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Microsoft agrees deal to buy Nokia Devices and Services Division

In a deal that would surprise noone in it’s happening but everyone in it’s timing, Microsoft will be acquiring Nokia’s Devices and services division in addition to licensing a significant portion of Nokia’s patents in addition to their mapping services. The deal in it’s entirety amounts to 5.4 Billion Euros paid in cash, 3.79 Billion for devices and services 1.65 Billion for the associated patents.

The transaction will see 32,000 Nokia employees transitioned over to Microsoft including 4,700 in Finland and 18,300 employed in manufacturing positions worldwide. In addition, a significant number of senior executives are expected to be transferring to positions within Microsoft, including Stephen Elop, Jo Harlow, Juha Putkiranta, Timo Toikkanen, and Chris Weber.

This is an absolutely monumental transaction and will go a long way towards shaping the smartphone landscape for years to come. We will keep you updated with any details as we receive them.

Via: Microsoft News Center

Nokia Lumia 625 Review

Having placed all its bets on Windows Phone and its Lumia range of devices, Nokia has been consistently introducing compelling hardware at prices that are all over the spectrum. Following the recent trend of extra large devices, Nokia Lumia 625 employs a large screen with mid range specifications at a fairly appealing price point. Will that be sufficient to fend off competition from spec monster Android devices ? Read on to find out our opinion. Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 625 Review”

Nokia Lumia 1020 Unboxing, AT&T Unlocked Version

The Nokia Lumia 1020 just arrived at FoneArena today and guess what, we managed to get hold of a unlocked unit from a US retailer. The device is currently exclusive sold only on AT&T in USA and Nokia is yet to launch the SIM-free/unlocked version in USA or any other market but how can you get one ? Read on to find out. This is indeed the Lumia 1020 for AT&T with the carrier branding but the good thing is it can accept any GSM SIM card, be it T-Mobile, Airtel or Vodafone. This supports LTE on AT&T but would work over 3G, HSPA in many countries including India. The device has evolved from the 808 PureView which was running on Symbian and subsequently the Lumia 920 which was one of the first Windows phones with a PureView camera. Today we have a combination of the best of the imaging from the 808 and 920, improved leaps and bounds, and delivered in the form of the Lumia 1020. So go ahead and watch the first unboxing of the Lumia 1020 camera phone in India only on FoneArena –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzasTCeKUoM

Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 1020 Unboxing, AT&T Unlocked Version”

Bing apps for Finance, News, Sports and Weather now available on Windows Phone

bing-app-windows-phone-8

The Bing AppEx team had released its apps in preparation for the launch on Windows 8 last year, but they were nowhere to be seen on Windows Phone 8 which actually launched after Windows 8. It has been thus, a great example of how Microsoft, as a company, doesn’t work like a single entity. That has slightly changed now, with the team releasing their apps for Windows Phone 8. Following the latest update to the search app, the Bing apps, which were the only decently designed first party apps on Windows 8 like Bing News, Finance, Sports and Weather are now available on Windows Phone 8.

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IDC – Windows Phone posts the fastest growth in 2Q13, Android leads the market at 79.3%

idc-vendors-marketshare

Last quarter, we saw how Windows Phone marketshare finally leaped ahead of BlackBerry, and the trend seems to continue here. In the second quarter of 2013, Windows Phone has posted the fastest growth amongst the top 5 smartphone OSes with 8.7 million units shipped, according to IDC, which lines up with growth expectations from other analysts. While the growth percentage is less than what Windows Phone had last quarter(133% – Q1, 77.6% – Q2), it is certainly good news for Windows Phone’s uptake as an operating system. On the other hand, Android shows no signs of slowing down while it is the exact opposite for Apple which has its marketshare reduced from 16.6% to 13.2% while growing slower than the market at 20%.

Continue reading “IDC – Windows Phone posts the fastest growth in 2Q13, Android leads the market at 79.3%”

Bing gets a facelift on Windows Phone, adds new design and features

bing-1

Bing, Microsoft’s answer to Google, is the default search app on Windows Phone with a dedicated key. The service received a substantial upgrade with the Windows Phone 8 update that brought panoramic quick access to relevant stories at that point in time. Otherwise the results have been similar since the inception of the OS and that has finally changed, with the new rollout that has started for the Bing Search app in Windows Phone. The new update brings a new layout and new features based on the Bing Neural network that works similar to the Knowledge graph from Google.

Continue reading “Bing gets a facelift on Windows Phone, adds new design and features”

Google extends Windows Phone calendar and contact syncing deadline to December 31st

There was huge uproar after Google announced its plans to drop EAS support for all non-corporate GMail accounts, mainly because that affected Windows Phone, which has no in-built support for the new CardDAV and CalDAV technologies. Hence Microsoft and Google decided to extend the support for Windows Phone devices until July 31st, yesterday, a date from which devices without the GDR2 update would have stopped supporting syncing to Google servers. Thankfully, the companies have extended the date yet again, to December 31st, since most devices haven’t got the update yet.

Continue reading “Google extends Windows Phone calendar and contact syncing deadline to December 31st”

Is Oppo working on a Windows Phone device?

oppo-windows-phone

Oppo, a chinese smartphone manufacturer known and revered for the Find 5, a smartphone that we immensely loved, is reportedly looking into launching Windows Phone based handsets soon. If the teased renders from the company’s own director of social marketing are to be believed, the manufacturer is looking at producing Windows Phone 8 based devices. The Android running Oppo Find 5 has stunning hardware, as noted in our review, and the company had released a very limited red version of it, which you are seeing above. Showing off the Windows Phone UI on the equally minimalistic Oppo Find 5 hardware has gotten us excited.

