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Nokia has just release the beta version of the Nokia City Lens Augmented Reality browser exclusively for the Lumia line of Windows Phones (the app is already available on the Symbian). If you don’t know what City Lens is then the simple answer would be to say that it’s Nokia’s own versions of Wikitude or Layar (or even ScanSeach on the LG Optimus 7 / Quantum Windows Phones). Nothing really groundbreaking here but the upside here is the software polish that we have come to expect from Nokia’s latest software and services. It simply works (even though it’s still in Beta) and nicely integrates with Nokia Maps to give you walking, driving or transport directions to the places you are looking at (similar to Nokia Transport / Transit). You can download directly to you Lumia handset by scanning the QR Code after the break and also checking out the video introduction of the app below:
Continue reading Nokia City Lens Augmented Reality browser released for Lumia phones →
 Photo courtesy of MJ Foley Quick word of advise to all the Nokia Lumia 800 users out there who are eagerly waiting for the Tango update to reach their handset and finally bring Internet Sharing and improved camera settings: please be patient. The Chinese variant 1750.805.8773.12140 firmware has finally reached Nokia Care’s servers a few ours ago but shouldn’t be of any use to most users outside of China given that it lacks Facebook and Twitter integration in the People Hub and includes several features and customization specifically aimed at the Asian market. This update does indeed enabled internet sharing and also include the new camera settings that have been missing from the previous updates (panorama, smart group shot etc video quality settings and improved still shot quality..) and a Nokia Branded Marketplace Icon/tile.
The international / European variant of the 1750.805.8773.12140 update shouldn’t be to far off so don’t rush waste our time flashing you perfectly functional handset right now ans simply wait a little for the real deal. If you are really bothered by the Audio Volume bug simply flash the 12072 FW for now.
The latest major Firmware update for the Nokia Lumia 800 may have fixed the most important issue; namely the buggy power management, but it unfortunately also introduced an annoying audio volume bug than made playing games in particular a real pain alongside other oddities like a super loud ringer volume the first second when a call arrives. Anyway, Nokia has finally put an end to all of this via a new Firmware update: 1600.2487.8107.12072 which has already started to roll out in some regions and that you can manually apply to your handset by following the instructions below (at your own risk):
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 800 1600.2487.8107.12072 Firmware released, fixes volume bug: Install it now →
Time to put things back into perspective. I’m assuming that you all have already glanced over most of the Nokia Lumia 900 reviews today and noticed that the general consensus is that the device is great but definitely not earth shattering. Well, this was to be expected when you see it for what it really is: an over-sized Lumia 800 (with a Gyro, LTE modem and FF Cam) or more accurately a Samsung Focus S with an LTE Modem (and obviously better materials). Any sane person who isn’t a rabid Microsoft fanboy or hater would agree with this. Unfortunately not much more can be done with the current Windows Phone 7 chassis hardware specifications so Nokia and other OEMS are stuck releasing essentially the same phones until Windows Phone 8 Apollo is finally unleashed. Case in point: the Nokia Lumia 800 / 900 camera is undoubtedly held back by the Qualcomm MSM8x55 ISP. Nokia is known to use it’s own imaging silicon for its handsets but was unfortunately not allowed to do so in the Lumia line of devices (reason why the N9 with the exact same Sensor shoots better photos..). This will have to change soon if the Finnish company plans to pack its future flagship Windows Phone handset with the PureView 41MP camera. Fortunately we have learned that the Camera stack will be fully customizable by the OEMs in Windows Phone 8.
Speaking of WP8, there’s now the update issue looming over the Lumia 900 launch and gigantic marketing blitz. We are now getting close to HTC HD2 levels of insanity in terms of unknown when it comes to the upgrade path to Windows Phone 8 for the 1st Gen and 2nd Gen Windows phone 7 devices. In the case of the HTC HD2 we all knew that it for the most part conformed to the Chassis 1 specs but Microsoft decided that sacrifice its historical Windows Mobile fanbase and start from scratch with the WP7 launch in fall 2010. No big deal I guess as this allowed HTC to milk the same hardware platform with the HTC HD7 and HTC HD7S…meh. Unfortunately not allowing current 2nd Gen WP7 handsets to upgrade to Windows Phone 8 would be pure suicide on Microsoft’s part especially after all the hoopla that AT&T, Nokia are going to do this month. Imagine buying what is supposedly the carrier’s flagship handset and be notified a few weeks/months later that your device won’t be update to the latest OS iteration. This would be worse than the Android situation. The mystery here is that nobody outside of Microsoft and its OEM partners knows if the current handsets are powerful enough to cope with the new software unlike the HTC HD2 situation.
