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Tag: lumia

  • The New Microsoft Lumia 650 is All About Business

    Microsoft unveiled the Lumia 650 Windows 10 phone, and the device is very much geared toward business users.

    “I’ve had an opportunity to talk with our business customers as well as our Windows fans and something that consistently comes up is that this ever expanding mobile world is quickly becoming chaotic,” says Microsoft’s Samuli Hänninen. “It’s in that spirit that we designed the Lumia 650 to bring first class to business class; giving our customers the best of Microsoft productivity and security, all wrapped in a beautiful slim package. By providing a consistent experience across PC and phone through the power of Windows 10, we think professionals and Windows fans alike will love using it every day.”

    “The Lumia 650 fits perfectly into the enterprise with built-in support for Microsoft business applications, new third party Universal Windows Applications like Uber, and one click setup of common everyday tools like Office 365. It also allows IT to test the latest Windows 10 Mobile updates against critical line of business systems and apps, before you distribute to end users via MDM,” Hänninen says. “It’s secure by design and keeps company and personal data safer with features like device encryption and device wipe. These features allow businesses peace of mind, knowing important information in emails and files are protected from threats and empowers employees to use one device for work and play.”

    As some have pointed out, the Lumia 650 is missing some Windows 10 feature,such as the Continuum Display Dock or biometric authentication.

    The device comes and black and matte white. It’s currently available in some European markets for $199 USD . It’s unclear when it might be available here in the U.S.

    Images via YouTube, Microsoft

  • A Look at Microsoft’s New Windows 10 Devices

    Microsoft just unveiled new Surface, Lumia, and Microsoft Band devices including the new Surface Book, Surface Pro 4, Microsoft Band 2, Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL and Lumia 550.

    A spokesperson for the company says, they’re all “built to be the ultimate hardware for Windows 10, which is now running on more than 110 million devices worldwide.”

    “With Windows 10 and these new Microsoft devices, you are at the center of magical new experiences,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We’re moving people from needing to choosing to loving Windows, and these devices promise to fuel even more enthusiasm and opportunity for the entire Windows ecosystem.”

    The Surface Book is a new laptop with pen and touch support. It has a 6th generation Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processor with up to 12 hours of battery life.

    “The 13.5-inch optically bonded PixelSense Display delivers a high-contrast 267 dpi display with improved latency and parallax, making it not just beautiful to look at but natural and fluid to write on,” Microsoft says. “The screen also detaches, so it can be used like a clipboard to sketch, take notes and benefit from Windows programs like Microsoft Edge. An optional discrete GPU allows Surface Book to harness the full power of hardware-accelerated graphics for seamless video editing, fast rendering or immersive gaming. Surface Book starts at $1,499.”

    The company calls the Surface Pro 4 a tablet that can replace your laptop.

    The phones are described as follows:

    With Continuum capability for phones enhanced by the new Microsoft Display Dock accessory, connect the phone to a monitor and transform it for larger-screen entertainment, or add a keyboard and mouse to work like a PC with Windows 10 apps like Microsoft Office, while simultaneously taking calls or performing other tasks. With the latest-generation PureView cameras with 20-megapixel sensors, triple LED natural flash and 4K video capture, the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL enable faster focus and crisper images and videos even in challenging conditions. Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL will become available in select markets in November; local retailers or operators can give pricing and availability.

    Lumia 550, Microsoft’s most affordable 4G LTE smartphone running Windows 10, also joins the Lumia family. For people who value affordability, uncompromised quality and signature Microsoft services, Lumia 550 combines superfast Internet, the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor with ultrafast LTE speeds, and the best of Microsoft services for just $139. Lumia 550 will begin rolling out in select European markets in December, with additional markets to follow.

    Microsoft Band 2 has a new curved display, which the company says makes it more comfortable. It features Cortana and lets you reply to texts or set reminders. It has a continuous optical heart rate monitor and onboard GPS. The band tracks calories burned, deep exercise and sleep quality (which the old one did), but not also tracks floors climbed. It has two-day battery life. It costs $249.

    Microsoft also announced that HoloLens opened applications for the Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition.

    The company also showcased a new Xbox One experience, which is described as a completely reimagined interface that integrates the speed of Windows 10, as well as Xbox One Backward Compatibility, so people can play their Xbox 360 games for free.

    Microsoft’s Terry Myerson discusses all the new stuff more here.

