Confused by Nokia's dual-platform, Maemo 5 and S60 5th Edition smartphone choices? You're not alone. Fortunately, things are starting to become a bit more clear thanks to some loose-lipped members of Maemo's marketing team attending an official N900 meet-up in London last night. According to The Really Mobile Project, Nokia will drop S60 from all of its flagship N-series consumer devices in favor of Maemo. Apparently, Nokia has been pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic response to the N900 OS even though the enthusiast package is not quite ready for mass-market appeal. Mind you, the transition won't be instantaneous as anyone with an N900 (and a clear mind) can attest -- the OS, services, and apps just can't compare to the mature S60 platform regardless of Maemo 5's superior user experience. As such, we'll continue to see N-Series handsets already in development pop with S60 on board alongside mass-market Maemo devices as the platform matures to the point that Nokia can make the full switch by 2012. Assuming, of course, Nokia doesn't end up adding webOS to its portfolio somewhere along the way.

Update: The Nokia Blog has what it claims is an official response from Nokia on this delicate matter. As you'd expect, Nokia says it remains "firmly committed to Symbian as our smartphone platform of choice." It then added this little gem: "Maemo is our software of choice for devices based on technology that you'd typically find inside a desktop computer. It delivers a different user experience and enables us to widen the market we can address." Perhaps you're even reading this on an ARM Cortex-A8 desktop PC right now?

[Thanks, Sockatume]

It's still hard to believe that Nokia's already upstaging the N97 with the N97 mini just two months after the big guy shipped, but here we are, staring at the FCC documentation. There's not much to go on here besides this label-location drawing, which is marked with a 1:1 scale -- allowing us to set our regular N97 down next to it and show you just how little Nokia achieved with all that development money. Check it after the break, along with another pic of the mini the inimitable Eldar Murtazin just posted to his blog.

[Via Mobile Bulgaria]

Read - FCC
Read - Eldar Murtazin's blog with additional pic of the mini

Have a Symbian S60-based handset in your pocket, do you? If you've a fever that can only be cured by more Commodore 64, you're in luck. The FrodoS60 application brings C64 emulation right to your N95, N96 or any other S60 mobile, and the updated version (1.5) even includes accelerometer support. Head past the break for a quick look at how much joy this little app could bring to your life, and hit the read link if you're interested in getting in on it. Which you are, so stop denying it.

[Via digitoday, thanks Antti]

Man, Nokia sure is proud of its unlocked N96, huh? As with the HTC Touch Diamond in CompUSA and the BlackBerry Bold at Best Buy Mobile, the flagship N-series device won't run you cheap off-contract. The Boy Genius shows off a flyer advertising the 16GB, 5MP powerhouse for "just" $799.99 (as expected), but judging by the standard $899.99 price on the outfit's website, we're thinking the lower sticker may be for a limited time only. The question isn't how bad do you want it -- it's do you really want it more than 1.825 WiMAX-enabled N810s?

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Nokia promised us two new handsets today, and just as we heard last week, it's the N85 and N79. Not a lot of surprises with the N85 since it popped in the FCC database a couple weeks ago and started appearing in the wild: 2.6-inch AMOLED screen, GPS, five megapixel cam, N-Gage compatibility, 8GB of microSDHC storage, WiFi, and a 28-hour music playback battery life. The N79 replaces the N78, similarly bumping the cam to the big five em-pees with a dual-LED flash, GPS, 4GB microSDHC storage, WiFi, swappable back covers, and a 24-hour music playback battery life. Should be out in the UK as of next month, but we're hoping to see these hit our fair shores posthaste. N79 pictured after the break.

[Via Electronista]

Sure, we've already gotten a chance to play with the Nokia N96 -- and even seen a couple reviews -- but you know Uncle Sam's got to get his taste before this thing gets its rumored launch later this month. Yep, nothing spectacular in the test reports, but if you've got a thing for industrial photography of circuit boards under florescent lights, you might want to hit the read link while you're alone.

[Via Cellphone Signal]

The FCC database continues to be full of weird and wonderful toys, and the EZFetch HD media streamer from EZ 4 Media certainly fits that description -- in addition to streaming content off networked PCs, it can also grab content from Nokia Nseries devices and display it on your TV. Connections include the usual SD composite jacks, as well as optical audio, DVI-D, Ethernet, and built-in 801.11g wireless, and codec support is pretty spectacular, including H.264, XviD, DivX HD, MPEG4, WMV, and VOB. The Nseries integration is the big feature here, however -- not only does the EZFetch stream content from any WiFi-capable Nseries device, you can also use the Nseries as a remote to control the entire EZFetch system. No word on pricing or availability, sadly, but RF spectrum test geeks can check out all the test results at the read link.