Continue reading The Nokia Lumia 900 isn’t going to save Windows Phone or Nokia →
Nokia just put up a website detailing the Nokia Lumia 800 PR 1.2 1600.2487.8107.12070 roll out schedule for each country and operator, similar to the now defunct where’s my update page that Microsoft put up last year for the Pre-NoDo, NoDo and Mango update roll-outs. If you still haven’t done it manually (instructions here) simply hit the source link below and choose you country/region to see when the update is going to be pushed to your particular handset.
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 800 PR 1.2 1600.2487.8107.12070 UPDATE availability detailed by country →
The much anticipated Nokia Lumia 900 will finally be hit the US streets on April 8th for $99.99 with a 2 year contract on AT&T (was initially supposed to launch on March 18). The super_low price tag will surely help the Finnish company get a foothold in the US mobile market and also boost Microsoft’s Windows Phone marketshare and visibility. Quick reminder for those of you who haven’t been following all along; the Lumia 900 sport the same 8Mp camera with Carl Zeiss optics as the Lumia 800, the same polycarbonate uni-body but features a Super AMOLED + 4.3″ WVGA display and a Gyroscope (which isn’t present on the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710) and an Qualcomm MDM9200 LTE multi-modem chip associated with APQ8055 Snapdragon S2. So, Who’s getting one ?
Continue reading AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 launching on April 8 for $100 →
Remember the DLNA drivers I found in one of the earlier Nokia Lumia 800 firwmare? Well they are now put to good use it via the recently released Nokia Play To Beta DLNA application which will allow Nokia Lumia owners to stream their handset’s multimedia content to any DLNA compatible receiver (Windows Vista/7/8 PC, TV etc). The Current Beta version doesn’t support Music streaming yet but this should be available in the official release later down the road. Just hit the source link to register to the Nokia Beta program or simply scan the QRCode below after the break to install it on your Nokia Lumia Windows Phone.
Continue reading Nokia Lumia Play To DLNA Beta application released →
Nokia has finally released the much anticipated 2.0 version of Nokia Drive for it’s Windows Phone line of Lumia handsets today which includes Offline navigation, speed alerts, on the fly rerouting and multiple routes suggestion. This update essentially fixes every single issue I had with the initial version. The dashboard has also been updated to display the time until arrival for example. I just got my hands on it and will shoot a short hands on video in the coming hours so make sure to come back here.
Nokia Transport aka Nokia Transit is also out of beta (hands-on video) and available right now in the marketplace.
Nokia Maps has also been update with several new features and enhancement which I will cover shortly once I finish playing with Nokia drive. UPDATE: Live traffic is available in the following countries: USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Belgium, Russia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, India and UAE. Unfortunately this feature isn’t present in Nokia Drive 2.0. You can grab both apps directly from the Nokia Collections section of the Windows Phone marketplace.
Those of you patiently waiting for the PR1.2 / 12070 update to be rolled out to their Nokia Lumia 800 handsets should be happy to learn that it’s has finally hit Europe and the US as I’m getting reports that carrier and non carrier branded handset are receiving the update notification. As a reminder here’s what new in the PR 1.2 firmware and if you can’t wait anymore you can simply update you handset manually by following the instructions I posted here. Also note that this firmware introduces an annoying audio volume bug (sound level is totally buggy when there are more than one audio channel being played at the same time among other things) that should hopefully be fixed in an upcoming update which will also include an updated camera app (with an integrated panorama feature similar to the one found in the Creative Studio app)
Nokia has finally made the Lumia 800 PR 1.2 1600.2487.8107.12070 update official today and has announced the roll out of the update (which has already started yesterday). The company ha also released the update’s change log as you can see below:
As this is not a mandatory software update, not every country or network carrier will make it available to their customers. However, all features and enhancements will be included in subsequent software updates. If you have questions if 1600.2487.8107.12070 will be available for you, please check with your local network carrier.
• Enhanced battery standby and talk time performance
• Battery capacity icon instead of question mark on top right of screen
• Improved bass in audio performance
• Soft-key illumination at all brightness levels
• Fixes for device performance issues including self-reboots, freezes and call-ending
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 800 PR 1.2 1600.2487.8107.12070 update officially announced: Change Log →
I’m getting user reports that the 1600.2487.8107.12070 firmware update for the Nokia Lumia 800 is currently being pushed out to uses in Singapore and India. Keep in mind that nothing has been officially announced yet (and that those operators may have jumped the gun a little bit) but my guess is that it should officially be pushed out worldwide in the coming days / weeks. UPDATE: Nokia is telling me that some regions may be getting it faster than others but that everything is done to get it out everywhere so sit tight and be patient. For more info about this firmware please refer to my previous exclusive report here.
