11 July 2012

My Nokia Blog

My Nokia Blog


Another random blast from the past (N98/808)

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 05:09 PM PDT

I was looking at Ali’s photo (above) of his new Nokia 808 PureView and for some reason I instantly had a flashback of this Nokia fan concept phone (from 2007, prior to any Symbian touch ever being seen).

I don’t know why but I thought they slightly resembled each other quite a bit. Given the 808 PureView has been a 5 year project, this design style makes sense. I remember this reminded me of the classy looking Luna series – a very classic design/shape that still lives on today (e.g. 808/Galaxy Nexus). In Ali’s unboxing video, Ali was really pleased with the 808′s design. Apart from that polarising hump, it is indeed quite a beaut (especially in White/Red).

Speaking of Symbian touch, I was just talking about the first ever iteration of Symbian touch in this comment. And on that note, that will be the extent to which I’m mentioning Symbian.

The rumoured specifications is very interesting. This would have been very high specifications for 2007. Optical zoom was of quite some interest (following on from N93(i) ), so if this concept did have it, it would have possibly sported a similar hump.

Check out video recording resolution. No HD going on here.

We did get something very similar looking in the end with the N97/5800.


Video: Windows 8 Metro tablet UI for iOS

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 04:34 PM PDT

I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect given the title of Windows 8 on iOS. I assumed it would be some kind of WP8 emulation/theme, but no, it’s a Windows 8 UI for iOS.

This theme seems to act as a skin, replacing both lock screen and menu. In fact, pressing the lock button and home button seems to deliver you to the Windows 8 UI version.

This horizontal layout oddly seems to work out quite well. It’s pretty much just the touch tablet form minimised to a phone. The side swipe gestures are incorporated too and seems to be more intuitive than I had expected.

I wonder if we’ll see something like that in WP8 (when consumer features are revealed). Remember how quiet MS has been regarding the usual app list? I like this horizontal app list though it would be much improved it you could swipe into it rather than having to press a button.

I think having that slight background/wallpaper works even with these tiles, no?

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Soooo many Apple bloggers demoing apple apps >_>

Cheers Arun for the heads up


Video & Gallery: 808 PureView Unboxing (KSA Variant)

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 02:28 PM PDT

As I pointed out in my N9 Article I recently picked up an 808 of my own while I was in Saudi Arabia (random quick trip to renew my visa there) from “Jarir” for 2,000 SAR or 530 USD, definitely not a bad price considering that some online retailers have it for 700 USD and climbing (I’m looking at you Amazon). Anyways here’s a nice unboxing video with some comparison shots against the N8,N9 and iPhone 4; first off I’d like to point out that the phone isn’t bulky, well it is but it hides its size well, the real issue is the weight this guy has some serious weight issues (even without the battery!) but that’s to be expected with such a large sensor.

Unfortunately my 808 didn’t come with one of those awesome Tripods, but I did get that Retro wrist strap they used to come with the older Nokia phones, also worth noting is that they finally switched out the crappy stock headphones you got with the L900, L800 and N9 to something that looks a bit more decent (in ear buds) they’re not the Purities but they’ll do; also excuse the painful views of the n8 she’s been through alot.

 

808 PureView Unboxing

808 PureView Unboxing

808 PureView Unboxing

808 PureView Unboxing

808 PureView Unboxing


Lumiappaday #238: Mush demoed on the Nokia Lumia 900 #XboxLive

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 01:52 PM PDT

 This is a pretty little Xbox Live title, called Mush. Not sure why it’s called that but in some parts of the UK it’s a colloquial term for ‘mate/friend’.

It appears to be quite slow paced – quite relaxing actually. The game involves some basic tilting to move your character as well as using gestures to inflate/deflate. It’s worth downloading the demo to see if you’ll like it.

The cute factor reminds me a little bit of Ilo Milo – a bit more engaging/challenging (#200 Ilo Milo)

#238) Mush 

Price:  £2.29 / $2.99

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/236b43cd-a9ef-4b3c-8e1b-786125309b9e

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vo6dhkkaZg

Developer Blurb:

 

Discover the emotions in this award-winning exclusive, a quirky puzzle adventure that lets you change how your character feels! Touch, tilt, rotate and shake up Mush to alter his mood. Gain new abilities, evade beasties and solve puzzles as you tumble through unique and beautiful worlds!

• Touch, tilt and shake the phone to change your character's emotions!
• Each emotion unlocks a brand new ability!
• 12 emotion inspired worlds to explore for hours of carefully crafted gameplay!
• Stunningly textured artwork, cute characters and physics based puzzles!
• 20 Xbox LIVE Achievements!
• Trophies to earn!
• Leaderboards!

