Also this week, Nokia N97 mini makes its big debut in stores. With its stainless steel cues, the Nokia N97 mini is designed for style-conscious people who are active with social networks. The device features a tilting 3.2″ touch display, QWERTY keyboard and fully customizable homescreen. The Nokia N97 mini features same software with the Nokia N97 and will be in stores with an estimated retail price of EUR 450 before taxes and subsidies.

“In September, 2009, we exceeded 2 million Nokia N97 devices sold, and now introduce the Nokia N97 mini, underscoring the success of the design. We have also listened to consumer feedback about the performance of the device. The Nokia N97 software update 2.0 is a way for us to optimize the device and add new features and functions,” said Jose-Luis Martinez, Vice President, Nokia Nseries. “We are also excited about the early feedback that we have received on the Nokia N97 mini, which carries a very similar feature set to the original Nokia N97 and comes in a pocket-friendly size for those out and about.”

Among the new experiences available with the free 2.0 software update are:

- ‘flip scrolling’ has been added in the entire user interface, making scrolling in all views very smooth
- shortcuts to personalized homescreen
- Ovi Maps 3.0 with 3-D maps
- Nokia e-mail (Nokia Messaging)
- Ovi Contacts
- Ovi Store.

Nokia is constantly updating and enhancing its devices with new features, functions and fixes so people can get even more out of their Nokia device even years after buying it. Nokia owners can automatically check for new software by going to Menu > Applications > SW Update and enable automatic checking, or visit http://www.nokia.com/softwareupdate to download the version that is best for them. Additionally, MyNokia members will also receive an SMS when their local version of the software becomes available. People can register to the service at www.nokia.com/mynokia.

Nokia

“HTC Hero introduces a more natural way for reaching out to the people and accessing your important information, not by following the status quo of today’s phones, but by following how you communicate and live your life. HTC Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones simpler for people to use, leaving them saying, it just makes sense,” said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corporation.

HTC Hero
HTC Hero continues HTC’s leadership in cutting-edge design that focuses on introducing a variety of distinct devices to represent your own individuality. Boasting bevelled edges and an angled bottom, the HTC Hero is contoured to fit comfortably in your hand and against your face while you’re on a call. The HTC Hero is built to last, beginning with an anti-fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge resistance and a longer lasting, clearer display. The white HTC Hero includes an industry-first, Teflon® coating, resulting in an improved, durable white surface that looks great*.

With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content while maintaining a small size and weight that fits comfortably in your hand. It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including a GPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a 5 mega-pixel autofocus camera and expandable microSD™ memory. HTC Hero also includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero.

HTC Sense
Built on a culture of innovation and a passion to enhance people’s lives, HTC shapes the mobile experience around the individual. Debuting on the HTC Hero and available on all new HTC devices moving forward, Sense delivers on three basic principles: Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

Make It Mine
Make It Mine, is about feeling your HTC phone – created for you and by you. To do this, HTC encourages you to dictate and organize how you want to access the people and content in your life in a way that fits best for you. For some, this means adding glance view widgets that push content like twitter feeds, weather and other content to the surface while others may want quick access to business-focused information like email, calendar and world-times. HTC is also introducing a new profile feature called Scenes that enables you to create different customized content profiles around specific functions or times in your life.

Stay Close
Today, staying in touch with the people in your life means managing a variety of communication channels and applications ranging from phone calls, emails, texts, photos, status updates and more. HTC Sense takes a different approach by integrating these communication channels and applications into one single view enabling you to stay closer to your important people. With HTC Sense, friends’ Facebook status updates and photos along with their Flickr photos are included along side their text messages, emails and call history in a single view.

Discover the Unexpected
Many of the most memorable moments in your life are experienced, not explained. HTC Sense is focused on providing a variety of these simple yet innovative experiences on your HTC phone that will sometimes bring you moments of joy and delight. It can be something as basic as turning the phone over to silence a ring or as simple as improving the smart dialer for making calls quicker. HTC Sense also includes Perspectives, a new way for viewing your content such as emails, photos, Twitter, music and more in different ways.

