Nokia introduced the Nokia N70 multimedia, a well-designed, compact and easy-to-use 3G smartphone with versatile mobile photography, personal productivity and entertainment features.
Incorporating a complete smartphone feature set, as well as a 2 megapixel camera, flash and front camera for video calling, the Nokia N70 comes fully equipped with stereo FM radio, a digital music player and new 3D games. Measuring just 108.8 x 53 x 17.5 mm (95.9 cc), the Nokia N70 is the smallest ever 2 megapixel 3G smartphone based on the Series 60 Platform. The Nokia N70 is expected to be available in the third quarter of 2005, a variant for EDGE markets will be available at a later date.
Easy mobile photography
The slide and shoot design makes mobile photography fast and simple. The rear camera slide reveals and automatically activates the 2 megapixel camera, ready to instantly shoot photos or video. The intuitive slide is complemented with an integrated flash, 20x zoom capability and a range of capture scene settings for optimizing image quality in various environments, including Scenery, Portrait, Night, and Sports.
Transfer images
The storage, management and organization of images and video clips is convenient and efficient with the Nokia N70. With the Nokia XpressTransfer storing solution, all new photos and video clips can be automatically copied to the PC.
Rotating Gallery
The new improved rotating Gallery provides for enhanced browsing of images and video clips. Images can, for example, be organized into slideshows, with the viewing experience further heightened with added background music. Images and video clips can also be instantly printed from the Gallery with the Nokia XpressPrint printing solution using a USB cable, wirelessly over Bluetooth connectivity, or using the Reduced Size Dual Voltage MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC).
Smart productivity
Nokia N70 offers a full set of smartphone features, including very easy-to-set up email functionality with extensive attachment support, Internet browser, video streaming and 3G-enabled features such as two-way video calling and video sharing. Furthermore, additional applications can be installed from various sources, while organizer information can easily be synchronized with compatible PCs.
Entertainment on the move
Equipped with a digital music player with stereo audio, FM radio and support for Visual Radio, the compact 126 gram Nokia N70 also doubles as a great pocketable music device. For an even more playful multimedia experience, the Nokia N70 supports S60 and Java 2D and 3D games, some of which are pre-installed in the phone or on the standard in-box RS-MMC.
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Sony shrinks HD camcorder's size and price
Sony will put on sale in July a consumer HD (high-definition) camcorder that is much smaller and cheaper than its current offering, the company said Tuesday.
The HDR-HC1 is the second consumer HD camcorder from Sony and its launch should bring HD video recording into the reach of a wider range of potential users. Compared to Sony's current model, the HDR-FX1 that went on sale late last year, the new camera is about a third of the weight and less than half the size and price.
Sony managed to cut down the size and price of the camera by working on two main areas.
First, the new camera features a single CMOS image sensor versus 3 CCD sensors on the previous model. Not only is this cheaper but it makes for a simpler optical system because a prism isn't needed to split the image to each of the sensors. The new camera also uses a smaller and more compact lens. It's diameter is 60 millimeters (mm) versus 92 mm on the previous model and it's 90 mm shorter in total length.
The Carl Zeiss lens offers a 10X optical zoom.
There has also been work on reducing the size of the camera's electronics. The number of circuit boards has been cut from 5 to 2 and the total component count is down from 3,000 to 2,000 through integration of components into chips, Sony said.
All of this has made the camera much smaller. The HDR-HC1 measures 71-x-94-x-188 mm and weighs 680g without the battery. In contrast the previous model measured 151-x-181-x-365 mm and weighed 2kg.
Like the previous model, the HDR-HC1 is based on HDV format, which uses current-generation DV tapes to store high-definition video. Current DV tapes are completely compatible and can hold the same amount of video under HDV as they can under standard definition. This is a major advantage for current DV camcorder users because it preserves the investment made in recording media.
There are three ways to get HD video out of the camera: via Y/Pb/Pr component video signal, via the Japanese D3/D4 format signal and there's also a 4-pin iLink interface. This will stream in high-definition to compatible monitors and televisions with an HDV iLink interface.
The HDR-HC1 will be launched in Japan on July 7 and in North America, Europe and Asia at about the same time. It will cost about ?180,000 (£915) in Japan. It will cost about the same price overseas.