Remember your first Nokia? Here's what it would look like today

Old meets new: the classic Nokia 3310 reimagined as a modern-day Lumia smartphone.

Do you remember your first phone? For many of us it will have been a Nokia or Ericsson -- but what would classic phones like the Nokia 3310 and Ericsson T28 look like if they were made today?

Cast your mind back through the mists of time, to an era before the iPhone, before Samsung, beforeAndroid. Hard to picture, I know, but pierce the veil of nostalgia and you'll no doubt remember the Ericsson T28, a flip phone with a distinctive aerial introduced in 1999 that was at one point the best-selling mobile phone in the US. The Nokia 3310 debuted the following year, replacing the equally iconic 3210. With Snake 2 built-in, the curvy 3310 went on to sell 126 million units worldwide.

A revamped Nokia 3310 in signature Lumia colour.

And now German site Curved Labs has brought these classic phones bang up-to-date, reimagining the Nokia 3310 with Windows Phone on board -- complete with a monster 41-megapixel PureView camera -- and the Ericsson T28 with Android on its instantly-recognisable monochrome green screen.

The Ericsson T28 reimagined with Android inside.

Nokia was until a few short years ago the biggest mobile phone company in the world. Even after the iPhone transformed the phone market by making smartphones mainstream, Nokia managed to hold the crown largely thanks to all the feature phones it sold in emerging markets like India and Africa.

But as smartphones got cheaper and feature phones started to become obsolete, Samsung overtook Nokia by offering its Galaxy range of phones in all shapes and sizes -- and at prices to suit any pocket.

Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson, giants of the industry before Apple turned everything upside down, reacted slowly to the iPhone and have in the last few years been overtaken by upstarts such as Samsung and HTC, driven by Google's Android software.

Instead of joining the Android pack, Nokia in 2011 opted for Microsoft's Windows Phone instead. That relationship led to Nokia's phone business being sold to Microsoft.

This week Microsoft sadly announced 18,000 job cuts, the majority of which see former Nokia employees losing their jobs. The new owners have also ditched Asha and Series 40 feature phones as well as the short-lived Android-powered Nokia X range. (And which some of us think is a good thing.)

As it attempts to establish Windows Phone in the smartphone market Microsoft has also decided to quietly erase the Nokia brand from its phones, bringing the curtain down on one of the most iconic mobile phone brands ever -- certainly for phone fans in Europe and around the world, even if it's never been quite as recognisable in the USA.

Meanwhile Nokia continues as a company selling telecoms equipment, but not phones. The Finnish company has been through some big changes since it started out making rubber boots in 1865 -- check out the fascinating history of this venerable brand in our video made just before Nokia adopted Windows Phone...

Honda's new ASIMO robot is all grown up

Honda has unveiled the latest version of its ASIMO robot

Humanoid robots are continually improving and Honda's ASIMO is no different. Honda's first two-legged robot was born in 1986 and since then, subsequent models have become increasingly advanced. Today's newly-announced version is autonomous, intelligent and responsive.

An increased understanding of robotics, ability to share knowledge and availability of requisite components have resulted in a proliferation of humanoid robots. Robots like the 3D-printed Poppy and the German Aerospace Center's TORO have been developed relatively recently. Few have the near 30-year heritage of Honda's ASIMO, though.

ASIMO was developed out of Honda's desire to create a robot that could help in human society. For that, it needed to be able to move around objects in a room and negotiate stairs and that, in turn, meant it needed two legs. Its first design, the Eo, could walk by putting one leg in front of the other, but did so slowly and took five seconds between steps.

Honda continued develop the walking ability of its robots throughout the late 80s and early 90s. Innovations included modelling a robot's walk on that of humans, determining center of gravity and torque requirements, and adding sensors into the robots.

From 1993, the company began looking at evolving its walking robots into humanoids, adding upper body sections and the abilities to recognize and target specific destinations, climb stairs and carry objects. Then, in 2000,the first ASIMO was developed.

ASIMO was designed to operate in the human environment, with a view to it being released for such purposes in the future. The robot was able to recognize voices, sounds and images. Its i-Walk technology allowed it to shift its center of gravity to compensate for certain movements, such as moving around corners.

