"Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours." That was the only official Apple statement we've yet seen on the matter, by Bruce Sewell, Apple's General Counsel and senior vice president.

Apple is countersuing Nokia for 13 infringing patents. That's three more than Nokia. And it's hard to imagine Nokia coming back at Apple with any less than 18 at this point.

UPDATE: For those interested in the claims themselves, they're here.

Apple Countersues Nokia

CUPERTINO, California-December 11, 2009-Responding to a lawsuit brought against the company by Nokia, Apple® today filed a countersuit claiming that Nokia is infringing 13 Apple patents.

"Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours," said Bruce Sewell, Apple's General Counsel and senior vice president.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Joining the flagship London store on Regent Street which announced its closure two days ago, Nokia was hit with criticisms by analysts, including this stinging remark from John Strand, chief executive of Strand Consult:

"Flagship stores are important in fashion industry: Apple is fashion. Nokia is consumer electronics"

Double ouch. [Reuters]

It's zappier than we thought it'd be, considering the Chinese/Australian Optima hasn't done much to warrant our attention so far. The tester puts the OP5-E through its paces nicely, even showing us the ease of use when watching DivX files—demoing a shooty scene from Lie To Me, set in Afghanistan. Nice.

For now, it looks like this MID will be distributed solely in China, but Optima is obviously keen to get the OP5-E out to the rest of the world. With Nokia only releasing one Maemo device next year, Optima might just have a chance. [ARM Devices via Engadget]

The idea is that customers will buy the handset, but also buy into a lifestyle—and for a change, one that doesn't revolve around apps. Instead, owners of the UNIK would buy little colored squares made from various materials (metal, rubber and transparent beads are mentioned), which can then be stuck together to form covers for the slinky-looking handset.

It's a fun idea, and it reminds me of being a kid in the schoolyard, trading cards or marbles—though hopefully children wouldn't be trading these UNIK squares. They're a choking hazard, surely. [The Design Blog]

Our suspicions were raised three days ago when they stated they'd only be releasing one Maemo device in 2010, being a figurative bullet in the foot of the Finnish company, considering the N900 is the best thing they've released for years. Even with the rather odd advert.

Now, in a webcast yesterday, Nokia's Chief of Smartphones Jo Harlow claimed:

"We see ... really fierce competition certainly in the high end, but we also see it in the mid to low end of smartphones increasing"

This tactic of releasing dumbed-down handsets which look, feel and act exactly like the last 50 models to be sold was mentioned at Nokia Capital Markets Day earlier in the week by Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who wants to bring prices down to increase margins.

Cutting smartphone production in half for 2010, Nokia's claiming it launched around 20 high-end devices this year. 20? They obviously have a different opinion on what's considered a premium handset, if that's true. Antti Vasara, the Head of Smartphones R&D at Nokia, stated that:

"We have cut down unnecessary differentiation, so that we have a far more focused portfolio for next year"

Is releasing just one Maemo device (the far-superior platform to Symbian) considered "unnecessary differentiation"? We would've called it "offering punters what they want," keeping in mind the N900 has far outsold expectations, forcing Nokia to delay sales in both the US and Europe.

Even at Mobile World Congress, when Nokia first introduced the N900, you could see they didn't value the device as being a worthy of flagship status, devoting just a couple of minutes at the end of the presentation to it, calling it a "niche" product. Even the lack of exclusive carrier support suggests that Nokia wasn't pushing it hard enough, instead focusing its energies on the pitiful N97.

Sorry Nokia, but if you do indeed release more "dumbphones" than smartphones in 2010, you're going to run into trouble, and even your impressive market share can't stop us scheduling an urgent intervention meeting. We're worried, Nokia. It's time to talk. [Reuters]

Dell's Vostro 1015, the rare business laptop that brings a halfway elegant design to the boardroom table, is now available. The base model of the 15.6" laptop costs $429 but only comes with a 2.2GHz Celeron 900 processor, so you will likely want to make the jump to the $629 model which sports a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T6670. You know, to ensure that Excel performs snappily. Or at least for making sure you can snappily Alt-Tab back to Excel when the boss strolls by. The $629 price tag also gets you 3GB of RAM, a 320 GB HD and Windows 7 Professional. To check out more details on the Dell Vostro 1015, head over to Dell.

