Meet Lumia 925 Windows Phone
On Tuesday, at an event held in London, Nokia announced the new Lumia 925 Windows Phone. The handset shares most of its specifications with the Verizon-exclusive Lumia 928, unveiled four days ago, and represents a slight evolution from the currently available Lumia 920.
Available color choices for the Lumia 925 include black, gray and white. The handset sports a "metal design", similar to its Verizon-exclusive sibling. A silver-colored frame, which works as an antenna, surrounds the edges of the device, while on the back a polycarbonate (plastic) cover, in either glossy or matte finish, is used. Nokia calls the design "stunning", although from my point of view the Lumia 920 looks better.
Nokia London event liveblog
At 10 AM BST, Nokia's highly anticipated press event kicks off in London. Details are scarce at the moment, but what we can tell you for sure is that the Finnish phone manufacturer is preparing the "next installment".
What could that be? Well, yesterday, three days after the Lumia 928 was unveiled, Nokia's UK arm teased a new Lumia Windows Phone which takes some design cues from the Verizon-exclusive handset. Speculation aside, we are looking forward to seeing what Nokia has in store for us.
Nokia teases a new Lumia Windows Phone, focuses on the camera
Tomorrow, Nokia will host a press event in London, where the company says it will unveil "the next installment". And, judging by a teaser released on Monday, it appears to be a new Lumia Window Phone. This comes just three days after the Finnish maker showcased the Lumia 928, which is coming exclusively to US mobile operator Verizon.
The teaser, posted by Nokia's UK arm on YouTube, reveals straight from its title -- "The new Nokia Lumia is coming..." -- that the company will announce a new Lumia device. Although there is no specific date provided (but when is there one with a teaser?), based on timing we can presume that the smartphone will be presented at tomorrow's press event.
Meet Nokia Lumia 928 Windows Phone
On Friday, Nokia ended days of teases, officially taking the wraps off the Lumia 928 Windows Phone 8 smartphone. The handset, which will be available exclusively at US mobile operator Verizon, showcases a departure in design from current flagship, Lumia 920, while delivering similar hardware and software specifications.
The Lumia 928 packs a 4.5-inch OLED display with a resolution of 768 by 1280 and 334 pixels per inch, protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass. The screen can be operated using gloves or long fingernails (women should love this). Power comes from a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 2000 mAh battery. The 32 GB internal storage is non-expandable.
Nokia releases Play To DLNA app for Windows Phone 8
On Friday, Finnish handset maker Nokia announced that the Play To app for Windows Phone 8 made the grade from experimental to stable version and is now publicly available to download from the Store. Previously, the DLNA app could only be installed through Nokia' Beta Labs.
According to the company, Play To brings DLNA to all of Nokia's Windows Phone 8 handsets available today like Lumia 920, 720 and 520, among others. Compared to the experimental version that I detailed little over two weeks ago, the stable Play To app ships with a number of bug fixes but without any new features onboard.
Nokia updates Chat and Ringtone Maker for Lumia Windows Phones
On Wednesday, Finnish smartphone manufacturer Nokia released two updates for its Chat and Ringtone Maker Windows Phone apps. The changelog lists minor improvements rather than significant enhancements, focusing on expanding the list of supported markets and media formats, respectively.
Nokia Chat for Windows Phone, which comes with Yahoo Messenger integration, is now also available for those in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Finland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Spain and Venezuela. The text messaging service still doesn't allow users to log in using a Yahoo Messenger handle, so if you plan on using the app to chat you will have to add the necessary contacts manually.
Nokia pits Lumia 928 against Galaxy S III and iPhone 5 in video shootout
How many memorable video ads about phones have you seen so far? Off the top of my head I can only think of just two recent ones, both released by Microsoft. The first one is from late-October, last year, and features Steve Ballmer discussing his HTC Windows Phone 8X and the second, unveiled little over a week ago, stars the Lumia 920 in an Android vs iOS fanboy war at a wedding.
Both videos are memorable in the sense that they allow us, the viewers, to actually relate to the folks presented in the two scenarios. We are users of different social networks, send and receive emails and messages each day, have friends who are Android or iOS fanboys and so on. Now, by contrast, Nokia's new Lumia 928 video ad is one of the weakest attempts at wooing viewers. It lacks any sort of panache or wit.
Nokia outs Lumia 928 Windows Phone
Even if you're not the biggest Windows Phone enthusiast I'm quite sure you have heard or read about the alleged Lumia 928 that Nokia is to unveil sometime soon. I will not bore you with the rumored specs, release date or carrier on which the device is assumed to surface, but can confirm that the Lumia 928 is definitely real.
The Finnish maker, likely to keep the rumors flowing, released a picture showcasing a device referred to as "the newest Nokia Lumia" smartphone. There is no reference of the name in the photo, but the link address clearly says Lumia 928.
