Today, Nokia announced that the ever-efficient Swype keyboard will be coming to Symbian S60 5th edition devices. The software keyboard, which is currently being launched as a limited beta, supports the N97, N97 mini, X6, 5800, and 5230 Nokia handsets. As Nokia explains: “Swype and Nokia have been hard at work to deliver a limited beta release to Nokia S60 5th edition device owners. Your feedback will be valuable to us in the coming weeks, and we are especially interested in how well Swype interfaces with the many types of applications you use every day.” If you are interested in getting Swype on your S60 device, hit the jump to see a quick video followed by the download link.

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Mmmmmmm, Satio. If Symbian is your thing, it pretty much doesn’t get any better than this forthcoming beast from Sony Ericsson. Hell, even if Symbian isn’t your thing, you still have to respect this monster of a handset. While the ever-mysterious Xperia X3 (aka Rachael) still sits at the top of our list of Sony Ericsson kit we need ASAP, the Satio comes in at a close second. Why? If you weren’t paying attention back in May when SE announced it, allow us to refresh your memory: S60 5th Edition OS, 3.5-inch 640 x 360 pixel 16:9 touchscreen display, 12.1 megapixel camera with auto-focus, xenon flash and 12x digital zoom, 128 MB internal memory, microSDHC support, FM radio with RDS, aGPS with turn-by-turn navigation, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and plenty more. Yeah, that’s why. The first iteration of the Satio just cleared the FCC’s initial round of testing so we’re crossing our fingers extra tight with the hope that it materializes soon. Hit the jump for some gratuitous phone pr0n.

Thanks, Jon Dohnson!

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As Apple’s effort to launch the iPhone in China continues, it looks like Nokia’s ever popular 5800 XpressMusic may find its way there first. This new version of the handset, dubbed 5800i, has just cleared the FCC with specs that are nearly identical to the 5800, at least from what we can tell. The 5800i rocks WCDMA 900/2100MHz alongside quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, which lines up nicely with China Unicom. Oh, and then there’s the fact that the label is in Chinese. As for the rest of the specs, we’ll have to wait and see — though the 5800i is lacking Wi-Fi, like the China-bound iPhone. It would be interesting however, if this turned out to be the capacitive screen-rocking 5800 refresh that rattled around the rumor mill a few months ago. Unlikely, yes, but interesting. Hit the jump for more shots.

Thanks, D!

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A little over a month ago, a fearless (or stupid) Vodafone forum moderator got excited and blabbed about two unannounced handsets that would eventually be making their way to Voda — the BlackBerry Storm 2 and the Nokia N97 Mini. The former has been seen grazing in the wild many times already but the latter has managed to elude the digirazzi… Until now, that is. Behold, the Nokia N97 Mini. Maybe. While the authenticity of these first live N97 Mini shots has yet to be confirmed, they do depict what we would imagine the handset to be — a smaller N97. Of note, the phone pictured has a cluster of four arrow keys at the right end of the keypad in place of the d-pad found on the left of the N97. Also, for those who enjoy dropping a space between words with their left thumb from time to time, the space bar is still off to the right of the pad (though slightly closer to the center this time) and it’s still tiny. Whether or not this turns out to be the actual device, we can only hope the N97 Mini hits the US with a slightly more realistic price tag since the odds of a carrier snagging it aren’t great. Hit the jump for a shot of the back.

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Sure it hit the street less than a month ago but that’s plenty of time to rope in the early adopters when it comes to hot new high-end handsets. As such, Amazon.com has just dropped the price on Nokia’s new flagship handset to $599.99 with free shipping; still a bit high for some but definitely inching closer to attainability. While this isn’t the best advertised price we’ve seen thus far for the Nokia N97 — Nokia USA had it on sale for $594 late last month — it is the lowest total price including taxes so far. Any takers?

Also of note: Amazon.com dropped the price of the N79 to $300 lining it up with the 5800XM and E71, and the N85 is currently listed at $330. All are unlocked of course, including the N97, and waiting for your SIM card of choice.

[Via Symbian-Guru]

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Hoping to have some solid bug fixes and a few new additions in place on your shiny new Nokia N97 before you start partying this weekend (or even today if you live North of the border)? Well we told you it was coming and this morning it dropped — say hello to 11.0.021. Even the most staunch Nokia fanboys seemed to take issue with the release firmware on Nokia’s latest flagship handset and as such, this update is most definitely a welcome one. The firmware should be available in most regions and if you can’t get it OTA, fire up Nokia Software Updater and give it a go. As for what you can expect from this release, hit the jump for the change log. If you’ve installed it already, let us know what you think in the comments.

Side note: The N96 was updated today as well to 30.033. Yay.

Thanks, Joseph!

