We had heard the N-Gage would be getting Spore Origins sooner or later, but EA was obviously more interested in getting it onto Windows Mobile and the iPhone first. Still, Will Wright’s latest brainchild is a welcome addition to the N-Gage library; Spore Origins is the first stage of the desktop game, where you play a microorganism trying valiantly to survive in a viciously competitive primordial soup which is populated by lifeforms created by other users and shared automatically online. As you evolve, you add more bits to your creature to customize its defensive and offensive capabilities, often resulting in a unique and bizarre specimen. If you dig it, be sure to check out the full Spore game, it’s a ton of fun. Hit up N-Gage to grab your copy.

[via NokNok]

Sprint is losing more than just customers and profits this year. The struggling US wireless carrier has just lost its CDMA network chief with the resignation of John Garcia.

Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel’s CDMA network accounts for the bulk of the company’s bottom line, and it goes without saying that the Sprint side of Sprint Nextel’s operations needs some tender loving care to get out of the red. Garcia’s sudden resignation on Friday leaves Sprint Nextel without captain to guide the wayward ship through rough waters. Sprint says that Keith Cowan, President of strategy and corporate development, will take the helm until a permanent replacement for Garcia can be found.

The resignation of John Garcia might be seen as a positive sign for the ailing Sprint network. The carrier’s current strategy obviously isn’t working, and a new CDMA chief might be just the solution to lead the good-ship Sprint back to profitable waters. Sprint Nextel has undergone some significant leadership changes since CEO Dan Hesse took over control of the company and Garcia’s resignation is just another step in Sprint’s apparent restructuring effort.

No reason was given for Garcia’s Friday resignation.

[Via: CellularNews]

It was only a matter of time before the recently launched T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) G1 got the dissection-treatment from someone with the gall to tear-apart their brand new Android smartphone. This time around, it was Tech-On that managed to muster courage to dissect their T-Mobile G1 for the good of geeks everywhere.

Tech-On ran into a bit of trouble during their tear-down, requiring them to literally rip the T-Mobile G1’s chassis apart, despite the best efforts of two screws to hold the handset together. We’d never be able to do such harm to any of our handsets, but the dissection yielded some interesting results - all in the name of science… sorta.

The T-Mobile G1, manufactured by HTC, bears HTC logos within the device, as expected. Interestingly, the G1’s radio antenna was comprised of a spiral-cut ribbon that was hidden within the chassis itself. The trackball was found to be the same as those used on BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) handsets - a bit of a surprise, but it makes sense given the trackball’s similar feel.

Head on over to Tech-On to see their full T-Mobile G1 tear-down coverage.

[Via: Tech-On]

I’ve been with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) for close to half a year now and in that time span I’ve had dinner with my international team twice. It’s always nice to break bread with the people you’ve been working with over email, instant messenger and on the phone.

The first dinner was just that, dinner. We found a restaurant, we ordered a meal and some beer, talked about work, life, the industry and then went our separate ways.

The second dinner however was a team building event. Nokia booked a chef who then split us up into groups that had everyone take part in creating a portion of the meal we would be collectively enjoying. To say I enjoyed that evening more would be an understatement; it was fantastic.

Why do I bring this up?

I’ve been to the S60 Summit before, the operating system that powers devices like the Nokia N95, and now that I’ve come home from Berlin where the first Maemo Summit was held I feel that the different experiences between the two Summits reflect the dinner served versus dinner created analogy.

Read the full article »

Given all the recent departures of Senior Motorola (NYSE: MOT) staff (here and here, for example), it’s nice to see Moto hiring new bods to (hopefully) bring them back to the dominant force that they were.

In this case, Marketing Week is reporting that Moto has hired former BT Vision Sales Director Simon Collinson, as “Director of Marketing Strategy” for EMEA. This apparently comes amidst the recruitment of up to 15 new roles in to the Marketing function.

There is some suggestion that these new hires are part of a restructure being put in place, in advance of the supposed spin-off of the handset division next year.

Rock on Moto, keep coming back with full force I say!

[Via: Marketing Week]

Good news for all you Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N-Gage fans looking to get your Nokia N96 hooked up with all the mobile gaming resources of Nokia’s N-Gage platform. First, you’re apparently well ahead of the curve with that Nokia N96 in your hand. Second, Nokia has made good on their promise to offer multiple handsets with N-Gage compatibility in announcing that N-Gage is now available for the Nokia XpressMusic 5320, Nokis N78, and Nokia N96.

We’re sure there aren’t too many of you running around with Nokia N96’s in your pockets, but for those of you rocking the frequently updated Nokia N78, just know that N-Gage is now a go.

