The fine folks over at Engadget Spanish received a Nokia Booklet 3G and started cranking the old cam for some pics and vid. The Booklet that they received is running a fresh copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. The Engadget Spanish team were really impressed with the packaging, and particularly the adapter (interestingly, it’s just an adapter, right?). They’ve already posted an unboxing video and a picture gallery. Check ‘em out. The Booklet 3G will be hitting stateside by mid-november, with BestBuy already allowing pre-orders.

“The Nokia N97 mini brings with it a raft of new software features, alongside a diminutive stainless steel frame but still with all the things people love about its original bigger brother. [...] the N97 software [update] brings a host of optimisation tweaks, improving performance and battery life.”

James Beechinor-Collins, Nokia

Telus and Bell’s joint HSPA+ Network will be coming online next Thursday (November 5, 2009). Telus has already listed their launch devices, with some very nice things in the lineup. As we already knew, Bell and Telus will launch their network with the iPhone 3GS spearheading the way. What we didn’t know was that Telus has managed to grab some nice exclusivities. The HTC Hero and LG’s New Chocolate will be exclusive to Telus, as well as the black and red versions of Nokia’s E71. Last but not least, RIM’s BlackBerry Bold 9700 will also be featured on the launch, but not as a Telus exclusive.

“The Nokia N900 is a great example of what we and the open source community have been able to achieve with Maemo software. We are working closely with open source developers and for example, at the Maemo Summit in October, we loaned 300 pre-production units to get more feedback from the community. This feedback is extremely important to us and as such we also want to provide the best user experience with the Nokia N900. We expect it to start shipping during November 2009.”

Peter Schneider, Nokia

So to recap, the official word from Nokia is “during November 2009“. Some other sources appear to have inside info on when specifically in November. Expansys USA has the N900 listed with a November 2nd ship date, while product-reviews.net says that they got an email from MobilePhonesDirect that claims a November 16th UK release. The German Nokia store has “possibly November 25th” listed, while NewEgg has the shipping date stateside as November 14th. Who is right? Stick around…

Apparently Apple has refused to agree to “appropriate” licensing terms, preferring to fight this one out in the courts. The Delaware Federal District court will get a chance to square this one away (in the coming years). Nokia is vague on specific patent applications, claiming that they cover “wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption”. It is unknown if these are hardware or software patents, but it is likely a mix therein.

I doubt that Apple would throw caution at the wind and willfully infringe patents, but the problem likely lies in the negotiations for royalties. Either Nokia is demanding too much, or Apple is just being stubborn, perhaps hoping to get away with lower royalty demands through the American courts. A home lawsuit may carry bias to an American company, and Apple may be more likely to win regardless of implications. We’ll be following this case closely.

Want to save a couple hundred bucks on your next MacBook or MacBook Pro? Look no further, AppleInsider is pulling their connections to get the community some nice savings. You can grab the new 13″ MacBook for $899 (from $999), the MacBook Pros will net you savings of $120 to $280 depending on the model, or save $105 on the MacBook Air. Looks like today’s Windows 7 launch has Apple moving.

“Good news! Due to strong customer demand for our newest Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6″ Kindles. As part of this consolidation, we are lowering the price of the Kindle you just purchased from $279 down to $259. You don’t need to do anything to get the lower price–we are automatically issuing you a $20 refund. This refund should be processed in the next few days and will appear as a credit on your next billing statement.”

It’s pretty cool for Amazon to push a refund to their early adopters. Be sure to check out Wired’s hands-on by Charlie Sorrel.

Mike Cooper of Nokia Conversations recently published a brief, 4 minute orientation video for the N900 setup process along with a getting started intro video. It’s interesting to note that the setup process serves as a brief tutorial to get used to the haptic touchscreen functions. Nothing extraordinary, but it’s cool to see the N900 in action. The N900 is expected to hit European markets by the end of this month, with North American segments following soon thereafter. We should see more hand-on videos and reviews as the N900 starts to ship. Catch the video after the break.

The Boy Genius Report has finally gotten their hands on Motorola’s Droid. Just a recap, its Motorola’s upcoming Android 2.0 handset, which has been engineered with close cooperation from Google. Boy Genius is highly impressed with the performance and sheer speed of Android 2.0 (via Omap 3430). Other pluses cited are the huge capacitive display, sturdy construction, and a thin form-factor despite the inclusion of a full QWERTY keyboard. If priced competitively, it could be the first North American phone to give the iPhone a run for its money.

“[...] the Droid, even in its non-final form, is the most impressive phone we’ve used since the iPhone. It’s positively amazing”

Boy Genius

Don’t forget to check out their gallery, we’ll have more news on the Droid as we get them, and BGR should have a full review soon.

Verizon continues its aggressive advertisement campaign gunning at the iPhone, and by extensions its carrier AT&T. The aim of the latest video is to promote Verizon’s upcoming Android flagship, the Motorola Droid (codename “Sholes”), launching in November. The video calls out several of the iPhone’s limitations, with Android being cited as the solution (what iDoesn’t, DroidDoes). Mind you, these limitations are “solved” in other currently available handsets, but what makes this headline worthy is the bold jab at the iPhone, with the “solution” being a Motorola handset. Considering Motorola’s difficulties in cellular markets in recent years, this is bold. Keeping in line with viral marketing, the video ends with a quick flash of droiddoes.com, which redirects to a Verizon page. The counter on the site is programmed to end on October 30th, so we can expect an announcement either next Friday or the following Monday (Nov 2nd).

