After my initial fascination with the hardware, it was time to delve deeper and this time I'll be looking into the user interface. While it runs on the same Symbian S60 fifth edition platform, Nokia has added a new homescreen that supports real-time widgets. There have been few other tweaks here and there (which will also reveal the secret behind the picture I have used with this post. Without further delay, hit the jump and continue reading...

And don't forget to follow us on Twitter! @Cellpassion where we will be tweeting our musings about the N97.

I had been intending to write this post since a few weeks but anyway, here it is. On my recent trip to Singapore to cover CommunicAsia, I decided to put the Godphone through a test that not many reviewers do -- is the iPhone any good without a working SIM card in a foreign country? I never thought that a smartphone could be of any use without a constant data connection and especially the iPhone, which I use primarily for surfing the Internet, downloading loads of apps and checking my e-mails. Yup, I do not use it to make calls.

But before I could get started, I had to look out for an adapter to charge the phone in Singapore, where they use a different charging pin. I had the Swiss Military global travel adapter, which disintegrates like Lego blocks to give you different pins for different regions. It is available for Rs 590 in India and can be picked up from here.

With the adapter problem solved, let's see how the iPhone stands up to the challenge.

Nokia's flagship device -- the N97 -- has just landed at our doorsteps (courtesy the lovely girls at WOM World, UK) and we are looking forward to living with it for a complete fortnight. Coincidentally, today also saw Nokia releasing a software update for the N97 (remember we told ya?) and things couldn't seem more promising.

We were not really impressed by the 5800 XM, Nokia's first S60-based touchscreen phone, and are hoping that the N97 will set the record right for Nokia.

From today, we will look at different aspects of the N97 (the good, the bad and the ugly) and figure out whether the N97 lives up to the daunting task of being the global leader's flagship device. Also keep tuned in to our Tweets for spontaneous updates. Continue reading for our first impressions.

All right, we will be the first to admit that we always though that the iPhone was in fact a very cunningly diguised gaming console, but if what the folks at Pocketgamer have revealed is true, the Godphone actually has some VERY serious gaming muscle hidden in them thar sleeves. According to the site, which managed to get an exclusive tete-tete with the Team17 developers, the iPhone version of the classic Worms game (yep, the same game that has been such a roaring success on the PC, the Xbox, the PlayStation, the mobile...you name it) is essentially the PlayStation 3 version of the game. Yep, you heard it right - the game that will hit the App Store shortly will be the same game as on one of the world's most powerful gaming consoles (they even called it a Supercomputer at one stage) "with one or two special effects removed but much the same engine." Phew!

After the near clean PC-to-iPhone transfers of Sim City and Myst, this clearly marks new gaming territory for the iPhone. Of course, we are confident that it will play a lot better on the iPhone 3GS with its additional processing muscle. You can head on here to read the entire story. We are just going out to see if anyone has dropped any silver in those "donate (liberally, preferably) for iPhone 3GS" bowls we have placed outside the premises.

As we had reported earlier, we can confirm that the two companies are talking about AT&T taking a majority stake in Reliance Communications

It has not even been a month since Nokia launched the N97 and we are already hearing murmurings about an impending firmware upgrade... The folks at Nokia Conversation are claiming that they have heard a new firmware upgrade will be introduced on July 1 for the first variant of the N97. We are not sure at the moment which 'first variant; they are talking about, in which markets it was launched or what new the firmware will bring. However, they point out that the version will be called SW 1.1 (11.x.021). Well, we will know for certain in three days from now.

via @nokconv

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After a long period of silence, it looks like HP is set to re-enter the smartphone space with its iPaq range of devices. We have received the Wi-Fi Operability certificate for one iPaq KB1. Yeah, as usual the certificate reveals little but its name and we'll have to wait for some more time to figure out what it is going to be like.

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Folks, I had written this story for our March-April print edition. I plan to write an update to this story next week.

Having been born and raised in India, I fondly remember the “road trips” I would take with my family to different parts of the country. We would often walk into villages with no electricity. Although, the penetration of electricity has improved in the last thirty years, even today more than 400 million people in India and about 1.6 billion globally live without electricity. A reasonable percentage of these people have the ability to purchase a phone and a cell phone plan but do not have access to electricity. 

A Nokia patent has been published today by the USPTO that envisions a wireless battery charger. The concept ain't new as there are many such chargers - the most high profile one being the Palm Touchstone for the Pre) - that rely on a process called inductive charging in which the device has to be in close proximity of the charging pad rather than having to plug it in. Of course, publishing of the patent application does not always translate into a commercial product but it is refreshing to know that Nokia is looking at something 'cool' rather than relying on the fact that it is the world's largest cellphone vendor in the world.

Okay, it might not be a pretty sight but what you see on the left is the Motorola Cadbury VE440. While there are no technical specs available at the moment but it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that it is a low-end phone probably with some music element to it. However, we do know for sure that it runs on CDMA and will be available on an American carrier (Verizon or Sprint, take your pick). Well, it certainly ain't one of those expected Android phones that would stop us from saying 'Goodbye Moto.'

Accompanying text from the Bluetooth SIG listing:

CDMA Mobile Phone with Bluetooth technology. The Phone supports VCard 3.1. The phone supports Dial Up Networking Profile, Basic Printing Profile, Object Push Profile, Basic Imaging Profile, Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, Interoperability Test Specification, Hands-Free Profile 1.5, Phone Book Access Profiles.