Despite the shift towards Windows Phone 7,
Nokia will still ship a MeeGo device this year. It's
going to be the successor to the Nokia N900 and
will be called the N950. We don't have a photo of
the device yet, but Nokia gave reassurances that
they are committed to MeeGo, Symbian, Qt and S40 too.

At Nokia's Developer Day, Nokia's CTO Rich Green
gave an extensive talk about the future of
current Nokia platforms, MeeGo included. He said
that they're working hard on the N950 and have
come up with some "very elegant" hardware and
interesting UI. That's all we have on the Nokia N950 - the Nokia
N9 (which was rumored as the coming MeeGo
device) might have been canceled and Nokia showed absolutely no new devices at the MWC.

British royal drama "The King's Speech" was
crowned Oscars winner, taking three of the top
Academy Award prizes, including best picture,
best director and best actor for Colin Firth
(pictured) as the stammering King George VI.
The movie took best picture, best director and
best actor for Colin Firth as a stammering King
George VI, helped by an Australian voice coach to
rally wartime Britain. It also won for best original screenplay, giving
the film four Oscars overall -- the same as hi-tech
thriller "Inception," and one more than Facebook
movie "The Social Network," which had been
tipped as possible best film winner. The movie's screenwriter, David Seidler, used his
acceptance speech to jokingly thank Queen
Elizabeth II, among others, as well as stutterers
everywhere. "I would like to thank her majesty the queen for
not putting me in the Tower of London" for
putting swear words in George VI's mouth. "And
I accept this on behalf of all the stutterers
throughout the world. "We have a voice, we have been heard," he said,
echoing a key phrase from the movie. "The Social Network," which had been nominated
in seven Oscars categories, ended up going home
with only three, and none of the major ones: film
editing, original score and adapted screenplay. "Inception," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a hired
hand who penetrates people's dreams to order,
won four Oscars: cinematography, visual effects,
sound mixing, sound editing. Natalie Portman won best actress for her role in
disturbing ballet thriller "Black Swan." Boxing movie "The Fighter" already had two
gongs -- best supporting actor for Christian Bale,
and best supporting actress for Melissa Leo, who
had both been frontrunners in their category. Director Tom Hooper used his acceptance speech
to tell the extraordinary story of how he came to
make "The King's Speech" -- thanks to the help of
his Australian mother, who was in the audience. "My mum in 2007 was invited by some
Australian friends -- she's Australian -- in London,
to a fringe theater play reading of an
unproduced, unrehearsed may have called 'The
King's Speech'," said the 38-year-old Brit. He explained: "She's never been invited to a play
reading her entire life before. She almost didn't
go because it didn't sound exactly promising, but
thank God she did. "She rang me up after, said, Tom, I think I found
your next film," he said, before addressing his
mother directly, saying: "So, with this tonight, I
honor you and the moral of the story is, listen to
your mother." In other prizes, "Toy Story 3," the third instalment
of the family-friendly franchise starring Woody,
Buzz Lightyear and co. won best animated
feature Oscar as expected. And the best foreign film prize went to "In a
Better World" by Denmark's star director Susanne
Bier, who vanquished movies from Algeria,
Canada, Greece and Mexico. The Oscars is the culmination of the multi-billion
movie industry's awards season and has been
preceded by months or frantic campaigning for
the coveted gold statuettes handed out Sunday
night. Co-hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway
started the show with a filmed skit in which they
were transplanted into the main films nominated
for best picture, with amusing results. Firth, who had seen as a shoo-in for best actor,
made one of the typically self-deprecating
acceptance speeches he has honed in winning
repeated prizes at awards ceremonies over the
last few months. "I'm afraid I have to warn you that I'm
experiencing stirrings, somewhere in the upper
abdominals, what are threatening to form
themselves into dance moves," he said. These urges, "joyous as they may be for me...
would be extremely problematic if they make it
to my legs before I get off stage," he added, to
laughter. He won over Jeff Bridges -- who beat Firth to the
best actor Oscar last year -- in "True Grit," Jesse
Eisenberg in "The Social Network," James Franco
in "127 Hours" and Spanish heart-throb Javier
Bardem in "Biutiful." Portman's rivals for best actress were veteran
Annette Bening in "The Kids Are All Right,"
Australia's Nicole Kidman for "Rabbit Hole,"
Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone" and
Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine.

sound-clip publishing service, Audioboo , is now available in the Ovi Store . The "Twitter for audio" allows you to record short messages on your
phone, tag them with text and pictures. Once
uploaded to the Internet, Audioboos can be shared,
listened to, and commented on. Already a popular
service on Android and iPhone, Audioboo is a
welcome addition to the Symbian platform.

