Last week China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) in Beijing released a report claiming that more than 77% of Chinese mobile users are keen to buy 3G handsets when they become available. Contrary to the majority, only 6% of respondents said they would not buy a 3G handset.
According to the report:
75% of respondents are willing to spend up to 2,500 yuan (250 EUR) for a handset,
25% would pay only 1,000 yuan or less, and
somewhere less than 24% of the users would consider buying more expensive handsets priced more than 2,500 yuan
After having the Nokia N93 for a few months and using it in a number of situations, Steve Garfield wrote down his thoughts about Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s powerful “multimedia computer”.
I won’t try to reproduce his whole article as you can read it from here, just want to mention the bottom line. Steve finds that the N93 has the potential to be a complete portable video production studio, but it has some flaws which keep it from being a failsafe video capture device…
For those not familiar with Steve Garfield’s work, you should know that he is an independent Boston-based video producer, editor and videoblogger, and one of the leaders of the citizen media revolution. Also the guy who recently “videoblogged” Simon Singleton, one of the Nokia’s music recommenders.
After using Carbide.c++ for quite a while, Antony Pranata compiled a list of some shortcut tips. According to Antony, all the shortcuts he mentions in his article should work with both Carbide.c++ version 1.0 and 1.1 as well as Eclipse IDE.
At the end of the article, Antony points out that you can configure your own shortcuts in Carbide.c++, a feature that current Visual Studio developers could find quite useful. Certainly one article that should make your mobile development efforts more productive.
The use of modern mobile phone technology in public transport systems is being tested, and the trial will also collect experiences to be utilized in revamping the Tampere City ticket system.
TeliaSonera, TietoEnator and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) have together developed a service entity where the mobile phone is used as a travel card in public transport. Current travel card technologies and the mobile phone are made compatible with the new Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The service makes it possible for the passenger to load value to his or her mobile phone – and the travel card on it – wirelessly from the network and also check the balance and history of the travel card.
TeliaSonera’s role in the trial is to enable value to be wirelessly loaded to a travel card located on the mobile phone. TeliaSonera has developed a loading technology and a graphical user interface for the travel card application on the mobile phone. Managing the card by the phone adds to the service’s flexibility and ease-of-use, independent of location.
Nokia has delivered Nokia 3220 phones with an NFC functionality needed in the trial, a development environment for the software used on the phones and a basic technology for the management environment used in the trial. Nokia is a forerunner in the advancement of the NFC technology and believes the technology will find its widest use on mobile phones. Nokia is a founding member of NFC Forum, an association standardizing the NFC technology.
TietoEnator has developed a self-service entity to the web services of the Tampere City public transport. It allows the passenger to load a desired amount of value to a phone supporting the travel card functionality and pay for the value loaded. The web service works together with the management system provided by TeliaSonera and thus also makes it possible to manage the travel card on the Internet.
The City of Tampere continues to develop the citizens’ information society services and simultaneously collects experiences to support the forthcoming revamp of the ticket system. The trial gives Tampere an opportunity to study the possibilities of NFC technology as part of the current travel card system.
NFC is an international standard based on the RFID technology. It enables an easy and secure use of the mobile phone as a smartcard in ticketing and payment transactions, for example. When the ticket is on the mobile phone, the passenger can load value, view past events and check the remaining balance on the phone, as well as use the phone as a ticket.
I won’t lie, when I was a kid I used to jump over the turn styles in NYC all the time. I even got caught once by a cop. That was a good 6-7 years ago. Ah memories.
Seriously folks, I keep my BT on only when I need to connect my E61 to my laptop. Not only does keeping it off make you safer, it increases battery life.
Then again my E61 won’t let me connect to strangers unless I enter in a pass code, gotta love Symbian!
While not 100% Nokia (NYSE: NOK) related, it does tie into Symbian, which is highly relevant to any Nokia phone worth over $200 right now … that’s a lot of phones.
