Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia has just made an announcement for a new Windows Phone 8 powered device, where they have called it the Nokia Lumia 620. This particular bad boy is definitely one that targets the market which is more budget conscious. After all, we do know that the world’s economy is not in the best of shapes at this point in time, so it would make perfect sense for smartphone manufacturers to be more sensitive to the needs of those out there who work around a tight budget, juggling their (financial) responsibilities between a family, work, and leisure. Perhaps you are one who wants to give the Windows Phone 8 operating system a go, but do not want to splurge your hard earned cash on a high end Nokia Lumia 920, which is where the Nokia Lumia 620 steps in – perfectly.

Nokia’s Lumia 620 would be the company’s third and most affordable Windows Phone device to date, and it will join its “elder” siblings in the market, which are the flagship Lumia 920 and the Lumia 820. The Nokia Lumia 620 will come with a rather compact 3.8” display, and this would certainly make it the smallest Nokia Lumia device in the market today. Specially designed to be an affordable alternative to the mid-range Lumia 820, it carries with it an estimated retail price of just $249 – prior to taxes and subsidies, of course.

Just what kind of firepower (some say the lack of, I leave that up to you to judge) do you think the Lumia 620 has underneath the hood? For starters, it comes with a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera at the back, a front facing VGA camera, and 8GB of internal memory. Of course, we all know that in this day and age, 8GB is just not quite good enough, which is why there is a microSD memory card slot thrown into the mix for good measure, letting you bump up the total memory to 64GB along the way.

Apart from that, it will also be accompanied by a host of all of Windows Phone 8’s features alongside Nokia’s extremely useful app suite which carries Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, Nokia City Lens, and Nokia Transit among others. Any takers?

Press Release
[ Nokia Lumia 620 is new Windows Phone 8 for those on a tight budget copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

So here are millions and millions of folks out there who already own a Twitter account, with some stalkers having more than just one. Well, one of the world’s most revered spiritual leaders, the Pope, has finally jumped aboard the Twitter bandwagon officially, where he is now able to send Twitter messages to the Catholic faithful via the handle @pontifex, which is actually his personal account, at least according to the Vatican. According to a spokesman, Pope Benedict XVI intended to “reach out to everyone” with tweets – and in order to achieve the maximum exposure, whatever the man of God tweets will be translated into eight languages.

It is said that if you want to know just what the Pope’s first tweet is all about from the @pontifex account, then wait for December 12th to know more. @pontifex means “pontiff” as well as “builder of bridges”, and both of them are very apt for a man of the Pope’s stature. Of course, this December 12th would not be the first tweet from the Pope, as he already sent his first tweet in 2011 (albeit using a Vatican account) in order to roll out the Holy See’s news information portal.

Greg Burke, senior media advisor to the Vatican, said, “We are going to get a spiritual message. The Pope is not going to be walking around with a Blackberry or an iPad and no-one is going to be putting words into the Pope’s mouth. He will tweet what he wants to tweet.”

According to the Vatican, the Pope will rely on a question-and-answer format for his first Twitter session, where he will focus mainly on answering questions concerning the faith, limited by just 140 characters tops for each reply.

In fact, the Vatican has already begun to invite folks to start sending in questions ahead of time so that the Pope will have enough time to formulate his answer when the time comes. Will the Pope overtake Justin Bieber in terms of Twitter followers eventually?

Source
[ The Pope gets Twitter account copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Two of the most popular gadget items on the Coolest Gadgets Gift Picker are keyboard related believe it or not. We recently highlighted the Laser Virtual Keyboard. But another popular keyboard is the Sliding Keyboard Case for the iPhone 4/4S on Think Geek. For those that have switched from a more keyboard based unit to an iPhone you will appreciate the tactile feel of the keys again. The hardshell plastic case will keep a phone protected and Bluetooth connects the case and phone. So get back to the old methold of two thumb typing if you choose.

Find the Sliding Keyboard Case and many more gadget-y gifts on the Gift Picker. Tell us what you know about the gift recipient and we will point you towards plenty of options.

[ HOT GIFT ALERT: Sliding Keyboard Case for iPhone copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

For the first time in the history of comScore’s MobiLens U.S. mobile market share report, Apple has come in second overall among handset OEMs. Apple grew its U.S. market share by 1.5 percentage points from 16.3 to 17.8 percent in the three-month period ending October 2012, according to the report. During the same period, Samsung also saw its share grow, but only by 0.7 percentage points, from 25.6 to 26.3 percent. Apple seems to have begun narrowing the gap on the back of the iPhone 5, which went on sale in the U.S. towards the middle of the period covered by comScore’s latest report.

Apple climbed to second over LG, which saw a dip of 0.8 percentage points from 18.4 to 17.6 percent during the period. Motorola and HTC rounded out the top five, both experiencing slight drops and finishing the quarter with 11 and 6 percent of the market, respectively. Another key metric comScore found, and one which helps explain what finally pushed Apple into second place, is nearly 52 percent of all subscribers in the U.S. were on smartphones, up 6 percent from the previous quarter. Apple only sells smartphones, so its fortunes rising in lockstep with the decreasing popularity of feature phones makes perfect sense.

As mentioned, Apple also released the iPhone 5 during the quarter covered by this report. We’ve already seen from Kantar Worldpanel that the iPhone 5 propelled Apple back to the top of the U.S. smartphone charts, and it’s likely that device is also the reason Apple now comes in at number two overall among handset makers of all stripes.

Platform market share still shows Google with a commanding lead, and one which grew during the period, from 52.2 percent of subscribers to 53.6 percent. Apple also gained, rising 0.9 percentage points from 33.4 percent to 34.3 percent, while RIM was the biggest loser among the top five with a decline of 1.7 percentage points. Microsoft and Symbian round out the top five, both with minor drops in overall share.

The next quarter will be an interesting one to watch for. It covers November through January, which means that we’ll see the holiday effect on all OEMs. It also should include LG’s sales of the Nexus 4 device, which seems to be remarkably popular, or at least in very short supply. Depending on how LG allocates supply among its Optimus G and Nexus devices, we could see it claw back into second, since the gap is still quite narrow, but it has to contend with Apple’s holiday iPhone sales, which are generally very strong.

So you have gotten yourself a spanking new iPhone 5, and would want to care for it in the best way possible. Well, the next logical accessory that you can purchase would be the £19.99 D3O iPhone 5 Impact Band, don’t you think so? Coming in clear and smokey designs, you can be sure that the D3O iPhone 5 Impact Band will be able to do its darndest best to ensure your precious smartphone from Cupertino with its 4” Retina Display will remain in pristine condition for as long as possible.

The D3O iPhone 5 Impact Band is very different from a regular case, where it sports a particular protective band that will fit around the edge of your iPhone 5, and in the process, it delivers incredible impact protection. Specially developed in futuristic science labs and underground bunkers (just sayin’, we think it is more of a factory lab somewhere), the iPhone 5 Impact Band relies on D3O technology, which means it is soft and pliable under normal conditions, but will remain rigid and extremely strong in the event of an impact.

[ D3O iPhone 5 Impact Band copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]