Read -- EZ 4 Media website
Read -- EZFetch FCC listing

It appears that the FCC and Nokia have been quite the busy bunch with all the phones that are getting the go-ahead -- and we might as well add another to the list. The commission has decided to add Nokia's latest Nseries offspring to the list, the N76. The device is quadband GSM with some UMTS love mixed in for good measure, though it's only single band and we wouldn't hold our breath for North American compatibility. Roundin' out the feature set will be a music player with several formats supported, Bluetooth, and expandable memory via microSD. Nokia also makes mention for a 2 megapixel shooter with a flash under the hood as well. With Nokia's reputation for their attention to detail, we've come to expect a lot out of the Nseries, and it's lookin' like the N76 won't disappoint.

The good news? Nokia's N95 product page on the official Nseries site is pretty thorough -- enough to give the Symbian lovers among us some in-depth reading material to hold us over for a bit. The bad news? Their device comparison chart now shows a second-quarter '07 release for the superphone, one quarter later than we were expecting. Of course, in this day and age, delays of this nature should never surprise us; if anything, we'd be surprised if a phone of this complexity were to actually arrive on time. But needless to say, the official N95 material on the site is most definitely not enough to bide our time for another four to seven months.

[Thanks, festriaqua]

We're not getting played for a fool again until we actually have a real, actual device resting comfortably in our hands, but Nokia's promising to bring the 3G love to the US for reals this time with its new N75 clamshell, announced today as part of its Nseries onslaught. The S60 3rd Edition handset looks to pack a decent punch into its 95 x 52 x 20.2mm form -- which Nokia is dubbing its "smallest multimedia computer," bearing in mind the E50 isn't considered such a device -- bringing a 2-megapixel cam, 40MB of internal storage with microSD expansion to 2GB, integrated stereo speakers, Bluetooth 2.0, QVGA internal and 160 x 128 external displays, quad-band GSM / EDGE, and some of that sweet, sweet WCDMA on the 850 and 1900MHz bands. Best of all, it's being promised for US release in the fourth quarter of 2006; we don't if you-know-who has decided to pick it up, but if not, we've every reason to believe the unlocked versions will be flying out of Nokia's own warehouse at a brisk pace. Check after the break for more smooth, creamy, flippable S60 goodness.

Nokia's lovefest for its, shall we say, senior Nseries models today didn't stop with the N91's upgrade to 8GB. In tacking the "Music Edition" label onto the tail ends of their names, they've re-upped the N73 and the elder-statesman N70 candybars, slapping them with a fresh coat of black in the process. Unlike the N91, the internals seem the same -- they're advertising the new models as coming with 2GB and 1GB of storage respectively, but the bumped capacities turn out to be nothing more than bundled storage cards; likewise, the touted 3.5mm audio jacks are delivered via in-box Pop-Port adapters. We're always happy to see a manufacturer breathe some fresh life into old handsets, but unless black is your color, we hope existing N70 and N73 owners don't let a couple bundled accessories ruin their love affair.

Well hello there N73 (bottom) and N93, how nice to see you in the for realz at last. Other than finally making these phones official we don't really have too much new information to offer. Both models run Series 60 3rd Edition and feature large 2.4-inch 262k color QVGA displays, Bluetooth 2.0, a MiniSD slot, MP3 / ACC media players, FM radio with Visual Radio, and a chubby 3.2 megapixel shooter with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, mechanical shutter, and integrated flash. Want to share those snaps? Coolio daddy-o, 'cause a new partnership with Flickr gives you the ability to upload and add comments to your photos directly from your new N-series cellphone without the need to download any additional software (don't forget to ZoneTag!). The N73 will launch as both a quad-band GSM / EDGE model and another which includes 3G (2100MHz UMTS). It features 42MB of on-board memory and 3D stereo speakers at the top and bottom of the unit to kick out some tinny jams. Meanwhile the N92-lookin' N93 turns out 900 / 1800 / 1900 GSM / EDGE and 3G (2100MHz UMTS), 50MB built-in memory, 802.11b/g, UPnP, TV-out, and adds a 3x optical zoom to the camera, which can record MPEG-4 VGA video at 30fps. If you're looking for mobile TV, you'll have to stick with the N92 though, since the N93 does not feature a DVB-H tuner. Both will drop in July; welcome to the show, boys. More product images after the break.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Read N73
Read N93