Hasta La Gadget!

During an investor conference earlier today, Verizon CEO Dan Mead said that there’s an important opportunity in their industry for both BlackBerry and Windows Phone. Both of these ailing platforms are widely considered as natural contenders for the third spot in the market that is largely dominated by Apple and Samsung. Windows Phone has struggled quite a lot in the start, whereas it has only been four months since BlackBerry 10 was launched. Dan also said that three or four operating systems are good for the industry and “good for us.”

These remarks come at a time with it has nearly been confirmed that Verizon will be announcing Nokia Lumia 928 soon, which will be exclusive to this network. Its also a time when analysts believe BlackBerry Q10 will outsell the Z10, having only been released late last month, the QWERTY BlackBerry 10 smartphone has been doing quite well in the market. Regarding the smartphone, Dan said “We’re hopeful it will meet the needs for our customers who have been loyal BlackBerry customers.” While the carrier has officially not announced carrying either smartphone, this could be taken as a hint, given how there’s substantial evidence for the Lumia 928 and the fact that Verizon already carries the BlackBerry Z10.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Android 4.2.2 With Sense 5.1 Leaked For HTC Butterfly, Hipstamatic Launches Oggl, Looks To Compete With Instagram,

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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So come 14^th of May, Nokia is expected to announce something new in London. Many are assuming that this will be the Nokia Lumia 928’s announcement, also known by its codename, Catwalk. However at the same time, it has been reported that the Lumia 928 might not be the only device that could be announced and that a certain Lumia 925 could be unveiled as well. What is the Lumia 925, you ask? Well if the reports are to be believed, this is the international version of the Lumia 928 which according to leaks and rumors, is an exclusive for Verizon.

The specs of the Lumia 925 are expected to be the same as the Lumia 928, with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset, a 4.5” 720p HD display, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a camera that supposedly will perform excellently in low-light conditions, and of course it will run on Windows Phone as well. In any case we guess you should take this with a grain of salt for now, but with the 14^th of May only a week away, we guess we won’t have to wait too long to find out!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Alleged LG Optimus G2 Smartphone Image Leaked, Nokia Lumia 928 Billboard Apparently Leaks Well Before Launch,

We’ve been hearing about the Nokia Lumia 928 for quite a while now, and with Nokia holding an event on the 14^th of May, it leaves little to the imagination as to what the Finnish company could be unveiling. In the meantime for those looking for more Lumia 928 news tidbits to chomp on, Mark Guim at The Nokia Blog might have spotted the phone being used during a private Nokia concert which was held a couple of nights ago. The concert featured performances by Ed Sheeran and attendees were given Lumia 920 handsets for the night to record and shoot both photos and videos.

However what Guim noticed was that there were several devices covered in black cases being carried on tripods and monopods (pictured above), and as you can see, it is very obvious that this is a smartphone. Thanks to the placement of the Xenon flash, it was determined that the devices in these black cases were none other than the Lumia 928, with Guim speculating that Nokia is using the phone to record videos in which it will use during its launch, presumably to show off the phone’s camera technology. In any case if you’d like to learn more about the Lumia 928, be sure to check back with us on the 14^th of May for the details.

[Image Credit – Mark Guim]

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Nokia looks like it’s hoping to turn up the volume of its Windows Phone-based Lumia smartphones in the U.S. by signing another carrier to its cause. Bloomberg is reporting that Nokia and Verizon have struck a deal that will see the carrier offer a forthcoming flagship, the Lumia 928, starting from next month. Neither the deal nor the device have been made public by Nokia or Verizon but Bloomberg said two people familiar with the situation have confirmed the impending launch.

Bloomberg’s report follows previous leaks in which the Lumia 928 was spotted in the FCC’s and Verizon’s systems. An apparent image of the handset was also leaked earlier this month. When approached for comment a Nokia spokesman told TechCrunch it does not comment on rumour and speculation.

If the Verizon deal is true, the Lumia 928 will be the first high end Lumia the carrier has ranged (it does already carry the mid-range Nokia Lumia 822). In the U.S. Lumia devices such as the flagship Lumia 920 have been exclusively carried by AT&T to date. Getting another major carrier — Verizon has some 100 million subscribers – on board with a flagship is vital for the once Mighty Finn to try to capture more cachet, as well as marketshare.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the Lumia device that will launch on Verizon will have a metal body, a 4.5-inch touch screen, an 8-megapixel camera and wireless charging. Earlier rumours have suggested it will have a polycarbonate body, however, while the internals have generally been expected to remain the same as the Lumia 920.

North America has traditionally been a weak market for Nokia — historically, back in the Symbian days, but also since Nokia’s Windows Phone reboot. But in its Q1 results last week, the region was the only market in which Nokia saw a small increase in sales (up by 9%) compared to last year. Nokia reported selling a total of 5.6 million Lumias globally in the quarter.

Kantar stats we covered earlier this month indicate that Windows Phone as a whole — so not just Nokia devices but also HTC, Samsung etc — has moved up into a distant third place in the US smartphone market, behind the two leaders: Android and iOS, suggesting the platform is slowly building some regional momentum. That momentum may have helped convinced Verizon to take a punt on a Lumia flagship.