Peter J Lennartsson | Sighenz

Nokia have cancelled Nokia 600 few months after it’s announcement

Nokia’s loudest smartphone on the market appears to have been silenced. It seems Nokia have cancelled the Nokia 600, one of their latest Symbian Belle device announced in August. It was revealed at the same time as Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 and was presented as Nokia’s loudest smartphone in the market. Maybe it was a bit to loud, or it could be that there was some issues with the device.

Not long after Nokia 600 was announced at Nokia’s Connection event in Singapore, a new device was presented, the Nokia 603. Could it be that they felt that the Nokia 603 was a better device and more ready to present to the market? What ever the reason, Nokia has removed almost all traces of the device. Everything from Nokia’s press pages and images, developer website, and even Youtube promotional videos have been been removed. The only trace left is a page at Nokia conversations from the time of its announcement.

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Nokia have installed a headphone shaped arch at Olympic site

Promoting their new Lumia handsets, Nokia today installed a headphone-shaped arch at Westfield Stratford, the shopping mall located at the gateway to the Olympic stadium. A similar installation was also in place at the unveil of the Lumia series at Nokia World 2011

The new Nokia Lumia phones will be on display at the London Olympics 2012 site, from today where up to 750,000 people a week will be able to get hands-on with the handsets. Rumors have previously mentioned that Nokia and Microsoft was preparing for a massive PR campaign to promote Nokia’s new phones running Windows Phone, and this is probably just the beginning. Personally I feel that this is not a day to soon, since I haven’t seen a Nokia commercial anywhere in years. This surely must have been big contributor to the dropped sales that Nokia have experienced in recent years.

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Lumia – New Nokia smartphones running Windows Phone.

Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 — Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710

At Nokia World in London today Nokia revealed not only one, but two brand new Windows Phone devices. The stunningly beautiful Nokia Lumia 800, that brings content to life in a fun and easy way, and also the affordable Nokia Lumia 710 that brings the Lumia experience to more people around the world, with the same easy and fluent software functionality as her bigger sister.

Nokia Lumia 800 shares the main design features of the gorgeous Nokia N9, but with some changes and additions. The bottom part of the 3.9″ screen is dedicated to the three standard buttons that is a familial feature of the Windows Phone operating system. This leaves a 3,7″ part of the screen left to be used by rest of the UI. On the right side of the phone there’s also an added hardware button, dedicated for the on-board 8 Megapixel camera. Unlike other devices running Windows Phone, on a Nokia phone you will of course get something extra. Among things, you get free Offline navigation, and also access to the brand new Nokia Music service.

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Asha – A new family of smarter mobile phones

The Asha Family, Nokia 200, 201, 300 and 303

At Nokia World in London, Blanca Juti, Vice President of Product Marketing for Mobile Phones, in a passionate and inspiring key note speech showed that Nokia still cares about the developing markets. She introduced us to the new Asha family, containing 4 new phones, that she called her babies. In my opinion Blanca Juti held the most inspiring keynote speech at this event yet, and she proves Nokia care, not only about making money, but also about improving the life quality of their users.

Traveling around the world, and meeting actual customers and thinking about their needs Nokia have come up with high quality, stylish devices that provide the best access to social networks, the Internet and information. Placing these phones at a great price point it will offer the best overall experience and value proposition for the next billion mobile phone users. These consumers want access to innovations such as easy-to-use dual-SIM, local services and content, and third-party apps, all with a superior user experience for which Nokia mobile phones are known. And why shouldn’t all people in the world have access to these types of communication and technologies. Asha, derived from Hindi – meaning ‘hope’, signifies Nokia’s focus on positive user experiences and connecting millions of people to new opportunities that help them reach their aspirations.

The Asha Family consists of Nokia Asha 200, 201, 300 and 303.

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Explore cities in 3D with Nokia N9

Nokia City Scene from Nokia Research Center

Ever since Nokia launched their site Nokia Maps 3D Beta, I have been thinking, when will this technology be available in our phones? When I’ve mentioned this to others they have said, “well that will probably happen some day, but years from now”. Time flies when your having fun, and ever since Nokia started to focus on their acquired asset Navteq, more and more innovative things have started to show up at the Nokia Maps site. Latest technology to emerge is Nokia City Scene now available from Nokia Beta Labs. It doesn’t give you full 3D views of the world, but it gives impressive panoramic street views, right in your phone. So maybe a full 3D map of the world in your mobile isn’t that far away after all?

“We see it as a natural extension of maps that brings new ways of interacting with location: finding what a building contains with a click, or showing information on building facades including any checked-in friends that might be inside. The 3D visual environment aims to be more natural than conventional ways of displaying location on phones. Seeing how places look from the street helps you remember if you’ve been there, or recognize them when you arrive” say Tuomas from the Nokia City Scene team.

