One of a kind would be a massive overstatement but there's something about the Nokia 6760 slide that's clearly against the usual run of things. Full QWERTY keyboards are an increasingly common sight on Symbian smartphones so this can't be it. However, the Nokia 6760 slide is a generic messenger - noting to do with Nseries, Eseries or even XpressMusic. Secondly, the 6760 slide was first seen and used in the US as Nokia Surge. It usually takes quite a while for Nokia handsets to cross the pond and that makes the 6760 / Surge concept interesting enough. Whether it was custom made for AT&T and then given a go at home is irrelevant. Nokia now have a smart messenger ready to roll in the lower midrange. The new 6760 slide (we'll use its European name from now on) is ultra compact and the full-QWERTY keyboard is backed by no numpad on top. The Internet and Messaging shortcuts up front are quite handy though and make perfect sense in both portrait and landscape hand hold. The neat messenger is trying to balance features, looks and ergonomics to offer all-round experience within budget. The absence of Wi-Fi support is a letdown, but the rest of the features are from the top drawer. The Symbian-driven Nokia 6760 slide has a responsive and fast user interface and offers various social networking integration. The good web browser and robust messaging should be welcomed by users with a solid data plan. We called it a generic messenger and there's nothing really impressive about the idea behind this device - unless you've never seen or heard of E75 or 5730 XpressMusic. Not to mention the N97 mini. Still, an ultra compact Symbian smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard seems to make sense. The 6760 slide certainly misses on some features but it does well to position itself as a typical carrier's handset. Fast data, solid messaging and friendly size will perhaps convince enough users they can live without WLAN. Plus, the 6760 slide styling seems to be trying to find middle ground between the too executive Eseries and too juvenile XpressMusic. We called it ultra compact too and we mean it. It's hard to believe the 6760 slide is a Symbian smartphone to begin with. A formidable PocketPC like the Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO makes it look almost toy-like. If you find yourself interested in the new kid on the block, go ahead and take our guided tour of the Nokia 6760 slide. Symbian has little to no surprises perhaps but let's see how this little messenger handles and what it can do for you.
Introduction
Key features
Main disadvantages
Nokia 6760 slide review: Compact messaging
Mozilla to award 10 add-on developers with a Nokia N900
The Maemo 5 based Nokia N900 started shipping a few days ago but we guess it will be a few days before all stores get theirs. So this challenge is your chance not only to get it for free but also to be among the first N900 owners. To participate you have to develop an add-on for the mobile Firefox web browser and submit it before December 7, 2009.The judges will choose which TEN addons offer best user experience and innovation. If you already have developed an add-on for the mobile Firefox, you only have to confirm that you want to take part in the challenge. Well, that is. The organizers are ready to supply the participants with all the needed SDK tools as well as with useful tips and personal advices. The deadline is just around the corner so hurry up. The clock is ticking.
The guys over at Mozilla are organizing a contest for Maemo mobile browser add-ons and are willing to award the top 10 developers with a new Nokia N900 each. If you're a developer, you can participate in the contest by submitting your add-on for the mobile Firefox browser for Maemo at the contest homepage.
Nokia N97 mini joins the club in white, looks ice cool
The Nokia N97 mini has been available for only a few days now that we are faced with a nice winter-themed surprise. No, we're not talking about the phone contents, but rather its color. It's white this time in tune with the upcoming holiday season and most of all in tune with the original look of its elder brother - Nokia N97. Back in the day when Nokia introduced the Nokia N97 mini, the device was expected in two color versions - Cherry Black and Garnet. Now, a few days after its market launch, N97 mini is also available in a third, previously unannounced, color variant. Well, you can bet it's as white as it gets. Meet the N97 mini Snow White. As far as the functionality is concerned, nothing has been changed. You get the same 3.2" resistive touchscreen, slide out full QWERTY keyboard and a 5 megapixel autofocus sharpshooter. Unlike its bigger bro, the N97, which comes with good 32GB aboard, Nokia N97 mini packs only 8GB of internal memory. The other differences are minor. When closed the two smartphones look almost the same. The same goes for the QWERTY keyboard (the only major difference here is N97's D-pad). The only deal breaker when it comes to N97 mini is its price which is about the same (if not higher) as the one of its more capable brother. Nokia N97 mini is already available in white in select stores where it is sold exclusively but we hope to see it offered by a wider range of merchants as soon as possible because the white version looks really hot, uhh... sorry, we meant cool.
