Hasta La Gadget!

Combining two pretty great ideas in a way that is all kinds of illegal in the US, the China-produced NokiPhone N3000i looks to be a pretty straightforward iPhone ripoff with bonus N95-esque dual slider capabilities. The GSM smartphone’s got 3.2-inch QVGA screen, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, dual SIM support, microSD slot, and video recording capabilities. Price of admission is $129 right now, which according to chinagrabber is a hefty discount from its $400 MSRP. Your move, NOKLA.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Cellphones

Keepin’ it real fake, part CXCIX: NokiPhone N3000i dual slider is one part N95, two parts iPhone, and six parts win originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

So, there’s good news and bad news here, and we’re opting to go against tradition by dishing out the positive first. Nokia just pushed out its Q1 2009 results, and while many firms have been struggling to stay afloat, at least it managed to turn a profit of €122 million ($160 million). That said, it’s still looking at a staggering 90 percent drop in profits compared to its first quarter of 2008, where it raked in a mind-boggling €1.222 billion ($1.6 billion). Not surprisingly, sales were also down 27 percent to €9.28 billion ($12.2 billion) from €12.7 billion ($16.7 billion). Of course, Nokia’s far from being alone in having to showcase less-than-beautiful Q1 numbers, but in reality, the damage could’ve been much worse; in fact, shares of the company’s stock inched up by 8 percent following the reveal, as many had feared an even more significant decline. All in all, Nokia’s still holding strong to a 37 percent market share worldwide, and if CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has anything to do with it (hint: he does), things should be on the up and up here soon.

[Via BBC]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia’s profits drop 90% in Q1 2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We’ve seen it time and time again — carriers using their power to strong-arm consumers into paying services that could very well be free. Over in Europe, the almighty EU is considering “binding guidelines” that could force wireless operators to allow VoIP services such as Skype to run over their cellular networks. It should be noted that all of this is still very preliminary at the moment, but if the Union can somehow force carriers to support these so-called “innovative services,” we could see a very favorable (for consumers, anyway) domino effect. As it stands, each EU country has the ability to decide individually on how they deal with blocked internet services, but obviously an EU-wide mandate would seriously shake things up. Or cause unstoppable riots, one.

[Via Electronista]

Filed under: Cellphones

Carriers could be forced by EU to support VoIP services originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We didn’t think the LG Arena KM900 was any great shakes when we briefly got to play with it at Mobile World Congress, and it sounds like our initial impression was right on the money — GSM Helpdesk just reviewed the touchscreen handset and more or less called it a weak iPhone clone. Ouch. The S-Class 3D UI drew particular scorn for being “cumbersome,” and the browser was “sluggish” and “uncomfortable,” taking some 30-40 seconds to render pages. There were some positives, though: the camera was solid, and the Dolby Mobile-enabled media player impressed, but overall the phone scored a 7 out of 10 on potential alone — let’s hope LG can improve things next time around.

[Via Slashgear]

Filed under: Cellphones

LG Arena KM900 gets reviewed, called an iPhone clone originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We’re not sure why T-Mobile would be market-testing names other than “G2” for its upcoming HTC Sapphire, but it apparently is — and if these leaked slides are to be believed, it’s not doing so well on the ideas front. Seriously: “T-Mobile Genius 3G with Google” and “Prism 3G with Google” both trade in the well-known G-series branding for banal anonymity, and “myTouch 3G with Google” just sounds like a skin disease that’s gone from bad to worse. Interestingly, “T-Mobile G3” is also on the list, which makes us wonder if there’s a less-drastic G2 model in the works, but that’s pure speculation on our part — what we do know is that we’d take Vodafone’s Magic branding over any of these other sad options in a heartbeat.

Filed under: Cellphones

T-Mobile market testing terrible names for the HTC Magic / Sapphire originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments