Nokia

05:10 October 6, 2009 PDT

Nokia Booklet 3G - 'Key feel and pitch is good for a unit of it's size'

Recently at Nokia's NokiaWorld 09 event, the company unveiled what appears to be the first in a line of netbook devices, the Booklet 3G. Dave Weinstein was there to get a first hand look at the device. Read More

SurroundSense uses your phone's sensors to figure out where you are

By Dario Borghino

17:02 September 30, 2009 PDT

SurroundSense uses your mobile phone's sensors to figure out where you are and is particul...

Smartphones use GPS locating for a variety of functions but mainly they're used on the road where their accuracy - only within 10m - is basically a case of 'near enough is good enough'. But try using one indoors. They don't work! Nor can they distinguish between two adjacent environments, however different. And 10m can make a big difference inside a shopping complex or multi-roomed office block. In a research jointly sponsored by Microsoft, Nokia, Verizon and the National Science Foundation, a group of computer engineers from Duke University is working on achieving better indoor localization using a combination of sounds, lighting and accelerometer data picked up by a mobile phone. They hope it will supplement the use of GPS systems, which most users know, have their limitations. Read More

Nokia's E72 smartphone is a credible upgrade from the E71

07:21 September 6, 2009 PDT

Nokia's E72 incrementally builds upon its excellent predecessor, the E71. Improvements and refinements can be seen all over the device, including a faster 600MHz ARM 11 processor (versus the 369MHz E71), a new touch enabled D-pad, 5MP camera, and an update to the already best-in-class keyboard. Read More

Nokia unveils sleek X-series range with two new models

By Paul Lester

04:07 September 6, 2009 PDT

The new X-series evolves the XpressMusic range with a tidy new design

Nokia's recently announced ‘X-series’, which currently consists of the X3 and X6, looks to build on the success of the XpressMusic series with some funky new styling and a healthy set of features. Read More

Nokia's N97 gets a little brother, the N97 mini

03:45 September 6, 2009 PDT

Another key announcement to emerge from Nokia World in Stuttgart was a new version of their flagship N-series multimedia device, the N97 mini. The N97 mini owes its diminutive size to a reduction in the overall keyboard size made possible by removing the D-pad and adding navigation keys to a slightly redesigned keyboard. Read More

Hands on: Nokia's N900 Internet tablet may be their best 'phone' ever

23:21 September 3, 2009 PDT

Broswing uses the same Mozilla gecko engine that's at the core of the desktop version of F...

So Nokia has gone and done it. It's been years since anyone has built a handset that I felt was a "must have" executive device, and Nokia has delivered with their upcoming N900. Based upon their previous N-Series Internet tablets, the N900 is a Linux based device with a large 800x480 display, but adds a quad-band 3G radio where previous products have been limited to WiFi only for communications. There's also full support for Exchange syncing, and a customized version of the Mozilla browser used in the desktop version of Firefox. With a slide-out three row qwerty keyboard and a large screen this device is ideal for corporate e-mail, and does a credible job of displaying formatted e-mail as well as a full weeks worth of calendar entries at a time. Dave Weinstein reports from Stuttgart, Germany. Read More

Nokia looking to get in the money

By Darren Quick

00:23 August 27, 2009 PDT

The new Nokia Money service makes a grab for cash

Nokia’s new Nokia Money service will let users send money, pay for products, recharge prepaid SIM cards and pay utility bills just by using the payee’s mobile phone number. Designed to be as simple as making a phone call or sending an SMS, the Nokia Money services will be accessible 24 hours a day anywhere there is mobile phone coverage. Read More

WEARABLE ELECTRONICS

Concept bracelet phone leaves electricity behind

By Jeff Salton

20:53 August 25, 2009 PDT

For fashionable folk who enjoy the simple life but still need to be in contact with the rest of the world, comes the Leaf wearable bracelet phone concept. Great if you’ve run out of pockets or don’t want to carry a handbag, the Leaf is a wearable bracelet phone that incorporates solar cells for power on its front panel. Inspired by photosynthesis, the Leaf is pretty basic - good for making calls and texting only. However, designers Seungkyun Woo and Junyi Heo say it’s main objective is to “remind people that they can contribute to energy efficiency.” Read More

