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The Engadget Interview (captured with Lumia 920): Nokia CEO Stephen Elop on WP8 and beyond
Do you know what's better than one interview with Stephen Elop? Two interviews in one month. We'd barely recovered from yesterday's bout of nostalgia when we were given the opportunity to sit down with Nokia's CEO in his office at the company's HQ. Better yet, we were allowed to record the discussion with a hand-held Lumia 920 prototype. The resulting video is remarkably stable. Full disclosure: the audio was recorded with a shotgun mic mounted on a Sony NEX-C3 camera. We talked about HTC's colorful "signature" Windows Phone 8X and 8S and what that means for the Nokia-Microsoft partnership. Next we asked if Nokia is planning to work with carriers to offer incentives for existing Lumia owners to upgrade to the company's 920 and 820 handsets. Finally, we discussed the evolution of PureView imaging technology from the 808 to the 920 and how Nokia plans to combine these building blocks in the future. Hit the break for our video interview.
Nokia reaffirms WP 7.8 support for existing Lumia handsets, announces handful of features
Nokia's legacy Lumia devices won't be graced with Windows Phone 8, but the company has reaffirmed its support for keeping them fresh with version 7.8 of Microsoft's handset OS. In addition to a revamped start screen, the introduction of City Lens and other expected perks, Espoo is tossing in a few extras. Among the new additions are the Cinemagraph GIF creator, a ringtone maker app, updates to Smart Group Shot and Bluetooth support for both file transfers and the firm's Contact Share application. Yearning to load up your smartphone with the raft of new features? Elop and Co. say the upgrades will be be rolled out in phases for the Lumia 610, 710, 800 and 900 models, but promise more details when their ETAs close in.
Nokia: 7 million Lumia phones sold to date in 54 countries, 4 million in the last quarter
Fresh on the heels of the much-anticipated Lumia 920 announcement, some new figures have come to light regarding its predecessors' success. According to the Finnish phone-maker, a total of 7-million Windows Phone / Lumia devices have shipped to date. The firm was also keen to point out that this number comes from 54 markets in total -- some 130 different operators. While this might seem modest, especially with only 600,000 of those sales being in the US, 4-million of those Lumia devices were sold in Q2, roughly double that of the preceding two quarters, so things are on the up. Now it just remains to see what impact any new Windows Phone 8 phones will have.
Refresh Roundup: week of August 13th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Engadget's back to school guide 2012: smartphones
Welcome to Engadget's back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn't nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we're tapping away on our brand-new smartphones -- and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back -- at the end of August we'll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides -- you can hit up the hub page right here! It's a good time to be a student. Last year, there were some solid picks, but it was still very clear that those willing to scrimp and save a little longer had a much better experience. This year, it's a people's revolution. Thanks to cutthroat competition, there are some exceptional phones out there, even for those of you hoping to avoid eating ramen noodles for a month. Software has taken a leap forward too, with many phones now offering a vital way to remember when that term paper is due... or to procrastinate at the pub. We have nine choices of phones in our shortlist, spread out across three categories to serve everyone from the I-just-need-a-phone freshman to the overloaded doctoral candidate. While you're eying the selection, don't forget to enter our giveaway and potentially ease the burden -- who knows, you may get a phone you want rather than the one dictated by your student loan.
Nokia Drive offline navigation review: taking the Lumia 900 for an off-the-grid spin
I've sung praises about it for years, but it seems like only now the industry is getting on the same train of thought. It could be my unnatural adoration of travel, or just an entirely healthy fear of getting lost, but offline navigation has long since been a top priority for me when choosing a mobile device. Or, more importantly, a mobile operating system. For the longest while, iOS forced my hand to Android due to Google Maps Navigation being available only on the latter, and while even that wasn't offline, it still far surpassed any other routing app in terms of system integration, map updates and general silkiness. Even dating back to our 2010 mobile GPS shootout, Nokia has been a player. At that time, it was the outfit's Ovi Maps leading the pack, offering the only legitimate offline solution amongst a legion of ho-hum alternatives that required bits of data to keep you on track. But frankly, there wasn't a Symbian device in Nokia's stable that could show up my Nexus One in terms of overall utility, so begrudgingly, I pushed it aside. Eventually, Google came around and added caching to routes, which effectively downloaded all routing guidance along your path as soon as you plugged in a destination. The killer, however, was that it wouldn't take too kindly to veering far from that path should you ever drop signal. Close, but no cigar. Fast forward to today, and we've got Google Maps already working in offline mode for Android 2.2+ devices. Furthermore, the company's Brian McClendon confessed to us at its June 2012 'Maps' event that it's "committed" to bringing all of the app's features to iOS (and potentially other platforms). But in my haste to find something in the here and now, I recently turned to the Lumia 900 for guidance. Literally. Back in late March, the Lumia-exclusive Nokia Drive application gained full offline access, and I sought to use the handset exclusively to navigate a 1,900-mile trek through some of America's most remote locales. How'd it go? Join us after the break to find out. %Gallery-159721%
Refresh Roundup: week of July 9th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Nokia and AT&T cut Lumia 900 price to $50, sweeten the Windows Phone 7.8 pot
Early Lumia 900 adopters might feel spurned knowing that their devices won't get any near-future upgrades beyond Windows Phone 7.8, but AT&T and Nokia are hoping that some new customers just need a little incentive to forgive the OS ceiling. As of now, the Lumia 900 has taken a permanent price cut to $50 on contract, whether it's one of the early color options or pretty in pink. Although the price drop might not take power users' eyes off of the Windows Phone 8 prize, it could make the Lumia 900 a low-hanging fruit for more than a few newcomers.
