When the next generation of Nokia’s gaming platform was announced, N73 was amongst the devices listed in the “N-gage Support Coming soon” section. Over a year has passed since the launch of N-gage but still N73 is not budging from the position of a “support coming soon” device.
Will N-gage support ever come to the N73? By the looks of it, the answer is NO.
When N-gage was announced, N73 was THE killer phone and was the best selling N-series phone. Perhaps it still is. But the most important factor is the relatively older OS in the device and lack of 3D hardware accelerator, a common feature in the newer N-series siblings. But what bamboozles me is that even N93 still remains in the same mold as the N73, despite having a 3D accelerator. In fact, N93 was announced as a gaming phone! So it seems like the older OS is playing spoilsport. While these two devices are Symbian OS 9.1 phones, the devices that currently do have N-gage support have OS 9.2 or higher.
When one looks at the hardware configuration of N73, things start to look bleaker. The phone has a pretty slow processor and definitely cannot boast of much RAM- even the previous generation N70 had more amount of RAM!
It definitelt seems like the 20 million user base will have to make do with less engaging games (pun intended)
Recently India’s Department of Telecommunications issued a notice to service operators in the country to ban all mobiles that dont have a valid IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity). The bulk of the so called Chinese mobiles, sold for pittance, in the country - around 25 million handsets- fall under this category. The last date within which the telcos have to comply with the government’s order is expected to 31st of March, 2009.
The reason behind such a directive from the government is clear enough. The mobile phones used by the terrorists in the various bomb blasts across the country lacked the IMEI.
But the service providers seem to have made a point to the Government that the people who actually own such equipments can’t afford to upgrade to a costlier. Seems like sound reasoning to, whatever vested motives the service providers may have.
The service providers have come with a solution to this problem that could mean a great loss of revenue to them otherwise. The industry seems to have prepared a software update for such mobiles which, when installed on the devices, would give them with the necessary unique IMEI. The service providers will also start an educational campaign to make sure the software update is done wherever necessary.
Looks like these Chinese mobile will continue to live on for the forseeable future!
Metal Gear Solid mobile was recently released for N-gage, Nokia’s flagship gaming model for its high end mobile phones. Metal Gear Solid is developed jointly by Konami and Ideaworks 3D and the game will feature content exclusive to the N-gage mobile gaming platform.
The game was announced way back in May and only now has it seen the light of day. But it was worth the wait, especially for MGS fans who have played and enjoyed this game in other mediums like the Playstations. I downloaded the trial version available at n-gage.com to test out the game before buying it.
By testing the trial version, one can really feel that much work has been done to get maximum performance out of the mobile device. The graphics are awesome. I must say the N-gage games are beginning to get better than PSP ones. One thing that sets this game apart from many other games is that the game makes use of the device’s camera to match the colors of the game’s environment to those of your real surroundings. Beat that PSP! Having said that though, I think the developers included the feature just to make the game unique from it’s Gameboy, PSP, console and other versions. It seems cool when you first come across it, but the excitement fades off soon.
Am eagerly waiting to lay my hands on the game that’s got to be amongst the best in the portable gaming industry. It’s time you got ready to “infiltrate the enemy” as well.