This is so good, it’s almost hard to believe: Microsoft and Nokia have just formally announced their “Broad Strategic Partnership” as they “combine assets and develop innovative mobile products on an unprecedented scale.”  The joint press conference occurred at 2:00 a.m. PST/5:00 a.m. EST, and unfortunately (or is it fortunately?) I was still awake trying to catch up on things when the news came out.

From a post titled “Open Letter from CEO Stephen Elop, Nokia and CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft” on the Official Microsoft Blog, here is a summary of what the two companies hope to achieve. (Note that the emphasis was added by me):

•

Even though when it comes to smartphones I’m pretty much an Apple kinda guy, that doesn’t mean I ignore the other markets.  (I can’t when I sit next to a former Nokia employee who is always ragging on me about it–hi Vince!)  Besides, I want other markets to succeed, because I think competitive pressure on Apple is a good thing.

So I’m glad to see apps like Hiplogic’s new *Spark (yes, the splat mark is part of the name), a consolidation home-screen app that allows you to integrate Twitter, Facebook, Sky News (UK / Ireland), AP News Content, Weatherbug, and Groupon Deals into your home screen.  And it’s Doug’s favorite price:  free.  So if you’re… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Images from Rovio

Like many, I have an addiction to Angry Birds.  Well if you are the extreme Angry Birds fan or even just like them, then maybe you might like these Angry Birds Plush Toys!  There is the red, blue, black and white Angry Birds right from Rovio’s extremely popular game.

Each plush bird is only $14.99 and is to ship sometime in December just in time for the holidays and only for a limited time! Get them now!

Uh oh…more bad news for Symbian (and Nokia). Boy Genius Report has posted that Samsung is getting out of Symbian entirely, to the point where they’re shutting down any developer support at the end of the year.

This move just makes Nokia’s strategy to spin Symbian into a separate foundation even weirder. If you hit up Symbian.org and search for phones running the latest Symbian software, the only results are Nokia phones. With Sony Ericsson and Samsung both dropping Symbian, is anyone else left at the party besides Nokia?

I’ve used Symbian before, and while it’s not a bad operating system, even the current version feels very dated. Nokia and the Symbian Foundation have… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Cellcrypt offers a very unique feature.   That feature is completely securing voice calls on GSM networks.  We’ve covered Cellcrypt  before, highlighting their mobile-to-mobile security.   Now there’s another reason to use Cellcrypt’s services:  secure Mobile-to-Office calling.

While this level of service (encrypting voice calls) could be considered, by some, to be a bit much — and targeting those inflicted with a touch of paranoia — Cellcrypt is catering to governments, law enforcement agencies and businesses that require the highest levels of security.  Cellular network hacking is very real.  The threat to your communications (voice and data) is expanding daily.

Afraid that corporate espionage… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

As companies continue to “go mobile” to take advantage of giving their employees the means to manage their work anytime or anywhere, the inevitable problems of how to manage devices and costs quickly becomes top priority.  Imagine being able to easily manage all of the service costs for each device — before those pricey overage charges hit from going over monthly minutes or data plan allotments.    Imagine being able to receive an alert to your phone before you start roaming.   Imagine being able to not only keep costs under control, but also ensure security, ease support worries and speed up mobile device deployment in your organization.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Mobile travel applications let you select and track flights, book hotels and effortlessly manage all of those last-minute changes that will inevitably occur your trip.   The Gear Diary team are huge fans of travel apps like TripIt, but that’s not the only game in town.

If you are using a Symbian smartphone, you may prefer Psiloc’s World Traveler that features the  “HotelZon” plugin that lets you search and book hotel rooms in real time from a selection of more than 90,000 hotels worldwide.  That’s in addition to their free currency converters, world clocks for managing multiple timezones, weather and premium plugins for additional flight assistance.  Best of all, World Traveler is optimized specifically for your Symbian phone.   Read on to see even more features.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of Flickr

MWC is in full swing and all the big companies are pulling out the stops on the new phones. None of this is really any surprise until I saw the assortment on “mini” phones starting to stack up. I first though to myself who wants a mini phone? Super huge capacitive screens are what we are screaming for. I have lots of questions still about why these are even being made but from what we see so far, maybe bigger isn’t always better. Of course some are not really mini at all.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

As the battle of the Smartphones rages on, more consumers are making the smartphone switch every day. People are trading up their RAZR’s for something with a touchscreen, keyboard and high dollar data package. Comscore conducted a survey back in October to find out the Mobile OS market share as of Q3 2009. The survey was only conducted on users above the age of 13. The results show that 36M Americans are using a smartphone, while 196M use a standard style phone. The numbers in the chart reflect the amount of phones in use at the time of the survey, and not the amount products sold.

