australia

HTC Titan II on Telstra gets priced and dated, will never come to Europe

May 19, 2012 | By Surur

WPDownUnder has been able to confirm the launch date and price of the LTE HTC Titan II on Telstra.

According to WPDownUnder the handset will become available on the 29th May and will be introduced at $20/month on the $49 plan, $10/month on the $59 plan & $0 on the $79, $99 & $129 plans.

No contract pricing is expected to be in the $750-$850 range.

At the same time WindowsPhoneItaly has confirmed with HTC that the handset will not be coming to Europe at all, which is a real shame for those who appreciate the great quality pictures the 16 megapixel camera produces.

Read much more detail at WPDownUnder here.

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Nokia and Microsoft wins contract for 140 Lumia 800’s at Bridgestone Australia

May 18, 2012 | By Surur

Australia is not Windows Phone’s most successful country, and the OS needs as many success stories there as possible.

News of an enterprise win for Nokia’s Lumia 800 in the country is therefore quite significant. Bridgestone, the international tire manufacturer, has agreed to purchase 140 Nokia Lumia 800 handsets for its staff, after a successful trial which proved the handsets superior to products from RIM and Apple.

"There was a strong business case for the Nokia Lumia 800. It gives us the best of both worlds — seamless integration with familiar business tools, such as Outlook, Internet Explorer, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as exceptional design and build quality," group IT manager for Bridgestone Australia, Scott Baxter, said in a statement today.

Baxter added that tools like free turn-by-turn navigation will allow the company to ditch its existing fleet of GPS units and security would be dealt with using the native features such as device lock down and remote wipe in ActiveSync.

Microsoft is expected to make its big business push with Windows Phone with Apollo at the end of the year, but in fact for the vast majority of businesses Windows Phone 7.5 provides more than adequate features and better integration with existing infrastructure, especially back office products such as Sharepoint and Lync, and should definitely be in the running if a company is rolling out mobile handsets to replace aging RIM infrastructure.

Via ZDNet.com

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Nokia Lumia 610, 900 coming to Australia soon

May 10, 2012 | By Surur

In a sign that the Nokia Lumia 900 and Nokia Lumia 610 will be heading to Australia soon, Nokia has just sent out an invitation to local media to preview the handsets at an undisclosed location in Sydney, Australia.

The event will be held on the 17th May, and presumably release of the handsets will occur soon after. The Nokia Lumia 610 is already rolling out in South East Asia, while the Lumia 900 is making its way to Europe at the moment, with some delays however.

The invitation did not reveal which network will be hosting the devices, but if it is Telstra there is a chance the Nokia Lumia 900 will retain its LTE functionality, for use on the carrier’s new network.

Have our Australian readers heard any more detail about the arrival of these devices? Let us know below.

Via Techworld.com.au

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JB HiFi app also coming to Windows Phone 7

April 29, 2012 | By Surur

Australians would be familiar with the JB Hi-Fi NOW music streaming service, a Spotify-like music service, which has recently released Android and iOS apps.

Now in their quarterly market results update, JB Hi-Fi confirmed that a Windows Phone 7 app next on their list, saying:

JB Hi-Fi NOW, JB Hi-Fi’s digital content delivery platform, continues to gain traction with the launch in April of JB Hi-Fi Now’s digital music streaming service mobile apps for both Apple iOS and Android devices with an app for Windows devices to follow shortly. JB Hi-Fi will continue to evolve the NOW platform to innovate and capture new markets.

While Windows Phone may not have the market share yet, it is starting to gain the mind share which is making it a bit more difficult to ignore, which can only be a good thing for the growth of niche apps in Marketplace.

Thanks Gopalan for the tip.

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Vodafone Australia release Firmware 12072 Update after halting 12070

April 26, 2012 | By Surur

Vodafone Australia was pretty quick off the mark with the 12070 firmware update for the Nokia Lumia 800, meant to address battery life issues with the handset, starting the roll out early in April 2012.

Unfortunately the roll-out was halted a mere 2 days later, after a volume bug cropped up which can cause “volume of music playback (to) behave erratically leading to the volume exceeding allowable levels on the device.”

Now, 3 weeks later, the carrier is ready to give it another go, with a mildly revised firmware, built 12072.

The update will roll out over the next 24 days and promise:

Better battery performance
Camera automatically detects 50/60Hz to remove flicker in stills and videos.
Updated camera settings.
Improved charger detection.

It will also bring the OS version up to 7.10.8107.79.

Australians can read more at Vodafone here.

Thanks Brent3000 for the tip.

