A tipster sent us the below screenshot:

(Photo: Twitter)

Because nothing says "business smartphone" like a neon yellow-lined Microsoft brick.

You know your reputation is damaged if Nokia feels justified in mocking you.

(h/t Pitchfork Reviews Reviews)

Whoops. (Photo: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps)

Word on the street says Apple has fired the manager who oversaw the development of its ill-fated Maps app. [Bloomberg]

This anthropologist completely submerged herself in the culture she was studying for three years ... meaning she moved to the Bay Area and started chatting up hackers. [Wired]

Google has released an icy slew of Street View updates, including photos of Svalbard, Norway--which is about 400 miles north of continental Europe. [TNW]

The most commonly asked politics question on Ask.com in 2012: "Who will win the Presidential race?" Guys, it's a search engine, not a crystal ball. For fortune-telling, you need Nate Silver. [VentureBeat]

Nokia is suing to block the sale of many RIM products until they can straighten out royalties, not that it'll save either company from the scrapheap of corporate history. [ComputerWorld]

What, like we're going to Google a picture of her? (Photo: Wikipedia)

Warby Parker just raised [adjusts glasses] a $37 million round, reportedly led by General Catalyst Partners. [Fortune]

Toys "R" Us plans to sell its own tablet for the kiddies. [Wall Street Journal]

If you search "Emma Watson" online, there's a good chance you'll land on malware. Also, you may very well be kind of a creep. [Boston Globe]

Turns out even Google Fiber can't magic away racial and economic fault lines. [New York Times]

Shit, remember the movie Sneakers? Oh, for the days when hackers had to leave their lairs! [Slate]

(youtube.com)

Despite less-than-stellar Lumia sales, Nokia continues to plug valiantly away. Down at the CTIA Wireless convention, the company has just announced several new brand-name Windows Phone apps--some of which will be initially exclusive to the Lumia. But it remains to be seen whether simply improving the app store is enough to catapult the platform to where it needs to be.

Lumia users will soon have the option to download a PGA Tour app, an updated Groupon app, and hubs for both ESPN and AOL Entertainment. Also available across the Windows Phone platform will be Angry Birds, several EA games, Time, and a PayPal app.

For good measure, the announcement also included some upbeat comments from IDC analyst Crawford Del Prete:

“We believe developers are now moving away from simply porting, to create new innovative and high-design apps that fully leverage the Windows Phone Metro UI and features such as live tiles. With new and exclusive apps launching on a regular basis, and Nokia Lumia rapidly expanding into new markets, Nokia and Microsoft are demonstrating meaningful differentiation for consumers, developers, operators and retailers.”

It’s no secret that, in terms of sheer numbers, the Windows Phone’s app store is a ghost town compared to the Apple and Android stores. TechCrunch puts the gap at 80,000 versus 500,000 to 600,000. All those big names will certainly help beef up the lagging ecosystem.

But it’s also worth noting that the only Windows Phone exclusive included in this announcement is Tripdots, a driving behavior optimization app (which, well, you might want to consider just focusing on the road when in doubt). That little tidbit makes the whole effort look more like an attempt at catching up, rather than standing out.

Nokia's renovated headquarters via PerkinsWill.com

This week, Nokia, the Finnish phone company currently taking a beating on its bottom line, was forced to pay back $420,000 for a broken deal to bring jobs to its former North American headquarters in Westchester.

The Empire State Development Corporation, a group responsible for moving companies to New York, had originally bestowed a $700,000 "Jobs Now" grant unto the smartphone maker back in 2006 when Nokia purchased a former IBM building in Harrison, New York, roughly 20 miles outside Manhattan. The problem was there were no "Jobs Later," so to speak.

Nokia hired 300 employees in Westchester and was eligible for an additional $300,000 if they doubled that by 2011. Instead  Apple, RIM, and Samsung edged Nokia out of the market and the company announced plans to leave New York a year ago due to downsizing around the globe.

The full amount of the grant wasn't recoupable because Nokia "did technically create jobs for awhile," reports Lohud.com. However, Nokia did leave one lasting legacy in Westchester. The company splurged on a $30 million renovation--stripping the building down to steel in order to rebuild it "as a modern glass-enclosed office building." Ain't priorities grand?

via metro.co.uk

Of all of Google's bleeding edge projects and technologies--say cars that drive themselves or the Internet on your goddam face--there's only one Marissa Mayer described as futuristic during a recent Q&A at the 92nd Street Y: Indoor positioning systems. Google has already implemented the technology, which lets you locate yourself inside a building, on Google Maps for Android at Macy's flagship store (using the building's floor plan and Wifi readings) and all the transit stations in Tokyo.

"Even though I helped build it," Ms. Mayer told the crowd, "It's like scifi!"

