Items tagged with (NYSE:NOK)
HMD Global, the “home” of Nokia phones, introduced a number of smartphones at the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. One of their most striking devices is the Nokia 9 PureView, which features a “Penta-lens” camera system with Zeiss Optics and Android 9 Pie. The Nokia 9 PureView includes seven circular cutouts on its back. Two of these cutouts are color cameras with Zeiss Optics, another three are monochrome sensors, and the final two are a LED flash and proximity sensor. The device uses artificial intelligence (AI) to to combine the data gathered from all of the cameras. The PureView is reportedly able to capture up to ten times as much light as...
Read more...
Despite all of the hype and excitement surrounding virtual reality over the past couple of years, the market for VR has not grown at the pace Nokia had anticipated or hoped it would. As a result, the company has decided to 'optimize' its investments in VR, starting with halting development of Ozo, a 360-degree VR camera that debuted at $60,000 before receiving a price cut to $45,000. The company is also reducing its workforce as it pivots to digital health. "Nokia Technologies is at a point where, with the right focus and investments, we can meaningfully grow our footprint in the digital health market, and we must seize that opportunity," said Gregory Lee, president of Nokia Technologies. "While...
Read more...
Do you remember when Nokia went all-in with Microsoft's Windows Phone platform? While Nokia chose to go with an underdog, it hoped to compete in the smartphone space by focusing on camera performance, and many of its devices featured camera sensors with high megapixel counts. Well, much has changed since then. These days HMD Global owns the rights to market Nokia branded phones (and tablets), and while the landscape is decidedly different this time around, camera performance is still a point of focus. As such, the Finnish startup announced today that it has sign an exclusive partnership with Zeiss to design optics and software for upcoming Nokia phones. Zeiss is no stranger to the Nokia brand,...
Read more...
Apple and Nokia have made nice on a patent dispute, putting an end to what could have been contentious litigation. Nokia had actually sued Apple at the end of last year after failing to convince the Cupertino outfit to renew expiring licensing agreements that were inked back in 2011. At the time, Apple accused Nokia of morphing into a "patent troll," claiming the once top seller of cellular phones was trying to "extort money" for technologies it did not own. The strong rhetoric from Apple painted the company as a champion of the people. "We are standing up for inventors everywhere by fighting this flagrant anticompetitive practice," Apple told Bloomberg at the time. But that is all water under...
Read more...
Nokia is officially back in the branded smartphone business with the launch of its Nokia 6, a mid-range Android handset that reports say sold out in under a minute in China, but that is not the only big news attached to the company. It would appear that Nokia is also getting ready to release a humongous tablet, one that will sport an 18.4-inch display with a 2560x1440 display resolution. Specifications for the massive tablet showed up on GFXBench. The gargantuan device could also be an upcoming all-in-one (AIO) system, though being an Android device powered by an ARM-based processor, it is more likely it will end up being a large size tablet (assuming it's real and that Nokia goes forward with...
Read more...
Nokia, once the top seller of cellular phones in what feels like a lifetime ago, is suing Apple over claims that its popular iPhone handsets infringe on several mobile patents owned by the Finnish company. The lawsuit is a result of Nokia failing to convince Apple to renew licensing agreements inked in 2011 that are about to expire. Nokia sought to extend those agreements, and had Apple been willing, there would be no lawsuit. Having sold off its handset business, many wondered if Nokia would turn to more aggressively pursuing patent agreements and litigation. A sign of things to come might have been hinted at when Nokia purchased Alcatel-Lucent's hardware portfolio for $16.6 billion last year,...
Read more...
Here's a bit of good news for budding filmmakers who want to create virtual reality experiences. Nokia just slashed $15,000 off the price of its funky looking Ozo, the first VR camera system specifically designed for professional production. Now brace yourself for the bad news—the price cut brings the cost down to $45,000, which is still a hefty chunk of change. Hey, that's $5,000 less than it costs to spend just a single night at the Ty Warner Penthouse at the top of Manhattan's Four Season's Hotel (no joke). And if you want a 2016 Tesla Model S P90D, you'll have to come up with more than twice as much cash, though admittedly you could hop in a BMW Series 3 Gran Turismo for slightly less. Have...
Read more...
