I find it very difficult to get too excited about the look of a mobile phone, I’m more of a functional kinda guy - it may look crap, but if it makes calls, handles emails, plays tunes and vids and makes a cup of tea while I play Doom then it’s the phone for me. However this image of the upcoming Nokia N81 is quite impressive - the unit N81 looking very sleek and shiny and would make a great addition to the collection of a gadget fashionista.

Needless to say other than the image, cold, hard details are pretty scarce, although rumours abound with the following specs being the most consistently speculated

8 GB Memory
Slider number pad
320 x 240 res
2 Mp camera
102 x 50 x 17.9 mm
140g

Unfortunately no rumour monger wants to take a stab at pricing this sleek and functional sucker. Anyway the N81 will be available from August 29th so pricing should be announced fairly soon, meanwhile I’m off for a cup of tea and a game of Doom on my cell brick.

Source: JUSTAMP

The guys in the marketing department at Nokia have gone overboard on their latest cellphone, the 8600. With such adlines as ‘Inspired by moonlight, it pulsates with allure.’ and ‘Dark brillance’ you just gotta wonder what they are smoking. However the phone does look pretty damn sexy with its smoked glass slider over the keyboard and stainless steel back. If you don’t believe me check out this video - one quick note on the video for the UK viewers I’m not totally convinced by the GBP79.99 label at the end of the clip as this puppy is advertised at $800 in the US. Check out the video anyway.

For those of us more interested in hard facts than snazzy marketing spiel here’s some raw data to get your teeth into

• MicroUSB connector
• MP3 Player with 1GB memory
• 2MP camera
• Quad band

Actually the phone’s spec isn’t necessarily that impressive but you’re sure gonna look the part making ‘business’ calls on this puppy at your local up-market eatery.

Source: I4U

To see what’s hot and what’s not in the cellular world, I tried to find out what was the top selling cell phone in the US at the moment. Up popped this little beauty, the Nokia N95 according to mysimon.com. Not cheap at US$724 but it certainly has all the bells and whistles and then some. Sexy double slider action, 5 mega pixel camera, GPS mapping so I get home safely from the pub, and yes I can even call a taxi with it if the walk home gets too much! Up to 2GB of memory for tunes and vids too.

Here’s the official ad for the wee beasty listing all the funky features of the N95 with some groovy Moby-esque music in the background.

I’m certainly impressed by the N95 and obviously so are a lot of Americans. It may not be the slimmest phone around, but then with all that functionality stuffed into one piece of kit it was always going to be a bit on the chubby side. And obviously battery life is a concern but if you are looking for an all in one piece of kit and are the kind of person who remembers to charge it every night then the N95 could be for you.

The new concept Nokia 888 is design by Tamer Nakisci, the Nokia Design Award, winner. And I say the award is well earned as you as you can see in the movie below. The phone is fully flexible and can take any shape, it’s even designed to ‘remember’ certain shapes ( some sort of presets), for example you can send a message to your boyfriend/girlfriend and make his/her phone take the shape of a heart.

Besides you can use the phone as a bracelet, make it turn into a clip-shape to carry it easily or make it ‘wave’ when somebody calls you. To do all this the battery is liquid-based an the display is flexible and servers as a touchscreen. With these features the phone will serve as a GPS device, PDS, alarm clock, electronic wallet and many more.

It all looks nice and high-tech but this is just a short preview of what technology has in store for us, phones like this won’t be on the market for at least a couple of years if not more.

The new N800 from Nokia has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 connections, integrated Web camera and not last Wi-Fi VoIP capabilities thanks to Skype. It also has 128MB RAM built in and 256MB Flash storage plus the expandable MiniSD card memory. This is Nokia’s vision of the Internet Tablet line, the concept being called “multimedia computer”. The display has a 800 x 480 and 65,536 colors and it’s touch-sensitive, this greatly diminishes dimensions and it makes it easier to use.

But the really interesting fact is that N800 can use Skype software to make calls over the Internet in areas with Wi-Fi coverage. Eric Lagier, Skype director declared:

“Working with the leading mobile-handset manufacturer puts us in a unique position to get Skype to the mobile masses. With the introduction of the Nokia N800, we are positioning Skype as the centerpiece of Internet conversations on this Wi-Fi-centric device. The Nokia N800 is an excellent platform for taking Skype conversations beyond the PC.”

And it really is interesting given the fact that you’ll get all the mobile internet you’ll ever need for only 399 EUR in Europe. For now N800 is commercially available in the US only but it will come in Europe in the first half of 2007.

Isn’t it cute? Now, let me tell you a few things about it. First of all, it’s not real, or at least not yet. The “Nokia Open” would be a cell phone that opens like a fan with a “scrollable touch screen,” which seems to be an essential-yet-nonexistent item that would need to be invented in order for this to work. Quite of a paradox, ain’t it?

With the push of the button, the phone would open up allowing you to navigate and use its functions. This really is futuristic, but not really that far away as flexible displays via e-paper will be implemented in the next decade among the electronic equipments.