Nokia Launches E6 and X7 with Symbian Anna in India

We knew Nokia would be launching the E6 and X7 sometime in June, but didn’t have any details on the Indian pricing at the time. Well, today in New Delhi, Viral Oza, Marketing Director for Nokia India Pvt. Ltd. launched the E6 for a MRP of Rs.18,679 and the X7 for an MRP of Rs. 22,829.

Best of both worlds

The pricing for the E6 seems pretty justified given the MOP should settle at around Rs. 17,000. This is also the first ‘touch & type’ QWERTY handset from Nokia, although Samsung's Galaxy Pro could claim to be the first of this kind. I think Nokia should not have too much trouble moving this off the shelves given how well its predecessors, the E71 and E72 did. Thier E-Series of business class devices have always enjoyed a rather large sum of the market share but the big question is whether or not Symbian is on it's way out?

Here’s a quick look at the specs of the phone:

• 2.4-inch TFT touchscreen with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels

• 3G, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot, GPS with A-GPS

• Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP

• 8 Megapixel camera with fixed focus and Dual LED flash

• Secondary camera

• 3.5 mm audio jack

• Memory expandable up to 32 GB

Stylish looking

The X7, on the other hand, is more of a multimedia handset focusing on gaming and photography. However, its launch price puts it in competition with Nokia’s very own N8 which I’m sure will get the Anna update, sooner or later. What happens then? You can buy the N8 today for a street price of Rs. 21,700, which is cheaper than the X7 and also packs in a better 12MP camera with Xenon flash and HDMI-out functionality. Nokia will have to drop the price of the X7 quickly if it has to sell. And its not like we don’t have other options in this price range, in fact we are spoilt for choice. Let’s hope Symbian Anna brings more than a cosmetic change, else Android is just going to eat ‘em up.

A little glance at the X7's specifications:

• 4-inch touchscreen with 16M colours and 360 x 640 pixels resolution
• 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS with A-GPS
• Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP
• 8 Megapixel camera with fixed focus and Dual LED flash
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM with RDS
• Memory expandable up to 32 GB

Nokia Launches Mobile Money Service for all their Phones

With Netbanking making it so much easier to manage your financial accounts, the next logical step is porting those services onto your mobile phone. With phone banking services already in existence, the quality of service varies in different banks. Now, Nokia has taken it upon themselves to provide a common platform irrespective of your bank.

Manage your finances from anywhere

It’s called Mobile Money Client, and it will be available for all Nokia phones including S40 and S30 devices, pretty much any Nokia phone with a keyboard or touch screen. Currently this service is available for Union Bank of India, Yes Bank, Obopay and a wide range of retailers and merchants.

Mobile Money Client offers the user the following functions:

• Manage your account by receiving detailed balance info, track all your transactions and status of each transaction.
• Bill Payment
• Money Transfer
• Cash withdrawal from Business Correspondents cash-out outlets and ATMs.
• Top-up you prepaid SIM

If you already own a Nokia phone and wish to avail of these services, simply visit this link and proceed from there.

Nokia's First Windows Phone 7 Device, 'Sea Ray' Leaked

Finally. The much-awaited WP7-toting Nokia device has been caught online. Codenamed Sea Ray, the smartphone runs on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. As you already might know, many of us were eagerly anticipating the Nokia-Microsoft partnership to yield some results and what is being seen in the pictures looks quite promising. We want the Sea Ray to fly! The best part is that Sea Ray was shown off by none other than Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop himself. And the funny bit is that he pleaded that nobody take pictures of the smartphone! (Yes Stephen, we won’t reveal the device that we’ve been waiting for with bated breath) Anyway, if you look a little closer, Sea Ray looks pretty identical to the recently announced N9. Not that it’s a problem in any way, but we’d probably expect Nokia to have a different design rather than go with an already used one. Unlike the N9 however, Sea Ray has a dedicated camera key and the LED has been placed in a different position. The handset will be running on the latest Mango update of Windows Phone 7. In terms of specifications, that’s about it. But GSMArena also has a small video of Sea Ray which you can check out below. Also, let us know whether you think that Nokia’s first Windows Phone 7 is hot or not in our comments section.

Anna Update Incoming for the Nokia N8

Probably all you Nokia N8 users have been waiting with bated breath for this one. The N8 will be getting the latest Symbian update – Anna - pretty soon. The most important of all is that the excellently performing 12 megapixel camera will get better with a few more features added to it.

Anna's coming!

Anna should have been released for the N8 quite a while back. However, it seems that the Finnish company was working on an update that was specific to this smartphone and that’s why the delay. Damien Dinning, the camera expert for Nokia has tweeted saying:
“There will be an N8 specific update coming which will. You need the code from Anna though.”

