Though the flagship smartphone of the Finnish mobile manufacturer is oriented for the ease-to-use of the consumers, but it was updated to version 1.2 operating platform Maemo 5, which brings improvement of  the communications.

Support for video calls and Facebook chats is  now added. Accepting or rejecting the invitations to the event can now be done directly in the user’s mailbox to your inbox. Web surfing is also offered in portrait mode of the display.

Subsystem menu is easy to configure, while navigation with mapping service Ovi Maps got update to graphical user interface to simplify the search for the points of destination.

The set of new games are available at Ovi Store, including Jurassic 3D Rollercoaster, Zen-bound, Angry Birds, Sygic, Kroll, Weatherbug and GoGadget.

However, it was not without disappointments: Nokia is not going to release operating platform MeeGo, developed jointly with Intel for Nokia N900. It is alleged that Maemo 5 in any case, ensures the most appropriate implementation and transfer of all the opportunities of N900, while it should noted that the device is developed to work based on Maemo.

Nokia N8 smartphone was officially presented a month ago. In the press release of Nokia it was reported that the novelty will go on sale in the third quarter of this year, it will cost 370 euros without taxes and subsidies.

At the moment there is information according to which the purchase of Nokia N8 will be available in summer – sales will start on August 24. The novelty will be available in July (evidenced by a special Nokia stand, which has a timer counting down the days before the start of registration) for pre-order in Nokia Store , but at present it is available for pre-ordering in Amazon Germany store, where its value is equal to 469,50 euros. As for the Russian market, the camera phone is expected to be available by fall.

Let’s remember the main advantages of Nokia N8. The main pecularity of the device is its 12 megapixel camera capable of shooting video in HD-quality. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS are also available. The smartphone runs  on Symbian3 operating system, it has support for multitouch, multi-page desk and many other features.

Nokia N8 cameraphone, which is the first smartphone based on Symbian3 operating system, was officially presented at the end of April this year. At that time many people were probably disappointed with the specis of the smartphone’s processor: its clock frequency is only 680 MHz – the amount RAM is equal to 256 MB.

At present users of the FinestFones resource have conducted tests on Nokia N8, allowing to study the speed of the operation of the device. For this purpose Speedy Go! application was used. According to the results Nokia camera phone is 54% faster than Samsung Omnia HD, and 180% faster than Nokia N97, which is equipped with 434 MHz clock frequency processor and 128 MB of RAM. As it is known, both Omnia HD and N97 run Symbian S60 5th Edition.

In addition, 3D-tests were also carried out in which Nokia N8 showed the best results – 60fps. Such high rates are probably the result of the use of graphics hardware accelerator, as well as Symbian3 operating system in general.

It is also worth noting that all tests were performed on the prototype, therefore the real capacities of the smartphone should be even more impressive.

Confirming last year’s promise, the Finnish manufacturer has announced the closedown of the flagship store in the centre of America. The weakness of the presence of Nokia in the American market forces the company to turn a costly storefront.

Let’s remind that in December 2009 it became known that at the beginning of 2010 Nokia will close the leading stores in New York and Chicago. It is clear that these commercial outlets, launched in 2006, were mostly demonstrative sites of the vendor’s product portfolio, rather than its retail stalls.

According to Nokia, the awareness of American consumers about the phones of the company has reached a sufficient level to be able to fully focus on the usual sales through the operator’s channels. In North America, more than 90% sales of phones are implemented by signing contracts with providers of cellular operators. Nokia will also strengthen relationships with a few American online retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy.

The flagship Nokia phone, which the Finnish giant makes big bets on, is rumored to appear on store shelves on August 24. In any case, the German department of Amazon already takes pre-orders for purchase of the new smartphone.

The official release date has been fixed by Nokia itself within the summer months. It is still unclear whether the matter concerns the global launch or the company will initially focus on European markets as before. The estimated retail price varies between 460-590 dollars.

The main technical features of the smartphone Nokia N8 include the latest Symbian ^ 3 operating platform, a 3.5-inch touch screen with a resolution of 640×360 pixels, a 12 megapixel photo-video camera with xenon flash, 16-GB of internal flash memory and slot for microSD-cards.

In tests of the prototype of N8 with Speedy Go benchmark that checks video graphics performance is shown that the new device is 54% faster than Samsung Omnia HD and 180% faster than Nokia N97. This is due to the fact that, despite the presence of hardware accelerator in all three phones, only Symbian ^ 3 has access to it.

Summarizing the results of the first quarter, Gartner analyst company has come to the conclusion that for the first time since 2006 there is a growth in sales of smartphones in the mobile industry. According to Gartner in the first quarter of 2010 deliveries of smartphones to end-users reached up to 54.3 million units, which is over 48.7% increase over shipments in the first quarter of 2009. In general, the realization of mobile phones in the first quarter has increased by 17% if compared with the same period reaching 314.7 million handsets.