The second generation ASIMO, released in 2002, saw a number of new additions, including its ability to move independently in response to people, to recognize certain objects, faces, movements and gestures, and to assess its surrounding environment. Internet connectivity was also added, allowing ASIMO to answer simple questions, such as about the news or weather.

In 2005, a new version was released that could carry out task in real-life environments, such as carrying a tray of drinks or pushing a cart. It could run at speed, prevent spins and slips, and coordinate its entire body for a specific purpose (for example, to maintain balance). In addition, a host of sensors were added to provide visual, ultrasonic and ground recognition inputs. This was a robot that was increasingly useful, communicative and autonomous.

The year 2007 saw functionality added that would allow two or more ASIMO robots to be connected together and work collaboratively. By this point ASIMO could work out whether to move past an oncoming person or obstacle, or let it pass. The robot could also take itself off to a charger when its battery began to run low. It was this version of the ASIMO that famouslyconducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2008.

The most recent version of ASIMO was released in 2011. It boasted a host of sensors, with a number devoted to mimicking certain human senses, plus it could balance better than previous incarnations and, for the first time, had dexterous hands. Touch sensors throughout the hand and flexible fingers meant it could carry out tasks like opening bottles and pouring liquid.

All of which brings us up to today's announcement. The new ASIMO has been launched in Brussels with a variety of improvements. Many of those improvements are refinements of existing capabilities, but are no less impressive for it.

Improved intelligence allows the robot to recognize the faces and voices of multiple simultaneous speakers, and to change its behavior based on the perceived intention of the other party. This, of course, is calculated based on data collected via the robot's host of sensors.

ASIMO can now run at up to 5.6 mph (9 km/h) – 1.8 mph (2.9 km/h) faster than previously – and can run backwards, jump, and hop on one leg continuously. Its hands are more dexterous, allowing it to pick up a bottle and twist off the cap, and it can use its hands to perform sign language. The robot now has 57 degrees of freedom (ways of moving), up from 23 previously. It is 130 cm (51 in) tall and weighs 50 kg (110 lb).

Honda says that many of the new features and capabilities of ASIMO are a result of its research into the decision-making capabilities of robots. This has led ASIMO to be able to adapt much of its behavior in real time and, claims Honda, brings us one step closer to a world in which robots can be employed at home (or elsewhere) for practical purposes.

WINDOWS PHONE 9 PREVIEW EXPECTED NEXT YEAR

Windows Phone 9 much anticipated successor of Windows Phone 8 is set to hit markets at end of year 2015. But its preview version Windows Phone 9 Preview is to be available around mid 2015.

However, there is no news on the features of the Windows Phone 9. But much is expected as Windows Phone 8.1 came with many updates over its predecessor Windows Phone 8. The other aspect which needs to be seen is the Phone 9’s compatibility with existing Windows Phone. Last time when Phone 8 rolled out it was not updateable on many existing Phone 7 devices.

If Windows Phone 9 is released as expected than time gap between the two major releases of Windows would be a bit small.  As last time when WP8 got it update WP8.1 it took about 17 months. So if Phone 9 is launched as per information then it would be about 15 months.

The Windows Phone 9’s desktop counterpart will take a bit longer to reach its user. As its Preview version will be released at the very end of 2015. A lot is expected from the desktop version too as Windows 8 didn’t do as well as expected. As per information Window 9 would be much more similar to Windows 7.

All eyes are set on Windows Phone 9 Preview as this would be the first major release by Windows on phone level after acquiring Nokia. So let’s see what new this version brings in.

CORTANA AND TOY ROBOTS COMBINED INTO NANABOT

Along with its high intellectual abilities even, windows phone’s voice auxiliary, cortana, is nothing greater than a lot of animation talking to you. A project by Indiegogo – named Nanabot – offers something different than Cortana. By joining the excellence of WowWee’s robo toys with technical abilities of Lumia phone by Nokia, the inventor Robert Oschler made the combination so unique which is quite fascinating. The robot does not have any control by itself and the Cortana doesn’t have a body, so Oschler planned a mixture which is yet to be invented but it has been named Nanabot already. The question that arises is that although it is a great idea, the name of the project is good but what it will do and how it will work?

