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The Nokia World 2011 keynote liveblog!
Sure, you may be fast asleep in your warm comfy bed back stateside, but we're here at Nokia World in London, gearing up for a Windows Phone-packed keynote with CEO Stephen Elop. The excitement begins at 9AM local time (translated to your time zone below), so tune in just before for the play-by-play. Psst... and toss your own time zone / day in comments below! 10:00PM - Hawaii (October 25th) 01:00AM - Pacific (October 26th) 02:00AM - Mountain (October 26th) 03:00AM - Central (October 26th) 04:00AM - Eastern (October 26th) 09:00AM - London (October 26th) 10:00AM - Paris (October 26th) 12:00PM - Moscow (October 26th) 05:00PM - Tokyo (October 26th)
We're live from Nokia World 2011!
You've probably already gathered from our liveblog teaser and early look at one of tomorrow's announcements, but we're just settling in at Nokia World. And it really does feel like we're a world away from the conference's host city on London -- the venue Nokia selected to host its growing event is quite a distance from Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and that famous big clock tower downtown. Stay tuned for plenty of Windows Phone (and perhaps even Symbian) coverage throughout the week, and don't forget our liveblog of today's keynote! Pro tip: Use the "nokiaworld2011" tag for direct access to this week's Nokia news!
Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 Windows Phones slip out ahead of tomorrow's announcement
Nokia's big announcement isn't until tomorrow, but it looks like some of the surprise has now been spoiled by a leak out of Nokia World in London. As you can see in the image above obtained by WinRumors, Nokia is apparently set to announce the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, both of which of course run Windows Phone, and each of which have turned up in some less-than-clear leaks before. In fact, we just got a hold of a shot of the 800 earlier today ourselves (looking a lot like the company's Meego-based N9), while the Lumia 710 has previously surfaced under the Sabre codename. If the rumors are to be believed, you can apparently look for both to hit European markets in November with a US launch slated for sometime next year, although we'd certainly recommend waiting until tomorrow before you get too disappointed about that latter possibility. Two more close-up shots are after the break.
Nokia 800 gets pictured, ready for its close-up
Thus far, evidence of the Nokia 800 has been the stuff of slow but reasonably steady leaks in the form of ads, product shots and dev stats. This latest one doesn't do much to change the state of things, but its real world setting should help hold some of the Mango faithful over until the handset formerly known as Sea Ray gets officially official, most likely in the very near future. [Thanks, Anonymous]
The Nokia World keynote is tomorrow -- get your liveblog here at 4AM ET!
What will the future hold for a post-MeeGo Nokia? Sure, we have a fairly good idea, but you have mere hours to wait until the rumors are confirmed. We'll be coming to you live from the company's keynote at Nokia World in London, where we're expecting not one, but multiple Windows Phones to make an on-stage debut. The show kicks off at 9AM local time, and we've included a handy list of round-the-world start times below. Bookmark this page right here and find out as it happens. Psst... and toss your own time zone / day in comments below! 10:00PM - Hawaii (October 25th) 01:00AM - Pacific (October 26th) 02:00AM - Mountain (October 26th) 03:00AM - Central (October 26th) 04:00AM - Eastern (October 26th) 09:00AM - London (October 26th) 10:00AM - Paris (October 26th) 12:00PM - Moscow (October 26th) 05:00PM - Tokyo (October 26th)
Nokia Sabre brandished ahead of launch, expected to unveil its Mango of steel next week?
