Hasta La Gadget!

Oh dear. Like the N8 before it, Nokia just confirmed to us that the Symbian-powered E7 slider will be delayed. The official word has it launching in early 2011, not December 2010. We’ve been told that Nokia’s holding up production due to a “minor durability issue” discovered in the E7 hardware. We can’t blame Nokia for wanting to ensure the best possible user experience — it’s just a shame that it will require the holiday shopping season to sort it out.

Nokia delays E7 slider into ‘early 2011’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 07:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, your N8 might take a great picture — but is it about to become a hotbed of legal wrangling between Espoo and one of the more prolific research universities in the States? We love us some heady courtroom drama, and Pasadena’s Caltech is now officially attempting to bring the smack down on Nokia, LG, Pantech, Toshiba, STMicroelectronics, and others over a total of nine patents related to sensor technology (as far as we can tell, lens optics aren’t involved). For its troubles, the university wants unspecified damages for infringing on the intellectual property… which, if it wins, we’re hoping will be poured into its Jet Propulsion Laboratory. You know, because rockets are awesome.

Caltech sues Nokia, LG, others over camera patents originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If Intel prognosticated correctly, context is the future of apps — your device’s array of sensors will determine where you are and what you’re doing, and clever programs will guess from there. Problems arise, however, when one tries to run those accelerometers, microphones, radio antennas and GPS tracking devices constantly on the battery life of an average smartphone and determine what the raw data means, and that’s where a group of Dartmouth researchers (and one Nokia scholar) are trying to stake their claim. They’ve got a bundle of algorithms called Jigsaw for iPhone and Symbian that claims to be able to continually report what you’re up to (whether walking, running, cycling or driving) no matter where you place your device, and only pings the sensors as needed based on how active you are. (For better or for worse, Jigsaw also dodges the privacy concerns Intel’s cloud-based API might raise by storing all personal data on the phone.)

Of course, we’ve had a very basic version of context-aware functionality for years in apps like Locale for Android and GPS-Action for Symbian — which modifies your smartphone settings under very specific conditions you specify. Now, Espoo’s doing much the same with an app called Nokia Situations. Presently in the experimental stage, Situations is a long ways away from the potential of frameworks like Jigsaw, but here you won’t have to wait — you can download a beta for Symbian^3, S60 5th Edition and S60 3.2 at our source links without further delay.

Nokia toys with context-aware smartphone settings switch, Jigsaw provides better context for apps like this originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firstly, let’s be absolutely clear that we don’t know this is Nokia’s X7, but given the polished, entertainment-centric design (it has four speakers, apparently), we’re inclined to believe that it’s the real deal. Its screen looks to be the same 4-inch affair as on Nokia’s E7, it’s running the latest Symbian OS (formerly known as Symbian^3), and pictures of its rear reveal an 8 megapixel camera. The last detail of import, naturally, is the reassurance that comes from knowing that this supposed X7 can crunch through Need for Speed quite nicely. Jump past the break to see it on video.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: The video’s been thrown into private mode pretty quickly. Let us know if you find any copies of it floating about the interwebs.

Update 2: Thanks to the lightning-fast gang at Mobile Bulgaria, we’ve got a new copy of the video up past the break. We’ve also spotted that this handset has four homescreens rather than the three available on currently released Symbian handsets. A newer version of the software? Might well be.

Continue reading Nokia X7-00 spotted feeding its Need for Speed in the wild (video)

Nokia X7-00 spotted feeding its Need for Speed in the wild (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 08:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chances are this is one research project that won’t find its way into a phone, but Nokia’s research lab in Tampere, Finland has come up with a rather unique new type of touchscreen display: one made of ice. Of course, there are a few other components involved — namely, a projector and an array of near-infrared cameras that are connected to a PC — but it is technically a multitouch display made of ice, and that’s got to count for something. For Nokia’s part, it says that while the project is a “playful experiment,” it does show that “interactive computing interfaces can now be built anywhere.” Head on past the break to check it out in action.

Continue reading Nokia research lab builds touchscreen made of ice

Nokia research lab builds touchscreen made of ice originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Nov 2010 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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