Would you risk hammering or drilling your smartphone?
In this video from CES 2013 in Las Vegas, Kyle Zurkan from Amzer, demonstrates the company's ShatterProof screen protection for smartphones.
Recently in Nokia Category
Huawei launched a few devices at CES in Las Vegas this week,
while none of them were confirmed with regions, dates or prices, two
smartphones, which are expected to ship to China and then worldwide, caught my
eye.
The Ascend Mate -
giant phablet with the "worlds largest screen"
Again, a growing trend at CES this week has been a huge leap in screen size, be that in tablets, phones, monitors or TVs. Huawei's Ascend Mate is a monster. Huuuuge, at 6.1-inches of HD 1280 x 720 LCD touchscreen compared the 5.5-inch screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note.
But tell me something, when tablets are generally growing to ridiculous sizes, but also shrinking to 7-inches, and smartphones are growing to 6.1-inches, where will the line eventually be in the phablet space? In six months time, what will be a phone and what will distinguish a tablet?
I found the Android device surprisingly light in the hand.
The rows upon rows of Android apps sitting on the screen could get very messy
or be a joy to organise for someone as OCD as me.
The Ascent W1 -
Huwaei's first Windows 8 device
This entry-level Windows 8 device looks much simpler than a
Nokia Lumia 920 or a HTC 8X. It still has the insanely bright colouring of the other Windows 8 devices,
however it doesn't feel as superior as the other devices did when I first held
them.
It's light enough, but still feels a bit chunky, like the
Lumia. I found the back panel in the bright blue to look not very appealing in
plastic, which made it look like a child's toy.
The device was fairly responsive, with easy scroll feature,
but not as light to the touch as the Lumia and HTC models. It also comes with
the standard additional features of Windows 8, such as kids corner and this
model also features NFC.
As I said, no pricing or availability announced as yet.
Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, has offered every Yahoo! employee a smartphone. "Choose from Apple, Samsung, Nokia, or HTC", she said, but specifically says "No!" to BlackBerry.
It's another setback for BlackBerry which is trying desperately to cling onto its place in the smartphone market as the phone of choice in the corporate world.
The memo which was leaked and picked up by the Business Insider, stated:
"We have a very exciting update to share with you today - we are announcing Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun! As of today, Yahoo is moving off of blackberries as our corporate phones and on to smartphones in 22 countries*. A few weeks ago, we said that we would look into smartphone penetration rates globally and take those rates into account when deciding on corporate phones. Ideally, we'd like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do."
In response to the news that Yahoo! was going to spend a few million dollars on smartphones for all of its staff, a PR person for Nokia announced over Twitter that it would throw in a wireless charging plate with every Lumia 920 the company bought, claiming the phone is "worth the wait" - desperate not to be left out hey Nokia?
Mayer has called the programme, Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun!, but I can't see RIM's board of directors chuckling over their morning lattes.
Mayer's move shows the direction that businesses could potential go in when kitting out their staff with the latest technology. And this is in the completely opposite direction to BlackBerry.
However, among reports of doom and gloom for BlackBerry creator, Research In Motion (RIM), there is a small ray of hope behind Mayer's thinking. In her memo, she stated: "Ideally, we'd like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do." This is clearly the reasoning she didn't want BlackBerry included in the line-up because its popularity with consumers has been dwindling significantly.
As a consumer device, BlackBerry hasn't been able to keep up in the race, but it is still a key communication device in the business world and shouldn't be brushed aside as a has-been. That all said and done, it would be great to see some innovation from RIM in the next quarter, but with dramatic revenue losses and job cuts left, right and centre I'm not holding my breath.
*Computer Weekly can confirm that while according to Business Insider all of Yahoo's full time and part time employees in the US, were sent the memo, the staff in the UK are still patiently waiting for their emails from Father Christmas, er, I mean Marissa Mayer.
Yesterday, at a press conference in New York, Nokia attempted to cling on to its place in the smartphone market by unveiling the Nokia Lumia 920.
The device confirmed everyone's suspicions and was indeed running on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 operating system, but Nokia managed to turn a few heads with some slick and sexy features such as wireless charging, augmented reality, near field communications (NFC) and an impressive camera.
Sadly, for the Finnish company, the news wasn't received with an immediate fanfare as its share prices plummeted 12% during the first hour after the press conference.
