Nokia signs agreement to sell security appliance business to Check Point Software Technologies

Nokia announced today that it has signed an agreement for Check Point Software Technologies to acquire Nokia’s security appliance business. The companies signed the deal on December 21, 2008. The two businesses have collaborated for over a decade to deliver industry-leading enterprise security solutions, and this agreement is the natural culmination of that long-standing collaboration.

This deal is one of the actions to focus the Services and Software unit’s portfolio on five core consumer internet services with the best consumer appeal and financial viability. Nokia announced on September 29, 2008 that it was in advanced stages to sell the security appliance business to a financial investor. However, unprecedented financial market conditions in recent months extended those negotiations, during which time Nokia actively evaluated other options for the business.

“The strong fundamentals of the business have always made it an attractive target for a number of buyers. The announcement today represents the fact that multiple and complex negotiations have culminated in a successful agreement with Check Point, the natural home for this business and a great option for moving the business forward,” says Tom Furlong, head of Consumer Messaging at Nokia.

“Check Point and Nokia form a natural combination, which will provide a great path forward for the thousands of customers who depend on Nokia security solutions today,” says Greg Podshadley, head of the security appliance business at Nokia. “For employees, it means an opportunity to be a part of one of the industry leading brands in security solutions.

Mobile Firefox [fennec] for Symbian just kicked off

Mozilla have kicked off their port for Fennec (ie Firefox Mobile) Symbian.

The current high-level plan is split into 5 phases:

1. Fennec compiling and linking
   Planned completion date: end of January
2. Basic/limited browsing possible
   Planned completion date: end of February
3. Full browsing
   Planned completion date: end of April
4. Fennec ready for initial testing
   Planned completion date: TBD
5. Bug fixing and productisation of Fennec
   Planned completion date: TBD

Want to get involved? Take a look at the wiki or join us on irc on #mobile for general mobile discussions or #symbian for Symbian specific discussions.

New Qt Training Materials

As you will most likely have noticed, Qt for S60 is going to be really big. Therefore, it’s a good idea to start learning Qt as soon as possible.

One chance to do this is going to be the first public “Qt on S60” webinar ( which will be broadcasted on 17th December 2008).

To get an overview of what Qt can do for you and how to get Qt to do just that, you might additionally want to take a look at the new Qt course materials that have just been published at symbianresources.com.

Three modules are already finished, which cover many of the general aspects of Qt cross-platform development, including:

- Qt overview
- Signals and Slots
- Meta-Objects, Properties
- Widgets, Dialogs, Main Window
- Menus, Toolbars, Actions
- Events
- Layouts and Styles, low level painting
- Data types
- Internationalization
- Settings
- Sockets / Files

In the future, new modules with a special focus on unique aspects of Qt for S60 will be added. Due to the cross-platform nature of Qt, the features that have been covered in the general slide sets are of course fully applicable to all platforms that Qt runs on, including S60.

For those reading about "Qt for S60" for the first time here's a blog post with the required pointers: We’re porting Qt to S60!

Also to be noted that the newly released IDE Carbide.c++ 2.0 includes support for application development using Qt for S60.

Carbide.C++ goes FREE

Nokia has released Carbide.c++ Version 2.0. In addition to new features and improvements, Carbide.c++ will have an entirely new licensing model - All Carbide.c++ 2.0 Editions (Developer, Professional and OEM) and licenses are now available for FREE!

This new distribution model supports our commitment to enable free and easy access to development tools for all Symbian developers. With the release of version 2.0 there are also several new features and improvements:

* Support for S60 5th Edition (in particular Touch UI and Platform Services).
* Addition of several Touch design components to the UI Designer tool. Users can touch-enable basic user interface applications using this graphical tool.
* Support for Qt development tools for S60 (expect updated Qt SDK’s next year)
* Improved connection and reporting for On-Device Debugging.
* Knowledgebase Scanner is a new addition to the CodeScanner static analysis tool. Knowledgebase Scanner scans the user’s code and provides advice for adding touch capabilities to existing applications.
* Improved speed and accuracy of code completion aids.
* Improved rendering for the Performance Investigator tool (Available in PRO and OEM Editions).

Carbide.c++ v2.0 is available for download on Forum Nokia. The download can install either Carbide edition and includes the appropriate product license. Application developers are encouraged to install the Developer or Professional Edition. The OEM Edition is recommended for device manufacturers.

Nokia, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson phones get Street View

Motorola, Nokia and Sony-Ericsson phones running the Symbian S60 OS can now access the local version of Google's Street View. The new service is also now available for Windows Mobile handsets.

Last week, Google launched desktop version of its street-level photo service, plus support for iPhones and BlackBerries.

The mobile version of Street View requires Google Maps Version 2.3, which can be downloaded from google.com/gmm using your cellphone's browser.


Video is available here.

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Nokia acquires Symbian Limited

Nokia announced that it has completed its offer to acquire Symbian Limited. All
conditions to Nokia’s offer to acquire Symbian Limited have been satisfied and it has received valid acceptance
of greater than 99.9% of the total Symbian shares that Nokia did not already own.

The closing of the offer is a fundamental step in the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, announced on
June 24, 2008 by Nokia, together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson,
ST-NXP Wireless, Texas Instruments and Vodafone. More information about the planned foundation can be
found at www.symbianfoundation.org.

All Symbian employees are planned to become Nokia employees on February 1, 2009.

Check N97 video

N97 is Nokia's first phone which has hardware keyboard as well as touch screen support.