Nokia's health division is up for sale and Nest has a strong interest in buying it, according to a new report. The purchase, should it happen, would score Nest, the Alphabet company, Nokia's Withings assets. The Withings product line is comprised of various consumer health products, including a smart bathroom scale, a wireless activity tracker, and more.
It doesn't seem like HMD Global is bothering keeping this one a secret. Or rather, it's actually surprising that it was able to keep this new phone under wraps this long. Seen on a theater display in China, an ad for what is clearly being called the Nokia X appeared out of nowhere and has caught many by surprise. We won't to wait long to find the answers, though, as the device will supposed;y be unveiled in less than two weeks.
The reviews have finally come out and, as you might have expected (or not), the Galaxy S9 has pretty much set the pace of smartphones, especially Android ones, for the rest of the year. But, of course, that doesn’t mean it will be the premium Android phone of 2018. We’ve only just begun and there are lots more coming in the months to come. So before you settle your mind or wallet on the Galaxy S9 or S9+, take a quick peek at what is yet to come in the next month or two.
Last week at MWC, HMD Global made a slightly different pitch when it unveiled its new Nokia phones, focusing more on their Android One commitment rather than on the devices’ hardware. And that might probably be for the best considering the top of the line model, the Nokia 8 Sirocco, fails the 2018 flagship criteria in just one detail. Nokia fans need not fret, however, as a Nokia 8 Pro is reportedly still on the table. And to mix it up even me, so is a Nokia 9.
MWC 2018 practically ended on its first day or two, with most of the announcements dumped then and there. There were some late surprises but we pretty much got a feel of the event right from the start. It was almost low-key, somber, and serious, with a few spikes here and there with interesting, if not sensational news. That doesn’t mean, however, that MWC this year was pretty dead. In fact, the biggest winners, at least by the numbers, seem to be the underdogs. Here are just some of the highlights of MWC 2018, especially for the smartphone market.
Nokia announced plans to acquire mesh networking company Unium earlier this week, a business move that paves the way for it to get in on the home WiFi market in a big way. Unium, which is based out of Seattle, specializes in intelligent mesh technology to give customers a whole-home WiFi experience. Over the weekend, Nokia explained that it will use Unium's software to expand its home WiFi portfolio with mesh networking capabilities.
Apple and Samsung are making no qualms with their efforts to bring the most expensive mass-market smartphones to the public. The iPhone X is the most expensive iPhone ever, and Samsung's smartphone collection continues to inch upward in price across the board - Galaxy S9, S9 Plus, and newest Note included. Nokia, meanwhile, just revealed their full spread for 2018 - a set phones aimed to take on everything the company might've felt Samsung and Apple missed.
Nokia has been tapped by Vodafone to help the company realize its goal of putting LTE connectivity on the Moon. Assuming everything goes according to plan, the LTE coverage will be launched on the lunar surface next year, making it possible to livestream HD video from the Moon to Earth, a milestone for space connectivity.
HMD Global has done something that neither Microsoft nor Nokia itself was able to do. It successfully turned the brand around, outselling many of the larger smartphone OEMs last year. The latest batch of Nokia smartphones have become a fan favorite among Android users because of their clean, “pure”, and quickly updated Android experience. Riding on that popularity, Nokia is now making a full commitment to ship all its future Android phones as Android One devices, ensuring that they will remain “pure, secure, and up-to-date”, at least for a year and a half.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco isn't coming to the United States, but you may well wish it was. This device has an uncommon collection of specifications to it - one we're not used to rolling with here in the United States. It begins with a 5.5-inch edge-to-edge curved pOLED 2K resolution display "in a compact form that nestles perfectly in any hand."
This week the folks at Nokia revealed the Nokia 7 Plus, a "flagship hero for everyone." This device has Android One, basically closest thing you're going to get to a Nexus smartphone that exists in this crazy messed up world here in 2018. This device has a 6-inch IPS LCD display with 2160 x 1080 pixel resolution. This display is covered with a pane of "sculpted" Corning Gorilla Glass that's both laminated and polarized.
With Nokia 1, the company's brought back some features that worked well with Windows Phone devices of yore. Here, though, they're rolling with Android. The Nokia 1 brings a "familiar design" to the present in what Nokia describes as "our most affordable package yet." This is an Android GO device, which means it's a low-end device, but its still slick.