Fone Arena

Opera announces the new Opera Mobile for Android. The Opera said that they are developing the new Opera Mobile for android and they told that it will be out within a month. The Opera Mobile for android will be featuring two exclusive features such as

• Hardware Acceleration
• Pinch to zoom

Hardware Acceleration in Android brings out fluidity in browsing. The webpages are rendered in the hardware which gives more faster outputs. Hardware acceleration allows smooth pinch to zoom features. With Pinch to Zoom you will be able to choose the own level of zoom as like Opera Desktop.  The texts in the webpages will now be rendered at a per character level and zooming in will be a fluid zoom from page-width down to the text you want to focus on.

Opera Mobile is expected to hit the android market within a month.

Opera Mobile For Android Coming this Month ©, .

• Opera Releases Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta For S60 Phones
• Download Opera Mini 5 Beta2 and Opera Mobile 10 Beta 2
• Contest : Opera Mini
• Opera Mini 4 get the full web on your phone
• Native version of Opera Mini for Windows Mobile phones launched

Here are some TV Ads which Nokia has been airing in UK for the newly launched N8.  There are 4 such ads embedded below. Let us know your favorite one .

Angry Birds

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB6xKOSNy_U

Need for Speed Shift

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6RITa16Saw

Shoot your movie in HD

www.youtube.com/watch?v=18HPss4XYsk

The X Factor

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q42LBrbcNaQ

Round up of Nokia N8 TV Ads ©, .

• [Video] Nokia N8 TV Ad -- It’s not technology, it’s what you do with it
• Video : Nokia N8 Photo and Video Editing Demo
• Nokia 3720 -- A phone that survives torture -- Videos included
• The Nokia N8 Is Perfect, There, I Said It
• Nokia N8 Music and Video Playback

The N8 (or Nate as I’m growing used to call it) is here. It’s been released, it’s shipping, and people all around the world are receiving their units. Finally, after too long a wait, I have an N8 in my hands, for a proper test and review. Following my “The N8 is Perfect, There, I said it” assertion, there really is very little I can say to top it up. Or can I?

The N8 landed in my hands 2 days ago, and while I still maintain that it IS the perfect handset for the photography and multimedia buffs, I had mentioned that it doesn’t target me, and I’m not particularly thrown towards buying one. So, over the last 48 hours, I’ve gone from awe to oh to ouch and back to awe several times with the N8 in my hands. Here is the compiled initial list of N8 wins and fails, in my book.

WINS

1. The hardware keeps puzzling me. It’s the best hardware on any phone I have ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot. Just beautiful.
2. Somehow it feels smaller when held in landscape, compared to portrait, which is good because I use it mostly in landscape.
3. The silver version, while the least of my favorite colors on press release images, is nice. I just got the dark gray one too, and I have to say I like the silver one more. It pops. The dark gray version is stale and more manly.
4. As soon as you fire it, the N8 asks you to set up your Nokia Account. After signing in, both Ovi Maps and the Ovi Store are set, so you don’t have to do it again. I have to check for other services.
5. The capacitive AMOLED screen is really cool. It’s sensitive enough without being too much, which trumps my iPod Touch that reacts to anything and everything. The colors and visibility outdoors are perfect.
6. Ovi Store v2 is MILES better. I had seen screenshots of it, but having it in your hand gives you a true feel of it. Faster, better search, simultaneous downloads, it’s finally what Ovi Store v1 should have been.



7. Social lets you connect into Twitter and Facebook. It’s better than I imagined it would be and good enough for the casual user. Me? I’ll just go download Gravity. Thankyouverymuch.
8. Nokia Messaging looks and works beautifully. Just leaps beyond the mess that it is on S60 5th Edition. At least it doesn’t bug with a half screen when rotating it to landscape.
9. The contact homescreen plugin lets you add much more than 4 contacts as favorites, like the 5800 XpressMusic or the X6. This wasn’t implemented on widget-based devices before like the N97 or N97 Mini. You flick to go through them all.
10. While organizing the menu, I noticed that you can finally move folders into and out of parent folders. You can also long click on an item to specify a folder you want to move it to, instead of changing to a parent folder, then moving back into another.



11. iSync on the Mac works really well with the N8. Contacts & Calendar sync’ed in a breeze.
12. Dear goodness me, thank god those silly 3 buttons from S60 5th Edition have been mostly removed. They used to take half the screen in landscape with Options & Exit. They won’t be missed.