Audioboo is a great service and it has a
lot of uses, and a lot of fans. It's very immediate, no
editing on the sound files is available (just go for
another take if you don't like it) and you'll be using
the handset's built in microphone. But here's the
most important two things about Audioboo: 1) it works. 2) you'll always have it with you. Those
things make it very useful.

modern smartphone OS needs to be balanced -
drawing on excellent cloud services and standing
on the cutting edge of software. The Windows
Phone 7 OS is nothing like Windows Mobile. It's
got a trendy, almost magazine-like new look, and
it is incredibly simple to use despite its different approach to just about everything

Microsoft received a loud collective boo when it
revealed that Windows Phone 7 will not support
multitasking. But the company is trying to break
the mold here. Instead of making a playground
for apps, it made WP7 the “ killer app ” . Anything extra that you install just integrates in and
extends the relevant features. They must ’ ve sat down to think. A complete makeover or start from scratch. In an odd way, it
looks like they never actually made up their mind.
That doesn’ t matter though. The important thing is Windows Phone 7 is breaking loose from its
“ Windows Mobile ” heritage and changes everything about itself – from the homescreen to the very nature of apps.

Key features:
Premium mobile OS (high minimum hardware
requirements) Clean, uncluttered interface with distinctive
design language Easy and thumbable user interface Smooth operation with cool animations and
transition effects A fresh start with no legacy support needed Backed up and developed by one of the largest
software companies in the world Excellent MS Office mobile implementation Top-notch social integration Excellent cloud services integration (SkyDrive,
Windows Live, Xbox Live) Wireless syncing of multimedia content Internal memory expandable via microSD card
slot (where available)

Main disadvantages:
No system-wide file manager No videocalling Limited third-party apps availability No Bluetooth file transfers No USB mass storage mode No multitasking No copy/paste Too dependent on Zune software for computer
file management and syncing No music player equalisers No Flash or Silverlight support in the web
browser No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far No DivX/XviD video support No internet tethering support New ringtones available only through the
Marketplace Swapping memory card requires hard reset;
cards not readable by computer

Microsoft just announced the availability of the
first update for its new Windows Phone 7 mobile
operating system. Unfortunately it's not the one
that adds copy-paste and we've all been waiting
for.


Instead this update comes to pave the way for
future WP7 revisions, by improving the update
process itself. So while this might not be the thing
you are looking for, it's certainly a good
indication that the major update is nearing. To get this though you will need the latest
version on Zune running on your PC or the
Windows Phone Connector on your Mac. Then all
you need to do is connect your phone via the
USB cable and follow the on-screen instructions. If, for some reason, this seems too complicated
for you, there's a step-by-step tutorial available online. There are also links to the required software on that page, but if you are using a
WP7 handset you probably already have it.

cellphone manufacturer Nokia warned on Monday
of hoax e-mails and SMS"s sent in the company"s
name.


"Nokia do not participate in any lottery activities
and the messages constitute a scam," said Nokia"s
senior account manager Caryl Ramsden. The company warned of sophisticated hoaxes
"distributed by a syndicate of fraudsters"
requesting an administration fee to collect
winnings. Ramsden said that the fraudsters use software
enabling them to see which handset is being used
by a target. They then personalise the hoax SMS to
garner a response." She said that this hoax is an international scam and
is not unique to Nokia. Consumers should not forward or respond to the
messages in any form, Ramsden said

Aims to bring Microsoft OS to wider market

Cheaper smartphones based on Microsoft's
Windows Phone OS will arrive quickly according
to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. The Nokia chief
moved on Friday to reassure the market that the
firm has plans to follow the general trend
towards cheaper smartphones, despite the recent 'unprecidented' partnership with
Microsoft. Still the world's largest phone maker,
the bulk of Nokia's business is in non-
smartphone handsets or so-called 'feature
phones' while so far Windows Phone 7 has only
been appeared on top-shelf devices. "We have become convinced that we can do that very
quickly," Elop told Finnish journalists according to
a Reuters report. The ex-Microsoft boss said that
the ability to ship phones at a "very low price
point" was one of the key factors in the
negotiations surrounding the firm's adoption of Microsoft's smartphone OS. The current crop of
Windows Phone devices are all based on
virtually identical hardware, strictly mandated by
Microsoft as the firm targetted one specific
Qualcomm chipset in order to deliver a 3D
accelerated interface. Microsoft is reportedly set to open up the platform to the wider ecosystem
of competing smartphone hardware
manufacturers, clearing the way for lower-end
devices. The trend towards ever cheaper
smartphones, particularly the influx of Android
devices, has put Nokia increasingly under pressure leading to Elop describing the firm's
position as a 'burning platform'.

