Windows Phone 8 taking over fastest in RSA, Middle East

Windows Phone 8 taking over fastest in RSA, Middle East

February 9, 2013 | By Surur

Adduplex tweeted this chart showing the current proportion of Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8 handsets as detected by their ad network.

The graph shows places like South Africa and Israel Windows Phone 8 handsets form a large proportion of the Windows Phones in the country, and I think this does not reflect on how fast Windows Phone 8 is selling there, but at underperformance of Windows Phone 7 in the regions, e.g. not supporting Hebrew in Israel at all.

The good news however is that the graph indicates that Windows Phone 8 is seeing better adoption there, which will hopefully mean 2013 will be a much better year in terms of sales performance for Windows Phone than 2012.

Have our readers noticed Windows Phone 8 getting a better reception than Windows Phone 7 handsets in your region? Let us know below

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Exchange server acting up? Blame those iOS 6.1 users, then ban them

Exchange server acting up? Blame those iOS 6.1 users, then ban them

February 9, 2013 | By Surur

Reports are rolling in that Apple has messed up once again, and that their latest iOS 6.1 update is causing iPhones and iPads to overloads 2007 and 2010 Exchange Servers by constantly logging in to the server.

This is of course affecting the other users of the same server, leading to IT admins asking iOS users not to upgrade to the latest OS or face being blocked from the service.

We were forwarded an email from Mark from his IT describing exactly this scenario.

They write:

Over the recent days we’ve been experiencing sporadic occurrences of Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, iTouch) that stop communicating with our email system Exchange.  Working with Microsoft and Apple, they have identified an issue in IOS 6.1 that if a user updates, deletes, modifies, accepts any calendar entry from their i-device it causes problems with the Exchange server that impacts all or many other users with a multitude of different problems.  There is at this time no resolution from Apple/Microsoft.  This is occurring globally.

Immediate Recommendation:
1.       Do not upgrade your IOS to 6.1
2.       If you have already upgraded your IOS to 6.1 Do NOT update, delete, modify, accept, save any calendar entries – you should do nothing in calendaring except view!

IT action against non-compliance:
If a user performs changes of any kind, like outlined above, to their calendar while in 6.1 our logs will indicate the abuser and we will disable that device from accessing Exchange.

We are sorry for this inconvenience but are currently at the control of Apple and Microsoft.  We will update you of any changes.

So if your Exchange server is acting it, it may be your next-door’s neighbour’s iPhone to blame.  Make sure to remind them off that 

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Windows Phone Store down with error 805a0193

Windows Phone Store down with error 805a0193

February 9, 2013 | By Surur

Reports are rolling in of wide-spread issues in downloading or updating apps from the Windows Phone 8 store, with error 805a0193 inevitably getting in the way.

The error has popped up a number of times in the past, and appears to be due to a misconfiguration on Microsoft’s end. From reports it is affecting users all over the world.

Hopefully raising attention to the issue will get Microsoft to fix it faster – especially with everyone trying to download Spotify today.

Is everyone affected, or are some still able to download and install apps? Let us know below.

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Hello Friends updated to include color effects as well as weather and battery status

Hello Friends updated to include color effects as well as weather and battery status

February 9, 2013 | By andystumpp

Hello Friends has been updated to version 4.0 to bring some nice new features!

This app allows you to decorate your lock screen with nice collages of your friends. It’s a great addition for users that like to customize their phone as much as possible.

The update contains the following improvements:

• Weather & Battery Status addons can now be combined with your lock screen!
• You can apply 4 new color effects to your collages for an even more exciting lock screen experience
• The margin sizes are now adjustable for each lock screen template
• Bug fix for custom contact selection
• Several minor improvements

While Windows Phone 8 users will get the whole range of improvements, WP7.X users will get all except addons (battery, weather) since it is not possible to update the lock screen programmatically in the background. Enjoy your individual lock screen!

You can grab the app with a free trial edition right here.