The Samsung Omnia II is now available at Verizon for $200. Though the Omnia II sports a pretty 3.7" touch screen, that beauty is only skin-deep; John thought just about everything else was a hot mess. The phone runs WinMo 6.5 mucked up with Samsung's 3D-Cube TouchWiz 2.0 UI and is the first phone to feature Swype input technology, which may or may not save you some time when you're texting all your friends to tell them that your new phone sucks. The Omnia II packs a 5-megapixel camera, an 8 GB HD, and supports both social networking widgets and Microsoft Office Mobile. To be the first person to submit an expense report via Swype, head to Verizon.

The Nokia N900 Maemo which, Nokia will have you know, is mobile computer and not a smartphone, is now available. For $570 you can fetch an unlocked N900 with a 600 MHz processor, a 32 GB hard drive, a 5-megapixel camera capable of capturing 800 x 400 video, and all the other expected bells and whistles. The N900 has a slide-out hardware keyboard for all your texting—err, mobile computing—needs, supports playback of a wide range of both audio and video file formats and offers VoIP integration. All of this is packed into Nokia's Debian-based Maemo OS which the company's announcement boasted as offering "computer-grade performance in a compact size". Ooh and ahh at the impressive N900 and its correspondingly grandiose website here.

The Cinemin Swivel Pico Projector by WowWee, a $300 pocket-size projector designed for use with other pocket-size devices, is now yours for the having. The Cinemin swivels on a 90-degree hinge for versatile projection without a tripod, which is sweet like cinnamon but only offers 480 x 320 resolution, which is like the minimum of cinema, thus Cinemin. That might not be what they had in mind with the name but I'm sticking to it. You can get your hands on the little guy over at Amazon.

Nokia's device top dog, Kai Öistämö, reiterated that they don't see the Symbian OS as the problem—just the interface. Accordingly, they're planning two big interface milestones for 2010, the first of which will arrive by mid-year. They plan to:

"Use a new optimized graphic architecture with a focus on graphics and responsiveness, showcased beautifully on a large capacitive screen. Later in the year, a completely new visual architecture re-working of the UI will drastically reduce the complexity throughout and bring fresh appeal. We will execute here." Big screens hey? That concept tablet in the slides sure looks interesting...

Beyond reduced clutter, Nokia also plans to improve input methods (including multi-touch and single tap controls). "Two taps to get to music and video instead of 8, and email access in two steps instead of four….There will also be a significantly improved browser experience."

"The interface will be over three times faster than our current high-end devices in many areas…Scrolling will move up to over 60fps compared to 15fps on our current high-end devices."

If they deliver, it may help Symbian phones (both smartphone and dumb) level off out of their nosedive into irrelevance. And interestingly, Nokia also plans to release its first Maemo 6-powered "mobile computer" late next year, too. FYI: The screens are from yesterday's webcast of Nokia's Capital Market Day for investors: [Nokia]

The latest of Nokia's reliably rousing Capital Markets Day reports points to two goals, both of which sit decidedly forward from here:

In 2010, we will drive user experience improvements, and the progress we make will take the Symbian user interface to a new level...[Nokia will] deliver our first Maemo 6-powered mobile computer, with an iconic user experience, in the second half of 2010.

Forward in terms of time, obviously, but more importantly in terms of progress: Symbian is getting stale and needs this UI update badly, while Maemo, despite a generally positive reception, is still a little raw, with a slim device selection for at least another year. You can probably assume that Maemo 6 will be more polished and ready for the mainstream, but for now it's just words on paper.

That said, Nokia's self-help regimen will take time. Nokia expects their mobile device volume market share to stay flat for 2010, partly due to their conspicuous absence from the growing US smartphone scene, but mostly, I'm guessing, because even in their European strongholds, Symbian devices are starting to feel plain old.

So yeah, all eyes on Nokia, because things are just about to get exciting! In a year. [Nokia]

Reuters is claiming sources have tipped them off about Nokia's hesitation to go the whole hog with the Linux platform, despite rumors suggesting it would ditch Symbian for Maemo on all its upcoming N-Series devices. While we doubt they'll drop Symbian entirely, we've got to admit that Maemo 5 works a treat on the N900, and is certainly a lot more advanced than anything we've seen on Symbian S60. With Maemo 6 rearing its pretty little head, we would've thought Nokia would be throwing more weight behind this open source platform, especially given the early reviews that are crowing about how well it performs. [via Reuters]

The video has since been pulled from Youtube, but the screen grab above shows how Nokia went out of their way to demonstrate how well SNES emulators run on the N900. The rub here isn't the emulator itself; as Nintendo Life points out, Android features a bunch of emulators in its app catalog. As long as those emulators don't come with ROMs, everything is peachy.