Update hidden Nokia Windows Phone apps with LUMIA pusher
With the purpose of further improving the user experience on Lumia smartphones, Nokia adds its own apps atop of Windows Phone 8. Most of the extra software is available to download directly from the Nokia collection inside the app store, but the remaining few are hidden from prying eyes.
When an update arrives, Lumia users can only wait for the Store app to display a counter and afterwards allow them to install the latest update. And, as Windows Phone users know, that can take some time -- a day or even longer sometimes. So what are your options? Well, you can look up QR codes and scan them or just use the LUMIA pusher app, which allows you to update every single extra right from your Lumia smartphone.
'Next chapter of the Lumia story' comes May 14
Well, I didn't receive an invite, but based on the many reports from people who did, Nokia will host a new Lumia-outing event May 14 in London. Oh my, that's the day before Google I/O, where rumored new Nexus smartphone(s) arrive (don't believe everything you read on the Internet).
Nokia unveiled flagship phone Lumia 920 in September, and May would be pretty good time to announce a followup. Assuming the typical manufacturing and various country certification (think Federal Communications Commission) delays, a new splashy Lumia would get some breathing room post-launches for HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, while getting ahead of the next iPhone. During this week's earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said not to expect any new products until autumn.
Nokia Chat for Windows Phone available in Beta Labs
Today, through its Beta Labs blog, Finnish maker Nokia announces a new experimental app for the Lumia Windows Phone lineup. Available only in a select number of markets, Nokia Chat for Windows Phone is designed to connect Lumia users with "friends who use Lumia, Asha, S40, and Symbian devices, and those using Yahoo! Messenger on other mobile devices and platforms".
Nokia Chat for Windows Phone is available to Lumia users in Australia, Canada, India, Nigeria, South Africa, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States. The Finnish manufacturer promises to expand availability "to more countries in the near future". So what does Nokia Chat for Windows Phone bring to the table for us Lumia users?
Empower your Lumia Windows Phone with experimental apps from Nokia Beta Labs
If you own a Lumia Windows Phone and don't mind fiddling with experimental software then Nokia may have something available for you in the app store, kept away from prying eyes. Through the Beta Labs website, the Finnish manufacturer gives users the ability to grab and test software that is currently under development and not yet available inside Nokia's exclusive app collection on Windows Phone.
Beta Labs is not new -- in fact it was launched last decade -- but it is frequently updated by Nokia with new software iterations and apps designed for its devices. Some of you may have even spotted news stories discussing various experimental apps for Windows Phone, so let's take a look at what you can (and should) get on your Lumia today to enrich your user experience.
Why do you use Windows Phone?
I am thinking about doing one of my weird experiments, by switching to Windows Phone for 30 days. This would be cold feet for me. I asked Microsoft for a loaner in December 2011 and was promised a device but never received one. So with the exception of scattered minutes inside the local Microsoft Store, I have little experience with the platform. That's not right.
This morning, I emailed the PR person who helped me more than a year ago, but the message bounced; perhaps she moved on to another job. Meantime, while figuring out whom to contact, I have a question for those of you using Windows Phone: Why? For others choosing (or switching to) something else: Why not? Your responses will be excellent start to this journey.
Why I love Nokia Lumia 920
Fifth in a series. I'll admit it -- Nokia was a company I couldn't care less about a couple of years ago. I disliked the design, the high price and the bulkiness of its high-end smartphones, which then ran Symbian. At the time the Finnish manufacturer had the accelerator pedal mashed to the floor and was heading straight on a highway to oblivion, seemingly unwilling to steer the ship in the right direction. Android and iOS were the future and Symbian was the past. Then Nokia jumped ship to Windows Phone.
And that made a difference. As I embraced Windows Phone as my smartphone operating system of choice something happened. Nokia became interesting and appealing to me, so much so that I even bought a Lumia 920 little more than a month ago. And, to be honest, I'd never thought that one day I would own and love a Nokia smartphone. There's something about the Lumia 920 which feels right and makes the Finnish manufacturer fit perfectly into the Windows Phone picture.
Nokia sells an encouraging 5.6 million Lumias
Have you ever heard the saying "Better late than never"? After a string of modest (and even disappointing) quarters, Nokia's Windows Phone bet is starting to pay off as Lumia sales finally show noticeable signs of improvement.
In Q1 2013, the Finnish manufacturer managed to sell a not-so-shabby 5.6 million Lumia smartphones, roughly two-thirds of which are Windows Phone 8-based devices such as the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. Lo and behold, Lumia sales even surpassed those of the low-end Asha and Symbian smartphone series, with Nokia managing to move just five million of the former and 0.5 million of the latter. Considering the price difference between Windows Phone devices and Asha and Symbian-based ones, that is impressive.
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