22 June 2012

My Nokia Blog

My Nokia Blog

Nokia 808 PureView Swagbag!

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 03:36 PM PDT

Am I jealous of this or what.

Chris Davies from SlashGear has got an epic kit with him. The Nokia 808 PureView and a whole host of accessories.

http://www.slashgear.com/the-nokia-808-pureview-has-landed-21235165/

  • flexible-legged GorillaPod style tripod
  • phone clamp (the 808 lacks a proper tripod screw of its own), and a
  • rubber skin protector.
  • external battery,
  • slimline DC-16, for topping up charge on the go,
  • CA0198 HDMI kit, which hooks up the 808′s microHDMI to a full-sized HDMI connection.
  • PureView bag! How awesome is that. I’ve got an Ovi Bag :/ lol. Poor Ovi.
All in the manbag.

Nokia 808 PureView Low Light test vs Canon EOS 550D, Olympus PEN E-PL2, SGSIII

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 03:20 PM PDT

GSM Arena does a test now to see how low light works on the Nokia 808 PureView. It impresses when Xenon is used and outdoes the camera phones in low light no flash. But the likes of the 550D are on another league (though lens dependent too. A 50mm F1.4 on my 60D takes in soo much light at night). My 60D also has the added advantage of having an external flash (though another cost! and weight and something else to charge) which gives a little more versatility regarding light control (wall bouncing/diffusing/off camera flash etc).

However, for majority of usage when I want to take some indoor people pics or low light people pics, the 808 is what I need and does the job better than any other camera phone or even DSLR. For one, I can’t be carrying my DSLR everywhere. I can’t even carry a pocket cam everywhere. I can bring a phone everywhere though.

Looking at the pictures on my facebook in particular, I’d say they’d all benefit if they had the 808. Sometimes I’m looking at my tagged pictures in an album taken  I’m sitting there waiting for the gallery to load fully and remove that initial blur…nope, that’s just because it’s a blackberry. Not to mention they’re green, horrible and pixelated.

Conclusion?

If, after reading this article, you thought that Olympus and Canon should start trembling with fear, you are wrong. Image quality is one thing, but cameraphones lack the versatility of the larger sensor cameras with interchangeable optics, so DSLRs and EVILs won’t be replaced any time soon.

Nor was that Nokia’s idea when designing the 808 PureView. The 41 megapixel sensor was set to annihilate smartphone competition and hopefully steal some users from the casual point and shoot camera market. That’s why its low-light performance is so important – casual photographers are quite likely to be taking photos at a disco or at dinner table in a restaurant, where lighting is far from perfect.

Fortunately, the Nokia 808 PureView rose to the challenge and put up a performance closer to that of its MFT and APS-C competitors (again we are only talking image quality here) than to its smartphone rival. The huge leap forward for the cameraphone world is complete. Now let’s hope this is just the first of many more PureView cameraphones to come.

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_808_pureview_low_light-review-775.php

 

There’s also a video here:

SGSIII’s video is soo bright compared to even the DSLR to the point some of the detail is a little washed out.

Cheers efekt for the tip!

Video: Speech apps on Windows Phone 8

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 02:51 PM PDT

I didn’t pay attention to the headline about Audible and WP8 but this is actually super cool.

I love voice commands on my Lumia, in particular, having a conversation for text messages with my actual voice. There were so many times when ordinarily I wouldn’t have been able to get to my phone to read the message or I’d have to stop what I was doing, but now I multitask that in real life. Sometimes I find it easier/faster to ask it to look up something online than typing it out (like if I’m carrying lots of stuff).

http://mynokiablog.com/2011/11/28/videos-voice-commands-on-nokia-lumia-800

In this video, we can see that in Windows Phone 8, developers will have the ability to allow users to control their app, just with voice. The limit will apparently just be the developer’s creativity.

I think that’s quite awesome! There’s that immediate hands free use when in the car or various other new interactions. Perhaps when spotify decides to be stable, I might be able to control spotify tracks (and not simply music tracks I have stored, though I can’t currently do that either). Perhaps it will mean more universal voice? It would be useful whenever there’s a search box perhaps.

The demo had a little glitch but the guy handled it really well. Better than the other dude who demoed the Surface.

This may not be a feature to be used all the time (e.g. in busy areas, libraries etc) but when the opportunity arises, it can be so useful.

Hopefully they improve the action to initiate speech. Pressing a button is a hindrance. I’d like a voice initiation command, like ‘Xbox ____’. During voice text speech, I never have to press a button, it just tells me there’s a text from this person and whether I want to read it/ignore and subsequently reply.