• USB detection error fix
• PC does not detect N97 or USB charging connection not detected.
• Widget
• Home screen online/offline widget crash fix
• Fix for “Alphabetical and Number input are mixed in facebook until end key is pressed.
• Widget UI improvement – New facebook widget fixes a problem of Home Screen background visible on soft-key area.
• Browser fixes to improve widgets stability.
• MfE related fixes
• Partial fix for Messaging/calendar entry lost.
• Mail for exchange calendar entry synchronization error fix.
• UI transition error fixes (Portrait <-> landscape transition, there is a home screen corruption.)
• UI transition (Slowness and bad effects)
• Slow Touch UI response
• Picture of the device lock appears half of the screen when transitioning the UI sometimes
• Landscape: in some cases the soft buttons on touch (right hand) show the Home Screen in background (install maps.google.com)
• Photos thumbnail performance and stability improvements
• Device performance deteriorates when lots of content in the device – especially photos
• Partial fix no display backlight illumination when unlocking lock-key – CAP Genius reported already
• New version of Accueweather to improve the “Connection error” situation
• Device reset when browsing with high speed packet access (for Malaysia)
• “Browser soft key UI doesn’t work after putting Chinese character with qwerty keyboard”
• Java fixes (TCK, Pre-install app disappearing, *#7370#*)
• Operator fixes (CMCC, Hutchson and Telefonica, Vodafone)
• Ovi store client now embedded in the core image

Just in time to make America’s birthday even more special, it looks like N97 owners will be enjoying a shiny new gift from our friends at Nokia this July 4th weekend. Just as the firmware version was recently updated on Nokia’s RDS service, so too will the firmware be updated on the N97. According to Nokia Conversations’ Twitter account, “N97 SW 1.1 (11.x.021)” will find itself in the hands of the people this Wednesday, July 1st. Rejoice! Sure, a firmware update isn’t going to resolve all of the issues we had with the handset — such as an off-center space button on the keypad (how?!) — but it will hopefully go great lengths to eliminate many of the bugs users are currently experiencing. As for exactly which regions/product codes will have access to the new firmware right out of the gate, unfortunately there’s no way of telling until the 1st rolls around.

Thanks, Nok-eee-ugh!

If you’re a Nokia fan who lives in Canada and just so happens to have $199.99 burning a hole in your pocket, it might interest you to know Rogers has released the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Available nation-wide as of today, the 5800 XpressMusic is a multimedia-centric S60 5th Edition smartphone with specs that include a 3.2-inch 640×360 resistive touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, auto-focus and dual-LED flash, 3.6Mbps HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi and aGPS. An 8GB microSD card also comes in the box to help pique your interest, though after playing around with one ourselves we’re not exactly convinced many Canadians are going to be picking up this device considering how many other awesome options there are in the same price range.

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With the ever-increasing popularity of handsets like the iPhone, Pre, Curve, Storm and so on, US mobile users are clearly warming up to devices tied to unlimited data plans. In fact, many would argue that owning a smartphone without unlimited data is mind boggling. In July of 2008, Nielsen estimated that 14 percent of US wireless subscribers had unlimited data plans. Following the tremendous success of devices like the iPhone 3G and BlackBerry Storm, we’re certain this number has ballooned since Nielsen’s report. Considering there are over 275 million wireless subscribers here in the US, we’re probably looking at somewhere around 50 million unlimited data plan-toting people currently gobbling up the nation’s wireless bandwidth.

Devices by RIM, Apple and Palm take advantage of unlimited data plans and keep a data connection alive at all times. Why wouldn’t they? This active data connection allows apps to go from dormant to useful with minimal delay — when it comes to UX of course, every millisecond counts. Enter S60 devices. Because the US is pretty low on the totem pole when it comes to Nokia’s target markets, S60 handles data differently. Abroad of course, unlimited data plans are not in abundance as they are here. Data is more expensive so every kilobit counts. As such, S60 handsets leave it up to applications to initiate a new data session each time they need to communicate. Since data sessions are then closed when an app is done communicating, users save money by minimizing throughput. Abroad, this is a great cost-saving feature. In the US, it’s merely a burden.

Since BGR HQ just took on a few new Nokia handsets, we were promptly reminded of S60′s connectivity data connectivity issues. As it happens however, a Nokia rep alerted us to a solution. Buried deep within the device settings where even most S60 power users we discussed the matter with couldn’t find it, there is a simple setting that can be adjusted to keep your data connection alive. On your S60 handset go to Settings -> Connection -> Packet Data, change “When Needed” to “When Available” and then key in your Access Point. You’ll now find that your handset keeps a data connection alive and when you launch data-dependant apps, they will spring to life much faster than before. Of course battery life will be affected to some extent, but you’ll have to decide which you value more: longevity where battery life is concerned or efficiency where usage is concerned. Unfortunately, it’s a choice S60 users are currently forced to make.

