Nokia

A shiny silver Nokia

AT&T's new Nokia 6650 looks as if it could be at home in Motorola's lineup. With a thin profile, a boxy shape, and a shiny metal skin, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Motorola Razr V3.

But before you start criticizing Nokia for chasing after a four-year-old trend, we can assure you that the 6650 is worth a look. Not only is it better looking than the Razr, but it also offers a brilliant display, a sturdy construction, and a respectable mid-range feature set that includes 3G, push to talk, multimedia, and GPS. … Read more

Zune Pass adds 10 permanent downloads per month

One more detail about the latest Zune update: the Zune Pass, which costs $14.99 a month, is now going to allow users up to 10 permanent downloads per month. That's in addition to the unlimited downloads that expire if you stop paying your subscription. Think of it like an insurance policy for Zune Pass: if your Zune breaks and you decide to switch to another brand of MP3 player, you'll still get to keep some of the songs you downloaded.

I believe that Microsoft is the first company to offer free permanent downloads alongside unlimited temporary downloads. … Read more

Nokia shows off real-time traffic application

NEW YORK--GPS map maker Navteq is teaming with its parent company Nokia to help drivers get more accurate information about traffic conditions.

Before Nokia bought Navteq last year, the two began working on a project in conjunction with the University of California at Berkeley called Mobile Millennium that uses GPS-enabled cell phones as traffic monitors or "probes" to collect real-time traffic data.

A pilot program using more than 10,000 handsets has already launched in the San Francisco Bay Area. And on Tuesday the companies were showing off the technology at the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress here … Read more

Will consumers slash spending on wireless, TV, and broadband?

As large employers, such as Citigroup, prepare for massive layoffs, the bad economic news is starting to hit home for consumers afraid of losing their jobs and already looking for ways to tighten their belts.

The recent spate of poor earnings from all kinds of consumer companies, like coffee giant Starbucks, tell us that consumers are nervous about the economy. And it looks like consumers will continue to be skittish about spending over the next several months. Last week Nokia, the largest maker of mobile phones in the world, announced it's already seen sales slip, and it projected that … Read more

Jan Chipchase and Design Research

By Robert Fabricant, Exceutive Creative Director, frog design

This week I had the pleasure to host Jan Chipchase, FuturePerfect, renowned Nokia research guru, at a frog and IxDA sponsored event in NY. I first met Jan at DUX in 2005 where he did a brilliant presentation on a research study around what people carry in their purse. His premise being that this is the ultimate value threshold that we should use to measure the success of a personal device like a mobile phone. What emerged were insights around how the phone could better integrate with the other things we carry (… Read more

Economy dampens Nokia's fourth-quarter outlook

The economic downturn is taking its toll on the cell phone market, as Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile devices, downgrades its outlook for the fourth quarter and 2009.

On Friday, Nokia announced that it now expects to only sell about 330 million mobile phones in the fourth quarter, bringing its total number of handsets sold in 2008 to 1.24 billion. The company had expected to sell 1.2 billion devices in 2008.

The company blames the weakening economy and currency volatility for its dismal outlook. Simply put, people aren't spending money on cell phones in … Read more

A fat-bottomed Nokia phone?

I'm a little tired of the candy bars and slider phones that seem to define today's mobile phone appearance. So anything that pushes the design envelope out of the rut without being ridiculously OTT gets my vote.

Heikki Juvonen is one such designer who has gone for odd-looking in his Nokia concept phone outing, which, oddly enough, has an aesthetic energy that's both futuristic and ergonomic. The end result is a handset that somehow sits well in the hand without being awkward to handle. Now let's hope Nokia loves this fat-bottom effort just as much to … Read more

AT&T rolls out Nokia 6650

AT&T took the wraps off the new Nokia 6650 Thursday. Offering a thin flip-phone design--still a rarity for Nokia--the 6650 shows a brushed metal skin in either red or silver. In fact, it could almost resemble the Motorola Razr if you squint.

As for features, the 3G world phone offers a music player with support for AT&T's Mobile Music service, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Video Share, voice dialing, a speakerphone, personal-organizer options, a microSD card slot, stereo Bluetooth, an XHTML Web browser, and a 2-megapixel camera. The 6650 will be available beginning … Read more

Nokia E63: Not just for the suits

On Wednesday, Nokia introduced the latest model in its E series of smartphones, the Nokia E63. Traditionally, the Nokia E series, which includes the Nokia E71 and the Nokia E66, have been very business focused and slightly on the pricey side, but the cell phone manufacturer is hoping to break that mold and bring in more general consumers by selling the E63 at a lower price point.

The Nokia E63 will start shipping in Europe within the next few weeks for 199 Euros, which is about $248 here. Compare that with E71, which goes for $500 unlocked, and you've … Read more