Author: Varun Krish

Varun Krish is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast and has been blogging about mobile phones since 2005. His current phones include the Apple iPhone 13 Pro and Google Pixel 6. You can follow him on Twitter @varunkrish and on Google+ You can also mail Varun Krish

Nokia 5500 sport – smartphone announced

nokia_5500.jpgToday Nokia announced a sporty mobile phone – Nokia 5500 sport. The name of the model is 5500 Sport and is targetted at sportsmen and women.

Nokia 5500 Sport is not just an ordinary phone. It’s a full-featured smartphone with Symbian OS and S60 user interface. It is equipped with Bluetooth, Infrared port, USB support, GPRS class 10, EDGE class 10, as well as a microSD card slot that would support cards with capacities of up to 1GB. MP3 player and FM radio will please the music lovers.

The phone offers an elegant design with a splash and dust resistant stainless steel body and rubber grips. It’s water and dust resistant and has dimensions of 107x45x18 with a total weight of 103 gr. It has a square 262K colors display with a resolution of 208×208 pixels along with a 2 megapixel camera which would take pictures of up to 1600×1200 pixels resolution and record video of up to 176×144 pixels resolution.

Nokia 5500 Sport is not an ordinary smartphone, either. It has three working modes which are easily interchanged with a single press of a button – the normal phone mode along with the special music mode and sport mode. The handset features exclusive sports features such as pedometer for monitoring the distance traveled and the calories burnt, as well as a text-to-speech module which will read you the status of your workout or the contents of your incoming messages during workout. According to the official statements, the triband (GSM 900/1800/1900MHz) Nokia 5500 Sport will be available somewhere in the summer this year and will be sold at around 300EUR.

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World’s thinnest phone from Samsung

samsung_X820_1.jpgSamsung has announced thier new SGH-X820 Ultra Slim Phone. Its the world?s thinnest at a mere 6.9mm, same as the iPod Nano.Slim phones need not mean slim features.The X820 is a bar type phone with a 2 megapixel camera, camcorder, MP3 player, Bluetooth connectivity, file viewer and TV out. The slim phone will be released in Europe including Russia in this week and China in June.No clue on the pricing guys. Might be a but pricey we feel.

New N-Series From Nokia – N72 N73 and N93

nokia_n73_n93_1.jpgNokia officially announced three new N-Series mobiles – Nokia N93, Nokia N73, and Nokia N72. N93 will feature a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics with an astonishing 3x optical zoom. N73 will also boast a 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss optics camera. Both phones will have 2.4″ high definition displays. N72 will have a 2 megapixel camera and a 2.1″ display.

The first of the new mobiles and the technologically most advanced is the Nokia N93. We published some pre-release photos of N93 five months ago. N93 is successor of the popular N90 and it has a lot of improvements over its predecessor. It is based on Symbian S60 3rd Edition software and one of the most attractive features is the Carl Zeiss optics digital camera offering 3X OPTICAL zoom. The phone has 50MB internal memory, as well as a hot-swap MiniSD card slot. Among the highly advertised features of the phone will most surely be its camcorder capabilities which allow it to capture DVD-like quality videos into the MPEG4 format with 30 frames per second. Those features are backed up by digital video stabilization, 20x digital zoom, autofocus and macro mode. It will have a 262K QVGA display (N90 has higher resolution display) with wide viewing angles and will support 802.11b/g WLAN, 3G (WCDMA 2100 MHz), EDGE and GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) networks. Unfortunately, the N93 will most probably suffer the same criticism as N90 did for its large size and weight. What remains to be seen is whether the phone will also miss the vibration feature as N90 did, which would be a great disappointment to all Nokia fans.

Continue reading “New N-Series From Nokia – N72 N73 and N93”

Malaysian Khazanah might get Idea Cellular Stake

Malaysian interest in Indian telecom does not seem to be ending. After the Maxis – Aircel and Telekom Malaysia – Spice deals, there are reports that Malaysia?s state investment firm – Khazanah Nasional Bhd is in talks to buy a one-third stake in Idea Cellular.

Khazanah might take up a 33% stake conglomerate Aditya Birla was selling in Idea, Malaysia?s Edge weekly said.The Aditya Birla group has recently doubled its stake in Idea to 98% by buying out the Tatas. Birla has stated that it wants to cut its holding to 65%, but not through a sale to another mobile operator. Khazanah would be a good bet for Birla as it is a financial investor with government links.What is interesting to note here is that Telekom Malaysia, which recently bought a 49% stake in Spice, is controlled by Khazanah. Therefore, Idea and Spice will have a common investor in Khazanah if the deal goes through. Whether this leads to the merger of Idea and Spice is anybody?s guess.

