As Nokia continues to rebuild itself from the ground up, the company is paying special attention to its marketing. Remember the days when there was the Nokia Sans typeface, well you can say goodbye to that as the company is moving on with a more streamlined typeface; one that many are claiming is more in line with what Microsoft has to offer for its Windows Phone 7 fonts.
The company has gone ahead and published an 800-word justification for why it decided to dump Nokia Sans and in turn replace it with Nokia Pure. According to the article, the new font is described as “beauty in supreme usability.” An excerpt from the company’s blog reads as follows:
Nokia Pure also needed to feel open, inviting and friendly, reflecting Nokia’s heritage in approachable, human design. So we were after organic, flowing forms – nothing stressed, mechanical or too obviously ‘on trend’. There were other considerations too, notably that the design should translate across many different alphabets – everything from Greek and Cyrillic, to Arabic and Japanese. And because creating a new typeface is such a huge investment in time, skill and money, we had to have one capable of doing its job for at least a decade.
Of course this is coming just a few months after the company officially announced it would be dropping support for the aging Symbian OS and in turn use Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 to power their devices from here on out. Could it be that Mr. Elop is trying to make sure that the font of the company and that of WP7 look matched on their boxing and not necessarily out of place as has been the case on many an Android device? Honestly we don’t know, and frankly we couldn’t care, as long as this translates into a good blend of hardware and software, we’re good.
Every company seems to be making a tablet these days and Nokia is no exception. It has not been uncommon knowledge that Nokia has been looking into the tablet market for some time. Thanks to a patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, we have a bit more evidence of the company’s aspirations and plans.
The federal agency recently published the documents for the patent that was filed May 28th 2010. That said, it should be noted that the design is probably a MeeGo machine that was set for world domination but was probably shelved thanks to the move towards Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 system.
Unfortunately there are not design specs concerning the device, but judging from the 3.5mm port on the side, we’re pegging this at a 9 or 10 inch slate with a couple of ports which judging from size could be USB, HDMI, SD card and SIM slot.
Although the company has not come outright and claimed the existence or the lack thereof of the device, it has been widely thought that Nokia decided to shelve the idea, at least for the time being as it takes up Windows Phone 7 as it looks to compete better with the iPhone and Android line of phones.
If Nokia plans to manufacture such a device in the future is not sure although the company has said it plans to manufacture a MeeGo device, smartphone, by the end of the year for developer’s purpose. Nokia has continued to iterate that it is still dedicated to maintain MeeGo and work with Intel on bringing devices to the market, but it will be placing more priority on Windows Phone 7. Hopefully the company decides to offer some more details about this tablet in the future.
In light of Nokia’s new partnership, many have been wondering if the company is dumping its joint venture of MeeGo with Intel altogether. Thankfully for those who are interested, the company has reaffirmed its dedication to the new platform and has hinted that there will be at least one MeeGo device on the market before the end of 2011.
We’re now hearing that even though Nokia officially scrapped the MeeGo packing N9, it will bring the forthcoming OS to the N900 series. Jukka Eklund, Nokia’s developer edition product manager released the news in an email to MeeGo developers and it reads as follows.
“Basically we want to have MeeGo running in N900 device, so that it’s really usable as your daily development device. Basic Handset UX should work, phone calls, SMS, web browsing. So we are concentrating on a few selected features and polish those to be perfect. It might mean that we leave out some things in MeeGo 1.2 trunk for this edition, but that is not the default intention. We are doing this fully on the open, and I hope this is an interesting project where we all in the community work towards the same goal: have a great MeeGo edition in the N900.”
This should be a breath of fresh air to prospective developers who have been scared of their minds thanks to the recent matrimony of the Finnish and Redmond based company, and it doesn’t help that Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop, recently styled the MeeGo platform as a “disruptive technology.” What he means by that, we have no idea but it could hint that the company’s R&D team has been given internal orders to spend more time developing Windows Phone 7 devices and put MeeGo on the back burner.
Augmented reality is one of those technology concepts that sound exceptionally awesome on paper but until recently has been taking a little longer than expected to hit mainstream devices. However, it looks like the adaptation of augmented reality might be moving a bit faster than we thought thanks to the Layar, one of the highest profile augmented reality apps, currently on Android and iOS finally coming to Nokia devices, those that run Symbian at least.