The new features to the N8’s camera will be able to record videos at 30 frames per second which means smoother videos. The camera will also be able to capture videos in a continuous autofocus manner. So the focus of the camera can shift quickly and continuously while capturing objects in varying distances while shooting videos. Now that it all sounds good, lets hope the N8 gets love from Anna, sooner than expected.

via MyNokiaBlog

Nokia E6 Up for Pre-order Now

Popular handset manufacturer, Nokia has announced that it will be making its Nokia E6, Touch and Type business smartphone available for pre-order, starting from today. The Nokia E6 makes it debut as the Symbian Anna smartphone to be launched in the Indian market.

Now here!

Those who’re keen on owning the E6 can avail the pre-order facility by logging on to www.nokia.co.in/E6. Once on the site, customers will be required to fill an online form and mention the details of the Nokia Priority Store which is nearest to them. Customers can then expect a call from the company within 24-hours of their registration and this way secure their Nokia E6 and process a deposit of the booking amount (Rs. 2,000).

The Nokia E6 has been spoken about quite often now, and if you’re a late comer in the space, here’s a quick specifications recap for you:

• Screen size: 2.46", Capacitive touch screen
• Size: 115.5 x 59 x 10.5 mm
• Internal memory: 8 GB
• Support for up to 32 GB with an external MicroSD memory card (with hot swap)
• TFT LCD
• Resolution: VGA (640 x 480), pixels per inch: 326ppi
• BP-4L 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery

The Nokia E6 is currently priced at INR 17, 999.

Nokia launches IM client, takes on BBM

Struggling cellphone giant Nokia has launched its own instant messaging client. Dubbed IM for Nokia, the service enables Nokia users to send messages to customers who have the same app installed, as well as one or all of the following: Ovi Mail account, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and MySpace IM.

The service comes just days after Apple announced iMessage at its annual event WWDC, which analysts believe aims to take on Research In Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry Messenger.

IM for Nokia can presently be downloded free the company's Ovi Store. However, the IM will come pre-installed on new devices over the coming months.

To use, users need to load the app in the applications menu of their Nokia phone and log in using their Ovi account or other accounts such as Google Talk. Then press the menu button on the bottom left of the screen and select Add friends and import via email address or Contacts. To chat, a user just needs to press a friend's name to open a chat window. Press Hide to keep the app running in the background to receive chats throughout the day.

The homescreen widget will remind users that they're online and if they're chatting to anybody. There's also a button for switching to 'Do not disturb' mode or the 'Invisible' mode, amongst others.

IM for Nokia is available for Nokia X6, Nokia 5230, Nokia N8, Nokia E7 and some more. It also come preinstalled on Series 40 phones.

Nokia Brings an App Called Play To for Symbian^3 Devices

Nokia’s Symbian^3 smartphones are taking another step to being smarter as the Finnish company has announced an app which is still in the beta stages. Called Nokia Play To, the app lets you share media wirelessly over the network.

Sharing pictures through DLNA

The app incorporates DLNA, which is a standard (like Bluetooth) that let various portable devices share media seamlessly on the handsets so you can click pictures and transfer them to your server or even play music from your handset. DLNA has been there previously on Android smartphones, TVs and some media players as well. If you have a handset running the Symbian^3 operating system - say a Nokia N8 or an E7, you can log on to your Wi-Fi network at home and share songs, videos and pictures clicked from this handset. 

Nokia Play To for now is still in the development stage and is free of cost for your smartphone. You can give the app a try from the link over here and tell us what you feel about it. You should know that you need to have other devices like your TV or home network storage to have DLNA certification as well. If you’re relatively new to the DLNA concept click here to read more about it.

Nokia and TOI Launch an App on the Ovi Store

The readers of Times of India, one of India’s most popular, and subsequently the most widely read newspaper can now be accessed on their Nokia phones, courtesy the launch of the new Times of India app on the Nokia Ovi Store.

This is how it would look!

The app intends to give the traditional habit of reading the newspaper a major facelift. With the app on the phone, Nokia claims that it is possible to comfortably glance to the latest happenings around the globe while on the go, quite literally. The app is a free one and can be downloaded off the Ovi Store (www.store.ovi.com). The application can be viewed in both portrait and landscape formats, and allows easy sharing on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, as well as can be emailed or SMSed. Users can also incorporate the scroll and swipe gestures while they view the app. Additionally, Nokia has enabled the app with the high utility, auto update widget that would update news automatically, without the user having to perform any tasks specifically. This feature holds great promise since it bears in mind the dynamic nature of news.

Using the app, users will be able access news across all major sections like general affairs, politics, sports, world news, business, city news, among others.