All new Nokia N96

The N96 is pretty similar to the Symbian 60-powered N95 we’ve all come to recognize as Nokia’s 5MP GPS finest, but with 16GB of internal memory and a 2.8-inch screen. Check out full specifications of Nokia N96 after the jump .

 

Supported networks

• UMTS networks (WCDMA 2100/850; HSDPA)
• Quad-band operation in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks (EDGE)
• Automatic frequency band and mode switching
• DVB-H, class C, 470-750 MHz

Dimensions

• Volume: 92 cm 3
• Weight: 125 g
• Length: 103 mm
• Width: 55 mm
• Depth: 18 mm (places to 20 mm)

Memory

• 16 GB of internal flash memory, memory expansion via hot-swappable microSD memory cards
• Approximate storage capacity is 16 GB disk space:
• – Video: 40 hours
• – Music: 12,000 songs
• 128 Mbytes of RAM, 256 Mbytes of system memory (operating system plus dynamic memory for user data)

Operating Hours

• Battery: Nokia Battery BL-5F, 950 mAh
• Talk time: GSM: up to 220 min; UMTS: Up to 150 min
• Stand-by Time: GSM: Up to 220 hours; UMTS up to 200 hours
• Video playback: Up to 5 hours (in offline mode)
• Music playback: Up to 14 hours (in offline mode)
• TV Play: Up to 4 hours (DVB-H)

Display and user interface

• QVGA TFT display with a 6.1 inch diagonal display (2.8 inches) and 16.7 million colours at a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels
• User interface: S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2
• Active standby mode, multimedia menu

Data transfer

• In UMTS networks (WCDMA 2100/850) are both voice and data connections possible (packet switched connections to max. 3.6 Mbit / s (download) or 384 kbps (upload), circuit connections to max. 64 Kbps -
• Dual Transfer Mode (DTM) for the simultaneous use of voice and packet data connections in GSM / EDGE networks. Class A, multi-slot Class 11, max. Data transmission speed to Herunter-/Hochladen: 177.6 / 118.4 kbps
• EGPRS Class B, multi-slot Class 32, max. Data transmission speed to Herunter-/Hochladen: 296/177, 6 kbps
• GPRS Class B, multi-slot Class 32, max. Data transmission speed to Herunter-/Hochladen: 107/64, 2 kbit / s

Video Center

• Video Center: Central application for video experiences
• Access to the recent play videos and simple continuation of play
• My Videos: collection of videos stored in the device
• Access to Internet video, compatible with news feeds and video podcasts, updates and downloads directly over the cellular network
• Catalog for new Internet video

Video codecs and formats

• MPEG-4 Part 2 (H.263/SP), up to VGA at 30 frames / s codec with hardware acceleration, max. QVGA on the screen of the device, max. SDTV on TV Output
• MPEG-4 Part 10 (H.264/SP), up to VGA at 30 frames / s codec with hardware acceleration, max. QVGA on the screen of the device, max. SDTV on TV Output
• Windows Media Video (WMV9), up to CIF / QVGA at 30 frames / s codec with hardware acceleration, max. QVGA on the screen of the device, max. SDTV on TV Output
• Real Video (QCIF) with 30 frames / s
• Support for Flash movies in Internet Browser
• Digital rights management: OMA DRM 1, OMA DRM 2, WM DRM (Windows Media DRM)

Live TV

• DVB-H-based mobile TV with integrated antenna
• DVB-H, class C, 470-750 MHz
• Access to videos on the browser
• Downloading, streaming and playback during download
• Support for Flash movies

Music

• Digital music player – support for MP3, AAC, eAAC +, WMA and album cover
• Editing and sharing playlists
• Equalizer and visualization of sounds
• Online search and purchase music tracks in Nokia Music Store – with support for WM DRM-protected files (Windows Media DRM)

Radio

• FM stereo radio (87,5-108 MHz) with support for RDS; possibility for the use of the VHF radios in offline mode
• Nokia Internet Radio

Main Camera

• Up to 5 megapixels (2,592 x 1,944 pixels)
• Optics by Carl Zeiss
• Autofocus, automatic exposure control
• Aperture: F2.8
• Focal Length: 5.2 mm
• Focus range: 10 cm to infinity
• Two flashlights (LED), video light, lighting-support autofocus and recording progress indicator

