Further uniting the Internet with mobile phones and computers, Intel Corporation and Nokia today announced a long-term relationship to develop a new class of Intel Architecture-based mobile computing device and chipset architectures which will combine the performance of powerful computers with high-bandwidth mobile broadband communications and ubiquitous Internet connectivity.

To realize this shared vision, both companies are expanding their longstanding relationship to define a new mobile platform beyond today’s smartphones, notebooks and netbooks, enabling the development of a variety of innovative hardware, software and mobile Internet services.

Taking advantage of each company’s expertise as leaders in their respective fields, these future standards-based devices will marry the best features and capabilities of the computing and communications worlds and will transform the user experience, bringing incredible mobile applications and always on, always connected wireless Internet access in a user-friendly pocketable form factor.

The Intel and Nokia effort includes collaboration in several open source mobile Linux software projects. Intel will also acquire a Nokia HSPA/3G modem IP license for use in future products. The companies expect many innovations to result from this collaboration over time.

“This Intel and Nokia collaboration unites and focuses many of the brightest computing and communications minds in the world, and will ultimately deliver open and standards-based technologies, which history shows drive rapid innovation, adoption and consumer choice,” said Anand Chandrasekher, Intel Corporation senior vice president and general manager, Ultra Mobility Group. “With the convergence of the Internet and mobility as the team’s only barrier, I can only imagine the innovation that will come out of our unique relationship with Nokia. The possibilities are endless.”

“Today’s announcement represents a significant commitment to work together on the future of mobile computing, and we plan to turn our joint research into action,” said Kai Öistämö, Executive Vice President, Devices, Nokia. “We will explore new ideas in designs, materials and displays that will go far beyond devices and services on the market today. This collaboration will be compelling not only for our companies, but also for our industries, our partners and, of course, for consumers.”

[Via: infibeam]

Nokia N86 8MP, best mobile imaging device of Nokia, won the prestigious TIPA Award for the best mobile imaging device in 2009 is now shipping globally.

Nokia N86 8MP has the features variable aperture, which helps even in challenging bright and low-light conditions results in vibrant photos. Shorter latencies and less motion blur is ensured with the fast mechanical shutter and automatic motion blur reduction. Compared to many other camera phones the processing time between two pictures is halved.

With the high-speed connectivity of the Nokia N86 8MP, uploading pictures and videos on social networking sites like Ovi Share and Flickr is fast and simple. It has an internal memory of 8GB that provides enough space for up to 4000 photos and the memory can be increased further with an exchangeable 16GB microSD card.

To create the best mobile imaging device Nokia combined wide-angle Carl Zeiss optics and an 8 megapixel sensor, resulting in performance comparable to a stand alone digital camera. The design of Nokia N86 8MP helps to excel in both bright and low light conditions and it’s optimised for both video and still imaging.

Juha-Pekka Sipponen, director, Nokia N series, said that, “Its high-speed connectivity ensures easy and convenient sharing. People demand mobile cameras that take excellent pictures in all light conditions”. “That’s why the aperture of the Nokia N86 8MP is comparable to that of a high-quality, stand-alone digital camera. Whether it’s running with the bulls in Pamplona or capturing the panoramic beauty of a sunrise over Sydney, the Nokia N86 8MP will take brilliantly clear, wide-angle images that are instantly geotagged to be uploaded onto sites like Ovi Share or Flickr.”

Nokia N86 8MP is very easy to use even for beginners and packs enough punch to impress an experienced photographer. Included with it is a wide-angle Carl Zeiss Tessar lens for panoramic pictures, shorter latencies and variable aperture for super sharp photos in challenging bright and low light conditions. Pictures come with less motion blur with the help of the fast mechanical shutter while the dual LED camera flash is powerful enough for excellent photography and video capture.

Helmut Heier of Carl Zeiss said that, “When it comes to taking the best digital photos, it’s the quality of the lens and the sensor that count, not just the quantity of pixels. The Nokia N86 8MP is the first mobile device with variable aperture, adding to the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens for excellent results. It has never been easier to capture special moments in such a great quality”.

Nokia N86 8MP is metal-framed and every detail of it is designed with thought and photography in mind, including 8 GB of internal memory for up to 4,000 images. Memory can be increased with an exchangeable 16 GB microSD card like any other high-end digital camera. Bright OLED screen with scratch resistant hardened glass, easy photo management, full sync capability with a PC and TV-out support for slide shows is also offered by it.