The problem was that Nokia actually showed video of Super Mario World and Super Ghouls and Ghosts running within that emulator. They even acknowledged that "some emulators require separate ROM images to play games," and claimed that "[m]ost publishers allow individual title usage provided that the user is in possession of the original title." Yeah... pretty sure Nintendo doesn't like that idea.

So now Nintendo's got its claws out for Nokia. Pretty bold of you to push emulators now that N-Gage is no longer with us, Nokia, but really, you must have seen this coming. [Edge Online via Nintendo Life, Thanks Nintenboy01.]

If you hate the gallery format, click here.

All pricing shown is with a new 2-year contract, and some deals may be temporary.

AT&T

iPhone 3GS
The iPhone 3GS is the best overall smartphone you can buy. It's really that simple. Best user interface, best internet, best apps, best media support—the list goes on. Okay, not the best network, but nothing's perfect. $199

BlackBerry Bold 9700
I miss the original BlackBerry Bold's king-sized keyboard, but the Bold 9700 squeezes the best of the BlackBerry for CEOs into an impressively tight form factor—faux leather back included—making it very possibly the best BlackBerry you can buy. $10

Bonus: Nokia e71x
It's free, and an actually good smartphone—my favorite Nokia phone on the planet. Free

Verizon

Droid
It's a terminator. A huge, disgustingly high-res screen, Batman-worthy industrial design, and the full power of Android 2.0 make it the best phone on Verizon—and the fact that it's running on arguably the best network in the US make it the second best smartphone you can buy, period. $150

BlackBerry Tour
Sure, it's notorious for trackball problems and it's missing Wi-Fi, but this is the BlackBerry of choice for email warriors if they're not on AT&T or T-Mobile—and it sure as hell beats anything running Windows Mobile. $50

Bonus: Droid Eris
If you're desperate to save $100 over the Droid, the Droid Eris will run Android 2.0 soon enough, and is smoother, smaller, and friendlier, if a little blander. $100

Sprint

Palm Pre
The Pre offers one of the best user experiences of any smartphone with Palm's webOS, and it's probably the best phone on Sprint, hardware build issues and comparatively dinky App Catalog aside. $80

HTC Hero
The best Android phone not running Android 2.0, HTC's Sense UI makes the sometimes confusing Android interface more digestible and has a few nifty tricks of its own, like integrated social networking. $100

Bonus: There is none. The Pixi's close ($25), but the fact that you can get the Pre for nearly as cheap undercuts a lot of the value, as much as we like the design and form factor.

T-Mobile

Motorola Cliq
Motorola's other Android phone is gussied up with Blur, a custom interface that's bright and friendly, with widgets for keeping track of everything happening on your social network. It's our favorite Android phone on T-Mobile. $100

Unlocked iPhone
No, I'm not kidding. A jailbroken and unlocked iPhone, even without 3G powers, is the second best smartphone you can use on T-Mobile.

Bonus: BlackBerry Bold 9700
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the first BlackBerry with 3G on T-Mobile, which is reason enough, really, but it's good the reasons listed above, too. $130

The S60 5th edition OS (as used on the N97 and N97 mini) might be mature, but it's pretty damn woeful. Maemo 5 (used by the N900) definitely has a better user experience, and though it's not perfect either, it's definitely headed in the right direction. Speaking of which, Nokia's next OS, Maemo 6, could look like this. [The Reality Mobile Project]

Apple Issues Update for Current-Gen iPod Nano

Apple quietly issued a firmware update for its newest, video-taking iPod Nano, and it's pretty minor but does fix a few problems. Audio podcasts can now be played back in Normal, Slow or Fast modes, and a few random bugs were patched (Nike+ integration, mono audio, VoiceOver). It's in Remainders because it really is a minor update—we wouldn't even bother with it except the Nano is such a ridiculously huge seller. [TUAW]

Barnes & Noble Giftcards Won't Buy Ebooks, Screwing Some Nook Pre-Orderers

Apparently Barnes & Noble's giftcards will buy you everything B&N sells—except ebooks. It's an inexplicable and irritating omission, but what makes it really rankle is that nobody seems to know about it, even those who work at the stores. Check out this story:

My wife and kids pre-ordered a nook for my birthday at our local B&N. The sales person also sold her a $100 gift card to "get my eBook collection started." When I tried to purchase a few books, I found out that gift cards can't be used on eBooks.

