RIM release Playbook OS 2.1!
RIM and their Playbook in particular are interesting entities. The Playbook's themselves are great little devices and they are selling extremely cheaply at the moment. But, RIM has also had a good track record with their updates too! Every time the company has promised some improvements they have arrived, if slightly late a couple of times.
The latest update to the tablet is Playbook OS 2.1 and it brings with it another host of features. Firstly, users can now encrypt all of their data on the PlayBook, as well as send SMS messages from their PlayBook via their BlackBerry smartphone. To get this SMS feature you have to download a new version of BlackBerry Bridge from the BlackBerry App World store!
On top of this there's the option to use Messages, Contacts, and Calendar apps in portrait mode and you can now have the option to print documents from a BlackBerry PlayBook using their Print To Go app.
The update will be hitting your Playbook OTA, so if you're not too bothered you can wait for the notification to pop-up, otherwise go in to settings and look for that software updates button!
Nokia planning to sell off their Espoo HQ!
Nokia have today said that they have plans to sell of their Headquarters in Espoo, Finland. The company went out of the way to say that the move was not because their financial situation had worsened, instead they said it makes 'common business sense'. It may work out cheaper for the company to sell the premises and then rent them back, the company told Slashgear it was 'not an unusual approach'.
“As with most companies whose core business is not in owning real estate, it makes common business sense not to tie assets in real estate property but rather invest and focus in its core operations... Divesting real estate is an entirely different thing compared to the location of the headquarters. As we have said many times before, we have no plans to move our headquarters.” Mark Squires, Nokia
Finnish reports suggest that Nokia’s head office is worth somewhere in the region of €200-300m ($258-387m). If the company was to sell of the buildings and rent them back it would alleviate any maintenance concerns as well as giving the company some free cash for other more key business ventures!
Although, the reality may be that the company holds on to their iconic home. After all they are only “Nokia is re-evaluating all non-core operations, including its real estate” so nothing is decided yet!
Via Slashgear.
In other news:
- It's official T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS will be merging! The deal was announced this morning as T-Mobile seeks to secure third place in the US market! Deutsche Telecom will hold a 74% stake in the merged company. MetroPCS on the other had will hold the remaining 26% and will also receive $1.5 billion in cash for signing the deal!
- EE's 4G network will officially be launching in the UK on October 30th!
- The Wall Street Journal has reported that an iPad Mini is in production with a 7.85" screen!
And finally, Samsung has reportedly been sending out invites to an event in Germany on the 11th of October. Sammy is promising something “Something small will be really big,” and we should “Get ready for a little sensation”, or that's UnwiredView's best translation of the German invite, which you can see below! At the moment we don't know for sure what Samsung is planning, but everyone has noticed that “S” on the invite. So at the least we will be seeing a new device that's part of the company's flagship 'S' range!.
