Long-Awaited Nokia N96 Finally Shipping


Cameras, Advice, BlackBerry, iPhone, Switched Video, Style Maven, Gadget Head, Domestic God / Goddess, $100 and Under, Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews
Audio/Video, Cell Phones, Cameras, iPhone, Creative Type, $1000 and Under, Holiday Gift Guide

Let's face it: The iPhone is amazing but it does have some limitations -- for one thing, its camera is lacking (no flash, no zoom) and you can't shoot or send video. By contrast, the $699 Nokia N95 boasts a Carl Zeiss lens with a 5-Megapixel (MP) camera (with flash), a built-in camcorder, up to 2-gigabytes (GB) of external memory, quad-band GSM, GPS location technology, and Wi-Fi connectivity. The latest U.S.-optimized iteration of the N95 is optimized for the high-speed 3G HSDPA networks of AT&T, so you don't have to depend on Wi-Fi hotposts to get fast Web surfing and uplodoading/downloading.
With the N95 you are given the opportunity of creating excellent images and videos and sharing them almost instantaneously with friends or fans. For example, the built-in Lifeblog application allows for instant uploading of text, images, and videos via your high-speed data connection to a personalized blog or to Flickr.com or almost any other blogging entity out there. For those with a keen eye and artistic bent, the N95 could be the perfect multimedia device for getting their creative voices seen and heard. And, of course, the N95 lets its owners listen to music, including FM radio, or watch videos, if they still want iPod-like features.
From Nokia
Audio/Video, Cell Phones, Cameras, iPhone, Portable Audio
The juggernaut of new iPhone-killers continues on a pace with today's official unveiling of the Samsung BlackJack II, which will be out for AT&T by the end of the year. None other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer walked his audience through the super-slim smart phone's first public appearance.
The first BlackJack was super-slim and sexy, but ran on that pesky and sometimes glitchy Windows Mobile 5 operating system. The BlackJack II is just as slim and sexy (and comes in two different, two-toned color schemes), but runs on the more powerful and stable Windows Mobile 6.
Compared to the iPhone (and the original BlackJack), the BlackJack II boasts a seriously impressive list of features, including:
The BlackJack II -- out by the end of the year for $149.99 (with a two-year AT&T contract) -- is just one of many new smart phones to hit the market, but it's the second major one to include Windows Mobile 6, which we have to say we've been enjoying with the HTC Touch we're testing out. More smart phones will be announced in the days to come, no doubt, from the CTIA conference in San Francisco. We'll keep you posted.
How about you? Would you buy this phone over the iPhone?
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