A few students at the Freie Universität Berlin got together and modified a Dodge minivan (also called people carrier in the UK) into a remote control car, with the controller being an iPhone. It’s pretty freaking wild.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Siemens Networks (NSN) has just launched their “High-Performance Site Solution”. It’s basically a cell tower on steroids. In the photo above, what looks like a triangle on a stick, that’s a cell tower. Each tip of that triangle blasts cellular waves into the air and gives customers the ability to call their mother or download Japanese tentacle rape porn while on the go; this is called a 3 sector site. What NSN has done is double the number of sectors on each tower. Doing that has given each individual tower the capability to support 80% more data and voice traffic, and at the same time provide 40% more coverage per tower. Fewer towers = lowered initial investment (CAPEX) in network equipment, and lowered operating expenses (OPEX) for maintaining said network. This new tower supports 2G, 3G, and even LTE networks with a firmware update. With luck, other network vendors will copy NSN’s solution and we’ll all connect to a better network in the future.

[Via: Press Release]

Update: While Googling around to learn the advantage to multi sector cell sites, I stumbled across this highly informative case study done by Ericsson in the Spring of 2006. Their work confirms the claims of NSN’s new product:

The resulting capacities are equivalent to a capacity increase of 86% when doubling the cells from 3 to 6 and an additional capacity increase of 74% for a second doubling from 6 to 12 cells per site. Thus, the expected capacity increase per site is about 1.8x for doubling the number of cells per site.

LTE, Long Term Evolution, 4G, whatever you want to call it, was designed to be a complete IP based system. Many of you may be surprised to hear this, but when LTE became a standard, it only supported data. That’s right, 4th generation networks didn’t have an interoperable standard for voice and SMS. Several solutions have been proposed, and I’ve extended my support to VoLGA, but it looks like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has decided IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) will be the way going forward.

Who supports the decision? AT&T, Orange, Telefonica (many of you know them as O2), TeliaSonera, Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE). That’s a lot of companies. Their posse is called “One Voice Initiative” and now that the big boys have all decided on a standard, progress towards getting LTE networks up and running will start to pick up. Verizon and TeliaSonera are competing to see who will launch the world’s first commercial LTE network in 2010, but it’s going to quite a ways off until 4G coverage is equal to the current 3G footprint.

If anyone can point me (and IntoMobile readers) to a blog post or a book that explains how IMS works, that would be greatly appreciated. I’ve always avoided the standard since I thought it would never fly. Oh how wrong I am now.

Update: The One Voice spec has been published, check it out [PDF] if you’re a network engineer.

[Via: Press Release]

While Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iPhone, Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s N97 and HTC’s various Windows Mobile and Android powered devices win the hearts and minds of the technofiend journalists covering the mobile space, there are a class of devices, ultra low end devices, that are responsible for bringing progress to nations and an optimism toward the future that today’s smartphones simply can’t due to their high cost. Today you take it for granted that you have a mobile phone, but can you remember how exhilarating it felt to own your first mobile phone? The ability for anyone to call you, at anytime, is a transformative experience and today Nokia is helping more people achieve that sense of independence from time and space with the launch of 5 devices.

Almost a year ago today Nokia announced the 1202, and at the time it was the cheapest phone the company made, coming in at 25 EUR. Thanks to advances in technology, and price advantages brought on by having massive scale, Nokia has now launched the 1280 and it is available for only 20 EUR ($29.50); huge savings when you consider that many people spend months worth of their wages just to purchase a mobile phone. This device weighs in at 81.92 grams, is 107.2 mm tall, 45.1 mm wide, and 15.3 mm thick. It has a 800 mAh battery that gives it up to 22 days of standby time and 8.5 hours of talk time. The display is black and white, which is to be expected at these price levels, is dual band (900/1800 MHz), has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, flash light, FM radio, and even has user exchangeable covers. Expect to see this in Q1 2010.