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ESA have finally launched the first two Galileo satellites

The European global navigation system Galileo, that in the past has been plagued with delays, has moved two small steps closer to it’s initial goal. The European Space Agency (ESA) this Friday launched the first two, of four operational satellites, designed to validate the Galileo concept in both space and on Earth. The launch was made from Kourou, French Guiana, with a Russian Soyuz rocket, that deployed the first two satellites at an altitude of nearly 23 000 km. The fully deployed Galileo system will consist of 30 satellites (27 operational + 3 active spares), positioned in three circular Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) planes at 23 222 km altitude above the Earth, and at an inclination of the orbital planes of 56 degrees to the equator.

The initial plans for the Galileo system was to be up and operational by 2014, but several delays and increased budget costs have now moved the end date well beyond that. The first Galileo satellite was planned to be launched at the end of December 2005, followed by a second in 2006. Now 6 years later these first two satellites are finally been delivered in orbit, and two more will follow in 2012 if everything now goes to plan. The European Commission is now looking to complete the 30-satellite constellation by the year 2019, with two new satellites scheduled to launch during every quarter.

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Siri bypasses your Passcode by default

Siri on iPhone — Siri can bypass the passcode on iPhone 4S

A lot of people use a Lockcode/Passcode to stop someone else from accessing their phone. Doing so you feel fairly secure that no one can access you information and use your phone without your approval. Now it seems Siri, the new digital assistant in iPhone 4S, not only assist the owner in different tasks, but also might help total strangers use the phone.

Under the right conditions, Siri will bypass your passcode and allow anyone to perform tasks on a locked phone. By default, you can use Siri to make phone calls, check your calendar, send texts and emails to people in your contacts list, and set reminders, even when your phone is locked with a passcode. But it seems you at least can’t interact with installed applications or do Internet searches. This functionality might be something you prefer, and can be very handy if you for instance want to use Siri while driving your car. The possibility to search from the locked screen can be turned on and off, but the problem is that this functionality is turned on by default.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Ice Cream Sandwich unveiled

Today Samsung along with Google officially announced the Galaxy Nexus, the first phone to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s planned to be released in November to US, Europe, and Asia through NTT DoCoMo in Japan. The Android’s UI has been tweaked considerably in Ice Cream Sandwich, to be as Google puts it, “a pure Google experience”. This therefore means no longer any manufacturer created skins. ICS has a cleaner interface and is driven entirely on screen. Much like what Nokia introduced with the Nokia N9 running MeeGo, there is no longer a need for any hardware buttons. The commands you commonly use, like Home, Back, and a multitask button, appear directly on the display.

The Galaxy Nexus features a 4.65-inch 1280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED screen with a reported 1/100th of a millisecond response time. It runs a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, has 1GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB internal memory, and a 1750mAh battery. It also has a front 1.3 megapixel camera for video calling, and a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash on the back. Samsung say it will take stills “with zero shutter lag” and video up to 1080p at 30fps. For connectivity there is Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz), and also NFC. It supports Pentaband HSPA+, and for some regions an LTE version will also be available. There still no USB-OTG support though it seems.

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Nokia World 2011, just a few days to go.

The countdown for Nokia World 2011 have started, and the excitement is in the air. Possibly it’s finally time to see Nokia’s first Windows based phones. I for one can hardly wait.

Nokia have gone through major changes since February when a collaboration between Microsoft and Nokia was announced, naming Windows Phone, Nokia’s new main operating system for smartphone’s. Finally we might be able to see the first tasty Mango fruits of this new partnership. And it does look tasty.

Meanwhile, Symbian have continued to evolve into new upcoming version Symbian Belle, showing the world that this old work horse is far from dead. It’s actually looking like a rather pretty lady, and with some new skills as well. We have recently seen a range of new colorful, and powerful devices running Symbian Belle being released: Nokia 600, 603, 700 and 701

Also Nokia N9 might be Nokia’s first and last MeeGo device, but it is already taken the world by storm. All these new devices has been released before Nokia’s main event of the year, Nokia World. One could only imaging what Nokia has in store for us just 8 days from now.

Next year, might just be Nokia’s year.

An amazing throwable panoramic ball camera

Using 36 fixed-focus 2 megapixel mobile phone camera modules, the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera is the brainchild of Jonas Pfeil, Kristian Hildebrand, Carsten Gremzow, Bernd Bickel, Marc Alexa at Computer Graphics Group, TU Berlin. The camera modules are mounted in a robust, 3D-printed, ball-shaped enclosure that is padded with foam and handles just like a ball.

The camera is thrown into the air and captures an image at the highest point of flight, when it is hardly moving. The camera takes full spherical panoramas, and images are taken instantaneously. It can capture scenes with many moving objects without producing ghosting artifacts and creates unique images and lets you take pictures from an angle that otherwise would be very hard to achieve.

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