I can admit it … I am a fan of comics. Whether in book form, or the strips you find in the newspaper, I will take the time to linger over both the stories, the art – and of course the jokes. So I was more than pleased to find that there is now a free Windows Phone app for comics’ fans like me called “GoComics” from Universal Uclick.

When the app opens, the menu shows you four simple choices: comics, editorial (political cartoons), popular, and en Español (yes, some of the cartoons are originally in Spanish, or have been translated). Other than the “popular” section, the resulting lists are in alphabetical order.

From there, pick a cartoon (or cartoonist) that you like, and you will see today’s comic, just like it would have appeared in the newspaper. Even better, all of these comics are in full color –unless they happen to be black & white – usually you will only get that in the Sunday papers.

Download GoComics 

1. Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
2. Scan the QR code
3. Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
4. Install the app from Windows Phone Store

Save it for later
If you happen to like the comic you found, you can “add to favorites” for later viewing, or “add to my comics” which saves that specific title (say “Dilbert”) so you can easily find that entire cartoon in the future. To use the “my comics” feature you do need to create a free GoComics account first.

Across the top of each comic you view, you can jump back and forth between recent days; and the left/right arrows across the bottom of the screen will take you to the next comic within the specific section you are viewing (such as “popular”).

You can also pin specific lists of comics, or individual comics to your start screen for one-click access.

 Organized for easy viewing

The app also displays “Featured” comics that the publisher has selected – it makes use of a colorful, tile-like presentation. And, as you continue to pan through the app, you will quickly see any of the comics you have marked as “my comics” or “favorites”. When looking at the items you have saved in “my comics” you can choose to sort the display order you prefer, and you can easily share any of the comics you enjoy with your friends via email or social networking options.

The search feature built in to the app is quite handy, too. You start to type in the name of the cartoon you are looking for, and the app quickly populates matching results based on the comics and cartoonists it has available (you may not even need to type the full name).

Cartoons with a point of view

The “editorial” or political cartoons are sorted by the political leanings of the cartoonists (left, middle and right), and then displayed by the cartoonist’s last name. This works fine if you know the name of a specific cartoonist that you already like, but otherwise it will require some individual comic sampling to find the ones that suit your personal point of view. At least the full spectrum of political opinion is available.

Find something new to enjoy

While making time to read comics during the day, give yourself a moment or two to try some new ones, too. I came across a few that are practically educational (such as complete recipes in five panels or less), and others that are obscure but truly funny.

The app displays the past 45 days of a specific comic – if you want to find one that falls outside of that boundary, you need to use the GoComics.com site.

The one issue I have with the app is that in portrait mode the images of the cartoons start out small. You can pinch to zoom in and out, but that does require a light touch to get it sized correctly. If you switch to landscape mode, the images automatically adjust to a larger viewing size.

With GoComics on my Lumia phone, I may never need to buy the Sunday paper again.

What types of comics do you enjoy? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Źródło: Have a laugh with GoComics on your Nokia Lumia phone

With a microSD card at the heart of your Nokia Asha, the sky’s the limit when it comes to enjoying, storing and sharing your apps and media content. Nokia has included a comprehensive file manager with the Asha as well, so it’s also easy to keep track of everything on your phone. I’ve been trying out the file manager on my Nokia Asha 308.

To access the file manager, click on the ‘Files’ icon on the menu screen of your Nokia Asha. Navigating files and accessing content on your microSD card couldn’t be easier; it’s the folder at the top of the list titled ‘Memory Card’.

Click on that, and you’ll see a number of sub-folders on the card, including folders for Nokia Maps (Cities), an Apps folder, Videos, Playlists and Recordings. 

Checking memory

If you want to know how much storage space you’ve used, simply tap the menu button at the top-left of the screen, and then click on ‘Memory Status’. This will let you know what you’ve used on both the phone’s integrated memory and your microSD card.

Mark all

If you have photographs, music or other files that you want to delete in bulk, simply head into the folder they’re located in, tap the menu button again, and click ‘Mark All’.

