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Nokia Lumia 710 now shipping, global rollout slated for 'coming weeks'
It's been a few months coming, but today, Nokia announced that its Lumia 710 handset has finally hit store shelves in Taiwan, ahead of its broader international release. Priced at around €270 (or about $332), the Mango-laced handset will arrive in stores across Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Russia over the next seven days, before expanding to other global markets "over the coming weeks." The 3.7-inch device joins the Lumia 800 as Nokia's latest Windows Phone offering, though it remains to be seen whether or not it'll make its way to T-Mobile anytime soon, as earlier rumors indicated. For more details on the phone, check out Nokia's full press release, after the break.
Clues point to Lumia 710 as the mystery Nokia handset on T-Mobile
The event: T-Mobile and Nokia are throwing a little bash with a performance by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. When: the evening of December 14th. The reason: to announce the release of the Lumia 710 Windows Phone. At least, that's the conclusion we're coming to as more clues continue to filter in. Our first clue was discovered by TmoNews, who dug through the Lumia 700's FCC filings and stumbled across a recently-released user manual complete with diagrams of the phone that showed the US carrier's logo plastered just below the screen. Hint number two, an even stronger indication of the phone's impending arrival, is the above image -- leaked to The Verge -- which shows the accessory lineup for the device along with suggested talk tracks. The mystery: solved.
T-Mobile and Nokia announce December 14th event, Windows Phone cometh?
Big news from Bellevue, as T-Mobile and Nokia have just announced that a special event will be held the evening of December 14th, promising something "special in the works." The companies were too smart for us this time, choosing not to reveal any code names via the image file; however, the tiled design of the invite seems to be a rather strong indication that Windows Phone is in the mix here. Could it be an existing Lumia device, or will it be something completely new? We have precisely one week to mull over the prospects.
Refresh Roundup: week of November 28, 2011
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. 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 from 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!
PSA: Nokia reiterates Drive isn't coming to Windows Phone Marketplace
There seems to be a bit of confusion about Nokia Drive's future in the Windows Phone Marketplace. News of its impending arrival -- for a price -- was originally tweeted by a third-party and then re-tweeted by Nokia India. Sadly, we're told this was all just a mistake. We originally reached out to Espoo's finest to confirm the story, and well, we met a giant brick wall in the process. According to the company's media relations department, "Nokia Drive comes pre-installed on our Nokia Lumia range and there are currently no plans to make it available for Windows Phone based devices from other OEMs." It's a heartbreaker, indeed, but the crew at Navigon can certainly breathe a sigh of relief -- for the time being.
Nokia promises software updates to fix Lumia 800 battery woes
We experienced occasional battery and charging problems when reviewing the Lumia 800, and it looks like others have had issues too. In fact, it's become a sufficiently (un)popular topic on Nokia's support forums to encourage the company to post up a reply, confirming that two software fixes are in the works. The first will target power efficiency and arrive in early December, while the second will follow in January and hopefully improve charging. Only a minority of users are affected, we're told, so it's lucky for them that they're vocal.
Lumia line to get Nokia Drive update, fully cuts the network cord
When Espoo trotted out its "first real Windows Phone," it did so with a bevy of exclusive features, one of which brought baked-in offline navigation. Since the announcement of that proud product launch, Nokia Drive's been wrestled free from its polycarbonate chains, but the perks of being a Lumia owner are still incoming. Confirmed to Dutch site All About Phones, the Finnish company's Mango phone in an N9 shell is due for an update that'll bring full offline use of the app, ensuring those re-routed calculations don't hinge upon a network connection. Sure, any geek with a WP7 handset's set to get Maps sometime soon, but rest assured you and your sinuously tapered device are still the sole beneficiaries of Nokia's robo-toned, front seat copilot.
Lumia heads all the way to China in spring 2012, Nokia to fill the hole in their hearts
Statesiders aren't the only ones waiting on the Lumia line to launch. You can add China to the list of countries beholden to Espoo's "coming soon" promise. According to a report in Chinese magazine Global Entrepreneur, an unnamed Nokia exec has pinned down a release for the company's flagship WP 7 handsets, stating they'd likely hit sometime in April of 2012. True, that date may seem a bit far off, but the Finnish company's got quite a bit to tackle before next spring, as certain aspects of the Redmond-made OS require localization to keep in line with the government's media censorship. As for pricing, well, look for the phones to retail between 4888 to 4999 yuan (about $768 - $786) -- that's bank-breaking territory, indeed. But, if it's a bargain Windows Phone you're after, we hear those are available in spades.
