Nokia N96 goes official

Nokia has made an official announcement of the N96 smartphone at Mobile World Congress 2008. This is an heir of the N95, but looking like the N81. Like the predecessor, the new Nokia smartphone comes in a two-way slider form: the bottom part reveals a numeric keypad, while the top one hides the media player buttons. The company positions the N96 as a multimedia PC optimized for video and TV watching. There is the support of Ovi services. The smartphone is expected to be shipped in 3Q 08 at the recommended retail price of €550.

The specs of Nokia N96:

• Standards - GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz and WCDMA/HSDPA 900/2100 MHz
• Platform - S60 3rd Edition FP 2
• Display – 2.8” QVGA, 16M colors
• 16 GB of onboard memory
• microSD-slot
• Media player (MPEG-4/SP and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, RealVideo, Windows Media (WMV9), Flash Lite 3.0, MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA)
• 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, video capture at VGA resolution, 30 fps (double LED flash active at video shooting too)
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 EDR (A2DP stereo profile)
• Integrated GPS-receiver with A-GPS
• DVB-H Class C
• microUSB-port
• TV-out
• FM-radio with RDS
• Battery - 950 mAh
• Talk time – up to 150 minutes (3G) or up to 220 minutes (GSM)
• Standby time – up to 200 hours (3G) or up to 220 hours (GSM)
• Playback time – up to 5 hours (video), 14 hours (audio) and 4 hours (TV)
• Dimensions – 103x55x18 mm
• Weight - 125 g

HTC Touch Cruise – the first TouchFLO communicator with GPS

HTC has officially announced the Touch Cruise communicator, the third device of the HTC Touch series with TouchFLO finger-oriented interface. The device previously known as HTC Polaris has been rumored much for a long time. Last week O2 operator released its version of HTC Touch Cruise – O2 Xda Orbit 2 (with different design). The European sales of HTC Touch Cruise are set for this month.

The specs of HTC Touch Cruise:

• Networks - GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 MHz
• CPU - Qualcomm MSM7200, 400 MHz
• OS - Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• Display – 2.8” touchscreen
• Memory - 256 MB ROM and 128 MB DDR SDRAM
• microSD-slot
• Built-in GPS-receiver
• FM-radio
• 3-megapixel camera with auto focus
• VGA-camera for video calls
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• HTC ExtUSB connector
• USB 2.0
• Built-in microphone and speaker
• Battery – Li-Ion 1350 mAh
• Talk time – up to 7 hours (GSM), up to 4 hours (UMTS)
• Standby time – up to 400 hours (GSM), up to 450 hours (UMTS)
• Video call time – up to 2.3 hours
• Dimensions – 110x58x15.5 mm
• Weight - 130 g

iPhone sales start in France on November 29

Apple has officially reported that Orange operator will start selling the iPhone in France. The French debut will take place on November 29, 2007. Orange will become the exclusive supplier of the phone in France. I’d remind you that the company scheduled the launch of the iPhone in Germany and the UK for November 9. In Germany Apple will cooperate with T-Mobile and in the UK with O2.

From November 29 on the 8GB iPhone will be available online and in stores of Orange. The price tag is €399.