Andy Lees mentioned at AsiaD that Nokia would be launching more than one Windows Phone at its London-based event next week, and there's a chance that the prototype you see above could be unveiled alongside the Nokia 800 Sea Ray. Pocketnow is referring to the Mr. Blurrycam-produced image as the Sabre, said to be running on a 1.4GHz single-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 3.5-inch WVGA display and a 5MP rear camera. The alleged price won't stab your wallet, as the source claims it'll cost somewhere between $410 and $480. Of course, there's less than a week before Nokia World begins and the speculation ends, and we'll be there to deliver the blow-by-blow action as it happens. Update: Commenters have made the connection between this mysterious device and the recently-announced Nokia 603, a Symbian Belle handset, with the hardware buttons simply whited out at the bottom. And we're definitely seeing the resemblance -- in fact, if you look closely enough at the Metro UI it appears slightly crooked, as if the stack of tiles is leaning to the right. We'd say the chances of this image being a fake are quite high.
Microsoft's Andy Lees: Nokia will announce 'its Windows Phones' at Nokia World
No surprise here, but you can officially mark Nokia World 2011 down as must-watch TV. Andy Lees just confirmed here on stage at AsiaD that the London-based event, which kicks off on October 26th, will be the launchpad for Nokia's Windows Phones. Yes, phones. As in, plural. He specifically stated: "[Nokia will] have differentiating hardware and software." We've already caught plenty of sneak peeks at what may be on tap, and you can bet we'll be on hand to bring you the details as they're poured out. First Mango, now Nokia. Looks like it'll be quite the holiday season for the WP7 department. Update: Here's a quote near the end of the interview from Andy. "Nokia will announce its rollout plans with Windows Phone, among other things. It made an evaluation early on, and saw our roadmap for this year and next year, and it decided to bet the whole company on Windows Phone based on that. We've seen that other hardware makers have seen this occurrence as an accelerant, which in turn helps both Microsoft and Nokia. I'm also excited about naming some new OEMs that will be coming onboard [with WP7]."
Nokia 710 spotted on developer site, probably not running 'Internet Tablet OS 2008 Edition'
With barely a few weeks before the phone giant's annual hurrah, Nokia World, kicks off in London, details have leaked of a new phone possibly winging its way to the Finnish faithful. According to MyNokiaBlog, the 710 is slightly longer and wider than the MeeGo-powered N9, with a 1.4GHz Cortex A8 processor, a 3.7-inch TFT screen and a five megapixel camera topped with some 720p video-capture frosting. All these details were swiftly pulled from the site, but not before the blog managed grab the screenshot above. A Nokia 710 also made a brief appearance on Occasional Gamer, which registers phone use on WP7 games. Most of the details match up with the Nokia Sun we saw earlier this month, though there are some inconsistencies -- is it TFT or AMOLED? We're hoping for the latter. It'll be a few weeks before Nokia has anything official to say, but whatever it is, it's going to have to wow us. The competition's never been tougher.
Anssi Vanjoki on quitting Nokia: 'I didn't become the CEO. It is as simple as that'
We're really going to miss Anssi Vanjoki when he leaves Nokia in a few months. The straight-shooting Finn brings a sometimes astonishing but always entertaining level of honesty and passion to an otherwise staid consumer electronics industry. Of course, we've all been wondering why Anssi announced his resignation from Nokia so suddenly after saying in July that he was "committed, perhaps even obsessed" with taking Nokia back to the number one position in high-end devices. Easy, "I didn't become the CEO," said the 20 year Nokia veteran in an extended version of the interview first published on Tuesday. Anssi then added, "You know who the guy is it's not you... so what do you do, you stay or you leave. I decided to leave." While not regretting the decision to stick with Symbian in the last few years, he does admit that it couldn't compete with Apple's iOS or Google's Android in touchscreen smartphones -- the Symbian rewrite took (or is taking, depending upon your perspective) too long. The second problem, he says, is Nokia's absence from the US market. In particular, Silicon Valley, the "nucleus," as he calls it, for the software development behind all those "crazy apps everyone keeps talking about." Unfortunately, the 54-year-old Anssi has no future plans that he's willing to discuss. "I need a plan. My plan is to plan," he says.
