Apple TV Rumors Point to Netflix Support, $99 Price Tag

Rumors suggest the next version of iteration will chop price to just $99 and add Netflix support, but details on supported resolutions and hardware remain hazy.

Of all the rumors we’ve heard about tomorrow’s alleged Apple TV unveil, the latest seems by far the least ambitious. And perhaps because of that, the most believable. According to Bloomberg, the revamped Apple TV will sport – drumroll please – Netflix streaming.

Bloomberg cites two anonymous sources “with knowledge of the plans,” who also confirmed earlier rumors that it would sell for $99. While that may represent a massive price drop from the $230 Apple TV units currently stocking Apple shelves, it would still butt the Apple TV up against the likes of many other inexpensive Netflix streamers, like the $99.99 Roku HD-XR, and even the Xbox 360 Arcade, which many stores now stock for $150.

Earlier rumors have also indicated a name change from Apple TV to iTV, hardware derived from the same A4 chip in the iPad and iPhone 4, and perhaps most surprisingly, a lack of support for 1080p video playback. The same sources suggested the iTV would run apps – a development that dovetails nicely with the Netflix rumors, considering Netflix released its first iPhone app less than a week ago.

Stay tuned to Digital Trends tomorrow for up-to-the-minute coverage of Apple’s music event, which begins at 10 a.m. PST.

Apple iMac 27-inch (Core i5) Review

We review the latest addition to Apple's iMac line, which features a 27-inch display, Intel Core i5 processor and pixel-pushing ATI Radeon HD 5750.

Introduction

Few brands can hope to even come close to the iconic iMac in brand recognition. The ubiquitous glass-and-aluminum slab has become a fixture in dorm rooms, offices and living rooms, and with its 2010 refresh, Apple manages to keep the same familiar face, but inject even more power into the tiny chassis by adopting Intel’s Core series processors and full-power desktop graphics cards from AMD. While it may not qualify as a “must upgrade” for existing iMac owners, gamers and other users should be pleasantly surprised by the very real performance boost the new hardware delivers.

Features and Design

Don’t pore over the chassis on the 2010 iMac too carefully looking for a little extra love from designer Jon Ive; Apple has left well enough alone and changed absolutely nothing on the outside this year. When you already own the design, other companies scramble to emulate, it’s a luxury you have. And we’re not complaining. The edge-to-edge glass, black-rimmed bezel, uninterrupted aluminum shell and single white cable trailing out the back look as magnificent this year as they did last year, and we would hate to see Apple can a winning design for a new flavor of the week.

Speaking of which, Apple’s included mouse and keyboard remain as abysmal and overdesigned as ever, looking chic and minimal on an uncluttered desk, but driving function off a cliff to get there. The mouse fits the hand about as comfortably as a stepped-on tuna can, and the limp Chiclet keyboard has been shortened so drastically (it lacks a number pad, which Apple advertises as a feature) that it looks downright comical in front of the towering 27-inch display.

Our iMac came configured from the factory with an Intel Core i5 processor running at 2.8GHz, 4GB of DDR3 memory, an ATI Radeon HD 5750 GPU with 1GB of DDR5 memory, and a 256GB SSD. As equipped, it runs for $2,599 through Apple’s configure-to-order program.

Although our model didn’t come equipped with both an SSD and conventional drive, this year is actually the first that Apple will put both in the same computer. While it’s no feat of engineering, it does offer customers the chance to take advantage of both the speed of an SSD and the raw storage capacity of a magnetic drive.

Display

The 27-inch LCD on the iMac will drop jaws, and not just because it’s utterly massive. Unlike most displays in this size class, which offer 1080p resolution, Apple proceeds past the bounds of high-def content to a full 2560 x 1440. While that means 1080p content will need to be scaled to fit it, the increased pixel density also makes text and graphics on the desktop look significantly smoother, translating to a more refined desktop experience. LED backlighting improves efficiency, eliminates the dim warmup period of CCFL tubes, and looks extraordinarily bright. Although the primitive cast-metal stand won’t telescope up and down the way a pro monitor mount will, it does easily pivot up and down to get the best viewing angle. Not that you’ll need to play with it much – the IPS LCD screen Apple has selected has just about the best viewing angle in the biz – you can look at it from pretty much any angle without much distortion.

