The economy has been very tough on many technology companies. Some of the largest companies in the industry have been hit hard and forced to lay off workers and report losses. Cellular infrastructure provider Nortel was forced into bankruptcy by the global economy.

Nokia has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Nortel to buy the firm’s CDMA and LTE holdings. The purchase will allow Nokia to expand its infrastructure presence in North America. Nokia says that the purchase will cost it $650 million.

The Nokia E72 made a brief appearance the other day in a leaked promo video. Now we have more details. The phone sports a stylish QWERTY keypad, a 5 megapixel camera, HSUPA (up to 2Mbps) and faster HSDPA (Up to 10Mbps).

The E72 also has a new optical Navi key, which acts like an optical trackpad for navigating through the menu, and applications. It also acts as an electronic compass to enhance GPS navigation. The Nokia E72 is expected to hit in the third quarter of 2009 with a 4GB microSD card in the box and a lifetime license for Nokia messaging.

The successor to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic was unveiled at the Nokia Connection event in Singapore. It’s the third S 60 5th edition handset for the company, after the popular Nokia N97 and 5800 XpressMusic. The 5800 XpressMusic is a touch phone, sporting a 2.9″ 16M color display with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels.

It features a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, along with an accelerometer sensor and proximity sensor for precise pictures. Since it’s a music phone, it has powerful stereo speakers and a 3.5 mm standard audio jack. Surprisingly, no GPS unlike Nokia’s other touch phones, which is probaly to keep the price down.

The Nokia E71x isn’t a very old phone at all, but it’s about to get outdone by the business-class E72, seen here in a leaked promotional video. One of the most interesting things is the optical mouse instead of the clickable D-pad usually found in similar models.

Other upgrades include a five megapixel camera, a relocated headphone jack. That’s about all of the info we have. The YouTube video’s been pulled, but luckily IntoMobile snagged it quickly if you want to have a look.

The N97 that Nokia unveiled way last December is hitting stores tomorrow afternoon. Well, at least hitting the Nokia flagship stores in New York and Chicago. If you’re not already in line at one of these two places you might have some luck online as Amazon appears to have some in stock and we would imagine (or at least hope for the sake of all you that pre-ordered) that they will start shipping today or tomorrow as well.

This release from …

Nokia just announced the brand new Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905, which they are hailing as “the best headset ever made”. I don’t know about that, but the BH-905 allows users to either make calls or listen to music, “with virtually any compatible phone or music device.”

It also features active noise cancellation technology from Wolfson Microelectronics (along with a switch for turning it on/off), 10 microphones (8 for canceling noise and 2 for capturing speech), a dedicated multifunction key for call management, and music/volume controls.

Look what we have here, Nokia’s successor to the N810 Internet Tablet, specs and all. The N900 is Nokia’s most powerful and capable tablet to date and comes with HSPA connectivity.

The N900 weighs 180 grams and is 59.7mm x 111mm x 18.2mm in size. It features a 3.5 inch touchscreen with a resolution of 800×480. Some other features are: a 5 MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens with dual LED flash, autofocus and sliding cover. It will become official in June.

Nokia’s Ovi Store has soft launched in Australia. The Ovi Store is now accessible on the Australian operator Vodafone. Ovi Store is Nokia’s content/app store for applications, games, wallpapers, themes, ringtones etc.

The Australian launch will soon be followed by other carriers in the next few hours and days. According to a post from Nokia’s Conversations blog, (That was pulled later) Nokia confirmed the rollout and said that it was moving the Ovi Store to “production servers,” and that users can “expect a broader announcement and consumer availability soon.”

Along comes this interesting new concept to shake things up in the mobile projector industry. The Nokia Pulse Projector combines an LED-projector and a NXT-speaker with Dolby sound processing into a single device. It works with your cell using Pulse software and Bluetooth, basically turning your handset into an interactive remote which will control the multimedia player.

Some specs of this amazing concept include a native resolution of 1,280 x 768, a contrast ratio of 1,500:1, LED light technology, 1,000 lumens brightness and it will throw images from 15″ to 60″ at 7.87 feet.

On Tuesday Nokia added the 6600i slide to its roster. It’s Nokia’s smallest slider yet, with a 5-megapixel camera that includes dual LED flashes. That brushed-metal housing should get your slider some attention. It also has a tap interface for quickly waking the phone, muting alerts and ringtones, as well as turning down calls.

The phone accepts microSDHC cards up to 16GB and has both a 1GB card in the box and a combo headset, FM radio and mic. Expect it to ship to “select markets” this summer for 200 Euros ($272) before carrier discounts.

Nokia’s upcoming 7020 clamshell phone is a fashion phone that boasts a 2.2-inch TFT display with 240 x 320 resolution, an external display with 128 x 160 resolution, 2MP camera, 45MB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, an MP3/MPEG-4 player, stereo FM radio and a standard Li-Ion 860 mAh battery.

If you can’t wait to get your hands on this new handset, you won’t have to wait long. It will be available in the fourth quarter of 2009 for about $121. Obviously this one is geared toward the fairer sex. So, what do you think ladies?

It may look real…in a cheap plastic sort of way, but don’t let it’s looks fool you. This Nokia E75 clone is not from Nokia by a long shot. But hey, you do get a built-in NES emulator that lets you play all your favorite old school games on-the-go.

Some other features include a 2.6-inch LCD display, 1.3-megapixel camera, and a built-in FM tuner. Even a “magical voice” feature. Other than the NES feature, there’s very little to love with this knockoff.

Nokia’s Ovi Store will start out with a large catalog of items compared to their direct competitors, like the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. They’ll start out with about a stunning 20,000 apps. The Ovi Store is scheduled to open in late spring, just in time for the release of the Nokia N97 in July.

The store items are said to include games, general apps and even short videos. GPS will be used to filter content by city and locality. This marks a sharp contrast to the first app stores. The iTunes App Store started with only 500 apps and the Android Market started with about 50 apps. App stores are here to stay.

Many of you are loving the new Star Trek movie, while many of you are having high geek blood-pressure over things like Beastie Boys songs and this…Nokia product placement. One thing is for sure, this isn’t the Star Trek many of us grew up with.

If you’ve seen the reboot, then you probably noticed the Nokia commercial cleverly inserted in the flick. The touchscreen device is in the dash of young Kirk’s Corvette that he is taking for a joyride. Check it out below while it’s still available on youtube.

The long overdue E71x is available at long last. Any businessmen out there who are interested better get to ordering one pronto, because it is at the incredible price of just $99.99.

It will be a two year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate. This one comes in a full metal body and runs on Symbian S60 ver 3.2, HSDPA/3G support, Wi Fi, full QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth and GPS. It even has a 3.2 megapixel camera for snapping pictures of whatever you snap pictures of.