Affordable Nokia Lumia to arrive in PH

MANILA, Philippines — The Microsoft Devices Group is giving more and more people access to its latest offering — a dual-SIM smartphone running on Windows Phone 8.1 operating system under the Nokia Lumia 630 model available in the Philippines starting May 30.

Tagged with an affordable price of P7,990, Lumia Devices global product marketing manager Raghu Khoduvayur takes pride in the customizability of the Lumia 630.

For starters, users can select from bright orange, bright green, bright yellow, black, and white for the device’s changeable shells, aside from an expandable memory through a built-in microSD card slot.

The latest Nokia smartphone can also install apps and games from its memory card, including maps and navigation tools that come free. While health buffs will be pumped up for SensorCore, a motion sensor which complements apps like Bing Health and Fitness.

In addition, the full Microsoft Office experience is also provided to users, including the MixRadio music streaming, which is dubbed as your “your own personal radio station.

Khoduvayur demonstrated what he described “the world’s fastest keyboard,” which learns from the user. With Filipinos’ penchant for using Taglish in daily conversations, foreign words will be included in the device’s bank after they are used once. Words are formed by gliding the finger from one letter to another.

When it comes to the smartphone’s dual-sim feature, the SIM cards are easily differentiated from one another by color, and switching between the two is “seamless,” according to the software giant’s press statement.

The Lumia 630 comes with the latest quad-core processor and a 4.5-inch Gorilla Glass 3 display protecting the screen against damage, while ClearBlack screen makes its contents visible even in daylight.

As for its look and feel, the phone is “super slick and super slim,” said Khoduvayur at the launch. He believes the Lumia 630, equipped with a 5-megapixel camera and high-definition video recording, will become one of the bestsellers of the line.

More Lumia apps, finally

Representatives from Microsoft’s partners in the Philippines were also present at the launch to showcase their apps, which come with the smartphone for free.

GrabTaxi Philippines assistant General Manager Natasha Dawn Bautista briefed the audience about the GrabTaxi app, which connects passengers to taxi drivers so the former can be transported with “safety, speed, and certainty.” As for the drivers, they have had a 30 to 300 percent increase in income through the app, she said.

AirAsia head of commercial Gerard Penaflor, on the other hand, said that AirAsia app allows passengers to book and manage their flights from their devices. Through it, they can also check in from 14 days to one hour before departure.

Furthermore, Globe Telecoms G-Xchange Inc. President Paolo Baltao talked about enabling users to pay their bills, donate to charity, send money to relatives, and buy load at a rebate using their mobile wallet GCash app. Also available for free is InterAksyon.com’s very own app for instant access on the latest news.

Karel Holub, Microsoft Mobile Devices Philippines general manager for sales, added that over 500 mobile apps were added to their roster each day.

source: interaksyon.com

Top 10 Big-Screen Games for Lumia 1320 and 1520

The Nokia Lumia 1320 and Nokia Lumia 1520 both have one thing in common; they both pack six-inch displays – ideal for pinning more tiles to your Start screen and adding an extra dimension to gaming, as these ten top titles prove.

GTA: San Andreas – Php 305.00

We all know Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, right? It’s one of the best-selling games ever, and now taking control of the streets, and the local gangs, is easier on the jumbo-screen Nokia Lumia 1320 or Lumia 1520.

Don’t just take our word for it, read this five-star user review:

“Simply awesome on the Lumia 1520… frankly any game you play on the 1520 is just amazing. The size and full-HD screen quality is out of this world.”

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Wordament – Free

Wordament is a great game, regardless of which device you’re using. However, a bigger screen makes it even easier to pluck out those words from the game board.

Confronted by a four-by-four grid of tiles, each one containing a letter (or sometimes more), you must trace your finger across them to spell out words – as many as you can – in the two-minute timeframe.

Played completely online you compete against thousands of other players simultaneously, who are also locked into the same game board.

