Hasta La Gadget!

Sales of Nokia handsets in the North American market dived by 50-percent in Q3 2012 versus the previous quarter, the company has confirmed, with just 300,000 phones sold in the lucrative region. In fact, Nokia sales only increased in Q3 in two markets – up 10-percent in Europe and 5-percent in Asia-Pacific – with Greater China sales ditching 27-percent and Latin America down 9-percent, for a total decline of 1-percent in volumes compared to Q2 2012.

Year on year, the numbers are even more dismal, with overall volumes stopping 22-percent. In the same period, net sales dropped 34-percent.

Nokia blames “lower operator and distributor demand for Lumia as well as our efforts to prepare the distribution channel for the upcoming sales start of new devices” for the drop in North America, while sales in China were down because of “competitive pressures” trampling on Symbian interest.

There’s frustration ahead for existing Lumia owners, however, with the news earlier this year that their hardware would not be compatible with the next version of Windows Phone. Instead, they’ll get Windows Phone 7.8, a UI refresh, but few of the underlying software improvements. How that might impact the warm, fuzzy feelings toward the Finnish firm by early-adopters remains to be seen.

All hopes are now on Nokia’s new Windows Phone 8 line-up, which currently consists of the Lumia 920 flagship and the Lumia 820 mainstream handset. Nokia is also focusing on wireless charging as a differentiator, though the company has been criticized for the relatively high prices of its charging accessories.

Nokia North American phone sales slashed in half in Q3 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s time for the greatness of Nokia’s own City Lens technology to be released into the wild, the same powerful beast shown earlier this year at CTIA and more recently on the Lumia 820 and 920 lineup! This software brings the power of Nokia Maps to the virtual universe showing an overlay of places and attractions on your real world view through your device’s camera. City Lens will be available for several Nokia devices for real, in a v1.0 version out of Beta, starting today!

If you use the Nokia Lumia 900, 800, or 710, you’re in luck. These devices will have access to City Lens starting today. All you’ve got to do is follow the following directions to grab it quite quickly! You’ll be using your device’s camera to see a QR-code first and foremost – from there you’ll get the download and you’ll be on your way! Note that you do need an internet connection to grab this download, so make sure data or wifi are on!

1. Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
2. Scan the barcode
3. Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
4. Install the application from the Windows Phone Marketplace

You could also, of course, just go straight to the Windows Phone Marketplace, but that’s not nearly as fun a process! Have a peek at our hands-on with City Lens through the eyes of the Nokia Lumia 920 here, and note that the final version for the 920 and the 820 will vary just a bit from the version you’re seeing for your 900, 800, or 710 today.

With Windows Phone 8 as it appears on the 920 and 820 you’ll find some features that only appear on Windows Phone 8 devices and above. With this version of City Lens, you’ll be able to pin to start any category tile. You’ll also be able to add your own favorite searches, and you’ll be able to use City Lens in both portrait and landscape modes. Check our timeline below for more City Lens action!

[via Nokia]

Nokia City Lens released from Beta for Lumia devices is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just five months after grandly returning to the United States with the Lumia 900, Nokia’s switching it out for an even better Windows Phone 8 offering. The 920’s coming with a beefier display, better internals and has wholly embraced wireless charging — but that’s not the feature everyone’s gonna be talking about. No, that’s reserved for the 8-megapixel PureView hardware and the new imaging tech behind it. Still, that shouldn’t distract from the real business at hand: identifying the tiny hardware differences that separate the current and future iterations of the flagship, which we’ve broken down for you after the break.

Continue reading Nokia Lumia 920 vs. Lumia 900: what’s changed?

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Nokia Lumia 920 vs. Lumia 900: what’s changed? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 11:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of August 13th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Software

Refresh Roundup: week of August 13th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Aug 2012 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we’re tapping away on our brand-new smartphones — and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of August we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — you can hit up the hub page right here!

It’s a good time to be a student. Last year, there were some solid picks, but it was still very clear that those willing to scrimp and save a little longer had a much better experience. This year, it’s a people’s revolution. Thanks to cutthroat competition, there are some exceptional phones out there, even for those of you hoping to avoid eating ramen noodles for a month. Software has taken a leap forward too, with many phones now offering a vital way to remember when that term paper is due… or to procrastinate at the pub. We have nine choices of phones in our shortlist, spread out across three categories to serve everyone from the I-just-need-a-phone freshman to the overloaded doctoral candidate. While you’re eying the selection, don’t forget to enter our giveaway and potentially ease the burden — who knows, you may get a phone you want rather than the one dictated by your student loan.

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: smartphones

Filed under: Cellphones

Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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