Nokia sells New York headquarters to Histogenetics for $12 million

Nokia has sold its New York headquarters, located north of Manhattan in the industrial town of White Plains. Purchased six years ago for $30 million, the struggling Finnish vendor sold the building to biotechnology firm Histogenetics for $12 million. ”It’s a great deal for 12 million bucks,” Michael Rao, president of the realtor representing Histogenetics, told LoHud.com. “The building is gorgeous. It’s so spectacular.” Nokia’s move comes as its struggles in the global mobile market continue; the company posted a huge $1.7 billion loss in the second quarter after losing $1.2 billion in the first quarter. Excluding the White Plains office, Nokia currently has 27 U.S. office locations listed on its website in addition to its North American headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.

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Nokia releases Browser 2.0 update for Series 40 handsets

Nokia announced earlier today the release of Browser 2.0 for its Series 40 devices, which of course includes the colorful Asha lineup. The update promises an overall speedier and easier browsing experience, this in large part due to the application condensing data by up to 90 percent. In addition to these enhancements, there's also a novel Download Manager in the refresh, giving users the ability to choose where they'd like to save content without leaving the app. Also included in the update is a new multitasking-while-browsing feature (finally!), as well as a social-sharing bit that lets you push out page URLs to sites like Twitter, Facebook, Sina Weibo and RenRen. Browser 2.0 will be native on future Series 40s, but for now those whom already own a small chunk of the 1.5 billion can grab the goods from the Nokia Store or wait for the OTA package to hit your device.

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Nokia update MeeGo 1.2 for Nokia N9

Nokia update MeeGo v1.2 for Nokia N9 now. The update weighs in at 284MB and it may take a while to install (up to 40 minutes according to Nokia).But it's well worth the wait. With it, you'll get to make video calls and finally put that front-facing camera of the Nokia N9 to good use. MeeGo 1.2 also offers folders in the app launcher so you can get the place more organized.Other improvements include updates to the camera and gallery and copy/paste functionality with brackets.You can start the installation straight from the N9, just check for updates if you haven’t received a notification already.

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Nokia opens LTE lab in California

Nokia Siemens Networks is opening a brand new facility in Silicon Valley to work on testing and implementing new technologies based on the emerging 4G LTE standard. The company will allow manufacturers and software developers to test their products on high-sped mobile broadband networks and receive analysis on how those products are performing in an LTE environment. This is the latest mobile lab owned by Nokia Siemens Networks. The company also owns facilities in Finland, France, and South Korea, as well as another one in the US in Dallas.

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Nokia clarifies battery update on Lumia 800, promises audio / camera fixes soon

As you all have noticed the Nokia Lumia 800 isn’t free of issues since it’s launch back in November. Following the recent patch release and subsequent users complains about it not fixing some of the battery related issues, Audio and Camera quality, the company has released another statement today to set the record straight about what is actually going on. The good news is that Audio and Camera related issues are going to be taken care off in an upcoming updates. From my own experience on the camera front the only thing that has still not been fixed is the Auto-White balance and Auto-Iso settings (Auto-Focus in video mode and Photo color temperature were fixed by the latest update).

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Nokia Lumia 910 with 12MP camera listed on Dutch site

Lumia 910 showing up on a Typhone.NL a Dutch retail site for smartphones. The phone is clearly marked as the 910 and low and behold even has a matching 12MP camera to match those rumored specs. Could be coincidence, could be a retail site drumming up some hits or it could very well be the first solid evidence that this bad boy is coming sooner than later. Everything else is there too: 16GB of storage, front facing camera, HSDPA (21 Mb/s) and that 4.3" screen, of course.

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Nokia E6-00 images and videos leaks

The Nokia E6-00 has come out of the shadows yet again, a new photo of the E6 was revealed with the phone sporting a classy black look.
Nokia E6-00 features an 8 megapixel dual-led flash EDoF camera, capable of 720p video recording just as the cameras on the E7-00 and the C6-01. Also, the OS is a special version of the Symbian^3 adapted for 4:3 aspect ratio screens. The screen is what appears to be a 2.6-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 640x480 pixels.

