30 September 2013

My Nokia Blog

My Nokia Blog


LeakyLeak: Bandit, Sirius with Storyteller

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 03:07 PM PDT

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@evleaks shares this image called “Story Teller”, due to be unveiled along with Bandit and Sirius on October 22.

It looks like the image gallery but tweaked towards having a story of your experiences. There’s a WP (Bandit) and W8 (Sirius) counterpart.

Nokia RX-114 Tablet Passes FCC With At&t, T-Mobile and Verizon Cellular Bands

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 12:12 PM PDT

nokia_tablet_fccNokia’s much rumored and leaked tablet, the Lumia 2520 seems to have passed through the FCC. The tablet has the cellular bands for the three largest carriers in the US (At&t, T-Mobile & Verizon). We’ll almost definitely see this announced in Abu Dhabi come the 22nd of next month, until then theses slightly blurry images will have to suffice.

Via

 

Report: Blackberry’s Downfall; Many Parallels to Nokia’s

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 11:59 AM PDT

DSC018 71Blackberry is in a very tough spot at the moment, with it’s future extremely doubtful; after a recent buyout offer from another Canadian company. As things dwindle down, more details about how Blackberry got in this mess have come to surface, as detailed in a very long 9 page report by theglobeandmail. Some factors about BB’s decisions parallel Nokia’s own almost exactly and seems to be the same story, from a different angle.

Blackberry, as with Nokia dropped the ball with the iPhone release, at the time BB were one of the largest (if not the largest) market share holder in the US, but similarly to Nokia they dismissed the iPhone’s touch screen as a gimmick, and their ego and self esteem clouded their judgement. What neither company factored in was what a colossal affect the software aspect of Apple (apps), would have on the market thinking that users would always choose Hardware over Software.

But smartphone users were rapidly shifting their focus to software applications, rather than choosing devices based solely on hardware. RIM found it difficult to make the transition,

Once the true threat of Apple was recognized, Verizon wireless (the largest carrier in the US) who were cut out of Apple’s earning due to their exclusivity deal with At&t wanted a hero phone of their own to compete against the iPhone, and gave BB the chance to make it. BB’s response was the BB Storm which as you might guess, wasn’t a huge success.

RIM executives jumped at the chance. At one management meeting, Mr. Balsillie called it RIM's most important strategic opportunity since the launch of its two-way e-mail pager.

The product was the BlackBerry Storm. It was the most complex and ambitious project the company had ever done, but "the technology was cobbled together quickly and wasn't quite ready," said one former senior company insider who was involved in the project.

The product was months late, hitting the market just before U.S. Thanksgiving in 2008. Many customers hated it. The touchscreen, RIM's first, was awkward to manipulate. The product ran on a single processor and was slow and buggy. Mr. Balsillie put on a brave face, declaring the launch to be "an overwhelming success," but sales lagged the iPhone and customer returns were high.

Similarly Nokia even had their own full touch screen device in the pipeline before the iPhone was even released, but dropped the ball and thought it wasn’t what consumers wanted, for fear that it wouldn’t have been accepted. Blackberry faced a similar issue, not knowing if they should embrace the touchscreen phenomenon or hang on to their roots and winning horse, QWERTY phones. Eventually falling behind without making a definitive decision, which was delayed by management multiple times along the way to the store shelves.

The other major parallel between the two is the software aspect, where both had to move on to a more modern system (BB to QNX, and Nokia away from the lagging Symbian onto Meego/Maemo). Blackberry made the decision to rebuild BB10 from the bottom up, but had many obstacles on the way, including poor communication between their BB7 and BB10 teams.

There’s also the decision of both CEO’s (Heins & Elop) to go against the suggestions of their fellow board members, with Elop deciding to go WP against the advice of his board and team, and Heins choosing to go full out with the touch screen Z10 rather than stick to the trusted Qwerty phones.

There are a lot more interesting parallels between the two, and it’s definitely worth a read, so check out the full article at the link below:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=all

 

BBM for Windows Phone? BlackBerry hints being open to platforms other than iOS and Android

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 09:40 AM PDT

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TheMobileIndian reports on the possibility of BBM for Windows Phone.

Gary Klassen, creator of BBM, said:

BBM will not be limited to just Android or iOS. We are open to other platforms also

BlackBerry Messenger was the main reason that folks were still picking up BlackBerries but the cross platform Whatsapp soon saw BBM become less relevant. With the reason to get a BB waning, getting BBM to multiple platforms may at least stem the decline of people who care about BB, and perhaps may even see it grow

What other messenger systems do you use?

  • Skype
  • WeChat
  • Kik
  • Tango
  • Viber
  • Snapchat
  • other

Via: Reddit

Nokia Lumia 920 – £200 on Amazon.co.uk, Back in stock unlocked for £220 with Tesco

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 08:22 AM PDT

 

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Quite a few of you managed to jump onto the Tesco Sale of the 920 for £220 before it went out of stock immediately so hurry quick as Tesco have another batch.

Amazon has the 920 also, for £200 free delivery in UK. This is dispatched via actual Amazon not a third party seller.

My sister upgraded from a 710 to a 920 in yellow due to that Tesco sale.

Thanks Kojo for the tip!