Next we have the 1616 coming in at 24 EUR ($35.40), which is still cheaper than the 1202 that was introduced a year ago. You get a 65,000 color 128 x 160 pixel resolution display, 3.5 mm headphone jack, FM radio, and a flash light, all in a package that weighs 78.55 grams and is 107.1 mm tall, 45 mm wide, and 15 mm thick. It is a dual band device, but will come in two variants: 900/1800 MHz and 850/1900 MHz. It has the same 800 mAh battery the 1280 has, and will start shipping in Q1 2010.

The 1800 is essentially the 1616, but with a different look. It will cost 26 EUR ($38.35) when it ships in Q2 2010. It has the same 800 mAh battery, 65,000 color 128 x 160 pixel resolution display, 3.5 mm headphone jack, FM radio, and flash light. It is a dual band device, supporting 900/1800 MHz networks, and it weighs 78.5 grams while coming in at 107 mm tall, 45 mm wide, and 15.3 mm thick. It has a standby time of up to 22 days, or you can drain the battery with 8.5 hours of talking.

The 2200 Slide, which was leaked almost a month ago, is coming out this quarter and with it brings GPRS/EDGE (internet) support and a VGA camera at only 45 EUR ($65.40). The battery holds 720 mAh, and that should last up to 20 days in standby mode or 5.37 hours of talk time. The slider has a 65,000 color 128 x 160 pixel resolution display, is dual band and will come in both 900/1800 MHz and 850/1900 MHz models, and weighs only 93.5 grams. It’s 97.14 mm tall, 47 mm wide, and 15.85 mm thick.

Last we have the 2690, the most “expensive” device announced today, coming in at 54 EUR ($79.70). This Q1 2010 device has support for a microSD memory card, it has a VGA camera, supports GPRS/EDGE, has a VGA camera, and most impressive: it is quadband, meaning you can take this thing anywhere around the world (with a GSM network) and it will work. The internet will look small on that 1.8 inch, 262,000 color, 128 x 160 pixel display, but it’s better than nothing. It has the same 720 mAh battery as the 2200 Slide, and it will last you up to 13 days in standby mode, or 4.5 hours of talk time. The whole package weighs 80.72 grams and is 107.5 mm tall, 45.5 mm wide, and a svelte 13.8 mm thick. Nokia Conversations is saying this device has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a fact that wasn’t mentioned in the phone’s data sheet, but I’ll trust what they’ve got to say.

Analysts at Canalys (does that rhyme?) conducted a survey with over 3,000 people spread out over France, Germany and the United Kingdom to find out how large of an impact touch screen devices are having on Western Europe. The results speak for themselves: 38% want their next mobile phone to be finger touch enabled and 16% want their next device to be stylus enabled. That’s 54% of people who have simply had it with a regular T9 keypad and 5 way directional pad.

What about the people who are taking this survey and already have touch screen devices? Of those individuals (percentage not given) only 47% wanted their next mobile device to be touch enabled, which leads me to believe that buying into the touch screen hype and building a terrible user interface is almost as toxic as not making a touch screen model at all. Those with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and HTC devices are the most likely to buy another touch device, while those with Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) touch devices are the least likely to buy a touch screen again. The people most eager to buy a touch screen device? Men between the ages of 22 and 45. The people who least want a finger based touch enabled device? People who currently use stylus based devices.

Which side of the argument do you sit on? I’m still pounding away on buttons with my Nokia (NYSE: NOK) E71.

The Dell Mini 3i, which launched this summer in China, has gone all Marvel Comics on us and joined the X-Men. The Dell Mini 3iX is the exact same device aesthetically, but instead of running oPhone, the Chinese version of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android, this puppy runs good old fashioned Android, albeit with a crazy skin. Not only that, but the WiFi and 3G which were noticeably absent in the Chinese variant, have found their way back into the X-Men model. Why is this thing in Brazil? No one knows. When will it come out in the US? Apparently Q1 2010 if targets are achieved.

