Sweden -- Engadget

sweden posts

INQ working on Spotify-branded phone, possibly running Android?

by Paul Miller posted Oct 9th 2009 at 11:53AM

While the Spotify music service continues to tease us US-bound folks from afar, there's word of a Spotify handset now to make us even more jealous. The phone is apparently being built for Swedish provider Telia (Spotify already accounts for 35 percent of digital music sales in Sweden), and according to TechCrunch, INQ is building the phone. Interestingly, the last thing we heard from INQ about future plans was a forthcoming Android handset, and we also have a source that says that Spotify probably wouldn't be placed onto a regular BREW-powered INQ handset, so the optimist in us would like to believe that this Spotify phone could be INQ's big Android play -- there is already an official Spotify Android app to make that whole process seem even more doable. Either way, Telia's Spotify handset should be on the market in a "couple of months."

[Via Pocket-lint]

Spotify for iPhone gets thumbs up from Apple, subscription music with offline playlists is a go

by Ross Miller posted Aug 27th 2009 at 5:31PM

Streaming and subscription music services are a dime a dozen on iPhone, and they seem to get past Apple's app store approval hurdles with relative ease. But Spotify was one whose fate wasn't so clear cut, given its offline playlist function -- which as the name suggests downloads songs ahead of time for you to listen to when there's no WiFi or phone service to stream from -- could very easily fall into the category of "duplication of core iPhone functionality" and get deep-sixed at the drop of a hat. Turns out that's not the case here, as an Apple spokesperson has told paidContent UK that the app's been given the metaphorical stamp of approval and would be hitting the store "very soon." A premium subscription will run about £9.99 ($16.20) per month, with an option to pay annually coming at a later date. Of course, there's a catch, as Spotify's service is only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain for now. The company expects to invade America sometime later this year, but that means another round of app store approvals -- and with Apple's track record on consistency, there's no telling how that'll turn out.

Court gives Pirate Bay ten days to scuttle connection to Netherlands

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Jul 30th 2009 at 3:03PM

Poor Pirate Bay, all it ever wanted to do was thumb its nose at the music and movie industries, enable software piracy for people all over the world, play cat-and-mouse games with the Swedish authorities, and maybe make a little money along the way. Now, hot on the heels of a verdict that sees four of its founders headed to prison (that is, if they don't win their appeals) three of the group have been ordered by a court in the Netherlands to block all traffic between the site and its country. If this doesn't happen in the next ten days, each of the defendants faces a charge of €30,000 ($42,000) for each day they don't comply. According to the AP, it's "not clear how the court expected the site's operators to block traffic to the site, or whether it can enforce its order if they decline," but soon it looks like the Dutch just might have to learn to buy their Rave Or Die! Mix Series CDs at the Record Exchange like the rest of us. Good luck going legit, guys!

Former Gizmondo exec Stefan Eriksson gets 1.5 year sentence, movie might now have ending

by Ross Miller posted Jul 11th 2009 at 2:45PM

Will this be the final chapter in the infamous and incredibly entertaining tale of former Gizmondo head Bo Stefan "Fiery Ferrari Crasher" Eriksson? Doubtful, but with any luck it'll serve as a decent thread to wrap up that optioned movie on his life. An Uppsala, Sweden District Court has sentenced the man to 1.5 years in prison for his most recent round of escapades, which include illegal threats, attempted blackmail, and robbery. Assuming he starts jail fairly soon, mark your calendars and place your bets, we're expecting a whole new slew of comical misdeeds to hit the news feeds by March 2011 -- and no, we still don't think a new Gizmondo will be out by then.

[Thanks, piraya]

Pirate Bay acquired by Global Gaming Factory, going legit like Napster

by Thomas Ricker posted Jun 30th 2009 at 5:17AM

It's true, The Pirate Bay has agreed to being purchased by Global Gaming Factory (owner of a network of Internet cafes and gaming centers) for 60 million Swedish Krona or roughly $7.8 million. According to a press release, "GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners." In a post on TPB's blog, the rogue file sharing site says that the project has been in the works for many years and should help evolve the site while trying to stay the same. Here's how they put it:

If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That's the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to. And - you can now not only share files but shares with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That's awesome and will take the heat of us.

