Apple hits back against Nokia in patent row

Apple, maker of the iconic iPhone, hit back in a legal row with Nokia and countersued the Finnish telecom giant, alleging it had breached 13 Apple patents.

Apple accused Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, of infringing the patents held by the Cupertino, California company.

“Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours,” Apple vice president Bruce Sewell said in a brief statement.

The move came after Nokia in October accused its US rival of infringing 10 Nokia mobile phone technology patents with the iPhone.

According to Nokia, the patents cover “wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.”

Ilkka Rahnasto, deputy head of Nokia’s legal department, accused Apple at the time of “attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation.”

Apple countersued in federal court in the eastern state of Delaware, where Nokia filed its complaint against Apple.

Nokia is trying to buoy a sinking position in the mobile telephone market by getting its hands on iPhone technology and charging “exorbitant” fees for patented technology allegedly intrinsic to industry standards, Apple charged.

Apple denied infringing on Nokia patents and rejected the notion that technology at issue in the Finnish firm’s lawsuit is essential to any industry standard.

“Nokia’s demands appear to be driven by declines in its own mobile phone business,” Apple said in a 79-page counterclaim filed with the court.

“Nokia has been attempting to use its allegedly standards-essential patents to help regain what Nokia has lost in the marketplace.”

Nokia posted its first quarterly loss in a decade in October amid falling sales. Analysts said the poor results were partly due to the growing popularity of the iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry over Nokia models.

Apple reported record quarterly sales of 7.4 million iPhones in October.

Nokia made agreements to let its patented technology be crafted into industry standards and now has a “hold-up” power that it “abusively seeks to wield,” Apple argued in court paperwork.

If the technology is critical to standards, Nokia is betraying a commitment to license it on “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms,” Apple maintained.

Along with demanding steep royalties, Nokia is insisting on “grantbacks” that permit the company to use Apple technology, the iPhone maker said in legal documents.

Nokia is already using Apple smartphone technology without permission, the California firm charged.

“This attempt by Nokia to leverage patents previously pledged to industry standards is an effort to free ride on the commercial success of Apple’s innovative iPhone while avoiding liability for copying the iPhone and infringing Apple’s patents,” Apple said in its filing.

Apple is asking the court to award it unspecified financial damages and dismiss the suit filed by Nokia.

Nokia told AFP that it is studying Apple’s claim “and will respond in due course.”

Nokia to Enter Net book Market.

The world's top cellphone maker Nokia will start to make laptops, entering a fiercely competitive but fast-growing market with a netbook running Microsoft's Windows operating system.

Nokia had earlier this year said it was considering entering the laptop industry, crossing the border between two converging industries in the opposite direction to Apple, which entered the phone industry in 2007 with the iPhone. Nokia has seen its profit margins drop over the last quarters as handset demand has slumped, and analysts have worried that entering the PC industry, where margins are traditionally razor-thin, could hurt Nokia's profits further. "We are fully aware what has the margin level been in the PC world. We have gone into this with our eyes wide open," Kai Oistamo, the head of Nokia's phone unit, told Reuters. "There's really an opportunity to bring fresh perspective to the PC world," he said, adding that Nokia would introduce extended battery life and continuous connectivity. Nokia has produced PCs before, but divested the unit in 1991 when it started to focus on the mobile phone industry. But Nokia's first netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G, will use Microsoft's Windows software and Intel's Atom processor to offer up to 12 hours of battery life while weighing 1.25 kilograms. Netbooks are low-cost laptops optimised for surfing the Internet and performing other basic functions. Pioneered by Asustek with the hit Eee PC in 2007, netbooks have since been rolled out by other brands such as HP and Dell. "The question is: How will Nokia differentiate? This is already a crowded market. If they manage to differentiate it's going to give them competitive advantage," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Research firm IDC expects netbook shipments this year to grow more than 127 percent from 2008 to over 26 million units, outperforming the overall PC market that is expected to remain flat and a phone market which is shrinking some 10 percent. "Nokia will be hoping that its brand and knowledge of cellular channels will play to its strengths as it addresses this crowded, cut-throat segment," said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight. "At present we see Nokia's foray into the netbook market as a niche exercise in the context of its broader business." Nokia's choice of Windows software surprised some analysts who had expected the company to use Linux in its first laptop. Analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics said the technology choices were a good win for the U.S. companies. "We believe ARM and Symbian are among the main losers from the Nokia Booklet announcement," he said. Shares in ARM were 0.2 percent lower at 1400 GMT, underperforming slightly firmer DJ Stoxx European technology shares index. Shares in Nokia were 1.6 percent stronger at 8.91 euros, while Microsoft was 0.6 percent firmer. Nokia said it would unveil detailed specifications, market availability and pricing of its new device on Sept 2.

