With this initiative, Nokia Nseries brings together technology enthusiasts and entertainment in an interactive digital lifestyle format. To be held over the weekend from November 30-December 02, 2007, four aspiring ‘Technoholics’ will be selected to go into a glass enclosure where they will perform a series of difficult tasks while living the ultimate tech life for three consecutive evenings.

The Nseries Digital Playzone is being held in seven countries acsoss Asia. Nokia Nseries along with a panel will screen 15 short listed candidates to select four Technoholics to enter the Nokia Nseries Digital Playzone. The Digital Playzone will showcase the convergence of technology and entertainment in a competitive setting. The enclosed Technoholics will race to complete tasks that include performing entertaining acts with the audience. It will allow the selected Technoholics to interact with and experience the latest in consumer technology, from entertainment, imaging, video, gaming and music. The glass enclosure will allow the viewing audience and those walking by to watch and actively participate.

” Nokia Nseries is proud to host the Digital Playzone because it highlights the key qualities of discovery, exploration and sharing the latest in technology,” said Vineet Taneja, Business Director, Multimedia, Nokia India. “Nokia believes in enabling connectivity, between people, technology and applications. So this challenge is a wonderful opportunity to showcase some of the latest consumer technology and create a fun competition that brings different communities together through participation.”

Britain’s Virgin group will soon enter India’s mobile phone market and make animated films, even as it awaits government nod to fly the domestic aviation space, its founder Sir Richard Branson said on Monday.

Speaking about his interest in the Indian mobile phone space, Branson said his group had already applied for relevant permission to enter the market. “Give me two-and-a-half months to talk about that,” he said. “It will not be long before we enter the mobile phone business in India. We have a partner now.” The Indian mobile market is the second biggest in the world after China, with six to eight million subscribers being added to the network each month.

Today announced Paul J. Liska has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of Motorola, effective March 1, 2008. Mr. Liska will report directly to Greg Brown, president and chief executive officer. Tom Meredith, the company’s acting CFO will continue as a non-management board member and will work closely with Mr. Liska to ensure a smooth transition. Brown stated, “Since appointing Tom Meredith as acting CFO, we have undertaken a thorough search process to identify candidates with financial, operational and strategic experience.  We are fortunate that Paul has such a broad set of general management and CFO experience. 

Paul will be a very valuable addition to our team and he is well-suited to drive forward the important work already underway to enhance our financial performance.” Brown added, “On behalf of the board and the management team, I want to thank Tom for his significant contributions over the last year. He has played an important role in improving Motorola’s cash conversion cycle and cost structure.   The changes implemented under Tom’s leadership have helped position Motorola for renewed success. I am pleased that Tom will help through this key transition period.”

Mobile and online games company Indiagames, has partnered with Glu Mobile Inc., publisher of mobile games, to exclusively distribute their catalog of wireless content in India. As part of the agreement, Indiagames will distribute games, wallpapers and ringtones for a number of Glu’s leading titles including Age of Empires III Mobile, Atari Legends 3, with classic games such as Pong, Asteroids Deluxe and Super Breakout, Brian Lara’s Cricket 2008, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Insaniquarium Deluxe, DC Comics, Kasparov Chess, Looney Tunes and Zuma, amongst others. Samir Bangara, COO, Indiagames said, “Glu Mobile’s catalog offers some of the most compelling content in the wireless VAS space with its sheer variety and engrossing high quality game play across genres.” He further added that “Indiagames is committed to bringing the best quality mobile content to Indian consumers and our partnership with Glu Mobile re-enforces that commitment.

Consumers can look forward to all the latest content for their phones in the coming months.” “It is Glu’s goal to be the leading developer and publisher of mobile games worldwide, and our partnership with Indiagames supports our strategy to bring our award-winning games to a wide audience of consumers around the world,” said Jill Braff, senior vice president of global publishing, Glu Mobile. “We see tremendous opportunity for Glu games in India, and our partnership with Indiagames will allow us to expand our global audience for our award-winning titles.”

If thought it would be alone in delivering hardcore handheld devices with high-tech hardware, it will seriously have to reconsider. AMD has also announced an expanded portfolio of products and technologies to enable popular, media-rich applications such as mobile TV, 3D games and high-fi audio, delivering immersive entertainment to tomorrow’s mobile phones and handheld devices. All this was showcased at this year’s GSMA 2008 World Mobile Congress.AMD has enhanced its established line of open-standard handheld device technologies with upcoming AMD Imageon processors, as well as next-generation 3D and vector graphics cores, available for licensing.

