The Finnish giant has acquired Novarra company, which technology can compress and show websites for their adequate display on the screens of mobile phones in a various formats, and the Canadian producer bought Viigo, software developer for the delivery of syndicated content to phones.

Technologies of Novarra will facilitate the strengthening of expertise of Nokia in matters of internet surfing on low-cost devices, such as on the Series 40 platform. Nokia is interested in promoting mobile internet access in developing countries, where cheap phones are available, which users still like to get a full mobile browsing.

The software products of Viigo are presented by the user mobile client, which aggregate and deliver to the phones a variety of information including weather forecasts, news briefs, sport events, stock quotes, etc. There is also an enterprise-level solutions for the subscription of staff at the information business flows of the company.

In recent weeks, many rumors about Nokia phones have appeared on the web.

The rumored devices will be available this year and will focus on different categories of users. In this material we have gathered key information on new models, the development of which has been confirmed.

Nokia N8 (N8-00) will be the flagship of the Nseries. The smartphone based  on Symbian ^ 3  OS will have a touch screen with a diagonal of 3.5 ” or 4″, a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, diode and xenon flash, as well as HDMI connector. The model will shoot HD-video in the resolution of 720p.

Nokia E7 (E7-00) is also based on Symbian ^ 3 OS. The key advantages of the smartphone will be 4 inch AMOLED screen and a sliding QWERTY-keyboard. The business oriented device will develop the success of N97.

Nokia X2 (X2-00) will fulfill the segment of low-cost handsets for listening to music. It is unclear whether the device will be sensory or not. The price will be low.

Nokia X9 (X9-00) based on Symbian ^ 3  OS will acquire high-resolution camera with the possibility of HD-video, HDMI-jack, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, large touch screen.

Nokia C6 (C6-00) is a side slider with QWERTY-keyboard and touch screen. Belonging to the model line of Cseries the device is assumed to have an affordable price.

Nokia Mystic is a phone with still unknown index. It is expected to fill up the Cseries series, suggesting QWERTY and Series 40 platform.

New widgets, called Nokia Bots became available to the owners of the smartphones Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 mini.

The applications have been developed by Nokia Beta Labs and will run on your home screen with the aim of “improving the usability of everyday procedures”.

Until now four Nokia Bots have been created: Alarm Bot (determines at what time usually users wake up and offers alarm settings and night profiles), Profile Bot (automates the change in the profile during business meetings), Shortcut Bot (provides quick access to frequently used applications) and Battery Bot (monitors battery status and “reminds you of the need to connect the charger”).

The company still does not have any information on the possibility of release of Nokia Bots for other mobile devices.

The first information about the new smartphone Nokia N8-00 has appeared in the middle of last month. But so far all the data on the functionality of this device have appeared only in the form of rumors. And you know that these rumors are not reliable.

The source of new information has become XML-file, downloaded from nokia.com. So this information may be considered if not official, but at least semi-official.

According to the file, Nokia N8-00 runs Symbian ^ 3 and can offer users AMR processor, Wi-Fi module and display with a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels.

From the same file it became known that the new smartphone has support for GPRS / EGPRS / EDGE and WCDMA / HSDPA networks.

All other data about the Nokia N8-00 are rumors. Recall that according to those data the new smartphone has a 3.5-inch capacitive touch display, 12-megapixel camera with Xenon flash and video recording high-definition resolution of 720p, and HDMI-port.

However, nothing is mentioned of the presence of 12-megapixel camera in the smartphone in the XML-file.

Apparently, it will take time before the N900, the flagship of Nokia multimedia smartphones will be transferred from Maemo to MeeGo OS. According to Kvim Jill, a member of the group Nokia Maemo, the first version of MeeGo does not provide dual boot. Moreover, he admitted that this version is far from being perfect and it will not have any exceptional features, and 99 percent of users will probably not want to install it on their smartphones.

It is worth noting that according to some sources, the version MeeGo PR1.2 supposedly provides a dual boot, but as we see, this is not true and it was just another attempt by some fans of Nokia to indulge in wishful thinking.