Ports and Connections

Per the usual Apple formula, the iMac doesn’t come loaded with ports to spare, but you won’t find many missing, either. Around back, you get four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, an Ethernet jack, and a mini DisplayPort, which can be used to output VGA, HDMI or DVI video with the appropriate adapter ($29) from Apple. While it cleans up the look of back a bit, we would prefer if Apple skipped the obvious cash grab on the cables and just gave us the standard VGA and DVI outputs right on the box. Along the same lines, Apple provides both analog and optical digital inputs and outputs in stereo, but audio buffs hoping to tie the iMac into a more powerful home theater system might feel left out by the lack of 5.1-channel analog outputs — pretty much a standard feature on PCs. The missing Blu-ray option also stands out as a downright waste, when coupled with a display with as much cinematic potential as this one.

On the right, you’ll find a slot-loading DVD drive and an SDXC expansion port. While SDXC cards only come in capacities up to 64GB at the moment, eventually, the iMac will support capacities all the way up to 2TB, potentially making it as much a storage expansion slot as a media loading slot, if you have the cash.

Speakers

Like laptops, all-in-one computer’s aren’t typically known for sound quality. With just a tiny amount of space to share with motherboards, power inverters and harddrives, speakers typically don’t get much priority.

Fortunately, the iMac’s slim strip of downfiring speakers deliver sound out of proportion with their size, matching what you might get from an inexpensive iPod dock. The humble iMac won’t rock you out the room, but it delivers more than enough volume for video and music, and quality that casual music listeners won’t find much to complain about – as long as bass isn’t a priority.

Testing and Performance

Why drop $750 to add a 256GB solid state drive into an iMac on top of the 1TB drive that comes standard? The same reason hotrodders spend thousands of dollars and countless hours tuning their machines: Speeding away from the light just that much faster. By loading the operating system and applications onto a super-fast SSD, boot times and around-the-desktop performance reach levels a spinning magnetic platter just can’t deliver.

But we’re not talking about thousandths of second here, like on a drag strip. On a cold boot, our iMac reached the desktop in just 19 seconds, obliterating any Windows 7 machine we’ve ever tried, by a significant degree. For instance, the beastly Maingear eX-L 17, which costs nearly $5,000 and leverages dual SSDs in a RAID array, still boots in 38 seconds. As for the iMac, don’t even bother timing its wake up from sleep mode; by the time you can pull out your chair and sit down, it’s ready to roll.

The speed benefits of the SSD also manifest themselves around the desktop, where applications from iTunes to Safari snap open near instantly, creating a desktop that essentially works as fast as you can think.

Though the limited selection of OS X titles limited our typical gaming tests to some degree, performance here shocked us as well… though that might have more to do with the ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory than the SSD. Half Life 2: Episode 2 played at full native resolution with every setting except setting to maximum — even 8x anti-aliasing, without breaking so much as a stutter. And by that we mean average framerates over 100 fps, dipping down only as low as 70 fps during intense combat and graphic effects like water. Sure, it’s a game from 2007 riding on the same engine as a game from 2004, but the sheer level of performance remains jaw-dropping, and one more reason we hope Steam continues to make gaming inroads on OS X.

As equipped, the iMac delivers an Xbench score of 310 and Geekbench score of 6501 — both impressive scores that represent a quantifiable leap forward from last year’s offerings. (The best Core 2 Duo iMacs from 2009, for instance, typically scraped at scores just north of 4600 in Geekbench).

For all the exercise we put the iMac through, it refused to break a sweat. Unlike the Gateway One ZX Series, another all-in-one with gaming credentials, the iMac never became noisy after extended gaming sessions, and it remained cool to the touch.

Conclusion

Apple hasn’t pulled out any magic wands for this year’s release of the iMac — apparently all the fairydust went into the iPad this year — but a fresh batch of silicon still has its rewards. A new line of Intel processors, ATI Radeon graphics cards and more versatile SSD options make the iMac brutally fast on the desktop, and even more shockingly spry in the gaming arena. Wrap it all up in the same well-mannered box that has become a template for industrial designers everywhere, and you have a winning desktop set to continue Apple’s domination in the all-in-one arena.

