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We had some awesome responses, so thanks guys! But we bet you want to know who the winner is, right? It’s Robert M.! That’s right, step up (or sit down and wait for our congratulatory email). Thanks to everyone who took the time out to enter, and as usual, we’ve got some killer giveaways in the works.

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This morning Nokia announced a major victory in its fight to become a digital music retailer. Warner Music Group, one of the biggest record labels in the industry, has signed on as a content provider for Nokia’s still-unfolding ‘Comes With Music’ offering. We have discussed Comes With Music a few times here on BGR but the concept in a nutshell is that Nokia is building a mobile music service. The mobile music store has already launched in several regions and Comes With Music would grant purchasers of certain handsets a year of all-you-can-eat free music downloads from said store. Nokia has stated that Comes With Music will launch in the second half of this year but the all-knowing interweb has had mixed feelings about the potential of the offering. We think that if Nokia can be a bit more forward-thinking and throw some technology advancements into the mix they could really have a winner on their hands. As it stands now however, we’re not sure we’ve seen enough innovation to really make Nokia’s offering stand out. Playing catch-up just isn’t going to cut it in this day and age so hopefully Nokia has a few surprises waiting for us at the launch.

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The Nokia N78, huh? It’s the replacement for the ever-popular Nokia N73, but in a non-typical Nokia move, it’s actually available in a US 3G NAM flavor. Currently on the shelves at your local Nokia USA store, the N78 is the first handset from Espoo to ship with FP2. There’s a bunch of software improvement which we’ll get into another time, but our favorite one so far? The Destinations for Internet/WAP/MMS, etc. What this does is let you combine a bunch of your access points into one destination. No more of those annoying popup messages asking you how you want to connect even though you’re already connected to Wi-Fi and 3G. In terms of the handsets physical attributes… it’s nice. It’s a little long, but you can’t say it’s not sleek. A huge issue for us is the button placement. Granted it will take a little bit to get used to everything, but we can’t understand how in the heck that end key got placed on the left side like that. It is the most awkward thing to use if you’re holding the phone with one hand. Style over function, friends. Eh, there’s still a whole heep of function in there though. If you’re still in love, we encourage you to check out our hands-on gallery. You’ll like it. Anyone up for a giveaway?

Click on over to our Nokia N78 hands-on gallery!

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Ahh FP2. There’s no question that there’s plenty that Nokia’s latest flavor of S60 doesn’t address, but there’s also plenty it does address. Remember the SSU functionality we just spoke about in our post on Diablo? Well it’s not just for Tablets! Feature Pack 2 brings with it Seamless Software Updating (SSU) that allows users to update pieces of the operating system without the need for a full flash. What does this mean for N78 owners? It means you can update your firmware without losing your data! This initial OTA update is a minor release but we ran the update earlier and confirm that it went perfectly with no data loss whatsoever. Firmware version 11.043 change log highlights:

• Improved Bluetooth stability
• Improved Music Player stability
• Improved Camera performance
• Naviscroll performance tweaks

The only other thing we’ve noticed so far is that the maximum display brightness has been turned down a few clicks. We liked the bright display but the simple fact that we’ve now confirmed lossless software updating works is more than enough reason to go through with it.

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Yesterday was a big day for Nokia Internet Tablet owners. The N810 and N800 each got a firmware update codenamed “Diablo” and while some refer to it as a minor release, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Why? Let’s look at the change log highlights:

• SSU (seamless software updating) enabling components of the OS to be updated without having to flash/rewrite the entire operating system
• Over-the-air (OTA) updates via Wi-Fi and WiMax connections
• Update of the email client to Modest with several enhancements to the user interface and additional support of several mobile-friendly email features
• Addition of Chinese fonts to the system font list
• Miscellaneous bug fixes to OpenSSL
• Browser panning fixes
• Support for A-GPS in the N810 and N810WE
• Wayfinder GPS application updates
• Additional unspecified features

The first two entries are key. A huge annoyance with both S60 and Internet Tablet devices is the update procedure. In short, all data is lost. Backing up and restoring rarely goes smoothly and even on the rare occasion it does, it’s still time consuming and bothersome. Seamless software updating and automatic OTA application updates mean that everything - from firmware to installed apps - will be easily and seamlessly updated as new versions become available. Update your firmware without losing personal data and files; update your apps automatically over the air as soon as new versions become available. Good stuff indeed.

