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Nokia tablet gets approved by the FCC with AT&T and Verizon LTE
We have to hand it to Nokia: the company faces an acquisition by Microsoft in the very near future, but it's still got a few tricks up its sleeves. The FCC just approved a mystery device known as the RX-114, and Nokia's team did an incredible job of dressing up the paperwork so as to hide all clues of what it really was -- that is, right up until the last page of a 167-page document full of bland measurements and technical graphs. What you see above is official confirmation that Nokia is indeed working on a tablet, complete with diagrams of the device along with specific references to its slate-like state. (Forgive the fuzzy print; the diagrams are pretty small, so we enlarged them.) What else do we know? The docs confirm that the tablet features LTE with support for bands 2, 4, 5, 13 and 17, along with a full suite of HSPA+ and GSM / EDGE. This means that regardless of which carrier actually picks up this particular device (frequency support doesn't guarantee carrier coverage, and no networks have confirmed that they'll be selling it), it technically will work on Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Of course, we've already seen purported leaks that show the Windows RT device with Big Red branding, so it's not a far stretch to believe this is still in the works for one or more US providers. We'll continue to parse the paperwork for other cleverly hidden clues, but this at least confirms what we already suspected -- and if we had to guess, we have a strong suspicion that we'll be seeing this beaut in the flesh at Nokia World in Abu Dhabi on October 22nd.
Nokia design chief spending a third of his time on future tablet
Nokia design chief Marko Ahtisaari wasn't going to be drawn on details and release dates, but he has revealed that a tablet from the (predominantly) phone-focused company was definitely in the works -- and taking up a fair chunk of his time. In an interview with Finnish magazine Kauppalehti Optio, Ahtisaari said that he was looking to create a new device that would stand out from the increasingly packed tablet crowd. The full interview isn't online just yet, but the teaser adds that the head of design is also involved in a new 'revolutionary' user experience that means you wouldn't have to be constantly arched over your phone -- whatever that involves. A Nokia spokesperson told Reuters that they "continue to eye the tablet space with interest, but have made no specific announcements." However, we're sure Nokia will have plenty more to say about these nebulous ideas in the near future.
Nokia 7- or 9-inch MeeGo tablet rumored to be running ARM (not Moorestown) in Q4
While DigiTimes has been known to get a rumor correct now and again, its success rate falls off dramatically when dealing with companies HQ'd outside of its native Taiwan. Keep that in mind when you hear it discuss a Nokia tablet with either a 7- or 9-inch screen. DigiTimes, speaking with "upstream component makers," claims that the Foxconn manufactured device -- of which, about 100 engineering samples have already been produced -- will be ARM-based with a Q4 launch targeted. If true (and that's a big IF) then it would certainly be running the MeeGo OS (that's a Quanta-built prototype above) when it ships. Of course, DigiTimes has been rumoring an ARM-based smartbook from Nokia due in mid 2010 for almost a year. And guess what? It's mid 2010, with smartbooks/netbooks now out of style and tablets all the rage. Thing is, we'd have thought that Nokia would be more likely to opt for Intel's Moorestown in support of their partnership given the Q4 timing. But hey, it's just rumor, let's not get too carried away.