Specification sheet rundown for those who forgot:

• 3.5 inch screen, 640 x 360 pixel resolution, though only 262k colors
• GPS
• WiFi, 3G on the 850, 1900 and 2100 MHz bands
• 3 megapixel camera
• microSD card slot
• 122 mm x 58 mm x 11.7 mm; 103 grams

More photos of the tweaks Dell has done to Android can be found here. They’ve added a virtual T9 keyboard, changed all the colours around, and, as seen above, have made the icons look like something out of a terribly programmed audio visualization plugin from the 90s.

[Via: Unwired View]

Poland, a country that has been battling with Russia for years now over who invented the delicious beverage known as Vodka, achieved a world first today. Sferia, a local operator, in conjunction with Chinese infrastructure equipment supplier Huawei launched the first HSPA+ network to operate on the 900 MHz band. While Europe has been known for deploying 3G and 3.5G networks on the 2100 MHz band, the 900 MHz band holds two key advantages: fewer cell towers are required to cover a given area, therefore reducing an operator’s operating expenses, and 900 MHz waves penetrate buildings better, which give customers better signal. Each user connected to the new HSPA+ network will be capable of downloading at a theoretical rate of 21.6 Megabits per second, and each tower should be able to supply around 60 Megabits per second thanks to Huawei’s nifty pure IP based backhaul.

[Via: Cellular News]

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Siemens Networks, who was the number one reason Nokia posted their first loss in a decade in Q3 2009, is going to be cutting costs and reorganizing starting January 1, 2010. The goal is to cut operating costs for 2011 by half a billion Euros compared to 2009. Currently NSN has 5 business units, these will now be consolidated into 3 units: Business Solutions, Network Systems, and Global Services. NSN also has roughly 64,000 employees, and 7 to 9 percent (4,480 to 5,760) of them will be fired.

Good luck to my NSN buddies in Finland, the UK and Ireland.

[Via: Press Release]

China Ontrade, the company that supplied photos of the SIM card tray from the 4th generation iPhone last week, is now bringing out the real meat and potatoes: a photo of the midboard. What is a midboard? It’s literally the board that lays in the middle between the screen of the iPhone and the motherboard, preventing interference, and making sure everything stays screwed into place. The dimensions of the board given by China Ontrade indicate that the size of this new iPhone is going to be exactly the same as the models from the previous generation. What’s fishy about all of this, according to Gizmodo, is that China Ontrade leaked photos of parts from the iPhone 3GS in May, before the 3GS was announced in a month later in June. If that timing remains consistent, then it could signal that a new iPhone is due by the end of the year, or early 2010. That would surely piss off iPhone 3GS customers, but maybe the new iPhone isn’t meant to replace the 3GS, maybe it’s meant to replace the 3G.

click for full size

Waking up and receiving good news doesn’t happen often enough, so when I opened my crusty teared eyes at 10 in the morning (Helsinki time) and got this press release in the mail, I hit the roof. Opera, the Norwegian company we all love, makers of the Opera desktop browser, Opera Mobile for Windows Mobile, and Opera Mini, one of my favorite mobile applications of all time, has released Opera Mobile 10 Beta for Symbian.

At this point you’re expect a full on review/preview of the application, but I would be wasting my breathe trying to say something genuinely new. It’s literally Opera Mini 5 Beta, but written in Symbian code rather than J2ME code. It’s noticeably more responsive than Opera Mini 5 Beta, the copy and paste actually works now, best of all it is possible to copy and paste text from the browser to another application. Opera Turbo support is included, but disabled by default. Turbo is the same technology that powers Opera Mini. You type in a URL, Opera intercepts that request, feeds it to a server sitting somewhere next to a moose in Northern Europe, renders the page, compresses it, and then spits it back to your mobile phone. I’d be lying if I said a website rendered with Opera Mobile 10 Beta consumed the same information as the same website rendered in Opera Mini 5 Beta; the J2ME client wins hands down at using the least amount of data necessary to display a website.

Things of note: this works on both touch (S60 5th Edition) and non touch (S60 Everything Else Edition) devices, and with the ability of Opera Link you’ll be able to sync bookmarks and passwords between the desktop version of Opera and the mobile version.

Check out the demo video below:

Oh and if you want to download it yourself, just type m.opera.com/mobile into your mobile browser.