PERSONAL COMPUTING

Nokia to join the netbook fray with the Booklet 3G

By Darren Quick

19:49 August 24, 2009 PDT

They’re known as netbooks, ultraportables, subnotebooks, mini-laptops or even kneetop computers in some circles. Now consumers have yet another moniker to contend with as Nokia announces its upcoming Nokia Booklet 3G. Featuring a glass 10.1-inch HD display and Intel Atom processor, the Booklet 3G is a Windows-based unit that promises the performance of a full-function PC alongside a rated 12-hour battery life. Read More

Mobile makers agree on standard micro-USB charger for Europe

By Michael Mulcahy

01:18 June 30, 2009 PDT

Micro-USB plugs are half the thickness of mini-USB and are rated for double the connect-di...

Are your cupboards full of old phone chargers? They seem to accumulate with every new mobile, and are rarely useful again. Hoping to change this wasteful scenario, the European Union have proposed – and ten leading manufacturers agreed to – a new standard that will see micro-USB charging devices used for all data-enabled mobile phones. The hope is that, within three to four years, mobiles and chargers will be sold separately in Europe, and they’ll all be compatible. Read More

Recently on The Mobiler - Nokia E71 review

23:20 June 15, 2009 PDT

If you haven't checked out The Mobiler recently you might've missed Samsung's TouchWiz 2.0-powered Jet, the IRS planning to tax employees for their business phones, Nokia working on the ability to charge phones using ambient electromagnetic radiation, Samsung's inexpensive Crest Solar E1107 for emerging markets, and our review of the Nokia E71. Read More

Recently on The Mobiler

20:06 June 9, 2009 PDT

Recently on The Mobiler we've looked at the iPhone 3G S vs the Palm Pre, the Nokia N97 going on sale in the U.S., the MoGo Talk Bluetooth headset for the iPhone, AT&T's plan to offer tethering for iPhone OS 3.0, Qik coming pre-installed on the Nokia N97, a Wi-Fi hotspot for the Volkswagen Routan, a roundup of Opera Mobile 9.7 reviews, Postino for the iPhone turning pictures into postcards, the Fujitsu F-09A touchscreen, a security breach at T-Mobile, and Verizon's "COLT" portable cell site. Read More

Today on The Mobiler - The CrunchPad nears completion

05:00 June 4, 2009 PDT

Things aren't slowing down over at our mobile blog The Mobiler, with news of Mike Arrington's CrunchPad tablet nearing completion, a (French) review of a pre-production Nokia N97, cell phone use being linked to cubital tunnel syndrome, RIM patching a BlackBerry PDF vulnerability, INQ planning a Twitter phone, BenQ's latest 12-inch Joybook, Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset getting bumped to 1.3GHz and the Sony W995a getting a price and release date. Read More

Recently on The Mobiler

01:23 May 25, 2009 PDT

AT&T subsidized netbooks available across the U.S. this summer

Over at The Mobiler, we've recently looked at Lenovo's NVIDIA ION-based IdeaPad S12 netbook, Microsoft clarifying its Windows Marketplace app sharing policy, the Android Cupcake OS 1.5 being released for US T-Mobile G1s, leaked details of Nokia's N900 Maemo tablet, Virgin Mobile offering Wi-Fi on every flight, and AT&T's subsidized netbook program going US-wide this summer. Read More

This week at The Mobiler

01:17 May 15, 2009 PDT

This week on The Mobiler we've looked at iUnika's solar-powered UMPC, Novatel's MiFi 2200 personal hotspot coming to Sprint, AT&T and Apple crippling SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone, Peggle for the iPhone, the £24,495 solid platinum iPhone 3G, AirTran partnering with Aircell to offer Gogo Wi-Fi on every flight, the Samsung Alias 2 using E-Ink keys to solve dual-hinge usability issues, and the Nokia E71 arriving on Telstra Next G. Read More

WildCharge expands wireless charging compatibility with new Universal Adapter

By Noel McKeegan

23:00 April 8, 2009 PDT

Boosted by the buzz surrounding wire-free charging at CES earlier this year, solutions for powering up portable devices without the hassle of messy cords and multiple chargers are making the transition from curious concept to viable consumer product. One of the obvious problems with the early examples of this kind of technology was that each solution is tailored to a particular device, but now early mover WildCharge has released a Universal Adapter for Cell Phones which works with multiple devices across multiple brands. Read More

