Nokia 7230
(Credit: Nokia)Nokia announced two new slider handsets at its Finnish headquarters Tuesday. We don't know exactly which markers will get the phones first, but models include support for North American cellular networks.
The 6700 Slide is a variation of the previously announced Nokia 6700 classic. It comes in six bright colors: aluminum, pink, blue, red, lime, and purple. Its features include a 5-megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, a speakerphone, messaging, a personal organizer, e-mail and chat, an FM radio, a music player, and Bluetooth. Set for a first quarter, 2010 release, the 6700 Slide should cost about $240.
Nokia 7230
(Credit: Nokia)The 7230 has a slight oval shape and comes in silver and pink. Inside you'll find a speakerphone, a 3.2-megapixel camera, messaging, access to social networking and Nokia's Ovi Store, a microSD card slot, a FM radio, Bluetooth, and a personal organizer. The 7230 also should be out in the first quarter of next year; the price will be about $150.
(Credit:
Nokia)
For this week's installment of the weekly Crave giveaway, we're offering up Nokia's new stylish Netbook, the Booklet 3G, which has just hit stores (thanks, Nokia for providing the unit for Crave readers).
CNET's Dan Ackerman reviewed the Booklet recently, and while he wished it was equipped with the faster version of the Atom processor, he said it was one of the most upscale-looking and well-built Netbooks we've tested and the battery life is great.
He also noted how the AT&T mobile broadband service connects automatically, and the process was "wonderfully transparent, especially compared with the software setup and manual log-ins required by other mobile broadband laptops." (Read the full review here.)
Normally, Nokia's Booklet would cost you about $599 (with a service plan from AT&T, it would cost $299), but you have the chance to get it gratis.
So, how do you try to win this Nokia Booklet 3G? (Note: no wireless service is included.) Let me enumerate the basic rules. Please read them carefully; there will be a test.
- Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the "Join CNET" link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.
- Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
- Leave only one comment. You may enter this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
- The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive (1) Nokia Booklet 3G Netbook (without wireless service). Approximate retail value is $599.99.
- If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
- Entries can be submitted until Monday, November 23, at noon EST.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 PM ET on November 23, 2009. See official rules for details.
Good luck.
On Sale Now: $599.99
View the latest prices for Nokia Booklet 3G (black)
(Credit:
Bonnie Cha/CNET)
For those of you who have been chomping at the bit to get your hands on the Nokia N900, your wait is over. We just hope you've been saving up for it this whole time.
The highly anticipated Nokia N900 is now on sale in the U.S. for an unlocked price of $649. It's available at Nokia's flagship stores in New York and Chicago as well as online from Nokia and other retailers, such as Amazon.
Running on the Linux-based Maemo platform, the N900 is the next evolution of Nokia's Internet Tablet series and offers a heap of new features and functionality. For one thing, unlike previous devices such as the N810, you now get phone capabilities as well as 3G support (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; WCDMA 900/1700/2100). It also has one of the most powerful browsers we've seen with support for Adobe Flash Player 9.4 and AJAX.
In addition, the compact slider offers a full QWERTY keyboard, a 3.5-inch WVGA (800x480) resistive touch screen, and four customizable home screens. Other highlights include a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and multitasking capabilities that rivals those on the Palm Pre.
We got a chance to check it out in person at CTIA Fall 2009 and were instantly enamored with the device. Since then we've been begging and pleading Nokia for a review unit and the company has assured us that it's coming soon, so we hope to have a full review for you shortly. In the meantime, you can read some of our hands-on impressions in the photo gallery below.
In the race for mobile phone profits, Apple has overtaken Nokia, according to figures for the latest quarter.
Apple earned $1.6 billion in the third quarter from the iPhone, outpacing Nokia's $1.1 billion cell phone profit to grab the top spot among all mobile phone vendors, said research firm Strategy Analytics on Wednesday.
(Credit:
Strategy Analytics)
This is the first quarter that Strategy Analytics has seen Apple surge past Nokia in mobile phone profits, according to Alex Spektor, the author of the research, who spoke with CNET News.
The contest between Apple and Nokia for top phone profits has been tight in recent months. ... Read more
Nokia is replacing potentially dangerous phone chargers for free, the mobile giant said Monday.
The recall affects 14 million chargers, according to the Associated Press.
The affected chargers are manufactured by third-party suppliers, Nokia said. A loose cover could potentially expose the charger's internal components and thus pose an electrical shock hazard if accidentally touched during use, the company said.
Chargers involved in the exchange are 2-pin types and include the AC-3E and AC-3U models manufactured between June 15 and August 9, 2009, as well as the AC-4U model made between April 13 and October 25, 2009. A Nokia site offers more information.
Read more of "Nokia rolls out charger exchange program" at CNET Asia.
Mobile phone maker Nokia is jumping into the Netbook pool with its recently announced Booklet 3G laptop (as seen in the video). We've just gotten our hands on the final version of the system, and here are our initial impressions.
The Booklet 3G is easily one of the most upscale-looking Netbooks we've seen. It feels solid and well-built in your hands, without being too heavy. The screen hinge in particular feels pleasingly tight, while the slightly too thick keyboard tray has zero flex even when pressing down firmly on the keyboard.
Unlike the gently tapered sides of many other Netbooks, designed to create the illusion of slimness, the Booklet has sharp, angled edges. True to the name, there is a booklike squareness to it. The inside is devoid of quick launch or shortcut keys, and even the power button is relegated to the right side edge, next to a tiny hatch covering SD and SIM card slots.