    Images via Microsoft

  • Nokia Promotes Lumia 1520 Tweet On #AppleEvent

    Apple has kicked off its much anticipated event, and as expected, the Twitterverse is getting into it. Nokia announced its own new product with the Lumia 1520, and is taking the opportunity to get its own product in front of Apple enthusiasts.

    This is currently appearing at the top of the results page for #AppleEvent:

    Nokia had some fun last time Apple held an event (last month), making fun of the gold iPhone.

    Keep an eye on our Apple coverage throughout the event and the day here.

  • Nokia Announces the Lumia 1520, a Lumia Tablet, and More

    After months of rumors Nokia has officially unveiled its first six-inch Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the Lumia 1520. Along with the smartphone, Nokia also announced five other mobile devices, including a 10.1-inch Windows RT tablet, the Lumia 2520.

    The Lumia 1520 is precisely what consumers might have expected – a high-end Lumia smartphone with a larger screen. The device comes with a full HD six-inch screen, a 2.2GHz quad-core processor, and 2GB of RAM. It also touts a 20MP rear camera, which is higher-end than most smartphones, excepting Nokia’s own Lumia 1020 that was just announced back in July. Nokia has priced the 1520 on the high end of the smartphone market, retailing for $749. The device is expected to launch sometime during the fourth quarter of this year.

    In addition to the 1520, Nokia announced another six-inch smartphone, the Lumia 1320. The 1320 is a lower-end version of the 1520, with an identical look but coming in different colors (orange, yellow, white, and black). It has only a 720p display and will retail for the relatively lower price of $339. According to Nokia the 1320 will launch sometime during the first quarter of 2014.

    The Lumia 2520 (the tablet) will be one of only tablets besides Microsoft’s Surface 2 to come running Windows RT 8.1. The device is Nokia’s first Windows tablet, sporting a 10.1-inch 1080p display. Running the software will be a 2.2GHz processor and the tablet also has a 6.1MP front-facing camera. Nokia will be launching the tablet with a variety of accessories, including a keyboard and a cover, sometime during the fourth quarter of 2013. The device will retail for $499.

    “Now more than ever, mobile devices are at the center of consumers’ lives as they look to capture, curate and share experiences on the go,” said Stephen Elop, former CEO and current EVP of Devices & Services at Nokia. “Today we’re inviting people around the world to switch to Nokia.

    (Image courtesy Nokia)

  • Nokia Lumia 1520 Rumored For October Release

    Back in July, Nokia followed in the steps of Android smartphone manufacturers by announcing the Lumia 625, a Windows Phone 8 smartphone with a 4.7-inch screen. Now, with Samsung marketing its 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3 and other Android makers selling smartphones with screens over 6-inches, Nokia is rumored to be preparing its own “phablet” device.

    DigiTimes today is reporting that Nokia is set to release a 6-inch Windows Phone 8 smartphone sometime next month. The report’s unnamed “industry sources” are cited as saying the new Lumia 1520 will be announced during October. The device is also rumored to the first from Nokia to come running the latest version of Windows Phone 8.

    Oddly, the DigiTimes report also speculates that Nokia’s move toward larger smartphones will “accelerate” Apple’s transition to larger devices as well. Though the iPhone 5 and IPhone 5S have slightly larger screens than previous iPhone models, Apple has appeared reluctant to raise screen sizes significantly for its new iPhone models.

    It was recently announced that Microsoft will acquire Nokia’s hardware division for a bit over $7 billion. The deal ensures that Nokia’s current strategy of focusing on being the top player in the Windows Phone market will not be changing. It also brings Nokia CEO Stephen Elop back to Microsoft, where he once headed-up the business division. Elop is now a top contender to take the place of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who recently announced his impending retirement.

  • Nokia Announces Larger Lumia 625 Windows Phone

    Just two weeks ago, Nokia announced its new flagship Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the Lumia 1020. That device’s big feature is a 41MP camera and the software to take advantage of it. Now, Nokia has announced a mid-priced Windows Phone 8 smartphone that’s big feature is being big.

    Nokia today announced the Lumia 625, the manufacturer’s largest Windoes PHone 8 smartphone to date. The device has a 4.7-inch screen, comparable to the size of Samsung’s newer Galaxy S smartphones. The 625 also has a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU, 512MB of memory, and 8GB of storage. It does not sport the high-end camera of the 1020, instead having a 5-megapixel rear camera.

    Nokia is hoping to position the 625 as a mid-priced smartphone for Europe, Asia, India, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Nokia did not mention a North American launch in its announcement. The device will be available some time during Nokia’s third fiscal quarter and will retail for €220. As is customary for Nokia’s devices, the 625 will launch in a variety of colors, including orange, yellow, green, white, and black. The device also includes shells in these colors for an easily changeable appearance.

