Mobile phone giant Nokia has announced that that its smartphone users would be able to make free calls as it launched its version of Skype.

Internet phone pioneer Skype also said that its VoIP calling app was made available via Nokia's Ovi storefront.

Skype for Symbian on a Nokia Series 60 smartphone can be downloaded for free from Skype's Web site or a site such as CNET Download. com.

Skype, which was launched in 2003, allows its users to make free calls from a computer connected to the internet to other subscribers worldwide.

Network provider Orange has proclaimed its support for the Nokia-Intel founded MeeGo Linux platform, which was introduced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.

Intel said that it would team up with Orange to offer devises ranging from mobile phones to netbooks, using MeeGo.

MeeGo aims at developing such a consumer media services platform that will be used in consumer devices ranging from mobile phones to netbooks.

It has been reported that the Nokia X6 is now available for all the mobile customers in the United Kingdom. The Nokia X6, which is arguably better than the iPhone from Apple, is the best that Nokia has to offer to its customers.

World's most popular mobile platform Symbian has been fully open sourced ahead of scheduled time.

A not-for-profit organization Symbian Foundation, which was established by Nokia along with other manufacturers, announced on Thursday that all Symbian source code was made available free under the open source licences.

Originally, Symbian was scheduled to be open sourced by the mid of the current year.

Nokia has now officially announced that its eagerly awaited Booklet 3G mini laptop is now open for pre-orders starting today through the giant manufacturer's online store. Although no exact dates have been confirmed as to when the shipping would begin, the site does say that it is expecting to start shipping these mini PCs out by January 2010.

The laptop was first unveiled in August and marks the mobile phone and smartphones manufacturer's entry into a completely new market. It is equipped with an Intel Atom Z530 processor and a

The Nokia N900 is already available SIM free through Nokia's online stores, but customers who have been looking to get the phone for subsidized rates can now do so through Vodafone. The giant carrier has now announced that it will be the first operator to offer the Maemo 5 handset, and the N900 shipping will start as early as January.

Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone, Apple devices and iTunes music software, said it filed a countersuit claiming that Nokia Oyj is infringing its technology. In the suit filed today in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, Apple claimed Nokia is wrongfully using 13 of its patents.

"Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies," Bruce Sewell, Cupertino, California-based Apple's general counsel, said in a statement.