FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nokia business smartphones, maps and apps enhance the enterprise experience

Espoo, Finland (ClickNews.org) November 8, 2010- Nokia today gave an update on the deployment of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for Nokia smartphones that shows it is gaining substantial traction among the world’s biggest operators and enterprises.

The solution – which delivers direct, secure access to email and personal information via organizations’ Microsoft Exchange servers – is now available for Nokia smartphones on more than 550 operator networks worldwide. These operators include America Movil, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile and Vodafone. And recently, the solution has undergone large-scale deployment at leading enterprises such as JCDecaux and OnMobile, which have been attracted to its dramatically improved efficiency and significantly lower cost compared to rival solutions.

Through joint activities targeted at enterprises, Nokia and operators are bringing operational efficiencies and substantial savings in total cost of ownership (TCO) for IT decision makers, when compared to other solutions.

At JCDecaux, Europe’s largest outdoor advertising company, just 14 percent of its mobile users in the UK had access to mobile email and calendar functions. The company was looking to extend that functionality to more of its workforce, in a way that was cheaper than the existing solution and without issues such as managing additional servers. JCDecaux chose Nokia’s solution, which – in combination with attractive data tariffs from Vodafone Global Enterprise – led to a reduction in TCO, increased the company’s responsiveness to customers and raised mobile email access for company mobile users to 100 percent.

OnMobile, India’s largest white label data and value-added services company for mobile, landline and media service providers, was able to speed up processes, cut response time and save money by introducing Nokia’s solution. Also, given that part of its workforce was already using Nokia smartphones, it was easy to set up Mail for Exchange without extra cost. In addition, monthly mobile data charges were substantially lower for the Nokia solution, and this encouraged users of a rival solution to switch. In the six months following the deployment, OnMobile reported substantial time savings for engineers, a 20 percent increase in projects completed on time and a 30 percent decrease in travel expenses.

“IT directors are being pressured to deploy business mobility solutions such as email, IM and intranet access for more employees, but without the high costs they have had to spend on additional middleware, licenses and maintenance,” said Ilari Nurmi, the head of marketing for Nokia’s portfolio of Eseries business smartphones.

The solution enables employees to connect directly to the corporate mail server with their Nokia smartphone without the need for additional servers, and is fast becoming the solution of choice for businesses. In addition to accessing email, employees also enjoy direct access to corporate instant messaging through Microsoft® Communicator Mobile, which was the first new application to be delivered by the two companies as part of their strategic alliance announced last year.

“Nokia is doing more than any other handset company to help businesses go mobile. Microsoft will design and develop mobile productivity, communication and collaboration solutions, and we will jointly bring them to market – giving our smartphones the edge over the competition,” Nurmi continued.

The Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync solution is supported by a wide range of Nokia smartphones available with different designs and prices, covering the entire business user market. In the first half of 2010, more than 12 million Nokia Eseries business smartphones were shipped, representing a growth of more than 50 percent compared to the first half of 2009. Nokia’s line-up of business smartphones is to be strengthened by the arrival of the Nokia E7, equipped with a full keyboard and 4-inch touchscreen featuring Nokia ClearBlack technology for improved outdoor visibility.

In addition to access to corporate email and infrastructure, Nokia smartphone users also enjoy access to maps, navigation, download apps and access other services through Ovi. The popularity of Business category apps in the Ovi Store, such as Worldmate, F-Secure Anti-Theft for Mobile, Boingo and Bloomberg, has significantly increased with some of the top downloading countries including France, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the UK.

About Nokia
At Nokia, we are committed to connecting people. We combine advanced technology with personalized services that enable people to stay close to what matters to them. Every day, more than 1.3 billion people connect to one another with a Nokia device – from mobile phones to advanced smartphones and high-performance mobile computers. Today, Nokia is integrating its devices with innovative services through Ovi (www.ovi.com), including music, maps, apps, email and more. Nokia’s NAVTEQ is a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, while Nokia Siemens Networks provides equipment, services and solutions for communications networks globally.

