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Nokia, no, no, no, what are you doing?! Having seen more pictures of its latest smartphone, the Nokia N97, I can say that the company’s usability department needs to be shot! The N97 features a physical QWERTY keyboard (above), which ordinarily would be perfect for text entry.

Perfect, that is, if the rest of the keys are where you expect them to be – you know, like the spacebar and the shift keys!

But no, Nokia in its infinite wisdom has chosen to place the space bar to the side of the QWERTY characters, next to the M key, while there’s only one shift key, at the far left.

Anyone who’s ever done any typing will know you simply have to have two shift keys, while moving the space bar is just sacrilege. I can understand doing this if you don’t expect the user to enter much text, but if that’s case, why include a physical QWERTY keyboard at all, when there’s a perfectly good virtual keyboard that can be used via the N97’s touchscreen?

More ranting after the jump…

Rumours are circulating that Nokia may be working on a new class of mobile phone that will be announced at this year’s MWC. Based on the form factor of the E90 communicator, and beginning with the launch of the Nokia N97, the Finnish mobile phone giant could be about to unleash a new range of netbooks on us that literally are multimedia computers, and will enable us once and for all to unshackle ourselves from our desktops.

“Where’s the evidence?!” I hear you cry. Case for the prosecution after the jump.

While we wait expectantly for MWC 2009, the annual mobile phone trade fest in Barcelona where the great and the good in the mobile phone world will be showing off their latest handsets, news seems to have shifted to the software part of the mobile world.

There’s a new version of Firefox that’s being developed specifically for mobile phones, and it’s now reaching a stage where it can actually be tested. Currently codenamed Fennec, Firefox Mobile, as it’ll ultimately be called, is rumoured to debut on the HTC Touch Pro.

This is annoying for three reasons. Firstly, because it’s being released on Windows Mobile first, which is possibly the worst mobile operating system on the market today; secondly, because it’s being released only on the HTC Touch Pro, which means it’s either going to be a slow process porting it to every other device on the market, or else it requires some pretty serious processing horsepower to work; and thirdly, because I have neither a Windows Mobile machine, nor a HTC Touch Pro, so I won’t be able to give it a go. Bugger!

Fennec isn’t the only new browser in town though…

Nokia are rumoured to be launching the new Nokia E75 at this year’s Mobile World Congress next month. Luckily we don’t have to wait long, as we have a few leaked pictures of the E75 now. The E75 is a new business phone from Nokia that takes its cue from the E90. Just like the E90, it features a slide out QWERTY keyboard, as well as a 2.4 inch QVGA screen, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 3.2 megapixel camera.

In fact, apart from GPS, it’s got exactly the same features as the E90, but with a smaller screen.

Details of three new Samsung phones have been leaked. The three phones include two smartphones (the Samsung Louve and Samsung Pivot) and a “tough phone” (the Samsung B2100), and will apparently be shown off at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona next month.

More details after the jump.

Almost missed this one! Just before the New Year, leaked pictures emerged of the Samsung S8300, a new camera phone from Samsung that looks set to take over over where the U900 left off. The S8300 comes with an 8 megapixel camera, and includes GPS, FM radio, a gorgeous 2.8″ 16 million colour AMOLED screen and 7.2 Mbps HSDPA.

That’s a great spec, but it could be the start of a new trend in mobile phones throughout 2009…

Japanese phones are an odd mix of extraordinary features and unrelenting ugliness! Almost as one, they’re block-like slabs of phone with a few twisty bits, but telling one apart from the other is virtually impossible.

Unless, that is, you throw them in a metre of water and leave them there for half an hour. Take the phones out, and the only one that’s still working will be the Fujitsu F-01A – the world’s first waterproof mobile phone.

Samsung have announced that their first Google Android powered mobile phone will be released later in 2009. Samsung were one of the first members of Google’s Open Handset Alliance, and have been rumoured to be working on an Android-based handset for some time.

Today sees official confirmation of the development of such a handset, with a Samsung spokesperson saying “We are accelerating the development process for Google phone in order to meet the specific need of local carriers.” The new Android phone will be sold through T-Mobile and Sprint, and will feature a touchscreen (naturally) and the usual plethora of Google apps (Maps, G-Talk messenger, GMail, search and calendar).

Dialaphone have a top offer for all UK customers this weekend only: Get £20 cashback on all of their phones (excluding PAYG).

The Top 5 contract deals that they’re currently offering are as follows:

• Samsung Pixon M8800 on Orange
• Sony Ericsson C905 Black on O2
• Samsung Tocco F480 on T-Mobile
• BlackBerry Storm 9500 on Vodafone
• Another BlackBerry Storm 9500 deal on Vodafone

Remember, you get £20 back on all deals not just for these five, but for this weekend only, so check out all their deals now, before it’s too late!

Graphics company NVIDIA have been shouting about a stunning mobile graphics processor for over a year now, but with little success. Despite stunning demos that have consistently put every mobile phone interface to shame (and yup, that does include the iPhone), they haven’t had even so much as a nibble from a mobile phone manufacturer – until now.

In news that will delight mobile phone fans, HTC has adopted NVIDIA’s new Tegra processor to power some of its new handsets for 2009. Which handsets will get the new Tegra processor are as yet unconfirmed, but given that HTC have several new Android handsets in development, there’s every chance we could see a stunning new NVIDIA-powered HTC Android phone ship later in the year.

More details after the jump.