What a dick move! We're going to assume ignorance on B&N's part, but this is sloppy stuff, especially given our proximity to the holidays—their giftcards are incredibly popular and this will not be an isolated incident. Get it together, B&N. [Consumerist]

Dell Mini 3 Officially Launched in China

The Android-running Dell Mini 3 smartphone officially began its launch sequence today. It's been shipped out to sellers in China today, for release later this month, with a Brazil release to follow later this year. In early 2010 it should hit AT&T and Verizon—we'll see if we care by then. It's a noticeably low-key release, considering it's the first handheld in years from Dell, but it ends up in Remainders due to its current China-only status. [Electronista]

Palm Stock Skyrockets After Nokia Takeover Rumor

Palm stock skyrocketed today, with trading over 15 times heavier than normal, due to an odd rumor that Nokia would be buying the company. It doesn't really make any sense to us—Nokia is really unlikely to be purchasing a competitor to its Symbian line, and buying the beleaguered Palm would be a weird way to try to make gains in the US market. This one plops into Remainders because it's both unlikely and mere financial news, which isn't really that exciting. [Electronista]

Price

$300 with 2-year AT&T contract, $600 à la carte

Verdict

Nokia has built a great netbook, but they've done nothing to redefine the genre. Their 10-inch Booklet 3G has your typical 1.6GHz Atom, 120GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. Running Windows 7, that means the performance is just passable. I'd be this close to pounding my head against the wall when a program would begin installing or a video would load.

That's typical.

What's ever so less typical is the sharp, sub-3lb unibody-esque construction (complete with sweet MacBook-like under-hatch battery and a hinge that bends nearly 180-degrees), HDMI output (not that you can really playback HD videos smoothly on an Atom) and, of course, solid integrated 3G and integrated GPS (though Nokia's bundled Ovi software apparently requires a phone or PC to activate, and after 30 minutes of fiddling, I honestly gave up on mapping.)
The battery life is impressive, too. In nonstop 3G browsing and app running with the screen at 80% brightness, the machine's svelte 16-cell battery ran for a bit over 6 hours and 30 minutes. That was a strenuous test, and dimming the screen and/or browsing through Wi-Fi should truly be enough to get you through the workday sans-recharge. (For instance, CrunchGear's John Biggs reported a pretty remarkable 10 hours of movie playback.)

But alas, even for a nice netbook, the Booklet's price is a bit too opulent for what you're really getting: an ever-so gussied up version of the same machine you could buy from Acer, Asus, HP, etc, for half the price (before subsidies). Meanwhile, there are plenty of ULV systems in the $700 range with bigger screens, better performance and portable-minded design (of course, they'll mostly require 3G dongles).

Give me some rhinestones and a bit more power, and we'll talk. Or just hand me back my iPhone.

Quality build

Long battery life

Plastic monitor back makes whole thing feel cheaper

It's still a $600 netbook

The twin-screen netbook concept splits into a smaller handset when you're on the move, and can also act as a computer, GPS, and TV-connected media center. In the video, Nokia also uses it to demonstrate how it sees cloud-based services being used. When you're in an area with fast wireless broadband, the device could use remote servers to help crunch streaming video and sync data, but it would also be self-sufficient when you're not.

Cool stuff, but 2015 is but 5 years away, Nokia. Better get a move on. [SlashGear]

If you don't feel like watching the whole ad, jump to about 1:50. It's where the truth is revealed. It's also the moment when I began to daydream about the days when ads actually showed the product for more than a few seconds. [Thanks, GitEmSteveDave!]

