One of my wishes for Nokia became true this morning when Swype for Symbian became available at Beta Labs. If you are unfamiliar with Swype, it’s a faster way to input text on screen by sliding your finger over the letters. I know it sounds crazy, but it works really well after learning how to use it. Watch the official announcement video and a raw footage of me Swyping one-handed with the Nokia C6 after the jump.

Videos are embedded below. Click here if it’s not visible in your RSS reader.

Here’s the official video:

… and here’s an unedited video of Swype on the Nokia C6 uploaded directly from the Nokia N900. Oh look! One-handed!

I also highly recommend you to watch these video tutorials from Swype so you can type even faster.

Not interested in Swype? You can use this input method to just tap from the keyboard as usual. The good news is that this finally brings a portrait QWERTY on Symbian^1 devices if you’ve been asking for it.

Swype Beta for Symbian includes support for English US, Spanish, Canadian French, and Brazilian Portuguese. It is compatible with some Symbian^1 phones. Read the Swype Beta Labs page for an up-to-date list of compatible devices.

Swype for Symbian is still in beta and I also notice one major bug. It keeps capitalizing the first letter of the second word. Other than that, I’m a happy user. I hope Nokia works hard on perfecting this input method and have it available on Symbian^3 devices like the Nokia N8 when they become available.

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For our next #NokiaBox challenge, we were asked to submit our fastest time typing “The quick brown fox jumped over the NokiaBox,” using the touchscreen and the QWERTY keyboard on the Nokia C6. My teammate Erick used QWERTY while I opted for the touchscreen. Our combined time will set our entry. Watch my part of the challenge after the jump.

Using the touchscreen, I chose to type with the help of my voice. This was possible thanks to the Vlingo app which can be downloaded at the Ovi Store. My time was 8.96 seconds but it would’ve been quicker if I didn’t have to edit and combine the words “Nokia” and “Box.”

Video is embedded below. Click here if it’s not visible in your RSS reader.

You can also watch this video in HD on Youtube. Subscribe to the channel to preview the latest videos before they get published on the blog.

Erick and I hope we beat the competition and get crowned the “Ultimate C6 Touch/Type Team.”

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Nokia has been buying Google Adwords to reveal the release date in the UK. The ads in question say the Nokia N8 is in stock and ready for dispatch on September 23rd. They also included that the UK will have it one week before anyone else. The ads forward to nokia.co.uk/n8 but the pre-order button is yet to be seen. Perhaps they went up prematurely.

The pre-order has already been available in the US, but with the availability at the end of September. I’m a little jealous our friends in the UK will have it a week earlier.

Thanks NokNok!

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Swype provides a faster and easier way to input text on any screen. With one continuous finger or stylus motion across the screen keyboard, the patented technology enables users to input words faster and easier than other data input methods—at over 40 words per minute. The application is designed to work across a variety of devices such as phones, tablets, game consoles, kiosks, televisions, virtual screens and more.



Swype and Nokia have been hard at work to deliver a limited beta release to Nokia S60 5th edition device owners.  Your feedback will be valuable to us in the coming weeks, and we are especially interested in how well Swype interfaces with the many types of applications you use every day. While you’re at it, feel free to take a crack at the world record, which was recently broken (again!) with Swype.

Swype is currently supported on the Nokia N97, N97mini, X6, 5800, and 5230. Over the coming months Swype will be expanding to a wider range of devices as part of ongoing development so stay tuned.

Check out the official Swype for Symbian page for download information as well as Swypeinc.com for news, tips and instructional videos.

Happy Swyping!
-Peter @ Swype Inc

If you have a Nokia E72, check the software updater on the device or your computer because an update is forthcoming. Email, calendar, and contacts experience are expected to improve and there will be some menu layout changes. Check out the long changelog after the jump.

The full version number is 051.018.

Corrections or Changes :

• Browser upgrade into 7.2.6
• Freestyle Baseline 3.0 (latest version) update
• QuickOffice upgrade into 6.2.439
• New languages introduced, Office 2007 compatibility
• OVI Music client Inc9Br5 update
• Music 3.0: full album purchase, PIN less activation
• Lotus Notes Traveller 8.5.1 update
• Smart Connect 1.3.55 update
• OVI Store 1.6 update
• OVI Files widget 1.2.3.0 update

Removals

• Windows Live removal

Improvements

• New chat functionalities for the users
• Microsoft Office Communicator added to vanilla SW UDA content
• Nokia Messaging for Instant Messaging / Nokia Chat 2.0 added to vanilla SW UDA content
• Improved Email, Calendar and Contacts experience
• Performance improvements
• Stability and usability improvements
• Menu layout changes, among other things:
• Maps moved to Main menu from Applications – GPS folder
• Help moved from Main menu to Applications folder
• Main menu re-ordered
• SW update moved from Phone folder to main level of Control panel folder.
• Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Bloomberg moved from Internet folder to Applications folder
• No changes to vanilla memory cards
• Altogether 450+ errors are fixed.

The Nokia E72 runs on Symbian S60 3.2. It features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and it is one of the thinnest QWERTY devices in the market. You can check the Nokia E72 full specifications for more details.

