Tezuka Production chooses SNAP Mobile by Nokia to bring iconic figure to mobile games market

Famed Japanese anime, Astro Boy, comes to mobile devices in all-new connected experience

San Francisco, CA, USA - Today, Nokia announced that Tezuka Production, owners of the Astro Boy intellectual property, has chosen SNAP Mobile to develop and distribute Astro Boy games for Java(TM)-based mobile phones.  Based on the 1950's Japanese manga character, two new Astro Boy Games - Astro Boy Game Flight and Astro Boy Reversi - are slated for 2008 release.

"Delivering Astro Boy to the mobile market through SNAP Mobile means we can bring a connected experience that will allow fans to interact with one another," said Mr. Koji Miyajima, Media Force Ltd, Mobile games IP license holder.  "SNAP Mobile is known as a trusted platform with global reach, and we are certain we chose the right method to deliver Osamu Tezuka's most prized creation."

Created by famed Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy is the powerful robot boy designed by the Ministry of Science to replace his recently deceased son.  However, Astro Boy does not replace the Minister's son because he is a robot and he ultimately becomes a crime-fighting, evil-destroying hero. 

"By bringing Astro Boy to mobile games, fans will have access to discover one of Japan's most famed heroes through a more convenient channel - their mobile device," said Antoine Doumenc, head of Nokia's SNAP Mobile.  "Working together, SNAP Mobile and Tezuka Production are taking the Astro Boy to a global mobile community." 

In Astro Boy Game Flight, players face obstacles and fight crime in space, on land and sea, with each unique environment posing different challenges.  Using the SNAP Mobile platform, players have access to community features, including: chat, rankings, friend lists, and more.  In Astro Boy Reversi, players can take advantage of the SNAP Mobile community features, including multiplayer gaming, to challenge friends around the world.

Astro Boy Game Flight and Astro Boy Reversi are planned to be available for download in Europe in 2008, with future rollouts under development.

About SNAP Mobile

Nokia's SNAP Mobile is an industry leading mobile Java(TM) gaming solution that covers middleware and technology, hosting, maintenance, and online community management. It is available to 3rd parties for connected mobile game development and publishing, and also offers mobile game community development to operators. The SNAP Mobile platform currently supports a wide variety of Java(TM) MIDP2.0 compliant phones and has a rapidly growing selection of connected mobile games with the variety and level of challenge that appeals to players of all ages.  For more information about SNAP Mobile, please visit www.snapmobile.nokia.com 

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.

About Tezuka Production

Tezuka Productions, a copyright holder of more than 700 manga titles created by manga artist Osamu Tezuka, is engaged in character licensing and animation production based on Tezuka's numerous works including "Astro Boy" and "Black Jack".  Tezuka Productions has developed its merchandising business not only domestically but also worldwide and also worked on distribution of its animation works via mobile phones as well as broadband. Recently Tezuka Productions concluded the agreement with US iTunes for videogram distribution.

Nokia reveals glimpses of the mobile future

Leveraging the beta culture to help Nokia drive faster innovation

Oulu, Finland - Nokia today shared its vision for technologies which will impact the future of the convergence of Internet and mobility at The Way We Live Next, an exclusive briefing at the Nokia Research Center in Oulu, Finland's northern technology hub.

"The world of mobile communications is changing at an ever increasing pace" said Tero Ojanperä, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia in his key note address. "To continue to stay ahead in this environment and to develop innovative new products and services that excite consumers, companies need to embrace openness on many levels. At Nokia, we work with experts in the academic, scientific and developer communities, and increasingly importantly, directly in interaction with our customers. Innovation can come from anywhere, and we need to have the tools and flexibility to respond to that challenge."

Presentations and demonstrations at the event  highlighted areas of advanced research being undertaken by the company, many of which are in cooperation with individuals, companies and research organizations around the world, reflecting the company's drive for open innovation and establishing a strong "beta culture" -trialing and evaluating new applications and services quickly - around the company's products and services.

During the briefing, Nokia delivered presentations on topics including:

- Web technologies driving innovation in mobile,

- Nanotechnology and solutions for the environment

- The evolution of the Internet user experience

- Mobile payments and banking using Near Field Communications

- Future energy sources

- Smart Connectivity and the future of wireless broadband

Podcast interviews with the presenters are available at www.nokia.com/press/twwln.

Nokia also demonstrated a range of breakthrough technologies, including

MOSH: a one-to-many distribution platform - a targeted channel for developers and technology leaders to publish applications and other content, for mobile devices, to a global audience.

Widsets: a mobile Internet service with more than 3 million registered users and over 2000 widgets, which allows people to enjoy and share their favorite Internet content and to create and publish their own widgets in the spirit of Web 2.0.

Point & Find: an exciting new way to discover more about your surroundings, using the camera on your mobile device.  The mobile device then displays relevant information about what you are looking at, fetching real-time information from the Internet.

Shoot to Translate: a demonstration using software that translates written characters into another language; the original text is captured with the camera on the Nokia multimedia computer and translation happens in real time.