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Lumiappaday #219: Nectar demoed on the Nokia Lumia 900

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 01:24 PM PDT

Nectar is a point system in the UK whereby you get points when you purchase things at different shops. These points translate to monetary value which you can redeem.

This app makes it easy to keep track of just how many points you have, what offers are available (to acquire more points than normal or spend them) and what stores take nectar card. I’ve never checked out how many points I had before so this was quite useful for me. I only ever use my Nectar card in Sainsbury’s and did not know that i could have been redeeming my points at many more shops (only Sainsbury’s peeps ask for it :/ )

It would be nice if there was a scannable barcode so I did not need to use my card to collect the points – just the phone. But I think the Nectar card requires swiping along that mag strip.

#219) Nectar 

Price:  Nectar

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/apps/c33b44c9-cc0e-4e7f-aeec-828af4e5ee41

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNlfB62-tUA

Developer Blurb:

 

Shop with great brands including Sainsbury's, BP and Homebase to collect 2 points per £1 spent* as well as hundreds of brands online including Sainsbury’s, Debenhams, Play.com and easyJet. Every 500 points is worth £2.50** to spend on rewards at a host of big names like easyJet, Argos, Vue cinemas, Philips and more!

 

Download your FREE Nectar app now to enjoy:

-Bonus point offers available at your fingertips

-Easy access to your Nectar account balance

-Collect points when you shop online with hundreds of brands via nectar eShops

-Store Locator – check out all the places you can collect and spend your points

-If you're not already a Nectar collector, pick up a card next time you're in Sainsbury's, BP or Homebase and register today via the app!

 

Top Tips – we're devoted to constantly developing the app but want to share the following top tips with you:

-Ensure your Nectar account address details are up to date, as this can delay getting started. The quickest way is to log into 'My account' at nectar.com or call us on 0844 811 0 811.

-If your postcode has changed but you haven't updated it with us, you can enter your date of birth instead of your postcode.

-Are you fully registered with us? If not, please register via the app so you can spend your points! Registering your card will also protect your points if your card is ever lost or stolen.

If you have any issues with the Nectar app, please call our team on 0844 811 0 811 or email us at helpline@nectar.com, we appreciate your feedback.

 

*The points collection rate is correct for most retailers. Check individual retailer pages for full details.

** Some partners may offer a differing rate, please check the programme's full terms and conditions at nectar.com

Rating:

Design: 8

Usability: 9

Performance: 9 

Price: 10

MNB RG: Finnish Lumia growth in June exceeds May

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 12:14 PM PDT

This was written in by Janne who updates us about the rate of Lumia/WP growth in Finland.

Finland Lumia growth for June in StatCounter has this week finally exceeded the rate of growth in May, and sits now at around 9% market-share of existing devices (network use).

http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-FI-monthly-201201-201206

This means that that for the first time since the Lumia launch month of February, the rate of growth has exceeded the growth in the previous month.

This suggests that Lumia sales in Finland are indeed growing, instead of holding steady. Likely this is due to the Lumia 900 and Lumia 610 launches in late May.

The raise comes at the expense of iOS and Android, and Symbian’s loss of share has practically stopped

Looking at the UK, progress is very slow but there is growth. Personal sighting of Lumias is still a rarity, and adverts unfortunately are few.

Things may unfortunately get more difficult for Nokia with this early announcement of  WP8. It might help them later as more devs get interested in the platform (more devs, more apps, more platform interest, more users, more devs? etc?) but the time now up until Nokia announces WP8 Lumia is going to be extremely challenging. Q3 will be much harder than I imagined.

Windows Phone 7.8/8 Upgrade paths

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 11:57 AM PDT

I got a couple of mails trying to clarify the reasons why there is no clear WP8 upgrade path for current users. The current situation is a sort of  two pronged approach. First, current Lumia handsets aren’t completely abandoned – they will get an update in the form of WP7.8 which brings amongst other things we’re not yet sure about, the new start screen. As to whether there are any more, I don’t know. Second, next generation Lumia will be on WP8, and there is at least a possible option perhaps to flash your current Lumia to that at your own ‘enthusiast’ risk, but strictly it’s for new Lumia (and other new WP handsets).

So, is it just because it’s a hardware issue? If so, how are WP8 handsets supposed to go sub 100USD, even cheaper than the 610? Vineet and Rich explains is more to do with the change in the base kernel. You can see their posts below:

 

Vineet says:

The general consensus in the blogosphere seems to be that the reason for no 8.0 upgrade is hardware constraints. This isn’t the case. You might in fact see low cost WP8 devices running on 1 Ghz Single Core and 512 MB RAM (the base specs of WP7.0). The main reason for the lack of upgrades is the fundamentally different kernel and architecture. Basically, WP8.0 is +1 in name only, in reality it is a completely OS, you can’t change the base kernel (and middleware and drivers and everything etc) with an OTA update.

