Strange New World: Picks of the Week

Oct. 4, 2007 — -- It's been a week for deals, deals and well ... deals here in the "Strange New World." Phone maker Nokia will cough up big bucks for Navteq, the -- get this -- map-making company that provides what's-where information to the likes of Google and Garmin. Also, Apple had yet another big deal up its sleeve, launching its iTunes music service to coordinate automatically with what's playing at your local Starbucks. And on a more mundane deal plane, it looks like this holiday season will be a good one for picking up great tech on the cheap.

Here are our picks for the top tech stories of the week:

Cell phone maker Nokia just announced it will buy mapmaker Navteq for a whopping $8.1 billion. Yes, that's billion, with a "B." Nokia may be one of the biggest cell phone makers on the planet, but the company is clearly feeling the limits of just making phones.

Despite the iPhone buzz, the reality is that the mobile phone industry is quickly getting less and less innovative. (Don't believe the hype over Verizon's answer to the iPhone, by the by. Their Voyager travels nowhere.) After all, how many all-in-one computers, mp3 players, Web browsers and cameras do you need? Mobile phones are getting a decidedly mature-market vibe.

Meanwhile, navigation is at the leading edge of personal tech. Nav is now almost standard equipment in many new cars, and it is finding its way into phones, the Web and robotics. Like Fox grabbing the NFL from CBS back in 1994 and changing the way football was covered, Nokia's map grab puts itself at the cutting edge of the navigation market and in the driver's seat to innovation. Look for the company to not only do some very cool things with maps. Our hunch is we'll see way-slick Nokia-branded GPS devices on the market soon.

After all, it makes sense: Mr. Average Joe gadget shopper is just getting to know nav players like Tom Tom, Garmin and Magellan. But "Nokia Nav" or similar brand? That's almost a no-brainer.