Meego Arrives in Nokia Form

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Nokia finally unveils a smartphone model running on Intel's MeeGo OS-- the N9, which some describe as the Nokia's take on the iPhone, at least in the looks department.

Nokia N9It's also Nokia's first device lacking in actual buttons buttons-- not even a home button. Instead, one goes back and forth between the home screen and apps by swiping their fingers on the 3.9" touchscreen.

Looks-wise it's very Apple-inspired, with a minimalist unibody design (made out of one piece of polycarbonate) and a slightly curved AMOLED display.

The minimalism extends to the OS, which is actually an amalgamation of MeeGo and Maemo (official spec sheets list it as "Meego 1.2 Harmattan", where Harmattan is Nokia's latest Maemo iteration).

Powering it is an OMAP3630 processor. The phone also carries an 8MP camera (with Carl Zeiss optics) and NFC connectivity.

The most obvious question, however, lingers on-- why now? While the N9 appears to be an impressive piece of hardware, it will most probably lack anything akin to an app ecosystem (Nokia says customers will be able to buy apps from the Ovi store-- but isn't it phasing out the "Ovi" brand name?), while Nokia itself is phasing towards the Windows Phone 7 OS.

Then again some believe it could be perfect for customers who while have no interest in apps but still want a slick phone with a decent camera.

Nokia disrupt its Microsoft partnership with slick new hardware running on a different OS? Probably not, but we might find out once the N9 hits the market later this year.

Go Introducing the Nokia N9

Battery Market is Well Powered

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Pike Research forecasts the WW portable power battery market will reach revenues of $30.5Bn by 2015 (from a value of $20.3Bn in 2010) with a CAGR of 8.5%.

Tbatterieshe analyst says the market is now mature, and shows steady growth, thanks to its growing across a number of consumer and industrial application areas.

Portable power represents 55% of the global battery industry.

The portable power market's largest growth sector lies in laptop and mobile phone batteries, with increasing unit shipments driving growth. Meanwhile Pike Research says the portable media player and digital camera battery segments will experience flat to negative growth within the next 4 years.

While there's no Moore's Law equivalent for battery technology (due to constraint by electrochemical laws), a large number of innovators are still researching ways to improve battery performance. After all, everyone knows the impact batteries have on any portable device.

Go Advanced Batteries for Portable Power Applications

iPhone Can Check Blood Pressure

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Blood Pressure MonitorYour customers can keep track of their blood pressure with their iDevices-- using Withings' Blood Pressure Monitor.

Connecting via iDevice 30-pin connector, once the user wraps the blood pressure cuff around their arm it measures blood pressure results (either once or 3-measures in a row) in around 30 seconds, before saving Systole, Diastole and BPM on the connected device via free app.

Users can then access an online dash to keep track of results-- or sync the device with Microsofot HealthVault or Google Health. The app also allows one to automatically email results to their doctor.

It thus appears to be ideal for the more health conscious of customers, especially those using Withing's own wifi body scale. In fact, wifi scale users can get their track their weight and blood pressure on the same graph, bringing 2 kinds of health readings together.

Go Withings Blood Pressure Monitor

Maplin Sale No More?

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MaplinDiscussions on the sale of Maplin end with the potential buyers pulling out, according to The Telegraph-- with a key reason being the retail sales slowdown across the UK.

The newspaper believes a trio of parties was interested in buying Maplin-- Blackstone, CVC Capital Partners and Advent International-- for a sum that could have reached up to £400M.

Maplin owners Montago will now probably hold on to the business for at least another year, in hopes of the retail sector returning to earlier health. The worsening economy even hit Maplin's online presence, the newspaper reports.

Its 2010 totals show pre-tax losses of £32.7M (from sales of £213M)

The electronics retailer specialises in off-brand niche CE, even if its successs comes through the sale of novelty gadgets (such as a solar-powered briefcase).

Go Maplin Electronics Pull Sale in Face of High Street Gloom (The Telegraph)

Go Maplin

Optimus 3D Hits Europe

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Optimus 3DLG launches its Optimus 3D, starting off with Europe with a launch party in Spain.

The phone itself builds on LG's own Optimus range, now with one addition-- 3D (as the name suggests). It shoots 3D photos and video (via x2 5MP lenses) while carrying a glasses-free 4.3" WVGA 3D display.

A 1GHz OMAP 4 dual-core processor powers the device.

To make up for a lack of 3D content, the phone converts 2D content into 3D-- a function currently limited to images and video, but LG has plans for future game 3Dconversion

Media sharing connections come through HDMI and DLNA interfaces.

Go LG Optimus 3D

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