Does Nokia have their COOL Back?

I recently wrote in this blog that the issue is not about how cool the phone looks and I still believe the basic premise -- that the next evolutionary step for phones is dependent upon programmability. But two announcements this week from Nokia definitely show that the good folks in Finland are hard at work to prove that they are still the thought leaders in mobility.

First is a very strange new technology which allows a mobile handset user to flash a message across a room to another person via a set of leds embedded on the back of the phone. The BBC has a good photo of the new phone, dubbed the Nokia 3220. The Register explains that this will "change the face of waving as we know it" and Joi Ito imagines what it would be like to have them in an audience, "it would be like a chorus of Hecklebots." More information is available at Nokia's web site

The second annoucement is more interesting in that the long term implications are deeper... Dan Gillmor writes just that "The project is young, but the possibilities are fascinating" while Marc Canter writes simply "This is Killer." What are they both talking about? Nokia's new initiative LIFEBLOG. What the heck is a Lifeblog? Here is what Nokia has to say:

Nokia Lifeblog is a PC and mobile phone software combination that effortlessly keeps a multimedia diary of the items you collect with your mobile phone. Lifeblog automatically organizes your photos, videos, text messages, and multimedia messages into a clear chronology you can easily browse, search, edit, and save. Nokia Lifeblog does the work of organizing the items you create and receive, and you can also add notes throughout the day, or tag and update your favorites so they're always on your phone.

The Nokia 7610 imaging phone will be the first to have the Lifeblog software. The 7610 is a tri-band phone with a megapixel camera, running the Symbian operating system. The phone also comes equipped with bluetooth, an MP3 player, and the standard Symbian productivity applications (email, web browser, etc).

Nokia definitely has a good claim on cool for this summer.