Nokia 3310 is back - and it even has Game Snake

The ‘indestructible’ handset returns, complete with one-month standby time, colour screen and bags of nostalgia

The rumours are true – the Nokia 3310 is back, and it even has Snake. The updated version of the early noughties icon, famed for its seemingly indestructible qualities, was unveiled at the Mobile 

World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday.

The new Nokia 3310 trades on nostalgia and hopes to revive an iconic moment in mobile phone history. Plus it’s got Snake. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

Anticipation of the device, a phone that doesn’t even have 3G, has been high ever since news of its release leaked earlier this year. The relaunched 3310 is produced by new mobile firm HMD Global, which licensed the Nokia brand last year. HMD is filled with key ex-Nokia people, and the phone appears to have lost none of the charm and identity of the 17-year-old original.

The new version of Snake ready to entertain. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

“This is what consumers have been asking us for, and so we decided that we’d just do it and have some fun with it, said Florian Seiche, president of HMD. “That’s the unique opportunity we have here at HMD with the Nokia brand.”

The phone has a slightly bigger screen than its namesake, and in colour this time. It also has a camera on the back, which the original did not. It does have a removable back cover and battery, and runs an updated version of the original’s S30 software. The software behaves so much like the original and followups you might think you were caught inside some sort of time loop. The phone will cost about €50 (£42) when released in the second quarter of 2017. The original cost in 2000 was £129.99 on pay as you go.

HMD promises that the new Nokia 3310 will be as durable as the old one, often seen as practically indestructible by the teens of the 2000s. The new 3310 is about half the thickness of the original and has 10 times the talk time, with 22 hours, and twice the standby time: one month – a duration almost unheard-of in 2017.

It’s charged via microUSB, so there’s no need to carry the pin Nokia charger of old, and there’s even a headphones socket in the bottom. Cynics might see the new 3310 as merely a marketing exercise but some analysts are more optimistic. CCS Insight’s Ben Wood says that out out of the approximately 20m phones sold in the UK each year, 1m of them are still feature phones such as the 3310.

Wood said: “There is a segment of the population that just wants a basic phone. From the stereotype of builder that just wants to call and text and if it gets broken it doesn’t matter, to the festival phone and the backup phone.”

Whether nostalgia, the desire for a less connected, but still contactable life or simply a budget phone is enough to drive meaningful sales of the new 3310 remains to be seen. The Nokia brand run by HMD was the number two global manufacturer of feature phones in 2016, with 35.3m handsets shipped for a 9% share of the market, according to data from Strategy Analytics.

Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics said: “Nokia has struggled in smartphones, but it maintains a very good reputation for delivering user-friendly feature phones at competitive prices, such as the Nokia 230 dual sim.”

Perhaps the most interesting thing the Nokia 3310 tells us is not about feature phones, but rather the state of the smartphone market dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Wood said: “It’s an absolutely damning indictment of the state of the smartphone market that the world is so excited and obsessed with a retro feature phone that shipped 17 years ago.

“The 3310 is poised to be the biggest story of Mobile World Congress this year, where we’re surrounded by the most cutting edge technology available on the planet. Where phones have artificial intelligence in them, 4K screens that most people don’t even have on their TV at home, cameras that are more powerful than we’ve seen. And we’re all getting excited about a 17-year-old feature phone.”

 The back comes off, the battery comes out and there’s even a microSD card slot. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

 A headphone socket in the bottom. The phone is available in four colours. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

For its part, the 3310 isn’t the only phone HMD is unveiling at MWC this year. Three Android-based smartphones, the competitively priced, mid-tier devices the Nokia 6, 5 and 3 – there is no Nokia 4 now nor has there ever been as the number is considered unlucky in China – each with aluminium unibody designs, a bloat-free Pixel-like Android experience and guaranteed updates for two years from release.

HMD hopes to achieve its aim of democratising smartphones and bringing high-end features and quality to mid-tier prices. Chinese rivals such as Huawei are already saturating the market at scale with quality devices.

For Wood, as nice as HMD’s new Nokia Android phones are, it’s all about the brand. He said: “If someone walks into a shop and they want a mid-tier phone, do they buy a Huawei, or a OnePlus, a Xiaomi or a Vivo or Wileyfox or something else they’ve never heard of, or a do they buy the Nokia, the brand they know?”

Scientists Reveal What ‘Massive Hairy Sea Beast’ Washed Up On Shore Actually Is

Here’s one for all of you Internet detectives out there: What the hell is this massive blob?

The huge white and hairy sea creature washed up on shore in Cagdainao, Dinagat Islands and has attracted quite a lot of attention from locals.

It appeared after a 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the Philippines on Sunday. Since then, several unusual sea creatures have been washing up on the South East Asian country’s shores.

The Philippines sits off the so called ‘Ring of Fire’, a vast Pacific Ocean region where many of Earth’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. Because of its proximity to the area, the country is no stranger to typhoons and earthquakes – and the aftermath of strange, dead creatures washing ashore.

People on Mindanao’s northern coast have reportedly spotted a number of giant oarfish measuring up to 30ft long following the quakes, but the mysterious white blob has been the latest in a string of unusual finds.

Many have speculated that it could be a large deep sea creature or, bizarrely (but not entirely inaccurate), a giant English sheep dog.

But the ‘beast’ is actually a 20 foot long whale carcass, according to local scientists. The body of the whale, which weighs approximately 2,000 kilograms, is believed to have turned white due to an advanced stage of decomposition.

It is thought to have died approximately two weeks ago, possibly after being hit by a ship.

Scientists later released a statement, claiming:

A report yesterday said that the dead body of sea creature was believed to be a Sea Cow or Dugong but the team’s finding is unanimous that it is a whale, or Balyena and confirmed also by the BFAR Personnel, but is uncertain as to what particular whale species due to its advance decomposition.

So there you have it. It’s not a giant English sheep dog. It’s a whale.

Mystery solved.

Apple is ‘looking into’ the viral video showing iPhone 7 burst into smoke

Apple might be pulling a Samsung. This Wednesday, an Arizona-based teenager shared a distressing video that shows her iPhone 7 Plus excessively release fumes after spontaneously heating up to the point of melting.

The footage reveals a gaping hole on the side of the handset as the screen has almost fully melted away from the aluminium frame anchoring. The post, shared on Twitter by Brianna Olivas, has since gone viral, accumulating over one million views and 24,000 retweets. Now Apple has taken notice.

In a brief statement to Mashable, the Cupertino titan said the company is “in touch with the customer and looking into” the malfunction.

 Follow

Bree✨ @briannaolivas_

So my IPhone 7 plus blew up this morning  was not even using it, literally no explanation for this

2:11 AM - 23 Feb 2017

 
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@briannaolivas_

2:17 AM - 23 Feb 2017

 
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Olivas told Mashable the issues with her iPhone device, which she copped from Sprint earlier in January, began manifesting the day before. After experiencing problems turning on the phone, she took it to the Apple Store where employees ran diagnostics and told her nothing seems to be wrong with the handset.

While the iPhone appeared to be functioning properly, things took a turn for the worse on the next morning when it started melting down.

“I was asleep with my phone charging next to my head, my boyfriend grabbed the phone and put it on the dresser,” the teenager further told Mashable. At some point, the boyfriend saw the “phone steaming and [making] a squealing noise.”

“By the time he got over to the phone it had already caught fire,” she added. “[H]e quickly grabbed the phone and threw it in the restroom […] [where it] blew up and more smoke started coming out of the phone.”

Olivas has since handed over the faulty handset to Apple. The company is yet to comment on the issue in more detail, but as of now nothing seems to suggest the flaw is more widespread.

While the Cupertino giant has previously dealt with complaints about unexpected shutdowns and flickering screens on the iPhone 6, reports about fire-catching Apple devices have been scarce – though not entirely non-existent.