Nokia N86 8MP arrives with the latest version of Nokia Maps and full Ovi integration and also gives a personal dimension to photos and videos. People can share their location with personal content like geotagged photos. It ships with a built-in compass, along with a trial navigation license for driving. Pedestrian navigation also comes with it so that happy snappers don’t lose their way when capturing life through the camera lens.

Included with integrated kick stand Nokia N86 8MP is ideal for watching videos and playing games. Once the headset is charged, it can play up to 25 hours of music with the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-214 also announced today. From Nokia Music store people can build a personal music collection from the millions of tracks and playlists available.

[Via: infibeam]

After a successful pilot in the state of Maharashtra, Nokia today announced the commercial launch of its pioneering Nokia Life Tools service in India. The service will be rolled out first in Maharashtra in association with the Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board (MSAMB). Designed specifically for the emerging markets, Nokia Life Tools is a range of Agriculture, Education and Entertainment services sharply addressing the information gaps of target consumers.

Today, Nokia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the MSAMB. Under this MOU, MSAMB will provide expertise in the areas of commodity prices from their network of 291 local mandis (marketyards). MSAMB will also have the opportunity to deliver relevant news, alerts on schemes and other information directly to grassroots consumers.

Speaking at the occasion, Shri. Ashok Chavan, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra said, “We are happy that Maharashtra is the first state in India to go live with the Nokia Life Tools services in association with the state marketing board. Empowering our people with the right tools and facilities is a top priority for the State Government. I would like to congratulate Nokia for developing a unique and innovative service that has tremendous potential to improve lives and the livelihood of farmers and sub-urban consumers in Maharashtra.”

Shri Harshavardhan Patil, Hon’ble Minister for Co-operation, Marketing, Cultural Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs said, “It has been the Maharashtra state government’s endeavour to provide vital agri information tools for a progressive and an empowered farmer community. Nokia Life Tools is tailormade to positively impact farmers across the state. This MOU further strengthens MSAMB’s mandate to get the information directly to the farmers.”

Mr. D Shivakumar, Managing Director, Nokia India said, “Nokia Life Tools was a result of the entire ecosystem coming together and is ideally placed to usher in an information revolution impacting the daily lives of people. We extend our sincere thanks to MSAMB and our key partners for believing in and supporting our vision of ‘empowering people and connecting them to the things that matter’. We believe this is the beginning of a historical journey that will take mobility to grassroots and make a positive difference to the lives of people in the areas that are crucial to them.”

The complete Nokia Life Tools solution will be available on the newly launched Nokia 2323 classic and Nokia 2330 classic devices, and will be later expanded to other Nokia devices.

Nokia Life Tools Partner Ecosystem and Services: Designed with deep insights gathered from target users, Nokia has collaborated with multiple partners across the Indian Government and private enterprises to bring together a rich ecosystem to deliver localised & personalised information directly to consumers’ Life Tools-enabled mobile devices.

Nokia Life Tools has a range of 3 primary services - Agriculture Services, Education Services and Entertainment Services

Nokia Life Tools Agriculture services: The Nokia Life Tools Agriculture service offers consumers a choice of 2 plans. The basic plan, available across India at Rs 30/month, provides daily weather updates and relevant agriculture-related news, advice and tips. The premium plan, at Rs 60/month, will be available in 10 states, including Maharashtra, and provides the closest market prices for three crops chosen by the subscriber, as well as weather, news, advice and tips.

Nokia is collaborating with Reuters Market Light (RML), which was the exclusive provider for agriculture services in the successful pilot. Syngenta, Madison Research, Skymet and many others also form this ecosystem.

Nokia Life Tools Education services: The Nokia Life Tools Education service, available throughout India, offers three components: Learn English, with basic, intermediate and advanced levels; Exam preparation, which offers students tips and advice for ICSE, CBSE and State Board-level exams mapped to the relevant curriculum; and General Knowledge, which gives subscribers useful information about the world around them. Each of the Education services will be offered at Rs 30/month. Information and content from multiple local and international companies will be aggregated and delivered to Nokia Life Tools by EnableM.

Nokia Life Tools Entertainment services: The Nokia Life Tools Entertainment service at launch will include Astrology, News, Jokes, Cricket and ringtones, offered at existing market prices. The content is aggregated and brought to Life Tools by OnMobile.