Media Enquiries:

Nokia
Communications
Tel. +358 7180 34900
Email: press.services@nokia.com

www.nokia.com

Windows Phone 7 will be here for the Holiday Season

Microsoft Corp have announced their awaited launch of a new Windows 7 phone to be available in time for the Holiday season this year with more partners coming on board in 2011. The roll out is to incorporate North America, Europe and Asia Pacific including 60 operators and 30 countries.

“We have a beautiful lineup in this first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft.

Dell, HTC Corp, LG and Samsung are among the hardware partners for Windows 7 phones. All hardware will include Snapdragon™ processor from Qualcomm. With sprint and Verizon Wireless coming to market in 2011.

“Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience — one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format.” said Steve Ballmer.

As well as a customaizable start screen, with live tiles for a personal experience, Windows Phone 7 will hail a new era in mobile gaming utilizing the power of Xbox LIVE to put games in to the hands of users.

EA (Electronics Arts Inc ) announced to a new lineup of games coming to the Windows Phone 7 platform including titles such as “Need for Speed™ Undercover,” “Tetris®” and “The Sims™ 3,” a selection to cover the needs of most hardened gamers on the go.

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Nokia Unveil Three New Smartphones at Nokia World Sept 14-15

Nokia World is the place to be today and tomorrow if you want to be on the inside track when Nokia announce their latest hardware releases on the their Symbian OS platform. Three new smart-phones, Nokia E7,C7 and C6 join the Nokia N8 to form their Symbian based smart-phone family.

The Symbian platform has also received some love and boasts more than 250 new features and improvements but still retains the familiar face that global users love.

Other announcements at Nokia World include a showcase of the recently released, Nokia N8 hailed as the ultimate smart-phone and worlds best camera-phone.

Also introduced is a new Ovi.com, Nokia’s online app-shop, experience along with a beta map app with both pedestrian and road features.

“Today our fight back to smart-phone leadership shifts into high gear,” said Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Markets, Nokia.

In the ever competitive world of mobile OS and smart-phone hardware Nokia intends to rise to the challenge issued by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android OS.

“Despite new competition, Symbian remains the most widely used smart-phone platform in the world. Our new family of smart-phones introduced today feature the all-new Symbian OS, rewritten to be faster, easier to use, more efficient and more developer friendly.” Savander also commented.

Nokia Board and Leadership Shake Up Announced - Stephen Elop Nokia's New CEO

Hot off the heels of latest announcements of Nokia’s newly appointed CEO Stephen Elop who will begin his tenure on Sept 21, 2010, Nokia today announced the resignation of Executive Vice President and member of Nokia Executive Board Anssi Vanjoki.

He has a six month notice period which begins with this notice and he will continue to head up Nokia’s Mobile Solutions unit, for the moment.

Vanjoki said “I felt the time has come to seek new opportunities in my life, at the same time, I am one hundred per cent committed to doing my best for Nokia until my very last working day.”

In a news conference and press release on Friday Nokia board of directors said “The time is right to accelerate the company’s renewal; to bring in new executive leadership with different skills and strengths in order to drive company success.”

It is widely believed by market analysts that this shake up is long overdue as Nokia’s market share has declined year on year since 2007 when Apple’s iPhone was first released. Nokia still maintains an overall global top market share of 38%, according to British market research firm Canalys.

Google Andriods entry into the smartphone market place will undoubtedly also have had an effect as they exceed market expectations by 2 years, against the original predictions of research company Gartner.

Google Android OS Predicted to Top iPhone and Blackberry OS by Year End

According to a research firm Gartner, in it’s annual global smart-phone forecast, Googles Android smart-phone operating system will outstrip the popularity of it’s market competitors in a single year. It also predicts that it will challenge Nokias world standing by 2019.

In terms of Global sales it is predicted that by year end Google Android powered phones will have achieved over 17% of worldwide smart-phone sales. Current Google returns indicate a sales volume of around 200,000 phones a day activated on the Android OS.

