Cell phone news

Espoo - Nokia announced today that it has shipped the millionth Nokia 5800 XpressMusic device, a milestone that coincides with the successful sales start of the device in the UK. The latest in Nokia’s XpressMusic range, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is the company’s first mass market touch screen device.

Following its introduction in October 2008, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has seen successful sales starts in a number of markets, including Hong Kong and Moscow where the device sold out within hours of the sales start. Earlier today at the official sales start of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic in the UK, more than 150 customers queued outside the Nokia Flagship Store on London’s Regent Street to be among the first to own the device.

“The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has been received very positively and this milestone is just further proof that people all over the world want a device that is not only a great music experience, but also makes the most of touch screen technology,” said Jo Harlow, Vice President, Nokia.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers a complete music experience and features a number of music and entertainment essentials, including a graphic equalizer, 8GB memory for up to 6000 tracks, support for all main digital music formats, and a 3.5mm jack. Built-in surround sound stereo speakers offer the industry’s most powerful sound.

For the best screen resolution available on a mobile phone, the 3.2″ widescreen display brings photos, video clips and web content to life in vibrant color and true clarity. With a 16 by 9 aspect ratio and 30 frames-per-second playback and recording, the device is ideal for VGA quality video recording and playback. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic also features a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and, with a single touch, images or videos can be shared via a favorite online community, such as Share on Ovi, Flickr, or Facebook.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic continues to roll out in additional markets through 2009.

This affordable QWERTY smartphone to be made available with US 3G optimization

Las Vegas, NV, USA - At the Consumer Electronics Show today, Nokia announced it will bring a US optimized version of the Nokia E63 to the North American market. The Nokia E63 will be available in the coming weeks for the estimated retail price of USD 279.00 allowing consumers the ability to own this great messaging device for an affordable price.

“Consumers have stated loud and clear that there is a demand for devices with a QWERTY form factor that are optimized for the United States,” said Alessandro Lamanna, Vice President of Sales, Retail, Nokia Americas. “Building on the success of the award winning Nokia E71, Nokia E63 brings a fully featured QWERTY smartphone to an entry level pricepoint.”

The Nokia E63 combines a QWERTY keypad, 3G network speeds and the mature open source operating system Symbian S60 3rd Edition, allowing consumers the ability to download third party applications, choosing from thousands, to customize their device however they’d like. With a variety of services and applications to choose from, the Nokia E63 is more than just a QWERTY smartphone - it’s a computer in the palm of the hand.

The Nokia E63 also comes with the ability to switch modes with the press of a button - allowing consumers to customize two separate home screens, one for work and one for play. Each home screen can be personalized with their favorite applications including a digital music player, video player, camera functionality, games, corporate or personal email including Mail for Exchange, Lotus Notes and a variety of standard consumer ISPs. A full HTML browser with Flash support rounds out the feature set of the Nokia E63, letting consumers check their favorite websites, blogs and social networks.

The Nokia E63 also comes with a Files on Ovi subscription of 1GB of online file storage for free. Files on Ovi is a service where people can get remote access to their PC files even when their computer is offline. The “Anytime Files” feature provides the user the opportunity to keep the most current version of each file synchronized so that it is available to be accessed by a remote device. For more on Nokia’s suite of services, visit: www.ovi.com.

The Nokia E63 will be available in ruby red or ultramarine blue and purchased unlocked through various retail channels in the United States including www.nokiausa.com, Nokia Flagship Stores in New York and Chicago as well as a number of independent retailers and e-tailers.

Nokia teams with Philips to enhance the experience of connected devices in the home environment.

With Philips Streamium wireless audio products and Nokia Home Media Solution users can seamlessly listen to their mobile music via their home stereo and control their music from phone, stereo and PC via their Nokia phone.

Las Vegas, NV, USA - Imagine a world where you play your mobile music on your home stereo, where you control your music devices with your mobile, where digital content flies between your home devices and your phone.