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Huawei plans Youth, Gold, Platinum and Diamond class Windows Phones, offers 3 year guarantee

Huawei plans Youth, Gold, Platinum and Diamond class Windows Phones, offers 3 year guarantee

AllaboutPhones.nl seems to have managed to lay their hands on some photos of a slide deck from a Huawei presentation in which they discuss their Windows Phone product strategy.

The picture shows the company plans to have Youth handsets with the best value (presumably WP 7.8), then Gold handsets, which are balanced and value for money, Platinum handsets which features design and fashion, and Diamond high end models which were innovative and gadgets in their own right.

The last 3 handsets would all run Windows Phone 8.

The Ascend W1 is labelled as the handset which will make Windows Phone 8 accessible to the masses (much like the Nokia Lumia 620 is doing).

At the price if 149,99 Euro prepaid on Vodafone that is certainly a reasonable goal, and Huawei has an additional value proposition for punters.

The handset will come with a laptop-like service plan, with 3 year pick up and return in Benelux, 3 day repair service, 3 year data protection, including locating the handset, blocking it, wiping it and the facility to listen in and take photos.

How Huawei intend to implement this on Windows Phones when western governments are already suspicious about them being involved in Government spying remains to be seen 

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Unlocked HTC 8X getting new 20005 firmware update

Unlocked HTC 8X getting new 20005 firmware update

Oded dropped us a line to let us know his unlocked HTC 8X has received a firmware update to version 20005 (up from 20003 in December), and the bootloader is now version 0.0.1532.20 (162966).

It is not clear what’s new in the update, but it is rumoured to reduce the space occupied by the OS in the “Other” segment by about 1 GB, essential for low-storage devices such as the 8GB HTC 8X or 4 GB HTC 8S.

Have any of our readers received the update and noticed any other changes? Let us know below.

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Nokia Lumia 920 coming to Colombia on the 12th February

Nokia Lumia 920 coming to Colombia on the 12th February

Good news for Colombian residents. Local network Claro is bringing the Nokia Lumia 920 to the country in only a few days, on the 12th February.

Unfortunately pricing has not been announced yet, but keep an eye on Cafeguagau for the latest.

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LG expected to announce a Windows Phone 8 range at Mobile World Congress 2013

LG expected to announce a Windows Phone 8 range at Mobile World Congress 2013

LG was one of the first OEMs to jump aboard the Windows Phone bandwagon, but their devices were lacklustre, went largely unsupported and the company never released a second generation running Mango.

Now after having some success with Android the company is set to be back with a second try, and this time with handsets running Windows Phone 8.

The rumours of the company’s re-entry dates back to 3 weeks ago, when a senior executive of one of their partners told KoreaTimes:

We will release quite a number of new Optimus devices this year and LG also has some new smartphones in the works, that will run Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.

Now rumours are circling that LG will announce this range at Mobile World Congress.  In their teaser video they teased their coming MWC announcement with superlatives such as "Premium, Ultimate, Innovative, Powerful and Professional." Lets hope the company this time lives up to their promise.

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Spotify App Now Available For Windows Phone 8 Devices

Spotify App Now Available For Windows Phone 8 Devices

February 8, 2013 | By Pradeep

Spotify music streaming app is now available for download from Windows Phone store for Windows Phone 8 devices. With this new beta app, you can access millions of tracks from our library, and take your playlists on the go with the Offline mode. You have a 30 day free trial after which you need to subscribe to $9.99 premium service.

Features:

- Search, browse & play millions of tracks.
- Explore & play your friends’ playlists, top artists and tracks.
- Stream over WiFi or 2.5/3G – all your existing playlists are available.
- Offline playlists – play your music without an internet connection.
- On-the-fly sync – every track you add to a playlist appears on mobile and computer.
- What’s New view.
- Receive music from friends via the inbox.
- Starred tracks – tag all your favourites into a special list.

Download the app here.

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Canalys estimates 5.1 million Windows Phones shipped in Q4 2012, fastest growing operating system

Canalys estimates 5.1 million Windows Phones shipped in Q4 2012, fastest growing operating system

February 8, 2013 | By Surur

Canalys estimates that in Q4 2012 Windows Phone managed to double shipments to 5.1 million units, up from 2.5 million units in Q4 2011.  This took Windows Phone’s market share from 1.6%  then to 2.4% last quarter, a small but significant increase.

