Nokia set to launch Gen-X mobile phones

A camera in your phone may be passe now as Nokia gets ready to launch the next generation of mobile phones. There are phones which are heat ...

A camera in your phone may be passe now as Nokia gets ready to launch the next generation of mobile phones. There are phones which are heat and water resistant Nokia 5100 or a Nokia 6800 where the key pad of the cellphone flips and becomes a keyboard for the computer. The company even has a handset, Nokia 3300 with music as its most important function. It could also be used to make phone calls.

There’s even a video game type handset with primarily games as its main function, to attract the younger market segment. Increasingly, cellphones are beginning to reflect the lifestyle of individuals and are moving towards catering to all age groups and all interest types to push the market size.

Voice calls are passe in the western world where value add ons on your phone is what determines which cellphones are hot and which are not. The new prototype being developed by Nokia which is specially designed to cater to working executives is a phone where the ‘Phone Book’ where you could post your availability — if you are in a meeting, you just post the information on your phone and people calling you would be informed that you are busy.

Story continues below this ad

Not only this, you could choose the list of people who you wish to know about where you are and the information would be delivered to these phones with personalised icons.

Welcome to the world of presence-enhanced features, the newest rage in the cellphone world. This latest technology uses the heart of your cellphone — the phonebook — enabling you to publish your status to those who you wish to. So if you’re in a meeting and wish to tell your close friends or colleagues that, the information will flash on the phonebook of those who have subscribed to this service, against your number.

It is value added services like these that are now becoming the centre of business for phone companies as well as service providers with rates for voice calls plummeting faster than stock prices on the Nasdaq on the eve of war with Iraq. Companies are now striving to make phone books dynamic, using technologies like the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to give ‘live’ information about their users. Demonstrating new technologies to visiting Indian newspersons at the Nokia headoffice in Helsinki at the sprawling, futuristic Generation Next Nokia centre last week, Nokia officials said presence enhancement will also prove to be an effective tool for mobile advertising in the future.

The reporter visited Helsinki on a trip sponsored by Nokia

Bahraich faces new ‘wolf attacks’: 4 children mauled, 16 injured this month

Cities58 min ago

As many as four children have been killed and 16 injured in wild animal attacks, suspected to be wolves, in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district this month — a chilling reminder of similar incidents that haunted the region last year. The body of one of the children is still missing. All those injured are adults, except for one child.

View all shorts

Live Blog

PHOTOS