ATI Launches Radeon X1950 Pro

ATI Technologies has launched its mid-range Radeon X1950 Pro graphics card. Radeon X1950 Pro is the first graphics card to make use of new native CrossFire technology, simplifying the multi-GPU experience by eliminating the need for a branded CrossFire Edition card.

It is also ATI's first 80nm graphics core, and features 36 pixel shaders, eight vertex shaders, and 12 texture processing units.It offers the same image quality as ATI's flagship Radeon X1950 XTX, including the ability to enable FP16 High Dynamic Range effects with anti-aliasing at the same time.

The graphics card provides exceptional video quality while playing today's high-definition media formats, displaying one billion colors, or 10-bit throughout the graphics pipeline. The new card is also HDCP-compliant, including a built-in EEPROM and HDCP key. In addition, the card is ready for Windows Vista.

Radeon X1950 Pro is shipping at an estimated street price of $199 (Rs 9,154).

Read the full review

Improve Memory Usage in Firefox!!

A lot of people complain about Firefox hogging their RAM.Firefox sometimes can take more than 100 mb of RAM.Now this is not a bug. It’s part of the cache feature of Firefox. This ‘feature’ is how the pages are cached in a tabbed environment. To improve performance when navigating (studies show that 39% of all page navigations are renavigations to pages visited less than 10 pages ago, usually using the back button), Firefox 1.5 implements a Back-Forward cache that retains the rendered document for the last five session history entries for each tab. This is a lot of data. If you have a lot of tabs, Firefox’s memory usage can climb dramatically. It’s a trade-off. What you get out of it is faster performance as you navigate the web.
You can manipulate settings in “about:config” to drop the memory usage as long as possible and to increase the speed at which Firefox loads sites. Below is how to do this. Please take note, please tell your friends. Because i’m pretty sure us fans of all things not Internet Explorer are really tired of millions thinking Firefox has a bug when it doesn’t, and users feel hopeless in their want to use Firefox, but not deal with the memory issues.

Kill the amount of RAM Firefox uses for it’s cache feature
Here’s how to fix it:
1. type “about:config” (no quotes) in the browser.
2. Find browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer
2. set it’s value to “0″

Increase the Speed in Which Firefox loads pages
1.Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return.
Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 30.

This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″.

This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now
More options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String

network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false”
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5″
“plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0″ (zero)

Kill RAM usage to 10mb when FF is minimized
This little about:config hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter config.trim_on_minimize. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.

I hope this makes a few people’s browsing experience a bit better with Firefox and debunks a myth about their being a bug.

Dell's XPS M1710 notebook gets overclockable Core 2 Duo

Dell is introducing a new version of the 17.1-inch XPS M1710 laptop, its first tweak to this lineup since swallowing up VoodooPC. Whereas the first generation M1710 featured a Core Duo processor and GeForce Go 7900 graphics, the new model will sport your choice of Core 2 Duo T7600G or T7200 CPUs and 512MB GeForce Go 7950 GTX or 256MB GeForce Go 7900 GS cards from nVIDIA. If you go with the higher-end, $3,498 configuration, Dell is also throwing in the ability to overclock the dual-core processor on your own -- just as it did with the XPS 700 desktop. Both the pricier and $2,299 "budget" configs will also rock a brand new feature that will be sure to delight modding and disco enthusiasts alike: XPS LightFX technology that lets you sync up the systems' 16-color lights to whatever game you're playing or music you're listening to. With a blazing processor, powerful graphics chipset, WUXGA resolution, and a bunch of blinking LEDs, the new M1710 sounds like it could very well consume every last minute of your free time -- say goodbye to sunlight and fresh air for good.

Click Here for more info

Yahoo! Announces Time Capsule

Yahoo! has announced the launch of what it calls the world's largest time capsule in history.

Starting this week, Yahoo! is encouraging people from around the world to contribute personal photos, stories, thoughts, ideas, poems, prayers, home movies, music, and art to this first-ever electronic anthropology project designed to document life in 2006.

The company says that people will be able to view and explore all submissions between October 10, when the time capsule opens, and November 8, when the time capsule closes. In addition to browsing the time capsule content, people can sort and compare the contributions by country, region, race, age, gender, amongst many.

