Some of our readers were still skeptical after the first two leaks of the Nokia N97 Mini but that should be enough to convince them that the handset is just round the corner. A live preview of the slightly downgraded version of the Nokia multimedia flagship appeared online, revealing almost everything there’s to reveal about the handset.

Being a sized-down version of the original Nokia N97, the N97 Mini-Me will come with 8GB of internal storage rather than 32 GB. There’s also no D-pad this time and the keypad size is reduced, which according to the author makes it uncomfortable for users with larger hands. While the camera module has remained unchanged, the protective cover is dropped, leaving the N97 Mini lens exposed to fingerprints and scratches.

Nokia N97 Mini

On the positive side the Nokia N97 Mini replaces the plastic battery cover with a much nicer metal one and has more solid build quality. There’s also kinetic scrolling throughout the interface, much like the newly released Nokia 5530 XpressMusic and the latest firmware of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

The good news about the Nokia N97 users is that they will also be receiving kinetic scrolling as an update soon. The new firmware sporting it will be released in mid-September.

The main grudge that the author of the preview has against the Nokia N97 Mini is its pricing, which is said to be only about 100 euro less than that of the regular N97 but frankly we cannot quite agree with that. While we certainly consider the N97 slightly over-priced, we cannot help but feel that such a price difference is pretty reasonable. After all with the original handset nearing 400 euro, we cannot have hoped for its younger brother to sell for less than 300, right?

Nokia N97 mini

Leaving the pricing aside, the preview gives us some more spicy info about the Nokia touchscreen portfolio. Apparently it will be receiving some major update in the coming months with the first new editions right around the corner (presumably the Nokia 5230, announced this morning is one of them).

Nokia are obviously getting more and more serious about their touchscreen portfolio. Hot on the heels of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, they have announced the Nokia 5230 – an entry-level touchscreen handset. The newcomer has the same dimensions as the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic but looses the Wi-Fi and has only a 2 megapixel camera.

Much like the Nokia 5800, the Nokia 5230 sports a 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels, FM radio, 3.5 mm audio jack and microSD card slot. The camera has been downgraded to 2 megapixel resolution but manages the decent VGA@30fps video recording.

Nokia 5230 runs the latest Symbian S60 5th edition and is powered by the same battery as 5800 – a 1320 mAh one, which is good 320 mAh larger that that of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. According to the manufacturer the 5230 will be capable of 33 hours of non-stop music playback.

Nokia 5230

The final noteworthy features of the the 5230 include Ovi Maps and social networking integration such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

The available inbox colors for the Nokia 5230 are black and white for the front panel and red, pink, blue, yellow, silver and dark silver for the rear covers.

The available inbox colors

The handset will be available in Q4 this year for a recommended price of 150 euro before taxes or subsides. It will also be distributed in a Comes With Music package in certain markets, priced at 259 euro before subsides and taxes.

  Today LG proudly announced that their multimedia handset LG KM900 Arena exceeded one million units sold around the world, following the steps of the 5 million Cookies and 5 million Viewties spread around the globe.

LG Arena was announced back in February during the MWC 2009 and was released in late April this year. It targeted the multimedia class and its pre-orders and first week sales were very promising (actually LG were touting one million pre-orders and subsequently orders even back then). However it seems that now, four months later, they’ve finally hit the millionth milestone for real.

While LG gives the credit of Arena’s success to the attractive S-Class interface, the Dolby and DivX technologies and the “outstanding” audio and visual experience, it’s more likely good marketing more than anything else, if you ask us.

We admit we are fans of the S-class UI and the LG Arena as a whole, but as user reports have it, it’s been plagued by several issues concerning poor implementation of features or just plain limitations.

The Dolby sound enhancement may be nice, but the DivX playback capabilities are pretty limited (video resolution and bitrate wise). There are also numerous issues with the integrated GPS receiver and there is hardly an adequate Java SatNav software available.

