Nokia launches Qt 4.6 with support for Symbian, Windows 7 and more

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Nokia has just announced the availability of Qt 4.6, the newest version of its cross-platform application and UI framework (formerly developed by Trolltech, which Nokia acquired in 2008).

Qt 4.6 comes with many new features, as well as with support for more platforms: Symbian (4.6 is the first version of Qt to support Symbian), Windows 7, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard and the yet-to-come Maemo 6. Support for Maemo 5 should come soon, too.

Qt 4.6 also adds support for multi-touch and gestures, and offers new graphical capabilities (including a new Animation Framework and graphics effects like opacity, glow, filtering and drop shadows).

There are also performance improvements, thanks to a re-written Qt GraphicsView rendering algorithm, 2D vector graphic support, a new OpenGL paint engine and new DirectFB support.

Qt Creator (part of the Qt SDK) has been updated as well, to version 1.3.

To find out more about the latest version of Nokia’s Qt and to download it, visit its official website.

Via Press release

Nokia sues big LCD makers for artificially inflating prices

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Not long after suing Apple over alleged patent infringements, Nokia has now (well, actually on November 25) filed a new suit, this time against a group of LCD manufacturers, which apparently have “artificially inflated the price of liquid crystal displays ultimately incorporated into LCD products purchased by Nokia, causing Nokia to pay higher prices.”

The LCD makers sued by Nokia include Samsung, LG, AU Optronics, Toshiba, Philips and others.

The lawsuit was filed with the US District Court in San Francisco, California.

If Nokia wins, the mentioned LCD makers will probably have to pay big money to it.

Nokia recently filed a similar lawsuit in the UK, too.

Via Bloomberg

LG and T-Mobile USA in talks for an Android phone?

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LG (which just announced the eXpo for AT&T), might make an Android handset for T-Mobile USA.

According to Strategy Analytics, LG’s market share in North America declined 2 percent in the third quarter of this year, possibly due to its lack of smartphones. Moreover, Verizon (one of LG’s main customers in the US) didn’t include the company’s phones in its holiday promotion program, so now LG is looking for ways to regain its lost market share.

Telecoms Korea says that T-Mobile officials recently visited LG’s Seoul headquarters, which may have led to talks about an Android smartphone – although there’s nothing concrete regarding this for now.

Interestingly, T-Mobile USA doesn’t have any LG phones its current line-up.

LG has officially announced only two Android handsets until now: the GW620 (pictured above) and the GW880 for China Mobile.

Via Telecoms Korea

Samsung Diva S7070 and S5150, new fashion phone collection launched

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Ever since it launched, Samsung La Fleur collection of decorated mobile phones have been quite a hit. Especially around Christmas and Valentine’s day, as a gift to your loved one.

But it’s been more then a year since any of Samsung phones received latest flowery decorations, and the fashionable phone line is crying for the update. And they are getting it soon.

Today Samsung has officially announced the launch of a new fashion line of mobile phones under the Diva brand, with two phones for 2010 – Samsung S7070 Glowing Diva and Samsung S5150 Glam Diva.

For now, Samsung is pretty scarce on the specs of both handsets, revealing only that Samsung S7070 is a full tochscreen phone with TouchWiz UI and and 3.2 megapixel camera. While Samsung S5150 is a well designed, but very basic flip hone, with interesting 3D quilted backcover pattern and hidden LED screen.

Both handsets will come with photo retouching and enriching “Beauty” and “Lomo” effects, sensually designed fonts, “Etiquette mode” to instantly silence the phone and security features like “SOS Message” and “Fake call”.

From the looks of it Samsung Diva S7070, is the good old Samsung Corby, in a new, fashionable clothing. S7070 even comes with similar social networking widgets for Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites, it also includes multi-instant messenger to combine all your chats in one place.

Samsung Divas will miss the Christmas season, to launch in January 2010, in the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine and other European countries, followed by Southeastern Asia and China.

But they look better as a Valentine’s day, then Christmas gifts anyway.

Via UV

Samsung S5560 and B3410 coming to UK via Carphone Warehouse

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Samsung S5560 and B3410 will apparently debut in the UK this week, exclusively via Carphone Warehouse.

Priced at £149.95 on PAYG, the Samsung S5560 is a full touchscreen phone that features a 3 inch WQVGA display, Wi-Fi, 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth 2.1, FM radio with RDS, 5MP autofocus camera with flash and video recording, and MicroSD card support.

The S5560 lacks 3G, but it comes with a feature called “Etiquette Pause”, which enables users to pause music or simply mute the phone by turning it with the face down.

As you can see in the photo below, the Samsung S5560 looks pretty cool:

The second phone that will hit the UK via Carphone this week, the Samsung B3410, features a 2.6 inch QVGA display, full QWERTY keyboard, quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity, 2MP camera and widgets for Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Samsung B3410 will cost only £99.95 on PAYG.