A source close to Nokia said the new netbook would use the upcoming Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft says a stripped-down version of Windows 7 will be introduced to netbooks the same time as its general release on Oct. 22. Local media reports in Taiwan have said that Compal, the world's No. 2 contract laptop PC maker, has pitched netbook models to Nokia, but there has been no official confirmation from either side. Nokia declined to comment on the manufacturer it uses. Most of the world's top electronics brands typically do their own design work, but outsource the manufacturing process to contract manufacturers such as Compal and its larger rival Quanta

Nokia N97

Here is a video tour of the new Nokia N97.

Mobile Got Wet in Rain or dropped in swimming pool - Tips on how to handle it !

There are many ways a cell phone can get wet. Unfortunately,

we all know that when a cell phone gets wet it can have a lot of damage done to it.

If you are thinking, how can I fix my cell phone, it got wet, get it taken care of quickly.

During the summer months is usually when there are a lot of people who are asking, how can I fix my cell phone it got wet? This is because during the summer people are around water more.

If you wait too long to get your wet cell phone fixed the damage may be irrepairable. Water damage to cell phones can be very serious.

Contact with water of any kind can be detrimental to your cell phone. It can erode or short circuit your phone’s delicate electronic components and the insides of it.

You don’t ever want to put a cell phone in the microwave to try and dry it out. You also don’t want to use a hair dryer on it. It is a bad idea to add heat to the water damaged cell phone because it can easily cause further damage and corrosion.

The best thing you can do is to get your phone to a water damage specialist who will be able to take the phone apart. This will help them clean the delicate components and they can assess the damage quickly and accurately for you.

Here is what you need to do if your phone gets wet and you need cell phone repairs done to save it.

One: You don’t want to turn your cell phone on. This can cause your phone permanent damage because it will shorten out.

Two: It is important that you get the battery out of the phone immediately.

Three: Don’t use a blow dryer or anything else to try and dry it off because even if the outside looks dry, the inside circuit board could still be wet.

Four: Put your phone inside of a Ziploc baggie. Then get it to a cell phone repair specialist right away.

It is very important that you get your cell phone to a specialist so that you have a chance of saving your phone. You can try and fix it yourself but this is not always a good idea if you are not technically minded.

In Lawsuit, Nokia Says iPhone Infringes Its Patents

BERLIN — Nokia, the world’s biggest cellphone maker, sued Apple on Thursday, claiming that Apple illegally used 10 of its patented technologies to make the iPhone, its innovative touch-screen smartphone.

Nokia said it had filed a patent infringement suit in United States District Court in Delaware. The complaint claims Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., illegally used Nokia’s patents for wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption to make its iPhone work on GSM, UMTS and WiFi wireless networks.

Nokia is an original contributor to the GSM wireless technology standard that was developed in Europe. Most cellphones run on GSM or UMTS networks. The iPhone, introduced in 2007, runs on a GSM network in the United States and GSM and UMTS networks in Europe and Asia.

Nokia said it had invested more than 40 billion euros ($60 billion) over the last 20 years to develop the technologies, which it has licensed to 40 leading mobile phone makers.

A Nokia executive said it sued Apple after failing to come to terms with Apple over a licensing agreement.

“By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia’s intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation,” said Ilkka Rahnasto, a vice president of legal and intellectual property at Nokia.

Nokia said Apple’s alleged patent infringement extended back to the first iPhones sold in 2007. Nokia, based in Finland, is the global leader in smart phones, and Apple’s iPhone is its biggest competitor. Last week, Nokia said its share of the global smart phone market slipped to 35 percent in the third quarter from 41 percent in the second as competitors Apple and Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, gained.

An analyst said Nokia’s suit was part of a growing trend of telecom equipment makers being more litigious. Those makers are increasingly searching for new revenue as wireless markets become saturated and sales begin to stagnate.

“Where there is a hit, there is usually a writ,” said Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics in London. “I think the intellectual property rights wars are ramping up in the handset industry now. This fits in fairly nicely with that trend.”

