Usama Baddoor brandished a black Nokia smartphone and pronounced it all he needed to defend himself against trouble stemming from Syria’s bloody 15-month crisis.
He said residents of his Damascus neighbourhood – notable for its ostentatious loyalty to President Bashar al-Assad and large population from his Allawite minority sect – had only to dial 130 on a special emergency hotline to summon the security forces.
“I have no knife, no spade – this is what guards me,” said Mr Baddoor, who added that he’d already used the number to report a suspect car. “It’s my confidence in the government that protects me.”
Mr Baddoor’s sense of total reliance for his safety on the regime he supports is echoed elsewhere in this district known as Mezzeh 86, an enclave of steep and winding narrow streets plastered with pictures of the president and his father and predecessor, Hafez.
While he and others there insist Syria’s conflict has no sectarian character, there is a striking contrast between his faith in government security forces and the hatred felt for them in some Sunni Muslim-dominated areas surrounding the capital and around the country. And while many ordinary Syrians are desperate for the country’s conflict not to become an inter-communal battle, the danger of that happening is likely to rise if the regime forces are seen as destroyers of Sunni areas and steadfast defenders of Allawite ones.
“There is no sectarian fighting,” said Natalia Darwish, a student originally from Homs, when asked about reports of tit-for-tat killings in her home town between Allawites and members of the country’s Sunni majority. “There is a group that is trying to sabotage the people – and there is another group that is trying to defend us.”
Yet Syria’s uprising has sharpened ominously along sectarian lines as it and the government’s brutal crackdown against it have evolved into an increasingly militarised conflict.
In the central town of Houla, where more than 100 people, including dozens of children, were slaughtered, last month, witnesses interviewed by rights activists said the killings were carried out by the shabbiha, the Allawite-dominated regime’s notorious militiamen – although the government denies this.
There have also been widespread reports of tit-for-tat killings and kidnappings between Allawites and Sunnis in Homs, one of the worst bombarded centres of the uprising.
Few wanted to talk of such disturbing trends in Mezzeh 86. Here the language was of a nation in which religion was irrelevant to status. Several people in the area were reluctant to declare their faith and one pointed to the absence of any doctrinal markers on Syrian national identity cards – although names, appearances and birthplaces can sometimes reveal what is left unsaid.
“This area is like a prototype of all Syria,” said Sarwad Baddoor, Usama’s brother, pointing out a woman in a headscarf, not a common sight on the area’s streets and an indication that she was probably Sunni. “All sects are found here.”
In contrast to the pleas for international help from residents of some Damascus suburbs and other areas bombarded and besieged by the army, Mezzeh 86 residents said they were not worried about their safety.
The compact of security in exchange for fealty to Mr Assad on Mezzeh 86’s claustrophobic streets is far from universal among members of Syria’s religious minorities. Some want the president to go because they have experienced his government’s abuses, while others are simply independent-minded. Still others oppose the regime, but feel conflicted because of their worries about what will happen if it collapses and leaves a vacuum in a state run for the past 40 years through repression rather than independent institutions.
“We have to change step by step,” said one Christian small businessman in Damascus. “If not, there will be a massacre in Syria.”
But Usama Baddoor refused to countenance such dark thoughts. His trusty phone was loaded with photos of his wife and daughters, which he proudly showed off – but the default screen backdrop was of his president.
“As citizens, we have got nothing to do,” he reflected, recounting how the security forces had arrived within two minutes when he called them on the hotline. “The government is responsible for protecting us.”
Dismissal In Apple-Motorola Suit Should Not Affect Nokia's Patent Monetization Strategy - Seekingalpha.com
This past Friday afternoon, Judge Richard Posner issued the final word (for now) in the patent dispute between Apple (AAPL) and Motorola (MMI). The Wall Street Journal took a position squarely on the fence, running a story stating that "legal experts remain divided on whether the ... ruling will have much impact on other disputes involving smartphone combatants." It should only be a matter of time before the commentary turns to a discussion of how the ruling affects Nokia's (NOK) ability to rely on its patent portfolio.
After all, MIT's Technology Review recently wrote about how NOK's patents were its last line of defense. The MIT article quoted an IP consultant who claimed that, based on data-points like Nortel's patent sale, NOK's total portfolio could be worth more than the company's market value, which was $9.6 B at the time. Of course, the consultant didn't bother to explain how he arrived at that figure or how much more than $9.6 B the portfolio could be worth.
Another Seeking Alpha contributor, Ry Frank, recently put a price on the portfolio of $5.34 per share (just shy of $20 B), which seemed to be based on the Nortel portfolio auction and Google's takeover bid for Motorola. Frank speculated, based on the 'price per patent' metric from these two data points ($750,000 and $500,000, respectively) that a willing buyer would pay $500,000 per patent for NOK's reported 40,000 patents. But with other purchases of LTE-essential-rich portfolios, such as Acacia's acquisition of Adaptix, reaching nearly $5 million per patent, and InterDigital's (IDCC) likely non-essential patent sale to Intel (INTC) only reach $220,000 per patent, what is the real value of NOK's patents and how might it have been affected by the Apple-Motorola lawsuit?