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Whatsapp finally gets a huge update on Windows Phone, now with background agent and proper Emoji!

The saga of Whatsapp on Windows Phone has always been fueled with much hate since the app never really worked well out of the box and was always buggy. Having grown massively, Whatsapp left Windows Phone users to a sub par experience when compared with other platforms. The streaming API was hacked up and meddled with music playback and messages stopped refreshing inside the app occasionally. Annoying customers to the core, the app still has only a 3 star rating on the Windows Phone Store, but a new huge update to the app changes everything, again. Fixing all the problems that the app is known for, the company has provided the much needed huge update and looking at the early review, it seems all the major outstanding issues have been fixed.

Continue reading “Whatsapp finally gets a huge update on Windows Phone, now with background agent and proper Emoji!”

Here’s what Microsoft did to accommodate Nokia Lumia 1020’s 41 MP camera on a Windows Phone

joe-belfiore-kevin-shields-nokia-lumia-1020-windows-phone

So, the official Windows Blog has published a Q&A between Nokia’s Kevin Shields and Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore to explain an interesting doubt we’ve been having. What did Microsoft have to do, to accommodate the monstrosity of a sensor’s data into the Windows Phone’s pipes, especially when considering the fact that the MSM8960 chip actually cannot handle more than 20MPs of sensor data. So, how did Nokia do it, and what did Microsoft do to help Nokia bring this technology to Windows Phone? Lets find out what Joe Belfiore and Kevin Shields have to say, minus the extra crap from their Q&A. Read on.

Continue reading “Here’s what Microsoft did to accommodate Nokia Lumia 1020’s 41 MP camera on a Windows Phone”

Official Vine, Path and Flipboard apps coming to Windows Phone 8

Vine for iPhone

In a teeny tiny statement on Nokia’s Press site, it has been mentioned that the much awaited video based social network Vine is coming to Windows Phone 8 soon, in the official form. Along with Vine, the different social network Path and the best mobile magazine experience Flipboard too is coming to Windows Phone 8 very soon, Nokia announced. It was revealed in Microsoft’s //build/ conference that Flipboard will be coming to Windows 8 and it was then revealed to the press that it was coming to Windows Phone 8 too. With these popular apps coming to the Windows Phone 8, will it finally be relevant at least across casual users? We’ll see.

Continue reading “Official Vine, Path and Flipboard apps coming to Windows Phone 8”

Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41MP camera, OIS, Xenon flash announced

At an event in New York, Nokia has just announced the long awaited Lumia 1020. The phone combines the stunning 41MP sensor seen first on the PureView 808 with the Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) system of the Lumia 920 to create an imaging powerhouse. An improvement over the 808’s sensor is the back side illumination technology built in.The phone saves both full resolution as well as an oversampled image simultaneously when you shoot. The oversampled image combines 7 adjoining pixels to create a super pixel with greater detail, clarity and extremely low noise. The optical image stabilization system uses ball bearings to keep video absolutely stable. The Xenon flash helps to achieve that in low light conditions. The Lumia 1020 uses the new six lens optical system that should allow for superior image quality. To take advantage of the advanced hardware on the handset, Nokia has built a new Pro Cam application that gives the user full control over the camera including manual exposure, focus and shutter speed controls. Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41MP camera, OIS, Xenon flash announced”

FIFA 13 now available on Windows Phone 8, exclusive to Nokia Lumia devices

The popular soccer video game, FIFA 13, is finally available on Windows Phone 8 devices. However there’s a catch as the game is exclusive to Nokia Lumia devices only. Gameloft & EA game is now available on the WP8 as well and has been priced at $4.99.

The game has 30 different leagues, 500 licensed teams. A fair bit of customization options are also provided including the ability to chose your kit and change the line up. As is expected from a FIFA game, it is possible to tweak the scenarios just as you want them. The game has 15000 players as well as 32 stadiums to chose from. You get a tournament mode as well as practice modes, penalty shoot out mode. The game comes with achievements and works with Xbox Live. The download size is a rather massive 951MB. You can click through to the source link to download the game on your Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8 device.

[Via – Windows Phone Store]

Nokia Lumia 925: What’s New in the Amber Update?

Nokia Lumia 925

We have been playing around with the Nokia Lumia 925 for a while, and had unboxed it to provide a first look of the device, but there is a lot more to talk about. While the 4.5 inch AMOLED screen, the six element lens and the new design and build are the major hardware changes from the 920, the software here is the star, called as the Nokia Amber update. The Amber update, is actually additive to the Windows Phone GDR2 release that brings some minor improvements to all Windows Phone devices. The Amber update though, brings a lot of usable improvements exclusively to Nokia Lumia devices. Lets go through every one of them.

Psst, if you’re lazy to go through the text, here’s a video explaining every feature in the Amber update –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACOEAbO9Em8

Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 925: What’s New in the Amber Update?”

Report: LG working on Windows Phone based handset

Its been a while since LG introduced a Windows Phone based handsets but if rumors are to be believed then the Korean company might be working on a new smartphone based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system.

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