IBLOG SPACE

This morning at Nokia World 2011, two flavors of Nokia’s Lumia line were released, the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710, and Qualcomm now reports that yes, indeed, they are being powered by no less than their very own Snapdragon processors. This is the first time Nokia has entered into the Windows Phone world as well as the first time Nokia has worked with Qualcomm to combine both of their well-loved architectures. With all the coverage on the smartphones themselves this morning, one must see the energy here, in the motor, and what better way to usher in a single new collaboration than with a second! Another point to make here is that Qualcomm has currently cornered the Windows Phone market with their processors. That’s right, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors power 100 percent of Windows Phone devices on the market right now, and they don’t plan on stopping there! With the Windows Phone 7 marketplace on the rise, its in Qualcomm’s best interest to continue to hold on to the entirety of th

Nokia’s own preloaded Windows Phone apps, Drive and Music, are just the start of the company’s software push on the new Lumia range. In addition, there’ll be a curated app environment not yet demonstrated at Nokia World; Keith Varty, Head of Ecosystem and Services at Nokia, told SlashGear that App Highlights will be a tile on the Windows Phone homescreen, featuring the company’s picks of the best WP7 software for new and established users. Read on for more details. App Highlights, Varty explained, will be both present on the homescreen – it’s not yet clear whether it will be a Live Tile, dynamically updating to flag up new download options, or otherwise – and as a category in the Marketplace on Nokia Windows Phones. There will be three categories, including “Featured” apps and “Starter” apps, described by Varty as “what we think is the key content for our consumers.” Rather than simply flagging up the top paid and free downloads, or the best rated apps, as current app stores do, No

Get your documents all in order today on the Amazon Appstore with OfficeSuite Professional 5, an Office editing app that’s normally $15, completely for free. As you may or may not know, the Amazon Appstore is a place where you can pick up apps on your Android device, this app store completely separate from the official Google version, that being called the Android Marketplace. If you’ll take a look at your humble narrator’s original Android Community 101: Amazon Appstore, it will all become abundantly clear. Today the Amazon Appstore is giving away no less than your one-stop shop for everything Office. To get this app, you’ll first have to download the Amazon Appstore. All this consists of is dropping your email in the box in the upper left of Amazon’s Online Appstore, waiting for a confirmation email in your inbox, and clicking the link inside that email. Your download then will contain the appstore itself, and inside you’ll find not only a full-range of lovely applications includin

Google’s original Nexus One will not get an official upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, it has been confirmed, with only the Nexus S getting the latest version of the smartphone platform. While the Nexus S will get updated “within weeks” of Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) going live, Google’s Hugo Barra confirmed to the Telegraph, the exec admitted that the Nexus One hardware was simply too old to support the new OS. “The operating system is thought through with the needs of the next three years in mind; it’s a wholesale revamp of the way people interact with the phone” Barra said of ICS, something that will come as cold comfort to Nexus One owners whose device was only announced in January 2010. Many will still be within their original two-year contract, forced to watch later Nexus adopters – who picked up the Nexus S after it was launched at the end of December. As for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmert’s recent comments that Android demanded a computer science degree in order to get

If you are a fan of that slick new Nokia N9 smartphone that we reviewed this week there is a bit of news for you today. Nokia has announced that it is adding a new version of the N9 to the family already. The new version comes in a white color. That white color is the only difference, the hardware inside is the same. Why is the white version a few days late in landing? Apparently white gives Nokia the same sort of troubles it gave Apple with the iPhone. Nokia says that it wanted to be sure that the quality of the white phone was top notch for the buyers. Apparently, the manufacturing process for those white smartphones is more complex than other colors. The white finish of the N9 is glossy as well setting it apart from the matte finish on other N9 colors. That glossy finish will mean more fingerprints though. The white N9 will be available starting in Q4 2011 in a 64GB version to start. Nokia has also announced that all versions of the N9 will soon get a new software update. That u

