Hasta La Gadget!

As beleaguered handset maker Nokia continues to downsize its operations to conserve cash, the handset maker is looking to sell its global headquarters in Espoo, Finland for a price of up to $387 million (€300 million). The news was first reported by the Finnish-language Helsingen Sanomat, with the real-estate price estimate coming from Ilta-Sanomat. A Nokia spokesperson has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is evaluating this option, but that it may end up leasing back the same building, and in any case has no plans to leave Finland in the process.

“As we said during Q2 results, Nokia is re-evaluating all non-core operations, including its real estate. However, we do not have any plans to move our headquarters,” a spokesperson said in an email (emphasis Nokia’s). “As with most companies whose core business is not in owning real estate, it makes common business sense not to tie assets in real estate property but rather invest and focus in its core operations.

“Divesting real estate is an entirely different thing compared to the location of the headquarters. As we have said many times before, we have no plans to move our headquarters.”

He points out that selling and re-leasing property is “not unusual” in Finland, with Kone doing the same in Keilaniemi in 2007. Similarly, UPM sold their headquarters in 2006 and Stora Enso did the same in 2008.

“It’s just a case of looking at our options when it comes to real estate and beyond,” he told TechCrunch.

Nokia is planning to cut some $2 billion in costs by the end of 2013. That has included some 10,000 jobs, several factories, and other assets such as its Qt development platform operations as well as patents. And although Nokia is a flagship Finnish business, there have been other signs that it is downsizing its presence in that country. Among the factories that have been closed down globally is the last one remaining in Finland.

Nokia’s move to turn itself around has been built around the company’s new smartphone devices build on Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, as well as deals for its smaller business in maps. Last quarter’s earnings showed that so far this strategy is slow in developing. It said it had sold 4 million Lumia Windows Phone devices, with feature phones still its biggest growth segment.

[Photo: Flickr]

The international mobile hotspot rental market just got a lot more interesting. While Xcom Global‘s offerings are still broader, Tep Wireless is expanding in a major way. Previously reserved for European nations, the upstart is now serving a full 50 nations, adding Brazil, the United States, South Africa, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia, Bahrain, Israel, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and UAE to its repertoire. For those in need of a refresher, the company enables customers facing an international trip to order their hotspot and get it delivered prior to departure, with a prepaid envelope included to ship it back once they’ve returned.

The company’s made clear that its hotspots will track data usage in real time right on the inbuilt display, and they’re programmed to hop onto different networks as borders are crossed. (If you’re curious, we confirmed that it all works as advertised in a recent jaunt across European borders.) The full pricing chart fo is hosted up after the break, with those needing unlimited buckets able to pay a $6.95-per day surcharge. (It should be noted that the preexisting EU-wide pricing options remain for those sticking to that region.) It’ll probably look a touch pricey to light users and common tourists, but business travelers unwilling to take chances on connectivity when heading overseas will find the rates far more palatable than roaming fees from their home carrier.

Continue reading Tep Wireless expands mobile hotspot rental plan to 50 countries, revamps pricing

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile

Tep Wireless expands mobile hotspot rental plan to 50 countries, revamps pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 06:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The European Commission is planning to fine Microsoft for its failure to adhere to a 2009 ruling that required the software giant to offer customers a choice of default web browser. The EU Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almuni, advised the press that a formal proceeding into the breach — which Microsoft itself acknowledges — has begun. Reuters reports that should Microsoft be found on the wrong side of the law, that the resulting fine could be as much as 10 percent of its global turnover. Whether the end sum would be as high as this remains to be seen, but given recent events, you can expected some hurried shuffling of paper in Redmond’s accounts department.

Filed under: Internet, Software

European Commission set to fine Microsoft over 2009 browser compliance breach originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mid-September is a busy time of year in the world of design as the Solar Decathlon Europe takes place in Madrid and the London Design Festival kicks off — and Inhabitat has correspondents on the ground at both events bringing us a steady stream of photos and updates. At the Solar Decathlon, Team Portugal designed an innovative house that can actually rotate to follow the sun in order to increase energy production and adjust interior daylighting. Team Valencia developed a modular home that can grow or contract depending on the family’s needs. And the team from Tongji University produced an eye-catching house that embraces both Western and Daoist principles. In the competition, Rome’s super-efficient MED in Italy house jumped out to an early lead — but it’s still too soon to call the winner so stay tuned.

Continue reading Inhabitat’s Week in Green: rotating house, desktop 3D printer and a Star Trek-style warp drive

Filed under: Misc, Science

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: rotating house, desktop 3D printer and a Star Trek-style warp drive originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Sep 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the two events are entirely unrelated, a major service outage coinciding with potentially the biggest mobile of the year hitting stores worldwide is just plain old unlucky. Users of RIM’s BlackBerry service in the EMEA region are at the wrong end of a network problem affecting BBM, email and internet. At the moment it doesn’t appear to be of the vast and crippling scale as last time, but small consolation if you’re one of the unlucky ones. RIM has acknowledged the issue, and you can bet the farm on the fact there is more than a handful of slightly stressed engineers on the case, hoping to keep customers from making that impulse purchase. Let us know in the comments if you’re affected.

Update: We’ve just received this official statement from RIM in the UK:

“Our apologies to any customers impacted by the BlackBerry service issue today. We can confirm that services have been restored and are now operating normally.”

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

BlackBerry outage affecting users in Europe, Middle East and Africa (update: service restored?) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 06:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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