Oschler planned a Windows mobile app along with codebase which will be formed similar to the voice recognition system of the Cortana and he also devised Smartphone-powered robot system named RoboME. The application portion would run on Lumia that would be attached to WowWee robot. For the robo, it will allow plenty of tricks to be accessible at a time. Some specialty of the nanabot would be that it will have the ability to play unique games with you. Your room would be guarded by it, it would ask questions to the people who are they and when they got in. It would be able to remember DVDs and books that you will show her, it would be able to identify even your cat’s face and so many other fun features it will have.

If Oschler achieves the amount of funds he requires to complete his goal, then he thinks of launching open-source toolkit which will make it easy for developers to produce RoboME applications. It will help in buying and playing easily with RoboMe robot and a windows mobile phone. By using Oschler’s toolkit, a developer will be able to control RoboMe’s actions, infrared object sensors, core LED and auditory entry. It would be quite interesting that what this Nanabot will become in future how far it will go. Still the responsive robots which will be moving around us are really far to come in future.

NOKIA-MICROSOFT DEAL NOW OFFICIALLY DONE

The Nokia and Microsoft deal has now gone official on April 25 after Microsoft took the charge of all of Nokia’s Devices & Services business. However, two factories one in Chennai (India) and the other in South Korea have still been under Nokia’s shield. However, the South Korean factory has nearly 200 employees on the count at the moment but new are that Nokia will be closing it down sooner or later. Anything regarding the Chennai factory is still unsaid.

The deal is expected to be closed off at a slightly more price that the earlier quoted €5.44 billion because of an positive adjustment in cash earnings and net working capitals. The leadership team from Nokia has now been transformed to Microsoft that includes CEO Stephen Elop, Jo Harlow, Juha Putkiranta, Timo Toikkanen and Chis Weber.

Nokia is to make an announcement on April 29 voicing further details regarding the transactions possibly deciding the fate of Chennai factory.

MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 3 NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER

The wait for the tablet  that can replace your laptop is over. Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is now available for pre-order at MicrosoftStore.com and their official retail stores. Customers can visit any Microsoft retail store to be among the first to have a hands-on experience with Surface Pro 3 and the latest accessories including a Microsoft Store exclusive red type cover. Each store will have multiple devices to try along with a team of store experts dedicated to deliver the best choice, quality and service.
Surface Pro 3 will be available commercially from June 20.

 The Surface Pro vision has been a long time in the making.The Surface Pro tagline — a single gadget that does all your computing — looking much shakier than its predecessors. But now, with a brand new look and feel it will be analogous with the MacBook Air instead of the unstoppable iPad. It is Microsoft’s best (and maybe last) chance to prove that this whole thing is a good idea after all.

 

The Surface Pro 3 packs a 12-inch ClearType Full HD screen with a weight of 1.76 pounds.There’s also a button on the pen that automatically opens a new OneNote note where we can quickly write something down. It is saved automatically,sent to the cloud and will be accessible across all the Microsoft devices.Microsoft has also improved the new Type Cover for the Surface 3 by giving it a bigger trackpad,more gestures and improved tracking.

To celebrate the arrival of the Surface Pro 3, all Microsoft retail stores in the U.S. and Canada will host launch day activities starting when stores open on Friday, June 20, including VIP white-glove pre-order pickup, giveaways, music, food and more. Attendees will have the opportunity to win dozens of giveaways and prizes, including a family vacation to Honolulu, Hawaii, for four. Full terms and conditions will be available on the Microsoft Store Facebook page by June 20.

STILL RUNNING WINDOWS XP? THANK BILL GATES FOR THAT

If you look at London’s computer landscape today, than you will see that almost every office without exception has a computer running Microsoft’s operating system.