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Oooooh Android. Things are not going well for you lately. First the Wall Street Journal reports that your release has been delayed and now Symbian, the most popular Smartphone Operating System in the world, will be opening up. Open?!? That was totally your thing! Well maybe not It’s ok, don’t worry; you’ve still got the Google juice going for you. Nokia has made a few major announcements this morning with regards to the heavyweight title holder that is Symbian. First and foremost, 48% ownership is not going to cut it anymore. Nokia will soon pony up €264 million ($412 million at today’s exchange rate) for the remaining 52% of Symbian to become the sole owner. Then what? Nokia has also announced the formation of a new organization: the Symbian Foundation. Foundation members currently include AT&T (huh?), LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, and more. The foundation will be the backbone of efforts with regards to creating “the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform - available for free”. The acquisition of Symbian is expected to be completed in Q4 of this year and it will likely be at least another year or so before we see the tree bear some fruit. We can’t wait.

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• Wi-Fi-enabled; supports T-Mobile HotSpot @Home

• T-Mobile myFaves^SM-enabled
• Music player (supports WMA, MP3, AAC and eAAC+)
• Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
• 2.0 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and video capture
• Expandable memory with microSD (support for up to 4GB)
• Instant messaging; supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live
• Speakerphone
• FM radio

Next up is the Samsung t339, which is another yawner of a phone, sporting:

• T-Mobile myFaves-enabled
• Music player (supports MP3, AAC and AAC+)
• Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
• 1.3 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and video capture
• Expandable memory with microSD (support for up to 2GB)
• Instant messaging; supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live
• Speakerphone

Both are available immediately, but if it were up to us, these two would be sent directly to the D.O.A. pile.

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The origins of the image aboveare somewhat a mystery at this point but it has become a topic of interest none the less. Why, you might ask? It appears to be an advertisement for a German phone shop boasting a wide selection of trendy handsets from what we can tell from our loose translation. Ok, fair enough. The ad does feature the just-announced E71 among the other featured handsets, but that’s not the interesting part either. What’s that in the bottom right corner? The 5800! Nokia’s upcoming “Tube” handset featuring the revised S60 Touch UI is most definitely not yet official but there it is sitting pretty. Several posts are focusing on the fact that it’s labeled with “XpressMusic” as the handset we’ve seen in the past has carried the new XpressMedia moniker. Meh, it’s probably a typo. What interests us is that the image of the device itself looks pretty official and sits among other official press images. Does this mean that Nokia is already circulating official shots to select partners and this shop accidentally let it run a bit early? Oops! We’ve known that this puppy was scheduled for a 2H 2008 release since the middle of last year but embargoed official images could mean that the official announcement could come sooner rather than later.

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We know, we know. Since we gave the world an exclusive and extensive video walkthrough with the Nokia E71 last month all other E71 news has been, well, boring. We showed you just about every inch of the Nokia’s slender new stunner, both inside and out. The shinny new UI enhancements, the ridiculously hot form factor, the sleek metal case and every other nook and cranny. It seems like it took forever but Nokia has finally made the E71 official along with its little brother, the E66. Since we already knew just about everything there is to know about these skinny devices, all we were waiting for is release dates and price points. Although the official launch took place easrlier today, we’re still fuzzy on both issues. In typical fashion, we were given “Q3″ in terms of when the handsets will become available. Beyond that we were told that the E66 will be under $500 and the E71 will be over $500. We won’t get into this too much, but which would you consider a better way to announce a highly-anticipated handset: “You can get it on July 11 for $199″ or “You can get it sometime in the third quarter for somewhere around $500″? But we digress. Some new live videos are popping up around the internet today from Nokia’s not-so-secret London launch event so if you want some live E66 and E71 action - again - go seek them out. In the meantime, we’re wondering what we should do with our E71? How about a nice “Will it Blend” video? This is what the E71’s market share will look like in the US because Nokia couldn’t get its act together and release it before July… Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