Speculation: It might be possible to reflash current phones completely and install WP8.0 (so like wiping a PC clean and installing a fresh OS) but to do this would require complicated steps and procedures with a very high risk of users bricking their devices. Alternatively Nokia Care stores could do it but the cost and time to reflash potentially millions of devices would be extremely prohibitive. Not to mention they’ll first need to invest in and actually make a version compatible with current phone hardware.

The Single core 1 Ghz ability of WP8.0 is kind of obvious since WP7.X series is now officially dead (no backward app compatibility), so what is Nokia going to use for mid and low end WP in the immediate future? Dual Core 28nm 1.5 Ghz MSM8960 with Adreno 225 and 1 GB RAM? Unlikely. :)

Rich also mailed in to share his opinion on the WP8 upgrade path

Why Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 Upgrade Path is Correct

http://www.thedailyopinion.co.uk/?p=1871

  • So what Microsoft has done is the sensible option – release a "Windows Phone 8 lite" for existing handsets so that the features that will run will be provided, and anything that can't be provided will be reserved for new handsets.
  • Microsoft's changes were wholly necessary. The existing kernel for Windows Phone does not allow for the seamless integration and interaction between Windows Phone and Windows 8, so a change had to be made. This change was better to happen now while the userbase is relatively small rather than wait for the operating system to gain more marketshare.

 

I searched ‘no wp8 upgrade’ to see what the general opinion is:

I searched ‘no wp8 upgrade bad’ to find out what the more negative consequences are:

Well, whether it’s a good decision, or a bad decision, it is Nokia who has to weather the effect on sales such news might have to customers. The biggest worry may not be the inability for a firmware update to sprout hardware features such as a HD screen, dual core and NFC as some seem to expect. No. It might be to do with the fact that consumers may now be limited to what apps they’re going to get because WP8 apps aren’t directly compatible for WP7 (though WP8 owners can take advantage of WP7 apps – imagine how much worse that would be if suddenly all those apps could not be used on future devices).

On the upside, there are over 100,000 apps in the marketplace. Also there is still hope that developers can code their apps to make it compatible for both. I’m not sure exactly how much effort that would take. Certainly if they make it WP7 compatible, they make the app available for a wider set of consumers but risk not taking full advantage of WP8.

This matters most in the early days of WP8. Should it get established with the possible catalyst in W8, looking at the bigger picture, it doesn’t matter as the WP7 userbase is so small. Unfortunately, it seems, you WP7 guys have been smartphone betatested (ah, what a fail of a campaign). and quite rightfully you should be disappointed.

 

 

Nokia 808 PureView officially available in Germany (Press Release)

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 08:01 AM PDT

The Nokia 808 PureView is now officially available in Germany.

I believe some Nokia fans from Germany may have already got their hands on the 808 through other retailers, such as Amazon, who currently sell the 808 for 509EUR.

Here’s the press release:

Ratingen, 21. Juni 2012 – Mit dem heutigen Tag beginnt auch hierzulande eine neue Ära in der Smartphone-Fotografie: Das preisgekrönte Nokia 808 PureView kommt in den deutschen Handel. Leistungsstarke Bild-Sensoren, exklusive Carl-Zeiss-Optik und von Nokia eigens entwickelte Software-Algorithmen sorgen für die besten Bilder, die eine Smartphone-Kamera je erstellt hat. Der empfohlene Verkaufspreis des Nokia 808 PureView liegt bei 629,- EUR (inkl. Steuern).

Seit seiner Vorstellung im Februar hat das Nokia 808 PureView viele Auszeichnungen erhalten, darunter den Preis für „Best Mobile Device" auf dem Mobile World Congress 2012 sowie für „Best Imaging Innovation 2012" von der Technical Image Press Association (TIPA). Außerdem wurde es vom Videomaker Magazin zum „Best in Show" der CTIA Wireless erklärt. Die PureView-Technologie ist das Ergebnis einer insgesamt rund fünfjährigen Forschungs- und Entwicklungsarbeit in Kooperation mit  Nokias Technologiepartner Carl Zeiss.

„Carl Zeiss war ein äußerst wichtiger Partner bei der Entwicklung der ersten PureView-Technologie," sagt Jo Harlow, Head of Smart Devices bei Nokia. „Die Vorteile unserer bestehenden Zusammenarbeit werden weitere PureView-Innovationen sowie Weiterentwicklungen im Bereich der Smartphone-Fotografie sein."

