Nokia WP7-powered Sea Ray, Sabre and Ace specs leak

 With Nokia World just around the corner (October 26-27), rumors about the long sought-after WP7-smartphones of the Finns are starting to intensify. Today we got a particularly juicy bit of online gossip, which claims to reveal the specs of the first three Nokia WP7 smartphones.

 

 

 

 

 

Nokia Ace

The most interesting of the bunch is codenamed the Nokia Ace and will, reportedly, come with a 4.3″ ClearBlack AMOLED, 1.4GHz CPU and 16GB of internal storage. The Ace will also features an 8MP autofocus camera with a Carl Zeiss-certified lens, HSPA+ connectivity and an ample 1800 mAh battery.
It’s yet unclear if this one will run on the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, or a later edition of the OS.

Nokia Sea Ray

Then comes the Nokia Sea Ray, which has leaked several times before. Its ClearBlack AMOLED will measure 3.7″ in diagonal and its CPU will be clocked at 1.4GHz too. 16GB of storage will cover your multimedia needs, while the 8MP Carl Zeiss camera should let you take some pretty great photos.
The Nokia Sea Ray will be powered by a 1540 mAh battery and will run on Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.

Nokia Sabre

Finally, we have the Nokia Sabre – a Mango-running smartphone that will have interchangeable back covers for easy personalization. It will pack yet another 1.4GHz CPU, but its autofocus camera will only shoot 5 megapixel stills. The 3.7″ screen will be downgraded to LCD too.
The Nokia Sabre’s internal storage of 8GB doesn’t sound like much, but since Windows Phone smartphones have access to 25GB of free cloud storage, it will probably suffice.
We don’t know yet how many of the new Windows Phone devices will be unveiled at Nokia World. Initially, it was believed that it would just be the Sea Ray, while more recent rumors suggest that at least two WP smartphones will be announced with the Sabre the most likely candidate to join the party.
Of course, there’s also an outside chance that Nokia will be releasing all three of those in time for the holiday season, but at this stage that doesn’t seem likely.

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‘Massive Security Vulnerability’ in HTC Android Phones Claimed

Phone models claimed to be affected by the vulnerability are the EVO 3D, EVO 4G, Thunderbolt, and possibly HTC’s Sensation line.
The researchers, Trevor Eckhart, Artem Russakouskii, and Justin Case, say they informed HTC of the vulnerability on September 24, but after HTC failed to respond to their warning for five days, they went public with their knowledge on Friday.



The security gap in the HTC phones stems from modifications the company made in versions of the Android operating system in EVO and Thunderbolt models. Those changes add a suite of logging tools to the system. “If you, as a company, plant these information collectors on a device, you better be DAMN sure the information they collect is secured and only available to privileged services or the user, after opting in,” Russakouskii wrote yesterday at the Android Police website.

That’s not the case here, he notes. The modifications made to Android by HTC allow any application that you give permission to access the Internet from the phone access to a plethora of sensitive information on the device. What’s more, it also has permission to send the data that it finds wherever it wants on the Net without your knowledge.
“Normally, applications get access to only what is allowed by the permissions they request, so when you install a simple, innocent-looking new game from the [Android] Market that only asks for the INTERNET permission (to submit scores online, for example), you don’t expect it to read your phone log or list of e-mails,” Russakouskii explains.
He compares the vulnerability to leaving the keys to your house under the welcome mat and not expecting anyone to find them.
Data that can be peeked at by any app with Internet access include:

• E-mail addresses
• Last known network and GPS locations.
• Phone numbers from phone logs.
• SMS data, including phone numbers and encoded text.
• System logs, which track everything your apps do, such as logging into secure locations.
• System information such as onboard memory, CPU data, running processes and list of installed apps, including permissions they use and your user IDs for them.

In addition to the logger suite, Russakouskii notes, HTC has further modified Android with the addition of something named androidvncserver.apk. While the addition of that app, which is designed to give third parties remote access to a phone, might end up being insignificant, he did find it “suspicious.” “The app doesn’t get started by default, but who knows what and who can trigger it and potentially get access to your phone remotely?” he asks.
According to Eckhart, there’s no way at this time to patch the vulnerability without jailbreaking the phone, which, of course, will void the warranty. If you do hack the phone’s OS, you can remove HTC’s logger suite, htcloggers.apk, found in /system/app/.
This latest vulnerability exposes the problems that can occur in an open source environment like Android. While it allows phone makers and application developers to make creative changes to the basic system, it can also open the door to abuse of a phone owner’s data.

