Author: Rita

Larsson’s Water Spirit Theme Makes Your Symbian Phone Glow

I love installing new themes on my phones, as they let me personalize them to my taste as well as change the look of my device much more frequently, instead of actually paying to buy a new device. Fortunately, Nokia & Symbian theme developers are abundant, and there are a lot of really great ones out there, some who offer their themes for free. One such themer is Larsson from S60Art, and he’s good, really good.

His latest theme, Water Spirit, takes his know-how to new levels, thanks to a great blue background that lights up your screen, fully transparent icon and text borders (which is something I’ve been craving for on my N97 Mini), and a set of custom icons. The whole effect is an elegant theme, that makes you fall back in love with your phone, no matter how old or used it is. Here are some screenshots of Water Spirit on my N97 Mini.

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The Top 5 Universal Phone & Gadget Accessories

I’ve tested dozens if not hundreds of accessories over the years, and I really mean that. Screen protectors, cases, chargers, headphones, stands, tripods, bluetooth accessories, I’ve seen it all. But over the years only a few accessories have gone past the “oh I like it” stage to becoming an integral part of my daily usage. These accessories, for the most part, are universal: they will fit any gadget I am carrying which is a must for someone like me who changes devices and manufacturers often and owns quite a few different phones, not to mention trials a lot more.

1. Sennheiser CX-500 In-Ear Headphones

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AppShopper Is Your Ideal App Store Friend

The Apple App Store has been growing to a point where you almost wonder if it’ll explode one day or if it can realistically get any larger. There are tons of cool new applications everyday, and many existing applications that drop prices every now and then. Getting up to date about those limited time offers can be very tedious if you’re interested in some apps or games but think they’re expensive now. Yes, there are actually tons of actual apps on the App Store that let you follow these offers, like BargainBin, PandoraBox, AppMiner, some of which let you create watchlists to monitor price changes. But let’s face it, do you remember to launch those apps everyday to check for changes, or do you find the badges notifications efficient? I didn’t, I wanted an email when one of my favorite apps drops its price, and I wanted a history of an app’s price to see if the developer tends to do frequent or infrequent offers on it so I can snatch it for a realistic price. That’s when I discovered AppShopper.

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Ridiculously Awesome: Your Phone As A Vuvuzela

You know the WorldCup, don’t you? Errr not that worldcup, the Football WorldCup! Well, if you watched only one second of any match, you must have noticed a weird annoying sound: that’s the Vuvuzela! Apparently, in South Africa, they can’t play football without that sound. Overly disturbing, isn’t it?

Well, the Vuvuzela seems to be all the rage nowadays and you have got to admit that after a couple of matches with its incessant sound in the background, you kind of, sort of, mildly, unconsciously get used to it. So not to be left behind, developers have jumped on the window of opportunity and started producing one Vuvuzela app after the other. I guess the age of fart apps and other bodily sounds is over. Too bad.

Anyway, there’s plenty of Vuvuzela apps in the Apple App Store as well as the Ovi Store. If you’re becoming too addicted to that monotone sound, just search your application store for “Vuvuzela” and you’ll probably find one (if not many) to help you get through those long, long hours when there is no match being played and your craving is overwhelming you.

But here’s the kicker, the ultimate FoneArena advice:

If you have a speaker around, be it portable or a good regular speaker, just hook your phone to it, for the ultimate Vuvuzela experience. Seriously. We tried it. We even shot a video, with the FoneArena fade-in and out, all serious and such. Here it is, showing the free MMMOOO Vuvuzela app from the Ovi Store (you can even change its color, and press several times to simulate multiple simultaneous Vuvuzelas!) running on my N97 Mini hooked to the Nokia MD-8 Mini Speaker. Enjoy, ehm, I guess.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG-OcjYZJk0

Nokia 6700 Slide Unboxing Gallery

The Nokia 6700 Slide which was just recently launched in India has landed in our house too and before we put our grubby mitts on it, we decided to share with you the first pictures of us taking it out of its box and discovering it for the first time.

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Review – Monkey Flight by Donut Games

Monkey Flight by Donut Games is one of those super fun games from the App Store that I’ve been addicted to for the last week on my iPod Touch. The storyline is simple: you have to throw a monkey across a field of fruits, collect a certain amount to advance to the next level, all while avoiding to fall on the floor, crash against rocks or fall in mud ponds. Your progress can be improved if you bounce on elephants or clouds, and you get 2 additional banana boosts every level by tapping on the screen.

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Gallery Face-Off: Nokia 5530 XpressMusic vs 5800 vs iPod Touch

The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is one of the smallest, more affordable, less feature-packed, touchscreen phone to come from Nokia lately. Yet, it’s still a convenient and efficient device to own and use, and despite its lack of GPS and 3G, it still packs WiFi, a great screen, a 4Mb memory card, a 3.5mm headset plug, a nice 2.9″ touchscreen, and is compatible with the Ovi Store so you can fill it up with as many free or paid applications as you want.

If you’re wondering about how tiny the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is, here is a comparison with its old brother, the chubby Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, as well as the slim but very wide Apple iPod Touch.