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Remember that black Nokia E71 we kinda, sorta fell in love with? Turns out it’s not alone. A shiny white version of the handset has been spotted in the concrete jungle, replacing the black model’s dapper exterior with a little bit of light. While white can often make a handset look a little unappealing, Nokia has done an excellent job here, implementing the new paint job in a classy, tasteful way. This ain’t no white/green Palm Centro. As great as this is, what we would love even more is for a US carrier, cough**AT&T**cough, to pick up this amazing handset for mass distribution. That, dear readers, would make us happy. But, oh yeah, we called that already! Also, as good as this E71 looks, we’re pretty sure its sort of a spare parts unit. For clarification, the keyboard and the back top cover look to be installed on a regular E71. Expect the white AT&T version to be… white.

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He’s a witch! Stone him! Ok, ok… Put your pitchforks and torches down. Thai developer Sittiphol Phanvilai, creator of Mobitubia, is not a witch (or a warlock). He is however, a talented developer and engineer. Phanvilai’s latest research project is a doozy; he essentially transforms a Nokia N95 into a smart board with multitouch support. “Multitouch” may not be entirely accurate of course, since use of the N95’s camera means he doesn’t actually need to touch anything. Multigesture? This guy is basically a digital MacGyver as he uses LED light pens, film negatives, tape and a tripod to create what he has dubbed NeuScreen. The only thing that isn’t absolutely awesome about this demonstration is the choice of music. Sittiphol, buddy, give us a shout next time you’re going to whip up a showcase video and we’ll hook you up with something a bit more “Neu”.

[Via AAS]

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While the world waited with baited breath to tune in for every last word from the Apple keynote, live shots of three little Nokias crept out into the wild. The timing is very interesting. Perhaps even more interesting is the coincidence that two completely different sets of live N85 photos found their way onto the internet on the same day. Hmmmm. Is Nokia planting a few seeds in an effort to steal some of the limelight? We may never know. Regardless, pictured above from left to right you’ll find the N85, 5800 XpressMedia (which we’ve already seen plenty of) and N79. The N85, which is labeled N00 as all Nseries handsets are in the early prototype phase, is a dual slide a la N95 / N96. Think of it as the N96’s little cousin. Little is known about it at this point but from the images found on the read link we can see a 5 megapixel Zeiss camera with a sliding lens cover and dual LED flash. Odd that the lens cover on the picture of the two N85s together has different text than the picture of the solo N85. Next in line is the 5800 XpressMedia aka Tube. We’ve told you plenty about it already and there’s really no additional info to be learned from the photos. Lastly, the N79 (also marked N00) is a big variation from the design cues we’ve seen coming out of Finland lately. It does bear some resemblance to the N81 though, so perhaps it’s an offspring. Whatever the case may be, the keypad looks pretty smooth and the handset is definitely unique. What do you guys think?

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iPhone iPhone 3G iPhone AppStore iPhone Apps iPhone 3G video calling iPhone iPhone Apple Apple iPhone. Oh sorry, that’s not until 1pm EST. In the meantime, Nokia fans anxiously awaiting new entries into the business-oriented Eseries lineup will be happy to learn of Nokia’s latest little slip up. For a short while yesterday, tutorials went up on Nokia’s site for the upcoming E71 and E66 handsets. Of course BGR readers have already seen just about all there is to see on the E71 but this little mistake could very well mean that an announcement is coming soon. In fact, a little bird might just have dropped an official announcement date on us. Nothing has been “confirmed” but Nokia fans might want to clear their schedules on June 16, a week from today. Yup, you heard it here people. The brief appearance of these tutorials gives even more weight to this date as it looks like someone may have just accidentally scheduled these pages to go live a week early. Our guess is that the downed demo pages, found here for the E71 and here for the E66, will go back up next Monday and there will be plenty more info to feast on as well.