Nokia Life Tools is hosted by OnMobile in India: Jawahar Kanjilal, Nokia’s Global Head of Emerging Markets Services, said, “As mobile coverage increases to cover the millions of unconnected, Nokia - in India and in other emerging markets around the world - will work together with mobile operators, multiple government and private enterprises, and non-government organizations to empower millions by connecting them to better opportunities that have a positive impact on their daily lives.”

Nokia Life Tools was piloted in Maharashtra earlier this year before its commercial roll-out this month. The feedback from actual subscribers during the pilot that was concluded in April 2009 revealed that the service had a wide appeal, and connected with subscribers at both emotional and rational levels.

On one hand, the service brought livelihood gains through relevant information such as market rates for farmers’ produce, greater awareness on market conditions, tips on weather, news, crop advisory, Learn English and General Knowledge. On the other hand, it enabled consumers to fill their information gaps by being better informed, save time and money, and improve their confidence and social standing.

The Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, UK, is currently working on a phone that converts ambient electromagnetic radiation (from cell phone antennas, Wi-Fi transmitters, network towers, etc.) into electrical energy. In a nutshell, it uses the same principles as an RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology.

The prototype device is capable of 5 milliwatts, but the minimum requirement to charge a handset when it is turned off is 50 milliwatts. However, Nokia is also working on coupling with other alternative energy sources including solar, though not as cool as electromagnetic waves. According to Nokia’s researchers, a fully-functional device of such can become commercially available in 3 or 4 years time.

[Via: uberphones]

After iPhone it is the turn of G-phones. The much in news Google Android phone is supposed to hit the Indian market by July-end, with topnotch handset makers HTC, Motorola and Samsung firming up plans to ship the device to the country. It is learnt that Samsung is planning on shipping the Google Android phone by July, as part of its global launch.

Andy Rubin, senior director for Mobile Platforms for Google announced around 18 phones based on the Android operating system which would be available in the market worldwide by the year-end.

With the launch of the system, the G-phone will compete against other mobile operating systems such as Microsoft Windows mobile, RIM’s BlackBerry platform, Apple’s proprietary iPhone and Symbian, on Nokia handsets.

The leading mobile phone manufacturers like HTC, Motorola and Samsung are planning to bring in the device to the Indian market. A person close to the development mentioned the first Android phone G1 from HTC and witnessed positive responses from the US market after its launch late last year.

“India is a growth market and mobile manufacturers are launching all the latest product lines, and Android will not be left behind. The first phone will hit the market in July. Motorola is also planning to launch it in November,” he said.

Ajay Sharma, country head, HTC India, told Financial Chronicle that the company was shipping the new HTC Magic G2 phone for the UK market. However, he declined to share any dates on the India launch.

“Every Android device requires clearance from Google, since it is based on the Android operating system. We cannot share any exact date for the launch of the Android phone in the Indian market, but it is likely to be launched by the end of this year. Globally, we have two handset models G1 with T-Mobile and the recently launched Magic G2,” Sharma said.

The Motorola spokesperson said, “We will be shipping Android products this year and are excited about the upcoming portfolio. However, we are not making any announcements on Android-based products at this time.”

In addition to this, ASUS, Huawei, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung and HTC have partnered together under the open handset alliance to bring in devices on the Android platform.

[Via: infiebeam]

Your non-functional mobile phone can take a form of a kitchen utensil, a park bench or a saxophone, just because of the leading mobile phone company, Nokia. Nokia has made a global campaign of recycling used devices into various utensils.

Recently in 2009, Nokia has successfully launched and initiated to control e-waste in four selected cities. A new Campaign “TakeBack” is going to be rolled out by Nokia on a national level.

In Tamil Nadu, a used phone recall programme is launched by Nokia that encourages mobile phone users to leave their phones made by any manufacturers that are discarded. Specially 60 bins are set to leave such phones at Nokia’s care centres and priority dealer.

Ambrish Bakaya, Director, Corporate Affairs, Nokia India, told The Hindu,” The campaign was conceived with the twin goals of educating the public on the hazards of e-waste while the sapling planting drive provided citizens a chance to give back to the environment”.

As Tamil Nadu head of the campaign has planted 12,500 fruit-bearing and avenue saplings in four villages in Kancheepuram - Kalakattur, Kooram, Maruthuvanpadi and Sankarapuram, due to Nokia volunteering to plant a sapling for each used phone it collects.