Nokia C3 Touch and Type hands-on
Nokia continued the precedent set by the X3-02 at Nokia World last week by rolling out the C3 Touch and Type, its second Series 40-based handset to make use of that pretty unusual touchscreen / numeric keypad combo. Unlike the X3-02, the new C3 variant features a more traditional keypad layout by dropping the *0# row down below the 789 row, but since T9 only makes use of the first three rows to do its thing, it shouldn't make much of a different in practice for typing usability. Besides a 2.4-inch QVGA display, you get a 5 megapixel camera, full HSPA, microSD support up to 32GB, and 802.11n (yes, n!) WiFi, making it a surprisingly well-equipped device considering that it falls toward the bottom end of Nokia's budget-themed Cseries. We played a bit with the diminutive candybar at Nokia World, and though you can't really tell from the pictures, we know where Nokia's saving the money on this one: the build. Put simply, it feels like a pretty cheap phone all the way around with flimsy plastic, a so-so display, and a resistive touch layer with plenty of give. Trust us when we say that's not a knock -- at €145 ($189) fully unlocked and subsidy-free, you're getting a lot of capability -- but would-be buyers should be warned that this doesn't have anywhere near the premium feel of the N8. That said, it's extremely thin, light, and small -- and the on-screen controls are all plenty large for fat-fingering your way through the UI -- so we could see it making a serviceable backup phone even in the developed markets where Nokia doesn't plan to push a lot of these. Check out the gallery!
Nokia's Plug and Touch turns your HDTV into a giant N8 (video)
What do you get when you combine the N8's HDMI output, its 12 megapixel camera, and your trusty old TV set? As Anssi Vanjoki might say, you get a big new smartphone. Nokia's research labs have thrown up a neat little "prototype" app called Plug and Touch, which enhances the N8's already famed HDTV friendliness with the ability to recognize touch input. This is done by positioning your aluminum-clad Nokia about five feet away from the display and letting its camera pick up your hand's gestures and touches, essentially resulting in a massively enlarged Symbian^3 handset device. Naturally, it's not terribly precise at this stage and there are no plans for an actual release, but it sure is a tantalizing glimpse of what may be coming down the pipe. Video after the break.
Nokia's fall accessories: Bluetooth headsets for every budget... and some colorful spheres
Though they were obviously overshadowed by the handset announcements, Nokia World also saw the introduction of a number of new Bluetooth headsets and miscellaneous accessories like the DT-600 this year. We took a look at the new headset line, and we've got to give Nokia some credit here -- they're serving pretty much every possible segment of the Bluetooth headset-wearing public, from the budget shopper to the occasional user to the hardcore, I-feel-naked-if-I-don't-have-it-on types. The ultra-low end BH-108 is constructed almost entirely of matte plastic and doesn't offer any DSP noise reduction or other tricks, but at €20 ($26), it's one of the cheapest headsets from a top-tier manufacturer you can buy. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the mighty BH-609 and BH-806 -- priced at €59 and €99 ($77 and $129), respectively -- that offer maximum functionality or style depending on what you're looking for. The BH-609 offers wind noise reduction and voice prompting, but isn't much to look at; the BH-806, on the other hand, is one of the nicest-looking headsets we've ever seen but relies on DSP alone to cut noise... so yeah, pick your poison. Like a couple of Nokia's new lower-end offerings, the 806 features a neat dock that keeps the headset turned off and disconnected when attached; only when you remove it does it turn on and connect, which means you get significantly more standby time (several months' worth) and you don't have to keep it in your ear when not in use. Surprisingly, it connects fast enough so that you can pull it out of the dock to use it only when the phone rings. To quote Monty Python, "and now for something completely different." The MD-11 is a battery-powered blob available in several colors; it starts life as a powered speaker with a spooled 3.5mm audio cable attached to it, but you can string two of them together (see above) to create a stereo setup on the fly. Rubber loops on the side let you hang them on a wall, though we can't imagine that mode of operation is going to see too much use; they're €19 apiece, so figure on spending about $50 to get a full boombox going with these things. Everything you see in the gallery below will be available between this month and the end of the year -- and we definitely see a few promising stocking stuffers in the mix. %Gallery-102421%
Angry Birds introducing Mighty Eagle, costs real money to skip levels
If you're an Angry Birds player like me, you've hit a couple of levels you've had to play 10 or more times before finally being able to progress. Curse those speedy yellow birds! Give me more bombers! If that's you, Rovio Mobile -- creator of Angry Birds -- has the solution to your frustration, which it announced recently at the Nokia World conference. But the bad news is that it's going to cost you. Meet the new, angriest of the Angry Birds: Mighty Eagle. Via an in-app purchase (with real money) of a can of sardines, you'll be able to summon this new bird for a one-time shot at clearing an entire level. If you want to make use of Mighty Eagle again, you can try going back to the previous level where he was used and clear it without him. Then, voila -- you can use him again in a later level. Check out the video introducing Mighty Eagle in the 2nd half of the post.