Gartner’s analysis is backed up by Will Stofega, a mobile market analyst for research company IDC. IDC are also predicting, though a little more conservatively, that Google Android OS power mobile devices will build to around 25% market share by 2014.

These forecasts are in no small part based on the efforts of some of the worlds largest mobile handset manufacturers planning to offer budget Android phones, these include Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG.

It is also considered that the growing popularity of Google Android OS based mobile devices can be attributed to the ease of use for App developers.

Will Stofega said “The developers tell us they love Android. It’s easier to learn; it takes less time..”

Gartner’s project that by 2014 Google Android and Nokia’s Symbian OS will control around 60% of the mobile smartphone market. Whilst Apple’s mobile operating system iOS will come in third with around 15% of the market.

Apple

Reports have come in that Apple might be planning to launch a whole new line of its existing product later this year, with upgrades for the iPod Touch, iPod Shuffle, and iPod Nano as well. The reports continue that the plans are to relaunch all the current devices with next generation functionality.

There have been various rumors sparking up with regards to the latest line of Apple products, including news about the Fourth Generation iPod Touch, or iPod Touch 4G, along with Touchscreen iPod Shuffles. The reports are still based on rumors, however, these rumors have proven to be quite accurate in times past with regards to Apple products.

Last year, Apple introduced the iPod Nano shortly after rumors came in that Apple would be releasing an iPod with digital camera and video recording functionality, which is exactly what the iPod Nano did. You might even be expecting the iPhone 5 to be coming out sometime soon…

The Last Password You'll Ever Need To Remember

That’s the promise from the folks at LastPass.com about their free password manager software, because it stores all your passwords behind one master password.

After garnering a string of awards and high recommendations over recent years, LastPass was selected for the 2010 Best Privacy/Security Add-On in the Reader’s Choice Awards at About.com.

LastPass is designed to securely store all your login information so that includes usernames and passwords for all the sites you visit. In addition, there is a Secure Notes facility for keeping other confidential notes under password protection.

Remembering long passwords is such a problem for most people that they resort to passwords that are easy to remember, which means they are also easy to guess, which means they are not all that secure.

As LastPass.com says, “We go online to connect with people, explore, shop and learn. We certainly don’t go online to fuss with passwords or risk our privacy, personal or financial information. Designed by web enthusiasts and skilled application developers, LastPass was created to make the online experience easier and safer for everyone.”

It does this by creating random, non-guessable passwords which users can accept, or they can create their own. Either way, you no longer need to remember your passwords. Just login and let LastPass do all the heavy lifting.

The software is free, coming from a dedicated bunch of programmers who do not charge for the use of their skills. They are part of a strong and growing open source movement. Source here refers to source code. And code is what makes websites in particular and the internet in general work as well as it does.

So technically, what is LastPass?

It’s a multi-platform password manager, meaning it works on all computers — Macs, Windows and Linux.

It is web based, so you can use it on any computer you’re sitting at. You just login with your LastPass master password. That’s the last password you’ll ever have to remember, according to their slogan. Because it is web-based, any password changes you make on your work computer, for example, will be synced up on your home computer.

LastPass encrypts all of your individual passwords then stores them behind one master password. When you type in that master password, LastPass can automatically log you in to any web site you visit with your saved login credentials.

For more information and to grab their free download, visit www.lastpass.com

Google-Android

According to the Nielsen company in a recent blog post, “While the iPhone has been the headline grabber over the last few years in the smartphone market, Google’s Android OS has shown the most significant expansion in market share among current subscribers.”

Indeed, it has been shown by the company that the iPhone was being outdone by the Android earlier this year, making up for 4% more sales of the smartphone market than Apple during the first six months of this year.

Though Apple’s iPhone 4 launch has been its most successful so far, there have been many recent problems and complaints on the smartphone by customers over various issues. The Blackberry is still leading the market in the US though, and surveys into consumer loyalty were revealed.

