We flew all the way to London and crashed on a friend’s couch just to tell you all about the new hotness from Nokia. Nokia? Huh? Why? Because this is important: Windows Phone has long been a legit competitor in need of some sexy hardware. More »
Fancy some turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation, cloud based music or sports highlights on your brand new Nokia smartphone? You don’t need an app for that: the Lumia 800 is now the only Windows Phone with full navigation built-in. Nokia announced its Drive navigation, which has a look and feel that should be comfortable with users of its former Ovi Maps suite. It also looks to have similar functionality, enabling the download of maps so that you can find your way into offline areas (see gallery, below).
Gallery: Nokia Drive, Music, Sport
There’s also exclusive Music and ESPN Sports Hub apps. The former features Mix Radio, a service that streams “locally relevant music” across hundreds of channels. The latter, meanwhile, allows sports fans to check up on stats, scores and news, and to pin their favorite teams or leagues to the start screen. All told, the company is promising a “uniquely Nokia” experience — guess their slick hardware won’t be the only way they break out of the WP7 pack. Check out a video demo of the navigation embedded after the break.
Amar Toor and James Trew contributed to this report.
Nokia announces its Drive navigation, Mix Radio, and ESPN Sports Hub cloud services for WP7 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You didn’t think Nokia would go through all this hoo hah just for one handset, did you? Nope, the potential audience is far too big to be satisfied with just one device at one price point, so here comes the Lumia 710. It takes advantage of the same 1.4GHz CPU found in the Lumia 800, offers a 3.7-inch ClearBlack display and comes in “stealthy black” and “crisp white,” with replaceable back covers. Look for the 710 to be priced around €270, or $375. For availability, you can expect to see the Lumia 710 hitting France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK in November and then Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan by the end of the year, with additional markets in the first part of 2012.
Gallery: Nokia Lumia 710
Gallery: Nokia Lumia 710 at Nokia World
Sharif Sakr, Dante Cesa and James Trew contributed to this post.
Nokia’s Lumia 710 Windows Phone announced alongside the 800, hitting select markets by end of year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Finally, here it is. The flagship device Nokia is counting on to bring a smile to our phone-loving faces, a sigh of relief to its shareholders, and a twinkle to the eyes of Finnish tax collectors everywhere. And, guess what? This heavily leaked handset might just live up to our high expectations. From the outside, the Lumia 800 is very similar to our beloved N9. Dubbed the “first real Windows Phone,” this device is powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU and is sculpted from the same 12.1mm (0.48-inch) thick piece of durable polycarbonate plastic, with tapered edges on the top and bottom to give it that industrial look and make it feel thinner than it really is. Sitting at the top of the device is Nokia’s logo, just above the company’s curved ClearBlack AMOLED (800 x 480) display, with a Carl Zeiss optics-enhanced lens around back. The Lumia 800 also packs 16GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM and 25GB of free SkyDrive space, and features Nokia Drive, Nokia Music and ESPN Sports Hub baked into its OS. As for that OS, it’s all about a fresh beginning: those bold squares you see on the screen are, of course, the sleek live tiles of Windows Phone Mango.
The eight megapixel camera, meanwhile, packs an f/2.2 aperture, and is designed specifically for low-light environments. It seems pretty similar to what you’ll find in the N9, and according to Nokia, it’s simply a shooter that works for “ordinary people, under ordinary circumstances.” You’ll also find quad-band GSM support, with HSDPA download speeds of up to 14.4Mbps. Now, for the basics: the Lumia 800 is priced at €420, or about $585. It’s already up for pre-order now, and is scheduled to roll out across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, beginning in November. It’ll make its way to Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the end of the year, and will hit “further markets” sometime next year. Check out a few more pics in the galleries below, or head past the break for a design video, and the official PR. For even more details, check out the Lumia 800 product page, linked below.
Gallery: Nokia Lumia 800
Gallery: Nokia Lumia 800 at Nokia World
Dante Cesa and Sharif Sakr contributed to this report.
Continue reading Nokia announces the Lumia 800, the ‘first real Windows Phone’ (video)
Nokia announces the Lumia 800, the ‘first real Windows Phone’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nokia has unveiled the Asha lineup, a spate of lower-end devices that run Series 40 and blur the line between featurephone and smartphone. The devices — named the 200, 201, 300 and 303, are all designed to encourage the “next billion” users to access the web, and seem directed toward emerging markets. The 200 includes an Easy Swap option that lets you throw in multiple SIM cards, and can offer up to 32GB of storage for media playback — 52 hours of it, in fact. It, along with the 201, have exceptionally loud speakers that work great for parties and those crazy all-nighters, though the latter lacks the multi-SIM support. Both of these phones will be available for €60 ($85); the 200 is going to ship before the end of the year, while the 201 will be ready for your purchase by Q1 2012. The 300 and 303 are the touchscreen handsets of the bunch; the 300 is a candybar with a numeric keypad and offers a 1GHz CPU, 5MP camera and 3G. It’ll be priced at €85 ($120) and will be available in Q4 2011. Similarly, the 303 offers the same types of features with a 2.6-inch display and full QWERTY experience, and should be ready before the end of the year for €115 (about $160).
