Unboxing the Nokia N8 kinda slow mo and totally Greek style. Even Symbian is set to Greek language.

Nokia N8′s gorilla glass screen can really handle lots of pressure and mishandle, at least according to my test. The screen was tortured with a swiss army knife, coins, keys and a huge kitchen knife. You can see for yourself that the screen is intact and working like a charm. Sorry for the oily finger tips and please do not try this at home.

Nokia disrupted but it’s time for the Finns to disrupt others businesses as well. Here’s a humble list of 4 ideas Nokia can leverage for not only making more money but make more users happier.

Ovi Maps

Open Ovi Maps and release the API to the wild. Let developers play and integrate Ovi Maps everywhere, even out of the Symbian^3, MeeGo, Maemo ecosystem. Make it as fun, easy, silly, stupid and engaging as the other APIs out there, courtesy of Flickr, Google Maps etc. Unify the mobile and desktop experience and let people embed Ovi Maps in their blog posts and sites. Ovi Maps is brilliant, it’s accurate, it’s awesome even on a device like Nokia X6 which is more of a music device than anything else.

Other Ovi services

Remove the fat. Keep Ovi Mail for emerging markets, Ovi Maps for the whole world and that’s it. Either offer Ovi Music to every single country or kill it as well. Use 3rd party services not because they’re necessarily better or cooler but because they’ve been there before Ovi. YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter etc i’s where everyone hangs out. That’s one thing and searching, installing, using a 3rd party app on the Ovi Store it’s another.

Ovi Accessories

Or Nokia Accessories for every single Nokia phone out there. Sell license to 3rd parties to come up with whatever thy want for the hundreds of millions of Nokia devices out there. Throw in some beautiful Finn design and inspiring technology for high end user and enthusiasts / hackers. Create the Ovi Accessories ecosystem.

Hardware

Disrupt in hardware. Finns proved they can do it with the N95, the N900 etc. Bring RFIDs and tie it with Nokia Money, improved CMOS and Carl Zeiss optics for HD 1080p single tap video uploads, micro location hardware (Ovi Accessories also) etc. Make devices available a week after they’re announced. Pimp up the specs with faster CPUs and more than 256MB of RAM.

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Ovi Maps in offline mode is probably the best thing you can get when in the middle of an area where signal bars are nowhere to be seen. The accuracy of the GPS, at least on my Nokia X6, when using Ovi Maps’ navigation mode is more than outstanding. I love Google Maps on the iPhone but i think i’m falling in love with Ovi Maps on my X6.

Running the latest version of Ovi Maps 3.04 on the latest X6 firmware 21.0.004 is great but leaves room for improvement. Here’s a wish list for the Ovi Maps engineering team:

1. Make the position dot in the map smaller, maybe the same size of the dot found in the left upper corner button (those two dots must have the same size anyway or else different functionality is implied) or at least change the dot’s size accordingly when zooming in and out

2. Update new position faster in cases when the phone is just unlocked

3. When searching create a drop down menu and show the last 3-5 search keyword used, offer the option for a new search right after the recent search list

4. Enable touch events on navigation. For instance tap once to get voice info about the destination (time and distance remaining etc), double tap to change between night and day mode etc

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Disruptive innovation is a term used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically by lowering price or designing for a different set of consumers.

Disruptive innovation, a term of art coined by Clayton Christensen, describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves ‘up market’, eventually displacing established competitors.

This is how Apple and the iPhone is killing Nokia and how Android will kill Apple.

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There is one thing and one thing only that made Nokia the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phonse and there is one thing and one thing only that is currently kicking Nokia’s ass. The company culture is engineer driven, period. Everything is build upon this very perception of reality, period. This is how Nokia introduced the world’s first mobile phone, the Mobira Cityman 900, and this is why Nokia is losing market share and market value for the last couple of years.

Fredrik Idestam, Nokia’s founder, was a mining engineer back in 1865. Fast forward 145 years and you will realize that every product Nokia ever made was build upon that engineer driven mentality and Finn influence. Engineers and particularly Finn engineers, combine great talent and technology to build amazing devices but that’s all they do. They build stuff based on the engineer assumption of efficiency and evolution but they totally toss the experience. Engineers are happy when stuff work and specs are pumped even if they have to struggle with 15 different clicks and settings to get the hardware running. Finns are a special specimen of engineering force who don’t give a damn about any of the “in between nonsense” at all.

