Nokia sale rumors continue with a prediction that the company will sell its smartphone unit to Microsoft in a deal will be announced as early as the first half of 2012. The Finnish company share price rose over 3-percent over the speculation, Bloomberg reports, though Nokia itself remains adamant that a deal is not in the offing.

Danske Bank analysts maintain that a sale of the smartphone segment at least "makes sense", with Microsoft the likely buyer. Nokia, though, is keen to move past speculation of a sale. "We put these rumors to rest a long time ago" spokesperson Doug Dawson insists.

Nokia unveiled its Nokia Maps 3D back in April of this year and they were certainly cool. Nokia has announced some really cool new features. One of the new features is the ability for the user to search for local attractions, restaurants, and shops. That means you can see the shop you want to visit and then get directions how to get there.

The directions are given on maps with photorealistic views of the locations you are looking for. You do have to install a plug-in to get the 3D maps. After installing that plug-in, you can enter addresses in the search field as well as business names and points of interest you want to see. It will then find the thing you are looking for and put it on the screen for you to check out.

Demo Below!

Nokia Live View has just been updated. In the latest release (version 2.03) you will find:

• Performance improvements (fixes for install issues, crashes, slowness, freezes and bug fixes)

• Two views: camera viewfinder and list view. Tap on the circles on the menu bar to change the views

• Tutorial to guide through the Live View usage and feature set

The update is currently only available as a standalone update.

Download Now

Nokia Maps v3.08 is now available for download to Symbian Anna and Belle users and is bringing along some goodies you might want to check out.

First off, Nokia Maps now offers four homescreen widgets, also live traffic services, weather service, improved Drive navigation and more. Nokia Maps already offers lifetime free-of-charge voice-guided navigation across 100 countries with downloadable maps and everything.

Images and specs have leaked of an unannounced Nokia device, bound for China with a dual-mode quad-band GSM and TD-SCDMA network codenamed 801T. In the specs sheet that was uncovered it says it uses the Symbian^3 and not WP7. It could be Anna or Belle.

The screen will have an nHD resolution and will measure about 4.3-inch, the camera is an 8 MP unit and there are no visible buttons on the front.

There is no word on the processor but the quoted RAM is 256MB, which does not exactly scream high end these days. And it is a hefty device at 171 g.
Being dual-mode GSM and TD-SCDMA device, the 801T will be able to operate globally on most networks.