Ideas & Opinions

Mobile 2.0 conference today

By Charlie on 04 July 2008

BARCELONA, Spain – Today I am in Barcelona for the Mobile 2.0 conference. There are about 150 companies attending, a mix of entrepreneurs, developers, and operators.

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Design, Ideas & Opinions, Products & Services

A quick laughing round-up for today

By Charlie on 03 July 2008

ESPOO, Finland – I’ve not been able to do a link round up in the past few days. Did you notice? Do you like these round-ups?

In any case, I managed to get online today for a quick fix of info from around the neighborhood. I’m in a punchy mood, so certain things stood out. What I have for you today is a Retro Phone, a Car Phone, an Open Phone, and a Journo Phone. Intrigued? Then read on.

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Our Business

Navigating the commission

By James on 03 July 2008

ESPOO, Finland – The EU has given the green light to the Nokia Navteq
deal which means within the week the mapping company will become part of Nokia. Following the approval for the takeover of Navteq competitor TeleAtlas the commission concluded that “The merged firm’s ability to deny competitors access to map databases is limited by the presence of the other competitor, Tele Atlas”

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Products & Services

Video interview: Mikko Haho

By James on 03 July 2008

ESPOO, Finland – We caught up with Nokia Engineer, Mikko Haho who was the key engineer behind the new wireless Nokia Loopset. He shares his background (in Finnish, with English subtitles) revealing that he first got the inspiration for a mobile Loopset when he was in school. He also takes us through the previous wired Loopsets and outlines how they evolved into the latest wireless version. Check it out after the jump.

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Products & Services

Nokia’s next generation Loopset

By James on 02 July 2008

ESPOO, Finland - Many of us take making phone calls for granted. And why not, after all we have plentiful access to phones, either at home or on the go. But what about those who are hard of hearing? Could you imagine not being able to have a phone conversation for three years? That was how one story started which inspired Nokia engineer behind the new Wireless Loopset, Mikko Haho. Hard of hearing himself, Mikko was demoing a first generation Loopset when a woman skeptical about the device tried it for herself. Having not had a phone conversation with her daughter in three years, the woman burst into tears – she couldn’t believe it.

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Our Business

Meet the mobile anthropologist

By James on 02 July 2008

GLOBAL – You’ve seen some of his research, you’ve heard a bit about how we works and what he does. Now though you can find out everything you’d ever want to know (almost) about Nokia’s Jan Chipcase. His work takes him around the world observing and understanding how mobile design fits into and affects lives, societies and cultures. But don’t call him an anthropologist; because he’s not fully qualified he
much prefers ‘design research’ to describe his job.

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Ideas & Opinions

Is Mobile TV ready for the commute?

By James on 02 July 2008

GLOBAL – Mobile TV in the UK has yet to take off like it has in Japan
and Korea. If you pop over to Jan Chipchase’s Future Perfect blog you’ll discover an
interesting case study on how mobile TV is consumed over in Seoul, South Korea. Jan, who works for Nokia’s Design in Technology Platforms group, ruminates about many facets of society and technology while on his extensive travels. His entries on commuting and how it differs around the world are particularly fascinating.

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Products & Services

Warner Music joins Comes With Music party

By James on 01 July 2008

New York, USA – It was surely only a matter of time but music label giant Warner Music has finally followed the lead of Universal and Sony BMG by signing up to Nokia’s Comes With Music and Music Store services.

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Ideas & Opinions

How many platforms do we need?

By James on 01 July 2008

GLOBAL – At last week’s Symbian Foundation event, Vodafone Director and SF member, Guido Arnone lamented that in the past his network had 17 platforms to deal with when tailoring its Live! services to fit on handsets. Don’t worry, it’s since been trimmed down to a manageable three but the move by the Foundation to put all the different Symbian OS – S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) – into one melting pot for a universal Symbian platform must be manna from mobile heaven for these guys.