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At the 3GSM World Congress Nokia President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo announced a whole bunch of new handsets. The company announced a trio of new Nokia Eseries devices, the line designed for professionals, including the slim Nokia E61i, the stylish Nokia E65 slider, and an evolution of the legendary communicator the Nokia E90 Communicator. Each is a packed with 3G, Wlan, Nokia’s S60 software platform, and the now standard camera.

The company also announced the launch of Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite 8.0 mobileware, a platform which provides mobile email, mobile file and data synchronization, and robust security and device management capabilities to the Nokia Eseries products and more than 100 other devices. New/enhanced features include a two-tier licensing model, a new user interface, strengthened mobile security, and additional language and connectivity support.


Kallasvuo also unveiled the Nokia N77 multimedia computer designed to accelerate the take up of DVB-H mobile TV. Features include a wide 2.4” screen with up to 16 million colors, stereo sound, alerts when programs are starting, and a program guide. It is expected to start shipping during the second quarter of 2007 in countries where DVB-H services are available.

With applications including an FM stereo radio, music player with expandable memory, video ringing tones and a 1.3 megapixel camera, the Nokia 3110 classic offers a wide range of conventional features at an accessible price. It is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2007.

Building on the importance of Internet video content Nokia launched the Nokia Video Center and those looking for mobile navigation can turn to the n6110.

Read [Nokia]

What The Future Holds, a column that introduces tomorrow technology and trends today, is written every Thursday. This week’s submission was written jointly by Adam Berger and Mickey Katz.

It happens every four years and it’s bigger then your anniversary, kids birthday, and even your worth missing the next month of work. Yeah so what you’ll get fired, lose your wife and your kids will disown you but at least you wont miss Ronaldo, Zidane, or Ronaldinho. Ladies and gentlemen the 2006 World Cup used to be an excuse to miss out on all of the real important things in life. Alas, call your kids take your wife out and show up to work on Monday in your finest suit, because thanks to Texas Instruments, your mobile phone and your cellphone provider you can watch every goal on your personal devices.

Prior to Pepcom’s Digital Experience we had the opportunity to sit down with Yoram Solomon, James Hymel, and Tracy Wright from Texas Instruments. They were showcasing DVB-H (digital video broadcast for handheld devices), the next wave of video content delivered directly to your cellphone, Smartphone, or other mobile device. The DVB-H chip is much smaller than a dime and (in my non-technical opinion) can easily fit onto the circuit board of most current handsets. The cost of the component is a mere $10 (or less in large quantities). The chip enables the delivery of video broadcasts, audio broadcasts (Sirius and XM), terrestrial radio, and data (i.e. a channel program guide, much like your home TV).

Read on to learn how this technology is different than current cellphone video offerings, what effect it will have on your battery life, and why you need it.

You may ask what makes this different than Verizon’s V-Cast or another cellphone video service? Broadcasting reduces the costs to the customer as well as to the provider and is available for all phones (mid to high level phones or 60% of available handsets).

I know, “This won’t work because my phone battery already dies on me, and now I’m adding video,” not true. The video or audio broadcast itself will not decrease your battery life, the LCD backlight is the real culprit. So whether you are watching streaming video or downloaded clips the battery faces the same issue. Though the Nokia N92 currently can deliver > 4 hour of battery while running constant video. And the audio? Well that does not change; if the speaker is on or if a Bluetooth headset is connected it uses the same power consumption.

The key is for the video broadcast to be on the same schedule as your home TV, so you can go from the couch, to the car, to the bleachers, and back to your home all on the same channel and program. Additionally, by around 2010 with the increase of memory on phones, you now have a mobile TiVo allowing you to view live content, record content, remotely set programs to record, and watch video recorded on your home DVR on your phone.

Don’t miss your American wannabe turn into the next American Idol because of Dinner plans, or don’t miss pinning the tail on the donkey at your kids’ party because you’re checking the stocks on CNN money. As the saying goes your free as the wind blows just as long as you’ve got one of tech’s next best gets later this year in select cities and nationwide in 2007.

Sling Media announced that the Slingbox is now available for purchase across the United Kingdom a while back but in case our British friends haven’t been to their local PC World, we felt the need to alert them. The Slingbox is available in the UK for GBP 179.99 including VAT.

The European version of the Slingbox is tailored for the UK market and features an integrated PAL analog/digital tuner with DVB-T support, giving customers access to Freeview programming from their aerial streamed to a laptop or desktop computer. In addition, Slingbox controls a wide range of Freeview, digital cable and satellite set top boxes that are available in the UK market including those offered by Sky, Homechoice, NTL and Telewest.

Concurrently, Sling Media is releasing a new version of the SlingPlayer PC software in conjunction with the Slingbox hardware. SlingPlayer PC version 1.1 is now available to UK customers and supports 16:9 widescreen video, enhanced favorite channels organization features and the ability to customize the look and feel of the software with a range of pre-installed or user-created skins.

Read [Informitv]