So maybe the iPhone 3G S announcement left you a bit unimpressed this morning. We can’t say we blame you, but there’s plenty more in store for mobile fans this month. Among the hoards of hot phones dropping in June is Nokia’s new flagship handset, the N97. Sure it’s a bit pricier at $700 than the 3G S but those who have been recession-proof at this point deserve to splurge a bit from time to time. S60 5th Edition, QWERTY, side-sliding/pivoting 640×360 pixel touchscreen, 5 megapixel shooter, 32GB of memory… It’s all good. The N97 will reportedly be available from Nokia Flagship stores starting today — who’s in?

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Well hello there, mister Blurrycam. It seems that lately, Rogers is all about firsts. Yesterday, Rogers released the world’s first two Android handsets north of the border. Hell, even Joshua Jackson came out to celebrate. Next up for the carrier — Nokia’s first S60 5th Edition handset, the 5800 XpressMusic. According to promotional signage found in various The Source locations, the 5800 is well on its way to joining the Motorola ROKR E8 and the upcoming Sony Ericsson W705 to form a solid music phone lineup. No pricing yet unfortunately and as for release timing, we have word that not all Rogers employees have received training on the device so it could be a while. Apparently The Source got a little excited. So… If Pacey was on hand for the Magic and Dream launch, do you think Rogers will be able to break Joey out of whatever cage Tom Cruise is keeping her in for the 5800 launch?

Thanks, Hassan!

You know that really fun game you play, Nokia smartphone owners, where a firmware update is released in one region and you get to sit there all angry until your product code is finally recognized and NSU allows you to update? Well apparently Adobe is familiar with that game as well because an updated version of Flash Lite for the 5800 XpressMusic has just been released. Rather than force users to wait for Nokia to finally get around to issuing a firmware update, the new Flash Lite build is available as a stand alone update. Woo! Here’s the change log according to Adobe:

• Improved Web Browsing, 91% of top 500 internet sites
• Flash 9 (AS2 only) support
• Local Connection / HTML Text / GetURL_target / CSS support / WMode
• H.264 support / Improved video support (smoothing, seek)
• Improved memory handling for images
• MP3 Streaming support
• Support for hardware acceleration – Flash Lite 3.1 supports OpenVG 1.1 to improve flash rendering performance on capable devices
• Linux Reference port

Now it’s true that the update might not be available for all regions just yet, but at least we can anticipate a shorter wait than if we were waiting for new firmware. Users who can access the update are reporting much smoother in-broswer video playback so it should be worth the [hopefully brief] wait. To see if the update is available in your region, check the App Update app on your 5800.

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June — now officially dubbed the month of the mobile — is almost upon us and among the myriad of exciting new handsets that will debut or at least become official this month is the Nokia N97. Our Finnish friends have high hopes for this pricey little piece of kit, which will be Nokia’s first Nseries to sport a touchscreen along with the S60 5th Edition OS. As for the NAM edition, it’s now looking like that rumor of pre-orders shipping in early June might just pan out — we’ve received a few tips from people who have pre-ordered the handset from Amazon and they’ve apparently received emails stating the handset will ship the week of June 15th. It stands to reason of course, that units will begin shipping directly Nokia before then or at least by that week. Does that mean we could actually see the handset released in the US before Europe? Well, our Euro pals, at least you can enjoy Nokia’s newly-posted N97 support pages while you continue to wait for orders to be filled.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Looking very, very much like the now-infamous Idou Sony Ericsson announced for 2H, the same source that let us all in on the VZW/Pro2 party has floated a live shot of an upcoming SE phone that obviously grabs our attention. By way of Captain Blurrycam, d474rpr.com (“data ripper”? we’re a little rusty) brings us the “Kokura” — which could possibly be a CDMA variant of Sony Ericsson’s Idou. Really?! Bear with us here: All of the handsets in d474rpr’s post are presumably in the hands of the same tester as they were all seemingly taken in the same kitchen. Verizon’s upcoming Touch Pro2, Verizon’s upcoming BlackBerry Tour, Alltel’s upcoming HTC Cedar… And the Kokura. S60 5th Edition on Verizon Wireless? We’ll just have to wait and see.

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We’ve long believed that the Nokia N97 would ship in out in July but a new rumor has the North American version of the N97 pegged for a June 2nd shippingdate. The evidence: a screenshot from the site of a major North American distributor, as seen above. We wouldn’t be at all surprised if this rumor pans out and the N97 makes an early word-wide release, especially considering Vodafone UK’s website now lists a June launch instead of July for the Euro edition. No matter what, unless you’re one of the lucky few who managed to score an N97 NAM on pre-order for $454.35, you may just want to hold off on pulling the trigger. From what we hear, June is going to be quite a month for new handsets in the US – *cough* iPhone *cough* Pre. Then again, it makes complete sense that Nokia would try to push the N97 out before the US starts going bananas for the aforementioned carrier-subsidized phones.

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