While this is well below our expectations, it still leaves Windows Phone as the fastest growing operating system last quarter, with 104% growth, vs 83% for Android, 29% for iOS and –42% for Blackberry.

Old enemy Bada, which has been a common source of ridicule for Windows Phone, has now finally fallen down into the “other” group, with much less than 3 million shipments, causing the other group to swell from 1.8 to 3 million shipments in total and leaving Windows Phone in the 4th spot.

With Nokia declaring 4.4 million Windows Phone shipments in Q4 2012, if Canalys’s numbers can be believed, it leaves HTC and the other Windows Phone OEMs only shipping 700,000 handsets, with Nokia taking 86% of Q4 2012 Windows Phone shipments, a number above even the 75% most estimate.

It is of note that these numbers are wildly out of keeping with Microsoft’s own legally binding statements to their share holders which said “Windows Phone sales were over 4 times greater than last year.”

In the usual absence of any pronouncement by Microsoft we will have to wait and see what the other analyst companies like Gartner announce, but so far we have solid but unimpressive growth.

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Possible specs leak for Nokia Lumia 520 and 720

Possible specs leak for Nokia Lumia 520 and 720

February 8, 2013 | By Surur

An anonymous tipster has sent MyNokiaBlog the following specs for the recently leaked Nokia Lumia 520 and 720.

The specs are:

The Lumia 720 codenamed Zeal and Lumia 520 codenamed Fame is definitely a confirmed WP 8 devices.

Lumia 720 will have 4.3? CBD, 1Ghz Dual-core, 512Mb RAM, 8GB storage, HSPA+, WP8, microSD, 6MP camera and 2MP front camera

Lumia 520 will have 4? Super Sensitive screen, 1Ghz Dual-core, 512Mb RAM, 8GB storage, microSD, WP8, 5MP with no front camera.

The two handsets show very little compromise for their likely low prices, with the main “handicap” likely being having WVGA vs HD screens, which is hardly a major issue.

If Nokia can hit the right price points with these devices and also ships them soon Blackberry and Android may have a real battle on their hands in the low end.

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The Official App For Mobile World Congress Now In Windows Phone Store

The Official App For Mobile World Congress Now In Windows Phone Store

February 8, 2013 | By Pradeep

GSMA Mobile World Congress 2013 is scheduled to happen later this month. GSMA has released their official event app for Windows Phone devices. It allows you to know about event schedule, venue maps, etc,. GSMA has also released its NFC Badge for NFC enabled Windows Phone devices. Read more about it here.

App Description: 

Mobile World Congress is the event portal for attendees of MWC and is designed to enhance the experience of the attendee by putting the following features and information at their fingertips:

+ full event schedule
+ speaker listings
+ exhibitor listing
+ social networking
+ venue maps
+ complete info booth
+ lots, lots, more…

Download the app for free from Windows Phone Store here.

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BroomBots 3D Comes to Windows Phone!

BroomBots 3D Comes to Windows Phone!

February 8, 2013 | By SyntaxUnknown

What happens when your standard broom pushing janitor ‘bots decide to have a little fun in the rink after hours? Wild 3D BroomBot hockey action of course!

Take control of your ‘bot as you battle in 3 different game types:

• Survival: Score as many points as you can before the computer scores a goal.
• Timed: Play a 3 minute match where the winner is crowned at the end.
• Points: Be the first to score 5 goals in the quickest time.

It’s a challenging and highly addictive game that you’ll enjoy for hours, unlocking features for the game as you score more and more goals.

BroomBots 3D features:

• Beautifully rendered real time 3D graphics
• Opponent difficulty automatically adjusts to your success rate
• Unlockables such as goalies, missiles, afterburners!
• Customizable team colors
• Leaderboards and achievements
• 3D Audio (best experienced with headphones or external speakers)

It’s free, so give it a try! Scan the QR code or click here.