And finally, the available third-party applications are not quite optimized for the LG Arena high-res touchscreen display and most of the times you get low resolution output and unwieldy on-screen controls that offer average user-friendliness.

LG Arena sold in one million units in 53 countries across the globe and we bet its success is far from ending. If LG continue their good marketing strategy and put their foot down to the metal with their upcoming AppStore, we are sure that the KM900 Arena will join the LG Cookie and LG Viewty on the 5-million podium.

Today Nokia unveiled the Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition – a full GPS-centric variant of the Nokia 5800 XpresMusic. Using the momentum gained by the original XpressMusic handset, the new gadget matches the functionality of its predecessor almost perfectly. The main differences are the added lifetime Drive and Walk navigation license and the cool looking stand and car charger that allow you to easily use the phone as an in-car SatNav unit.

There’s only one other difference compared to the original model according to the data sheet of the Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition. It will be available in Chrome and Black color combo rather than any of the two-colored versions of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition will come in three different flavors, each packing quad-band GSM connectivity. Two of them will also pack WLAN and dual-band 3G with HSDPA, while the third one (we are guessing it will be available in either China or some emerging markets) will lack both connectivity options.

Unfortunately, judging by the promo video published, the Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition’s 3.2″ screen seems to be as poor under direct sunlight as the one of the first S60 5th edition handset. Considering that the handset is meant to sit on your dashboard, frequently exposed to sunlight, this flaw might make it somewhat less than a perfect travel companion.

But never mind our concerns, here goes the video in question for you to check out. It introduces the keys features of the Nokia 5800 Navigation edition and demonstrates the last version of Ovi Maps GPS navigation software that comes preinstalled..

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The iPhone is making it really hard not to like it – apparently the latest generation of iPhones – the speedy 3GS can play 1080p video. Yep, 1080p. The software is not fully ready yet but the hardware is. So, are we just a software update away from having the 3GS become one of the most popular ultra portable HD video players? The guys at Engadget spent time playing with the 3GS after reading a post in a Chinese forum that the phone handled 1080p video of up to 30Mbps bitrate. They had various success – 10Mbps 1080p video played back fine, but 20Mbps 720p was stuttering, and the audio decoder is not bug-free yet as well. HD playback is not officially supported so bugs are to be expected, the important bit here is that the hardware is capable of HD playback. A bit of googling quelled our biggest concern – will the iPhone 3GS be able to output the video after having decoded it? There are composite and component cables for the iPhone but still no HDMI cables. Nonetheless, the answer seems to be positive – component video cables are capable of handling up to 1080i/60Hz video. Okay, some quality will be lost during the progressive to interlaced conversion but the limitation to 1080i seems to be of an entirely different nature – a legal one. While video transmitted over HDMI can be DRM-protected, analog video cannot, making it easy to copy and negating the usefulness of all those content protection schemes. Still, 1080i offers great quality and 720p and 1080i content is much more common than 1080p so most of the time it’s not even a problem. Of course nothing is certain until it’s official, but it seems that the iPhone 3GS just might be capable of outputting HD video. And most (if not all) LCD TVs have component inputs so keep your fingers crossed. The iPhone is making it really hard not to like it – apparently the latest generation of iPhones – the speedy 3GS can play 1080p video. Yep, 1080p. The software is not fully ready yet but the hardware is. So, are we just a software update away from having the 3GS become one of the most popular ultra portable HD video players? The guys at Engadget spent time playing with the 3GS after reading a post in a Chinese forum that the phone handled 1080p video of up to 30Mbps bitrate. They had various success – 10Mbps 1080p video played back fine, but 20Mbps 720p was stuttering, and the audio decoder is not bug-free yet as well. HD playback is not officially supported so bugs are to be expected, the important bit here is that the hardware is capable of HD playback. A bit of googling quelled our biggest concern – will the iPhone 3GS be able to output the video after having decoded it? There are composite and component cables for the iPhone but still no HDMI cables. Nonetheless, the answer seems to be positive – component video cables are capable of handling up to 1080i/60Hz video. Okay, some quality will be lost during the progressive to interlaced conversion but the limitation to 1080i seems to be of an entirely different nature – a legal one. While video transmitted over HDMI can be DRM-protected, analog video cannot, making it easy to copy and negating the usefulness of all those content protection schemes. Still, 1080i offers great quality and 720p and 1080i content is much more common than 1080p so most of the time it’s not even a problem. Of course nothing is certain until it’s official, but it seems that the iPhone 3GS just might be capable of outputting HD video. And most (if not all) LCD TVs have component inputs so keep your fingers crossed.

