OVI Maps – A Splash In The Desert

After seeing a tweet from Steve Litchfield about a video of Ovi Maps, I had to go take a look.  What I found was actually a very clever video produced by Nokia mentioning the ‘Good Things’ brand as well as showing off the power of OVI Maps (yes even in the desert it seems).

On a personal note, I am a fan of the catchy tune which runs through the video.

What are your thoughts on the video?

Austria Win MiniMob Olympics

Congratulations to Team Austria for winning the WOM World MiniMob Olympics.

Team Austria is formed from

• Grand Duke Roman Schweigler – S60 Inside
• Earl Marco – S60 Inside
• Baron Chris von Stobbs – Nomads Nirvana (honorary Member of Team Austria)
• Lord Markus G. – works for Calista – Mobile Internet Solutions, and is a good Friend!
• Team Captain: Emperor Michael von Hell – yours truly!

And the team mascot

• her Highness, Queen Lid Millet – as the official Mascot for Team Austria

Congratulations to Michael and his team

Nokia Announce The C5

Today sees the unveiling of both a new device, the Nokia C5, and a new naming convention, Nokia Cseries (more on that later). The C5 is a smartphone packed into a feature phone body, boasting S60 3rd edition and a host of messaging and social networking features built in. It also boasts a bright 2.2-inch display and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It also comes packing free walk and drive navigation courtesy of Ovi Maps and is ready for messaging with Nokia Messaging built in.

The Nokia C5 boasts a cool new feature in its phone book, where you can see your friends status updates directly from Facebook. You can also update your Facebook status easily and share your location with Ovi Maps 3.0.

The homescreen will show off your favourite three friends for easy access to calling and messaging whilst Nokia Messaging enables you to keep in touch on IM using Google Talk or Windows Live Messenger.

Storage is the mircoSD variety with support for up to 16GB cards – the Nokia C5 will come with a 2GB card in the box, plenty of room for storing music and with the built in stereo FM radio and 3.5mm AV connector, not to mention the Stereo IHF speaker, it should sound good too.

The device is small too, measuring just over 12mm thin and 46mm across (and 112mm high). Battery life is good for up to 12 hours talktime (GSM) and it’ll stay on standby for a whopping 26 days between charges.

Available in white and warm grey, the Nokia C5 will be available in the second quarter of 2010 globally in Europe, Eurasia, SEAP, China and MEA. The anticipated retail price, before applicable taxes and subsidies is €135.

Nokia X6 Lands On T-Mobile UK And 3UK

Good news for Nokia fans in the UK on either T-Mobile or Three and that is the Nokia X6 is now available and on sale online and within the next few days in local stores too.

The X6 is the new 16GB version and not the original 32GB as it comes without the Nokia service ‘Comes With Music’, however at these prices the X6 should be a big seller.  Expect some hands on photos of the T-Mobile edition by the weekend.

T-Mobile have it on sale with their new price plans which launched in February and are as follows

• £25 a month for 24 months giving 300 Minutes, 300 Texts, Unlimited Internet & A Flexible Booster
• £35 a month for 24 months giving 900 Minutes, 500 Texts, Unlimited Internet & A Flexible Booster

There are other options available like more or less minutes plus 18 month options.

As you can see above, 3 also have the handset on various price plans and these are

• £25 a month for 500 Minutes, Unlimited Texts & Internet over 24 months
• £35 a month for 750 Minutes, Unlimited Texts & Internet over 24 months

Again like T-Mobile there are more plans to choose from including a PAYG option for £299.99

To visit the right page just click the picture of the network you are looking for to be taken straight there.

Booklet 3G, A Bloggers Dream

I wanted to post this as it was well worth saying and sharing with everyone the experience I had this last week with the Nokia Booklet  3G.  I was invited over with CoolSmartPhone to attend Mobile World Congress and blog for Sony Ericsson which was every exciting for me and could have been a disaster if it was not for WOM World coming to my rescue.

I have been laptopless for about  4 months now as I was waiting for the Booklet to come out, WOM emailed me saying my trial period on the Booklet had come to an end and could I email them to arrange a suitable collection date.  I emailed back arranging a date and said I was gutted I missed out by a week taking it to MWC with me and was going to order a basic Netbook to get me through.

To my shock and delight, Katie from WOM World said I don’t need too, I can take the Booklet with me and return it once I get back from Barcelona.  So this past week I have been using a Booklet 3G reporting live from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with my only means of internet access being on a mobile phone and the Booklet.