Via Pocket-lint

Renesas to offer application engine for Cortex A8 CPUs with 1080p video recording

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Renesas Technology, the Japanese semiconductor maker (joint venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi), announced a new ARM Cortex A8 based application engine for mobile devices.

Called SH-Mobile Application Engine 4 (SH73720), the new Renesas product is designed for next generation phones, smartphones and netbooks. Its features include full HD 1080p video recording, high-speed 3D graphics rendering, video playback at 30fps, advanced gaming experience and so on.

The SH73720 uses Renesas’ ISP (Image Signal Processor) technology, thus being capable of providing “a state-of-the art 16Mpixel ISP for best visual quality while supporting full HD 1080p movie processing.”

The new application processor also integrates an HDMI transmitter and a PAL/NTSC encoder.

“With broadband wireless access like UMTS/HSPA or LTE, customers can have the Internet at their fingertips wherever and whenever. Access to music, videos and games with mobile phones becomes as simple as it became on the PC a few years ago. Renesas has developed the SH-Mobile Application Engine 4, as the first device of the SH-Mobile Application Engine Series, in a new class of application processors to offer an entirely new user experience on mobile computers and to solve the conflicts around creating an exciting multimedia experience within the low power budget of mobile devices,” declared Shinichi Yoshioka, General Manager of System Solution Business Unit, System Solution Business Group, Renesas Technology Corp.

Renesas says that it’s sampling the SH-Mobile Application Engine 4 now.

Via Press release

Rogers vends Nokia N86, $100 on a three-year deal

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S60 or otherwise, it's pretty tough to argue with the meaty goodness of an 8 megapixel cam paired with an AMOLED display -- especially when it's being delivered on carrier subsidy. Rogers customers have another reason to celebrate their network's willingness to release a glorious variety of largely untouched, sparsely branded handsets this week on news that the Nokia N86 8MP is now available for CAD $99.99 ($94) on a three-year contract, scaling all the way up to CAD $449.99 ($424) contract-free. These days, it's pretty easy to lose sight of the fact that there's such a thing as a non-touch smartphone, and the N86 -- along with the E72 -- is a prime example of why those sorts of devices still exist. Anyone planning on picking this up?


Via MobileSyrup

Samsung's 'glamorous' Diva Collection 2010 officially announced

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There's nothing like a faux quilted battery cover to get the blood pumping, so if you've been unable to sleep since laying eyes on those magnificent Diva phones from Samsung last week as you've desperately sought high and low for more information, trust us, we feel you. Fortunately, Sammy's now seen fit to drop some knowledge on the pair of handsets targeted squarely at the fairer sex; first up, the S5150 clamshell features a "glittering LED" (their verbiage, not ours) on the outer cover that lights up in interesting ways when calls and other events occur. Meanwhile, the S7070 goes full-touch with Samsung's usual TouchWiz UI but adds special features like "Beauty Effect" to make shots snapped with the 3.2 megapixel camera "flawlessly beautiful." Interestingly, Samsung says that it'll be re-upping the Diva Collection every year with new phones aimed squarely at girly buyers, but don't rush down to the shady wireless shop yet -- these first Divas won't be hitting until January when they launch in Russia, Ukraine, the Netherlands, and other parts of Europe with Asian availability coming at a later date.

Via GSM Arena

Zii Trinity mobile platform packs 1080p punch, looking for OEM love

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Ready to start lusting after a new smartphone? If Creative has its way, you'll soon be enjoying Full HD video on a 3.5 / 4G device, with built-in WiFi, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, accelerated 3D graphics, and mini-HDMI and Composite video outputs. The newly announced 3.1-inch, multitouch-capable Zii Trinity has been designed by Creative subsidiary Ziilabs, and will be licensed out to clients who'll be able to customize a Zii-optimized Android install and Plaszma interface. As if we haven't got enough smartphone ecosystems knocking about already, this also marks the introduction of ZiiLife, which aims to be both a content delivery and productivity suite. Powered by the ARM-based ZMS-05 or ZMS-08, the new handset actually seems destined to perform plenty of KIRF and grey market duties, judging by Creative's "strategic partnerships" with Chinese manufacturers, but that might be no bad thing as, according to Gartner, the grey market is booming right now.

Via PRWeb

Like clockwork, BlackBerry Bold 9700 gets ColorWared

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Nothing says "I do not accept the normal social conventions of a business-oriented mobile device; I do, however, accept its software and lovely keyboard" quite like sending your BlackBerry in for a retina-burning ColorWare job. It's been done before, it's being done now, and it'll be done until pigs rule the sky -- and if you're craving the latest and greatest way to shock your colleagues when you reach into your double-breasted suit coat's inside pocket, look no further than the recolored Bold 9700. There are fully six different components that can be independently colored to your liking, and we hear that Mike Lazaridis loses 60 seconds of sleep every time one of 'em gets painted something other than black, so get to it -- it'll run you $159 plus the cost of the phone itself.


Via Engadget German