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Nokia has just taken S60 into the age of voice command, Voice Search to be exact. Google Voice Search will now be available to all S60 handsets, so you Symbian fans can now stop feeling left out, or hating the iPhone and BlackBerry crowd for simply ‘telling’ their handsets what to find. Add to this the fact that many S60 devices don’t have a full QWERTY keyboard, and you can see why manual input for search terms would cause you to lose your thumbs eventually. The U.S. market isn’t dominated by Symbian, but the rest of the world swears by it, meaning that Google has just struck oil with this one. The video shows how you’ll get your Symbian Google Voice Search action, enjoy.

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It hasn’t even been a year and already we have the successor to the 5800 XpressMusic; the 5330 XpressMusic is all set to hit the United States. Too bad nobody wants it. Okay, before the Symbian crowd takes a whack at me with their mallets, yes a few people will definitely pick this handset up, but seriously folks, Nokia isn’t exactly scoring big time in the United States. The N97 was badly priced and featured nothing exciting, the 5800 XpressMusic had a score of glitches to its credit and the E72 wasn’t the BlackBerry menace it was touted to be. Nokia’s biggest problem with the American market has been the outdated UI on its devices and there’s no denying it. So what’s the 5530 XpressMusic got? Pretty much the same as the 800 XM, but with less weight and no 3G. Huge difference.  On pre-order now from Nokia USA, it’ll run you $289.99 (which includes a free mini speaker), we’re not expecting huge rollovers from this one. let’s hope the early adopters tax isn’t as biting as it ordinarily is.

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If you’re a Symbian faithful then there’s one handset you know you want; the Sony Ericsson Satio. Why? Merely because it boasts of an awesome 12 megapixel beast of a camera. Even if you aren’t a Symbian 60 5th Edition fan, the handset commands respect with its specs; 3.5-inch 640 x 360 pixel 16:9 touchscreen display, 12.1 megapixel camera with auto-focus, xenon flash and 12x digital zoom, 128 MB internal memory, microSDHC support, FM radio with RDS, aGPS with turn-by-turn navigation, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and plenty more. That’s what we mean by a fully loaded handset. And the good news is that the first iteration of the Satio has grabbed a handful of FCC approval. Enjoy the photo shoot courtesy of our pals at the FCC.

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The Nokia N86 8mp Symbian phone is here! The launch price of the handset is a MSRP of $499, a whole $59 bellow the pre-order price. The handset is available from Flagship stores as well as NokiaUSA.com. In case you’re wondering whether this 8mp beast is any match for the Cybershot…it most definitely is. Nokia has come up with one true alternative to your digital camera.

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While Apple is speeding up all efforts to launch the iPhone in China, Nokia is heading for a speedy win. The FCC has just okayed the Nokia 5800i XpressMusic, and the Chinese label that it bears has telepathically communicated the most likely destination of the flagship device. The 5800i XpressMusic has been spruced up a bit too, which is a good thing and will likely bring a steadier fan base to Nokia. The handset also bears WCDMA 900/2100MHz alongside quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE. Good to see Nokia get along in the world.

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Symbian or Smartphone lover or not, the guru of fabulousness in all of Nokia-Symbian-SmartPhone is here in the form of Nokia’s E71.and why are we so in love with this Phone? Perhaps it’s the figure/shape or just how well it works in all its functionality and general superb-ness.  The Phone is definitely one of the slimmest QWERTY handsets out there and may only be surpassed by the E72. The NAM version of the aforementioned E72 has made it through the FCC with their blessing. The Handset features 10.2Mbps HSDPA (not available in the U.S.), an integrated compass, S60 3rd Edition FP2 and a 5 megapixel camera. Seeing as how the E72 has got its wings from the FCC Gods, it’s likely to hit stores soon and if all continues at the pace it’s going then the phone should come to AT&T around the same time Michael Jackson’s death is solved or Britney Spears regains some dignity.

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If you take more pictures with your cell than you text or make calls then your dreams are about to come true, that is if you live in the US where the Nokia N86 is soon to hit flagship stores and the official website. The phone is a photographer’s dream come true. It features an 8MP that’s right, count ‘em 8MP camera. The set is an S60 3rd Edition FP2 featuring an f-stop range of 2.4-4.8 and a wide-angle lens. Once you do however, you’ll find a 2.6-inch AMOLED QVGA display, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band UMTS, 8GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi and aGPS with Nokia Maps 3.0 pre-installed. But I doubt you’ll ever get over the camera which has the shutter speed of Britney Spears’ first divorce i.e. 1/1000 a second. The phone and the camera glory don’t come cheap, in fact the US will definitely be over charged. The set in Europe was tagged at €375 abroad something around $474 at the time of release in Europe but in the US will carry the heavy tag of $558. So camera bliss is not exactly cheap but the phone is fully unlocked and top notch camera S60. Who’s onboard?

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The difference between smartphone usage in the United States and the rest of the world lies primarily in the data plans offered by carriers. While just about every carrier in the U.S. offers unlimited data plans at very affordable rates, but elsewhere in the world, such is simply not the case. Manufacturers like RIM and Apple capitalize on the U.S. unlimited data plans by keeping their handsets connected throughout the day. This turns simple apps into powerful tools. In other parts of the world, where data plans aren’t as cost effective, devices have to be geared to increase cost-efficiency by connecting only when needed. This is where S60 scores big time. The S60 allows apps to connect only when they are being used, otherwise your handset is effectively offline. While this is great for regions outside the U.S. it is a shortcoming for the Symbian crowd this side of the globe. But everyone knows that the States doesn’t really rank top on Nokia’s target markets, so this isn’t something they’ve looked into yet. But a solution does exist. Though not a customized S60 for the United States, there is a way that you can keep your S60 bearing Nokia smartphone connected at all times; go to Settings -> Connection -> Packet Data, change “When Needed” to “When Available” and then key in your Access Point. And there you have it, of course this will tax your battery life a bit. So for now, you have to choose between continuous connectivity and better battery life.

Samsung has just been caught in the action with another S60 handset, the B5100. Sure the handset pales in comparison to its big brother, the Omnia HD, but not everyone wants the most expensive handset on the block. While specs are unconfirmed as of yet, the handset is slated to feature a QVGA display, HSDPA and Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and USB 2.0, DivX playback support and a 3 megapixel camera with LED flash, all this packed snuggly inside what appears to be a brushed metal body. Now let’s just hope Samsung gets the price right, and we can have ourselves some S60 action.

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YouTube has brought a new app for its Windows Mobile and S60 fans out there. This application will make the YouTube viewing experience much better for handsets that before this could only view videos through the YouTube mobile website. The new app also significantly reduces loading time for videos by almost 90% of what the mobile website used to offer. The service has also been optimized for the Wi-Fi and 3G network so you can expect better picture quality. Automatic updates will be downloadable at a single click from your phone, right after you get home delivery of the update notification. Nice. We’re really more into the improved picture quality and better loading speeds, but other cookies are always good. Get your YouTube application by pointing your browser at m.youtube.com.

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