Category: Microsoft Windows

It is official – Nokia has begun shipping on their second Windows Phone, the Lumia 710.  It is expected that the Lumia 710 will hit the US early next year with T-Mobile.

Here is the Press Release for the event from Nokia

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced the Nokia Lumia 710 will hit shelves, less than one month after the Nokia Lumia 800 started turning heads.

The Nokia Lumia 710 will start selling today in Taiwan alongside the Nokia Lumia 800. The Nokia Lumia 710 will then reach stores in Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Russia in the next seven days and continue its global roll-out over the coming weeks.

Estimated retail price is 270 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies and availability will be via operator partners, retailers and open channels depending on local situation.

The colourful, affordable Nokia Lumia 710 was designed to make the Nokia Lumia experience accessible to more people around the world and at launch was widely praised as the best Windows Phone experience at is price point.  It combines the powerful social and Internet experience of Windows Phone with the ability to take pictures in almost any conditions and share with friends in seconds, as well as access to thousands of the most popular apps, including exclusive Nokia services.

In the set of first generation Windows Phones, the Samsung Focus is generally accepted as having the best all around camera.  The 5MP camera with a built-in LED flash does a pretty good job, especially in daylight shots.  With Mango there were some added features given to the camera to improve contracts and saturation which has help a bit as well.

The impressive feature about the Samsung Focus that I see is often overlooked is the macro mode.  It is one of the few cameras on smartphones – let alone Windows Phone – that has a macro.  Even better though, it’s actually really good.  The photos in the post are unedited in any way and are as they were when I got them off of my Focus.

This first shot I took of my agenda and pen.

Focus Macro Image of Agenda and Pen

As you look at the photo up close you can see the etched serial number of my pen around the band and nice detail in the ink on the paper.  It is clear – pardon the pun – that the edges of the photos are a little soft so you will want to keep that in mind as you take macro shots with your Focus.  For this photo I was about 6″ away from the paper.

My second shot is a small model of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Czech Republic.

St. Vitus Cathedral Model Macro Shot

On this one you can see the fine ink details outlining the windows and doors and can even see where dust has collected on the base!  Details of the roof are also impressive.  Again, I was about 6″ from the model for this shot.

If you are a Samsung Focus owner and haven’t check out the macro mode you need to try it out for yourself.  If you are looking for this type of functionality on your next Windows Phone, the new Samsung Focus S has it as well as the HTC Titan.  The Titan is widely considered to have the best camera of the 2nd generation Windows Phones which is 8MP.
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The Nokia Blog has posted a short article covering the release of the Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone in Singapore.  The article, which has some photos with it, points out that people waited up to 8 hours in line to get the new phone on its launch day today.  Granted, the first 100 also got an Xbox for their troubles but still, this is great to see!

Nokia Lumia 800 Line in Singapore (Courtesy of The Nokia Blog

It is clear that the Lumia 800 has drawn a lot of interest and focus on Windows Phone and it is also clear that Nokia has a much deeper relationship with Redmond than other Windows Phone manufactures.  Hopefully we will see similar scenes here in the US when the first Nokia devices start arriving in earnest in January 2012.

Source:  The Nokia Blog

Microsoft has updated the End User License Agreement, or EULA, for Windows Phone with the emphasis on data collection.  This change stems from a couple of things.  First, this new EULA requires that you tap “Accept” which is something that comes from a lawsuit that Microsoft is currently involved in (get more information on this here).  Second, it is a bit of a reaction in light of the Carrier IQ controversy that has been going on over the course of the last week.

The EULA itself is 19 pages long and is… dry? when it comes to reading it.  But it is important as it gives you an idea of what Microsoft is collecting data on.  While there is nothing personally identifiable in the data being sent, it is a lot of data.  But I think that the WPCentral team summed it up best in their post on this earlier today.

What we quickly learn is wow, a lot of info is being sent to Microsoft and it’d take awhile to turn off. But we also learn that information cannot be used to track you, identify you or reveal personal information. In light of the Carrier IQ controversy, Microsoft seems to be showing all of their cards on the matter.

If you want to read the EULA yourself, click this link or just download a new app from Marketplace.

Source:  WPCentral

As a Windows Phone user I’m a big fan of the built in Bing search functionality.  It is rich, powerful and you get that great daily wallpaper on your phone (which you can save to your Windows Phone via the Insider app).  But even I have a need now and again to go to Google to do a search for something that I can’t find on Bing (become a more rare need).  Now you can do that Google search quick and easy on your Windows Phone.

Before you leave this article however and go diving into Marketplace to find an app, hold on just one second.  There is no app them in the store.  No, Google has made this available to you in Internet Explorer on your Windows Phone and I have to say, they have done a pretty darn good job.

If you browse to Google on your phone you will get a Windows Phone specific page for searching.  What is even more cool is that Google has made this an item that you can pin to your Start screen if you want to do so.  It is a slick little trick!  Think of it as a “web app” much like what you can do with an iPhone and Safari.

So head on over to Google.com on your Windows Phone and check it out!

If you have holiday parties to cook for and plan this year, let your Windows Phone help you out with some great apps that are available in the MarketPlace.  The Windows Phone Blog has outlined some of these apps in a blog post today that range from food planning and cooking to drinks and even entertainment.  It is a great and timely posting and really reflects some of the great apps that are in the Marketplace.

Along with the ones that the post mentions, there are plenty of other apps in the Marketplace to help you with your holiday party planning.  And don’t forget the great and powerful Bing maps that is built into Windows Phone to get you safely to and from those parties.

Check out the blog post at the Windows Phone Blog