Ok ok, we hear you tipsters, iPhone now official for Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia "later this year" thanks to a deal between Apple and TeliaSonera. At this point, only The Netherlands seems to be out of the loop in Europe.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

April 2008. That's the date when the notoriously progressive Dutch government goes open source. The plan was approved unanimously yesterday in a meeting of two parliamentary commissions. The policy dictates that government organizations at the national level must be ready to save documents in the Open Document Format (ODF) by April, and the state and local level by 2009. Use of proprietary software and file formats from the likes of Microsoft will have to be justified under the new policy. The government expects to save $8.8 million a year on city housing registers alone by making the switch. Tough week, eh Microsoft? You'll have to get your OpenDocument plug-ins for MS Office ISO approved on the quick if you want to avoid further trouble.

Last we heard from the seemingly endless Nokia / Qualcomm kvetch-fest, the former company was soliciting the ITC's help in barring US Qualcomm chip imports, but for those wishing on their lucky stars that this spat would simply vanish into the night, we've got marginally good news. Apparently, a trio of judges in a Dutch court ruled that it didn't have jurisdiction to rule on the phone maker's claims outside of The Netherlands, thus, the patent-licensing case against Qualcomm was dismissed. Aside from claiming that its "jurisdiction was limited," the court also stated that Nokia's gripe was "too broad to give a reasoned decision." Of note, a German court also dismissed the case just last month on "similar grounds," but if you were counting on Nokia to just take the news in stride, we doubt you'll be pleased to hear that it's already "considering if it will appeal the decision."

TomTom just lit up its High Definition Traffic, premium traffic service in The Netherlands. Announced in parallel is the ONE XL HD Traffic navigator, for what's a traffic service without a GPS device to take advantage of it? The ONE XL HD Traffic shares the same 4.3-inch LCD of its ONE XL brethren only now with the addition of 1GB of built-in storage and a new SIM card (no activation or configuration required) for live traffic data feeds over Vodafone's GSM network. Traffic information collected anonymously from Dutch Vodafone mobile phones and third party traffic authorities is updated every 3 minutes -- that's 5x the traffic updates and 10x the road coverage of typical traffic systems according to TomTom. Available in TomTom's home country of The Netherlands this month (UK in first half of 2008) for €399 (about $581) including a one year HD Traffic subscription renewable for €9.95/month. An HD Traffic accessory for existing TomTom products will be available in early 2008.

[Via Pocket-lint]

Having read the title above, we ask you: how do you feel? Titillated at the prospect or fearful for the little babies? Either way, if artificial intelligence researcher David Levy of the University of Maastricht is to be believed, we'll be consummating relationships with our anatomically correct Roombas by mid-century. Ironically, even though the city of Maastricht sits in free-livin' Netherlands, Levy predicts that Massachusetts will be first to legalize human-robot marriage due to its liberal attitude toward same-sex marriages. He envisions those early man-machine marriages falling victim to the same cultural taboos affecting interracial marriages. However, just as those are accepted over time, so will committed robot-hookups be seen as "normal" as the practice becomes more common. According to Levy, "once you have a story like 'I had sex with a robot, and it was great!' appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I'd expect many people to jump on the bandwagon." Hear that Digg users? The cure to nerdonic-celibacy is all up to you.

[Via TG Daily]

About a year after the Dutch government began seriously worrying about the integrity of e-voting machines, they've literally pulled the plug on the venture. The biggest flaw was the lack of a paper trail according to a special committee which reported its finding this morning. As such, Nederlanders will return to the "red pencil method" in upcoming elections until an automated paper-counting solution can be deployed... and then hacked.

Update: To be perfectly clear, the regulation allowing e-voting machines has been withdrawn -- i.e., effective immediately, there is no more e-voting in the Netherlands. However, the Dutch government will make an overarching decision in the next two months "to regain the trust of the public in our voting system." Given that the government commissioned this study themselves, the decision is expected to be a simple rubber stamp approval.

[Thanks, Wol]

For those not familiar with portable-urban travel: that's a bicycle. In fact, it's one of several bicycles wedged inside this "Bike Dispenser" created by the Dutch-based (of course) design agency, Springtime. The concept has actually been floating around since 2005 in The Netherlands but it recently won the Spark Design & Architecture Award causing the world to take notice. The idea here is to offer these RFID-tagged bikes to riders in cities supporting bike rental or bike exchange programs. The garages then, would be conveniently scattered around places like train stations and tourist hot-spots to automagically dispense your new ride. This automated system has completed a pilot and is now being worked into the national OV-fiets (public transport bicycle) service in Holland which rents a bicycle for € 2.75 ($3.71) per 20 hours. Unfortunately, the Bike Dispenser relies upon a uniform bicycle design leaving it helpless to relieve the crushing mass of "parked" bicycles seen in Amsterdam and like-minded cities across Europe and Asia. Still, as a quick and dirty, eco-transport solution in-a-box, what's not to like?