Apple officials in London and Cupertino did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the suit.

Nokia N97 Unvieled

Nokia has just unveiled it’s newest high-end N-series smartphone, the N97. It does have some great features, like the 640×360 3.5-inch touchscreen with tactile feedback, QWERTY keyboard and a slider form-factor.

The N97 features an internal memory of 32GB, expandable to 48GB via it’s microSD memory card slot, it’s connectible via HSDPA and WiFi. The 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss glass camera can capture DVD quality videos at 30fps and take good pictures.

It’s battery can play music for 36 hours continuously, which is good for a smartphone. Unfortunately, like most Nokia cellphones, it does look bulky and it’s really pricy, at almost $700 without taxes and subsidies. Expect the N97 in stores in H1 2009.

Nokia N900 Vs iPhone 3GS

Nokia has its latest smartphone experiment out in the form of the Maemo powered N900. We call it an experiment as Nokia is still promoting N97 over this wonderful gadget. Yes I certainly believe that the N900 is the best smartphone that Nokia has produced till date and no matter what comparisions say, the N900 comes real close to beating the iPhone 3GS, in some ways it does. The same old issue with the Nokia is the weight and the usability. iPhone scores there.

N900 weighs 181gms and has a large thick structure, which isn’t the best for mobility. The good with the N900 is the strong OS + openness that the iPhone lacks, good browser and the physical qwerty (though Nokia screws up the spacebar again). One impressive thing the N900 has is the 600MHz processor and 256MB ram. This is one area where Nokia has been a miser since ages, however they give good backing to N900 which runs a desktop grade OS. Is this enough? Will the 768MB virtual memory help? Not sure, but the videos we saw looked impressive.

The camera and video recording specs of the N900 might be better but the iPhone scores with better usability and web integration. However a 32GB smartphone with a strong OS for $650 is certainly good. The N900 is IMO the best from Nokia yet, but only time will tell how well it does against the iPhone 3GS. The App Store and slick UI of the iPhone is hard to beat. But Nokia vs iPhone doesn’t end here…

owered N900 from Nokia

The Nokia 5800 sports an eye-catching design.

While LG and Samsung were quick to play their touch-screen phone cards after the release of the first iPhone, Nokia has been holding its hand close. That is, until now. On Thursday, the Finnish company announced the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, an eye-catching slim touch-screen phone that looks vaguely like you-know-what. Though Nokia is quick to dismiss the iPhone comparisons, they are obvious, and analysts across the board are making them.

See our Nokia 5800 Xpress Music slide show for a full gallery of shots.

On the outside there's an expansive (3.2 inches) touch screen with tactile feedback that serves as the primary interface tool. There are also three physical buttons--Talk and End keys and a menu control--but this device is all about getting touchy-feely. The outside is mostly black but you'll be able to exercise a bit of personal style by choosing from three versions--each has a thin colored ring in either gray, red, or blue. At 4.31 by 2.04 by 0.61 inches and 3.85 ounces, the 5800 Xpress Music falls between the iPhone and the LG Dare in size and weight. Exterior controls include a volume rocker, a dedicated power button, and a camera shutter.

Features are more like the Dare than the iPhone. Inside you'll find a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording and a Carl Zeiss lens, messaging, stereo Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, 81MB of internal memory, USB mass storage, personal organizer apps, a speakerphone, a 3.5mm headset jack, assisted GPS, a music player, and PC syncing. It's also a full world phone with support for four GSM bands and two HSDPA bands. On the whole, that's a loaded feature set.

Getting music on the 5800 Xpress Music should be easy. Besides the traditional methods of syncing with a PC (via Windows Media Player 11) or transferring songs via Bluetooth or a memory card, you'll also be able to access songs over the air from Nokia's music store using the company's new Comes With Music service.

We haven't had the opportunity to hold the 5800 in our hands just yet but from what we can tell the Series 60, 5th edition interface is attractive and easy to use. The main menu uses a series of icons, while the music player features album art. An accelerometer will rotate the display from portrait to landscape mode automatically; in landscape mode there's a full QWERTY keyboard. The 5800 also will have a "Contacts Bar" that will highlight your four favorite friends on the home screen. With one touch you'll be able to access a history of text messages, phone calls, e-mails, and photos.

