Some of those sweet-sounding bug fixes neatly tucked away in the last firmware update for Europe's N78 have finally trickled down to the second-class citizens left of the pond -- a bit late, yes, but if it's any consolation, users will still be able to take advantage of Nokia's slick over-the-air interface to grab the goods. Perhaps the most important change in this build is improvement of the sensitivity of the right soft key, a pretty big problem out of the gate that plagued our test unit. Speaking of sensitivity, the Navi wheel's has apparently improved as well, as has the music player's ability to remember where you left off in podcasts. Thanks for not forgetting your loyal North American customers, Nokia, but seriously, could we try to keep the love just a little more in sync?

[Via Symbian-Guru]

If you've been desperately seeking some Snakes Subsonic gaming partners on that N82 of yours, your pool of potential playmates just got a little (emphasis on "little") wider. The N78, N96, and XpressMusic 5320 have now been added into the N-Gage client compatibility mix -- though of the three, the N78 is the only one that's really widely available at this point. The 5320's just now starting to trickle into distribution around the world, and if you happen to end up playing System Rush with an N96 owner in the next few weeks... well, you're playing with a very special individual, indeed.

[Via All About Symbian]

One good update deserves another, apparently, because the European version of the Nokia N78 has just received its second firmware update in just a small handful of weeks. Version 12.046 concentrates the improvements on "softkey selection, Bluetooth stability, video playback, email sending and alarm clock functions," so it seems like a reasonably important update in which to partake -- particularly if it sorts out the blasted right softkey, which has a tendency to get confused with the end key at an alarming frequency. Once again, owners of the North America-friendly N78-3 get left out in the cold, leaving us to ask: what the hell, Nokia?

Nokia pushing out a user-installable firmware update to one of its S60 handsets is certainly nothing new -- and unfortunately, pushing out said update to the European model before the North American model is nothing new, either -- but what is new is how this particular update is being distributed. The company is finally taking advantage of S60's over-the-air update capability, allowing users to nab the 2MB binary for the European variant of the N78 right over a WiFi or 3G connection (GPRS / EDGE too, we imagine, but that'd be pretty painful). Version 11.043 is said to imbue handsets with "improved stability with Bluetooth (headsets and car kits) and music (playback over a long time and content refresh)" alongside "optimized Camera performance and Naviscroll sensitivity improvements," so we'd say it's pretty much a no-brainer to grab -- particularly since it doesn't mean sitting down in front of the PC with a USB cable and an iron will.

You've piddled around in our unboxing shots and replayed that hands-on video countless times. Now, the time has finally come to bust open the piggy bank and secure your very own Nokia N78. Dramatics aside, the HSDPA-packin' handset that also musters a 3.2-megapixel camera and A-GPS can now be purchased at Nokia flagship stores in Chicago and New York, numerous online retailers and the occasional mom 'n pop shop for around $560. So, who's getting one?

We unboxed this little N-series wonder yesterday, but if you've still got a hankering for more N78, there's a video after the break that should uncover all its magical wares. Or maybe it just shows us messing around with the phone for a few minutes with no real purpose or direction. One of those.

We just got our hands on Nokia's sexy new N78, which it's bringing to us previously Nokia-starved North Americans in full-fledged, unlocked 3.5G. The phone boasts Nokia's new maps 2.0 app, along with photo geotagging, and of course all those N-series trimmings like WiFi and dual cameras. There's no N-Gage support yet, but a firmware update is forthcoming. Unfortunately for us, we had trouble getting geotagging or even online photo uploads in general to work at all -- we didn't stoop so low as to look at the manual, but Nokia certainly has some interface kinks to work out here. Maps 2.0 is all it's cracked up to be, and the phone tracked our walk down the block with accuracy bordering on creepiness. The keypad is a bit of a departure for Nokia, with ridges instead of full keys, but it didn't take us long to get comfortable with. We're less impressed with the touch sensitive "Navi wheel" on the d-pad, given Nokia's sporadic software support and its generally janky nature. The overall build of the device is classic Nokia, light but not too light, certainly not too thin but quite comfortable to use and pocket. We had no problem reading the screen in direct sunlight, and it's bright indoors as well. Though we can't recommend this unit without reservation, it's certainly one of the hottest phones for its form factor going, and once Nokia spruces up the new software a bit -- S60 3.2's new transitions are nice but aren't quite enough to make up for the shortcomings -- our gripes will be pretty much non-existent.