Nokia N900 is shipping now, Nokia X6 expected to follow soon
Nokia are getting ready for the holiday season by starting their advance on the smartphone market with two highly anticipated phones - the N900 and the X6. Both the devices are venturing into new territory for Nokia - a new smartphone OS for the N900 and a capacitive touchscreen experience for the X6. There have been many speculations about the fate of Symbian OS once Maemo gets to smartphones. Nokia says it's here to stay, Internet commentators doubt it. Well, we're about to see them coexist in two separate market segments. The Nokia N900 is in the "all things to all people" segment - big high-resolution touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY, powerful, highly customizable OS and all-round wireless connectivity. It's certainly the top dog of Nokia's current line-up. The N900 runs Nokia's Maemo OS, which isn't "Linux-based" like some other OSes - it is Linux, a fork from Debian, actually. This means a lot of much-loved Linux apps will be easily ported to Maemo or it will run things like OpenOffice, AbiWord, Firefox 3.0 and even more, thanks to projects such as Easy Debian. Well as exciting as it may sound, the hard truth is there is quite limited number of applications available for the latest version of Maemo OS and early adopters may even find it difficult to find basic applications. But now that it starts shipping as of today, we're sure developers will be hard at work of porting various apps to Nokia N900. We should not forget as well, that as a consequence of its tablet roots, the Nokia N900 has landscape-only oriented UI. With the exception of the Phone app, everything in N900 runs in landscape mode and at least in this edition of the Maemo OS, there's no way to change that. So Symbian smartphones can rest at ease for now. The Nokia X6 is the other handset from the Finish manufacturer that is about to go on sale soon - it should hit the stores as soon as this week (12 November) with the actual launch being 16 November. But even before it's actually available, it attracted a great deal of attention. To build on that popularity and generate even more hype, Nokia is throwing a hell of a party to celebrate iots launch. Next Monday (November 16th) there will be a live concert in London where Rihanna will launch her new album "Rated R". The concert will be live-streamed globally for free to those of you who have registered in advance. Getting back to the Nokia X6, it runs Symbian S60 5th edition and is the first Nokia phone with a capacitive touchscreen. It targets audiophiles with a pair of serious looking WH-500 headphones and a year of unlimited free music downloads from Nokia's Comes With Music. It can match the spacious 32GB internal memory of the N900, though it doesn't have a microSD port. Still, that's a lot of music, which you get to keep when the one-year period runs out. For now, we know that the Nokia N900 is headed to T-Mobile USA and that the X6 is up for pre-order as is the N900. Oh, and there are photos of a QWERTY-less Nokia N920 already circulating the Internet. 
Some Nokia chargers defective, will be swapped for free
Certain Nokia-branded chargers from a third-party manufacturer sold after April are defective and Nokia started a free of charge exchange program. These chargers were either included in the box or sold separately. The issue affects chargers manufactured by BYD with the following model numbers: • AC-3U and AC-3E, manufactured between June 15, 2009 and August 9, 2009 The problem with these chargers is that the plastic cover might loosen up and fall off. This is an electric hazard if the charger is plugged in. There are no reported injuries so far, but changing your charger is a recommended precautionary measure. If you have one of those chargers matching the criteria of model number and time of manufacture, head to this site. There you'll find a form, which checks if you're charger is one of the defective ones. There's also a diagram to help you locate manufacturer and model number info. It's unclear which countries are affected but the exchange program operates on a national level.
• AC-4U, manufactured between April 13, 2009 and October 25, 2009
Nokia giving away 100 000 pedestrian navigation licences
What a lovely end of the business week: we’ve just found out that Nokia are giving away 100 000 pedestrian navigation licences. And what is even better, they are all free and valid for use in the whole world. It almost sounds too good to be true but it actually is. You can save yourself a few bucks by simply upgrading your Ovi Maps 2.0 software to the latest version 3.0 by following that link. Your free license for pedestrian voice guided navigation will be delivered by SMS. However, here comes a slight disappointment. As it turns out, the limited offer is available only in Germany or for Nokia users that actually have an active German SIM card. We found this banner on the German Nokia website of the company and it doesn't seem to be listed elsewhere. That's a bummer, we know! The license type and the validity period is not known. But whatever it is, it's free after all. You can learn more about the available Ovi Maps licenses here
Nokia X6 Comes With Music, goes on preorder
The second wave of Nokia touch phones and the first wave of the Xseries is coming to town - the Nokia X6 is already available for preorder with an expected date of release 12th of November, complete with Comes With Music. The Comes With Music service allows you to download songs to your heart's content - 12 months of downloads (free of charge, except for possible data charges) and you get to keep the songs after that period runs out. Good thing that the Nokia X6 comes with 32GB of internal memory, isn't it? The price of the Nokia X6 (network-unlocked) is a bit steep though - Expansys has it at 530 pounds with taxes (590 euro or 876 US dollars). Unluckily there won't be a version without the Comes With Music service at the launch of the phone. Just bear in mind that the headphones you get in the box are far from ordinary - check out the WH-500. Nokia Germany also has the X6 listed for pre-order for 580 euro but they don't offer info on availability.