Stephen Elop chants 'Developers, developers, developers' to close Nokia World (video)
It was short and sweet but ex-Microsoftie Stephen Elop closed Nokia World by handing out a one million dollar developer award (well, "investment"). But hearing him chant "Developers, developers, developers" in a mild-mannered drawl worthy of Nokia's conservative roots was definitely the highlight.
Nokia Charging Plate DT-600 hands-on: 'charge in style' is all you need to know
Nokia's official marketing documentation for the just-announced DT-600 says that you can "charge in style" and "enjoy the life with full battery." After checking it out here at Nokia World, we don't think we could say it any better ourselves. The device is basically a rubber tray for setting your battery-dependent gadgets with a squid-like array of charging cables coming out of the corners; there are very similar products to this on the market already, but Nokia's got a couple trump cards up its sleeve. Actually, one of them is less of a trump card and more of a Wild Draw Four: although one cable is micro-USB, two of the others are permanently connected 2mm Nokia jacks, an odd decision considering that modern Nokias are moving away from those to micro-USB -- as are most manufacturers -- so we guess they're expecting you to keep a few antiques juiced up. The other differentiator, though, is that you don't need to snake your own chargers through the mess -- the fourth cable is interchangeable and connects to one of two USB ports on the side, and you can use the other port for a fifth cable that isn't routed through one of the four corners' holes. Nokia includes mini-USB, LG, Sony Ericsson, and two flavors of Samsung connectors for this one; Apple's noticeably missing, but we're sure these guys had zero interest in licensing the 20-pin design -- and obviously, you can just use your own cable if you like. In a nod to Mother Nature, the DT-600 burns no power when devices aren't connected, but if you're in the US, tough luck -- there's no plan in place for availability there. Hit up the gallery for a few in-the-wild shots (taken at Nokia's Experience Lounge coffee bar, by the way, so the phones weren't the only things getting juiced up). %Gallery-102168%
Nokia crashes HTC's London event with red balloons, hate
So picture this scenario: Nokia has its global conference and developer event -- the aptly-named Nokia World -- scheduled and set in stone for months. HTC swoops in just weeks ahead of time and schedules a conflicting press event in the same city (which we're covering in just a few moments). You might imagine there's a little bit of bad blood there, yeah? Well, Nokia's taken it to the next level here, sending a phalanx of young folks with giant red balloons reading "I know where I'm going with Nokia's Ovi Maps" to stand directly outside the entrance to HTC's event. We know where we're going, too, Nokia... and it's HTC. Sorry! We'll be back to Nokia World soon, we promise. Update: Oh, and Nokia handed out "HTC press conference survival kits," too. Pitiful, really. Peek it after the break. Update 2: We spoke with an HTC representative who told us that the company had originally planned to hold its launch on the 14th before Nokia had announced its dates for Nokia World -- and when it found out about the dates, it switched to the 15th to make room for Nokia's announcements. Seems fair to us. [Thanks, Jonas]
Nokia CBD vs. Apple Retina display fight, part deux: sunlight edition (video)
You asked for it, so here it is: the iPhone 4's retina display versus a prototype Nokia E7 with new AMOLED Clear Black Display in direct sunlight. With both displays set to 100 percent brightness, we'd say that the EPD had a very very slight edge as it offered the best visibility under the most extreme viewing angles. Having said that, both are equally uncomfortable to use in intense sunlight, even as that's defined on a cloudless morning in London. Feast on the gallery below and video after the break to see the two under a variety of viewing angles.%Gallery-102275%