Highs:

• Drool-worthy 27-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD display


• Top-notch industrial design and build quality


• Ultra-fast bootup with SSD option


• Killer gaming performance with Radeon HD 5750


• Surprisingly ample sound


• Cool and quiet, even during gaming

Lows:

• Abysmal keyboard and mouse


• No analog 5.1-channel outputs, Blu-ray option


• Pricy relative to similarly equipped PCs

New Breakthrough to Shrink Computer Chips Even Smaller

Scientists at Rice University may have overcome a fundamental barrier to the continued miniaturization of computer chips, clearing the way for faster and smaller chips than have ever been possible with traditional silicon.

For a while, it seemed like the proverbial good times would never end when it came to computer development. Everyone wants things smaller and faster, and manufacturers have been more than happy to provide.

In 1965, Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore famously claimed that the number of transistors that can be realistically and inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit should double approximately every two years. The observation became known as Moore’s law, and for over four decades, it has driven the computer industry to continue to push to increase capacities while shrinking computer chips. But eventually things have to stop. The limitations of the current generation of technology are beginning to show, and soon manufacturers will hit a fundamental block based on physics and expenses. Enter a new generation of technology.

Scientists at both Rice University and HP are separately reporting that they have both found ways to overcome that fundamental, and fast-approaching barrier. And they’re not alone. Intel, IBM, and others are also expanding their research into new ways to make sure the “good times” continue to roll.

According to the NY Times, researchers from Rice claimed to have discovered a way to build small, vitally needed digital switches at scales that have previously been thought impossible, by using silicon oxide. Silicon oxide is a common chemical compound used primarily as an insulator by the industry. Its ready availability and ease of manufacturing make it commercially appealing.

Working with a Texas-based startup called PrivaTran, Rice scientists have begun to make prototype chips. The new chips use filaments that are five nanometers in width — a nanometer is one billionth the size of a meter. That makes the filaments already thinner than what the computer industry hopes to produce within the next ten years using current manufacturing techniques. The discovery was made by Jun Yao, a graduate researcher at Rice, who said he accidentally discovered the switch. At the moment, the chips can only hold 1,000 bits of data, but within five years scientists promise that these new chips could rival any current chips for capacity.

HP is also planning an announcement of a partnership with an unnamed semiconductor company regarding similar, but competing technology. Both HP and Rice are developing what are called memristors (memory resistors), switches that can retain information without power in the same way that flash memory can retain data. The technology being developed by Rice and HP has existed in theory since the 1960s, but there has not been a practical way to realize it until now.

Currently chip manufacturers have made finding or developing next-generation technology a priority. Each new advanced chip-making factory can cost in excess of $4 billion to properly stock it with the tools and equipment needed to make the current generation of chips. One current method for expanding on existing technology is to increase the density of chips by layering them, and stacking circuits on top of each other. The process is costly, it is producing results, and it still has room for growth — but it is a stop gap measure, and will eventually reach its limits.

Not to be out done by Rice or HP, IBM, Intel and others are developing competing technology called phase-change memory, which relies on heat to transform a glassy material into a crystalline state, then back again. The technology has shown promise, especially for flash chips which retain memory without power.

Don’t expect any major new technologies to hit the shelves for a while yet, but the future for computer chips once again looks limitless.

Google Buys Social Gaming Outfit SocialDeck

Google's acquisition spree isn't letting up: Google just bought social game company SocialDeck for an undisclosed amount.

Internet giant Google is continuing its string of acquisitions—and is showing more signs of investing heavily in social networking and entertainment—by acquiring SocialDeck for an undisclosed amount. SocialDeck makes casual games for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Facebook, with plans to expand to the Android platform. Neither Google nor SocialDeck have commented on how Google plans to integrate SocialDeck into the company, but Google’s interest may be in SocialDeck’s Spark platform, which can coordinate players across social games on multiple platforms, enabling iPhone users to play with users on Facebook, for example.

“We started this company with the goal of connecting friends through social games on all kinds of exciting newmobile devices,” SocialDeck wrote on it’s Web site. “We’ve been amazed and humbled by all of the stories and experiences our customers (you!) have shared with us.”

The company hasn’t announced whether its current stable of games will continue to be supported or (in one case) offered for sale.

SocialDeck marks Google’s fifth acquisition in recent weeks: it’s also picked up social game developer Slide, virtual currency firm Jambool, social news startup Ångströ, and online retailer Like.com.