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BlackBerry Maker Hit By Slump In Profits

The company behind BlackBerry has seen its profits almost halved as sales of its tablets and smartphones fell below expectations.





Research In Motion (RIM), which has has more than 70 million subscribers, painted a grey picture for its second quarter.

The company’s net profit fell 47% to $419m, while revenue was down 10% to $4.2bn, compared to $4.6bn in the same quarter of last year.

RIM’s Nasdaq-listed shares fell as much as 19% to $24.20 in after-hours trade following the results.
During the quarter, RIM sold approximately 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately 200,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.

Analysts had expected much higher figures of around 12 million and 600,000 respectively.
The poor results show how far BlackBerry has fallen behind Apple’s iPhone and devices – Apple sold over 20 million iPhones and more than nine million iPads in the same period.

In July, Research In Motion announced it was cutting 10% of its workforce because it was struggling to keep up with competitors.

However, RIM’s co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie defended the company’s performance, saying results would improve in the second half of the year.
Mr Lazardis said: “We understand that the past few quarters have been challenging and we are confident that we are on track to return to growth in Q3 and beyond.”
Mr. Balsillie added: “We successfully launched a range of BlackBerry 7 smartphones and we are seeing strong sell-through and customer interest for these new products.”
RIM is working to get the QNX software that powers its PlayBook tablet onto its next generation of smartphones, possibly as soon as early 2012.

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Nokia Loses Place In European Blue Chip Index

HELSINKI -(Dow Jones)- Finnish handset maker Nokia Corp.(NOK) will suffer another blow to its reputation Friday when it drops out of a benchmark index of Europe’s biggest stocks because of the sharp fall in its market value in recent months.


The company has had a bad year as its inability to compete with rivals in the fast-growing smartphone market has left it losing market share and profitability. It lost its position as the world’s biggest provider of smartphones to Apple Inc. (AAPL) and was also losing ground to rivals making phones based on Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android platform. It responded by dumping its own Symbian operating system for smartphones in favor of a partnership with Microsoft Corp., which will provide Nokia with its Windows software. It has also been cutting costs and jobs.

A string of bad news and poor financial results, including a profit warning in February that preceded a second quarter loss, has hit the company’s shares hard. The stock has fallen 42% so far in 2011, and is down 35% since the STOXX Europe 50 index was last reviewed in September 2010, meaning it is no longer big enough to be in an index that aims to include the biggest companies from the biggest sectors in the 18 largest economies in Europe. Its market capitalization is down to EUR16.7 billion, from EUR25.6 billion last September.

Nokia will exit the index after Friday’s trading session and fund managers investing in the STOXX Europe 50 index will have to adjust their portfolios to match the new index composition starting on Monday.

Three European banks, which have seen their shares hit by the financial crisis and continuing concerns about bank exposure to sovereign debt, will also leave the STOXX Europe 50 index — Societe Generale (GLE.FR), Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) and Unicredit (UCG.MI). The four stocks will be replaced by Unilever PLC (UL), LVMH Moet Hennessy (MC), National Grid PLC (NGG) and Air Liquide SA (AI.FR).

Nokia saw its share of the global smartphone market slip to third place in the second quarter, to 15.2% from 38.1% a year earlier, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics. In terms of overall phones, Nokia held a 34.7% share of the handset market, ahead of Samsung’s 19.9% share.
Still, Societe Generale argued Friday that some of the issues that has seen Nokia losing market share are now starting to be fixed.

“Our channel checks suggest that Nokia’s sales of dual-SIM handsets have been strong and could reach 25 million units in the third quarter,” Societe Generale said, while upping its recommendation on Nokia to buy from hold with a EUR6.0 target.

The French bank said the expected third-quarter sales show that Nokia has “maintained its strength in sourcing, manufacturing and logistics, enabling the company to exploit popular products rapidly.”
At 1155 GMT Friday, Nokia’s shares were up 0.2% at EUR4.46 on Helsinki’s OMX index, having recovered from earlier falls that were related to its exit from the STOXX Europe 50 and further bad news from another company recently struggling in the smartphone market, Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM, RIM.T), according to traders. Nokia’s stock has also recovered 34% since reaching a 14-year low of EUR3.33 August 11.

