Hasta La Gadget!

After launching the service across the pond just a few short days ago, Nokia’s now ready to make Music+ available for the US — confirming to us today its availability on Yankee soil. To recap, the paid subscription service ramps up the free app’s offerings with higher quality audio, unlimited offline downloads and Mix Radio skips, multiple device use, as well as lyrics — all for $4/mo. It’s a significantly cheaper alternative to other freemium music streaming services currently available in the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem. So, if you’ve recently gone Lumia, you might want to check it out.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Nokia

Comments

Source: Nokia

Nokia set broad targets for the launch of Music+ that left some of its audience wondering just when they’d have their turn. For the UK, that’s now. Those willing to drop £4 per month (or use a one-week trial) will get the promised unlimited offline downloads to their Lumia, improved audio quality, unlimited radio skips and web streaming. Americans still don’t have a firm date for their turn at a Music+ subscription, although they’ll get a better deal with a $4 monthly outlay.

[Thanks, Alam]

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Mobile, Nokia

Comments

Via: Symbian Tweet, WMPowerUser

Source: Nokia Music (Twitter)

Thumbs twitching, in an attempt to get on that new Spotify beta? You might have had a frustrating morning. Multiple users are reporting that when trying to purchase or download apps on their Windows Phone they are instead receiving error code 805a0193. As handy as the code is, there’s no further information about what is causing the problem. Unlike previous issues that seemed more localized, this current instance appears pretty widespread with reports coming from the US, and France amongst others. Are you affected? Let us know in the comments. In the meantime we’ve contacted Microsoft to see what’s up.

[Thanks to all who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft

Comments

There’s been indications that Apple staged something of a comeback in the US during the fourth quarter, owing partly to an iPhone 5-related spike. ComScore’s smartphone share data for December appears to bear that out. It estimates that the Apple claimed a 36.3 percent slice of the American market in the last month of 2012: that’s a noticeable boost from 35 percent in November, and two points up since the iPhone 5’s September arrival. Android remained on top at 53.4 percent, but it was once again unusually static, edging down from highs earlier in the year. Other platforms took their usual blows, although there’s no doubt some hopes for revival.

Just don’t anticipate looking for overall cellphone market share. ComScore has switched to focusing on smartphones, and it’s telling a different story than we’ve seen in the past. When only smartphones count, Samsung’s December share left it in second place, at 21 percent — still an increase over prior months, but not as large as Apple’s 36.3 percent. The biggest surprise is LG’s rise to 7.1 percent and fifth place, quite possibly due to the Optimus G and Nexus 4. Enough shifted that the market may be even less recognizable in 2013, for better or worse.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, HTC, Nokia, LG, Blackberry

Comments

Source: ComScore

It’s no secret that Microsoft and Nokia are aiming to make Windows Phone the OS of choice when it comes to mobile photography, whether through optical image stabilization or the Lens app lineup. The latest camera augmentation code to come down the pike is Blink, an app built by Microsoft Research that brings a special burst mode to WP8 devices. Blink works by snapping a series of 16 shots each time you take a photo, and lets you choose which picture’s worth keeping. It’s an an excellent tool for those looking to take action photos, but there’s a catch — the pictures taken by Blink are of less-than-impressive quality, with a max resolution of 800 x 488. That said, if such an imaging safety net sounds good to you, there’s a video showing it off in action after the break, and you can grab the app at the source below.

Update: It seems that the images Blink produced on our Samsung ATIV Odyssey are not representative of the app’s true capabilities. One of the app’s creators reached out to tell us that Blink is set to output images that are 1280 x 720, and the glitch we unwittingly discovered is being investigated.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

Comments

Via: All About Windows Phone

Source: Windows Phone Store