3D graphics benchmarks aren’t the ‘be all and end all’ when it comes to games playing performance, but they’re a good clue as to how capable a device is. So it was interesting to find out about a regularly updated and bookmarkable table of OpenGL ES benchmarked smartphones. It’s topped by the ‘if you believe Nokia’ obsolete N93 and the N-Gage 1st access smartphone, the N81, comes in a lowly 22nd. Read on for comment. As evidenced by the ‘where’s the N93 update?’ outcry when we announce news of new firmware for other devices, the N93 does seem to be ‘the device that Nokia has forgotten’, despite the stellar showing here and despite the fabulous video recording and (recorded) sound quality.

Nokia - this used to be THE flagship, it’s still the fastest and best for many applications, even in 2008, and yet we haven’t had a firmware update for years! Also high up in the 3D benchmark table are the N93i (essentially the same as the N93 under the hood), the N82 and N95 variants, followed shortly by the VGA-screened Dell Axims, the UIQ 3-powered Motorola Z8 and the Nokia E90. Everything else, on all platforms, is a long, long way behind….The necessity for 3D graphics acceleration hardware (as in the N95, N93, N82 and E90 above) for gaming is a moot point. You’d have thought that this would be a requirement for next-gen N-Gage games, but it seems that most titles are built around software-rendered graphics and have the likes of the N81 and N73 as their baseline.

Nokia and PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of casual games, will bring connected mobile Java(TM) games to the SNAP Mobile platform. The award winning Chuzzle(TM) is the first game to be re-developed by PopCap under a multi-game agreement.”SNAP Mobile is all about bringing fun multiplayer Java games to the masses,” said Paul Whitaker, Head of Business Development for SNAP Mobile, Nokia. “With a catalog of broadly appealing games, PopCap titles are a perfect addition to our growing portfolio.”

“Downloads of our mobile games continue to grow rapidly and we have learned that consumers are increasingly looking for on-the-go games that allow them to interact with one another,” said Andrew Stein, Director of Mobile Business Development, PopCap. “To help meet that growing demand, we’re happy to cooperate with a company like Nokia that shares our vision of bringing engaging and fun casual games to the mobile mass-market along with a proven track record of efficiently distributing and hosting connected mobile games.”

After being teased with the info that the phone exists, but with no news on the release date or pricing, it’s finally here. Nokia has launched the N82. Another high end mobile from the Finnish mobile makers with a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. But this time, unlike the N95, they equipped the phone with a Xenon flash. The N82 is also equipped with A-GPS for navigation with preinstalled Nokia maps and all the standard packages come with a free voice guided navigation trial. You can purchase additional features, such as city guides and longer subscription to the navigation. Also available in the standard pack is a 2GB micro SD card.

“The evolution of camera capabilities in mobile devices has been extremely fast over the past years. With the Nokia N82 we have reached such a superior level in image quality, speed and ease of use that not only does it outperform any other camera phone on the market, but it’s also a very credible alternative for single purpose digital still cameras,” said Satu Ehrnrooth, head of Nokia Nseries Cameras Category, Multimedia, Nokia. “In addition to the high-end camera, the Nokia N82 also enables you to navigate and discover new places, enjoy your music, browse the web, play games, chat online and be part of the global web 2.0 community wherever you go. Thanks to the wireless broadband connectivity, convergence and yet again increased performance, the Nokia N82 is all you need in your pocket. 

Nokia’s 8800 series has always embodied class, elegance and a very artful feel and has always managed to make the very traditional, simplistic design look like something that’s more of a status symbol than a mobile phone. The latest additions to the series are the Nokia 8800 Arte (art) and Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte. Both phones are essentially the same, except for the fact that the Sapphire Arte version has a genuine sapphire gemstone embedded in the center of the 5 way nav-pad. Aside from their traditional metal and glass bodies the surfaces now have an Anti-fingerprint coating (about time guys). Both these new models have taken the series to whole new level being equipped with a 3 megapixel, auto-focus cameras, 3G capabilities and having 1GB of internal memory. They also come with 2 inch, QVGA, 240×320 pixels resolution, OLED displays with up to 16 million colors.

Apart from the physical traits that clearly make these models in the series stand out, Nokia has also incorporated some fancy new technology into these Arte pieces. First off is the “turn-to-mute” feature wherein all you need to do if you want to silence an incoming call is simply flip the phone over on it’s back. Another new feature is a Tap for Time function. By lightly tapping the metal portion under the screen an analogue clock appears on the screen.

Nokia and Glu Mobile Inc., a leading global publisher of mobile games, announced its initial line-up of games to be launched on the N-Gage platform in 2008. The titles launching are based on two major forthcoming films from Warner Bros. Pictures, SPEED RACER and The Dark Knight, as well as Super Slam Ping Pong, a new original Glu title in the spirit of Glu’s runaway hit, Super K.O. Boxing!” We’re pleased to bring these key titles from Glu to N-Gage,” said Alex Galvagni, senior vice president product development and chief technology officer, Glu Mobile.

“N-Gage is a great innovation in mobile gaming technology, and this line-up of games from Glu utilizes the platform capabilities to offer richly rewarding game experiences.” “These three titles are valuable additions to the N-Gage platform, and will deliver exciting gaming experiences for N-Gage players,” said Gregg Sauter, Director of 3rd party publishing, Nokia. “We’re delighted to further our relationship with Glu Mobile - their catalog of games is extremely strong and offers something for everyone.”