Earlier this week Nokia published their 2009 third quarter earnings [PDF], and the numbers don’t look so good. The big headlines are revolving around a €559 million quarterly net loss and global smartphone market share down to 35% (from 41%, Q2). This marks Nokia’s first quarterly loss in a decade.

Investors we’re caught surprised at the dramatic drop in smartphone market share. The 6 percent drop in a single quarter caused Nokia’s stocks to take a dip on the Helsinki exchange.

“The scale of the smartphone (market) share loss must give the markets pause for thought over the coming days. Dropping six points in three months is pretty stunning”

Tero Kuittinen, MKM Partners analyst

Why are the numbers down? The main reason cited has to do with a €903 million write off on Nokia Siemens Networks. Then there is increasing competition in the smartphone field. The American market is dominated by RIM and Apple, though Nokia is not too preoccupied. Europe however is another story. With Android handsets gaining popularity in Europe and others such as Palm’s Pre making a strong debut across several European markets, Nokia is starting to feel the crunch in the high-performance segment. Nokia is still king as per market share goes (38% global total), but failures such as the N97 “flagship” adds pressure to future launches.

“Consumer demand may be showing early signs of improvement but these results show sustained pressure on smartphone margins. Apple’s iPhone is defying gravity in the high tier.”

Geoff Blaber, CCS Insight analyst

Nokia seems to be optimistic about next quarter and several analysts say it’s not so bad. With the launch of the N900, E72, X6, and other handsets, Nokia seems to have its hands full. With the holiday season fast approaching, things are sure to pick up. How is Nokia faring in your side of the globe?

Ben Kurtz, the hacker behind AwghBlog, shows us how to connect a PS/2 keyboard to an iPhone. It’s a cool neat little project, very well detailed and can be done for under $100 (minus iPhone). A rough bill of materials drafted by Ben is included after the break; you can grab the parts off of Digi-Key, Mouser, SparkFun, Radio Shack, and Maker Shed. All the software needed for the project can be freely downloaded off of Ben’s blog.

Prerequisites

• Jailbroken iPhone – The official SDK doesn’t allow access to the serial port due to the Elf Conspiracy, so the jailbreak is required.  All you need to know about jailbreaking is at the iPhone Dev Team Blog.
• Arduino Diecimila or Dumilanove (or clone), available from many places.  This howto assumes that your Arduino is assembled.
• An iPod Breakout board, like this one from Sparkfun.  Any similar product will work.
• A Female PS/2 (Din 6) Keyboard connector.  Pull one off an old computer or buy one from Digikey or similar vendor.
• Wire, preferably several colors and about 24 gauge.  I’m using a spool from RadioShack in the pics below.
• One 500k Resistor.  I’m using an axial through-hole resistor from RadioShack, but you could add this to your Digikey order as well.
• Soldering Iron and Solder.  If you don’t know how to solder, you can learn here and here.
• (Optional) Pin Headers, like these.  I break these off and solder them to the ends of wires, so that they plug nicely into the Arduino.
• (Optional) Sweet 9v Battery harness so your Arduino becomes portable available from the Maker Store.
• (Optional) Stereo Headphone Jack from RadioShack or Digikey.

Ben Kurtz

The entire project will run you about $80 (excluding shipping) assuming that you only have an iPhone and PS/2 keyboard. If you don’t have a soldering iron, you can grab a cheap one for under 10 bucks, but a good quality iron will run you $100 or a bit less. Have fun, and try not to burn the house down!

The Palm Pre is continuing its invasion of Europe, hitting the Uk today. A two-year contract will land our UK readers a free Pre @ £34.26 per month. This includes 600 minutes, 500 texts, and unlimited data. An 18-month contract exists as well, with several plans detailed after the break. Let us know how the launch goes!

O2’s 18-month contract plans

Details have finally emerged on Nokia’s Booklet 3G’s selling strategy. At a conference this Tuesday at Manhattan between AT&T, Best Buy, Nokia, and Microsoft it was revealed that Best Buy will be selling the Booklet 3G exclusively. The launch date is October 22nd, set to coincide with Windows 7’s launch. You can pick up the Booklet 3G for $599 when it launches, or $299 with a 2-year contract with AT&T (minimum $60/month data plan required).

What’s so great about the Booklet 3G? For one thing, it’s the return of Nokia to the computer field (ignoring the internet tablets). Interesting to note the parallels to Apple, a computer company entering the cellular field, Nokia is a handset giant entering the computing field. The Booklet boasts a 12-hour battery life under normal usage (always on browsing) via a 16-cell battery. Quite a claim, but Nokia supposedly has the numbers to back it up, we’ll see soon enough. The laptop itself is quite decked, 3G via HSPA or WiFi for connectivity, A-GPS (with Ovi maps) and a hot-swappable SIM. The display is a 10.1 inch HD screen (1280×720 resolution), with HDMI video out. The entire package comes to a lean 1kg (2.2 pounds). The Booklet will be running a copy of Windows 7, powered by an Intel Atom core (Z530 1.6 GHz) with 1 GB of RAM and a 120 GB HDD.

All in all, it looks like a solid netbook; pricing may be a little on the expensive side, but the Booklet does come with some strong selling points (3G, GPS, HD, 12-hour battery life…). Time will tell how well Nokia’s return to computers goes.