Nimbuzz has announced that it is exclusively releasing an ad-free version of its instant
messaging client on the Ovi Store . In addition to waiving advertisements in exchange for a one-
off fee of £3.00, premium users also get several
new aesthetic settings not available in the ad-
supported version. These options are viewing
instant message conversations in a chat bubble
style, custom colours or images for chat screen backgrounds, and custom font colours for the
chat screen. Read on for more.


Nimbuzz also had this to say about which phones
and territories this ad-free version would be
available for: “ Nimbuzz 3.0.2 Ad-Free is available for all Nokia Symbian S60 devices supported on the OviStore,
including popular devices like: E63, E71, 5800
XpressMusic, N97mini, and the new Symbian^3
devices N8, C7, and C6 and many many others. Consumers in the following countries can
download free Ovi Store content but cannot
purchase Ovi Store content: Brazil, Indonesia,
Liberia, Libya, Philippines, South Korea, Turkey,
and Ukraine. Nokia is evaluating these countries
for paid content.

This was followed more recently by the
announcement of Nimbuzz Ping, a service that gives free SMS notifications whenever someone
tries to connect with you via your instant
messaging account or calling you via Nimbuzz. “ Nimbuzz Ping works on all Java and Symbian mobile phones. Simply activate Nimbuzz Ping in
your Nimbuzz Settings by verifying your phone
number. You will receive free text message (SMS)
notifications whenever someone is trying to
connect with you. It is up to you whether you
want to start Nimbuzz to call or chat for free.

After three months in beta test, Ovi Maps 3.6 has
been formally released for many (but not all)
Symbian touchscreen phones. You'll find it as the
lead item in Ovi Store and when installed will
show as "v3.06 10wk50b12" (i.e. two weeks
later than the most recent December beta). It's possible that the new version will also show up
in Sw_update and Ovi Suite at some point too.
The big improvements, you may recall, over the
previous Ovi Maps v3.4 are multitouch zooming
(on Symbian^3 devices), on-device map
downloading, fuzzy searching for places and items, a new Drive assistance mode with live
traffic flow, the addition of public transport lines
and a generally streamlined and optimised
interface all round.

t's somewhat odd for such a major core
component of Nokia's Symbian suite to be
released through the Ovi Store first, but maybe
this is an indication that Ovi Maps is now
divorced far more from device firmwares. We've
seen this in the way Nokia Beta Labs has been able to issue betas that are installable
'standalone'. Note that you don't have to worry about
resetting your phone or deleting old map data,
the new version 3.6 handles all that for you. If
system disk space is tight on your S60 5th Edition
phone, you might like to first manually remove
any previous installed beta or update that's kicking around, but otherwise it's a seamless
install. Interestingly, on some devices where
system disk space is already critical (e.g. N97
classic), the update isn't shown at all, to
discourage users from updating and getting into
serious trouble.

Angry Birds is a hugely popular game available
on just about every mobile platform imaginable,
except Windows Phone 7 that is. But now Rovio
just confirmed that they are already working on
a version of Angry Birds for WP7


Another big real is that there ’ s a 3D version of the game in the works, but Rovio was more
tight-lipped about that… An Angry Birds port for Windows Phone 7 has
been oddly absent – apparently, Microsoft ’ s lawyers had something to do with that. That is
about to change as work on the port has started
(not long after Nokia and Microsoft partnered up
to work on WP7, coincidentally). A 3D version of the game is another thing to
expect, coming to “ compatible devices ” . Rovio left it at that, but all those new smartphones with
powerful 3D hardware seem like an ideal target.
We ’ re assuming it’ s a 3D graphics variety they are talking about and not the stereoscopic thing
since Peter Vesterbacka is quoted of saying
“ We ’ ve built a lot of 3D games before, it ’ s not like it’ s a lot of learning in order to recreate the technology with Angry Birds. ”

Nokia is coming with windows phone , but where will be symbian.??


Nokia didn't announce any new product at their
press conference that took place tonight at MWC.
The CEO of the company, Stephen Elop, talked
about the future of Nokia, what were the
reasons behind choosing Windows Phone 7 as
the main OS for Nokia's future devices.

According to Elop, "Windows Phone 7 creates a
very different dynamic. Windows Phone is a
challenger. It becomes a three-horse race." What
he means is that with the help of Nokia, WP7 will
become an equally strong player as Google's
Android and Apple's iOS. He also said, that despite Nokia is paying
Microsoft to use the Windows Phone 7 platform,
they are still going to be able to reduce their
operating expenses, since they are not internally
developing the software. Another reason to go for Windows Phone 7 is
that Nokia doesn't want to get its name lost in
the gray forest of Android devices, which share
almost the same hardware. Differentiating from
those devices will ensure that all Nokia Windows
Phone 7 phones will be "great products". Are we the only ones that don't quite get the
logic here? They are trying to cut budget by
buying externally developed phone software,
instead of using the free Android. They also find
the varied Android phone portfolio too
conforming so they go for the WP7 scene where you can't quite catch any hardware difference
among the available devices.