Blackberry maker RIM Thursday said it shipped fewer BlackBerrys in its latest quarter than analysts expected, raising further doubts about whether it can claw back falling market share.

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HTC unveils camera-centric Mango-running Titan and Radar

HTC has finally unveiled the long rumored Windows Phone 7 Mango-based Eternity and Omega. The 4.7-inch Eternity’s official name is Titan, while the smaller 3.8-inch Omega is now called Radar.
Both devices have leaked numerous times before and we already knew almost everything about them. Still it’s always a good thing to have an official confirmation, so here we go with the specs.

HTC Titan

HTC Titan is the bigger (big being operative here) smartphone with a 4.7″ S-LCD WVGA display and it’s based on the Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset featuring a 1.5GHz single-core processor, Adreno 205 GPU and 512MB RAM. The Titan has an 8 megapixel camera with 28mm lens, back-illuminated sensor, F2.2 aperture and a dual-LED flash, an HD camcorder, a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, all kind of connectivity options such as HSPA, Wi-Fi N with DLNA, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, a microHDMI port and a 3.5mm audio jack. HTC’s Titan also comes with 16GB internal memory and a secondary microphone for active noise-cancellation.

 HTC Titan


The HTC Titan runs on Windows Phone 7 Mango and packs an improved HTC Hub, Weather, Stocks, Audio booster and so on. The Titan will hit the shelves this October, but a price is yet to be revealed.

HTC Radar

The previously-known as Omega – HTC Radar has a 3.8-inch S-LCD WVGA display and is based on the same chipset as the Titan – MSM8255 Snapdragon but with a 1GHz CPU, Adreno 205 GPU and 512MB RAM. The rest of the features too are almost identical with the Titan’s – an 8 megapixel (28mm lens, back-illuminated sensor, F2.2 aperture) snapper with single LED flash, 720p video recording, HSPA, Wi-Fi N with DLNA, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 and a 3.5mm audio jack. There is no HDMI port, secondary video-call camera or secondary microphone though.

HTC Radar
The WP7 Mango-running HTC Radar will pack 8GB internal storage and will also be coming this October.

HTC Radar
Both the HTC Radar and Titan have unibody designs however the Radar’s design is akin to the HTC Legend and does not have a removable battery.

The Dock

HTC is preparing docks for both the Titan and Radar, but they will be sold as separate accessories, docking the devices automatically switches the devices into a landscape-focused dock mode, however on the demo software we tried this seemed to be a little flaky.

HTC Titan and Radar docks

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Samsung announces Wave 3, Wave M, and Wave Y Bada 2.0 trio

It runs on a 1.4GHz CPU, and packs a 4″ Super AMOLED screen with WVGA resolution, showing you Samsung’s latest TouchWiz UI. There is a zippy HSDPA network connectivity on board, along with quad-band GPRS/EDGE. A 5MP auto focus camera with LED flash is in charge of taking photos and shooting HD videos (720p@30fps), while a VGA unit at the front will help you with video calls. There is 3GB of built in memory in the Wave 3, and a microSD memory card slot (up to 32GB). Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, and USB 2.0 complete the connectivity package. There is accelerometer, proximity, and light sensors on board too, along with a compass. All this functionality will be powered by a 1500 mAh battery, and packed in a brushed aluminum body, weighing 122 grams.

Samsung Wave 3
The Samsung Wave M is the mid-range device from the trio, with a knack for social networking. It is powered by an 832 MHz CPU, and has a 3.65″ TFT LCD screen with HVGA resolution. Like the Wave 3, the Wave M offers a 5MP AF camera on its back. Its video recording however has been limited to HVGA@30fps. A VGA front camera is present as well. There is 150MB of built-in memory in the Wave M, and support for microSD cards (up to 32GB). A full connectivity package can be found on the device as well, along with an accelerometer and proximity sensor. The Wave M has a 1350 mAh battery under its metallic body. The device weighs 121 grams.

Samsung Wave M
The Samsung Wave Y, as its name suggests, is the entry level phone in this Bada OS trio. It features the same CPU as its bigger brother, the Wave M, but has a smaller 3.2″ TFT LCD screen with HVGA resolution. The camera of the Wave Y is a 2MP fixed focus unit, capable of recording HVGA videos @30fps. Again, you will find 150 MB of built-in memory, along with microSD card support (up to 32GB). Quite logically, there is a full connectivity suite on board as well. The Wave Y is powered by a 1200 mAh battery. Its metallic body weighs a meager 102.4 grams.