Race cars are exciting, no one’s questioning that. But what about race car branded phones? The luxurious cellphone manufacturer Gresso already have their own – the Grand Monaco limited edition collection and they bet on getting you revved up with associations with Formula 1 and, of course, the Monaco Grand Prix.

As is often the case with luxury phones, exquisite materials and craftsmanship is the name of the game. The Grand Monaco collection is no exception to this rule. The case is made out of a titanium super alloy covered with several layers of high-tech ceramic in 750C degrees temperature. This coating prevents tarnishing and won’t loose its color.

The design of the Grand Monaco phones is Formula 1 inspired and as such, there’s the obligatory carbon fiber – the front and back case panels. Another favorite for high-end phones – sapphire, all 42 carats of it, protects the display.

Gresso Grand Monaco collection: Black Ceramic Black Carbon and Metallic Ceramic Black Carbon

The keypad is absolutely flat and made out of 100 micron thick steel, covered with titanium Black PVD – no, we’re not quite sure what it is (Wikipedia suggests “physical vapor deposition”), but what you need to know is that it makes the surface black and mirror-like and also protects it from scratches. The keys themselves are manufactured out of surgical steel and the numbers and letters are laser cut.

A Magnetic Smart lock takes care of fastening the back cover of the phones of the Grand Monaco collection.

By now, you’ve probably guessed that these phones are not meant to stand up against Nokia N97 or the Samsung Pixon12. Come on, asking whether your titanium and high-tech ceramic phone has Twitter integration is like asking whether a 20-carat gold ring can double as a beer bottle opener.

Just for the sake of thoroughness though, here are the phone specs: the phone in the series have tri-band GSM connectivity (900/1800/1900) with GPRS/EDGE as well as Bluetooth and Java support. Internal memory is supplemented by microSD cards up to 2GB. The Grand Monaco phones are powered by Li-ion batteries, 1100mAh each, providing up to five and half hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby.

The Grand Monaco collection features two models – Black Ceramic Black Carbon and Metallic Ceramic Black Carbon. They cost 2100 US dollars (1475 euro), which is quite cheap, we guess, in luxury phones terms, and will be available on 25 August 2009.

You’ve probably heard of Nokia’s upcoming tablet dubbed Nokia N900. A pre-announcement preview revealed that the Maemo-based smart internet device is also a GSM phone. The excellently geared smartphone has obviously impressed our fellow tech journalists and according to them, it’s the next big thing in the mobile phones world.

Being the next generation in the natural evolution of the Nokia smart mobile internet devices, the N900 features full telephony and messaging capabilities. The author chose not to disclose its full specifications until the handset is officially announced but the bits revealed are enough to make us drool.

Nokia N900

Nokia N900 relies on a 3.5″ resistive touchscreen display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels for most of its user interaction. The other features include 32GB internal memory, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, microUSB port, TV-out and haptic feedback. A 5 megapixel camera, identical to the one of Nokia N97 is also onboard.

Nokia N900

DivX support makes sure that the Nokia N900 can easily play your favorite videos without having to convert them. Coupled with the generously sized screen and the same lens-surround kickstand as on the Nokia N96 it should provide for great video-watching experience.

Also true to its tablet origins the smartphone sport an excellent browser with Flash support and a bunch of other software goodies to keep you in touch with your preferred online social communities.