SanDisk Fuse+ MP3 Player Features Filmstrip Interface

SanDisk's Fuse+ MP3 player sports microSDHC storage, large color LCD display, and a swipe-based filmstrip user interface.

The mobile music market might be focused on smartphones right now, but that doesn’t mean there’s no market for standalone portable media players…and to that end SanDisk has announced its new SanDisk Fuse+ MP3 Player, sporting a large color LCD display, video playback capability, microSDHC removable storage, and swipe-based “filmstrip” interface for selecting music and navigating player functions. And the Fuse+ is available in 4, 8, and 16 GB capacities at suggested prices of $79, $89, and $119, respectively.

“The Sansa Fuze+ is the most versatile portable media player available for under $100,” said SanDisk AV retail senior director Tom Bailey, in a statement. “We developed an entirely new product to provide consumers with a stylish, affordable device that performs exactly as a sophisticated yet easy to use player should.”

LIke most media players, the Fuse+ supports a variety of audio formats (including MP3, WMA, WAV, DRM-free AAC/M4A, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Audible, and Secure WMA), along with H.264, MPEG-4, WMV, and Flip Video video formats. The unit sports a 2.4-inch color LCD display, and a new capacitive touchpad that SanDisk says provides the convenient feel of using a touchscreen without obscuring the visible display. The devices are available with 4, 8, or 16 GB of built-in memory that can be augmented with microSDHC removable storage for up to 16 GB additional storage. SanDisk says the rechargeable batteries should handle up to 24 hours of audio playback or five hours of video—and the device packs an FM radio if that stored digital content gets too boring. The Fuse+ players are also pre-configured for synchronization with the Rhapsody, Napster, and eMusic services.

SanDisk says the Fuse+ MP3 players are available now through retailers, although in-store pricing will be set by those retailers, so $79, $89, and $119 price points are just suggestions.

LG Debuts the World’s Thinnest 3D OLED TV

LG recently debuted a 31-inch OLED TV that measures just 2.9mm thin, and handles 3D content.

Today at the IFA tradeshow in Berlin, LG has debuted the world’s thinnest OLED (organic light emitting diode) TV, measuring just 2.9mm, according to Crave Asia. The thin OLED sets have been around since the 2007 introduction of the Sony XEL-1, but the LG model has the added benefit of 3D playback.

There is a catch though. No official price has been given yet for the set, but it will likely be expensive. Jaw droppingly expensive. The Chaebol 15-inch EL9500 OLED is on sale now in the U.S. For $2,500.

AMD decides it will retire ATI brand by 2011

It’s been four years since AMD bought ATI, and almost anyone who had apprehensions about the deal then, have by now resigned themselves to the fact, and for the most part, are happy about the way AMD has maintained ATI’s gamer quotient till this date, and how they saved it from Nvidia’s ruthless market tactics. While many industry experts felt $5.4 billion was simply too much to invest in a graphics company when with a similar amount of money AMD could have built its own, the popularity of the ATI brand was perhaps the number one factor in favour of an acquisition over internal development. Things are different now – ATI is at the top of its game, it has even edged out Nvidia as the market leader in discrete GPU shipments, and AMD is doing really well with its chipsets and integrated graphics. Things will apparently change some more soon, as AMD has revealed it will soon be doing away with the ATI brand.

Surprised? Well, not everyone is, as AMD has certainly been busy this past year, wresting the crown from Nvidia, and, also trying to simplify its brand structure in the form of AMD Vision, which is a logo a PC gets if the CPU and GPU are manufactured by AMD. Vision, Vision Premium, Vision Ultimate, and Vision Black are the price progressions, from entry-level to top-end.

AMD says it has some solid market research (at least as solid market research could ever be) to show why it has made the decision to phase out the ATI brand by Q1 2011, and retain only the Radeon/FirePro brands (thus making it AMD Radeon, or AMD FirePro).

Here is a look at AMD’s internal research:

These points all certainly make sense from a marketing point of view, but what will really connect to gamers’ hearts, is the real question. One thing is for sure though, AMD certainly benefited from ATI’s expertise and brand name, and, for gamers, it was a win-win situation, with AMD-ATI and Nvidia competing head to head to produce some seriously killer architecture. ATI will live on in the mass consciousness, leaving a tangible vacuum as it is going out at its very zenith.