Samsung Wave Y
All three devices will have NFC capability as an option, along with Samsung’s proprietary ChatON, Media Hub, and Kies services. The Bada 2.0 trio will be featured at the IFC, which begins this week in Berlin. Hopefully, we will find out about their pricing and availability there.

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Samsung’s ChatOn Messenger Guns for BlackBerry, Apple

Samsung will link its Android phones and tablets to iOS devices and BlackBerry phones with a new messaging service called ChatOn. The service will be free and aims to compete with the popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), and Apple’s upcoming iMessage service.
ChatOn is set go live in September in over 120 countries across 62 languages, and its main advantage would be cross-platform compatibility, including iOS, Android, Bada (Samsung’s own mobile OS), BlackBerry, and a Web client for computers. It’s unclear whether ChatOn will have a Windows Phone 7 client.

Samsung even added its feature phones to the ChatOn mix, albeit with limited functionality in the text- and image-sharing features. However, Apple’s iMessage will work only between iOS 5 devices, while BBM is currently reserved for BlackBerry devices, with rumors of Android and iOS expansion. Google also has its own Talk client for Android devices and computers only, and is working on a competing service.
On smartphones, ChatOn won’t be limited to one-to-one image and text sharing. It will include group chat and messaging, as well as video and voice messages and contact, location, and calendar sharing.
The video preview of the service shows a social layer added to ChatOn, with user profiles (and Facebook-like wall posts) and interaction ranks. There are also Animation messages, which are a combination of text scribbles and audio, and the Trunk feature, which is like a repository for files shared across a user’s ChatOn messages.
Samsung said ChatOn will roll out gradually across devices from September, and the apps will be free to download.

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Quake still rattles Sony Ericsson

 

Android smartphones are central to Sony Ericsson’s line-up

Sony Ericsson has blamed the the Japanese earthquake for a 50m euro (£44m; $71m) loss during the three months to June.

The mobile phone maker said the quake last March had caused “supply chain constraints”, which meant that about 1.5m phones were not ready for sale.
Smartphones now make up more than 70% of Sony Ericsson’s total sales, up from just 40% at the end of last year.

Sales of smartphones using Google’s Android operating system grew 150%. Sony Ericsson estimates that it now has an 11% share of the Android smartphone market – by both value and volume.
During the first quarter of the year, Sony Ericsson had managed to achieve net profits of 11m euro, but on an extremely slim operating margin of just 2%.

During the past few years the mobile phone firm has seen a steady erosion of its share of the mobile phone market, losing out to Apple with its iPhone models and quickly growing Asian rivals like Samsung and HTC.

The company has gone through a cost-cutting exercise, including making 4,000 staff redundant.
Sony Ericsson is a 50-50 joint venture of Japanese entertainment electronics firm Sony and Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson.
Ericsson’s shares fell 1.3% on news of Sony Ericsson’s losses.

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Apple rumored to resurrect developer ‘Tech Talk World Tour’ for iOS 5

Last held in 2009, the developer “Tech Talk World Tour” is rumored to make a comeback this year as Apple attempts to reach out developers with the launch of iOS 5.
 
The rumor comes from the Japanese blog Macotakara, which reported Thursday that a new “iOS Tech Talk World Tour 2011″ will be held this year. The worldwide event will reportedly be geared toward making developers familiar with the features of iOS 5 and iCloud.
The previous iPhone Tech Talk World Tours were held in 2008 and 2009, but Apple did not run such an event last year. This year’s revamp will allegedly be larger than the previous two events, and Apple is said to be planning to have extra seats specifically for students.

The first iPhone Tech Talk World Tour kicked off in October of 2008 and ran through December. It spanned North America, Europe, India and Asia Pacific, and included cities like Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London, Delhi, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney.

The events were like a mini-Worldwide Developers Conference, with track sessions featuring presentations for developers. Of course, since 2008 the iPhone platform has grown to be known as iOS, and now includes the iPad, along with the iPhone and iPod touch.

Developers looking to hone their craft on the iOS platform can attend the annual WWDC event, but that requires a trip to San Francisco, Calif., where the conference is held. And the event is so popular that this year’s conference sold out of tickets in a record 10 hours.