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Photo Shader updated with the ability to save full-resolution photos on WP8!

Photo Shader updated with the ability to save full-resolution photos on WP8!

February 8, 2013 | By Ryken100

Photo Shader, the pixel shader inspired photo editor for Windows Phone, has just been updated to version 2.2!

With this update, many of the effects now use multi-threading on WP8, taking full advantage of both CPU cores in your new device and improving rendering times over the previous version significantly. With the improved performance, and some memory saving techniques, Photo Shader can now save photos in their full resolution!

Five new effects have been added with this update, and new effects are guaranteed to be added with each and every update! All of the previous features are still there, such as the easy to use interface, drawing and erasing effects, adding and removing effects from a photo that as already been saved, the live tile, etc.!

For those of you on older devices, don’t worry, the WP7 version will be be updated along side the WP8 version indefinitely. The WP7 version will receive all of the effects, and most of the features of the WP8 version!

At 99c with a free trial, this is definitely a steal for one of the best photo editors on Windows Phone! Grab it here, on the Windows Phone Store!

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Nokia Lumia 620, 820 on sale in Japan, doing well

Nokia Lumia 620, 820 on sale in Japan, doing well

February 8, 2013 | By Surur

While Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 range isn’t being officially being distributed by carriers in Japan yet, Expansys Japan has been importing them into the country, and according to their best seller list the handsets are doing pretty well, with the Nokia Lumia 620 heading the list and the 820 also showing a presence.

Hopefully the handsets will eventually also make it to a carrier like NTT  Docomo, who has no Windows Phones on their current portfolio, but who has been rumoured to be getting a Nokia handset at some point.

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Nokia Still Faces Serious Supply Issues For Lumia 920 In China

Nokia Still Faces Serious Supply Issues For Lumia 920 In China

According to a report from Bloomberg, Nokia Lumia 920T is facing serious supply issues in China. China Mobile which now sells Lumia 920 for about 4,599-yuan ($738) device said that most of their stores doesn’t have Lumia 920T in stock. Hence is Nokia is missing out the next week’s holiday season due to delivery issues. According to China Mobile spokeswoman, Nokia supplied only 30,000 units until Jan-30th  while 90,000 Lumia 920T models were ordered. This is a serious issue for Nokia as it is losing the market to its rivals in the largest handset market in the world.

“Nokia’s production is still very low and supply isn’t meeting demand at this point,” China Mobile’s Li said in a Feb. 1 interview. “Many of our stores don’t have any units.”

During last months Financial Call, Nokia CFO said that Nokia is working to fix the supply issues and I don’t think it is happening fast as it should.

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More US companies plan to support Windows Phone 8 than Blackberry 10

More US companies plan to support Windows Phone 8 than Blackberry 10

Underlining that Windows Phone has now moved ahead of Blackberry in USA in terms of market share and mind share, a recent survey by iPass® Inc. and MobileIron,  which drew from the experiences of 477 IT executives worldwide, found that IT is more bullish on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 handsets than on RIM’s BlackBerry 10 phones.

The majority (about 75 percent) of respondents were currently employed IT professionals, at the director level or above. Fifty (50) percent of respondents worked for companies with more than 1,000 employees.

The survey found only 34 percent of IT managers plan to support BlackBerry 10, compared to 45 percent who plan to support Windows Phone 8 devices going forward. This is an improvement on the current level of Windows Phone 7 support, which is around the 32.6% mark, and a large drop in support for Blackberry, which is currently at the 62% mark. iPhones are currently supported by 77% of businesses, while Android phones are supported by 61%.

The survey also found however increasingly strong support for the Bring Your own Device movement, with 81 percent of respondents stating their company now accommodates personal devices in the office, underlining the need to continue fighting for consumer market share, as the business and consumer market continues to converge.

The survey took place between December 2012 and January 2013. The full iPass/MobileIron Mobile Enterprise Report can be found at here.

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Nokia Lumia 1000 shows up on China Mobile phone list, Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 in Indonesia.

Nokia Lumia 1000 shows up on China Mobile phone list, Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 in Indonesia.