It was shown that Blackberry users were the least loyal in terms of customer loyalty, whereas iPhone users were much more loyal. Data from Nielsen has also shown a trend of growing popularity in the use of smartphones in the US. Smartphones are rapidly overtaking the use of normal mobile phones.

iPhone-4

In recent days, the jailbreaking of phones has just been given the “OK” sign by the US Library of Congress, meaning that it is now legal. Shortly after that, the first iPhone 4 jailbreak was introduced by a well-known hacker and made available online.

According to further reports, the jailbreak can be initiated without the need for another computer, and this particular program can be downloaded online as of now. The jailbreak allows iPhone users to purchase apps from other online stores, and not to have their activities limited to just applications from the Apple App store.

It was further reported that the provided hack was extremely popular, resulting in the difficulty of keeping up with the high number of demanding users. Though the use of a jailbreak has been legalized, jailbreaking your iPhone could lead to a potential endangerment of one’s warranty from Apple.

The jailbreak also was reported to currently have other problems, such as disabling video chat on the iPhone 4, and causing problems with regards to multimedia messaging.

QB-Robot

Once upon a time, when managers wanted to know what their employees were up to, they would walk right up to their cubicles and find out. It was either that, or they would install security cameras all over the place together with heavy monitoring.

However, a California company has released a new telepresence robot known as the QB robot, which has the ability to go around the office and check out what employees are doing in their cubicles. Bosses, can see what the robot sees, hear what the robot hears, and broadcast their voices through the robot.

Such a device would evidently cause concerns for employee privacy, but having a look at what employees are doing is not all that it does. The use of the robot would allow employees to stay at home and come to work as a robot. The robot is easily controllable through the keyboard, and includes sensors to prevent it from bumping into things.

According to Trevor Blackwell, CEO of Anybots, the company that devloped the QB, “I can see if people are busy on something — and then won’t interrupt them. Or, you know, if they’re doing something that looks interesting, or if they look stuck, I’ll have a conversation with them.”

Amazon-Kindle-Price-Wars

The price wars concerning the Amazon Kindle and other up and coming ebook readers is still in motion, and there is a lot of debate as to who will come up as the winner of this fierce battle. The dropping of the price for Amazon’s new Wi-Fi only Kindle to a low price of $139 has taken the world by surprise, and there is much anticipation of whether other companies will be following suit.

The Kobo that is being sold by Borders is currently at the price of $150, and it is the same for Sony’s Reader. However, both of these devices lack the wireless connectivity that Amazon’s new Kindle has. When first coming out, the Kindle debuted at $399, and the current contrast in price is shocking.

The price of the new generation of Kindle is not all that’s attractive, as it comes with a 50 percent better contrast than other e-readers on the market at the moment, along with a 21% smaller body than the previous kindle. Focusing on page turn speed has proven to be an essential factor, and Amazon has not overlooked the necessity of implementing a 20% faster page turn speed.

Windows-Patch

A vulnerability that was found to affect all versions of Windows, has forced the company to play its hand and release a patch on Monday, August 2nd. The emergency patch will help to address the issues of zero-day vulnerabilities in shortcuts.

According to the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC), attempts to exploit the vulnerability are on the rise, and the patch couldn’t come at a better time. The most prominent virus to take advantage of the “shortcut hole” was a virus known as Sality.AT.

A post on the MMPC blog stated that, “Although there have been multiple families that have picked up this vector, one in particular caught our attention this week–a family named Sality, and specifically Sality.AT. Sality is a highly virulent strain. It is known to infect other files (making full removal after infection challenging), copy itself to removable media, disable security, and then download other malware. It is also a very large family–one of the most prevalent families this year.”

Windows-7-Tablet

Though the news is not new that Microsoft is planning to introduce a unique tablet of its own and enter the fray of recent competitors that are attempting to go against the iPad, the results of the product are the subject of much debate.