Let us know what you think about AMD’s move, in the below comments section.

Do also check out some more research below from AMD that apparently justifies the move, as well as the new logos of AMD’s graphics products:

Top Netbooks For All Budgets, What's Your Pick?

Samsung N150

• Dimensions (WxHxD): 10.4 x 1.37 x 7.4 mm


• Weight: 1.23 Kg


• Processor: Intel Atom N450, 1.66 GHz


• Memory: 1 GB DDR2


• HDD: 160 GB


• Graphics: Intel GMA 3150


• Screen: 10.1-inch


• Connectivity: 10/100 Ethernet, Wi-Fi N.


• Battery: 5 hours 32 minutes


• Operating system: Windows 7 Starter 


• Price: Rs 18,802

Acer eMachines em350

• Dimensions (W x H x D): 258.31 x 25.14 x 184.91mm


• Weight: 1.10 kg


• Processor: Intel Atom N450, 1.66 GHz


• Memory: 1 GB DDR2


• HDD: 160 GB


• Graphics: Intel GMA 3150


• Screen: 10.1-inch glossy (1024 x 600)


• Connectivity: 10/100 Ethernet, Wi-Fi N


• Battery: 6 hours 25 minutes


• Operating system: Linux


• Price: Rs 15,824

Lenovo Ideapad S-10 3

• Dimensions (W x H x D): 248.31 x 21 x 182 mm


• Weight: 990 gms


• Processor: Intel Atom N450/N455, 1.66 GHz


• Memory: 1 GB DDR2/DDR3


• HDD: 250 GB


• Graphics: Intel GMA 3150


• Screen: 10.1-inch glossy (1024 x 600)


• Connectivity: 10/100 Ethernet, Wi-Fi N


• Battery: 4 hours 20 minutes


• Operating system: Windows 7 Starter


• Price: Rs 17,891

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (S541040IN8)

• Dimensions (W x H x D): 266.7 x 33 x 198.12 mm


• Weight: 1.36 kg


• Processor: Intel Atom N450, 1.66 GHz


• Memory: 1 GB DDR2


• HDD: 250 GB


• Graphics: Intel GMA 3150


• Screen: 10.1-inch glossy (1024 x 600)


• Connectivity: 10/100 Ethernet, Wi-Fi b/g


• Battery: Over 8 hours


• Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Starter 32-bit


• Price: Rs 17,900


• Bundle: Microsoft Office Starter 2010 (pre-loaded)

The base price for the Mini 10 is about Rs 15,400 (for the Linux variant), and then there are two other variants, one with Windows XP (Rs 16,900 and same hardware) and one with Windows 7 but 2 GB RAM (Rs 21,400).

Nokia to Host Email Server in India From Nov

Nokia will host an email server in India from November 5, D Shivakumar, vice president and managing director of Nokia India, said on Monday.

Download Firefox 4 Beta 4

Mozilla development team has released the forth beta of its Firefox 4. Similar to previousversion, the latest release of the Firefox 4beta 4 is also built on Mozilla’s Gecko 2.0 Webplatform. The new release has been featured with FirefoxSync and Firefox Panorama for allow users to control their personal Web experience by syncing their data across devices and organize their tabs in order.

The Firefox 4 beta 4 includes the following new features and improvements:

• Firefox Sync – Makes bookmarks, history, Awesome Bar, passwords, form-fill data and open tabs accessible across multiple computers and mobile devices.


• Firefox Panorama (formerly known as Tab Candy) – Gives users a visual overview of all open tabs, allowing them to be sorted and grouped.


• Firefox 4 Beta 4 is available in 39 languages.


• An Experimental API – Provide more efficient Javascript animations.


• Supports HTML5 video “buffered” property.