Rumors were flying this week that RIM was pushing the much anticipated PlayBook OS 2.0 update out to early 2012. At the time, the rumor was making rounds there was no official word from RIM on the fate of the OS update. PlayBook OS 2.0 is the update that will bring with it support for native email, PIM access, and Android apps. RIM has officially confirmed that the update to version 2.0 for the Playbook will not be offered until February 2012. RIM says that it would like to get the OS into the hands of users today, but that it won’t launch the OS until it’s confident it has met the expectations of the developer community and end users. As much as PlayBook owners will hate to hear this, it’s a good thing. If RIM launches the new OS for the tablet and it doesn’t work the PlayBook is dead. Another big piece of bad news is that RIM announced that it has decided to not include the BBM application with version 2.0 and will push that feature until a later version of the OS. The rumors had

When it comes to reducing the power that large data centers consume a seemingly small reduction can have huge savings in power consumption and the cost of operating the data center. Apple is getting ready to install a large solar panel farm on land it already owns in Maiden, North Carolina. Apple has been issued permits needed in Catawba County to reshape the 171 acres of land it owns adjacent to the data center. The reshaping will involve changing the slope of the land so that the large solar farm can be installed. Apple is big on green energy and the power company that provides power to the large data center right now gets its electricity from coal and nuclear plants. Other Apple locations are 100% powered by renewable energy and green is big to Apple so the solar farm is on the agenda. The solar project is being called “Project Dolphin Solar Farm A Expanded” that Dolphin project name is reportedly the codename for the billion dollar data center constructed in Maiden. According t

With Microsoft recently finalizing the purchase of Skype you might think that the first video calling service on the coming Mango smartphones would be Skype. That would be wrong. The start-up video conferencing firm Tango will be the first video calling app on Mango devices according to the company. We have talked a bit about Tango in the past. Tango was the app used to demonstrate video calling on Windows Phone devices in September. The service has been on Android and the iPhone previously. With the purchase of Skype, the video calling technology will eventually be embedded deep inside the Windows Phone OS. With the time it takes for that sort of integration, Tango will be the stop gap. Forbes reports that a Skype representative declined to comment on Skype and Windows Phone integration. Beating Skype onto the Mango platform could be huge for Tango. Analysts have predicted that Mango will be the fastest growing OS next year. Tango should hit the Windows Phone platform on November

If you are a user of the Google Chrome web browser the latest update is now available for you to download. The latest version that is up for download right now is Chrome 15. The update brings with it it new bug fixes and adds in some new features as well. One key feature of the new version of the browser is that Google says it will allow the user to be more sociable. This new social twist will be in the form of giving the user the ability to share media and documents. One of the most noticeable changes to the browser in Chrome 15 is the Chrome Tab panel is redesigned completely. The redesign was done to make it easier for the user to access and organize pages and apps. Google also notes that you can get information about an app or extension in a click by opening a panel that has screenshots, videos, and other details offered in different tabs. It’s worth noting that some users are saying that the new version of the browser is more unstable than the old one. One also pointed out tha

This has been a big week for IBM. The company has appointed Virginia M. Rometty as CEO of the company, making her one of the highest profile female CEOs in the business world. When Rometty took the CEO spot, the former CEO Samuel J. Palmisano moved over to the Chairman position. While a new CEO and Chairman are in play, IBM has announced something else interesting today. IBM will be buying back another $7 billion worth of its stock and has declared a dividend. That $7 billion in additional buyback is on top of the $5.2 billion that IBM had announced it would buy back at the end of September. Apparently IBM still isn’t done gathering its own stock back up. The technology giant is expected to ask its board for permission to buy back more stock in a board meeting set for next April. The quarterly dividend that was announced is 75 cents and will be paid to shareholders on December 10 that were on record as of November 10.