A peek inside the Maemo OS

Nokia N900 is powered by an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU but the reviewer chose not to disclose its clock, but it’s an easy guess to say 600Mhz, much like Samsung Omnia HD. We will also have to wait for the official announcement to see what is the amount of available RAM.

The Maemo OS that the Nokia N900 uses is also great looking with excellent performance as the reviewers point out. Although the N900 has pretty different looks and feel, its touch experience is comparable to that of the iPhone, according to the source.

Nokia N900 will start shipping in the last quarter of the current year, its estimated price being in the region of 550 euro. We look forward its official announcement at Nokia World 2009 this September.

Windows Mobile seems to be making the headlines quite often these days. While the upcoming WinMo 6.5 is getting closer than ever to release, a leaked software build of the next version of TouchFLO 3D by HTC has been previewed on video.

Bringing much more pleasant looks and boosting the usability of the underlying OS greatly over the last couple of generation of HTC devices, the TouchFLO 3D is certainly a favorite around the office (strictly WinMo context speaking though). And the next reincarnation looks even more appealing bringing more color and some more nice touches to user-friendliness.

The most notable changes at first sight are the new icons that are used for changing the tabs as well as the new image gallery and music albums browsing. There are also nicely large and thumbable shortcuts added on a number of tabs such as the Internet tab, the People’s tab and most notably the Home tab. Those last shortcuts allow you to bring almost any function of your handset at only a click distance.

The clock on the Home tab has also been modified and is now almost identical to the one found on the HTC Hero. The icons also seem heavily influenced those on the Android-running handset. Changes have also affected the Calendar tab and the Weather tab, which as the reviewer says is better integrated with the interface now.

If there’s anything bothering about the videos it’s certainly the sluggishness of the interface, when demonstrated on the HTC Touch HD and the HTC Touch Diamond2. Yet we are pretty certain that when all the i-dotting and t-crossing is done, it will be a whole lot more smoother on the rumored HTC Leo, which should be the first officially released handset to come with the new TouchFLO 3D UI.

Here’s a brief summary of the most notable changes that the TouchFLO 3D 2.6 brings around:

• New colorful icons
• Local weather information added to the Home tab
• Most links throughout the tabs are bigger and more thumbable
• Image gallery tab now has landscape mode
• Peoples tab is more thumbable with no need for flicking
• Music player tab has landscape album art browsing
• Calendar tab has several new view modes
• Web browser tab displays saved links as thumbable buttons
• Settings tab features even more extended settings and digs even deeper in the underlying WinMo than before

But if you’re interested in the nitty-gritty details, we’d bet you’d like to see the demo videos themselves.

Detailed TouchFLO 3D ver. 2.5 preview:

LG are taking their time officially unveiling all the details about their LG BL40 New Chocolate, just teasing us with a few photos and some obvious features. But here’s a hands-on video showing what the Bl40 is all about. The video is just over 6 minutes long, but covers the exterior and interface of the New Chocolate.

If you’ve been away on vacation somewhere where there’s no Internet and you’re wondering why the LG BL40 is so long, it’s because of the screen. It has an aspect ratio of 21:9 and is 4″ in diagonal, 800×345 pixels of resolution. It’s a capacitive touchscreen, so it’s very responsive and can handle multitouch input as well. 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G support finish off the spec sheet, and all this is packed in just 10.9mm thick shell.

LG BL40 Chocolate press images

The new LG BL40 Chocolate will be available beginning Q3 in 54 countries world-wide, with August 23 quoted as a more specific date.

Some more photos of the LG Chocolate just because it’s nice to look at

The video starts off with a walkthrough of the exterior and then moves on to a quick look at the S-Class interface. Perhaps the most interesting bit of the video is the browser test – in landscape mode it managed to fit an entire page horizontally and still remain readable. The last part of the video is a quick test of the LG Chocolate’s video playback capabilities. OK, we said enough, no point in retelling the video when you can watch it for yourselves: