05 July 2008

What's your best ever Nokia S60 handset?

When I am talking about "Best Phone" I am not just talking about the features, I am also talking about durability, battery life, ease of use and so on.

For me, mine is the Nokia 6620 which I used for over 3 years (pretty much when they came out in the US) 3 years ago this phone was state of the art.

It had one of the best VGA cameras I have used to date, IR, Bluetooth, a 150mhz processor, stereo support, 1gb MMC card, 32-35mb of ram (I cant remember what it has), joystick that works good for playing all 622 NES roms I have. I also have Psiloc's IrRemote that came in handy way too many times for me too co... .. .

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.:[ What's yours best phone ever - full story ]:.

05 July 2008

Nokia E71 Review by Dogmann

So it's been just 48 hours now with the Nokia E71 and here is how i have found it and what i think of it so far.

As i mentioned before pictures really just don't do it any justice at all it really need to held in your hands to appreciate just how slim and light and tactile it is.

It really is the best built device i have seen in along time if not ever as virtually all of it is metal only a small area at the top and bottom where the antenna's are and along the sides where the control or access buttons are plastic. Even then it not a cheap plastic but even this has a great feel and exudes quality the scre... .. .

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.:[ Nokia E71 Review by Dogmann - full story ]:.

05 July 2008

WinXP Restart for S60
System utility for quick and automaed shutdown

Do you want your phone to be turned off automatically?

You would like to fall asleep when you are just listening to your favourite music or maybe even watching evening television shows on your DVB-H enabled Smartphone but you just don’t want to be surprised with an empty battery in the morning!?

If answer is yes than I think I’ve just found a simple and yet powerful solutions for you. WinXP Restart is a handy system utility that will help you to automatically shutdown, power off or reboot your phone at schedule time you specify. Further more it has the really nice XP like UI, mouse cursor and even XP shutd... ..

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.:[ Automated Phone Restart or Shutdown - full story ]:.

04 July 2008

Nokia N81 gets the firmware update
Flash Light 3 and FP2 menu transitions!!

Nokia has released a new firmware version for Nokia N81, firmware v20.0.056 is already available and supported via the NSU for certain generic product codes and will be available progressively at the official Nokia Points and Nokia Service Points in the next few days.

So far it is confirmed over at SF forum that new soft supports the WRT (Web Run Time Widget), Flash Lite 3, it also brings the demand pagging and what is the most exciting it is equipped with the fancy menu transitions from the Feature Pack 2. Beside the mentioned new features this release should improve the Nokia N81 performance as well as fix kno... .. .

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.:[ Nokia N81 gets the firmware update - full story ]:.

04 July 2008

Fourth Sittiphol's "Neu" project
Nokia N95 Touch Screen

If you think it's impossible to get the touch interface on Nokia N95, think again! Sittiphol Phanvilai just released the forth "Neu" project named as N95 Touch Screen.

Maybe it is not as impressive as his older projects like, NeuTouch, NeuScreen or Neu360 but in short video demo he shows the hand writing system on a touch enabled Nokia N95!?

Could someone please tell me how this is possible!? Maybe something similar to Nokia digital pen or more likely he is using some very complex camera based engine to catch the pe... .. .

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.:[ Forth "Neu" project - N95 Touch Screen - full story ]:.

04 July 2008

OpenMoko To Release an Open Source
Linux Based Smartphone Today!?!

OpenMoko has announced plans to launch the Linux-based FreeRunner mobile phone on July 4. The highly-anticipated open source handset will be distributed through OpenMoko's web-based store and will begin shipping on July 7.

The FreeRunner will also be available from several vendors in Europe and India.

OpenMoko has put a huge effort positioning itself as the open source leader and to bring the first truly "free" Smartphone and release it before Google or Nokia! Google has brought together more than 30 cellular and wireless industry partners in the Open Handset Alliance to design and build open mobile devic... .. .

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.:[ OpenMoko Celebrates July 4 With Linux-Based Smart Phone - full story ]:.

03 July 2008

Pro Series Golf Goes Live!

I'm a bit late to report this, but Pro Series Golf has been released through the Showroom on the 'Gage application and is available for you to download and try.

As usually, all you have to do is navigate to the Showroom tab, select 'Update Now' and it should appear at the top of the list.

Alternatively you can get the free trial directly from the game page where you can also find several screen shots and two videos. There is no doubt that game looks nice and that is very fun to play, but honestly it's not really my type of game, it is sport-them... .. .

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.:[ Pro Series Golf Available on N-Gage - full story ]:.

03 July 2008

Nokia India today announced
the launch of the Nokia 6220 classic

Few months back in February, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia introduced the Nokia 6220 classic, a full-featured device that combines a 5 megapixel camera with A-GPS functionality. As part of its strategy to consolidate its position in convergence field, mobile handset maker Nokia India today announced the launch of new mobile phone 'Nokia 6220 classic' with 5 mega pixel camera here today.

"The new handset is designed as per the changing requirements of the mobile handset users," Nokia India, Head GTM, Program Portfoilo, Raghuvesh Sarup said today. Priced at 19,959 Indian Rupee (290€) the new set is fitted with Xenon flash, autofocus, Carl Zesis optics and is A-GPS enabled which would allow shar... .. .

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.:[ Nokia 6220 Classic launched in India - full story ]:.

03 July 2008

Connect your mobile phone
to the photos, music and files on your computer

Files on Ovi (beta) is actually the final result of the Nokia Avvenue acquisition initially announced more than a half year ago, on December 4, 2007. Avvenu is a company which provides the secure remote access and private sharing technology that allows users to access and view PC files remotely and this acquisition is just another step in the Nokia intention to become a service oriented mobile phone company.

Files on Ovi is the direct route to your stuff, it’s a subscription service that lets you grab, view, download and send digital content stored on your personal computer, right from your mobile phone, anytime, anywhere in the world. Of course, unlim... .. .

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.:[ Connect your mobile phone files on your PC - full story ]:.

03 July 2008

An interview with Nokia's Mary McDowell,
chief development officer

RCR Wireless News had just published an interview with Mary McDowell, Nokia's Development Chief about Symbian Fundation and open-source version of Symbian OS. Mary T. McDowell is Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer leading the newly established Corporate Development Office. In this role, Mary is responsible for optimizing Nokia’s strategic capabilities and growth potential.

She oversees Corporate Business Development, Corporate Strategy, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, Nokia IT, Office of the Chief Technology Officer, Operational Excellence and Quality, and Solutions Portfolio Management. She is also a mem... .. .

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.:[ An interview with Nokia's Mary McDowell - full story ]:.

03 July 2008

New developer offering makes creating,
distributing innovative widgets easier and faster

WidSets, a mobile content consumption, creation and sharing service is getting a boost from Forum Nokia, Nokia's global developer program. Developers can easily develop widgets for WidSets and instantly make them available for download to a rapidly growing user base. WidSets work on more than 300 mobile device models currently supporting MIDP 2.0, including some 500 million Series 40 and S60 devices worldwide.

Forum Nokia has launched a comprehensive developer offering for WidSets to arm developers with the tools and technologies needed to take advantage of this unique opport... .. .

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.:[ Forum Nokia opens doors to WidSets - full story ]:.

03 July 2008

Telenor and Nokia cooperate
on bringing mobile services to consumers

Telenor and Nokia today announced cooperation on mobile services to accelerate the adoption of new Internet services on the Ovi services platform provided by Nokia.

The agreement will enable Telenor customers to experience one of the best Internet services on their devices in the simplest way.

The Telenor and Ovi services will be offered to Telenor customers in Norway, Sweden and Denmark as well as in Hungary. As part of the collaboration, specific Nokia devices will be customized to provide easy access to both companies' selec... .. .

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.:[ Telenor and Nokia to cooperate on mobile services - full story ]:.

03 July 2008

Nokia N93 vs. Sony Ericsson P1
Battle of the 3.2 Megapixel Smartphones!

On my travels with the Nokia N93, I came across a Sony Ericsson P1 UIQ based Smartphone. It too sports the same 3.2MP imaging sensor as the Nokia N93, but lacks the optical versatility the Nokia N93 has. Here is the Sony Ericsson P1 taking a picture of my iPhone. Since the iPhone we all know has a pretty average camera, we did not bother putting it against these autofocusing 3.2MP imagers.

We can see from pixel peeping, that the N93 and P1 come very close, both rendering very accurate colours to real life, as well as sporting similar noise qualities. I personally find the P1's image a little on the sharp side, which tends to create a halo eff... .. .

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.:[ Battle of the 3.2 Megapixel Smartphones - full story ]:.

02 July 2008

Nokia Email Service
PUSHES Blackberries Aside

We all see the people walking around with two cellphones. The one phone for calls, the other for work email, etc. It drives me insane! Well, finally, I may be getting some relief.

Nokia is focusing more and more on services, and last night's announcement is proof. Corporate mobile users, drop that Blackberry once and for all!

Dual device toters, free up that extra pocket! Nokia is proud to present to you the Nokia Email service. The Nokia Email service's biggest function is PUSH email. PUSH email is realtime instant email retrieval without the need for the user to manually log into email servers. Unlike automatic retrieval, which logs on an... .. .

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.:[ Nokia Introduces Free Push Email Service - full story ]:.

02 July 2008

CTO.nokia.com
Next wave of mobility is wide open to innovation

The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) at Nokia is much more than Chief Technology Officer Bob Iannucci, and more than the Nokia Research Center (NRC) labs across the world.

A new site, CTO.nokia.com, has been launched to spread OCTO’s vision of the mobile future and engage the outside world.

Since Nokia embraced the Open Innovation research model two years ago, the collective work of OCTO extends far out into a global network of researchers and thought leaders at universities, think tanks, and the broader industry. OCTO’s eight hund... .. .

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.:[ The next wave of mobility is wide open to innovation - full story ]:.

02 July 2008

Nokia Is Up To Something
Open At Your Own Risk

While going through various blogs and website, I came across this dark, secretive new website at www.OpenAtOwnRisk.com.

The story unfolds that hundreds of years ago, a bunch of royal families got together to create a clip. This clip was supposed to be the weirdest thing ever created, and it actually ended up *too* weird.

Thus, it was locked up in a box with four seals. The instructions on how to break these four seals has been secret for years, through generations and generations. The secret instructions were hidden inside such historical things as the Edis... .. .

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.:[ Nokia Is Up To Something, Open At Your Own Risk - full story ]:.

02 July 2008

Gizmo5 Offers Free Instant Messaging
w/o Downloads Via WAP

One of the biggest instant messaging and presence applications and services is Gizmo5 from SIPphone.

Gizmo5's client is available on S60 3rd Edition, as well as Windows Mobile, RIM, Java, Windows desktop, Linux desktop, Maemo, and Mac OSX platforms.

In fact, S60 3rd Edition has 2 separate versions!There's the official Gizmo5 Symbian client and the special creation available only from Nokia Beta Labs that integrates into the phone's contact list and appears part of the firmware. Needless to say, Gizmo is serious about providing communication and messa... .. .

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.:[ Free instant messaging w/o downloads via WAP - full story ]:.

02 July 2008

Nokia PC Suite v7 final is ready for download!

After the longer period of the closed beat testing the first public version of the Nokia PC suite v7 is ready for download!

Unfortunately, lazy Nokia webmasters continue to waste our time and bandwidth, I just checked and they still didn’t update the PC suite website which still offers the older version (v6) for download and if you want to get and try just released PC suite (7.0.6.3) you'll have to download it directly from the Nokia NDS servers.

New version brings bunch of new features and fixes the known bug from the previous version. Downloading is in the progress, installation file is around 34 MB and I will post on the fo... .. .

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.:[ Nokia PC Suite v7 ready for download - full story ]:.

02 July 2008

Big Box of Blox now available for S60 devices and FREE for Club Astraware members during July!

Astraware and Digital Eel are excited to announce the release of Big Box of Blox for Symbian S60 smartphones. This blox-stacking extravaganza is already available for Palm OS and Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs. Big Box of Blox is a blox-stacking game taken to outrageous extremes! Players arrange the three-blox-high stacks as they fall.

Match blox in groups of three or more, vertically or horizontally, to eliminate them - but that's not all! Don't just stack the blox. Smash them, blast them, mutate them or explode them in a shower of flames! Use special blox including jokers, bom... .. .

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.:[ Digital Eel's Big Box of Blox available for FREE - full story ]:.

01 July 2008

emTube Returns
Official site will be back soon as well

I've been inundated with news lately, and haven't been able to keep up, and I'd let some exciting news go by unreported yesterday.

Around 3:30pm, fellow Dallas-Fort Worth area Symbian Freak member phairest sent me an email to announce a discovery I'm sure all Symbian Freaks will receive with great joy!

Ladies and gentlemen, Sebastian Jedruszkiewicz's legendary creation, emtube, has regained functionality with YouTube's servers! That's right! The first and arguably best, full YouTube browsing app is back! YouTube recently changed certain server sett... .. .

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.:[ full YouTube browsing app is back - full story ]:.

01 July 2008

Nokia Now Threatened by Rumored
LG 8 Megapixel Touch Flagship?!

Lately, the threat of LiMo and Android had turned the Symbian partners into the epitome of cooperation. Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola, and others saw the Symbian platform's vulnerability within the market, and promptly rejoined forces by agreeing to establish the Symbian Foundation, which will control the platform through open source development and distribution.

In one big splash, major competitors wisely threw their competitive natures aside for the better of Symbian and the smartphone industry. Well, that truce must already be over! One by one, the new Symbian Foundation members seem happy to take pot shots at Nokia, whose next generation devices are still under deve... .. .

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.:[ LG prepping 8 Mpx touch flagship phone - full story ]:.

01 July 2008

EMCC Software Anticipates Symbian Foundation
Will Stimulate Greater Industry Growth

EMCC Software, the mobile software development specialists, welcomes the recent announcement of the Symbian Foundation.

The formation of the Symbian Foundation Platform will bring standardisation and increased certainty to application creators wishing to develop solutions for all Symbian handsets.

EMCC foresees a significant reduction in platform fragmentation that will mean a combination of reduced time to market, wider addressable markets for new products, plus reduced porting and testing costs for the leading Smartphone platfo... .. .

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.:[ Symbian Foundation Will Stimulate Greater Industry Growth - full story ]:.

01 July 2008

Warner Music content
also available via Nokia Music Stores globally

Nokia today announced that Warner Music Group will make its diverse catalog of new stars and legendary artists available through Nokia Music Stores around the world as well as through Comes With Music, a revolutionary way for people to discover and enjoy music offered uniquely by Nokia.

"Warner Music Group has been a pioneer in developing new digital music business models and we are very pleased to have them supporting both the Nokia Music Store and Comes With Music," said Tero Ojanperä, executive vice president and head of the Nokia Entertainment and Commun... .. .

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.:[ Music bundle on Nokia devices to include Warner Music - full story ]:.

30 June 2008

Microsoft opens the FUD war
against the open-source Symbian

That didn't take long. Nokia announced just last week that it would be open sourcing Symbian, the world's top mobile operating system by market share, and a few days later Microsoft has started a FUD war against the move.

The ironic thing in this Microsoft FUD offensive is that it's using precisely the wrong example from open source to wage the war: Linux.

While it could have found some examples of open source that fragments, is more costly than proprietary software, etc., it chose Linux, which isn't... .. .

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.:[ Microsoft opens the FUD war - full story ]:.

30 June 2008

Nokia to Develop
Internet Based Service For India!

In today's mobile data industry, services are more important than ever. Internet and location based services are major revenue generators for carriers and manufacturers alike.

Nokia has taken heed, and is leading the way in the industry. Nokia's Maps service is arguably the best mobile service so far, and is probably the best location based service available today.

It provides real time map updates, navigation, traffic data, and points of interest, all in Symbian's most powerful S60 software environment to boot! Some users would disagree, especially those in India. They've complained about scarce or, in some are... .. .

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.:[ Nokia to Develop Internet Based Service For India - full story ]:.

30 June 2008

Mirage Space Demo Video
Motion Controlled Multi-player 3D Space Shooter

They have created a lot of interest among bloggers, communities and fans of the motion controlled games with their first game called Mirage Money and we've all been anxious to see Mirage Money's engine in full action on another game.

We've all been anxious to see Mirage Money's engine in full action on another game and Fadi just informed us that its cooler big brother called Mirage Space is in the final stage of development!

Mirage Space is based on the same Mirage-X API to create a motion controlled 3D space battle game in which you compete with opponents via Bluetooth to save the gal... .. .

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.:[ Motion Controlled Multi-player 3D Space Shooter - full story ]:.

30 June 2008

Random Thoughts:
How Has The Platform Hack Changed You?

Before FCA saved us, I was a different person. I used to deceive myself and others, telling them that S60 is an open platform and that it's great and customizable.

However, I can now see that the truth is that S60 is one step away from being as locked down as the iPhone.

There's deliberate limitations put in place by Nokia that limit the way we use our phones greatly, varying from phone to phone. So what if we could install some apps? They're all apps that Nokia said we could use.. .. .

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.:[ How has the platform hack changed you - full story ]:.

29 June 2008

Nokia N78 "over-the-air"
Chnage Log for firmware v11.043 In Da House!!

Nokia N78 is the first S60 phone with the "over-the-air" software release that is not available through the Nokia Software Updater application but it doesn't means that there is no full change log. Just a few days after the official firmware release I managed to get the full service bulletin with detailed change log that contains much more changes than the short Nokia report issued few days ago.

Unfortunately I had to remove few lines from the firmware change log that are confidential and aren't really interesting for public and as usually to protect it with few little changes. Just released firmwareincludes improved stability with Bluetooth (head... .. .

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.:[ Chnage Log is In Da House - full story ]:.

29 June 2008

Sony Ericsson P5 (Paris) spotted in Orange!

Fact that recently rumoured next UIQ flagship phone is spotted in another colour variant practically doesn’t means anything and the future of the Swedish software house UIQ doesn't look much brighter either, actually, to be completely honest with you, UIQ is dead now.

Nokia said earlier on Tuesday it would buy out other shareholders of Symbian and will simply repackage the existing software by adding the best parts of the UIQ and MOAP software platform to its S60 UI and create a new Symbian free and open source platform.

Confirming that, UIQ announced immediate plans to lay off more than half its employees and will seek new business lines after its owners decided to merge its software with the S6... .. .

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.:[ Sony Ericsson Paris spotted in Orange suite - full story ]:.

29 June 2008

Nokia nWAVE
Touchscreen Concept Simply Amazes!

In January, lantinian posted an excellent video on YouTube. I know it's 6 months old, but I haven't ever seen it, nor have I heard any mention of this concept device from any of my fellow Freaks, so I thought I'd take the time to give a little overview of it. I'm not sure if this is an official Nokia animation, or merely a users dream. It lacks physical buttons, which is a major turnoff in my book, but it is just a concept.

And it definitely looks as if it has Nokia bloodlines, with a Nokia style camera bezel with a shutter cover switch, ala N95-1, combination storage slot cover and stand that works in both landscape and portrait modes, and an extra wide aspect ratio touchs... .. .

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.:[ nWAVE Touchscreen Concept - full story ]:.

29 June 2008

Interactive Nokia N96 Demonstration is Online!

Well, I guess that everything about N96 is already very well known and just to recap in case you have forgotten Nokia N96 is the very well equipped phone that looks like the hybrid between the Nokia N95 and Nokia N81 that pretend to be next Nokia flagship model but I am not impressed to be honest.

In a matter of fact it look like the Nokia N81 packed into N95's dual sliding form factor with addition of the DVB-H TV functionality and a bit better camera with the not very popular dual led flash instead of the xenon and totally outdated QVGA screen that is stretched over it physical lim... .. .

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.:[ Interactive Nokia N96 Demo is Online - full story ]:.

28 June 2008

Weekend reading - Ricoh Camera
Shows Drool Worthy Hardware Inside

Mark Rutherford of C-Net's News Blog has published an article on a new geotagging digital camera from Ricoh, the 500 SE-GPS. What caught my attention was some of the equipment and capabilities of the camera. I always read the hardware contents of gadgets, and when I read it had a GPS module with a built in digital compass, and was able to record location and directional data into the geotag, I immediately impressed!

When I found it also includes a laser viewfinder for also measuring and recording distance from the subject, my jaw dropped and I was as green as Kermit the Frog with envy! This is exactly the type of hardware Nokia's Nseries must bring to the LB... .. .

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.:[ what the cell phone of the future will look like - full story ]:.

28 June 2008

Step into the electric atmosphere
of an American pool hall tournament!

Gameloft's Midnight Pool has been released yesterday, game is now available for you to try and you can get it through the in Showroom on the N-Gage application.

Just navigate to the Showroom tab and select 'Update Now' and it should appear at the head of the list.

You can also get the free trial directly from the game page on the Website, which also contains bunch of screenshots and trailers as well. Step into the electric atmosphere of an American pool hall tournament! Gameloft takes mobile billiards to the next level with tons of personality, atmosphere, fun, and satis... .. .

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.:[ Gameloft's Midnight Pool Goes Live - full story ]:.

27 June 2008

Python for S60 1.4.4 released
This is an officially signed release!

My favorite Programming Language gets an update brings bunch of improvements and and it is highly suggestible to get the latest version and update application and shell as well.

Python is a dynamic object-oriented programming language that can be used for many kinds of software development.

It offers strong support for integration with other languages and tools, comes with extensive standard libraries, and can be learned in a few days. Many Python programmers report substantial productivity gains and feel the language encourages the develo... .. .

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.:[ Python for S60 gets an update - full story ]:.

27 June 2008

SpeedCam for S60 3rd Ed
Freeware Speed Camera Warning System

The speed cameras can be tricky and very annoying. They don't prevent infractions and sometimes are misleading and you end up being charged hundreds for driving only a couple of miles over the limit.

A new survey of motorists across Britain has revealed that over 90% of drivers worry about being caught by a speed camera, especially when driving on unfamiliar roads and that more than 81% are confused because speed limits are not effectively signed.

The RoadPilot.com survey also highlighted that 84% of drivers do not always notice speed camera warning signs. If caught on camera, 14.4% say their ‘biggest concern’ would be the cost of the penalty fine, but a larger number (24.7%) now rate the fear of incre... ..

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.:[ GPS Speed Camera Detector - full story ]:.

27 June 2008

ST Microelectronics
sees only 'positives' in Nokia's Symbian move

Mobile phone chip maker ST Microelectronics says the move by Nokia to unify the Symbian platform and make it open source will have major advantages as it could reduce the effort to support multiple handset makers. "We see only positives in this and it will allow us to better leverage our development efforts, especially for multimedia applications," Tommi Uhari, executive vice president of ST told EE Times.

He noted companies like ST and arch rival in the mobile handset space Texas Instruments already do a great deal of development work with handset suppliers, and that will no... .. .

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.:[ ST sees only 'positives' in Nokia's Symbian move - full story ]:.

27 June 2008

ModeLabs' Bluetrek Metal
is the world's thinnest Bluetooth headset

After the success of the Bluetrek Bizz, ModeLabs Group today announces the launch of the Bluetrek Metal, an ultra slim, ultra light Bluetooth headset.

This new headset confirms the innovation strength of the group with regards for their Bluetooth activities, by offering differentiated products with high added value.

The Bluetrek Metal is a Bluetooth headset whose main used material is metal, it is extremely thin - 4mm thickness and very light; its weight doesn't exceed 5.5 grams. Its batte... .. .

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.:[ Ultra Slim Bluetooth Headset - full story ]:.