A recently leaked memo suggests that Apple, along with RIM and Nokia, may have made a deal with the Indian government, giving them a backdoor into software in exchange for market precense. The memo, sinisterly titled “Tactical network for cellular surveillance,” was leaked by The Lords of Dharmaraja, the group responsible for the recent hack of Symantec. The document states that RINOA (Rim, Nokia, and Apple) were involved in the decision to “sign an agreement with mobile manufacturers in exchange for the Indian market presence.”

Responsive, cheap touchscreens completely revolutionized the mobile device industry, and if Nokia has anything to say about it, flexible screens will revolutionize it all over again. At the Nokia World show, a flex-phone prototype, the “Nokia kinetic device,” as they call it, was on display and demoed. Not too surprisingly, it looks pretty sweet. The flex interface allows you to scroll by tweaking opposite ends up and down simultaneously and zooms in or out when you bend the center of the screen either forwards or backwards.

It is most definitely still a prototype, and no one at Nokia seems to want to talk about how it works or when it’d come out, but the tech has some interesting implications. It can work even if a user is wearing gloves, unlike touchscreens, and it makes for easier, one-unit-at-a-time scrolling. It could pose some interesting user interface challenges, but that’s how we get groundbreaking improvements. I’m not totally sure how I feel about the idea of a flex-phone, but I’d definitely want to mess around with one.

Video of the phone in use after the jump. I think you’ll be surprised how natural the navigation seems.

Trevor Prideaux, born without a left arm, used to have trouble using cell phones. It didn’t use to be so bad until the smartphone revolution happened and he found himself having to balance the phone on his prosthetic arm for use. Then, he had an idea that’s practically only if you have a prosthetic arm: Why not just put the phone right in there? And that’s what he had done. His Nokia C7 sits just right inside the arm, freeing up his other hand to use it.

Now that’s pretty cool, but there’s a little more to the story, the Nokia C7 was actually Prideaux’s second choice. The idea actually came to him while he was trying out the iPhone and balancing it precariously on his arm. Struck by the idea, he contacted Apple to see if he could get an empty casing, for measurement and testing purposes, but Apple wasn’t too keen on the idea. The folks at Nokia, on the other hand, were more than happy to work hand in hand with the technicians at the Exeter Mobility Centre, where Prideaux gets all his limbs.

Nokia’s standard ringtone is a classic. Not satisfied with having a classic, however, it seems that Nokia is determined to get with the times, market to the hip young kiddos, and be fresh and relevant in the not-at-all-diminishingly-important world of ringtones. How? That’s easy. Dubstep, bro. Kids love the dubsteps. Right? RIGHT?!

Apparently they do, because the 24 second dubstep-tastic ringtone by Valerio Alessandro Sizzi won the Nokia Tune competition with 1000 likes on Facebook, winning against 6,200 other entries. In addition to having his ringtone pre-loaded on over 100 million Nokia phones (every musician’s dream), he also gets paid (actually every musician’s dream) a cool $10,000 for his efforts. Coincidentally enough, that appears to be exactly how much Nokia’s remaining dignity is worth, and judging by their comments on the winner, they seem to be glad to be rid of the pesky stuff.

Nokia, the once king of cellphones — probably all because of a catchy ringtone — announced their Q2 financials recently, and things do not look good for the company that had their phone ring from inside a Spinosaurus in Jurassic Park 3. Like the once proud smartphone pioneers, RIM, Nokia took some serious losses — about half a billion dollars — in the span of one quarter.

PaidContent UK breaks down some of the juicy (not so juicy for Nokia) tidbits: Sales declined by 7% over last year and are down 11% compared to last quarter, while earnings per share are down by 45% percent, and down 54% from last quarter. Last year, Nokia had around one billion dollars in net cash from its operations, and this year, in a stark contrast, that number is down to a debt of $176 million. On top of that, every single device category saw a decline in sales, with smartphones taking the biggest hit.

It seems the once household name isn’t doing particularly well these days, but Nokia plans to launch its first Windows Phone sometime later this year, so maybe that’ll give the venerable company a boost. Oh wait, the Windows Phone isn’t iOS or Android? Well, maybe it’ll still give Nokia a boost anyway.

(via paidContent)

Stephen Elop, the former Microsoft executive who now heads up Nokia, was accused of being a Microsoft Trojan horse last month when Nokia announced that it would effectively be killing off its self-developed Symbian and MeeGo mobile operating system in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. At the time, fans of the spurned Nokia platforms charged that Nokia’s crown jewels were being given away for a song.

