As rumored, Nokia announced Friday that it is entering into a “broad strategic partnership” with Microsoft and adopting Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone strategy. The announcement came days after a leaked memo from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop hit the press. The memo, which was unusually frank, referred to Nokia as “standing on a burning platform” in the face of competition from Google and Apple. With Symbian barely clinging to its lead in the smartphone space and MeeGo still not shipping, Nokia needed to do something drastic. This is drastic. It’s also Nokia’s only option. Tomi Ahonen, mobile analyst and former Nokia executive, disagrees (Ahonen also doubted the authenticity of Elop’s memo), but he is one of the few commentators in the wireless industry who actually thinks Nokia’s old smartphone strategy was correct. The problems Nokia faces are already well documented — most notably by Elop himself — and when looking at its possible options, it becomes clear that partnering with Microsoft is the company’s only hope of reversing course.
OnLive has created an adapter that brings its cloud-based, instant-play video games to the TV -- and it's hoping to attract the whole family, not just the hardcore male gamer, to partake in the action. OnLive is taking orders now for its MicroConsole and an accompanying OnLive Wireless Controller. The $99 bundle, which includes any free game from the company's collection of 35, will begin shipping on December 2. The console is not much larger than a VHS cassette, since all the technology is in the cloud.