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Lumia 900 hits Carphone Warehouse, possibly coming to the UK in June (update: no)
We bet some of you over in the UK were just a wee bit little jealous when it was revealed that we here in the good ol' U-S-of-A would be getting first dibs on the Lumia 900 (a little payback for keeping the 800 all to yourselves). Well, lucky for you, we're not so greedy and you'll get your own shot at Nokia's latest and greatest... eventually. Carphone Warehouse has the dual-camera sporting Mango phone listed as "coming soon" with an expected launch date of June 2012. These plans are clearly still unofficial at the moment, but you can sign up for more info from the outlet as it becomes available. The biggest question, though, is whether or not the Lumia 900 will ship with LTE on board. The product page makes no mention of 4G and, with compatible networks still in trial stages at best, we wouldn't get our hopes up. Still, even without "blazingly fast" downloads, the front-facing cam, RGB matrix screen and beefy battery present plenty of reason for excitement.Update: Or maybe not. It looks like Carphone Warehouse has since pulled its Lumia 900 pre-registration page. Perhaps -- and take this with a serious grain of salt -- they're making room for the non-LTE 12 megapixel Lumia 910?
ZTE Tania arrives in the UK: a budget phone for budget buyers
ZTE's showing off its new global ambitions, the OEM-smartphone maker brought a party bus to London and asked Professor Green (everyone's favorite nasally-challenged Grime MC) to spread the word about the Tania. It's a modestly-kitted 4.3-inch WVGA (800 x 480) Windows Phone, erm, phone, that's running Mango on a single-core 1GHz chip, 512MB of RAM and 4GB internal storage. 'Round back there's a five megapixel camera, but sadly nothing up top for impromptu video calling. It'll be available on contract on second-tier operators like Virgin Mobile, Brightpoint and Go Mobile for "around" the £10 - £20 per-month price range, but word on the street is that it'll be available to purchase for a none-too-painful £250 ($390).
CES 2012: Smartphones round-up
The Superbowl of smartphones? Why, that would be Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. But that didn't stop the mobile industry's heavy hitters from giving us a taste of the year in wireless to come at CES. With Windows Phones finally getting LTE, Intel's Medfield CPU making its handset debut, Sony synergizing under its mega brand umbrella and fringe manufacturers wowing attendees with stock Ice Cream Sandwich and super-thin profiles, it appears phone aficionados have plenty to anticipate. So, while you sit slack-jawed in front of that computer screen, let's revisit some of the highlights of this past week.
Wikitude now augmenting reality on Windows Phone
Ever wonder what your reality could be like with a bit of augmentation? If you're on one of just about any mobile platform known to man (even Bada) you've been able to get one of the best augmented reality browsers on the planet: Wikitude. But, those on Windows Mobile have had to do without. Until now. Wikitude has hit the Windows Phone Marketplace, making use of the Mango updates to let the app dynamically overlay what's going on around you. Best part? It's totally free, so hit it up.
AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 Hands-on at CES 2012 (video)
The Nokia Lumia 900 is still fresh in our mind from this afternoon's announcement, and fortunately it didn't take long for us to get our hands on the new LTE-laden device. The newest phone in the Lumia series is packing a 4.3-inch ClearBlack display, 1.4GHz single-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, and sports a 8MP Carl Zeiss f/2.2 camera with LED flash that's capable of cranking out 720p HD video capture, as well as a 1MP front-facing camera that uses f/2.4. The 1,830mAh battery is inclusive due to the phone's unibody polycarbonate build and can't be removed, but we're happy to see that the Lumia 900 will be able to crank out the LTE for a decent amount of time.You won't find a huge difference in outside looks between this and its predecessor, the Lumia 800, aside from the presence of a frontward-facing camera and the obvious larger display. The larger phone was still comfortable to hold in our hands, and felt just as solid as ever with its polycarbonate build. When it comes to firmware, we weren't given the luxury of playing much with the handset since it was an early prototype model that is nowhere near its final status. The SIM card wasn't activated either, so we were unable to take its LTE capabilities for a test drive. Nokia and AT&T haven't been able to confirm exactly when we can expect the new device to actually be available in stores, nor the pricing at which it can be purchased with, so we're just going to have to dream of the phone in our slumber at night; at least we know exactly what to dream about, right?
HTC Titan II with LTE for AT&T hands-on at CES 2012 (video)
So the rumors were true -- the HTC Titan II is basically an HTC Titan with LTE for AT&T and a 16 megapixel camera with backside illuminated sensor, f/2.6 AF lens and dual LED flash (vs. eight megapixels sensor and f/2.2 lens on the original). The industrial design is more traditional HTC fare (think Thunderbolt) -- gone is the rather elegant look and feel of its predecessor, along with its removable battery (although the pack grows from 1600mAh to 1730mAh). After spending some quality time with HTC's latest Windows Phone flagship we came away pretty impressed with the camera. Our test shots contain tons of detail, with accurate colors and very little noise. We left the handset in the default "Intelligent Auto" scene mode for the majority of our pictures, and it handled the varying conditions with aplomb. Exposure was particularly well balanced, despite difficult lighting condition. Take a look at our gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video, sample shots, and sample video.Alexandra Guerrero (Drita) contributed to this report.
