If you get bored of music, video and even live TV, there is always the world wide web. While the N96 doesn’t have the now-ubiquitous stand-alone Facebook application, the inbuilt web browser allows you to see websites like they would appear on your desktop screen. It has a YouTube bookmark and you can access your favourite videos in either the mobile format or as it would appear on your computer.

Games, videos, TV and websites are best viewed in landscape mode. The screen rotates on its own when the phone is held horizontally. Another interesting feature is widgets—just like those on your Windows Vista desktop—which provide direct access to and information from particular sources online. You can also access more applications at series60.com and other websites but it’s nothing compared to the applications available on Apple’s iTunes store.

The N96 is not all fun and games and comes equipped with all the necessary business applications like QuickOffice, Adobe Reader and a zip manager. The phone also has other interesting and useful applications like an Oxford Dictionary; IndiSMS for messaging in Indian languages; Screen Capture for projecting your mobile desktop onto a PC through USB or Bluetooth; and WaveSecure.

WaveSecure lets you back your files up on the Internet and, therefore, access all the information stored on your phone online. You can delete files once you’ve created a back up or download your information on another phone running on the S60 platform (Nokia, LG or Samsung). In case your phone is stolen, you can use WaveSecure to trace your handset even when another sim is being used.

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