At previous Tech Talk events, the sessions were free to attend, though Apple warned that space was limited. For comparison, tickets to WWDC this year cost developers $1,599, in addition to hotel and airfare.

Apple is set to launch iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch this fall, featuring wireless updates and syncing, along with an all-new Notification Center.

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HP Pre 3 silently gets a 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU in the UK

Now here’s a shocker for you – the upcoming HP Pre 3 will be packing a dual-core CPU at launch, rather than the single-core unit it was initially said to feature. HP has remained surprisingly quiet about the change, but the Pre 3 specs sheet on its website now say “Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2GHz”.
If you have been paying attention you would know that this is the same chipset that powers the HP TouchPad tablet.
And if the two 1.2 GHz cores are good enough to power a tablet, they should do wonders for a smartphone and its lower resolution. Of course, we will never be able to see how the 1.4 GHz single-core alternative does, but we are still confident that HP is giving us a good deal here.




What seems a bit suspicious is that none of the other specs of the HP Pre 3 have changed. Usually replacing the processor of a mobile phone involves changing the whole chipset and that might lead to a few other changes. So there’s an outside chance that the CPU change was nothing, but a typo by whoever maintains the HP UK website.

The Pre 3 should be coming out any day now, so at least we won’t have to wait for too long to find out.

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Samsung plans on selling 300M phones in 2011, big launch ahead

In an interview with the S. Korean Yonhap news agency Shin Jong-kyun, president of Samsung’s mobile communications and digital imaging, laid out Samsung Mobile’s big plans for 2011. This year the company is aiming (and expects) to surpass its last year’s shipments – 25 million smartphones out of a total of 280 million sold with the staggering 60 million smartphones and a total of 300 million phone shipments. That’s close to 1 million devices sold a day.


The expected growth in the smartphone segment is quite bold but it seems well backed up by the current success of the Galaxy S II smartphone, which is doing very well in its home country Korea, in Japan, Europe and elsewhere. Also Samsung is aiming to push it even further with the planned announcement of new “noteworthy” Bada smartphones at this year’s IFA in September. Also keep in mind that Samsung is in the business with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 and is rumored to be working on a WP7 version of the Galaxy S II.
Samsung Galaxy Q
Finally, Samsung is rumored to release yet another Galaxy device at this year’s IFA expo at Berlin in September. This new Galaxy Q is thought to have a whopping 5.3-inch display and possibly LTE connectivity. No other details have been given but it could feature a SuperAMOLED (Plus or the normal variety) display. We’ll have to wait it out and see, but from where we’re standing it looks like September could turn out to be an exciting month for tech geeks.

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Samsung Galaxy S II Hercules spotted in Canada

Another one of the Samsung Galaxy S II variants has been discovered and it is making its way to the TELUS network in Canada.











The picture below was snapped by MobileSyrup.com who attended a VIP event in Canada, where this phone was spotted.

Known as the “Hercules”, the phone looks similar to the standard Galaxy S II, Nexus S and the Infuse 4G. It was said to have a display bigger than the Galaxy S II and more in line with the 4.5-inch display on the Infuse 4G. The device will be running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 1.2GHz dual-core processor and could be the first dual carrier 42Mbps smartphone in Canada. It is also said to have an 8 megapixel camera on the back capable of recording 1080p videos and 2 megapixel front facing camera.
Since there has been no official announcement there is no price and launch date to report but we shall keep an eye out for them.

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RIM to release 5 new touch-screen BlackBerry smartphones this month

Research in Motion announced five new BlackBerry smartphones, the first to run its new BlackBerry 7 mobile OS, on Wednesday in a bid to recapture market share and inject some new excitement into the company’s products.
The new smartphones, RIM’s first new handsets in nearly a year, each utilize touch screens and include two new BlackBerry Bold models and three new iterations of the BlackBerry Torch and are set to hit carriers such as ATT and Sprint this month.
The devices will arrive at an important time for the Canadian company, one of the first to popularize email integration on a phone.

Last month, RIM announced that it was cutting 2,000 jobs and shuffling some of its top executives into new roles in a reboot to better combat the Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone, which have been eating into BlackBerry market share for months. In June, RIM also reported a 12% drop in quarterly revenue during its fiscal first quarter.