Mobilegeeks.de noticed this entry in a for a Nokia Lumia 1000 on a registration page on giant carrier China Mobile’s website.

All of the other devices seem pretty real, raising speculation that the Nokia Lumia 1000 may be one the high end unannounced Windows Phones Nokia is expected to show at Mobile World Congress 2013.

On a related note, the Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 has passed through certification in Indonesia. These will likely be Windows Phone 8 versions of Nokia 510 and 710 handsets, though how Nokia will get WP8 down to the specs and price point of the Nokia Lumia 510 remains hard to see. See that certification at Nokianesia here.

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Battery, a great free app for Windows Phone 8

Battery, a great free app for Windows Phone 8

February 7, 2013 | By Lemonez

With Windows Phone 8, many new features came to our favorite mobile operating system. One of them allows apps to query the current state of the phone battery. And here comesBattery, a great battery management app.

Battery is a small and useful app that gives you all the information you need about the battery of your phone. But there is more! From within the app you can quickly see the status of different battery-draining phone features, like WiFi, Bluetooth and others. One tap and you are in the settings screen where you can enable or disable the feature.

Battery also has a great notification system. It can notify you for different battery-related events: when the battery is getting low, when the battery charging has completed or if your battery is draining quicker than normal.

And, let’s not forget the live tile! As in all apps by Enless Soft, the live tile is designed with special care. It is highly customizable and really, really beautiful (middle screenshot). It can be set to either change the background color or the icon color based on the remaining battery charge. Small tiles are also supported.

While there are still some missing features, Battery is one great app. Extended battery statistics, lock screen integration and other features are coming in the next versions.

Please note, that Battery only works on Windows Phone 8 devices.

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Celebrity Pulse App Now Available In Windows Phone Store

Celebrity Pulse App Now Available In Windows Phone Store

February 7, 2013 | By denhamsolutions

Celebrity Pulse is now available in the windows phone marketplace. Featuring the hottest celebrity gossip and breaking entertainment news, Celebrity Pulse fills all your entertainment needs. With celebrity photos and videos, and the juiciest of gossip, Celebrity Pulse is the ultimate source for the latest entertainment news.

Celebrity Pulse Features Include: Latest celebrity news and gossip Photo galleries Celebrity videos Ability to share a news article or photo through email, sms, facebook or twitter Twitter feeds from multiple entertainment news outlets Famous people born today page News feeds from the following sites: Celebuzz, DListed, E! Online, ET Online, Extra, MTV News, OK Magazine, Page Six, People, Perez Hilton, Pop Sugar, Radar Online, The Superficial, TMZ, US Magazine, Vulture, X17 Online

Get it for free!

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Microsoft PDF Reader For Windows Phone Updated With Support For Password Protected Files.

Microsoft PDF Reader For Windows Phone Updated With Support For Password Protected Files.

February 7, 2013 | By Pradeep

Back in November, Microsoft released its own PDF Reader app for Windows Phone 8 devices similar to their own app for Windows 8 devices in Windows Store. The app got some poor reviews due to the lack of password protected files support, etc,. Microsoft today updated the app with many new features.

PDF Reader update to v1.1 adds the following new features to the application:

• Management of historic PDFs in the history list so you can remove individual files and also clear the whole list.
• Share PDF documents with others directly from the app using your SkyDrive account.
• Support for encrypted PDF files that are password protected.
• Support for read-only PDF files.

The app still does not support sharing via email directly, but will upload the PDF to SkyDrive and then Share a link via email, which is just as good and avoids running into file size issues for attachments.

Find the updated PDF Reader in Marketplace here.

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KooZac Xbox Windows Phone Game Now Available In Windows Phone Store

KooZac Xbox Windows Phone Game Now Available In Windows Phone Store

KooZac from SQUARE ENIX got released as Xbox Windows Phone title this week. This game will cost $2.99 with free trial available.

