Nokia N8 is the current best phone camcorder, but it has its title seriously contested by the Optimus 2X, which ups the game at Full HD 1080p. We gave you a sample video captured with the Optimus 2X not long ago, and now we have this mini shootout to show how good it really is. And there’s even a nice surprise for you if you stick with us after the jump.

It turns out that the Optimus 2X field of view is even wider than that of the Nokia N8, which has a 28mm lens. It’s rather strange that LG didn’t brag about it when announcing the dual-core smartphone, because a wide angle lens like that is a nice thing to have.

Now to the first part of the promised video shootout. First we have both handsets compared at their best settings – 1080p for the Optimus 2X and 720p for the Nokia N8. Don’t forget to switch to fullscreen!





To make the resolution advantage of the Optimus 2X easier to see, here is a couple of 100% crops, one from each video. We’ve upsized the Nokia sample to make them easier to compare. We can’t say the advantage is huge, but it’s definitely there.



On the other hand the Nokia N8 seems to have an advantage in terms of framerate here as its videos generally look smoother than the Optimus 2X output. We should bear in mind though that the Optimus 2x is a pre-production unit and it may do better when it officially hits the shelves.

Moving down to the direct 720p-vs.-720p comparison we are pleased to see that the Optimus 2X is now the smoother of the two contestants. Again, don’t forget to click that fullscreen button.





As you’ll see, it’s hard to pick a winner based on the resolved detail.



Of course, video-recording is not all about resolution and resolved detail. Things like dynamic range (where the N8 is still the king), adaptability, color balance and autofocus accuracy (if video AF is at all present) play equally important parts in capturing high-quality clips.

Still it looks like the Optimus 2X will be one of the strongest contestants of the year in the video recording category.

As the name suggests, Nokia’s latest Big Screen app offers optimized multimedia interface for the biggest screen in your home over a HDMI connection. Of course, to use it, you need an HDMI-equipped Nokia smartphone such as the N8 and the E7.

Once the Nokia Big Screen is installed and you’ve hooked the HDMI cable to your phone and TV, the app starts automatically. It even allows you to connect a Bluetooth keyboard or a Wii Remote to your phone. Here’s more info how to do this.



After you’re done, the application allows you to display your videos, play some music while viewing your photos and even get song lyrics and initiate karaoke mode for the ultimate home party fun. It will also allow you to watch a movie with subtitles, if they are included.

The app can be obtained from the source link bellow.

The capable cameraphone Nokia N8 is about to get its first firmware update. According to Nokia India this will happen sometime in January next year.

There is no more info in the Nokia India tweet, so I can’t tell you what the update might bring to your device. I hope it’s the one that brings the improved text entry and the new web browser.

I guess we’ll know more in January.

The December issue of the South African PiX photographic magazine is a special one. You can’t see why just by looking at it, but when you learn how it was shot you’ll know it deserves a big credit.

Nokia N8, the highly acclaimed cameraphone, took the cover photo. In fact, the phone did all the shots from which the cover shot was picked.

It’s another first for the N8. After the short movie shot exclusively on the Nokia N8, now it’s the still camera turn.

The purpose of those shots, according to the editor of PiX magazine, is:

"More specifically, we try to get the message across that it is not the hardware that makes a great photographer, but the individual’s understanding of photographic principles."

It seems he really managed to make a point here.

Here is the behind-the-scenes video:



Despite I don’t find the cover impressive artistically speaking, I admit it looks really good and can’t tell it was shot with a cameraphone.

Sure, Ovi Maps is cool, free and with decent map coverage but it doesn’t cut it for everyone. Luckily, Sygic comes to the rescue providing a pretty decent alternative with its Mobile Maps 10 app.

With nicely drawn animated 3D maps, intuitive address search, fast route calculation, lane assistant, signpost information, and loads of POIs Sygic Mobile Maps is a pretty well featured SatNav app. The Maps even include inter-passage roads and house contours in order to enable exact door-to-door navigation in apartment blocks.

Check out the new app in action on a Nokia N8.



Now for the bad news – depending on the region you need Sygic Mobile Maps will cost you between €20 and €53. You can also subscribe for the real-time traffic information for an extra €10 or €20.

