Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia announced the X5-01, a squarish slab of social phone that will be sold in Indonesia beginning in the third quarter.

The phone will be sold for 165 euros (about $200), and there’s no guarantee that it will ever arrive in the United States, where Nokia traditionally struggles anyway.

The X5-01 takes several design elements from the Microsoft Kin One, the cute little messaging phone that Microsoft launched in May. The most obvious is its squarish shape, which would seem to prevent it from being easily slipped into a pocket. And, like the Kin, the design hides a sliding hardware QWERTY keyboard.

There’s no word on what processor the X5-1 runs, but inside it Nokia has added 200 Mbytes of memory plus a 2-Gbyte microSD card. The camera can shoot up to 5 Mpixels with a 4X digital zoom and an LED flash. There’s also “loud” speakers and dedicated music keys, plus support for Ovi Music and Nokia’s Comes with Music service in some reasons.

Nokia quotes the battery life at 16-days standby time or 24 hours
music playback from a full charge.

It’s worth noting that the information is presented at the “Official Nokia Blog,” which would seem to give the information the stamp of authenticity. However, the post is written as if it were authored by an external source, with odd notes such as this phrase: “Its availability in other markets is as yet unknown.” One would think that Nokia would actually know whether or not the phone will be released in other markets, but just decline to state the fact.

Nokia also announced a cheaper 8-Mbyte version of the Nokia X6. U.S. pricing was not announced, but Nokia said the 8-Mbyte N6 would sell for 225 euros ($276.25) in the third quarter.

One of the less-touted features of the new Nokia E73 Mode is Wi-Fi calling, something T-Mobile should be promoting a lot more heavily. But T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi calling strategy seems confused right now, which is a pity – making calls over Wi-Fi is a win-win for the carrier and for consumers.

AT&T Wireless has just announced the HTC Aria, the second Android
phone to join the network’s lineup this year. The Aria is AT&T’s first
device to run Android OS 2.1 and the first to include the HTC Sense
UI.

Sense aims to streamline and enhance the mobile experience and
offers features such as the Friend Stream, which integrates Facebook,
Twitter, and Flickr updates into a single mobile social-networking
experience. AT&T is positioning the Aria as a petite powerhouse–it
measures just a bit more than 4 inches long and weighs just 4.05
ounces. A “soft touch” back cover eliminates sharp
edges and make the Aria comfortable to hold.

The device has a 3.2-inch HVGA, a capacitive touchscreen display, and a
5-megapixel camera, plus an optical joystick designed to make
navigation easier. The full suite of Google Android applications is
included, such as GMail, Google Maps, Google Navigation, and Google
Search, plus YouTube and the Android Market.

Other features include
HSPA for faster downloads and Wi-Fi wireless networking; customers will
also have free access to AT&T’s more than 20,000 WI-Fi
hotspots nationwide. The HTC Aria will be available on June 20th for
$129.99 after a $100 rebate with a new two-year agreement.

We’re just a day away from Sony’s official press conference at this year’s E3, and CVG has heard rumors from a supposedly reliable source that some refreshed PS3 bundles are on the docket for officialdom. Word is that the new PS3s will pack 802.11n WiFi (up from 802.11b/g currently) and will come in 250 and 500GB flavors. Both bundles are said to be coming with at least one Move controller included, a move (zing!) that Sony had already said it would make, but the word of faster WiFi flies in the face of last week’s FCC filing for new bundles still offering only 802.11b/g. So, will a new 802.11n-equipped model become the standard edition, or does this “industry source” not have a clue? We’ll find out tomorrow.

Update: Looks as if Sony has updated Move’s official online portal with a slew of working titles. Have a peek while we get ready for the full reveal at E3, won’t you? Thanks, Tiaan!

Sony announcing PS3 bundles with more storage, faster WiFi, and Move? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We always like to hear of companies burying the hatchet (and the lawyers with it, if at all possible), and our latest source of good vibes are two North American phone makers that have been at each other’s throats over patents since early 2008. Motorola and RIM had a previous intellectual property-sharing deal that expired at the end of ’07 and with the companies unable to come to a suitable extension agreement, it all spiraled out into a big and silly legal discord. That has at long last been settled now, with RIM paying a one-off fee and regular royalties, as well as licensing some of its own patent catalog out to Moto, in exchange for using the Americans’ knowhow in WiFi and other areas. All in all, an inevitable conclusion to an unnecessarily legalized negotiation. Now how about both you guys get back to building us those QWERTY sliders and 2GHz Androids?

Motorola and RIM settle patent dispute with a good old cross-licensing deal originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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