The end is nigh for Sony Ericsson. The Japanese-Swedish tie-up is no more, after Sony stumped up just shy of £1 billion to buyout Ericsson’s 50 per cent stake and reenter the mobile market as a solo player, ten years after it hooked up with the Swedish firm. What does this mean for Sony fans and smartphone lovers? Read on and find out.
The Steve Jobs biography released this week has stormed up the bestseller charts, both paper and digital, but a rather unexpected problem has affected some iBooks purchases of the in-depth bio by Walter Isaacson: glaring formatting errors with text and images, and ones that required Apple to email individuals advising them to delete and redownload the 656 page tome (at no extra charge).
UPDATE: Video is now live. Check it out after the jump!
We love the Parrot AR Drone indoor chopper, which can be controlled via an iPhone, Android or Symbian phone. Add Meego to that list today too: today at Nokia World, scientists at the Nokia Research Centre showed off the app running on a Nokia N9, all in the name of indoor GPS.
Since Nokia and Microsoft confirmed their mobile alliance back in February, there’s been an endless amount written about whether this represents the smartest move for the Finns and if they’ve handled the transition properly. It’s hard to deny the fact it’s taken too long for the alliance to bear fruit, in the form of the new Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710.
But look beyond that and it’s clear that this alliance could prove to be the silver bullet that Nokia’s needed ever since the first iPhone landed nearly five years ago. And here’s why I think it’ll be proved that Nokia has made the right call.
Considering Nokia is now backing Windows Phone and only Windows Phone, we must say its staff continue to do a sterling job of supporting the wonderful N9 and its MeeGo OS. Case in point: it’s even crafted a Spotify app for the Nokia N9 in partnership with the Swedish start-up, complete with offline caching and 3G streaming. It looks, as you’d expect, delicious.
The Spotify Nokia N9 app is in the Ovi Store now and free for Premium subscribers, but really, we have to wonder. Where is the Windows Phone app? Spotify says it’s coming – it already supports the older Windows Mobile – but perhaps it could have got Nokia staff to lend a hand with that platform instead.
I’ve just played Angry Birds. On a candy bar phone. A Series 40 candy bar phone.
Today, Nokia didn’t just join the Windows Phone brigade: it killed off the term “smartphone” once and for all. And I for one, couldn’t be happier.
We’ve just got up close and personal with the Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone here at Nokia World in London, where CEO Stephen Elop described it as the first “real Windows Phone” – a slap in the mouth for HTC, Samsung and LG. But after playing with it today, we’re inclined to agree.