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Nokia and Microsoft announce plans for a Windows Phone

On Nokia website, Nokia has announced a partnership with Microsoft, adopting Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform. 


Press Release

Companies plan to combine assets and develop innovative mobile products on an unprecedented scale

Nokia Corporation
Stock exchange release
February 11, 2011 at 9.30 (CET +1)

London, Feb. 11, 2011 - Nokia and Microsoft today announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem.

Nokia and Microsoft intend to jointly create market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity.  As each company would focus on its core competencies, the partnership would create the opportunity for rapid time to market execution.  Additionally, Nokia and Microsoft plan to work together to integrate key assets and create completely new service offerings, while extending established products and services to new markets. 

Under the proposed partnership:

- Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.

- Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone.  Nokia would contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.

- Nokia and Microsoft would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.

- Bing would power Nokia's search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing's next generation search capabilities.  Microsoft adCenter would provide search advertising services on Nokia's line of devices and services.

- Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft's mapping services.   For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft's Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience

- Nokia's extensive operator billing agreements would make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.

- Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem's global reach. 

- Nokia's content and application store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

"Today, developers, operators and consumers want  compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great  experience," Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, said at a joint news conference in London. "Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It's now a three-horse race."

"I am excited about this partnership with Nokia," said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. "Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale. The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute."

Please visit www.nokia.com/press for press materials.

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Nokia kills Ovi Music Unlimited, Digital Rights Management is the reason

The world's top cellphone maker, Nokia, is ending its bundling of free music downloads with cellphones in 27 countries, where it has gained little traction since its 2008 launch. China, India and Indonesia along with Brazil, Turkey and South Africa are the only exceptions, though they will probably follow suit sooner or later.

Nokia unveiled the service in late 2008 in Britain -- seen as a test market for new mobile services in Europe -- but has lacked operator support and failed to attract many customers.

Reasons behind the lackluster performance include use of older supporting handsets for the product at its launch, digital rights management (DRM) software that tied downloaded music to the device and a difficult to understand product offering.

"The markets clearly want a DRM-free music service," said a spokesman for Nokia, adding the firm continues to offer DRM-free tracks through its music store in 38 countries.

DRM software limits sharing of songs between different devices.

Consumers with the free music bundle in the 27 countries where the sale of the service have stopped will continue to have access until their subscriptions run out.

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Nokia Big Screen - connect Nokia N8 to your TV for easy media sharing

Nokia Big Screen  is a new kind of media player that you can install on Nokia N8. Share your favourite mobile content on any high-definition television screen with Nokia Big Screen. 
With Nokia Big Screen, you can:

• Show your photos and videos in high definition on your TV screen
• Listen to music from your phone on your home audio system
• View song lyrics in karaoke style and watch videos with subtitles
• Play music on the background while you browse your photos
• Enjoy a photo slideshow with music of your choice (change the direction with left/right arrow keys)
• Screen saver activates after a minute's idle time to protect your TV
• Use your phone as an entertainment hub you can take everywhere with you

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Nokia E7 specs, release date on January 13th and price $679?

The Nokia E7 showed up on Amazon in all of its glory and with equally glorious price tag. You can have all the sweetness of full QWERTY and Symbian^3 for $679 which means it will probably be around £500 when it makes the transition over to the UK. Information from the Nokia blog shows that the handset is expected to arrive on January 13th. The mysterious distributor is receiving 2,000 blue and 2,000 silver-colored units and while the date looks official, it could still be changed by Nokia. Even if not, it would most probably be a couple of days more before the Nokia E7 is available to the public.