Speaking on the occasion, Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief of Yahoo!, said, "We are proud to document this moment in history to celebrate the power of the global online community and to provide a snapshot of who we are in 2006 to share with generations to come."

"Wherever people use Yahoo!, we want them to represent their culture and show us what's important to them by participating in this historic Internet time capsule event. It will be fascinating to see what people submit as their part of this 2006 snapshot, which will be shared with generations to come," added Yang.

The Yahoo! Time Capsule will be featured on 20 localized Yahoo! home pages around the world, including www.yahoo.com, where users are invited to upload text, images, video, audio, or drawings free of charge. The time capsule site will take users' contributed multimedia content and weave it into a single piece of digital art online.

In celebration of the project, Yahoo! will illuminate one of the most well-preserved sites from ancient times by projecting selected time capsule submissions onto The Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico from October 25 to 27, 2006. Yahoo! has chosen this symbolic UNESCO site because of its role in the preservation of ancient culture.

Following the screening, the time capsule will be saved onto a digital archive, sealed, and later to be opened at Yahoo! corporate headquarters on the company's 25th anniversary in the year 2020. More information about the Yahoo! Time Capsule can be found at timecapsule.yahoo.com.

Sansung B600,the first 10 Megapixel camera phone

Samsung continues to amaze with their cutting edge mobile phones first with the SPH-V8200 a phone with a 8 Megapixel camera then the SGH-i310 with a 8 GB hard drive and now we have the Samsung B600 the world's first phone with a 10 Megapixel camera. Unlike other camera phones which perform only basic functions the B600 includes most of the functions which you will find in a modern digital camera. It includes a LED autofocus feature which assists users to capture clear photos even in dark settings along with 3x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom. Also supported is white balance, manual focus, continuous picture-taking, and interval picture-taking functions. Video recording is done in QVGA resolution at 15-30 frames per second. The B600 has a 2.3” photo-fine chromic LCD capable of displaying 16 million colors. The phone has 80 MB of internal memory which can be expanded further via the Micro MMC card slot. Other features include Bluetooth, USB, Media player and DMB for watching TV on the move.

Currently for sale in Korea only the Samung SCH-B600 is available for 900,000 won (about $ 900). The candy bar phone measures 126 x 53 x 20.4 mm weighs 173 grams and is available in Black.

Firefox 2 RC 2 released!!

Mozilla Corporation has released Firefox 2 RC 2,preview release of their next generation Firefox browser.
Some of the improvements are

• Visual Refresh: Firefox 2's theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability without altering the familiarity of the browsing experience. For instance, toolbar buttons now glow when you hover over them. We will continue to improve the look and feel throughout the release candidate process.

• Built-in phishing protection: Phishing Protection warns users when they encounter suspected Web forgeries, and offers to return the user to their home page. Phishing Protection is turned on by default, and works by checking sites against either a local or online list of known phishing sites. This list is automatically downloaded and regularly updated when the Phishing Protection feature is enabled.

• Enhanced search capabilities: Search term suggestions will now appear as users type in the integrated search box when using the Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines. A new search engine manager makes it easier to add, remove and re-order search engines, and users will be alerted when Firefox encounters a website that offers new search engines that the user may wish to install.

• Improved tabbed browsing: By default, Firefox will open links in new tabs instead of new windows, and each tab will now have a close tab button. Power users who open more tabs than can fit in a single window will see arrows on the left and right side of the tab strip that let them scroll back and forth between their tabs. The History menu will keep a list of recently closed tabs, and a shortcut lets users quickly re-open an accidentally closed tab.

• Resuming your browsing session: The Session Restore feature restores windows, tabs, text typed in forms, and in-progress downloads from the last user session. It will be activated automatically when installing an application update or extension, and users will be asked if they want to resume their previous session after a system crash.

• Previewing and subscribing to Web feeds: Users can decide how to handle Web feeds (like this one), either subscribing to them via a Web service or in a standalone RSS reader, or adding them as Live Bookmarks. My Yahoo!, Bloglines and Google Reader come pre-loaded as Web service options, but users can add any Web service that handles RSS feeds.

