NOKIA

Nokia 500 PND

2009-01-18T15:24:00.001-08:00

Well it looks like Nokia announced today the arrival of its next generation of PND, due out in Europe in 4Q and the U.S. by end of year or early 2008. Reviews for the first try (the 330) weren't all that great... cnet review categorized it as 'not horrible, per se'. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. On paper the new 500 seems to have a lot of the high end features that one would presumably want when buying a system... like built in bluetooth for using the device as a hands free system and an fm transmitter for easily tapping into the vehicles existing stereo system. The 500 also speaks road names and ties the POI contact information to the communications systems to make it easy to call ahead to a POI with a touch of a button. Although none of this is the first time we've seen these capabilities in a PND, it's all catch up to Garmin as far as I can tell. I thought the feature that allows you to upload the addresses of your contacts from your phone to your PND so you can navigate to them was a nice touch, although one that I doubt will get much use.

Price is set at 300 euro, which seems to undercut similar Garmin offerings by about 1/3, but the devil is likely to be in the details. Folks have been screaming that the sky is falling for pure play gps manufacturers like TomTom and Garmin for quite a while... ie prices will begin to collapse and massive competition is on its way. And this Nokia offering certainly seems to be a case in point. However, for customer that are willing to shell out many hundreds of dollars for a PND, I'd question how sensitive they will be to that extra hundred dollars or two when faced with the alternative between "not horrible" and state of the art.

Nokia Aeon specification

2009-01-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

Announced 2007, January

Status Coming Soon

Nokia Aeon specification: General Network: UMTS / GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Size Dimensions: 106.5 x 52 x 13.7mm, 70cc
Weight: 115g
Display Type: TFT, 16M colors
Size: 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches
- Second external 256K colors display (160 x 128 pixels)
- Downloadable themes
Ringtones Type: Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3
Customization Download
Vibration: Yes
- 3.5mm headset jack
Memory Phonebook: Yes
Call records: Yes
Card slot micro SD (TransFlash), hot swap
- 26MB shared memory
Data GPRS: Class 32,107 / 64.2kbps
HSCSD: Yes
EDGE: Class 32,296 / 177.6k bits
3G: Yes, 384kbps
WLAN: No
Bluetooth: Yes, v2.0
Infrared port: No
USB: Yes, v2.0, mini USB
Features: OS Symbian OS 9.2, S60 rel. 3.1
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser: WAP 2.0 / xHTML, HTML
Games: Yes + Java downloadable
Colors: Red, Black
Camera: 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video (QVGA) , flash; secondary CIF video call camera
- Video calling
- Push to Talk
- Java MIDP 2.0
- MP3 / M4A / AAC / eAAC + / WMA player
- T9
- Stereo FM radio
- Voice command / dial
- PIM including calendar, to-do list and printing
- Document viewer
- Photo / video editor
- Integrated handsfree
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 700mAh (BL-4B)
Standby Up to 200hrs
Talk time Up to 2h 45min

Nokia's aeon "full surface screen" cellphone concept

2009-01-13T23:49:00.001-08:00

Nokia's research and development team have kicked it up a gear with an attractive "aeon" concept phone showing up in the R&D section of the company's website. The most prominent design feature of aeon is a touchscreen that stretches over the full surface area of the phone, similar to BenQ-Siemens's Black box concept phone we saw recently. Currently mobile technology isn't quite up to realizing this fantasy, but we'll sleep better tonight knowing that at least one of the cellphone industry's biggest names shares the same dream as we do -- BenQ's dream didn't count, unfortunately.

Traffic Works

2009-01-13T02:59:00.001-08:00

Nokia Research with Berkeley, University California and California transportation authority “CalTrans” are driving innovation to free us from traffic jams for good. In the future, your mobile will help ensure you’re never late for your meeting, that you get home on time for your kid’s birthday, and you get to the cinema in time for the start of the film.

Your Nokia mobile will assist you, letting you know that you're meeting your friend in one hour and informing you that the traffic is picking up, and that you should consider leaving. Your mobile will then offer to route you using real-time traffic flow data to avoid delays.

How will this work?

By collecting real-time traffic flow data from your and hundreds of other GPS-enabled mobiles as people commute in their cars. Your device will share anonomously its location and the speed its travelling at via the Internet. All the data will then be aggregated and a traffic map is generated. This map of the traffic flow will be available for your mobile to use.

Your mobile, with a bit of added intelligence, will be able to combine this traffic data with your commuting patterns, calendar, and current position offering contextually relevant personal assistance.

Today, real-time traffic information is captured by deploying sensor networks along road sides. This system is limited, as it cannot cover every road for reasons of cost. By utilizing GPS enabled mobile phones the data is more accurate compared to the data collected by sensor networks. The GPS system is also much cheaper as the sensor networks are expensive to deploy and maintain.