Source: Money Control via [Mobile Pundit]

Sony Ericsson launches W700 and Z525

sonToday Sony Ericsson announced two new mobile phones, the W700 and Z525.
The W700 which is the 8th addition to the Walkman series, strongly reminds of the W800 model. The tri-band phone has a 1.8″ 256K colors display with 176 x 220 pixels resolution. The main difference between the new device and the W800 seems to be the smaller Memory Stick PRO Duo card that comes in the box. In this case, it’s a 256 MB one, as in the W800 box it’s 512 MB. Otherwise, the phone has a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash, but without autofocus. W700 has GPRS Class 10 support and has Bluetooth, USB and Infrared connectivity. Stereo earphones are supplied in the original package. Sony Ericsson W700 will come in Titanium Gold color as for some markets there will be a Smooth White version. It will be available in Q2 2006.

The Z525 clamshell is aimed at the US market and succeeds the Z520 model even in design. Unlike its predecessor, it will have Push-to-Talk support. The new device will have a 80 x 101 pixels resolution external display with 4K colors. The internal display will be a 1.8″ 65K colors one with 128 x 160 pixels resolution. The internal memory remains the same as in Z520 – 16 MB. The phone still has a VGA camera, MP3 & AAC support and caller ID associated light effects. The connectivity features of the quad-band Z525 are Bluetooth, USB and Infrared. Sony Ericsson Z525 will be available in New Blue around Q2 2006.

Nokia suspended the release of its 6 smartphones

The Reuters website has published the info that Nokia suspends the release of its 6 new smartphones scheduled for 1Q 2006 as it works to sort out their software. Company spokesmen said the models ? 3 of its multimedia N-series handsets and 3 E-series smartphones aimed at business class ? would start shipping to the customers in the near future.

The shipments of the N91 will start this week and that of N71 and N80 in the next two weeks. The release of the N91 smartphone was originally set for the end of 2005, however it was suspended till 1Q 2006 while the company worked on some software problems. The shipments of the business smartphones the E60, E61 and the E71 set for end of March will start in the upcoming weeks.

via [Mobile Review]

Nokia launches its Nokia Mobility Hosting solution for mobile service providers

NOKIA PRESS RELEASE April 3, 2006

Nokia adds hosting to its fast-growing Services portfolio

Launch new subscriber services more quickly and efficiently with Nokia Mobility Hosting
Las Vegas, NV (CTIA Wireless 2006), US and Espoo, Finland – Nokia today launched its Nokia Mobility Hosting solution for mobile service providers, offering them the chance to quickly roll out new, exciting services for subscribers while keeping investments in check and uncertainties to a minimum.
Separately, Nokia announced it had won a push to talk (PoC) hosting trial agreement with Mobitel Slovenia. In 2005, Nokia won push to talk hosting agreements with mobilkom austria and 3 Scandinavia, and Nokia is currently in hosting solution talks with a number of service providers across the globe.
Hosting is now starting to take off, and is expected to grow sharply in the coming years as operator competition intensifies. Research group Ovum forecasts the size of the hosting market to double to 1.35 billion euros by 2009 from around 670 million in 2005.
“As the telecommunications market converges, operators are increasingly looking in the mirror and asking themselves what sort of role they want to play in this process. They are scrutinizing their business models and asking what is a core activity and what isn’t,” said Jean-Charles Doineau, Service infrastructure practice leader, Ovum.
“We feel operating service platforms is one area that some operators will offload to outside parties in the coming years. Only a handful of vendors have started to look at the potential in this market, and Nokia is one of them,” he said.
The business environment for mobile service providers is becoming tougher, and new multimedia services are becoming increasingly complex to install and maintain. By opting for Nokia’s hosting solution, operators can focus squarely on winning and retaining subscribers by offering popular services such as PoC and multimedia messaging.
“Nokia is unmatched in its ability to serve operators’ needs, from networks to devices to services. With our global footprint of hosting centers, including the new Nokia Global Networks Solutions Center in Chennai, we are in a prime position to tap the growing hosting market and ensure the best hosted solutions for our customers,” said Patrik Sallner, Head of Hosting Service Line, Networks, Nokia.
“Thanks to our broad mobile solutions portfolio and the customer understanding we have from our Enterprise Solutions, Mobile Phones and Multimedia businesses, Nokia can help service providers accelerate the time to market of new offerings. Hosting is a partnership that benefits both sides, allowing them to share initial start-up costs and also reap rewards once the services take off,” Sallner said.
Hosting is one of the many tools that Nokia can offer operators to help grow their business in the face of ever-toughening competition and growing technological complexity. Hosting sits alongside Managed Services to form one of the main pillars of Nokia’s growing Services business unit. Nokia is a leader in the managed services market, with 39 agreements in 30 countries.
Nokia provides a full range of support and services to help operators differentiate and innovate their mobile offerings, with close to 20 years’ experience in the field. Services comprises over 30 percent of revenues in Nokia’s Networks business group, and the figure is growing.