Nokia went national as about 3 tonnes of e-waste as thousands of eco-conscious citizens returned about 10,000 phones (including non-Nokia handsets), 12,000 batteries and 20,000 chargers was mobilized. Nokia has tied up with the Non-governmental Organisation ‘Ahimsa’ in the State and Rotary Mid Town in Bangalore for the sapling planting.

Nokia’s e-waste reduction campaign will cross an estimated figure of 5,000 collection points including 1,300 bins in India. Nokia had, since last year, been running an e-waste awareness campaign across the company’s network of 1,200 priority dealers and care centres in India, says Mr. Bakaya.

Only 16 per cent of the over all consumers think about recycling their phones in India. Moreover, only 17 per cent consumers are aware about that the phone could be recycled. 65-80 per cent of this Nokia’s devices are recyclable, as per Nokia’s estimate. 2.40 lakh tonnes of raw materials could be generated and reduction in greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking 4 million cars off the road can be done by just bringing one unused device to Nokia.

[Via: Infibeam]

Only one day after unveiling three new cheap, entry-level phones, Nokia has now announced a more advanced handset - the Nokia 6600i slide. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Nokia has launched, about a year ago, the 6600 slide.

The difference between the 6600 slide and 6600i slide is that the new phone features a 5MP camera with dual LED flash (the old phone only has a 3.2MP one).Nokia presents the 6600i slide as its “smallest 5 megapixel slider to date”, and the phone is also relatively affordable - €200 ($271).

Other than the improved camera, Nokia 6600i slide is basically the same old 6600 slide, with a slightly different design. Nokia 6600i slide will be available in select markets starting the third quarter of 2009. It will be shipped with a 1GB card and a Nokia stereo headset WH-203 with FM radio in the box.

[Via: unwiredview]

Nokia has just unveiled tree new phones targeted at emerging markets: Nokia 2730 classic, Nokia 7020 and Nokia 2720 fold. All phones are “Internet-ready”, featuring Ovi Mail and Nokia Life Tools - the two services first announced in November 2008.

They will be commercially available starting the third quarter of 2009, except for the 7020, which should go on sale in the fourth quarter of the year. Nokia 2730 classic is, as its name suggests, a candybar - one that looks fairly good.

The specs of Nokia 2730 classic include 3G, a 2 inch QVGA screen, a 3.5mm headset jack and expandable memory. The handset will be sold for €80 ($107), before taxes and subsidies. Nokia 7020 is a clamshell that “uses light, color and metal finishes to convey personal style”.

t will come for €90 ($120), with features like a 2.2 inch QVGA internal display, FM radio and a 2MP camera. Lastly, Nokia 2720 fold is an ultra-basic handset, sporting a 120 x 160 pixels internal display, a 1.3MP camera and a “mirror-effect design”.

[Via: unwiredview]

There is good news for black phone lovers as the Nokia’s low cost E-Series handset, the E63, is getting a new, black colored version soon. A poor cousin to the E71, the E63 has attracted a huge fan following with a decent specification list in an affordable price range.

The classier, sleeker look that this black version will provide will receive a warm welcome by those looking for a cheaper alternative to the E71, and were unhappy with the “flashy” red and blue versions currently available. The features will remain the same. The E63 is a S60 Third Edition based smartphone and is a low cost alternative to its better-endowed cousin the E71.

The E63 features a 2 megapixel camera, WiFi and a 3.5 mm jack and all the features that any self respecting smartphone would have. Omissions come in the form of a lower resolution camera, lack of HSDPA (this is not applicable in India anyway, as we do not have HSDPA here) and GPS. The exact launch date is not yet announced though.

[Via: Infibeam]

The Nokia 8208 phone announced in February is said to be available in other countries other than U.S. The recent FCC documents however reveal that the phone would also be available in North America very soon. This Nokia mobile phone supports a dual slider form factor and packs in an array of multimedia features.

The Nokia 8208 is equipped with a 2.2 inch display with 240 x 320 resolution. It reveals a keypad when slid up whereas when slid down it provides an easy access to the dedicated music controls. The FCC document also confirms that the phone supports EVDO Rev and its headsets are accompanied with a Bluetooth 2.0+EDR with support for A2DP and a FM radio.

There is a massive 16GB memory storage space with which the phone can store in approximately 4000 songs in various music formats. Apparently, the phone should be based on Symbian S40 platform and users might be able to access assisted GPS services as well.

The Nokia 8208 incorporates a 3 megapixel camera with flash and video recording capabilities. The battery life provides a talk time of up to 4 hours and a standby time of up to 11 days.

[Via: Infibeam]