So its October, the month stated by Nokia that we would see the release of the n97's little brother – the Nokia n97 mini. With this in mind, I thought we would do a little back tracking and have another look at this phone and maybe a brief comparison with the n97.

[hardware]

Ok, the first and most obvious thing to mention about the mini, is that it is slightly smaller in all dimensions than the original. The mini comes in at a sleek 113 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm [-4.2 x -0.8 x -1.7mm on the original]. Along with these reduced dimensions, edges have been rounded and a total of 22g have been removed from the weight. This gives the mini exactly what we expect, a smaller, sleeker replica of the bigger brother that is more easily fitted into pockets and the like.

It goes without saying that as Nokia look to scrimp and save on size and weight – other aspects of the vanilla n97 will be changed and modified. One of the more notable change is the size of the 3.5” screen. This is now only 3.2”, however the resolution of 360x640 and 16m colours remains.

The qwerty keyboard has also had a revamp. Gone has the big D-Pad found on the left side. This has allowed Nokia to slightly spread out its keys and give an overall increased feel to the model. It should be easier to hit them keys!

The plastic back has also been changed, This is now a solid metal battery cover, adding to the overall sleekness of the handset. The lens protector has been removed from the back but the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens still remains with its dual LED. As for the battery itself, this has been slightly toned down from the original by around 300mAh. This however still gives roughly 12 days of idle standby time.

The final most notable change to mention, and its quite a big one, is the reduction of the onboard storage. One of the major selling points of the Nokia N97 was its whopping 32g drive – this has been reduced to a now modest 8g.

[software]

Lifecasting – This is an exciting new application being brought out with the mini. The app automatically updates location of the user when they update their social networking status such as Facebook. This isn't exclusive to the mini and will be available to existing N97 users via the OVI store when the mini is released.

All in all, I am really liking the look of the Nokia n97 mini and I think it will be a big hit. Lets just wait and see when it hits out shops in the immediate future.

Vlingo is a step towards the Voice Recognition application that we have all wished the inbuilt Application would be for a very long time.

I first came across Vlingo back in March when they were BETA testing the S60v3.1 version of the application, and was very impressed at the time. The only reason I stopped using it was that I changed my phone from a Nokia N95 8GB (S60v3.1) to a Nokia N97 (S60v5).A week or two ago I found out that the Nokia 5800 version of Vlingo worked on the N97 providing the wonders that are Vlingo with a tough interface.

As the Nokia 5800 and N97 share the same basic OS (S60v5) the N97 widget was already embedded in the 5800 version. Now we are lucky enough to have a fully supported N97 version of Vlingo downloadable from the Vlingo Website . Just point your phone at the website and click on the download link.

Vlingo replaces the standard Nokia Voice Recognition application, providing voice controlled application opening, Voice dialling, as well as Voice based Searching, Note, SMS and e-mail creation.

There are two versions of Vlingo:

• Standard - Free version - Providing a maximum of 5 voice-based SMS or e-mail messages
• Plus - Paid for - Providing unlimited voice-based SMS or e-mail messages

Although Vlingo Plus is paid for £12.99 does not appear excessive as a one-off payment.

While we're talking about money I should point out that Vlingo uses your data connection to aid in improving Voice Recognition. The amount of data used is minimal, but means that you need a data plan on your mobile contract to best use Vlingo.

One of it's most useful features for me is it's ability to open More applications than the default application can. For me this was vital on my N95 8GB as it enabled the opening of Nokia Maps post Phone call without having to hunt out it's application icon. Some would say this is not as much of an issue on the N97 as the Shortcut bar provides a larger icon than that of the N95 8GB Standby Screen, but Vlingo for N97 also provide a dedicated Homescreen Widget, providing a larger shortcut button.

