14 DAY TRIAL // Finish phone manufacturer Nokia has recently expanded its presence in Sillicon Valley and is believed to be exploring a wireless network that would allow local developers to try out new applications.
The recently opened Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, California is meant to provide an appropriate environment for bringing in startups and developers to talk about new ideas.
On Tuesday, Tero Ojanpera, Nokia's executive vice president and chief technology officer and other executives spoke at Nokia's Mobile Mash-Up event, which brought together developers and partners to discuss new applications. Nokia is now slowly moving towards products that are more than mass-market mobile phones, like the N800 WiFi powered handheld data device and believes that mobile platforms are the heart of future computing. "As long as it touches mobility, we're interested in it," said Bob Iannucci, senior vice president and head of the Nokia Research Center.
Nokia is currently studying the possibility of a wireless network that would enable developers and consumers to try out new applications. While nothing is certain for now, the network would use 3G cellular, WiMAX, WiFi or a combination between the three and be initially made available only for a few thousand developers and users.
One of the innovative mobile products that Nokia has presented at the event was Point&Find, an application that allows the user to point a camera phone at a certain object (be it a table, picture or something else) and find out more about it or buy it by clicking on its name that will appear on the handset's screen.
When the user points the phone at the object, the system will compare what the viewfinder sees to sets of images within a database. By also taking into account the user's location, it will deliver information regarding what the user is looking at. Point&Find is still under development. But considering that such applications and services are already widely used in Asian countries, they should soon enough become available in other parts of the world also.