Nokia’s Symbian Anna has finally arrived for download, right on schedule. Available for N8, E7, C7 and C6-01 users, the new OS brings a fresh new UI and a virtual portrait QWERTY keypad to Symbian smartphones, along with split-screen messaging, richer maps and speedier browsing. The update also brings NFC capabilities to the C7, in particular, allowing users to share contacts, photos and other goodies by simply tapping their handsets together. If you’re interested in upgrading, you can download Anna using the latest version of Ovi Suite (3.1.1), or with an OTA update, though availability and method of delivery vary from market to market.

SOURCE via Nokia

If you’re one of the lucky few who own a “Sony PlayStation Phone,” the Xperia Play, now you have something to do with it. The very first release of the Xperia Play-Xclusive Minecraft: Pocket Edition is in the Android Market now, for $6.99. Go! Build!

Actually, that’s all you can do at the moment. “Alpha 0.1″ has 36 different block types with which you can build, alone or with another local wireless player. Other features will be built into the game later, as with the main game. Also coming later is a wider Android release.

While you think about whether to try this out, here’s a miniature tragedy: That Minecraft-themed Xperia Play phone auction hasn’t ended yet, so its new owner definitely doesn’t have it in time for Minecraft’s release.

Sad that your brand new Windows Phone doesn’t have much apps to fool around with? Well, today, Microsoft has announced that ad-supported versions of Minesweeper and Sudoku are available to download, free of charge, right now on your Windows Phone 7 device. There’s only one stipulation: you’ve gotta be a US resident. Damn!

Both titles feature Achieviements and multiple modes of play — in Sudoku, you’ve got Classic or Lightning mode, while Minesweeper boasts Classic and Speed modes. You can download each by following the links below.

SOURCE via Microsoft

The Swedish Nokia site, which just went live yesterday, has begun its 49 days and counting creep to the MeeGo-powered Gorilla Glass-clad handset’s eventual overseas debut. We’d previously heard whispers of an impending September 15th release pegged for the OEM’s backyard, but well this time it’s directly from Nokia’s official launch clock so I’m sure I know who you will trust. Then again, are you more excited on this N9, or the next iPhone?

SOURCE via Nokia

Gmail for mobile was looking a little tired around the eyes, so Google went ahead and gave the ol’ web app a cosmetic lift, just in time for the ‘Back to school’ event eh? The update, announced on the Gmail blog, packs a hat trick’s worth of tweaks aimed squarely at iOS and QNX (read: BB PlayBook) users. Email messages can now be manually refreshed with a top-down pull and release — a feature similar to Twitter’s own drag-down approach. The team also added a bit of finesse to inbox navigation with new sliding transitions, and even beefed up the graphical interface, taking full advantage of that Retina Display.

SOURCE via Google

Some chinese dudes demonstrated some old-fashion tech last year that transmit data with these LED lights up to speed of 2Mbps. Earlier this year researchers hit 500Mbps with white LEDs now, using a combination of white, green, blue, and red, the team ramped that up to 800Mbps, officially putting Ethernet on notice. The line-of-site networking won’t actually replace your standard Cat 5 line or WiFi router, but it could find a home in places like hospitals where radio-based wireless technology can cause problems for sensitive equipment. With any luck, we’ll soon be bathing our homes in HD-streaming illumination.

SOURCE via Slashgear

The boy in the picture above might look messed up with his untidy hairs and shaves. Even his voice seemed rather laid back when being interviewed by Forbes. But what’s so special about him? Well, he’s Nicholas Allegra, also known as Comex. Still not sure who that is? Well, He’s the hackdom Harry Potter to Apple’s Ye-Who-Shall-Not-Jailbreak-Our-Wares, and Forbes managed to sniff him out for a little bold-faced exposé.

The 19-year old hero of the iOS community got his self-taught start with Visual Basic when he was still in nine. After graduating through a venerable online forum education, the precocious coding lad set his smarts to homebrew Wii development, and the rest is JailbreakMe history.

The self-described Apple fanboy admits his background is atyipcal of the cybersecurity industry, but with a former National Security Agency analyst praising his work as years ahead of his time, and calling his jailbreaking code as sophisticated as the virus used to attack Israel’s nuclear plant, we don’t think he should worry. For all the trouble his code has caused Cupertino, Allegra’s not trying to be the embedded thorn in Jobs’ side. Rather, the iPhone hacker claims “it’s just about the challenge” and plans to keep on keeping ol’ Steve on his billion dollar toes.

SOURCE via Forbes

We have heard that Apple has been testing prototypes of their MacBooks powered by ARM processors, but it seemed that it’s not as simple as we think. According to the ever-present “source with knowledge of the matter,” Taiwanese chipmaker, TSMC is gearing up to supply Apple with its next generation mobile processors.

Wait what? But we thought it’s supposed to be ARM? This round of speculation also comes just one year after TSMC began construction on its new $9.3 billion foundry, and teamed up with ARM — the brains behind Apple’s A5 processor.

Well, according to the apparently credible anonymous source, TSMC has already begun trial manufacturing on the chips and “has got all the authorization and details ready.” As you may already know, Apple’s current supplier of its A5 CPU is Samsung, and relations between the two have been rocky (at least in court). Of course all parties have declined to comment, which lands this report squarely in the grapevine for now.

SOURCE via Reuters

People of this generation really love touchscreens, and their tastes aren’t going to change anytime soon. That’s the takeaway from a new report from market research firm DisplaySearch, which predicts that revenue from touch panel sales will hit the $13.4 billion mark by the end of this year, before soaring to nearly $24 billion by 2017. Shipments of capacitive touch displays, in particular, are expected to increase by 100-percent over last year, accounting for a full 70-percent of all tactile revenues. The mobile market still accounts for most of this industry-wide growth, but demand for touch-based tablets is accelerating considerably, with more than 72 million panels expected to ship this year, and 100 million projected in 2012.

SOURCE via Display Search

With the dust from its Microsoft partnership having somewhat settled, Nokia is reportedly looking to kick off its forthcoming line of Windows Phones with a major marketing campaign. As we’ve seen with their latest marketing strategy on their latest N9, it seemed that Nokia will be heading the Apple method of advertising.

According to Marketing Magazine, Nokia have already devoted some £80 million to the six-month ad endeavour, which is expected to launch in October. And yet we though the WP7 Nokia handsets will only come in 2012.

Considering all the job cuts and downwardly revised corporate forecasts, an advertising refresh would seem like a logical way for Nokia to embark on a new era. Cut some skin from there and mend it here, a common strategy in business’s logic. But the company is remaining rather mum on the subject, saying, “We are excited about the Nokia with Windows phone, but it’s not our policy to comment on specific campaigns for unannounced products.” Awkwardly executed “leaks,” on the other hand, are an entirely different matter.

SOURCE via Marketing Magazine