Nokia replaces CEO, appoints Microsoft exec

Nokia Corp. is replacing CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with top Microsoft executive Stephen Elop as the world's top handset maker aims to regain lost ground in the fiercely competitive smartphone market.



Elop, head of Microsoft's business division, has held top posts at Juniper Networks Inc., Adobe Systems Inc., Macromedia Inc. He takes over Sept. 21, the company said Friday.


Analysts welcomed the choice of the 46-year-old Canadian, who has worked closely with Nokia at Microsoft and Macromedia with developing the Symbian software platform for Nokia phones and delivering Flash player memory capabilities on Nokia devices.


"On the software side he will be an asset to the company," said Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics. "The handset market is computerizing, so having an idea where the mobile handset software is heading in the future will be beneficial."
The company's share price jumped almost 4 percent to euro8.04 ($10.22)in mid-afternoon trading in Helsinki.
With Nokia stock down more than 20 percent this year due to two profit warnings, Nokia veteran Kallasvuo had come under increasing pressure amid speculation he would be ousted.
Jorma Ollila, chairman of the board and former CEO credited with developing the Finnish company to an international leader in the mobile sector said Elop has "a strong software background and proven record in change management" to help Nokia meet new challenges.


In 2005, Elop became CEO of Macromedia, maker of Flash software, just months before Adobe bought the company. Flash allows people to use their Web browsers to watch Internet video and animation, and the software is now increasingly used on mobile phones.
He is a computer engineering and management graduate from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and also served as a systems executive at Boston Chicken, Inc.

"My job is to take this organization though a period of disruption," Elop told reporters. "Nokia has many great assets in smartphone arena. It's about the entire experience, it's about the platform, it's about the applications, it's about the services."
Elop said a key focus would be "to ensure and deliver that end-experience, not only what you think of as a device but all of the supporting elements."
The 57-year-old Kallasvuo, who joined the company in 1982, will leave as president and CEO on Sept. 20. He will give up his seat on the board of directors with immediate effect and be replaced by Elop, who heads Microsoft's business division.


Kallasvuo will continue to chair the board of the Nokia Siemens Networks unit in a non-executive capacity, the company said.


Elop made a striking difference to Kallasvuo's stiff press meetings made in halting English. He discussed ice hockey — close to Finnish hearts — and even jested about Finnish licorice candy he didn't like.


"It seems that Nokia is now ready for an international charismatic leader," said Microsoft Finland CEO Ari Rahkonen. "He is an international leader with broad international networks, a very charismatic performer and very keen on technology."


The appointment would appear to be a logical choice for Nokia,which increasingly has turned to providing more services for handset users such as music and video downloads, navigational maps and games, in a global online market it estimates will reach euro100 billion this year with some 300 million active users by 2011.
Also, Elop been an integral part of the growing cooperation between Nokia and Microsoft in recent years.
In 2009, Nokia launched its first laptop, a netbook with a 10-inch screen that runs on Microsoft's Windows 7 software. Previously, access to some of Microsoft's most popular Web services, like Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger, have been built into Nokia phone models.
Although it is still the world leader in handset sales — with a 33 percent market share — Nokia has been slow at detecting the latest trends, like folding clamshell models and touch screen handsets.
Markets have for long been expecting something fresh and new from the company that once had the innovative edge in the industry but that has not happened since Kallasvuo took over in 2006. He has also been unable to tackle problems in the North American market, the company's worst performer, despite a pledge to make it a top priority.
Kallasvuo's departure was hinted at as early as July. When announcing the company's second-quarter earnings report, he conceded that rumors that he might be replaced were "not good for Nokia, and in one way or other we should be able to solve the problem to end the speculation."
Nokia also has predicted that while global mobile market will grow 10 percent this year its own growth will remain flat and its ailing network sector, Nokia Siemens Networks — a joint venture between Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG of Germany — continues to see revenue fall.
Nokia, based in Espoo near Helsinki, employs 130,000 people worldwide.

WOW! APPLE ITUNES 10

Apple's iTunes, the default music player for over 160 million people worldwide, continues to expand with new features that give it a leg up over the competition. iTunes 10 adds Apple TV integration, 99-cent TV show rentals, Apple Airplay support, better app management, and a few cosmetic changes. The real meat of this update, however, is Ping, a Facebook-like music-oriented social network that lives inside the media player software. Whether you want another social network or not, iTunes is still the media organizer to beat.