Nokia was once a major force in the mobile phone market, before the rise of smartphones and subsequent selloff to Microsoft, which never made good use of the transaction. Now Nokia is making a comeback, or at least will attempt to make one, through a 10-year licensing deal with HMD Global Oy. HMD is a new outfit in Finland that was created to "provide a focused, independent home for a full range of Nokia-branded feature phones, smartphones, and tablets." The decade long deal covers exclusive branding rights and intellectual property licensing, and in return HMD will make royalty payments to Nokia for sales of all Nokia branded mobile products, all of which will run Android. "Instead of Nokia...
Read more...
Remember Nokia's fancy pants Ozo camera? It's billed as the first virtual reality camera system specifically designed for professional production, and today we learned it will have a price tag to match -- $60,000. Ah, but turn that frown upside down, you don't have to come up the full amount right off the bat. It only requires a $5,000 deposit! All kidding aside, the price tag reflects the camera's target audience and intended purpose. This isn't a toy or even a high-tech device for hobbyists, but a serious tool for creating professional level content in the emerging VR field.Is it just us, or does Nokia's Ozo VR camera look like Q*bert? To do that, the Ozo sports eight 2K by 2K video sensors,...
Read more...
Virtual reality has captured the hearts and minds of consumers and developers alike with systems like Oculus Rift and Samsung's Gear VR, but what if you want to capture your own VR content? Nokia has you covered. The company announced a funky looking camera with an equally funky name -- OZO. While it looks like one of the orbs that shot energy bolts at a blindfolded Luke Skywalker during his Jedi training, it's actually a purpose-built camera designed for professional content creators. OZO came out of the minds of Nokia's R&D facilities in Tampere, Finland. It's a work in progress, though it's close to being finished -- Nokia says it will conduct final testing and refinements to OZO in partnership...
Read more...
A familiar face is returning to the smartphone scene. After selling its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2014, Nokia plans to get back in the game in late 2016 when its agreement with the Redmond outfit expires. However, Nokia won't get back to building handsets and will instead design the hardware and license its brand to other companies."We will look for suitable partners," Nokia boss Rajeev Suri said. "Microsoft makes mobile phones. We would simply design them and then make the brand name available to license."As part of its sales agreement with Microsoft, Nokia is prohibited from slapping its name on phones until the fourth quarter of 2016. While Nokia would be allowed to build and sell...
Read more...
Nokia just announced a huge acquisition today, confirming that it is purchasing one of its closest competitors in the network equipment market: Alcatel-Lucent. The purchase price was a hefty $16.6 billion in an all-stock transaction. The acquisition will allow Nokia to better compete with Chinese players like Huawei, which have flooded the market with low-cost networking equipment. According to Bernstein Research, the combined companies will take over the second place spot in the mobile network hardware market with a 35 percent share. Ericsson will maintain its first place position with a 40 percent share, and hard-charging Huawei is coming on strong in third place with 20 percent of the market....
Read more...
On Android, given that it's built by Google, consumers already have access to what is arguably the best routing/navigational app in the known universe: Google Maps. But if for some reason that doesn't appeal to you, there's another major player coming to Android at long last. The HERE team is announcing this week that a beta of its mapping app is now ready for Android users, so long as you're using a Samsung device. Thanks to a licensing agreement with Samsung, it'll be available for free, exclusively for Samsung Galaxy smartphones like the Galaxy S5. What makes HERE special is that it'll work without an Internet connection. If you have a solid GPS signal, you're in business, even when it comes...
Read more...
If you don't want to get caught with a dead smartphone, it's a wise idea to carry along either a spare battery (provided your handset sports a removable battery) or a portable charger. However, if you have neither and you happen to be surrounded by 800 potatoes and apples, all you'll need is a copper wire and galvanized nails to be back in business. Practical? Not even for MacGyvr. Cool? You betcha. In a blog post, Nokia explains how multimedia artist Caleb Charland set up a large display of fruit and potatoes to organically charge a Lumia 930 handset. His setup generated an electrical current equivalent to an average of 20mA and 6 volts to power the device. "By creating this large organic charger...
Read more...
There's been a ton of focus on camera performance and features in the smartphone space, but what about videos? If you're an armchair director and video buff, you're going to love what the Video Tuner app brings to the Windows Phone 8.1 platform. Rather than have to extract videos from your Lumia device to edit them, Video Tuner lets you tweak your videos in real time on your smartphone. You won't find the same controls as full featured (and awfully expensive) video editing programs offer, but Video Tuner is free and offers some neat tools. For example, you can trim, crop, rotate, flip, mirror, and change the speed of your video as you're watching it. "Delve deeper and you'll find more advanced...
