Nokia has just announced that they are shipping the brand spanking new N9 smartphone to stores as well as customers, so be happy though with a tinge of sadness as this is more than likely the first and last of the MeeGo handsets by Nokia.

There’s no current word on the gadget street if anyone else is feeling up to picking up the MeeGo OS so purchase with caution, as we’re not 100% sure who would be handling the support of the OS when Nokia washes their hands of this system.

Still, the Nokia N9 seems to boast some pretty solid looking hardware, featuring a button-free user interface as well as what some deem to be an intuitive way to browse the Internet. With three home views – Applications, Events and Live Applications – to choose from, you will be able to go through the smartphone easily, accessing your favorite programs and content in a jiff

You can choose from black, cyan or magenta colors for your N9 of choice, regardless of storage capacity. Any takers? Incidentally, there was a post on Nokia’s blog earlier this morning concerning the N9′s shipping, but it was taken down shortly after that. No idea on why that happened.

Say goodbye to your Nokia Ovi app store, with the mobile company in plans to rebrand their app store beginning this July.

Nokia of course has teamed up with Microsoft, making Windows Phone 7 the current OS of choice, though we will not be seeing any of the new OS phones until next year at some point.

Ovi will be no more and existing services and products will be under the Nokia banner instead. Their reasoning? “We have made the decision to change our service branding from Ovi to Nokia. By centralizing our services identity under one brand, not two, we will reinforce the powerful master brand of Nokia and unify our brand architecture – while continuing to deliver compelling opportunities and experiences for partners and consumers alike.”

Nokia services themselves will not be effected by the change, with the new services only applying to names.  New phones will begin being released with Nokia services and apps while existing phones will receive and update, as you might think.

So, you gonna miss the Ovi name?

Bad news for you Nokia E7 handset fans as the mobile company has revealed that they will not be able to release the cell until next year.

The new Nokia E7 will not be available in markets until early 2011.  A spokesperson for Nokia stated that to release the handset now would not “ensure the best possible user experience” at current.

When the E7 is finally released, we’ll be able to enjoy all these ultra fine features:

* 4-inch AMOLED display
* Wi-Fi b/g/n
* Bluetooth 3.0
* GPS
* 16GB of storage
* 8-megapixel camera
* 720p video recording
* Dual-LED flash
* HDMI connector
* 1,200mAh battery
* Symbian^3 operating system

Okay, Nokia, we get it.  You’ve had the 2010 Nokia World scheduled for months and HTC decides to swoop into the same city at the last minute on the same week and steal your thunder, that blows, we got it.  But, gatecrashing?  Really?  Wow, that’s sorta borders funny and low.

Nokia has apparently sent a troupe of people with large red balloons to the entrance of the HTC event commencing in just a few minutes.  The balloons aptly read, “I know where I’m going with Nokia’s Ovi Maps” and we can’t wait to see if there is an HTC rebuttal to this action.  Wow.  What a way to kick off a Wednesday.

Some of the official details of the upcoming Symbian^3 flagship include a 12-megapixel camera, 3.5-inch touchscreen display of course, 16GB of built-in storage and an expandable up to 48GB via microSD card.

All this can be yours this 2010 Q3 for around $490.

The Nokia Ovi Store has just added Skype to their list of freely downloadable applications which can essentially make your cell phone calls obsolete by allowing you to speak with your Skype palls over WiFi or a 3G connection.

Now that more than 200 million cell users have access to the new Skype app, what’s this going to mean for cell phone convo usage?

Build over the Thames River in London, this enormous arrow proves once and for all to city dwellers that Nokia’s Ovi Maps are free for all.  Users can text or email coordinates and wisdom and watch while the arrow moves in their direction and shows off their text.  What a great marketing idea!

In recent reports, the Ovi Store is seeing about million downloads a day and the company has plans to launch a new and improved version come 2010

Using tactile feedback on a Nokia braille reader that was developed with a partnership between Tampere University and the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired, the new application runs automatically when an SMS is received.  The braille app is available now for download on Nokia handsets with the S60 5th Edition.

Although Nokia is currently denying these reports, the idea of a Nokia Android touchscreen is far too exciting to not explore. 

I mean come on, how awesome would that be?!!!