In the heat of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery disaster, a surfing instructor from Australia claimed his iPhone 7 burst into flames and set his car ablaze. The man said he left his phone wrapped in a pair of pants only to discover his car filled with smoke when he returned.

Unlike him, though, Olivas claims she did nothing to her device that could’ve chained the meltdown.

Donald Trump threatens to use US military to deport undocumented immigrants

Donald Trump has threatened to deploy US military forces to remove undocumented immigrants from the country. 

The US President claimed his administration’s efforts to remove “bad dudes”, including “gang members”and “drug lords”, was a military operation to reduce crime, despite little evidence indicating undocumented immigrants are disproportionately responsible. 

“You see what’s happening at the border, all of the sudden for the first time, we’re getting gang members out, we’re getting drug lords out, we’re getting really bad dudes out of this country,” Mr Trump said.

And at a rate that nobody’s ever seen before, and they’re the bad ones, and it’s a military operation because that has been allowed to come into our country. And you see gang violence that you’ve read about like never before, all of the things, much of that is people that are here illegally. And they’re rough and they’re tough but they’re not tough like our people.”

However, despite the US President's incendiary claims, security chief John Kelly said there would be "no use of military force in immigration operations.” Press secretary Sean Spicer also issued a denial after the meeting, claiming Mr Trump’s use of the word “military” was as an adjective to highlight the precision used in the deportation operations. 

His comments came as Mexico’s foreign minister expressed "worry and irritation" about US policies at a meeting in Mexico City with Mr Kelly and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. 

Luis Videgaray said it was a "complex time" for US-Mexico relations, which have gone downhill quickly since Mr Trump was elected president last November.

Relations were put under further strain this week when the US said it would seek to deport many illegal immigrants to Mexico if they entered the country from the southern border, regardless of their nationality.

The immigration guidelines are the latest point of tension between neighbours that have also been at odds over Mr Trump's vow to build a wall on the border and his attempts to browbeat Mexico into giving concessions on trade.

Mr Kelly and Mr Tillerson were much more measured in their words than either the Mexicans or Mr Trump. Mr Kelly, who Mr Trump praised as being “unbelievable at the border” denied the military claim and insisted there would be "no, repeat, no" mass deportations.

None of the officials made direct references to the deportation of immigrants from third countries to Mexico, or to paying for the border wall planned by Mr Trump, a red-flag issue for Mexico.

How to add a frame Flag your country And team, which encourages of the image Personal Facebook

Facebook’s temporary profile picture frames are now available for more and more sports teams, causes and events, but did you know that there is actually a list?

Facebook’s temporary profile picture frames are now available for more and more sports teams, causes and events, but did you know that there is actually a list?

Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg provided this link in a Facebook post (embedded below), where users can access a pull-down menu that provides them with all of the available options for temporary profile picture frames.

The page shows all available profile frames from across Facebook, including those from charities like WWF, sports events and movies in once place.

get  frame Flag your country And team, which encourages of the image Personal Facebook

The following link                                                 

                                                                         ↓↓↓

get  frame Facebook  now

The new picker lets you choose your photo, then provides a drop-down of all possible frames across the service for the first time.

Meanwhile, the feature does lead to several questions. In his recent 5,000 word manifesto, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked about the urgent need to create a global community and create a social infrastructure for its users. Launching national flags, while harmless, doesn’t seem to be the best way to promote inclusiveness and the idea of global community as it will give people just another way to differentiate themselves from people sporting different flags on their profile pictures.

With that said, Facebook has still played a massive role in bringing inclusiveness to the world. We see Indians interacting with Americans, Japanese interacting with Canadians and so on and so forth. That is an incredible achievement on the social media platform’s part. And it is still a business, so we can not expect all of its moves to be directed by its founder’s personal philosophy, no matter how noble and good they may be. That is something that needs to be borne in mind before judging Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, is situations where the two appear to be at variance.