The new Lumia, running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chip, has a 4.5in curved glass display with PureMotion HD+ technology, giving it a fast refresh rate, and a clear black display, which automatically adjusts to sunlight and removes glare. Its polycarbonate shell material prevents the bright colours of the handset being scratched off - which with the day-glow yellow colour, I think a few scratches wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
Once a market leader, Nokia is obviously trying very hard to attract users back, while teaming with Microsoft which has also seen difficulty taking market share away from Android and Apple - is this a recipe for disaster or success? Nokia may have gambled on the hype surrounding upcoming Windows 8 launch, but have they done enough?
Let's have a quick look at the three things that make the Lumia 920 stand out from the crowd.
Wireless technology
The device has built in wireless charging, with an array of accessories including plates, stands and Fatboy pillows. You can just drop your device onto one of these accessories and it will start charging without the need for any wires or plugs.
Nokia has also signed deals with Virgin Atlantic and Coffee Bean to provide charging pads within their lounges and stores, and hopes more retailers will get involved.
There was also a glimmer of hope for NFC. During the demo the Lumia was playing music wirelessly via the connection, with JBL speakers - but sadly there was no hint of a mobile wallet for contactless payments.
Photography
The 8.7mp camera, comes with PureView technology which claims to take the best photographs and videos, and is '50% more effective than many of today's digital cameras.'
Taking photographs at night, using the device's floating lens technology, claims to produce fantastic clear shots without the need of a flash. This technology apparently counterbalances the minute movements in your hands to reduce blur, while the shutter stays open longer to let in more light.
With many photography apps integrated into the device, it is very easy to select Photosynth to take a 360 degree panoramic image, add little bits of video or eliminate people from your snaps.
Navigation
Nokia has ramped up its navigation technology by describing it as a 'fully-fledge personal navigation device.' It has the capabilities to use the navigation technology offline, as well as functionalities which assess your daily commute for any traffic and adjusts the time you need to leave the house. Additionally Nokia transport works in a similar way and also provides indoor maps to help you make your way around train and bus stations.
The advanced mapping technology, City Lens, is the navigation's showstopper. City Lens is an augmented reality app which overlaps information about restaurants, cafes and shops onto the surrounding area once you point the camera at a building or street. You can then easily select a restaurant's website or seamlessly ring to book a table.
Business use
As the device is running Windows Phone 8, the ability to sync content between the phone and Windows 8 PCs or tablets may be attractive to enterprise users who intend to upgrade to Windows 8 in the future.
The operating system uses Internet Explorer 10 for 'faster, safer browsing' and has Microsoft Office apps built into the platform, although no details of the Windows 8 Office suite were discussed at the press conference.
However, with the ability to access 100,000 of the existing Window Phone apps, I'm sure we can expect more information on business software at the launch of Windows 8 in October.
Available later this year in lipstick red, stunning yellow, and seductive grey. No prices have been disclosed as yet.
If you occasionally read this blog, you'll know that I'm a
big fan of Windows Phone but that my opinion of Nokia has slowly been
declining. Well, that was until I got
my hands on a Lumia 800 a while back.
The Lumia 900 is essentially a beefier model, with a larger
screen and the addition of a front-facing camera so I'd assumed I'd like just
as much as the 800, if not more.
The announcement that Windows
Phone 8 will not be coming to existing Windows Phone 7 handsets put a bit
of a downer on this review before I even finished it. Although, Microsoft added
that users won't be left high and dry, being upgraded from Windows Phone 7.5 to
7.8. What that fully entails, I do not know. Yet.
I planned to have this review as a sort of comparison
between the Lumia 800 but they are just too similar, so that would be
pointless. Instead, I'll be focusing on whether bigger really is better.
Display
Both handsets have the same resolution at 480 x 800 and both
work well even outdoors, partly down to the Nokia ClearBlack display, but the
900 just gives you so much more room to play with.
Specification
Thankfully, despite its size, it is comfortable. That is mainly
down to the material and shape of the body. The curved polycarbonate shell,
weighing 160g, was exceptionally snug in my hand.
Don't start thinking it's all cuddly though. This device can
also take a bit of abuse. If the all-in-one shell is scratched it will be harder to notice than on other handsets. That's because the Lumia's casing
is the same colour all the way through to the innards.
Camera
Windows Phone 7.5
Call Quality
If it was thinner, maybe like the HTC One X, I'd probably
change my tune. And yes, I am that shallow.