Bluetooth Ultra Wide Band chips to appear in 2007

Bluetooth SIG (Bluetooth Special Interest Group) has said that the future high-speed version of Bluetooth standard will involve UWB (Ultra-Wideband) technology. They chose the version promoted by WiMedia Alliance ? MB-OFDM (multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing).

It will enable larger data transfer at higher speeds, including high quality multimedia content. At the same time the technology can be applied by low power devices, as for example, wireless keyboards and mices.

According to Bluetooth SIG, MB-OFDM technology complies with the requirements of low price, low power consumption, security functions and can be applied in mobile devices. The first Bluetooth/UWB chips are expected to be ready for use in protos in 2Q 2007.

Nokia 3250 starts shipping,Nokia N91 may ship in April

The first Symbian OS 9.1 Series phone and first S60 3rd Edition phone have started shipping in the form of the Nokia 3250. The 3250 is Nokia’s mid-teir music smartphone and costs 350 Euros.The Nokia N91 will start shipping in Europe in the first week of April, and follow in the Middle East and Asia in the second week of April. Shipping dates for the US market are not yet available. The Nokia N91 is Nokia’s high end music phone and will cost 700 Euros

As ever the quoted prices from Nokia re before taxes and subsidies. This means bought SIM free the phones will cost the stated amount + tax, but if subsidised by an operator they will most likely be available for less. For example the Nokia N70 pricing was around 500 Euros at launch. It is now routinely available in the UK for free when bought with a contract.

Both phones are part of the Nokia XpressMusic brand. Features include:

* Dedicated Music Buttons.
* 3.5mm headset jack (either directly or through adaptor).
* MP3, M4A, WMA, AAC and eAAC+ formats support (both phone support WMA DRM ‘Janus’ files so you can ejoy music from music subscrition services).
* 10 hours+ music listening time.
* USB 2.0 and USB Mass Storage Support for transferring music (both phones will sync with Windows Media Player).via [All About Symbian]

Designed for S60 Devices logo program launched

series 60Nokia has announced a logo for programs designed for the most popular smartphone OS – Symbian Series 60. The developers must prove that their programs are Symbian Signed or Java Verified and list the individual models that each program is compatible with. When that is done they can use this logo. This logo program will not only popularise S60 devices but also will make customers aware of the various applications available for S60 phones

According to the Nokia website:
The ?Designed for S60 Devices? logo program is set up for developer use in application marketing. The program features an S60 logo specifically designed for developer use, with the aim of making it easier for developers to communicate that a particular offering is designed for S60 devices.

Enrolling in the logo program enables you to:

  • Associate your offering with the leading smartphone platform, S60.
  • Demonstrate that your offering is designed for the S60 platform.
  • Take advantage of marketing momentum built up by S60 device manufacturers.

via [Allaboutsymbian]

New PRO Games Zone at Forum Nokia

NOKIA PRESS RELEASE Mars 20, 2006

Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone to provide advanced support for next generation of Nokia mobile gaming