This gives you the option to carry out a number of different tasks. Click the menu button again and you’ll be met with the following options:

Delete Marked, Send Marked, Move Marked, Copy Marked. As these options show, it’s not just about deleting your files, and the file manager offers a great way of sharing content with your friends by email, message or Bluetooth.

Add a folder

It’s just as easy to add a folder to your microSD card for future files – simply head back to the memory card itself, click the menu button and tap ‘Add Folder’. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to move files from other folders, making it easy to keep on top of things if you want to separate photographs or music, for instance.

Using your PC

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, however, and it’s also possible to do a lot more using a USB cable and your computer. Once you plug your Asha 308 into your PC, you’ll be met with three different options: Nokia Suite, Media Transfer and Mass Storage.

Mass Storage is the simplest of the three, and literally lets you use your Nokia Asha as a giant memory stick. It’s easy to use, but it’s also a bit limited. Most of the folders you have on your Nokia’s microSD card won’t show up, so you won’t be able to make major changes.

Media Transfer offers enough functionality to keep most people happy. If you select it, your Nokia’s SD card will show up on your computer as an external drive – just as it does when you select Mass Storage. This time you’ll be able to access more folders, however, including your photos, music and video folders.

It makes transferring media files a clinch; simply drag and drop the files you want either on your computer or your Nokia Asha. 

Nokia Suite is the final option, providing a far more comprehensive way of interacting with your Asha. It’s possible to access all your files using Nokia Suite, and you can even search for apps, download and install them using your computer. It’s ideal if you have a limited data plan and want to get more apps.

Źródło: SD Card Management on your Nokia Asha

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been reaching out to people and asking them to experience the camera on the Nokia Lumia 920. Here we will showcase some of the images taken, along with thoughts from the photographers themselves.

Here are a couple of shots taken by Jason Friend (www.jasonfriend.co.uk), an award winning landscape and travel photographer based in the UK. The one above is the very first he took and below is a ‘nice and vibrant’ effort in low light.

So far Jason admits he loves the true 16:9 sensor on the Lumia 920. He’s also noticed something that is missing… #2instawithlove. After catching up with him he had this to add:

“It is great to be able to control the settings of the camera especially iso and Ev (exposure). The lens is also nice and sharp… And after all the lens is really one of the most important aspects of any camera.”

Next up we look at the vivid photography of Peter Goodbody (www.p3dro.co.uk).

Just by looking at his set of images you can see that they are truly stunning. The above graffiti and this stair case at the Odeon in Liverpool are particularly striking to me. It’s worth noting that Peter edits every photo he takes in Lightroom, even those from the Lumia 920.

Peter’s review is rather practical and based on whether the phone could produce images he’s happy with, while also fitting into his workflow. There are lots of positives including slow shutter speeds that help to capture sharp images thanks to OIS. He also reckons images ‘are sharp and impressively free of noise, even at high ISO’.

Take a look at the full review for the whole picture, if you’ll excuse the pun.

The cute doggie above belongs to Michael Palmer (www.michaelpalmer.com), as does the image. Unfortunately his testing turned out to be a disaster due to a fault with the unit. However, he did manage to produce one of his favourite pictures of the cute doggie above (Skip), and some great shots around London to boot.

Another Lumia 920 will be in Michael’s hands soon enough, so we’ll hopefully hear a happier tale next time… and see some more photos of Skip! In the meantime enjoy this video Michael shot with the Lumia 920 on a Photowalk in London.

Finally we have a camera review from Bouvanrooij (www.thegadgetbook.com). Overall he found the camera on the Lumia 920 to be ‘outstanding’. He’s been using it for one week and is positively ‘loving it’. Below you’ll find his video review or you can jump through to the written review on thegadgetbook.

If you like the images you’ve seen here or want to know more about the photographers behind them I urge you to check out more of their work. If you have your own Nokia photography that you would like showcased please send it in, or tweet us @Nokia_Connects!