Trials underway

In February 2008, an all-day field experiment was run to test this developing technology in real-time conditions. It used 100 cars with drivers on a 10 mile stretch of Californian highway. Each of the 100 cars was equipped with a Nokia N95 mobile with an application which sent location and travel speed data provided by the Nokia N95’s integrated GPS. GPS can pinpoint a car's location with an accuracy of a few meters and calculate traveling speed to within 3 miles per hour.

Using this data to estimate prevailing speeds and travel times, researchers were able to obtain a picture of real-time traffic conditions. Information was displayed on the Internet, allowing viewers to visualize traffic in real time. Read more about the 100 Cars trial and other Nokia research projects.

Things to tryNokia Maps puts maps and navigation in your hand today. With free maps for more than 200 countries, and with 15 million points of interest pre-loaded, you can plan your route street by street or city to city

Indoor Positioning

2009-01-13T02:43:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been in a rush to catch your connecting flight in the airport, without knowing exactly where to head? How about that beautiful Monet painting, still haven’t seen it in the museum and there is only 30 minutes left before the museum closes? Need to find your favourite fashion outlet quickly in a new shopping mall?

Indoor position at the Helsinki Vantaa airport

Today, you can already use your mobile outside to navigate to your destination - driving or walking. In the future, indoor positioning will make it possible to find your way indoors. Your mobile will show your location inside the building, find the point of interest your searching for and then guide you there. This technology, could even find your friend when it’s time to go home.

How does this work?

The mobile uses the buildings’ WLAN infrastructure to triangulate your position and then indicates where you are on a building map. Nokia prototypes today can show your location - building section and floor level. They allow you to browse the building, find points of interest and you can even share your position with the people you choose, when you want. Today Nokia has Indoor Positioning trials ongoing within 40 buildings worldwide.

In order to enable indoor positioning in buildings, the indoor positioning solution requires a list of available WLAN access points and their approximate location in the building. Based on this list, which often already exist due to network planning, the indoor position is calculated. Nokia is working on and testing algorithms capable of finding your indoor position to within a few meters. Read more about the Nokia’s research projects.

Things to try

This technology is quite ready for you to try yourself but you can explore and try other applications and services that we are trialing at Nokia Beta Labs.

Sense Your Location

2009-01-13T02:35:00.000-08:00

Sensor technologies enhance the navigation experience providing greater awareness and understanding of your surroundings.

Now imagine, you’re stood in the middle of an old market square at night – like the Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Off the square are four streets with little to disseminate them and you’ve no idea how to get back to your hotel-

This is where a map and a compass would be very useful. What if your Nokia mobile is able to sense where you are, which way you are facing, and tell you your next move and get you back to your hotel?

Nokia 6210 Navigator

With the new Nokia 6210 Navigator you are always heading in the right direction. You can map your exact location, including the direction you are heading. If you turn around, holding your mobile in your hand, the map view rotates to match your new direction. The street in front of you is always displayed in front you on your Nokia 6210 Navigator.

How does this work?

The sensors in the Nokia 6210 Navigator enhance the navigation experience offered by Nokia Maps 2.0, providing contextual awareness. The built-in compass (a magnetometer), accelerometer, and GPS combine with Nokia Maps 2.0, to provide an easy to follow map, so when you’re strolling about on foot the map rotates on the display maintaining the correct orientation.

The device’s magnetometer tells you the direction you are headed. The magnetometer senses the Earth’s polar magnetic field. A digital compass application in the mobile then uses data from the two-axis magnetometer to calculate magnetic north. This digital compass then provides Nokia Maps 2.0 with auto-orientation, so the map rotates to match your heading.

A three-axis accelerometer is also used for detecting the position in which you are holding the device – its orientation. Accelerometers measure linear acceleration (x,y and z). When navigating using Nokia Maps 2.0, the function of the accelerometer is to provide tilt compensation for the magnetometer as the magnetometer only works in two dimensions. This ensures the magnetometer interprets movement and tilting of the mobile correctly.

Magnetometer and accelerometer sensors are Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). They are integrated circuits – chips – with tiny moving mechanical parts.

The accelerometer sensor can also enable other features on the mobile. Its orientation detection can be used for example, to silence a wake-up alarm or incoming call just by picking up and turning your device upside down. The orientation of the screen view can also change automatically when you turn the device.

Sensors bring new opportunities for developers to create innovative applications with new means of user interaction. Developers can simply plug their applications into the sensor framework for Nokia’s S60 software platform. Find out more at Forum Nokia and about framework for Nokia's S60 software platform.

Things to try

Nokia Maps 2.0 puts maps and navigation in your hand whether on foot or in the car. With free maps for more than 200 countries, and with 15 million points of interest pre-loaded, you can plan your route street by street or city to city. Download for free. Nokia Sports Tracker is a GPS-based activity tracker that runs on Nokia smartphones. Information such as speed, distance and time are automatically stored in your training diary.