I have to say the Booklet although not a main computer replacement due to the specs, It was a dream to have a computer with such outstanding battery life, such good build quality and just do exactly what I wanted it too.  Sitting on the train to Liverpool I was using my E72 as a modem over Bluetooth to install apps like Tweetdeck and setup the blog I was in charge off, this was all really easy to do in Windows 7 and I had no worry about battery cutting out, the Booklet felt like it would just not stop going it was like the Duracell battery of the computer world

The main test came though each day at MWC where I had to take lots of video and photo of the stands and publish on the blog, so with the Booklet and a few phones in hand I set off each morning into the event and started to set everything up I needed.

The only time I really needed to use the power cable was when has been using it all day as a charger for a phone over USB (yes it powered my phone too via just a simple USB cable and still had enough battery to last me a good 6-7 hours of being in use.

Putting it as simple as I can, for your everyday blogger, someone who wants to be mobile all the time and keep up with things and for anyone going to a phone event like Mobile World Congress, the Nokia Booklet 3G works like a dream for this and I really do not know where I would have been without it.

Yes it is pricey at £650 for a netbook but the battery life alone impressed the hell out of me and I really enjoyed using it.  This was the ultimate test for me and what I use a Netbook for, and on this test the Booklet passed with flying colours!.

Nokia X10 In The Works?

Engadget have just got hands on a photo and video of what appears to be a new Nokia in the works, called the X10.  The X10 looks to have a 3.2 inch capitative touch screen using AMOLED technology, a  5 megapixel camera and a slide out QWERTY keyboard

So what do you think?.  Is the X10 real and if so would you get one with the specs rumored?

Link: Engadget

Nokia & Intel Present Meego

Nokia were surprisingly missing from the main Mobile World Congress event this year, instead having a  webcast and a small event to announce ‘Meego’.  I was unable to cover this announcement due to having other MWC commitments but here is the information from the About page of the official Meego website for more information

MeeGo is an open source, Linux project which brings together the Moblin project, headed up by Intel, and Maemo, by Nokia, into a single open source activity. MeeGo integrates the experience and skills of two significant development ecosystems, versed in communications and computing technologies. The MeeGo project believes these two pillars form the technical foundations for next generation platforms and usages in the mobile and device platforms space.

MeeGo includes:

• Performance optimizations and features which enable rich computational and graphically oriented applications and connected services development
• No-compromise internet standards support delivering the best web experiences
• Easy to use, flexible and powerful UI/app development environment based on Qt
• Open source project organization managed by the Linux Foundation
• State of the Art Linux stack optimized for the size and capabilities of small footprint platforms and mobile devices, but delivering broad linux software application compatibility

MeeGo currently targets platforms such as netbooks/entry-level desktops, handheld computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, connected TVs, and media phones. All of these platforms have common user requirements in communications, application, and internet services in a portable or small form factor. The MeeGo project will continue to expand platform support as new features are incorporated and new form factors emerge in the market.

What Will Be Announced At MWC?

With Mobile World Congress under a month away mobile phone companies are in final stages of preparing all their new gadgets to show off to the world and of course Nokia is no different.

Only a few days ago Nokia announced a revised version of the X6 by offering a cut down 16GB model without the Comes With Music service at a lower price and under a month ago was the huge announcement that OVI Maps was now totally free including voice navigation.

So what are we all expecting at MWC this year?.  Here are a few ideas possibly:

Nokia N87?: Ever since a rumored spec list and sketch of a 12 megapixel touch screen from Nokia appeared on the internet, Nokia fans have been trying to find out information on the final spec list and most people have settled that this will indeed be announced at MWC as the Nokia N87 which is the next step up from the N86 announced (if you can call it that) at last years show.  In fact I have just watched a video which looks like an official document from Nokia with specs, changes to the original specs and some diagrams and if true and this is the correct spec list for the N87 the words holy s**t come to mind!.  12mp carl zeiss with Xenon anyone?

New Booklet?: Back at Nokia World I managed to get hands on with the Booklet 3G and also our group managed to get exclusive time with the product manager to ask him questions about the product.  One key letdown with the Booklet stood out that that was no backlit keyboard which is something Apple are now putting into their laptop range and this means you can use the computer at night time or with poor lighting.  With the original Booklet only just going on sale this is a long shot but Nokia will be looking to improve on what they already have so if a new Booklet is not at MWC expect a 2010 announcement still.



Nokia N910?: Another long shot seeing as the N900 is still selling well and Maemo 5 is still being developed and fixed to bring more features to N900 users.  N910 is rumored to be running Maemo 6 so again this is very much a long shot.  More than likely Nokia will have a new Symbian 3 device instead of anything else Maemo at this years show but after impressing everyone with free maps, announcing great profits for Q4 you just cant tell with Nokia anymore.

OVI Video Store: This was something I brought to everyones attention around Nokia World last year.

Nothing happened at Nokia World and nothing else has been mentioned but with Nokia trying more than ever to become a services business and with phones like the N900 and X6 out now, could this be the time to unleash the Video Store onto the world to compete with Apple’s iTunes service?.