Remember the smart add-ons for Nokia 97 and N97 mini called Nokia Bots? They are useful apps for automatic managing of your sound profiles, alarms, battery and shortcuts. Nokia Beta Labs is now releasing the Bots for Symbian^3.

The supported devices are Nokia N8, C7 and C6-01. There are also various bug fixes and performance updates over the four Bots.

In case you need to know more about the Nokia Bots, watch the video below or check our previous article on the subject.

Probably very few people think of a smartphone as a musical instrument – but there’s no reason not to as the new Loop app by Nokia demonstrates. The app is free but it’s exclusive to the Nokia N8 and Nokia C7.



Loop is based around beats – there are 10 predefined beats and an option to make your own (for the more talented users). Then you record sound samples and before you know it, you’ve created a song...

The Loop app seems simple to use but with enough flexibility – check out the Forum Nokia blog post for more details on how to use it. And here’s what they managed to whip up:



Of course, the more talented the user, the better the end result – check out the promo video at the bottom, which does a good job of showing both how Loop is used and how good the Loop tracks can be.



Okay, so it’s not as impressive as learning to play the piano but some of us have tin ears and Loop is one of the few options to venture into music making. The app will handle things like timing and pitch for the sound samples automatically, so no need to worry about that.

When you’re done, you can set the track as a ringtone, share it on Facebook and there’s even a dedicated site – www.loopapp.net – where you can check out other people’s work and vote for your favorites.

Software porting is pretty common in the world of WinMo and Android while Symbain users have much to catch up. Luckily, there have already been a handful of Symbian smartphones enabled to run other handset’s firmware, including the Nokia 523x family, which has just been treated to the latest Nokia C6 firmware.

Nokia isn’t one of those companies that stop releasing software updates soon after launching a mobile phone so normally, users just don’t need to even think of porting one handset’s firmware to another. All they have to do is wait a bit for the next FW update full of bug fixes to arrive.

Still, in some cases the bugs (such as battery life issues, RAM management, overall performance, etc.), aren’t fixed properly or at all even via the robust update program. This is where ported software comes in handy.

And Nokia 5230 (along with its semi-clones, the 5228, the 5232 and the 5233) is yet another example that FW porting isn’t a no-go for Symbain-powered smartphones too.
Here comes the proof: a video of Nokia 5230 running the firmware of a Nokia C6:



Of course, because of the numerous hardware differences between the two handsets there are plenty of bugs (known and unknown) that need to be fixed. And also keep in mind that this isn’t a harmless procedure and you might void your phone’s warranty.

However, if you’re still interested in giving the PNHT team‘s BETA port a try, follow that link, do the necessary reading and get the files you need in order to get the porting started.

Nokia Beta Labs team has just released a neat little app that automatically adapts your phone to your current occupation. At first sight you might confuse Nokia Situations with the basic Symbian profiles app, but when you dig deeper into the available settings you will realize that it’s far more capable than that.

What Nokia Situations does is adjust your phone ringing volume, connectivity operation (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi etc.) according to your location, the time of the day, the day of the week or even the available networks.

Of course you will need to spend some time setting up the different situations, but it will be a real blessing after that. For example, you can set the Bluetooth to automatically turn on each morning when you go to the parking lot so your phone can automatically connect to your car kit. Or switch off your ringer when you are home at night so you won’t be disturbed.



If you want to give it a try you can get it from this link (registration required).

Don’t give up on the Symbian gaming just yet. Gameloft just launched five games for the latest Symbian^3 platform – Asphalt 5 HD, Avatar HD, Hero of Sparta HD, Guitar Rock Tour 2 HD and GT: Racing Motor Academy HD.

As you can guess the HD tag in the names doesn’t mean the games run at 720p or similar, it just marks their premium status.

The smartphones currently running Symbian^3 are Nokia N8, C7, E7 and C6-01, where only the first two are available on the market. Here, enjoy the demo video of the games and give us your thoughts in the comments.

Okay someone had to step up and say it – Nokia’s new naming convention is a total failure. And I’m not talking about some minor setback here – it’s a full-scale epic fail.

Now I’m not saying they did that on purpose – their intentions probably looked good on paper. Place a letter in front to indicate series affiliation and follow it by the number showing the device’s place in its own series pecking order. Great idea, right – keep it nice and simple?

