Nokia

Now Nokia joins the anti-iPhone 5 party

Now the playground is full of name-callers.

First there was Samsung's muscle-baring, fact-sharing anti-iPhone 5 ad, which ran yesterday. You know, the one that said the Galaxy S3 is full of features and the iPhone 5, well, isn't.

And now Nokia is stiffening its fins in order to declare that its fine Lumia is happily better than Apple's long-faced newcomer.

Just as news of Samsung's ad came through on the hottest of wires, Nokia took to its Twitter account to declare: "Lumia 920: Wireless charging, amazing camera, screen you can use with gloves on and … Read more

iPhone 5 opens the door for Nokia, Samsung

News flash: The iPhone 5 is not the end-all and be-all of the smartphone universe, a fact that should thrill Nokia and Samsung alike.

Here's what it is: a strong improvement to the iPhone 4S that offers up a larger screen, 4G LTE speeds, and a terrific camera. The iPhone 5 carries on the goodness that Apple excels at, like iTunes entertainment and cloud storage.

But however good the iPhone 5 is, it lacks the knockout, gasp-inducing feature that Apple followers have come to expect: perhaps double the battery life of any other phone on the market, or an … Read more

Nokia could launch entry-level Windows Phone 7.5 handsets, says report

Nokia may offer entry-level Windows Phone 7.5 devices by year's end, according to DigiTimes.

Citing the usual "industry sources," DigiTimes said the new phones would be aimed at consumers in emerging markets, who are considered more price-sensitive.

The hardware requirements for Windows Phone 8 are stricter than those for its predecessor, demanding a dual-core processor and support for near-field communication (NFC). Those features would be difficult to add to more entry-level and mid-level phones, according to the sources, prompting the need for less pricey Windows Phone 7.5 devices.

A Nokia spokesman told CNET that the … Read more

Nokia City Lens app for Windows Phone 7 zooms in on local shops

Owners of virtually all Nokia Lumia phones will be able to discover local businesses via the company's new City Lens augmented reality.

Shown off by Nokia last week, City Lens overlays nearby businesses on the screen when you point your phone in their direction. Tapping a specific business reveals full details, including contact information, reviews, walking distance, and directions.

Though demoed for the upcoming Windows Phone 8 Lumia 920, the new app is actually available as of yesterday for the current Lumia 900, 800, and 710 Windows Phone 7 handsets. Owners of any of those phones can download City … Read more

Viber hits 100 million users, partners with Nokia on WP7

VoIP provider Viber has hit a new milestone.

The company announced today that it now has 100 million worldwide users taking advantage of its free phone calls, texting, and photo-messaging services. It's not clear if those users are actively using the service or have just signed up. Still, the company claims to handle over 2 billion minutes of calls and 6 billion messages every month. An average of 10 million calls are placed each day.

Viber has established itself as a true competitor to Skype, the popular VoIP service now owned by Microsoft. Viber works across iOS, Android, and … Read more

U.K. gets its first 4G network

U.K. network operator Everything Everywhere, which runs the Orange and T-Mobile brands in the UK, has announced the first commercial 4G LTE network across the country.

The company, which will now be known as EE, will launch the service in 16 U.K. cities -- including London, Manchester, and Glasgow -- by the end of the year and will push for 98 percent U.K. coverage by 2014.

While Orange and T-Mobile will remain as two separate operating companies, EE will be reserved for 4G brands and connectivity.

Along with the announcement, the mobile phone giant -- with more … Read more

Nokia culpa: Phony Lumia 920 video prompts ethics probe

Nokia committed a major gaffe in promoting its Lumia 920, and now the company says it's trying to figure out why.

Last week, the company unveiled its new Windows 8 Phone handsets, with the Lumia 920 starring as its flagship device. Touting the phone's optical image stabilization (OIS), Nokia released a promotional clip supposedly comparing video shot by the 920 using OIS with video shot by a phone without OIS.

But after The Verge noticed an odd reflection in the clip, Nokia fessed up that the OIS-flavored video was actually shot by a normal video camera and not … Read more

The ho-hum era of smartphones has begun

commentary Smartphones are great. But it's time to lower your expectations, because the smartphone industry has moved from an era of revolutionary improvement to a much more bland era of incremental refinement.

Progress will continue, to be sure: screens will get better, networks will get faster, prices will come down. But these days, it's just a lot harder to come up with a smartphone that makes last year's model look like an outdated relic.

This week, we'll see what Apple has in store for the next-gen iPhone. I have no doubt it will be technically impressive … Read more

Oh, no, Nokia: Another oopsie?

There are days when I want to bawl out loud. And then there are days when it's just a need for simpering tears to course slowly down my face, rolling in time to a little Enya.

This morning is a time for the latter, as a company for which I have considerable affection -- Nokia -- has admitted to further dissimulation.

You may remember that last week, as it launched its canary yellow Lumia 920 phone, the company showed a rather nice video to accompany it. It heralded the new PureView technology, which makes images just so pristine.

Sadly, … Read more

Why Nokia nixed an SD card slot for the Lumia 920

Nokia's new Lumia 920 smartphone is missing an SD card slot, but that was intentional.

Speaking with tech news site PC Pro, Nokia executive VP Kevin Shields said that a memory card slot would have ruined the clean design of the phone.

"We started with the premise that we wanted an uncompromised physical form," Shields told PC Pro. "To put an SD card slot in it would have defiled it."

The Lumia 820 comes with only 8GB of internal storage but includes a microSD card slot that can handle up to 32GB worth of data. … Read more