“Desktop. Laptop. Pocket: The era of the personal Internet dawns with the Nokia N97″

Yep, Nokia announced the N97 smartphone today and Nokia is calling it: “The world’s most advanced mobile computer”. Looks very cool, and I’m sure it will be (when it is will be in market within the next 6 months)! \m/

Nokia N97 (type mode)

Nokia N97 (touch mode)

Nokia N97 (type mode)

I missed the keynote and launch presentations from Nokia World 2008 (in Barcelona), but from the looks of the on-demand videos, basically they took all the goodness of Nseries N95/N96, mixed with a bit of Nokia E-series, plus lessons learned from the N810, and are now bundling it in a S60 5th edition device called the Nokia N97.

Ok, ok, it’s a bit more than that though, since it sports: 3G Tri-band, WiFi, A-GPS, touch screen input and slide out QWERTY keypad, 3.5-inch 16:9 touchscreen, 32GB of built-in storage, with an upgrade to 48GB possible using the micro-SD card, HSPDA and Wi-Fi, Flash Lite 3 & Flash Video support, 5px megapixel camera, DVD quality video recording and playback, and more. Sweet!

Here are is the official device specification data sheet from Nokia.

Plus, it also will be heavy on widgets, and newer Nokia Maps 3/location based technology … all of this, of course, will most likely tie into Ovi service!

Anyways, overall, from what I saw in some early demos, it looks like the device might be up to par to compete with another popular touchscreen device from Cupertino … let the games, begin!

Here are some select links to read:

• All About Symbian
• CNET
• Youtube videos
• Engadget
• Nokia World 2008
• Nokia Promo Video
• Nokia Press Release
• Times Online
• S60 Blog
• Flash4Nokia
• biskero.org

Scott Janousek
\m/

If you hadn’t caught Nokia’s countdown clock … have a look, and spread the word.

Not sure exactly what they are launching in a few hours from now, but it could be a new service, new device, platform, or perhaps something that is totally outrageous.

Read what Forbes had to say … even they don’t know.

I suppose people at Nokia World ‘08 will be the first to hear the news.

P.S.

Make sure your email address is valid (and working) in the post, otherwise I will not be able to contact you!

I heard about this via Anand’s Embedded Flash blog … the MyRacer MF101 is a Korean based Portable Media Player which has a Flash Lite based user interface, and supports Flash content as well.

According to this blog, it also supports as many as 1000 Flash based games (comes with pre-installed with titles such as: ‘Come2us soccer 2006′, ‘Super Action Hero’, and ‘Mini Game Heaven’). It also does music, video, e-book, and and image viewing capabilities (like many of the iRiver products).

The device has a 320×240 2.4 inch display (290,000 color QVGA TFT-LCD screen), 192 Mhz ARM 922T processor, dual control pads, 1 GB of memory, and external SD slot. It also plays back: AVI, MP3, WMA, WAV, JPEG and BMP formats. You can get a comprehensive list of specifications here.

There’s also another model, called the “MG22″ over on their website.

MyRacer MF101 - a Korean based PMP that has a Flash Lite UI & games

At about $65 USD (=~ $100 S/H to get it), this is probably among one of the most least expensive Flash Lite devices to get (to my knowledge) … OK, it may not exactly be a PSP or DS Lite killer, quite yet (well, outside of Korea) … but it appears to be a neat little device.

MyRacer MF101 - a Korean based PMP that has a Flash Lite UI & games

The MF101 reminds me of my N-Gage 1st generation device that I first got back in 2005 to test Flash Lite 1.1 content … don’t ask me how much that “puppy” cost me at that time.

There is an upcoming event entitled: Mobile Advertising - Industry Revenue Enhancer or Distraction?, that is being put on by MassNetComms here in Boston, on December 10, 2008.

Here is more info:

Mobile Advertising - Industry Revenue Enhancer or Distraction?

Date: December 10, 2008
Time: 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Location: The Emerging Enterprise Center, Waltham

Cost for Individual Member: $45
Cost for Individual Non-Member: $65

We have been hearing a lot of buzz over the last few years about mobile advertising adding significant revenue to the wireless industry across the value chain.

However, mobile advertising is still an insignificant percentage of the mobile revenues and the advertising spend.

What does that mean for the future of mobile advertising? Will it indeed significantly add to both the top and bottom lines or will it just be another revenue sliver? What must the industry and the players do to have this market sector grow?

This panel will reflect on successes and lessons learned of market advertising to date in order to forecast the future.

Moderator:
Kevin Wiant, HarborWay

Panel:
Lars Albright,
Co-Founder & VP Business Development, Quattro Wireless

Amy Lipton,
Mobile Performance Sales / Market Development, Yahoo!

Jorey Ramer,
Founder & VP Corporate Development, JumpTap, Inc.

Cheng Wu.
Co-Founder and Chairman, Azuki Systems

MassNetComms would like to thank Foley Hoag, the sponsor of this event.