Als exklusive Partner arbeiten Nokia und Carl Zeiss seit 2005 gemeinsam an der Entwicklung von Imaging-Technologien für Mobiltelefone und Smartphones. Aus der Kooperation gingen bis heute zahlreiche Modelle hervor, darunter „Kamera-Klassiker" wie das Nokia N90, das Nokia N95 und das Nokia N8.

„Als wir im Jahr 2005 unsere Zusammenarbeit mit Nokia begannen, wollten wir die Grenzen mobiler Fotografie erweitern", so Michael Kaschke, CEO der Carl Zeiss AG. „Wenn wir nun auf die sieben Jahre erfolgreicher Zusammenarbeit zurückblicken, können wir stolz auf die Innovationen und die herausragenden Produkte dieser gemeinsamen Reise sein. Heute feiern wir die Ausweitung unserer Zusammenarbeit mit einer Technologie, die einen neuen Maßstab auf diesem Gebiet setzt."

________

As of today in this country begins a new era in the smartphone Photography: The award-winning Pure View Nokia 808 comes in the German retail sector. High performance image sensors, exclusive Carl Zeiss optics and provide specially developed by Nokia software algorithms for the best pictures that has created a smartphone camera ever. The suggested retail price of the Nokia 808 View Pure is 629, – EUR (incl. taxes).

Since its launch in February, the Nokia 808 will receive Pure View many awards, including the award for “Best Mobile Device” at the Mobile World Congress 2012, and for “Best Imaging Innovation 2012″ by the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA). It was also explained by Videomaker Magazine as “Best in Show” at CTIA Wireless. The Pure View technology is the result of a total of about five years of research and development work in cooperation with Nokia’s technology partner Carl Zeiss.

“Carl Zeiss was an extremely important partner in the development of the first Pure View technology,” said Jo Harlow, head of Smart Devices, Nokia. ”The benefits of our existing collaboration Pure View more innovations and advancements in the field of photography will be smartphones.”

As an exclusive partner Nokia and Carl Zeiss working together since 2005 on the development of imaging technologies for mobile phones and smartphones. The cooperation emerged until now, numerous models, including “classic camera” like the Nokia N90, Nokia N95 and the Nokia N8.

“When we began our collaboration in 2005 with Nokia, we wanted to expand the boundaries of mobile photography,” said Michael Kaschke, CEO of Carl Zeiss AG. ”When we look back now to the seven years of successful cooperation, we can be proud of the innovation and the outstanding products of this journey together. Today we celebrate the expansion of our collaboration with a technology that sets new standards in this area.”

Cheers Jokerman for the tip!

Nokia 808 Gets Minor FW Update to V112.020.0310 (improved image algorithm)

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 06:42 AM PDT

No this isn’t THE any Symbian user was looking for (Belle FP2) but rather a minor update for the 808 bringing some bug fixes and that sort of stuff:

According to AAS, it's mostly bug fixes but screen rotation is now smoother, there's also now a scroll bar in Contacts and 'full' resolution photos now weight in at half their previous size (6MB versus 12MB previously)

If you’re one of those lucky enough to have an 808 already go update and see for yourself while we watch in envy.

VIA

A huge tip of the hat to our tipster Prashant as this is tip numnber 100 for us on th e blog, so thank you and thanks to everyone else who stops by and keeps us in the loop.

@bperry tweeted that this improves image algorithm

Windows Phone 8 and Piet Mondrian (+ Video of New start screen on Nokia Lumia 900)

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 05:22 AM PDT

Piet Mondrian (Pieter Cornelis “Piet” Mondriaan) is an artist famous for his abstract art of simple blocks of colours separated with clean cut lines.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-mondrian-piet.htm

What does it resemble?

The colourful refreshed start screen for Windows Phone 8. It’s more organised, more dynamic, more customisable, better structured and more functional for the user.

It’s a good direction to move in.

BTW here’s what that new start screen looks like on a current Nokia.

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Cheers dontom for that tip.

 

Meltemi almost finished?

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 05:05 AM PDT

SlashGear reports that before the unofficial Meltemi was axed, it was apparently almost ready. We sure love ‘almost ready’ OSes at Nokia. I think pretty much every phone we’ve had has an ‘almost ready’ OS. What is ‘almost’?

http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-meltemi-survivors-suggest-axed-os-was-nearly-ready-21235076/

BTW, you may have discussed this topic before so let me remind you of your previous comments (there was quite a bit of discussion there):

http://mynokiablog.com/2012/06/15/no-meltemi-what-about-smarterphone-what-is-there-beyond-s40-what-of-qt/

I wonder if we’re ever even going to see leaks of what Meltemi was. Could it really have replaced S40 (and new S40 touch?) could it be a beautiful experience on value hardware? What opportunities and challenges did moving to Meltemi make for Nokia?

Cheers Jan for the tip!
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