Yahoo has released a beta version of the improved Yahoo Go! app for symbian phones. The application integrates, Yahoo Search, Local, Mail, Entertainment, Flickr, Weather, News, Sports and Finance into a single application which is compatible on most java enabled cell phones.

Screenshots:

The main reason why this app caught my eye was due to its integration of Yahoo Local, Entertainment and Mail into a single app (= a single shortcut on my phone’s standby screen) as I use them a lot. And since it was designed by Yahoo!, I wasn’t expecting to be disappointed. But I was.

This is why I don’t consider Yahoo Go! to be a good app….yet:

• To start it off, in typical beta fashion, there are only a limited number of downloads available. You have to leave your phone number and Yahoo will send you a text message with the download link (this takes about 4 days).
• The app in itself is really slow. There is a definite (and quite irritating, I might add) lag when switching between items in a page or when switching pages.
• It is plagued by constant “Connection Error, Please try again” messages, even when I’m using wi-fi.
• Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Calendar are no longer a part of this app.
• And the mother of all bugs : When you let the app connect using wi-fi, and after you find yourself adequately irritated with the slowness, if you disconnect and exit, the app does not terminate the wi-fi connection. The only way to stop the wi-fi connection is to reboot the phone.

I am quite surprised to see that Yahoo has no blog or feedback system in place so that beta testers can contact them about their experiences with the app.

Overall, I am quite disappointed with the app and with Yahoo in general as well. I hope that the final release will be a lot better than the beta version.

Preview prototypes of the Nokia N95 are already in circulation. Lucky testers such as Darla Mack, Rafe Blanford from AllAboutSymbian and my friend Delon a.k.a. angel_wing0 from HowardForums have received their prototype N95s.

Being the awesome people that they are , they are trying their best to answer all of our questions

Here are a few resources to get you started:

• Delon’s first impressions and Q/A thread on the N95
• AllAboutSymbian answers some popular N95 questions

Its a pity that this phone will not support U.S. 3G.

Register at the Nokia Software Market before January 31st and win a Nokia N95.

Click here to register

To be entered into the draw without registering, send a postcard with your details to:

Symmetria Software Ltd
PL 78
33101 Tampere
Finland

Best of Luck!
VIA: [S60 Blog]

Member shaolinmonk from Howardforums has a thread about the E61i dummy phone being available on cnn (not the news site), a popular canadian website for mobile phone parts and accessories. If the images on the website are any indication, then the device will sport a camera (looks similar to the N91’s camera).

E61i Front:

E61i Back:

As other forum members such as angelwing0 suggested, there is a definitely possibility of the phone being announced at 3GSM in Barcelona this February, along with the E65i and the E90. I sincerely hope that the 3GSM announcement does take place. I’ve been waiting a long time for this phone.

Perhaps we might even see a Cingular branded version of the phone with N.A. 3G.

For those of you interested in the Nokia N76:

1) MobileBurn’s preview of the Nokia N76

Today I had the chance to play around with what could fairly be called Nokia’s first RAZR, the 14mm thin N76. The N76 sports the same clamshell form factor pioneered by Motorola with its RAZR V3 in that it has its internal antenna located below a flat, metal keypad. Nokia’s N76, however, is a true smartphone and runs its own powerful S60 user interface on top of the Symbian OS.

Link to article

VIA: [Ring Nokia]

2) Endgadget Mobile’s preview of the Nokia N76

“Nokia” and “thin” aren’t terms that we generally find ourselves assembling into a single sentence, but the freshly-introduced N76 changes all that in a big way. We had a chance to run our hands over a couple N76es at CES — one red, one black — and the smart money says future owners are not going to be disappointed. After the initial shock of handling an Nseries device this svelte, we were really digging what Nokia put together here. Sadly, the lack of American 3G bands leaves the phone dead in our eyes, but we enjoyed our brief interlude nonetheless.

Link to article

VIA: [Ring Nokia]

3) UberGizmo’s Nokia N76 Hand-On experience

CES 2007 - The trend is thin and nobody can ignore it, not even Nokia. The Nokia N76 closes a gap in Nokia’s offering in a stylish way. They will probably hate me for saying this but the Nokia N76 looks like the RAZR and the Sanyo Katana. I don’t say that in a bad way – the RAZR design is what brought struggling Motorola back into the game.

Link to article

VIA: [Ring Nokia]

4) SymbianFreak gets a Nokia N76 Hands-On preview

On the unofficial press release on Sunday Evening, we had the opportunity to get our eyes exclusively on the black edition (the red one next day) and the first thing came in my mind: Girl’s Phone!?.. The N76 looks stylish with its mirror touch (don’t forget to polish all the time!), a nice external screen (1.36 inch color display (160 x 128 pixels) TFT with up to 262,144 colors), dedicated mp3 player buttons .. all what a phone needs so far ..

Link to article

5) AllAboutSymbian’s N76 Flickr Set

6) Tech Digest’s Nokia N76 preview videos

• Video 1
• Video 2

VIA: [Ring Nokia]