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Nokia Lumia 800 update reportedly triples battery life
Earlier this week in Refresh Roundup, we wrote of a Vodafone-branded update for the Lumia 800 with a designation of 1600.2487.8107.12070. Among the enhancements, the new software version was said to provide longer battery life -- a welcome improvement, no doubt -- but we could've never guessed the significance of the gain. The folks at WPCentral recently forced the update onto their own phones and, get this, they assert the new software has nearly tripled(!) their battery life. While our heads are still spinning at the assertion, they claim the improvements are in part due to better management of the screen's brightness and cite an approximate discharge of 70mA when idle. Meanwhile, reports in the forums of xda-developers claim that battery drain is in the neighborhood of 80mA and 90mA when idle -- not quite as stunning, but still a huge improvement in comparison to the approximate 150mA discharge with the previous version. While your mileage may vary, this latest update could prove to be a true godsend for Lumia 800 owners.
Refresh Roundup: week of February 27th, 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!
The Engadget Interview: Nokia VP of Industrial Design Stefan Pannenbecker at MWC 2012 (video)
Today at Mobile World Congress we spent a few minutes talking with Stefan Pannenbecker, VP of Industrial Design at Nokia about Espoo's past, present and future handsets -- including the just announced 808 PureView, Lumia 610 and Asha 302 / 203 / 202, as well as the Lumia 900 we played with at CES. He shared his insights on Nokia's design language and philosophy and some interesting details such as the clearcoat finish used on the Lumia 800 / 900 and N9. Enjoy the video.
Nokia grows Lumia 900 family: Canada gets LTE, HSPA+ for everyone else
Well, that AT&T exclusivity was bound to wear off at some point. Nokia just confirmed that an LTE version of its flagship Lumia 900 will be crossing the border into Canada in April, running on Rogers' network, while a dual-carrier HSPA+ flavor will be hopping the Atlantic sometime in Q2, with a €480 (about $650) price tag in tow. Naturally, it'll include Nokia Drive, but there's another treat in store -- Nokia Reading. The app will be available as a free download, and acts as a digital media hub, aggregating content in a magazine-like format. The new Lumia 900s also add a front-facing camera, in addition to that Carl Zeiss lens-sporting snapper out back. Also, as you can see in the image above, Nokia has confirmed a gorgeous white version of the Windows Phone device, which we saw leaked earlier this month. As for a release date to go along with that previously announced AT&T version? We're still hoping for March 18th, though we have yet to get a firm commitment from the carrier or manufacturer.Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
Telus confirms March 2nd launch for Nokia Lumia 800
Canadians may still have to wait a bit longer for some official word of the Lumia 900's possible debut in the country (the latest rumors suggest it may be heading to Rogers), but there's now at least a firm date for the launch of its slightly smaller counterpart. Telus confirmed today that the Nokia Lumia 800 will be available on March 2nd (in your choice of black, cyan or magenta), although it's unfortunately still not providing a price. As you may recall, Nokia's other new Windows Phone, the Lumia 710, made its Canadian debut on Rogers earlier this month, where it can be had for as little as $50 on-contract or just over $250 off-contract.
Mobile Miscellany: week of February 13th, 2012
Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This week, we bring you announcements of LTE expansion from AT&T, US Cellular and Verizon, along with news of three Samsung smartphones that received WiFi certification -- each are thought to be high-end devices and bound for US carriers. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride. Let's explore the "best of the rest" for this week of February 13th, 2012.
Nokia: 'We don't have a Plan B'
Wander into Nokia's corporate HQ and, if Victor Saejis is to believed, you'll be hard pressed to find any manilla folder bearing the legend "Plan B." The handset maker's European Manager told Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri that the company has no contingency plan in the event that Windows Phone loses out to Android and iOS saying that "Plan B is that Plan A is to succeed." It's a pretty unequivocal statement that Espoo's betting the farm on consumers embracing Microsoft's OS. Commenting on the company's recent troubles, the winding down of Symbian and the demise of MeeGo, he said "it's like starting all over again. But we must succeed in the U.S. if we are to succeed in the world" -- pretty honest, if a little disappointing to anyone who hoped there was an Android-powered white N9 lying in a Finnish skunkworks.