The 5800 comes with a stylus and a secondary tool that looks like a guitar. Nokia says the latter tool is designed for use with the music player. You'll get a wired headset in the box as well, but Bluetooth can use one of the new headsets that the company also introduced Thursday. In press photos Nokia also showed the 5800 resting on a stand; we hope that's included as well.

The 5800 Xpress Music should land in Europe and Asia in the last quarter of this year. As usual, North America will have to wait. When it does land in the United States and Canada, it will sell as an unlocked model only. Nokia wouldn't say if it was negotiating with a U.S. carrier but let's hope that happens. The price at the time of this posting should be close to $391

The Nokia 888 Can Change Shapes On The Fly

Nokia is planning to change the way we think of mobile phones. Their new phone will come in the form of a device that will roll up and mimic a bracelet, bend over and clip to your pocket, wake you up in the morning, form to fit your face when you use it as a phone and more. So far Nokia’s calling this cell phone a personal mobile communication device. To me it looks like a revolution in the way you look at a gadget.

It uses a liquid battery, speech recognition, and a flexible touch screen. The touch sensitive body cover lets it understand and adjust to the actions you take. Sometimes the sensitivity is positively eerie! When the phone rings, the Nokia 888 forms itself into the shape of a phone. You can personalize these forms and record them. So it fits you the best and makes your brother crazy. It’s like the feeling of having an electronic pet, or maybe a butler. As it senses your moves, it understands what you want, and responds to you in the way you love. It learns you, and learns to fit you better.

Also e-motions lets you send forms to the other Nokia 888 users and it. It could be the shape of a heart or a small dance. This way he can tell you he loves you without words.

By the way, e-motions stands for electronic motions. It works just like a program, where you can create forms to send to your Nokia 888 friends. You can send a heart shape to your girlfriend and her 888 will turn into the shape of a heart. That flexibility can get you thinking of all sorts of great things to do. Make a call to your boyfriend, and wrap him around your wrist; give it a date to remember and it can start flopping around. There are hundreds of ways to give the 888 a chance to surprise you. Form follows function and Nokia now lets form follow you.

Nokia introduces 6350 cellphone

Are you in the market for a new cellphone with a slew of basic features? Well, you won’t go too wrong with Nokia’s offerings over the years as they tend to play their cards right with the entry-level segment, and their latest addition would be the Nokia 6350 from AT&T. This handset will come in a couple of colors to get you all excited, and will be available in a clamshell form factor that was specially designed to offer optimum comfort in your hand. You can choose from two seasonal shades – red and graphite, where you will find the Nokia 6350 to be no slouch in terms of performance, capable of keeping you connected to your favorite social networking sites and basically keeping tabs of your online life thanks to 3G and HSDPA connectivity over AT&T’s wide ranging 3G network.

The Nokia 6350 will feature a smooth back design that offers a soft feel throughout for a touch of simple sophistication. You will find dedicated music playback keys on the outside, making it a snap to activate whenever you want to jive to your favorite tunes. In addition, other customary features available on handsets these days include a 2-megapixel camera, a brwoser, email support and up to 4 hours of talktime on a full battery charge.

If you have been stoked, the Nokia 6350 is available at AT&T retail stores as well as online at www.wireless.att.com from today onwards. It will particularly target those who want a decent phone and yet are living on a tight budget, since AT&T has slapped a highly affordable $29.99 price tag on the Nokia 6350, although you will need to do your part and send in a mail-in rebate as well as agree to a 2-year AT&T contract. Guess those in college who need just a phone to communicate with their family and friends without looking like a tool might just find the Nokia 6350 to be a suitable addition.

How to Increase the Phone's RAM Memory to boost up speed ?

How to increase 50% of ram of mobile.
Is your phone slow and have a short memory back up time which is considerably decreases day by day ? If yes then don’t worry because i have very simple handy solution to this problem.

Why Phone becomes slow and have less back up time ?

Normally there are lots of applications keep running in the background on the other hand also consuming about most of your RAM(random access memory) due to which your phone becomes slow consumes the phone memory so the memory back up time also decreases considerably.

Solution to the above situation is Memory Up

Some of the main features of Memory Up

It sets up a Smart management of Java virtual machine (JVM) which manually performs a quick boost for your phone. It also has warning RAM at your preset threshold

Memory Up runs in the background so makes an efficient use of the memory of your smartphone Performs a advanced boosting features (like prohibit kernel to disk swapping, auto-allocate critical threads, etc.)