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 phones are RIM’s thinnest to date at 0.41 of an inch, and each version features a 2.4-inch touchscreen sitting on top of a full physical keyboard.
Both models come with a 5-megapixel camera that can also shoot 720p video, 8 gigabytes of memory that can be expanded with a memory card and run on 3G networks.
The three new BlackBerry Torch models feature larger touch screens than the Bold phones, but the Torch 9810 adds a slide-out keyboard and can run on 4G networks.

With a 3.2-inch display, the Torch 9810 looks a lot like the older Torch 9800, but the new model adds a higher-resolution screen (up to 640 by 480 from 480 by 360), longer battery life and 8 gigabytes of on-board memory instead of 4 gigabytes.
The Torch 9850 and 9860 smartphones have no physical keyboards and instead go full touch screen with a 3.7-inch display with a resolution of 800 by 480. RIM says it’s the largest on a BlackBerry phone so far. The 9850 and 9860 feature 4 gigabytes of memory, but can be expanded to up to 32 gigabytes of memory with a MicroSD card.

The Torch 9860 will run on 4G networks, while the 9850 will stick with 3G service.
“This is the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones in our history,” Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s president and co-CEO, said in a statement. “The BlackBerry solution offers a best-in-class mobile communications experience that customers love, and we think they will be thrilled by the faster performance, enhanced browsing and richer multimedia delivered by these powerful new BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Torch smartphones.”

Leave a comment and tell us whether or not you think RIM’s newest touch-screen-centric BlackBerry phones have what it takes to fight off Android, the iPhone and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.

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LG promises OTA updates to smartphones, new customer care

The LG OTA updates app and remote assistance services got their debut in Korea and now LG is making it clear it will offer the same services widely to Europe, the Asia Pacific region and South and Central America throughout the second half of the year to its premium line of Optimus smartphones – the Black, 2X and 3D.
First off, customers will get the FOTA app – “firmware over-the-air” so they can get the most current updates for their phones wirelessly (as other makes offer them). This way LG Optimus owners will get software updates directly to their phones without the need to connect to a PC.

The remote call service will be region and operator-dependent and will connect users to a member of customer service through 3G or Wi-Fi, should a problem occur with their phones. Thus users won’t have the need to necessarily visit an LG Customer Information Center or a service-station. This will be done through the pre-loaded “Remote Call” application.
Once the user is registered, LG’s remote customer care assistants will get wireless access to the smartphone in order to quickly see what the problem is. Customer Information Center assistants won’t get access to private information like emails, messages, pictures and calendars unless the customer has consented to it.
Both services will be made available in the second half of this year.

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Nokia announces first 1 GHz smartphone, changes naming convention again

We all know Nokia is working on hardware running Windows Phone for their high end smartphone line, but they still continue to roll out Symbian devices. With this latest announcement of the Nokia 500 they are changing their naming convention yet again.
The Nokia 500 is also their first 1 GHz processor device, but I understand there is no GPU and according to All About Symbian it may have worse performance than the existing lineup of Symbian^3 devices.


The Nokia 500 will launch later this year at a low cost, EUR150 (about $215 USD), so it is understandable that the performance and specifications would be lower as well. It does appear to have decent specifications, but given that few in the US care about the Symbian OS it won’t have much of an impact here.
It will likely sell well in developing countries where Nokia and Symbian still do fairly well, but this won’t help Nokia with any kind of market share or realized profits.
Specifications for the Nokia 500 include:

• 1 GHz ARM 11 processor
• Penta-band 3G data (Why can’t ANYONE else get this right?)
• 2GB memory with microSD card slot
• 3.2 inch 640×360 pixesl display
• 5 megapixel EDoF camera with no flash
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS

Nokia has gone through a few naming conventions in the past and I thought their last one with Nseries, Eseries, Cseries, etc. seemed to make sense except when they started having multiple device names for some odd reason, such as the Nokia C6 that came in either -00 or -01 models.

Anyway, their new naming convention, described in this Nokia Conversations post, goes back to 100,200,300,….900 series where they can use up to 99 numbers in each series to name phones. The Nokia 500 is the first in this new naming scheme and it is a mid-level smartphone. They already announced the Nokia N9 so they probably won’t renumber it the 900, especially given that they are killing off MeeGo right after it launches anyway.