Apple Stomps Over Nokia to Become Most Profitable Phone-Maker in US

Despite being in the game for just over two years, gaining only a 2.5% national marketshare and selling only one main model at a time, Apple is now the most profitable maker of phones in the US market, taking the lead spot from Nokia. Apple's operating profit was half a billion dollars more than Nokia's this summer, mostly due to a high profit margin on smartphones—Nokia barely competes in the States in the smartphone category. Nokia doesn't seem inclined to initiate the kind of aggressive push into the US (they're mostly focused on their native Europe) that would be required to compete, so it looks like Apple will continue to sleep on giant beds of cash. It ends up in Remainders because this kind of thing is really only pressing news to Apple shareholders and the kind of weirdos that watch CNBC. [Electronista]

Windows Mobile 7 Is on Track for an Early 2010 Release to OEMs

ZDNet Taiwan reports that Microsoft is on track for an imminent release of Windows Mobile 7, the long-awaited overhaul of the soul-killing WinMo OS. It should be released to OEMs in the first quarter of 2010, which is in line for a spring 2010 general release. Hopefully it won't feel outdated so far in the future. This story landed in Remainders because, well, it's a rumor stating a project is on track for a release a long time in the future. Not the most exciting news ever. [ZDNet via WMPowerUser via Engadget]

Bing Videos Aggregates Hulu, YouTube, ABC and More

This is actually really cool: Bing has begun aggregating videos into its search results, pulling video from sites like Hulu, YouTube and ABC (as well as Microsoft's own MSN Video) into one clean homepage. It allows for easy searching and organization, plus a standard UI (which includes dimming and sharing features). The rollout started today and will continue to expand over the next few days, and can be accessed here. [Bing]

Non-Apple Companies to Support Mini DisplayPort Soon

I hate Mini DisplayPort. I hate proprietary jacks, I hate having to buy a $20 adapter, and I hate capitalization in the middle of words. But I have a MacBook Pro (more mid-word capitalization!) and I have to deal with it, so I guess I'm glad that VESA, the Video Electronics Standards Association, has agreed to adopt mDP as a legitimate branch of DisplayPort. That, coupled with Apple's recent decision to grant no-fee licenses so companies can develop products for it, means Mini DisplayPort could start being more than an annoying Apple idea. Expect accessories using the new standard to start popping up fairly soon. [Ars Technica]

You were born but a hyped, sidetalking Taco. Then, after we had our laughs for several years, papa Nokia ditched your dedicated hardware and opened it up to phones of all kinds—as long as they said N-O-K-I-A on them. It was a smart move. Because you sell lots of phones, and if your gaming platform was to live, it needed to be on as many of those as possible. It looked ok at this point, as a platform and service. And the hardware was nice at times. But that didn't change the fact that no one I know ever talked about you, n-Gage, much less played with you. The button layouts, games and online vs modes never really came together as well as you'd liked in terms of people buying and using it. Why? I don't know. I guess, at least in America, we couldn't get the handsets for less than the price of 5 Nintendo DSes. But beyond that, you never had any games that people cared about, despite having signed up companies like EA so easily because papa Nokia was still number one. And every year at E3, your booth was like a buzz-vacuum. So, I can't say we'll miss you. We hardly knew you were there. But let's just chalk this up to more high end consumer failure to excite at Nokia, which has been a trend of late.

I'm done. Honestly, this much word count on nGage is charity, even as a farewell. See ya. Hope we never have to see you again. But the word is, you'll probably just fold some games of yours into a general app store. The dead never stay dead for long in the gadget game.

TomTom owns Tele Atlas, who drives the roads of the world in order to make maps, and until recently was a major map provider for Google. Nokia owns the only major competitor, Navteq, who has also provided maps for Google. Look at Google Maps now, though, and you'll see that the entire US bears just one single copyright: Google's.

Street View wasn't just a neat way to get imagery to accompany the data already found in Google Maps. As it happens, it was a way to drive the same roads that were already in Google Maps, tracing them with Google's own road teams, and—through efficiency and brute force—do away with those costly map licenses. Google has mapped the US, and will surely map the rest of the world soon enough.

This is just a timely example of Google's monstrous growth, and the destruction it causes. Any business that trades in data or packages it for public consumption may one day face the same issues. It's not just whether or not to compete with the behemoth, but even whether or not to go into business with it. In either case, there is a chance of being destroyed.