As we speak, the Layar Reality Browser is live on Nokia’s Ovi Store for handsets like the Nokia N8 and Nokia E7. For those new to the Layer concept, it is one of many AR apps which allow you to overlay digital content and information on the view of the real world through the phones camera. Developers can than create individual layers for the app (which gives it its name) and each layer display something different. For instance, you have layers that allow you to see local tweets while others show the property prices or shopping data of nearby real estate and stores. There are game layers and for those who are Beatles fans, a theme of said band which contains a tour of London.
In order to utilize the app, you will need a GPS equipped Symbian handset with a front facing camera, compass and accelerometer. Currently, Layer supports the following Nokia handsets, the N97, N97 mini, N8, C7, C6-01 and the E7.
“We are proud to help bring augmented reality to the masses, and with Nokia and Symbian — which remain juggernauts in the mobile industry with millions of users and devices in the market — we are significantly closer to that goal,” said CEO of Layer Der Klein.
So if you’re into the augmented reality fad, get moving to the Ovi Store from your compatible device and begin downloading.
Nokia rocked the mobile industry a couple weeks ago when it announced that it would be adopting Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform would be power it’s smartphones from here on out. Included in the deal between the industry giants, Nokia is given special privileges to modify Windows Phone 7 as much as they like (although they have said modification will be minimal so as to speed up production time). The Ovi Store will be integrated with the Windows Phone 7 marketplace and Ovi Maps will be powering Bing Maps from here on out. This will not only give Nokia much needed leverage to compete against Android and iOS (Apple) but Microsoft will give Nokia the ability to once again reclaim their dominance in the mobile phone department.
Even though that is the case, Nokia has said it is committed to sticking with MeeGo and has hinted that it would be releasing a MeeGo device by the end of 2011. “There’s a lot of really interesting user interface design work… and some very elegant hardware,” in the N950, said Rich Green, Nokia’s CTO.
Nokia has said that the Nokia N950 will be geared at developers and as such will be used as a developer platform for the Qt/Linux platform. Even though such is the case, Nokia has said that Qt will not work on Windows Phone 7 and as such developers who want to see their apps hit Nokia’s next generation of smartphones will have to in turn switch to Microsoft’s development tools.
The N950 is set to hit developers and anyone else who is interested by the end of the year and if we’re to believe rumors, it could coincide with the first MeeGo tablets powered by Intel which is also slated to hit production around the same time.
So the updates are out and here is what we have. To start things out there is Social 1.2 which has photo and video uploaded improvements. Ovi Store2.0 is preloaded along with Ovi Maps. QuickOffice 6.4.166 will be there along with improved zooming functions. The dialer will now work in landscape mode as well as you can change the phones wallpaper directly from the options on the home screen. The music player has also been enhanced thanks to a new screen saver that shows track name and a bay of cycled colors.
Fixes include the animated screen saver now being removed as well as the charging indicator giving fals messages when charging with the device powered off.
The size of the update is 170MB so if you have a limited data plan, we would suggest downloading the update from the Ovi Suite.
It has been hotly anticipated for quite some time now and thanks to much delay, many have grown impatient of waiting. That said, those who endured to the end and did not fall temptation to Android or iOS can now rejoice that the Nokia E7 has started to ship around the world.
Nokia’s newest powerhouse which is geared to business users and any other individual who requires a keyboard in addition to a touchscreen is finally making its way out of warehouses. The device is almost as thin as the Nokia N8, however, there is a 42 key, four row QWERTY keyboard which should make typing up those legal forms and editing those Excel spreadsheets a breeze.
Thanks to the AMOLED screen, the phone gets better visibility during direct sunlight and thanks to the ClearBlack Display technology, the black on the LCD is even blacker and colors are more vibrant, kind of like Samsung’s Super AMOLED and Apple’s IPS screen technology. The technology also helps the phone to eliminate reflections which can be a real problem when using the phone under direct sunlight.
On the back is a full 8-megapixel camera that comes with dual-LED flash and can shoot HD video at 720p. Thanks to the HDMI adapter, you will be able to hoot up your phone to any HDMI capable screen and show off your HD videos and pictures as well as give a presentation right from the phone.
Last but not least there is 16GB of onboard memory with microSD slots so it can be upped to a maximum of 32GB. You also get USB-on-the-go which allows you to attach USB memory sticks to the device. And for cellular technology, there is 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi as well as HSDPA with speeds of 10.2Mbps.
The Samsung made, Google branded Nexus S is not due to arrive in the UK until later this December (many are already marking the 20th on their calendars). In any case, the phone is going to definitely arrive and it is making plenty of news each day. Just a while back, several Nexus S smart phones have been strapped into special protective containers and launched up to 30,000 feet into the atmosphere –which is actually pretty high.