Źródło: Nokia Lumia 920 imaging stories

On Monday we teased that we’d be launching something new, and just yesterday we announced the new Nokia Asha 210, a fresh-looking QWERTY phone with the world’s first dedicated WhatsApp button. We’ve been following some of the blog/news sites from across the Web to gather up their reactions. Let’s share them with you now:

The Verge

The headline from The Verge simply reads:

Nokia’s WhatsApp QWERTY phone to take on BlackBerry

Matt Brian makes a good point in his article, and something that’s worth remembering. WhatsApp is a multi-platform service that connects WhatsApp users to other WhatsApp users, no matter what device they’re on.

Engadget

Nokia gave James Trew from Engadget hands-on access to the Nokia Asha 210 and he wasted no time in giving it a test.

In James’ article he talks about the design language resembling that of the Nokia Lumia range by using the same colours. He also writes about Nokia’s efforts to create the polycarbonate-like one-piece design we have on Lumia, although it’s worth noting it’s not a one-piece device in this case.

The design is great for this price, the social features will please many, and there’s just about everything you might need for photos and sharing.

TechCrunch

Natasha Lomas writes an in-depth look at the Nokia Asha 210 and examines the design, the rest of the hardware and also the software. With a dedicated WhatsApp button, Natasha looks at the active user figures to help understand why this might be a good decisions for Nokia.

Last week the messaging service [WhatsApp] said it now has north of 200 million monthly active users (this compares to BBM’s more modest 60 million). Tapping into the hugely popular social messaging craze is clearly Nokia’s aim here

BBC

The BBC have gone into some detail in their write-up of the Nokia Asha 210 announcement, not only looking at the phone’s features, but also at a study detailing WhatsApp and texting usage among its fans.

In true BBC form, there’s a note of impartiality as it lays out the facts.

Analysts suggested the move would make WhatsApp the text app of choice on the handsets, but suggested it would have limited impact on the wider mobile phone market

CNET

In a fairly short post by Rich Trenholm, he keeps to the point, sharing little but the facts. However, he connects the phone to recent trends:

Like the recently-announced Facebook Home, the 210 plugs a social network into the heart of the phone. The popular WhatsApp instant messaging service integrates with the 210′s phone book so you can start chatting straight from your address book, and chat notifications pop up even when you’re not in the app,

Pocket-lint

In Hunter Skipworth’s article on Pocket-lint, he looks at the spec of the Nokia Asha 210, as well as the price and looks.

The phone is going to go on sale in the US at just $72 for both the single and dual-sim variants. It certainly looks a lot better than Nokia’s previous Asha efforts and gets one up on most other affordable Android phones in terms of design.

What do you make of the new Nokia Asha 210? Tell us, below.

Źródło: Nokia Asha 210: reactions from the Web

For two weeks you’ve been frantically snapping pictures using the Panorama app on your Nokia Lumia smartphones. And for two weeks we at Nokia Connects have been frantically trying to get a look at the hundreds that have been coming through.

The sheer quality of your work is astounding. Please take this moment to pat yourselves on the back. While this is a competition and there is a prize up for grabs, I believe you have all achieved something better than a prize, which is this awesome gallery of photos. This gallery is a testament to your fantastic Nokia Connects community. I thank everybody for submitting your images, all them are brilliant. However, these are the ones we thought stood out the most, enjoy!

Muh_HilmiiiMuh_Hilmiiitheodorberg pinkus_aus cjstrads  AliQudsi wrong_thinking saxros28 AndreaTecno2 AndreaTecno2 F_Graziano 1989Alessandro Aerdna4110 Aerdna4110 Aerdna4110 Aerdna4110 stepiccinini85 theonegidion ManuelGamba teodor_bordei YemayOneder DenisPatronov trooters belon1986 belon1986 BruniAlessio BruniAlessio abdel_mostafa YemayOneder nstolyarov82 mr_fridaynite emiliano84 Gianm33 GianlucaRomeo92  icoBasaldella GregIsaacs GregIsaacs GregIsaacs GregIsaacs tweetsbypma Sergio_TheOne warmth Cbrutel sandroz84 svnsapre

If one of your photos has been featured feel free to write in the comments section what your Twitter handle is and a short sentence about your photo, such as where it was taken and anything else you feel the need to add. It would be great to populate this post with your voices too!