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Just a few days before Apple dishes the official skinny on the upcoming 3G iPhone and puts an end to all of the rumors, photoshops and speculations (thankfully), S60 has issued an updated video showcasing the upcoming S60 Touch UI. You’ll recognize plenty of the content from the original clip they released, but tons of additional demo footage has been added and we get to see a whole lot more of the UI. Nice. From a visual standpoint plenty is still vanilla S60 but now that more of the UI is visible we can see several nice additions and refinements. Actually, the updated OS is looking pretty sweet. Of concern however, is the part of the video where the woman opens the browser and accesses YouTube. You can see a close up of the YouTube page as the woman drags her finger downward to scroll down (2:06). No, no, no. This is fine if you’re dragging a scrollbar because the scrollbar will be following your finger while page content moves in the opposite direction. It you’re touching the page content itself however, the screen needs to move with your finger and never against it. If you place a piece of paper on a desk and drag it around with your finger, the paper is not going to move away from your body as you drag your finger towards your body. Counterintuitive.

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There are some handsets that are born crowd splitters, no question. For some people it’s love at first sight and others won’t even bat an eye. Nokia’s first Feature Pack 2 device to come to market, the N78, is just that. It’s sleek, thin and different with smooth lines and and a nice form factor. At the same time it’s a quirky handset with an atypical keypad and a back cover with an odd pattern. Specs-wise, it has plenty of juice; 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and autofocus, internal GPS and OEM geotagging, integrated FM transmitter, and so on. Are specs enough incentive for the user to work through it’s oddities though? We’ll let you be the judge. Enjoy the 16 minutes of N78 walkthrough-love and then let us know what you think.

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Details are a tad shaky right now as the original leak source for these two upcoming handsets has removed all info from the site, but it looks like Nokia will be taking aim at the fairer sex once again with two sexy S40 handsets. What’s the source you might ask? Nokia’s Polish site. Oops! It seems Nokia’s Polish webmaster has a bit of an itchy trigger finger and the info on two new handsets was up just long enough to get snagged. The two handsets, Nokia 7510 Supernova and Nokia 7xxx Supernova (the second handset is being reported as 7610 but this is unlikely as Nokia has already has a discontinued handset bearing those numbers) look to be focusing on style with functionality that won’t interest the Nseries crowd, but really isn’t too shabby. Along the same vein as Nokia’s L’Amour series, these handsets will get the job done and bring out the hazel in your eyes at the same time. Specs as follows:

Nokia 7510 Supernova

• Weight: 124 g
• Dimensions: 92 x 46 x 17 mm
• Display: QVGA 16m colors, external monochrome 128×160 display
• Network: Quad-band GSM / EDGE
• Memory: 27 MB internal, microSD support
• Operating System: S40 (with active themes)
• Camera: 2 megapixel with LED flash and 4x digital zoom; QCIF video recording at 15 FPS
• Talktime: 3 days standby and 300 hours of talktime
• Internet: OSS internet browser
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0
• FM radio with RDS
• 2.5 mm jack
• Xpress on covers

Nokia 7xxx Supernova:

• Weight: 99 g
• Dimensions: 98×48×15 mm
• Display: QVGA 16m color display
• Network: Quad-band GSM/EDGE
• Talktime: 5.4 days standby and 300 hours talktime
• Storage: 64 MB internal, microSD support
• Operating System: S40
• Camera: 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash and 8x digital zoom; VGA 30 FPS video recording
• Bluetooth 2.0
• FM radio with RDS

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Using Windows Mobile Live suite of applications on your Nokia S60 enabled handset is now possible thanks to, well, Microsoft. They’ve released an official version of Windows Live Messenger, Live contacts, Spaces, and Hotmail tailor made for Nokia devices, and the software suite automatically syncs your phone contacts with your Hotmail contacts. You can also send images and files direct from your handset by way of Windows Live Messenger. Installation is available immediately, directly from Microsoft.