Compatibility: compatible with the following models

LG: B2000, B2050, B2070, B2100, B2150, C1100, C1150, C2000, C2500, C2600, C3100, C3300, C3400, CG225, CU400,

Motorola: A1200, A760, A768, A780, A835, C168, C257, C261, C290, C350, C350M, C380, C385, C390, C450, C550, C650, C975, E1000, E1070, E380, E398, E398B, E398i, E550, E680, E680i, E770, E770-Vodafone, E790, E815, i830, i930, K1, KZRK K1, L2, L6, L6i, L7-Vodafone, Motorola Q, Motorola Q Plus, MPX220, PEBL U6, Razr V3, RAZR V3m, Razr V3x.

Nokia: 2355, 2610, 2626, 2650, 2760, 2855i, 2865, 2865i, 3100, 3105, 3110c, 3120, 3125, 3152, 3155, 3200, 3220, 3230, 3250, 3300, 3410, 3510i, 3530, 3586i, 3587, 3595, 3600, 3620, 3650, 3660, 5070, 5100, 5140, 5140i, 5200, 5300, 5500d, 6010, 6015, 6020, 6021, 6030, 6060, 6060v, 6061, 6070, 6080, 6085, 6100, 6101, 6102, 6102i, 6103, 610

All New Maemo From Nokia N900 Mini Mobile Tablet

Nokia the king in the is planning to introduce Nokia N900 very soon in the market this mobile is a Quad-band GSM mobile with HSDPA, WiMAX, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Reports say that this Nokia N900 will not be powered by symbian v5 like other nokia mobiles but this will be powered by smart tablet 2008 which is based on Maemo here are some of the new features in it.

1. It has HSPA for broadband so you can be online anywhere so internet in the walk

2. Processor with TI OMAP3 which mainly improves the performance and speed

3. Inbuilt hi-def camera for imaging and photo sharing

and also Nokia N900 is small and high quality functioned mobile like iphone and its rivals. And this nokia N900 will have a crisp and sharp 3.5” display and 16 Gb internal storage capacity which is more than enough for songs games and images for a ordinary users and if you want to extend the storage you have a option for the miniSDHC.



This N900 will have a strong capability for internet browsing with latest opera browser and also it has a function for video streaming from you tube and you can also upload to youtube format with inbuilt streamer and also it has functions like MMS sms and make a high Quality phone conversations ,and email, internet, and a online VOIP skype in it so you can make free isd and local calls from mobile voip .

As far as price is concerned the Nokia N900 might be priced between $700 -$750, but the latest news is that nokia is reconsidering there Price.

Nokia

Some companies face headwinds. Nokia has been slouching into a gale. Apple’s move this week to make the iPhone available through Vodafone and Orange in the UK in addition to original mobile network partner O2 is the latest bad news for the Finnish group. As operators compete to lure iPhone customers, Nokia may have to lower prices to maintain market share, putting further pressure on operating margins that shrank to 12 per cent in the first half, down from 20 per cent in the second quarter of 2008.

Two years after Apple shook up the handset market with the launch of the iPhone, Nokia remains mired in a mess of its own making. Struggling at the high end, it faces a new threat at the low end from white-label manufacturers, which are preparing to roll out cut-price smartphones based on a new generation of low-cost chips. With little margin improvement expected in the second half, investors could be forgiven for wondering whether Nokia’s profitability is gone for good.

That may be overstating it. Nokia’s days of 20 per cent margins may be over but Bernstein thinks margins could edge up into the mid-teens next year, assuming no further deterioration in market share, as shipments bounce back and the company is able to use its huge scale to its advantage.

With a global market share of about 38 per cent, not much changed from its high of 41 per cent last year, Nokia is far from a broken company. Its recent investments in software and services – a key component of the iPhone’s appeal – are the right ones. But with those efforts unlikely to bear fruit before the end of next year, in the meantime it is hard to see much reason to prefer its shares over those of similarly rated peers.

Hands-On Video: Nokia's N900

The new Nokia N900 smartphone has passionate fans, as you can see from the comments on our hands-on article from two-weeks ago when it was released. The N900 is a Linux-powered smartphone that's a descendant of Nokia's awkward "Internet tablets," but arrives in a thoroughly pocketable size and shape, with a great Web browser and an open-source community raring to program for it. We got a few minutes with a Nokia rep who did a live demo of the device last night. Watch the video below to see the N900 in action.