Alright, hands up: How many of you saw The Dark Knight (the newest
Batman flick)? And what'd you think? Personally, I thought it was
alright but I liked Batman Begins better - less spectacular special
effects and no Heath Ledger, but the story was far more compelling.
But
I digress ... If you did see Dark Knight, can you name the mobile phone
manufacturer whose handsets are sprinkled throughout the film? If you
said Nokia, you're right on the money. And unlike the Sony Ericssons featured in Vantage Point,
the Nokias in Dark Knight actually look like Nokias you can buy - from
hardware to software. Except for this one phone that makes a few
cameos near the beginning of the movie.
Morgan Freeman's
character helps Bruce Wayne plot an attack on a bad guy by planting a
few Nokias inside Evil's corporate HQ. These aren't any ordinary
cellies, though - Freeman's got them all tricked out with a Sonar-like
system that can plot 3D maps by bouncing a signal off of walls and
plotting the responses. Or something like that. The trickery comes
into play again later in the movie.
The Nokia in question looks
much like the XpressMusic 5800 - aka "The Tube" - that's been making a
cameo around the tech blogosphere as of late. This as yet unreleased
handset is said to be Nokia's first full touchscreen device - a 14.5mm
thick candybar phone running Symbian S60 5th Edition. The Nokia Blog
has more photos and specs if you want 'em - looks to me like a
pre-production model judging from that UI, but you never know ...
And Nokia's official comment on The Tube ... I mean, the mystery phone spied on the big screen this Summer?
In
the summer blockbuster, The Dark Knight, a Nokia device is prominently
featured. We worked closely with the producers of The Dark Knight to
develop an appropriate device that would suit the technology-savvy
character of Batman. The Nokia device used in the film is not a
commercial product ? at this point.