Pricing & Availability:
The new HTC Hero will be available in Absolute white and Urban brown from mid September 2009 at all authorized resellers at a suggested retail price of S$898**. Standard retail HTC Hero package will come with a 2GB microSD™ card.

Making Sense to Magic
HTC Magic users can soon experience HTC Sense on their Magic when a free upgrade is made available in November 2009. With the upgrade to HTC Sense, users will enjoy a more holistic mobile experience made available by HTC. Be sure to sign up as a HTC e-Club member to stay informed of the availability of the upgrade and be the one of the first to experience the new Sense.

* Teflon coating is applicable for Absolute White color.

**All prices are subject to pricing policies of individual operators.

hTc

Improvements in the new software version include faster data download from Internet, improved e-mail experience, better search experience with in-device search. Many additional features are also included in the software update:

- Faster user interface and faster download times
- New camcorder features: second camera support for still image capture in addition to video calls, burst mode that allows people to take multiple pictures one after another without needing to repress the picture taking button
- Mobile Dictionary: built-in dictionary functionality with voice playback of words utilizing text-to-speech technology, support for 38 languages
- Application Update: with Application Update people can check for available updates for applications and update them directly in the device. Applications can also be kept up-to-date by setting the checking to automatic.

Nokia

Qt enables developers to build innovative services and applications once and then extend the innovation across all major desktop, mobile and other embedded platforms without rewriting the code. Qt Extended extends the Qt application development framework, bringing increased functionality to embedded Linux. Qt Extended inherits the Qt WebKit Integration, which helps device manufacturers enrich applications with live web content such as online maps, music stores and instant messaging.

“Qt Extended is designed to accelerate software development for a wide range of consumer devices, such as video IP phones, media players and other advanced devices,” said Sebastian Nystr?m, Vice President of Qt Software, Nokia. “With the new release of Qt Extended, we are making it easier to differentiate the user experience and the feature set.”

Core features of the Qt Extended 4.4 release are:

Qt Extended 4.4 includes a new Video IP Desk phone reference design which demonstrates an Internet-connected video desk phone UI for finger touch interaction for 3.5″ screens. The objective of the reference design is to illustrate the versatility of Qt Extended.

Qt, originally developed by Trolltech, is a proven development framework for multiple operating systems. It is used by many leading consumer brands and is found in embedded Linux devices. In June 2008, Nokia completed the acquisition of Trolltech and it is now a fully integrated entity within the Nokia Devices unit, called Qt Softward.

Nokia

Spb Online is robust and easy to use even for novice smartphone users. All of Spb Online services support adaptive skins, smart scrolling, 3D transition effects, and one hand navigation.

TV
Unlike any other solution on the market, Spb’s mobile TV facilitates channel hopping, offers on-screen controls, intelligent video/audio stream tuning to account for broadband fluctuations, doing it all to deliver a genuine TV watching experience — on the go:

Radio
Spb’s radio offers a wealthy selection of the world’s streaming radio stations, allowing users to tune into a news or music source of their choice in virtually any language or location of the planet:

Online Games
Spb’s online games let real people play each other in real-time. All games take only a click to start and require no setting up or much of getting used to:

Weather
For any city from a database of 10′000, Spb’s weather service attractively displays FORECA’s five-day forecasts (provider used by msn.com) in one screen. The service allows scrolling between the screens of up to 10 selected cities with a finger swipe:

On-Device Catalog
Spb’s on-device catalog makes it easy to discover and buy additional content directly from the mobile phone. Selected titles are downloaded, installed, and activated automatically:

Pricing and Availability
Spb Online is compatible with Windows Mobile 5 and later Professional and Standard devices. qVGA, VGA, Square QVGA, and WVGA screen resolutions are supported. To enjoy the TV service a fast connection is needed. All other services are accessible with lower bandwidth; TV however, requires a reliable 3G, WiMax or WiFi network. For checking your connection and services compatibility, a free, 15-day trial version is available. Full Spb Online may be purchased for 29.95 USD at www.spbsoftwarehouse.com.

Spb Software House