The best Nokia N96 Deal

We’re constantly on the look out for the best brand new phone deals and the Nokia N96 looks set to be one of the must have’s of this Autumn and Winter.

Nokia’s beautiful new N96 - a sleeker and more powerful improvement on last year’s N95. The Nokia N96 boasts 16 Gb of internal memory - enough to hold a wide collection of movies, music, photos, videos etc.

It also has a 5 MegaPixel camera, a GPS feature and it’s lightning quick internet also enables you to use the BBC iPlayer feature. Perfect for catching up with the TV while you’re out and about or travelling to and from work.

Most of the big networks are launching the new Nokia N96 next week. We have been rustling away comparing all the deals - with the cost of the Nokia N96 handset, the number of texts and minutes, the contract length and the monthly cost and we have concluded what we believe to represent the best deal on the market.

And it is congratulations to….

T-Mobile

If you have the ability to pay £100 for the handset then the FlexT 40 deal from T-Mobile is our top recommendation. The handset is £99.99, it’s an 18 month contract but for a monthly line rental of £31.50 you will get either 1250 minutes per month or 2500 texts (or a combination of the both of them!)

If you want the new Nokia N96 handset for free then our second best deals are with Three. Their Mix and Match 500 deal for this phone is our recommendation for the free handsets. On this package the handset is free, the contract length is 18 months and the monthly cost is £33. With this package you get a combination of 500 text or minutes. If you want an extra 200 minutes or text then the £36 Mix and Match 700 is for you.

Enjoy your brand new Nokia N96.

The first 8 Mega pixel mobile phone camera

Christmas 2008 is set to be a battle between the megapixels in the mobile phone market.

Traditional digital camera companies, such as Kodak and Canon, as well as UK retailers such as Jessops, will feel the pinch even more as the next generation of snap-happy mobiles are released towards the end of this year.

Samsung are set to launch the first 8 megapixel camera phones, beating the present top-end 5 megapixel cameras on the market. The new Innov8 series will be launched on the 1st September and the handset itself will be free on a £35 per month Orange contract.

Many of us have heard of smile recognition features, but this new ‘phone’ will also feature ‘blink technology’ - to stop those shots of us looking half-asleep. Photos can also be uploaded straight away to the internet.

Sony Ericsson will follow suit with its own range of 8MP camera phones in October (with the C905) but Samsung is establishing a reputation for pushing the boundaries in mobile phone technology.

Samsung GT-i8510

This phone, also known as the Samsung Innov8, doesn’t just have an 8MP camera, but records video at 30 FPS at VGA resolution (or 120 FPS as QVGA).

Samsung now have normal headphone jacks in their phones, and the phone has an in-built FM radio with RDS, and the more advanced version of ’stereo’ Bluetooth.

The phone will ship with either 8Gb or 16Gb of internal memory, competing with the iPhone, but unlike Apple’s offering it can also take a memory card packed with up to an extra 16Gb.

The phone also features A-GPS (advanced GPS) meaning that information will be stored alongside your photographs telling you exactly where in the world you took them. Ideal for creating photo map books via Google or other similar sites.

FIFA 2008 and Asphalt are two games that come with the phone.

It’s a big phone, and when it is released on Pay as you Go will probably cost around £600. On a contract though you can get this phone for free with Orange.

Sony Ericsson Hikaru Back on the Map

Sony had reportedly put the brakes on surrounding a new device called thie ‘Hikaru’. It was an 8MP device that packed in a lot of features. Well, what should I notice today but more rumors popping up surrounding the Hikaru. Looks like the device will become a reality after all.

The Sony Ericsson Hikaru is a really high-end touchscreen camera phone. Look for it to feature at least 8GB of internal storage, and a slider to feature a QWERTY keyboard for your texting and emailing pleasure.

While full details, specs and pricing are of course unavailable, you can clearly see from the mockup above that the device looks pretty hot. When I first saw it, I thought to myself ‘Hmmm… sort of similar to the Samsung Instinct!’…. don’t you think? Somewhat similar in form-factor for sure.

I should note however that the image was created by the folks at Unwired Review. The actual device will probably look somewhat similar to this… The folks at UR did a pretty good job on the mockup don’t you think?! Stay tuned for more news on the Hikaru!

Facebook Refusing to Develop App for Android OS

Facebook and Google haven’t been seeing eye-to-eye as of late. The first ka-fuffle arose when the social-networking giant blocked Google’s Friend Connect, citing security issues as the reason for the block.

Now the battle continues on as Facebook has revealed that they will not be releasing an app for the new open-source Android OS. This is in stark contrast to Facebook’s action on the iPhone and BlackBerry. If you carry either of those brands you’re probably aware that there are full-featured Facebook apps for both of those devices. The iPhone version I particularly enjoy.

Early adopters of the T-Mobile G1 will certainly be disappointing with this news, especially if they were expecting Facebook to appear in the immediate future. Don’t count out Facebook from appearing on the OS, however be prepared to wait. Facebook has commented that Google or another third party will have to develop the application for them, as they do not want to dedicate any resources towards developing an app for Android. They’ve also commented “Android sucks, it doesn’t matter.” Thems fighting words!

