You thought Nokia’s naming convention sucked? Well, you are not alone. We do, too. The good news is someone at the company is finally coming to their senses. The unexplainable model naming fiasco that caused serious confusion for consumers (and tech journalists, mind you) is finally coming to an end.

Today, Nokia is officially changing its naming convention, and they are making it as simple as it was back in the mid-1990s (or even simpler). The latest Nokia 500 is actually the first product from the new era.

The new naming pattern which Nokia is about to follow is as simple as it gets. Read more »

After a court hearing in Sydney, Australia, Apple has won an agreement with Samsung that the latter won’t advertise or sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 slate on the count of it infringing on 10 Apple patents. Those include the look and feel, and the touchscreen technology of the iPad. Samsung won’t be able to release the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia until it gets court approval or it resolves the conflict with the Cupertino-based company.

Apple sought an Australian injunction and is looking to get the same result in other countries too (unnamed for now). It comes as a great success for Apple but should it eventually lose its patent infringement lawsuit with Samsung, Apple will have to pay Samsung some heavy damages as compensation. Read more »

Some things just shouldn’t exist but they do – the Windows 7 running Fujitsu F-07C is one of those things. Note that this is “Windows 7″, not “Windows Phone 7″. And that’s not the weird part either – the phone actually runs Symbian on an 600MHz Atom CPU, along with Windows 7 running inside a virtual machine (rather than a dual-boot solution as originally thought).

Actually, the idea behind the F-07C is a good one – it’s just that it’s too late. Akihabara News have a review of the odd gadget, so go check it out if you’re curious. Here are the highlights of the review. Read more »

White is turning into a premium color for luxury sedans and SUVs and smartphones alike – the HTC Droid Incredible 2 for Verizon will reportedly be ditching the black garbs for summer-friendly white, like others have done before it.

The front of the device will still be black, while the back cover (which extends around the sides of the phone) will be white. This new color scheme hasn’t been confirmed officially by Verizon yet, so take this with a pinch of salt. Read more »

We came across a very interesting tablet that came all the way from China and landed in our inbox. The Marvel TBT-10C 7″ Mercury Pad Tablet is a 7-incher, running Android 2.3.1 Gingerbread, with a 1GHz Samsung S5PV210 A8 processor, 512MB RAM and has a 800×400 (WVGA) multi-touch display among other specs. And it looks ghastly similar to the iPhone 4, doesn’t it?

This tablet is certainly nothing out of the ordinary, especially coming from China (fake Apple retail stores anyone?), and is easily outclassed by the current crop of Android tablets with its so-last-year single core processor, WVGA-only screen (even if it is 7″), 2 MP camera and the fact it just looks like a cheap iPhone rip-off. Read more »

Last year at the FPD International “one of the most notable events for display related industries in the world”, Samsung showcased a 7″ AMOLED display with 1024×600 resolution. Now, a report claims that the display will be put into production in September with improved resolution of 1024×768.

Their goal is to reach 720p resolution on 7″ panels eventually, which will offer 180ppi pixel density. The new display will make its way into tablets and maybe even small netbooks. Read more »

The Nokia 500 is still hot out of the oven and Nokia has put up a promo video for it. It’s the second Nokia phone using a 1GHz processor and the first one to do it on Symbian^3. The video revolves around the motto “express yourself” hence the upbeat song in the background.

The video shows-off the functionality of the new Symbian smartphone to install a variety of apps through the Ovi store, changeable covers that make the device look flamboyant, the fast 1GHz processor and finally, the fact that this smartphone gives you more. Read more »

When Rovio released Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7, it was curiously the older version of the application that was available on iOS a long time back. It had the older start screen and fewer levels. But the application has now been updated to v1.1, which takes the number of levels from 135 to 225. Unfortunately, it is still short of the 270 levels available for iOS and Android. Hopefully the additional levels will be added soon.

Unfortunately, at $2.99, the game is still inexplicably expensive (as are a lot of Windows Phone 7 apps) compared to the iOS version, which costs $0.99. Read more »

Got fed up with the headset that came bundled with your phone? Razer has now launched a new pair of headphones targeted specifically at mobile phone gamers. The Razer Electra boasts of a powerful bass response that will bring your mobile games to life.

It comes with dual detachable audio cables, one of which has a built-in microphone that works with iPhone, HTC and BlackBerry devices. Read more »

A normal iPad 2 has an anodized aluminum back with scratch resistant glass on the front. This iPad, however, has a back forged from 24 karat solid gold weighing 2000g. And the Apple logo on the back is studded with 53 12.5 karat flawless diamonds.

But it doesn’t end there. The frame around the display is made from Ammolite, an extremely rare and valuable gemstone, said to be 75 million years old. If that’s not special enough for you, the Ammolite frame even has shavings of a 65 million year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex’s thigh bone. And lastly Read more »

It’s safe to say that the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S II is one of the most anticipated US market launches this summer. Here, across the Atlantic, we have been reading all the rave reviews of the mighty droid, and hoped we would soon see a chance to get our hands on Samsung’s flagship. Well, it looks like the wait will be over any moment now, people.

I just got this heavy parcel from the U.S. branch of Samsung. Inside was this box, and at the sight of it, my pulse skyrocketed. Read more »

After yesterdays update for Google Maps for Android, today it’s Gmail’s turn – the updated Android app now boasts better performance, can save bandwidth by syncing only priority email, and gives you fine-grained control over notifications.

You can head to the Market app on your droid and check the My Apps section to force the update or you can use the Android Market website. While the app is updating, here’s an overview of what’s new. Read more »

You’ve probably heard of Plants vs. Zombies – one of the hottest games on the App Store since day one. Today it got updated to version 1.7 on iOS to bring users Retina support which means that the graphics are now much crisper and just look awesome.

PopCap Games (creator of PvZ) has also said that they’ve removed some bugs along the way and even made the game speedier so the update is a must. Read more »

If you happen to be situated in the United States and own an Asus Eee Pad Transformer, it’s your lucky day. Version 3.2 of Android Honeycomb is now out for the popular tablet-slash-netbook and with it come stretchable widgets and the compatibility zoom which will make smartphone apps much better to use on the bigger screen.

The 3.1 Honeycomb update came in the first half of June – those are some super-fast update cycles. Also if you have the Transformer plus the keyboard dock you can enjoy the dock’s USB host functionality. Read more »

The Blackberry Messenger is among the finest proprietary mobile instant messaging service out there, backed by a strong and dedicated crowd of followers. With the latest update of the app, the folks from RIM have kept all the familiar goodness, and added several new features, which have made the latest iteration of BBM even more social.

Now on with the new stuff Read more »