• Inline spell checking: A new built-in spell checker enables users to quickly check the spelling of text entered into Web forms (like this one) without having to use a separate application.

• Live Titles: When a website offers a microsummary (a regularly updated summary of the most important information on a Web page), users can create a bookmark with a "Live Title". Compact enough to fit in the space available to a bookmark label, they provide more useful information about pages than static page titles, and are regularly updated with the latest information. There are several websites that can be bookmarked with Live Titles, and even more add-ons to generate Live Titles for other popular websites.

• Improved Add-ons manager: The new Add-ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes, combining them both in a single tool.

• Extended search plugin format: The Firefox search engine format now supports search engine plugins written in Sherlock and OpenSearch formats and allows search engines to provide search term suggestions.

• Updates to the extension system: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.

• Client-side session and persistent storage: New support for storing structured data on the client side, to enable better handling of online transactions and improved performance when dealing with large amounts of data, such as documents and mailboxes. This is based on the WHATWG specification for client-side session and persistent storage.

Download it here

Windows Vista RC 2 released!!

Today, Microsoft announced the availability of Windows Vista RC2 to Technical Beta Testers, TAP Testers, and MSDN/TechNet subscribers. This new build of Windows Vista offers users a higher level of performance and stability – improving what was established in Windows Vista RC1.Many of the bugs reported from RC1 have been fixed and implemented in RC2.

Platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin has just posted a special announcement letter of RC2 to Microsoft Connect for the Windows Vista Technical Beta Testers. I’d like to reproduce the letter here for all to read:

People asked for it, and here it is, Windows Vista RC2! We wanted you to be the first to get these bits; next week they’ll be available to a broader set of customers via MSDN and TechNet.

All your great feedback has helped us focus on nothing but bug fixes over the past month since RC 1 — each and every day. There are thousands of quality improvements since Windows Vista RC1. You’ll probably notice improvements in performance, application compatibility, as well as fit and finish work. We will continue improving quality until RTM. If you are an ISV, please use this build (certainly at least RC1 or later) to get certified. Visit www.innovateonvista.com for more information on logo certification.

You are integral to this creation and refinement process. We are just around the corner from RTM and shipping this great product to the world. This will be the last build made available prior to RTM, so please keep the feedback coming so we can hit the finish line. Thanks for your help in finishing the job!

jim

I encourage you to download and install Windows Vista RC2. Windows Vista – RTM is almost here too.

Windows Vista RC2 is now available to Customer Preview Program participants for a limited time. If you’re in the CPP use these links to access RC2:

Download: Windows Vista RC2 (x86 and x64) English

Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition Launched

Nokia has introduced the "Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition," the latest addition to its line-up of "Active" phones.

The company says that the Music Edition, which is an enhancement to the Nokia 5500 Sport, is befitted with a 512 MB microSD card for enjoying up to 375 songs, as well as a fitness carrying strap, bicycle holder, and sports headset packed in a new energetic color.

Announcing the latest edition, Antti Koivula, director - lifestyle products, Nokia, said, "Music is a great source of energy and inspiration for many, during a workout, a fitness routine, or just relaxing. To complement its sporty and fitness-inspired design, the Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition offers an expanded range of music features, and bears the Nokia XpressMusic feature brand, which guarantees an outstanding mobile music experience."

The Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition can be worn around the waist or strapped around an arm to ensure that the handset stays in place, even during vigorous exercise. The sports headset also offers hands-free convenience for music and conversation with an anatomically engineered, over-the-ear design.

The Nokia Music Manager application in this phone makes music transfer to a multitude of different digital music formats from a PC easy and convenient.

This Music Edition features an integrated pedometer that lets users know the distance traveled, and the calories burned during a run. During other activities too, such as a bicycle tour or cross-country skiing, distance covered and calories burnt can be monitored with an optional GPS module. Results of workout routines can then be transferred from this phone to a PC, to follow individual progress.

With a 2-megapixel camera, the phone has three dedicated "modes," where one can switch to a phone mode to stay in touch, a music mode to relax or energize, or a sports mode to help users go the extra mile. The phone even supports text-to-speech technology, where an SMS can be read aloud after pressing two taps.