I don’t think this new naming convention will do anything for the customer and will still present confusion. How are you supposed to know what device runs Symbian or S40? Will Windows Phone devices follow this convention too and if so then how will one tell if it is a WP or Symbian device? Seems to me sticking with the Series was just fine and maybe they should work on getting the Anna update out to those with 1-year old Nokia N8 devices instead of messing around with naming conventions.

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46% of smartphone buyers prefer Apple’s iOS, 32% choose Google Android

Among consumers who plan to buy a smartphone in the next three months, the iPhone is the top choice, with nearly half of all prospective buyers choosing Apple.
 
The data comes from the latest survey from ChangeWave Research via a poll it conducted of 4,163 consumers in June. The survey focused primarily on the smartphone market in North America, with 89 percent of respondents being from the U.S. and 11 percent outside of America.
The survey found that 46 percent of consumers who plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days prefer a device running Apple’s iOS, which powers the iPhone. That’s up 2 points from a poll done in March.


In second place in the latest survey was Google Android, which 32 percent of planned smartphone buyers said they will choose. Google’s share also increased since March, growing by one percentage point.
The gains of Apple and Google came at the expense of rivals, as Research in Motion’s BlackBerry line lost one point since March. The BlackBerry’s 4 percent share is the lowest level ever seen in a ChangeWave survey, and is far away from its high of 32 percent in September of 2008.
The data showing consumer preferences for the iPhone aligns with previous polls that have told a similar story. Last November, ChangeWave reported that 34 percent of non-ATT smartphone buyers said they wished they could buy Apple’s iPhone. At the time, the iPhone was exclusive to ATT.

The latest survey also tracked the potential impact of Apple’s iCloud service, and found it will increase the value proposition of devices like the iPhone. Among current Apple product owners, 29 percent said iCloud will make them “more likely” to buy Apple products in the future, while the same was said by 13 percent of non-Apple product owners.
“This initial look at the impact of Apple’s new iCloud service shows it enhancing customer loyalty,” the report said. “But the survey also provides highly encouraging signs that iCloud will generate additional customer demand for other Apple products, not only from current Apple product owners but from a substantial number of non-owners as well.”
The latest survey also reaffirmed that the iPhone carries the highest satisfaction rate in the industry. When asked about the operating system on their mobile device, 70 percent of users said they are “very satisfied” with iOS, while 50 percent said the same of Google. Just 26 percent said they were satisfied with RIM’s BlackBerry OS.

In what was characterized as an “encouraging sign” for Apple’s rival Microsoft, the survey found that 57 percent of respondents running Windows Phone 7 said they are “very satisfied.” That total is significantly better than the paltry 14 percent rating the previous-generation Windows Mobile OS earned.
“Even so, the higher Windows Phone 7 rating has yet to produce a sustained momentum boost for Microsoft in terms of buyer preferences,” the report said.

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Oracle and Microsoft could cash in big on Android

With allegations that Google infringed on several patents in its
Android operating system, two of the biggest beneficiaries of sales of mobile devices that use the technology could well be Oracle and Microsoft.







Both companies are seeking as much as a $20 licensing fee per device from handset makers that choose to use Android. That’d be roughly double the amount that Google makes in search revenue, on average, from every Android device, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Goldberg. Google gives away the Android operating system in hopes of generating that revenue.
Goldberg learned of Oracle’s bid to get licensing fees over alleged Java patent infringement in Android by chatting with “various handset makers,” he said. He declined to name them, except to say that “I think they are approaching everyone who has Android OS or apps.”


Goldberg added that Oracle was seeking $15 to $20 per Android device as part of an early adopters program that would, in theory, indemnify those companies in the event that Oracle wins its patent infringement lawsuit against Google, filed last August.
“As far as I know, no one has signed up for this program,” Goldberg said. “They are, and I am too, particularly impressed with Oracle’s spirit.”

Oracle did not respond to a call and e-mail. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on the claims, except to repeat an earlier statement that “Oracle’s ‘methodology’ for calculating damages is based on fundamental legal errors and improperly inflates their estimates.” (For a great primer on Oracle’s fight with Google, read this article by my colleague, Stephen Shankland, from last summer.)
Meanwhile, Microsoft too continues to eke more money from Android device makers. Last year, the software giant convinced its longtime handset partner, HTC, to license Microsoft’s patents to use in its Android devices. Citi analyst Walter Pritchard estimates that HTC is paying Microsoft $5 per device.

