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Nokia and Intel build a joint research lab, plan to create the mobile 3D future
Thought Nokia and Intel's partnership was just some fleeting MeeGo fling? Just a carefree hookup in their times of mobile panic? Not quite. The companies are certainly in this thing for the long haul and today's announcement of their new research lab in Oulu, Finland is all the evidence you'll need. The Intel and Nokia Joint Innovation Center -- as it's been dubbed -- is part of the University of Oulu and will now be home to about two-dozen researchers. What exactly will the white coats be working on? Well, the 3D mobile internet, of course, technology that Nokia's been dabling with for awhile. The focus of the initial work will be on three-dimensional virtual reality platforms as well as on mapping. Sounds pretty neat and futuristic, but for some reason all we can keep thinking about is the immediate future of getting our hands on Nokia's MeeGo-running N9. Hit the break for the full press release and a few more details on the lab itself.
Rovio sells 6.5M copies of Angry Birds without advertising once
I got to meet the creators of Angry Birds back at E3 earlier this year, but because of our busy schedules, didn't get too much of a chance to really talk with them in-depth about their experience on the App Store so far. Fortunately, GamesBeat has done just that, providing a nice profile of Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka and Mikael Hed, the two Finnish creators of one of the App Store's most popular titles. They're actually mobile app veterans -- while Angry Birds is their biggest hit as a company, they've also developed for lots of other groups, including Real Networks and Electronic Arts. The game was created to be casual, open to anyone to play, and use some really memorable characters that would resonate with anyone who picked it up. They accomplished those goals -- the game has found a surprising following around the world, and almost everyone who owns an iPhone recognizes the birds and pigs characters. A US$4.99 iPad version has also taken off, and Rovio plans to bring the app to lots of other mobile devices as well. The growth has been entirely organic, too -- they haven't spent a single cent on advertising the game, instead relying completely on word-of-mouth and Apple's own promotional tools. And while their success is already quite widespread, the two say their goals are even bigger than what they've accomplished so far: they hope to eventually see 100 million paid downloads. Definitely possible -- it's interesting to see how iPhone-created brands are growing so quickly.
Finland the first country in the world to make broadband access a legal right
We knew this was coming, but starting today, every citizen of Finland has the legal right to a 1Mbps broadband connection, meaning that providers are now required to make the connections available to everyone. The government of Finland has also promised to make good on its goal of getting every citizen with a 100Mbps connection by 2015, saying that they now consider internet access a basic requirement of daily life. We're with you on that one, we promise.
iPhone grabs 20%+ smartphone market share in the land of Nokia
Finland is the home of mobile phone giant Nokia, but that's not keeping Apple from eating away at the Finnish market for smartphones. Apple now has over 20% of the Finnish smartphone market. The numbers were disclosed on Sunday by Finnish carrier TeliaSonera, and published by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company. Although the content of the Google-translated YLE post is subject to interpretation, the gist appears to be that worldwide cell phone market leader Nokia (with about a 33% share of the total world market) is losing share more quickly in the smartphone sector. The iPhone is the current culprit, although Android-based systems are having a impact on Nokia's bottom line as well. Nokia announced last week that revenue expectations will be lower, primarily because the company is not selling as many higher-priced smart phones as anticipated. Nokia still has 89% of the total mobile phone market in Finland, but as the Finnish people move from simpler phones to more functional smartphones, there is concern that the company will suffer from competition from Apple and other non-Finnish manufacturers. The sales pressure from Apple on Nokia's home turf might explain the run of patent infringement lawsuits from Nokia during the last six months. TeliaSonera Sales Director Juha Koivuniemi believes that Nokia could benefit in the long run from the competition as a growing market for more expensive smartphones should increase margins for the Finnish phone manufacturer. Thanks to Ilkka for the tip! [via Macmaa.fi] Source:
CE-Oh no he didn't!: Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki thinks cameraphones are about to make SLRs obsolete
From what we know of Anssi Vanjoki, he's a great guy and one that isn't afraid of admitting his company's mistakes. Alas, now we can also add to that dossier the ignominious fact that the fella doesn't seem to know how professional cameras work. Talking about the rapid improvement in cameraphone technology during a speech in Helsinki yesterday, Vanjoki said that very soon "there will be no need to carry around those heavy lenses." He's really enthusiastic about HD video coming to phones, which he predicts will be here within 12 months (if you ask Sony Ericsson, it's here already), but we just can't let that spectacular line about lenses slide. The glass you shoot through is, for a lot of people, the most important piece of photographic equipment and there are genuine reasons why said lenses are heavy, elongated, and typically unfriendly to pockets. Then again, this dude also thought the N-Gage was gonna be a success, so don't start selling off that glass stockpile just yet.