Anssi Vanjoki on Reddit front page

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 04:17 AM PDT

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This story has hit the front page of reddit again. In Reddit’s “today I learned” subreddit, the top story (pushing to the front page) is how Anssi Vanjoki, whilst a Nokia Executive, was hit with a huge speeding ticket. Given that in Finland, fines are tied to the income of the offender when exceeding the limit by a certain amount (as opposed to a blanket approach where it’s all the same) Vanjoki’s fine was 103,600USD. Something he could afford but also something that would be memorable for him to not do it again.

A Finn explains:

Just as an example from Finland: Last year i was caught on speed camera doing 83 km/h on a 60 km/h stretch and got a little bit over 300€ ticket. My yearly income is a bit over 30k. If you exceed the limit for more than 20 km/h the fine will be based on your salary. Under that, the fine varies from 75€ to 115€.

There is a ticket calculator provided by the police:https://www.poliisi.fi/poliisi/lp/home.nsf/pages/F3BCD1C2A09C374FC225759900338B68?opendocument

Looking deeper into the comments, the original fine was supposedly 12.5 million dollars (possibly a mix up, as others claim that was his income in 1999 :/)! However, an appeal by Vanjoki meant the fine was reduced. Not to the 100k in the title, but to 7K.

We were lucky enough to meet Vanjoki at his last Nokia World. Some people reminisce what Nokia could have been like were it to have remained with a Finnish CEO, and Anssi being prime candidate.

Screen Shot 2013-09-29 at 12.06.06The highest priced speeding ticket was actually awarded in 2003.

The most expensive speeding ticket ever given is believed to be the one given to Jussi Salonoja in Helsinki, Finland, in 2003. Salonoja, the 27-year-old heir to a company in the meat-industry, was fined 170,000 euros for driving 80 km/h in a 40 km/h zone.

But Vanjoki and the Nokia connection may have sounded better.

o2 UK Push Nokia Lumia 1020 as an “out of the ordinary” Business Phone

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 04:12 AM PDT

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It seems that o2 UK (part of Telefónica) have been pushing the Nokia Lumia 1020 in many ways, with things like the the exclusive 64GB version only in the UK by o2, and the promo’s in the o2 store, but it seems o2 have gone one step further and are pushing the 1020 towards business users, in what they are describing as “Working out of the ordinary: the Nokia Lumia 1020″.

The article does emphasis the built in office, the amazing camera and more, so have a read for yourself…

Article Link: Working out of the ordinary: the Nokia Lumia 1020

Image source: o2 Blog

Nokia Lumia 1020 Billboard: The most megapixels you can fit into a pair of skinny jeans (California) (+ O2 store 1020 promos)

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 03:29 AM PDT

MNB skinnyjeans

This picture was shared to us from California, Lombard Street. (Cheers anonymous person)

It takes an interesting stance that this camera has 41MP and it’s the most amount of MP you can fit in skinny jeans.

http://mynokiablog.com/2013/07/31/nokia-lumia-1020-in-a-jeans-pocket-with-camera-grip-in-the-pocket/

As someone who has unfortunately fallen for the skinny jeans trend (I blame losing some weight in the leg area) yes, 1020 fits in my jeans fine. BTW, there are “spray on jeans” for men now. I was recommended them yesterday as they didn’t have the regular stretch skinny in my size. They look like man tights. :/ Though  they are oddly comfy and roomy. I have to confess I do kinda already own some super skinny but by accident. They didn’t have any in my size and so I went from a 30 to a 26. Yeah, those don’t get used much. I generally don’t put anything in those pockets cos the outline is seen clearly (even something like a card).

Whilst we’re speaking of physical ads, at the o2 store in preston they had some Nokia Lumia 1020 ads playing. There was the cool video showing the 1020′s camera internals, another video which included quotes on how awesome the 1020 is and possibly something else. It did cycle between Nokia and iPhone but that was about it. I had to wait a few cycles to take this pic as people were standing in front of it.

MNB WP_20130928_14_00_53_Pro

The Phones4U display still wasn’t showing much about the 1020 like the post from last week but they did have a little poster at the bottom. You can’t really notice it.

MNB WP_20130928_14_18_55_Pro

I think once people know that there’s a super awesome camera, with 41mp they get really interested. Last night, whilst getting ID’d, I got stopped by one of the bouncers at the entrance of a club after he saw me take a picture with my 1020. He was intrigued upon finding out this phone had 41MP (to which he oddly asked if it was a Samsung. Nay! Tis a NOKIA!) I got a picture of the other bouncer and showed him the detail to which blew his mind. He grabbed the phone and just played with the zoom, asking his other friend “what’s this?” pointing to a mark on his face “what’s that” pointing to something else on his face which he couldn’t see with his own eyes.

I’m not sure what goes on in the stores, but once people see a demo of how good the 1020 is, they get really interested. Yes, for those interested in apps, and certainly specific apps, you’d have to look more closely whether the 1020 is a fit for them. Sometimes, unfortunately they might not be. But for others where the main apps are covered, then it’s just about usability, user experience and then other differentiating factors (such as having an amazing camera).

BTW, I’m loving the 1020 camera for low light xenon. Awesome snapper for when people MOVE in low light! I loved the 920/925 for most pictures, but the brilliant DUAL LED isn’t enough to freeze in low light for this particular scenario. Plus, I find colours slightly better with xenon.  And it doesn’t look intrusive (aka an actual camera) so it looks great for spontaneous pics (could do with having faster start up times).

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