Nokia is still in the first place for the implementation of mobile devices, the company has sold about 110.1 million handsets, and, nevertheless, have lost 1.2% market share. Despite the good results of mid-level phone sales the Finnish company obviously lacks devices in high-end-segment.

In the first quarter Samsung has implemented 64.9 million mobile devices, which is 26.3% more than the number of device, which were sold in the same period of last year, and has increased market share by 1,5%. Especially noticeable is the strengthening of the position of Samsung in India and CIS countries. It should be noted that only five members of the top ten have managed to increase the share in the market in this quarter.

LG is in the third place, that has delivered about 27.2 million handsets and lost 1.3% of the market share.

RIM company has managed to sell 10.6 million devices, increasing supply volumes up to 45.9%, which enabled the company to be in the top five of the ranking of the largest manufacturers of mobile equipment for the first time.

Sony Ericsson closes the top five, which has lost 2.3% of the market share. The Swedish- Japanese company has delivered 9.9 million handsets in the first quarter, which is 4.6 million less than last year.

We can’t help mentioning about the success of Apple, which took the seventh position in the rankings due to increase of sales at 112.2%.

Symbian operating system has maintained the leading position in the market of operating systems for smartphones in the first quarter, losing 4.5% market share. This quarter has become the most successful for  the Android operating system, that has moved to the fourth place thanks to the growth of market share from 1.6% to 9.6%. According to Gartner, sales of smartphones on Android have increased by 707% as compared with the period of last year.

The new flagship smartphone Nokia N8, which was introduced late in April, has become available for pre-order in the German department of the Amazon online store, moreover, the price for the phone is 469.50 euros (about $ 587). We should accept, that it is not too expensive for a mobile device with a 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, xenon flash and autofocus function, as well as with the ability to record high-definition video as 720p.

In addition, there is an HDMI connector, a 3.5 mm audio jack and micro-USB port, as well as 16 GB of internal flash memory and a slot for microSD cards up to 32 GB. Nokia N8 is equipped with a 3.5-inch capacitive OLED display, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n modules, Bluetooth 2.1 and GPS and runs Symbian ^ 3 operating system.

It should be noted that Nokia itself plans to release its new flagship only in the third quarter, and the recommended retail price of the manufacturer (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price, MSRP) is 370 euros. However, this figure does not include taxes.

The new version of Oxygen Phone Manager has been released, which is intended to control the mobile content from the computer. The owners of Nokia phones will be able to use the program.

The main innovation of this version is the support for latest phone models Nokia E5, Nokia C6 (RM-612) and Nokia C6 (RM-624)

The program allows you to edit the address book, calendar, galleries, to load pictures, ringtones, music, playlists, themes, audio, games and Java applications, send SMS and MMS, set to-do list, take notes, etc. from the computer. With the help of Oxygen Phone Manager, you can edit, import / export, transfer data from one phone to another, preserve and restore the whole information of the phone.

Developer: Oxygen Software
Distributed: shareware, 499 roubles.
Operating system: Symbian OS
Size 9,7 MB

Yahoo has announced the beginning of cooperation with the Finnish mobile giant – Nokia corporation. The aim of  the cooperation is the introduction of Yahoo network services into Nokia mobile phones. The project is symbolically called Nike in honour of the Greek goddess of victory. The press-service of Yahoo company has not yet divulged details of the transaction, but on Monday an official press conference should be held, where plans of the cooperation will be presented.

The close cooperation with Nokia will enable Yahoo to confront the global market leader of search engines – Google – in the market of mobile platforms. Google owns its own Android operating system, that gives it the opportunity to promote its mobile services as quickly as possible. Previously Yahoo did not have such possibility, Nokia mobile phones will become an extensive ground for  this kind of future actions for Yahoo.

Nokia will also benefit from the deal, the expansion of the list of network services for its mobile phones will allow to stand against the major competitors: Apple, Google and RIM. The owners of the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer will soon be able to evaluate all the innovations.

Nokia has released the new version of the free software for Ovi Maps 3.0.4 navigation. According to the official blog of the company the application has become “faster, better and more personal”. The video below displays how it looks in action on N8 smartphone:

Apart from the obvious improvements in the quality of operation, the producer focuses its attention on the fact that useful information for tourists to be added to the application, and in particular information from the world’s leading travel companies.

Faster operation has been achieved due to the optimizing the methods of revealing the subscribers through triangulation, as well as the use of Wi-Fi local access points. Ovi Maps is compatible with the recently emerged service Ovi Voice, thanks to which users can record tips in the direction of motion and then use them.

N97, X6 and 6710 Navigator are the only smartphones that currently support applications. Devices of E-Series and XpressMusic are expected to be the next to get support for these applications. Judging from the video, N8 will come with already preinstalled application.