All four Asha devices are made of polycarbonate and come with a Nokia Browser, which is powered by the cloud and compresses data by up to 90 percent, saving users from racking up excessive charges. Oh, and did we mention Angry Birds is coming to Series 40? Be sure to check out the vids for each Asha phone — as well as the press release — after the break.
Gallery: Nokia Asha 200, 201, 300, 303
Sharif Sakr and Dante Cesa contributed to this post.
Nokia unveils Asha lineup, bringing Series 40 to emerging markets: 200, 201, 300, 303 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sure, you may be fast asleep in your warm comfy bed back stateside, but we’re here at Nokia World in London, gearing up for a Windows Phone-packed keynote with CEO Stephen Elop. The excitement begins at 9AM local time (translated to your time zone below), so tune in just before for the play-by-play.
Psst… and toss your own time zone / day in comments below!
10:00PM – Hawaii (October 25th)
01:00AM – Pacific (October 26th)
02:00AM – Mountain (October 26th)
03:00AM – Central (October 26th)
04:00AM – Eastern (October 26th)
09:00AM – London (October 26th)
10:00AM – Paris (October 26th)
12:00PM – Moscow (October 26th)
05:00PM – Tokyo (October 26th)
Continue reading The Nokia World 2011 keynote liveblog!
The Nokia World 2011 keynote liveblog! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You’ve probably already gathered from our liveblog teaser and early look at one of tomorrow’s announcements, but we’re just settling in at Nokia World. And it really does feel like we’re a world away from the conference’s host city on London — the venue Nokia selected to host its growing event is quite a distance from Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and that famous big clock tower downtown. Stay tuned for plenty of Windows Phone (and perhaps even Symbian) coverage throughout the week, and don’t forget our liveblog of today’s keynote!
Pro tip: Use the “nokiaworld2011” tag for direct access to this week’s Nokia news!
We’re live from Nokia World 2011! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Toyota introduces Touch Life smartphone mirroring system, your Prius and iPhone can become one originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A leaked shot of the Lumia 800 shows a familiar form factor. Photo: WinRumors
Nokia needs a swift injection of relevance — badly. Compared to Google’s and Apple’s mobile OS offerings, Nokia’s Symbian software is positively prehistoric. And Nokia phones overall are little more than handheld curiosities, at least in the U.S. consumer market.
Indeed, pulling a Nokia out of your jeans pocket is somewhat akin to pulling up to the curb in an old Citroen. Onlookers must inevitably ask, “Why?”
But we’re finally seeing hard evidence of a much-needed sea change at Nokia. This Tuesday, screenshots of three new Nokia devices running the Windows Phone OS — the first of many promised devices to run the software — finally surfaced. The phones will most likely make their official debut on Wednesday morning at the Nokia World conference in London.
WinRumors was the first to report the story.
From what we can tell, the Nokia Lumia 800 looks exactly like the N9 model we played with earlier this month, save for the fact it’s no longer running the Linux-based Meego operating system.
The companion Lumia 710 smartphone differs aesthetically from the 800 in that it’s less boxy, instead boasting rounded edges and a flat-looking face. According to details in the leaked images, the phones both come with 512MB of RAM and no SD card slots. Further details are scant.
Little information leaked on the Lumia 710, outside of RAM and SD card specs. Photo: WinRumors
Additionally, The Nokia Blog received a spec sheet for a third device, the Nokia 900. With a 4.3-inch display and a 1.4 GHz Snapdragon processor backed by a gig of RAM, the 900 looks to be the star of Nokia’s show.
Once considered the smartphone market leader, Nokia’s industry cred has flagged over the past few years as the company has failed to sufficiently update its Symbian operating system. Though Nokia shipped upwards of 450 million handsets in 2010, its marketshare dwindled by almost 7 percent last year. Meanwhile, user adoption of Android and iOS continues to skyrocket.
Nokia is betting its future on Microsoft’s mobile OS. Earlier this year, Nokia made a major deal with Microsoft to transition from the antiquated Symbian software to Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS.
We’ll be on site at Nokia’s Northern California offices on Wednesday for the official announcement.
See those boxes up there? They appear to contain a yet-to-be-announced QWERTY phone. We were able to get a quick glance at the phones from above as Nokia reps were discretely unpacking boxes for that little three-wheeled vehicular contraption parked behind the boxes. Another picture (after the break) reveals a red portrait QWERTY along with the tagline “You. Me. Everyone. Let’s QWERTY,” along with a model number covered up by a white piece of paper. It appears that this one may be the Nokia 303 leaked a couple weeks ago, which seems to be a low-end Series 40 6th Edition Touch-and-Type device. We know it includes WiFi and 3G connectivity, social functions and comes in colors (at least red and gray). We’re just hours away from keynote confirmation at this point, and something tells us that these guys will be making their way into some attendee swag bags come tomorrow. Jump past the break for a few more pics.
Brad Molen contributed to this post.
Continue reading Nokia to announce QWERTY Series 40 Touch and Type tomorrow?
Nokia to announce QWERTY Series 40 Touch and Type tomorrow? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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