The new Nokia Camera app is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace

The revamped Nokia Camera app has made its way to the Windows Phone Marketplace. The refreshed photography application made its debut during the Nokia Lumia 1520 announcement in Abu Dhabi.

Nokia Camera brings the Smart Cam and Pro Cam apps under the same roof. It covers the entire range of mobile photography tricks from clever auto mode, all the way to full manual control.

Read More

Here come the Nokia Lumia 1520 promo videos

Nokia finally took the wraps off its first phablet, the Lumia 1520 and now it’s time for the promo videos to pop up on YouTube.

The phablet got three of those, focusing on its smart side, artistic side and also on its hardware.

The first video is the hands-on. It quickly runs through the most notable features of the Lumia 1520 in about four minutes. Naturally the 20MP PureView camera gets its due attention. The new display also gets a bit of the spotlight before Nokia goes into detail about the boring stuff like Office document editing. The new Nokia Camera, which combines Pro Cam and Smart Cam in one, is shown in the video. Check it out below.

Then comes the Nokia Lumia 1520 for smarter business. Check it out.

Finally the third video focuses on taking pictures with the Nokia Camera app on the Lumia 1520 and browsing them on the Storyteller. The video is shot in Paris and really makes us want to go take some pictures with the Lumia 1520.

Read More

Nokia’s Refocus camera app would professionally defocus any of your Lumia shots

Today at the Nokia World 2013 held in Abu Dhabi, Nokia announced their new Refocus camera app for the Lumia 1520. Refocus promises users the freedom to selectively change the area of the photo, which is in focus.

The Nokia Refocus is a separate camera app for Lumia phones (unlike what we first heard).

Read More

WhatsApp grows to 350 million monthly users

Nokia World is in full swing and while it’s mostly about Nokia’s products, some important app announcements were made, including a quick visit from WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum. Mr. Koum announced that the highly popular instant messenger has now reached 350 million monthly active users.

In mid-April this year the CEO announced that WhatsApp is bigger than Twitter with 200 million monthly active users and that number was 300 million in August.

Read More

The Lumia 2520 is Nokia’s first tablet

Over at its Abu Dhabi Keynote Nokia released its first slate dubbed Lumia 2520. The tablet runs on the Windows RT, has a 10.1″ FullHD display a Snapdragon 800 chipset and comes with a variety of color options – black, blue, white and red. The price before subsidies will be $499.

You can get the Lumia 2520 slate with an add-on keyboard, dubbed Power Keyboard, with additional USB ports, battery and integrated kick-stand.

Read More

Instagram finally coming to Windows Phone 8

At the stage of the Nokia World event, Stephen Elop has just announced that Instagram is finally coming to Windows Phone 8 devices.

With over 130 million users on tap, Instagram is one of the most popular photo sharing social networks.

Read More

Nokia’s latest video on HERE: everyday super powers

Nokia has released three new videos advertising its HERE products. They all feature HERE’s employee Alex Osaki and made in the style of the James Bond movies.

Nokia will soon become a service-focused company after selling its device business to Microsoft next year.

Read More

Only 1080p WP handsets will get third Live Tile column in the Start menu

Microsoft announced the Windows Phone 8 GDR3 update yesterday and many got excited over the news for the addition of a third column of Live Tiles on the Start screen. As it turns out, however, the third column will only be available for Windows Phone devices packing a display of full HD resolution.

As a result, all current WP8 smartphones, including the Lumia 1020 flagship, will be limited to a two-column Start menu only. Devices with lower resolution also follow suit.

Read More

Nokia releases Glance Background for the Lumia lineup

Nokia has just published an awesome app that builds upon the popular Glance Screen feature. If the Glance screen was a bit too boring for your taste, you can now spice it up by adding a background to it.

Thanks to the Glance Background (still in beta), you can choose a set of backgrounds for your Glance Screen.

Read More

Windows Phone 8.1 to power 10″ tablets, swallow up Windows RT

We’ve been hearing that Windows Phone and Windows RT might merge but a new rumor suggests it will be more like Phone displacing RT. Microsoft is working on a Windows Phone 8.1 update, which will allegedly add support for 7 to 10 inch screens to enable WP8.1-powered tablets and merge parts of the API so developers can easily create apps for both platforms.