Moreover, they still claim that this version has some features which may be of special interest to the owners of Nokia N900, e.g.  updated virtual keyboard, the ability to completely erase the information stored in the internal memory of the smartphone, as well as autorotation of the image.

Whether it is true or not we can not yet say for sure, but according to Kvim Jill, Nokia is well aware that the dual boot in MeeGo OS should be enabled as soon as possible. However, the representative of Nokia has not announced when this will happen.

The Finnish giant is well aware that the success of its products in the U.S. market is possible only in case of releasing attractive mobile devices. North America troubles Nokia for various reasons, including because of the developed consumer demand and a vast ecosystem of developers of mobile applications.

For many years the company speaks about the importance of the U.S. market, but despite the opening of research branches in the U.S. and long conversations, no efforts are made. Nokia still remains the largest manufacturer of phones in the world, but it’s still owning a negligible share in America.

As it is supposed in Nokia, not only attractive devices will help to change the balance of power, but also the new Symbian platform, coupled with adequate means of application development.

Interestingly, five years ago, Nokia, in contrast to all the players had its own store of applications for S60-phones, not knowing what this business will result in the future.

At the moment Symbian still has some advantages over its competitors. So, being in this market for many years, Nokia  company knows how to upgrade the mobile platform without losses to users on other systems involved, such as the inability to run applications on the updated platform. Moreover, even if Symbian is designed for high-class smartphones, it can easily be scaled to device of lower class, which is undoubtedly important for manufacturers, sometimes seeking to introduce an abundance of features on inexpensive hardware.

Music service which was being provided by Nokia has received a new name and marketing policy.

You’ve probably heard about the service Nokia Comes With Music, which allows the user, who has bought the phone and is participating in the action, to download unlimited music content for the entire year. It became known that the company can give the service a new name, which may also affect the marketing policy of the service.

Ovi Music Unlimited, the possible new name for services manifested itself through advertising in the web, on which the new name of the service, formerly known as Nokia Comes With Music is shown. It is felt that the change of name of Nokia will lead to the change of the policy to further development of this service.

A Chinese web resource has published a photo of new flagship phone of Nokia, a model called N98.

According to the early information it is known, that the model will have Symbian ^ 3 OS, a 3.5-inch capacitive touch screen, a 12 megapixel camera with support for recording HD-video with a resolution of 720p and HDMI-exit.

The device shown on the photo meets all these specifications; in addition, the visible xenon flash on the camera lens is seen. Though earlier it was said that the Nokia N98 or N8-00 will be a side slider with a sliding hardware QWERTY-keyboard, the photo clearly shows a purely sensory device.

The smartphone Nokia N900 based on Maemo has served as the “heart” and “brain” of the robot called Niko the creation of which has recently been announced with the official press release of Nokia.

However, Niko is developed not by Nokia itself, but by two young enthusiasts – graduates of the University of Waterloo (Canada).

In January of this year Nokia announced the launch of the American part of the competition PUSH N900, within the frames of which the owners of the model N900 were suggested to create an unusual device on its base. Niko is one of these developments.

The body of the robot has been collected from the designer of the Danish company LEGO, and it is managed with the help of Twitter-Blog (@ N900Niko) where the commands are published. For example, the robot can be ordered to turn right or to get ahead, says the resource.

It has recently been reported that Nokia has signed a document on the acquisition of 100% of shares in circulation of the American company Novarra, which is developing mobile Web browsers for mobile operators and which employs more than a hundred people.

Mobile browser and service platform Novarra will be used by Nokia to improve Internet services in its devices. It sounds like Nokia is trying to get its own royalty of overall mobile connections.

”Connecting the next billion users to the Internet will be achieved primarily through mobile phones”, – said Niklas Savander, executive vice president of Nokia Services. “And the equipment of our devices with optimized Internet experience is a major challenge. Providing innovation for all segments of our portfolio, we are creating the largest consumer audience for Web services and content. Internet-based technologies of Novarra, used in the most popular platform in the world – Nokia Series 40, will enable us to achieve this”.

Acquisition of Chicago-based company will be completed in the second quarter of this year, after which Novarra will become a subsidiary of Nokia.