Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Nokia muscles up N80 series Internet features

Nokia plans to release a new version of its N80 multimedia phone next month with beefed-up Internet capabilities.

The N80 Internet Edition has integrated VoIP into the user interface, and users can download third-party VoIP calling applications, Nokia said. Also included is a wireless LAN wizard to find and configure wireless Internet access.

The Finnish company has also geared the device toward Amazon and Yahoo search engines. The N80 Internet Edition comes with Yahoo's Mobile Search application and its Go for Mobile program, which can sync a user's Yahoo e-mail and contacts with a mobile device.

The enhanced N80 has Amazon's MobiPocket Reader, an application for reading books. Nokia cited other multimedia capabilities, such as the ability to upload photos to the Flickr.com photo Web site.

The Internet Edition comes with other Nokia software, including its Web browser and a new client called Download that can be used to download other compatible programs for the device, Nokia said.

The N80 Internet Edition retains features on the regular N80 phone, such as the 3-megapixel camera and quadband GSM and WCDMA (Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access) coverage.

Pricing for the device was not immediately available.