The fact that Windows Phone 8 is on the horizon and there
are numerous larger screened handsets with
much more processing power leads to me draw the conclusion that the Lumia 900 is
just a bit of a waste of space and materials.
Thankfully this experience has only made me appreciate the Lumia
800 more. It is an amazing phone and WP7 is an excellent OS, one I hold in
higher regard than Android.
I think that devices like the Asus Padfone, in one way or another, hold the answer here. It is actually both a phone and a tablet, not something
trying to be both and failing miserably at being either.
Yeah, that includes you as well Galaxy Note.
The announcement that Windows
Phone 8 will not be coming to existing Windows Phone 7 handsets put a bit
of a downer on this review before I even finished it. Although, Microsoft added
that users won't be left high and dry, being upgraded from Windows Phone 7.5 to
7.8. What that fully entails, I do not know. Yet.
I planned to have this review as a sort of comparison
between the Lumia 800 but they are just too similar, so that would be
pointless. Instead, I'll be focusing on whether bigger really is better.
DisplayThen the Lumia 900 comes along, with its 4.3 inch screen.
The perfect solution? Well, I know its only 0.7 of an inch extra but, trust
me, it makes all the difference.
Both handsets have the same resolution at 480 x 800 and both
work well even outdoors, partly down to the Nokia ClearBlack display, but the
900 just gives you so much more room to play with.
SpecificationThankfully, despite its size, it is comfortable. That is mainly
down to the material and shape of the body. The curved polycarbonate shell,
weighing 160g, was exceptionally snug in my hand.
Don't start thinking it's all cuddly though. This device can
also take a bit of abuse. If the all-in-one shell is scratched it will be harder to notice than on other handsets. That's because the Lumia's casing
is the same colour all the way through to the innards.
CameraCall QualityAlso, a quick thanks to Three for providing the Micro SIM card for this handset.
Battery Life
If it was thinner, maybe like the HTC One X, I'd probably
change my tune. And yes, I am that shallow.
Having created this blog and nurtured it for the past four years, I've decided to put the best blog posts/videos from the best on one page. Diary of an outcast: Apple's Special iPad 2 Event
I will start with my favourite post, the infamous Apple event. I had been invited to Apple events before but somehow started getting missed off the list. I hate Apple so it was no surprise that they didn't want me there. Safe to say that after this post not only was I missed off the list but Computer Weekly never received an invite from Apple ever again.
iPhone Vs N97
This was the first big video project that me and David (video editor) put together. At the time I was so happy that I'd got the N97 I decided to make a video pitting it against the iPhone while mocking Apple's advertising campaign. Little did I know that the N97 would prove to be the worst purchase I've ever made in my life.
HTC Desire HD Review
David (who stars in this video) and I wanted to do something different and create a cool video review. This is what we came up with.
Sadly once we started recording David (and the department he worked for) were made redundant. It didn't effect the video but it wasn't a happy time for us. Having cleared out his desk he set up at home the next day to finish it. This was our last hurrah and the last video I made. Very proud of it.
What is the best mobile OS around?
At this point, no one wanted to be in any of my videos. The company was starting to cut back on them and so I tried to play four roles with four outfits and a moustache before I got told that what I was doing wasn't a productive use of my time. Honestly, how could they say that?
This video used to have a voting element that has since been removed because we couldn't afford to pay for the server the flash sat on.
The most ambitious video we ever tried.
Video: The future of business cards, I'm not taking the Poken
There was a girl I was desperate to go out with at my work. I needed to do a video to have a reason to talk to her but the only thing I'd been sent was a Poken. No phones or cool gadgets. Somehow I persuaded her to help me make this video. We're still together :)
Video review of the wiimote like Gyration Air Mouse
This video is pretty much when I realised that I can be funny. What people don't realise is that filming didn't take long but discussions between David and I on what was funny took forever.
He would stand there saying "That's not funny" every time I cracked a joke or did something stupid. Or one of my favourite lines of his was "You might think that's funny, but it isn't".
Video: Palm Pre vs the iPhone - The big debate
I had 2 weeks before Christmas to do a video armed with my wit and a white wig that was left over from a very bad 'Back to the future' spoof I'd made where I played the Doc. That video was so bad that the company we producd it for sent us a letter saying that if the video ever saw the light of day, they'd sue my a** off.
