new device

Nokia Lumia 900 now in Finnish stores with Tango andWIFI internet sharing in tow

May 23, 2012 | By Surur

Jonne from esphoneblog.com reports that the Nokia Lumia 900 has now arrived in the Finnish store where he works. He reports the handset is running the latest version of Tango (8773 ), and comes with WIFI Internet Sharing built right in.

He notes the handset runs:

OS Version: 7.10.8773.98
Firmware revision number: 2175.1601.8773.12141
Hardware revision number: 112.1914.2.0
Radio software version: 2.1.75.16
Bootloader version: 7.17.2.0
Chip SOC version: 0.85.2.1

Jonne says Gigantti in Finland will be selling the handset priced at 529 EUR from May 25th, a few days before it is expected to show up in most other places.

Nokia Lumia 900 coming to O2 Germany next week

May 23, 2012 | By Surur

We have already seen the Nokia Lumia 900 becoming available unlocked from Amazon.de on the 31st May.

Now according to O2 Germany on twitter, the German carrier will also be bringing the Nokia Lumia 900 to their subscribers some time next week.

The O2 rep was was unable to pin it down any closer or provide more information but our earlier info said the handset will be available for € 541 unlocked or for 24 instalments of € 22.50 in in Black, White and Cyan.

Thanks Bajanx for the tip.

2

Nokia Lumia 610 now on sale in Denmark

May 23, 2012 | By Surur

Windowsphonefan.dk is reporting that the Nokia Lumia 610 is now on sale in the country.

The handset will be on sale for t 1.795 DKK including VAT and come in the full range of black, cyan, magenta and white.

Have any of our readers picked up this handset yet? Let us know your user experience below.

Nokia Lumia 900 pushed back to another week in Germany

May 23, 2012 | By Surur

Some of our German readers have been eagerly awaiting the Nokia Lumia 900’s arrival in Germany. Now Amazon Germany has pushed back the ship date for the handset from the 25th May to the 31st, i.e. from this week to next.

While I am sure this is disappointing, hopefully it still reflects high demand in USA, where the handset has seen good sales traction.

Have any of our readers been waiting for this Windows Phone? Let us know below.

Thanks Adam for the tip.

15

Fully unlocked RainbowMod ROM now available for the Nokia Lumia 800

May 22, 2012 | By Surur

RainbowMod, who have released a custom ROM for the Nokia Lumia 710, have now extended his work to the Nokia Lumia 800.

He has now released a Tango ROM for the Nokia Lumia 800 using Chinese firmware which brings your Lumia 800 up to 7.10.8773.98.

The ROM adds the following new features:

Full Unlock from UltraShot
Removed OEM applications (Nokia Drive, Maps, etc.)
Search key remapping
QuickLaunch menu for quick switching state of WiFi, 3G, Flight mode, Power save, etc.
Ability to access file system via WiFi/USB
Integrated Live ID, DppImplant no longer needed, but new key can also be banned
Orientation locker
Added multiple colour themes
Easy installation xap from browser or file manager
Unlocked Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts (limitation of Chinese firmware)
Added Google and Yandex search engines
xb0xmod cert for cab-updates
Cab-updatable
Lots of minor changes
Updatability via Zune (not guaranteed)

The ROM supports both English (US) and Russian and requires the Qualcomm boot loader to flash.

As usual, such high level hacking is dangerous to your device, and should only be done at your own risk. Find the ROM and further instructions at XDA-Developers here.

Via WPCentral.com

4

New Contact and Live Tile animations suggest Windows Phone 8

May 22, 2012 | By Surur

The strangest things things turn up in the strangest places. WPCentral noticed this interesting new live time behaviour in a PCadvisor.co.uk ad for the Nokia Lumia 900.

The ad shows :

Contacts – The tiles flip and it says "Meet up with Sarah"
Photo Hub – Flips and splits into two tiles, one with the latest photo, the other with a count

Both are of course new behaviour, which could have been dreamt up by an ad man, or could be designed for an ad which wont have to be recoded after the Windows Phone 8 announcement on June 20th.

What do our readers think? Real or fake? Let us know below.

18

Huawei’s Senior Vice President confirms they are working on a Windows Phone 8 handset

May 22, 2012 | By Surur

So far the only one NOT talking about Windows Phone 8 is Microsoft, with their OEMs and carrier partners pretty open about the coming arrival of the OS and their support for it.

On his Weibo micro-blog, Huawei’s Senior Vice President Yu Chengdong confirmed, after a meeting with Steve Ballmer at the Windows Partner Summit in Tokyo, that the company would be creating a Windows Phone 8 handset.

Calling Huawei the “world’s first the WP8 phone supplier !”, the company is expected to produce low-cost Windows Phone 8 hardware, which raises hope that the OS will support current generation hardware also as an upgrade.

The announcement confirms earlier rumours, which had the company having 70 engineers working on a Windows Phone 8 handset with a 4 inch screen which will cost only 2,000 CNY (317 USD),

Huawei is not normally associated with smartphones, but have sold 20 million smartphones last year, and aim to sell 60 million this year, making them a significant player.

Shenzhen Post notes that these handsets may show up on Leap Wireless, a low cost US carrier that is already carrying some of Huawei’s smartphones.

It is expected that Microsoft will formally unveil Windows Phone 8 at their Windows Phone developer summit on the 20th June 2012.

10

Nokia Lumia 610 coming to Sweden in 2 days, Netherlands next week

May 22, 2012 | By Surur

Nokia has been rolling out their low-end Windows Phone around Europe, with the latest two countries to get launch dates being Sweden and the Netherlands.

