For a moment I thought this might be a AQA style service which I was all ready to have a play with. But then I noticed I needed to phone someone. Why no Text Answer concierge style service?
- Taken at 10:13 PM on January 27, 2009 – cameraphone upload by ShoZu

The Finish Fone makers all you can eat music download service has just expanded its buffet table, to seat other countries that weren’t previously allowed at the table.

In a very tentatively  linked intro that no doubt you’ll forgive us for one day, Nokia has opened up its music store to include other countries tracks rather than just English singing artists.

Local dialects that are now featured range from France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway and of course Finland. More are undoubtedly to be scheduled within time, as they’ve missed a few places off that list that they are in, and are doing rather well in too.

Later on in this quarter of the year, Singapore and Australia performers will be available within Nokia’s download store. With the latter really being English speaking and singing, so forgive us once again for our discretions before you start writing in saying Australians sing in English as well.

Hitting all the right notes, they’ve started to gain even more ground against iTunes with this new pan European licensing agreement that’s bound to be a right kick in the Apples.

What’s next on this list we believe is for the service to be included out of the box on more and more handsets. With a view to making it backwardly available whenever they refresh a SKU or a series. Only the other week we brought you news of the N96 now starting off this trend, so it’s not too far a stretch of the imagination for this to be on the cards for the future.

We also put it to Nokia in an almost open letter at the end of that piece, the store “needs to be expanded to accommodate TV episodes and movies“. Over lunch the other day with some senior people at Nokia this was mentioned in conversation, where it was said there’s a reason for Nokia opening up an office in Hollywood a while ago.

So, you’ve read it here first folks. Nokia’s next venture is entitled ‘Comes With Video’, or it’s bound to be something quite close to that *cough*

Vodafone has run out tests in Spain of HSPA+, with a record 16Mbps obtained during field trials of this next mobile bandwidth beast.

They’ve partnered with Ericsson and Qualcomm to achieve this mighty mighty feat of the HSPA+ 64QAM goodness, with a view to step it up a notch this year.

They’ll be pushing the boundaries then by trying to reach 21Mbps HSPA+ MIMO functionality, with talks of video being able to be seen at 13Mbps in decent quality. Hurrah!

It appears Vodafone is using Spain as testing ground, where if these trials are successful the technology will be rolled out in the regions they operate within.

The magic of HSPA+ is achieved through advanced modulation technique called 64QAM, where as the step up from there uses multiple antennae hence the MIMO – Multiple Input Multiple Output.

Sadly, from what we gather new mobile broadband devices will be needed, as the tech isn’t compatible with what’s already around today. This is why Vodafone in their infinite wisdom are also testing and validating vendors at the exact same time.

Most areas though are still at the measly 7.2Mbps on average, where this news will be welcomed with dancing in the streets.

It’s been said that 3 and T-Mobile are working on HSDPA at 14.4Mbps with a 99% UK coverage, by Q3 of 2010. We’re still some way off from seeing HSPA+, but fingers crossed for the future.

Still, where are our flying cars?

Posted via email from MIR Live

Like previous announcements of European iPhone launches, there’s no further details on when the iPhone will be launched or pricing, or whether Movistar will get to carry the device in its markets outside Spain.

There’s apparently a sign up page on Movistar’s website that promises to inform would be iPhone buyers when the device is available. Hands up if you’re betting that it’ll be next week?