Hasta La Gadget!

Well, here’s a surprise: Reuters says Nokia might consider replacing CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in order to please unhappy shareholders who don’t see the cellphone giant effectively competing in the smartphone market. The report is mostly based on analyst chatter and doesn’t provide any hard sources, but we’ve certainly seen analysts swarm around blood in the water like this in the past, so it’s not totally out of the question — especially given core concerns about Symbian^3 delays, stagnant profit growth, and (uh oh) competing against the iPhone. What’s more, OPK pledged to build up Nokia’s US presence when he took over, and he’s obviously failed to deliver on that promise — US marketshare has fallen from 20 percent to 7 percent, prompting one analyst quoted in the Reuters piece to wonder if “Nokia really has the desire to fix the problem.” Ouch. That’s a lot of big questions with no easy answers — OPK is scheduled to speak to shareholders next week, we’ll see what he has to say.

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo being replaced to soothe frustrated investors? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know what, we’re not gonna make that joke. You can, but we’ll just move right along to the meat of this story — Nokia has listed a telescopic stylus for capacitive screens, the SU-36, which seems to have come out right alongside the N8 to serve as its Symbian^3 assistant. Compatible with the N8, X6, and any other phone with a proper touchscreen on it, this retractable accessory will substitute your fingers when they are either too cold or too imprecise to do the job themselves. It’s not yet been priced or made available, but you’ll be fine using that sausage stylus for another few weeks, won’t ya?

[Thanks, Zabavan]

Nokia sticks to its stylus roots, offers telescopic SU-36 for capacitive screens originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d be hard-pressed to find a more direct competitor to the BlackBerry businessphone hegemony than Nokia’s E7x series. It’s therefore quite logical that only a day after RIM chief Mike Lazaridis made the white Bold official, Nokia is following up with its own pale-hued E72. Coming with a skinned UI to match the externals, the new handset is being announced alongside a firmware update (for E72s of all colors and creeds) that updates Ovi Maps, improves social networking integration, and allows location sharing through Facebook. You know, for when you wanna let your hair down after a hard day at the office. Internet radio of an unspecified variety has been included as well, along with general performance and stability improvements. Both the white handset and new firmware are available through Nokia today.

Nokia E72 gets white paint option, firmware update originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Render plus logo does not a new phone make, but that didn’t keep us from admiring the ridiculous form factor on this supposed Nokia C2. While the ‘C’ label puts the device squarely in dumbphone territory and the only specs available (320 x 240 display, 2 megapixel camera) don’t belabor that point, split-horizontal keyboards have a special place in our heart, and we eagerly await their return. That said, Nokia better get cracking if they want to beat the MOTOSPLIT — the way we see it, they’re one whole leaked, possibly fake render behind the competition.

Nokia C2 render spins QWERTY right round originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia’s new N8 smartphone has managed to squeeze everything into its slim and sleek aluminum case. And we mean everything. The spec-sheet reads like a laundry-list of all the things missing from (and all those included in) a certain other 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen cellphone.

So what’s new? A ridiculous 12 Megapixel camera (plus 720p video), with Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon lamp, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 16GB on-board storage expandable by microSD, HD-video plus HDMI-out for watching on the big screen, GPS navigation via OVI Maps (plus access to the OVI Store for applications) and of course, multi-touch and “full multitasking.”

All that would be worthless if the software wasn’t up to much, and Nokia has loaded the N8 with the new Symbian S^3 operating system, a much prettier revamp of the tired old businessman’s Symbian of old. It even comes in a range of bright colors. You know – for the kids.

There must be a catch, right? Well, yes. The handset will be $500 off-contract and probably will never actually make it into the US in a subsidized form. It also won’t be available until the fall, by which time Apple and Android will surely have better models to buy. A shame, to be sure, and one that proves that, no matter how many boxes the engineering people tick on the marketing department’s want-list, it’s for nothing if you don’t got some buzz. Sorry, Nokia, but these days you’re the square at the party.

Introducing Nokia N8 [Nokia]