Second Camera

• VGA (640 x 480 pixels)

Video recording function

• Video recording in MPEG-4 format, with up to VGA 30 frames / s
• Digital video stabilization
• Video clip length: Depends on available space
• Video File Format: MP4 (standard), 3GPP (for MMS messages)
• Program settings for automatic, a video light, white balance and color mood

Photography

• Photo Resolution: Up to 5 megapixels (2,592 x 1,944 pixels)
• Format for photographs: JPEG / EXIF
• Details on the recording location: Automatic recording of information on location in the image file
• Program settings for automatic, flash, serial shots, self-timer, color humor, white balance, contrast, exposure correction, help

Discover

• Digital maps and navigation
• Integrated GPS module with support for A-GPS (Assisted GPS)
• Nokia Maps application
• Free downloadable maps for more than 150 countries, millions of locations, location details and satellite images **
• To purchase upgrades available multimedia travel guides and navigation services for the car navigation Sprachgestützte
• For pedestrians: Special optimized for pedestrian navigation with Directions

E-mail and Messaging

• Easy-to-use e-mail client with support for attachments (photos, videos, music files, and text documents)
• Support for e-mail protocols SMTP, IMAP4 and POP3, as well as for MMS and SMS messages Common SMS-/MMS-Editor
• Compatible with Nokia Wireless Keyboard SU-8W (optional)

Mobile Internet Access

• Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map function, visual history display, support for HTML and JavaScript, Flash Lite 3.0, and for Flash videos
• Support for news feeds (RSS)

Connection options

• WLAN (IEEE802.11 g / b) with support for UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
• USB 2.0 micro-USB port (Type B)
• 3.5-mm jack for connecting a standard headphone and TV output for connecting a TV for playback of photos and videos (PAL / NTSC)
• Bluetooth 2.0 with support for stereo audio transmission (Bluetooth profile “Advanced Audio Distribution (A2DP), and EDR (Enhanced Data Rates)
• Use of Nokia PC Suite for Nseries devices (PC software), in conjunction with Bluetooth wireless connections or cable connections to the USB port compatible PCs

Standard package

• Nokia N96
• Nokia battery BL-5F
• Nokia data cable CA-101
• Nokia video output cable, CA-75U
• Nokia Stereo Headset-HS-45, with remote AD-54
• Nokia cigarette lighter charger cable DC-4
• Nokia compact AC-5E

 

Women’s attractiveness judged by software

According to Haaretz, an Israeli team of computer scientists has developed a software that ranks facial attractiveness of women. Instead of identifying basic facial characteristics, this software has been designed to make aesthetic judgments — after training. The lead researcher said this program ‘constitutes a substantial advance in the development of artificial intelligence.’ It is interesting to note that the researchers focused on women only. Apparently, men’ faces are more difficult to grade. But read more…

The picture on the left shows how the system is initially calibrated: “Facial coordinates with hair and skin sample regions as represented by the facial feature extractor. Coordinates are used for calculating geometric features and asymmetry. Sample regions are used for extracting color values and smoothness.” (Credit: Amit Kagian, Tel Aviv University, Israel).

This software has been developed by Amit Kagian, a Tel Aviv University (TAU) student, for his master’s thesis in computer science. He has been supervised by Gideon Dror, an associate professor in computer science at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo and Eytan Ruppin, a TAU professor who manages the Complex Network Systems Lab.

Here are some details about how the software was tested. “In the first stage, 30 human participants were asked to rate from 1-7 the beauty of several dozen pictures. Participants did not say why they ranked certain faces as more beautiful than others. The pictures were then processed and mathematically mapped. ‘We came up with 98 numbers that represent the geometric shape of the face, as well as characteristics like hair color, smoothness of skin and facial symmetry,’ Kagian explains. Participants’ rankings of the pictures were also input in the computer.”

But what was the second stage? “‘We input new pictures of faces into the computer and it graded them based on the information it had.’ Human subjects were then asked to rank the new pictures too. ‘The computer produced impressive results: the rankings were very similar to the rankings people gave.’ According to Kagian, the key achievement is that the computer operated according to certain perceptions of beauty that were not input into it, but learned by processing the data it received.”

For more information, the researchers published their latest results in Vision Research, an Elsevier journal, under the name “A machine learning predictor of facial attractiveness revealing human-like psychophysical biases” (Volume 48, Issue 2, January 2008, Pages 235-243).