                                iTunes is jammed full of extra features—far too many to detail in this review. Genius playlists and Genius mixes are a great example of this. They automatically create playlists based on song styles and moods. iTunes LP is another, giving you liner notes, photos, and video to go along with an album. Its DJ feature lets you create a live mix in which friends can make requests and vote on songs. This is in addition to what other players give you—an equalizer, Internet radio, and podcast subscriptions. See our previous reviews of iTunes for more on these features. In this review below, I'll mainly concentrate on iTunes 10's new features.
Setup and First Impressions


iTunes is, of course, available for Mac OS X (version 10.5 or later), as well as Windows XP (SP2 or later). If your PC is running a 64-bit version of Vista or Windows 7, you'll need to download the separate 64-bit installer. By default, the installer makes iTunes your default player for audio files, though you can uncheck this if you also like to use Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc.
After you install the software on a Mac, a setup assistant asks you questions that help it customize your installation. The Windows version asks you whether you want to add all songs, audio, and convert and add Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. You can also have iTunes organize your library by renaming files and moving them to the folders that match. A final privacy check asks if you want the app to download album art.

After you first launch iTunes, you're offered nine tutorials that cover topics ranging from the new Ping service to iTunes U; these offer a good, simple way to get you started with unfamiliar features. A nice new view in addition to the list, thumbnail, and Cover Flow of previous versions, called "Album List" view, shows the album art instead of repeated album titles, for a more skimmable view on your library.
Apple doesn't add new file format support with this release, and while its companion QuickTime player does offer a good assortment of media files, you're more likely to be able to play that difficult file in the excellent VLC (Free, ) media player, which supports over 20 video formats alone, compared with iTunes' seven.

Ping—The Walled Music Social Network

The biggest news in iTunes 10 is the Ping music-focused social network. Ping lets you follow (in the Twitter sense) performers and other iTunes users, meaning you'll see which songs they "liked, purchased, or commented on." It also lets users indicate concerts they plan to attend, and offers to find you tickets, too. Really, it's just a direct link to TicketMaster's page for the event. The activity stream looks a lot like Facebook's, down to the blue theme.
You're very limited to what you can post to Ping, as compared with Facebook—no photos, links, or videos, and the lack of a Web version means that Ping lives strictly within iTunes' walled garden. Sure, Apple claims over 160 million iTunes users as potential Pingers, but do users want to open a particular app to take part in a vertical social network, when vertical social networks have pretty much fallen by the wayside anyway? Gmail has more users than iTunes, but Google Buzz is still having trouble getting off the ground.
Privacy is well handled in Ping. You can choose to manually designate which actions to share with your followers, require your approval before anyone can follow you, or not allow others to follow you, if you just want to see what other musicians and fans are up to. If someone you want to follow has protected their posts, you'll get a request-to-follow message box.
A few other drawbacks are that you must use your full name on your Ping page, you can't see "friends"' libraries (let alone stream them), and there's no way to find Ping friends from Facebook or Twitter. In the end, Ping seems more of a marketing tool than a social network, with nearly every post including a buy link. Web-based alternatives like Last.fm (Free, ) actually let you listen to your contact's music in full, rather than just the first 30 seconds iTunes' preview restrict you to. That way you can just buy your MP3 from Amazon.com or whatever other online store you like and still have it noted in your social music net. Ping is a decent service—but whether or not it succeeds will depend on the extent to which iTunes' vast pool of users adopts it. For more on Apple's new social network, read my Apple iTunes Ping: Hands On.

Apple TV Support

If you buy one of the new Apple TV devices, you'll need iTunes running on a Mac or PC so that saved content can play through it. But even if you don't have an Apple TV, you can still take part in the 99 cent TV show rentals, and even play them on your big-screen TV with the right connectors (preferably HDMI). But when I tried this with a middling power Windows 7 laptop (2.6-GHz Core 2 Duo with 3GB RAM and Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS graphics), the 720p HD size stuttered in playback. On a better desktop machine, the playback was smooth and sharp—though not quite Blu-ray sharp, of course.
The selection of TV shows was pretty rich, including HBO hits like Curb Your Enthusiasm and British imports like Skins. You just can't this depth of content choice in Windows Media Center. And the same goes for music—the iTunes store is well organized and massively stocked. I only wish previews transcended the 30 second limit, as was speculated before this version release. Another ding that we seem to repeat every review is the lack of a subscription music service, like that offered by Zune and Rhapsody.

