My Nokia Blog

Lumiappaday #208: Archer demoed on the Nokia Lumia 800
Asha Touch receives its first* theme, days after announcement
Video: Nokia 808 Tap Focus example
Weekend Watch: MOOOAR Nokia 808 PureView Unboxings!
Video Samples: Nokia 808 PureView vs Nokia N8 (and zoom tests)
Video: Monetize your apps: In-App Purchasing Example Apps, demoed on Nokia E7

Lumiappaday #208: Archer demoed on the Nokia Lumia 800

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 10:46 AM PDT

Bows are cool. People are loving bows this year. On that note, I came across this game called Archer. It’s a super simple bow and arrow game. Hold, aim and fire. Get as much points as you can in the alloted time, and if you score enough you get bonus time.

BTW for anyone who actually reads this, I’m going to try to record some N9 games/apps this week. Any recommendations welcome.

#208) Archer

Price: Free

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-GB/apps/6767b41c-b9e4-499a-8904-38823bd214f9

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNxcH-r2O6w&feature=youtu.be

Developer Blurb:

The first Archer comes to your phone now!

Any feedback please mail us, because we can't reply on comments. Thanks very much for all your support in our games!

Smooth gameplay, amazing graphics and awesome vivid sound, Archer gives you an epic sports experience just like in the wild.

Pull your bow down. Aim the arrow at the target by moving your hand on the screen. Confirm the target distance and wind. Watch out the moving target. Take off your finger to shot the arrow.

Three addictive modes here: Single Mode, VS Mode and Training Mode.

Challenge yourself with the Single Mode, enjoy the most crazy and thrilling sports feeling. Endless levels as well as incremental difficulties, witch gives you fantastic challenges. 10 point time bonus gives you a good chance to get higher scores. Try your best to hit the further level!

Play VS Mode, competing with your family or friend to get the honorable champion cup！

Not enough archer experience? Train yourself with the Training Mode and improve yourself to be a qualified archer athlete!

If you like Basketball, Football, Soccer, Golf, Air Hockey, Pool, Bowling, Tennis or other sports games, you shouldn't miss this game.

Keep your nerve and aim your target. Let's begin the fantastic shooting!

Rating:

Design: 7

Usability: 8

Performance: 8

Price: 10

Asha Touch receives its first* theme, days after announcement

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 03:10 AM PDT

Dialler screen on new Asha 311

So NovaG, known for his great Symbian themes, has created a theme for the newly announced Asha Touch range. There aren’t as many customisable elements, compared to say MeeGo or Symbian, but it can still be done which is pretty neat. Also, take this into consideration when viewing the images. Some items will be stock, but that is due to elements not being themeable, not NovaG’s laziness.

Take a look at the gallery below and let us know what you think.

The theme will come to the Nokia Store and will be Free.

*If one has been created prior, let me know.

Video: Nokia 808 Tap Focus example

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 12:37 AM PDT

On Symbian with the N8 we’ve had to rely on waiting for the continuous autofocus feature to arrive in either an app for firmware update. Continuous AF was great as you could automatically let the phone focus on far objects or close up objects, and with that close up objects of varying levels without ever having to do anything yourself. You know how much my 60D annoys me in that such an expensive camera would miss such a useful feature (which only now Canon is bringing to their newer camera line up).

Choosing your own focus point is useful too. Another feature we wanted to see was tap to focus. This meant overriding CAF and setting the video focus where you want it. CAF and TF have their own uses. I love that both are included in the 808 and more so that you can switch to either mode DURING video recording. You don’t need to be stuck on CAF and then realise you actually need to tap focus and lock it at that focus but can’t – because you can do that on the 808.

Anyway, here’s a video showing how that tap focus works. It would be nice to have the manual focus options, that way you can make some nice effects, e.g. ‘Pull Focus’ where you move focus from far/close objects as if you had the manual control of pulling the focus one way or another. You can sort of see that here but more the focus hunting. This is at least quicker to use than manual focus as you just pick WHERE you want to be in focus and not fiddling about with getting it to that focus level.

by domphua

Weekend Watch: MOOOAR Nokia 808 PureView Unboxings!

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 12:28 AM PDT

So, we showed our unboxing the other day of the Nokia 808 PureView. Since then there have been many, many more ACTUAL owners who get to unbox and keep their 808 (I’m soo very jealous! Mine was returned several hours after that).

Enjoy your 808 PureViews folks!

Here are some new unboxing videos.

by fonearena

This one, unboxed by someone with very fancy fingernails. And they’ve got a UK charger with it.

by suzko182

by lhikary

Video Samples: Nokia 808 PureView vs Nokia N8 (and zoom tests)

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 12:18 AM PDT

Here are some 720p samples comparing the 808 against the n8. Note, youtube degrades the quality for both.

You can hear the sound is immediately better on the 808, and the N8 was no slouch.

808

Finally just the 808 itself, some zoom tests

by PureViewClub

Video: Monetize your apps: In-App Purchasing Example Apps, demoed on Nokia E7

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 12:11 AM PDT

In this video, Nokia’s developer channel shows some examples of in app purchasing. You can see that the payment is tied to the Nokia account and paying through the phone bill. Here the purchases allow for additional levels download or more items to be unlocked. As long as we need to keep entering the account password each time, that’s fine. I can imagine racking up a huge bill if that wasn’t the case (or if this ended up in a child’s hands).