Well, we can’t be right all the time!  Yesterday we predicted Nokia would announce a range of handsets, and it appears that Nokia have no such plans (we are hearing rumours that Nokia will be organising it’s own event in March / April time where it will release a number of phones, including the ones we hinted at), but instead Nokia did announce that it’s Linux OS, Maemo, will be merging it’s Open Source efforts with Intel’s Moblin platform to produce a new OS environment called MeeGo, which will offer support for both netbooks as well as Internet Tablet phones.

For more information on the new venture, and what it means for both platforms, head to the MeeGo website.

What a nice change; a device launched in the US, but at the launch, it was announced that the device will be coming to the UK!  T-Mobile UK are working with ICD to release the ICD Vega Kitchen computer / Android Tablet in the UK later this year.  Well, compared to the O2 Joggler, this might well have just those few extra facilities to actually be a bigger success story…

The spec of the Vega includes:

• Processor — Nvidia Tegra 250 (1GHz)
• Memory – 512MB DDR DRAM
• Flash — 512MB NAND flash; 32GB internal SD card; external Micro SD slot
• Display — 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 resistive touchscreen; HDMI output
• Wireless:
  • 802.11b/g WiFi
  • Bluetooth 2.1
  • Optional 2G or 3G cellular
• USB — 1 x USB 2.0 High-Speed OTG
• Camera — 1.3-megapixel
• Audio — 3.5mm audio jack; external speakers; dual microphones
• Other features:
  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light sensor
  • Charging dock
  • Magnetic docking
• Power — 11AH 3.9V lithium-ion battery (4 hours life); 110-240V input; 12VDC output (35 W, for dock)
• Dimensions — 14.7 x 10.0 x 0.6 inches (373 x 254 x 16mm)
• Weight — 2.9 lbs (1.3kg)
• Operating system — Android 2.0

The dock may also feature an additional speaker, and possibly an HDMI port too, but with that 3G support, you’ll be able to make calls, and this is no sudden decision by T-Mobile, who have, apparently been working with ICD for 18 months.

Taken advantage of the Android platform, Linuxdevices have said “The Android software on the device offers one-touch access to a household calendar, enabling families to organize schedules in one place, say the companies. The web-accessible device can automatically send SMS text reminders of calendar items to cellphones. Additional features are said to include web browsing, on-demand TV, access to social networks, video chat, and games.”

ICD also announced a 15.6″ unit (ICD Ultra) and made reference to also working on an 11″ tablet too.  The ICD Ultra adds to the Vega specs with a GPS too.

One small point to watch out for; these, and many other “Android” devices are likely to be using the Open Source Android OS, and will not be “Google Experience” devices, so don’t expect this device to automatically take a Google account and support all the Google features that you may have on your “Google Experience” Android phone…

The only other unknown at this point is the price, but we would expect something similar to O2 and the Joggler where there are options for subsidised pricing…

Some content courtesy of Linux Devices, and thanks to Stuart for the Heads Up!

Two little stories have caught my attention this week regarding the Nokia N900, Nokia’s new Maemo based Internet Tablet Phone.  Firstly, from Liam Green-Hughes (who has written up his First Looks review of the Nokia N900 here), and in that article he mentions a little third party utility called FM RDS Notify.  As the Nokia N900 ships, you have support for an FM transmitter, which when you connect to an RDS-compatible stereo (such as in the car), you will see “Nokia” displayed when music is playing.  However, FM RDS Notify takes that capability a stage further, and puts more useful information into the RDS data information of the FM signal, allowing details of the current music track playing to appear on the stereo instead.

However, it doesn’t stop there; it can also display the details of the current caller (should be be on the phone), or even display SMS messages.  Although the application is currently only in the Extras-devel repository, and not the more mainstream Extras respository, I’m sure it will move over in time, as the application develops.  It already has some impressive functionality for what is v0.3, and the first version was only released back in late December!