The actual result however is no less than a mess – for users, advertisers and tech journalists alike. Having a dash in a cell phone name is a big no-no on its own but that’s not even the biggest issue here.

First off, the families of devices don’t seem properly chosen – touch-driven and keypad devices get mixed in the same series and so do smartphones and feature phones. Plus this concept fails to take into account the fact that Nokia keeps more than one generation of some device available at a time. Sometimes first-gen devices (think Nokia C6 for example) were marketed without the add-on to their names and now that the successor is announced the big inconsistency is revealed. Especially when Nokia marketing materials continue to refer to BOTH as C6.

To make matters more complicated, the second generation phone is not really a proper successor of the first one, but a completely different device with a new form factor. In the case of the C6, the first devices is QWERTY side slider and its successor, the C6-01, is a simple touchscreen bar.


Nokia C6 • Nokia C6-01

It’s the same situation with the QWERTY C3 and its touch-driven non-QWERTY C3-01 “successor”...


Nokia C3 • Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type

Also Nokia C5 is a regular non-touch smartphone, while the C5-03 (where are the C5-01 and C5-02 here?) is a S60 5th edition handset with full-touch operation.


Nokia C5 • Nokia C5-03

A similar thing happened in the Nokia music-oriented family with the X3 and X3-02 (again X3-01 strangely missing).


Nokia X3 • Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type

And what about the Nokia X5-01, where there is no regular X5 to begin with?


Nokia X5-01

And have you looked at the low-end? The Nokia C1-00 is a dualSIM handset, the Nokia C1-01 is not. And finally, the Nokia C1-02 is again a dualSIM handset, but it offers dual standby for both SIM cards unlike the C1-00. I can imagine how that would confuse elderly people, who are frequent customers for this type of products.


Nokia C1-00 • Nokia C1-01 • Nokia C1-02

I could go on, but I think I already made my point.

By giving those handsets an identical name only on the grounds of them having vaguely similar price Nokia assumes that people only care about price and not about features.

I really hope the ones responsible for this nonsense will come to their senses and fix it while they still can.

Your thoughts?

It is not the long awaited MeeGo dual-boot update, but as far as I am concerned any software update is good news. And Nokia just gave one to their last Maemo handset, the N900. The update mainly focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements, adding “hundreds of tweaks and fixes that will make your N900 run faster and smoother than ever”

The Nokia Labs have just released one of their latest goodies for Nokia N97 and N97 mini, the Nokia Bots. Those are a set of add-ons developed to make your life even easier. They change your phone’s profile when needed, remind you to charge its battery before it’s too late or help you reach more easily the apps you use most.

Yeap, the Nokia Bots aren’t the genie in a bottle that does the impossible for you but they do make life a little easier.

Nokia Bots reside on your homescreen sharing a widget that shows their status, messages and suggestions. But what are they actually capable of?

The Bots are actually a collection of smart applications, which monitor your usage patterns and personal preferences and try to improve your user experience by automatically configuring and activating features on your phone.

The current list of available Bots is quite short: you get a Profile Bot, an Alarm Bot, a Shortcut Bot and a Battery Bot.

The first one, the Profile Bot, auto suggests silencing your phone at the beginning of a meeting or does it automatically for you. And when the meeting is over, it deactivates the silent profile.

The Alarm Bot studies at what time you wake up normally and suggests you to activate an alarm or to switch the profile before you go to bed. And in the morning it switches the phone profile from silent to normal.

Next up is the Shortcut Bot. This Bot creates and updates shortcuts to your most frequently used applications so that you are able to access them directly from the homescreen of your smartphone.

And finally, the Battery Bot is my personal favorite! Just imagine: you go to bed and forget to connect your phone to the charger. In the morning you wake up too late because your phone was as asleep as you were. Sounds familiar? The Battery Bot will take care of reminding you to charge your phone’s battery before you go to bed if the battery go flat while you sleep.



The idea of the Bots is great and if they really do what they were meant to, the result would be an improved user experience indeed. Currently there are only four add-ons available, though. But new ones are expected to show up in the future.

However, the really bad news (and I can’t skip that) is the short list of compatible devices. According to the Nokia Labs, only Nokia N97 and N97 mini users will be able to get the new Nokia Bots.

You can download the Nokia Bots from the Nokia Labs website. To get them, just follow that link.