Nokia Flashes 808 PureView with 41 MP Camera At MWC 2012

Nokia has finally put the speculations regarding N8's successor to rest by announcing the 808 PureView at MWC 2012. I've double-checked the details regarding its camera module through multiple sources, and it's in fact a 41 MP sensor coupled with a Xenon flash.


The latest Symbian flagship has also received a performance upgrade to support 1080p video recording. Under the hood, is a 1.3 GHz CPU with 512 MB of RAM to keep it company. The handset's 4" AMOLED screen has pixel dimensions of 640x360. Additionally, the display features Nokia's ClearBack polarization treatment that delivers deeper blacks and better sunlight legibility. The internal memory is 16 GB with a microSD card slot to expand it. Then, there's long list of connectivity options including the HDMI port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, USB OTG (On-the-Go), 3.5 mm jack that doubles up as a TV-out port, GPS, FM-transmitter, FM radio, GPS, and an NFC chip. According to the manufacturer, the handset tips the scale at 169 grammes and is 0.7" (18 mm) thick at the camera, because of the lumpy sensor.

No prizes for guessing that the 808's USP is its camera. How Nokia managed to squeeze in a 41 MP sensor in a mobile phone, is still an unanswered question. However, Nokia was more than happy to inform that it has achieved this feat with the help of Carl Zeiss optics and some internally developed algorithms. It has also been claimed that the phone's snapper offers up to 4X lossless zoom.



The 808 PureView is expected to hit the stores in May, with white, red, and black hues to choose from. However, there's no word official word on its pricing.

"Slide-to-Unlock" Belongs To Apple

Apple has won a patent dispute case against Motorola Mobility pertaining to its "slide-to-unlock" feature. This feature has been part of the iPhone since its first version, although the company was granted a patent for the same only in March 2010. Incidentally, this is the first victory for Apple over Motorola, and will have far-reaching implications for Android devices in general. Motorola, on the other hand, has brushed off suggestions that the judgment will impact its future supply or sales, as it plans to appeal against the verdict.

Patent expert Florian Mueller has stated that this ruling is "very significant", because it could help Apple with other patent disputes around the world. He elaborated, "Apple is already asserting the slide-to-unlock patent in different jurisdictions against all three leading Android device makers and might use it against even more of them going forward".

A Motorola spokeswoman commented, "Today's ruling in the patent litigation brought by Apple in Munich, Germany, concerns a software feature related to phone unlocking in select Motorola devices sold in Germany. Motorola has implemented a new design for the feature. Therefore, we expect no impact on current supply or future sales". Apple has declined to comment on the issue.

This particular patent EP1964022 relates to the process of unlocking a smartphone by swiping a finger across the screen. Apple is also fighting for rights to another patent related to scrolling through a photo gallery on the mobile devices, but the court has postponed the ruling.

Gmail, Yahoo! Will Be Asked To Route Mails Via Indian Servers...

After pacifying the country with statements about not censoring social networking content, the government has decided to divert its attention to email communication instead. Reports suggest that Department of Information Technology (DIT) will now ask email service providers such as Yahoo! and Gmail, along with others to route all emails accessed in India through servers based in the country, even if the said mail account is registered outside. The move comes after security agencies failed to get real-time access to some emails, because the accounts had been registered outside India.

In a high-level meeting held at the Union Home Secretary RK Singh's office, the Director General from CERT-in, India's cyber community noted that Yahoo! automatically relocates all email accounts registered in the country to its servers in India. However, this does not apply for emails from accounts registered outside the country. Earlier, security agencies were unable to access email accounts of suspected terrorists belonging to the terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen during investigations, because they had been registered in a European country. When the required permissions to view these mails in question were asked, the content provider said that a request would have to be made with the European nation where the server was situated.

While censoring tweets and status updates is absurd, this does seem like something that the defence requires, taking into account the gravity of the security situation. On the flip side though, how comfortable would you be, knowing that the government goes through all your email communication?