Here are some highlights:
As with 2006, S60 still needs to prove that it can be successful for licensees outside of Nokia. Announcements from LG, Samsung and a number of manufacturers are encouraging, but the proof is in the pudding. S60 faces its most significant challenge in ensuring that it provides a compelling and usable experience across an ever increasing range of devices and target segments. With as many as 40 applications available out of the box, S60 should be wary of the danger of confusing and driving away novice users. At the same time, high end users will continue to demand more functionality and a refresh of (and addition to) the feature set. A tricky balance to get right. The trend to educate users about their devices must continue, there is a disconnect between what the devices can do and what people use them for.
We will see more diverged-converged devices. That is to say devices that have a primary task at which they excel, at a design cost to other features. Current examples of this include the Nokia N91 (music) and N93 (video). However such devices will not lose functionality since the majority of functionality is within the software platform and as such they will still be converged devices. This trend is driven by marketing and the need to create products attractive to specific user segments. There will, of course, still be devices that are marketed as ‘do it all’ in the vein of the Nokia N73 or (more sexily) the Nokia N95.
The lack of any news worth mentioning today is giving me some spare time to day dream. I know I’ve seen documentaries before showcasing how a car gets designed, from the first drawing to mass production; I’ve also seen a similar film made about a passenger jet.
No one has done anything like this for cell phones however.
For the 8800, 5300, E61, N91 (few of you I would assume), 9300, and 5500 lovers out there: wouldn’t you want to see the life history of your phone? The people who designed it? The people who prototyped it?
That’s one of the many reasons I started this blog. I love seeking information like that, and sharing it with the world. It’s also why I’m hoping to become the Robert Scoble of Nokia (NYSE: NOK) at some point. Look at what he started after just walking around Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA asking people who they were and what they do for the company with a camcorder and throwing it up on the net. He made the company more personal with Channel 9.
Why doesn’t the 5300 have a 3.5 mm jack? Why does the E61 lack a jog dial? Why does the 8800 have such horrible battery life? What target audience was in mind when designing the 5500? Why does the N91 look like a giant Pez dispenser?
I really wish more people at Nokia would blog, I’m going to keep on pushing for this to happen. I love the S60 blogs, but there is so much more to Nokia then Symbian Series 60 and cell phones. Emerging markets, research such as HSDPA and HSUPA, and marketing oh my! There is a lack of information, a void, that needs to be filled.
I know Tommi is going to read this: Have you checked why the Nokia Research Center’s website doesn’t have an RSS feed? I’d love to keep track of what people are working on.
Am I the only one who would love to know these things or am I just weird?
To be able to sit down with the men who gave rise to such an awful looking device and have them justify their reasoning would make for a hell of a video. I don’t want to confront them, just let them explain why they made such a weird looking product. I have a short list of Nokia (NYSE: NOK) phones that should’ve never left the prototype stage, and the N91 is right up there.
It is C|Net Austrilia’s biggest let down of 2006, and it is obvious to see why.
Just looking at this keyboard is giving me blisters:
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Samsung Electronics Co. and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Oyj, are accused of using patented wireless-communication technology without permission in a lawsuit brought by the Washington Research Foundation.
Matsushita, the world’s biggest consumer-electronics maker, its Panasonic (NYSE: PC) unit, as well as Samsung and Nokia are infringing four patents for technology sold under the "Bluetooth” name, the foundation said in a suit filed Dec. 21 in Seattle federal court. The technology lets users exchange data between mobile phones, PCs and other devices without using cables.
The nonprofit Washington Research Foundation, which has given more than $150 million to the University of Washington, is asking for a court order barring the sale of products that use the patented technology and monetary damages.
The Seattle-based foundation said it isn’t asserting patent- infringement claims against products that use Broadcom (NSDQ: BRCM) Corp. chipsets because Broadcom licenses the technology. Rather, the foundation said, the suit is aimed at products that use chipsets made by companies other than Broadcom, "specifically those manufactured by CSR Plc.”
I won’t try to reproduce his whole article as you can read it from 
After using 
