Ahead of the expected launch next week, the German Nokia site listed the N96 complete with full specs. Stefan at IntoMobile released the information. The specs include:

• GPS Built in (A-GPS)
• 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash
• DVB-H Mobile TV
• WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 (including A2DP)
• 16Gb of built in memory, plus a microSD slot
• 103 x 55 x 18 mm weighing 125g
• FM radio
• Full 3G and HSDPA
• S60 3rd Edition with FP2 (including Flash Lite 3 support)
• Dual Slider format

The downsides? It’s not got a Xenon Flash, the battery is only 950mAh, which may not be enough. Expect more information at Mobile World Congress next week when the formal announcement is expected.

This little device allows you to use your iPod Dock (not included), not for playing music from your iPod, but from your Bluetooth A2DP mobile phone. Plugging into the standard iPod dock connector, it transforms that dock into a Bluetooth compatible dock.

This is available now for £33 from Amazon, either direct, or through our Amazon Store.

Parrot, who produce a range of Bluetooth devices (Handsfree Kits, Photo Frames, Music Devices), have announced that they are forming an alliance with HTC to develop improved compatibility and overall user experience between the companies’ products. The alliance will see HTC working closely with Parrot to align product roadmaps, marketing efforts and channel development to provide an enhanced complimentary solution for customers.

Garmin have announced the Nuviphone, a mobile phone with SatNav capabilities. It has a 3.5″ touchscreen, full browsing and PIM capabilities, HSDPA, Quad-Band (3.5G), WiFi, Bluetooth, and is roughly the same size as the iPhone. As it uses a variant of the same proprietary OS as that on their SatNav devices, the UI will be familiar to many, and will have “millions” of POIs, and will have turn-by-turn voice prompts. However, it will also have Google Local Search capabilities (and potentially other Google apps such as Google Talk, and the camera may integrate with Google Panorama). Finally, it will use the phone network connection to get updates via Garmin Online for real time traffic, fuel prices, news, weather and stock prices (although historically these have been US only data). It is expected to be released in Q3 this year, so in time for Christmas.

The picture above is possibly just a mockup of the device, but Asus plan to announce the M930 at CeBIT later this year in March. The device will run Windows Mobile 6 (Standard, ie no Touchscreen), has a QVGA exterior screen, a 400 x 240 interior display (not a match for the E90’s screen), with a 2 megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, microSD card slot, 256MB of ROM and 64MB RAM. These specs (smaller screen, no GPS etc.) mean this is likely to be cheaper than the E90 and may take some customers away from Nokia. However, with Nokia and HTC trying to include GPS receivers in all their high spec equipment, this device may not get as many customers as it could.

Picture and Story courtesy of Engadget.

We’ve managed to find some more information on the Everex side panel accessories. These side panel accessories may eventually include:

• Bluetooth VOIP phone
• GPS
• DVB
• 3G / CDMA phone
• World Clock

Picture courtesy of jkOnTheRun.

A lot of people have been trying to connect their TomTom SatNav devices to their new 3 SkypePhones to get traffic updates, and having problems. Crundy, who developed the SkypeIN / SkypeOUT workaround, has released details instructions on how to achieve this, which you can access in the rest of the article.

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For those involved in OpenStreetMap, or for those thinking about getting involved, the NaviGPS is a common unit to use. As well as being able to log large amounts of data to an SD card, the unit functions as a working GPS, which is rare for DataLoggers. Historically, the manufacturer, Locosys, has produced 2 models, the second including Bluetooth to allow the unit to provide the GPS data to a PDA, or other device.

Locosys has announced, at CES, an updated NaviGPS, the GT-31 and BGT-31 (with Bluetooth). This has a SirfIII chipset, is waterproof (and floats), and has battery life of up to 24 hours.

Mio has released the C620 and C620T SatNav units (the latter with RDS-TMC support too). What’s interesting is the 3D mapping data that Mio have included, which makes these units fairly unique at the moment, although we expect more 3D applications / devices to come next year. The 3D maps include digital elevation data, as well 3D images of landmarks. Both units feature Bluetooth and a 4.3″ screen.