The other interesting app for the Nokia N900 is Barriosquare, which is a FourSquare client for the Nokia N900.  Now, FourSquare is only starting to become popular in the UK, but has been running for some while in the US.  FourSquare combines the Social Networking aspects of sites like Twitter and merges in the location, and there is even an element of competition on who can “login” to an individual location the most and claim the “Mayor” badge for that location.  Using the public API to the website, a single developer has managed to create the application.

And that’s the power of the Nokia N900; individual developers can create a free app for the device and release it via the repositories and then everyone can access that new utility, that new feature which enhances the whole device just a little more.  The same sort of idea is available for most platforms through their App Store, but Maemo developers have embraced the idea of the Linux repositories offering free applications, and many of the enhancement applications are going to remain free, even when Nokia release a paid App Store for Maemo.

Although in my mind it will never be an iPhone killer, the Nokia N900 is certainly a phone that any serious techie should at least consider seriously; even with all the work that’s gone into Maemo 5, it’s still a little bit specialised to recommend the Nokia N900 to someone not used to smartphones and tinkering with their phone, but for the target market, apps like these will continue to make the Nokia N900 shine.

Some content around Barriosquare courtesy of thenokiablog.

We’ve been talking about these two devices for a while now, but what exactly are they, and what’s the difference, and, possibly more importantly, which is the “flagship” device for the Nokia N-Series?

Well, the Nokia N900 is a Maemo based Internet Tablet (following on from the Nokia N810, N800 and 770 Internet Tablets), but it adds phone capabilities, and not just to improve data access, but to also act as a phone.  Having said that, there does appear to be an element of just bolting the phone software on top of the existing platform; the phone application is pretty much the only application that supports the portrait mode (at launch). We make the point about “at launch” because many of the apps included on the device are by third party developers, who may well provide portrait support in their apps faster than Nokia and Maemo can achieve the same for the core applications.

The device includes a 5 megapixel camera, 3.5″ 800 x 480 touchscreen display, 32GB onboard storage, plus microSD support, A-GPS with Ovi Maps, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM transmitter, TV-Out, Bluetooth, and DivX Support.

Now, the Nokia N97 Mini is another key device launched at Nokia World.  It is basically a slightly cutdown Nokia N97, although it still features many of the high technical specs of the Nokia N97;

• It has 8GB storage, as against the Nokia N97 32GB
• It has a 1200mAh battery, compared to the N97’s 1500mAh
• The screen drops from 3.5″ to 3.2″, but retains the resolution

The main other difference is the removal of the D-pad on the keyboard, which is replaced by a set of four cursors keys to the right.  Of course, it will retail at a slightly lower price too.

So, which is the flagship device; well, that’s for you to decide; the Nokia N97 Mini is a smaller, lighter, lower spec device than the Nokia N97, but that slight size reduction may make it more popular at time goes on; as for the Nokia N900, it is lacking some of the all round features of Symbian S60 (and application support), and so right now, we reckon the Nokia N97 remains the top device, but whether it can retain this crown throughout 2010 as Maemo apps improve is another question…

I’ve had access to one of these devices since yesterday, and I am quietly impressed by the device, and it’s capabilities; it’s not perfect (more later), but it certainly is a very useful device…

Although it costs a little more than a standard 3 Mobile Broadband USB Modem, the extra facilities it offers may make it worthwhile for many.  Basically, it shares it’s 3G connection over Wi-Fi to upto 5 devices at the same time.  Now, the 3G network speed is not enough for all 5 devices to be streaming audio or video, but would cope with all 5 checking mail and web surfing.  In fact, I’ve been sat here with 2 laptops connected to it, with one streaming Spotify music for over 2 hours now without any glitches or problems.

One problem with the device is that it is 3G / HSPA only; it will not fallback onto the Orange 2G data network (like a 3UK Handset would), so if you are out of coverage of 3UK’s own 3G network, it will not work at all.  3UK claim to be at 70% population with 3G, which is still one of the highest (if not the highest) for pure 3G connectivity, but the lack of fallback may leave you stranded in the short term.  Last night, 3UK showed their plans for a “monster” 3G network for 2010, which fills in a lot of gaps in their current coverage, so as this better network comes online, this problem will fade to some degree.

