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LinkedIn alongside Facebook and Twitter were all neatly integrated into Windows Phone 7.5 with the Mango update late last year. Unfortunately contrary to the last two social platforms, LinkedIn still wasn’t present in the Windows Phone Marketplace with an official application. This is now a thing of the past thanks to the release of the official LinkedIn application today. The app features most of the features you can expect to find in a AAA piece of software and is described as follows:
Get on-the-go access to your professional network with LinkedIn for Windows Phone. Find and connect with more than 150M members worldwide, read the latest industry news, keep up-to-date with your groups, explore jobs you might be interested in, and share content with your network from anywhere.
You can download directly from here.
Continue reading Official LinkedIn app for Windows Phone finally released →
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.
Quick! Everybody abandon ship! The Windows Phone ship is sinking…or maybe not. LG (Windows Phone’s premiere OEM partner..)has simply announced during its latest earnings conferences call that it has no immediate plans to manufacture or ship a new Windows Phone based smartphone. Nothing really shocking here given that the south Korean manufacturer was totally absent from the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango launch last year and hasn’t done anything meaningful to the Windows Phone ecosystem since the initial platform launch in 2010.
LG isn’t totally abandoning Windows Phone and will continue research and development efforts in hopes of a brighter future. The company’s mobile division has been in the crapper for a little while now even with the launch of several high-end Android smartphones plagued by atrocious firmware issues (everything isn’t to blame on Windows Phone..). The LG Fantasy E740 with it’s NFC chipset will remain a prototype for ever.
Continue reading LG temporarily abandons Windows Phone →
Microsoft’s Windows Phone Translator application has just received a MAJOR update today with the introduction of the following new features:
- Point, Scan and Translate: This is a beefed up augmented reality version of the Bing vision translate feature already found in Windows Phone 7.5. Users can now use the device’s camera to translate text in real-time on the go. Works fairly good from what I have seen so far.
- Offline Translation: Users can download languages packs to use the app in offline mode.
- Type and Translate: Instant translation using keyboard input
- Speak and translate: Speak in any of the supported languages and the device will then speak back what you just said in the desired language.
There are also several other UI changes and tweaks (the ability to pin the aforementioned methods of translation directly on the start screen for speedy access). All in all this is a really amazing update so make sure to get it right now from here and check out the announcement video after the break:
Continue reading Windows Phone Translator receives major update: Real-time augmented reality and voice translation →
Several Nokia Lumia 900 users have reported that the much awaited firmware update, which was said to start rolling gout on April 16th, is now being pushed out through the Zune desktop software. Update: The roll out is now official according to Nokia. According to early reports the update fixes the following issues :
- Improved touchscreen sensitivity
- Improved WiFi auto-connection
- Fixed Camera launch bug: The camera now starts every time when the shutter button is long press when the phone is of.
- Overall performance improvements and stability (battery too it seems)
- Fixed lost data connection bug
Fell free to post you experience and findings in the comments below.
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 900 Firmware update roll out has begun: Change Log →
Nokia has officially announced the first NFC enabled Windows Phone handset today; the Nokia Lumia 610 NFC. This may sound surprising given that even the company’s high end Windows Phone model, the Lumia 900, which just launched a few days ago doesn’t have an NFC chip in there. Nokia has apparently added its own software stack on top of Windows Phone 7.5 Tango to get this whole NFC thing going. Remember that LG has apparently done something similar with, the yet to be announced, LG Fantasy handset. The Nokia Lumia 610 NFC will be available in Q3 2012 on Orange. Check out the full press release after the break and a video demo of the handset in action:
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 610 NFC officially announced: Q3 2012 release →
Still thinking that Nokia isn’t serious about it? Think again. The company has officially acknowledged that the recently launched Nokia Lumia 900 was suffering from a memory management issue that could, in some cases, lead to loss of data connectivity. The good news here is that fix has already been worked on and will be made available to current Lumia 900 owners next Monday, April 16th via and FW update through Zune. New devices shipping to AT&T stores also already have the fix per-installed so no need to worry anymore. Last but not least Nokia is also announcing that every person who has already purchased a Nokia Lumia 900, or who will purchase one between now and April 21st, will automatically receive a $100 credit to their AT&T bill! Sweet deal right? Well don’t forget that Amazon is still offering the device for only $49.00 so it will essentially be free on contract (well technically it would be -$50!) if you get it via the links below before April 21st!
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 900 Data connection issue confirmed: Fix coming next monday with $100 AT&T credit →
Everybody at AT&T, Nokia and Microsoft’s Windows Phone division is probably looking closely at the early sales numbers of the recently launched Nokia Lumia 900 and its brother from another mother the HTC Titan II (which doesn’t have any marketing push at all unfortunately). According to Amazon Wireless both variants of the Lumia 900 are currently the top selling handsets and tis isn’t really surprising given the buzz and $49.99 price (with a 2y contract). The HTC Titan II with it’s LTE modem (same MDM9200 as on the Lumia 00) and 16Mp camera (currently seems to take better overall shots than the Lumia’s thanks to a more mature camera stack and better white balance/noise algorithm) is currently selling for $149.99 (2y/contract) but the original HTC Titan is now back to being free ($0.01) with a 2 year AT&T contract! Hit the links below if you finally want to jump into the Windows Phone bandwagon.