13. Copy music to the N8, put a .jpg image inside the album folder, and it will recognize it as Album Art. About friggin time! All my music is tagged in iTunes, which never played well with any Symbian music player. The N8 is the first where I can finally see my music albums in all their glory. My iPod Touch has been giddy in its pouch since I got the N8. That’s all I’ll say.



14. It plays DIVX movies natively. I threw at it some .avi tv shows and movies and it played them without a hitch.

FAILS

1. The portrait keyboard, with the numerical pad is a hell to get used to. They moved the arrows and OK to the bottom which is counter-intuitive & makes for tons of mistakes if you’re used to keyboards on the N97, 5800 XpressMusic…



2. There was a bug with the predictive T9 input where it was throwing crazy letters at me. Type 4 and I was getting T. I changed a few settings, changed the language from English to Arabic, then back to English and it worked again. Will keep my eye on this bug.
3. The landscape QWERTY is a huge PIA as well. It’s better than any landscape qwerty on S60 5th Edition, mind you, but it’s still terrible. No multitouch means if you type a bit fast, you’ll end up with lots of missed letters. Small spacebar means it gets missed half the time and you find words stuck together with no space in between. Also, I have yet to type one full sentence without some sort of letter mis-typed. Using the keyboard is like burning through hell for complicated passwords.



4. Many times, you’ll find yourself with a pop-up text box asking you to type something, then you have to tap again in it to get to the keyboard. Double taps are just uggghhh.



5. I passionately HATE the UI for app switching. Yes the cards and live view look good, but as soon as you have more than 4 apps open at the same time, it’s a hell to go through and inefficient at best. You’ll find yourself clicking, scrolling, missing, scrolling back, wondering what you were doing… I’ve suggested they make a Settings option to go back to the regular switcher or a text list of open apps.



6. The out-of-the-box menu organization is a huge mess. I had to spend 5 minutes trying to make some sense out of how icons are arranged.
7. Nokia Messaging doesn’t let you go offline. There’s no way you can disconnect it if you want to save some battery life or bandwidth. Unless you change the retrieval times for emails, I guess.
8. The loudspeaker on the back of the phone is loud enough when lying on flat solid surfaces because the device is angled enough to let the sound pass. But put it on a bed or a mushy surface, and it all goes down to almost nothing, volume-wise.
9. Comparing the N8 screen to the Retina Display on my iPod Touch 4, the N8 has more vibrant colors, but the iPod trumps it heavily in terms of resolution. Sample images coming soon in a separate post.
10. While I can and have set Opera Mobile as my default browser, instead of the S60 browser, no app so far opens links in it. Not from email, not from Gravity, not from SMS. Every link still opens in the default browser. What about that?!
11. Battery life is definitely not a winner. I woke up at 7am, I did a bit of WiFi surfing in the morning, then reverted to Gravity & Nokia Messaging mostly. I had to recharge at 3pm.
12. Automatic screen rotation annoys me because of two things. One, there’s no easy way to disable automatic screen rotation. Try reading on the N8 while lying in bed and you’ll be in for a big tango dance with the screen orientation. Two, the screen rotation is slow’ish. It could do with being a bit faster or some fade-in transition.
13. There’s no built-in torch function like on the newer E7 and C7. And there is no way for you to download any torch because the N8 doesn’t have an LED flash. I had totally forgotten about this small thing, but I have grown used to using the E5 and N97 Mini as my carry torch for the frequent electricity cuts here.
14. And the funniest Fail of all? The T9 English predictive dictionary has iPhone but not Ovi (thanks to @gorgonesh and @jamaalism for letting me discover both).

Well that’s fourteen on both sides. I obviously left the most important aspect. I did NOT talk about the camera, because there’s no need to talk about it. It speaks for itself. I will, however, mention that we finally have a quick access to switch between video & stills mode, a welcome improvement.

There’s still so much to discover about the N8. I will specifically try to see how I get on with the keyboard which so far is my biggest gripe, maybe activating predictive text (which I’m usually against because I use transliterated Arabic sometimes), or maybe installing Swype.

I get to keep this unit for a while, so I will see how it blends into my everyday usage over time, not only as a short-time review unit. Honestly, at this point today, I look at my N97 Mini and feel ashamed of Symbian^1, everything seems retarded on it. The usability has gone leaps ahead on Symbian^3, no doubt about that. It’s not a revolution, but it’s what Symbian^1 should have been since the start: responsive, adapted to touchscreens, good looking. So my final impression is this:

All is not yet lost for Symbian & Nokia.

Nokia N8, The Initial List Of Fourteen Wins And Fails ©, .