The triband Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition (GSM 900/1800/1900) is now available in select shops around Europe. The expected retail price before taxes and subsidies is approximately 350 EUR (Rs 20,300).

Asus W5Fe : Dual Screen Notebook

Asus' W5x notebooks have been around for quite some time now. The W5A featured Pentium-M processors while the W5F brought things up to date with the Core Duo processor. Now we're seeing yet another transformation for Asus' 12.1" notebook model lineup. The new W5Fe incorporates a second display on its LCD lid as a part of Intel's original "Newport" initiative. The system which is now featured in Windows Vista as "Windows Sideshow" was developed by PortalPlayer. According to PortalPlayer's website, you can do the following while your laptop is turned off or in hibernation mode:Relevant information at your fingertips.Intelligent organization with access to calendars, e-mails, addresses, travel itineraries, movie show times, alerts and more.The ability to play games, enjoy music, and share pictures.
Longer battery life for improved productivity.A way to personalize your notebook, making it uniquely yours.
More importantly, PortalPlayer claims that "It can run for hundreds of hours without draining your notebook battery." It sounds like promising technology indeed, but the costs to implement this technology in notebooks can't be cheap.

Samsung's Card Sized Phone

At an event in Delhi today, Samsung Telecommunications India announced the launch of its SGH-P310, a credit card sized phone.

According to Samsung, the SGH-P310 illustrates the company's sensitivity to the needs of the country's fashion-conscious consumers for mobile phones with stylish exteriors, cutting-edge features, and longer battery life.

The SGH-P310, which is a mere 8.5mm thin, with an elegant chrome and black exterior, resembles a sleek and smart credit card, and is intended to attract fashion-conscious business professionals.

Talking about the phone, Ryu, managing director, Samsung Telecommunications India, said, "The launch of SGH-P310 reinforces our commitment to deliver cutting-edge technologies, superiorly designed mobiles with extended battery life to the Indian business and working professionals. P310 is loaded with the latest multimedia features, with a unique iconic design. Its mini-compact size with essential multimedia features meets Samsung's highest standards of quality."

The SGH-P310 features a 1.9-inch 262K QVGA color screen, touch sensor soft key, 2-megapixels camera, Quadband, Bluetooth wireless support, email, Direct TV Out, Privacy Lock, Pictbridge, and mobile printing. Besides, it has 80 MB of internal memory, and a slot for external memory that offers wider space to store business presentations, video footage, or MP3 songs. An embedded software, Piscel Viewer, allows access to business critical information in a seamless, graphically rich format.

Supporting all popular office formats like MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, HTML, and Standard Image formats, the SGH-P310 displays downloads exactly as they appear on the desktop PC to view, manipulate, and send. The handy Privacy Lock feature permits discretion and confidentiality of all and any of the data stored in the phone.

The other function, "Direct TV Out," enables recorded video films, images, office documents, and video games to be played on the television screen or through a data projector. The feature can also be used to play MP3 melodies on hi-fi audio systems.

The handset will be available to customers for Rs 21,499 only.

Archos 504 PMP reviewed

After checking out Archos' 404 and 604 portable media players, CNET's now finally rounded out the PMP line up with a look at the last of the lot, the 504. As with the other two, the 504 left 'em mighty impressed, with a great 4.3-inch screen, loads of storage (your choice of 40, 80, or 160GB), a wide range of accessory options, decent battery life (with a removable battery), and a sleek, easy-to-use interface. On the downside, that big screen and massive storage means the unit is quite bulky, and you'll also need to load up on those optional accessories if you want to take full advantage of this device -- namely, the extra kit needed to record audio and video. Going all out for the 160GB model will also cost you quite a premium, with a list price of $600, compared to just $350 for the 40GB and $400 for the 80GB. But still, it's a hundred and sixty freaking gigabytes -- in a PMP.

Read the review

D-Link Announces Wi-Fi GSM Phone

D-Link enters the mobile phone market with the announcement of the V-CLICK dual-mode phones that allow users to switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks with the click of a button.