Japanese government officials have announced that over the last several months, viruses have hit its House of Representatives and Ministry of Foreign affairs during cyber attacks. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices along with its overseas embassies and consulates were targeted by emails in a focused attack with the goal of stealing information. The announcement came from Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura this week. Computers in the Japanese House were infected in late August according to Fujimura. The computers in the overseas Foreign Affairs offices handle low security information and the separate network that handles high security information was not infected according to officials. Fujimura is specific in pointing out that there was no leak of confidential information. However, he declined to comments on the specific locations and nature of the attack. If the attack was from emails as previously stated, the source was likely infected file attachments. The computers in

Nokia’s main show may be the Lumia range this week at Nokia World, but the company’s labs have also brought out some of their more interesting tidbits to play. The Kinetic Labs Concept is perhaps the most eye-catching, a flexible smartphone prototype that allows for navigation by physically deforming the device, sizable screen and all. Check out our hands-on after the cut. The system is reminiscent of Synaptics’ Fuse concept, a squeezable, tillable smartphone which we played with back in February 2010. Unlike the Fuse, however, Nokia’s prototype includes a fully-bendable display rather than cladding the handset in touch sensors. It definitely makes for a more involving experience: Nokia has whipped up a UI for navigating music and photos, and by twisting the handset laterally you can scroll through the lists of media. Bending the edges toward you or away from you zooms in and out, and then more twisting pans around the zoomed image. Right now there’s no phone integration, and in

JBL has gobs of speaker docks for the iPhone and the iPad tablets. The latest of these docks has been announced for launch in the UK soon and it is called the JBL OnBeat Xtreme. This is the latest docking station and it is designed specifically to fit the iPad and iPad 2 tablets. The dock the Xtreme uses rotates so that the iPhone and iPod touch can dock as well. Other than the dock for playing music, the Xtreme also has Bluetooth technology for streaming audio from non-dockable devices and a 3.5mm input. The Xtreme also has an integrated mic to allow it to be used as a speaker phone. The microphone uses DSP and has echo cancellation for better sound quality. The Xtreme is engineered for high quality sound according to JBL. It has dual Atlas bass drivers and Ridge tweeters both using DSP equalization. The docking station can be controlled using the OnBeat Xtreme app that is on the App Store as a free download. This app gives control over playlists, EQ settings, and the user can set

The Pew Research Center has conducted a study for Excellence in Journalism in cooperation with The Economist Group that has find some impressive facts about the reach and use of tablet computers with adults in the US. According to the report that was published this week 11% of all American adults own a tablet. We already know that the most popular tablet is the iPad, so most will be using the Apple product. What is more impressive than that number is that 77% of those adults that own a tablet use them every day. That shows that tablets are more than just a fad or a me too purchase since the people are actually using them daily. The average tablet user spends 90 minutes each day using the tablet for all sorts of things. Email use is one of the most popular tablet activities with 54% using the tablet for email. Social networking is next on the tablet activity list with 39% using their tablet for that, 30% of users play games on the tablet, and 17% read books on it. The survey found t

Yesterday Rockstar came out of nowhere with the announcement that the trailer for GTA V would be landing early in November. This news sent fans of the franchise all around the world into full on rumor mode. Rumors started to surface that said the game would be based on a real-world location and that multiple playable characters would be offered. Kotaku reports that a source familiar with the game has said that some of the rumors that were flying around are in fact true. Kotaku cites multiple sources claiming that the multiple playable characters rumor is true. Other rumors claim that the game will be set in real world Los Angeles rather than a fictional city. This would make sense to me and a real city where you can explore actually places to loot, kill, and pillage would be cool. I have always wished that GTA would license some real cars so you can steal rides that are available in the real world. It would be cool to go into the LA hills and steal some rich dudes Ferrari or jack h

Amazon has been granted a patent on a new tech for gift cards that will help the giver limit exactly what the person they gift the card to can purchase. Amazon applied for the patent titled “customizing gift instrument experiences for recipients” back in 2008 and the patent was granted recently. In a nutshell, the patent boils down to parental controls for the products the gift card can be used to purchase. The way the patent outlines the new gift card the person giving the card would be able to recommend items that the person receiving the card might like. The giver would also be able to limit the purchases to specific things. Presumably that would mean if you don’t want the receiver to use it for video games you could restrict that category. The part that is a bit more intrusive for the receiver of the gift card is that the sender can get a report back on what the person they gave the card to actually purchased. I can see the use for the restrictions. If an uncle for instance wan

