Having to sign an application every time you want to install something that’s not Symbian Signed is a bit of a pain, yes it can be done on the phone but if you want to completely rid yourself of this hassle then hacking your device is the best way forward. Unfortunately, Nokia had blocked this procedure via a new firmware for devices such as the E71, N96 and devices like the N97 were previously unhackable.

However, the Symbian community has once again managed a breakthrough

Last week partenered with N-Gage and Gameloft to celebrate the launch of Million Dollar Poker, and offer one lucky reader a fantastic Nokia N-Gage prize which includes a Nokia N96, a copy of Million Dollar Poker and other Nokia Goodies.

This is to remind you that you only have uptil 11:59 PM (IST) Indian Standard Time today to enter, all you need to do is answer a simple question.

As promised, the exclusive contest for the readers of The Symbian Blog is here. To mark the launch of Million Dollar Poker, we have partnered with N-Gage and Gameloft to offer one lucky reader a fantastic Nokia N-Gage prize which includes a Nokia N96, a copy of Million Dollar Poker and other Nokia Goodies.

Million Dollar Poker is the only online multiplayer game on N-Gage and is available both via the N-Gage website and the showroom tab on the N-Gage application on your devices. The game also has a website of …

As has been the practice with Nokia recently, when a firmware comes out for one device, a few others get new firmwares too. After the N97, the N96 has been blessed with the v30 firmware. This release is a 6MB over the air download and makes the device faster and fixes a few bugs. Nevertheless, it is good to see Nokia not neglecting an old device which failed to take off.
The new firmware is available over-the-air (OTA) by simply pressing *#0000# from the standby screen and checking for updates. (Detailed …

Nokia has just rolled out a new firmware for the aging Nokia N96. The v20.050 firmware, up from v12, brings in a lot of bug fixes and improvements. The new firmware makes the device faster and brings additions like the standby email plugin to show your emails on the standby screen.
Audio Themes make an appearance, so does a menu to manage the slide. The battery management has been worked on, the camera has also been tweaked and the videos should now have lesser noise. All in all this looks like …

Its time. The winners of the N96 Challenge have been randomly selected with the help of Random.Org’s random number generator. The 5 of you lucky readers will receive a trial of the Nokia N96 courtesy the lovely people at WOM World Nokia. I will be contacting you via email shortly with instructions on how to get your devices.

Read on to find out if you won!

I have some amazing news for you, dear readers. If you recall I was participating in the Nokia N96 Challenge to win you 5 trials of Nokia N96. I have won! So that means five lucky people out of you will be getting their hands on a N96 soon.

At the start of the competition, I had outlined the ways in which you could win the trials:

Two N96’s will be raffled away amongst the commenters on any post on the entire blog, starting today.

As part of the N96 Challenge, I had asked all of you to send in your thoughts/reviews/opinions on anything mobile and we here we have someone who has made excellent use of the interpretation of the words – ‘anything mobile’.
Kevin Samuel Paul presents – Lost Her..
She was gone.. All the time she was with me I never let go of her.. But they said love is like a butterfly, hold it too tight and it will crush.. hold it too loose and it will fly away.. That’s what happened.. I …

After a few exciting weeks of completing various tasks centered around the N96, like all good things – The N96 Challenge has come to an end. The competition was to win five N96 trials for you, the reader and we shall very soon find out if we have been successful. I can assure you that we tried our level best.

The first task was simple, I had to take geo-tagged phone of the Ninja and upload it via NokiaVine. My buddy Sartaj Gill risked all at the edge of a rooftop …

Moving on from the hardware aspect of the N96 in the N96 review series, this post focusses on its multimedia capabilities. The review will cover area like the Camera, Music and Video playback amongst other things.
To give you a bit of a background in these areas – the N96 boasts of a 5MP camera with dual LED, a 3.5 mm jack which also doubles as the TV-out slot, stereo speakers on the right hand side of the phone and lastly a kick stand attached to the back which allows the …