nokia

Got a few minutes to kill? Sure, you could flip through your tunes, but when the same songs get old, and when you tire of your headphones winding from your ears like some extraterrestrial umbilical cord, check out the worlds of communication, learning, and game-playing applications to discover beyond the beats. Or, dare we say, while listening to them. Check out your burgeoning options for cell phone entertainment in the slide show.

Some details are starting to emerge about Nokia's Comes With Music phones, which will come with the right to download music at no extra charge. According to a report yesterday on PaidContent.org, Nokia will pay Universal Music Group $33.50 per handset for the first 2.5 million sold, with the rate dropping after that.

It sounds like the download model will not be strict all-you-can-eat, but instead will be similar to eMusic--users will be able to download a limited number of songs over a certain time period, and those songs will be theirs to keep. It'… Read more

This article was updated at 1:21 p.m. PDT to correct information on video quality.

Generation Y (and Z) are in for a big treat. As social-networking services like MySpace.com, Facebook, and Twitter have exploded as the definitive way to keep in touch, mobile content companies have begun to offer up some sophisticated ways to capture that energy and broadcast photos, videos, audio, and text from mass market phones.

I've been impressed with what I've seen from JuiceCaster, a mobile-media broadcasting app that's available as a WAP site from any Internet-enabled cell phone, and very … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Jan Chipchase is a cell phone modification guru. A researcher at Nokia Design in Tokyo, he's seen cell phones modified to hold up to 16 SIM cards and plenty more in his role at the company.

Chipchase is a member of a team at Finnish cell phone giant Nokia that's trying to lower the cost of phones for emerging markets, an effort that's part market development and part recycling. The group of 15 has scanned bazaars and street shops in places as diverse as Ghana, Brazil, Iran, India, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, China, and Mongolia to learn … Read more

Latest in the Finnish company's portfolio of NFC devices is the 3G-enabled 6212 classic. But the news here is that it's now possible to pair the NFC-enabled BH-210 Bluetooth headset with the 6212 classic by just bringing the two devices into contact.

Here's the catch. The BH-210 with NFC is available only in Europe, but apparently if there's a demand for it, Nokia may consider bringing it elsewhere as well. Looking at the larger scheme of things in the foreseeable future, we'd be able to transfer data like photos and videos to a Bluetooth-enabled NFC … Read more

Bluetooth is about to get a touch of green. CSR has given its first public demonstration of a headset powered by technology that uses only a tenth of the energy consumed by its standard counterparts.

The technology, previously known as "Wibree," was developed and licensed by Nokia a few years ago and is finally preparing to come to market. Developed for short distances--from handset to ear, for instance--the system transfers data much faster than standard Bluetooth connections and therefore uses less energy.

CSR's version of the "ultra-low-power" Bluetooth system was shown at a medical conference … Read more

Several more companies on Monday agreed to sign their names to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) framework for the next generation of wireless technology.

The largest handset maker in the world, Nokia, was joined by Sony Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, NEC, and NextWave Wireless. Part of the agreement on LTE means the companies will agree to license their patents "on fair and reasonable terms," which means keeping royalties for handset patents below 10 percent of the handset sale price.

"Today's announcement is a step towards establishing more predictable and transparent licensing costs in a manner that enables faster … Read more

More details about Nokia's upcoming Tube phone have surfaced, days after its existence leaked out at a developer conference.

Nokia's apparent answer to the iPhone will arrive in the second half of this year, according to Symbian Freak. A Nokia spokesman confirmed the timing to Computerworld but didn't offer any further details other than the obvious notion that the "Tube" will use Symbian's S60 operating system. Nokia owns a large stake in Symbian.

According to Symbian Freak, the Tube (real name TBD) will come with 3G, Wi-Fi, and GPS chips and use a screen … Read more

The world's largest handset maker is starting to talk about its response to Apple's iPhone, almost 10 months since the iPhone made its debut.

Nokia showed off the Nokia Tube in a presentation slide noticed by Infoworld at a software development conference in California Monday. The Tube, like the iPhone, is a touch-screen phone that can be manipulated using your fingers, and is Nokia's "first touch device," according to Tom Libretto of Forum Nokia.

It's fair to say the iPhone forced just about every handset maker to take a second look at their product … Read more