An addictive game where you’ll often find yourself muttering, “One more try…”

Halo: Spartan Assault – Php 305.00

Part of the Halo franchise, Halo: Spartan Assault throws you into a universe full of combat and survival.

Rather than the typical first-person-shooter view you’re familiar with in other Halo games, Spartan Assault delivers a new top-down view approach, which is ideal for mobile gaming.

On a bigger screen explosions look more destructive, lasers look extra intense, and you’re less likely to miss an alien sneaking up on you.

Angry Birds Go! – Free

When it comes to avian-related games, there’s little better than Angry Birds.

However, rather than the usual bird-catapult-pig-face interaction, Angry Birds Go! is a downhill racing game.

Starting with a standard soapbox car, you can add modifications as you progress through the races to eventually build a super car – even one that flies!

Each Angry Birds character has a special ability that, when used wisely during a race, will help you in your conquest for first place.

Playing on a bigger screen allows for a greater chance of noticing overtaking opponents, giving you plenty of opportunity to nudge them out of the way before you steam to victory.

Asphalt 8: Airborne – Free

What’s better than speeding around a virtual racecourse, performing stunts and surviving crashes? Doing it all on a bigger screen!

Asphalt 8: Airborne puts you in the driving seat of 47 high-performance cars. It uses a clever physics engine that gives an experience of what it might be like to be behind the wheel of one of these cars. From the comfort of your couch, of course.

Dungeon Hunter 4 – Free

Immerse yourself into a world of role-play, dungeons and demons, all of which looks simply glorious on a big-screen Lumia.

Choose from four character classes, each with a unique combat style, then fight shoulder to shoulder with other players from around the world. Play in co-op mode, or come face-to-face with opponents as you show off your battle skills in PvP mode.

As with many RPGs, you kill, you loot, you win to save the kingdom – hopefully. Onwards!

Doors – Free

An unusual game but one that, once you start playing, you won’t put down.

The premise is this: you’re stuck in a room, the only exit is out through the closed door in front of you. In order to open that door you must first complete a task by solving hidden mysteries.

Some levels may require you to turn the phone upside down, enter the right keypad combination, or correctly match eight pairs of animal cards without getting one wrong. As you’d expect, the difficulty level increases as you progress.

The more screen space you’ve got, the more details you’ll notice to complete the tasks ahead.

Battle Monkeys – Free

Imagine a world that’s not ruled by humans, but monkeys (we reckon that’ll make a good film…). Can’t picture it? No problemo, that’s why Battle Monkeys was built.

To become the most powerful primate you must fight with other apes to show your strength and dominance.

With 3D graphics and multiplayer action, this is a joy to play on a large-screen Lumia.

Tetris Blitz – Free

A classic game that’s stood the test of time. The latest iteration, Tetris Blitz, is just as much fun as the game of old, but comes loaded with added extras.

Like before, position the falling bricks to stack nicely against other blocks. When a line is complete, it’s bye-bye row! What’s new is the ability to collect power-ups, such as lasers, magnets and time shifting properties to clean up the board faster.

Watching the vibrant blocks, explode when you complete a level, replete with celebratory fireworks look wonderful on a large six-inch screen.

Strata – Php 130.00

 

This is a uniquely elegant puzzle game that requires you to overlay colored ribbons onto a colored canvas. Unusual-sounding? Yes. Calming and cathartic? Absolutely.

As you interact with the screen and position the ribbon into place, softly played piano keys deliver a meditative sense It’s brilliantly done and works really well on a large screen.

If you’ve got a Nokia Lumia 1320 or Nokia Lumia 1520, take advantage of their super-sized screens and give all of these games a try – you won’t regret it.

Nokia Lumia 1320 and Nokia Lumia 1520 are now available in the Philippines for (SRP) Php17,900 and Php34,990 respectively.

source: philstar.com

Nokia to ship new Windows Phone 8 Lumia smartphones this week

HELSINKI — Nokia late on Monday said its high-end Lumia 820 and 920 phones, which will run on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 software, will this week reach first operators and retail outlets in France and Britain and later in Russia and Germany as well as other select markets.

