Mobile Phone Blog:

It’s often been stated that Microsoft gave Nokia carte blanche to fiddle about with the Windows Phone platform, to an extent that other manufacturers could only dream of. The thing that many people have asked, though, is whether Nokia ever planned on changing the UI, and it’s beginning to look like they might have, at one point, been considering doing just that.

Y’see, PocketNow have come across some work by one of Nokia R&D’s senior graphic designers, which show off some design concepts for Windows phones, which look nothing like, well, Windows Phone. So, is this what Nokia originally wanted phones like the Nokia Lumia 800 to look like, and if so, why did they scrap the idea?  (more…)

Right then, I’ve often heard it said that e-books will eventually take over from traditional paper books. It’s usually followed up by other people making arguments saying that’s a bad thing, and that it will lead to the fall of civilisation. You get used to that happening, after a while (it’s the average luddite reaction), but what they forget is that if it happens, it will actually lead to paper books becoming even more prized and special, thanks to their rarity.

Besides, audio-books haven’t killed off paper books, and that leads us nicely on to the topic of this post; according to WinSuperSite, the Audible audio-book player is coming to Windows Phones! Yup, you’re about to get your very audio-book player, and that is brilliant…  (more…)

Right then, this bit of news should be something that comes as a huge surprise to precisely no-one; Nokia are working on a tablet device. In fact, according to IntoMobile, Nokia’s Head of Design, Marko Ahtisaari, says that he spends about a third of his time working on said new tablet device. He went so far as to say that we’re working on specifically making the device stand out among a sea of iPad-challengers.

So, as always happens when news like this emerges, it’s time to turn our minds to precisely what a Nokia tablet device might be like. Well, it seems like it’s logical to jump to the conclusion that it’ll run on Windows 8. Yup, they’re with Microsoft, I can’t see them jumping to Android for tablets… (more…)

Right then, this is something you don’t see every day; earlier on, I went and had a look on the Pentax Forums, a place where serious camera enthusiasts and photographers hang out, and saw that they had a thread about the Nokia 808 PureView. Knowing what serious camera enthusiasts are like, I expected them to be tearing the PureView a new one, ‘cos it’s not a camera, it’s a phone, dammit, waaaaaaaaaaaah (‘cos serious camera enthusiasts, y’know, really know their stuff).

Except they’re not. In a shocking turn of events, serious camera enthusiasts actually seem to be impressed by the Nokia 808 PureView. Wow. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria (sorry, couldn’t resist that quote)… (more…)

Ever since I started gaming on my PC (which only happened recently, ‘cos hey, no graphics card), I’ve been drawn to smaller indie games, like Terraria. In part that’s because, well, my PC only has integrated graphics on the motherboard, so it can’t play big games, but it’s also partly because indie games are often more fun than their more expensive brethren.

Last year, one game broke out as the real darling of the indie games scene, though, and that game was Limbo, a title that wowed everyone on Xbox Live, on the PlayStation Network, and on PCs. However, it looks like it may be about to wow mobile phone users, too, because according to Destructoid, developer Playdead are advertising for a programmer to work on games for mobile platforms… (more…)

Click here for part 1 in today’s epic three-post stream of consciousness!

While we’re on the subject of Windows Phone, let’s move on to Nokia. Y’know how Nokia announced the new 808 PureView during the Mobile World Congress, and how it has a monster of a 41MP camera, but how, on the downside, it runs on an OS that’s showing its age (i.e. Symbian)? Yeah, well, according to Engadget, Nokia are bringing their PureView imaging technology to their range of Windows phones.

Nokia’s Senior Vice President has confirmed that the brand new technology will be coming to their Lumia range, although as yet, no date’s been set on when that might happen.

This is rather good news…  (more…)

Right then, I’ve decided to do something a bit different, today. I’m going to go with a little bit of a stream of consciousness thing with today’s blog posts, what with there being a sort of natural link between the three stories that caught my eye. Plus, I’m kind of excitable this week (the reason why I’m excitable will become clear on Friday, fear not), so I figured what the hell, let’s do something new!

Annnnnnnnnd we begin with a story about Sony, from the pages of WPCentral. The rumour going about is that the Japanese giant is planning on branching out beyond Android, and that they will, thus, be getting onboard with Windows Phone, before the end of the year. As always, though, we must ask: true or cobblers?  (more…)

Right then, this is bordering on mind-boggling, and it can be summed up by saying, right off the bat, that Nokia have just made the best camera phone ever. No ifs, no buts, the Nokia 808 PureView leaves every other mobile camera, in the entire world, firmly in the dust. And that is because the Nokia 808 PureView has a FORTY-ONE MEGAPIXEL camera.

Ye. Gods. So, the images it produces are going to be massive, right? Ah, well, according to AllAboutSymbian, the answer is actually no, ‘cos the default resolution of images produced is actually five megapixels.

Yeah, it’s not just the fact that it’s a 41MP camera. It’s far, far cleverer than that…  (more…)

Woohoo! I’ve been waiting patiently for what seems like ages, and the day has finally come; the HTC One X is now official! Here ye go, check it out for yourselves…

As expected, this beastie’s packing a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, and it’s clocked to 1.5GHz, which is nice and meaty. Equally meaty is the 4.7 inch screen, a Super LCD 2 display that’s got a full 720p resolution. All of this is brilliant, but as things have turned out, there’s two things that I don’t like about the phone… (more…)

Well, colour me completely unsurprised, folks; according to Strategy Analytics, Nokia have gone and overtaken HTC to become the world’s biggest manufacturer of Windows phones (and by a considerable margin, too). Alex Spektor, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, had this to say, “Microsoft smartphone shipments remain tiny, but they are showing tentative signs of growth. Nokia overtook HTC and others to become the world’s largest Microsoft smartphone vendor with 33 percent market share. Nokia’s global Microsoft smartphone shipments hit 0.9 million units, as distribution of its Lumia family expanded across numerous countries and operators.”

And really, is anyone surprised? (more…)