The new D-Link V-CLICK line of phones will feature tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) and 802.11 Wi-Fi access. It’s important to note that most GSM phones sold in North America have the 850 band, which is crucial to indoor reception. Its lack of the 850 band may be partially mitigated by its Wi-Fi connection that allows users to take advantage of VOIP.

The D-Link V-CLICK phones will initially not be locked to any particular network, allowing users to use their existing SIMs from traditional GSM cellular service providers anywhere in the world. By pressing the V-CLICK button, users activate a configurable wireless and SIP profile. Multiple profiles are available that make usage between home and office automatic.

Key features of the D-Link V-CLICK phone include:

• Wi-Fi profile roaming for uninterrupted service between wireless zones
• Opera Mobile browser for hot spot log-in and Web surfing
• Email functionality - 50 emails can be stored in up to 10 accounts
• Large color screen display with 176 by 220 pixels
• Sleek, compact form factor (height, 4.17", width, 1.73", depth, .75"; weight, 3.32 oz)
• Smart text input
• Talk time - up to 5 hours GSM, 2 hours 802.11 wireless mode
• Messages - up to 30 messages can be stored at 459 characters each
• Phonebook - up to 300 contacts
• Data storage - up to 24 megabytes for documents, images, music and video files.
• Tasks - stores up to 100 entries
• Calendar - up to 100 events, 160 letters per event
• Charging - 3 hours, first time charge 8 hours
• Compact design with internal antenna
• Power-saving mode for maximum standby and talk time

The V-CLICK is expected to ship during the first quarter of 2007 at a MSRP of $599.99.

Asus W2J 17" Digital Media Core Duo Notebook Reviewed!!

PC Perspective has reviewed the latest Asus W2J 17 inch Digital Media Core Duo Notebook.From the specs and the accessories, it’s the pinnacle of laptop functionality.It has Intel® Core™ Duo Processor,ATI Mobility™ Radeon™ X1600,SATA 80/100/120 GB,17" WXGA+/WSXGA+ TFT, 1280x800 LCD,Mobile Intel® 945PM Express Chipset etc.
Read the review

Inno 3D Geforce 7900 GS reviewed

Earlier this month, NVidia launched their GeForce 7900 GS card packed with a high end punch at an affordable price. A card that is rumored to pack all the punch of a GeForce 7800 GTX for $199 is something we all understand. This 7900 GS card is based closely to the NVidia reference design. Sporting 20 pixel pipelines, seven vertex shaders and a GPU/Memory clock of 450MHz and 1320MHz respectively, the 7900 GS offers a lot of pop for the dollar.

Read the review

Windows Vista RC 2

Microsoft this Friday will ship the final pre-release version of Windows Vista and, unexpectedly, will name the release as Release Candidate 2 (RC2). Previously, Microsoft had publicly asserted that it would not ship an RC2 milestone release of Windows Vista. But don't let the name fool you: RC2 is really just a standard interim build of Vista and will not be given out to millions of users as was RC1.

The RC2 build is 5743, and Microsoft is currently testing it internally. As with the previous interim build, 5728, RC2 will be given out to beta testers, MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and a random, limited selection of Consumer Preview Program (CPP) members.

While Microsoft wouldn't confirm the specifics of the release, the company did corroborate that it was planning an upcoming interim Vista build. "As we have previously discussed, Microsoft does plan to deliver one more interim build of Windows Vista before releasing the final product," a Microsoft spokesperson told me. "The exact name of the build, and the date of its release, have not been announced."

This is the last build Microsoft will be making available to the public prior to RTM, or "release to manufacturing." That date--which was previously referred to as "on or before October 25"--has been adjusted slightly. Now, the Vista "launch window" begins October 18, when Microsoft will begin testing the final planned build for RTM. But Microsoft doesn't expect to finalize the product until sometime between October 25 and November 8.

Internal documentation notes that each daily delay after October 25 comes at a price, however: For each day past October 25, Microsoft will start to lose languages for the January launch. However, the company is prepared to do that to ensure that Vista's quality is high.

That documentation also notes that there are over 1400 open bugs in Vista at this time. Microsoft's internal processes require this bug count to drop to 500 or fewer before they will attempt to go into escrow for RTM. By comparison, there were over 2479 bugs on September 22.