Bill Gates’s vision was of ‘a computer on every desk, each one running Microsoft software’. Now the true cost is emerging

Microsoft has dominated the PC market since the time of Windows XP and its not all bad news either. Since Windows was the defacto standard, software had to be made for Windows for it to be successful in the consumer market. This standardization enabled the vast expansion of the PC industry.

Although there are some downsides too. This monoculture made it easier for some hackers to deliver widespread attacks. Malware and viruses are still causing us problems, and thus this is also a part of Microsoft’s legacy.

Windows XP is a prime example of this widespread obsolescence. Even after 13 years, Windows XP is being used in almost 28% of all Windows PCs. Market research firm Gartner says that 10% of large organisations and up to 25% of business systems are running Windows XP. Even many ATM machines are still running Windows XP.

This is a huge problem because  if one of them can be compromised than many more of them will be compromised as well. There are lot of viruses and malware that can ruin a good Windows XP installation. This makes it even more of a concern that Microsoft released its final free security patch for XP on 8 April. You can sign-up for the 200$ migration plan to keep Windows XP safe but as part of this plan you have to upgrade the machine to Windows 8 later.

As you can see, its hardly a good option to go with the mitigation plan but the government of Britain is paying £5.5m for Windows XP security coverage for one year.

Microsoft is made fun of because of not being able to gain much ground in the mobile revolution and due to the state of some of its products e.g. Internet Explorer, but the fact is that Microsoft is still very profitable and if WIndows XP is any indication, it will continue to be profitable in the future as well.

APPLE IS HIRING, SHOWS BIOSENSING IWATCH IS NEXT

Apple is up to something

It has been noted that Apple is hiring seasoned experts of medical technology. This has alerted the members of the community of biotechnologists, and it has also given everyone a clue that iWatch and similar products are coming next from the manufacturer of iPhone.

Clues from LinkedIn                                                                                                                                                    

The changes in LinkedIn profiles show that Apple has been hiring 6 to 7 well-known biomedicine experts in a short period of time during last year. Almost 15 days ago, a famous and well-reputed researcher joined Apple. Two men who know are aware of the hiring, but didn’t disclosed their identity, said that Apple is hiring experts of hardware and medical field, but it is not known that how many people will be hired.

Opinions of the Experts

Sensor technology is the main focus of Apple’s hiring. Last year Tim Cook, an area Chief Executive, predicted that sensor technology will be revolutionizing everything in the future. The people in industry say this is a lot more than the fitness devices that are currently available in the market. The new device will be able to monitor blood pressure, sugar level, human diet etc.

Mr. Malay Gandhi, chief strategy officer of a San Francisco venture capital firm called Rock Health, knew about the steps being taken by the Apple. He said that this is a very serious and calculated progress in the biosensing field. Rock Health has already backed Spire and Augmedix which are famous startups of wearable-tech.

Because of Cook’s statement about a new category of products, Apple must introduce something new this year. The last time Apple introduced a new product was in 2010 when it released iPad. This is something that bothers the investors; there is still a huge stock of it remaining although the customer deals were great and investors were given good share of profits.

Investors’ Interest

On 23 April 2014, Carl Icahn who is an investor tweeted showing his pleasure over buyback plans and quarterly results. He further said that he and others will be happy to see the company launching new products.

Talks in the Media

In Japan, Apple has already registered “iWatch” as its trademark. Apple already has patents for different wrist-worn and point devices. In the month of February, Apple applied for the patent of smart earbud: a device that can identify the action of head and trace back steps.

An executive for mobile health talked to Reuters on the condition that his name will not be disclosed. He had a meeting with Apple iWatch team executive not long ago. According to him, Apple’s plan is not just limited to wearable devices rather the company is planning to develop a complete fitness and health services setup based on Apple App Store.

Steve Dowling, spokesman of Apple, didn’t want to comment when asked about recent recruiting and company’s future plans about health-tech.

The medical technologists are sure that Apple is developing a platform that is similar to Apple’s App Store. This will enable the startups to develop software and hardware for medical applications for mobiles.

Ted Driscoll, a Silicon Valley-based partner of Claremont Creek Ventures that is a specialist of medical devices and digital health, said that he is sure about Apple’s plans for exploring this area. He further said that Apple is very focused on hiring engineers that expertise in monitoring body parameters.