For background, both companies argued that the other infringed various patents, but earlier, Judge Posner provisionally dismissed both companies' claims because neither side provided sufficient evidence of damages owing to the other's infringement. On Friday, Posner made the dismissal official by denying any recovery by either party and castigating Motorola's attempt to shed its obligations to offer only fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory royalties for use of its patents (so-called FRAND commitments) and, instead, obtain an injunction against Apple. Posner agreed that any such order would be entirely unjustified in light of Motorola's FRAND commitments.
Like Motorola, NOK also made FRAND commitments when declaring parts of its portfolio essential to various telecom standards. FOSS Patents blogger Florian Mueller previously documented how NOK balances FRAND commitments with its patent enforcement efforts:
Nokia made a clear distinction between FRAND-committed and unencumbered patents ... and used only such unencumbered patents at the ITC and in lawsuits in which Nokia requested unconditional injunctions. With respect to standards-related patents, Nokia asked the court to determine an appropriate level of FRAND compensation ....
NOK's large share of LTE-essential patents actually may work against the company if it tried to cash out its entire portfolio. First of all, FRAND likely limits the licensing value for a large segment of its portfolio, which potential buyers would take into account when making their bids. Second, the conditions leading to last year's Nortel and Motorola purchases are unlikely to be repeated. Fortunately for stakeholders, however, even a relatively low portfolio comparison (such as the $220,000 per patent from IDCC) would price the portfolio roughly equivalent to NOK's current market value.
Meanwhile, NOK remains open to arrangements similar to the one reached with Microsoft and Mosaid, in which NOK receives a significant share of the purchaser's licensing revenue. While technically patent sales, these types of deals should be thought of as more of a licensing play, with their potential to bring in more substantial revenue, albeit over a longer time period.
Thus, while Posner's ruling may temporarily chill the market for all-cash patent sales, NOK's strategy should remain unaffected as it has already demonstrated an ability to license patents directly, as well as by identifying partners like Mosaid to do the licensing work and share the revenue.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
Nokia hit by Microsoft plans - Daily Telegraph
The company is shifting a great share of its manufacturing from Europe to Asia and is closing its last plant in Finland, at Salo, although it will continue to do research there. Sites in Germany and Canada will also shut under plans that have seen 40,000 jobs lost since Stephen Elop took over as chief executive in September 2010.
Nokia 808 PureView camera test at Royal Ascot - Pocket-lint.com
The Nokia 808 PureView is an intriguing phone. On the one hand it features the Symbian operating system that has been formally discontinued, while on the other it is a phone that features an eye-popping 41-megapixel camera. But it's no normal sensor - it's around five times as large as the sensor found in the iPhone 4S or Samsung Galaxy S3.
As you can imagine that will leave many with a dilemma. The question is, with a near-redundant OS, is the PureView worth the cash for its camera alone?
Wanting to find out for ourselves, we put the Nokia 808 PureView to the test at Royal Ascot to see if it could cope with the hustle and bustle of the racing, the large crowds, and, oh yeah, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, before we get to work on our full Nokia 808 PureView review.
The setup
We used the 808 PureView over three days, capturing all the excitement of the racing we could. For the majority of the test the camera was set to "full resolution" which equates to an effective 38-megapixel resolution when using the 4:3 aspect ratio, or 34-megapixels at 16:9. Why no 41-megapixels? The way the light falls on the sensor means the outer-most corners can't be used as they'd be too soft and blurred.
JPEG quality was set to Super Fine throughout the two days (there is a normal setting too), and the ISO and white balance settings were also set to Auto. Although the 808 won't capture raw files, you can manually select from ISO 50-1600 and there are the usual white balance presets too.
"Zooming" with the 808 PureView
In both full resolution modes you are unable to zoom in on the camera as, just like other camera phones, there is no optical zoom mechanism. This means shots are a medium-wide-angle 28mm equivalent - great for capturing bustling scenes.
Those looking for a more traditional camera phone experience can opt for the "PureView" setting, which lets you snap at 8, 5, and 2-megapixel resolutions. But here you can zoom in by up to 2.8x - which equates to around 28-79mm - by either pinching or using an on-screen slider to get in closer on the action. In any other camera phone this kind of digital zoom would result in a lower quality image, but the boffins at Nokia have made full use of the 808's sensor size.
To explain: an 8-megapixel PureView shot may use around four of the sensor-level pixels for each one rendered in the image. Zoom in on screen and the resolution doesn't drop; it's still the same 8-megapixels but the camera simply uses less sensor-level pixels. Clever stuff Nokia.
Day one
On day one of our test we were in the Grandstand. That meant we could get up close to the parade paddock and see the horses before the races.
A big selling point of the 808 PureView is that you can take a huge resolution image of a scene and then still have room to crop in after to get what you want.