In related news, Microsoft will be changing the Product Keys it uses for Vista once the product hits the RTM escrow phase. Because of this change, users will not be able to use prerelease Vista Product Keys to install the RTM version. My understanding is that this change won't affect the RC2 release.

[Via Windowsitpro]

Zune to start selling from Nov. 14

The official pricing and release date for Microsoft's 30-gigabyte digital media player Zune are out.

Zune is to start selling from November 14 this year, and will carry a price tag of $249 (Rs 11,454), which is cheaper than what was projected unofficially.

Meanwhile, this is an indication that Microsoft does not want to rival Apple Computer's iPod 30GB with a larger amount of features at a higher price, but prefers to do so by offering more features at the same price point.

Microsoft's Zune, which will be available in three colors - with a duotone approach on each, will come pre-loaded with some content, including songs, music videos, and film shorts on its hard drive.



Zune will feature a 3-inch color display, and will include built-in wireless technology that allows users to swap files from one Zune to another, as also an FM radio tuner. Incidentally, these features are not available as built-in options on Apple's iPod. Zune s display will also be slightly larger than the iPod s 2 1/2-inch video screen.

Also beginning November 14, Zune accessories will be on the market. The accessories include: the Zune Home A/V Pack and Zune Travel Pack for $99.99 (Rs 4,554) each; the Zune FM Transmitter for $69.99 (Rs 3,174); Premium Earphones for $39.99 (Rs 1,794); Dock for $39.99 (Rs 1,794); Remote for $29.99 (Rs 1,334); Car Pack for $79.99 (Rs 3,634); and various interface cables between $19.99 and $29.999(Rs 874 and Rs 1,334).

Besides, Microsoft intends to launch the Zune Marketplace service that will allow users purchase media files individually, or through a monthly subscription.

Six New Music Phones from Nokia

Amidst live performances by popular artists and DJs at the Nokia Theatre in New York's Times Square, Nokia launched its XpressMusic range of music phones that marry the best of mobile communication to the best of mobile music. The new series comprises: the 5300 XpressMusic, the 5200 XpressMusic, and the 3250 XpressMusic phones.

This - being the latest addition to yesterday, when Nokia unveiled music editions of three of its Nseries multimedia computers; namely the N70 Music Edition, the N73 Music Edition, and the N91 8GB phone.

The flagship model of the XpressMusic series, the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic, sports a stylish slide design, and holds up to 100 music albums that is roughly about 1,500 tracks on a 2GB microSD card. The phone enables controlling music playback whilst texting, browsing, or taking pictures, thanks to the dedicated music keys.
Using an inbox adaptor, headphones or external speakers can be easily plugged-in to the phone. Whereas, using a standard micro USB connector, the phone can quickly transfer music to a PC. With the Nokia Wireless Audio Gateway AD-42W, consumers can stream music wirelessly from their phone onto any stereo.

The 5300 XpressMusic features a 1.3 mega pixels camera, the latest messaging functions, and video ring tones for incoming calls.

The Nokia 5300 XpressMusic is expected to retail for approximately 250 EUR (Rs 14,500) before taxes and subsidies.

Out of the two other phones in the XpressMusic range, the Nokia 5200 XpressMusic is similar in design to the 5300, and features a mix of music and messaging functions.
The 5200 XpressMusic is expected to ship for around 200 EUR (Rs 14,500) before taxes and subsidies.
The Nokia 3250 XpressMusic retains the unique "twist" design, and stores up to 1500 tracks on a 2G microSD card.

This phone will be available for a retail price of about 400 EUR (Rs 23,200) before taxes and subsidies.

Speaking at the launch, Heikki Norta, senior vice president - mobile phones, Nokia, said, "With today's launches, we are reaching out to a broad range of consumers, who want both the features of a modern mobile phone and a quality music player in a single, stylish device."

"The Nokia 5300 XpressMusic, in particular, offers a comprehensive feature set, including support for up to 2 GB of memory and dedicated music keys at an accessible price. Never before has it been as easy or affordable for consumers to own a mobile phone that also offers a first-rate music experience that compares favorably to any stand-alone music player," Norta said.

All three XpressMusic phones are scheduled to ship within a few weeks.