Nokia Releases 3D Print Files For Lumia 820 Smartphone. Got A 3D Printer? Custom Print Your Own Removable Shell

Now this is cool: mobile maker Nokia has released 3D print files for one of its smartphones so owners of 3D printers can custom print their own removable shell. Nokia already sells different colour shells for the handset in question, the Lumia 820 — which has a removable backplate — along with shells that add wireless charging to the device or offer a bit more protection to standard plastic shells. But the company has decided to spice things up further by releasing a 3D template so people can print their own custom designs.

It’s calling this a 3DK for short — see what they did there? Writing in a blog post on Nokia Conversations, Nokia says: “We are going to release 3D templates, case specs, recommended materials and best practices — everything someone versed in 3D printing needs to print their own custom Lumia 820 case. We refer to these files and documents collectively as a 3D-printing Development Kit, or 3DK for short.”

The mechanical drawings for the shell are available for download here, here and here. Nokia claims it’s the first “major phone company” to release 3D templates for hardware. It’s certainly a bold move for a big corporate company to allow users to remix its design without any checks and balances on what they produce. But it’s also a savvy one — which recognises that building a community of engaged users necessitates giving up some control by giving people opportunities to get more involved in the creation process.

R&D is already something that, increasingly, does not just take place behind the closed, locked doors of corporate research labs. Witness the success of the online crowdfunding model — via sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo — where many projects take soundings from backers and incorporating their views into the final product.

Nokia’s mechanical drawings add to a growing pool of 3D templates up for grabs — from sites like 3D printer maker MakerBot‘s Thingiverse — where custom designs for all sorts of smartphone cases and docks can be found, often licensed for use under Creative Commons.

Nokia says it uses 3D printers internally for rapid prototyping of devices but envisages 3D printing having a much larger role to play in smartphone design in future. “In the future, I envision wildly more modular and customizable phones,” writes John Kneeland, a Nokia Community & Developer Marketing Manager, on the blog.

Kneeland speculates that Nokia could sell a printable phone template in future — allowing entrepreneurs to “build a local business on building phones precisely tailored to the needs of his or her local community”. ”You want a waterproof, glow-in-the-dark phone with a bottle-opener and a solar charger? Someone can build it for you — or you can print it yourself!”

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Nokia Unveils Latest Windows Phone 8 Device: Lumia 620 Packs 3.8 Inch ClearBlack Display, NFC, Costs $249 (Before Taxes)

Marko Ahtisaari, Executive VP of Design, Nokia, has unveiled its latest Windows Phone 8 device: the Nokia Lumia 620. The product design chief was speaking at the LeWeb conference taking place this week in Paris.

The phone is smaller (and cheaper) than other Windows Phone 8 Lumia devices — with a 3.8 inch screen, 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and Nokia’s ClearBlack display to improve the viewing experience outdoors in bright sunlight. (Full device specs can be found here.)

Nokia is also adding some new casing colours with this Lumia device — overlaying one translucent colour layer over an opaque layer to produce new “bold blends” with a “depth effect” — such as lime green and orange. Seven colours are being offered in all, with exchangeable shells — in gloss and matte finishes.

“We knew there was space in the portfolio for something more compact,” said Ahtisaari. “Something that fit beautifully in the palm of the hand. But something that still had the camera, a solid camera, and the signature apps that Nokia is noted for. And as well we wanted something that would take our pure colour story and just give it a burst of playfulness — mix it up a little bit.”

The more compact form factor of the Lumia 620, means Nokia has opted for a “softer, rounder” form factor than for its other two — larger — Windows Phone 8 devices: the Lumia 920 and 820, noted Ahtisaari.

The Lumia 620 also includes NFC for linking up with accessories such as speakers, an “especially loud speaker” on the back of the phone, a “very fast” five megapixel camera and Nokia-specific Windows Phone 8 apps/features — such as SmartShoot, Cinemagraph, City Lens, Lenses, Maps, Music, Drive and Transport. Also on board: a front-facing camera for video calls.

