01 August 2012

My Nokia Blog

My Nokia Blog

Lumiappaday #259: Social Mints demoed on the Nokia Lumia 900

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 10:25 AM PDT

This is Social Mints, an app that lets you track trending stuff on social media sites.

#259) Social Mints 

Price:  Free

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/6c12eed7-d8af-4790-b5a4-49c23c6aad24

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwx3ZijaLyA

Developer Blurb:

Winner of the Core77 Fast Track to the Mobile App International Design Challenge and featured at Mobile World Congress by Microsoft, Social Mints is a FREE innovative app that allows you to easily monitor the Web and Social Media for interesting and trending content in real-time. You can track & measure what people are saying about a topic that interests you, get the latest on a celebrity or event and keep tabs on your favorite sports teams.
- Monitor a developing news story
- See Twitter trends and sentiments
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- know what people are saying about your brand/company

Enjoy this mango enabled app by the developer of extremely popular apps – Mood Swing, Dress Pal, Smart Goals Pro & RedMinder!

Features
——————————
- Simple and intuitive metro design
- Save or Pin a Mint to quickly access later
- Share a mint quickly on facebook and twitter
- Live Tile and Fast App Switching enabled

New in v 1.2
—————–
Several bug fixes
Background Agent added to update live tiles

New in v 1.1
—————–
Ability to easily pin a trending mint
View original web page where the mint item originated
Bug fix for the adcontrol error

 

 

 

 

 

Rating:

Design: 9

Usability: 9

Performance: 8 

Price: 10

First Impressions: A MeeGo fan’s take on the Lumia 900

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 06:16 AM PDT

Thought I’d be a bit different and take a B&W shot

Earlier today, Nokia Australia sent me a trial Nokia Lumia 900. We all know how big of a fan of the N9 and MeeGo I am. I have been using a Lumia 800 since February, but it still hasn’t fully replaced my N9. Admittedly, nothing ever will as Swipe UX and the hackability of the N9 are something unbeatable (unless there is a successor).

Anyway, here are my quick thoughts after a few hours:

  • Amazing screen, both size and the screen itself (such an improvement from Pentile)
  • Although physically, quite a lot larger, not uncomfortable
  • Bezel takes some getting use to
  • Ease of having exposed USB port; Although not as sleek and elegant
  • Sim tray requiring Sim Pin can be annoying, especially when travelling without the pin
  • Buttons are too compressed (although that may just be my trial device, not sure)
  • Love the white charging cable to match the Stormtrooper
  • Prefer curved screen, although understand that there were integrity issues
  • FFC that is actually useful from launch

So far, I am pretty happy with the Lumia 900. Of course, I will give my review later on, along with some comparative shots of images from the N9, Lumia 800 and Stormtrooper (I love using the nickname, good stuff Ali). If there is anything you want to know specifically, let me know.

Michael

Videos: People Made – Conversations with Nokia Designers, including Marko Ahtisaari

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT

 

These videos with Nokia Designers were made as part of the exhibition of Nokia designs back in June. They look like they’re having a conversation with each other but actually, each person is recorded on their own.

There were several key Nokia designers. I remember Marko Ahtisaari being in these. Ah yes. Marko!

 

by 

Press Release: Nokia Board of Directors approves an adjustment to the planned maximum number of Stock Options to be granted in 2012

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:51 AM PDT

 

This press release was published yesterday. It informs of the increased stock given to key senior level employees critical in carrying forward the new Nokia strategy..

Espoo, Finland – Nokia announced today that its Board of Directors authorized an adjustment to the planned maximum number of stock options it will grant in 2012 under the Nokia Stock Option Plan 2011, which was approved at the Annual General Meeting 2011.

Nokia increased the planned maximum number of stock options to be granted under the Nokia Equity Program 2012 from approximately 8.5 million to approximately 11.5 million. This adjusted planned maximum of approximately 11.5 million stock options to be granted in 2012 is within the maximum number of 35 million stock options available for grant under the Stock Option Plan 2011 approved by the Annual General Meeting 2011.

None of these additional stock options will be granted to the CEO and the Nokia Leadership Team members but rather to key senior level employees who are critical in carrying forward Nokia’s strategy. We believe this is a prudent use of stock options, also designed to align the interests of these key employees with those of the shareholders. Any realization of the value from the stock option awards is dependent on successful execution of the strategy and a sustainable share price growth over the long term.

Stock options can be granted under the Stock Option Plan 2011 until the end of 2013 and they have a vesting period of 50 percent of stock options vesting three years after grant and the remaining 50 percent vesting four years from grant.

As of December 31, 2011, the total maximum dilution effect of Nokia’s equity program then outstanding, assuming that the performance shares would be delivered at maximum level, was approximately 1.8 percent. The potential maximum effect of the Nokia Equity Program 2012 announced in January 2012, assuming delivery at maximum level and including the increased planned maximum of approximately 11.5 million stock options, would be approximately another 1.6 percent.

Cheers Alfred for the tip!

Clove UK getting stock for Nokia 808 PureView from 6th August?

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 04:43 AM PDT

 

Fingers crossed this is the last time the dates are pushed back at Clove for their Nokia 808 PureView stock. Stylinred shares this email received from Clove:

"Dear _____,

It has been some time since the Nokia 808 PureView was announced but we contact you today with some good news.

We will be receiving the first stock of this smartphone next week, week commencing 6th August.

With a stand out feature of a 41 megapixel camera, the 808 has received a lot of attention for good reason, the photos captured are sensational.

If you have not yet sourced one of these phones, then you can do so now, by following the link below and placing an order for one.