Nokia’s new Asha range isn’t quite as excited to our smartphone-jaded eyes as the Lumia 800, but it could arguably have a bigger impact on the Finnish company’s user-base. Targeted at the “next billion users” the four-strong range includes a trio of QWERTY candybars some of which offer touchscreens too. Check out our hands-on impressions after the cut. With pricing only creeping over €100 (pre-subsidies) for one of the models, the Asha 303, we didn’t have huge expectations on build-quality and functionality. However, in the hand we were pleasantly surprised. The Asha 200 (the 201 is identical, apart from only offering a single SIM slot) feels the cheapest of the range, though at €60 that’s hardly a shock. The glossy plastic chassis was sturdy if a fingerprint magnet, and the non-touch display lacked the vivid colors and contrast of other recent Nokia’s we’ve seen. The keyboard, however, was usable and had decent inter-key spacing. The Nokia Asha 300 and 303 were more successful all

I think many people had given up on digital magazine subscriptions, as many readers did not adopt them quickly. It seems that at least for publisher Conde Nast that slow uptake of its digital subscriptions may have changed thanks to the update to iOS 5 and the iPad getting Newsstand. According to Conde Nast, its digital subscriptions have boomed since Newsstand landed. Conde Nast reports that since iOS 5 and Newsstand hit the iPad its digital subscriptions have soared by 268%. The publisher also notes that single issue purchases have also grown significantly to the tune of 142%. Electronista reports that Conde Nast’s executive VP Monica Ray attributes the increased subscriptions and single issue purchases to the inherent design of Newsstand. Ray says that the design makes it easy to for readers to find and purchase the digital magazines. Another part of newsstand that is pointed to for the increased success of the digital content is background downloads that make it easy to get new

Nokia World is underway and SlashGear is at the show live. We had hoped that there would be a lot of new devices unveiled at the show and so far, there have been some cool announcements. The Lumina 800 Windows Phone for instance looks very nice on paper and we can’t wait to try the smartphone out in person. If you were hoping for some confirmation of when the Mango Nokia devices would land, we have that too. Yesterday we mentioned that Nokia Windows Phone might not hit the US until next year. The tip came from leaked advertising plan. Nokia has today confirmed at Nokia World that the Windows Phone Mango handsets that it is showing off will not reach US store shelves until early 2012. Early is a relative term, I suspect that we are looking at some time in Q1. As we get closer to 2012 hopefully Nokia will tip a firm launch date. Mango devices will launch in Europe this year. The leak had the smartphones pegged for a European release in time for the holiday season this year. Nokia als

Nokia has revealed a range of new headsets in its Purity line, the fruits of a partnership with Monster. The on-ear Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster and thein-ear Nokia Purity Stereo Headset by Monster were each made official at Nokia World 2011 this morning. Specifications of the new headphones haven’t been revealed, but we’ll update as soon as we know more. Nokia has both wired and wireless options, some using NFC to automatically pair the Bluetooth connection.

We caught a glimpse of the Samsung Exhibit II 4G smartphone earlier this month when the device was first tipped to be getting the Exhibit moniker rather than the Galaxy W name. The smartphone has now gone official on T-Mobile with pricing and all the details you might want on the smartphone. The Exhibit II 4G will is to be the first 4G smartphone to be sold at most Walmart stores that doesn’t require a contract. The smartphone will land on October 27 as a no contract offering. The smartphone will also be offered with a 2-year contract as well starting on November 2. The Exhibit II 4G packs in a 3.7-inch screen with WVGA resolution. The processor is a 1GHz Snapdragon and the device runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It can access the T-Mobile TV network in mobile HD along with the Samsung Media Hub. The phone is offered in marine blue color and has a 3MP rear camera with flash and the ability to capture video. It also features WiFi and can access the Android Market. The phone will sell f

The Nokia Lumia 800 isn’t the company’s only Windows Phone 7 handset at Nokia World 2011; the company has also revealed the Nokia Lumia 710, it’s entry-level model. Available in “stealthy black” and “crisp white” there’ll also be optional covers that match the Windows Phone Live Tiles. Inside, it’s the same processor and software as the Lumia 800, but fronted by a 3.7-inch Clear Black display. The Lumia 710 design is more similar to previous Symbian handsets than the N9-inspired Lumia 800, a curved handset with a chunkier form-factor than its polycarbonate sibling. Performance from Mango should be the same, however, and there’s a 5-megapixel camera on the back. Nokia isn’t saying exactly how “affordable” the Lumia 710 will be, though the company is no stranger to building devices on a budget. Buyers will also get access to the Nokia Drive with turn-by-turn navigation functionality, the Nokia Music with preset mixes on a subscription-free basis, and the ESPN sports hub, just like th