The design chief said the phone will cost $249 (before taxes) — its cheapest Windows Phone 8 device by far — and is set to ship in January, to Asia-Pac, Middle East and Africa first, with Europe and Canada following “soon thereafter”.

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Nokia Survivors Give MeeGo Another Go

Americans who have been cut loose from their jobs have likely never experienced a layoff like they do in Finland. Nokia, which is consolidating its workforce as it shrinks in scope, has been extremely generous in letting people go, even to the point of helping set up a competitor.

Nokia often tried to help furloughed employees find their next job, and in some cases, people went straight to a new job without any interruption. The thousands of Symbian developers moved to Accenture alone. Or, Nokia would let small teams get a loan to start up a new business.

Nokia isn't just shedding employees, it's also dropping operating systems. One of these is MeeGo, which the company put on just a handful of devices before dropping it in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone.

Four departing Nokia staffers working on the MeeGo project took a loan from their former employer and teamed up to start their own company, Jolla Mobile, to continue MeeGo development for Nokia phones. They scored 100,000 Euros total from Nokia and have a staff of 50, all ex-Nokia, working on their project.

Jolla means 'dinghy' in Finnish. The name was meant as a figurative reference to the lifeboat they offered people jumping off the good ship SS Nokia.

Jolla's staff is working come from Nokia's smartphone group where they worked on MeeGo and its predecessor, Maemo. This group will take the Nokia N9 phone -- the forerunner of the Lumia 900 that runs Windows Phone -- and build something new from that technology.

The company doesn't even have a Web site yet. Its mission statement, posted on LinkedIn, says "Nokia created something wonderful - the world's best smartphone product. It deserves to be continued, and we will do that together with all the bright and gifted people contributing to the MeeGo success story."

The company added in a statement that "together with international private investors and partners, a new smartphone using this MeeGo based OS will be revealed later this year." The company already has its first customer: L D.Phone, China's largest smartphone retailer.

But with BlackBerry imploding, Windows Phone stalled out of the gate, and the world seeming to consolidate around Android and iOS, Jolla faces a huge uphill battle, argues Jack Gold, president of J.Gold Associates, a mobile market research firm.

Intel, which has some involvement in MeeGo development, declined to comment on Jolla.

"The only chance they got with MeeGo is in very niche environments if they do a special device or put it in a car. No one is going to look at yet another phone OS in any seriousness. Who's going to build handsets around them? MeeGo when it was Nokia and Intel pushing it couldn't make it," he points out.
Gold said he understands why they are doing it, but this project won't have any major tailwind without handsets and carriers.

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Nokia Has 'Something Amazing' on the Way in September

Nokia's partnership with Microsoft may not have produced any resounding success yet, but it appears that the Finnish company may still have something up its sleeve. Come September 7, Nokia promises to unveil something "amazing" to its customers.

Photos of a sign outside a currently-closed Nokia store in Helsinki have surfaced on MyNokiaBlog, telling customers "Something amazing is coming," with the September 7 date next to it. There is also a QR code on the ad that, when scanned, takes users to a website that features similarly vague hype like, "Prepare to be amazed at all the things in your new Nokia store." The timing of the announcement is interesting, since it comes right on the heels of Nokia World, which is scheduled to take place in Helsinki on September 5 and 6.

But what exactly Nokia will be unveiling is a mystery. One possibility is an announcement of a new lineup of Windows 8 Lumia phones, as it was recently announced that Windows 8 will be released not long after on October 26. Another possibility is that the announcement may have something to do with Nokia's efforts to become a leader in the field of location-based services.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop recently stated that the company's goal is to become the "Where?" company, much like Google and Facebook have become the "What?" and "Who?" companies, respectively. He stressed the importance of smartphones and mobile devices, saying, "The mobile device will become the nucleus for collecting real-time data from sensors," including location, orientation, speed, social media preferences, etc.

When it comes to location-based services, "[Nokia] could be a leader," said Elop, specifically mentioning the potential behind the releases of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. "We expect the launch of Windows 8 for tablets and PCs, and Windows Phone 8, to be a catalyst for Lumia."

Source: CNET and SlashGear

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