Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Nokia announces two new smartphones: N85, N79

Nokia unleashed plans of launch of two new handsets- N85 and N79, both boasting of navigation features and five-mega pixel cameras.

The Finnish phonemaker’s market share in converged devices plummeted to 41 percent in the second quarter from 51 percent in the pervious year, with increasing competition from Research In Motion Ltd., LG Electronics Co. and Apple Inc.

The two new offerings offer over 10 N-Gage games and allow users to locate where pictures were taken with the device. The N85 handset comes packed with an 8-gigabyte memory card.



Nokia N85

The N85 will be available in only one color version (black), Nokia wants the N79 to be more "color friendly." More exactly, the Finnish company will ship the candybar in two versions, white and silver, each of them coming with 3 Xpress-on smart covers that can be red, brown, green, blue or white.


The N85 features a 2.6 inch TFT display with 16.7 million colors, 320 x 240 pixels, brightness control and ambient light detector, accelerometer for automatic image rotation, secondary camera for video calls, Wi-Fi, GPS, A-GPS, Nokia Maps, Adobe Flash Lite 3.0, Nokia Web browser, Adobe Reader, Nokia Nseries music player (supporting MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+ and WMA), 3D stereo speakers, dedicated music keys, a 3.5 mm headset jack, UPnP music streaming, FM radio with RDS, FM transmitter, N-gage gaming controls, digital stereo microphone, text-to-speech and Symbian 9.3 S60 3rd Edition (with Feature Pack 2).

The N85 has only 74MB of internal memory, but an 8GB microSD card is included in the package – enough for about anything you might want to store on the phone.



The Nokia N85 was created to be more than the sum of its parts, offering a complete mobile entertainment package designed for connecting, sharing and discovering. The iconic Nokia Nseries dual slider design has evolved to become smaller and sleeker while integrating the newest features and services to deliver the best mobile experience to date," states Juha-Pekka Sipponen, director, Nokia Nseries.


Nokia N79





The Nokia N79 packs cutting-edge technology into a compact design – a characteristic of the iconic Nseries – that allows people to discover, create and share their passions with others. It has been designed for those who want a device that is as appealing as it is powerful," stated Juha Kokkonen, director, Nokia Nseries.

the N79 is not too different from the N85. The candybar brings the following: a 2.4 inch TFT display with 16 million colors and 240 x 320 pixels, a 5 Megapixel camera with all the characteristics of the one included in the N85, GSM and HSDPA connectivity, GPS and A-GPS, Nokia Maps, Wi-Fi, Music and Video players, a 3.5mm audio jack, stereo Bluetooth, TV-out, pre-installed Nseries games and 50MB of built-in memory, "helped" by a 4GB card.





The N79 measures 110 x 49 x 15 millimeters and weighs 97 grams. Although the phone's battery is similar to the one packed in the N85 (a 1200 mAh one), its performance is lower. Thus, the N79 can provide only up to 5.5 hours of GSM talk-time, 3.5 hours of 3G talk-time or up to 24 hours of music playback.

The N85 and N79 will be shipped in October and will be priced at 450 euros and 350 euros.

IOGEAR's wireless USB to VGA kit extends your monitor sans wires


Consumers who desire a simple way to view content on a bigger screen can now extend or clone their desktop to their HDTV or projector and enjoy increased visibility by utilizing IOGEAR's Wireless USB to VGA Kit, certified by the USB Implementers Forum. The product is the first of its kind to receive certification in the US, which guarantees that a device is backward- and forward-compliant with previous and future USB technology.

The Wireless USB to VGA Kit provides HD video streaming between a PC and TV or projector up to 720p within a 30-foot in-room range. Users can edit grids and documents, view photos or browse the Internet on their HDTV's big screen, without any cable clutter. Consumers can also utilize a TV's picture-in-picture function to multitask, such as watching a football game while viewing a Fantasy Football grid on the same screen. The Kit consists of one Wireless USB adapter to connect to a laptop or desktop and one wireless VGA adapter to plug into a VGA display.

The product is an ideal solution for surfaces that are difficult to wire, such as marble and fireplaces. By communicating between devices wirelessly and eliminating material waste, the Wireless USB to VGA Kit is an eco-conscious choice for users who want an environmentally-friendly way to streamline entertainment and work spaces.

According to IOGEAR, the product is only compatible with Windows XP 32-bit or Vista 32- / 64-bit, but those with no qualms about that can grab one next month for $229.95. Full release after the jump.