Rating:

Design: 9.5

Usability: 9

Performance: 9 

Price: 7.5



Nokia N9 gets Nitroid Alpha Release 4 “Despite” (Android 4.0.4_r2.1)

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 01:20 PM PDT

The folks working on Nitroid for Nokia N9 now have the Alpha 4 release available. You will be needing PR1.3 for this.

http://forum.nitdroid.com/index.php?topic=493.0

.Instructions available in the link above

What is working:

- based on Android Open-Source Project (AOSP) v 4.0.4_r2.1 (IMM76L)
- Google Applications (GApps), PlayStore (Android Market)
- dualboot kernel (without reflashing), ability to choose OS after power on.
- N950 supported (see http://forum.nitdroid.com/index.php?topic=134.0)
- 3D drivers, OpenGL, hwrotation (“fake” default portrait mode for landscape-oriented displays), livewallpapers
- touchscreen (multitouch)
- hw buttons (volume, power), Nokia N950 keyboard
- ECI accessory (headset buttons)
- USB networking
- lcd off in sleep mode, colour profiles, electron beam effect (demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFMTofYt_2g)
- alarm driver, RTC
- mounting MyDocs as “SDCard” [realized; NOT FIXED, but HACK EXISTS]
- basic video decoding (sw) and playback, youtube
- wifi (only basic functionality: able to connect to AP, linkspeed/RSSI (signal strength) indication. no tethering).
- basic CellMo functionality: network registration, USSD, SMS, data (GPRS/EDGE/3G), signaling. Actually, ofono/ofono-ril stack is used: all things that it able to do on the n900.
- bluetooth (scanning, can pair devices. I’m able to send files between SGS2 and N9. I didn’t test deeper.).
- battery status, charging indication
- sensors: accelerometer, compass
- audio: playback (audio routing to: loudspeaker, headset or earpiece), jack switch in kernel (h2w), beta-quality microphone support (shazam/soundhound, skype, some sound recorders)
- lights HAL (lcd brightness, hw keyboard lights(Nokia N950) )
- root access (via adb shell; su/Superuser.apk)
- fakeGPS (ability to trick system and set any location as GPS fix), no real GPS support yet!

a lot of minor and major bugfixes since alpha_3.

Known bugs:
- little gfx glitch while horizontal scrolling
- voicesearch broken
- voicecalls are still WIP

Not working/ Work in progress:
- Cleanup source code, commit all changes, allow AOSP-like builds.
- RIL/ofono: connectivity problems on some operators. Advanced features: PIN/PUK (un)locking, roaming etc.
- Android USB drivers: adb, mtp etc.
- sensors (als, proximity etc)
- sensors: compass (calibration)
- lights HAL (led)
- audio (a2dp, microphone (attempt to record mono/8000Hz crashes mediaserver), voicecalls
- HW video decoding (DSP)
- vibra (postponed. It’s very likely Android to get support for input/forcefeedback devices in JB 4.1)
- camera
- GPS. GlonASS also ;D
- NFC (n9 share the same nfc chip with crespo: pn544 from NXP. I suppose we could use crespo’s HAL/kernel modules with minimal changes, no need to write it from scratch. However, it doesn’t work atm ( userland problem ) ).
- a lot of other things

http://forum.nitdroid.com/index.php?topic=493.0

Cheers nikhil for the tip!


N9Apps: Crazy Chickens, kinect-like egg catching.

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 07:19 AM PDT

 

This is a chicken laying egg catching type game, a bit like the one I demoed in the link below but with a twist

http://mynokiablog.com/2011/12/12/n9apps-1-co-the-game-demoed-on-the-nokia-n9/

You control it with camera sensed motion. A bit like eye-toy perhaps or more current, the Kinect. Notice in the screenshot the camera view on the bottom left corner.

 

http://store.nokia.com/content/200523

It’s very basic at the moment.  I think the design of the main character could look a little more friendly.

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Via: TMO

Cheers Jed for the tip

 


Wired on the Nokia 808 PureView: Best images of any smartphone but still no fan of Symbian…

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 06:14 AM PDT

 

Here’s Wired’s review on the Nokia 808 PureView. As expected there are polar extremes from the absolute praise for the camera and the utter disappointment/frustration with the rest of the phone, calling it ‘agonizing everything else’. Their advice/wish pretty much like every other review is to see PureView in Lumia. I don’t think Belle FP1 is that bad, I think it’s actually quite decent. But expectations have risen again for the smartphone user experience and for some reason, these reviewers don’t think it cuts it.