• Gallery Face-Off: Nokia 5530 XpressMusic vs 5800 vs iPod Touch
• Nokia E7 First Impressions
• Nokia To Launch Music Store In India by Year End
• The Nokia N8 Is Perfect, There, I Said It
• Sony Ericsson Satio VS Nokia N97, 5800 XpressMusic And X6

We had the chance of speaking with Mr. Arun Khanna , Chairman of Olive Telecom regarding the company’s plan to sell products through it’s online store. He told FoneArena that the Olive Pad has generated a lot of interest and that the company is in the process of upgrading the software to Android 2.2 Froyo and the device will be available  in 10-15 days

They have decided to sell products online after feedback from customers  expressing inability to purchase products in stores.He said the portal will still function as a lead generation mechanism for the retail channel and products will be shipped from distribution points.They promise to deliver products purchased online within 5 days in all state capitals.The company has been working on this plan for the past 8 months.Regarding the payment gateway , India is the main focus and international should follow up.

We also asked him about the most successful Olive product so far and  and the answer was the company’s Triple SIM QWERTY device.Olive is also set to enter into the smartphone segment and aims to smartphone player as the market is growing. android might be an option.3G roll out will see variety of 3G devices from Olive.

Olive Pad is on Track and getting Android 2.2 Froyo says Chairman of Olive Telecom ©, .

• Olive Telecom launches online store and sells products directly to consumers including OlivePad

Videocon Mobile Phones made their entry into the Android world by announcing the Zeus smartphone powered by Android.

The Videocon Zeus is powered by Android 2.1 Eclair and it has the following specifications:

• 3.2″ Capacitive Touchscreen with Multi-Touch
• 600 MHz Processor
• 5 Megapixel Camera with LED Flash and 24FPS Video Recording
• Wi-Fi, A-GPS, Push Mail
• micro-SD Card Slot upto 32GB
• Accelerometer, 5 Home Screens
• 1230 mAH Battery

The package contents are:

• Vodafone Zeus Smartphone
• Two 1230 mAH Batteries
• Wall Charger
• Car Charger
• Carrying Pouch
• Special Applications Guide
• 8GB micro-SD

The phone will be available for purchase at a price of Rs 12900. Videocon have also announced 4 other phones- theV1410, V1603, V1475 & V1606.

Videocon Zeus-Android Powered Smartphone ©, .

• Vodafone UK releases the Vodafone 945
• Videocon Mobile Phones
• Videocon launches GSM Mobile Services in Chennai
• HTC Merge showing up in Verizon inventory, new Android smartphone?
• Vodafone UK launching HTC Desire HD soon

Nokia N8 costs around $560 in India and it takes Nokia about $187 to make. The Nokia N8 hardware were supplied by Samsung Electronics Co., Toshiba Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc.  California-based iSuppli have torn down the Nokia N8 and he revealed the specs of N8 hardware.

The most expensive element of the N8 is the display and touchscreen, which cost $39.25. The chipset used to run the operating system and applications in the N8 cost $22.It includes digital and analog processors made by Texas Instruments and a Broadcom Corp. multimedia processor with support for the HDMI port for high- definition TV output. Memory components, including 16 gigabytes of mass storage, cost $37.12. The cost of the camera elements added $31.08.

P.S: The estimate doesn't include costs for items such as labor, shipping, advertising, software development or patent licensing.

Via

Nokia N8 costs $187 to make might be using Samsung AMOLED Display ©, .

• Nokia N8 is the World’s First Dolby Digital Plus phone
• Nokia N8 USB OTG Demo with PenDrive
• Nokia 12 Megapixel Phone Leaked!
• Nokia N8 Unboxing
• Is this the Nokia E7 or N98 ?

Bharti Airtel  announced Airtel mGolu Contest 2010 as part of the Dussehra festive season where every participant would get an assured gift .  To particiapte in the contest the subscribers are asked to click and send photographs of unique Golus via MMS (Multimedia messaging service) to 55563. Airtel said that,“Every participating customer will get an assured gift of 10 free local SMSes and the 5 best entries will be awarded 1gm gold coin each" .

Five of the best entries in Airtel mGolu Contest 2010 would be selected on basis of attractiveness, display, innovation and their relevance to the theme. Bharti Airtel Mobile Services CEO (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) Mr Rajiv Rajgopal said "We at Airtel have always been exploring every opportunity to connect with our customers today, we are happy to announce Airtel mGolu Contest 2010 as an exciting opportunity for our Mobile customers" .

The contest which begins on 13-10-2010 and concludes on October 17, 2010.

Airtel launches mGolu contest ©, .