Read more...
Microsoft has something up its sleeve that it's planning to unveil next week, and if the speculation turns out to be true, that "something" is the Nokia X2 smartphone. We'll find out for sure as the calendar flips over to Tuesday, June 24, right at the stroke of midnight PST (or in the wee hours of the morning for those on Eastern time). There's a live countdown timer on a new Nokia Conversations blog post titled "Green with Envy" that indicates the "Time left to launch." Above the timer, Microsoft teases website visitors by saying, "Summer brings out our inner glow...stay tuned to Conversations to find out what we've got in store." Given the wording and splashes of green, it's a safe bet that...
Read more...
The process that began back in September is now complete: Microsoft has finished subsuming Nokia’s Devices & Services business. Nokia said in a statement that the final transaction price will be slightly higher than the originally-announced 5.44 billion euros. Among the adjustments to the final details, Microsoft is not getting Nokia’s manufacturing facilities in Chennai, India nor Masan, Korea. The Chennai plant is having tax problems, and Indian authorities have frozen its assets; instead of Microsoft taking it over, Nokia has agreed to make mobile devices for Microsoft. The Masan facility, which employs some 200 people, is simply going to close down. Nokia has pledged to provide...
Read more...
Shortly after Sony had to recall its very last Viao Fit notebook due to a potential battery issue, Nokia has today issued a product advisory notice of its own. The notice impacts the European and UK variant of the AC-300 charger, which is used exclusively with the Lumia 2520 tablet. Consumers in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, Switzerland and UK are strongly advised to suspend use of the charger until further notice. Also, consumers who purchased the Lumia 2520 travel charger accessory in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, UK and the US are strongly advised to suspend use of the travel charger accessory. In total, approximately 30,000 chargers are impacted...
Read more...
It may have taken a little longer than expected, but Nokia has won approval from China to sell its Devices and Services business to Microsoft. The two companies announced the roughly $7.2 billion deal back in September, at the time saying it would need to clear regulatory hurdles. Nokia and Microsoft expected to wade through all the red tape by the end of the Q1, but getting approval from the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China proved more difficult than anticipated, hence the slight delay. Nokia says the regulatory approval process included a thorough review of its patent license practices by several competition authorities around the world, which is another reason why it's...
Read more...
Nokia famously went all in with Microsoft when it decided to ditch its own OS and sell smartphones running Windows Phone, but the company has opted to add Android handsets to its roster as well in an effort to capitalize on the growing and vast low end smartphone market. Referred to as the “next billion”customers, the developing world is ripe for the picking when it comes to smartphones, and Nokia wants to be a player with five new handsets. Nokia X “Our deliberate approach is to offer four tiers of products including our affordable entry-level devices like the new Nokia 220; our entry-level Asha touch phones like the new Nokia Asha 230; our new Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL...
Read more...
Sometimes, it feels like some companies keep a potential product on hand just in case it needs to be launched to help dampen some fire. In Lumia Icon's case, that fire is yesterday's rumor that Nokia is soon to be getting into the Android market, with a supposed reveal to happen at this month's Mobile World Congress. Hastened release or not, Nokia's Lumia Icon is an attractive-looking Windows Phone device from both an aesthetics and features standpoint. A major highlight is the fact that it bundles in a 20 megapixel PureView camera, which like the 41 megapixel Lumia 1020, utilizes Zeiss optics. Other multi-media perks include 4 "high-performance" mics (which utilize Nokia's Rich Recording), full...
Read more...
If you've been stalking Nokia, you may be privy to its rumored plans to launch a smartphone codenamed Normandy. A press photo and codename of the device were leaked to the web in November via Twitter user "evleaks," and though we didn't deem it particularly newsworthy at the time (hence why there's no prior mention of the device here at HotHardware), it has our attention now. Citing "multiple sources," The Verge says Normandy isn't an upcoming Lumia phone, but an Android device. Let that sink in for a moment because it's interesting on at least a couple of different levels, the first of which is that Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Nokia's handset division. Assuming Microsoft has little-to-no...
Read more...