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Back in June, Nokia asked the Poptent community to create a commercial about the Nuron. If you are unfamiliar with Poptent, it is a portal that connects brands with independent commercial videomakers. Out of 44 submissions, Nokia purchased 3 videos for $5K each, one for $1K, and 2 at $500 each. One of the finalists’ video was just upload to the NokiaUS Youtube channel. Twilight fans might like it.

Video embedded below. Click here if it’s not visible in your RSS reader.

The video above was created by David Lehre. I browsed through the other Poptent submissions and was really surprised that most of them were good.

The Nokia Nuron ($0.01 with a new service plan) is the locked and T-mobile USA branded version of the Nokia 5230. It runs on Symbian^1, has a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 640×360 resolution, 2MP camera, and more. Head over to the official Nuron page for complete specs.

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We knew that announcing the closure of Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta would not be easy news to break…and your comments from the past week made it clear.

This is the unfortunate nature of the work we do in Beta Labs. Sometimes the products we create do not make it to commercial release. It’s the nature of the test environment.

While we are in no way “getting out” of the mobile social networking business by focusing on the N8 and some great functionality that is coming, we do understand that you may have an N97, or a 5800, or other Nokia device. Our only answer is to refer you to the Facebook client and invite you to continue to follow our evolution in this space.

Please understand that the reason we cannot continue free services such as the previous Social Networks client is because our strategy needs to adapt to the changing landscape. We need to concentrate our engineering efforts on the high-quality core services that our consumers want. Sometimes we cannot maintain momentum on some services, even when they are hugely popular, out of the need to maximize our own resources and deliver something even better further down the line. Ramping down the previous Nokia Messaging for Social client isn’t a reflection of our dissatisfaction with the service, it’s a learning experience that helps us focus on future critical offerings.

Changing the way people connect and innovating with mobile social experiences are what we do. We invite you to continue to be a part of it, and your comments and insight will continue to make it better.

Nokia Messaging Team

Download Ovi Store Facebook client:
http://apps.store.ovi.com/r/Nokia_social1
http://apps.store.ovi.com/r/Nokia_social

A new video from Nokia shows an interesting project from Peter Ash who created a hamster-powered phone charger. In one of the scenes, you can see the Nokia N8 being charged. Peter said that their hamster kept them awake at night because it wouldn’t stop playing with the wheel. It got Peter thinking about ways to use the hamster’s energy to good use.

Video is embedded below. Click here if it’s not visible in your RSS reader.

It seems Nokia will be posting more of these project videos at nokia.com/nseries. We’ll keep our eyes open.

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I’ve been beta testing a new version of Pixelpipe for several weeks and I’m glad to finally see it at the Ovi Store! The new Pixelpipe now lets you upload photos, video, audio & files directly from the Nokia Send menu “via Pixelpipe” to over 110 services across the Social Web. It was previously done as a Nokia Share Online plugin. Watch the video after the jump to see how it works.

Pixelpipe has put together a video that demonstrates their initial 1.0 release. The video provides a brief overview of the primary features of the app in the first minute & then more detailed demonstrations of the features included following. You might notice that the phone being demoed is a Nokia N8!

Video is embedded below. Click here if it’s not visible in your RSS reader.

This is their “foundation” release & is simply focused on providing a good first time user experience & seamless uploads from the Nokia Send menu. Expect to start seeing more features from their Android & iPhone applications coming over to Symbian as well as several “Single Service” apps for some of our most popular services including Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Twitter, YouTube & Vimeo.

What’s the feature I really want in the next version? Ability to upload photos with Foursquare! This is already available in Pixelpipe’s Android app.

You can download the new Pixelpipe Send and Share for free at the Ovi Store here or on your device.

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Written by Kari Pulli, Nokia Fellow and the head of the Visual Computing and Ubiquitous Imaging research team at NRC Palo Alto.

Cameras are unfortunately not as adaptable as the human eye, and in situations where there is either too much or too little light, it’s not easy, or often not even possible to capture images that would give the viewer a similar experience as the person that saw the situation with her own eyes. However, by taking several images with different image settings and then combining the input images into a single new image it is possible to capture better images.

Nokia Research Center Palo Alto has developed two new applications to address these problems. A new camera control architecture and API created jointly by Nokia and Stanford University (http://fcam.garage.maemo.org) is a key enabler for these applications.

The HDR Capture application is meant for situations with too much light, especially when the background is bright (e.g., sky) and the foreground has less light (e.g., a person). Using normal camera to capture a single image would typically lead to a black silhouette of the person with a nice sky in the background. HDR Capture measures the brightness of the scene, captures 1-3 images as the user presses the capture button, and combines them into a single image that should show details of both the bright and dark areas.

Another problematic situation is when there just isn’t enough light. If you take an image with short exposure time, the result is a noisy image. However, if you extend the exposure time, the output is often blurry. With Lowlight Assistant the camera captures two images, one short (probably noisy) and one long (probably blurry), and automatically combines the images to a new image that hopefully has the sharpness of the short exposure and the better colors of the long exposure. The user can evaluate a small area of the image to see whether the quality is sufficient. If it is, the combined image is processed in the background, otherwise the user can try again.

These applications are experimental betas and we are currently evaluating how to take them further. So if you’re interested, download the apps and let us know what you think.