Reg Hardware

Nokia N96 to land in August

Ryan

Don't forget the inbuilt FM transmitter 

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Killer App IMO.

Anonymous Coward

3G iPhone spolier ? 

Jobs Halo

Isn't that about the same time we're to get the pleasure of seeing the 3G iPhone ?

DVB-H is of little use at the moment. I guess the differentiator is the iPhone doesn't have GPS but does have a multi-touch display. Who knows perhaps competition will force Apple to open the phone up to other networks.

This summer should be interesting.

Anonymous Coward

touchy? 

Flame

Jeez I've got a touch phone and it sucks - texting is just utterly painful, as is "pressing 3 to delete message" when listening to your messages, or fighting to disable screen lock so you CAN enter a number....

Can I have both? a keypad to use the bleedin' thing and touch to waft pictures about and do cool things?

V.B.N.

touchy? 

Get the P1i!! very nice handset with impressive battery life.

Bryan B

baited breath 

Coat

Is that a piece of cheese I see on your tongue...?

Test Man

Re: 3G iPhone spolier ? 

Stop

Dunno about it being a pleasure, but any 3G iPhone will have to have a massive beef of specs (not just an inclusion of 3G) for it to be considered useful. The lack of MMS or even basic video recording (which 3 year old phones can do easily) will consign it to a phone aimed just at style gurus, for a start.

Simon

@Ryan 

I thought FM transmitters were not exactly legal in in the EU? :/

James Brash

@Simon 

In the UK they recently passed some legislation - you can pick up FM transmitters in places like HMV/Dixons etc. nowadays.

See this Register article: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12/11/ipod_fm_transmitters_legal/

Anonymous Coward

@simon 

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No, these small FM transmitters are, at long last, legal.

Anonymous Coward

N96 

Alert

I sure hope the N96 will be modified a bit until releasing... Right now it's way too plasticky.

It feels really like a cheap toy in the hand. Plus, you have to fight to slide the screen, in either direction - for the N95 and N95 8GB sliding the screen was a pleasure.

The main keypad isn't extremely bad, it could be worse, but the buttons next to the screen are unbelievable - same style as the N81 (with same problems), just with a cheaper feel to them, and more than the N81 had (trying to find the right key will be a joy).

Still, i'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt as that version still appears to be a prototype - the software is incredibly buggy, and the phone will crash even if you look at it the wrong way.

I've gotten used to not putting the lid back over the battery (of course, no reset button, have to take out the battery).

Simon Ward

FM Transmitters 

"I thought FM transmitters were not exactly legal in in the EU? :/"

I think it depends - I believe that transmitters like the Griffin iTrip have been kosher, at least in the UK, for quite a while now. Could be wrong though, since it's not something that interests me greatly - I want a phone to do calls and texts, not make my bloody tea.

Rus

Try HTC Touch Dual 

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touch screen for funky stuff and keypad for everything else...

Anonymous Coward

@simon 

Not sure about the EU but the rules relaxed in the UK last year.

Ash

@Simon 

Late last year UK Gov. changed the law to allow short range FM transmitters (We're talking metres) for use in conjunction with personal audio equipment and in car entertainment (linking your MP3 player to your stereo).

Stores like Comet, Dixons, online retailers were all selling them anyway, just saying that they may not be legal to use. They didn't have much choice but to make them legal.

glenn

@ Simon 

Regulations to legalize the use of certain types of FM transmitter in the UK came into force on 8 December 2006. The Regulations set a 50 nanoWatts power limit for legal devices, which limits the distance at which they can broadcast to up to 8 meters. Legality in other EU states may vary :o)

randomtask

@Simon 

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The law surrounding FM Transmitters has been cleaned up to allow FM transmitters over a low range. I got one, legally, for my iPod.

*not an Apple fanboi*

The phone looks good. I'm due a new one around october or november so hopefully it wont be too pricey!

Gary Littlemore

UK Phone companies 

I'd like to know what UK phone companies will be doing the N96 ie Orange O2 Vodafone 3 Virgin???

Law

Tmobile?? 

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Hopefully they will get this thing by Christmas when my contracts for renew - I loves my n95, and the new n96 features sound cool... not heard much about it really - the fm transmitted really interests me though, only this morning I was sat on the M56 for 4 hours in a jam wishing I had an mp3 player in the car cos radio sucks....

I already have a Belkin 3.5 jack transmitter from like 2001 - but the cable wont reach from my phone holder.

Jeff Dickey

@Rus 

Unhappy

The TyTN was something I'd been drooling over for some time; was just about to put my money down when I came across things like http://htcclassaction.org/ - if a tenth of what they and sites like them say is true of the typical HTC user experience and the company's attitudes towards it's customers... I'd rather do business with a less unethical company, thanks Neither Apple nor Nokia have shown me exactly what I want in a phone - I love the IDEA of the TyTN Dual - at least they're both companies that I've been dealing with for years (read "known quantities") that have, in their variously dunderheaded ways, at least tried.