Game Description:

** THREE EXCITING & CHALLENGING MODES **
PUZZLE – Play through 60 levels, destroying the silver puzzle blocks and clearing the board by completing the targets.
ENDLESS – No level, no stage – compete against the world in Endless mode and use multi gems to rack up huge scores.
BLITZ – Take on your Facebook friends in the 60 seconds KooZac Blitz mode – compete for the top spot in weekly tournaments, use boosts the super charge your score.

** ACCELERATE YOUR SCORES WITH BOOSTS, BONUSES & POWER BLOCKS **
Boost your scores with multipliers, slow downs, side by side, match them all and super hints. Tap and swipe as fast as you can to earn speed bonuses, match colours, numbers for more bonuses… Use multiple blocks for even more points

**** EARN FREE COINS ****
Play KooZac Blitz against your friends or ‘Like’ the KooZac Facebook page via the KooZac game and receive FREE COINS, spend them on boosts to super charge your scores

Download it here from Windows Phone Store.

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Portico update rolling out to unbranded devices in Germany

Portico update rolling out to unbranded devices in Germany

February 6, 2013 | By Lucas

Officially the Portico update for Nokia Lumia devices is rolling out since end January, but most people, including me, who own a unbranded device, have not received the update so far. Today I received an update prompt on my device saying the update is finally available. Many other blogs, like wparea.de confirm that too.

It seems unfair that unbranded devices, unencumbered by carrier testing and restrictions, get the updates last, but it is what it is.

Have  our readers with unbranded devices received the update today also? Let us know in the comments.

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Vodafone reveals pricing of its Windows Phone range–NL 920 hits a premium

Vodafone reveals pricing of its Windows Phone range–NL 920 hits a premium

February 6, 2013 | By Surur

Vodafone has released their recently announced Windows Phone range, and with it the pricing of the handsets.

The Nokia Lumia 920 will cost £42 per month on the Red data plan, which includes unlimited calls, text and 1 GB of data for 24 months. On 3 UK the same handset costs £36 per month with unlimited calls and data.

The Nokia Lumia 820 is £33 per month on the same tariff.

The low-end Lumia 620 is  £21 cost per month, with 300 minutes, unlimited texts, and 250 MB of data.

Probably the best value, the HTC 8X is £33 per month, with unlimited calls, text and 1 GB of data for 24 months.

Lastly the HTC 8S is £21 per month contract, with 300 minutes, unlimited texts, and 250 MB of data.

The Nokia Lumia 920 is considerably more expensive than the HTC 8X, and costs the same as the Samsung Galaxy S 3. The Nokia Lumia 920 is also being heavily promoted, as can be seen on the banner above.  It remains to be seen however if the handset can command the premium.

See the devices at Vodafone here.

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Nokia Lumia 620 WP8 Device Officially Launched In Germany

Nokia Lumia 620 WP8 Device Officially Launched In Germany

Nokia has finally announced that the low-end Windows Phone 8 device Nokia Lumia 620 will be officially launched on February 11th 2013 in Germany. The device will cost €269 and will be available in various colors. Lumia 620 will also be available on  Vodafone contract from € 9.90.

Specs:

System: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 , HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100

Battery: 1300 Li-ion mAh

Dimensions: 115.4 x 61.1 x 11 mm

Display: 3.8 inch capacitive touchscreen – TFT

Resolution: 480 x 800 pixels – Nokia ClearBlack display

Memory: 8 GB Storage 1GB RAM – MicroSD up to 64 GB

Camera: 5 Megapixel, LED Flash, autofocus, video, 720- 30fps

Connectivity: Hotspots, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 Dual band, Micro USB 2.0, Bluetooth, GPRS class B, EDGE class B, NFC

Platform: Microsoft Windows Phone 8

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Nokia DT-910 Wireless Desktop Charging Stand reviewed

Nokia DT-910 Wireless Desktop Charging Stand reviewed

AAWP have reviewed the Nokia DT-910 desktop wireless charging stand for Nokia’s Lumia range and were left somewhat unsatisfied.

While they had no complaints about the fit and finish of the accessory, they criticized the very large AC Adaptor, which outputted 12v, and found the 1.8 m cord unwieldy.