New PRO developer zone, enhanced mobile games section will offer key resources and information for N-Gage, SNAP Mobile and Forum Nokia developer communities??
San Jose, CA, USA – Nokia today announced the launch of its new Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone, providing mobile developer companies seeking to tap into the $2.43 billion worldwide mobile gaming market with access to advanced knowledge and technical support in the development of games and entertainment for the growing mobile consumer market.
The new Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone, launched here during the annual Games Developer Conference (GDC), joins an expanded Mobile Games section on the Forum Nokia community website to provide comprehensive developer support for Nokia’s next generation mobile gaming initiative, designed to speed integration of all current Nokia mobile games activities, including N-Gage and Nokia’s SNAP Mobile solution for connected mobile gaming on Java(TM) technology compatible handsets.
The Forum Nokia enhanced Mobile Games section provides extensive technical and business information on mobile games development to more than 2 million registered members of Forum Nokia, the world’s largest dedicated mobile application developer community. The Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone will provide Nokia’s fee-based, 400-plus member Forum Nokia PRO developer program enhanced business development support and exclusive access to in-depth technical information, enabling participants to speed mobile games revenue growth.
According to UK research firm Informa Telecoms & Media, the mobile gaming market surpassed $2.43 billion in worldwide revenues during 2005, with Informa analysts projecting total mobile games revenues worldwide to reach nearly $4.02 billion by end-2006 and soar thereafter, topping $10.17 billion in revenues by the end of 2010 – with connected mobile gaming accounting for more than 30% of the total.
“Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone and expansion of the community games section shine a spotlight on Nokia’s mobile gaming leadership, from the first-ever mobile game — Snake, launched in 1997 — to the N-Gage platform and SNAP Mobile,” said Lee Epting, vice president, Forum Nokia. “Forum Nokia has a great history of supporting mobile game development of which the new PRO Games Zone is the latest example, further enhancing the developer offering, providing easy access to all platforms and programs related to Games in Nokia and exclusive benefits for PRO members.”
Strengthening Nokia’s games developer support within a common framework for Nokia’s next generation mobile gaming will add impetus to the growth of mobile gaming development, increase business opportunities for Forum Nokia members and attract new developers to Nokia’s mobile gaming ecosystem.
“Harnessing Forum Nokia’s expertise to provide developer technical and business support for the N-Gage platform makes perfect sense as Nokia advances its current and future games initiatives within an increasingly unified framework,” said Jani Karlsson, head of games technology strategy in Nokia Multimedia. “Forum Nokia’s launch of the new PRO Games Zone is an ideal example of the level of developer support that will help bring N-Gage’s superior mobile gaming experience to millions of smartphone users around the globe.”
“Developers interested in working with the SNAP Mobile solution will find in Forum Nokia’s PRO Games Zone all the information, tools and support needed for the quick creation of quality, connected Java mobile games,” said Lisa Waits, head of SNAP Mobile. “Access to Forum Nokia’s extensive developer support resources means that high-quality Java games titles from developers working with SNAP Mobile’s developer-friendly system will be more available to operators and more likely to get picked up and played.”
The new Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone will be administered through the Americas, EMEA and Asia regional operations of Forum Nokia PRO and joins other specialized developer offerings launched by Forum Nokia PRO over the past year – including the Forum Nokia PRO: Flash Zone, the Forum Nokia PRO Symbian Zone, the Forum Nokia PRO Enterprise Zone and Forum Nokia PRO Networks Zone.
Forum Nokia PRO offers developer companies access to valuable business development and technical support resources, including events, marketing and public relations support, technical platform roadmaps, discounted devices, pre-release tools, SDKs and code samples for Java, C++/Symbian OS or SNAP Mobile developers,? as well as increased awareness in Nokia channels and joint-marketing activities. Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone benefits also will include access to specialized resources, such as games-specific market research and reports and technical games roadmap.
Further information on developer tools, resources and technical documentation available through Forum Nokia PRO and the Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone can be found online at https://pro.forum.nokia.com/site/global/home/prozones/p_prozones.jsp. More information on the expanded resources available to developers through the enhanced Mobile Games section of the Forum Nokia website also can be found online at http://www.forum.nokia.com/games.
Developers wishing to learn more about Forum Nokia and the Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone can also visit Nokia executives at Booth #616 during the Games Developer Conference at the San Jose Convention Center, March 20-24.
About Forum Nokia
Nokia’s global developer program, Forum Nokia connects developers to tools, technical information, support, and distribution channels they can use to build and market applications around the globe. From offices in the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, and Singapore, Forum Nokia provides technical and business development support to developers and operators to assist them in achieving their goal of successfully launching applications and services to consumers and enterprises. More information is available at www.forum.nokia.com.

Nokia’s SNAP to simplify online gaming on mobiles

NOKIA PRESS RELEASE Mars 20, 2006

Nokia simplifies creation of online gaming communities for Java(TM) technology games