One of the biggest concerns about the Nokia N78 as soon as folks laid eyes on the press shots was the funny looking numeric keypad -- a fair concern, considering that the keypad's probably the single most used item on the phone. We still haven't spent enough time with an N78 to put those concerns to rest ourselves, but PhoneReport seemingly has, and they offer this lukewarm reassurance: "it isn't as bad as it looks." We'll still reserve judgment until we've pounded out a few digits on our own time, but if nothing else, it looks like the hidden, illuminated button legends are every bit as cool as they should be. The site was also delighted with all the splendors that S60 3rd Edition FP2 has to offer, marveling at the visual transitions and improved messaging client. They managed to score an N96, too, but it seemed like the software build was a bit too buggy to draw any conclusions beyond what mobile-review already had; we wouldn't freak out there just yet, considering that the N78 is expected to launch well ahead of it.

[Via All About Symbian]

We meandered through Nokia's booth at CTIA Wireless last week in search of interesting wares, and came back with pretty positive results. Granted, nothing starting with "N" or "E" was announced at the show -- unless you count the N810 WiMAX Edition, which we don't -- but there was still plenty of unreleased kit at the show, including the N78, the 6210 Navigator, and a pair of really sleek CDMA flips. Speaking of the CDMA flips, the 1606 and 3606 headlined Nokia's CTIA intros -- and we've gotta admit, we were surprisingly pleased with the hardware. The designs are beautiful, smooth, clean, slim, and unlike anything we've seen out of Espoo in the past; they're worthy efforts for a company that pays very little mind to the world of CDMA, and a merciful sign that the painful Pantech partnership era appears to be over. Check out the gallery for the full pictorial!

Finally, we can all collectively get a good night's sleep. There were some brief moments of discomfort at Engadget HQ last week when we discovered a completely 3G-less version of the Nokia N78 in the FCC's labs; we'd heard after the fact that it was destined for China, but there's still a little bit of that queasy, sick-to-your-stomach feeling until you see the true North American 3G version we were promised at MWC with your own two eyes (come on, don't even front like you haven't felt that before). Well, here ya go -- the SAR report for the RM-342 (an internal model number, of course) verifies that HSDPA is present on both the 850 and 1900MHz bands this time around, so we can get back to our daily lives and routines in peace until it finally launches later this year. Carry on.

The European flavor of Nokia's N78 -- the one bearing the very un-American 900 and 2100MHz WCDMA radios -- just hit the wire, and while there's nothing much going on here that we didn't already know from Nokia's reveal at MWC, we did notice a sentence in the SAR report that has us just a little concerned. And we quote: "The difference between RM-236 and RM-235 is that RM-236 has had WCDMA900, WCDMA2100 and WLAN2450 components removed." In other words, Nokia appears to be making reference to a version of the N78 that has no American 3G (no 3G whatsoever, in fact) and no WiFi, and that's a version we want nothing to do with. What gives, Nokia?

Update: As several folks have stated, this particular N78 is destined for the Chinese market, where HSDPA doesn't really, how should we put this... apply. The N78 with North American 3G is still very much a go. Thanks, everyone!

The revamped Nseries lineup is coming fast and furious since the launch of the N81 and N82 late last year, and the latest candybar to get the updated industrial design is the N78, a midrange handset (by Nseries standards, anyway) with an integrated FM transmitter setting it apart from the crowd. Another notable feature is its picture geotagging capability, made possible by the 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera paired with integrated AGPS. Other than that, it's pretty much your average S60 Third Edition Feature Pack 2 piece with Bluetooth and WiFi, though it's the very first Nseries model to be announced in both European and North American 3G versions simultaneously -- and if that's not progress, we don't know what is. Look for it to start stocking shelves next quarter for €350 (about $507).