As part of the launch Nokia flew me to New York City to help spread the word. However, most of today’s events have remained a mystery. What is clear is the event is going to be huge. I’ve already received a pair of monster headphones and the expectation is more goodies are to come. There is a VIP party at 5:30 where I expect to meet some of the architects behind the lumia line. I will also be attending an after-party at around ten this evening.

Updates will slowly trickle in on this blog post but check out my twitter feed or the NokiaNYC hashtag for live updates. Nokia has also set up a FB page for the event.

Pictures

*****Updates*****
The event was amazing. We began our journey at five as we went to the VIP party at the Renaissance Hotel. Apparently the invite leaked online prior to the event so getting in was hectic to say the least. However our group was on the list. Going upstairs to the lounge I was overwhelmed by just how executive it was. There we guards keeping people without the appropriate credentials out, Hors d’œuvre, free drinks, and the lovely Lumia girls.

As the clock struck seven our group made its way back outside to see the special launch performance. Right before the big unveil we were handed Lumia 900‘s. But not regular Lumia’s, rather Lumia’s signed by Nicki Minaj! (I was fortunate enough to get the only cyan version in the group) And with that the curtains were pulled back and the live performance was underway.

After walking through the crowd Nicki came on stage and performed a few songs including “Starships” and “Super Bass”. She then introduced her DJ and announced everyone in the audience would be apart of a new “Starships” remix music video. The CGI was amazing, taking over countless billboards to create a fully immersive environment.

The rest of the evening was filled with excellent food and drink, new friends, and Lumia goodness. I would like to thank Nokia Connects, Riccardo and David for hosting such an amazing event. Moreover, I just want to say how wonderful it was to meet all of the other bloggers on the trip. I look forward to seeing you all again.

The Crew
Camille
Justin
Lenny
Michael
Arjan
Antonio
Mike
Noni

Alright alright, hold on a second. Nokia does have a pretty aggressive rollout plan over the next two months. WP7-Nokia devices will shortly launch in several strategic countries. However, Nokia smartphones have never been strongly adopted in the US. That is a significant issue. The American market is one of the most important international markets and Nokia is not making it a priority to appease US carriers and consumers.

Granted I can not ignore Nokia’s comment on the United States launch.

Nokia also announced its plans to introduce a portfolio of products into the US in early 2012 and into mainland China in the first half of 2012. In addition to the existing products, which include coverage for WCDMA and HSPA, Nokia also plans LTE and CDMA products to address specific local market requirements.

Clearly Nokia is working hard to gain traction in the United States. However, enough is enough. How many times can Nokia delay rollout in the US. The N9 was an extremely appealing device when it was announced. A couple days later it was confirmed the N9 would never come to the US. This comes when many American journalists were particularly interested in the N9. Nokia had a chance to reclaim some market share and they balked.

Many of the most successful smartphone launches occur in the United States. Look at the iPhone. Apple has always focused on the US market and has consistently recorded blockbuster sales in the US. Why? Regardless of where you fall on the iPhone debate it is clear Apple does an exceptional job marketing their US product launches. The success the iPhone gains in the US trickles down to Apple’s international markets. The hype is built in the US and spreads across the world. Nokia is trying to build hype world-wide and then attack the US market. A strategy they tried with symbian powered smartphones. A strategy that failed.

By the time Nokia launches a WP7 device in the United States several dual-core, LTE android devices will hit the market. Moreover, I wouldn’t be surprised if 4G WP7 devices ship by then as well. In 2012 it could be too late for a newcomer to shake up the market. There is no doubt in my mind that Nokia builds extremely good hardware but the question remains, when will US consumers finally get their hands on that hardware? Whenever it launches, it better be impressive. And whenever it launches there better be several carrier-subsidized choices available.

Nokia also announced that the long awaited Symbian Anna update would be preloaded on new N8′s, E7′s, C7′s, and C6-01′s starting in July. Current users will be able to update their software in August. For a company struggling to remain relevant this slow update cycle is not helping their cause. In order for Nokia to remain significant they need a solid portfolio of hardware and software with frequent updates. At this point the Apple model of one device per year won’t work.