David went on holiday with a week left of editing/filming to do so I didn't have anyone to tell me that what I was saying wasn't funny and some of the editing is a bit off. It's still a good video but we felt it was rushed.
Video: I heart iPad - Dating website matches man to iPad
What do you do when you get your hands on an iPad before the UK release? Write a review. Then what? Make a video about having a special relationship with it. Yep, not sure why.
The HTC and Google story: A love affair and a tragedy
Lord knows what compelled me to write this. Had I taken more time to craft it, I think it could've been great but when I read it now I feel it's rushed. Still good, where the idea came from I'll never know.
Video: Flip Mino HD review
This video took 84 takes. For no reason at all I couldn't stop laughing during recording. We got in trouble because it was meant to take a couple of hours but took almost two weeks.
Video: Zeemote review - Is this the future of mobile gaming?
I did this video because Zeemote said that they'd give me a free phone if I reviewed it. So...
GeeklyWeekly Sexy Halloween Special
Wow, how bad is this video? It doesn't even have anything to do with gadgets!!
This entry follows on from last week's part one, where the phones ranged from £827,060 to £51,500, and offers up another five phones for you to dream about owning.
That said, most of these handsets are ridiculously impractical or just down right ugly.
Getting straight into it, number 6 on the list is the Ulysse Nardin's device, The Chairman, costing the princely sum £31,491.
Image from moderncelebs.blogspot.com
The Chairman is the world's most expensive Android smartphone, a good pub fact for you there. Ulysee Nardin are well known for their luxury watches and despite The Chairman having both a touchscreen and numerical pad, they've found room to make it clear they primarly deal in watches. The volume controls are taken from the side of a watch and the crown inbetween them, along with a kinetic rotator on the rear, can be wound to power the device.
The seventh entry is the most retro, in my opinion. Many of you may already be familiar with the Motorola V220 but this is a special edition that will leave you £28,000 worse off.
Image from xarj.net
So, what exactly is "special" about this device? Well, other than a truckload of diamonds not much. To me, it seems Austrian designer Peter Aloisson's process of studding it with 1,200 diamonds and adding a keyboard inlaid with 18 carat gold was a giant waste of time.
Now we drop down to four figure sums with the recently announced Tag Heuer Racer. This smartphone is not to be sniffed at and will make a £2326 shaped hole in your bank account.
Image from highsnobiety.com
As it has only just been announced, exact details on the specifiation are hard to come by but it will ship with Android 4.0 and a "high speed processor". The casing is rubber that has been strengthened by titanium and carbon fibre bridges. Sounds fancy.
The penultimate device, the Nokia 8800 Gold Edition, costs £1,459 and seems to be nothing more than a run of the mill Nokia made of 24 carat gold.
Image from itechnews.net
The usual a 0.5 Mega pixel camera, video recording, 64 MB of internal memory, and 180 minutes of talktime are still there, with the main difference being the special edition box and charging dock. A phone of choice for Championship footballers rather than Premiership ones I think.
Finally, we come to number ten. A phone I've written about before, the BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981. Before last week, when I started research for these two entries, I thought the price of £1275 for this handset was horrendous, now it seems reasonable.
The P'9981 is equipped with an 2.8 inch touch screen as well as a QWERTY keypad, 8 GB of storage, 768MB of RAM and a 1.2GHz processor. Reason for the price? Well it could be the leather backing and the steel chassis because it certainly isn't the BB OS 7. Thinking about it, it is more than likely the fact that it has the name Porsche stamped all over it. Sad but true.
From the ten, if I could have my pick of any, I'd go for the Gresso Luxor Las Vegas Jackpot from part one. Then, if I got bored of that, I'd sell it on and by myself a Ulysse Nardin's Chairman, purely to see how effective the kinetic rotary dial on the back was.
How about you?
After the announcement that Nokia will team up with Microsoft to make smartphones, there was a quiet period as the two giants busily prepared devices for the mass market.
Over six months later the promising Nokia Lumia 800 was released and now we have the low-end Nokia Lumia 710 and finally the Lumia 900.
The Lumia 900 is what everyone was hoping for and expected when the initial announcement was made, it's been a long time coming but was it worth the wait?
Lumia 800 vs 900
The key differences between the Nokia Lumia 900 and the Lumia 800 are that the 900 has a larger 4.3in screen, the Lumia has a 3.7in, and 4G LTE connectivity, something we're still missing in the UK.