This is the world that Nokia and Philips are building. Taking the next steps towards making this vision a reality, Nokia and Philips announce a new collaboration to bring consumers the ultimate user-friendly home experience supported by the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) protocol.

Nokia Home Media Solution and Philips Streamium products are optimized to give consumers a simple, seamless, and interactive out-of-the-box experience. The Philips Streamium wireless audio products will let users stream music from their mobile devices or from another DLNA-enabled device like a PC in order to enjoy the music at home. With their Nokia mobile device, users can control the Philips wireless audio systems and interact with their music that’s stored on their phone, on their PC or on the audio device.

“Working with Philips, we can simplify the ‘connected home’ experience,” says Richard French, director, head of New Businesses, Nokia. “When people are shopping for new devices, we want to eliminate the guesswork in buying compatible devices for their home network and help them enjoy hassle-free connectivity.”

“We know consumers are increasingly listening to music on mobile phones. However, when they come home, they prefer listening to their music via their normal stereos. We therefore consider a seamless experience between Nokia multimedia devices and Philips Streamium home audio a vital element to deliver simplicity to our consumers,” said Wiebo Vaartjes, General Manager, Audio, Video & Multimedia Applications, at Philips Consumer Lifestyle. “We are therefore proud to announce this collaboration with Nokia, comprising the next step in our commitment to truly deliver and promote the interoperability between our products via the open DLNA standard.”

Nokia Home Media Solution:
The Nokia Connected Home is a set of Home Media applications and services allowing Nokia mobile users to enjoy their digital music, photos and videos through TV and stereos wirelessly at home. All you need is a compatible Nokia Nseries multimedia device, a wireless network solution and a compatible PC or a supported UPnP/DLNA media renderer or server, such as a television, home stereo system or a gaming console. The Nokia Home Media solution is now available on millions of Nseries devices, including the Nokia N96 and Nokia N95 8GB.

Philips Streamium
Philips innovative wireless music devices empower music lovers to free their digital music from the confines of a PC or a personal CD collection, and effortlessly stream the music throughout their entire home or work space. Today this range of Streamium products includes the Philips Wireless Music Center (WACS7500) with its satellites, the wireless music station (WAS6050), and the Philips Network Music Players (NP1100, NP2500 and NP2900). All models of the Philips Network Music Players’ range easily integrate into an existing wireless network and stream Internet radio as well as music from the PC wirelessly to any room in the house.

More than 110 million Nokia mobile phone users can now set up their own Ovi email account directly on their phones

Espoo, Finland - Mail on Ovi, the free email account from Nokia, is now ‘live’ and can be set up directly on Nokia phones without requiring a PC to get started. People who use Nokia Series 40 devices can create their own email address directly on their mobile phones. The Ovi email account gives a person all the features and functionalities of a typical PC-based email account. During the Beta period, consumers will be able to choose from 12 languages based on the settings of their device, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia.

“We’re creating a mindset shift with mobile messaging. Mail on Ovi is the first-ever email service which allows people to create an account directly on their mobile phone, and start using it right away” said Senior Vice President Tom Furlong, who oversees Consumer Messaging initiatives within Nokia’s Services & Software organization. “Rather than focusing purely on push email for the world’s most advanced mobile users, we are mobilizing email across Nokia’s mainstream device portfolio, while giving consumers in emerging markets their first email account, Mail on Ovi, as well as their very own internet identity. These people are the new ‘mobile digital natives’ who will exclusively use their mobile phones for email and internet, rather than a PC.”

Mobile phone users from India, Malaysia and the Philippines have been able to use the Beta service since November, with extremely encouraging results, and the availablity is now being extended to the rest of the world.*

Nokia has launched more than 35 Nokia Series 40 device models which immediately enable the creation of the Mail on Ovi email account**. As of October 2008, Nokia has shipped more than 110 million of such devices globally.

