Hasta La Gadget!

Whoa. Big news from the middle of the night. According to Nokia, Microsoft will purchase “substantially” all of Nokia’s device and service arms as well as licensing the phone maker’s patents and mapping know-how. The Redmond company will pay Nokia a cool 3.79 billion euros ($4.99 billion) for the business, and 1.65 billion euros ($2.18 billion) for its patent armory.

Microsoft hopes that allying with its biggest Windows Phone manufacturer will speed up growth (and improve its smartphone market share) — the company is already promising “increased synergies.” CEO Steve Ballmer added: “It’s a bold step into the future – a win-win for employees, shareholders and consumers of both companies. Bringing these great teams together will accelerate Microsoft’s share and profits in phones, and strengthen the overall opportunities for both Microsoft and our partners across our entire family of devices and services.”

According to the companies’ press releases, 32,000 people will transfer across Microsoft, including 4,700 people in Finland and 18,300 employees directly involved in product manufacture. If you thought it was only the Windows Phone component of the phone business, you’d be wrong: Microsoft will also take into ownership Nokia’s Asha range of feature phones. Patent-wise, Microsoft gets 10-year non-exclusive license to its Finnish partner’s library of ideas and “reciprocal rights” to use Microsoft patents within its HERE mapping services. While Microsoft will be able to use the Nokia branding on its products, the Finnish company will now focus on its mapping, infrastructure and advanced tech arms.

Update: In Microsoft’s presentation on the rationale of the acquisition, the two parties state that “we are confident about our prospects for approval by early 2014.” Just a few more months to go!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia

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Source: Nokia

CES 2013 was a decidedly sleepy show by most accounts, but this year’s IFA is shaping up to be anything but. Devices set for a reveal are still under proverbial lock and key, but chatter, teases and leaks have painted a fairly full picture of what we can expect to see in Germany: smartwatches and wearables, Haswell hardware and phones with 4K shooters. Join us past the break to get up to speed on what Berlin might dish out this week.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Home Entertainment, Laptops, Tablets, HD, Mobile, Samsung, Sony, LG

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Our previous look at a tangled pile of iPhone 5C’s wasn’t especially flattering, and it only showed the plain white version of the rumored handset. The newer image above is impossible to authenticate, but it’s a tad more sympathetic and it comes from a batch of photos of yellow, pink and blue plastic iPhones (or perhaps knock-offs) that briefly appeared on Chinese site iapps.im before being deleted at the request of a “relevant party.” Although there are definitely some echoes of Nokia’s Lumia 620 here, the close-up shot of the blue model suggests we may be looking at something a bit thinner, with slightly less rounded edges, and with a non-removable unibody that may also have a more serious matte finish — although the translucent packaging makes it hard to be sure. Go ahead and squint at the other photos after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Via: 9to5Mac, CNET

Source: iapps.im

Oppo’s N1 smartphone has been sitting on our watch list ever since we first got wind of its strange N-Lens camera add-ons, which will apparently offer a choice of zooms up to 15x. Now we can flesh out another key spec: the Chinese handset will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 processor, which should more than cope with its equally unusual dual touch inputs and possibly help it to rival other imaging-centric Androids like the Galaxy S4 Zoom and Sony’s upcoming Honami. The HSPA+ Snapdragon processor (MSM8274) was shown on a photo of the N1’s internals that was “leaked” by an Oppo marketing staffer on Sina Weibo — and unless we’re horribly, horribly mistaken, the photo also seems to show a microSD slot to store all those optically stabilized, 16-megapixel images. Barring other significant pseudo-leaks, you can expect the next big N1 update on September 23rd.

Update: Oops! Oppo just reached out to us to say that the N1 doesn’t actually use the Snapdragon 800. Looking back at the original Sina Weibo post, the leakster only said “large screen, flagship” and not “N1,” so perhaps this is actually the rumoured Find 7 instead?

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile

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Source: Oppo N1 (Sina Weibo)

Vodafone and Verizon might finally be “resolving” their business relationship, according to Reuters: the pair are said to be striking a deal this weekend. The typical folks “familiar with the matter,” say that the firms’ respective boards are voting on a $130 billion buyout that would put Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in the network back in Verizon’s hands. The price has gone up since we last heard about this deal, though the plan is essentially the same — Verizon will finance half of the purchase through bonds and bank loans while covering the rest with cash on hand. Neither Verizon or Vodafone were willing to comment on the report, Reuters stated, but it’s no secret that the two companies have mused over breaking their partnership in the past. We’ll let you know if we hear anything official; until then, check out the source link to get the story from the horse’s mouth.

Update: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the deal has been finalized behind closed doors, reiterating that an official announcement could come as early as Monday.

Filed under: Verizon

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Source: Reuters, WSJ