Nokia Lumia 610 hits Asia in late April, the Philippines gets it first

Nokia Lumia 610 hits Asia in late April, the Philippines gets it first





Nokia just announced the Lumia 610 roll out schedule for Asia. The first country to get the company's most affordable WP smartphone will be the Philippines - sales there start during the last week of April.

After that, in May, the Lumia 610 is heading to China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam. The rest of the markets will get the Lumia 610 by the end of this quarter (June 30).

Nokia’s suggested retail price for the Lumia 610 before taxes and subsidies is €189, which seems quite attractive all well suited to the targeted young users.

Are you interested in getting one?

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Nokia Lumia 900 connectivity fix gets outed ahead of schedule

In a truly remarkable display of customer care, the folks at Nokia have managed to out the software fix toLumia 900's connectivity issues already. That's only two days after the Finnish company acknowledgedthe problem's existence, and an impressive three days earlier than promised.

The software update can be applied via Microsoft's Zune software. In case you don't feel like dealing with USB cables and such, you can also exchange your Nokia Lumia 900 at any AT&T store free of charge as well.

And by the way, Nokia and AT&T are still going to give you a $100 bill credit if you purchase a new device between now and April 21st as a goodwill gesture, thus making it free on a contract.

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Nokia Belle FP1 update rolling out for the 701, 700 and 603

Nokia Belle FP1 update rolling out for the 701, 700 and 603


Nokia Asia announced that the Nokia 701, 700 and 603 have started receiving the Belle Feature Pack 1 update, which Nokia promised in March. Nokia's global account is silent on the matter, so we don't know if the rollout is happening in Asia only or worldwide (maybe Nokia is preoccupied with the launch of the Lumia 610 NFC right now).

[news] Nokia Belle Feature Pack 1 (V 112.10.1404) is Now Available for Nokia 701, 700 and 603. Update via Nokia Suite. ^r
Wed Apr 11 11:23:53 via TweetDeck
nokianesia

Anyway, Feature Pack 1 for Belle is what the Nokia 808 PureView will launch with and includes some cool updates for these older phones. You get an overclock of the processor to 1.3GHz, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Headphone, 20 new widgets, a better browser, changes to the multitasking and to the notification area.

User reports have it the Nokia 603 did indeed update - one lucky user already installed the update and shared the new look of the task manager. For comparison, we're including an old screenshot (pre- FP1).



Pre-FP1 task manager


After the update


If you have one of the three Nokias (the 500 isn’t invited to the Belle FP1 club yet), check for updates - either from the PC Suite or from the phone itself and be on the lookout for software version 112.xx.xxxx. That's Feature Pack 1 and if you do have it, drop a line in the comments with your model and country - other readers will appreciate the info.

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Nokia acknowledges Lumia 900 issues, offers a fix

Nokia acknowledges Lumia 900 issues, offers a fix



Nokia Lumia 900 has become available just recently and exclusively (for now) for AT&T in the USA. Unfortunately, some users reported inability to establish or loss of data connection. Often those people were cut off from the LTE network completely.

Nokia’s response came rather quickly – the issue is said to be software-related and the fix is already in the works. The firmware update to resolve it will become available on Monday, April 16.

In case you own a troubled Lumia 900, but don’t want to wait for another week, you are welcome to switch your unit for a new and updated one at the AT&T’s stores immediately.

As an apology for the inconvenience Nokia is giving $100 credit to the AT&T’s bill to everyone, who bought or plans on buying the Lumia 900 until April 21.

Nokia Lumia 900 is available only (for a limited time) on AT&T and costs $100 with a 2-year contract. And if you get one until April 21 you’ll get that $100 back. Now seems like the right time to buy one, isn’t it?

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Free Xpress-on covers and discounts for the Nokia Lumia 710

Free Xpress-on covers and discounts for the Nokia Lumia 710



Nokia have been busy revitalizing their brand image in the US, originally the with the introduction of their Windows Phone-endowed Lumia 710 and more recently its bigger brother the LTE-capable Lumia 900. It looks as though people are forgetting about the phone that started it all however and as such Nokia have announced a pair deals for owners and prospective buyers of the 710.

For starters, those who can prove that they recently purchased a Nokia Lumia 710 will be able to register for a second Xpress-on colored back cover. The extra rear plates are available in cyan, fuchsia, yellow and white and are designed to suit either version of 710 (black or white bodied). In order to prove eligibility, users will have to register their IMEI number, phone number and list a purchase date in order for Nokia to send them an extra back cover, free of charge.