The devices were then released where their fall had been broken by a specially made parachute. The move was done as part of an experiment to prove that the handset could survive a vacuum –which it did.
Speaking of the Nexus S and the Android OS, the Gingerbread version has specialized voice recognition that has been designed specifically for the system to be able to learn the audio pattern of a specific user. This is very important as it allows the Android to be able to recognize specific words and intonations –thereby making other voice command features more efficient.
Nokia and HTC have both confirmed that their game plan for the coming 2011 is to include a good array of touch screen tablets on their lineup. While this is a good plan for HTC which has both the Android and the Windows Phone 7 platforms to use. Nokia still has yet to prove that either the Symbian or the MeeGo platforms are good enough for a large touch screen device like a tablet.
With LTE technology right now being focused on 4G communications, there is no surprise that many companies are looking into developing phones fully equipped with the hardware that is projected to be future necessities. While the average life of a phone is about 2 years, there are many who opt to trade in for new unit a lot earlier –which makes the point of buying phones for the LTE features somewhat moot.
Officially, Nokia is still the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, but the Finnish phone maker is losing its touch. Early this year, many industry analysts have already predicted that the Symbian platform will not be able to stand against the Apple iOS and more importantly, the Google Android.
Android’s growth is so fast and huge that it has even been said that even the Symbian OS’ large distribution will be surpassed in a couple of years. While Nokia has been confirmed to be working closely with chip maker Intel in order to make the MeeGo operating system powerful, fast and efficient, they still have yet to show a device running the platform. Nokia is going to have a hard time keeping its place on top of the list with the competition growing stronger each day.
But are Nokia’s short term plans going to cut it? Many doubt that the current plans hold any good promises for the company. Take the upcoming Nokia touch screen tablet device. So far, we have no details on what this device is going to be, but considering the fact that Nokia will have to compete with the iPad, Galaxy Tab, Playbook and several other already impressive devices (but mostly the iPad and any good Android tablet), they are not going to make an easy entry. Microsoft has also stated that they will be launching a Windows 7 tablet as well so that is certainly something that Nokia would want to factor in before they step into the fray.
As for mobile phones –Nokia’s strong point, they only have a little grasp of the smart phone industry. While the rest of their low end phones are selling splendidly –which is what probably keeps Nokia afloat, their smart phone offerings are lackluster. Not to mention delayed, the Nokia N8 too almost half a year to launch and the upcoming E7 seems to be delayed by a full quarter and the N-series N9 is still nowhere in sight.
Finnish phone maker Nokia has been in a bit of a bind this year. They have been affected by delays, bad reviews and of course, a growing degree of consumer disinterest. Indeed, this year has not been good for the world’s largest phone maker.
But despite the fact that the Symbian OS is losing ground (especially now that the Symbian Foundation has become a licensing organization), Nokia still intends to break new grounds in the smart phone industry. During the 2010 International Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, Gunther Kottzieper (Senior Manager) has confirmed that the company has plenty of new and exciting plans for the coming year.
The user interface of the Symbian OS will certainly be a prime target of updates, providing users with better accessibility and controls. Of course, new phones are also part of the big plans. Right now, with all the focus on the NVIDIA Tegra, there is little surprise that Nokia plans to launch new dual core handsets to take advantage of the new technology. A new camera phone with actual zoom lens is also in the works as well.
In other news, Froyo updates will be coming to a couple of Android smart phones. The first is for the Dell Streak, which is due to come out later this week. According to owners of the handset with a massive touch screen, this is going to be a major plus for the device that has not been updated to Android 2.1 Éclair at all despite being launched as a 1.6 Donut handset.
Another Android device will be getting the Froyo: the HTC Magic. Vodafone UK owners will be happy to know that the HTC Magic has not been forgotten and an update to the OS for the longest time –it is one of the oldest Androids around next to the Dream.
Unfortunately there are not design specs concerning the device, but judging from the 3.5mm port on the side, we’re pegging this at a 9 or 10 inch slate with a couple of ports which judging from size could be USB, HDMI, SD card and SIM slot.
So the updates are out and here is what we have. To start things out there is Social 1.2 which has photo and video uploaded improvements. Ovi Store2.0 is preloaded along with Ovi Maps. QuickOffice 6.4.166 will be there along with improved zooming functions. The dialer will now work in landscape mode as well as you can change the phones wallpaper directly from the options on the home screen. The music player has also been enhanced thanks to a new screen saver that shows track name and a bay of cycled colors.
The 
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Finnish phone maker