July 3 - 1:10pm EDT   Nokia has recently announced the release of its latest version of its Ovi Maps software used in more than 40 of its GPS-enabled handsets. Now available for download, Ovi Maps 3.0 has a number of enhancements, including high resolution satellite and terrain maps in both 2D and 3D views, as well as 3D landmarks for more than 200 large cities. The latter allows users to view the virtual landmarks with fly-overs, fly-throughs, in a night view and by rotating and tilting the perspective. There is also a new Walk mode for navigating on foot, while the Drive mode provides speed limit information, location of speed cameras, real-time traffic and lane assistance. [full story]

July 2 - 4:15pm EDT   First spotted just over a month ago, the Nokia 6790 Surge got a one-month delay in its launch date at wireless provider AT&T. While an exact date is not announced, sources believe the phone, which used to go by the codename Mako, will appear sometime in mid-July. Some preliminary specs of the sliding QWERTY handset include a 2.4-inch, 240x320 display, and quad-band GSM and dual-band HSDPA support. The Surge is also one of a handful of mid-range Nokia phones equipped with the smartphone-grade Symbian S60 operating system. [full story]

July 2 - 12:20pm EDT   In some good news for local cell phone manufacturers, the European Union's plan to introduce new taxes for handsets sold throughout Europe has been scrapped, says a Wednesday report. The new taxes would have raised prices customers pay for new phones and most likely lowered the sales numbers of an already falling market. The decision came from Sweden, which hosts the rotating presidency of the EU, and will mean the Customs Code Committee will continue to treat cell phones as duty-free items. [full story]

July 2 - 11:10am EDT   LG is developing a new designer phone that would specifically target the iPhone, the company's wireless chief Ahn Seung-kwon told Korea's Yonhap today. Only providing a teaser, he says the future device would ship in the fall and come within Black Label series that has so far been reserved for LG's best non-smartphones, such as the Arena and Viewty. [full story]

July 1 - 12:40pm EDT   Large PC builders are dragging their feet when it comes to environmental promises, claims Greenpeace. The activist group has once again updated its Guide to Greener Electronics, which assigns relative rankings to major high-tech corporations. A new development is the assignment of "penalty points" to major PC builders, including HP, Dell and Lenovo. The companies have delayed plans to strip PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from computers, Greenpeace says, and in the case of HP, none of its current systems have reduced toxicity. [full story]

June 30 - 10:15am EDT   If a tip provided today proves authentic, Nokia is poised to upgrade the quality of its camera phones significantly in less than a year. Supposed insiders for PhoneReport say the company will boost the sensor resolution up to 12 megapixels, not unlike Sony Ericsson's upcoming Satio, but that it should add optical zoom instead of the digital zoom that most phones are forced to use. The first phone to see the upgraded photography could arrive by late 2009 or early 2010 and may be a prime candidate for Mobile World Congress in February. [full story]

June 29 - 4:05pm EDT   Nokia could paradoxically favor the iPhone rather than its own devices for employee discounts if info discovered today proves true. Where staff reportedly get a 10 percent discount on the flagship N97, the Inquirer understands that those same workers would receive a 17 percent discount on a new iPhone 3GS. It's not clear whether this applies to the unsubsidized prices or to contract plans. [full story]

June 29 - 9:30am EDT   Several major cellphone makers today agreed to support a European Union push for a universal charger standard. Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have signed a deal with the European Commission that will see micro USB become the default connector for powering cellphones in the continent. Chipset producers like NEC, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments have also agreed to the deal. [full story]

June 26 - 4:05pm EDT   The most recent unofficial report regarding a rumored Nokia netbook has it being released in 2010 and using the open-source Android operating system from Google. According to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Daniel Amir, Nokia will sell the devices via wireless carriers, like it currently does with its cellular phones. In a research note issued on Friday morning, Amir said conversations with device manufacturers have confirmed this information, though he expects Nokia will face stiff competition from the established PC makers in the class. [full story]

June 25 - 12:00pm EDT   New data published by AdMob today showed that Apple's share of mobile web use has suddenly surged and now makes up more than two thirds of all mobile traffic in the US. In May, iPhone requests represented 69 percent of all traffic, a sudden jump from 59 percent the month before. By comparison, BlackBerries accounted for just 13 percent of traffic and Android phones represented 7 percent. [full story]

June 24 - 10:30am EDT   The first fruits of the Intel-Nokia partnership could come within a matter of weeks, the Taiwan-area Commercial Times newspaper claimed today. Stating the rumor as fact, it insists that reports of Nokia netbooks are true and that a portable based on Intel Atom chips could come as soon as this summer. Its details aren't known, but Quanta would be contracted to build the computer. [full story]

June 23 - 11:45am EDT   Intel and Nokia today struck a multi-year deal to develop a new form of mobile device processor architecture. The two have few details but hope to produce pocketable hardware which is nonetheless in a "new class" rather than a smartphone or even a larger system like a netbook or notebook. They intend to work together on multiple mobile Linux projects related to the architecture, including the oFono cellphone OS as well as Nokia's Maemo, Intel's Moblin and components they intend to share, such as Mozilla's browser technology. [full story]

June 23 - 7:45am EDT   A last-minute leak this past evening would have Nokia use Intel processors for the first time in some of its devices. One unnamed source for Bloomberg claims that an announcement could come as early as this morning from Intel senior mobility VP Anand Chandrasekher that it has landed a deal to supply chips to Nokia. What this would entail isn't evident, though it would almost certainly involve a variant of the Atom processor and likely wouldn't be a complete replacement of Nokia's line. [full story]

June 22 - 9:05am EDT   Rogers this morning became the first major North American carrier to adopt the 5800 XpressMusic. The first touchscreen Nokia phone shows in Canada with native 3G and is very close to the reference Symbian S60 platform with the exception of a new urMusic app for shopping from Rogers' store for music or concert tickets. Rogers allows Nokia Maps to serve as the GPS navigation option rather than offering its own. [full story]

June 18 - 10:20am EDT   A rumor early on Thursday suggests that Nokia could remove copy protection from all its music services within the next year. Claimed sources for ME say the smartphone maker will switch its pay-per-download store from locking songs with Windows Media protection to unguarded MP3s by late this year. Tellingly, Comes With Music would also reportedly make the switch and would do so sometime in 2010, giving users a year of unlimited downloads they could move to any device, including iPhones and iPods. [full story]