Secondly, and rather interestingly, stepping in the
shoes of Windows Phone 7, doesn't mean that
Nokia will give up on Symbian products. The
company is going to make significant short-term
investments both in hardware and software for
the upcoming Symbian running devices.

The Nokia Bicycle Charger accessory is now
available in select markets. It can be bought from
Nokia's online shops and other select retailers;
the Nokia UK online shop is selling it for £25. The accessory uses pedal power to recharge the
battery in your phone. It works by attaching a
dynamo to the wheel that generates power as
you move. Those using the accessory will need
to maintain a speed of at least 4 mph and no
more than 31 mph to provide sufficient energy for effective charging.

Charging times will obviously vary, but Nokia say [PDF, data sheet] that a 10 minute journey will produce enough power for 28 minutes of
talk time or 37 hours of standby time. The
charger will match the efficiency of a standard
charger (AC-3) when the bike is travelling at 12
kph or more.
The kit consists of a Nokia Bicycle Charger
(DC-14), Nokia Phone Holder for Bicycle (CR-124)
and a Bottle Dynamo (also known as a side wall
dynamo). The Nokia Phone Holder for Bicycle
includes a bag that can be used to protect the
phone from dust and humidity. The holder and dynamo can be self-installed using a combination
of cable ties, nuts and bolts. The charger has a 2mm Nokia power jack (as
used in most Nokia devices), but you should be
able to use the Nokia Charger Adaptor (CA-146C) to convert this to microUSB for devices such as
the Nokia N900, N97 and N97 mini. The Nokia Bicycle Charger can be purchased through the Nokia UK online shop for £25 . It is also available in Nokia online stores for Italy , Spain, France, Germany and other countries. Alternatively, the accessory can be purchased
from Mobile Fun and other online retailers.
Key facts
An efficient electricity supply - at only 12 km/h, it
charges as efficiently as common Nokia mains
chargers Easy to install Durable dirt and weather resistant design for
reliable performance all year round Attaches your Nokia phone securely to your
bicycle Wallet and eco-friendly - lower your carbon
footprint and your electricity bills

Only a few days ago, we heard that the E7 will be
launching in the UK towards the end of next month,
21st March to be precise. Although the smartphone
has been around for quite a while, it wasn ’ t launched officially. That has now changed.
Coming to India... soon?

In case you missed it last time, Nokia ’ s E7 boasts of HD playback capability at 720p. It also has an
integrated graphics processor with OpenGL 2.0
support. The smartphone also has fast access to
business email and thanks to the built-in Virtual
Private Network (VPN), intranet access also
becomes quicker. Let ’ s take a look under the hood of the E7:
4-inch AMOLED Touchscreen displayWLAN IEEE
802.11 b/g/n, HSDPA, HSUPA, A-GPSBluetooth 3.08
Megapixel camera dual LED flash16 GB Internal
MemoryComing back to the release of E7, the
smartphone has been released in Finland and we should be seeing it very soon. If it ’ s being listed at £499.99 (approx Rs. 36,800) in the UK as we sawearlier, that would be a little on the higher side,
considering the fact that it runs on Symbian^3.
There’ s no official mention of the cost, so let’ s wait and see.

it could provide a secure and reliable
environment for mission-critical defence data,
operating on the same platform as everyday
applications like email
MELBOURNE: Scientists have developed what
they claim is the world's first hack-free software which can protect systems from
failure or malicious attacks.
The 'seL4' microkernel has been developed by a
team led by Australia's ICT Research Centre of
Excellence's spinout company -- Open Kernel
Labs (OK Labs). It is a small operating system kernel which regulates access to a computer's
hardware.
Its unique feature is that it has been
mathematically proven to operate correctly,
enabling it to separate trusted from untrusted
software, protecting critical services from a failure or a malicious attack, say the scientists.
In future applications, seL4 could ensure that
trusted financial transaction software from
secure sources like banks or stock exchanges
can operate securely on a customer's mobile
phone alongside "untrusted" software, such as games downloaded from the Internet, according
to its developers.
It could also provide a secure and reliable
environment for mission-critical defence data,
operating on the same platform as everyday
applications like email. Or, it could protect the life-supporting functions of an implanted
medical device, such as a pacemaker, from
hacking, they say.
"Our seL4 microkernel is the only operating
system kernel in existence whose source code
has been mathematically proven to implement its specification correctly. Under the
assumptions of the proof, the seL4 kernel for
ARM11 will always do precisely what its
specification says it will do," lead scientist
Gerwin Klein said.
Added another scientist Gernot Heiser, "Verification of operating-system kernels has
been attempted since the 1970s -- we pulled it
off!'