Nokia is blessed to be the world’s largest handset maker or to put it in other words, engineer driven or not what they do brings €5 billion worth of food to the table. It’s really hard to argue against an operating profit of €5 billion as of 2008 but someone actually did. Apple and Google both set the standards for the next generation of smartphone OS while Nokia is yet not ready to officially announce Symbian Foundation phone and get over the engineer driven design of the powerful N900 beast. Apple is already working on the 4th version of iPhone OS for the new iPhone to be announced June-July 2010 while Google is on speed with 4 major release of Android OS already. As of now, Nokia is doomed to fail on the developed world.

On the other hand, Finns measure tremendous growth and success in emerging markets which are now something like the holly grail of low end – S40 mobile phones sales and Ovi services. This is huge for Nokia and the stock price considering the size of the population and the opportunity for further expansion. It’s also extremely beneficial for the locals who now have access to information for the first time ever without asking for permission from the local authorities or the head of the village. This is where Nokia is doomed to succeed.

It would be interesting to see if this new path to financial success and opportunity to change the world as once happened with the Cityman mobile phone is the same path surrounded with the engineer only perception of reality which cut Nokia’s market share down to 38%.

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The smartphone is more than a phone, it’s a digital projection of our yet to be discovered digital ego. Devices like the Nokia N900 might look like useless to the majority of fishermen but are way too important for everyone, fishermen included. The fine line between online and offline is already blurry but it’s still there. If you want to jump on the always online-i make all decisions on my own-and accept full responsibility, now it’s the time. The boat will still be small or big enough to accommodate our bodies but the real question is where our egos will rest, on the boat or inside a mobile device with the speed of a comet?

The video is living proof of Nokia N900 3D capabilities using hardware acceleration. Combine that with TV out and the build in accelerometer and you’ll get a new type of gaming machine for those white collars want a break in the office. The game uses Donkey Kong kind of graphics but that’s not important at all. What really matters is the combination of really cool 3D graphics with 3G/HSDPA/WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS and more stuff.

The N900 is the new N95 in every single way. Keep that in mind for accessories and hacks popping up in the next few months.

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Unboxing the Nokia Booklet 3G is more than an unboxing video. The Finns just started getting it right but they have a long way till the end. Just to make thing clear, the Booklet 3G is not a netbook, not even a mini laptop. This new device is actually an implementation of a very old concept: the mobile phone. Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, HSPA, SD memory card reader, Windows 7 Home Premium, QWERTY keyboard and a big screen. Think about it while watching the video.

When Scoble named Nokia N97, the ultimate Facebook device he was right. He was so right that there is no doubt when it comes to choose the best Facebook application for a mobile device in the whole universe. Nokia N97 wins, period.

I don’t know if it’s Nokia or Facebook that designed and engineered the Facebook application for the N97 but it feels like someone flew from Cupertino to Espoo to design the application while having had vodka and sauna during his launch breaks. Seriously, Facebook on N97 it’s the closest thing to the desktop experience with only the options and functions that matter. The design philosophy and simplicity of the applications feels so like Apple but you know it’s not. It’s S60 5th edition with all its prons and cons that runs the N97 Facebook app on this 3.5 inch, 640 x 360 pixels (16:9 aspect ratio) touchscreen. The Facebook app for the iPhone 3GS is responsive and fast due to faster CPU and GPU with transition effects making the experience smooth but that’s all about it. It lacks the immediate engagement and using pleasure of the N97 app. Truth to be told: the N97 faces minor delays here and there, when fast switching the app’s menus.

I can’t really tell if Nokia had in mind the N97 form factor for applications like Facebook but i can swear to all Gods in the known universe, that when the QWERTY is revealed and the screen is tilted, typing and controlling the Facebook app is only 2 thumbs away. The N97′s joypad form factor it really, really has an impact when it comes to using the Facebook app. If Nokia engineers add Facebook specific, customizable shortcuts to the camera and voice control buttons, even your 6 finger alien friend will want to use it.

Warning: Video will sound very Greek to you but that’s ok. It’s the N97 that matters. Watch out for the last 30 seconds.