Nokia 5800 XpressMusic touch phone launched in India at Rs 21, 839

Nokia’s much-awaited touchscreen phone finally comes to India. The much speculated and talked about phone -- Nokia 5800 XpressMusic -- is touted as the company's answer to Apple iPhone.

Seems, the world's top cellphone maker took some cues from Apple iPhone’s pricing in India, Nokia 5800 is reportedly priced at Rs 21,800 (almost Rs 9,000 less than 8GB iPhone and Rs 14,000 less than 16 GB iPhone).

Nokia 5800, which can handle as many as 60 different languages, will be in shops early January 2009. The phone will also feature Nokia's Comes With Music service, which challenges Apple Inc's dominance in the digital music market.

On the looks front Nokia 5800 has same rounded corners and similar screen like iPhone. The screen size is 81mm (3.2-inch) diagonally, with 640x480-pixel touchscreen display that can play multiple types of video at a high resolution.

Measuring 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm, the Nokia 5800 weighs 109 grams. Positioned as a music phone, the phone will be available in black, red, and blue variants.

The phone supports both finger and stylus touch.

Nokia's touch phone comes with 81MB internal memory, 8GB microSD memory card, capable of storing approximately 6,000 songs. The memory can be further expanded upto 16GB. Nokia 5800 is equipped with the Symbian S60 interface which Nokia showed off last year.

The battery life is reportedly as much as nine hours (GSM) or five hours (HSDPA), 35 hours for music playback or three hours of video. The company claims that the standby time is up to 17 days.

Nokia 5800 has 3.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and a dual-LED flash with 30 fps video recording. It also has a second backward facing camera. Nokia 5800 has built-in surround stereo speakers, Nokia Maps, GPS, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth and a top-mounted 3.5mm headphone socket.Unlike the Apple iPhone, the Nokia 5800 has Flash support, a programme used to power many online video services and websites.

The phone has a Media Bar, a drop down menu that provides direct access to music and entertainment.

Reportedly priced at Rs 21, 839, Nokia's touchscreen phone will be available in India beginning 2009.

Intel Looking To Invest in Indian WiMax operators

Sitting on a cash pile of $15 billion, chip maker Intel is looking to invest in companies which will enable uptake of WiMAX-based broadband services in India. This could include picking up stake in Indian telecom operators who win the WiMAX spectrum and also invest in smaller companies that have equipment or software solutions to build the ecosystem.

Mr Sriram Viswanathan, Vice-President, Intel Capital and General Manager, WiMAX Program Office had this to say when questioned on his India plans - “We are always looking for opportunities. We have invested a significant amount in many countries including US, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan. We have done roughly a dozen plus operators. Our objective is to cover a billion people over the next few years with WiMAX technology and India with its huge population offers good opportunity,”

The only way Intel can invest into wimax is invest in Telecom Co’s that get Wimax spectrum alotted to them via the auction which is expected to be held in January 2009. Besides for state-owned telecom majors BSNL and MTNL, private players including Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices are expected to deploy WiMAX-based wireless broadband services in India by next year.

“India will have four WiMAX licences. We want the market to grow for which we will have to do some heavy lifting. Though we cannot have five different relationships in the same geography, it doesn’t mean that we need to have only one. In the US, we had commercial relationships with both Clearwire and Sprint," he said.

The major issue facing the growth of technologies like wimax and 3G is investments especially in the current slowdown scene where cash is hard to come by and lesser and lesser companies would take risk with new technologies. Intel has made investments the world over in application and equipment companies like Telsima, Beeceem and also NIIT, Sasken and Rediff.

But given the auction is just around the corner more such investments would need to be made for the growth and adoption of new technologies.

Nokia 6260 slide mobile phone with 5 megapixel camera at price of EUR 299

People use mobile devices to share their lives with friends and family and with this in mind, Nokia introduces the Nokia 6260 slide. The phone call is the most obvious way to use the new handset to connect with people, but it will also be used to share photographs and videos, check on a friend's social network status or be guided to a restaurant to meet up with a loved one. For this, the Nokia 6260 slide features quick access to search engines and points of interest straight from the home screen and the new 360° navi-key allows a great mobile Internet experience.

Uploading images and videos to websites, blogs and social networks is quicker than ever with Nokia's newest arrival, which features lightning-fast speeds over both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. The Nokia 6260 slide comes with the latest 3G technology, with high speed uploads (HSUPA) and downloads (HSDPA), a great camera, music player and web browser with a simple, instantly familiar interface. Combined with the range of Ovi services on offer, Nokia brings a compelling mobile Internet experience to a huge group of consumers.

A 5Mpix Carl Zeiss camera with flash takes fantastic pictures which can be easily shared and uploaded to Share on Ovi or other photo and video sharing websites. In addition to the photo, music and sharing features that come packed in the Nokia 6260 slide, Nokia Maps and the assisted GPS provide a great navigation experience. The Nokia 6260 slide brings GPS into the Series 40 software platform for the first time, really signifying navigation arriving in the mass market.

The Nokia 6260 slide is expected to begin shipping at the beginning of 2009 for an estimated retail price of EUR 299, before taxes and subsidies.

Toshiba Launches Three Mobile Computers

Mobile computer manufacturer Toshiba has unveiled three lightweight products targeted at various consumer segments. Yesterday’s product launch, which consisted of one netbook and two ultraportable computers, also marks Toshiba’s venture into the netbook market. Netbooks are usually defined as small form factor mobile computers that use low-voltage processors.

Toshiba’s maiden netbook offering, the NB100, comes with a backlit 8.9-inch WSVGA LCD panel, with resolution up to 1024 x 600 pixels. The NB100 is powered by Intel’s N270 Atom CPU and runs Microsoft Windows XP.

Other features include a 0.3 megapixel Web camera, an integrated graphics controller, Bluetooth 2.1, wi-fi (802.11b/g), 10/100 ethernet and three USB ports. The NB100 is expected to weigh below 1 kg and come with up to 120 GB of hard disk drive storage space.

According to Toshiba, the netbook is targeted at schoolchildren, senior citizens, and mobile workers who “do not require the processor power or range of functions of a full-sized laptop”.

Toshiba’s second and third offerings, both 12.1-inch models which contain more features and higher-end specifications than the NB100, are aimed primarily at business users.

The PORTEGE A600, which weighs in at 1.46 kg, contains an in-built optical drive, an express card reader, spill-resistant keyboard, and fingerprint recognition for a secure log-on process. The A600 runs on Intel’s Centrino 2 processor and comes with 3GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive.

Connectivity options for the A600 include wi-fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and Gigabit ethernet. A USB cum eSATA combo port on the A600 will provide consumers with the convenience of charging USB devices and connecting eSATA devices using the same port.

Targeted at style-conscious business users, the high-end PORTEGE R600 comes in a silver grey magnesium case and weighs in at just 979g. It features a 128GB solid state disk (SSD) and 7mm DVD SuperMulti Drive. Battery life for the R600 is expected to last up to nine hours due to the SSD’s lower energy consumption compared to standard hard disk drives.

The R600 runs Intel’s Centrino 2 processor and comes with an LED backlit display which Toshiba claims is able to offer clear visibility “both indoors and outdoors” due to a transflective screen, which allows the user to turn off the LED backlight and use an embedded reflecting mirror to avoid light reflection. Standard connectivity options such as wi-fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and Gigabit Ethernet are available.

Like the A600, the R600 also comes with a spill-resistant keyboard and fingerprint reader.

All three laptops are expected to be available in Singapore next month. Prices start at S$799 (US$522) for the NB100, S$3,999 for the A600, and S$4,000 for the R600.