[Via Core77 Design Blog]

The Dutch Ministry of Justice recently announced that special knee locks to prevent prisoner escapes could be tested later this year if parliament gives its approval. In the Netherlands, a "furlough" system is used to gradually reintroduce prisoners that have committed serious offenses back to society: instead of letting prisoners out when their term ends, they are accompanied by a guard to visit relatives, and gradually given more freedom until it is deemed that they are ready for unsupervised parole. Unfortunately, there have been several cases where prisoners on leave committed serious offenses like rape and murder by slipping away from their guards. The purpose of this test is to see whether a knee locking system -- which prevents a prisoner from moving if they move a certain distance away from their guard -- can prevent these kind of unfortunate cases. As draconian as this system may sound, it's probably the most humane of all the solutions that were looked at: prisoners could potentially have had to wear gadgets that gave them electric shocks or injected drugs to prevent them from escaping. The best part about this whole case is what justice ministry spokesman Wim van der Weegen compared the system to: illegally parked cars. Probably not the best analogy he could have used -- badly parked car = potentially inconvenient. Escaped prisoner = potentially capable of murder -- but we'll give Wim the benefit of the doubt this time, and mark it up as lost in translation.

[Thanks, Joel]

It looks like those crazed individuals who somehow managed to escape from the nation's video game addict rehab center won't be sneaking into major football events to stir up trouble anymore, as Amsterdam Arena has launched a trial program to scan the fingerprints of football fans before letting them enter as they try to better "exclude known troublemakers" from making it to the stands. While European soccer football matches are known to elicit tremendous passion from both parties, oftentimes resulting in violent behavior, the biometric scanners will hopefully curb the conflicts as it better enforces bans to precious offenders. Reportedly, the system will initially be at home games of Ajax, Feyenoord and Vitesse, and if it seems to go over well (read: enraged fans chill out), it could be rolled out in a few more locales later this year.

[Via BBC, thanks Stewart D.]

It looks like those serious about motoring around on their Segway might have to start crossing international boundaries in order to do so legally, as the Netherlands have now joined Japan and Britain in the growing list of countries which have outlawed the oft ridiculed (and potentially dangerous) personal vehicles. Dutch police have officially enjoined Segways "on all public roads, sidewalks, and bike paths," claiming that the lack of an onboard braking system prevents it from being categorized as a "vehicle" by the Royal Traffic Agency, which bars it from receiving a license plate and becoming a street-legal ride. Although a spokesman from the RTA actually commented that the Segway was "a nice vehicle," using the machines on public property is no longer permissible, but it was said that it could take some time before regulations are actually passed down and "enforced." Segway Netherlands director Piet Kruijt was (unsurprisingly) upset by the ruling, and claimed that he was "working on all fronts to get things resolved," and for nothing more than our sincere concern for the Amsterdam Segway Tours (saywha?) employees that are hoping to have work come March, we hope he's successful.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Okay, space-loving fans, you'll be happy to know that the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle has just survived three straight weeks of software and hardware testing under simulated space conditions at the European Space Agency's test facilities in The Netherlands. In order to pass the tests, the ATV had to continually operate while going through massive temperature differentials, or as one engineer explained: "It is like putting your computer laptop in the freezer, then exposing it to the Sun in the summer heat and back again to the freezer while you are continually using it." This spacecraft will hook up with the International Space Station this coming summer when it brings supplies and fuel to the outpost. Now when will this space tech reach us lowly terrestrial consumers? We're guessing probably around 2020.

Since Motorola and RIM already dished out news about their forthcoming mobiles, you knew Nokia would be joining the release party soon. Sure enough, the company has unveiled four new phones today at its annual Capital Market Days in Amsterdam, with one being aimed at the entry-level market and the remaining trio headed to mid-range consumers. The low-end 2626 rocks a few different color motifs, pack an FM tuner, color LCD, and all the bare essentials to keep you connected for €75 ($99). The 6086 houses quad-band GSM connectivity, UMA, a built-in camera, and an oversized keypad while costing €200 ($264). Stepping it a notch is the 6300, which comes in at 13.1-millimeters thin, touts a stainless steel frame (not to mention the "organic curves"), and demands €250 ($329). Last up is the 6290 (€325; $428) smartphone, which "combines the power of the S60 and 3G" in a new, sexy package, and boasts an interactive world travel application as well as "Quick Cover" access keys. While initial spec information is all but nil, we're sure to get plenty of juicy details while we wait for the foursome to launch in "Q1 2007."

So you think you're all cool with your biodiesel, your compost pile and your donations to the Sierra Club? Well leave it to the Dutch to take environmentalism to the next level -- the next level in fun, that is. The Sustainable Dance Club in Rotterdam is planning on becoming the first green dance club in the world, converting dancers' moves into electricity, powering the turntables and speakers scattered throughout the facility. As if that weren't enough crunchy granola hippie-thinking for you, there are also plans to have "rainwater toilets, biological beer, and walls which change colour according to the heat generated inside the club, without using any electricity." Now don't get us wrong, we're as big on recycling as the next guy/gal, but when we hear of a foreign concept like biobeer, well, lets just say that we're gonna make damn sure that the septic system and the keg tubing aren't cohabitating the same plumbing.

[Thanks, Jocko]

We're not exactly sure why Heineken needs GPS to monitor the location of its beer shipments, but they probably know more about global shipping logistics than we do. According to RFID Journal, starting this month, the Dutch beer giant will begin the first test of its "Living Beer Plan," tracking 10 shipping containers of beer from Heineken headquarters in The Netherlands to the United Kingdom and the United States. Customs data, such as whether or not the containers' doors have been opened, will be available online to British and American customs officials, (as well as the researchers monitoring the project at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) even before the cargo ships reach UK and American ports. Heineken claims it will save on the 30-odd pages worth of printed customs forms and other documents by using GPS and online tracking instead. Surely with the money saved on not printing up documents, Heineken wouldn't mind sending its friends at Engadget a free case of brew? Pretty please?

[Via Brandish]

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