Another Nokia Phone Canceled: T-Mobile Axes Nokia Nuron 2

In yet another blow to Nokia’s hopes of gaining a foothold in the US smartphone market, T-Mobile has cancelled plans to release the Nokia Nuron 2 — known internationally as the C5-03 — according to someone close to the situation. This is the second Nokia device to lose a place on US carrier shelves this week, following the X7 Journey, although that model was reportedly pulled by Nokia because it didn’t anticipate an acceptable level of marketing and subsidies from AT&T.

"Triple-Screen" Phone Challenges Conventional Design

    An innovative “triple-screen” clamshell design is challenging the notions of how a smartphone should look and act, taking handsets beyond the traditional rectangular design.

Designed by Kristian Ulrich Larsen, through industrial design lab Yanko Design, the "flip" phone consists of three flexible touch screens that are linked with hinges of steel mesh, allowing it to fold into a number of novel configurations.

The device folds flat like a conventional smartphone for easy carrying. It can expand into a triangular formation that would make a good alarm clock or free-standing screen for watching videos, and content wraps around the screens when the phone is handled. It can morph into a mini-laptop shape with a backlit hardware keyboard exposed, or fold flat to be perfect for e-book reading or simply showing a ton of screen real estate.

"People no longer only use their phone as a comunication device. It's more and more used for the things, we usually use our laptops for, but with the limited screen real estate on phones, there are still boundaries for what you can do," Larsen said. "With the ability to expand your content onto multiple screens or having multiple apps running on separate screens, it's possible for the user to do a lot more productive, and creative things."

The theoretical device is depicted running Android, with some special tricks up its sleeve. Bringing two devices close to each other enables sharing by simply sliding an object on screen towards the destination handset, evoking a super-polished version of bump technologies popular apps.

Rather than a single notification LED, which some contemporary phones have sadly dropped altogether, the concept has eye-catching color-changing illuminated edges. Although flashy, it's not as original as the nokia concept phone shown last year that actually stood up on a desk to signal incoming calls and messages.

There are no plans to commercialize the flip concept anytime soon, but the tri-fold concept takes the smartphone beyond the standardized "glossy slab" model. Advances in materials science like ultra durable glass and flexible screens should free designers from constraints that have held them back for years -- all that remains is to imagine new directions to explore.

Samsung Gem Headed to Unknown CDMA Carrier

Samsung recently published some information on its web site about a previously unannounced handset, the SCH-i100 Gem. This bar-style Android device runs 2.1 Eclair has has a 3.2-inch touch display with WQVGA resolution and scratch/smudge protection. It supports 850/1900MHz CDMA spectrum and also includes GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. According to Samsung's site, the Gem has an 800MHz processor, a 3.2 megapixel camera, speakerphone, and support for microSD cards up to 16GB. The Gem has Swype software on board for easier typing on the touch screen and it includes Samsung's Social Hub social networking software. Pricing and availability for the Gem weren't provided, nor was a carrier named for the device.

Experts debunk new claims of Android source code infringement

Florian Mueller, founder of the NoSoftwarePatents campaign, presented new evidence of copyright infringement in Android’s source code. His accusation focused on two sets of files found in separate locations within the Android source code tree. The first set is comprised of seven files (PolicyNodeImpl.java, AclEntryImpl.java, AclImpl.java, GroupImpl.java, OwnerImpl.java, PermissionImpl.java, and PrincipalImpl.java) that are included in the unit test area and are used internally to test software before shipping. These files are used for debugging and testing code only and are not distributed on Android handsets.

As ED Burnette  points out these files are openly published by Sun on its website for use by developers. The presence of these unit test files would not a sign of copyright infringement, except that somewhere along the way these files were modified by an Android or Harmony developer. Rather than use the original Sun files, the files were decompiled and rebuilt. They were also tagged with an Apache license, which, Burnette points out, may have been done by mistake using an automated script.

Though thee files were decompiled and contained an Apache license, it appears as if this may have been a mistake on Google’s part. According to Burnette, Google only needs to replace the files with the original Sun files or remove them entirely since they do not ship with Android. An update to the ZDNet post confirms that Google did removes these files prior to Mueller’s accusatory post. One of these files was removed on October 30, 2010 and the remaining files were deleted on January 14, 2011 with the note “Remove pointless tests.”

The other set of 37 files were much more obscure. They were found in a zip file provided by SONiVOX, formerly known as Sonic, that was published in the AOSP code repository back in 2008. SONiVOX develops the EAS (Embedded Audio Synthesis) framework used by Android handsets. This MMAPI.zip was included in a directory named “misc” and contained the MMAPI wrapper for EAS and tools for testing this code.

Some of these files contain code from Sun that can be downloaded freely but not redistributed. SONiVOX’s documentation clearly states which sections cannot be redistributed, but, for some unknown reason, these files accidentally landed in the AOSP. Similar to the unit test files above, this MMAPI wrapper is not used by Android in any way. According to Arc Technica , it appears that these files were mistakenly uploaded to AOSP by a third-party and are not evidence that Google copied source code from Sun.

In the end, these files should have not been included in Google’s source code repository but it is hardly a clear cut case of copyright infringement on Google’s part. Despite Mueller’s assertions to the contrary, these findings are also not evidence that Google is using stolen code on its Froyo and Gingerbread-powered Android handsets.