[Via Gizmodo]

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It looks like the changing of the guard may happen sooner than some would have thought. According to the play.com shop, Nokia’s N96 will begin shipping on July 31st for a whopping £600 or $1,185 as of today’s exchange rate. It will be interesting to see what price point it gets in the US, but our friends across the pond may end up saving money by flying over here to snag one. Ok, maybe not. The N96 as you know, is the peppy heir to the flagship Nseries throne and will be the second Feature Pack 2 device issued by Nokia. It’s a multimedia powerhouse with stunning specs, a solid design and a shiny new chipset that should help tremendously with power consumption. We’re very excited to check this sucker out. The big question of course: Does the N96 build nicely upon the precedent set by the N95 8GB or just basically repackage it? With details like up to 32 GB of memory, Feature Pack 2 and plenty more, we’re thinking the former might just be the case.

[Via S60 Blogger]

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You’ve been waiting and waiting, but finally, the wait is over. Check out our complete video walkthrough of the Nokia E71. We tried to get everything in including most of your reasonable questions that you left in the comments. As we told you, this thing is speedy and small! We even threw in the iPhone and Curve so you could really a size comparison. Now, who’s running out to buy this thing the first day it’s out?

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Hot on the heels of the N95 NAM, the N95 8GB NAM has just received a firmware refresh courtesy of Nokia. The changes? You guessed it; just about the same as all the other v20 firmware out there, although N95-4 owners already had much of the functionality N95 NAM users had been waiting for. After a false start of sorts last month we have to wonder if the N95 8GB NAM update wasn’t delayed until one day after the N95 NAM update in order to avoid the public outcry that would have ensued. In any event, start backing up your 8GBs and get ready to have a blast manually reinstalling all those apps! The speed and performance improvements brought about by v20 firmware should make it worth your while though. We just wish Nokia could nail the updating thing already. The process should be a 10-minute cake walk, not a 4-hour endeavor…

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S60 people, stop drooling over the E71 for a few minutes so that we can give you some important news. Remember how we reported on the guy from Nokia stated that the new v20 firmware for the N95 NAM would be out in early June? Yeah, he totally lied. Ok, maybe he didn’t lie and plans were just changed a bit. As of early this morning the updated firmware is available for all to enjoy, possibly to celebrate Memorial Day. Whatever the case may be, it’s taken entirely too long but it’s here so back up your phone and get to flashing. Some noted improvements:

• Flash Lite 3 support
• Faster bootup
• Faster camera load time
• Integrated Search
• Demand paging
• No ASR
• N-Gage demos

So there you have it; better than any Memorial Day sale we can think of. Hit the Nokia Software Updater and get rolling.

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So there’s this phone called the Nokia E71. It magically showed up on our doorstep yesterday (shout out to FedEx Sameday!) and was begging for us to review it. Well, we’re not going to disappoint you. In fact, there will be no disappointment at all as you’ll see in our review. The Nokia E71 has officially entered the ring, and it’s coming out fighting. Spoiler Alert: we love this phone. Full review is after the break!

Design:

Obviously this is subjective, but this could really be one of the sexiest damn phones we’ve seen in a very long time. We could do without the tacky pattern on the back battery cover, but we’ll let it slide this time. The entire phone is chrome and while it’s definitely a fingerprint magnet (just have your assistant wipe it down for you) it looks really sharp in person. Everything is proportionate and sort of just works well together. The middle select key actually serves as the notification light, too. So when you have a missed event, the border around the middle key will glow white until you cleared the event, or until the expiration time you set for the notification light expires. It’s a nice touch and a creative way to get rid of the annoying older-fashioned status light. Oh yeah…did we mention this thing is thin? Seriously, we don’t know how they did it. Especially with everything that’s packed in here…man, that BlackBerry Bold is just huge compared to this. Everyone is going to have to step it up after this because as of now, we can’t find one single thing Nokia sacrificed to make the device this thin and compact.