Looks like Nokia is on a Green mission to keep things clean in Mobile-dom. After their 3110 Evolve Eco phone what they seem to have come up with is a slightly, or should I say humongous better device. It’s a concept device, which hasn’t only been designed keeping the environment in mind by using Eco-friendly materials, but it’s been designed to monitor the user’s surroundings and health.

The device uses sensors (D-uh) to monitor the user’s vitals, outside temperature etc. and works with a body strap for either the hand or neck which runs on eco-friendly solar cells, naturally, that sends signals to the main device via NFC (near field communication) and RFID (radio frequency identification) technologies. The device can be customized to the user’s preference by selecting sensors of their choice – to monitor heat rate, walking distance, UV (Ultra Violet) radiation, noise level, humidity etc. It also uses touch screen technology which is actually a different step for Nokia considering the fact that they have hardly tapped into that area.

Nokia and Facebook could be eyeing a potential tie-up that could include Nokia picking up a stake in the social networking site. Here’s an excerpt.Nokia and Facebook are working on porting the social network on to Nokia handsets in a major way, we have learned. The Facebook placement could be as prominent as the YouTube button on the main screen of iPhone, our sources indicate. Also, the deal involves giving Facebook a major slot within Nokia retail products’ displays at this site. It could be a threat to Orkut’s dominance in India. For our part, we hope all this will result in a half-decent Facebook experience for mobile users. So far, the mobile application that’s available for most phone platforms including Blackberry, is fairly poor. The best Facebook experience on a handheld device still seems to be the mobile version of the page (as against a downloadable application) on large screen phones such as the Apple iPhone and the Nokia E61/E62.

Motorola Inc, the world’s third biggest mobile phone maker, on Sunday unveiled two new phones and a plan to buy Asian digital music service Soundbuzz as it looks to stem recent market share losses. Motorola unveiled the Rokr E8 music phone which, when switched on, is controlled by virtual buttons that vibrate when touched. When switched off, it has no visible control keys. The device also highlights and enables different buttons depending on whether the music player, phone or camera is being used. The company also announced the Moto Z10, a videophone with editing capability and enough storage space for 24 hours of footage in an effort to appeal to young consumers who like to share videos with their friends. Motorola has been under pressure to come up with new phone designs as it has been losing mobile phone market share to rivals such as Nokia Oyj and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in the past year.

And it has come under criticism for failing to come up with a strong successor to its Razr phone. It also faces competition from Apple Inc, which entered the cell phone market with its iPhone in June. Stu Reed, the head of Motorola’s cell phone unit, said the latest phones were part of the company’s plan to come out with new products frequently to build a broad phone range. “We want to sell a broad portfolio. We don’t want to be dependent on one phone ever again. We’re not about one phone,” Reed said in an interview at Motorola’s product launch event on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Cell phone snatching – or in other words, street crime – has become a headache for the average citizens of Karachi as most of them are scared to use their phones on the street on the off chance that the next person they encounter is a bandit. While reviewing the statistics of the year 2007, it was found that about 90,000 cell phones had been snatched and stolen from various parts of the city. It is noted that the highest risk zone vis-à-vis stealing of phones is the east zone.

The graph shows 15 per cent criminal activity with 14,309 phones snatched and stolen from various jurisdictions of the police stations located in that zone. While in the south zone the activity was of 13 per cent, in the central zone, 12 per cent, 11 per cent from the Malir zone and the lowest was at the west zone, where the crime reported was 7 per cent. In the respective zones, the risk areas were Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Korangi, Preedy, Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Ferozeabad, while the towns which were on top inlcude, Saddar town, Gulshan town, Jamshed town, Clifton town, Liaquatabad-North Nazimabad and respectively other towns. The most snatched phone brand was Nokia at 61 per cent, Sony Ericsson at 16 per cent, Samsung at 10 per cent, while Motorola was on the fourth position with 8 per cent.

While commenting on this particular crime situation a senior officer said, “I think this trend started in 2005 where the issue was highlighted, as mobile phones are now more easily available than ever; and obviously Karachi being a major city of the country, there is more usage here and for the same reason, snatching and theft of these devices started this year. To combat this crime we have started working with the stake holders and cell phone companies.” As there was no system laid down previously, the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) has now started working on collecting the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) through which cell phones can get blocked and invalid since the phone becomes unusable. Initially in 2005, this crime was reported to be hardly 5 per cent; today, however, about 400 to 500 cell phones were stolen. Now the people are encouraged to report this crime, and according to a data, about 130,000 cell phones have been blocked through the process of the IMEI.

Samsung is confronting bad news on many fronts. The South Korean company is facing probes into an alleged bribery scheme implicating powerful sectors of the country’s society, and its money-spinning memory-chip business is in the worst slump in five years. That’s why Samsung executives must be thrilled to have their mobile-phone business. There, executives can get a very upbeat view of Samsung’s future. The numbers tell the story. With Motorola struggling for more than a year, Samsung overtook its American rival in 2007 to become the world second largest handset (BusinessWeek.com, 11/30/07) after Nokia. Its global market share is up about three percentage points from last year, at 14.5% in the third quarter, compared with Motorola’s 13.1%.

And for every quarter this year, Samsung set a new sales record, with the 115 million phones sold in the January-September period exceeding the 114 million sold during all of last year. Samsung believes its record-breaking run is just beginning. This year, its sales are expected to top 160 million phones, up 40% from last year, and executives are confident the pace of its growth will be about double that of the rest of the industry next year, when they expect sales of 200 million. “The growth momentum is accelerating, and there’s no reversal in the trend,” says Samsung’s Executive Vice-President Chu Woo Sik.