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 800 1600.2487.8107.12070 update roll-out has started in some countries →
Those of you who have been following me know that I’ve been testing for Nokia the upcoming Nokia Lumia 800 PR1.2 firmware for a little while. Nokia asked me to keep details about the new code confidential until its release but now that the cat is somewhat out of the bag (the firmware has already been pushed out to Nokia Care’s server and discovered by several folks) I’ll give you some more info about what you can expect in build 1600.2487.8107.12070 / PR1.2 :
- The Fast battery drain issue has been fixed
- The lack of audio Bass when listening through headsets has been fixed. There’s a whole lot of bass now..
- The auto-white balance issue with the camera has also been fixed
- The hardware buttons backlights are now always on at all screen brightness levels
- Diagnostics app has been changed to prevent users from getting misleading info about their device
- Focus Mode is now set to Normal by default in the camera app
- The jittery screen issue (bad grounding) has be reduced
- More stuff that I won’t talk about
So, just hold on to your Lumia 800 and don’t give up hope cause Nokia has been working hard on fixing most of the issues that have been plaguing the device since its launch.
UPDATE: Just got word from Nokia that you can expect the PR1.2 / 1600.2487.8107.12070 update to roll out very soon.
UPDATE 2: Just to be perfectly clear: There has been no official announcement yet for the date of availability. So just be a little bit patient.
UPDATE MARCH 9th: The FW is now being officially rolled out and you can manually update your device if you wish to do so. Just follow the instruction I posted here.
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and regularly check back here for more info about Nokia’s Windows Phone handsets and future update info. The guys in Finland aren’t joking and really want to see their Windows Phones succeed.
Microsoft and Nokia have just announced the unification of the their mapping services design. This one of the first result of the partnership signed last year between both companies that outlined the integration of Nokia’s Navteq assets into Microsoft’s Bing Maps service. As of today, Bing Maps and Nokia Maps have a unified map elements and color palette and the same Nokia Pure font. Frankly you won’t really notice much of a difference in Bing Maps but Nokia Maps unfortunately looks a bit washed out now. You can compare both offerings directly on you windows phone if you have a Nokia handset via the OS’s Maps application and the Nokia Maps app. Nokia Drive will get the same color treatment in the upcoming 3.0 update coming out in the coming weeks.
Continue reading Unified Bing Maps and Nokia Maps design launched →
Nokia has just announced a new version of Nokia Drive for Windows Phone (and Meego too I guess) which will finally fix most of the issue that many like me have complained about with the first iteration of the software released back in November. Offline support is finally in with some other changes:
Now Nokia Drive on Lumia gets full offline support, with offline search and routing from calculating a route, to navigation and re-routing. A newly designed dashboard now shows speed limit alerts, as well as the speed you’re travelling at, as well as estimated time or arrival, time to destination and distance to destination. You can also access a list of recently saved destinations through a single tap, and then start turn-by-turn navigation..
No availability date has bee given but I’m sure that we can expect it to see it pop up in marketplace in the coming weeks.
Update: Nokia Public transport will be made available in the coming days while the newly announced Nokia Reading hub will materialize in April (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia)
Using Nokia Reading you can choose your own favourite authors, or select from bestselling novels and an extensive selection of top local books in your own language. The service integrates beautifully with the Lumia in the same “hub” and panorama experience we’ve seen working so fluidly with other services.
Once you have chosen a book, large, clear, smartphone screens like those on the Nokia Lumia make reading an enjoyable experience. It’s great for reading on an underground train or plane, as you can read everything offline after downloading beforehand.
In coming months you’ll also be able to create a personalised magazine page called “my stream” that automatically updates content across the most popular categories, and adds web content from your chosen sites.
Nokia Maps is also getting a update with a new modified layout in the coming days.
Continue reading New version of Nokia Drive for Windows Phone announced: Offline mode, traffic and re-route support →
As we where all expecting Nokia has just announced the Global non-US version of the Nokia Lumia 900 handset earlier today. So what does it really mean ? Well nothing earth shattering. Simply put: everybody’s getting the handset with Dual HSPA support if your country doesn’t have LTE coverage yet or an LTE version for Canada which will be similar to the US variant. From the looks of it all variant are essentially the same powered by the same SoC (APQ8055 + MDM9200) so you will by an LTE handset anywhere but only be able to use it in HSPA mode for now until your region gets LTE coverage.