Angry Birds continues to make its way across the mobile landscape, with Nokia announcing that the hugely popular game will now be available on S40 devices. Demo’d this morning as part of Nokia World 2011‘s debut of the Asha 200, 201, 300 and 303, the game will also be offered to existing S40 users through Nokia’s Ovi Store for app downloads. It’s not clear at this point whether Angry Birds will be a free or paid app. Nokia and Rovio could follow Android, and offer the game free with adverts, or it could follow iPhone and offer the title as a paid download with no ads. Considering Nokia’s entry-level audience with S40, a free game would arguably make more sense.

Nokia has revealed its new Asha series, the company’s four-strong Symbian range intended for developing markets, entry-level users and anybody whose mobile ambitions might exceed their budgets. The Nokia Asha 200, 201, 300 and 303 run S40 on a range of form-factors that includes QWERTY keyboards and full touch. The Nokia Asha 200 has a QWERTY ‘board in a candybar form-factor, in addition to multi-SIM support and multi-swap, allowing users to move between different SIMs without rebooting the phone. The Asha 201 has the same specs but lacks dual-SIM. Both can be used with up to a 32GB microSD. The Asha 300 has a touchscreen and numeric keypad, along with a 5-megapixel camera in a candybar form-factor. Inside there’s 3G and WiFi, along with a 1GHz single-core processor. There’s a homescreen widget for social networking integration, as with other Asha models, and Ovi Store apps access, together with Nokia Maps preloaded. The Asha 303 meanwhile has similar specifications but a QWERTY ‘b

“Earlier this year we realized the need to shift our strategy so we could deliver even better experiences.” So Stephen Elop kicked off the Nokia World 2011 keynote, the CEO painting a picture of the company as a reliable old friend who was very much in need of a makeover. “Generally people like Nokia, we’re durable, we’re trustworthy, we’re reliable” Elop explained. “We comb our hair neatly, we always pick you up after work when we said we would. But we wanted more … and that wouldn’t happen without change.” Seven new NFC phones – the most open NFC models of any vendor – and the MeeGo powered N9 were a part of that, Elop explained, along with a significant step into the dual-SIM market. That includes technologies that allow you to switch the SIM card without rebooting the phone. “Who is the next billion? Where are these people … how do they define life’s little adventures?” Elop asked rhetorically, going on to suggest that Nokia’s research says it’s young people: “extremely savvy m

It’s October 26, and that means Nokia World 2011, the Finn’s opportunity to convince us that they still have a place in the hotly contested smartphone market. SlashGear is in London, UK, today to see Nokia’s Stephen Elop officially unveil the first new Windows Phones from the company. That shouldn’t come too much as a surprise: after all, the usual cavalcade of leaks and whispers have already revealed two new devices. The Nokia Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 were caught in the wild only yesterday, the 800 borrowing the polycarbonate styling of the N9 we liked so much in our review at the weekend. Still, there’s plenty of opportunity to still be surprised, and there’s the thorny matter of who exactly will be able to actually buy the first wave of Nokia devices. Last we heard, the US market wouldn’t get any Nokia Windows Phones until 2012, something which is likely to come as a major disappointment to many would-be Mango buyers.

Mister Trevor Prideaux, a British man born without an arm on the left side of his body, now has what we’re pretty sure is the world’s first prosthetic limb with a built-in smartphone dock. Not only that, but he’s using the cool Nokia C7, a device that not only Chris Davies reviewed here on SlashGear, your humble narrator Chris Burns wrote a review for the USA side of things as well. Now one of these magical little devices sits in the hardened arm of a Brit – hows that for taking your “handicap” and making it work in your favor. Plain old human arm not looking so good to you now, is it? The business of prosthetic bits doesn’t come up often here on SlashGear, but when it does, it’s awesome. Everything from a £35K artificial hand to a full-on tentacle to a Dalek-style gripper has us applauding the industrial design world for their class. Now we’ve got this fellow Prideaux together with no less than official Nokia communications chiefs and a group of medical experts who’ve together creat