Here is a link to the abstract. “Recent psychological studies have strongly suggested that humans share common visual preferences for facial attractiveness. Here, we present a learning model that automatically extracts measurements of facial features from raw images and obtains human-level performance in predicting facial attractiveness ratings. The machine’s ratings are highly correlated with mean human ratings, markedly improving on recent machine learning studies of this task. Simulated psychophysical experiments with virtually manipulated images reveal preferences in the machine’s judgments that are remarkably similar to those of humans.” And here is a link to the full paper (PDF format, 10 pages, 625 KB).

And here is a paragraph excerpted from the conclusions. “Our analysis has revealed that symmetry is strongly related to the attractiveness of averaged faces, but is definitely not the only factor in the equation since about half of the image-features relate to the ratings of averaged composites in a similar manner as the symmetry measure. This suggests that a general movement of features toward attractiveness, rather than a simple increase in symmetry, is responsible for the attractiveness of averaged faces.”

The same researchers presented their previous results at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) conference held in Vancouver, Canada, on December 4-9, 2006. Here is a link to
this presentation called “A Humanlike Predictor of Facial Attractiveness” (PDF format, 8 pages, 78 KB). Here is the first paragraph. “This work presents a method for estimating human facial attractiveness, based on supervised learning techniques. Numerous facial features that describe facial geometry, color and texture, combined with an average human attractiveness score for each facial image, are used to train various predictors. Facial attractiveness ratings produced by the final predictor are found to be highly correlated with human ratings, markedly improving previous machine learning achievements. Simulated psychophysical experiments with virtually manipulated images reveal preferences in the machine’s judgments which are remarkably similar to those of humans.”

As you can see, there some shared words between these two works. The figure above is featured in both papers.

Finally, why did the researchers limit themselves to women? Haaretz says men’s faces are more difficult to rank.

Sources: Ofri Ilani, Haaretz, Israel, March 21, 2008; and various websites

You’ll find related stories by following the links below.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Computers
• Innovation
• Psychology
• Software
• Vision and Visualization

Roland Piquepaille lives in Paris, France, and he spent most of his career in software, mainly for high performance computing and visualization companies. For disclosures on Roland’s industry affiliations, click here.

Why married couples do not have sex

Extreme Funny

Dear Wife,
During the past year I have tried to make love to you 365 times. I have succeeded 36 times, which is an average of once every ten days. The following is a list of why I did not succeed more often:
* 54 times the sheets were just cleaned
* 17 times it was too late
* 49 times you were too tired
* 20 times it was too hot
* 15 times you pretended to be sleep
* 22 times you had a headache
* 17 times you were afraid of waking the baby
* 16 times you said you were too sore
* 12 times it was the wrong time of the month
* 19 times you had to get up early
* 9 times you said weren’t in the mood
* 7 times you were sunburned
* 6 times you were watching the late show
* 5 times you didn’t want to mess up your new hairdo
* 3 times you said the neighbors would hear us
* 9 times you said your mother would hear us
Of the 36 times I did succeed, the activity was not satisfactory because:
* 6 times you just laid there
* 8 times you reminded me there’s a crack in the ceiling
* 4 times you told me to hurry up and get it over with
* 7 times I had to wake you and tell you I finished
* 1 time I was afraid I had hurt you because I felt you move
================================

Check out what Wife replied !

Dear Husband,
I think you have things a little confused. Here are the reasons you didn’t get more than you did:
* 5 times you came home drunk and tried to screw the cat
* 36 times you did not come home at all
* 21 times you didn’t come with energy
* 33 times you came too soon
* 19 times you went soft before you got in
* 38 times you worked too late
* 10 times you got cramps in your toes
* 29 times you had to get up early to play golf
* 2 times you were in a fight and someone kicked you in the balls
* 4 times you got it stuck in your zipper
* 3 times you had a cold and your nose was running
* 2 times you had a splinter in your finger
* 20 times you lost the motion after thinking about it all day
* 6 times you came in your pajamas while reading a dirty book
* 98 times you were too busy watching TV
Of the times we did get together:
* The reason I laid still was because you missed and were screwing the sheets.
* I wasn’t talking about the crack in the ceiling, what I said was, “Would you prefer me on my back or kneeling?”
* The time you felt me move was because you farted and I was trying to breathe.