Please remember that NONE of the above has been confirmed but are a few examples of what Nokia might have planned for the biggest phone event of the year.

What are your thoughts?

Nokia Post Q4 Profit Of Approx £988m.

Nokia today announced their Q4 2009 results and the good news is market share of smartphones increased from 35% to 40%.  Rather than bore everyone with the long jargon and company talk, Rafe from All About Symbian covered the results in an easier to understand format which you can find below. All credit to the text goes to Rafe and All About Symbian

Olli-Pekka Kallasuvo, Nokia CEO, said:

“We grew our market share in smartphones in the fourth quarter, driven by the successful launch of new touch and QWERTY models. Our performance in smartphones, combined with continuing success in the emerging markets, helped us increase sales in our Devices & Services unit, both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. Our solid results also owe a good deal to world class supply chain management and impressive sales execution.
I was also pleased with Nokia Siemens Networks’ performance in Q4, especially considering the ongoing challenging conditions in the infrastructure market. That performance enabled it to turn in a full year profit on an operative basis. Our focus remains firmly on execution, especially around user experience. Here I want to highlight our move to shake up the navigation market with free walk and drive navigation on our smartphones, a good example of how we are leveraging our assets to bring real benefits to consumers.”

Points of interest

• Nokia mobile device volumes were 126.9 million units, and 12% year on year and up 17% sequentially (not unusual for Q4, which includes the holiday market). This is set against estimated industry volumes of of 329 million units, up 8% year on year and up 14% sequentially. Nokia’s overall (phones) market share was 39%, up 2% from Q4 2008 and up 1% from Q3 2009. Average selling price was EUR 63, down from EUR 71 in Q4 2008 and up from EUR 61 in Q3 2009.
• Services and software net sales were EUR 169 million, up 15% sequentially.
• Converged device shipments (smartphones) were 20.8 million (up from 16.4 million in Q3 2009 and 15.1 million in Q4 2009), of which 4.6 million were Nseries and 6.1 million were Eseries. This means that 10.1 million smartphone shipments were numbered Nokia Symbian devices, reflecting Nokia’s continued strategy of pushing ‘converged’ devices into the mid tier (e.g. the 5530).
• This shows continued growth for Eseries sales driven by the advent of the E52, E55 and E72 mass market availability. Nseries devices sales remain relatively flat and are likely to included around 100,000 N900 (Maemo devices). Numbered devices also showed impressive growth against continuing good sales of the 5800 and the advent of the 5530.
• Converged devices sales were higher than expected, with converged device (smartphone) marketshare up 5% from the previous quarter. Nokia converged devices sales growth has significantly out-grown the rest of the market.
• Estimated global market volume was up to 52.4 million from 47 million, which means that of the 5.4 million extra smartphones sold last quarter 4.4 million were Nokias. However as we’ve mentioned before sequential figures do tend to be quite variable, due to the fact big individual launches can still have an impact on the relatively small smartphone market (52.4 million devices in Q4).

Nokia X6 16gb Announced Today

Nokia have today announced the X6 16GB version which was originally rumored back at Nokia World in Stuttgart.  The new version of the X6 comes without the music package and has half the memory of the original X6 but comes at a lower price which will be more attractive to mid-range users.

Here is the press announcement

GLOBAL – Today sees the Nokia X6 get its very own baby brother in the form of a new 16GB model. Unlike its 32GB sibling, the 16GB version doesn’t Come with Music but its sizable on board storage still boasts enough space for 5,500 tracks. Outside that substantial storage sits a lush 3.2-inch widescreen capacitive touchscreen and four new finishes: all black, all white, white with pink highlights and white with yellow highlights. Read on to find out what else is in store.

Running the latest version of Symbian^1 the Nokia X6 16GB boasts up to 18 days standby time, 11.5 hours talktime (GSM), 4.5 hours of video playback and a whopping 35 hours of music playback! That’s enough time to listen to roughly 12 per cent of the tracks stored on the device.
Images are taken care of with a 5-megapixel camera sporting Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash. Shooting videos is a joy, not just because of the camera but the TV-out function enables you to watch your masterpieces on the big screen, too. And of course, you can edit your videos right there on the device.
The new Nokia X6 comes with the all-new Ovi Maps, offering free walk and drive navigation and tons of extras including Michelin and Lonely Planet guides.
Gamers will be happy with the pre-loaded games including Spore by EA, Asphalt4 and DJ Mix Tour by Gameloft.
The Nokia X6 16GB will be available this quarter.

Guess Who Using 40 Booklet 3G’s

Just had an email from the team at wom world with a great idea for a video which feature 40 Nokia booklet 3g’s and 2 of the wom team for a game of guess who featuring the top 40 Nokia websites (world of Nokia included)

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