Although it seems that CEO Steve Ballmer is looking forward to the new release, the use of Windows 7 as the operating system for the tablets is coming under much fire. As mentioned often the furious debate, the Windows 7 OS was not specifically designed for use on tablets, and there are various issues such as power consumption.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted as saying that the Apple iPads have sold “certainly more than I’d like them to have sold,” indicating one of the reasons for the expected strong entry into the area of tablet warefare. Recent reviews have shown that many are expecting the Microsoft tablets to fail, should they still insist on continuing with the Windows 7 OS.

BlackPad-RIM

The iPad has gained a lot of popularity with its release, but that’s not all its getting. With the strong success of the iPad, competitors are entering the fray one by one, and the latest competitor is Blackberry Maker, Research in Motion.

According to reports, RIM will be launching its own BlackPad, a strong competitor to the iPad, in November. The new tablet is offering WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities, along with the same dimensions as the iPad.

However, according to Robert W Baird & Co analyst, William Power, “With the success of the iPad, RIM faces an uphill battle. RIM really has yet to demonstrate that it can roll out touchscreen technology to match the leaders in the space, most noticeably Apple.”

Apart from the news spreading concerning the iPad, RIM is said to be unveiling its new BlackBerry 9800, which has been the subject of much discussion as of late, at a press even in New York next week.

Droid-Incredible

A breakdown of the HTC Droid Incredible has revealed a rather expensive material cost of $163.35. The result was due to a breakdown by iSuppli, and it has been quoted that once manufacturer costs have been added in, the costs go up to $172.25.

The expense of the materials was shown to have have been greatly attributed to the applications processor, coming in at $31.40, and the touchscreen display, which costs $31.20. The memory cost was pretty similar at a cost of $29.80.

After further analysis, it was found that there was great similarity between the Droid Incredible and the Nexus One by HTC. The result was a quote by Andrew Rassweiler, directory of iSuppli, stating that, “The Droid Incredible could have been dubbed the ‘Nexus Two’ given its similarity to HTC’s Nexus One introduced early this year. Indeed, the phones are very similar in terms of costs and features, with the main difference being the Incredible’s support for the CDMA air standard used by carrier Verizon in the United States.”

The popularity and launch of the Incredible has led to improvement of standings for the HTC as a major smart-phone brand in the US. There has been a shortage of Incredible handsets by Verizon, due to the struggle for meeting demand by suppliers.

Starcraft-2-Wings-of-Liberty

The strategic game of StarCraft has long been a popular title in the early days, along with other titles such as WarCraft and CounterStrike. The popularity of the title has led to highly anticipated waiting for the next installment of the popular game.

However, the waiting gap between the first installment of StarCraft and the next installment, StarCraft 2, has been very long. At long last, Blizzard released the game to the delight of fans, and the recent result of professional reviewers are that the game is sitting high in the rankings.

Delay in the game would have been owing to the time and development spend in the making of the massive multiplayer online RPG known as the World of Warcraft.

Players who have waited more than ten years for the release will be able to pick up their copy of the popular game. The next installment picks up where the previous installment left off, and is still a good play for new players.

iPhone-3G

In June, Apple released the iOS 4. After the upgrade by consumers, complaints started pouring in to Apple, sparking the need for fixing the problem. Accourding to reports, the factor that is in question is the performance of hardware and software after the upgrade.

Although Apple claimed that the mobile operating system would work on both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G, users have been very unsatisfied with the poor performance that they recieved after the upgrade. Furthermore, other claims indicae that the operating system causes reduction in the battery performance of the iPhone.

Other low performance indicators include a drop in the responsiveness of the smartphone, and the lagging of many applications. It seems that the recent iOS 4.0.1 update did little to alleviate the probelms faced by users.

Following the recent spate of problems with regards to mobile connectivity in the iPhone 4, Apple is taking this new series of complaints very seriously. The iOS4 offers over a hundred enhanced features for the iPhone, and the new software release causing problems is regrettable.

