Jul 19

Nokia looking for new CEO to replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, says WSJ

Posted in: nokia, Today's Chili

It doesn’t come as a complete surprise, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting (care of “people familiar with the matter”) that the search is on for a new Nokia CEO to replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. Investor confidence and falling stock prices are to blame as the company has had — and we’re being nice here — great difficulty competing in the smartphone market against the likes of Apple and Google. Espoo isn’t commenting on the matter (yet), but we’ll keep you up to date. Better start updating that resume now, dear reader.

Nokia looking for new CEO to replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, says WSJ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 19

Nokia Kinetic concept offers some ideas Nokia might want to heed

Posted in: concept, nokia, Today's Chili
Cellphone concepts are a dime a dozen, but a couple of particularly interesting ones have cropped up in recent days, including Andrew Kim’s HTC 1, and this so-called Nokia Kinetic concept from British designer Jeremy Innes-Hopkins. Obviously, the most eye-catching aspect here is that prominent base, which is not simply a design flourish but actually houses an electromagnet that allows the phone to spring up on cue — when an alarm goes off, for instance, or during a hands-free video call (simply flip the phone back down to dismiss the action). It’s also not quite as chunky as it might look — Jeremy tells us that the top half of the actual prototype is just 8mm thick, while the bottom is 18mm, and he notes that the base also conveniently doubles as a more camera-like grip for taking photos. Of course, it is still just a concept, but it was done at the request of Nokia, and a former Nokia designer served as a tutor on the project, so there’s conceivably a slim chance that some of the ideas might wind up in an actual Nokia product.

Nokia Kinetic concept offers some ideas Nokia might want to heed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink T3  |  sourceJeremy Innes-Hopkins  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 19

Apple, Antennagate, and Why It’s Time to Move On [Apple]

Posted in: Apple, att, cellphones, feature, HTC, iPhone, nokia, RIM, Smartphones, Today's Chili, top

“There’s an awful lot of hoopla about that iPhone antenna.” Why yes, there is. And while there’s much to criticize about Apple’s response, we’re glad to see they’ve stopped pretending the problem doesn’t exist. More »

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Jul 16

Nokia: ‘we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict’

Posted in: Apple, iPhone, nokia, performance, Today's Chili

Nokia’s looking to ride the mojo of any negative fallout from today’s Apple press conference, slipping out a rather fascinating statement this afternoon. The gist of it is that Espoo’s keen on letting everyone know how much blood, sweat, and tears they’ve poured into perfecting their antenna design strategy over the years, going so far as to say that they “prioritize” it over the physical design of the phone if they need to in order to optimize its call performance — an opinion moderately different from the “we want to have our cake and eat it too” philosophy espoused by Jobs today. In closing, Nokia acknowledges that a “tight grip” can mess with the performance, though they say they’ve done a bunch of research on the ways their phones are typically held so that the antennas are placed optimally. Interestingly, there was a stink not long ago about the severe signal degradation some E71 users were seeing when they placed their hands on the lower rear of the phone — but you can’t win ’em all, we suppose. Follow the break for the full statement.

Continue reading Nokia: ‘we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict’

Nokia: ‘we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 14

VW Passat takes the red pill, jacks into Nokia’s Terminal Mode (video)

Posted in: app, apps, AppStore, nokia, Today's Chili, video

We’ve seen flashy concepts of what Nokia’s seamless cellular infotainment initiative might look like, but it took a pair of Germans from Volkswagen to give us our first glimpse of Terminal Mode in action. At MobileBeat 2010, engineers showed off the video after the break, which shows how a prototype VW Passat might be rigged — in this case duplicating the phone’s display in its entirety (plus additional controls) on the auto’s larger touchscreen. Sadly, VW said the tech’s still a couple years away from commercial integration into vehicles, though they expect to see third parties selling Terminal Mode add-on kits and the like a bit sooner.

Until then, Nokia and partner companies have to figure out how to encourage developers while simultaneously restricting apps that might distract drivers; VW reps told us that while you’ll download car-compatible apps from existing app stores rather than a separate Terminal Mode marketplace, compatible programs will be categorized and restricted from in-motion use based on a set of still-to-be-determined rules. Nerd-to-English translation: don’t expect to watch Netflix for iPhone on the go. Sans a hack, of course.

Continue reading VW Passat takes the red pill, jacks into Nokia’s Terminal Mode (video)

VW Passat takes the red pill, jacks into Nokia’s Terminal Mode (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 13

Gartner: Symbian is ‘re-arranging the deck chairs,’ losing buoyancy fast

Posted in: mobile os, MobileOs, nokia, symbian, Today's Chili

We all know that Symbian is still holding the fort as the globe’s most widely used mobile OS, but anyone interested in criticizing it nowadays will have to get into a queue. Nick Jones from Gartner is latest to launch a broadside against the apparently complacent market leader, opining that its user experience has been surpassed by iOS and Android, and arguing that future iterations do not promise enough innovation to make the platform stand out. He underpins these observations with his firm’s latest estimates, which indicate Symbian’s decline in share is accelerating, before positing the idea that the Foundation sets aside some talent for skunkworks projects in order to give itself fallback options should Symbian^4 not be blindingly marvelous. Nick might be going a little overboard with the bleakness of his outlook, but there’s no questioning his “Android iceberg” analogy — if Symbian doesn’t find the right course soon, Google might well end up collecting a big chunk of its exasperated users.