The latest Firefox 4 beta 4 is now available for free download at Mozilla official site. Just head to the following URL to access official Firefox 4 beta 4 download:

Windows (English)- http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-4.0b4&os=win&lang=en-US

Linux (English) – http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-4.0b4&os=linux&lang=en-US

Mac OS X (English) – http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-4.0b4&os=osx&lang=en-US

Nokia N8, the world's first Symbian 3 phone

We recently got our hands on Nokia’s upcoming flagship Symbian^3 device, the Nokia N8, which is due to release at the end of September. We’ll be getting a test unit shortly, so stay tuned for our review of the device - a detailed look that will really let you know if the N8 is up to the mark compared to the other top-end smartphones available in the market today, as well as their competing operating systems and interfaces. In the meanwhile, our hands-on preview should whet your appetite till our comprehensive review …

Build/Hardware

Very well built, the N8’s body is constructed entirely out of aluminium, which is a first for Nokia, who till now relied on plastic, or at most, metal battery panels. It fits well in the hand, comfortably heavy at 135g. The body is completely scratch-proof, excepting the screen, which is scratch-resistant. We tried our hands scratching the body with metal, our nails, and, even if we managed to make a slight mark, it vanished once wiped against cloth.The aluminium body will be available anodized into 5 different and trendy colours – dark grey, silver white, green, blue, and orange – all in an elegant matte finish.

The N8 features a singular button on the top panel, which is the menu (and program manager) button, placed at the bottom left corner of the large 3.5-inch screen. Some may find the placement of this main menu button to be slightly inaccessible, but we thought it was conveniently placed. On the top right corner of the screen, lies the phone’s secondary camera. On the right side panel, are volume/zoom rocker, screen lock, and the dedicated camera button. On the left, are the microUSB and microSD card slots, covered well with their own plastic, body-coloured seals. On top is the port for HDMI-out, a 3.5mm audio jack (both input and output), and the power button.

On the back panel of the N8 lies an extruded rectangle that contains a Xenon flash, the phone’s speaker, and the famous 12MP camera, which has already made a very solid impression with everyone who’s ever seen Nokia’s sample videos and images. While we weren’t allowed to upload any of the photos/videos we took with the phone during our hands-on time with it (as the models we used were still prototypes, and not the production pieces), we can safely assure you that the images and videos we took were outstanding in their clarity, colour accuracy, and lack of noise when seen on a 40-inch Samsung HDTV display. According to Nokia, the 12MP sensor’s pixels are 47% bigger than other equivalent cameras, allowing for much better night vision, as well as clearer images. The camera also sports a 28mm wide angle lens, which is truly exceptional for a phone’s camera. From our short time with the device, we feel pretty safe to say the N8 would without a doubt get a 9.5/10 in our camera review, setting the mark for all future camera-phones. The sound recorded during the video was also crystal clear, with an exceptional microphone that picked up even the slightest noise in the background. When you use the HDMI cable for video/audio output, the Nokia N8 will also give its users the advantage of Dolby Digital Surround sound, up to 5.1 (the phone will come bundled with a mini-HDMI to HDMI connector, and the HDMI cable will have to be bought separately). The phone's own audio output is pretty good, with the speaker on the back panel providing some rather powerful sound.



As for the phone’s display, we were happy with the brightness and contrast of the AMOLEDscreen, but unfortunately, were not able to do a sunlight readability test. Perhaps the most shocking aspect about the display however, is its resolution, limited to 640x360. This will put the phone at an overwhelming disadvantage compared to other top-end smartphones out there, most of whom support full 720pHD video playback. It is even more shocking, when you think about the excellent video recording quality of the camera, which is equal to 720p HD at 25fps. The media player onboard will allow the user to play 720p HD video however, which is great only if you are porting it out via the HDMI cable to the television. It does this flawlessly however, as we saw in a video demonstration, which we credit to the onboard 3D graphics accelerator.

The N8 has a monoblock design, and doesn’t contain a user-replaceable battery. It is instead built into the body, ostensibly to extend battery life without the dissipation of heat through the near negligible air space between a conventional user-replaceable battery and its slot. The battery will be replaceable by Nokia Care, unlike some other devices out there, which make you replace the entire piece, and take no responsibility for data lost in the process. The is Nokia’s first such phone with a completely sealed body (to be opened only by an authorized professional), and in case you are worried that you will no longer be able to force switch-off the N8 if it hangs, we were assured that the power button will always react and shutdown the device when held down for a few seconds, no matter if the phone is hung. You’ll have to wait for our review to see if this is actually the case...

Our only quibble with the body of the Nokia N8 was that extruded rectangle on the back panel, which makes it relatively uncomfortable to type with the phone placed on its back in landscape mode, stead of being held in your hands.