AirPlay

AirPlay is Apple's answer to Windows 7's Play To feature, which lets you stream music to other compatible audio devices in the home. Unfortunately, I was unable to test AirPlay, since the devices it works with are not yet available. By comparison, there are already over 8,000 devices on the market compatible with DLNA, the open standard used by Windows Play To. What's more, DLNA can handle video streaming and photos, which will require an Apple TV to work with iTunes' AirPlay. Apple's iTunes mini-site suggests that deals with the consumer electronics makers are in place, however: "AirPlay wireless technology will be fully integrated into speaker docks, AV receivers, and stereo systems from companies such as Bowers & Wilkins and Denon."

Simpler Syncing

When I synced the iPhone to my MacBook, iTunes 10 did a couple of things better: it displayed a clear bar indicator of how much memory was being used by songs, images, and apps. iTunes let me drag any of my 99 apps to any iPhone screen from within the app, and disable or enable them. It definitely makes iPhone apps more pleasant to work with in iTunes. But I still wish you could simply plug any iDevice into any computer with iTunes and drag a few songs back and forth, especially now that all music you buy is DRM-free. The ability to sync an iDevice with more than one PC and more easily switch users would also be welcome.

Should you Ping iTunes 10?

When it comes to CD ripping, music organization, and playback, Windows Media Player is just as good as iTunes, but iTunes adds goodies like Genius, DJ, and using an iPhone as a remote. Windows Media Player does have the advantage of letting you Play To a lot of existing devices and can make your media accessible over the Internet. And as far as playing the most types of media, don't forget the free VLC. But it's really all of iTunes' extras and Apple's enormous content offerings, particularly HD video content, which hurdles it past the competition and earns it our Editors' Choice.

Google's New Gray Logo: What It Could Mean

After a bouncy-ball extravaganza yesterday, Google's doodle today is more subdued, but still cool. (via Techland)



When you first land on Google.com, the logo is gray. As you type into the search box, though, colorful letters appear.


Techland argues the doodle is a preview of Google's rumored real-time search, which may be unveiled today. This feature would reveal search results as you type.


History of the Google logo






In 1998 Sergey Brin created a computerised version of the Google letters using the free graphics program GIMP. The exclamation mark was added, mimicking the Yahoo! logo. "There were a lot of different color iterations", says Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the now-famous logo. "We ended up with the primary colors, but instead of having the pattern go in order, we put a secondary color on the L, which brought back the idea that Google doesn't follow the rules."


In 2010, the Google logo received its first major and permanent overhaul since 1999. The new logo was first tested in November 2009,and was officially launched on May 6, 2010.It utilises an identical typeface and colors to the previous logo, but features a much more subtle shadow and uses a different shading style.

Source:wikipedia

New Windows moble phone 7 with new promises..in Preview ads

Windows Phone 7



                                    The Start screen of Windows Phone 7

Microsoft had originally planned to continue the Windows Mobile line to Windows Mobile 7, based on an upgrade to the Windows Mobile platform, codenamed Photon. The original Photon and Windows Mobile 7 have since been scrapped, however, Microsoft officially announced Windows Phone 7 Series in its place. Microsoft has since renamed the operating system from Windows Phone 7 Series to Windows Phone 7. It is planned for release by "holiday" 2010.


Windows Phone 7 was initially intended to be released during 2009, but several delays, and likely due to the move away from Photon, prompted Microsoft to develop Windows Mobile 6.5 as an interim release. During the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Microsoft revealed details of Windows Phone 7, which features a new operating system and integration with Xbox Live and Zune services.


Phones currently running Windows Mobile 6.x will not be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7.


Applications built for Windows Mobile 6.x or earlier will not run on Windows Phone 7. The Windows Phone 7 operating system has been rebuilt to only support Silverlight and XNA based applications.(Source:- wikipedia).