In ligher news the C2-03 feature phone will launch later this year with hot swappable dual SIM ports, a hardware keyboard, and a 240×320 pixel touch display. The C2-02 will ship with similar specs but a single SIM port while the C2-06 will ship in multiple colors.

Nokia announced that a Windows Phone 7 Mango device will ship later this year, with mass production in early 2012. Again, the USA is not expected to receive the new WP7 hardware at launch. In addition, Nokia will release around ten Symbian devices in the next twelve months.

Anyway, Nokia put me up in the lovely Green Valley Ranch resort and casino (GVR hereafter). Put simply, this place is amazing. When I first pulled up I was in awe from the beautiful palm trees and rock landscaping. The service at the GVR has been simply wonderful and the architecture throughout is very well done. The pool is a gorgeous multileveled experience and there is even a sand entrance to one pool for the younger crowd to enjoy.

The great experience continued when I reached my room. Partially because I was being put up for free and partially because I didn’t have to share a room I was expecting a small yet comfortable living space. I was happily surprised. Room 8702 was more than I could ever ask for. It’s large, it’s appealing and it’s well stocked! I highly recommend staying at the GVR next time you’re in Vegas and want to stay off the strip.

If you saw the E72 unboxing you would know I’m working with Nokia on their Responsiveness campaign. Essentially, my group and I are being posed questions in an attempt to elicit imaginative responses. The hope is our responses will parallel the innovate work of the people or actions in our prompt. In this case, we have to respond to the amazing work of Katrin Verclas, a social entrepreneur working to improve the world using mobile technology.

Katrin runs mobile active, a nonprofit organization that aims to use mobile technology to help those in need. All around the world different members of the organization develop and use mobile solutions to solve problems. Some use the technology to find jobs for “slum dwellers” while others use it politically to elect officials to office.

Our response is open ended and doesn’t have any particular guidelines or restriction. How would you respond? I’m interested to see your reactions to these unique uses of the same technology we take for granted each day.

Back when I had the Nokia N96 I participated in a social media experiment with a goal of creating a mobile documentary. A Day In My Life showcases a day of learning, travel, shopping, and a special visit at the end. The best part is this entire video was filmed on the N96 highlighting it’s power in terms on mobile video.

Granted, this was produced in December 2008 and technology has advanced since than but I thought I should share this experience with my auidence.

The Nokia N96 NAM, the older brother of the N95, is a more polished version of it’s predecessor. Although most components are the same, the N96 has a new look that makes it more stylish and in some cases more functional. But is this model worth the price, we shall see soon enough.

The N96, which measures 4.1″ x 2.2″ x .7”, is a dual slider with a full number-pad and media controls. These media controls are just four black plastic buttons, there is no text or symbols on them. What Nokia did was put lights under the plastic to make the media controls light up when accessed. This little touch adds a lot to the design. The backlit number-pad supports T9 predictive text which works very nicely. However, each row of numbers sits on the same strip of plastic which decreases usability.

Nokia went on to drastically improve the look of it’s product. The primary buttons on the front are no longer oddly designed chrome but flush, touch sensitive keys. Media controls also appear on the front of the device in the same fashion as the primary media controls. The 2.8” screen, which has a resolution of 240×320, looks great with its sharp colors and popping video playback. Overall, the spring loaded slider feels solid and well made and the device fits comfortably in my hand. (Hardware Tour)

Just like the N95, the N96 has all the connectivity you need. HSDPA networking, wi-fi, and bluetooth all work nicely. The N96 also has a good built in browser that, although a little slow compared to other devices, supports flash. However, the device consistently asks me what network to connect to even though I am already connected. It gets pretty annoying after a while and I have yet to find a way to disable those pop-ups.

This phone was designed with media in mind and Nokia didn’t skip a beat. The device allows you to listen to your content in three ways: the duel external speakers, from headphones connect to the 3.5mm jack, or wirelessly with bluetooth stereo headphones. Want some more music? The device also allows you to listen to internet radio as well as FM radio with an external, but included, tuner. There is even a plastic stand on the back of the device which makes it easier to watch your videos.

A really cool media extra is the ability for you to output what is on the screen of your device right to a TV or computer monitor. All you need is an input on the TV and the included component cables. This video can give you more information.