Garmin might have a long-standing relationship with Navteq, but they don't own any maps. How can they compete with a free Google app when they still have to pay? (Worse, Garmin is still stuck in the hardware business, where profits are extra thin.) TomTom owns the maps, but charges $100 for their own app because they also make money licensing maps to car makers, competing GPS makers and web services—like Google. Before, Google was a fat revenue source for TomTom; now Google is a sprightly competitor.

If a unique supply of data was the only thing keeping TomTom and others on the Google chuck wagon, who will be next to fall off?

I was always afraid of spiders growing up, not because of the eight legs or the umpteen eyes, but because of the way they kill their prey. They get them in a nice convenient position, then they use their venom to hollow out their victim's insides, until they're just dead-eyed shells. To be killed in such a manner is my worst nightmare; perhaps I should ask TomTom how it feels.

I am a fan of Google products, and a daily user of them. This is not an attack of Google's business practices, but an explanation of the sort of destructive innovation that has made them so huge so fast. (It's also a warning to consider carefully any entities that gets this strong, especially if you plan on going into business with one.) Though predecessors like Microsoft experienced similar explosive growth, and grew a similar sudden global dependence, we've never seen the likes of Google. The GPS business isn't the only one that will be consumed by its mighty maw before it's had its run.

We've already seen the devaluation of the office apps that make Microsoft rich; we've already seen how Google's experiences with Apple and others helped it create telecommunications platforms (both mobile with Android and completely virtual with Google Voice) that threaten its former partners' existence; we've already seen how Google converts photos, videos, news wire stories and other former commodities into freebies by smashing the false notion of scarcity that "service" providers had literally banked on.

So who is next? What other hallowed brands will go the way of Garmin and TomTom? Corbis and Getty? Reuters and AP? Warner and Disney?

This is a tale already told, bound to be told again, but the fundamentals are worth studying—even if we use Google Docs spreadsheets to do it. I have never spoken with a spider, but I am certain they're not evil, despite what fantasy lore tells us. They're just doing what comes naturally, and doing a hell of a job.

Watch it, share it, do what you like. And if you just want the short and sweet, here again are our five featured bits (shot and edited by Mike Short):

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: "It Doesn't Matter What the Critics Say"
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?
Part 4: Ballmer on Those Crazy Ballmer YouTube Videos
Part 5: Ballmer Optimistic About Win 7, But Says Vista Is "Very Popular"

Now, touch screens are nothing new, obviously. The iPhone's an obvious example, as are the multitude of touchscreen handsets that have done their fair share of pinch zooming, screen swiping and touch typing in its wake.

Add in pressure sensitive gestures, however, and a new level of control descends on the venerable touchscreen. Again, Apple's been here before—at least with a 2007 patent—but nevertheless it's interesting to see a giant like Nokia weighing in with some ideas too (let's just hope they get their homework handed in before doomsday though, right?).

Like I said, the Apple one is going on two years old, and we haven't seen anything yet. Our expectations with these things must remain in the realm of the real and the grounded. Still, as we explained earlier, touchscreens are our future, and the added functionality provided by a pressure-sensitive screen seems an inevitability. Question is, who's going to be first to successfully drive this tech to where it really counts: Into the mainstream consumer market? [Unwired View via Engadget]

It looks like the Universal Charging Solution (UCS) has some pretty broad support, from handset manufacturers like LG, Motorola and Samsung to carriers including AT&T and T-Mobile. No word on whether the standard will match the one the GSM Association has been working on, but they're both rallying around MicroUSB, so we'll call it likely for now.

What's sad to me is that, according to the source, this standard could save 51,000 tons of waste if it were in place today. Considering all phone chargers do exactly the same thing, it's pretty ridiculous there wasn't a standard in place before.

Participating carriers and handset makers should fully adopt the UCS by 2012. Hopefully America hops on board before then. [Reuters via Electronista]

From Nokia:

The ten patents in suit relate to technologies fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards. The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.

Apparently, the wireless technologies in question mean that the iPod touch is off the hook.

Apple is no stranger to patent squabbles, even on the iPhone with their blanket claims on multitouch. [Nokia]

UPDATE: Gene Munster estimates that the patents add up to $6-$12 per phone, meaning that Apple would owe Nokia roughly $200-$400 million based upon the estimated 34 million iPhones sold to date. [Business Insider]

As you can see in the video, Ballmer acknowledges that Windows Mobile 6.5 is receiving negative reviews, but I never get him to actually admit that the platform still needs work. He says, "reviews aside," he's happy with what Windows Phones (running 6.5) can do now.