Pink Nokia Lumia 900 headed for AT&T July 15th, demands a Psychedelic Furs ringtone
That Nokia Lumia 900 Batman edition not quite your thing? Looks like the Windows Phone handset's getting yet another version, this time in an eye-catching pink. The new color joins white, black and cyan, heading exclusively to AT&T this Sunday, July 15th. Need some apps to run on that 1.4Ghz processor? Nokia recommends Groupon, Fruit Ninja and the Instagram-esque Apict, for interested parties.
Nokia's Play To app now available for Lumia devices, enables DLNA-connectivity
Hot on the heels of its Camera Extras app, Nokia is again satiating Lumia owners' hunger for expanded features with its recently released (and officially out of beta) Play To app for Windows Phone. For those unfamiliar, this essentially Espoo's take on DLNA, allowing you to stream multimedia from your phone to any DLNA-equipped devices connected within your local network. As My Nokia Blog notes, the app has gladly arrived earlier than expected, and it's free to download just like the company's other Lumia-exclusive offerings in the Marketplace (a.k.a. the Nokia collection). So what are you waiting for? Hit up the Marketplace from your device to download it for yourself and let us know how it goes in the comments.
Refresh Roundup: week of June 18th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Lumia 900 owner vents Windows Phone 8 frustrations, Stephen Elop responds
If you've been following our Windows Phone 8 coverage today, you know that anybody who buys a Windows Phone today will not be able to upgrade to WP8 when it ships this fall. If you were an early adopter that's not such a bad deal, but if you bought a Lumia 900 oh, say, three weeks ago you might be upset -- and rightly so. And rightfully angry is Luke, who sent us an email he fired off to Nokia's Stephen Elop and AT&T's Ralph de la Vega in which he asks why he shouldn't, right now, turn around and return his phone. I just watched the Windows Phone 8 announcement and learned that the Lumia will not be upgradeable to WP8, it will more or less get a skin with the new live tiles and a few other features... at the end of the day unless one of you responds and convinces me to stay with Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia Lumia or Att wireless I will just wash my hands of all three companies and move over to Verizon. Surprise surprise, Elop responded very promptly, stating: We have a lot of exciting capabilities coming as part of a pattern of updates for the existing Lumia products. This includes some of the most significant visual elements of WP8 – for example, the new start screen. As we have always been, Nokia is committed to delivering a long term experience to any purchasers of our products. Granted, Nokia is bringing some nice updates to current Lumias, like some Scalado-augmented photo magic, but Elop's mention of "significant visual elements" leaves us wanting. We're waiting to hear what Luke's going to do, but here's your chance to weigh in. What do you think he should do? Full emails are after the break.%Poll-75904%
Visualized: Nokia Lumia 900 running Windows Phone 7.8 (update: full eyes-on!)
It may not be the mysterious prototype Joe Belfiore showed off at today's Windows Phone Developer Summit keynote, but it's a nice treat nonetheless: we had the opportunity to sneak a peek at an AT&T-branded Nokia Lumia 900 running Windows Phone 7.8, complete with the brand new Start screen. Because it's at such early stages in the development game, we weren't able to get our own grubby hands on the device and play around with any of the highlighted features, but it was still great to see it working on a real, honest-to-goodness device. What other secrets this software holds will remain that way for now, but we can certainly look forward to an action-packed summer full of interesting revelations. Update: We were able to snap a few extra images of this very same Lumia 900, but we weren't allowed to touch the screen or interact with the software in any way, since the build we saw of Windows Phone 7.8 is just a special version highlighting the Start screen and is nowhere near final production quality. For what it's worth, we had the opportunity to view a demo of the tiles being resized, and we couldn't detect any flaws in its execution. Check out the full gallery of precious pics below! %Gallery-158769% Myriam Joire contributed to this post.
Nokia ships Lumia 900 and Reaction Bluetooth Headset in China
Based on the amount of effort poured into iOS 6 in order to tailor it for users in China, one thing's obvious: it's a nation grasping for smartphones. Apple's seeing huge, huge upticks in spending from Chinese customers, and Nokia's sure hoping it sees similar. In the midst of untold turmoil, Nokia is sprinkling in a bit of positive news this morning -- news that the Lumia 900 is now shipping in China. The 900 marks the fifth Lumia smartphone to ship in the nation of 900 million mobile phone users, with white, black and cyan versions to choose from. Outside of the basic specifications, the Chinese 900 will also come preloaded with nation-specific apps such as Sina Weibo, QQ IM, Baidu Search and Alipay. Oh, and if a phone wasn't enough, the Nokia Reaction Bluetooth Headset is also launching there today, enabling you to finally make use of that NFC module. The Lumia 900 hardware will sell for RMB 4599 ($721) in Nokia's flagship store, Nokia brand stores and the nation's "top electronics chain stores."