There are a few issues and suggestions I have for the future development of Vlingo including the following:

• Auto-start - This feature was in the BETA versions of the S60v3 version and speeds up the opening of Vlingo. Presently the first opening of Vlingo takes a few seconds, whereas once running in the background it opens instantly.
• Call Button Long Press - As Vlingo Standard is going to be provided within the v20 N97 FW update it would be nice to replace the Call Button Long press activation of the default Nokia Voice Recognition software with Vlingo.
• Homescreen Widget Expansion - Presently the Homescreen Widget is just a larger shortcut button to open Vlingo. Although this is useful as it eases the opening of Vlingo when not paying as much attention to the phone screen, you are left feeling it could do more. Whereas the Non-touch interface Vlingo version provides One-Click Voice Recognition, the touch interface requires the user to Click on the shortcut and then on a large Hold & Speak" button. The Homescreen Widget could be modified to either:
  • Activate Voice Recognition for a set period after pressing the Widget. This could enable the application to either open an application or initiate Vlingo for note, SMS or e-mail creation.
  • Split the Widget in half with one half opening Vlingo and the other half replicating the previous option.

After discussing these ideas with the Vlingo team I have found the them eager to here ideas for future improvments/expansions of the product.

Now it's over to you. The team have provided 5 Vlingo Plus VIP Licenses to give away to the best suggestions for the future development of Vlingo for Nokia.

All suggestions must be posted on this arcticle.

Closing date for suggestions is 1st November 2009.

If you have a UK unbranded N97 (product code 0585162) you should be able to upgrade to v12 FOTA. According to Navifirm the UK Vodafone version is also available. This does not show for FOTA at present so will probably require a PC and Software Update.

Neither show on the Nokia " Can I Update" pages as yet, but people are downloading and installing as I type.

I should note that, after seeing a few peoples comments post update, with this latest UK v12 FW. Some people have lost there destinations after updating Over The Air. These people have also lost the ability to connect or set-up WiFi connections any more. I know of one person who has updated via NSU and a PC and lost his Destinations, but was able to set them up again and still has WiFi. There has also been an issue seen when v12 originally released relating to a phone crash post update, but this was resolved in most cases by removing and re-inserting the battery. I will be seeing if I can update later this evening when I have access to a PC with NSU installed.

This late release of v12 FW for the UK does have many of us worried as to if we will have to wait for this degree of time to get our hands on v20 after it has released for the rest of the world. Hopefully not.

Just got my hands on a Vodafone Access Gateway.

The Vodafone Access Gateway service gives you a great 3G signal throughout your home, no matter where you live. All you need is a broadband line (1.5MB minimum requirement) and the Gateway - a clever little box that's simple to install (all you need is a spare Main Socket and a spare ethernet connection on your Broadband Modem/Router).

You can even connect family and friends to the Gateway (Up to 32 numbers can be connected), as long as they're with Vodafone. And up to four people can use it at once. So everyone gets the same great signal.

The set-up is simple, but it is limited to single location use which is a bit of a pitty as they require the post code location and floor o the building in which it will be used. They say this information is required to ensure a better service. I accept this whn it come to the postcode, but the floor of the building seems a little extreme. They'll be asking what room it's in and which wall it's agains next.

I'll post more after I've had the chance to use it for a little while.

UPDATE

I've had the Gateway up and running for over a day now and must say it is a marvelous invention. Prior to set-up I was looking to have any reception adn now I have full 3.5G reception all of the time at home. It has also dawned on me that this device will also extend battery life at home as when you have poor reception your phone will be searchiong for a netwrok which drains power, whereas with the Gateway you always have full coverage, meaning that the phone does not have to use up vital power searching. This comes as an additional bonus.

Another useful nugget of information is that the Gateway service comes with it's own dedicated Vodafone contact number rather than the default 08700 700191, meaning that you can get throught to a physical member of staff a lot quicker. In fact my first phone call to the Gateway number put me straight through to a memeber of staff with no automated service at all. One thing to note is that once initial set-up is complete the only way in which you can add or remove mobile numbers to your Gateway is to phone the Gateway service as there is no web-based system for doing this at present. I did find this a bit of a pitty, but whilst the phone service is as good as it is I won't loose any sleep over it. The final point I would like to make that it appears that as this is a 3G Gateway mobile phones that do not support 3G will not be able to make use of this device and a re forced to continue to use the standard network coverage available in your area.

All in all, in my experience, if you are in a poor reception area this is a must have device, as long as you have a spare £160 or can find £5 per month until you haev paid over you £160 as you will never have to worry about reception when with this device (As long as you have a broadband connection wether this be via a BT phone-line or cable). I would also suggest one of these to anyone with reasonable network coverage, which can be temperamental as this gives you guaranteeed reception all of the time, when in the location where it is set-up.