And faced with competition of iPhone, BlackBerry and others, he contends it's currently "kind of a horse race." The only clear leader, market-share wise, is Nokia, and they're losing ground. When I said that Nokia was another developer currently lambasted by reviewers, Ballmer replied:

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what the critics say, it matters what the customers say.

Perhaps given the power of advertising (still mighty, even if it's on the decline), there may still be a way for a product to get positive sales despite negative reviews. But the internet has changed that landscape, and the lines between critic and customer blur more every day. We all share knowledge in order to make better choices. So who, in the end, is this customer, who is so different from the critic? Not anyone who reads Gizmodo, that's for sure.

Stay tuned for more exciting Ballmer moments (and facial expressions) over the next day, and then the full uncut interview video on Friday. Video by Mike Short

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: "It Doesn't Matter What the Critics Say"
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?

The pricing plan is $60 a month to get the $299, which you have to agree to for two years. That's $1440 over those 24 loooong months, adding up to about $1750. Other plans will be coming "down the road," but it's still gonna be cheaper to get it off-contract for 600 bucks.

AT&T's gonna be the "exclusive activation partner" for the Booklet 3G and Best Buy's gonna be the "exclusive retail" outlet, meaning AT&T's the only place to get it on contract so it's $299 instead of god-knows-what, but you'll only be able to buy it at Best Buy. Got that? AT&T's Glenn Lurie says that was "his decision" to let Best Buy sell it exclusively through the holidays, but won't commit to AT&T selling it direct in the future. Okay.

Funny, Nokia's fastidiously avoiding the word netbook, preferring the nomenclature "mini PC," 'cause it runs Windows 7. Right. They're emphasizing that the battery is a "true 12 hours." But that doesn't include 3G usage, so it's gonna way less if you're using it the way you're actually supposed to.

Oh and if I hear "Nokia is a mobility company, that's their heritage" one more time, I'm gonna puke. Mobile puke.

I've got to say for a company that has never made a computer before the Booklet 3G feels pretty darn good. It is made of the stuff MacBooks are made of. That is, a single piece of aluminum. The palm rest and bottom of the system feel a lot like the unibody Apple lappie and overall I'd say it's as solid. Less than an inch thin, the netbook weighs a bit more than average at 2.6 pounds, but that includes a whopping 16-cell battery that doesn't jut out of the back of the system like a tumor-looking growth. Nokia claims 12 hours of juice. Yeaaa, I will believe that when I test it.

The keyboard is a very pleasant surprise. Like the Toshiba NB205 or MacBook, it has an island style layout where the keys are isolated from one another, but they aren't all plasticky. My fingers loved the soft coated keys, but it would probably take them a bit of time to get used to the slightly cramped layout.

The Booklet 3G may have an HDMI out port on its left edge but all you have inside is an underpowered 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor. That should handle basic applications and 720p video, but 1080p doesn't stand a chance. Damn you, Nokia, for not including Nvidia Ion graphics! The 120GB hard drive will boot up Windows 7 Home Premium. Happy to see that Nokia didn't include the Starter edition, like most netbook manufacturers are planning to ship, though the Premium version will add to the price. (Side note: This could be why some netbook makers are going to continue with XP.)

Lots of companies are making netbooks, so why the hell would you buy a Nokia? Well, its bundled Nokia services (Ovi, etc.), GPS, and hot-swappable SIM slot make it different. Frankly it is the latter that I'm really feeling. Because I can never find a decent public Wi-Fi signal, I could easily pop a SIM into the right side of the netbook while its running (most netbooks with 3G have their SIM slots hidden behind the battery) and get on a 3G network. Some may opt to buy the netbook when it is subsided by a 3G carrier (AT&T is the rumor) and commit to service contract, but you should also be able to snatch up the thing without one and slip in a SIM from a broadband card or phone. Of course, if you don't have the right all you can eat/tethering plan, you might get destroyed by data fees.

