Showing us that Nokia is not a total dud at CES, Engadget is reporting news of one more variant (a whopping 5 different models now, N95-1,2,3,5 and this, I assume N95-6 unless it's placed in the reserved -4 slot...?) of Nokia's powerhouse Nseries device, this time an N95 8GB variant for North America. The new version of the N95 8GB will be identical in form to the previous Euro-spec N95 8GB, though it will of couse have AT&T WCDMA frequencies. The new variant is reported to retail for $749, and my friend Mark Guim from TheNokiaBlog.com has told me that he plans to have the rock-bottom lowest price on the device as soon as it drops. Keep an eye out over there, and I'm sure we'll let you know here when he's ready to ship them out.

Engadget has also spotted a red N95 that will available this quarter for $599, which they assume to mean a price drop for the current N95. Engadget has the pictures .

So hopefully the weak showing by Nokia at CES thus far means we'll be seeing a good show at the Mobile World Congress next month. Still- I thought Nokia was supposed to be attacking North America full force by now...?

I do wonder what firmware will be available on this NAM 8gigger. Will we be seeing the full-on youtube and WRT update the Euro-spec recently saw?  Does this mean we can be seeing attention taken away from or focused on the North American N95-3 sitting infront of me just begging for a proper update with Demand Paging and everything else that makes it the lesser N95? To the N95-3 users out there- have you any interest in this model? Will you be getting one? Would you have held out on the N95-3 if you knew this was just around the corner?

The rumor mill is in full-force this weekend as Zach at The Boy Genius Report is clarifying earlier news that the Nokia Nseries team is working on bringing us a QWERTY device. Some confusion arose when spypics of an Exx Eseries device surfaced this morning, shortly after Zach gave us first word of an Nseries QWERTY in the works.  In the updated story , word is that that the new  device will feature a candy bar form factor, Feature Pack 2, a 5 or 6 Mpix cam as well as other goodies we've become accustomed to with the latest Nseries devices such as 30 fps video recording and GPS.  The big shocker came as he reported that this device will not only come in a NAM variant- it may be exclusively a North American device, or at least released simultaneously with a Euro-spec model. That's terrific news for this continent for once at the launch of a powerful Nseries device. This could be the beginning of a vicious attack on North America by Nokia who seems to be gearing up to grab a massive amount of market share for the first time in several years. Also worth noting is that we'll not be seeing this device until the second half of 2008- which might as well be a zillion years off as far as this year is shaping up. Nokia has already been reported to be preparing the release of 30 device within the next 6 months. Hopefully we'll be seeing official announcements instead of more rumors- but those are fun too sometimes.

Image and Source: BGR

In case you’ve somehow missed it everywhere else yesterday, there’s more fantastic news for N95 owners- well, at least for the ones without US North American 3G frequencies… yet again. The 8GB variant has seen another tremendous update to v15.0.015, this time including full-on YouTube and other similar flash embedded content in the native browser. The Web Run Time is also bundled in this update, enabling the new widget platform from Nokia. Further speed boosts have also been cited.

Steve Litchfield was apparently first to grab the story early yesterday morning, and has a good deal of information for any N95 8GB users interested in hearing more- you’ll definitely want to hop over to All About Symbian for a load of images and a decent bit of discussion on the update if you haven't come across it yet.

Fantastic news right? Not exactly... click through and read why I'm not entirely thrilled with the news, and why I might have been screaming at my monitor in lieu of a representative from the Nokia firmware team yesterday.

We’ve just added a new section to the forums at n95users.com, our sister site obviously dedicated to the Nokia N95. So much discussion has come up regarding the recently ‘discovered’ accelerometer that we’ve added a separate category for the feature. With over 20 threads and about 1400 postings, there’s quite a lot of info to dig through over there already about every application out there that takes advantage of the sensor from the practical Pypoziomica v1.0 level and the myriad applications of recent coding hero Samir to the highly impractical and super geeky Lightsaber  and wicked cool ShakerRacer that allows you,  an RC car and your N95 to raise hell with the most intuitive control ever. Pop in and join the discussion, or just read about the silly and practical that is the library of applications available for  the N95’s accelerometer sensor.