One key use of this device is for Wi-Fi only devices, such as the iPod Touch, the Nokia Internet Tablets, PSPs etc. and certainly all these devices gain extra features with connectivity, and it’s very easy to just turn the device on and be able to access the internet anywhere (with signal).  The battery is claimed to last 5 hours, and althougwe haven’t yet got to 5 hours of usage, it’s certainly a plausible figure.  If needed, you can turn off the wireless to limit it to local wired USB connection only, or you can turn off 3G to just give you a local wireless network hub for file sharing.  The network name (SSID) is quite obviously a 3UK device, so you may want to change it (all mangement needs to be performed via a wired cable connection).  You can also change the encryption key, although given this is listed under the battery, it may be easier to leave this alone for convenience.

Other positive points? 3UK are trying to ensure nothing (legal) is blocked by their Internet connection, and certainly everything we accessed worked fine without any issues.  As 3UK have good support for Skype, they are happy for you to run the client on your laptop.  Also interesting to note is that iPhones and iPod Touch can also use a MiFi to allow full access to Skype for calls; whether or not you are allowed to make calls on the Skype client is based on whether the connection is 3G (from the phone) or WiFi (from the phone); the fact that the WiFi access point then uses 3G is not factored in to the switch within the application, so these functions work fine too.

The only other downside we can find is that when you turn it on, you then seem to need to turn on 3G every time; it’s a shame it needs 2 buttons presses, and not just one, but this is a minor point.

The 3 MiFi will be available on Friday in Stores (and available to order online on Thursday)with two pricing options; the “Broadband 5GB 1 month” service will cost £69.99 upfront and then £15 per month for 5GB of data (with a rolling 1 month contract), or you can select the PAYG “Ready To Go” option at £99.99, which will include 3GB of data to be used over a 3 month period, and then it will move onto standard Mobile Broadband PAYG pricing.  3UK have indicated that there may be more tariffs in the future, and they will also review the 5GB limit over time too.

If you are worried about “Bill Shock” with this device (you will get warning SMSes, but as these are only available if you have the connection software installed and connect to the device via the wired USB cable, most people will never see these), 3UK have a “hard block” of £25 per month; once you hit this limit (comprised of the original tariff and then the overspend), 3UK will block the SIM for the rest of the month.  This is a nice feature to limit exposure, and you can ring up 3UK to increase or decrease this limit if you wish.  Of course, the My3 portal is accessible from any connected device (even on wireless) which gives you a live data usage figure should you wish to check how much you have used.

All in all, a useful device, and one you should consider if you want to have the capability of easily sharing your Mobile Broadband and have sufficient 3G coverage in the areas you want to use it.

These are pictures of a Nokia prototype called RX-51.  Now, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet was the RX-44 and the N800 was RX-34, so it’s fair to say that with a product code of RX-51 this is likely to be the new Internet Tablet running the new Maemo 5 OS, and it may well be labelled the N900 by Nokia when announced (expected next month at Nokia World).

Mores pictures and technical specs after the break…

(more…)

Mauku is the Twitter / Jaiku Social Networking client for the Nokia Internet Tablets, and the author has released a number of screenshots showing the new version which will be available on the new OS, Maemo 5 (codename Fremantle).  More screenshots are available here.

This new version currently supports Twitter, Qaiku, Identi.ca, and should support Facebook in a future beta (the client actually connects to a server where a lot of the links to the Social Networking sites takes place, potentially allowing support for new websites without requiring a new client).

We should point out that the new UI and OS that comes with Fremantle (and mirrored in Mauku) are not available on the existing tablets, so your Nokia 770, N800 or N810 will not be able to run this new OS, and it looks, in essence, as if there will be no further OS updates for these devices.

Devicescape have traditionally released their Symbian application for free.  Easy Wi-Fi eases the process of managing multiple accounts to different Wi-Fi systems (BT OpenZone, FON, The Cloud, etc. etc.).  However, from their latest version, v3.0.70, they are now charging $4.99 for the Symbian version.  This is inline with their iPhone and iPod Touch applications, and whilst the Nokia Ovi Store is not yet up and running, they are handling the payment direct.