Go to school, get a Lumia 900: all incoming Seton Hall University freshmen to receive a Windows Phone
Granted, this'll be just one more way for upperclassmen to quickly identify the newbies, but all incoming freshmen to New Jersey's Seton Hall University will be given a Nokia Lumia 900 upon orientation, as a means to integrate technology with the school's curriculum -- quite similar to previous efforts that we've seen for the iPad and iPhone. Not to stop there, university officials hope to make the smartphone a key component of student life with the SHUmobile app and its Freshman Experience hub. Here, freshmen may interact with each other via social media and direct messaging, find peer academic advisors, learn about their future housing situation and get to know their roommates. As for mobile service, it's said that students will receive pre-paid access to AT&T through the fall semester. After that, it seems that freshman will need to pick up the bill or leverage WiFi networks to remain connected. To learn more of how SHU is thinking very differently, just hop the break for the PR.
Refresh Roundup: week of June 4th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
IDC: Nokia moved just 2.2 million Lumias this winter, but stay tuned
Although we know that Nokia had a wince-inducing first quarter, the company was hush hush on how many of its Windows Phone-packing Lumias had shipped out. We still don't have official word, but IDC estimates that Nokia delivered 2.2 million of the devices to shops (not necessarily to customers) between January and March. If the total is accurate, Lumias would represent less than a fifth of the 11.9 million smartphones shipped by Espoo over the season and wouldn't have Apple or Samsung quaking in their boots just yet. The research team is careful to warn that the spring and summer will be the real litmus tests: a healthy Lumia 900 launch in the US could easily spike that number. Our one certainty is that Nokia will still have to sell a lot of 808 PureViews if it wants to keep its smartphone sales humming in the short term.
Windows RT on Snapdragon S4 hands-on and Rob Chandhok interview (update: video)
We just got a hands-on demo of Microsoft Windows RT running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 development tablet here at Computex 2012 in Taipei. The verdict? It's smooth as silk on a 1.5GHz dual-core APQ8060A with 2GB of RAM, which means it's likely to be even more impressive on the company's quad-core offering. We got to see SkyDrive photo sharing between a Nokia Lumia 900 and the Windows RT device, showing that both WiFi and 3G connectivity are fully supported. Ditto GPS -- with Bing Maps purring along nicely. Most interesting, however, was a demo of Vendetta Online which ran without hiccups even when multitasking along with other apps. We asked about battery life and benchmarks -- especially when comparing Windows RT to Android -- but sadly Qualcomm doesn't have any numbers to share. The company's focus is clearly on working with Microsoft to streamline the new OS for the Snapdragon platform, and from what we saw today, things are making great progress. Take a look at our gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video and interview with Rob Chandhok, President of Qualcomm Internet Services.
Engadget's summer gear guide 2012: smartphones
In the interest of keeping cool this summer, we've put together a list of the hottest products out right now. From smartphones to e-readers and everything in between, there's no time like the present to re-up that post-spring-cleaning stash. So grab a popsicle or a cold one and dive in -- the water's just right. As you prepare for adventures with friends and fun in the sun, just remember that a great smartphone should be at the top of your gear list. Whether you're looking for travel tips, a new place to hang or even directions to get there, your smartphone will have you covered. It can help you check-in for flights, rent a car and even get great deals on places to stay. Go ahead and leave your point-and-shoot camera at home, because many of today's best smartphones excel at photography and allow you to immediately share your memories as they're captured. If you plan to travel abroad, be sure to spring for an unlocked handset to avoid those nasty roaming fees. Whatever your particular needs, our smartphone selection is geared to make your decision as painless as possible - and more importantly, ensure that you have a fun and rewarding summer. Dive in on the other side of the break.
Batman Nokia Lumia 900 priced at £600, throws in some free movie tickets
We said it was coming soon, and the Dark Knight-themed WinPho hasn't disappointed. Phones 4u has just announced that pre-ordered laser-etched Lumia 900s will be delivered on June 1st; that's this Friday. Off-contract pricing is pegged at £600, although multiple contracts are also available from the UK retailer. There doesn't appear to be any extra functionality on the special edition, although bragging rights do count for a lot. The phone will arrive in limited numbers, but neither Nokia nor Phones 4u is spilling the beans on precise unit numbers. The retailer is also throwing in free tickets to see the Dark Knight Rises at UK cinemas (or theaters) this summer, plus the chance to hit up the premiere. Pre-ordering heroes can zip-wire their way to the source link below. Update: SlashGear's been told by Phones 4u that there will be 900 of the special edition phones.