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 900 still $49 on AT&T, HTC Titan II also launched while the Titan is free on contract →
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 →
Can’t wait to get your hands on the upcoming flagship Windows Phone from Nokia? Well, the Nokia Lumia 900 is currently available for free ($0.01 actually) with a 2 year contract AT&T is you are a new customer or want to add another line to your current plan (it’s $119 if you only want to re-new your AT&T contract). You can pre-order your Cyan or Black handset right now before it hits the streets in 7 days simply by hitting the links below.
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 900 available for free on AT&T →
Get ready for a huge marketing blitz next week for the Nokia Lumia 900 arrival in the US as AT&T is stating that this will be their biggest product launch ever (yes bigger than the iPhone apparently..). Starting next week and during the whole month of April US citizens will be bombarded by TV ads from AT&T and Nokia, premier in-stores placement for the product which will also supposedly be in the hands of all AT&T stores employes who have been trained to sell the device (Nokia and Microsoft payed AT&T quite a bit of money for this one..).
“At all levels, this is a notch above anything we’ve ever done,” AT&T device head Jeff Bradley[...]“Before you walk in to the store, you know this is our hero phone,”
The $99.99 price will also make the Nokia Lumia 900 the most affordable Flagship product that AT&T has ever introduced and also the cheapest LTE handset. The Lumia 900 will launch on April 8th in Black and Cyan alongside that HTC Titan II ($199.99) followed by the White variant later on April 22th. Now if this device isn’t eligible for a Windows Phone 8 upgrade later this year there’s going to be a whole lot of angry people…
Continue reading AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 release to be the carrier’s biggest product launch ever →
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 →
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.
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 →
Photo courtesy of MJ Foley Microsoft has just made Tango official today with the launch of an update to the current Windows Phone 7.1.1 SDK to add support to this new platform. Don’t expect anything ground breaking though as Tango is simply here to enable support for lower-end device packing only 256MB of ram like the recently announced Nokia Lumia 610. Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore was also keen to point out that most of the 65000 apps available on the marketplace are compatible with such handsets but that approximately 5% are still not functional. The Redmond software giant is now trying to contact those application developers to get them to update/cod the software so it can run on the new mass market device. The Marketplace has now also open in 23 more countries including; Bahrain, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam.
In addition to the engineering work we’ve done in the OS to optimize for lower cost devices and the release of a new SDK with emulator, we have identified a small number (around 5%) of current applications that will not run properly on the new lower cost devices. We’re contacting the developers of these apps directly to advise them of steps they can take to make their app compatible with lower cost phones. In most cases the guidance is simply to use less memory.
Ultimately, whether your app should be available to these phones or not is your call. We’ve enabled you to update the app manifest file in order to state whether your app does or does not work on lower memory devices. We’ll honor whatever value you choose. If you say no, your app will not be installable on these phones. Those we’ve automatically opted out already have this value set appropriately. If you disagree with us or alter your app to perform adequately on these devices, you can change the value in your application’s manifest file and resubmit your app. Details on this process will be available on App Hub.
The goal here is to have the less amount of fragmentation as possible so Microsoft is currently doing everything possible to get the platform to scale down to cheaper hardware while maintaining compatibility with the ecosystem. This is obviously in stark contrast with what is happening on the Android side of the market where some really super high speced devices are being unveiled for Ice Cream Sandwich. Fear not though, if you are a hardware nut you can expect such Dual-Core Krait or more (Quad-Core) monsters with HD displays to come alongside Windows Phone 8 Apollo later this year.
Continue reading Windows Phone Tango platform announced alongside new SDK for minimal fragmentation →
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.
The first truly low-cost Windows Phone 7 (Tango) handset has just been announced by Nokia today in the form of the Lumia 610. This new handset is the first Windows Phone device to be powered by a Qualcomm MSM7X30 SoC clocked at 800Mhz (with an Adreno 205 GPU) and only 256MB ram. The specification are in line with the Chassis specification announced last year at MIX11 and what we came to expect after hearing about the Tango leaks. The specs are the following:
- Networks: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100, GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
- Speed: HSDPA cat 7: 7.2Mbps,
- Display: 3.7” WVGA (800×480) TFT capacitive touch LCD display with pinch zoom
- Memory: 256MB RAM, 8GB storage
- Camera: 5 megapixels, auto-focus, LED flash.
- Size/Weight: 119.24mm x 62.18mm x 11.95mm / 131.5g
- Processor: 800 Mhz Single Core/Qualcomm Snapdragon S1
- Battery: 1300 mAh
- Talk time: GSM : 10.5 h, WCDMA : 9.5h. Standby time: GSM : 670 h, WCDMA :720 h
The Nokia Lumia 610 will launch in Q2 2012 with the price of 189€
Source: Nokia
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