Nokia unveils N86 8-megapixel cameraphone with Carl Zeiss optics

05:01 February 19, 2009 PST

It looks like Nokia has pulled out all the stops in delivering a potentially paradigm shifting N86 cameraphone with a camera that they claim has SLR-like optics and is good enough to replace your current compact digital one. With 8GB of internal storage, and a lens system from Carl Zeiss, this device can capture still images at 8 megapixels, as well as 640x480 video 30 frames per second. The camera has a F2.4 aperture (so it's able to handle low light conditions) and includes a high intensity dual LED flash. Nokia is also using the internal GPS in the device to geo-tag all the photos. Read More

Nokia releases new E series messaging phones: the E55 and E75

18:15 February 16, 2009 PST

Nokia has announced two new E series messaging devices; the E55 and E75. Both devices feature 320x240 displays and Series 60 Symbian OS and build upon the excellent E71 device Nokia released last year. The E55 device has a"two letter per key" keyboard similar to the Bleackberry Pearl that it's targeted to compete with while the E75 includes a slide out QWERTY keyboard as well as an exterior 12 key keypad and is aims to be the successor of Nokia's iconic Communicator devices. Read More

Blind and illiterate users can outsource reading and translation with Kurzweil's kReader

By Loz Blain

00:57 January 29, 2009 PST

Kurzweil's kReader can now translate scanned text and read it out in your language.

Ray Kurzweil is one of the most amazing intellectuals and inventors of our time. From his teenage years he's been building a long list of extraordinary achievements, from his early work teaching computers to compose music, to his world-first font-independent optical character recognition system, to his pioneering electric synthesizers that are so accurate that even musicians can't discern them from a real piano in listening tests. In 1976, blind music legend Stevie Wonder bought the first production model of the Kurzweil Reading Machine, a tabletop-sized device that was able to scan text documents and read them out using a text-to-speech engine. Last year, Kurzweil teamed up with Nokia to integrate the reading machine and its synthetic voice into the N82 mobile phone, letting blind or illiterate users read documents, menus, bills, and anything else they could capture on the phone's inbuilt camera. Now, Kurzweil has announced that the kReader phone can translate text it captures that's in another language and read it out to you in your language. It also has new text-tracking abilities to make it even easier to capture all the text on a page. Read More

Nokia flags high-priority on e-mail

By Noel McKeegan

17:15 December 3, 2008 PST

Nokia has announced a plan to offer email and IM on all Nokia devices through the use of their Mail on Ovi Platform. Users have the option of creating a new e-mail account with 1GB of storage on the Ovi service, or can connect to their existing Mail and IM accounts hosted by Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, AOL and others. Read More

Nokia Maps plans mobile assault on Google Maps

By Mike Hanlon

00:07 December 3, 2008 PST

Nokia Maps plans mobile assault on Google Maps

December 3, 2008 Dave Weinstein reports Nokia has announced a major update to its Nokia Maps application for S60 smart phones, which not only updates their mobile mapping, but adds desktop support for trip planning and coordination through their new Maps on Ovi service. Read More

Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic Mobile Device

By Darren Quick

21:47 October 8, 2008 PDT

What looks like an iPhone, functions like an iPhone, but isn’t an iPhone? Nokia’s new 5800 XpressMusic, that’s what. Nokia would most likely balk at suggestions their new mobile offering is in response to Apple’s ubiquituos device, but comparisons are inevitable with the 5800 sporting similar looks courtesy of a large touch screen, similar looking interface and focus on music. The 5800 XpressMusic will be among the first devices to support "Comes With Music", a Nokia service which offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalogue. Read More

CAMERAS AND IMAGING

Cinemizer video glasses offer quality portable viewing for Nokia N96

By Kyle Sherer

02:20 October 1, 2008 PDT

Cinemizer video glasses offer quality portable viewing for Nokia N96

The 115-gram Carl Zeiss cinemizer video glasses simulate a one-meter wide movie screen at two meters distance, and when connected to the new Nokia N96 mobile phone there's an added bonus - the TV signal from the integrated DVB-H receiver is displayed on the video eyewear without loss of quality. Read More