White Nokia N9 hands-on: behold the last unicorn (video)
Let's keep this short and sweet. This is the rare snow-white Nokia N9 and it's absolutely stunning. We first captured a glimpse of it at Nokia World and now we've obtained a specimen. The only difference between this piano-lacquer white handset and its more pedestrian sibling is the (likely less durable) shiny clearcoat finish covering its machined polycarbonate body and the leather pouch replacing the silicone case normally supplied in the box. Everything else is exactly the same as the matte black phone we reviewed last year. We've attempted to document the exquisite beauty of this mythical beast -- sadly the last of its kind -- in our hands-on gallery below. Go ahead and take a look, then hit the break to watch our unboxing video. Just be warned that there's a strong chance you'll drool profusely whilst ogling these pictures. At least the white Lumia 800 and 900 are just around the corner, right?
Lumia 800 bundle coming to Microsoft retail stores on Valentine's Day, $899 is the new price of love
Well, you knew the Lumia 800 would be coming to Microsoft's chain of retail stores this month, but we bet you weren't counting on an $899 price tag. That's the word from our compadres at The Verge, who suggest that Nokia's handset will initially be available only as a bundle, which is set to be up for grabs on February 14th. In addition to the unlocked Lumia 800, buyers with a whole lotta bravado will be able to demonstrate their love with the included Nokia Play 360 wireless speaker, a Purity HD Stereo Headset and an in-ear Bluetooth unit. We know that Nokia has a new conflict-free mineral policy and all, but for $899, you might just want to ask your sweetie if she'd prefer a diamond.
Nokia accidentally reveals white Lumia 900
It looks like it. It seems plenty of you were enraptured by that hypnotic white Lumia 800 we paid a visit to yesterday, but in all the glossy fun, Nokia accidentally revealed the above press shot -- a white Lumia 900. The picture was soon lifted from Nokia's Conversations blog, but it remains on its Facebook page, flashing an exposed micro-USB port and front-facing camera that identifies this snow-white slab as the Lumia 900 kind. The press shot also flashes a view of that non-curved glass front; it certainly looks like our wishes are coming true. Now we just have to wait and see if this color option is ready for that plausible March release date. Update: Dave Zatz was apparently offered a choice of white or black models when discussing his Lumia 900 pre-order options at a Microsoft store. Maybe we'll see this one from launch. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]
Nokia reveals polarizing secrets of ClearBlack display
Nokia's revealing the secrets behind ClearBlack: its display technology that, even under the brightest sunlight, renders black as black as blackest night during a dark spell. Wedged above the E7, Lumia 800 and 900 displays are three thin layers, a linear polarizer, a quarter-wave retardation film and a reflecting surface. When light enters the first layer, it vertically aligns the "wave vibration" of the light so when it hits the retardation layer, it begins to rotate towards the right. Hitting the reflecting surface causes it to reverse, becoming left-circularly polarized before passing through the retardation later again, where it polarizes horizontally. This enables the polarizing filter up top to screen out horizontally polarized light, meaning it doesn't reflect back in your face. Why (we hear you ask) then doesn't it happen with the light from the display itself? Because it only passes through the second half of the process, it doesn't become horizontally aligned, leading to that beautifully dark display reaching your peepers. It's a clever and elegant solution that we can't help but be impressed at, even if we've used up the world's supply of the word 'polarize' in order to explain to you.
White Nokia Lumia 800 hands-on
Today's been all about the white phones, and Nokia's new Lumia matches that glossy finish we saw on its near-identical twin, the white N9. Here, opposing the matte goodness of the rest of Lumia 800 family, the unibody shell has an almost-enamel feel on what is still largely the same polycarbonate material (Nokia tells us that each "batch" has to be tweaked for each color). From our brief play with the device, it's looking to be a pretty pervasive color choice to go alongside that pitch-black AMOLED screen. We know the phone is set to arrive later this month, blessing fans of blanc in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and another handful of European countries. See how its good looks stack up against the rest of the Lumia rainbow in our hands-on gallery below.