We'll have to wait and see how this pans out but it certainly smacks of a Napster v2 like situation at first blush. Assuming of course the deal closes by August as anticipated.

Update: As a hint, perhaps, of what's to come, GGF also announced the purchase of Peerialism, a software company responsible for developing what GGF calls "P2P 2.0" file sharing technology.

[Thanks, JOKR Solutions]

Read -- The Pirate Bay blog post
Read -- Press Release

Ericsson and TeliaSonera reveals world's first commercial LTE site in Stockholm

by Darren Murph posted May 26th 2009 at 8:41AM

Mmm, the sweet smell of mobile data burning up the pipes in the morning. Gets us every time. Evidently, the same aroma does something to the brains of Ericsson and TeliaSonera, who have taken their January agreement to the next level by introducing the planet's first commercial Long-Term Evolution (LTE) site in Stockholm, Sweden. Mind you, we've seen lots of trial runs over the past year and change, but this one's no test. Rather, this site will become part of a commercial network scheduled to go live in 2010, bringing wicked fast mobile transfers to Stockholmers everywhere. Now, let's hope these American carriers get jealous, and fast.

The Pirate Bay founders sentenced to prison, website soldiers on

by Darren Murph posted Apr 17th 2009 at 7:12AM

In what's being described as a landmark verdict, four men responsible for assisting throngs of dubious internet users to download all sorts of copyrighted material are being ushered off to prison cells for twelve whole months. The Stockholm district court in Sweden found the defendants guilty not of hosting materially illegally, but of "providing a website with sophisticated search functions, simple download and storage capabilities, and a tracker linked to the website [that helped users commit copyright violations]." As expected, the foursome seems unaffected by the ruling, with Peter Sunde (shown) tweeting that "it used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release." After jail, the crew will be forced by pay 30 million kronor ($3.56 million) to a number of entertainment companies, which is far less than those firms were hoping for. Curiously, we're told that the verdict didn't include an order to shut down The Pirate Bay website, and you can pretty much bank on an appeal being filed in record time.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Swedish museum puts Pirate Bay server on display

by Donald Melanson posted Apr 16th 2009 at 3:46PM

The Pirate Bay itself may now be entangled in a high-profile court battle, but it looks like Sweden's National Museum of Science and Technology figured that was the perfect time to grab a piece of the site's controversial history and put it on display. While it may not look like much, that server above is in fact one of the original servers that was used by the Pirate Bay and confiscated by the police in January, 2008. Despite that storied past, however, the museum was apparently able to acquire the server for just 2,000 kronor (or about $240), and it's now found a home alongside a 1970s-era cassette tape recorder in an exhibit that's intended to "stimulate interest in finding out more about the area of intellectual property rights" -- which, unfortunately, is not called "Steal this Exhibit."

[Via The Register]

LG's flagship KM900 S-Class UI caught on video

by Thomas Ricker posted Feb 12th 2009 at 5:42AM

Are you the type who falls deaf in the presence of the latest gadget? Add a girl and your mouth falls agape from the loss the muscle control required to speak? Good, we've got the video for you. A site in Sweden is showing off LG's new Arena KM900 flagship phone along with a first peep at its dynamic 3D S-Class UI. While we're not seeing any of that promised multi-touch here, the cubic interface is interesting and makes good use of the KM900's 3-inch, 800 x 480 pixel WVGA display and dedicated media chip. It's also expected to hit in April for 4,500 Swedish Krona or $535 US if our translation of that image (lower-left) is correct. Worth it? Hit the read link for the video (in Swedish) and let us know.

[Thanks, Martin]

Nokia's Comes With Music goes on European tour, Asia next, Americas deemed too boring

by Tim Stevens posted Jan 21st 2009 at 8:17AM

It was just yesterday that Reuters predicted Nokia's Comes With Music service was headed for something of a pilgrimage through the wilds of Europe, and now we have the official confirmation of this "pan European" expansion. The company has secured partnerships with music licensing and publishing big-wigs in Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, and is indicating that Singapore and Australia are next on its to-do list. Alas there was no mention of other nations getting any sort of attention, meaning Nokia handsets in the New World are unlikely to come with anything but guilt for the forseeable future.