An interesting side note? Facebook is ad-served and invested in by good ol Microsoft… and we know that Microsoft is not quite Google’s biggest supporter. Conspiracy theory? Nah, but something to chew o

Nokia E71 - Blackberry beater?

With the arrival of the Nokia E71 - Nokia’s high spec phones are aiming to make further inroads on the Blackberry market.

Nokia E71 - Silver version

Moving on from the previous E51 and E61 incarnations, Nokia’s brand new E71 handset is much slimmer, and much more user friendly than the previous versions.

The display is slightly smaller, but as with the Blackberry Bold, this seems to be an improvement in making the most use of the QWERTY keypad these phones feature.

The screen is widescreen and at just under 2.4″ in size. The phone is, as you would expect, quad band and can connect to 3G networks delivering speeds up to 3.6Mb/s.

It features the Symbian 9.2 OS, running at 369Mhz. It features 110 of internal memory but comes with an additional 2Gb microSD card.

The camera is an improvement on that of the Blackberry’s, at just over 3 Megapixels.

A GPS receiver is built in for SatNav functions, Bluetooth 2.0, FM Radio (and a proper headphone jack) and many other features including an Office document program.

The only negatives that can really be pointed at this phone is in fact it’s camera. But then, who buys a Blackberry style phone to take the highest quality images?

Some deals are already available for the E71 both with O2 and with 3 Mobile. Prices range from £20 a month with the handset free.

BBC iPlayer on the Nokia N96

We’ve had a few emails through to us asking about the Nokia N96 and using the BBC iPlayer feature.

Not only can you watch the programmes streamed direct to the phone but you can also download the programmes to your mobile. A few people, such as those of you who use the Tube, feel like your missing out on those commutes home.

So, you can either visit www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer directly on your handset or underneath you are presented with the option to download to your handset. If you do this you must select the Windows Mobile download version.

With 16Gb available already on the Nokia N96 then you’re not going to put a dent in your N96’s memory with the latest episode of Eastenders, Mock the Week, or whatever it is that floats your boat.

Do it before you leave work and you’ll have uninterrupted iPlayer enjoyment all the way home!

Nokia Comes with Music - and the Nokia 5310 XPressMusic

Nokia’s new ‘Comes with Music’ service has launched yesterday and one of the UK’s leading mobile phone retailers, The CarPhone Warehouse, is selling the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic handset at £129.99 on Pay as You Go.

Users will have unlimited access to the store and it appears that people buying this new phone can download a whopping 120 music tracks for free.

Initially Nokia had hoped to offer unlimited downloads for free - but they are currently negotiating on the price with music retailers.

USI introduces MID-160, 'world's thinnest' with an Atom

Size definitely matters for MIDs, what with the whole Mobile moniker in there, but features matter too, and USI's upcoming MID-160 offers most of the important ones. It's got a 5-inch 800 x 480 touch-screen, connectivity over 802.11b/g as well as HSDPA and WiMAX, plus GPS and Bluetooth, served by an (unspecified) Atom processor and 512MB of RAM with 8GB of flash storage (expandable via microSD). All that's delivered in a package just 15mm in thickness and 250 grams in heft, but sadly missing one thing we tend to use a lot when surfing the web: a keyboard. Nokia's N810 WiMAX Edition has one, plus most of the other goods (lacking the Atom and 8GB of storage), yet manages to be just as thin and even lighter -- not to mention available right now. By contrast we have no information on availability or price for MID's sleek, but perhaps unnecessary, successor to the M-150.

BenQ's M2400HD 24-inch LCD hits Japan next month

24-inch LCDs are the new black this season, with new ebony choices appearing seemingly every week. Funny, then, that BenQ should choose to distance its latest two-footer from the crowd by coloring it white -- plus giving it a few interesting features, like a 2 megapixel webcam peeking over the top of a 16:9, 1920 x 1080 resolution panel. That's a bit down from the typical 1920 x 1200 we'd expect on this size display, but it's perfectly suited for all that 1080p content you have lying around. (16:9 is a little rare on a desktop display, but we know how much you hate letterboxing.) An HDMI input will help to keep that HD video flowing, plus there's VGA and DVI-D too. The rest of the specs are fairly tame: 300cd/m2 brightness, 1,000:1 contrast ratio (capable of being dynamically boosted to 10,000:1), a 5ms response rate, and a 3-port USB hub. If you can do without the missing 230,400 pixels this sounds like a solid display, coming to Japan next month for 420€ (about $535).

Intel-based MID to make a splash on France's SFR

It looks like France's SFR will be getting some tweaked variant of Aigo's familiar P8860 Intel-based MID... with 3G on-board. The device features an 800 x 480 touchscreen display, an 800MHz Atom CPU, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of flash memory, Bluetooth, WiFi, a VGA webcam, 3 megapixel camera, and a full slide-out AZERTY keyboard (as well as some odd, circular navigation wheel). Obviously the big bonus here is the 3G connectivity, which sounds like it will be offered at €19.90 (about $26) or €24.90 ($32) per month, depending on plan. By appearances, those plans include unlimited data -- though the machine translated article seems to suggest there could be some capping. The Linux-powered device will sell for €249 / $310 (€349 with a €100 rebate) -- no word on release date.