The Nokia N9... Simplicity at its best...

Simple life is the best life. I'm sure everyone will agree. Keeping this simplicity in mind Nokia releases its opus smart phone, the Meego running, Nokia N9. MeeGo OS is developed jointly by Nokia and Intel. On your first encounter you will notice that the front of the phone is completely bare. There isn't a freakin key!!! The phone is made only of two parts the curved glass and a non-painted, colored single poly carbonate body. The only hardware buttons in the phone are the volume rocker and lock key/power key on the right side of the phone. 

Nokia N9 measures 116.5X61.2X12.1mm and weighs 135g. Its an all screen unibody design with 2.5D curved glass that's fitted nicely from edge to edge. It has a 3.9 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen. It has a scratch proof Gorilla glass screen and an anti glare coating to be used in broad daylight. It comes in 16/64GB storage variation with no external memory card option. Nokia leaves no stones unturned as this marvel boasts of Dolby Sound Enhancement and Dolby headphones support for the music lovers. This technology has never been embedded in a smartphone before. In other words it has everything you need and nothing you don't.

The swipe technology is used to explore through the phone which seems so seamless. It’s based on three simple views. The apps view, the running apps view and the notifications. When in an open app you swipe your finger from any edge to the opposite it gets minimized. Swipe in the home screen and you can see the installed apps. Another swipe will show the open apps three in a row, allowing the user to see a slightly enlarged two in a row view when pinch zoomed.

On the photographic end N9 is loaded with an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, dual LED and 4x digital zoom for both video and pictures. It is capable of recording 720p HD video at 30 fps with stereo sound. N9 also boasts of the fastest camera in smartphones with a super fast launch and capture of images. Nokia understands that the best moments in life are fleeting and thus provides this feature so you do not miss out on the finest moments in life.


Within three months of N9 premier Nokia released the first software update named PR 1.1 which contained a few bug fixes and new features namely:
* ability to control the music player via the lock screen
* ability to exchange/send links, contacts, documents using NFC
* support for horizontal mode - not present previously
* option to switch downward swipe motion to close application or minimize
* speed improvements to the WiFi module in 'n' network
* improvements to: QWERTY screen keyboard,notifications, browser, Bluetooth and many others


Nokia has announced the next update, named PR 1.2 which is planned to introduce 3500 improvements which include:
* folders on the home screen
* universal copy/paste
* faster codecs for video coded in H.264 standard
* USB On-The-Go which will allow various accessories to be attached such as keyboards, mice, and external memory even other phones and many other improvements.This is truly a milestone in gadget history.Life cannot be better than this. Just swipe your way off.

Belle's are here...

Nokia released its next installment in Symbian called Symbian Belle on 24 Aug, 2011. Looking hotter than Anna and very much power packed it is still a very sustainable phone (all Symbian phones are) unlike the power and resource hungry droids. The upgraded operating system will be available on new devices and the update will be released for existing devices in Feb 2012.

Here are some of the features of the Belle operating system:
Differently shaped Live widgets: Unlike Anna where you've to add a shortcut widget and it can hold 4 shortcuts, you can add any number of single shortcuts on the screen. You can even add favorite contacts to the home screen.

More homescreens: The number of home screens has been increased from three to six each having a separate wallpaper of its own. Now everything will seem much easier to access with six homescreens.

NFC integration: The newest and most hassle free way of data transfer and communication is deeply integrated into the Belle operating system. Sharing pics and videos, connecting with accessories is just a tap away.

The status bar: Belle sports a very informative status bar which can be dragged from the top of the screen. One might have noticed it already in the droids. The status bar contains the quick access to recent events, WiFi, Bluetooth, profile change.

The main menu is flat now, vertically scrollable. All the shortcuts placed in one place. No more folders. But if the user wants he can create a folder and add some shortcuts into it.

The lock screen can be given a designer touch by assigning it with a wallpaper for itself while displaying missed events notification.

Belle also includes new apps from Microsoft - Lync (IM for business, like Microsoft Communicator), Sharepoint, OneNote, Exchange ActiveSync and PowerPoint Broadcaster.

Four devices were planned to open up with Belle to the users 600, 603,700,701. But for some unknown reasons shipment of 600 was cancelled abruptly. it is believed that Nokia considered 600 will clash with the release of its Windows phone Lumia 800 and to avoid this 600 was cancelled.