Nokia will double fund with additional $150 mil

Nokia Corp. is more than doubling the size of its direct-venture investment fund with an injection of $150 million, with a view to putting some of the money to use in India and China.

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Nokia Growth Partners was set up in 2004 to manage $100 million of Nokia's money. Its investments have included Bitboys, a Finnish developer of graphics chips that was bought by ATI in 2006 for $44.5 million, and Global Locate, a U.S. maker of GPS chips that was bought by Broadcom Corp. for at least $146 million last year.

Apart from seeking a financial return, the fund hunts for startups with technologies that are useful to Nokia. Some areas of focus include mobile payments and camera technology.

Venture funds have become a standard accessory for companies in the cell-phone arena, though the approaches vary. Qualcomm Inc. has a venture fund with a broad portfolio, much like Nokia Growth Partners. Research in Motion Ltd., which makes the BlackBerry, announced in May that it had set up a $150 million fund with outside partners to invest in companies creating software for BlackBerrys and other mobile devices.

Yahoo offering refunds for music downloads

NEW YORK - Yahoo Inc. is offering coupons or refunds to users who find songs they bought inaccessible after Sept. 30, when the company shuts its music-download service.

The decision to close the Yahoo Music Store had added fuel to criticisms over copy-protection measures known as digital-rights management, but Yahoo promised it won't entirely abandon loyal customers.

The company said Wednesday that it is offering coupons on request for people to buy songs again through Yahoo's new partner, RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody. Those songs will be in the MP3 format, free of copy protection.

For people who bought songs outright - paying a one-time fee for a specific track rather than a subscription for unlimited music - Yahoo will shut down the servers needed to verify eligibility. Copy-protection measures placed on the tracks require access to those servers when users buy a new computer or upgrade their operating system.

Internet overhaul gets $12 mil funding boost

NEW YORK - A massive project to redesign and rebuild the Internet from scratch is inching along with $12 million in government funding and donations of network capacity by two major research organizations.

Many researchers want to rethink the Internet's underlying architecture, saying a "clean-slate" approach is the only way to truly address security and other challenges that have cropped up since the Internet's birth in 1969.

BBN Technologies Inc. is overseeing the planning and design of the Global Environment for Network Innovations, or GENI, a network on which researchers will test new ideas without damaging the current Internet.

The $12 million in initial grants from the National Science Foundation will go to developing prototypes for the GENI network.

Craig Partridge, chief scientist at BBN Technologies, said the commitments amounted to an important endorsement of GENI.

Construction on GENI could start in about five years and cost $350 million. Congress still has to approve those funds.

From : http://www.azcentral.com/

Nokia Siemens speeds up 2.5G cell networks

Wireless equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks said Thursday that it has new software that will more than double the download speed on networks using 2.5G EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Environment) wireless technology.

This is good news for first generation iPhone users whose phones connect to the mobile Net via AT&T's EDGE network. On average iPhone users report that they can get download speeds of 210 kbps. Nokia Siemens says that with a simple software upgrade to the EDGE network equipment, operators, like AT&T, can offer their customers download speeds of 592 kilobits per second.

EDGE is typically considered a 2.5G network technology that is based on the worldwide GSM (Global System Mobile Communications) cell phone standard. Many cell phone operators, such as AT&T, first built their wireless data networks using this technology. But now AT&T and other GSM carriers around the world are deploying faster 3G networks using a technology called HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access). Networks using HSDPA offer download speeds between 600 kbps and 1.4 megabits per second.

Most of the 3G rollouts are nearing completion and many carriers are already talking about 4G networks. This means there are few, if any, carriers around the globe still deploying new EDGE networks. So why is Nokia Siemens enhancing the technology?

The reason is simple. Nokia Siemens believes that speedier EDGE networks will extend the life of the already deployed 2.5G networks. Carriers have already paid for these networks, so the software upgrade simply breathes new life into an existing asset. The network upgrade also allows mobile operators to provide a smoother transition between the 2.5G EDGE network and the newer 3G HSDPA network, since most carriers have a wider network footprint using EDGE than they do using HSDPA.

For example, I have a 3G Samsung Blackjack that operates on AT&T's network. In New York City where I live, I access AT&T's 3G network when I download my work e-mail or when I check my favorite mobile Web sites. But when I visit my father at the beach in Delaware, my phone often roams to AT&T's EDGE network, because the 3G service is limited there. When I try to access mobile Web pages or sync my e-mail from the EDGE network, the service is painfully slow. If AT&T used Nokia Siemens' software to speed up its EDGE network, I probably wouldn't even notice when I was roaming on EDGE instead of using the 3G network.

"By 2015, we expect to live in a broadband-IP world with 5 billion people 'always on' and therefore Nokia Siemens Networks is committed to protecting customer investments and continue to implement leading EDGE technology," Ari Lehtoranta, Head of Radio Access Business Unit for Nokia Siemens, said in a statement. "Dual Carrier software upgrade is an easy and extremely cost efficient step to bring broadband user experience to GSM/EDGE networks."

A faster EDGE network would also be great for all those first generation iPhone users whose biggest complaint is that downloading Web pages on an iPhone over AT&T's network is like watching paint dry.

Of course, AT&T would have to deploy the Nokia Siemens technology in order to get these benefits. The software will be available in the third quarter of 2008, the company said.

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Nokia and university stretch into mobile phones arena

The University of Cambridge has collaborated with Finnish mobile handset giant, Nokia, to develop the concept for a new stretchable and flexible mobile phone developed.

Morph, the joint nanotechnology concept, was launched at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes.

According to the University, the concept demonstrates “the ultimate functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.”

Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering’s Nanoscience Group at the University said: “Developing the Morph concept with Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience research that will stimulate our future work together.”

Dr Tapani Ryhanen, head of the NRC Cambridge UK laboratory, Nokia, added: “We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience.

“The techniques we are developing might one day mean new possibilities in terms of the design and function of mobile devices.

“The research we are carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to develop and use new materials.”

The partnership was announced in March, 2007 – an agreement to work together on an extensive and long term programme of joint research projects. NRC has established a research facility at the University’s West Cambridge site and collaborates with several departments initially the Nanoscience Center and Electrical Division of the Engineering Department on projects that, to begin with, are centered on nanotechnology.

The Nanoscience Centre provides open access to over 300 researchers from a variety of University departments.


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