Ballmer announces LTE Windows Phones coming to AT&T
Well, it's been a long time coming, but Windows Phone has finally been granted LTE compatibility -- officially. AT&T trotted out Steve Ballmer who talked up the "blindingly fast" 4G service that'll be coming to Mango. Hopefully there will be more information coming at the live blog tonight.
How would you change the HTC Titan?
We fell in love with the 4.7-inch HTC Titan's brilliant build quality, battery life and camera -- less so for the bad pixel density, Mango's flakiness and only having 12GB free memory once the OS had made its land grab. But if you found yourself back in 2010 when HTC was hashing out the schematics for this giant of a smartphone, what would you have demanded it do differently? (We'll cover the Sensation XL in a couple of weeks for those of you who grabbed the Android version of this device.) There's a river of comments below, come on in, the water's fine!
Nokia Lumia 710 for T-Mobile review
It's not the Nokia / Microsoft lovechild we've all been patiently awaiting here in the states. No, it's the other Lumia -- the low-end one. And it's headed for a berth on T-Mobile's airwaves next week, on January 11th. Rather than go big (or go home), Espoo's chosen to wade gently into the shallow waters of the US smartphone market, loading this budget Mango device with respectable mid-range specs and an irresistible price. The Lumia 710 is a $50 on contract proposition geared towards easing folks inept at the smarter aspects of wireless gadgetry into the 21st century. With a 3.7-inch ClearBlack LCD display, a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor aided by 512MB of RAM, a decent 5 megapixel rear shoot capable of 720p video capture and, of course, Windows Phone 7.5, it may do just that. The obvious hurdle keeping this able phone from flying off the shelves has little to do with performance and everything to do with Nokia's stateside brand recognition. So, join us after the break as we put this unassuming handset through its paces and determine whether or not the 710's training wheels are worth a Grant.
Nokia's diagnostics app secretly contains CDMA, AT&T LTE test screens
A bit of detective work can certainly go a long way. Some little-known sections of Nokia's Windows Phone diagnostics app were found by Nanapho as it analyzed its XAP file, lending credence to rumors that AT&T-branded Lumia phones are being tested at present time. The site uncovered screens dealing with "LTE TX" and "LTE Band Lock," with the latter adding references to Band 4 and Band 17 -- AT&T-specific radios. The last interesting piece of evidence was dug up in the MMS settings tool, which offers code that refers to CDMA. We've heard past rumors suggesting Verizon would be getting a Lumia as well, but there were no indications that LTE Band 13 is in testing here; Big Red is reportedly hesitant to launch new Windows Phones without 4G connectivity now, so choosing to go without it would suggest the carrier is willing to make a few compromises in the hopes of adding the Lumia to its ranks. Hopefully we'll find more clues in the days leading up to CES.
Switched On: The year of reversal
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Back in 2005, Switched On dubbed its first full year of existence "The Year of the Switch" as IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo, Apple announced plans to leave the PowerPC platform for Macs and Microsoft moved to PowerPC processors for the XBox 360. But the dramatic reversals we saw in 2011 made even some of those decisions look tame by comparison.
LG Fantasy Windows Phone meets Mr. Blurrycam for the first time, hit it off
Sometimes the story behind the Blurrycam images are more interesting than the photos themselves. In this case, a member of XDA-Dev purchased an early model of the LG Fantasy -- an upcoming Windows Phone likely to launch early next year -- from a tester in Romania. The only spec given from the lucky buyer so far is a 4-inch IPS display. From outward appearance we're expecting the Fantasy to be a midrange device, but there's no way of telling what kinds of secrets lay beneath yet. Chances are we'll learn more secrets in just a couple weeks at CES.
Nokia publicly acknowledges Lumia 800 battery bug, promises fix in next update
Nokia's flagship Windows Phone may be a gorgeous slab of polycarbonate, but it's proving to meet its match with its own battery performance. It began with concerns about charging and overall battery performance as we reviewed the device, and the phone was given an update nearly a full fortnight ago to alleviate power management issues. We're still awaiting a maintenance release next month to take care of the charging portion of the problem, but it seems that yet another bug will need to be addressed at the same time. After word spread last week that something was causing the battery's capacity to show up as worse than it really is, Nokia did some digging and promptly admitted that something was awry. In the statement (found past the break), the company assured the masses that the battery itself was perfectly fine, but there was a bug in the software and a fix will be included in the next planned update. And then everything will be absolutely perfect... right?
