Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re living in the Microsoft universe and love their mobile strategy – and bright colors – you’ll be glad to know that it’s been tipped the Nokia will reveal their next generation of devices with Windows Phone 8 in September. During their next big event, Nokia World, both September 5th and 6th will be the home of a worldwide announcement of Nokia’s newest lineup, complete with Windows Phone 8 (Apollo) software onboard. This will put Nokia’s reveal just one week ahead of what’s generally been accepted as the must-be date for Apple’s next smartphone: September 12th for the new iPhone.

It’s strange to think that Nokia or Microsoft would place the event so close to even the possibility of a new iPhone, especially when Apple just last month noted that anticipation of the new iPhone was so high that it was hurting current iPhone sales significantly. Nokia is ready to come correct, on the other hand, still staying tough with their assurance that Microsoft is their best hope for a revitalization of their brand through the next few years.

This tip comes from Bloomberg where they’ve also mentioned the relatively unimpressive statistics that surround Nokia’s efforts with Windows Phone so far. Nokia sold just 600,000 Lumia devices (their current Windows Phone-toting lineup) last quarter in the USA according to the company itself – but they will not be deterred.

If Nokia is to have a successful second-wave launch of devices here near the Fall of 2012, they’re going to need to jump on board the “everyone” ship like Samsung has with the Galaxy S III. Thus far Samsung has done undeniably well with Galaxy S III sales after just two months of the device being on the market. A large part of the success of the Galaxy S III in the USA has been its near-simultaneous launch on five major mobile networks across the nation.

Nokia – make with the original Google dream for a smartphone and team up with everybody all at once! And if that doesn’t work – you know who has some software you might want to see!

Nokia World set to preempt New iPhone with Apollo is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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I’ve sung praises about it for years, but it seems like only now the industry is getting on the same train of thought. It could be my unnatural adoration of travel, or just an entirely healthy fear of getting lost, but offline navigation has long since been a top priority for me when choosing a mobile device. Or, more importantly, a mobile operating system. For the longest while, iOS forced my hand to Android due to Google Maps Navigation being available only on the latter, and while even that wasn’t offline, it still far surpassed any other routing app in terms of system integration, map updates and general silkiness.

Even dating back to our 2010 mobile GPS shootout, Nokia has been a player. At that time, it was the outfit’s Ovi Maps leading the pack, offering the only legitimate offline solution amongst a legion of ho-hum alternatives that required bits of data to keep you on track. But frankly, there wasn’t a Symbian device in Nokia’s stable that could show up my Nexus One in terms of overall utility, so begrudgingly, I pushed it aside. Eventually, Google came around and added caching to routes, which effectively downloaded all routing guidance along your path as soon as you plugged in a destination. The killer, however, was that it wouldn’t take too kindly to veering far from that path should you ever drop signal. Close, but no cigar.

Fast forward to today, and we’ve got Google Maps already working in offline mode for Android 2.2+ devices. Furthermore, the company’s Brian McClendon confessed to us at its June 2012 ‘Maps’ event that it’s “committed” to bringing all of the app’s features to iOS (and potentially other platforms). But in my haste to find something in the here and now, I recently turned to the Lumia 900 for guidance. Literally. Back in late March, the Lumia-exclusive Nokia Drive application gained full offline access, and I sought to use the handset exclusively to navigate a 1,900-mile trek through some of America’s most remote locales. How’d it go? Join us after the break to find out.

Continue reading Nokia Drive offline navigation review: taking the Lumia 900 for an off-the-grid spin

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Software

Nokia Drive offline navigation review: taking the Lumia 900 for an off-the-grid spin originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you saw Microsoft unveil Windows Phone 8 and were disappointed that it only had a handful of conspicuous new features to show, such as that new Start screen and NFC support, don’t worry: that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Senior product manager Greg Sullivan (not pictured here) tells Pocket-lint that much of the information provided so far had to be revealed early to please developers and IT managers, many of whom can’t wait until the last minute. Unlike a certain rival in Cupertino, Microsoft has a range of partners to work with and can’t just be ready to go “hours after” the OS is announced, like those that control both the hardware and the software. That split is good news to us, as it sounds like there’s a raft of public-facing Windows Phone 8 features waiting to surface between now and the end of the year — whatever impressions we had in June may have been conservative.

Microsoft: our nature makes it tough to show everything Windows Phone 8 can do just yet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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