Screen:

There’s a 320×240 screen on the E71 and it looks very sharp. It’s not as bright as the N95, but it’s very clear and easy on the eyes. Screen real estate isn’t a problem at all as we find it more pleasurable to use than an N95. Pictures and video look very detailed and clean. There’s a decent amount of contrast when looking at media, and you’ll especially appreciate the screen during some heavy web browsing.

Connectivity:

The world must be changing. Remember when Nokia would hold every single feature above your head and never give you the perfect phone? Well, we’re finally getting past that. We’re not positive if there’s support for the 2100MHz band here, so for now, we’ll assume it doesn’t have it and there will be a US NAM model, and European model. In terms of the hard connectivity specs, you’ve got a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone with 850MHz/1900MHz UMTS/HSDPA support, Wi-Fi 802.11 a,b,g, Bluetooth 2.0, and GPS. Like most recent Nokia’s, the GPS is assisted by the network, but fret not because there still is a physical GPS chip in here.

Sound:

Like the E61 and E61i before it, the E71 houses a single speaker in the upper left of the phone. It seems louder than the E61 and it’s pretty clear for ringtones and alert sounds. Music sounds fine on it, but it’s not perfect. Bass is seriously lacking and you do get a “tinny” sort of sound. It is very, very loud, though, so you can be sure that alarm is going to get your ass out of bed in the morning.

Email:

What good would an E-Series device be without email? Besides the normal POP3/IMAP supported protocols, Nokia’s Mail For Exchange comes with the device out of the box and is incredibly easy to setup. The handset supports BlackBerry Connect (though we didn’t actually try it) and we’d imagine Goodlink as well. The messaging application had a little bit of a visual makeover, and it’s for the better. Text is extremely readable and emails look great. We’d have loved to see support for HTML email, but oh well.

Keyboard:

If there had to be one negative to the E71 (relax, it’s not the end of the world) it’s going to be the keyboard. Again, not a huge deal, but if we had to pick one thing to single out it’s the keyboard and it quite possibly won’t bother you. It did annoy us, though. Think of the physical keys on the E71 the same as the E61, just a lot smaller. They’re also not as squishy which is nice, and they’re pretty easy to press once you get it down. Our issue is, again, Nokia has not learned the basic keyboard layout and we personally can’t stand it. On a normal QWERTY keyboard the letter “z” is not directly under the letter “a”. It’s either under the letter “s” or somewhere in between the two. This makes typing a royal bitch if you’re not looking directly at the keyboard and is totally unnecessary. All they had to do is stick the damn period key in front of the “z” key and all would be well. Again, this might not be a big deal to you if you’re coming from a QWERTY E-Series already, but for us hardcore freaks who bang away constantly on the keyboard, we’d like the normal layout that’s used on basically every other QWERTY phone on the planet. Fix it please, Nokia. The keys have a nice white backlighting which makes them very easy to read. Just like the other models, the actual keys don’t light up, just the letters and symbols which makes for a very clean and sexy look.

Something also interesting is the inclusion of predictive text on here. You might be thinking why you’d ever need predictive text when you’ve got a QWERTY keyboard, but it actually helps more than it gets in the way. It sort of works like how the iPhone does. If you’re typing fast and accidentally misspell a word but keep typing and hit the space bar, it will auto correct and suggest that word for you. It can also save you a good amount of typing time as it will suggest words for you when you are halfway through them and a simple press of the space bar selects the suggested word and keeps you moving.

Expandability:

There’s a microSD card slot right above the microUSB port on the handset, so you should be able to expand the memory of the phone to the largest microSD card you can find. We haven’t checked data transfer speeds to the memory card over USB yet, but we’re assuming it’s on par with the rest of the Nokias.