O2 MedTech, Masimo Corp., Vital Connect and Sano Intelligence are some of the companies from where Apple stole biomedical engineers.

Pulse oximetry device is the most famous product of Masimo. This device externally measures a patient’s absorption level of oxygen which is actually an inhaling activity. The specialty of Vital Connect is to measure important factors like body temperature and heartbeats per unit time. O2 Med Tech is trying & testing biosensors in order to invent new gadgets.

People who have joined Apple

The information on LinkedIn shows that some very important people have joined Apple Company headquartered in Cupertino, California. These people include vice president of Vital Connect biosensor technology Ravi Narasimhan, Marcelo Lamego Chief Technology Officer of Cercacor, and embedded sensors expert Nima Ferdosi.

According to a reliable source, biomedical engineer Alexander Chan who used to work for Vital Connect has also quit his job. Now his LinkedIn profile says that he has joined a tech company.

Some more LinkedIn profiles also show interesting changes. Two hardware experts Todd Whitehurst and Nancy Dougherty have also joined Apple. Nancy used to work at Sano Intelligence, a wearable sensor company. Todd used to work at Senseonics where he was a vice president; Senseonics manufactures glucose-measuring devices.

The latest personality to join Apple is Divya Nag. She joined Apple about two weeks ago, and she is the founder of Stanford affiliated startup accelerator StartX Med. She is now an important part of R & D team of Apple where a healthcare product is being developed. Divya Nag chose not to give any comments when asked about the ongoing progress.

When people and companies were contacted on LinkedIn profiles, only Ferdosi responded but chose not to give any comments. Two companies, Vital Connect and Sano, didn’t want to give any comments while two other companies, Cercacor and Masimo, accepted that people left them and joined another company. No contact could be made with MedTech and O2 while Senseonics didn’t respond to the email at all.

Apple is Using Money to Get People

According to Daniel Kraft, iWatch’s first model will be able to measure heartbeat per unit time, blood pressure and some other important parameters. Daniel Kraft is the head of FutureMed program. This program is about studying changes occurring in technology and their possible use in biomedicine.

Kraft is expecting Apple to come up with a gadget that doesn’t needs to draw out a blood sample in order to measure the level of glucose in the body.

Joe Kiani is the chief executive officer of Masimo, a firm that makes medical device. His chief medical officer left him 2013 and joined Apple. According to him, the people Apple is hiring are extraordinary people who know a lot of useful information and business secrets.

According to Kiani, Apple is using money to get, and he hopes Apple is not doing what his company is doing. Apple is offering lavish salaries to these people without telling the details of the ongoing projects.

The Question about FDA

According to New York Times, O’Reilly and other executives of Apple had a meeting with top officers of Food and Drug Administration in January. Bakul Patel was also there with other FDA officers; he is the one who finalized the mobile health guidance for FDA. There is a chance Apple can face legal issues if its products are able to do more than fitness monitoring.

Last year FDA made an announcement that a process is underway which would legalize the use of smartphone as medical equipment or at least make it legal to use a smartphone as an accessory with certain medical devices. This can cover additional equipment and mobile apps which can instantly test urine or monitor respiratory system. However, FDA’s regulation will not cover devices like FuelBand by Nike that do not give medical assistance but they do trace back steps.

Projects of Apple’s Competitors

The competitors of Apple have already tried and failed to develop such products that can capture the market. The Galaxy Gear smartwatch by Samsung got mixed reviews by consumers, and critics didn’t like it at all.

Endeavour Partners issued a report in which it was mentioned that 33% of the US-based customers owning a wearable device stopped using it within a year. The problems with the device that were mentioned in the report were appearance, life of battery, practicality and medical use. In addition to this, recently Nike had to fire FuelBand team members due to bad results.

In the meantime, Google is using another strategy to cope with the situation. Google got ahead of Apple by introducing the Android Wear which is an Android software version especially designed for wearable gadgets. Very much like Apple, Google is showing great interest in biotechnology. Right now Google is working on a project about contact lenses that will be able to measure glucose levels in human tears.

