Nokia N77 TV phone, YouTube deal official
updated 09:50 am EST, Mon February 12, 2007
Nokia N77 Official
Nokia on Monday made an aggressive showing at 3GSM by releasing a large mix of media and business phones. One of the most significant of these is the N77: previously confirmed in a last-minute rumor, the handset marks the Finnish company's initial phone with specific support for mobile TV. An integral DVB-H tuner lets it receive digital broadcasts across Europe and in parts of Asia; a memory buffer also permits a small amount of timeshifting with the option of pausing and replaying live shows. As is increasingly common, the phone adds a 2-megapixel camera and has extensive support for multiple AAC standards, MP3, and WMA tracks.
The N77 is currently slated to go on sale in regions that support DVB-H video as of this Spring for a stand-alone price of $481. WCDMA and tri-band GSM radios will generally limit the device to Europe and Asia. Click through for a photo as well as details of the company's YouTube deal.
Accompanying its TV-oriented phone launch, Nokia has also revealed the Nokia Video Center, a central repository for movie clips of which YouTube plays a large part. Owners of any N-series Nokia phone will have quicker access to YouTube Mobile, a customized version of the video site's homepage that allows both playback and uploading of clips directly from the phone itself, using the more portable and MPEG-4 AVC format instead of the more demanding Flash plugin found on PCs. RSS feeds of popular videos will also be readily accessible.
The Video Center will first be preloaded on the imminent Nokia N95, but will be available as a download for other N-series phones. The service should work anywhere phone buyers have access to the N-series as well as higher-speed mobile Internet access.