Gartner: Symbian is ‘re-arranging the deck chairs,’ losing buoyancy fast originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Boy Genius Report  |  sourceGartner  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 09

ComScore: Android grows US smartphone market share as all others decline

Posted in: Android, Apple, GalaxyS, Google, LG, market share, marketshare, motorola, nokia, RIM, smartphone, Today's Chili, us, Windows Mobile, WindowsMobile

Slip on your fine silk smoking jacket and light up a victory cigar US Android fans, the latest comScore numbers are out for the three-month period ending in May 2010. The most notable trend spotted was a 4 point (up from 9.0% to 13.0%) quarterly increase in Google’s Android market share as all other smartphone OS subscribers declined. ComScore also saw Motorola’s slide continue, slipping behind LG now for a third place US finish as Samsung continued to bolster its dominant position. Expect the numbers to be jostled a bit next quarter when Apple’s iPhone 4 numbers are factored in. Just don’t expect to see the Android numbers suffer, especially with the Samsung Galaxy S launching on all the major US carriers before the quarter is done.

[Thanks, Jeremy]

ComScore: Android grows US smartphone market share as all others decline originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 08

T-Mobile roadmap leaks out, plenty of Android in store

Posted in: HTC, leak, leaked, netbook, nokia, roadmap, rumor, rumors, samsung, t-mobile, t-mobile usa, T-mobileUsa, Today's Chili

For starters, there’s no actual way to confirm that the image you’re peering at above is legitimate, but given that the listed Charm just went official, there’s at least a sliver of believability here. So far as we can tell, this is T-Mobile USA’s 2H 2010 handset roadmap, and as you’d expect, it’s chock full of Android. Aside from news of impending Dell netbooks and 16 total phones, we’re paying particular attention to the upcoming Samsung Vibrant (locked for July 21st), the HTC Vanguard (set for September 9th) and an HTC Schubert (pegged for November 17th). We’re guessing that the latter is that 1.5GHz ‘Scorpion’ that we heard about back in June, and we’ll obviously dispose of quite a few tears should that not be the case. In related news, it looks as if the myTouch 3G, Cliq and Cliq XT could be seeing their long-awaited updates to Android 2.1 this August, so there’s that. Hit the links below for more, and feel free to let your imagination run wild in comments below. But not too wild.

T-Mobile roadmap leaks out, plenty of Android in store originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Central  |  sourceAndroid Spin  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 07

Nokia Asks Russian Cops to Help Get Phone Back from Blogger

Posted in: nokia, Smartphones, Today's Chili

Nokia N8.jpgIn an odd parallel to the case of the Gizmodo blogger who obtained a lost (or stolen) Apple iPhone 4, Nokia has asked Russian police to help it find an unreleased N8 phone that Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin has written about.

In a blog post earlier this year, Murtazin wrote about the Nokia N8, an unreleased phone that (via translation) Murtazin called possibly the “disappointment of the year”. The post also included pictures of the phone, which Nokia cited as evidence that Murtazin had one in his possession.

Murtazin writes for Mobile-Review.com, but also apparently is a consultant for other mobile-phone companies, which worried Nokia.

“With regard to the idea that this action is in any way related to Mr.
Murtazin’s recent criticisms of the company, we have to emphasise that
Nokia takes all matters relating to the security of its products,
confidential and proprietary information and intellectual property very
seriously,” Nokia wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. “We have asked Mr. Murtazin for the return of all Nokia
property in his possession. As he has declined to reply, we asked the
Russian authorities to assist us. To be clear, we have no issue with
individuals voicing their opinions about our company and our products.
At Nokia, we pride ourselves on being an open and transparent company.
However, the protection of our intellectual property is something we
take very seriously.”

Murtazin, for his part, professed ignorance of exactly what piece of property Nokia wanted returned. “In particular, the
last letter from Nokia which I received, indeed, was the return of
certain property, which was not specified,” he said, via a translated blog post.“I asked to clarify what Nokia believes the property
of the company and asked a number of other issues. No answer so far.”

Credit to Computerworld and AllThingsD.

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Jul 07

Prototype Smartphone Uses Intel Chip and OS

Posted in: intel, meego, nokia, Phones, smartphone, Today's Chili

For the last few months, Intel has been offering us tantalizing tidbits about its upcoming chips for smartphones. Now we have a sneak peek of the device from Europe.

Steve Paine, who edits the Carrypad and UMPC portal got his hands on a prototype smartphone running Intel’s chips and MeeGo, a Linux-based operating system developed by Intel and Nokia.

Intel’s smartphone chip codenamed “Moorestown,” is based a processor based on the company’s Atom platform. Moorestown for cellphones has been created to be extremely power efficient, yet pack enough computational muscle for multimedia features such as video conferencing and HD video, says Intel.

Intel had hoped to have the first phones featuring its chips in hands of consumers later this year but last week, the company said the devices are expected to launch early next year.

Though Intel’s chips power most desktops and notebooks, Intel chips are absent in smartphones. Almost all smartphones are today use chips based on Intel rival ARM’s architecture.

There’s no word yet on performance and how Intel chips are handling multimedia content.

Meanwhile, Intel has also been working with Nokia to bring the MeeGo OS to market. Last year Intel had been working on Moblin, a Linux-based operating system designed specifically for netbooks. Separately, Nokia had been working on a new Linux-based software platform called Maemo for smartphones and tablets.

At the Mobile World Congress conference in February this year, Intel and Nokia announced they had combined efforts and spawned a new OS called MeeGo. MeeGo is hosted by the Linux Foundation and is designed to live on phones, netbooks and TVs.

Paine says Intel and Nokia have now released version 1.1 of MeeGo that includes the the handset user experience or UX available to developers for review. MeeGo will have its first developers conference in Ireland in November.

The protoype phone running MeeGo has an interesting user interface. MeeGo is still in pretty early stages so we will have to wait and see if other handsets manufacturers will take a shine to it and MeeGo it can become an alternative to Android.

Meanwhile, check out Paine’s photos of the Intel prototype to get an early sense of what MeeGo looks like on the phone.

See Also:

Photo: Intel prototype phone/Carrypad




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