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Video Nokia Windows Phone 7 concept

Not long ago, the idea of a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device was downright ridiculous.However, after last week’s rumor that came from Eldar Murtazin (known for uncovering lots of secrets – although he had some inaccurate stories, too), it looks like Nokia and Microsoft are, in fact, planning to make and launch WP7 handsets together.Of course, this may not happen too soon. But when it will, what do you think the first Nokia Windows Phone 7 device would look like?

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[Update] Video Nokia N900 run android 2.3.1 Gingerbread

Android 2.3 is the latest victim of an N900 sneak attack ( a few days ago I introduced images about Hack Nokia N900 to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread), and impressively, core components like messaging already seem to be working -- likely thanks to the fact that hackers had already gotten pre-2.3 builds rock solid. 

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Hack Nokia N900 to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Nokia’s N900 continues to prove itself a firm favorite with the modding community, now managing to get an Android 2.3 Gingerbread port before Google has even managed the official release for the Nexus One.  It’s primarily the handiwork of Alexey Roslyakov – aka DrunkDebugger – though not everything is fully functional quite yet. Still, cellular data, sound, WiFi and various other things are working, and he’s suggesting that there’ll be a stable build released before the end of the year.

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Smart house controlled by nokia N8

Some of the students of a Chinese university have built a completely automatic house. This whole project cost them three months, and 120, 000 Yuan (about $1,8000 USD). The space in the container are only 9 square meters, but it has everything that’s require for modern human’s daily life, which even including a wind turbine generator system to produce electricity. Even all the furniture are automatic. And the most amazing part is that the automatic system is controlled by an app that combines 8600 line codes running on Nokia N8 via Wi-Fi.

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Nokia X7 Spec, Picture,Video, AT&T bands?

Nokia X7-00 is the latest Symbian^3 Mobile Phone to come into picture with a video leak which gave many hints to what the phone features. The processor, RAM and graphics of the device seem to be similar to the likes of Nokia N8. The dimension also seems similar with unusual angular design. Even the screen size seems to be close to 3.8 inch. However, the handset is equipped with a 8MP camera. There is also a 3.5mm audio jack located on the top edge. A microUSB port was also spotted in the video.

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Nokia C5-03 available now, retail price of 225 US dollars

Nokia has just released their latest touch-driven handset - the C5-03. Packing a distinctly youthful design, the Nokia C5-03 is yet another budget-minded smartphone by the Finnish manufacturer. It also packs great all round connectivity.
Nokia C5-03 runs on Symbian S60 5th edition, rather than the newer Symbian^3 OS.
When it was announced, Nokia promised a retail price of 225 US dollars (170 euro) before taxes for the C5-03, while current online offers go at about 290 US dollars. Maybe that retailers are just charging an early adopters' fee and those prices will go down in time for Christmas, though.

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Apple Smartphone Antenna Performance - Motorola Droid X

Apple wasn't done showing off the apparent reception woes of its competitors -- after all, the company already updated once this week with the Nokia N97 mini. Now it's going after Motorola's celebrity of the moment (and known iPhone 4 bully), the Droid X. You can see Cupertino's results in the video after the break, but unlike Apple's other videos, can't seem to recreate this one as easily with Droid Xs.

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Apple - Smartphone Antenna Performance - Nokia N97 mini

Nokia claims it always prioritizes antenna performance over physical design, and we'll take them at their word, but that apparently didn't exempt one Espoo handset from Apple's grip of doom. Here's the Nokia N97 Mini going down for the count, from a full seven bars to two. Of course, Apple doesn't mention whether calls or data drop when the handset's held this way. Video after the break.

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Nokia Kinetic concept pictures

British designer Jeremy Innes-Hopkins gives his take on Nokia's future.
This is the Nokia Kinetic, it's the painstaking work of British designer Jeremy Innes-Hopkins, and as far as he's concerned, it's the future of Nokia mobile phones. Jeremy tells that the top half of the actual prototype is just 8mm thick, while the bottom is 18mm, and he notes that the base also conveniently doubles as a more camera-like grip for taking photos.

Picture

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