Nokia’s SNAP Mobile offers a full-featured turnkey solution that builds on the social aspects of mobile gaming
San Jose, CA, USA – Nokia, the leader in mobile communications, announced today the launch of a business solution that enables operators and publishers to create online communities for mobile Java games in days, rather than months. Operators who choose SNAP Mobile’s Starter Kit or Standard Package can have their users hosted on the SNAP Mobile Community, a full-featured, generic website, which creates an online gaming community almost instantly.
SNAP Mobile offers a full-featured, turnkey gaming community infrastructure that connects mobile gamers via Nokia’s SNAP Mobile gaming platform. Building on the inherent social aspects of mobile phones, these communities can be accessed by gamers’ PC web browsers and internet-enabled phones.
“Mobile technology was born out of the fact that people are social by nature and demand the ability to communicate outside of their offices and family rooms,” said Lisa Waits, Head of Nokia SNAP Mobile.? “We asked why shouldn’t mobile gaming offer the same and we’re answering with our plug and play community solution for operators and publishers that will deliver a seamless, social experience for gamers.”
Nokia’s SNAP Mobile online communities give mobile gamers the ability to communicate in-game with friends, strangers and co-workers all the time, anytime, and deliver a variety of in- and out-of-game features. In-game, players will have their own unique user identities, as well as features such as friend lists, presence, rankings, chat and instant messaging. Out-of-game, users will not only have the ability to maintain their unique user identities and view rankings, but will also have at their disposal news and events, message boards, and featured gamepages.
In addition to being a win for mobile gamers, SNAP Mobile provides operators and publishers with a highly effective, low-cost way opportunity to increase online usage and downloadable game sales.
“At the heart of our commitment to offering online communities was the requirement that this offering be easy to implement,” continued Waits. “We want to bring long-term solutions and easy to use technology to a broad base of players in the mobile content market. The result is happy operators and publishers as well as ecstatic, connected gamers.”
Nokia’s SNAP Mobile is the ideal hosted solution for operators who want to create a gaming community site quickly, with no configuration hassles or up-front costs. Operators choosing SNAP Mobile’s Premium Package provides a community website that can be fully customized to suit the operator’s needs. A generic version is also available for more rapid deployment.
For more information on the Nokia’s SNAP Mobile online communities, please visit www.snapmobile.nokia.com

Nokia debuts new mobile gaming solutions and experiences at GDC Mobile

NOKIA PRESS RELEASE Mars 20, 2006

Nokia debuts new mobile gaming solutions and experiences at GDC Mobile

First look at new developer tools and consumer interface for next generation mobile gaming platform
San Jose, CA, USA – Nokia today unveiled a new software development kit (SDK) and consumer interface for its next generation mobile gaming platform. The new tools and consumer interface are designed to empower the mobile games industry to create high quality 3D mobile games for Nokia smartphones.
“Our new SDK contains familiar tools for developers, making it easy to focus on doing what they do best – creating great mobile games,” said Gregg Sauter, Director, Games Publishing, Nokia. “Our platform lets developers put their games in millions of pockets worldwide and these new tools ensure developers can get on board to take advantage of this fantastic business opportunity.”
Nokia also showcased its next generation mobile gaming consumer interface, showing how consumers can easily discover, purchase, play, manage and share the best mobile games.
“With our new consumer interface, you get quick access to new games and information, it’s easy to buy and manage your games, and share game accomplishments with your friends. You can play fantastic looking games for a great overall entertainment experience in your pocket. This new consumer interface is going to transform the way people find and play mobile games,” continued Sauter.
The new developer tools include Game Development Libraries, based on C++ programming libraries, which will be available across multiple devices. The Game Development Libraries can be updated on the devices for resolving compatibility issues, and adding new features, including industry standard DRM solutions for content protection with minimal integration. Developers can also take advantage of the real-time connected gaming and community features enabled by the N-Gage Arena.
Nokia provides a professional development environment with debugging and analyzing tools such as on target real-time debugging and profiling over USB. Developers also have access to world class developer support through the new Forum Nokia PRO Games Zone launched today.
Nokia’s next generation mobile games platform is expected to launch in the first half of 2007, with a range of titles and devices.

Sify enables mobile commerce with NGPay

GPRS users can now shop on SifyMall over their phones. www.sifymall.com, the leading online shopping portal from Sify Limited, today announced that millions of mobile phone users on GPRS services will be able to buy a wide range of products and services over their phones starting today.

To enable this easy to use and path breaking initiative, SifyMall has tied up with JiGrahak, a mobility solutions provider, and will be using JiGrahak?s m-Commerce/m-Payment platform ?NGPay? (Next Generation Pay).

Speaking on the launch of this mobile shopping initiative, Surya Mantha, Senior Vice President, Interactive Services, said, ?We are happy to be working with JiGrahak in bringing secure m-Commerce services to the millions of mobile subscribers using GPRS services in India. With the Indian mobile subscriber base growing at the rate of about 2 million users a month, and expected to touch 200 million by 2007, the potential for mobile shopping is huge. We expect to grow the mobile shopping service space with this “one-of-its kind” offering, and work towards being a leader in this area.

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