Nokia reveals CES 2012 press event, Windows Phone the obvious focal point
"The exciting thing is, we've only just begun." That was the closing remark of then-CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as he wrapped up Nokia's 2010 CES keynote, and while the words ring true today, we're guessing that what has transpired in Espoo between then and now wasn't exactly on his radar at the time. After laying low through the 2011 episode, Nokia will be making a triumphant return at next year's Consumer Electronics Show, even going so far as to reserve a block of time for a Metro-themed press event. The fun kicks off at 3:00PM PT on January 9th, and if you couldn't tell by the invite, we're guessing Windows Phone will be somewhere in the discussion. Naturally, we'll be bringing you every moment of it right here on the site -- nothing wrong with blocking out some vacation time to be here, you know?
Windows Phone 7.5 SMS bug breaks messaging hub, hard reset is the only remedy
An SMS message on your Windows 7.5 handset could knock messaging out cold, a one shot kill you can't prepare for. Apparently, WP devices that receive a text containing a certain string of characters will reboot and return with a non-functional messaging client which can only be restored via a hard reset. The flaw is not device-specific and has been found to affect other parts of the OS, locking up your handset if you've pinned a friend as a live tile and that buddy posts the magic bug words on Facebook or Windows Live Messenger. Fixing the problem requires quick tapping fingers, as you've got to remove the pinned tile after rebooting before it flips and freezes the phone again. Before you go abandoning WP7's ship, just know that SMS issues are a known phenomenon and have affected all the major mobile players, iOS and Android included. Until Microsoft releases a fix, cross your fingers and hang tight, but in the meantime, all you mobile masochists can see the bug in action after the break.
Nokia Lumia 710 for T-Mobile hands-on (video)
Deja vu? Absolutely. Nokia's chosen to make its first, big Windows Phone splash stateside with the humble Lumia 710 on T-Mobile. Eager Espoo fanboys and girls were likely hoping the company would've opted for a Red, White and Blue polycarbonate debut (see: Lumia 800), but that's not the black and white story being told here. So, put your hands down if you already have a smartphone to call your own -- this one's aimed squarely at mobiledom's stragglers. At $49 on contract, it's a value proposition that could very well lead the uninitiated down a live-tiled, Mango-laden path and help Microsoft ensnare a larger user base for its OS. Join us then, won't you, as we dive deep into our second first impressions after the break. %Gallery-141840%
Nokia Lumia 710 official on T-Mobile: HSPA+ 14.4, 3.7-inch ClearBlack display, available January 11th for $49 on contract
Go ahead and take that holiday and even some time to celebrate because Espoo's ushering in the new year with the stateside bow of its Lumia 710. This lower-hanging Mango phone, which we first met at Nokia World, has already begun rolling out to markets worldwide in recent weeks and, now, is poised to enter the U.S. brandishing a Magenta banner and $49 on two-year contract price. That's right, T-Mobile has snatched up exclusive rights to the 3.7-incher, which is mostly unchanged from its initial unbranded incarnation, with the same 800 x 480 ClearBlack LCD display, 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB of storage, 5 megapixel rear camera with single LED flash, WiFi and Bluetooth on board. Naturally, both parties have loaded the device up with a fair share of pre-installed apps like Drive, MS Office, ESPN, T-Mobile TV and Netflix, but you don't have to let that clutter up your clean live-tiled look -- it's all uninstallable. The mid-range handset also runs along the operator's HSPA+ 14.4Mbps network, so you're in store for some heady "4G" speeds should you decide to take the plunge this January 11th when it hits stores. Head on past the break for the official presser. %Gallery-141787%
Mango's live tiles get footloose and fancy free with Themes for Windows Phone 7 (video)
If you've freshly fallen off the Android bandwagon to fill your cup with Mango's nectar, chances are you're still coming to terms with a lack of customization. No longer, as Windows Phone Hacker has just released its Themes for Windows Phone 7 application that puts the power of the live tile into your very willing hands. The program, PC-only for now, applies user-selected images, icons, colors and transparencies to a preferred list of apps, nullifying the need for those pre-set accents. But before you rush to download the file, bear in mind this requires an unlocked handset. So, unless you've cozied up to ChevronWP7 with that $9, you'll just have to watch from the sidelines. Check out the tutorial after the break.
SkyDrive and Windows Phone cozy up, apps can now directly integrate with the cloud
Microsoft, in an effort to continue integrating SkyDrive into Windows Phone, made a few changes to the cloud service's API this week. The new adjustments now give third-party Windows Phone apps full access to SkyDrive, complete with the ability to upload and share pictures, videos and docs. These changes were apparently the result of a lot of feedback from developers, and HandyScan just became the first company to show interest by incorporating the new API features into its Windows Phone app. The program, which offers the ability to scan a document or object, now offers the option of uploading these scanned images directly to SkyDrive. Of course, we imagine we'll soon be seeing a flood of developers proclaim their intent to journey "to the cloud." For more about HandyScan or the API, head to the links below.
Refresh Roundup: week of December 5, 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!