 

http://www.wired.com/reviews/2012/07/nokia-808-pureview/all/

However, let’s reiterate the point that the Nokia 808 PureView has its target market. The super camera phone enthusiast. It fills its niche better than no other device and for those consumers, there’s no better phone for them to have other than the 808. Until a Lumia PureView arrives (which should bring an overall ‘fuller’ package in terms of super fluid, integrated smartphone user experience) for a larger target audience, the 808 is the way to go. Even then, the 808 might likely still be the best CAMERA PHONE money can buy. It’s just that the Lumia PureView will be able to target a wider audience.

Thanks Bob for the tip!


Video: More video comparisons with Nokia 808 PureView, iPhone 4S, SGSIII and N8

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 06:04 AM PDT

They make, we share. A couple more comparison videos with the Nokia 808 PureView. First up it’s the SGSIII followed by iPhone 4S and finally the 808′s older brother, the N8.

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DNA and Elisa Finland’s top 10 and top 15 June sales.

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 05:51 AM PDT

 

First up, here’s Elisa’s top phones by sales for June 2012. 8 out of the top 15 for private customers are Nokia phones. A frightening 5/15 are Samsung. For business customers, 10 out of the top 15 are Nokia. Pretty consistent affair.

The brand spanking new Samsung Galaxy SIII edges out both iPhone 4S and Nokia Lumia series. Oddly, the similarly spec’d OneX does not make the list.

In Finland, Nokia Lumia devices have performed fairly consistently. The coming months will be quite hard as no new Lumia devices are set to appear at least until September 2012 at the earliest.

http://www.elisa.fi/ir/pressi/index.cfm?t=100&t=100&o=5120&did=18165

Best selling phones to personal customers in June 2012:

1. Samsung Galaxy S III
2 Apple iPhone 4S
3 Nokia Snow 610 
4 Nokia Snow 900 
5 C2-01 Nokia 
6 Samsung Galaxy XCover
7 Nokia Snow 800 
8 Nokia Snow 710 
9 Samsung Galaxy Gio
10 Nokia 500 
, 11 Samsung Galaxy S II
12 The Nokia 300 
, 13 Apple iPhone 4
14 Samsung Galaxy Note
15 Nokia C5-00 5MP

Best selling phones for business in June 2012:

1. C2-01 Nokia 
2 Nokia Snow 900 
3 Nokia Snow 800 
4 Apple iPhone 4S
5 The Nokia E7-00 
6 Samsung Galaxy S III,
7 Samsung Galaxy Xcover
8 Samsung Xcover 271
9 Nokia C5-00 5MP 
10 Nokia Snow 710 
11 Nokia Snow 610 
12 Nokia E5-00 
, 13 Nokia 500 
, 14 Nokia E6-00
15 Samsung Galaxy S II

 OK, Now onto DNA. 5 OF of the top 10 are Samsung, vs 4 Nokias. The highest position is the 610 at number 5. the 800 and 900 are both at positions 8 and 9 respectively.

June 2012

1. Samsung Galaxy S III
2 iPhone 4S
3 Samsung E1080 (basic phone)
4 Samsung Galaxy Y
5 Nokia Snow 610 
6 The Nokia C 1-C 01 (based on the phone)
7 Samsung Galaxy Xcover
8 Nokia Snow 800 
9 Nokia Snow 900 
10 Samsung Galaxy S II,

I can’t seem to find any details yet from TeliaSonera.

Cheers Joni for the tip


NokConv: “What real people do with their phones – research results”

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 05:39 AM PDT

 

Here’s some more information from the Nielsen research based on 810 completed questionnaires from Nokia Lumia 900 users. Is this a fair representation of ‘all’ users or one that would be interested in something like the Nokia Lumia 900.

http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/07/10/what-real-people-do-with-their-phones-research-results/

The top 10 activities?

  1. Use camera for still pictures (93%)
  2. Browsing websites (89%)
  3. Use social networks (85%)
  4. Download apps from the Marketplace (83%)
  5. Access email (83%)
  6. Connect to WiFi (83%)
  7. Customise the home screen (81%)
  8. GPS (81%)
  9. Set up an email account (80%)
  10. Download games from Marketplace (78%)

Photos coming out on top is a surprise. PureView needs to appear on Lumia soon so that those photo loving Nokia Lumia users get the best out of their time snapping away with that shutter button.

Another interesting statistic? 96% opted to have data plans vs 84% who chose to have txt messaging. NokConv said:

 SMS used to be absolutely universal among mobile phone owners and it's an interesting sign of the times to see a relatively large number of customers now view it as an unnecessary extra.

 Moreover, these users tend to be quite savvy, downloading as much as $15 worth of apps monthly, double the industry average.

The survey was conducted for Nokia by leading market researchers, Nielsen, between April 27, 2012 and on May 18, 2012.

A total of 810 people completed an online questionnaire and all the respondents had bought a Nokia Lumia 900 in the United States within the previous 45 days and was the primary user of the device.


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