Elsewhere on the hardware front, the Nokia N8 scores high with a new feature, called USB On-the-Go, which allows users to directly connect USB flash drives to their phone, without a laptop or desktop as the necessary go between. This will allow you to transfer files with ease, and depending on the weight of the media, even allow you do enjoy some playback directly from USB. For this feature, Nokia will be bundling a microUSB to normal USB connector with the phone. Before you get TOO excited however (it is pretty exciting), there are some limitations to this feature, and you will not be directly connect and access a USB storage drive that requires over a certain amount of power from the USB interface to run, which puts many medium sized external HDD out of the picture. However, those external HDD that are externally powered will run fine.



Speaking of storage, the phone boasts of 16GB built-in, comparably large with other top smartphones in the world which also provide microSD expandability. All this puts the total onboard storage at 48GB. No processor or memory specs were have been officially revealed as of now, though speculation has it that it sports an ARM 11 680 MHz processor, and has 256MB RAM and 512MB ROM. .

Interface/Operating System

The Nokia N8 is the world’s first Symbian^3 phone, a product of a family of operating systems that many now disparage as boring and archaic. According to Nokia though, the intense familiarity is a good thing, enhancing the usability of the phone. Nokia calls the N8 the best N-series ever, with the best ever multimedia features. The S^3 OS is a big part of that, this is what Nokia thinks will make it stand out from the rest…

Speed 

Simplicity 

Familiarity 

Integration 

As for speed, the Nokia N8’s UI is supposedly 3 times faster than the previous best Nokia N-series phone, the N97. This is in no small part to due its onboard graphics accelerator in exclusion to the processor, giving a boost to the GUI, Flash content, and media playback.

The phone has a capacitive touchscreen that supports multi-touch, so if you’ve owned a a recent touchscreen smartphone, you’ll feel quite familiar with pinch-to-zoom and other gesture controls. The Nokia N8 breaks away from previous Nokia-Symbian phones with a 3 homescreen layout, each offering customizable widgets and wallpapers. They can be scrolled either by side-swiping, or by clicking the central homescreen touch button, and will wraparound (i.e., from the go from the third screen to the first, or first to third, directly). They can be customized on site. The UI auto-rotate is responsive, with very tolerable lag when switching orientation.

A great feature of the phone is access to the WebTV application, which allows users to get digitized content that’s play on demand, free of cost, requiring either a 3G or Wi-Fi connection. Nokia has tied up with several content partners, and will be providing various Indian news, sports and entertainment channels, as well as a smattering of global content providers, direct to phone. Any channel can now use the Nokia N8 and other future phones as a platform, and simply have to digitize their content, and Nokia will handle the rest.

As for integration, the latest N-series device will provide native social networking tools with Socials, and Ovi application, which requires a one-time registration for an Ovi account. After that, Facebook and Twitter are accessible at many points in the UI, allowing users to share and view content, with aggregated contacts worked in via Ovi Contacts. The feature will also allow users to tag Facebook photos directly on the phone, something which was not previously possible. Users can also download dedicated Facebook and Twitter apps from the Ovi Store, which while not requiring an Ovi account, will not give users access to numerous native sharing options, aggregate contacts and a unified inbox. As for mail, the N8 supports push mail service, and it was very easy setting up our mail account into the phone’s native mail application. When we get the handset for review, we’ll give you a more detailed look at its limitations and abilities on this front, for after all, this IS an N-series device.

Coming to the Ovi Store, the Nokia N8 will enjoy unprecedented backward compatibility, for all the apps in the Ovi Store will have ported versions for it, apart from of course, brand new content developed with the Symbian^3 OS in mind.



The phone also comes with Nokia’s Ovi Maps preloaded for India and select locations across the world, something the company says will also be a big boon for its customers compared to other GPS services, as the phone will only require a bare minimum of downloaded content (and there for data transfer) to provide navigation. The other bonus with Ovi Maps is of course, “free navigation, forever”.

Overall, the phone is remarkably simple to use, and its interface seems to blend into the background…So, maybe there is something to this familiarity thing…We can’t wait to review the phone for you, so stay tuned to know how the Nokia N8 compares to the flagship smartphones out there, and, how the Symbian^3 OS really chalks up against Android, iOS, and BlackBerry 6 in terms of accessibility and customizability.