Looks like Blackberry

If you have a Symbian smartphone (Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, among others) you are going to want to stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW and download Nimbuzz!

Why?  Not only will you get messaging, chat, and cheap international calling — you also get what may be the most powerful Twitter app for the Symbian platform, as well as  pop-up notifications for chats and events — all with Nimbuzz running in the background.  Have a touch screen?  Nimbuzz has added kinetic scrolling to give you the best multimedia experience on your Symbian phone. The Nimbuzz mobile VoIP messaging applicaton integrates these features with your social networks and instant messaging clients (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Hyves, MSN, ICQ, Google Talk, AIM, etc).  The free application has been so popular that T-Mobile USA recently launched their TAP phone with Nimbuzz preinstalled.

Nimbuzz is currently being used by more than 13 million users worldwide, with another 40,000 new users being added daily. Interested?  Read on for the full press release.

The Symbian Foundation released this video showing a hypothetical phone UI, which basically looks like a mashup of MotoBlur and Palm Synergy with a dash of augmented reality and Google maps navigation for good measure. This isn’t an actual future UI, but how fast would you line up for a Symbian phone if it were?

Via Brighthand

The Gartner group has predicted, via research, that Android based phones will overtake the iPhone and jump into the number 2 position in popularity in as little as two years.

Currently the iPhone sits in the number 3 slot behind Blackberry and Symbian.  Gartner further suggests that RIM, makers of the Blackberry, will lose close to 7% of their market share at the same time Android sees a 12.9% increase.  This would leapfrog Android into number 2 and leave the iPhone at number 3.  The loss RIM would take on would cause them to drop down to the 5 spot behind Windows Mobile.

These are nothing but predictions, but they are ones which are seriously making me want to try out an Android phone.

I recently posted about my love/hate relationship with the Nokia E71x. It’s gotten a bit more contentious lately, due to various and mysterious software issues. Calendar entries that refuse to accept date changes, programs that freeze repeatedly, games that malfunction…it has been frustrating to say the least.

Cue Nokia PC Suite and their backup suite. My first thought was that perhaps a backup and then full restore might smooth out the quirks, plus it would provide an excellent test of the backup system. If that did not fix my issues, I could reset the phone, rebuild it, and then back up my “clean” setup. I’ve done this before on Windows Mobile phones, iPhones and Palm… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Rita El Khoury (Dotsisx) of SymbanGuru.com has two of the hottest new Nokia phones, the N86 and the N97. Yesterday she posted a drool-worthy photo layout sure to inspire some hardcore gadget lust. Not only are her photos amazing, but the subject matter was enough to make me regret my decision not to take part in the gadget deal Wayne posted the other day. Ah well…

Put a bib on, and hide your credit card!

The N97 and N86 are the first two devices in the Nseries line-up that are really well-built. We’ve had cheap plastics, shiny elements and flacky build quality on Nseries for a long time, and

Simple rivals or symbols of a culture clash?

There was an interesting blog post circulating the interwebs over the weekend. The author, Tomi Ahonen, posits that the differences between the United States and the international cell markets have influenced what phones find success domestically vs the rest of the world. It’s a very long piece, so take your time…maybe start slow cooking a pot roast. Dinner will be done around the same time as when you finish reading the piece…but it is worth reading.

What I found really struck me was that among the ideas in the author’s main thesis was the idea that “American” phones are not as SMS-centric as euro ones, hence the lack of Symbian love in the United States. He also argues that what worked successfully in the USA (the RAZR, the iPhone), needed to be tweaked for the rest of the world, and that the rest of the world needed to tweak their phones for success in the USA.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...