Charging rate at about 15% less than from the wired charger was acceptable, but was much less when used with non-Nokia hardware, which should be a warning for those buying it intending to use it with other Qi phones.

By far their biggest criticism centred around the implementation of the NFC tag in the device.  On the good side the NFC tag and the included application built into Nokia Lumias with wireless charging meant an app can be associated with the stand, with the default app being the weather app above, and because each tag is unique one could have a different app for the home and office for example.

The tag was however in the base rather than top of the stand, meaning one had to touch the NFC reading part of the phone (usually on the top back) to the base first to activate the tag, and further had to tap on Confirm or Ignore to actually launch the app, before finally placing the phone into the cradle, a 3 step process which does not seem to offer much beyond simply launching a pinned app via the start screen. Given this implementation AAWP does not feel the feature is a very good selling point, making the £70 cost of the cradle poor value for money.

They conclude:

Having any sort of stand for a smartphone helps turn it into a desktop assistant, effectively giving you a second screen to check email or calendar, etc. Combine that with the convenience of being able to place the phone on a stand that will begin charging without having to fiddle about connecting a charging cable is an absolute win.

That desktop stand, though, has a significant design chink in that you have to perform a separate action to launch an app when you place the phone to charge. This unique selling point of NFC launched apps should be a seamless operation that doesn’t require any thought by the user – it should just happen. Having to touch the phone to the base and respond to a prompt BEFORE placing the phone on to charge makes the whole thing pointless – why not just manually launch an app as normal before placing to charge?

Perhaps I’m being a tad harsh on the DT-910, but the other thing to seriously consider is that it costs 70 UKP. That is a lot of money, and if I were to invest that much money into an accessory I would want it to be perfect.

Considering the price, also bear in mind that, going by the current reports of compatibility with the Nexus 4 and other Android phones, it may not work properly with other Qi enabled devices. Therefore, it should almost be considered proprietary to the Lumia line.

If you absolutely want to have your phone propped up while it wirelessly charges, then the DT-910 is the Qi charger for you. However, the above two issues raise serious questions against the considerable price tag.

Qualified recommendation.

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Case Study touts Nokia Lumia enterprise success in Australia

Case Study touts Nokia Lumia enterprise success in Australia

February 6, 2013 | By Surur

Nokia and Microsoft has had a recent win in Australia where more than 70% of employees chose Nokia Lumia phones over Samsung, HTC and Apple phones at KONE Australia, a lift and escalator company.

As part of their new Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) policy, employees were either allowed to bring their own smartphone or chose from a selection of handsets.

KONE offered the Lumia 610 as an option for operational employees and a Lumia 920 for director-level employees. The Lumia 800 and 710 were also options.

The Nokia Lumia handsets were preferred due to the presence of the Nokia Drive, Microsoft Lync, SharePoint and Windows Phone People Hub.

The Maps app in particular was important for staff working on maintaining lifts – with Apple Maps stranding navigators in the middle of an Australian desert the company’s devices clearly have a reputation problem.

The People Hub was also an expectedly useful feature:

“The People Hub feature of Windows Phone is another great tool which helps organise teams internally. Sales and operations staff have already set-up groups, which allow management to stay in touch with co-workers across text, Facebook, Twitter, MSN Chat and email,” KONE’S Colleen Upsall said.

Hopefully such success stories will inspire other companies to come aboard.

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Nokia Ringtone maker now available, working for Windows Phone 7.8

Nokia Ringtone maker now available, working for Windows Phone 7.8

February 6, 2013 | By Surur

One of the features of Windows Phone 7.8 for Nokia handsets was meant to be apps like Ringtone Maker and Bluetooth Share, but many who have upgraded have been disappointed by the lack of availability of these apps.

WP7.com.pl have now however found links to be apps which appear to function without any issue.

The apps are not in the Nokia Collection yet and is best installed by scanning the QRCode (right). WP7.com.pl notes that Bluetooth Share should also become available soon, and that the apps work when tested on both the Nokia Lumia 610 and 800 upgraded to WP 7.8.

Read more at WP7.com.pl here.

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