The second part of the Lumia 710's two-pronged attack is the price drop on a two-year contract to free, from $49.99. With the competent hardware of the Lumia 710, considering its mid-range credentials, that's not too shabby, but its not all smiles, as prospective customers will only be able to take advantage of this discount via means of a $50 mail-in rebate.

We expect that, for the meantime at least, this price drop is a temporary move on T-Mobile's part, but we suspect they won't leave it too long before permanently making the Lumia 710 gratis on contract. Lets see if our hunch is right in the coming months.

Have either of these offers caught your attention, or are Nokia still struggling to appear on your radar? Follow this link to register for a free back cover if you're eligible too.

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Certain Lumia 900 handsets facing loss of data connectivity

Certain Lumia 900 handsets facing loss of data connectivity

Being an early adopter is hard. You have to put up with all the problems that the first batch of the product may have while hoping they will be fixed eventually. This is true of the Lumia 900 buyers as well, who are facing a rather inconvenient situation of their data connectivity disappearing on their brand new LTE device.



Those affected with the problem are reporting that after a while the data connection on their phone was unavailable, although calls and text messaging seem to be working fine. Some of these people managed to get over this by restoring their devices to factory settings while others continue to have the problem despite trying out this solution.

Unfortunately, it seems the beta test is not over after all.

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Nokia announces the 103 - its most affordable phone ever

Nokia announces the 103 - its most affordable phone ever

Meet the Nokia 103 - the most affordable phone the Fins have ever manufactured. Announced in Nigeria today, the Nokia 103 will cost just €16 and is aimed at developing markets.



The Nokia 103 runs Series 30 on a 1,36-inch black and white display (how long has it been since you last saw a new device with this type of display?). And with its sturdy, anti-scratch covers and dust resistance the Nokia 103 will be pretty hard to break.

Measuring at 107.2mm x 45.1mm x 15.3mm and weighing just 77 grams, the 103 features a 800mAh battery, which can keep it going for 27 days of standby and 11 hours of talk time. There's also an integrated flashlight, preloaded games and stereo FM.

The Nokia 103 will initially start selling in Nigeria, but you can expect it to go global appearance in the coming weeks.

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Nokia Lumia 900 tops Amazon charts, Titan II nowhere in sight

Nokia Lumia 900 tops Amazon charts, Titan II nowhere in sight

Just two days after it went on sale, the Nokia Lumia 900 managed to climb to the top of the Amazon best seller charts.



The black version of the phone is the one leading the parade, while the cyan edition takes a respectable fifth place. The two Nokia Lumia 900 versions are also easily the two most popular AT&T devices currently available on Amazon.

The Lumia 900 also tops Amazon's Movers and Shakers list with the cyan variant boasting 394% growth.

And what about the HTC Titan II, which launched alongside the Nokia flagship you ask? Its $100 higher asking price obviously prevented it from coming even come close to the Lumia 900's blooming success and it didn't even make the top 20.

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Nokia 306 graphic leaks out from a manual, raises questions

Nokia 306 graphic leaks out from a manual, raises questions

A graphic, taken from the manual of a prototype has leaked out, showing us the touch screen sporting, Nokia 306. Curiously enough however, there is no information on the OS, which the upcoming Nokia will be running.



The device could be running a Symbian version, due to its support for multiple home screens, along with a status menu, located at the top of the screen. On the other hand, the two button configuration below the display, and its resolution of 240x412 pixels point into an updated S40. So does the name of the device, which strongly suggests that the Nokia 306 belongs to the Asha family.

The leaked specs of the Nokia 306 include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (b/g), MicroSD card slot, Micro USB port, FM Radio, and AV Out. The battery is Nokia BL-4U with a 1100mAh capacity.

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AT&T launches WP-powered Lumia 900 and Titan II

AT&T launches WP-powered Lumia 900 and Titan II

Just as previously promised, AT&T has released the Nokia Lumia 900 and HTC Titan II to its customers.



The Nokia Lumia 900 is a Windows Phone smartphone with LTE connectivity, a 4.3" ClearBlack display of WVGA (480 x 800) resolution and an 8 MP camera with Carl-Zeiss optics. It will set you back $99.99 on a two-year deal or $449.99 without commitment.

The HTC Titan II pushes the megapixel boundaries by bringing 16 MP stills to the Windows Phone game and comes with a 4.7" Super LCD of WVGA resolution. It will cost a cool $199.99 on a two-year contract or $549.99 SIM-free.