Neonode AB, maker of the N2, files for bankruptcy

by Darren Murph posted Dec 10th 2008 at 8:57AM

Neonode AB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US-based Neonode, Inc., has filed a petition for bankruptcy in Sweden. The company, which has focused almost all of its efforts on pushing the now aged Neonode N2 since 2004, finally caved after looking so vulnerable in late July. According to Per Bystedt, CEO and Chairman of Neonode: "For the past six months we have focused on turning the business around and solving the financial situation of Neonode AB; we continue to have great belief in our technology and believe we have a competitive product in the Neonode N2 but without sufficient funds we cannot continue operations." No word of a revamped OS. No word of hardware tweaks. Nothing that sounds to us like they really want to survive in today's high-stakes handset market. At any rate, the parent company is hoping to trudge on as a technology licensing company, with or without Mr. N2.

[Via GeekZone]

MMS-capabilities coming soon to a Swedish iPhone?

by Laura June posted Nov 18th 2008 at 5:18PM

The oft-bemoaned lack of certain, um... capabilities of the the iPhone is forcing individual companies to take desperate measures, it seems. It's not entirely clear, but MacWorld says it's confirmed with Telia that the Swedish-Finnish carrier's developing an MMS-enabling app for the iPhone. MacWorld says the app will hit the market in the next two months, which is great news for everyone in Sweden. If you live anywhere else in the world, however, you'll just have to continue on, rueing the day you ever encountered Apple's MMS-spurning, copy and paste-hating handset.

Update: Though the source is Swedish, it's entirely reasonable to believe that this'll spread across all of Telia's markets (and the world?). Thanks, commenters!

[Thanks, Martin]

Researchers considering syncing soccer matches with mobile vibrations

by Darren Murph posted Nov 1st 2008 at 7:16AM

Call us cynical, but we just can't see this one working out it. A team of researchers from Umeå University in Sweden are reportedly looking to sync up events on a soccer field to vibrations in a cellphone, essentially enabling you to keep track of the action without having to focus your eyes / ears on the handset. The proposed system could send vibrations to the phone that would act as a way of communicating possession, ball placement and (of course) gooooooooaaallllls, but obviously a few obstacles still stand in the way. For starters, buzzing your mobile through an entire tilt would do a number on the battery life, and even though you could "feel" the action, it would still require a great deal of attention. In all honesty, we'd say this whole system probably has more promise off the pitch than on, but then again, we call football soccer, so what do we know?

[Via UnwiredView]

Sony Ericsson's Play Now Plus to compete with Nokia's Comes with Music

by Darren Murph posted Sep 24th 2008 at 5:14AM

Nothing like a pair of high-brow Europeans slapping each other in the streets, huh? In response to Nokia's forthcoming Comes with Music service, Sony Ericsson is confirming rumors by announcing a competing unlimited music download service dubbed Play Now Plus. The service, which will be available "solely through telecoms operators," will provide subscribers with access to millions of tunes, and customers can even keep up to 300 jams after their 6- to 18-month contract expires. According to SE's marketing head Lennard Hoornik, it'll be rockin' on Telenor within a few weeks, and it will spread from Sweden into more of Western Europe in Q1 2009 and into other world markets in Q2 2009. We're told that the service will run early adopters 99 Swedish crowns ($15) per month, and so far as we can tell, you don't have to have a specific SE phone to get in on the action.

Sony Ericsson launching first round of XPERIA X1s on September 30

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 10th 2008 at 3:51AM

Feel that heat, Touch Pro? That's right -- the Great QWERTY Smartphone War of 2008 is officially gearing up for kickoff now that Sony Ericsson has announced a firm date for the first handful of lucky countries to be scoop up the mighty XPERIA X1. Sweden, Germany, and the UK will be the inaugural launch sites come September 30, with no fewer than 32 more on tap in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America for the fourth quarter of the year. North America, China, Australia, and Russia are also listed as committed launch regions, though dates for those will be announced "in the coming months" -- scary verbiage considering that they weren't even willing to slap the Q4 label there. 2009's a long way off yet, and if there's a Touch Pro in front of us... well, let's just say that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, if you catch our drift.