N97 Pre-Orders to be avalable soon!

Thanks to the always revealing FCC, they knew nice & well Nokia's painfully costly N97 had the US on its mind, but now they know the moment of truth is drawing near. As of right now, Nokia's US web-site has a teaser spot informing us US citizens that we'll be able to pre-order the N97 "soon." Hitting the link only directs us the European legalese that we've digested before, but surely it'll lead to something meaningful in due time. For now, it is still an unfortunate waiting game.

Nokia N97 specs revealed

The last of the N97's juicy technical details have finally been revealed on Nokia's dev-minded Forum Nokia site -- previously, only cursory data had been posted here -- although there are a couple notable bits that might be of concern to developers and would-be ourchasers of this lovely device alike.

Firstly, the processor looks to be a single-core ARM 11 putting along at 434MHz, 65MHz faster than the 5800's. It's quite an improvement, but when you consider that the competing i8910 from Samsung runs a higher-performance 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8, it makes the whole thing seem a bit...weak. Seeing how this is designed to be Nokia's premier device for 2009, couldn't they have gone all out, Nokia fashion?

Secondly -- this is something they already know, but the spec sheet reminded (and excited) us -- the N97 supports charging via micro-USB, which the 5800 doen't do. Ah well, some things need to be sacrificed in life, huh?

Star Trek edition Nokia 5800 announced

We assumed that many product tie-ins would come along with the new Star Trek film thats slated for this summer, so this isn't too big of a surprise (although welcomed). A new Star Trek special edition of the 5800 has been announced along with the release of the new J.J. Abrams epic, and while it doesn't appear to be a official Nokia release, it does appear to be pretty sick.

This handset is going to boast 4 animated screensavers, 3 wallpapers, and 3 exclusive ringtones, including ones titled "Phazer Shot," "Red Alert" and "Kelvin Communicator." We've also heard tell of a special "Phazer application," and though they don't yet know what that brings, they have high hopes. The 5800 will be available starting May 1st exclusively at Phones 4 U in the UK in blue, red, and black/silver on Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2.

Nokia's "Comes With Music" service not going over so well?

After initial reports that Nokia's "Comes With Music" subscription service was doing "decent" word on the streets is now... less nice. According to estimates released by Music Ally at an Association of Independent Music conference in London, Nokia's snagged about 23,000 subscribers to the service since it was started last October. That's not a signifigant number, if it's close to accurate... Nokia has "refused to confirm" whether or not it is or isn't. Tim Grimsditch, head of Nokia's product marketing division added that it's "a new business model, we're live in two markets and the numbers only mention eight. We're going to continue to create the model and fine tune how they market it." That being said, the report can't be terribly heartening no matter which way you interpret it, and it is rather reminiscent of N-Gage's niche market.

E71x will only be $100 on contract!

You heard right.. Despite rumors of a much larger price point (other sites were quoting $200-250), it is now confirmed that the E71x will be only $100 on contract when it is released on Tuesday. Of course, it is expected that this price is factored in with a data plan refund, though time will tell. Traditionally, the data plan discounts are $50 (minus the iphone plan) at ATT, so no matter what, you are getting a superb phone at a great price.

Nokia at CTIA 2009

Nokia did something much different this year at CTIA, which was shifting their focus to applications among other things, rather then on their hardware. Everything from social networking to OVI video playback has been discussed.

Unfortunately, there were no new announcements, although they did show off some previously announced models. The highlight was Easily the E71X, which is going to be alvalible on ATT for only $100 with a contract.

Also, the E75 was showed off at the show as well..

Pictures from the event can be found at http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/04/02/nokia-ctia-e71x-and-e75/