Sony Ericsson Working on Windows Phone for 2011

 Following-up on saying that they have an open mind about windows phones, rumour has it Sony Ericsson has one in the works for 2011. Google seems to have wooed pretty much every smartphone manufacturer (including Sony Ericsson) with the Android OS, but Microsoft has been equally successful at garnering initial interest for Windows Phone 7, if not any long-term commitments. SE has said that they were open to the possibility of working with Microsoft again, though they they were holding off on riding the initial wave, which strikes me as a good idea considering how LG has reacted to their results with platform

The current Xperia lineup, including the Arc and the upcoming Vivaz 2, mini pro, and play, are all Android handsets, but the family started off with Windows Mobile, and should Sony Ericsson churn out a Windows phone at some point, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see it crammed in with the Android crowd. By the time Sony Ericsson hypothetically gets around to making one, I wonder if Microsoft will have enabled a deeper level of manufacturer customizations. Considering their joyride with TimeScape, customizing the experience seems high on Sony Ericsson’s priority list, and probably a prerequisite for getting seriously involved with Windows phone.

Bump Technologies Raises $16 Million

 Bump Technologies, which makes an app that allows people to share contact details, photos and money by touching their phones together, recently raised $16.5 million in venture capital to fund its ongoing expansion and port its technology beyond social-networking applications.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company's app was conceived to simplify exchanging contact information, but has proven even more popular as a way to share photos and music. Each day, users now share about 40,000 contacts and nearly a million photos. People can also friend each other on Facebook, compare contact lists to find mutual friends, and schedule appointments on one another's calendars.

The app works by sensing a "bump" with the phone's accelerometers and comparing the location and timing of the bump to determine which two users are trying to connect. The phones then exchange content through Bump's servers.

IPhone owners make up the bulk of Bump's 7 million active users, but an Android app is also available with a reduced feature set. The company intends to bring it to parity with the Apple version soon.

"It's a proximity-based social network, for people and things you're actually physically interacting with," said David Lieb, co-founder of the company.

Despite the cash infusion, Bump remains focused on building its user base rather than finding profits. But going forward, the company could make money by licensing its technology -- PayPal uses it for a person-to-person payment app -- or from merchants interested in giving users location-relevant information or coupons. Bump's founders have said they've been approached by music labels and bands who want to use the service to communicate with fans at concerts.

With a wider range of development made possible by its recent cash influx, Bump's technology could be coming to more mobile devices in unexpected ways.

Nokia N8 Review

What you’ll love about the Nokia N8

For camera and video enthusiasts, as well as Nokia fanboys, the Nokia N8 is an outstanding piece of kit. The following is just a small list of what you can expect to find on Nokia’s latest and greatest:

1-Take professional quality photos with the best camera of any phone – ever!

2-12 megapixel camera, xenon flash, auto-focus, Carl Zeiss optics, mechanical shutter, and an unrivalled amount of settings let you take photos that are better than your average digital camera

3-Shoot HD videos through the same 12 megapixel camera

4-Imagine capturing video of your kid’s first school play, or just a night on the town, in glorious widescreen 720p HD that looks flawless on your HDTV – just by pointing your N8 at the scene and pressing record.

5-Your videos are also recorded with superb sound quality thanks to the N8′s ability to tune out wind noise and control recording levels in harsh audio environments

6-And don’t worry about capturing your mates’ shenanigans in a dark club – the N8 has settings for low light, white balance an dcolour tone, ensuring you capture the best video wherever you are

7-Secondary front-facing camera lets you make video calls

8-Playback true HD-quality films on an HDTV at 720p resolution, thanks to the N8′s huge memory (16GB internal + up to 32GB from a MicroSD card) and its HDMI output

9-Listen to your movies in superb Dolby 5.1 surround sound

10-Watch WebTV or YouTube videos on the N8′s stunning 3.5″ touchscreen, which, with its 16 million colours and use of Nokia’s brand new Clear Black Display technology, shows deeper blacks and greater contrast than any other phone on the market

11-Listen to your tunes in style with the Ovi Music player, Ovi Music Unlimited service, and excellent quality sound

12-Superb gaming phone thanks to its built-in graphics processor.

In a word

The N8 is a valiant effort from Nokia and definitely its best high-end smartphone to date. However, Symbian^3 is a big letdown and, while the N8 will satisfy multimedia and Nokia fans, it could struggle to attract business users against competition from the Blackberry, Iphone, and to a lesser extent, Android devices.

Specifications

Dimensions

Size: 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm

Weight (with battery): 135 g

Display and user interface

Screen size: 3.5"

Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) AMOLED

16.7 million colours

Capacitive touch screen

Colours

·  Anodized aluminium casing, available in:

Silver white   ,    Dark grey  ,  Orange   ,    Blue    ,    Green

Colour availability varies by country

Camera

12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics

Large 1/1.83" optical format image sensor

Fullscreen 16:9 viewfinder with easy-to-use touchscreen parameters

Xenon flash with automatic red-eye removal

Data Network

GPRS/EDGE class B, multislot class 33

HSDPA Cat9, maximum speed up to 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps

WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g/n

TCP/IP support

Memory

Internal memory: 16 GB

MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32 GB

Software platform & user interface

Symbian ^3 for Nokia

Java MIDP 2.1

Qt 4.6.2, Web Runtime 7.2

 HTML 4.1

Browsing and internet

Full web browsing of real web pages

Web browsing with touch control

Supported markup languages: HTML, XHTML MP, WML, CSS

Music features

Flick scroll to browse the albums in your music collection

Audio codecs: .MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, E-AC-3, AC-3

Bit rate up tp 320 kbps

DRM support WM DRM, OMA DRM 2.0