Virtual worlds: in addition to previewing the first ever photographic exhibition taking place simultaneously in Second Life and the real world, Nokia showed how 3D virtual environments could be implemented on mobile devices to create an immersive user experience.

Nokia also announced a re-launch of its Beta Labs site at www.nokia.com/betalabs, with more interactive features.  Beta Labs shares some of the exciting new ideas that Nokia is working on and let users help shape their future development.  A strong online community has developed around Beta Labs, attracting especially technology savvy, early adopter mobile enthusiasts.  

Nokia demonstrated Mobile Web Server, a beta lab application running on S60 smartphones.  It allows the mobile device to function as an Internet server, making it possible for people to access content on their mobile remotely from a web browser on another device, or to allow other people to do so. Mobile Web Server takes the development of Web 2.0 communities to another level as, rather than centralizing content from many people on a single site, it emphasizes decentralization as a way of creating another kind of community.

Presentations, photos and podcast interviews with the presenters from The Way We Live Next are available at www.nokia.com/press/twwln.

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.

Nokia MOSH announces SEEK - the third dimension of User Generated Content for mobile devices

San Francisco, CA, USA and Oulu, Finland - Nokia today unveiled SEEK, the third dimension of its mobile sharing site, MOSH. SEEK allows MOSH users to make requests for content they crave and the community can then respond with suggestions or custom created content answering the 'SEEK'. SEEK allows the rapidly growing, and global, MOSH community to connect with one another and to obtain content not yet available. Looking for a specific mobile application but can't find anything close? Visiting Amsterdam and want a great mobile map?  How about video of a specific dive in the Maldives? SEEK it.

SEEK is the third dimension in the evolution of MOSH. The first dimension was the ability to upload and share content with a global audience; the second was downloading and customizing your device; now SEEK provides the ability to seek content and interact with the community, SEEK will tap into the power of the MOSH community and provide customized responses to people's mobile needs.

Officially launching on December 14, an exclusive demo of SEEK will be seen at CTIA Wireless in San Francisco October 23rd through October 25th.

MOSH, short for mobilize and share, has seen more than 6 million downloads since its beta launch on 9th August. MOSH was built from the ground up with mobility in mind and its seamless web and mobile integration has facilitated rapid growth with 80% of all downloads happening through mobile browsers. MOSH allows content creators and technology leaders to post their content to a global audience. Focused on the sharing of mobile content, MOSH is intended for all mobile devices and is not Nokia specific.

"MOSH has a strong focus on responding to the needs of its community of users and feedback from the community is the motivation for SEEK." said Lee Epting, Vice President, Forum Nokia. "We have always focused on MOSH being a service created for, and shaped by, users. Seeing users request content from one another, as well as the desire for community discussion, forms the foundation of SEEK. With SEEK, the possibilities are endless: mobile scavenger hunts, sponsored SEEK competitions, or collaboration on applications by developers in India, Russia and the USA, we expect this to take creativity and mobile customization to a new level."

About MOSH

A one-to-many distribution platform - a targeted channel for developers and tech leaders to publish applications and other content for any mobile device to a global audience. In its first two months of beta, MOSH users have made more than 6 million downloads of applications and pieces of content. For more information visit: http://mosh.nokia.com or mosh.nokia.mobi

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.

Nokia N81 8GB now shipping

Get and play music and games on the move

Espoo, Finland - Mobile entertainment just got more fun with the Nokia N81 and Nokia N81 8GB multimedia computers now available globally. Designed for the best in music and gaming, these devices come with dedicated music and game keys and are loaded with memory so you can store more and play more.

The 3D Multimedia Menu introduced in these devices is the first step to bringing a new user interface to the Nokia Nseries range. The new menu makes it easy to discover and enjoy your digital content and the Internet, and share your experiences with others.

"Accessing your portable music and games collection is not enough anymore," said Jonas Geust, vice president, Multimedia, Nokia. "Today people want to be more in control of how and where they consume their digital entertainment. They want to discover new favorites and share them without being confined to one location - and it's devices like the Nokia N81 that facilitate this."

The Nokia N81 and Nokia N81 8GB also offer the discovery of millions of tracks through the Nokia Music Store*. And, with their integrated Nokia Music Players, creating playlists and managing music collections on the move is a breeze. For enhanced sound quality, compatible high-quality headphones or speakers can be used with the standard 3.5mm headphone connector.

A preview of the N-Gage games service is also available in the devices, including playable demos of EA SPORTS(TM) FIFA 07, Asphalt 3: Street Rules and Space Impact Light. After the launch of N-Gage later this year, the full N-Gage application will be available for download. Players can then try all N-Gage games for free and buy only the ones they want.

The estimated retail price of the Nokia N81 is 360 EUR before subsidies or taxes. The Nokia N81 8GB is expected to retail for 430 EUR before subsidies or taxes.

Nokia N81 8GB - up to 8GB internal mass memory

Nokia N81 - support for compatible microSD cards