Day: October 19, 2007

“Psarakia is apparently the Greek for little fish, and the aim of this game is to form continuous lines of two or more identical fish. The catch is that they’re usually hidden under ice, and you have to break that ice if you want to make lines. Breaking the ice uses up your life force, but if you make lines you gain life, so it’s best to only uncover fish which will make lines. You can uncover lines of several types of fish in one go if you want.If you can’t find any lines of fish anywhere, you can blow them all up and start again by pressing 3.” Read more here:

“We still don’t know exactly how the new HTC PDA phone – HTC Polaris will look like, but now we can tell you it’s real name and what it’ll have inside.GPS equipped Polaris will be launched under the trade name of HTC Touch Cruise.The rumors about this HTC Touch Cruise, then dubbed HTC Polaris started circulating this spring, when several HTC roadmaps for 2007 were leaked on the net.Picture on the left is HTC Touch Cruise (Polaris) from 2007 HTC roadmap PPT presentation, picture in the middle is from *.pdf roadmap outed by CTI Miami blog.It’s existence was confirmed when TheUnwired spotted HTC Polaris/Touch Cruise picture (on the right, above) posted on O2 web page under another name.And now PocketInfo.nl gives us the details of HTC Touch Cruise, as presented by HTC execs at the event in Netherlands.According to them HTC Touch Cruise (Polaris) will feature: Quad Band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 Mhz) Triband UMTS (850/1900/2100) , HSDPA and HSUPA connectivity 400 Mhz MSM7200 Qualcomm CPU, 128 RAM and 256 ROM 2.8″ 320×240 px QVGA display 3 megapixel camera with autofocus 0.3 mpx front camera for video calls Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Built-in A-GPS micro-SD/micro SDHC memory card slotHTC Touch Cruise, presented at the event also had an improved HTC TouchFlo interface, with additional touch gestures. These gestures included half turn of the finger to rotate an object, complete turn to the right to zoom in and complete turn in the other direction to zoom out.The design of HTC Touch Cruise/Polaris has not been finalized yet. The device currently shown off, most closely resembled the one on the right in the picture above, with smooth touch surface, 4 buttons and the navigation wheel.HTC Touch Cruise should become available at the end of November.” via unwiredview.com

“Nokia, the world’s largest maker of cellphones, said today that profit surged 85 percent in the third quarter as strong demand for low-cost phones in Africa, the Middle East and Asia lifted its share of the global market to almost 40 percent.Nokia said its market share rose to 39 percent in the third quarter from 36 percent in the second quarter as consumers in all regions except North and South America bought increasing numbers of entry-level phones costing less than 30 euros, or $42.60. Rising demand from markets outside the United States more than offset slight sales declines in the Americas.Analysts said Nokia’s ability to make inexpensive cellphones at factories in China and India profitably would help the company build on its already sizable lead over its challengers — Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson — whose combined market share barely equals that of Nokia.“It may not be in the fourth quarter, but it is probably only a matter of a few quarters before Nokia surpasses a 40 percent share,” said Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst in London. “They are really the only major manufacturer out there focusing on the low end of the market, and that’s where the growth is now.”Nokia said profit in the third quarter rose to 1.56 billion euros from 845 million euros in the period a year earlier. Sales rose 28 percent, to 12.9 billion euros. Nokia said unit sales of cellphones rose 45.1 percent, to 19.3 million devices, in Africa and the Middle East, while rising 37 percent in China, to 18.9 million, and 41.1 percent in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, to 29.5 million. Unit sales fell 1.7 percent in North America, to 5.4 million.For most of the decade, as Nokia’s market share hovered between 37 percent and 39 percent, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the chief executive, and his predecessor, Jorma Ollila, who is now chairman, had set 40 percent as a long-term goal. But as Nokia’s sales began to accelerate this year, Mr. Kallasvuo said in July that Nokia was revising its sights higher and that 40 percent was no longer its goal.Mr. Kallasvuo praised the gains made by Nokia during 2007 but warned that the company must meet challenges from Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device, and Apple, which will begin selling the iPhone in Europe next month.“I am really paying a lot of attention to what Apple and R.I.M. are doing,” he said. “We will invest more money where we feel we not only can match, but where we can beat, that competition.” via nytimes.com