Nokia, Alpine shake hands for in-car systems, maps

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.

Google: smartphones to make desktops irrelevant in three years

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.

Droid Eris gets Sense 2.1 through leaked ROM

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 targets 30% of the European market this year

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.

HTC Incredible to be launched soon

First there were the photos and then a video of the HTC Incredible. The device is right around the corner and is all set to be launched.

Wrapped in black and red, this device is bound for Verizon at some point. Though initially, as per the rumors the Incredible was slated to be launched on March 23^rd, now it can be expected to be launched sometime in May. The hardware will be sporting the same AMOLED screen found in Nexus One and Desire. It is being anticipated that because of this, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) may have delayed its release to May following the problems surrounding the Nexus One’s multi-touch capabilities.

Though the exact launch of Nexus One in a CDMA flavor is expected to be near future, the incredible has few tricks up its sleeve to eclipse it. The handset will be available for try before you buy unlike the Nexus One’s ‘buy first and see if you like it’ approach. However the biggest difference between the two devices is that the Incredible will have HTC’s custom Sense UI on board, besting the look and feel of the Nexus One.

Unless and until you want a keyboard the HTC Incredible is all set to decimate the Motorola Droid.

Windows mobile launches Opera Mini 5 beta

Windows mobile has launched the native version of Opera Mini.  Earlier, WinMo users needed Java support but that has changed for good.

Opera decide to go the other way after Skype ditched support and development for their WinMo native app. Though Opera Mobile 10 beta has been there in the market for several months, the mini version becomes worth downloading owing to its several advantages. The specialty of Opera Mobile 10 beta is that its Java-based sibling compresses the data traffic by up to 90 percent resulting in zippier page loading and lower browsing costs.

This version is identical to the Java-based version released in beta, late last year.  With features like Speed Dial homescreen, password management, tabbed browsing and support for Opera Link, it unifies users’ mobile bookmarks and features with those from their desktop Opera browsers.

On Windows Mobile 6.5 deviOpera Mobile 10 beta,ces, this browser is practically indistinguishable from the  which was launched last November.  This can be differentiated from its counterparts on the basis of their settings menu. Opera Mini has Opera Turbo server-side compression on at all times, and the user can select the quality of in-page images to alter the speed at which pages are loaded. An Opera Mobile user can turn Opera Turbo on and off as per the requirement and customize the level of zoom for page viewing.

Browsing speed gets significantly affected by Opera Turbo. Besides, Opera Software has also been claiming that it has the ability to compress the traffic by up to 90%, which not only lowers the expenses on pay-per-megabyte data plans but also speeds up the experience.

However it does not offer media support that Skyfire is known for on the Windows Mobile platform.