May 2 - 10:35am EDT   Rogers today confirmed one of two key rumors concerning its phone lineup for the spring by announcing it would carry the Nokia N95 8GB. The Canadian provider is the first in North America to officially stock the smartphone and takes advantage of the phone's 3G support for more than is possible on AT&T in the US, including Rogers' VISION two-way video calling service (courtesy of its front camera) and access to the carrier's music store and video streaming services. [full story]

April 25 - 8:35am EDT   Motorola is developing a movie store for its phones, claims UK trade magazine New Media Age (registration required for full article). An alleged source at partner studio Paramount says that Motorola is in the "late stages" of offering a service that would offer full-length movies pre-formatted for Motorola's more media-friendly devices. Paramount is currently the only studio known to be involved, though others are allegedly in talks to add their own catalogs. [full story]

March 27 - 2:25pm EDT   Sling Media on Thursday said it would expand SlingPlayer Mobile to add support for phones running the UIQ operating system. The new version will allow some Sony-Ericsson and Motorola phones to stream and remotely control Slingbox devices at home whenever the device is connected to either a 3G or Wi-Fi network. The initial lineup will include the P1i (pictured) and P990i smartphones, the M600i, as well as the W950i and W960i Walkman phones. Motorola's RIZR Z8 is also included, Sling said. The updated version of the software will be available in the summer and will sell for $30 to first-time users but will also be downloadable for free for existing owners. [full story]

March 24 - 4:45pm EDT   Fully half of all phones shipped in the world will be music-capable within three years, according to a study by MultiMedia Intelligence. The research group estimates that while the cellphone market will largely remain flat, with 941 million phones being sold in 2011, about 50 percent of those devices will have at least some level music playback. This includes both high-end devices as well any phone that offers at least support for non-ringtone music files and a memory slot, the company said. [full story]

March 18 - 12:05pm EDT   Nokia on Tuesday shipped out revisions to a pair of its most successful phones. The N82 now ships in black and provides a subtler look than the silver version that has until today been the only choice for the smartphone. The 5-megapixel camera with Xenon flash, GPS, Europe-focused 3G, and Wi-Fi all come through from the original model. The Finnish cellphone producer sees the updated N82 arriving in stores within three to four weeks at a price of 400 Euros ($631) in its home continent, but also sells the device in the US as an unlocked device for use with AT&T or T-Mobile. [full story]

March 7 - 11:45am EST   Nokia this morning at last began selling the N95 8GB NAM, the North American model of its high-end smartphone. Like the NAM adaptation of the original N95, the 8GB handset adds specific support for 3G Internet access over HSDPA networks in the US through AT&T as well as Canadian providers Rogers and Fido. In addition to the faster download speed, the phone also carries over the larger 2.8-inch LCD, upgraded black trim, and 8GB of permanent storage that define the newer phone in Europe. [full story]

February 12 - 7:50am EST   Finnish cellphone maker Nokia this morning added to its announcements for Barcelona's Mobile World Congress by revealing that it has improved its relationship with Google by adding Google search to its phones. Previously only found on Internet tablets such as the N810, the Google component of Nokia's Mobile Search app lets users find web results as quickly as they would find content from the device itself or through local web searches. The experience will also be familiar to those used to searching from a computer desktop, Google claims. [full story]

January 18 - 8:15am EST   Nokia today said that the N95 8GB has been greenlit for the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) specification, making it the first cellphone to ever receive the status and the first to become a handheld media server. The approval allows the deluxe N95 to both share and receive media over a local Wi-Fi network between other DLNA devices; users can share music on the N95's 8GB of storage to a nearby notebook or browse the photos from a PlayStation 3. The feature lets phone owners be selective and share only some of their media with other devices in the area. [full story]

January 9 - 4:30pm EST   Nokia will conduct one of its most aggressive phone launch campaigns ever in the US this year, North American division chief Mark Louison said today in an interview at CES. Considered the largest cellphone manufacturer in the world, the Finnish company only released three handsets in the US last year but now intends to launch "between 6 and 12" phones in the country over the course of 2008 in a bid to gain marketshare. Nokia currently claims 11 percent of the overall US cellphone business. [full story]

January 7 - 11:35am EST   Nokia today stepped up its competition with the iPhone in the US by releasing the North American Model (NAM) of the N95 8GB already available in Europe. The device contains as much as its Apple rival but adds support for 3G Internet over the 850MHz and 1900MHz HSDPA bands needed to provide access through AT&T as well as Canadian providers Fido and Rogers. Its built-in GPS also comes with some preloaded US maps, Nokia says. The N95 8GB also expands on the original N95 NAM with a larger 2.8-inch LCD, more RAM, a better battery, and assisted GPS out of the box that uses data to fix a position more quickly than possible with GPS alone. [full story]

December 27 - 1:50pm EST   The launch of Nokia's N95 8GB for North America may have been confirmed along with its likely price and launch window, according to a store listing by online reseller Mobile City. The site lists the device as the N95 8GB NAM (North American Model) and appears to confirm rumors that the device will contain support for HSDPA on AT&T in the US and Rogers in Canada. Like many Nokia smartphone releases for the continent, the new N95 will be sold unlocked and allow users to switch to rival networks or else use local SIM cards in Europe and other GSM-friendly areas. [full story]

December 24 - 9:00am EST   Nokia is developing both a US-oriented version of the N95 8GB and a version of the N82 with a similar amount of storage, an unintentional leak through the Finnish company's Nseries US portal reveals. Visiting the site with a Nokia phone reveals both "N95 8GB NAM" and "N82 8GB" models, neither of which have been announced by the company. The company has to date only used the NAM label to refer to a North American model of the original N95, which added support for faster HSDPA Internet access on US frequencies as well as extra system memory and a larger battery. [full story]

December 20 - 11:35am EST   Nokia's long-awaited sequel to the N95 smartphone may have been spotted, according to a leak posted in Mobile-Review's forums. Named simply the N96, the slider includes the extra gaming and media controls of the N81 but also the large LCD and two-way slider of the N95 8GB; it will also have the higher-resolution, 5-megapixel camera of the N95 series complete with Carl Zeiss optics. Unlike the recent N82, however, flash lighting will come from two LEDs rather than a single Xenon bulb. [full story]