Today Extreme Tech delves into the science and application of an Indoor Positioning System (IPS). "Believe it or not, we’re very nearly already there," says the blog, citing a new chip released by Broadcom called BCM4752 that supports IPS and will be coming soon to smartphones.

Because the science is new, there's no standardization yet. Google uses Wifi and 2D floor plans. Nokia, on the other hand, uses Bluetooth and 3D models. Acoustic analysis and infrared signals are also being tested. Neither method is really reliable on its own, but the Broadcom chip is a leap forward:

The Broadcom chip supports IPS through WiFi, Bluetooth, and even NFC. More importantly, though, the chip also ties in with other sensors, such as a phone’s gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometer, and altimeter. Acting like a glorified pedometer, this Broadcom chip could almost track your movements without wireless network triangulation. It simply has to take note of your entry point (via GPS), and then count your steps (accelerometer), direction (gyroscope), and altitude (altimeter).

Before George Orwell starts rolling in his grave, it's worth noting that like GPS, IPS isn't necessarily sending exactly where you are at every single moment to third parties. "IPS can be entirely local to your smartphone (or other portable navigation device). IPS, like GPS, can establish a location fix completely passively."

Adoption is still a ways off. First the system needs to be built up, which will likely start in tourist hot spots, says Extreme Tech, allowing for "ample time to stage a rebellion."

(youtube.com)

Nokia may have scored a couple points on the hip chart with their commercials featuring 30 Rock's Chris Parnell, but even Dr. Spaceman couldn't save the company from continuing to be pigeonholed as that cheap brand for throwaway phones you buy during study abroad. Nokia's Q1 earnings reports are in, and while the Lumia nabbed some pretty impressive reviews, its actual sales numbers have been a little less than impressive.

According to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop:

We have launched four Lumia devices ahead of schedule to encouraging awards and popular acclaim. The actual sales results have been mixed. We exceeded expectations in markets including the United States, but establishing momentum in certain markets including the UK has been more challenging.

As ZDNet notes, this is not great news for a brand attempting redefinition from low-end phones (but you can play Snake!) to high-end touchscreen devices. To top it all off, Engadget reports that Nokia's VP of sales, Colin Giles, resigned today following the release of the earnings.

Sad, really, because we loved Nokia's commercial claiming that the beta test is finally over. "If you used any smartphone over the last five years," says Mr. Parnell amongst a throng of people screaming in celebration over the end of beta, "you were a secret product tester in the greatest social experiment ever undertaken."

It's kind of hilarious, but only if you don't think about it in conjunction with Nokia's Q1 earnings. Cuz once you do that, it becomes painfully obvious: at least for Nokia, the beta test continues.

Oh well, at least the Lumia makes for a great get rich quick scheme.

This coming Saturday and Sunday, Aviary and General Assembly are hosting the second installment of their baller photo hackathon, often touted as "the world's largest photo hack day," though we're not sure there's that much competition. At last year's event more than 175 developers produced 40+ hacks, a number of which were built using Face.com's futuristic facial recognition technology.

More than  200 developers have already signed up for the second go-round, officially known as Photo Hack Day 2 (Twitter hashtag #PHD2), so you can expect even more hacked-together photo goodness. Like Aviary's photo editing suite itself, the emphasis now is on mobile development rather than the web. "Sunday demo tickets completely sold out a full week and a half before the event, so we’re anticipating a good, curious crowd," said Alex Taub, Aviary's head of business development and partnerships.

Aviary and GA have already announced an impressive roster of speakers for a fireside chat moderated by Aviary CEO Avi Muchnick, including Tumblr's David Karp, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, and Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh. But today they're ready to talk about the good stuff: prize$$$.

There will be $10,000 up for grabs in prize money, spread out across 1st, 2nd, 3rd place, plus People’s Choice. Nokia, the hackathon's headline sponsor, will also be offering up  eight Lumia 800s for the top two hacks on Windows phones, which will also  receive marketing support when the apps are published in the Microsoft Marketplace.  Hackers can expect a number of other goodies as well, including: an Xbox and Kinect, a dSLR, a Lytro camera, a GoPro camera, an iPad 2, and a Blackberry Playbook.

But the biggest reveal may be an unexpected global perspective. The coders at General Assembly will be simultaneously hacking with another photo hack day happening in Berlin (the first such event in Europe). Both hackathons will be livestreamed for mutual, real-time exposure. Aviary and GA are also facilitating cross-pollination of fireside chats; Berlin's is a Q&A with Twitter. Looking to stretch your hackathon legs even farther? Aviary is working with Skylines, an Amsterdam-based photo startup, to bring the first Photo Hack Day to Amsterdam after SXSW. We would like to perpetuate stereotypes by wondering if that means you're allowed to show up high.