Call quality:

Nokia and call quality go together like ham and burger. Kool-Aid and sugar. The E71 doesn’t disappoint. We’ve had such a pleasurable experience with it that we’ve been calling people randomly just to talk on the phone. In all seriousness, it meets or exceeds what we’ve come to expect and love from Nokia. A phone that excels as a phone, as it should. It actually went toe-to-toe with our BlackBerry Curve in terms of holding onto a signal in low coverage areas. And all you BlackBerry lovers out there know that RIM makes one hell of a cell radio in those things.

Battery:

There’s a 1500mAh battery in the E71, and with a full day of heavy use like constant email, phone calls, web browsing, and all around messing with the phone, we’ve still got around 2 bars left. There should be no concern with the battery life here.

Conclusion:

We’re at the end of the review, but by now, you’ve seen how impressed we are with the phone. It takes a lot to get us excited but the E71 has done it. This thing, in our opinion, is the best phone Nokia has made to date. That’s a very bold statement, we know. But this really is going to be the phone to beat by a lot of manufacturers. From the design, to the specs, to the size, the feel — it has the entire package. It’s not for everyone, though. Some people prefer a straight up phone like a flip phone, but in terms of a smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard, this takes the cake. It is just striking compared to the shit device the E61 was. It’s ok, we still love y’all that carry the E61, but this puts it to shame. One thing I personally can’t get over is the awesome dimensions of the device. It’s so perfectly thin, yet incredibly comfortable to hold and use. We just hope Nokia doesn’t wait too long to bring this to market as they need to strike now. Like right now. This second. After seeing all of the detailed shots and our impressions, how do you guys feel about the phone? Are you foaming at the mouth waiting for it or ice-grillin’ us?

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Developer Morten Hjerde was inspired by the upcoming Nokia Tube 5800 and built an interesting concept for an intuitive music player with some concepts that will surely be utilized in future media interfaces. Dubbed “Flat Music Player”, Hjerde’s design makes use of album artwork and the touch interface to create an experience that adapts so the user’s needs and eliminates antiquated text lists and menus. As he puts it, “The core idea here is to use the content itself as the interface.” As simple as it sounds, this concept goes great lengths towards making the user interface more streamlined and intuitive. So kudos to Hjerde; maybe if Nokia brings him on as a consultant we could see a music player on a Nokia handset some day that doesn’t look like it came from the first wave of MP3 players.

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It’s my first day back but that’s not stopping us from bringing you guys a little hardcore Nokia action! We’ve got a Nokia E71 in hand and we’ve got to say, this thing is nice. It’s the perfect size — a cross between the Nokia E51 and E61 — and it’s built like a tank. Did we mention that it has US 3G bands? Oh, ok then. The keyboard is going to take some getting used to, but it’s worlds better than the old E61 and E61i. Also, this bad beast of an Eseries is thin, and thin is in folks. It is noticeably thinner than the reigning thin smart phone champ, the iPhone. All in all, we can’t seem to put this thing down. Our resident S60 nut Zach confirmed to us that the E71 will definitely be launching with the US 3G bands, so we’re just going to have to do a little bit of waiting game to see when this is finally released. In terms of specs, the E71 we have is a quad-band GSM EDGE phone with 850MHz/1900MHz UMTS/HSDPA. It’s rocking a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, Wi-Fi and GPS. We’re putting our full review together and we’re doing a video walkthrough but in the meantime, hang tight and hit the gallery. We’ve got some shots of the E71 with the N95 8GB and iPhone so you can really see the size of the thing.

Click on over to our Nokia E71 hands on gallery!

