Hasta La Gadget!

Running Android on the Nokia N900 has been an ongoing theme for the better part of the past year — and with hardware designed from the ground up to be both hackable and high-end, we’d expect no less. Indeed, Android 2.3 is the latest victim of an N900 sneak attack, and impressively, core components like messaging already seem to be working — likely thanks to the fact that hackers had already gotten pre-2.3 builds rock solid. What’s even more impressive, though, is how smooth and generally non-janky everything seems to be — smooth enough so that you might be able to do this as your daily driver if Maemo 5 is starting to wear thin for you. Nokia might not approve, but then again, we don’t approve of the N9 still not being announced… so yeah, tit for tat, as it were.

Continue reading Nokia N900 mixed with Gingerbread, baked at 425 degrees for 16-18 minutes (video)

Nokia N900 mixed with Gingerbread, baked at 425 degrees for 16-18 minutes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Dec 2010 19:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ll probably be waiting a few weeks at the very least — but if you want to put in your order early, Amazon’s US site is more than happy to take your name for Nokia’s latest QWERTY monster. The E7 is running a stout $679 — and that’s not through a third party, that’s Amazon’s direct price for an official American version of the phone with a full manufacturer warranty. Feels pricey to us, but Amazon’s pricing tends to fluctuate fairly regularly, so we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this fall a bit by the time the phone actually ships — and if Espoo announces the rumored MeeGo-powered N9 by the time the E7’s available, they might need to discount it a whole lot.

[Thanks, adgg]

Nokia E7 hits Amazon: pay $679 and they’ll ship it when they’ve got it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia, known for its religious-like devotion to the Symbian operating system, may be working with Microsoft to develop new phones running the Windows phone OS instead.

Nokia and Microsoft have begun talks to make Nokia-branded smartphones running the Windows Phone 7 OS, according to Eldar Murtazin, editor in chief of Mobile-Review editor. (Murtazin is known for gaining early access to the Nokia N8 phone long before its release, which led Nokia to file a report with the Russian police).

If true, adopting Windows Phone 7 could work well for Nokia, whose Symbian OS is outdated compared to more user-friendly Android-powered phones and Apple’s iPhone. Critics have called the Symbian OS “broken.”

The Windows Phone 7 strategy, as I’ve reported before, is more thought out than Google’s. Rather than simply license the OS to any manufacturer, Microsoft is requiring OEMs to adhere to a standard set of hardware features for any phone running Windows Phone 7. (Each phone must have three buttons, for example, and include a Snapdragon processor.)

What would Nokia get in return for playing by Microsoft’s rules? As part of the negotiation, manufacturers get a few default tiles on the Windows Phone 7 home screen devoted to the OEM’s proprietary applications; the rest of the space goes to Microsoft’s default apps (phone, calendar, etc).

So hypothetically, Nokia could put its own fancy GPS app on the home screen that charges a monthly rate to customers, for example.  (Most of us would call this “bloatware,” but proprietary OEM apps are removable on Windows Phone 7, unlike bloatware on Android.)

From Unwired View

See Also:

• Why Windows Phone 7 Will Make Android Look Chaotic
• Windows Phone 7 Doomed? Actually, It's Just Getting Started …
• Windows Phone 7 Debuts in U.S. Stores
• How Microsoft Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL on Windows Phone

Image courtesy of Microsoft

Still the stuff of rumors, at the moment–speculation about speculation translated from a columnist on a Russia Mobile site. That said, the mere mention of Nokia and Microsoft in the same sentence seems to be enough to make even the most level-headed mobile enthusiasts shriek with joy.

Here’s what we do know: Mobile-Review’s (the aforementioned Russian mobile site) columnist Eldar Murtazin has reported that Microsoft and Nokia are “in talks.” What precisely they’re talking about, we don’t know.

Speculation has it that Nokia is looking to embrace Microsoft’s surprisingly slick new mobile OS, Windows Phone 7. The timing seems right. Nokia may still have a firm grasp on the global market, but the company’s market share is being chipped away by the competition–iPhone, Android, et al.

Also adding to speculation is the fact that Nokia is currently run by former Microsoft exec, Stephen Elop, who may actually be happy to embrace the output of his current company.

Thought the alphabet soup of modern wireless standards was confusing enough? 1X Advanced / EV-DO Advanced, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-carrier HSPA+, EDGE Evolution, LTE, LTE-Advanced, WiMAX, WiMAX 2… we could keep going, but we’d really rather not. Oh, but we have to, because this one could get really interesting: Nokia Siemens is touting that the specifications for Long Term HSPA Evolution have just been submitted to the 3GPP, promising theoretical speeds in excess of 650Mbps — a number that still falls shy of the ITU’s definition of a 4G standard, but easily eclipses just about anything shy of LTE-Advanced or WiMAX 2.

Interestingly, T-Mobile USA is specifically mentioned in Nokia Siemens’ press release as supporting the developments, a testament to the fact that the carrier is firmly committed to wringing everything it can out of legacy 3G standards before moving on — just as they’re already doing with their aggressive 21Mbps HSPA+ rollout. Considering that present-day LTE tops out somewhere in the 300Mbps to 400Mbps range, we can’t say we’re opposed, especially since the new technology will be backward compatible with today’s HSPA networks. Yes, granted: “Long Term HSPA Evolution” is a terrible name considering that LTE already stands for Long Term Evolution (and LTHSPAE isn’t the slickest acronym anyway) — but we’ll worry about naming logistics closer to launch, which is still years off. See the full press release after the break.

Continue reading Long Term HSPA Evolution specs come together, promise speeds of 650Mbps — and T-Mobile USA is on board

Long Term HSPA Evolution specs come together, promise speeds of 650Mbps — and T-Mobile USA is on board originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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