Aerotel GeoSKeeper hits Finland, keeps mummi from wandering too far away
Have a grandmother or grandfather who tends to go for afternoon walks and somehow winds up on the other side of town? Does that town happen to be in Finland? Aerotel GeoSKeeper system could be your saving grace, a wrist-worn cellphone and GPS combo device that allows for others to keep tabs on the location of the wearer. It was announced back in 2008 and is now going live in Finland courtesy of EcoTec, where families can set up safe zones and receive alerts whenever the wearer decides to wander outside of them, which is reassuring -- so long as you're not the one wearing the thing. Calls can be made to doctors or family with the press of a button should something go wrong, and apparently you can even receive text messages somehow. The one thing it can't do? Tell time. If you're going to make someone wear something like this, the least you could do is build a watch into the thing!
Xbox Live Video Marketplace coming to 10 more countries 'this fall'
As far as we know, the kind of laziness which prevents you from visiting the nearest Blockbuster Video is a worldwide phenomenon. According to a press release (.doc link) dropped just in time for CES, Microsoft is catering to this global lethargy by opening up the Xbox Live Video Marketplace to ten more countries this fall: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Australia and New Zealand. Basically, if the Xbox Live Video Marketplace was playing Risk, it'd have a kickass lock on the Eastern Hemisphere.
Nokia furloughing up to 20 percent of employees at only Finnish factory
Of its nine factories around the world, Nokia has just one in its home country -- the only one left in all of Western Europe -- in the town of Salo. As you can imagine, its well-being is probably a pretty touchy subject, not just for locals but for Nokia fans around the world -- especially when you consider that the company's highest-end devices are assembled here, making the health of the factory a bellwether for the health of the coolest models in the range. The company has revealed this week that it'll be sending home up to 20 percent of the plant's staff for up to 90 days at any one time, saying that there's simply no need for it to operate at full capacity in the current market; we say you could argue that making the right phones could lead to a need for full capacity, but what do we know? Anyhow, the move closely mirrors one that had already been made for 2009, and you could look on the bright side -- at least they're not closing it down the same way they did Jyväskylä.
Nokia X6 Comes with Music and capacitive touchscreen: shipping now
What are you thankful for today? If you live in Finland or the UK and pre-ordered a X6 then you might be obliged to Nokia for having just set your new handset free. That's right pilgrims, Nokia's new flagship Comes with Music handset is now shipping. The X6 you'll recall, introduces S60 5th to a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen riding 32GB of storage, a 5 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, TV-out, and tweaked homescreen with a media/social-centric layout. The X6 lists for €450 (pre-tax and pre-carrier subsidies) -- a price that ultimately includes the cost of Nokia's struggling "all-you-can-eat" music service. Perhaps this is the device that finally gives the service legs? Maybe, but we'd start by following through on plans to strip the DRM.
Blobo squeezable game controller bounces through the FCC
Befuddled by the Blobo squeezable game controller developed by an upstart company out of Finland? The FCC probably was to, but that didn't stop 'em from putting it through their usual battery of tests, tearing it apart, and giving us a glimpse at the user manual and our first real up-close look at the device itself. Of course, it is just a rubber ball packed with Bluetooth and sensors -- but if you're curious, you can find more pics where this one came from at the link below. And if, by chance, you missed out on all the Blobo details earlier this week, you'll no doubt want to check out the helpful and informative video after the break.
Finland unleashes Blobo, the squeezable, all-too-cheerful game controller, on an unsuspecting world
What's a matter, guy? Wiimote seem "old hat?" Looks like a start-up in Finland has just what you need. Containing "industry-leading" sensors for keeping track of "movement, rotation, magnetic fields and pressure," Blobo is a squeezable game controller roughly the size and shape of a golf ball that communicates with your PC or phone via Bluetooth. Currently available in a package with "six sporty fun and fit" games, it'll keep tabs on you as you run, jump, dribble, or karate chop your lonely nights away -- in the comfort of your own living room or wood panel rec room. In addition, the company has made a commercial which will, in the words of one Engadget editor, make you "want to stab" yourself. Retails for €54.90 (around $80). Video after the break. [Thanks, Visa]
Finland says that 1Mb broadband is a right, not a privilege
Whereas all of those old episodes of Dexter available on the torrent trackers are not going to download themselves. Whereas no man or woman in a civilized society should be denied access to Garfield Minus Garfield. Whereas Finland has a population 61 times smaller than that of the United States. Whereas no household deserves to be "farther than 2 kilometers from a connection capable of delivering broadband Internet with a capacity of at least 100 megabits of data a second" (unless, of course, you're "in far-flung corners of the country," in which case you're out of luck). Whereas this is the same nation that brought the world Nokia and public restrooms that can only be accessed via SMS. Now, Therefore YLE reports that FINLAND has made 1-megabit broadband Web access a LEGAL RIGHT starting in JULY 2010, with the ultimate goal of making 100Mb available to all in 2015. Now APOCALYPTICA has no excuse for never updating its MySpace page. [Via CNET] Read - Finnish government promises fast broadband by 2015Read - 1Mb Broadband Access Becomes Legal Right
Spotify for iPhone gets thumbs up from Apple, subscription music with offline playlists is a go
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.