  • Nokia Announces New Lumia Smartphones, New Feature Phones

    Nokia is to be commended for sparing everyone the groans a mini-tablet announcement would have caused. Instead of launching itself into that quickly-flooding category, the company decided to focus on what it is good at: budget-priced phones.

    At the Mobile World Congress event today, Nokia announced several new Windows Phone 8 Lumia devices, including the Lumia 720 and Lumia 520, as well as budget phones called the Nokia 105 and Nokia 301.

    The Lumia smartphones are similar in design to Nokia’s premium Windows Phone 8 devices, the Lumia 920 and the Lumia 822, but feature less expensive hardware. The Lumia 720, for example, features a 1GHZ processor and 512MB of memory, while the Lumia 520 has a smaller 4-inch display. The 720 will sell for €249 and the 520 will sell for €139. Both will be out in March.

    The really interesting portion of Nokia’s announcements was the reveal of very inexpensive feature phones the company hopes to push in developing nations such as China.

    The Nokia 105 will sell for just €15 and offers the bare minimum of features. It offers support for phone calls and SMS, and also features an FM radio, flashlight, and 35 days of standby battery power. The Nokia 301 is a small step up and offers a camera and more feature phone perks such as social media apps. It will retail for €65.

  • Nokia Has A Plan In Case Windows Phone 8 Goes Splat

    In business, as in war, chess, and first dates, it’s always good to have an exit strategy, a backup plan to disentangle yourself if things go south. This backup plan is infinitely more important if you’re struggling. And Nokia is definitely struggling. Like many phone companies that were at the top of their game when the iPhone came out five years ago, Nokia has struggled to stay competitive in the rapidly changing mobile phone landscape. Over the last year or so, the company has bet heavily on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

    It’s a match that made sense, really. Nokia was a feature phone company struggling to keep up in a smartphone world, and Microsoft had missed the boat with its Windows Mobile platform. Both companies badly needed a hit, and hoped to find it in the Nokia Lumia 900. While the Lumia 900 has performed decently, it wasn’t exactly a home run. Surely the next lineup of Windows Phone devices will be once Windows Phone 8 comes out later this year, right? That would certainly be best for both Nokia and Microsoft, but the fact is that Nokia can’t afford to put all its eggs in one basket anymore. To that end, Nokia board chairman Risto Siilasmaa recently told a Finnish talk show that Nokia has plans in place should Windows Phone 8 hit the market with a whimper instead of a bang.

    According to Finnish news site Yle Uutiset, Siilasmaa said that while he remains confident in Windows Phone 8’s potential to perform well, the company has not put all its eggs in one basket. He declined to be more specific, however, leading to speculation about just what those plans might be. He did point to Nokia’s location services and network division, as well as the company’s large intellectual property portfolio. Those things, however, don’t seem to fit the concept of a contingency plan all that well.

    What Siilasmaa likely means, then, is that Nokia is working on hardware that will run other software platforms should Windows Phone 8 flop. The obvious choice would be Android. On the other hand, the Android market is becoming a difficult place to get into. Samsung is the only really profitable Android phone maker, though Motorola Mobility’s new-found direct ties to Google are bound to make it a major player. Of course, there’s always RIM – there have been rumors that RIM would sell off its hardware business and begin licensing the BlackBerry platform to other hardware makers.

    At this point, though, using RIM as your contingency plan looks an awful lot like using an anchor as your backup parachute, so if Nokia were to consider an alliance with RIM, they’d be wise to have another contingency plan in case RIM doesn’t survive until Windows Phone 8 goes thud (assuming it does).

    At any rate, Siilasmaa’s lack of specificity means that this is all speculation. The likeliest candidate for Nokia’s contingency plans is Android, but unless Windows Phone 8 falls flat, we’re not likely to know anything for certain.

  • Nokia Made More From iPhone Sales Than Lumia Sales

    Last last week we brought you news of Nokia’s first-quarter earnings report. Despite additions to its Lumia line of smartphones, the company reported a $1.7 billion loss for the quarter.

    Interestingly, although the iPhone is almost certainly one of the major culprits behind Nokia’s flagging sales, the iPhone also kept Nokia’s first quarter losses from being even greater. How is that, you ask? Last summer Nokia and Apple settled a lengthy patent war (much like the one currently raging between Apple and Samsung). As part of the agreement, Apple paid Nokia a one-time sum of about $600 million, and licensed the infringed patents from Nokia to the tune of €8 in royalties per iPhone sold. At current exchange rates, that works out to about $10.60 that Nokia made from the sale of every iPhone.