These new offerings are designed to allow device manufacturers and network operators to support today’s most popular applications, as well as cutting-edge applications that will thrill tomorrow’s mobile consumer.”Today’s mobile consumers demand devices and services capable of providing outstanding entertainment. AMD is committed to enabling advanced graphical interfaces that deliver the Ultimate Visual Experience on the go,” said Adrian Hartog, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s Consumer Electronics Group. “Our latest handheld technologies allow AMD to better address new and emerging applications, such as 3D gaming and mobile TV, as well as satisfy today’s consumers who crave portable music players and full-function touchscreen mobile phones.”

I picked the Sony Ericsson k850 and the Nokia N82 handsets for our shootout because both have 5 megapixel cameras with xenon flashes. Please bear in mind that what we’re doing here is simply ‘focusing’, so to speak, on the camera capabilities of these handsets, and not the entire phone as a whole. Both phones are quick to activate when it comes to turning on the camera.

The N82 has a lever for the shutter cover that you can switch on, while the K850i has a key near the shutter release button that switches it on, just as in a digicam. When it comes to ease of use, I must admit both are quite easy to handle and hold. However, the K850i has an added advantage thanks to some shortcut keys on the keypad for activating a few features.

Otherwise I’d be inclined to lean towards the Nokia. The touchscreen feature of the K850i may be a plus point while using the phone but it’s a bit uncomfortable while using the camera. I also like the K850i’s convenient switch to toggle between video and camera mode and the gallery. The N82 just has a single key that would take you directly to the gallery. I prefer the switch; it makes it feel more like a camera than a mobile.

Amidst music, dance and a fabulous light show, Vertu launched another mobile in the Indian market: the Vertu Ascent Ti. The Ascent Ti is a quad-band 3G handset with a 3 megapixel camera with flash – the first in the Vertu series to have one. Vertu’s motto “precision engineered for strength and balance with a distinctly masculine edge” seems a fitting description of this very high-end phone. Says Frank Nuovo, Vertu Principal Designer: “From the start the Vertu Ascent has been heavily influenced by the power, energy, and sheer precision of a beautiful car.

With the Ascent Ti, this vision has been developed further using the high grade materials, design detail, technical superiority and unsurpassed performance associated with the luxury sports car industry. The result is a highly crafted handset of precision, balance and strength.” The Vertu Ascent Ti is handcrafted in England and looks as if it’s been designed to a ‘boys-and-their-toys’ motif. And while the exteriors may embody some of the most brilliant automobiles ever designed, the software provides users with the same feel.

According to Nokia’s lastest application filing, it seems they intend to add another N series device to their existing range. There also seems to be a few detailed drawings that were provided with the application. According to those drawings, the new phone will not be just another slider, but will also have the camera portion, located above the display, rotate 90 degrees.

There’s no official information on what the megapixel count on the camera will be and not much information on the other specs either. However, by looking carefully at the sketches, one would notice that it would appear to have either a 6 or 8 megapixel branding. Then again it’s just an unclear image so we’ll just have to wait and see. It’s quite likely that the official announcement of this device, if any, will be out only sometime next year, so stay tuned. When we know you’ll know.

On the sidelines of the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress being held in Macau, China Mobile Ltd revealed positive talks in session with Apple about bringing the iPhone to China. There hasn’t been any agreement reached as yet, according to China Mobile’s Chairman & CEO, Wang Jianzhou. Apple had plans to launch the device in Asia in 2008 and is currently in talks with various operators in the region. Jianzhou also revealed that 3G (The TD-SCDMA standard) will be up and running well in time for the Beijing Olympics next summer. China Mobile, he said, was in talks with operators from around the world to figure out a way for athletes, organizers and visitors to use their existing cell phone numbers at local or at least heavily subsidized rates during the Games.

Jianzhou also told the audience that the operator’s mobile phone recycling CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative was showing impressive results. While only 60,000 users turned in old handsets last year, over 2 million have already done so in the first half of 2007.

Motorola’s latest addition to their FM radio, entry-level mobiles is the W180, that’s called the MOTOYUVA in India. This is a totally simplistic mobile with a singular feature that stands out i.e. the Stereo FM radio, much like.

The YUVA however, has adopted a more traditional candy bar design. The display has a 128 x 128 pixel resolution with 65K colors. Its internal memory has a capacity to store 500 numbers which roughly equals up to around 70KB of space. The YUVA has no other mentionable features except that it has a microUSB v1.1 port that serves as a charging port as well. Thus we know know that Motorola has begun. The W810 also employs Motorola’s Crystal Talk technology.