For existing users, Devicescape have stated that all v3.x updates will remain free, although they can’t promise this will remain for the future (ie only new users have to pay; the download will be for a 7-day fully functioning demo).  Also, for now, the Windows, Mac, and Nokia Internet Tablet versions will remain free.

As well as being able to provide Devicescape details of your home networks, it comes preconfigured with all open network hotspots (eg McDonald’s and Apple Stores).  This looks a very useful application, although there are other solutions (Psiloc Connect, BirdStep SmartConnect) which are also worthy of a look.

We’ve been a big fan of mobbler, the Symbian S60 client for last.fm, which allows you to scrobble your tracks (record what you have listened to), and also access and play last.fm radio streams.  However, this week, last.fm have made two statements which may not help mobbler…

Firstly, due to the lack of an established ad business, last.fm have found it difficult to find advertisers to cover their costs outside of 3 main countries, UK, USA and Germany, and hence all subscribers outside of those countries will need to subscribe and pay €3 per month for access what will remain the “free” service here in the UK.

However, the key issue is their second announcement, which signals the end of 3rd party clients using unofficial API calls to access the streamed music.  These old APIs will be switched off (potentially by the end of next week) and new music streaming APIs will be used instead.  These new APIs are available to developers to use within their clients, so, unlike some news reports, last.fm are not preventing 3rd party clients from working, simply ensuring that they use the right code to access the streams.  There are 2 key points:

Firstly, only subscribers will be able to stream music, unless the developer of the client enters into a specific deal with last.fm

Secondly, last.fm have said that their license prevents the streams being streamed to mobile phones.

Ironically, further clarification seemed to have muddied the water even further.  last.fm have stated that this decision is not “set in stone” (which seems bizarre if it’s a licensing issue).  Also, last.fm official Android and iPhone/iPod Touch clients do not seem to be affected by this.  Finally, they have confirmed that the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, as it is does not contain a SIM card, is not affected, and the 3rd party client Vagalume will still be ok (presumably if it supports the new API).  What’s odd about this is that a common method of connecting the N810 to the Internet is via Bluetooth and a mobile phone, so ironically, you will be able to listen to last.fm on an N810 whilst out and about, but won’t be able to listen via your Nokia E71 using Wi-Fi at home (as it’s a device issue, not the actual network connection)…

last.fm need to reconsider this; limiting music streaming to paying subscribers should help ensure a steady revenue model to cover the costs of paying royalties, and allow all users to continue to enjoy the music they want to listen to.

It should be pointed out that there are other 3rd party clients affected, the Pocket Scrobbler on Windows Mobile and FlipSide on the BlackBerry will also be affected.  However, neither the Vodafone S60 last.fm client nor 3UK’s INQ1 phone will be affected, as these only supported scrobbling (which remains free and unchanged) and had no music streaming support.

Update: last.fm have now stated “I’m working with third-party mobile client authors at the moment, and I’m fairly confident that we can allow them to use the new API in mobile mode for subscribers” and “I am working to make sure that existing mobile clients like Mobbler will get grandfathered in”, and last.fm have re-confirmed that only paying subscribers will be able to stream music; why they didn’t simply state this, along with the change in API we don’t know, instead of announcing and now, in essence, withdrawing their statements over mobile phone streaming.

Although there are still few details, it looks like Archos is looking to use Android as the OS for a future Media Tablet.  Archos have been producing their media devices for some while, and have used Linux, so adopting Android makes some sense.  The spec is likely to include a 5″ touchscreen, upto 500GB hard disk, enough battery life for 7 hours playback (under optimal conditions), Flash support, and the ability to also double as a phone.  Archos are planning on adding to the Android interface, and provide extra facilities.

Story and screen mockup courtesy of Engadget.

Nokia have released a beta application called “Handwriting Calculator”.  Although this will not appeal to everyone, the key and most interesting thing about this application is that they have released Windows, Maemo (used on the Nokia Internet Tablets) and Symbian S60 (5th Edition, ie touchscreen devices) versions at the same time.  This shows a commitment to the various platforms, and should mean we will hopefully continue to see other applications, services and beta tools released across the platforms.

