Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia’s Lumia 1020 PureView smartphone will bring its 41-megapixel camera to the UK in September, according to one retailer, potentially two months after the Windows Phone goes on sale in the US. The UK release has been tipped by the Carphone Warehouse – though the retailer warns that it’s subject to change along the way – as right near the end of Nokia’s promised “this quarter” sales schedule.

In the US, Nokia will offer the Lumia 1020 exclusively via AT&T. The carrier will being presales tomorrow, July 16, with the Windows Phone 8 handset shipping from July 26. It’s not an inexpensive device, though; AT&T’s subsidized price is $299.99, with a new, two-year agreement.

Pricing for elsewhere, however, hasn’t been confirmed. It seems Nokia is positioning the Lumia 1020 as a premium device – that 41-megapixel CMOS and the companion six-element lens obviously doesn’t come cheap – figuring it will replace not only your existing phone but a dedicated camera, too; AT&T is yet to discuss off-contract pricing, but we’d guess it would be somewhere in the region of $750.

Your money will get you perhaps the most innovative phone in Nokia’s line-up. From the front, the Lumia 1020 is a 4.5-inch Windows Phone 8 device running Microsoft’s OS on a dualcore 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. However, flip it around and you find the bulge of the PureView camera, which can simultaneously snap 5- and roughly 40-megapixel stills, offers a lossless digital zoom during both image and video recording, and allows for zooming and reframing even after the photo has been taken.

Nokia Lumia 1020 hands-on:

It’s a system Nokia first experimented with on the 808 PureView back in 2012, but that handset’s Symbian OS and chunky styling meant sales were pretty much limited to enthusiasts only.

We’ve contacted Nokia about official launch timescales for the Lumia 1020 outside of the US, but the company tells us it’s still sticking with its Q3 window. There’s more on the Lumia 1020 in our full hands-on.

VIA The Inquirer

Nokia Lumia 1020 UK launch not until September warns retailer is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nokia isn’t leaving adoption of the Lumia 1020‘s 41-megapixel PureView camera up to chance, pairing its new Imaging SDK with a hackathon to encourage innovative uses of the oversampling and lossless zoom system. The new Windows Phone, revealed yesterday after a cavalcade of leaks, will support more advanced photography than most any smartphone on the market today out of the box, but now Nokia is calling for suggestions as to how to make it even more flexible, as part of its Nokia Future Capture program.

“We want you to push the limits of imaging too, think outside the box, and create apps worthy of the phone’s unique capabilities” Nokia says of the scheme. Developers can submit up to three ideas each – either for hacks or imaging-based apps for the Lumia 1020 – and company will take the creators of the ten best ideas to Sweden in August, to work on actually producing their software.

The top two app developers will get a Lumia 1020 to keep, while the best app will get a “VIP treatment” trip to an upcoming event, and see their app promoted through Nokia’s store.

Nokia Lumia 1020 hands-on:

Ideas submitted can optionally make use of peripherals – such as Nokia’s own Camera Grip, though there doesn’t seem to be any restriction on developing your own accessory – and they’ll be judged by Nokia’s local and global developer teams, along with members of the company’s imaging division. Criteria for picking the best apps includes creativity, user experience, and quality, and Nokia says that “creations should be as polished and as close to final as possible at the end of the weekend.”

As that implies, you’ll need to be a developer with some actual skills in coding to take part. Nokia will be asking for “development credentials” such as existing apps in the Windows Phone Store – or in other app stores – along with files, designs, or other evidence that you know your way around an SDK.

Ideas need to be submitted before the end of July, and there’s more information on the SDK itself at Nokia’s Developer site. The toolkit includes access to the partial JPEG decoding, which Nokia uses to quickly apply effects and tweaks, over 50 filters and enhancements, the ability to perform basic edits, and more.

There’s more on the Nokia Lumia 1020 PureView in our full hands-on.

Nokia Imaging SDK overview:

Nokia Lumia 1020 “Future Capture” puts out call for PureView hacks is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Today’s 41 Million Reasons event was all about the hardware — and, to a lesser extent, proprietary software — so it’s no surprise that third-party app developers weren’t exactly front and center. Nokia did give them a little more time after the show, however, with tables stationed around Lumia 1020 demos. We used the opportunity to take a gander at a beta version of Path’s forthcoming Windows Phone app, which the company was, naturally, showing off on Nokia’s hot new offering. And there’s no question why, really, as this version takes plenty of advantage of the Lumia’s photo focus.

