At the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, Nokia has announced its partnership with the automotive industry to introduce ‘Terminal Mode’. Terminal Mode is being proposed as an industry standard to connect all smartphones that adopt it, not just Nokia smartphones, to support in-car infotainment systems. Nokia believes it should be easy to share information and content between your smartphone and other devices you use everyday such as your PC and the web. This way it is easy to keep everything synchronized and ensure you always have access to the things you love, such as your music, and the services you use, such as navigation, whenever and wherever you need them.
The Nokia Beta Labs have just announced that Ovi Mail has been updated to v2.0, and now uses the same address book as Ovi Contacts. You can view, edit, delete or create contacts from Ovi Contacts or Ovi Mail, and the changes will be reflected in both services. The Ovi umbrella is becoming more and more what Nokia wanted, a converged services solution for all Nokia users, which is great for the end user. With this new announcement you can also now sync your device phonebook with both Ovi Contacts and Ovi Mail.
The CeBIT Global Conferences are underway in Hannover, Germany, and Nokia has kicked off with the revelation of its Cseries portfolio. The Nokia C5 is the first Cseries device to be announced and is designed to cater for those looking for a cheap smartphone with heavy social networking capabilities. If you fit the bill, you will also be delighted to learn that the Nokia C5 is estimated to retail for around £125 before taxes and subsides.
The Nokia Research Centre has just recently showcased a fascinating new Explore and Share service, that gives them a new way of selling and delivering services at retail. The demonstration shows how a consumer can download Nokia content like music or videos directly onto a device easily with this novel technology. The file transfer of a music album took less than ten seconds. Very impressive indeed. Now its just a matter of squeezing this technology into the device so consumers can do the same at home. Video after the jump.
Phil Shwarzmann of Nokia Conversations got Niklas Savander, EVP of Services at Nokia, to answer your questions sent in to @NokConv. Want to know how it went? Check out the video after the break.
The Nokia Ovi Suite version 2.1.0.87 has been released for existing Nokia Ovi Suite users. The new update contains many improvements, bug fixes and brings some cool new features. The Nokia Beta Labs started distributing the update to Nokia Ovi Suite last week, and so many of you may already have the latest release. Some new features include ovi.com contacts sync, video transfer and playback and device application updates. There is also support for Mozilla Thunderbird in contacts sync. There has also been a lot work put into increase the general performance of the suite.
With a great user experience, an aggressive global rollout plan and a focus on local relevance, Nokia felt that it was time to commend some of the key milestones the Nokia services have achieved. Taking a look at some of the Ovi services, there has already been more than three million Ovi Maps downloaded to date, the average person using Comes With Music downloads 500 free songs in the first few weeks of using the service, which would cost about EUR 450 from iTunes, and the Ovi Store experiences more than one million downloads a day. Nokia also highlighted the success of its Messaging, Money and Life Tools services. Check out the full press release after the break.
The world’s largest handset manufacturer and world’s largest chipmaker collaborate and introduce Maego. In a significant development in the convergence of communications and computing, Intel Corporation and Nokia are merging their popular Moblin and Maemo software platforms. This will create a unified Linux-based platform that will run on multiple hardware platforms across a wide range of computing devices, including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, media phones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems. Called MeeGo, the open software platform will accelerate industry innovation and time-to-market for a wealth of new Internet-based applications and services and exciting user experiences. MeeGo-based devices from Nokia and other manufacturers are expected to be launched later this year.
The Nokia Booklet 3G is finally available for UK customers via nokia.co.uk. Up until now, Nokia’s booklet has only been available to pre-order in the UK, but now you can purchase it directly from Nokia for a rather suprising £649. The Nokia Booklet 3G comes with Windows 7 Starter Edition and packs a 10.1″ screen capable of displaying 720p. With a phenomenal 12 hour battery life and ultra-portable aluminum chassis, the Booklet 3G allows you to remain truly mobile with ease.
In October 2009 Londoner’s woke up to see a signpost the size of two London buses suspended next to Tower Bridge, and we were lucky enough to be there for the launch courtesy of WOMWorld. The sign celebrated the release of the Nokia N97 mini with built-in Ovi Maps, and asked people to send in their “Good Things.” It swung around all day to point to all the “Good Things” from all around the world, and although the sign has since been removed, the good things remain and have got even better. Check out the event footage after the break.
