Nokia (NYSE: NOK) unveiled a cool service called Nokia Point & Find with the idea to sort of, kind of, merge mobile and real worlds, by allowing users to access relevant information and services, simply by pointing their mobile phone camera at real-life objects.
Although the service is still in beta and is focused on movies and users in the UK and US, you must admit it sounds cool. Best of all, the Finnish giant created Nokia Point & Find as an open service platform on which other companies can build upon. That said, Nokia is inviting all interested parties for a discussion to jointly create “unique user experiences.”
The service relies on an advanced real-time image processing and recognition technologies to link the user to digital content and services. Among the features included are bar code recognition,
GPS, as well as the support for category-specific text-entry search.
Here’s exactly how Nokia Point & Find works:
When a phone is pointed at an object, the service uses a variety of the phone’s capabilities including the camera, internet connectivity, and GPS positioning to evaluate the object. Then, by searching through a database of virtually tagged items, the system identifies the object and returns a set of links to associated content and services.
Apparently businesses dig the idea and I guess it’s fair to say we’ll hear more on the service in the near future. In the meantime, there’s a dedicated mini site with more information, from where you can also download the beta application (selected phones, only – see site for details).
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced a new entry-level candybar for T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USA – Nokia 1661. There’s nothing too exciting about this device, except that it may help the Finnish giant expand its U.S. market share, at least a little.
Specs wise, there’s a dual-band GSM radio on board, 1.8-inch 128×160 pixels screen, FM radio, speakerphone, flashlight, and a battery that can sustain up to 8 hours of talk and up to 624 hours of standby time. Pre-installed on the device are two games – Sudoku and Mobile Soccer.
There’s no word on the pricing, but we’re thinking the Nokia 1661 will be available for free on a contract, or for about $50 sans any contracts signed. Release date is set for “later this month.”
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Labs has released a new free application called Nokia Photo Browser for Symbian S60 5th edition devices – 5800 XpressMusic and the upcoming N97. As you can figure out for yourself, the app is developed to allow users to do a simple task – browse through photos on their device. The twist is in such things as the quick and easy-to-use UI, as well as some other cool features like “Face browsing” and “MagGlass” magnifier.
The first of the two features mentioned uses face detection technology to find people faces from pictures, allowing you to quickly finger flick through all the faces in an image. The “MagGlass” magnifier on its end adds that analog look and feel to zooming…
Enough said, a short demo after the jump will certainly entice you to download Nokia Photo Browser to your Tube. Version for non-touchscreen, S60 3rd Edition smartphones is in works, too. Enjoy!
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has announced that their email solution, Nokia Messaging, is now supporting Windows Live Hotmail, allowing users of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s popular webmail service to manage their email from their Nokia mobile phone. Hotmail is joining other services supported by Nokia Messaging — Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL Mail, and thousands of other email providers.
Along with announcing support for the new service, the Finnish giant also said that Nokia Messaging is coming to the touch-enabled Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Moreover, the application will be available on 20 other models — including the Nokia E75 which will be the first device to come preloaded with Nokia Messaging, Nokia E71, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia N79; as well as the upcoming devices such as the Nokia E55, Nokia N97 and Nokia N86 8MP.
Well, AT&T (NYSE: T) just went official with their spring lineup, and totally stole all of our fun of speculating over blurry pictures and digging around for specs. Over “the coming weeks” we should be seeing the following on AT&T:
Nokia E71x: Long-awaited enterprise messaging device
Fans of the slide-and-tilt Nokia N97 will be happy to hear that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has posted a new video walk-through that shows off some new N97 screens and transitions.
The video presents a convincingly intuitive and sleek touch-based UI, which Nokia suggests helps make the Nokia N97 the “ultimate internet device.” Having had a little time to actually put hands on the Nokia N97, we’re going to go ahead and give Nokia its due.
Obopay, a company which facilitates payments by SMS in the U.S. and India, just recieved a cash infusion from handset giant Nokia (NYSE: NOK) for the estimated sum of $70 million. As a result of the investment, Nokia’s head of corporate business development, Teppo Paavolo, will have a seat on Obopay’s board. How Nokia flexes their muscle with Obopay is yet to be seen, but it sounds to me like Nokia has found a new partner for the Ovi Store. BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) has opted for the more established PayPal for their upcoming App World, but Nokia has tended to think a bit more outside of the box. It will be interesting to see if Nokia finds other points of integration with Obopay…
EA Mobile’s Need For Speed: Undercover is hitting Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s N-Gage, bringing the single most popular racing franchise to the platform.
The latest offering in EA’s award-winning franchise locks drivers in a frenetic duel with the law as they rip through the city in eight iconic rides, including the Porsche 911 Turbo and the Nissan GT-R. The streets become a racer’s playground as players blaze a trail through four distinct urban environments in classic Circuit, Sprint (NYSE: S), Speed Camera, Highway Battle and Bounty events.
Sounds cool? I’m not a big fan of racing games but I always enjoyed Need For Speed because of its arcade elements. The game is already available through N-Gage client in the Showroom. If you don’t see it there, you’ll need to update the client first (Options > Update)…
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has just released an update for their ActiveSync Exchange synchronization, with quite the updated feature list.
• Access Point Groups/Destinations – Mail for Exchange can now actively switch between WiFi and GPRS connections automatically if your phone supports Destinations. This feature is only available on S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 and S60 5th Edition phones. To identify your device, visit this site: (See your phone User Guide for details about Destinations.)
• Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, are disabled by default on new installs. This is to prevent users from inadvertently losing Calendar, Contacts and Task data.
• When editing your Out of Office (OoO) message on the the device, Mail for Exchange retrieves the current OoO message from the server when the setting/tab is accessed and OoO is set to “Yes”, instead of periodically as in previous versions. This may cause a short delay and requires connectivity with the server.
• Much better battery life in adverse network conditions. If the Mail for Exchange client can’t maintain a connection to the Exchange Server, it automatically switches to polling every 15 minutes. The client will switch back to Always on at the next scheduled period.
• Mail for Exchange setting tabs are no longer dynamically displayed, instead all tabs are always displayed.
• Manage your device by name instead of IMEI via Outlook Web Access (OWA) email client (if account allows). Users of OWA can perform device management features on their phone clients such as wiping the device. The phone model name is now visible in the status field. This is helpful for users who are synchronizing several phones.
• Pictures in contacts are now synchronized.
Enterprise push e-mail on something other than a BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM)? Yeah, waddayaknow, it happens – in fact, the E71 is extremely popular, and these are decent additions for those who depend on them for business. Hit up Nokia’s E-mail for Enterprise download site to get everything up-to-date.
Just when we thought AT&T and Nokia finally agreed to push the E71 States wide, something went wrong. Apparently, there are some problems related to email/Mail for Exchange syncing which will require a firmware upgrade. As a result, AT&T (NYSE: T) may postpone the launch for up to 8 weeks.
And while this is generally a sad news, we also have a good thing to share. According to Boy Genius Report, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is pushing hard for $149.99 price point and it seems that will happen after all. On its side, AT&T should definitely be interested to bring Nokia’s QWERTY keyboard baby as soon as possible, as we’ve also heard it will bundle it with a $30 a month data plan.
Hopefully, we’ll at least see the Nokia E71x announced (if not released) at the upcoming CTIA in Vegas. Stay tuned…
Obopay, a company which facilitates payments by SMS in the U.S. and India, just recieved a cash infusion from handset giant Nokia (