The Lumia 900 has the same 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM as the Lumia 800 and will also come with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.
Speed
Despite the single core processor, Microsoft and Nokia seem very confident that this will not affect the speed of the device. They are so confident that at CES 2012 they had a stand offering $100 to anyone that brings a phone faster than the Lumia 900. As far as I could see no one had won.
Screen
The screen is something that needs to be seen to be believed. At 4.3 inches, it is a great size but the main strengths are that it's just so colourful, so vibrant and so clear! In fact one of the new features of the screen is 'Clear Black' which contrasts the black levels of OLED while reducing screen reflections. Simply put means that direct sunlight doesn't reflect.
Of course, Windows Phone 7's colourful user interface lends itself to such a device but when compared to other Windows Phone 7 devices, it is clear *excuse the pun* that this is by far the best screen a WP7 phone has. It's even comparable to Samsung's Galaxy S 2, in my opinion this wins but that's my personal taste.
Design
The body is made similar to the 800 in that it is polycarbonate too. For those of you that don't know, this is a light yet strong material that feels really nice in your hand.
Probably the best thing about the body is that if it takes a knock or is scratched in any way then there won't be any white markings as the shell is the same colour all the way through, this isn't paint! The 900 will come in both cyan and black, both look good but I really like the black especially as the screen seems to be slightly invisible when locked.
The shape is slightly different to the 800 as it's slightly curvier but it's so subtle that you'll struggle to notice it.
Camera
The 900 also has an 8 megapixel 28mm f/2.2 Carl Zeiss lens on the back and dual-LED flash. The 28mm focal length is an especially wide angle for phones,
which means you can get more into the frame. The front-facing camera is 1.3 megapixels and also wide angle. Nokia have always had good cameras and it's nice to see they have continued to still be passionate about mobile phone cameras which is something that can't be said of many other companies out there.
Battery
Another thing Nokia have stuck by is battery life, the Lumia 900 is said to hold up to 7 hours of talk-time and an incredible 300 hours of stand-by time due to it's 1840mAH battery.
Conclusion
Nokia have stuck to what they're good at and what consumers have come to love about their phones. Good camera, solid build and a good battery. What they've added is an operating system that finally brings Nokia into the modern era pulling them away from the painful Symbian OS.
Microsoft and Nokia are growing together and getting stronger together. The last Nokia phone I had was the N97 which has scarred me in so many ways but the Lumia 900 is so nice and so good that I'm tempted to give it a go and I think that says a lot, it's certainly something I wasn't expecting.
Specifications
- 4.3in AMOLED display
- 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
- Windows Phone 7
- 16GB internal memory
- 8-megapixel camera
- 1840mAH battery
See also:
- Review: The Nokia Lumia 800. Nokia's not-so-secret weapon?
- Video: Nokia Lumia 900 - Unveiled at CES 2012
- The coolest smartphone in history?
A spokesperson for Nokia at CES 2012 said that Nokia are concentrating on the consumer market and don't have any plans for the business market because they believe that consumerisation is becoming so strong that there will not be a need to seperate the markets in the near future.
He said that this was further strengthened by the company's move towards Windows Phone 7 as their operating system due to the Microsoft Office applications.
With regards to security, the spokesman said that Nokia were not making any special plans for the enterprise as they felt that home security will improve to the same level.
He said that this was further strengthened by the company's move towards Windows Phone 7 as their operating system due to the Microsoft Office applications.
With regards to security, the spokesman said that Nokia were not making any special plans for the enterprise as they felt that home security will improve to the same level.
The Nokia Lumia 900 has been unveiled here at CES and... it looks a lot like the Lumia 800, which is not a bad thing.
In the US, the phone will be exclusive to AT&T with no word on the UK. The Lumia 900 will have a 4.3 inch AMOLED screen, run on Mango (obviously), have a single-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm CPU, 512MB RAM and will also have an impressive Carl Zeiss 8 megapixel camera.
See the hands-on video below.
In the US, the phone will be exclusive to AT&T with no word on the UK. The Lumia 900 will have a 4.3 inch AMOLED screen, run on Mango (obviously), have a single-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm CPU, 512MB RAM and will also have an impressive Carl Zeiss 8 megapixel camera.See the hands-on video below.
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