- Networks: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100, GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
- Speed: HSDPA+ Dual Carrier cat 24 (42 Mbps), HSUPA cat 6: 5.8 Mbps
- Display: 4.3” WVGA (800×480) AMOLED capacitive touch ClearBlack display
- Memory: 512MB RAM, 16GB storage
- Camera: 8Mpix auto-focus with f2.2, LED flash
- Size/Weight: 127.8mm x 68.5mm x 11.5mm / 160g
- Processor: 1.4 GHz Single Core/Snapdragon APQ8055 + MDM9200
- Battery: 1830mAh
- Operating times – Talk time: (GSM/WCDMA) up to 7 hours. Standby time: (GSM/WCDMA) up to 300 hours.
It will be available in Q2 2012.
Unsurprisingly Nokia has apparently become the number one windows phone OEM in less than a quarter. According to Strategy Analytics Nokia own 33.1% of the Windows Phone marketshare wile HTC Samsung and others the rest 66.9%. With only 2.7M units ship in Q4 Windows Phone is still far behind its many rivals but this just goes to show that good marketing and brand awareness is part of the key to success in this business. I have yet to see any HTC of Samsung advertising for their Windows Phone 7.5 here…
Continue reading Nokia quickly becomes number one Windows Phone OEM →
The official CNN application for Windows Phone 7 has finally been released today and is exclusive to Nokia handsets for the next 90 days (Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900). As of right now the app seems to be relatively good with a great use of the Metro UI but suffers from a small bug/glitch; the videos feed isn’t loading at all (could be a simple server side problem). Other than that you get basically everything that you can except from such a news app and also access to CNN’s iReport functionality that lest you submit you iReports on the go directly from your handset. Check out my short hands-on video of it running on on of my Lumia 800s after the break:
Continue reading Official CNN app for Windows Phone 7 released: Hands on video →
The white Nokia Lumia 800 has just been made official by Nokia today with n estimated launch date of late February in the following countries: UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Finland, Poland and Switzerland. Besides the new color there’s nothing new about it compared to the previous black, cyan and fuchsia version of the handset. For more info and my latest hands on experience with the Lumia 800 please see here.
Continue reading White Nokia Lumia 800 announced: launching later this month →
As you all already know my Nokia Lumia 800 user experience has been plagued with some serious issues that I didn’t hesitate to publicly report here in the past few weeks. Poor battery performance, disappearing battery status, poorly grounded screen digitizer, audio and camera issues, etc. The list isn’t short and many early Lumia 800 owners have suffered the same fate. My latest post made enough noise for Nokia to notice that something wrong was going on and made them gracefully replace both my handsets with brand new ones coming straight from the factory.
So here are my recommendations based on my experience with the brand new phones:
1) If your device suffers from the missing battery bug: Get it replaced by your Operator/Carrier or Nokia Care
2) If your phone suffers from a really badly grounded digitizer (screen jitters even when the device is not being charged: Get it replaced. All Lumia 800 I have seen have a jittery screen when charged but it shouldn’t happen when the device is unplugged.
3) Battery Life: Seems to be fine on both new handsets but I need to test it further in the coming days. Don’t pay attention to the readings in the diagnostic app because they are all wrong (charge capacity etc..). Make sure to disable the OS Update notification via cell network in the settings to save some standby battery life and remember that setting the screen brightness to high will nuke your battery really fast (It would be really great if the medium settings was as bright as the one on the Omnia 7…).
UPDATE FEB 10: Battery went south today. Before going to sleep the phone reported 40% left, unfortunately 5 hours later when I woke up the phone was dead. I charged it but the thing seems to be permanently busted for now: Max battery capacity is now stuck between 800mAh and 950mAh which is below 1000mAh so Nokia says that it’s a hardware defect (my other phone experienced the weird fast battery rain earlier this week for no apparent reason either..). Everything is working fine on the device but the battery reading is totally wrong. The company is sending me to new phones which I should receive early next week (they also may be loaded with a beta FW so I can test if things are still running wild or not). I’m betting on a Radio or Qualcomm PM8058 Power Management IC driver issue. But in either cases this shouldn’t turn the device’s battery into a lemon…
4) Audio and Camera issues will be addressed in upcoming updates. One of my handsets doesn’t suffer from the pink/purple spot as much as the other so your mileage may vary
5) Screen viewing angles and color seems to be random depending on the device: as with my previous devices one of them is yellowish while the other is perfectly fine. As if the polarizing process wasn’t perfectly done on one of the two.
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 800 issues continued: looking better →
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