• iPhone by Airtel to release on August 22, 2008
• iPhone 3G in India Bharti Airtel Apple ink Deal
• Airtel in $100-mn deal with IBM
• AirTel also to bring iPhone in India
• iPhone 3GS India Price And Release Date Announced

Today October 13th 2010 Reliance the global partner of ICC Cricket World Cup organized a preview of the trophy at Mumbai today.Reliance Mobile also introduced a series of promotional activities for ICC CWC 2011 which is scheduled to begin in February 2011.

Reliance Mobile will go LIVE with all ICC CWC 2011 matches through its  specially created ICC zone on R-World VAS platform. Reliance Mobile customers will be able to keep track of the 49 ICC CWC 2011 matches via WAP and SMS Alerts. They will be able to watch live stream of match highlights videos, watch previews and match round-ups, and download wallpapers and ringtones with their handsets on both GSM and CDMA networks.

Reliance Mobile will provide access to ICC rankings, archived content of previous tournaments, news & analysis of match/tournament/players, ball-by-ball score updates on Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Data protocol. Customers will have thechoice of downloading video clips and receiving video alerts over SMS.
Reliance Mobile customers will also have a range of services to choose from including video clippings of all matches India plays with live audio commentary and moment-by-moment text commentary on their handsets. Customers can capture the action and rare moments of the championship and set them as wallpapers. They can also set the ICC World Cup theme song as their caller ring back tune and download the video of the theme song.

Akshay Kumar, CEO & Regional Head, South West, Reliance Communications said, "The key market drivers will be the increasing availability of 3G services and support for high quality video, the globalization of sport personalities and club support, and the improvement of digital sports rights for mobile distribution.These drivers apply to many types of leisure and information content, but none more so than sports content. There is a great opportunity for content owners, application service providers and operators to exploit sport content over the mobile channel in multiple innovative ways"

Reliance Mobile will offer this application for iPhone, iTouch devices, Blackberry, Android & Symbian enabled devices, Nokia Ovi Store, Java devices and Samsung app store handsets.

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said: "As we prepare for what will be a great celebration of the game at our flagship event next year, we are fortunate to have a group of top-class partners whose commitment to the game is unquestioned. Without that commitment we would not be in a position to help our 105 Members grow the game as they do around the world. Through its commitment to and passion for the game, Reliance Mobile is helping to make our great sport even greater."

Reliance Communications to offer Live Streaming of the Cricket World Cup 2011 ©, .

• Reliance Joins Hands with GetJar to create an App Store
• Reliance launches Rural Mobile Application Contest
• Mobile Blogging now possible with Reliance
• Reliance Communications Planning Massive Expansion in Orissa
• Reliance GSM now in Madurai

Today, Nokia announced the latest addition to the CSeries lineup of phones-the C5-03. The C5-03 is a low priced touchscreen aimed at the masses.

The specifications of Nokia C5-03 are:

• 105.8x51x13.8mm, 93 grams
• Symbian Series S60 5th Edition (Symbian^1)
• 3.2″ Touchscreen
• 5 Megapixel Camera with 4x Digital Zoom
• 40 MB Internal Memory, micro-SD Card Slot (Supports upto 16GB)
• Wi-Fi, GPS, OVI Maps, Compass

The phone has a two tone colour style and comes in various colours and combinations.

The phone is expected to launch at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010 at a price of 170 Euros before subsidies or taxes.

via Nokia Conversations

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON8-hiuu4NU

Nokia C5-03 Announced ©, .

• Nokia C5 Hands On Video
• Nokia C5 Short Hands On
• Nokia C5 Live Pics
• Nokia C5 Leaked in Pictures
• Nokia C3, Nokia C6 and Nokia E5 released

We just shared a Preview of BlackBerry Torch few hours ago and India too has some Torch goodness now. RIM launched the BlackBerry Torch 9800 along with BB OS 6.0 in an event in Mumbai today.FoneArena was present at the event and we have tons of hands on pics of the device coming up.

As we expected the Blackberry Torch is carrying a Price tag of Rs.35000 in India. While most might call it expensive , the target audience might not bother about it much. The company has also announced its plans for rollout of BlackBerry OS 6.0 for compatible devices in India which include Bold2, Pearl 3G and Curve 3G.

Will you pay 35K for a Torch that has impressive hardware , reloaded software and can do amazing email ?

BlackBerry Torch Launched in India at a Price of Rs.35000 ©, .

• Blackberry Torch India Launch Soon
• Preview: BlackBerry Torch Photo Gallery
• BlackBerry Torch 9800 Specs
• BlackBerry Torch 9800 Official Photos
• Blackberry Slider would be called 9800 Torch ?