    Now, while Nokia only sold 11.9 million smartphones in the first quarter, Apple sold a whopping 35.1 million smartphones, making Apple either the largest or second largest smartphone maker in the world, depending on who you ask. After a little quick math, it turns out that Nokia made $372 million from the sales of Apple’s iPhone between January 2012 and March 2012 (Nokia’s 1st quarter, Apple’s 2nd). Conversely, Nokia’s mobile phone division saw quarterly loss of €219 million ($290 million). In a nutshell, Nokia made $82 million more on iPhones than it lost on its own mobile phones.

    The moral of the story, then, is that while patent lawsuits like the ones currently going between Apple and Samsung, Motorola and Microsoft, Motorola and Apple, etc. may look (and may be) ridiculous, they can make a huge difference to a company’s bottom line. In effect. The licensing agreement agreement between Nokia and Apple resulted in Nokia getting over a third of a billion dollars in free money last quarter. While that wasn’t enough to keep Nokia in the black, it did mean the difference between $1.7 billion in losses and over $2 billion in losses, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

    [H/T: AppleInsider]

  • Nokia Sells 2 Million Lumia Windows Phones in Q1

    Nokia Sells 2 Million Lumia Windows Phones in Q1

    Nokia has just revealed that it sold 2 million Lumia Windows Phone devices worldwide during Q1, 2012, and calls the results for its devices and services for the quarter “disappointing,” and states that its “difficult financial performance reflects company in transition.”

    Nokia launched its Lumia 900 on April 8th, which is one of the cheapest hi-end smartphones ever, at $100 with a 2-year contract. The 900 runs Windows Phone 7, and at its price point, the 2 million in sales apparently didn’t do much for the Nokia, who initially forecasted breaking even for the quarter, and then downgraded the prediction to coming in at negative 3%. The Lumia 900 was initially touted as the Nokia’s flagship come-back phone, but many units were shipped with a connection glitch, and the company was forced to offer replacement phones or credit, to any devices that were obtained before April 21st. It’s evident that the Lumia 900 might have turned out to be a bit of a lemon.

    As for Windows Phone 7, it’s been reported that the OS only makes up only 3% of all smartphones sold by AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S., but Microsoft has made the platform available in 23 new countries, in attempts to capitalize on its usability in low-end technology. Microsoft isn’t exactly going to give up on its Windows Phone OS, and since Apple and Google aren’t so entrenched in certain developing markets, it’s expansion to a total of 63 emerging regions is integral – stores in Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru and the Philippines are promoting the operating system.

  • Nokia Launches Low-Cost Lumia Phone

    Nokia Launches Low-Cost Lumia Phone

    Today at Mobile World Congress, Nokia launched the Lumia 610, a low-end Windows phone, roughly a year after announcing that it would discontinue development of it’s proprietary operating system Symbian, in an attempt to boost sales. Still, the company also announced a new Symbian phone, that can shoot 38-megapixel pictures.

    The Lumia 610 uses a version of Windows Phone 7 that supports lower memory and processing requirements, and is Nokia has stated the phone would likely retail for $254, and be available in the second quarter of 2012. It’s geared toward younger users, with many preloaded social networking functions.

    Nokia also announced its new camera imager that will first be included with its 808 PureView. The PureView technology will be launched on the Symbian OS, but as Nokia phases Symbian out, PureView is planned to be migrated over to Windows Phone 7. PureView accomodates 38-megapixel photos, which would allow users to pinpoint and zoom in on specific areas in images, and likewise print them out in large formats. The imager is adjustable, allowing 5 or 8-megapixel photos to be taken, and the phone features a Carl Zeiss lens.

    Nokia opened its news conference at the Mobile World Congress by unveiling three new phones designed for developing countries. “We’re targeting the 3.2 billion people who don’t yet have a phone and 1.2 billion who have a phone but don’t have a data plan yet,” said Mary McDowell, executive vice president of mobile phones for Nokia. The three new feature phones are the Asha models 202, 203 and 302, all running on Windows Phone. Nokia declared they’d phase Symbian out at last years conference, switching to Windows, and Steve Elop, president and CEO of Nokia, stated, “one year later, we’ve changed the clock speed of Nokia, demonstrating we can rapidly execute our new strategy.”