As the release of Symbian^3 draws inevitably close, the anticipation for what Nokia has in store is becoming pretty exciting. Today we managed to get our hands on a couple of very cool videos demonstrating some of the features of the upcoming Symbian^4 OS. The first video takes a quick look at the multiple homescreens, implemented with versatile widget support, similar to that of the Nokia N900. The second video showcases the Photo Gallery application, which is pretty cool and has a sort of thumbnail mini map when viewing photos in full screen. All I can say is that the delay in releasing a new device can only mean that there is something big about to hit us soon, and the excitement is definitely building up here. Check out the video demos at the break, and let us know what you think.

When taking a step back from the fast growing mobile devices industry, we can see that technology has progressed far beyond what we initially expected. Mobile phones as we knew them are now a thing of the past as they now pack more than just telephony features. Most mobile handsets now come with many modern standards in terms of features; high quality photo capture and video recording capabilities, turn-by-turn navigation, connectivity choices from Bluetooth to sharing online, and web browsing technologies emulating the desktop experience.

Symbian^3 (S^3) is finally here! S^3 is the first entirely open source release following the platforms transition to an open source license on February 4th, 2010, which was the largest of its kind in history. S^3 brings with it multiple homescreens, HW Accelerated Graphics, single tap throughout the UI, pinch and zoom with multi-touch and a visual way of multi-tasking. The S^3 code is expected to be complete by the end of Q1. Check out the demo after the break.

Check out this cool demo of UIEMO on the Nokia N900. UIEMO is Nokia’s new UI framework built on top of Qt. Like Qt, it is easy to compile across various platforms, like Symbian, Maemo, and Windows. The UI Extensions for Mobile demo was made on top of newly released UIEMO framework in less than a week. The demo fetches content dynamically from Tieto’s own server. Content can include for example news feeds and updates from social networks like Facebook and Flickr.

Today at the Demo House 2010, Nokia Research Centre unveiled an astonishing new concept – Mobile Radar. No its not the stupid screensaver you’ve been seeing advertisements of on the TV, Mobile Radar is an application that allows a mobile device to use active radar sensors and measure the speed and direction of movement of approaching objects, just as traditional RADAR would. It uses electromagnetic waves to provide a different type of mobile wireless sensing. Check out a video demonstration of Mobile Radar after the break along with the full press release.

Check out this video walkthrough of Ovi Maps for Mobile, brought to you by none other than the Product Managers Of Ovi Maps Navigation. To get Ovi Maps for Mobile onto your device simply visit nokia.com/maps, or nokia.mobi/maps from your mobile phone. Video follows…

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has been connected to a desktop PC via bluetooth using WeeWheel, only to experience the thrill of using a mobile phone as a controller. WeeWheel is the application that utilizes the built in accelerometer to detect movement and converts it into joystick-like signals for your PC. Check out the short video demo after the break.

The Nokia N900 is a great device for multitasking. With its 600 MHz processor and Maemo 5 OS, the device can handle a ridiculous amount of open applications and switch between them seamlessly. All the applications remain active during multitasking, and I have made a short clip using two accelerometer based applications, Angle Meter Touch and Level Touch (now available to download from the Ovi Store), to demonstrate this feature. Check out the video after the break.

The Nokia N900 is the first Linux-based Maemo 5 powered device from Nokia and it not only brings forward new technologies and new features, it also brings a new ‘Maemo’ way of doing things. Most Nokia users have become so accustomed to the Symbian platform, that any other manufacturer’s OS seams clunky or limited in comparison. Maemo 5 has built on that very success with this cracking new OS, and today I want to share a slice of this device with you, taking you through the ins and outs of the Photo Gallery on the Nokia N900. Enjoy.

The Mozilla-based web browser on the Nokia N900 is by far the best mobile browser currently available on any smartphone. In the video after the break, you can see how easy it is to enable a mouse/cursor mode and enjoy free flash games on sites like PopCap Games. Bring games like Zuma and Bejeweled into the palm of your hands and enjoy the full desktop experience on the go.