In the United States, AT&T will start selling the devices in early November. Verizon Wireless will begin selling Lumia 822 and T-Mobile will offer Lumia 810, Nokia said.

source: interaksyon.com

Nokia cuts smartphone prices before new models arrive

HELSINKI — Struggling phone maker Nokia has knocked 10-15 percent off the prices of two of its top of the range smartphones, hoping to boost sales before newer models arrive in markets in November.

Nokia has cut the price of the Lumia 800 by around 15 percent and the Lumia 900 by 10 percent in Europe, according to device pricing data compiled by British research firm CCS Insight. Nokia declined to comment.




Earlier this month, Nokia launched Lumia 820 and 920, which many see as crucial for the Finnish company’s survival. But the newest models will only go on sale in November, leaving the company’s sales team struggling with older smartphone models for over a month.

Nokia had already slashed the price of the Lumia 800 by around 15 percent earlier this month and made smaller cuts for its other Lumia models.

Once the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia fell behind rivals in smartphones and has racked up more than 3 billion euros ($3.86 billion) in operating losses in the last 18 months.

In early 2011, it bet its future on Microsoft’s Windows Phone software. Windows accounts for only around 3 percent of global smartphones, while Google’s Android platform controls two-thirds of sales and Apple has around a quarter.

Competitive pricing is considered crucial for Nokia to lure back customers, even though pricing does not seem to be an issue for rival Apple. In Belgium, for example, more than 10,000 people have pre-registered for the latest iPhone even before a local price has been set.

source: interaksyon.com

Nokia unveils new Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia phones

MANILA, Philippines — Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia on Wednesday unveiled its latest bid at regaining smartphone market share bannered by the Lumia 920, one of the two phones powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system.
In unveiling its latest flagship phone, Nokia underscored its need to differentiate in a quickly saturating smartphone market worldwide, as it pins its future on two key areas: photography and navigation.
The new Lumia 920, which features a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and 4.5-inch display, will come packed with an 8-megapixel camera sporting Nokia’s proprietary PureView technology, which Nokia claims takes better photos and videos than any competitor smartphone.
PureView, which debuted along with the Symbian Belle-powered Nokia 808 PureView this year, is a technology developed in-house by Nokia that purportedly takes better images, even in low-light conditions.
Nokia is claiming the PureView image sensor included in the Lumia 920 captures “between five to ten times” of light than any other smartphone, comparable to most dSLRs today.
On the navigation front, Nokia announced the availability of City Lens, an augmented-reality application that shows overlaid details on places as viewed through the phone’s camera.
The augmented reality feature extends to the popular Nokia Maps application, where the user would simply hold up the phone at eye level to see an overlay of map directions.
The new phones also come with wireless charging capabilities.
The Lumia 920 will come pre-packed with Windows Phone 8 (WP8), which is a re-worked version of WP7 that ties in the core development kernels of Microsoft’s next-generation PC operating system, Windows 8, set to be launched in late October.

Meanwhile, Nokia’s Lumia 820 features a 4-inch display encased in a polycarbonate body, and a first for Nokia’s Lumia devices, a removable back cover that gives access to the 1,650mAh battery and optional microSD storage.
It will be powered by a capable 1.5GHz dual-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM. It also comes with an 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss optics and a VGA front-facing camera.
The new phones come with wireless charging capabilities, although the feature is available on the Lumia 820 only via an optional detachable shell accessory.
They will come pre-packed with Windows Phone 8 (WP8), which is a re-worked version of WP7 that ties in the core development kernels of Microsoft’s next-generation PC operating system, Windows 8, set to be launched in late October.
The new Lumia phones will reportedly enter the market by the last quarter of the year, in time for Microsoft’s launch of Windows 8. Pricing details, meanwhile, have yet to be announced.

Nokia reportedly sold 7 million Lumia phones in 54 countries since it launched last year, with more than half of it being sold in the last quarter.

source: interaksyon.com