Black in colour, the 808 is priced at just £415.83 excluding VAT or £499 including VAT.

http://www.clove.co.uk/nokia-808-pureview

We look forward to receiving your order and will contact you once more when the stock has arrived.

The Clove Technology Sales Team."

Cheers Stylinred for the tip!

Nokia 808 PureView gets reviewed on DPReview – “Nokia blows its competition out of the water”.

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 12:54 AM PDT

The Nokia 808 PureView sets another milestone in getting itself reviewed on DPReview, a highly respected camera review site.

They’re impressed with the detail capture.

It’s hard not to be impressed by the 808′s performance here, especially at low ISO sensitivity settings. At its maximum resolution of 38MP the 808 is capable of capturing a ton of detail, and pixel-level image quality is up there with some of the best cameras around. In its 8MP PureView mode pixel-level image quality is extremely high at low ISO settings, and even up at its highest ISOs, the 808 gives a lot of ‘proper’ cameras a run for their money.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8083837371/review-nokia-808-pureview/3

On page 4, we hear from Juha Alakarhu how optical zoom in the 3MP N93 resulted in a very low F-number at the telephoto (zoom) end. This meant at 3x zoom, there was more noise and more blur (if exposure time was too long). With PureView, the F-number remains the same. Juha says the best way to show it’s not all about the 41MP is to see the images. So true. As incredible as the specifications on the 808 PureView’s camera sounds (to the point that we’ll get moans from Sony and Olympus) they only have to see results, such as GSM Arena’s blind camera tests, that make said whiners eat their words. The proof is in the eating of the pudding and the 808 produces some of the sweetest pictures around.

Regarding PureView coming soon to Lumia? Er, no. It doesn’t sound like it will appear any time this year.

Nokia only announced our collaboration with Microsoft a little over a year ago. You don't develop something like PureView in such a short time. We have already announced that our plans are to bring Pureview technologies to our future Windows Phone portfolio.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8083837371/review-nokia-808-pureview/4

A brief, wonderful summary of what Nokia achieved in the past 10 years of imaging. I wish this was how they introduced the 808.

Nokia has long heritage of producing excellent camera phones. We made our first camera phone, the 7650 ten years ago. The N90 was our first device with autofocus and Carl Zeiss optics, the N93 featured our first optical zoom in a mobile phone camera, and the N95 introduced a 1/2.5″ sensor. More recently the N82 was our first cameraphone with a xenon flash, the N86 had a variable lens iris, the N8 had a 1/1.8″ image sensor, and now we’re introducing the 808 PureView, which introduces an even bigger sensor, and our proprietary oversampling.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8083837371/review-nokia-808-pureview/4

It makes me smile because I remember my folks at the time telling me this camera phone thing was just a gimmick.

Pros and Cons?

Not a lot on RichRecording, but this is a camera/photography site so I wouldn’t have expected a lot of talk on video.

  • Excellent detail resolution in all modes
  • Very good image quality – detailed, colorful JPEGs
  • Impressive photographic feature set – controllable ISO, WB, scene modes et al
  • Generally reliable AF and metering
  • Automatic white balance works well in all but the trickiest of light
  • PureView allows ‘zoom’ without penalty in image quality
  • Excellent video quality (and sound)
  • http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8083837371/review-nokia-808-pureview/5

Things Nokia needs to improve on (Cons)

  • Highlight clipping problematic in scenes with wide tonal range
  • No one-shot HDR/dynamic range expansion function (but bracketing is available)
  • Metering can be rather wayward in bright light
  • On-screen histogram only available while exposure compensation dialog is open
  • Interface somewhat dense in ‘creative’ mode
  • Obscure on-screen icons for ND filter and white balance in creative mode
  • On-screen ISO indication just shows ‘M’ when any setting other than Auto is selected
  • Non-optical ‘zooming’ doesn’t allow control over depth of field
  • No image stabilization in still capture mode
  • Red-eye can be an issue in flash shots (but red-eye reduction works well)
  • http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8083837371/review-nokia-808-pureview/5

Conclusion:

Pretty impressive. I’m concerned that they found the camera UI a little fussy. It is so much improved from the S^3/Belle interfaces, but I’d have to agree that there is still improvements to be made to make the options clearer and easier to use. Still, it’s a much better offering than that lump of turd Microsoft dared to put in as their Windows Phone camera UI. Yes tap to snap a photo is nice, and swiping to see the gallery is good enough to be stolen by google for jelly bean, but everything else was designed by someone with a goal to frustrate you into punching walls.

As a phone, they don’t like Symbian too much but that’s not news. They like the vertical zoom on the 808 and say the pinch and zoom has never felt natural on their iPhone. Whilst they praise the simulated zoom for maintaining the high quality, they do note that it does lack that background blur at the telephoto end. A major issue they note is something called ‘highlight clipping’

Final Word:

There are inexpensive compact cameras that offer more photographer-friendly features than the 808, but as a cameraphone, the Nokia blows its competition out of the water, and significantly narrows the gap between dedicated cameras and portable communications devices to the point where ultimate convergence seems all but inevitable (and probably sooner than some commentators had realised)

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8083837371/review-nokia-808-pureview/5

The 808 proves that Nokia can innovate, and its PureView technology has piqued the interest of serious photographers, being one of the most important innovations – arguable the most important – in mobile photography since the smarphone era dawned five or so years ago. As such, the 808 is intriguing not just in itself, but because of what it represents. Things could be about to get interesting…

I believe there’s also a gold award in it for the 808.

Thanks Bhairav and tulip for the tip!
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