Nokia's HERE Maps app for Windows Phone 8 has been updated to version 3.3.354, adding integration with Nokia's LiveSight technology. In action, HERE Maps new LiveSight mode shows a gradual transition from a digital map view to an augmented reality view as you hold the device up to "look through the screen" at the world around you, making it easier to identify places around you.
At a dedicated launch event in London, Jo Harlow, SVP smartphones, and Stefan Pannenbecker (from Nokia Design), announced the metal-framed Lumia 925, as you'll see from our 'live' story today, as part of a 'summer of announcements'. This is the company's new Windows Phone flagship for the world, not to be confused with the all plastic - but Xenon-equipped - Lumia 928 for Verizon in the USA. Materials aside, the 925 also has the world's first six-element smartphone camera and has light sensitivity up to ISO 3200. More details of the Lumia 925 below, along with original hands-on photos later today, hopefully.
On May 14th, in London, Nokia is holding an event where it will announce the next chapter in the Lumia story. A number of device and software announcements are expected to be made. The event kicks off at 10:00 BST (09:00 GMT). We'll be updating this story with our on-the-scene live coverage at the event takes place. You can also watch a live stream of the press conference event via Nokia Conversations.
Nokia have announced the Lumia 928. The high end Windows Phone handset sports a 4.5 inch display at 1280 x 768, with Gorilla Glass, wireless charging, an 8.7 megapixel OIS camera with Xenon flash, a dual core Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual core processor, and 32GB of internal storage. It will debut exclusively on the US network Verizon on May 16th, for $150, and a $50 mail in rebate is available to bring the initial price under $100.
Microsoft has published twinned "Switch to Windows Phone" apps on the Google Play and Windows Phone Store. On Android devices the app will first check to see what apps are installed and then check whether they are available on Windows Phone, before returning an apps available on Windows Phone percentage. The results can be saved, so that they can later be retrieved using the Windows Phone version of the app, which provides links to quickly install the matched apps.
Today Kantar released its latest set of Worldpanel data (March 2013) about smartphone market share in a number of countries. The data shows substantial growth for Windows Phone in the UK (2.9% to 7%), France (2.8% to 7.2%), and the US (3.7% to 5.6%) over the last year, although some markets, such as Germany (6.6% to 6.1%), show a small decline.
Today Kantar released its latest set of Worldpanel data about smartphone market share in a number of countries. The year-on-year figures show strong growth for Windows Phone with increased smartphone market share in all reported markets. In the context of the overall smartphone market Windows Phone conitinues to be a relatively small player, but the latest figures should cheer Microsoft and its hardware partners.
Pandora, a personalised radio service that plays music and comedy, is now available for Windows Phone. As an exclusive promotion Pandora, when used on Windows Phone, will be ad-free and have no monthly streaming limits. Pandora usually charges a $3.99 per month subscription (or $36 a year) for ad-free listening and limits free mobile listening to 40 hours per month, but there will no charge or limits for Windows Phone users throughout 2013.
Nokia Glam Me, an app which lets you enhances self-portrait pictures taken with the front facing camera of Lumia devices, is now available for download from the Windows Phone Store. The app, which was announced last week at MWC, will automatically enhance any photo it captures, but you can also apply manual adjustments, and apply creative filters.
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Stephen Elop, Nokia's President and CEO, announced the Nokia Lumia 520, a low cost smartphone running Windows Phone 8. The new entry level to the Lumia line up has a 4.0 inch WVGA (800 x 480) TFT screen, 8GB of internal memory, microSD card support, a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor running at 1GHz, and a 5 megapixel camera.