In Sweden the handset will hit stores on the 24th where it will retail for around 2000 kr and will be available in Black, Cyan, Magenta and White.

In the Netherlands the handset is expected to hit stores next week, and will be retailing for 249 Euro, with the same colour selection.

Covering all price segments is important for Nokia, who traditionally found its biggest volume on the low-end, and will hopefully provide a significant boost to their numbers sold.

Via www.windowsphonedaily.com

Thanks Jonas for the tip.

6

Consumer Reports recommends the Nokia Lumia 900 for Dads and Grads

May 22, 2012 | By Surur

The most respected consumer organization in USA, Consumer Reports.org, has just recommended the Nokia Lumia 900 as the best phone to get for Dads and Grads ie. for fathers day gifts or graduation presents for students, both hot events in June in USA.

Consumer Reports called the Nokia Lumia 900 the best Windows Phone yet, and we are certain, especially if this is a first smartphone, that both Dads and Grads will be very satisfied.

See the rest of the list at Consumer Reports here.

Thanks Gopalan for the tip.

5

Microsoft and T-Mobile USA “quite pleased” with Windows Phone sales

May 21, 2012 | By Surur

Speaking to Seattle Times Philipp Humm, T-Mobile US CEO, had some good things to say about the performance of Windows Phone handsets on their network.

The interview had the following questions about Windows Phone.

Q: T-Mobile made a commitment to push Windows Phone this year. How is that working out?

A: I think we have a very good relationship with Microsoft, and we discovered that, in particular, for customers who are new to smartphones, they really enjoy the simplicity of the Microsoft [user interface], so they like the design and the ease of it.

Q: Are Windows phones selling as well as you hoped?

A: We are so far quite pleased and I think Microsoft, if you talk to them, [is] quite pleased with T-Mobile.

While AT&T is the “premier” Windows Phone network it is in fact T-Mobile USA which is most in need of a flagship devices, given its lack of the iPhone. In the first few months of the year the T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 710 were consistently the second best selling phone on the network, and the HTC Radar before this did not do too badly either. It is therefore a pity since the HTC HD7 no high-end Windows Phones has been released on the network.

Hopefully both Microsoft and T-Mobile being pleased will translate into an even better selection of Windows Phone on that networks.

Via WPCentral.com

11

ZTE Tania coming to China soon, processor upgraded to 1.4 Ghz

May 21, 2012 | By Surur

Unwiredview reports that the ZTE Tania may be less than 10 days away from shipping in China.

ZTE sales director Wei Xiaodong told CNMO that the Tania will be in Chinese stores before the end of this month.

The handset from the Chinese company has so far only been distributed in UK and Europe.

The smartphone will see an interesting specs update prior to its release there – instead of a 1 Ghz processor it will now sports a 1.4 Ghz processor – an interesting choice when the handset’s main weakness is its 4GB storage rather than the more generous 8 GB or 16 GB.

The handset will otherwise retain its 4.3 inch screen, 5 megapixel camera and 512 MB RAM, and likely run the latest version of Windows Phone Tango.

Chinese actor Nicolas Tse promote the Nokia Lumia range in China

May 21, 2012 | By Surur

We have seen a variety of Nokia Lumia promotions, but never anything as cinematic as this one, featuring Chinese actor Nicholas Tse, who in this video plays racing driver, fighter, fire fighter and more.

The video only shows the Nokia Lumia branding briefly, but that’s probably enough to benefit from being associated with the winner of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor 2011.

The Nokia Lumia range (from the 610 to 800) is on sale in Vietnam from between 5 and 10 million dong.

Update: The video is in fact from Nokia China, and is still of course a great effort.

10

Samsung Focus 2 on AT&T out now, brings LTE for only $50

May 20, 2012 | By Surur

The Samsung Focus 2 on AT&T is now in stores.

The mid-range Windows Phone provides LTE at the very budget price of only $49.99, and is mainly hobbled by only having 8 GB of storage.

The full specs include:

General	Network	GSM
	Style	Bar
	Dimensions	121.6 x 62.7 x 10.9 mm
	Weight	121.9 g (With Battery)
	Battery Type	Li-Ion 1750 mAh
Display	Display Colors	WVGA
Display	Display Resolution	480 x 800 Pixels, 4.0"
Memory	Memory InBuilt	8 GB
Memory
Messaging	SMS	Yes
	MMS	Yes
	Email	Yes
	Push Mail	No
Camera	Camera	Yes
	Mega Pixels	5.0 MP, 2592 x 1944 Pixels
	Camera Zoom	4x Digital Zoom with Auto-focus and LED Flash
	Video Capture	MPEG4, 3GP, H.263, H.264, WMV
Connectivity	Ports	USB Port
	Infrared	No
	Bluetooth	Bluetooth with A2DP 1.2, AVDTP 1.2, AVRCP 1.3
	A2DP	No
	Wifi	Yes
	Internet	GPRS, EDGE, HTML, WAP
Entertainment	Music Player	MP3, M4A, WAV, WMA, 3G2, AAC-LC, HE-AAC



	Loud Speaker	Yes
Technology	3G	HSPA
	OS	Windows OS v7.5

	Touch Screen	Yes
	Dual Sim	No
	QWERTY	Yes

Network	Operating Frequency	Quad-band GSM 850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900 MHz


	GPS	A-GPS
Special Features	Voice Recognition; Voicemail; Visual Voicemail; Picture Caller ID; Multitasking,

The handset can be purchased at AT&T here.

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