* Certain countries may not yet be supported during the Beta period

** Devices that enable Mail on Ovi include:
Nokia 1680 classic, Nokia 168Oi
Nokia 2320, Nokia 2323, Nokia 2330, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2600 classic, Nokia 2630, Nokia 2680 slide, Nokia 2760
Nokia 3210, Nokia 3555, Nokia 3600 slide, Nokia 3610 fold
Nokia 5000, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia 5220 XpressMusic, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, Nokia 5610 XpressMusic
Nokia 6267, Nokia 6300i, Nokia 6301, Nokia 6260, Nokia 6500 classic, Nokia 6500 slide, Nokia 6555, Nokia 6600 fold, Nokia 6600 slide
Nokia 7100 Supernova, Nokia 7210 Supernova, Nokia 7310, Nokia 7500 Prism, Nokia 7610 Supernova, Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism
Nokia 8800 Arte, Nokia 8800 Sapphire

Sony Ericsson today announces its first mobile phone with Smile Shutter™ technology, wrapped up in its most affordable Cyber-shot™ phone to date; the C510 Cyber-shot™. The Smile Shutter™ technology will also be added to the 8.1 megapixel camera phone C905 Cyber-shot™, launched in November 2008.

Las Vegas, USA – January 7, 2009 – Sony Ericsson today introduces the beautifully simple C510 Cyber-shot™, its most affordable Cyber-shot™ phone to date, and an application upgrade to the C905 Cyber-shot™ phone, currently at the top of the charts across the globe.

The Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot™ portfolio has topped 32 million handsets sales worldwide demonstrating Sony Ericsson’s market leadership in bringing exciting new camera phone technology to consumers around the world.

The C510 Cyber-shot™ will make Sony Ericsson’s camera phone experience accessible to even more consumers and markets worldwide.

C510 Cyber-shot™
More consumers can now enjoy the Cyber-shot™ experience, without compromising on quality. Sony Ericsson continues to push design and innovation, as well as work with the best partners in the industry, to provide existing consumers and consumers in new markets the chance to enjoy the benefits of mobile photography.

The accessible C510 Cyber-shot™ handset is jammed packed with the highest quality imaging technology and encased in a stylish handset design expected from Sony Ericsson. Read the rest of this entry »

High-end handset from Nokia meets wireless heart monitor from Polar

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced the Nokia N79 Active, which ships with the wireless Polar Bluetooth WearLink heart rate belt from Polar, the leading brand in sports instruments and heart rate monitoring.

This healthy addition to the Nokia Nseries range is the perfect running companion. A-GPS tracking and a new version of the popular Nokia Sports Tracker application - available simultaneously with first shipments of the device - spur you to record and publish your favorite routes and fitness data on the web. You can also share the tracks you listened to while working out, as well as upload and geotag route images taken with the Nokia N79 Active’s built-in 5 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

“The Nokia N79 Active is all about fun and fitness,” said Juha Kokkonen, Director, Nokia Nseries. “This handset keeps you entertained on those long workouts as you get in shape for next summer, while the Polar heart rate belt lets you know exactly how you’re doing. And with Sports Tracker you can add a new social dimension to your fitness program by building up and sharing a great record of all your workouts. This is an inspiring way to track your progress and to challenge yourself and fellow workout partners.” Read the rest of this entry »

Nokia to add LGPL Open Source licensing option for the Qt UI and application framework

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced that its Qt cross-platform User Interface (UI) and application framework for desktop and embedded platforms will be available under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 license from the release of Qt 4.5, scheduled for March 2009. Previously, Qt has been made available to the open source community under the General Public License (GPL) license. In addition, Qt will now be available from the new domain, www.qtsoftware.com.

The move to LGPL licensing will provide open source and commercial developers with more permissive licensing than GPL and so increase flexibility for developers. In addition, Qt source code repositories will be made publicly available and will encourage contributions from desktop and embedded developer communities. With these changes, developers will be able to actively drive the evolution of the Qt framework. Read the rest of this entry »

Unique Xpress-On covers, external “hidden until lit” display and new user interface
Allow for a higher level of personalization

Las Vegas, NV, USA - Today at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Nokia 7510 was unveiled and T-Mobile USA, Inc. was announced as the exclusive carrier for the U.S. launch of the stylish device. The Nokia 7510 gives customers an added level of customization and functionality for their mobile device experience.