ATM-Machine

During the Black Hat Security Confenence, Barnaby Jack of IOActive stated that, “I found specific vulnerabilities in the ATM machines. But the attack surface is across the ATM industry as a whole.” The results were shocking, as he further stated that, “In every ATM system I’ve looked at, I’ve been able to find flaws.”

The words were even more deeply ingrained by his personal demonstration of hacking two different ATM machines during the conference and summoning cash on demand. The ATM machines were of the generic type generally found in convenience stores. However, it was further stated that patches had already been developed by the systems.

After experimentation with his own machines, it was revealed that Jack could easily bypass the machine’s security system and find vulnerabilities. The tools developed for the demonstration were just meant to show the vulnerabilities of the machines and to highlight ways to overcome the problems.

Highlights of the conference session showed Jack connecting to one of the ATM machines, and running a program that did the most amazing thing to the unbelief of the audience. The program was called Jackpot, and it caused cash to be spewed out from the helpless ATMs, all the while displaying the word ‘Jackpot’ on the screen in time to a tune.

Further highlights of the conference revealed the insecurities of free iPhone and Android apps which could easily steal the user’s contact data.

Smartphone

After a large survey of iPhone and Android apps, it was found that a large percentage was able to access private contact data on the phone devices and to send them out to third parties.

The survey results were revealed by security research firm, Lookout, at a Black Hat conference in Nevada. Part of the findings revealed that 8 percent of free applications could view the contact list on an Android, while 14% of free applications for the Apple could do likewise.

The results revealed a serious security risk. Further results indicated that the free Jakceey Wallpaper app, available from the Google Android market for the smartphone, was a malware app that cloud steal your Android’s SIM card number, subscriber identification and voicemail password, and send it to a certain place in China.

“Even good apps can be modified to turn bad after a lot of people download it.  Users absolutely have to pay attention to what they download. And developers have to be responsible about the data that they collect and how they use it,” stated Kevin MaHaffey, chief technology officer at Lookout.

Amazon-Kindle-Wireless

The hot development in the eBook Reader wars has taken an unexpected turn as Amazon has decided not to follow the path of Apple’s iPad and has decided to resume with the same low-cost e-ink display and to offer a lower price to consumers.

It was announced that the next generation of Amazon Kindle would be released on the 27th of August. This new generation will still have the same display, but with fifty percent better contrast. Also, it will be lighter, have Wi-Fi or 3G capabilities, and will be able to hold double the amount of eBooks.

The Wi-Fi version is stated to be priced at $139 while the 3G version is to be priced at $189. Other capabilities allow for twenty percent faster processing and page turns, allowing active e-reader customers to be more at convenience.

Amazon has argued that the Kindle’s e-ink display allows the battery life to last longer, and keeps it simple for consumers who want to fully enjoy the reading experience.

BlackBerry

As the technology war heats up, the latest move in a series of product introductions sees the BlackBerry attempting to take over the dominant position of the iPhone as the premier smartphone.

The new touchscreen BlackBerry is expected to be released next week, and Research in Motion seems to have high hopes for it.

Dubbed the BlackBerry 9800, it is expected to be launched during a New York event on Tuesday of the next week. The BlackBerry 9800 has come under a close watch, as fans will be anxious to test out the incorporation of RIM’s new operating system, the BlackBerry OS 6.

Apart from the touch screen capability, it is expected that the Blackberry 9800 will have a full slide-out keyboard, and it will give RIM a chance to catch up with the industry leaders if it does well.

The coming launch of the Blackberry 9800 was reinforced by the introduction of mystery displays by AT&T. It has been speculated that the mystery will hold the arrival of the new Blackberry.

Rumors about the coming launch are abundant, with other rumors, such as the introduction of a “BlackPad” tablet abounding as well.

apple-charger

With swift competition from all sides, Apple has decided to improve its line of hardware with a few releases.

Recently, Apple launched its own brand of batter chargers for AA batteries, trying to take a stance on improving the optimization of energy usage.