Unfortunately, the keyboard itself is cramped, with tiny keys that are hard to hit accurately. Considering the strides other Netbooks have made with creating very usable keyboards, it was a letdown. The touch pad is large and easy to use, even though we had to crank up the pointer speed in the Windows 7 options.
The 10.1-inch display has the higher 1,366x768-pixel resolution found on many high-end Netbooks, and a single sheet of glass covers the screen and much of the screen bezel, but there's still a separate outer lip, so it's not quite what we call edge-to-edge.
The AT&T mobile broadband service connected automatically, and the process was wonderfully transparent, especially compared with the software setup and manual log-ins required by other mobile broadband laptops. The option to manually join a local Wi-Fi network is also available. Our review unit lacked the final versions of the Nokia and Ovi networking and connectivity software, but we did fine with Windows 7's built-in versions.
Despite an excellent design and well-integrated mobile broadband, the Booklet 3G hits a rough patch as as an actual Netbook. Using the slower Z530 version of Intel's Atom CPU (instead of the more common N270 or N280 versions) means that performance was generally sluggish, especially with only 1GB of RAM.
Opening windows and navigating around the Windows 7 environment led to some stuttering and slowdown. Even something as simple as running multiple Web browser windows and a Microsoft Office doc at the same time slowed the system in our anecdotal hands-on testing.
With a two-year AT&T contract, the Booklet3G costs $299, and its excellent design and build quality puts it miles ahead of other $299 Netbooks. But keep in mind that you're then tied to a monthly fee--usually around $60--for data. The Booklet is also available sans contract for $599, but that's both largely pointless and way overpriced.
We will conduct our usual battery of benchmark tests and report back with a full review next week.
On Sale Now: $599.99
View the latest prices for Nokia Booklet 3G (black)
Consumer demand for smartphones seems to be unstoppable.
In the third quarter, vendors shipped a record 43.3 million devices, up 4.2 percent from last year's third quarter and up 3.2 percent from this year's second quarter, says a report released Thursday by market researcher IDC.
(Credit:
IDC)
Among smartphone vendors, Nokia still enjoys the greatest market share, according to IDC, with a 37.9 percent slice for the third quarter. ... Read more
T-Mobile is now selling the slim Nokia 3711. Introduced at last month's CTIA show in San Diego, the 3711 sports a flip-phone design with a dark finish and a hidden external display. Inside, you'll find Nokia's Series 40 operating system, support for T-Mobile's 3G network, GPS with access to Ovi Maps, a 2-megapixel camera with video, stereo Bluetooth, a speakerphone, messaging and e-mail, and a personal organizer.
The 3711 is $69.99 with a two-year contract. We'll have a full review in the next few days.
(Credit:
Google)
Google released a new version of the free Google Mobile App for Symbian Series 60 (S60) phones on Monday. The update gives phone owners the ability to press the Talk button and speak search terms into the phone. While a new feature to the S60 operating system, users on other platforms, like BlackBerry and iPhone, have been able to turn speech into search results for some time.
The new Google Mobile App shows up as a shortcut widget on the Nokia home screen, which makes sounding out searches on those Nokia N and E series handsets faster than on other mobile platforms, where you must open the Google Mobile App to begin a search.
Whether you talk or type, Google Mobile App uses GPS or cell tower triangulation to fill in your location and find the closest whatever-it-is nearby. This is consistent with Google Mobile App for other platforms, though Windows Mobile is the only other one that also uses the home screen plug-in.
In addition to adding digital ears to search, Google has made them more global. Mandarin Chinese has joined Google's speech recognition database, so Nokia seekers can speak queries in English or in Mandarin. Google warns that the Mobile App is better at distinguishing certain accents better than others; a Beijing lilt may search more successfully than southern-flavored speech, for instance.
Mandarin recognition is currently only available for Nokia phones, but Google says in an official blog post that they're working to expand the capability to other mobile platforms, like Google Android and iPhone. Also, not every S60 owner can take advantage of the new Google Mobile App, only those running version 3. The app is not yet supported on touch screen phones, which run version 5 of the system software.
You can download Google Mobile App for Nokia S60 by pointing the mobile browser to http://m.google.com.
We've been waiting a long time for the Google Android Motorola Sholes to clear the Federal Communications Commission, so you can imagine our disappointment when we saw just the GSM version of the handset get certification this week. It's the CDMA model for Verizon that we want, so we'll just have to hold out a little longer. The FCC also gave the nod to Acer's first crop of smartphones and the Nokia Booklet 3G. We know that the latter isn't a smartphone, but we threw it in anyway.
Because the FCC has to certify every phone sold in the United States, not to mention test its SAR rating, the agency's online database offers a lot of sneak peeks to those who dig. And to save you the trouble, Crave has combed through the database for you. Here are a selection of filings from the past week on new and upcoming cell phones. Click through to read the full report.
Acer E100
Acer E101
HTC PB81100
LG G420G
LG GM750h
LG GW620
Motorola Sholes
Nokia Booklet 3G
NTT DoCoMo P-01B
RIM BlackBerry RCP51UW
Samsung GT-M8910U
Samsung GT-S5233T
Samsung GT-S5560
Samsung SCH-i920
Samsung SGH-A886
Sharp 941SH
Sharp SH-01B
Sharp SH-02B