The app also takes some visual cues from Microsoft’s mobile operating system. On the phone’s homescreen, Path’s tile offers a number, cluing you in to how many new posts you’ve got. Fire it up, and you’ll get your feed, as with Android and iOS, including photos, videos, check-ins and the like. Swipe to the right and the app uses the Windows Pivot navigation to take you to tiles with pending friend requests and your existing friends. As for Nokia exclusives, the company’s early access to handset maker’s imaging SDK brings 50 additional filters for pictures.

The app is scheduled for the “coming months”. In the meantime, you can check out a video demo below.

Check out all the news from today’s Nokia event at our hub!

Filed under: Cellphones, Storage, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia

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The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a smartphone with a 41-megapixel camera introduced by the company with intent on having it carried by AT&T here in 2013. This device works with a unique blend of abilities, tending not only to the massive photos produced when it takes 34MP and 38MP photos, but 5 megapixel photos as well. And why would Nokia suggest taking 5 megapixel photos when they’ve got a 41 megapixel sensor on this camera? It’s the sweet spot!

As suggested by Nokia’s own in-depth talks on the subject, the “sweet spot” in 5-megapixels exists for both image quality and for sharing purposes. You can print this size photo up to A3 side with ease and they’re well and above high-quality enough for slapping up on Facebook and Google+. The key with Nokia’s release of the 1020 and the 41MP / 5MP tie in lies in one word: Oversampling.

Oversampling

This is not a brand new concept for the camera industry – it’s not even new to Nokia, if you consider devices like the Nokia 808 PureView – but what’s happening with this device is a rebirth of efforts in the space. We’ll be having a chat on the possibilities of this setup with “lossless” or high-res zooming-in on photos as well, but for now, it’s all about the “amazing detail” Nokia promises in the everyday common 5 megapixel size shot.

The image you’re seeing below is one coming straight from Nokia’s white paper on the subject, suggesting that their technology kicks 5 megapixel photos into gear. With Oversampling – capitalized here so you know it’s Nokia’s unique software attacking the situation, in this article, you’re in for a very obvious different league with clarity.

Nokia suggests that with the technology appearing in the Nokia Lumia 1020, you’ve got a high resolution sensor bringing in one whole heck of a lot more information for images than what’s offered with a “standard” 5 megapixel sensor. That makes sense on a very basic level – you’ve got a more megapixels, so you have a better photo, right? It’s not quite that simple, actually, and it’s not just dependent on the number of megapixels either.

The big difference between a standard 5 megapixel shot and one produced by this new system from Nokia is in the amount of image data spread out across the photo. A standard system – here referring to technology appearing in basically every device in the market through history, especially in smartphones – takes, for example, “5 megapixel” photos but does not work with 5 million pixels of independent data.

Five megapixel photos can look like the image above on the left or the image above on the right, it all depends on how much data is given to each pixel. (Figure 3, that is)

Am I having deja-vu?

This system is extremely similar to what’s been described and implemented by HTC this year with the HTC One. In their case it’s called “UltraPixel” technology, and it’s created a device that’s been held in high regard for its photo capturing abilities, even with what the company calls it’s 4 UltraPixel (or 4 megapixel) camera on its back. Have a peek at our SlashGear 101: HTC UltraPixel Camera Technology post for more information on that alternate vision.

You’ll also be able to find more information on the brand-name PureView from our SlashGear 101: Nokia PureView considering the Nokia 808 PureView as well. Keep it all straight and you’ll do a lot better than the vast majority of lay people in the public – good luck!

SlashGear 101: Nokia Lumia 1020 Oversampling and the 5MP “Sweet Spot” is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As expected, the Nokia Lumia 1020 arrived with 41 megapixels in tow at today’s event in New York City. Got questions? Yeah, us too. Thankfully, we had a bit of time to sit down with none other than Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who was fresh off the on-stage Q&A, wearing a slick pair of bright yellow Converse All-Stars, in honor of the eye-popping color scheme of the handset he showed off earlier today. Elop seemed genuinely excited by his new device (even jokingly correcting me when I called it his “new toy”), taking a picture of us immediately after entering the room — or, rather, he took a picture of our own Richard Lai and zoomed out to reveal me. The concept of re-framing is a huge part of what Nokia’s selling — take a picture first and worry about framing it later. With 41 megapixels, it’s easy enough to zoom in or out after the fact.

Richard brought along a trio of handsets for comparison, including the N8, 808 PureView and the recent Lumia 925, so naturally we started with a little history — much like the press conference itself. Of interest was at precisely what point Nokia began to envision optics as one of, if not the, key focus of its handsets. It was an appropriate visual from Elop’s point of view — the executive sees all of the above as entries in the company’s evolutionary line. Nokia’s focusing on improving the experience a bit with each and every link, says Elop, with the latest handset building atop of the lessons learned. The Lumia 1020 is, naturally, a culmination of those lessons.

Filed under: Mobile, Nokia, AT&T

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