In the last few weeks, Microsoft inked four more licensing deals with Android device makers, albeit much smaller ones than HTC. It’s also sued two other giant Android device makers–Motorola and Barnes Noble–which wouldn’t capitulate to Microsoft terms.
Microsoft is reportedly ratcheting up the pressure on one of the biggest Android handset makers yet, Samsung, which also makes handsets that run Microsoft’s
Windows Phone 7 software. Earlier this week, South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper reported that Microsoft has demanded that Samsung pay a $15 per device fee. Microsoft also declined to comment beyond what it’s already said about Android.
Of course, there are differences between the strategies of Oracle and Microsoft. Oracle, which acquired the Java patents that it claims Google is infringing when it bought Sun last year, is merely looking to tap that patent portfolio for more income.
“They see this as a revenue stream,” Goldberg said. “They want to see Android do well and make millions off it.”
While Microsoft is happy enough to skim money from each Android sale, it’s really trying to create uncertainty among device makers in order to better position Windows Phone 7. For more than a year, Microsoft has argued that Android isn’t really free. Clearly, one of the costs, Microsoft believes, are patent licensing fees.
That uncertainty may give device makers pause as they consider creating new devices that run Android. At the very least, they might stop to calculate the potential cost of using the mobile operating system. And now, Microsoft has a new ally in that battle in Oracle.

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HTC Salsa review: "Like" it or not

The HTC Salsa official photos

Introduction

It takes two to tango, HTC seem to think. The HTC Salsa joins the ChaCha in a bid to treat young Android users to as much Facebook as they can handle. The little blue button makes an appearance again, this time in a more familiar context. While the ChaCha takes its QWERTY keyboard off the beaten path, the Salsa is a typical Android package. It’s got a solid build and seems like a well spec’d midrange smartphone – an HTC Wildfire S for Facebookers.
The Salsa has something the ChaCha doesn’t: a family tree. The Salsa is part of the new generation of midrange phones by HTC, along with the likes of the Wildfire S. But calling it a Facebook-centric Wildfire S would be oversimplifying or just plain wrong. As a matter of fact, HTC went on to give the Salsa more than just that tiny Facebook button. It tops the Wildfire S in terms of screen size and processor clock speed, and throws in a few features that the Wildfire S didn’t bother with – like video calls, HD video and web Flash support.
Let’s take a look at the complete feature list and the possible deal breakers.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 384 Kbps HSUPA
• 3.4″ 16M-color capacitive TFT touchscreen of HVGA (320 x 480) resolution, Gorilla glass
• Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense
• 800 MHz CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset
• 512 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM
• 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging
• D1 video recording @ 30fps
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• microSD slot up to 32GB (2GB card included)
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• Smart dialing, voice dialing
• Front facing camera, video calls
• DivX/XviD video support
• Compact aluminum unibody
• HTC Locations app
• HTCSense.com integration
• HTC Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot
• Ultra-fast boot times (if you don’t remove battery)

Main disadvantages

• Below-par screen sunlight legibility
• Camera not the best we’ve seen
• microSD slot under the battery cover, not (quite) hot-swappable
• No HD video recording

There seems to be so little to worry about but we’re yet to get into the details. As a mid-range smartphone, the Salsa will not set your expectations too high. But users who know what to expect will not be disappointed. The unibody design, the hallmark build quality and the latest Android are all in the deal.

HTC Salsa live pictures

So, it’s a neat little smartphone with a thing for Facebook, one that many are getting ready to befriend. As for us, we have a job to do before we hit “Like”. Our usual tour of the hardware coming up.

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Samsung starts rolling our Gingerbread update for Ace

Although the Gingerbread ROM for the Samsung Ace leaked months back Samsung never got around to releasing it officially. Until now, that is.
SamFirmware is reporting that Samsung has started rolling out the Gingerbread update for the Ace through Kies.










The update for now is available in limited countries, namely, Russia and Poland but will be available in other regions soon.
As for the update, there is nothing much to report on it. It will update the Android version to 2.3.3 and bring the usual Gingerbread goodness to your Samsung Ace.

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Galaxy S Android 2.3.4 update coming this quarter in Europe

Having released the Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread update for the Galaxy S I9000 a while back, Samsung is now looking to upgrade it to the latest version, which is 2.3.4 and put that front facing camera on the phone to some better use.

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