Nokia confirms white Lumia 800, shipping without pigment this month
Nokia does love teasing us with its albino-hued special editions, and so it did with the white Lumia 800 back in December. Now that phone is following the color-free road to retail later this month. Other than the eye-pleasing lack of color the phone looks to be identical to its rather more chromatic predecessors, with a 3.7-inch AMOLED display up front and a 1.4GHz processor inside. It looks good, but it just leaves us with one question: how long will we have to wait for a white Lumia 900? Update: According to Nokia's Conversations blog, the phone will launch first in these countries: UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Finland, Poland and Switzerland.
Nokia clarifies battery update on Lumia 800, promises audio / camera fixes soon
Nokia already came clean about the Lumia 800 battery bug, but evidently that just wasn't enough to appease the masses. A community manager in the outfit's own forums has just responded to pages upon pages of comments regarding the most recent update, partly to (re)set the record straight regarding the battery, and partly to address more fixes that are just around the bend. The latest update (1600.2483.8106.11500) was meant to "enhance standby time as well as to bring an improvement to the issue reported by some customers in December," and according to Nokia, said update does indeed address those problems. However, folks that still have concerns regarding audio and camera settings aren't being ignored; those quirks will be worked out in "a series of future updates." Eager to learn more? The full reply is embedded just after the break.
Mobile Miscellany: week of January 23, 2012
This week may not have been incredibly packed with news in the mobile world, but it was still easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of January 23, 2012:
Refresh Roundup: week of January 9, 2012
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!
Plex for Windows Phone 7 client hands-on (video)
We're here at CES Showstoppers and we've just managed to wrangle ourselves a sneaky-peek at the currently-in-development Plex client for Windows Phone 7. Plex is an XMBC spin-off that's quickly becoming a favorite of serious home theater users and the range of devices you can get the service on (Google TV, iOS, OSX, Android, Samsung Smart TVs) is growing rapidly. The Windows Phone 7 client lets you use your device as a remote control for your media setup or stream it straight to your device. Once you've selected a film, it'll aggregate your metadata from a variety of sources for actor bios, synopses and galleries. There's also "read it later" style save-lists and recommendations for when you want to share videos with friends. You can also customize the data rate of your streaming content when you're nursing your bandwidth: although in our demo, the lowest settings make everything look seriously jerky. Other tidbits of news that are on the horizon: you'll soon have DLNA server access to the usual glut of streaming video sites and a redesigned interface for large screen TVs (instead of mirroring the tablet interface). After the break we've got a short walkthrough of the Windows Phone client and some beautiful pictures for your enjoyment. Dana Murph contributed to this report.
Elop: Lumia 800 hitting Microsoft retail stores in February
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop just came on stage at the CES keynote and announced that the unlocked Nokia Lumia 800 would be available in Microsoft retail stores sometime in February. We'd heard that it was on its way at last night's keynote with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, but this was the first time we've heard a specific month. Sadly, Elop didn't have much more to say about the matter, but at least confirmed this little tidbit to the delight of our souls.
Nokia confirms Canadian plans: Lumia 800 exclusive to Telus, Lumia 710 exclusive to Rogers
There's still no word on Canadian availability for the new Lumia 900, but Nokia isn't about to ignore the country altogether. It confirmed today that the Lumia 710 will be available on Rogers in February for $49 on-contract, and that the Lumia 800 will be available on Telus (in Cyan, Magenta and Black) at a date and price still to be announced -- each an exclusive to their respective carriers.
Nokia ready to start shipping Lumias to Launchpad developers
Things were a lot less clear back in early 2011 when Nokia announced it would abandon its burning platform for Windows Phone 7. Amidst that uncertainty, Espoo pledged to give select developers an E7 as well as a mystery device running Redmond's bits in the near future. The company's now making good on the latter part of that promise, informing those registered under its Launchpad program that their gratis hardware is ready to ship. Kindly forwarded by a tipster is email proof (seen after the break), which in non-redacted form would provide instructions for procuring a complimentary Lumia 800. Previous whispers suggested the Lumia 710 will also be part of the scheme, so your mileage may vary. Still, a free handset is better than none -- or at the very least a Nokla, right? [Thanks, Jota]