Nokia and Alpine have joined hands for bringing the strength of a smartphone to in-car systems. The technology is dubbed “Terminal Mode” and it connects your Nokia handset with the car’s system via Bluetooth and USB. Though many cars can connect to phones, this enterprise will lead to deeper integration that can provide entertainment, compatibility with applications and bring Ovi Map to your vehicle.

However the question is why should one opt for this? Ovi map is a device which can compel you to ditch your personal navigation device. While the visuals will pop up on the car’s screen, the voice directions will come through the speaker of your car.

Though car navigation is almost table stakes now, it will let you use certain smartphone apps with your car. From weather, news to RSS apps everything will be on your car’s screen and you can continue with those as your leave the vehicle. Location based service are also in the pipe-line and according to Alpine this could lead to things like mobile coupons- a gas station could shoot fuel discounts for instance.

According to Vishal Chatrath, head of product development for Nokia automotive, the infotainment system of a modern car is a natural extension for the capabilities of smartphones. It will not only simplify the use of turn-by-turn voice guidance from Ovi Maps but also enable an easy access to other content on the smartphone like music, and delivering automotive specific widgets from the OVI Store.

According to Google VP of global ad operations, John Herlihy, desktops will become irrelevant in the coming three years.  In a digital landscapes conference, he made it clear how important the mobile space is to the search giant. He mentioned that smartphones will make desktops second-class citizens in three years, echoing what Eric Schmidt said last month at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona.

Herlihy is of an opinion that Google’s number one concern is the mobile market now. Google has versions of its programs and apps for nearly every mobile platform, its Android operating system is gaining traction and it began selling its own hardware with the Nexus One.

He mentioned that mobile makes the world’s information universally accessible. Search will become more important because there is more information and it will be hard to shift through it. This step will create new opportunities for entrepreneurs to create new business models.

Samsung is all set to launch a new device in its domestic market. The name of the model is SCH-W890 and it will be sold through SK Telecom. The device will be in the shape of a clamshell and will come with specs that will include a 2.8-inch WQVGA display, 2-megapixel camera along with front-facing camera for video calls, Bluetooth, text-to-speech capability, SOS function, Subway Maps and media player.

The SCH-W890 rocs support for both satellite and terrestrial DMBs for South Korean mobile TV viewers. In other words an individual will have his mobile phone even in places where terrestrial signals can’t reach him. Mobile TV is a big thing in South Korea and Japan and efforts have been made to push such a service in the U.S. and Europe but so far there has been no success.

If you are a Droid Eris owner who had been waiting impatiently for the updated Sense UI running on top of Android 2.1, you have a reason to cheer up. A recent leaked ROM found its way on the XDA forums. The official update though will come very soon.

It so happened that right after the ROM was released onto the XDA forums many users reported that the update was not functioning.  Though the zip file contained the update but it seemed to be corrupted. Soon after that the devs got after it, patched the file and then it started working.

Some things have been left out of the 2.1 update, most notably, live wallpapers since this is the update for s first-generation device. The reason behind not implementing live wallpapers into this update was that the Eris was only running on a 528 MHz processor, so in case live wallpapers were implemented into this update, it would have blogged the device down.

Not having live wallpapers is not a big deal as they serve no purpose other than looking cool and draining the battery.

Verizon has confirmed that the Eris will be receiving the Android 2.1 update at some point in the first quarter of the year. It the month of March, thus there is little time to wait for the official update. All an individual can do is hope that it doesn’t erase the entire device this time.

Samsung, the world’s second-largest handset maker after Nokia has set up ambitious plans for the European market. The company is looking forward to grab at least 30% market share in Europe this year.

According to the Senior Executive Vice President of the company Sang Heung Shin, the company would like to break 30 percent market share this year. It will sell more handsets in Europe in 2010. They expect two digit growth both in revenue and sales value.

The company has planned to get an extra boost from high-end margin smartphones.

The company is all set to aggressively market the Wave, which relies on their own bada platform. The new device along with the platform which was officially unveiled at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona though failed to impress many.

However the company is expecting to hear more from its other products such as Symbian, Android and Windows Mobile smartphones.

According to the last years data the Korean giant managed to move 54 million handsets in Europe, representing 25% of the market. Altogether Samsung sold 227 million in the year 2009 and is still looking forward to expand he figure to 270 million this year.