You've probably already guessed by the "number creep" on the model name of this particular handset that the Nokia N95 squeezes in more features than ever before, and you'd be right.

The Nokia N95 is a feature packed device, with a large 2.6" 240×320 pixel display, 5 megapixel camera, HSDPA, WiFi/WLAN, UMTS and GPS-based satellite navigation. There's a FM radio too.

This is wrapped up in an unusual two-way slider design. Move the screen up, and you'll get the keypad in the usual slider phone fashion. Move the Nokia N95's screen down and you'll get multimedia control keys, designed to be used with the phone in landscape (wide) mode. The web browser can be used in landscape mode to, taking advantage of the N95's 320 pixel wide display.

Internal memory is an impressive 160Mb, and this can be expanded with hot swappable microSD cards. Of course, it's an MP3 player, but you'll also need plenty of space to store pictures taken with the 5 megapixel camera and video clips.

Talking of video clips, the N95 can record DVD quality video at 640×480 pixels @ 30fps. The camera is another one with Carl Zeiss optics, and it also has autofocus. However the Nokia N95 isn't a direct rival to the Nokia N93 which has optical zoom and what appears to be a better lens.

There's a trade-off in terms of battery life - the Nokia N95 manages 2 hours 40 minutes talktime on 3G, and just 3.5 hours on GSM.  Music playback is up to 7 hours though, but no figures have been given for GPS operation.

What happened to the Nokia N94? And what happens after the Finns make the Nokia N99? In any case, Nokia say that the N95 should be available sometime in the first quarter of 2007, although we wouldn't be surprised if that slipped a little.

The Vodafone 710 is an astonishingly dull 3G phone. As the name suggest, this is strictly a Vodafone-only affair, and other carriers won't exactly have any sleepless nights over this particular phone.

Perhaps we are being cruel - but there's nothing in the technical specification of the Vodafone 710 that is inspiring - it's a 3G phone with a 176×220 pixel display, 1.3 megapixel camera and mini-SD removable memory. There's an MP3 player, Bluetooth, a web browser and email client and the Vodafone 710 comes in at a reasonable 99 grams. It's a fairly smart looking handset, and it looks like it's not going to be expensive either. There's a 64Mb memory card in the box too.

Here's something interesting though. In the Mobile Gazette office we recently downloaded Defcon from Introversion software. It's only €14 a copy and it's a fun game of Global Thermonuclear War, reminiscent of the classic 1980s move WarGames. How is this relevant to the Vodafone 710? It isn't. It's just that Defcon is about 100 times more exciting than this particular handset.

Errr.. actually there is something slightly interesting about the Vodafone 710 which is that it's made by Huawei Mobile of China, and it's the first time we've seen a Huawei handset launched as a mainstream European phone.

It's a big step backwards from the likes of the quite wonderful Sharp 903 and 902 handsets that Vodafone have had exclusive deals on in the past. The Vodafone 710 is simply a cheap device from a third-tier Chinese manufacturer which will probably be perfectly acceptable as a cheap 3G phone, but you have to question Vodafone's commitment to the 3G platform when this is the sort of thing they churn out.

About a year ago, Nokia discovered a trick - add some more memory and accessories into an existing smartphone, stick the words "Music Edition" on the end and change the colour of the phone.. and it's like having a product release all over again. They started with the Nokia 6630 Music Edition which warmed over a past-its-prime phone, and this has continued recently with "Music Editions" of the N70, N73 and N91 handsets - again, the N70 Music Edition giving a leg up to a rather tired old design.

So - this is handset has the rather unwieldy title of "Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition", and as before it's basically a slight upgrade to the Nokia 5500 Sport, with 512Mb of memory bundled in the pack and a carrying strap thing that allows you to strap the Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition to yourself if you're feeling energetic enough.

In fact, the Nokia 5500 Sport didn't really need an upgrade - it's a neat little S60 smartphone with a 2 megapixel camera, a high-density 208×208 pixel display and all the neat features from the original Nokia 5500 Sport. The 5500 is one of our favourite phones from 2006, but this version doesn't really add too much to what is already a very good handset. Still, if you're in the market for buying a Nokia 5500, this version will be worth hunting down.

Nokia say that the 5500 Sport Music Edition is already available in certain outlets for an unsubsidised price of €350.

SMSSend

SMSSend is a software application for sending SMS messages from an internet connected computer. It is a scriptable application, allowing you to write scripts to send SMS from the application to any web based SMS sending site. There are a large number of scripts available, allowing SMS to be sent worldwide. A lot of the scripts are for free SMS sending services.

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