The introduction of the charger will help to reduce the amount of power that is required by other competing chargers. It seems that the product helps to reduce energy consumption during charging by 10 times.

Normally, even when batteries are charged, chargers consume electricity due to a phenomena known as the vampire draw. The Apple charger helps to reduce this.

Apart from that, a new 27-inch LED display was released for the monitor product line. Ambient light sensor were also added to the screen that help to automatically adjust the brightness of the screen based on the surroundings.

In other news, there is fierce competition against the Apple iPad as Amazon unveils its latest Kindle features.

It seems that Microsoft is getting that edge back once again with its sales of the Windows 7 operating system reaching nearly 10 copies per second over the previous month, the company state.

According to Peter Klein, Microsoft’s CFO, “With 175 million licenses sold to date, it is the fastest selling operating system ever, and now runs on over 15% of all PCs worldwide.” Indeed, it is a sharp contrast to the apparent failure of the Windows Vista system which has brought up much reason for complaint following its release.

It seems that Microsoft had scored a 48% increase in profits during the fourth fiscal quarter. These were mainly based on the hot-selling Windows and Office products. However, their attempts to infiltrate the mobile phone and search markets were not quite as successful. A net income of $4.5 billion was reported for the quarter ended June 30.

However, in spite of the PC operating system’s success, there are concerns that the Windows 7 OS may not be as suitable for tablet PCs. It seems that they have some work to do before they will be able to catch up with Apple’s iPad, which has sold over three million copies using the same OS that was developed for the iPhone.

Many people have concerns about the radiation levels in mobile phones. Indeed, that may well be the reason for the new San Francisco ordinance that is aiming for the full disclosure of mobile phone radiation levels by store retailers. This decision has come under fire from the CTIA, a mobile operator representatives group, who are trying to stop it from being put into place.

Based on the lawsuit being filed by the CTIA, it was argued that such a law would cause unlawful interference with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s authority over cell phones, though the result of the case has yet to be settled.

The limits put into place by the FCC on how much radiation could be safely absorbed by the human body has been doubted by many scientists and groups, who speculate that the limits are based on outdated data and do not cover the vast majority of users. A study that was released has stated that children and users who use it over the long-term could be at a much greater risk.

The complaints have called for the revisitation of these outdated standards, and there are various studies which have indicated the probability of brain cancer due to the frequent use of mobile devices. However, research on this field has not yet yielded conclusive evidence, and this has let to the call for further research on this area of health.

Facebook is facing a lawsuit from someone who claims to own majority of the stakes in the company. However, the fierce battle has resulted in the billion dollar company declaring the contract to possibly be nothing more than a forgery.

Paul Ceglia, the New Yorker who filed the dispute, claims that he had previously signed a contract with Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, which entitles him to an 84% ownership in the company. The lawsuit came about on June 30th, and Ceglia claims that an agreement was in place between Zuckerberg and himself for the development of the popular website.

On July 9th, Facebook’s ability to transfer assets was restricted based on a court order, which has now been dissolved. However, a comment during court hearings by Lisa Simpson, Facebook’s attorney, revealed that she was not sure of whether such a contract had been produced in the initial stages, arousing deeper questions.

However, later on, Zuckerberg was quoted as saying during an ABC interview, “If we said that we were unsure, I think that was likely taken out of context. Because I think we were quite sure that we did not sign a contract that says that they have any right to ownership over Facebook.”

Following a press conference announcement in California, Apple is giving away free bumpers to iPhone users under a new program that has been dubbed the iPhone 4 Case Program. The reason for the bumpers are to prevent the hands of users from disrupting the signals of the iPhone, something which has caused quite a ruckus in the past month. Apart from that, customers who have already bought their own iPhone bumpers will be able to claim a refund.

Customers who are ordering the free bumpers will be able to get a variety of different options. As quoted by Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, it has been stated that Apple is putting aside about $175 million in revenues in order to cover the costs for giving away the free iPhone bumpers.

Furthermore, it seems that Apple has been delaying the release of a white-colored version of the iPhone. According to a statement by the company, “White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.”