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HTC Titan II still on the way to Telstra, coming early May

April 23, 2012 | By Surur

Last we heard the HTC Titan II was on its way to lucky Telstra subscribers in April 2012. It seems that date has been pushed back back a bit, but the handset has now shown up in Telstra’s catalogue, making it pretty official.

The smartphone is rumoured to be free on a $79 /mo Freedom Connect plan or the cheaper $59 plan, with a $5 /mo MRO free, but pricing has not been confirmed yet.

While the main selling point of the device is its LTE speeds and large screen, personally for me excellent 16 megapixel camera makes it a pretty compelling buy, even without the LTE speeds.

Microsoft promoting the Nokia Lumia 800 on the Xbox 360 console in Australia

April 3, 2012 | By Surur

Microsoft is promoting the Nokia Lumia 800 in Australia with a promotion on Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 console.

They are offering a prize of 1 of 3 Nokia Lumia 800 handsets for those who change their gamer pic to a Nokia Lumia 800 avatar and also who watch a video promoting the device.

Unfortunately the promotion is only open to Xbox Live subscribers.

Read more terms and conditions at Xbox.com here.

We think the cross promotional idea is great, but find 3 handsets being given away a bit stingy. Maybe giving away 300 would create a bit more buzz?

Thanks Akil for the tip and screen shots.

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Harvey Norman Nokia Lumia ad (video)

April 2, 2012 | By Surur

Harvey Norman is a large retail chain in Australia, and in the above ad we see their attempt at selling Nokia’s Lumia handsets, appealing both the Nokia nostalgia and Microsoft business and gaming functionality, while also throwing a bone to the social networking segment of the audience.

Overall I give it a solid 3/5 – somewhat unprofessional, but hitting all the key hot button issues.

How do our readers rate this ad? Let us know below.

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Video: Melbourne Nokia Lumia Augmented Reality Event

April 1, 2012 | By Surur

Nokia has continued its tour of the Australian cities with their Augmented Reality event. 1800PocketPC managed to catch up with them in Melbourne yesterday, where they managed to attract a small crowd.

The Kinect-powered event saw users being able to harass Angry Birds , have a virtual dance off with Timomatic or see a Kangaroo take directions from a virtual voice, punctuated occasionally by ads for the Nokia Lumia 800.

Read more about the event and see more photos at 1800pocketpc here.

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White Lumia 800 now available on Telstra, other Australian retailers

March 27, 2012 | By Surur

NokiaAustralia has announced on Twitter that the white Nokia Lumia 800 will not be available at a variety of Australian retailers, including Telstra. Till now only the Cyan and Black version has been available.

The Lumia handsets have just become available in Australia at the beginning of March and appears to be selling well, with several reports of stocks selling out.

Via 1800pocketpc.com

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All Nokia Lumia handsets now out of stock at Optus Australia

March 20, 2012 | By Surur

We reported on the slowly ebbing stock on Optus of Nokia’s Lumia handsets with the Black Nokia Lumia 800 going out of stock first on the 14th, then the Nokia Lumia 710 yesterday, and finally the Cyan Nokia Lumia 800 today.

As we mentioned yesterday, we can not say how much stock Optus had, and if they just low-balled demand, but it is certainly clear that this has exceeded Optus’ supply of handsets.

Thanks gb for the tip.

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Aussies irked by Nokia Lumia 800 pre-order delays

March 15, 2012 | By Surur

Windows Phone 7 and Nokia fans are feeling pretty miffed at the moment after finding the delivery of their pre-orders of the Nokia Lumia 800 at Dick Smith, a large retailer, being delayed weeks after the release of the handset.

Dicks Smith is blaming the delays on Nokia not shipping out the handsets fast enough, but users are finding if they cancel the pre-order they are able to find the handset from other retailers.

An extensive thread on the Whirlpool forum is a good spot to keeping an eye on the varying availability of the smartphone, which seems to be in high demand, in Australia.

Thanks Brent3000 for the tip.

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Nokia Lumia 710 gets a full page spread in Australia

March 14, 2012 | By Surur

Early reports are that the Nokia Lumia range is selling pretty well in Australia after its launch 2 weeks ago.

Ads like the above may be the reason why, with 1800PocketPC reporting interactive giant Lumia 800s in the street , TV ads and full page ads in MX, a popular free commuter newspaper in Melbourne , with a readership off over 300,000.

Hopefully Nokia can keep up the marketing pressure in Australia and establish a beachhead in the region virtually dominated by iPhone and Android handsets.

Via 1800pocketpc.com

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