FUTURE WEARABLES: NEW POSSIBILITIES OF RECHARGING BY BODY HEAT

What do you think a major turn-out would be in the field innovation as far as smart-devices are concerned? Yes, batter-life. Who does want to spend precious time of their days hanging with their chargers?  But as rumor has it, and we can’t quit looking towards future, in a distant one there are methods being worked on to provide power to your wearable by utilizing the heat constantly getting emitted from the wrist.

Developed by the Korean Advance Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), this technique converts body-temperature into electricity through a quite thinner (~500 μm) thermoelectric power-generator, imposed on a transparent fabric. Apart of that it is quite light, elastic, bendy, and comes with a self-sustainable arrangement “without top and bottom substrates”. KAIST pertains to claim that its thermoelectric generator has ten times greater energy output density alike generators of that kind.

“For our case, the glass fabric itself serves as the upper and lower substrates of a TE generator, keeping the inorganic TE materials in between,” as declared by an electrical engineering professor, Byung Jin Cho, at KAIST. He further added, ”This is quite a revolutionary approach to design a generator. In doing so, we were able to significantly reduce the weight of our generator, which is an essential element for wearable electronics.”

Till so far, the usual available thermoelectric generators  have been quite bulky and not appropriate for wearables. Still, as KAIST’s innovation lets drastically smaller devices to get charged by body-temperature. The researchers at KAIST add the fact that their technological advancement in this peculiar sector could be used in automobiles, factories, aircrafts, and vessels, where the wasted thermal energy can find its way in making it a useful one.

PARROT’S LATEST BEBOP DRONE TAKES FLIGHT WITH FULL-HD VIDEO

Parrot, a company best known for its commercial drone products, has announced an all-new model, the Parrot Bebop Drone at sUSB Expo in San Francisco. Alike previous released version 2.0 of the A.R Drone, this is a full GPS-guided drone that is controllable using an Android smartphone or tablet. Bebop Drone is termed as A.R Drone 3.0 coming with a high quality 14MP camera that is able to capture 1080p videos.

The Parrot Bebop drone hopes to attract filmmakers and photographers with an increasingly high-quality flying camera, built-in GPS to fly programmed waypoints, and the ability to hover and pan the camera.Videos are recorded to Bebop’s 8 GB internal storage there’s no microSD or SD card slot) in MP4 format. Photos can be captured in JPEGs or Adobe DNG raw format. Parrot takes advantage of the extra resolution to let you digitally pan and zoom your picture as well as stabilize your shots on three axes.It allows Parrot to cut costs and keep the Bebop light — its maximum weight is 400 grams (14.1 ounces) — and compact. It measures roughly 12 inches (28 cm) square and 1.5 inches (3.6 cm) tall.

Parrot will also provide a specialized controller, the Skycontroller, which can extend the range of the Wi-Fi network up to two kilometers. But while the hummingbird-like drone can take videos with a 180-degree field of view, the Bebop drone can only stay in the air for 12 minutes.After that, it runs out of batteries. This device attaches itself to a smartphone or tablet and increases the signal to 36dBm.The HDMI port on the Skycontroller can be used to connect the Oculus Rift. This will allow users to control the drone by head movement alone. It is also limited to flying within the range of an 802.11ac Wi-Fi network while under direct pilot control.

The Bebop drone comes with a free piloting app, FreeFlight 3.0, for iOS and Android. The left thumb controls a virtual joystick that governs altitude, while the right stick controls the angle of title of the camera. When you tilt your smartphone or tablet, you can make the drone move forward, backward, left or right.Images captured by its camera will be transmitted directly to the display of the mobile device.

The Bebop Drone is slated for a fourth quarter release later this year. Parrots has not yet said how much the Bebop will cost. Its last quadcopter, the AR.Drone 2.0, costs just $300. If Parrot can keep the price below the competing Blade 350 QX‘s sub-$500 and DJI Phantom’s $1,200 price tags, it could easily be a top choice for beginning quadcopter users.