Nokia, having purchased TrollTech earlier this year, have talked about releasing cross platforms applications using Qt during 2009, and have stated they are expecting to achieve this on both the Maemo and the S60 platforms; this bodes well for Nokia to allow them to show a united front across their platforms.

Here’s a short video on the new Handwriting Calculator:

More information here at Nokia Beta Labs.

Nokia have been busy of late.  Firstly they sneaked out an update to FriendView beta, and have now launched a mobile friendly FriendView website (which simply offers the client for download, but it’s better than before).  They’ve also stated that this client shares the same map cache as the v1.82 Sportstracker beta, so although neither use Nokia Maps right now, at least the online map data is only downloaded once.

After quite some time in beta, Nokia viNe has now been released too, which we have covered before, but basically will allow Sportstracker to be limited to true Sports activities, with all others activities slowly moving to Nokia viNe instead.

They’ve updated Nokia Wellness Diary, which now supports the Nokia N79, Nokia E71, Nokia N85, Nokia 6210, and Nokia 6220, and is compatible with the v1.82 Sportstracker beta too.

Nokia have updated their Nokia Maps data, so if you haven’t checked recently, it might be worth checking via the Nokia Map Loader to see if there are any new maps for your region.

Also of note; if you are an Nokia N810 Tablet user, and have upgraded to the latest firmware, then use the Map information menus within the “Maps” application, and you’ll see updated maps too (these have been available for some while, but very few seem to be aware of the new maps, as it needs the new firmware and the new Maps software that it brought to gain access to these maps).

In terms of non-map related updates;

• Nokia have updated Nokia Chat to v1.0 Beta 4
• They have graduated Nokia Photos (now v1.5, or part of the latest Ovi Suite), which means it now features on the main Nokia website, and comes with full support from Nokia
• Finally, they have also updated the Multimedia Transfer Application for Macs to v1.4.

Today is the start of Nokia World, and a fairly key announcement is due from Nokia first thing this morning.  We’ll report on this as soon as we’ve received the information and fully digested it.  We wonder if it’s the phone codenamed IP08 that we featured here…

Nokia have announced plans to launch Home Automation systems towards the end of 2009 (so still a way off unfortunately), which will be based on the Z-Wave and Zigbee technology.  They will offer a Home Gateway which will connect via Wi-Fi (with optional GSM/GPRS module) to allow mobile devices such as mobile phones and Nokia Tablets to be able to control a variety of devices.  It should be possible to control devices (ie turn them on and off), but also have access to temperature sensors, cameras and motion detectors.

Nokia are saying they will release some retail kits, which will include starter kits, security kits, energy monitoring and baby monitoring kits, branded under the Nokia Home Control name.

ukmp is a very feature rich media player for the Nokia Internet Tablets, and in this new version, which has just been released to the main software repositories, offers some very nice new features.  v1.83 now offers, natively within the program, portrait support, as shown above.  This version offer much improved album art handling (it’s likely to remove all existing album art on installation to allow this benefit to show), better handling of things like the play / pause buttons, and an oft requested feature; a close button on the main screen.

The only real downside is a display limit of 35 songs per album, which seems to be a fair compromise between functionality and speed.  Applications like ukmp are starting to show the real power of the Nokia Tablets off to their full; as an overall experience it may not match that of an iPhone / iPod Touch, but apps like ukmp should make people less shy about showing off their tablets.

ukmp is already available from the maemo extras software repository and the new version should make an appearance any time now.

As we mentioned last week, there’s a new version of Nokia PC Suite out, v7.0.9.2.  This update should soon be coming your way, as notifications are now appearing from within PC Suite that there is a new update available.  Although this version adds a number of stability fixes, it also installs (if you have Firefox installed) a new Firefox extension called PC Sync 2 Synchronisation Extension.  This is the sort of integration we like to see here at UK Gadgeteer, the ability to have the same set of bookmarks on both your PC and your mobile phone.  Now, if Nokia could just extend this to support their Internet Tablets as well…

Update: Watch out, this may remove the Nokia Communication Center beta version, so you may have to reinstall this afterwards.