AT&T in talks to offer Nokia's Windows Phones
It's apparently not a done deal just yet, but Bloomberg is reporting that AT&T is currently in negotiations to offer at least one Nokia Windows Phone sometime next year. That word comes straight from the head of AT&T's tablet unit, Glenn Lurie, who reportedly said that AT&T is now working on completing the details of the agreement -- no word on any specific phones, though. In other news, Lurie also said that "you are going to see prices come down" on tablets next year, although in that case he was unsurprisingly only referring to prices on a two-year contract (tablets from Acer and Samsung were specifically mentioned as ones that would be receiving discounts).
Nokia publishes Lumia 800 'making-of' documentary (video)
You've already heard Nokia's Peter Skillman talk design regarding the N9, and now it's Nokia's turn to show you what kind of magical mayhem went into the the making of the Lumia 800. It's an eight-minute long clip discussing the decisions behind the company's "first Windows Phone," with Nokia calling it "as much a story about collaboration and taking risks as it is about design." Taking risks, indeed. It's a good watch regardless of your platform affiliation, and it can be found just after the break.
Telefonica exec echoes what we already know: Nokia's new handsets are too spendy
Nokia has certainly had a reputation of keeping its premier phones at a high price, but it's not too often that we hear a head honcho in the industry say anything about it. Telefonica European General Manager Simon Lee-Smith went on the record to voice his displeasure over the exorbitant cost of the Lumia 800 as well as the N8 and N9. Speaking with Telecoms.com, he mentioned that the only way Espoo's going to push a significant volume of Windows Phones is to offer them at a reasonable price point. Vendors, according to Lee-Smith, have unrealistic expectations of what consumers -- and carriers -- will pay for smartphones. Sayeth Lee-Smith: "All device manufacturers seem to think that a €400-plus device is the norm. Well, it isn't. Customers and operators won't pay that cost for a device which doesn't differentiate sufficiently." In other words, the Lumia 800 (priced at €420, or about $585) needs to offer something more unique to customers in order to justify its cost. It does make us curious to see if Nokia can satisfy the needs of US carriers if it doesn't bring down its asking price. Head over to the source to read more of Lee-Smith's quotable quotes.
What's in a name? Nokia's new Lumia and Asha line explained
What rhymes with Nokia? Why, Lumia, of course. And there, fellow gadget freaks, lies the poetic branding key to Espoo's first, great Windows Phone. Alright, it's not that simple, but the company's marketing team did make a concerted effort to find a moniker ending with a vowel sound. Of course, before this catchy, albeit odd, name could be settled upon, a list of potential winners had to be cross-checked with over 300,000 tech trademarks. After broaching that hurdle, "only a handful" survived and were then parsed by linguistic experts to avoid any embarrassing malapropisms and pronunciation difficulties across 84 dialects. Despite finding "lumi" to be an out-of-date Spanish slang term, resulting surveys found most Spaniards associated the term with "'light' and 'style'," and thus it was saved. We know how this genesis story ends, so we'll spare you the obvious marketplace conclusion. And as for that new Asha range? Well, the thinking there is quite simple. It's the word for hope in Hindi, and as the line is intended for emerging markets, that just seemed apropos. Click through to the source for a more detailed walk through this mobile origin story.
Nokia Maps to be available for all Windows Phone handsets, sans voice navigation
Just because you don't have a new Lumia handset doesn't mean you won't be able to use Nokia Maps -- or most of it, anyway. According to ZDNet, Windows Phone users should expect to see Nokia Maps pop up as a free app on the Windows Phone Marketplace "within the next couple of weeks," though offline voice navigation feature will remain restricted to the Lumia 710 and 800, in the form of Nokia Drive. No word yet on when the app will officially hit the market, but we'll definitely keep a close eye on it.
Nokia World 2011 wrap-up
Nokia had something to prove at its annual event, and an eight-month turnaround of its smartphone arm is certainly nothing to be sniffed at. While Nokia's first Windows Phone devices were undoubtably the stars of the two-day expo, there was plenty more to investigate -- Nokia's legion of development labs certainly didn't let us down. Check out a veritable world of coverage neatly arranged below the break for everything Nokia World had to show us, and few more tidbits we found for ourselves. %Gallery-137879%
The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET!