A good example of this in action is shown by the two images below. The first is of a very crowded scene, however as the second picture shows, cropped at 100 per cent, Her Majesty the Queen, who isn't even noticeable in the first picture, can be easily seen in the second. Okay, so it might not be the most detailed result but we'd wager that a dedicated compact camera would perform no better.
Full image reduced to 555px wide
Original image cropped to 555px at 100 per cent
Another good example is the packed-out bandstand scene below. Zooming it tells you tell lots of different stories with plenty of clarity:
Full image reduced to 555px wide
Original image cropped to 555px at 100 per cent
As we found over the course of the day, it's the post-shot crop mode that enhances the PureView 808's capabilities. Much like the PureView mode's "zoom", the ability to crop after taking a shot also functions by "pinching" the image or using an on-screen slider. The aspect ratio is maintained, though you can also pull individual edges by pressing at the corners of the crop box.
Whether using the full-size image or a cropped shot we were impressed by the 808's picture quality. Colours are rich and vivid, however as we've experienced with Nokia's Lumia range the camera can be confused by the changing light. Some of our pictures are overly dark for no apparent reason, and yet the next picture taken in the same location seconds later could be vastly different.
It's nothing that can't be corrected in-camera but it's something that should be noted. More advanced snappers can make use of the +/- exposure compensation option.
Day two
Back to the races for a second day and the light wasn't as good as the first. However the shots were still okay.
The highlight of the day was getting close to the Royal Procession and snapping a shot of the Queen (main pic above). As you can see from the lead picture, the shot is a little blurry, but this is because of several factors, all worth bearing in mind. The first is that we had taken a shot of 5 seconds beforehand and hadn't opted for "Sports Mode" as the queen zipped past. Second, the procession was moving fast, so we had to turn quickly to get the shot before she was gone.
Considering that the camera did well, but we would have expected better.
Day two also gave us a chance to snap some people with the 808 PureView. As well as seeing how well it coped with skin tones - although we aren't sure you would want to zoom in that close to Pocket-lint Editor Chris Hall (see the gallery) - this was also an opportunity to get the most out of the sensor's size.
The 808 PureView's sensor is so much larger than what you'd find in a normal camera phone, or even most dedicated high-end compact cameras, it enhances that "soft background" shallow depth of field effect.
As well as the f/2.4 Carl Zeiss lens, the PureView even has a built-in ND (neutral density) filter to help you make the most of the aperture in brighter conditions. However the lack of aperture control seems an oddity - one that we'd like to see rectified.
Day three
Royal Ascot is finished and the marquees are already starting to be dismantled. That gave as a better chance to take pictures of some of the signs to see how well the camera phone copes with text, details, and to test it against the iPhone 4S.
iPhone 4S (left) vs Nokia 808 PureView (right)
In our quick test above you can see that the iPhone 4S results in a brighter image with more vivid and accurate colours, but that the 808 PureView holds far more detail. The auto white balance may be a little off, but that's something that can be corrected.
The Nokia 808 PureView:Original image cropped to 555px at 100 per cent
The Apple iPhone 4S:Original image cropped to 555px at 100 per cent
Zoom into the image and there's no doubt that the 808 PureView wins hands down. Just check out the amount of detail on one of the signs at in the 100 per cent crop.
Conclusions
On the camera side of things there is no doubting that the Nokia 808 PureView delivers the goods, however not without some issues.
Five years ago when the PureView project was started Symbian was king of the crop. But now Nokia is turning its back on the once popular mobile OS it means you are unlikely to want to use this as a phone. It also means no decent camera plug-ins like Android, iOS and WP8 have available.
For many that raises the question of why wouldn't you spend the same amount of money on a dedicated camera instead? Preferably one with a significant zoom. Yes you won't be able to instantly share the images as you can with the 808 nor are most compacts as easy to fit in your pocket, but the results might be more consistent.
On the other hand a large-sensor compact camera in a similar league to the 808 PureView's sensor will set you back around 400 or more.
What the 808 PureView certainly shows us though is that camera phones are about to get even more impressive in the coming years. If Nokia can translate the technological advances it has learnt here into a Windows Phone device in the future, something it has said it is already working on, then that should give it a very strong selling point in the future.
For now however, as impressive as the camera on the 808 PureView is, for many this will be a proof of concept rather than their next phone.
But as for the camera market, well, it's about time the dedicated camera makers started to quake in their boots. Nokia has the potential to uproot some of the lower-spec models with this sensor technology, albeit not necessarily in the form of the 808.
Snake 2K brings a classic game onto Nokia Lumia devices - UberGizmo (blog)
As you can see in the screenshot above, the interface of the game mimics the 3310’s handset layout including its buttons and what not. Players will maneuver their snakes using the 2, 4, 6, and 8 keys to move their snake up, left, right, and down respectively. If you’re interested in picking up the game, head on over to the Windows Phone Marketplace where it will set you back $0.99. Alternatively Nokia has also uploaded a browser version of the game for whoever’s interested.
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