In the last couple of weeks, there have been a number of Wi-Fi location based positioning systems released / renewed or made available in a new form…

Firstly, Google (who have stated one of their goals is to continue to “shrink” the size of the Google Map’s Blue Circle ) is now using Wi-Fi access point information within the “My Location” feature.  With the range of most Wi-Fi access points being much smaller than a single mobile cell, using this information will help pinpoint the location of the user more precisely.  Initially it is limited to major cities around the world, and initially only the newest version of Google Maps for BlackBerry supports the function (an interesting choice given most BlackBerry devices don’t have both GPS and Wi-Fi…)

Providing a Symbian alternative, Skyhook Wireless, have demonstrated their Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) on Symbian v9.5.  Now, v9.5 is brand new, and is likely to not feature on any new phones until at least mid-2009 at the earliest (although the odd phone may be announced before then), but it’s nice to see this capability coming to Symbian, if only to keep up with Apple here.

Finally, Brightkite, which is a geo-location based social networking site, have added support for Loki into the main website to allow Wi-Fi based positioning to save the user being forced to search and manually enter their location.  Although this does not yet help mobile devices, Loki have an SDK for Maemo (used by the Nokia Internet Tablets) so one would hope a version should be available for that OS soon.

Why all this emphasis on Wi-Fi based positioning when most of the devices under discussion already feature GPS or network coverage?  Two reasons; firstly, however hard they try, location detection within buildings is more difficult and slow, whether that’s GPS or cell ID based, and secondly, as already mentioned, that lower range of an individual Wi-Fi access point allows much closer positioning.  To show the power of what might be available one day, Nokia Research is working on in-building positioning (using Wi-Fi triangulation) to allow the mobile phone user the ability to locate rooms, printers, restaurants etc. within large building campuses.

Although it would seem at first glance we are risking having multiple Wi-Fi positioning systems, all of which will need to survey or be provided accurate information before being useful, we should point out that Loki uses Skyhook behind the scenes.

Although still very early days, a new software tool has been released for the Nokia Tablets allowing them to act as Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse input devices for other machines.  Initially tested on Windows by the author, it would appear to work.  Still on the list is getting it to work with Symbian S60 phones, which would make a wonderful combination.

The software is only just released, so it’s not got a full UI, but this is one we will be keeping our eye on in the future.

Head over to the author’s website for more information.

Maemo has announced a new version of the Maemo OS (used to power Nokia Internet Tablets). The new features include HSPA support (ie HSDPA and HSUPA support), support for HD camera images with online sharing capabilities, and support for the TI OMAP3 processor (which offers the potential for faster devices with better graphics).

The 5th generation of the Maemo OS is likely to be called Maemo 5.

However, there is not yet a corresponding announcement from Nokia on the hardware side of things (having split off Maemo into a separate entity, this isn’t surprising). However, we’ve certainly heard rumours of a Nokia announcement in this area soon, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a device which supported some, or all, of these new features announced within a few months, if not sooner.  Of course, it can often take a few more months between announcement and availability, so we may not see new devices until after the New Year, but we definitely expect them at some point.

We’ll bring you the news as and when we hear about it.

Back in June, Nokia released the new Diablo OS for the Internet Tablets.  One of the key features included was the ability to update the base OS without having to reflash the unit again, and yesterday Nokia released the first update to this OS.  This, as expected, can be applied without going through the reflash and reinstallation of all your apps.  If you are already running the Diablo OS, then the Update Manager should automatically alert you to this new OS Feature Update in the next few days.  The main updates are Email and Browser stability fixes, but without the reflash, it should be an easier decision whether or not to apply it.

The UK Nokia Shop is currently selling the N800 at £145 and the N810 at £299. However, Quidco (you’ll need to register) is currently offering 30% discount on all purchases from the UK Nokia Store, bringing down the prices to £105 and £240 respectively. Equally, the N82 smartphone (normally £315) is down to £220.50, so plenty of bargains to be had. As we said before, you’ll need to head to Quidco and register.