So it turns out that Nokia may have been just a little presumptuous in its June announcement that it was buying the entirety of Symbian in its effort to open-source it. The press release's headline back then proudly proclaimed "Nokia to acquire Symbian Limited to enable evolution of the leading open mobile platform," but in reality, Nokia had only gotten firm commitments representing 91 percent of Symbian's outstanding shares in total at the time; Samsung hadn't yet agreed to the sale. Espoo merely said at the time that it "expected" a deal to happen there -- and now it finally has, giving Nokia the clean sweep it needs to make its Symbian Foundation dreams reality. It'll still be a good while yet before we see Foundation hardware at retail, but at least these guys can go about their business now without a nagging feeling that Sammy could be the party buzzkill.

[Via Phone Scoop]

We won't kid ourselves here -- you know good and well what Nokia's N96 looks, feels and tastes like, but given that it just started shipping in Europe within the last 24 hours, we figured it prudent to pass along the first proper unboxing of the retail unit. Like we said, don't expect any surprises with this one, but we still suspect you'll leave the video waiting after the jump with a smile on your face.

[Thanks, Steve]

Hey, it's not September 15th yet! Nevertheless, Nokia's flagship N96 is now shipping in Europe for €550 before taxes and subsidies. Yes, the very same 5 megapixel, dual-sliding media powerhouse with 16GB of storage spotted all the way back in December of last year. By now you should be familiar with the specs, hands-ons, tear-downs, and reviews. Unless, perhaps, you stumbled upon us while looking for Ms Trudy's Crochet and Needlepoint, we know that Engadget Mobile's Magenta colors can be confusing.

Barely a month after Nokia's North American E71 went on sale at the Chicago / New York flagship stores, we've received word that the QWERTY-less sibling (that'd be the E66) has now arrived at the same locales. The quad-band slider boasts support for AT&T's 3G network, and there's also a 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi and all the other goodies you'd expect from another solid S60 contender. Snap it up now in Grey Steel for $540.

[Via IntoMobile]

Nokia's slim and slick E71 has been touted -- OK, rumored, but we're hopeful -- to have its eyes set on the number two GSM provider in Canada, FIDO. While no pricing info is being bandied about, the "news" does see it landing during the November timeframe. Rogers, FIDO's parent company and only GSM competition -- at least for now -- has apparently passed on this little QWERTY gem, though these kind of stories do change with time. Look for more news once we get something a little more tangible.

We pretty much gathered that the 6650 was real from that page on Nokia's domain that has since been pulled, but if there was any lingering doubt, this should take care of it. The specs here confirm what Nokia had spilled -- most importantly, that the radio is rocking HSDPA on the 850 and 1900MHz bands, just what the doctor ordered to get some action on AT&T. A quick perusal of the manual shows that it's N-Gage compatible, though we were a bit surprised to see mentions of video calling; our guess is that they just haven't updated it for AT&T's inexplicable aversion to that particular feature yet. It'll also feature S60 3.2, so if you're in the States and S60 is how you roll, this puppy's got to be on your short list. Our money is on it getting official at CTIA next week.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Hey, S60 owners, have you had this nagging sense over the past year or two that you're somehow getting slighted by Nokia, but you haven't been able to put your finger on why? No worries, we've figured it out: it's the calculator. Nokia's mainstream dumbphone platform has featured a far better and more capable built-in calculator app than S60 for a while now, which really doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense; granted, you can get better ones from third-party developers, but the point is you shouldn't have to. Thankfully, Nokia agrees, and they've started to toy around with the idea of replacing the S60 calc with its little brother's -- a relatively easy process, since the latter is written in Java. On one hand, it'd be a shame to see a core S60 app move from native code to Java, but on the other hand, if it's a better app and the JVM is transparent, who really cares? Anyway, the ported app is chilling in Nokia's Beta Labs as we speak, just waiting for customer feedback before the higher-ups make a judgment call on whether to integrate it into future S60 releases. The power's in your hands, people, so you may as well take advantage.

Well, here's one we didn't see coming: it seems that AT&T has wised up to the fact that Americans like their Symbian (well, at least a few of 'em do, anyway) and wants to keep S60-equipped options on the table. Yes, granted, AT&T is a founding member of the Symbian Foundation, but the proof is in the pudding, and the last Nokia smartphone to land there was the N75 in May of last year -- an eternity by mobile standards. More recently, the N75 grew up, got sexy, picked up some brushed metal, and emerged in Europe earlier this year; now, it's surprisingly and unexpectedly been retooled with North American 3G spectrum. It's got a 2.2-inch QVGA primary display, 160 x 128 secondary, 2-megapixel cam, AT&T Navigator (which means GPS), push-to-talk support, and HSDPA 850 / 1900 to compliment quadband EDGE. We don't know exactly when it's coming, but for S60 fans who cringe at the thought of having to blow several hundred on an unlocked set every time they want some fresh hardware, this should be welcome news.