Gallery FaceOff: Nokia 5530 XpressMusic vs 5800 vs iPod Touch

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Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Photo Gallery

The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic was the second touchscreen-only Symbian phone to come from Nokia. Building after the popular success of the 5800 XpressMusic, it brings a bit less features (no GPS, no 3G), making it smaller and more affordable than the 5800. For those of you who were scared by the chunkiness or lack of style in the 5800’s design, the 5530 XpressMusic is a great alternative to consider.

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Unboxing The Beautiful Nokia N86 8MP White

The unsung hero of the Nseries family, the Nokia N86 8MP has probably received way less publicity and marketing than the Nokia N97 or N97 Mini. Yet, despite the lack of coverage, the Nokia N86 8MP remains one of the best camera phones out there.

With an 8MP camera sensor and a lens provided by Carl Zeiss, Dual-LED flash, large aperture to capture the tiniest lights in dark environments, and true video zooming without pixelation, it’s hard to fault the N86 8MP at any photography skills. It also features WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, TV-Out, 8GB of internal storage, and runs on the tried and true S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 software. For many people who have handled it, it’s the ultimate successor to the illustrious Nokia N95, pushing the boundaries of the Dual-Slider form factor with dedicated multimedia keys and a kick-stand, and proving that a lot can be packed in a small overall size.

Here, we unbox the white version of the Nokia N86 8MP, a true beauty considering the simple lines, silver ring, and the super clean white color. It also comes with a set of white in-ear headphones that are a nice departure from Nokia’s ear-torturing regular headphones. Enjoy.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJfvTHzgBIE

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Special Edition & Retail Edition Unboxing

I recently received two different units of Nokia’s latest touchscreen S60 5th Edition device, the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. This new unit is somehow a cheaper version of the 5800 XpressMusic, with a non-CarlZeiss 3.2MP camera, and no GPS or 3G connection, as well as a smaller screen size. The design though is cleaner than the 5800 XM, and it’s smaller in size. The software is also more advanced, with a more functional homescreen and kinetic scrolling implemented better across all long lists.

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Nokia X6 Photo Gallery: 5800XM Comparison & BH-505 Mixing

Nokia’s recently announced X6 music device might have failed to gain a lot of attention at Nokia World 2009, due to the spectacular success of the Nokia N900, and its limited availability with Comes With Music service, but it still is a great solution for those who want a nice capactive touchscreen, S60 5th Edition, and 32GBs of built-in memory. The X6 also has a GPS receiver, a good 5MP camera, a nice interactive homescreen with contacts, applications, email and calendar showing up, kinetic scrolling widely implemented, HSDPA internet speeds…

Here are some comparison pictures next to its oldest sibling, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, showing that the X6 is a bit longer but the same width, and much thinner. Both devices have the same connectors and keys at the same locations in all sides, except for the X6 not having an external microSDHC port due to its already integrated 32GB memory. The X6 also doesn’t come with any stylus, since its capacitive touchscreen doesn’t function with styluses, but only with finger touches.

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Black Nokia N86 8MP Picture Gallery

The say a picture is worth a thousand words, so how about 28000 words? That is 28 high-resolution images of the Nokia N86 8mp. The more I use this phone, the more I love it and it only gets better with time. I will let this great picture gallery of the device speak for itself. You can click on the thumbnails to access the full resolution photo.

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Nokia N900 Photo Gallery And N810 Comparison

We recently had a chance to play with the new Nokia N900, or the hottest device to come from the Finnish manufacturer in a long time, based on the Maemo 5 platform. The N900 features a design very similar to the N97, with a full touchscreen and a slide-out qwerty keyboard. The differences though stop there, as the N900 is way superior in terms of processor, RAM, UI intuitiveness, browser, and many other aspects that we won’t go into right now.

But we thought we’d snap a couple of pictures for you to enjoy and drool on, while waiting for the N900’s official release on the market. Here they are. Remember that you can click on the thumbnails to view the full resolution image.

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Sony Ericsson Satio VS Nokia N97, 5800 XpressMusic And X6

Yes, you read that post title right. We outdid ourselves, by a long shot on this article. Not only did we land a prototype of the Sony Ericsson Satio and show it to you in intricate details, but we were also able to pit it head to head against its concurrence, with Nokia’s current lineup of similar S60 5th Edition devices: the Nokia N97, 5800 XpressMusic and the most recent X6.

The comparison will look shortly at the software differences between the Satio and the current S60 5th Edition UI from Nokia (which we will develop in another post with some very long video reviews), then it will focus at the hardware side-by-side comparison with the 3 devices.

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Nokia N86 vs N82 Picture Gallery

After having brought to you a camera comparison between Nokia’s newest camera flagship, the N86 8MP, and its old sibling, the Nokia N82, today we show you a side by side comparison of the 2 device’s hardware and design. As always, you can click on the thumbnails to access the full resolution photos.

Sizewise, the N86 8MP is chubbier and shorter than the N82, due to its dual-slider form factor, as opposed to the N82’s candybar design. The materials used on the N86 are nice classy plastic with metal, and covered with non-scratchable glass on the front, whereas the N82 uses the old cheap and shiny black plastics that we saw on the N81, N96, N78, N85…

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