Nokia set up the Nokia Nseries N90 Blogger Relations Blog (N90 blog) about a week ago.
With the tagline "Here you will find blogger and media information that you can repurpose and utilize in your blog postings about the N90," the site was launched just before the Nokia N90's US launch - in RitzCamera stores for the low low price of $399.00, with a t-mobile account... (continued)
Earlier this month we talked about Traffic Vizzion and suggested that the ideal was integration of information flow from traffic monitoring services with GPS navigation systems.
We said this with the impression that there was no such product on the market - and we were wrong.
Many of us first heard of "The Business" weekly because of an article awhile back by it's technology editor Tony Glover titled Cisco tipped to expand with Nokia takeover.
This turned out to be utter bull, but it did provoke discussion, including reports by Reuters and Yahoo (now unavailable). The reason this "news" gained more traction than the same speculation published in a gormless blog (we think) is that "The Business" is a real newspaper, and real newspapers generally have real journalists, who do not put anything in print without a solid source or two: or at least make sure that unsubstantiated "news" is clearly marked as speculation.
Enter the latest Tony Glover story. Quoting the same "source" as in the Nokia + Cisco story, Keith Woolcock from Westhall Capital, Tony has titled this new article "BT dials up free mobile phone calls service" and has even offered pricing details of the service, even though the article, halfway through, concedes that "When contacted by The Business last week, BT said nothing." There's nothing else in the article which suggests that the entire thing is mostly speculation.
We don't believe them at all - even though such a move by BT would make sense - because WiFi phones are not out yet. It's too soon to announce. There is no logic in announcing a service a half-year before devices are widely available which can use the service; it merely gives your competitors lead time.
This posting is also to make sure that you are aware of the track record of "The Business" for technology news. It's not pretty.
Ever heard of elite? In case you haven't - it's a pillar of the modeling industry, with a starlet-studded 30 year history. [and it represents men too - but only in New York]
We're "featuring" them today because they're decided to -gasp- get into the phone business. For this risky endeavour, they have behind them mobile design shop modelabs.
We wish them good luck! The previous creations of modelabs aren't terribly inspiring, but at least they don't seem quite as dire as the Samsung luxury option - Serene, but we withhold judgment until live shots and pricing information is available. Now maybe if they used Symbian...
We don't know what's up with this trend - perhaps the ubiquity of mobile phone shops has CFO's everywhere going whee~. Pity it's a tough market. If you want our opinion though (and even if you don't, heh heh heh) Creative is a firm which should really get into the mobile phone game. If they can produce a sleek phone which has good reception, good txting functionality, and does mp3's properly, they can potentially pole-vault over the ipod phenomenon. And their proven ability to ship a gagillion models of the same thing will come in handy.
[Totally unrelated link: Gizmodo's "NSFW chair" - look in the comments]
It seems that Nokia reads gadget blogs. Our story on the Nokia N80-3's FCC approval was widely linked (thanks guys! love you!) but only by blog-ish media and forums. Even so, Nokia wrote to the FCC on the day after it appeared to request for short term (45 day) confidentiality.
The FCC appears to have ...
The makers of Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Konqueror have agreed on a common set of security features that will be implemented into future versions of their respective browsers.
Two features have also been announced:
Pity they're not just quashing pop-ups entirely. And that Safari is not on the list (yet?).
[via Arstechnica]
Rumours have been swirling about for several days now, but yesterday Skype / RadioShack made it official:
they have entered into a joint partnership to distribute and sell Skype-certified hardware in over 3,500 Radio Shack stores.
Pundits have characterized this move as "risky", and we can't help but agree. However, we sympathise. The fact is that Skype really has very few options to monetize their technology. Even if their claims of 54 million active users are correct, there is no incentive for those customers to stay. There are other options available, and the only product which might really build loyalty is a Skype Starter Pack, priced at US$4.99, which includes Skype software, and 30 Skype Out minutes. All the other hardware will work as well with those aforementioned options...
This is not a bad idea, however, because it will increase Skype's brand visibility - but remember, whatever you buy at Radio Shack is not enough - you will need a computer and an internet connection...
Thanks to Moby, we have a new collection of photos, including shots of the Nokia 6111, Nokia 6270, Nokia 6280, Nokia 6708, Nokia 7370, Nokia E70 and the new Nokia S40 3rd Edition interface.
The S40 3rd Edition interface photos are potentially the most exciting, because they reveal the extent of the UI improvements Nokia engineers have been making behind the scenes. Other highlights include a screencap of the Nokia 6280 which shows that it can select VGA resolution for video capture (at 15 fps, this is a first for cameraphones - we think), the wide variety of font sizes available on the Nokia E70, and how the Nokia 6708 looks pretty in white.
We would also like to take this opportunity to note that the Nokia 6111 and 6280 seem to be ready to ship soon - they are no longer listed as "coming soon" on Nokia.com. Both these phones are intriguing, the 6111 because it is the smallest nokia for a long time, and the 6280 because it has S40 3rd Edition and a QVGA screen.
But while you're waiting - check out the photos.