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Nokia 808 PureView on pre-order in Italy, costs €600

Nokia 808 PureView on pre-order in Italy, costs €600

The Nokia 808 PureView and its 41MP monstrosity are expected to hit the stores this May. With the release date closing in, Nokia Italy has started their pre-order campaign for the PureView.

The cameraphone costs €600 while €99 of those you must pay now to reserve your unit.



We assume that other Nokia stores will soon launch their pre-orders as well.

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CDMA-packing Nokia Lumia 800C for China Telecom goes official

Nokia's boss and China Telecom's boss got together to announce the first CDMA Windows Phone for China - it's a version of the Nokia Lumia 800, named Lumia 800C, and it will be China Telecom's first Lumia phone.

The Lumia 800C packs all the cool features that the regular 800 has (except it swaps GSM for CDMA). That includes Nokia Maps, Drive and Music. Maps and Drive have free maps for China and other countries as usual, but tap into local content providers for better location-based services.

The 800C will come with magazine apps from Trends preinstalled (Cosmopolitan, FHM, Harper's Bazaar and Esquire) and the first 100,000 people to get the phone will be able to download Fruit Ninja and Plants vs. Zombies for free.

The Nokia Lumia 800C will be available in April through Tianyi FlyYoung shops, Nokia stores and many other retailers (both brick and mortar and online). Off contract, the Lumia 800C will go for 3600 Chinese yuan ($570).

A more affordable Nokia Lumia 610C is also in the works and it is expected to hit shelves in Q2.

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AT&T reveals Lumia 900 and Titan II off-contract pricing

Following yesterday's announcement of the special prices for the HTC Titan II and Nokia Lumia 900 including a two-year contract, now AT&T has spilled the beans on the off-contract price of the devices in case you are not into two-year commitments.

The HTC Titan II will sell for $549,99, while the Nokia Lumia 900 will set you back $449,99. It's not all that bad, when you compare them to HTC's subsidized price of $199,99 and Lumia's $99,99 on contract price tag.

As we told you yesterday, expect the Titan II and Lumia 900 to hit AT&T on April 8.

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HTC Titan II hits AT&T alongside the Lumia 900 on April 8

It seems the Nokia Lumia 900 won’t be the alone when it launches. AT&T will offer its customers another Windows Phone-running gadget – the HTC Titan II.

HTC Titan II hands-on photos

The Titan II is quite an impressive fella with its huge 4.7-inch WVGA screen, a 16MP camera sensor, LTE connectivity and an internal storage of 16GB.

The smartphone packs a 1.5GHz single-core processor and that’s probably the reason why there is no 1080p video capturing, but rather 720p mode only.

The Titan II is slated to hit the AT&T network on April 8 for $200 with a two-year contract.

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Nokia Belle FP2 appears in test results

Owners of newer Symbian phones got some good news recently when Nokia announced that they'll be getting a Feature Pack 1 update for their smartphones. They might be in for some more good news - results on the HTML5 Test list results for "Nokia Belle FP 2 (S60 5.5)".

The FP1 update is featured on the Nokia 808 PureView, but will make its way to the 603, 700 and 701, with the last two getting a CPU speed bump. It's not clear what we might expect from FP2 (it's not official), but Nokia seems to have done a lot of work on the browser.

The Belle FP1 update gives a big boost to the browser in terms of compatibility - it jumps from 157 (+ 7 bonus points) for vanilla Belle to 212 (+ 9 bonus points) for FP1 and higher still with FP2 - 242 (+ 9 bonus points).

For comparison, Android 2.3 scores 181+1, Android 4.0 does 256+3, Windows Phone 7.5 Mango scores very low at 141+5, while Mobile Safari on iOS 5 is king of the stock browsers with a score of 305+9.

The device running Belle FP2 is listed as Nokia 701, so there's a good chance that the devices that are getting FP1 will get FP2 as well.

Anyway, a post on Nokia Beta Labs caught our attention too - it marks the end of the beta period for Universal Search. It's a handy feature that looks through contacts, emails, maps and so on (similar but better than the old Search app found in older Symbians).

What's interesting about it is now that the beta is over, you'd expect to get the release version of the app - but it's nowhere to be found in the Nokia Store. It's quite a coincidence - the appearance of another Belle feature pack and the disappearance of Universal Search - so that's one feature that might be headed to FP2.

By the way, that HTML5 Test results page is very interesting and mentions a couple of big names - Windows Phone 8 and Tizen 1. That, of course, is flimsy proof of their existence, but still.

Thanks to Jason for the tip!

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1,000 people to lose their jobs at Nokia factory in Finland

As part of its plan to improve production efficiency, Nokia is axing 1,000 jobs in its plant in Salo, Finland.