Multitasking is reportedly the biggest issue ahead of this plan – the GDR3 update will let users close apps manually,

Read More

Twitter updates Windows Phone app, Vine app spotted in screenshot

Twitter updated its Windows Phone app and along with some useful new features is a hidden surprise – a Vine app. The new Twitter app makes reading tweets easier – you can set it to show tweets on the lockscreen and also pin keyword searches to the homescreen.

The app can also notify you when your favorite accounts tweet.

Read More

A stripped-down, official YouTube app for Windows Phone is back in the Marketplace

After getting blocked a couple of months back, the official YouTube app for Windows Phone is now back in the Marketplace as version 3.2. The popular app however, has lost some functionality compared to last time it was available.

YouTube for Windows Phone has returned to simply being a shortcut for a web-player. When opened, the app takes the user to the mobile version of the YouTube website.

Read More

New color options coming on the Lumia Glance screen with GDR3

The Glance Screen is a really great feature of the Lumia range. It’s a tribute to the MeeGo lockscreen (and Symbian smartphones), where you can always see a clock and get any missed events listed right on the standby screen.

Until now the Glance Screen, which premiered with the Amber update, had two color options – the default white font and the optional night theme that paints the clock red.

Read More

Watch this amazing video of Red Bull’s freerunning competition shot entirely on Nokia Lumia 1020

Red Bull held a freerunning competition called Art of Motion in the picturesque Santorini island. That was in mid-September but if you missed it you can watch Claudiu Voicu’s video called free runtastic! that captured the highlights of the event and was shot entirely on a Nokia Lumia 1020.

Claudiu is no stranger to using a Lumia to shoot freerunners – he did it before with a Lumia 900.

Anyway, check out the video below. It’s a shame that it’s only 720p but even so it looks amazing.

Read More

‘Angry Birds Star Wars II’ for iOS, Android, Windows Phone game review

Angry Birds Star Wars II’ for iOS, Android, Windows Phone game review

The original Angry Birds Star Wars hit the app stores last year in November and came as a breath of fresh air. Although an Angry Birds game at heart, the game featured brand new birds modeled after Star Wars characters and had their own unique new powers that made the game more exciting than what you’d expect from an Angry Birds game.

Now, Rovio is back with a sequel, with the aptly named Angry Birds Star Wars II that is based on the prequel trilogy of Star Wars movies, and once again features several new characters and environments in dozens of new levels. But after four years and several similar games, is flinging birds at pigs still going to be entertaining? Let’s find out.

Read More

Nokia teams up with LOCATEL to deliver NFC-based hotel services

Nokia teamed up with hospitality IT solutions company LOCATEL and is set to deliver various NFC-based services to various hotels around the globe.

The new NFC-driven solutions could be used for enhancing the hotel stay experience for Nokia customers by using tags in various locations in the hotel for calling a taxi, viewing mobile TV, downloading apps etc.

Read More

Windows Phone 8 devices now able to update offline maps to latest version

Windows Phone 8 devices have the ability to save maps for offline viewing, but until now when a map has been updated you’d need to delete the stored one and re-download.

Now WP8 smartphones have the functionality to update the maps saved for offline viewing on your device without wasting as much data.

Read More

WhatsApp to start charging $0.99 per year now

WhatsApp, the hugely popular cross-platform instant messaging app that lets you message other users for free over the internet, is starting to charge an annual fee for its service.

It will now cost $0.99 per year for you to be able to message your friends on WhatsApp. However, both new and current users will get the first year for free. The update applies to all versions of the app, including both Android and iPhone.

Read More

Nokia charges a Lumia 925 using lighting

So, Apple gadgets are charged with Lightning cables? That’s cute – Nokia uses actual lightning. No really, Nokia has partnered with the University of Southampton for the craziest scientist implementation of wireless charging.

The team managed to get a Nokia Lumia 925 charging from a simulated lightning.

No, the point isn’t to create a franken-Lumia or to have Stephen Elop dress up as Doctor Doom. It’s that the electric arc is about the worst wireless charging signal a phone can get, rather than the nice, specially prepared signal coming from a wireless charger.

Read More