Russian Mobile-Review source has just published the first review of coming Nokia C7 smartphone that has not been announced yet. It is the second (after Nokia N8) device that runs on Symbian^3 operating system. The reviewer says that the case of this device looks very stylish and is made of plastic and anodized aluminium. The specifications of this mobile device are very similar to the list of characteristics of Nokia N8. The only difference is that in contrast to N8 Nokia C7 has 8 Mp camera (instead of 12 MP) and has no HDMI output. This coming smartphone is equipped with 3.5 inch AMOLED touch screen with 640×360px resolution, 256 MB RAM, 8 GB internal storage, MicroSD external memory card slot (up to 32 GB), Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, GPS. The battery has 1200 mAh capacity and provides up to 12 hour of talk time (in GSM networks), 6.6 hours of video playback, 50 hours of music playback and about 390 hours of idle. It is expected that this smartphone will be launched by the end of the autumn and will cost about €350.

Nokia has just announced its budget class smartphone. Nokia C5 is the first mobile device from new Nokia’s Cseries line. It has monoblock shape and runs on Symbian S60 3rd edition operating system. One of the notable features of this device is contact list. It provides an opportunity to check view the status of friends in popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. You can also change your status in Facebook, adding to information about your location using Ovi Maps 3.0. The main phone screen displays the three most used contacts. This widget allows you to call these people or send them a message via Google Talk or Windows Live Messenger.
The list of technical characteristics looks good – 2.2 inch screen with 240×320 px resolution and 16 million colors, 3.2 Mp camera with flash, FM radio with RDS, 50 Mb built-in storage, microSD memory card slot (up to 16 Gb), 3.5 mm audio jack, GPS with A-GPS support. Connectivity includes Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0. Supported network standards are GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz and WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA 900/2100 MHz. This smartphone measures 112×46x12.3 mm and weights 89g. Nokia C5 will become available in April and will cost €135.

Ericsson has just announced its own application store for mobile phones. In contrast to analogue Ericsson eStore is targeted not at end users but at mobile operators. It allows them to set-up their own apps store to their consumers. At present moment Ericsson eStore includes more than 30 thousand apps both paid and free. It is expected that new online store will also attracts developers – now they their one app will be published via multiple carriers. It is also said that eStore will include applications  both for smartphones (WinMo, Android, Symbian) and usual phones with Java support.

Not only Microsoft announced its new operating system for mobile devices. Symbian Foundation also announced new Symbian^3 OS. It will be released in March and first devices running on this platform will become available by the end of the third quarter of this year. The list of key features includes multiply home screens, improved widgets management, hardware acceleration of visual effects, HDMI, multi-touch and fourth generation networks support. It is also notable that Symbian^3 will be completely open source.

Recently Nokia showed some UI concepts of next version of Symbian operating system. Today some Symbian developers published some more information about new features and functions of coming version of popular OS for mobile devices. In particular there will be a header that will contain the name of running application, battery level and other useful information. By pressing on this header user will be able to get quick access to options menu. It is also know that new version of Symbian will have more than one home screen and support widgets.

Skype has just released the first beta version of its VoIP client for Symbian. It has almost all features that version for desktop computers have. Skype for Symbian supports free Skype-to-Skype calls, SkypeOut calls, instant messaging, group conversation, files exchange and etc. Unfortunately not all Symbian devices are compatible with new Skype. It supports smartphones that run on Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and Feature Pack 2. But next versions are planned to be compatible with more phones. You can find the list of supported devices here. As for usage notes Skype is recommended to install to the phone memory.

Today Nokia officially introduced its new series of mobile devices – Nokia XSeries. The “debutants” are Nokia X6 and Nokia X3. Both of these devices have already passed FCC.

Nokia X6 is also known as Nokia Alvin, having nice set of technical characteristics its “flagman” device of this series. It is smartphone and runs on Symbian OS, S60 5th edition. This coming device also features 433 MHz CPU, 3.2 inch touch screen with 360×640 px resolution, 5 Mp camera with Carl Zeiss optics and double LED flash, 0.3 Mp camera for video calls, 32 Gb memory, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 3.5 mm audio jack, A-GPS support and TV out. Supported networks standards are GSM, WCDMA 850/1900/2100 MHz. Nokia X6 will become available in the fourth quarter of this year and will cost €450.

Nokia X3 doesn’t belong to smartphones class and runs on Series 40 platform. It is affordable sliding device for music lovers. This device is equipped with 2.2 inch screen with 240×320 px resolution, 3.2 Mp camera, FM radio, 48 Mb memory, microSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and 3.5 mm audio jack. Nokia will also become available in the fourth quarter of this year and will cost €150.

Nokia doesn’t give up hope to improve its positions on US mobile technology market. Recently AT&T announced Nokia Surge mobile device which is also known as Nokia Mako and Nokia 6790. Nokia Surge has sliding QWERTY keyboard and belongs to smartphones class. The operating system is S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. Other characteristics of this QWERTY phone is 2.4 inch screen with 240×320 px resolution, 2 Mp camera, FM radio, 128 Mb built in memory, microSD memory card slot (up to 8 Gb), Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP profile support, GPS module, 2.5 mm audio jack and 1500 mAh battery. The price of this device is only $80 with two-year contract. According to producer such combination of features will provide popularity among young people.