No word on the Nokia N73, N93, and N93i getting N-Gage support as of yet. But, here’s to hoping Nokia expands their N-Gage lineup to include older handsets.

Nokia N-Gage 

[Via: AllAboutSymbian]

Now and again at IntoMobile Towers, we do get the odd random story in - the one below is right up there with them, and is about underwater Mobile TV viewing - yes, you heard it right….

Apparently Japanese manufacturer Fujitsu (OTCPK: FJTSY) has created the Fujitsu F706i, which is a waterproof mobile that can receive digital TV signals (whilst underwater!). Now quite why you would want to watch Mobile TV underwater is beyond me, but then again it could just be that these are unrelated featues on the phone…..

Some brief specs are:

* HSDPA support
* 1-Seg mobile TV
* Waterproof up to 3m
* 2.7″ display
* 2 megapixel camera
* microSD/SDHC memory card slot

All very nice, but I am waiting for the first review where the reviewer watches TV whilst in the bath, and then decides to re-charge the device at the same time - I’m sure I remember reading somewhere that water and electricity don’t mix well n’est pas?

[Via: cell phones etc]

Well, talk about nipping controversy in the bud. Just a couple days after Nokia enthusiasts started to get all riled up over having their Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N-Gage games locked to a single handset, Nokia has up and announced that they’ll make sure that N-Gage games can be transferred between multiple handsets.

Nokia previously said that N-Gage titles are tied to the handset through which they were purchased:

“N-Gage activation codes only work on the device where they were first activated. As with any digital media there is a potential risk of piracy and this policy is one of the ways Nokia is dealing with piracy and ensuring partners receive their rightful revenues from its platform. If users need to repair their device, the activation codes will be reissued. Also, if you purchase a new N-Gage compatible device, you will need to purchase your games again.”

But, with Nokia fans up in arms over being forced to re-buy games for new handsets, Nokia has flipped an about face and backpedaled on their previous statement. The games can be transferred through customer service in the near-term, but rest assured that Nokia is working on a long-term solution to make sure that N-Gage customers can play their purchased game titles on multiple mobile phones.

Here’s what Nokia has to say about transferring N-Gage games:

“We have noticed a number of media stories about N-Gage game transfers and wanted to clarify the issue. Due to copy protection, N-Gage games, like most mobile games, are linked to one device. As the value of content increases, a robust copy protection mechanism is essential as it makes it possible for the games industry to invest in N-Gage content.

We acknowledge our customers’ concerns and have been working on a solution that would allow people to transfer purchased N-Gage games to a new Nokia device. We are working with our Nokia Care Centers with an intermediate solution to enable the licensed transfers of games until a final solution is ready to be deployed.

We apologise for the confusion around this issue and look forward to delivering an appropriate solution to transfer purchased N-Gage games to new Nokia devices.”

It’s not clear when, exactly, Nokia will be allowing users to transfer their games, but it shouldn’t take too long.

It’s good to see a huge company like Nokia actually listening to customer complaints and criticism throughout the blogosphere and doing something that helps the consumer. At the end of the day, the customer that purchased the game title deserves to do whatever they wish with the software.

[Via: N-Gage Blog]

dotMobi, the mobile domain name consortium, has hoovered up the IP and site, of Mowser, a service that has been publicly EOL’d (End-of-lifed) only recently. General opinion is that the buy-out is a good thing, with both parties (here and here) blogging that they are very happy with the end result.

For those of you that don’t know, Mowser is short for “Mobile Browser”, and the website (here) offers you the ability to use it as a kind of “proxy portal”, which reformats web content to work on a mobile browser. There are lots of these kinds of services about, but this one seems to work pretty well.

dotMobi will integrate Mowser in to it’s newly-announced find.Mobi service - which is a mobile search engine that you can reach by typing http://find.mobi/ (surprisingly enough!)

[Via: TechCrunch]

 Arun Sarin (Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) CEO ) has said any content providers wishing to launch D2C (direct to consumer) services will always have to work with Vodafone.

Apparently, speaking to the Financial Times, Sarin stated that the ‘unique gift’ of billing secures it and other operators against becoming “dumb pipe” for data - for examples from those such as Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Nokia (NYSE: NOK), and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL).

He said: “The simple fact that we have the customer and billing relationship is a hugely powerful thing that nobody can take away from us. Whoever comes into the marketplace is going to have to work through us.”

The original FT article also noted that Vodafone holds valuable CRM data about their customers, plus info for location-based services - which is a fair comment.

What do IntoMobile readers make of this? It’s easy to see both sides of the argument for Content/Service providers working with, or “ignoring” the Operators - but which will win out? Will it be context-dependent? Your thoughts are most welcome in our comments section!

[Via: Mobile-Ent.biz]