Apple Inc shares took a 3% tumble as Consumer Reports revealed it could not recommend the iPhone4 with it’s current problems. Many consumers have reported reception problems with the new unit and Apple have put the cause down to a software issue.

The software issue is reported to return erroneous signal strength bars on the units and as a result users seeing a 4 bar reception may actually only be in an area that has a 2 bar signal strength, this was addressed in an open letter to consumers on July 2.

In a seemingly low key launch a week after the European launch of the iPad Apple pulled off a marketing coop with over 1.7 million units sold in the US in 3 days.

With increasing consumer disatisfaction with the iPhone4 and in light of Consumer Reports announcement Apple have called a press conference, to be held at their California Head Office, this will take place tomorrow and the subject has not been released yet.

In the open letter of July 2 Apple promised a software update to fix what they see as the main problem of reception for the iPhone4.

If you are living in China, normally you would have to travel all the way down to Beijing if you wanted to get yourself some exclusive products from Apple’s only retail store.

Now that Apple has opened another retail outlet in Shanghai, which is it’s second Chinese store, customers no longer have to go through those inconveniences.

The Apple brand has always been very popular in China, due to its creative and sleek designs, along with good marketing. The opening of a new store in Shanghai indicates the interest that Apple is putting into the Chinese market.

Pictures posted on Apple’s website regarding the opening of the store shows tons of people lining up to get into the store, located near the Huangpu River in Pudong.

This is also a timely opening, coinciding with the Shanghai Expo earlier this year which has attracted thousands of visitors. It was also noted that the company plans to open another 18 to 25 Chinese stores in order to build on their popularity in the Chinese market.

If you were one of the people who bought the Darth Vader voice kit for your Tom Tom GPS when TomTom and VoiceSkins first released it, you may be interested in this small piece of news.

The Yoda version of the voice kit has now come out, and you can finally become part of the Jedi Masters if you truly hate the Sith.

The move by TomTom is a bid to capture an even greater market share based on the popularity of the Star Wars movie franchise.

Though Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia versions haven’t come out yet, you may want to wait for the Hans Solo version that should be coming out soon.

The Yoda voice was available for English and German download, and contains cool phrases that will be sure to inspire you, such as, “Control, control, if a Jedi you wish to be.” Sometimes you’ll be able to get Yoda theme music in the background as well.

The use of fuels that are non-renewable sources of energy has proven to be somewhat of a hot topic is recent years.

However, in spite of the fact that many automobile companies are investing in the use of solar powered vehicles and cars, the mass use of such items is still not something that can be achieved that easily, or is it?

In the latest scientific event of the month, a plane that was powered by solar energy has successfully completed its first twenty four hour flight, showing that it can harness more than enough solar energy to keep flying at night after the setting of the sun.

“We achieved more than we wanted. Everybody is extremely happy,” pilot Andre Borschberg said after he had successfully landed the plane.

Borschberg  brought the plane, dubbed the Solar Impulse, through its first successful endeavor, landing itself on the runway of Payerne airfield at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

The plane brings hope for the widespread use of renewable energy vehicles.

Right now, the use of eBook readers and the digitally formatted eBooks has become all the rage. However, do they really hold benefits to the readers other than the obvious convenience they offer?

A study that contemplated the use of reading on the iPads, Kindles, PCs and printed materials show that they may in fact negatively affect the reading capacities of the users.

Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group, a product development consultancy organization brought the facts to light in a recent usability study.

It was found from the study that the user’s reading speed went down by 10.7 percent on the Kindle compared to printed materials. Ernest Hemingway material was used for the study. It was also found that reading speeds declined by 6.2 percent on the iPad.

However, it was quoted by Nielsen that the results of the study were not “statistically significant because of the data’s fairly high variability”, and thus results should not be interpreted as saying for certain that users of the Kindle read much slower than they do on the iPad.

The study seemingly did not include the use of other eBook Readers such as the Nook.