Finnish mall rats take Nokia's WiFi positioning system for a test drive
Nokia is currently testing an indoor positioning system at the Kamppi Shopping Center in Helsinki that lets users triangulate their position from a series of WiFi transmitters on their Nokia S60 cellphone. The handset runs an app that allows users to pinpoint their location on a map of the mall, send SMS messages with their location to fellow shoppers, and find the shortest route to the Orange Julius (or its Finnish counterpart). Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen a company try to make GPS-like positioning viable indoors, but it may be the first that's expressly designed to enable your shopping addiction. We'll be keeping an eye out for further developments -- in the meantime, peep the video demonstration after the break.[Via Switched]
Finland ready to rock LTE at "lower cost" 1800MHz
2.6GHz is fast emerging as a favored slot for LTE spectrum in Europe, but Finland's bucking the trend with an auction of some space in the 1800MHz band -- space that carriers TeliaSonera, Elisa, and DNA have snapped up. The frequency is touted as effectively being a lower-cost option for 4G deployment because it's better suited for range and penetration, meaning fewer base stations need to be deployed. Theoretically, the net effect should be that LTE networks get deployed faster in the country, but as we know all too well from 3G deployments, spectrum diversity always leads to fractured hardware availability; of course, with Nokia right in the backyard, we bet 1800 ends up getting all the support it needs to be successful.
Researchers develop braille for vibrating touchscreen devices
digg_url = 'http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/31/researchers-develop-braille-for-vibrating-touchscreen/'; In braille, a character is made up of six dots laid out on a two by three matrix -- not something that can really be conveyed using capacitive touchscreen technology. Working with a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, researchers in Finland have developed a method for piezoelectric touchscreen devices that uses a single pulse of intense vibration to convey a raised dot, and a longer vibration made up of several weaker pulses to represent a missing dot -- spelling out letters that can be easily read by touch. It took a while for volunteers to get used to this method, but once they had they were able to read a character in as little as 1.25 seconds. Now that they have letters down, the team is moving on to words and sentences -- with an eye towards developing text-to-braille software sometime in the future.
Nokia slashes 1,700 jobs due to "pruned" demand
Finland-based Nokia has just announced that they will cut 1,700 jobs in the corporate development and global functions departments. These cuts will equal about 1 percent of Nokia's entire workforce, and are more than double in number than earlier reports suggested. The company says that the cuts are being driven by "pruned" worldwide demand for its products. Shares of its stock fell 2.6 percent in Helsinki trading after the announcement, while our hopes and dreams fell just 1 percent. Onward and upward, dear Nokia!
Nokia signs ???500 million loan for Symbian R&D
You'd think a company like Nokia could just finance whatever it wanted, but just to be safe, it's signing a loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to the tune of €500 million ($623.9 million). Why the sudden need for cash? According to Reuters, the five-year loan will be used in part to "finance software research and development (R&D) projects Nokia is undertaking during 2009-2011 to make Symbian-based smartphones more competitive." More specifically, those R&D activities will "also benefit the work of the Symbian Foundation and its development of open-source software for mobile devices." Sadly, that's absolutely it for details, but we get the idea we'll be hearing more about this soon. We hear you can accomplish some pretty wild goals with a half billion Euros.
Nokia to close Jyvskyl plant, scale down Salo facility in Finland
As with most other cellphone makers (and companies in general), Nokia managed to lose a bit of cash, market share and dignity in the completely brutal past quarter. That said, it's still doing leaps and bounds better than most, but that glimmer isn't stopping it from shutting down its Jyväskylä site and scaling back at its Salo production facility (pictured). According to Nokia, this is all part of its ongoing plan to "increase cost-efficiency and adapt to the market situation," and with the closings, it'll concentrate mobile devices R&D in Finland at Tampere, Oulu, Salo (though to a lesser extent) and the Helsinki metropolitan area. It's expected that all of the 320 employees at Jyväskylä will be sent packing by the end of this year, while temporary layoffs will be issued on a "rotational basis" (sounds thrilling, no?) at Salo. More details are stored away in the read link, but we'd avoid the depression that's lurking unless your day has just been entirely too awesome.
Nokia's Comes With Music goes on European tour, Asia next, Americas deemed too boring
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.