It’s time for the carrier videos showing off the next hero device for Google to be shown off, this simple set of explorations starting as a hands-on with Three UK and Brendan Arndt. What you’ll get to see here is no less than the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as it’ll be showing up in the UK. This is a slightly different configuration than the USA is going to see as the carrier here in the USA will be on Verizon Wireless and running with a 4G LTE connection. What this video will afford you is a another close-up look at the first device, or perhaps the second, running Ice Cream Sandwich out in the wild, starting before the end of the year. One thing this video will allow you to see perhaps better than anyone not having already had a hands-on look themselves have been able to see is the HD screen. The Galaxy Nexus has 720 x 1280 pixel resolution on an HD Super AMOLED technology 4.65-inch display. And on top of that, it’s curved as well – have a look at the post Galaxy Nexus has a curved pentile

Sony has acquired the movie rights to Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs and is reportedly pursuing screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to turn the book into a script for the big screen. Sorkin not only has several acclaimed works under his belt but also seems especially fit for the part since he had recently won an Academy Award for his work on the movie about Facebook called The Social Network. According to the LA Times, Sony is moving forward with the Steve Jobs movie and sees Sorkin as its top choice. Besides writing the adapted screenplay for The Social Network, Sorkin also worked on other films, including Charlie Wilson’s War and Moneyball as well as TV shows such as West Wing. Sorkin also happens to know Jobs personally as he had an opportunity to work with him in the past for a Pixar movie, which Sorkin ultimately turned down. He decided against accepting Jobs’ offer as he felt he couldn’t “make inanimate objects talk.” But surely, taking up the task to pen a biopic

Is Salman Khan over-doing the workload? After his recent neuro-surgery the star has been advised a calmer lifestyle. Success, however, won't let Salman be. The onslaught on his timetable is apparently taking a toll on his recuperation. Everyone from Bigg Boss to Himesh Reshammiya wants a piece of Salman's time. Bigg Boss almost lost the bid to get Salman down from Istanbul on Saturday. There was more tension, drama and fireworks behind the scenes of Bigg Boss this weekend than what we saw on screen. Until the last minute the team behind the reality-show was not sure whether Salman would actually land in Mumbai for the shooting on Saturday. Says a source, "Though the channel Colors had been informed about Salman's participation on Saturday for 6-7 hours at Karjat for it, Bigg Boss wasn't a hundred percent sure if Salman would be able to get away from the very tight very tense and very costly shooting schedule in Istanbul. Permission to shoot in volatile places

Saif Ali Khan will soon be crowned as the Tenth Nawab of Pataudi. The crowning ceremony will take place in the princely Pataudi state in Haryana by the end of October. The ceremony will take place 40 days after the demise of Saif's father Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. A huge turnout of people is expected on the day of crowning, as people from across the state would come to see the Pagri Rasm (coronation ceremony) of Saif Ali Khan, one of the loyal caretakers of the palace. The ceremony is more of a family tradition and hugely symbolic for the people of Pataudi. Titles like 'Nawab' are no longer recognized by the government of India. Princely states were abolished in 1971, Mansoor Ali Khan was the last Nawab who reigned from 1952 till 1971 and was regarded as a Nawab of the 52 villages of the Pataudi riyasat. For purely sentimental reasons, the people of Pataudi wanted their Chhote Nawab Saif to be crowned as the Tenth 'Nawab of Pataudi' to continue the family tradit

It seems that our B-town filmmakers are no longer ignoring the market and audience down South. So while Ra.One will be released simultaneously in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions this Diwali, yet another film, R.Balki's English Vinglish too will be released in Tamil and Telugu versions apart from Hindi. English Vinglish is Sridevi's much awaited comeback film directed by Gauri Shinde (R.Balki's wife). Shooting of the film is on in full swing. Since Sridevi is hugely popular down South, the makers have decided to release the film in Tamil and Telugu as well. Sridevi would be dubbing her own lines in Tamil and Telugu.