The unpleasant talks have been discussed with all the staff in the Nokia plant and as a result, the job cuts will be made gradually throughout 2012. Nokia says most of the layoffs will be made in the end of June.

As for the remaining staff, they'll focus on producing models for European carriers.

How do you think the massive job-axing will affect Nokia in the future? Do you approve the new, streamlined direction Stephen Elop is taking Nokia? Sound off in the comments section.

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Project Mayhem can put Android ICS on your Nokia N9 right now

The Nokia N9 has been dipping its toes into Android waters for a while now, we even got to see (but not touch) a working Ice Cream Sandwich port. The same guys, NITDroid, have now come up with a release that users can try out.

It's still not fully complete (it's an alpha release named "Project Mayhem"), but list of things that should work covers the basics. The Android version is 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich.

As far as the screen goes, the touchscreen works, also sleeping, brightness and rotation to landscape but the accelerometer support needs work. Telephony is up and running with the o-fono stack.

The few hardware buttons that the Nokia N9 has are working too along with the headset buttons.

Audio playback and basic video playback are go, YouTube videos play (but are choppy). Bluetooth and USB connectivity are working (including ADB) and you can charge the phone, even though there won't be any indication on the screen about it.

You can root the Android OS and mount MyDocs as an SD card, but that one isn't pretty as it still relies on hacks.

Here's a video demo of Project Mayhem running on the Nokia N9:

Head over to the NITDroid forum to check out more details on Project Mayhem and installation instructions. Be warned that this is an Alpha release and you may end up bricking your device.

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Apple, Nokia, Motorola and RIM argue over the nano-SIM design

Giesecke & Devrient, the German company that invented the SIM card, recently came up with the idea of the nano-SIM. This new, even smaller version of the SIM is only a third of the already tiny micro-SIM and will help device manufacturers save some precious space inside their devices.

Image courtesy Esato

But now there is problem. Hardware manufacturers have proposed their own version of the nano-SIM, which they think should be made the standard. Once chosen, the other manufacturers will then have to license it to use it in their devices.

Two of the designs put forth till now are by Apple and Nokia. Apple's design makes use of a tray to hold the nano-SIM, not unlike the ones it uses on the iPhone and the iPad. Nokia, of course thinks that this is not a good idea and that its version of the nano-SIM has significant technical advantages. Moreover, Motorola and RIM seem to agree with Nokia on this.

But if you think Apple is alone in this battle, then you're wrong because Apple is being backed by most of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Moreover, Apple is registering six different European subsidiaries as voting bodies, that can provide up to 45 votes each, which should be more than enough to outnumber Nokia's existing 92 votes.

Either way, it's certain that the nano-SIM is coming your way shortly. But then, considering the technical advantages it has, it's actually a good thing. And it will be backward compatible with regular SIM using an adaptor. Just make sure you don't lose it.

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O2 UK publish their initial 2012 device lineup

MWC gave us a lot to look forward to, with a new family of HTC devices alongside the first range of smartphones brandishing the Sony name and now these delights are making their way to carriers across the globe.

 

O2 UK recently updated their website's 'Coming Soon' section to include the likes of HTC's One X, S and V, the two new smaller Sony NXT series phones, the Xperia P and the Xperia U, the Samsung Galaxy S Advance and two members of Nokia's Asha family, the 201 and 302.

All of these devices are currently slated for an April launch so consumers don't have long to wait to get their hands on some of the hottest handsets in 2012, but for those of you who simply can't hang on that long, Sony have already unleashed their latest flagship device, the Xperia S, offering a refined Android experience designed to act as the new face of Sony Mobile Communications.

See what we thought of the Xperia S here, when we pitted it against the Samsung Galaxy S II.

We'll keep an eye out on any additions to this lineup but check the source link to see for yourself. Are you planning on picking up any of the devices to have come out of MWC, or are you waiting on the likes of the next iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy S III? Let us know in the comments.

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Nokia Lumia 900 to hit AT&T on April 8, promo videos today

An employee at an AT&T store in California revealed the Lumia 900 release date – April 8. There is still no official confirmation on this, but some previous rumors also suggested the second week of April as the release time frame.

The rumored price of the Lumia 900 is attractive at $99 (with a two-year contract, of course) and you might get a $25 gift card to use in the Marketplace as well.

Nokia and Microsoft are preparing a huge marketing (digital and TV) campaign for the Lumia 900, so it seems with the Lumia series failure is not an option for neither the companies.

Nokia has also uploaded a few new promo videos of the Lumia 900 too. Enojy!

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