Nokia N96: What’s on the Big Screen

Today we set my Nokia N96 down on its porno kickstand and marvel at the video options for that huge 2.8-inch screen.

First up, the groundbreaking DVB-H live television tuner…

Oh, right… Just like Japan’s 1seg and South Korea’s DMB, Digital Video Broadcast isn’t available in Canada or the US and A. It has already launched in some Asian and European markets, though — hopefully when DVB finally makes its way here the carriers will see the value in keeping it a free service.

Yeah, probably not.

Next is a mobile version of BBC’s iPlayer…

Oops, almost forgot that the old media old guard thinks it can divide up the internet into different markets as has been done in the past. We have the same problem here, but that doesn’t make it any less infuriating…

Finally, something I can watch! The YouTube feed does a passable job of filling in for the sorely-missed emTube. You can’t save videos, though, only stream them.

And (big surprise) you can’t save those 20th Century Fox film trailers to your handset, either. But to give you an idea of the quality of these things you can check out this video of my first-ever S60 handset, courtesy of the directory’s official Nokia feed. Oh, and take note of the filetype and size while you’re at it, as the N96 will only play MPEG-4 video at 320 x 240 pixels.

Nokia N96 First Impressions: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

So I’ve just received an N96 from Nokia’s WOM World. I’ll be reporting in more detail over the next week or two; in the meantime here are my first impressions of this flagship device…

The Good:

Two Finnish innovations make setting up an unlocked Nokia device easier than ever before:

1. While Nokia Canada’s handy Configurator Service no longer seems to work it’s also no longer necessary — a handy wizard for Operator Settings is now included, at least on the N96.
2. Firmware updates can now be downloaded and installed directly on the handset! Even better, the user’s installed apps and data are preserved through the process.

The Bad:

This one took me by surprise… It honestly feels like there’s some loose plastic film underneath the D-Pad of my handset. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with Nokia scrapping the navi-wheel functionality on this particular button or if it’s a production hiccup unique to my particular unit. Either way, if I paid the going price for a new N96 — about $1000 CAD last time I checked — I’d feel, well… I guess I’d feel like this.

The Ugly:

After two resets, a firmware update, another reset, a mass memory format and an erase & reinstall I am entirely unable to launch N-Gage on my N96. As far as know the two are compatible — see this mobile-ized N-Gage download page for proof — and there is also some evidence that other users are experiencing this problem. But if Nokia’s flagship multimedia device can’t run the company’s own in-house gaming platform it makes it pretty difficult for me not to give it a failing grade right out of the box.

Anybody out there have any ideas?

Nokia vs. Apple: Battleground India!

Ready, fight!

Nokia surprised its many fans around the world this week with the announcement that its N96 smartphone, the highly-anticipated successor to the flagship N95, would be available in India a month before its scheduled release in other markets. Of particular significance is that this announcement was made only three days before the release of Apple’s iPhone in that country.

Nobody’s denying that Nokia is trying to steal Apple’s thunder here, not even Nokia itself — they’ve got a 60% domestic market share to protect and see India as second only to China for future sales opportunities.

Both the N96 and the iPhone are likely to be considered luxury items in this part of the world — indeed, for about the price of three iPhones you could buy a brand-new car. In its favour Nokia was recently voted the country’s most trusted brand, while Apple has once again managed to get folks lining up to purchase their mobile device.

This battle for Indian smartphone supremacy won’t actually get started until Nokia gets some of their product on store shelves, but it will definitely be one to watch… Stay tuned!