Nokia, Nokia. Who's there? Lumia. Lumia who? Stay tuned this afternoon to learn the answer, even though we're not promising the funniest punchline in the world. What we can promise you, however, is in-depth coverage of Nokia World 2011 and everything else that happened in the wireless industry over the past week. Each week seems to be as crazy as the last, which always makes for an entertainment podcast. Special guest Steve Litchfield and Host Myriam Joire are delivering the rants in a British accent, and co-host Brad Molen may toss out a beef or two in his own native western US dialect. Sadly, it's the same dialect he uses every week. Regardless, reconvene here at 5PM ET (2PM PT, 10PM UK)!
Nokia's N9 gets its tap-to-pair on with the Play 360 Bluetooth speaker (video)
Oh, Meego, we barely knew ye. Yet, the Finnish OS that could continues to shower us with glimpses of what might've been... more widespread, that is. At least we have the consolation prize of seeing your host hardware, the N9, effortlessly display its untapped powers of NFC. Shown off here in a demo taken at the just wrapped Nokia World, that tap-to-pair functionality we'd previously seen in HP's webOS devices and, more recently as ICS' Android Beam, bridges the blue polycarbonate slab to a Play 360 speaker by a mere gentle swipe. That's all it takes to send tracks from Nokia's Music app direct to the Bluetooth peripheral's curvature continuous form. Like what you see? Then hopefully these tricked out features will make their way to identical twin Lumia's Mango-fied line. Full video awaits you just after the break.
Lumia 710 makes an appearance on Nokia's US site without its Windows Phone counterpart
When Nokia made it known that the Meego-running N9 wouldn't be making any official tour to the US, the sound of crushed dreams could be faintly heard in households across the nation. Would the newly-announced Lumia series suffer the same fate somehow? Might Uncle Sam's invitation to the family BBQ get lost in the mail a second straight time? Thanks to Nokia's US website, we know that at least one of the two Windows Phones will leave Espoo and land somewhere between sea and shining sea, as the budget-conscious Lumia 710 appears front and center on the OEM's home page while the 800 is nowhere to be found. We're not giving up just yet -- if absence makes the heart grow fonder, we don't want to get enamored with the AWOL phone this fast. Update: Dampen down those hopes and dreams, kids. Nokia has said that it will be making a splash in the USA at the start of next year, but it won't be with the Lumia phones. The page went up just for your information.
Nokia Lumia 710 hands-on (video)
We've been bedazzled by the higher-end Lumia 800, but here's Nokia's more modest offering: the slightly thicker, less expensively built -- but still distinctly Finnish -- Lumia 710. At 270 Euros ($375) excluding taxes, this promises to be a keenly priced device when it starts hitting Western markets, and it may well prove cheap enough for emerging markets too. But without that special something that makes the 800 stand out, can it compete against the growing army of mid-range Windows Phones from manufacturers like Samsung and HTC? Read on for our initial impressions.%Gallery-137563%
Nokia Lumia 800 shipping in November for $585, available for pre-order now
Nokia has just announced that its recently unveiled Lumia 800 will begin shipping in November to select markets, for around €420, or about $585. It'll roll out next month across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, before making its way to Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan, by the close of 2011. The Lumia 710, meanwhile, is priced at €270 (around $376), and will be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan by the end of this year. Early birds, however, can pre-order the Lumia 800 now -- just click the source link below for more details.
Nokia's Lumia 710 Windows Phone announced alongside the 800, hitting select markets by end of year
You didn't think Nokia would go through all this hoo hah just for one handset, did you? Nope, the potential audience is far too big to be satisfied with just one device at one price point, so here comes the Lumia 710. It takes advantage of the same 1.4GHz CPU found in the Lumia 800, offers a 3.7-inch ClearBlack display and comes in "stealthy black" and "crisp white," with replaceable back covers. Look for the 710 to be priced around €270, or $375. For availability, you can expect to see the Lumia 710 hitting France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK in November and then Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan by the end of the year, with additional markets in the first part of 2012. %Gallery-137540%%Gallery-137535% Sharif Sakr, Dante Cesa and James Trew contributed to this post.