If you have a Symbian GPS enabled phone, and want to turn it into a Bluetooth GPS for another device to be able to use the GPS signal, then Symarctic’s ExtGPS maybe the solution. It allows the GPS signal to be accessed over Bluetooth by other devices. This is a Java application, not a Symbian specific one, so will potentially work with other phones too, but so far we’ve only seen reports of success using it on Nokia phones. Best of all, it’s also free!

This could allow you to carry a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet and a Nokia N95 phone, yet still be able to utilise the GPS from the N95 on the N800.

Photo courtesy of Symbian in Motion.

If you look at the CD that comes with the 3 SkypePhone, you’ll discover you can install USB drivers that allow you to use the phone as a modem via usb. This will result in you getting a nice fast internet connection wherever you can get a 3G signal. You can also connect via Bluetooth to achieve the same thing.

There are a number of payments options open you to for Internet access. If, for example, you have chosen the PAYG 3 SkypePhone, then you can use your £10 topup (which is needed every 30 days to keep Skype working) for the Internet Add-ons, which are:

• £5 per month if you are a regular user
• £2.50 for a week
• 50p for a day

Now, 50p is nothing compared the charges for WiFi, unless you are a regular traveller, in which case you will either have an unlimited WiFi package, or a 3 USB modem already. Any spare credit you have, you can use to make calls (12p/min) or send SMS texts (12p/text).

Remember, without the Internet Add-On, Internet Access is £1 per Mb, so even the 50p per day is very worthwhile.

However, despite the fact that people are using their 3 SkypePhones this way, and despite the fact that people have mentioned this in the 3 SkypePhone forums, we should point out that the conditions attached to the Internet Add-Ons state you cannot use it as a way of getting Internet access on a laptop (ie another device tethered to the phone, whether via a wired or wireless connection). As such, please be aware this method is likely to be against 3’s T&Cs.

Update: Having said that, if you buy the 3 SkypePhone on contract, you can add X-Series or Broadband Add-Ons to the service, of which some of these options seem to allow use of a tethered device. Please confirm this directly with 3 though, as we have been unable to confirm this so far.

Thanks to Chris at Tamebay for the inspiration for this article.

Venturi Mini is another feature rich Bluetooth Handsfree kit recently launched. As well as including support for A2DP to allow you to stream your music from your Bluetooth Mobile Phone to it, it also has an FM transmitter for easy connection to your car stereo. It also has a USB socket to allow you to charge your phone / mp3 player, and like the Gear4 BluFM we covered before, you can connect your iPod / mp3 player via a cable to play music too. As with many of these devices, it also supports a wired connection to your car stereo if you don’t want to use the FM transmitter.

However, the Venturi Mini also uses some of the advanced features of the RDS data specification to display information on the car stereo (where supported) - eg the Caller ID is displayed when an incoming call occurs. Menu items and the phonebook can also be displayed. If your car doesn’t support this (although most do), the Venturi Mini has a OLED display on the device itself too. This RDS feature sets it apart from other FM transmitter-based devices we’ve seen, although the price seems to reflect that too.

It should be pointed out that the device itself has no speaker.

Available now from Venturi’s website for £79.99.

HTC has this week announced the Touch Cruise, combining the TouchFLO interface with a builtin GPS. The device includes Windows Mobile 6, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 3 megapixel camera, microSD expansion, and a 2.8-inch touch-screen. It should ship with TomTom Navigator 6 too.

Gear4 has recently launched an intriguing device. If you weren’t sure about the Pure Highway, which provides DAB radio and ipod / mp3 music via an FM transmitter, the BluFM provides ipod music via a built in FM transmitter, but also acts as a Bluetooth Headset for your mobile phone, which will nicely interrupt your playing music when you get an incoming call.

More details and pricing in the rest of the article.

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