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Impressive response time Nokia, although this really shouldn’t have been an issue to begin with. This past Wednesday, in case you missed it, the discovery was made that N-Gage games are locked to a device IMEI rather than an account. Translation: Buy a new phone, kiss your games goodbye. Here we are two days later and as history would dictate, word has come out that Nokia is addressing the situation immediately. In the short term, Nokia Care will be able to take care of IMEI changes for N-Gagers with new devices. Apparently a long term solution that will automate the system is already in the works. Granted, this shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place but it’s good to see Nokia responding so quickly. Gamers, commence forking over your cash.

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Meet Scrooge McNokia. He loves his recently-launched N-Gage platform because it does an amazing job of putting access to payware games in the hands of countless S60 device owners. It couldn’t be easier for them to fire up N-Gage on their handset and fork over some cash for a few titles from the ever-increasing N-Gage catalog. McNokia even worked out a few deals with top gaming labs Electronic Arts and Konami to include top notch titles that no mobile gamer can refuse. Already garnering acclaim across the internet, N-Gage popularity is growing every day as more compatible handsets are released. All this should give McNokia enough gold coins keep him swimming for years to come, right? He wouldn’t try to milk his customers for even more would he? Oh yes, he would. Despite information presented by N-Gage reps at Nokia’s Go Play event last year, we are now learning that N-Gage titles are not - we repeat, not - transferable from one device to another. Reps at Go Play clearly stated that N-Gage purchases would be tied to a profile rather than a specific handset. It only makes sense; after all, a customer who ditches one Nokia handset to purchase another Nokia handset is the prefect customer! But no, word is now coming through that despite initial info from the N-Gage team, purchases are locked to a device’s IMEI. Buying a new handset means you’ll have to either repurchase all of your N-Gage titles or simply lose them. The only known caveat to this point applies to handsets with manufacturer defects that are exchanged by Nokia customer care. Makes you think twice before clicking that purchase button…

[Via Symbian-Guru]

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You didn’t think our ninjas were done for the day, did you? Maybe you saw the recent news that T-Mobile has announced the launch of the Nokia XpressMusic 5310 handset and you thought to yourself, “wow that thing is pretty hot and I need a new phone but I wonder if there’s anything coming out soon that I’d like better?” Well stop wondering, that’s what BGR is here for. We’ve got the exclusive on five more handsets that will all be in stores by the end of June. The rundown:

• Nokia 2760 - Available June 16: Smooth low end clamshell with all the basics
• Nokia XpressMusic 5610 - Available TBD (we heard June): Estranged brother of the 5310; Slider, 3.2 megapixel camera, A2DP stereo bluetooth, external music player controls, microSDHC support and plenty more
• Nokia 6301 - Available June 23: Sleek and elegant candy bar with WiFi, 2 megapixel camera, A2DP stereo bluetooth and all the rest S40 has to offer
• Samsung t229 - Available June: Bright red low end clamshell with a 4x zoom camera and the basics
• Samsung t339 - Available June 23: Sexier slimmed down burgundy clamshell with WiFi, 1.3 megapixel camera, A2DP stereo bluetooth and more

So now you know; and knowing is half the battle. What do we think? Not bad at all, T-Mobile. Hit the jump for exclusive internal info sheets on each handset.

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T-Mobile USA and Nokia have just launched the Nokia XpressMusic 5310, which is the successor to the Nokia 5300. The slider candybar handset sports a number of mid-range features, including a 2MP camera with video support, FM radio, QVGA screen, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a bit more. Sadly, the handset is a tri-band EDGE phone, so anyone with aspiration of taking T-Mobile’s new 3G network for a spin might want to look elsewhere. The phone does come with a 1GB microSD card out of the box, and the handset supports cards up to 4GB. To drum up some attention for an otherwise mediocre launch, Nokia and T-Mobile are holding a contest for new 5310 owners, offering a depressingly boring range of prizes, including free music and ringtone downloads, and a grand prize of a $100 Ticketmaster gift card. Yay! The phone will be available starting May 28th in three exclusive colors, black/red, black/purple and black/orange, for the low, low price of $49.99 with a 2-year contract. Hawla.

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