"Two turkeys do not make an Eagle"

So tweeted Google VP Vic Gundotra earlier this week, casting judgment on what was then just a widespread rumor but was today confirmed: Finnish phone maker Nokia will be teaming up with Microsoft to take on the smart phone market. Nokia's storied mobile operating system, Symbian, will be scrapped and Nokia handsets will be built around Windows Phone 7 instead.

Despite generally good reviews, Microsoft's new assault on the phone market hasn't taken off as they or handset makers had hoped. And Nokia, which remains the world's largest phone maker, has failed to come up with a smart phone capable of competing with Android handsets or the iPhone.

It's too early to know what kind of devices the new pairing will come up with. But Engadget reports Nokia saying they will be aimed at the very top of the market: they're trying to create gadgets that steal the thunder of the iPhone and the most powerful Android handsets.

The end result, said Nokia chief executive, Stephen Elop, is that the smart phone market would now be a "three horse race."

In fact, choosing a new smart phone may be about to get even more complex: Intel and HP are in this race too.

Nokia may have now picked Windows, but in the last two years it had been working with Intel on the MeeGo mobile OS, designed to run on everything from phones to tablets to TVs. Intel now says it will go it alone and that MeeGo devices are still coming. And just two days ago HP refreshed its WebOS software for mobile devices, showing off a tablet and two phones that use the platform.

However, if the iPhone has taught us anything it is that success requires more than phones with good hardware and software, points out ubiqui-blogger Robert Scoble:

"Nothing matters in this world more than apps...HP execs know this. Google's execs know this. Everyone in Silicon Valley knows this. Apps are the ONLY thing that matters now."

Scoble thinks that the combination of Nokia's established ability to make good hardware with Microsoft's operating system might tempt app makers enough to see the new partnership succeed.

Today's announcements from the two main actors have been largely directed at the tech industry, investors and the business press. Expect the focus to shift to app developers and consumers - arguably the two groups most able to make or break this new effort - as Nokia and Microsoft try to make their strategy stick.

A Google-Intel-Sony partnership will soon offer TVs and set-top boxes that make it easier to browse the Web on a TV, according to a report by The New York Times. The Google TV platform will be based on the Android operating system and will be open to developers, who will presumably be able to create downloadable TV apps, like games.

While some TVs and boxes already allow Web access, these generally don't offer full web surfing. Products that let you play video from a computer on a TV have also been around for a while. But the rising popularity of video sites like YouTube and Hulu.com may mean we'll be seeing more Internet options--potentially even related social networking services--on TVs. Logitech will offer a remote control with a tiny keyboard to aid in web surfing on Google TV.

Google's venture into TV was preceded by its Google TV Ads system, which sells ads on some televisions systems and figures out where an advertiser's ad should be placed based on keywords (similar to its web advertising). Several years ago, Google also tested a software which used a computer's built-in microphone to listen and identify audio from a user's TV to target related ads on the user's computer.

According to a story posted yesterday on the EE Times Asia website, researchers at Intel are developing materials for use in ultracapacitors, energy storage devices with a high capacity. I contacted the company to find out more, and they say they're not ready to say any more than was in the EE Times story:

Intel Corp. researchers are looking into nanoscale materials that could be used to create ultracapacitors with a greater energy density than today's Li-ion batteries. If successful, the new materials could be mass produced in volumes to power systems ranging from mobile devices to electric vehicles--even smart grid storage units.

The project is one of a handful in the works at a seven-person energy systems research lab formed by Intel Corp. in May. The lab is focused on so-called microgrids, small local electric grids that lab director Tomm Aldridge and others believe could represent the future of the smart electric grid.

Until they're ready to say more, here are some stories on the TR site about similar projects. The story "Nanocapacitors with Big Energy Storage" goes into some of the current limitations of these devices and how nanopore electrodes might address them; "Ultracapacitor Start-Up Gets a Big Boost" looks at an ARPA-E funded MIT spin-out that's making ultracapacitors from arrays of carbon nanotubes.