02 November 2012

My Nokia Blog

My Nokia Blog

AllThingsD: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop Aims to Ride Out the Storm (And Hurricane Sandy)

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 02:43 PM PDT

AllThingsD’s Ina Fried catches up with Stephen Elop as both are stranded by Hurricane Sandy. A 5 minute interview is available. I can’t seem to get it to load for me.

http://allthingsd.com/20121031/nokia-ceo-stephen-elop-aims-to-ride-out-the-storm-and-hurricane-sandy/?refcat=news

Cheers Viipottaja for the tip!

The Verge’s Huge Nokia Lumia 920 review

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 02:40 PM PDT

Head on over below to read Dieter Bohn’s (with contributions from Tom Warren, Josh Topolsky, and Vlad Savov ) massive Nokia Lumia 920 review. Very well written, thorough and fair I’d say.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/1/3584486/nokia-lumia-920-review

Whilst the screen, design and camera is loved, the weight is another issue cropping up.

There’s plenty of photos and videos in The Verge’s review. I’m also really impressed by their picture samples.

The 920 scores a respectable 7.9, brought down severely by the ‘ecosystem’ category where it’s given 5/10 and strangely in reception (LTE, not calls). Otherwise, it’s 8s and 9s for Design, Display, Performance, Software and Battery life.

“However, since this is a non-weighted average, we reserve the right to tweak the overall score if we feel it doesn’t reflect our overall assessment and price of the product”

Cheers Alvester  for the heads up!

 

Video: Eli Young Band at Nokia Music Event at Nashville

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 02:24 PM PDT

Remember Nokia Music’s partnership with Eli Young Band?

http://mynokiablog.com/2012/10/11/launch-event-by-nokia-music-in-nashville/

The Eli Young Band Brings Down the House at Nokia Music Event at Nashville, TN. Check out the best moments from the event in the video & let us know what you think. For the complete inside scoop, visit http://nokia-music.com/

Here’s a nice feel-good video of Eli Young Band at a Nokia Music event in Nashville,  which involved meeting patients of Tennessee Valley Healthcare.

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AAS: Nokia Lumia 920 PureView vs Nokia 808 PureView! (vs OneX) – 808 still the King!

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 01:53 PM PDT

Another comparison with the Nokia Lumia 920, this time against the champion that is the Nokia 808 PureView. Time well spent by the AAS crew (AAWP). Both very worthy camera phones indeed.

 

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/16087_PureView_shootout_Nokia_808_vs.php

 

As expected, the 920 and 808 both have their strengths but the 808 is still packing all the camera punches to edge its way to the top. I’m pleased I have a very, very decent camera and a decent browser on the same Nokia phone. 808 is legendary. 920 is quite excellent for more mainstream users.

Cheers all for the tip!

Camera test: Nokia Lumia 920 vs Samsung Galaxy S3

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 01:35 PM PDT

We got a heads up from Chris Burns that they’ve got a comparison up between the camera of the Nokia Lumia 920 and Samsung Galaxy S3.

The low light photos really are just night and day.

http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-lumia-920-pureview-camera-hands-on-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-01255193/

In daylight, SGSIII appears to be over exposed at times. In one photo (the leaves one) I do slightly prefer the warmer tones of the SGSIII, but the rest of the photos look better with the 920.

The photo below by the 920 is kinda pretty and interesting in that I’ve read some comments by people saying the 920 cannot take pictures of moving objects.

The colours here are a lot warmer than the SGSIII this time.

SGSIII overexposed on the far right and the dog.

This isn’t a full camera comparison – something more detailed will probably (as always) come from GSMArena. But good to see some day shots.

Source: slashgear

Cheers Chris for the tip!

Nokia Maps 3.0 Preview with Pedestrian turn by turn (voice) coming

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 11:04 AM PDT

WPCentral are looking at some of the new changes to Nokia Maps 3.0 in WP8.

http://www.wpcentral.com/preview-nokia-maps-30-windows-phone-8

There’s also something called Venue Maps. See the multiple layers on that shopping centre.

Supposedly 3D.

Source: wpcentral.com

Cheers Viipottaja for the tip!

Lumia 920 Available Unactivated for $450 on Ebay

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 11:02 AM PDT

Great news for anyone who’s been eyeing the beautiful Lumia 920, Ebay has put up the phones for preorder, listed at $150 on contract, and $599 off contract. However Ebay have a promotional offer going that reduces 25% of the phones price, meaning the Lumia 920 can be yours contract free for $449.99!

Just use the code “EBSAVE25” when checking out here: https://ebay.bbymsolutions.com/category/devices

Via

Video: Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Customizations

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 10:33 AM PDT

This video takes a look at some Nokia specific customisations for WP8.

Note the equaliser, with 18 different settings as well as custom.

Note the Dolby Headphone option

Settings for super sensitive touch:

For people who want to take advantage of this feature or not.

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Nokia 109 announced: Cheapest S40 alive!

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 10:02 AM PDT

Showing their love towards S40 platform, Nokia today has taken one more step in their business.This is the cheapest S40 phone till being priced at just 42$.

Achieving some of the showcasing features in this phone from Nokia has made it an interesting giving the superb battery life of 7.5hrs of talk time.The Nokia 109 will be available in black and cyan from this quarter in China, the Asia Pacific region and Europe.

Press release:
Today we announce the Nokia 109, the latest step forward in our strategy to connect the next billion and beyond to the Internet.
It's designed for people who want an easy-to-use and affordable Internet-capable phone with the familiarity of a traditional keyboard.
Happily, armed with the Nokia Xpress Browser, they'll find it easy-going. This cloud-accelerated browser reduces the data consumption of web pages by up to 90 per cent to deliver an easy and inexpensive web experience.

