a MOSH client-like application. It is essentially a MOSH "centre", as in all the features in one place. All you need is an account and you're all set. You even remain logged in until you manually log out, which can save some time.

The icons you see above are links to the mobile MOSH web pages, so nothing fancy here. But they are useful because you can just select them from here instead of having to browse through pages looking for them.

Download here: http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/mosh