The Nokia 7510 comes ready for style with charming lights and an external display that stays hidden until needed to show information such as caller ID or a song title. These lights also provide a sensational pattern for anyone who sees them light up. The Nokia 7510 is a Series 40 device that can be quickly flipped open with the push of a button.

Featuring a new, easy-to-use graphics interface, the Nokia 7510 will allow T-Mobile® customers to quickly scroll and identify the various menus including messaging, address book, music player and more. The Nokia 7510 also allows for UMA connectivity - allowing flexibility between using the cellular and Wi-Fi networks for calls.

“Nokia’s wide range of devices includes several that add fashion to function and allow consumers to choose the best device that expresses their personality. With the unique style of the Nokia 7510, users are allowed to express themselves with colors and external display,” said Frank Vium, Vice President, Sales, Nokia.

“The Nokia 7510 will be a great addition to our lineup because it features changeable faceplates, which means our customers can easily personalize their phone day-to-day,” said Travis Warren, Director of Device Marketing at T-Mobile USA. “The unique hidden-until-lit display further illustrates the cool features of the device that our customers are sure to love.”

Additional features of the Nokia 7510 include:

- Xpress-On front and back covers available in Fatal Red, Espresso Brown and Emerald Green
- Support for POP3 and IMAP4 email accounts
- Digital music player (supports MP3, AAC and AAC+ formats)
- FM radio with Radio Data System (RDS)
- 2 megapixel camera with Nokia Image Perfection System (NIPS), LED flash and 4x digital zoom
- 2.2 inch QVGA display, 240 x 320 display with 16 million colors
- A microSD memory card slot for expandable memory (supports up to 8GB microSD memory card)
- Quadband 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- Dimensions: 3.64 x 1.83 x .66 inches (L x W x H), 4.37 ounces

The popular mobile internet site Nokia.mobi has extended its offering with the launch of Here and Now, a new section that provides the latest world news, music, celebrity buzz, as well as information on Nokia services and products.

Bookmarked in every new Nokia device, Nokia.mobi is accessed by millions of consumers across the globe.

“By providing quality content to consumers from partners such as Reuters and Rollingstone.com, Here and Now allows consumers to get more out of Nokia.mobi and mobile services in general,” said Juha Rytkönen, Director Nokia.mobi.

“Here and now will encourage users to come back more often and spend more time on Nokia.mobi which is great news for the growing number of advertisers that have been using Nokia.mobi as the launchpad for their mobile advertising campaigns,” added Tom Henriksson, Head of Nokia Interactive Advertising.

Nokia.mobi is already popular with brand advertisers including BMW, American Express and Universal Pictures; Here and Now opens up new opportunities to advertise alongside valued news and entertainment content aimed at the 18-35 age segment. The different sections of the site allow consumers to:

- Listen to music

- Grab downloads
- Read the Buzz about celebrities

- Get to Know the latest news
- Browse the mobile net

- Discover Nokia services and products

Here and Now is part of the Nokia Media Network, a premium mobile advertising network comprised of top-tier publishers such as Reuters and Hearst, operator partners such as Sprint and Airtel, and Nokia services. It is accessible through your Nokia device at Nokia.mobi/hereandnow.

Nokia Interactive Advertising helps brands reach the potential global audience of 3.3 billion consumers with mobile devices. Through the Nokia Media Network and Nokia Interactive Solutions, it provides brands with all they need to connect with and engage consumers with mobile advertising.

Join In! as Nokia showcases new devices, an array of compelling mobile services and how consumers can reduce their carbon footprint

Las Vegas, NV, USA - At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will showcase the industry’s broadest and most exciting mobile device portfolio including the coveted Nokia N97 mobile computer, the multiple award-winning Nokia E71 and new devices announced for North America. CES also marks the first public debut in North America of the highly anticipated Nokia N97 mobile computer which has been repeatedly commended as one of the most stylish, functional and impressive converged mobile devices to date. Read the rest of this entry »