On that account, at least, they were wrong, if Bloomberg’s report is to be believed: Per that report, Microsoft is paying Nokia more than $1 billion for Nokia’s role in promoting and developing mobile phones that will carry Windows Phone 7.

If it succeeds, the partnership may benefit both sides financially while helping stave off a smartphone threat from Apple Inc. and Google Inc. Nokia shares have dropped 26 percent since the accord was unveiled Feb. 11, reflecting doubts about the move to adopt Microsoft’s operating system, which is less than six months old and has just a few percentage points of market share.

But here’s the thing: Nokia will still be paying Microsoft a licensing fee for every copy of Windows Phone 7 on one of its phones. Though we don’t know what that fee is, that sounds a little outrageous.

MG Siegler: “It’s so ridiculous that Microsoft is sticking with this licensing system. You can license Android, the market leader now, for free. Microsoft? There’s a fee. For each phone. Who in their right mind would do that? Wait — let me rephrase. Who in their right mind not getting $1 billion in free advertising/development costs and not run by a recently departed Microsoft executive would do that? Unless this Nokia gamble pays off — and in a big way — the answer will be no one.”

(Bloomberg via Techmeme)

Since Nokia announced that it was effectively ending its use of mobile operating systems Symbian and MeeGo in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, CEO Stephen Elop has been under fire for what many perceive to be giving away Nokia’s crown jewels for free. Elop, the first non-Finn to head the company, is under particular scrutiny because Nokia hired him away from Microsoft, where he headed up the division behind Microsoft Office.

At a conference this past weekend, someone from the audience asked Elop point-blank if he was a Microsoft “Trojan Horse.” He denied this:

“The obvious answer is no. We made sure that the entire management team was involved in the process, and of course the board of directors of Nokia are the only ones that can make this significant of a decision about Nokia. They made that final decision on Thursday night.”

Elop later said that the deal would be worth “billions” for Nokia thanks to cheaper licenses for Windows Phone 7 and having Microsoft’s mighty marketing muscle behind Nokia products.

(Business Insider via Gizmodo)

In wake of Nokia partnering with Microsoft to produce Windows Phone devices, Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat has reported that over one thousand Nokia employees walked out of their Finnish offices in protest for fear of losing their jobs.

The Next Web reports that the walk out could’ve easily just been employees using their flextime–basically a freedom granted to Nokia employees to take time off in the middle of the day–as the reports of the walk outs are currently only coming from local sources.

(via The Next Web)

Nokia announced last night that it would be partnering with Microsoft to produce Windows Phone devices. As keen techies may have noticed over the past few years, Nokia hasn’t been doing too hot in the wake of iOS and Android. Symbian, Nokia’s previous operating system of choice, has become obsolete, and their planned replacement, MeeGo, now seems to be taking a back burner to Windows Phone (the former head of MeeGo, Alberto Torres, just quit).

The duo will bring the usual Microsoft services such as Xbox Live, Office, and something called “Bing” to Nokia devices, along with the much-needed Windows Marketplace ecosystem.

Today, the battle is moving from one of mobile devices to one of mobile ecosystems, and our strengths here are complementary. Ecosystems thrive when they reach scale, when they are fueled by energy and innovation and when they provide benefits and value to each person or company who participates. This is what we are creating; this is our vision; this is the work we are driving from this day forward.

There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them.

There will be challenges. We will overcome them.

Success requires speed. We will be swift.

Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed.

Whether this partnership will be able to save the Finnish manufacturer from the brink remains to be seen. The early indications show that Windows Phone isn’t exactly a hot commodity, but the platform is still young. Props to Nokia for making the plunge, it takes kivekset of steel to turn a company around like this.

(via Nokia)

“Anssi Vanjoki, outgoing head of Nokia’s smartphone division, likens mobile phone makers that adopt Google’s software to Finnish boys who ‘pee in their pants’ for warmth in the winter.”

–This is an actual quote from a Financial Times article on Nokia’s commitment to its own OSes, most notably Symbian, over Google’s Android. Engadget wins with their headline on this — “CE-Oh no he didn’t!” — although Anssi Vanjoki was technically an executive vice president rather than Nokia’s CEO, and indeed one of the reasons he left the company is because he was passed over for the top slot.

(Financial Times via Engadget via Phandroid)