System Specs:
System: GSM 900/1800 GSM 850/1900
User Interface: Series 40
Dimensions: 110 x 46 x 14.8mm
Weight: 77g (including battery)
Display: 1.8-inch TFT; 128 x 160 pixels
Memory card: up to 32GB microSD
Connectivity: GPRS/EDGE, 2.0mm Charger Connector, 3.5mm AV connector

Let’s see how it will perform for Nokia?

Source:
Nokia press

Editorial: It’s been fun, but time to #Switch

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 04:22 AM PDT

It is not easy for me to say this, and frankly I can’t believe I am. If you follow me on twitter, you would know that I have become furious at my N9 recently. To me, the N9 is one of, if not the most, innovative devices of the last decade. When Marko Athisaari announced the N9 in June 2011, I knew I had to have one.

Not only is the N9 the first (and most likely only) commercial MeeGo-Harmattan device, it is also the last N-Series device. It also brought an amazing design language, both hardware and software. The “Fabula” design language has since lived on in the Lumia 800, Lumia 900 and evolved in the Lumia 920. I am certain we will see further evolutions in the later generations of the Lumia range.

 

When Nokia announced the N9, they announced they were going bold, and bringing the device to market in vibrant colours like Cyan and Magenta. We hadn’t seen mobiles be this colourful, and renowned for their colour, since the Nokia 5110. (Albeit, there were some devices, such as the N8, that were colourful, but were still subdued compared to the N9.) They also brought a new type of construction, using a solidly coloured polycarbonate unibody, which would prevent scratches showing, and provide awesome signal.

On the software side, there was some real innovation. Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the mobile industry centred around seas of icons (later evolving slightly to widgets as well) and a centralised “home” key, to take you back to a main screen. The N9 challenged that. It introduced a new way of interacting with your device, and they simply called it Swipe.

The Swipe UX on the N9 was really something. It removed the need to have any buttons on the screen, and showed us the first all-screen smart phone. Instead of forcing a user to adapt to a certain way of doing something, Nokia attempted to make interacting the N9 something that was natural.


To this day, just over a year since having my N9, and about 9 months with my Lumia 800, I still swipe down to close, or double tap to wake up other devices. Being able to swipe from any app and go back to where you launched that app from is something remarkable. There is no need to start from the very beginning, just the beginning of that app.

Harmattan took a unique approach on a smartphone OS, placing heavy emphasis on Notifications and Social networking, and Multitasking. The “Events” homescreen acts as a centralised notification hub, containing notifications, and also Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds, as well as Weather. No need to have to open an app, as its all a swipe away.

The multitasking screen shows you your open apps in real time. You can load a web page, swipe, and see it loading in the background. It gives the user an entirely new way to look at multitasking on their smartphone, especially as there is no “tomb-stoning” of apps. There is still a sea of icons on the N9, but there is not such a huge emphasis on that.

Swipe UX was designed to provide you with information at a glance. Nothing on the phone does that better than the Standby Screen. You can see the current time, your ringing profile, and any notification you may have. No need to open an app. No need to unlock your phone. No need to even touch it. Just look!

There is no doubt the N9 is targeted at a niche market. This is obvious by Nokia including “Developer Mode” in the settings. There has been a huge community evolve around modding and even just helping other users. This community isn’t a feature that can just be added to a mobile. It is something unique that we have seen with Nokia’s Maemo devices.

We have had some amazing things brought to us by community members, such as MAG, bringing us Unrestricted-System-UI, DrunkDebugger, who brought Nitdroid, thp, who brought apkenv and billboard, itsnotabigtruck, for the single best app, inception, TGalal, Knobtviker and Cepi, for bringing Wazapp, a client better than the official version, and so many more. There have been people like Arie (@everythingN9) and Andy (@AndyHagon) who have done their best to keep N9 users updated with tips and tricks to maximise their N9 experience. Obviously I can’t name everyone, because the community is huge!

It is no secret I have been a keen modder of my N9 from day one. The endless possibilities make me feel like the N9 can’t ever be old. Sure, its hardware may get outdated, but it can always be refreshed and feel brand new, like its had a massive update. If the N9 can’t do it, the community has the attitude that they will find a way to make it happen. Its this kind of passion that has kept me such a strong Harmattan “campaigner”, or as some say “fanboy”.

Sadly the time has come though. I am too busy balancing work, uni, a girlfriend and blogging, to spend time modding my N9 in order to make it work. When it works, it works amazingly well. Sometimes though, it decides to act up, and when it doesn’t, it isn’t a simple reboot that will fix it. I need a phone that I can depend on, and use it every day without worrying if today it will stop working.

For the above reason, the decision has been made to make my Lumia 800 my daily device for the time being. If I can get my hands on a Lumia 920, I will definitely make the switch. However, in no way is Windows Phone 7 my ideal solution, but it just works, for the most part. It has trouble with emails that use custom domains but hosted by gmail, lack of centralised notifications still annoy me, the fact WiFi won’t stay on when locked and the pathetic battery life on my 800 is irritating. I won’t even begin to mention how bad the camera is in comparison.

While it has been a great ride with the N9, all good things must come to an end. I will still be one of the biggest fans of the N9 and MeeGo-Harmattan, and continue to mod and play around, but it just will no longer be my daily device. I am hoping the Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8 fixes all my annoyances with the Lumia 800.

Michael
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