[Thanks, Al and Oscar M.]

For Nokia, WiFi and VoIP have seemingly gone hand-in-hand for as long as 802.11 radios have been offered in S60 handsets. It makes sense, of course -- the internet is a great way to yap at little or no expense compared to plain old cellular voice minutes when a traditional WiFi hotspot is available, and Nokia was really ahead of the curve with jumping on the bandwagon and making sure that the capability has been available out of the box. Unfortunately, it looks like constant carrier pressure may have finally gotten the better of Espoo, with GigaOM confirming that 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 doesn't contain a SIP stack built-in the same way that FP1 historically has. That doesn't mean VoIP products are totally locked out, but it does mean that apps that rely on the native stack are out of luck until they've implemented a new stack of their own. Products like the N78 and N96 are affected by the buffoonery, while the E71, which uses FP1, is not -- a good thing, considering the corporate affinity for VoIP and the Eseries' business leanings.

[Via jkOnTheRun, thanks BFish]

Nokia's Indian division recently announced that its customers there would be able to snatch up N96s of their own starting in September, so it comes as no surprise that European carriers are starting to confirm September release windows, too. Dutch carrier KPN, specifically, has announced that the N96 will start to flow its way in just a few tantalizingly short weeks -- September 15, to be exact -- while other carriers will have to wait an additional month until October 15 to get in on the action. One month isn't much of an exclusivity period, but when it comes to Nokia's most anticipated phone of the last few months (Tube notwithstanding), we're sure KPN will take what it can get.

[Via Mobile Phone Helpdesk]

Hey, Mobile readers. You know that QWERTY-packin' E71 from Nokia? Yeah, that's the topic of discussion over at this week's How Would You Change. We really shouldn't have to tell you what that means, but if you're still stuck, hit this link to head over and drop in your $0.02.

Nokia's Indian outpost has announced that it'll be offering the hotly anticipated top-of-the-line N96 there starting next month, and in the meantime, about 2,000 stores across the country have been authorized to start accepting pre-orders. By and large, this N96 seems to be the same one everyone else will be getting -- but one India-exclusive feature will be Wave Secure, an S60 app designed to give owners some semblance of peace of mind by backing up their data to the cloud and enabling device tracking if their precious payload is lost or jacked. It's a hot phone, no question about it -- 16GB of onboard storage plus the capability for microSD expansion is nothing to sneeze at -- but without a 3G network to latch onto, seems like it could be a tough sell if the price isn't right.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

The N85 at retail in October? Yeah, sounds totally believable, especially considering that an October release would give the populace enough time to wrangle one for the holidays, the fact that Nokia's known to be revealing two hotties this month, and that the date comes from none other than Mobile-review's scoop-tastic Eldar Murtazin. A graphic scored by Murtazin has the N85 and the just-announced Carbon Arte variant of the 8800 series both slated for grand entrances in the tenth month of the year. One, we stand a fighting chance of affording; the other, just like the Artes of old, probably not.

[Via Mobile Phone Helpdesk]

Without much fanfare, the Samsung i800 was canned at the tail end of last month. When asked why, Orange simply noted that it was pulled in order to "prepare a more competitive Linux mobile." A recent writeup at Ostatic takes a hard look at whether this simple withdrawal is really a sign of things to come, and it suggests that ALP could see support fade as the major players in Linux (and maybe even Nokia) step to the plate. One analyst was even quoted as saying that "having Google's brand behind Symbian could very well mean 'game over' for mobile Linux in the mobile phone market," and we honestly can't disagree too vehemently with that assertion. Of course, the LiMo Foundation has stated its intentions to not back down from the mighty Google, but sometimes, even the best intentions fall through. Guess time will tell, huh?

[Via jkOnTheRun]

JoikuSpot is one of our favorite S60 apps, turning what is otherwise totally capable smartphone into a pocket-sized WiFi hotspot. Now the company behind it, Joikusoft, is partnering with FON to release a new version called FONspot, which will turn Symbiotes into Foneros. (Symbreros?) Users will be able to share their mobile hotspots with up to 5 friends and, in keeping with FON's business model, access those provided by others Foneros free of charge. No word yet on up-front cost, but the updated app is due sometime in Q3 2008 which is... right now, actually.

[Via IntoMobile]