The Booklet 3G's success depends heavily on its price tag when it hits Best Buy (it could ultimately end up at other retailers, but the blue shirts are getting it for sure this holiday season). The rumor is that it will be $600 (most likely unlocked). That is too much for a netbook, even this one. Here is hoping Nokia doesn't hit my wallet in the baby maker and the Booklet 3G isn't just another overpriced netbook. [Nokia]

When it hits streets in Asia around the end of October the kit will include a special back battery cover with RAOUL signature stripes, a leather pouch and leather dangler. Unfortunately for cows, the whole package is sold in a big leather bound box, all for about $590.

Because the phone is only being released in Singapore, you might as just wait for the inevitable knockoff and save yourself hundreds of dollars. Still want one? Head to Asia and snatch up one of the 1,000 going on sale after October 29. [GSM Arena]

The N900's Maemo 5 OS, shown below, currently only works in landscape mode:

The new info comes from the Maemo Summit, where the Fins also demonstrated an official Qt port specifically designed for Maemo 5. The Qt port (available now as a preview release) lets developers use a common framework to build apps for the N900, future Maemo 6 devices, in addition to Symbian and Windows Mobile. [Nokia and UMPC Portal via Slashgear]

The tagline is actually advertising Nokia's "Point and Find" service, which is a sort of user- or corporate-generated phototagging system combined with a barcode tagger. Take a picture of your shoes, or a painting, or whatever, add in a link to its Wikipedia page or shopping link, and then whenever anyone snaps a photo of that item, they'll see your links. But retail companies can also tag their own products, so the system can be used for any item in their stores, and if worse comes to worst, you can always just scan a 2D barcode.

The slogan idea is kind of a ripoff of those eBay ads from three years ago that used the tagline "Find Your It." Unfortunately, whoever decided on "TAG YOUR IT" evidently did not go to elementary school in an English-speaking country.

The service itself isn't nearly as useful as, say, a barcode scanner, and relying on users to supply those links (instead of just going all augmented reality with Google or Wikipedia) is sort of cheating in my book, but the service isn't really the point here. The point is that there's a box of macaroni and cheese that says TAG YOUR IT on it. [Point and Find]

Nokia's aging Symbian S60 OS isn't maturing so well, as seen on their N97 handset, and though they've made some positive strides with Maemo, it sounds like they might be limiting themselves to those two OSes—at least until the market forces them elsewhere. On the other hand, the "No Android" statement was pretty obvious.

Nokia Booklet netbook - October 25th launch (AT&T activation)
Sprint HTC Hero - October 11th
Sprint Palm Pixi - launch date TBD
Verizon Storm II - launch date TBD
Verizon Android device - launch date TBD
T-Mobile CLIQ - launch date TBD

Also of note are two cryptic quotes regarding BlackBerry and Android devices. "New BlackBerry devices across multiple carriers" are set to launch this holiday season, and a "host of devices launch in late October and November for all carriers."

Then there's the launch of "new technology which doesn't exist today" line to top things off. I'm crossing my fingers that means "flying car." [BGR]

The Windows 7 netbook, which'll be a Best Buy exclusive when it first goes on sale, has a fairly standard spec set, up until a certain point: A 1.6GHz Atom processor, 120GB HDD and 1GB of RAM are nothing to get too excited about, but the 12-hour claimed battery life, built-in 3G support and GPS unit, well, thanks, Nokia, for not making this as boring as it could have been.

The inventory shot doesn't just point to a $600 price—approachable, maybe, but not exactly low—it indicates that stock was showing up at Best Buy as early as September 25th, lending credence to the idea that this might be a Windows 7 launch product, meaning you'll be able to get your hands on it as soon as October 22nd. [Phonearena via BGR]

Nokia has had trouble getting some phones subsidized by U.S. carriers in the past, so I'm a little concerned here. Because ridiculous price aside, the Booklet 3G has some kick-ass specs: Windows 7, 1280 by 720 (720p) screen, built-in accelerometer, SIM card slot and integrated OVi maps, claimed 16-hour battery life, and HDMI.

Other essentials include 802.11n Wi-Fi, 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor, 120GB hard disk and 1GB RAM—there's no Nvidia Ion love.

If you prefer not to deal with the Geek Squad, Nokia will still be selling the Booklet 3G online. But neither company has coughed up any more info on when it will be available (possibly October 22), or how much it will cost. In Europe, it's €575 ($810) before-subsidies. We'll have to wait and see. [Phone Scoop via Electronista]