To store your media, the N96 ships with 16gb of internal storage. Plus, you can expand that with a microSD card. Just like the N95, the music player supports all the formats you would expect: W4A, AAC+, WMA, AAC,MP3, and eAAC+ files, as well as a few DRM-protected formats. Real player, the default video player on this device, can play MPEG-4 and 3GPP video. You can also play Divx video clips if you download divx mobile, which is free, to your phone.

But what kind of content can this device make on it’s own? Well, it can record video at 640×480 resolution at 30fps and with it’s two LED’s dark videos are extremely bright. You have auto and night modes as well as scene modes, white balance, and color tone options. One problem with video recording is that there is a slight hiss on all recorded videos which I assume is from the lens autofocusing. (Video Test)

Taking pictures with the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens is amazing and is leaps and bounds better then any other mobile phone I have used. Colors pop, pictures look great, and the duel LED flash makes dark pictures possible (Image Sample). Nokia gives you total control over the camera so that you can take the perfect picture. From white balance, color tone, exposure, sharpness, contrast, and ISO settings as well as several scene modes and shooting modes. You can even geotag your pictures or video with the included A-GPS.

Moving on, the N96 has everything you need for email with IMAP4 and POP3 email support. However, from my usage I have found email is displayed as text only which is a bummer. Making up for it though is the ability of the phone to read you your email or SMS messages. Speaking of messaging, the N96 supports IM and MMS messaging right out of the box

A big concern for me going in was the battery which is rated at 950mAH. Nokia claims that the N96 can get up to 220 minutes of talk time and 220 hours of standby time. From my testing, you can get about 5 consecutive hours of video and 14 consecutive hours of music playback. The device has yet to die on me during the day.

To maximize the battery, Nokia under-clocked the CPU which does show in performance. Menu’s are somewhat slow to respond and apps take a good 4 seconds to simply start. You can have applications run in the background, which is cool, but this decreases performance even further.

So is this device worth the $600+ you are going to spend on it? If you are in the market for a mobile media power house then yes, it is 100% worth the price. It does media extremely well and content it produces is superior to other mobile phones. If you are just the casual user I still recommend the phone but it’s not going to be as great a value for you. Still check it out, but there are other less expensive models for you, the casual user.

Now for the meat of this post, the breakdown and comparison of the Nokia N95-4 8GB NAM and the Apple iPhone 3G. The phones are compared in five different categories spanning design, navigation, features, multimedia, and call quality. Although in the end one phone must win, both are quality devices and should not be taken lightly.

Design
The Nokia N95 has a very sleek look.The glossy black front and matte-black finish on the back looks quite nice. The dual slider looks good too. The screen is pretty bright and everything looks like it belongs. However, it would have been nice if Nokia updated the look of the buttons and made the device a little skinnier. As for the iPhone 3G, Apple has once again created a device which has no competition. The screen is amazingly bright, responsive, and large while the sleek finish on the back continues the unique design from the front.
Winner: Apple iPhone 3G

Navigation
The N95′s weakest attribute is its navigation. Finding a particular application or function takes a while when you have to dig threw the file structure of this phone. Plus, you are limited by the button navigation that is far less efficient than a touch screen or scroll ball. As for the iPhone, everything you need is with-in a fingers tap, as you can store anything you need on the home screen. Plus, the touch screen works so well. Nothing currently on the market can match the sensitivity and accuracy of that screen.
Winner: Apple iPhone 3G

Features The Apple iPhone 3G is loaded with features. You have the app store which is an amazing resource for free and commercial applications, Eight or 16 GB of storage, and friendly support at your local apple store. (If you ever need it) Plus, thanks to the great interface, web-browsing on the iPhone is amazing. (Both phones have HSDPA and UMTS for 3G networking.) The N95 doesn't have a great service for finding application on the go however you can run almost anything on it. With the iPhone, Apple decides what you can put on it, the N95 however does not have any such limit. (It can even run unsigned applications.) The N95 also has some basic features the iPhone is missing including MMS messaging, the option for turn by turn directions (although that costs extra), and the ability to tether your phone's data connection to a computer. It even has copy and paste functionality.
Winner: Nokia N95