Kodak teams with Nokia in cross-licensing deal

By on October 28, 2008 at 4:27 PM.

Kodak teams with Nokia in cross-licensing deal

Could point-and-shoot cameras become phased out by camera phones in the future? With a rising army of high-megapixel and high-quality camera phones, one would imagine that everything your current point-and-shoot can do will also be commonplace on future phones. Kodak, one of the biggest names in photography and imaging, has partnered up with Nokia where they will cross-license one another’s patent portfolios. There aren’t any hard details so anything anyone can say right now is pure speculation, however the deal is said to “provides significant benefits to both companies, [and] is royalty bearing to Kodak.” So far, Kodak has slapped some of their technology onto the MotoZINE ZN5, but its notable contributions haven’t gone much further. We’re hoping this is a really good sign of things to come and there is no doubt this will give a tremendous boost to the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. Can you guys imagine a 10+ megapixel Nseries phone with Kodak’s Camera Control UI and technology powering the imaging and internals?

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Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 coming to T-Mobile on November 3

By on October 18, 2008 at 5:06 PM.

Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 coming to T-Mobile on November 3

This weekend shouldn’t be all about AT&T, right? How about some T-Mobile holiday love? Motorola announced the MOTOZINE ZN5 back in June and since then we’ve heard some rumblings about the 5 megapixel shooter possibly coming to T-Mobile here in the US. Rumblings confirmed. Word just came in that T-Mobile will be dropping the MOTOZINE ZN5 on November 3, just in time for the holidays. Sure the ZN5 might not be quite as exciting as some of the other news we’ve gotten this weekend but as far as camera phones go, this is no slouch. 5 megapixels, a xenon flash, on-device photo editing courtesy of Kodak Perfect Touch, EasyShare integration and a dedicated one-click Simple Share key make this handset a mobile photog’s dream. Spec refresher:

  • 5.0 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and video capture
  • High resolution landscape screen
  • CrystalTalk technology
  • ModeShift technology
  • 150 MB of available memory, 1 GB microSD card included
  • Simplified sharing and editing via Kodak applications
  • Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
  • WiFi
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player 11
  • Integrated FM radio
  • MegaTones and HiFi ringers
  • myFaves capability
  • Photo caller ID
  • Video capture and playback
  • Video messaging
  • Voice recorder

Hit the jump for five more marketing slides.

Thanks Gman!

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Motorola ZN5, XPERL, whatever the hell it’s called hands on

By on May 29, 2008 at 12:13 PM.

Motorola ZN5, XPERL, whatever the hell it’s called hands on

Don’t even ask how this one showed up on our desk this morning. But it’s here, the much-awaited much-rumored 5 megapixel camera phone from Motorola with the Kodak lens. This is a slider phone running on the MOTOMAGX Linux platform, and it’s actually not the worst looking phone. There is one major issue we ran into before we even started playing with it and that’s that the 5 megapixel camera is NOT autofocus! The fact that Moto doesn’t get it is really disheartening because they could have had a decent phone in the market which they desperately needed. In terms of specs, the device is a quad-band EDGE phone (FAIL) has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 100MB of internal memory, microSD slot, and a “ROKR” type touch wheel which also serves as the 5-way navigational pad. We’re going to do a whole review on it soon, in the meantime, check out the pics in our world-famous gallery!

Click on over to our Motorola ZINE gallery!

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