Nokia's VP of Design has a plan to crack the US market with MeeGo, and we're all accomplices
One look at the N8 and E7 should be enough to convince the casual observer that Nokia is serious about design. The man behind Nokia's hardware and software design for the last year is Marko Ahtisaari, Senior Vice President of Design and former CEO and co-founder of Dopplr. We asked Marco what it would take to be successful in the US market. His response, while not direct, was still illuminating and gives us implicit insight into how MeeGo, not Symbian, might be Nokia's near-term play to conquer the American smartphone market. While gesturing to the N8, Marko had this to say: "In the US I think it will require a somewhat more consequent approach in the high end. No matter how smooth and fast we make this, and we improve the camera -- this is the best camera right -- it still won't cut though enough until we do an operating system level innovation. It will do extremely well in the market but it's not a breakthrough device." Marko later added this clarification: "In order to cut through in the media environment, I think you need to do operating system level innovation. The products will be cut-through successes in the market, in people's hands, in share of palms and share of thumbs it will be successful. But in order for it to cut through and people to say, whoa, why didn't somebody else think about that and that's kind of what Nokia should do, it will be easier to cut through, from the media point of view, with MeeGo." In other words, it's the media (read: us), in Marko's opinion, that will affect consumer opinion by influencing enthusiasts (read: you) who will in turn evangelize Nokia's products throughout the US. MeeGo, not Symbian, is the product that will generate that degree of buzz and excitement. Marko finished by adding, "My goal is that very soon it will be cool to upgrade to the Nokia." So, what will Nokia's high-end MeeGo devices look like? Click through to find out.
Nokia C6-01 hands-on redux: if this is recycled metal, count us in
When we saw the C6-01 in the flesh for the first time earlier today, we'd thought the matte black rear end was cheap plastic -- this is the budget phone of today's introductions, after all -- but on a follow-up visit this afternoon with an untethered silver example, it turns out that the back is actually part of the phone's recycled metal shell (we found out when our ring clanked against it). In fact, when we were able to handle the phone without a massive security mechanism glued to the back, we were really impressed with how the phone feels; subsidized price is going to be key, of course, but if they can keep it pegged to the budget range they seem to be targeting, it'll be pretty remarkable considering the high-tech AMOLED display and the general lack of plastic. It's really small compared to its bigger siblings (check the gallery for some good comparison shots) but still feels weighty -- "high quality" weighty, not "this is going to be annoying to carry" weighty -- and that always works wonders for the perception of a mobile device's quality. The million dollar question: would we buy it? Over a C7, quite possibly, but we're thinking the E7's wiles are still a bit much for the power-drunk maniacs here on the team. %Gallery-102156%
Nokia CBD vs. Apple Retina... display fight!
Come on, you knew this post was coming. Here we have a prototype Nokia E7 and its new 4-inch, 640x360 pixel Clear Black Display pitted again the iPhone 4's 3.5-inch 960x640 pixel Retina display. To our eyes, the iPhone 4 display has a noticeable blue warmth and wasn't as vibrant or bright as the CBD. The CBD, however, did come across a bit oversatured (just look at those red "breaking news" bars), but hey, it's AMOLED. It certainly looks just as good as the Galaxy S' Super AMOLED. We'll have to see how the polarized layer on the CBD affects sunlight viewing. More on that later. Until then, play nice dear readers.%Gallery-102126%