Now onto our winner, who wins an awesome JBL PlayUp Portable Wireless Speaker. The winner is… *drum roll*

Dhaval Damar! Congratulations! To collect your prize; please contact me.

Everybody, join in in the comments and congratulate Dhuval on his win and yourselves for creating such an awesome array of panoramic beauty.

Źródło: Nokia Lumia Challenge: Panorama – the winner!

Yesterday we launched the Nokia Asha 210, an affordable QWERTY phone with a dedicated WhatsApp button for those wanting quick and easy access to their WhatsApp friends.

This got us thinking here at Conversations. If you could pick another app to have a dedicated button, which would it be? Let us know, in this informal poll.

If you can think of another one, include it in the Other: option and we’ll add it to the poll.

We’ve excluded Facebook from the list because that’s already available on the Nokia Asha 205, and also a different variation of the Nokia Asha 210.

Take Our Poll

We’ll count up the results in about a week’s time.

Źródło: Poll: which app would you choose for a dedicated button?

There’s loads of cool photography apps available for your Nokia Lumia, but what if you want to challenge your creativity even more? Happily, putting the spring back in your photographic step is a lot easier than you think.

Take in a show

We’ve recently blogged about the great photography shows around the world in 2013, but there’s a hundred more photography exhibitions in a town near you! Some will be amazing and some will be, well, not so amazing. But at the end of the day there is no bad exhibition experience. Even the worst exhibitions in the world can teach you things about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to photography. And very often a really bad exhibition will teach you more than a good one.

Not only that, but everyone likes to have their shows reach an audience. So get out there and support your fellow snappers!  You might even forget your own creative intentions and start along the path of collecting!  

Do competitions

On the other hand, one of the most liberating things about digital photography and the internet is how you can view photographs from a million different makers, all without leaving the comfort of your own home! This availability has opened up all sorts of forums, clubs and competitions. There are thousands of specifically themed competitions out there and some are generously sponsored and offer serious prizes!

Check out photography everywhere

We’re surrounded by photography all the time. Every newspaper, website, magazine, bus and powerpoint presentation is plastered with pictures. But how often do we really look at them?

Given nearly all of the images that surround us are the work of professional photographers with years of experience, how about spending a little longer to really interrogate those pictures. How are they lit? Where are they lit from? How many light sources are there? How many highlights are in the eyes? What’s the depth of field? What is the image trying to get us to think?

Adverts and editorial photography can teach us all sorts of things about photography – you just need to spend a little longer looking at them.

Master a new skill

When you look at photos, which are the ones that you wish you’d taken? Settle on a skill you need to improve and set about improving it! With the range and volume of assistance that exists for us all these days, there’s no excuse not too. You can buy master class books, find online tutorial videos, get chatting on forums or join groups (with real living people) and learn from hands on experience! Any new skill – however small or large – will add to your repertoire of pictures. Don’t fuss about everything at once: pick one thing and master it.

Print it!

So when was the last time you printed something? We’ve all become slaves to the computer screen and rarely do we actually make hard copies of the images we labour over.

But there’s nothing that will make your image come alive more than seeing it “in the flesh”. Whether you like glossy, Diabond mounted works of art or polished aluminium supports, or the deep lustre blacks of photo rag papers – getting your work printed will entirely change your relationship with it.

Exhibit yourself

And once you’ve got something printed, you’ve got something to show! As well as galleries, all sorts of businesses will show art works. Cafes, hairdressers, restaurants, town halls…

It may take some courage (and a lot of work) to organise a show, but it also provides you with some structure, a deadline, a finished product and maybe even some infamy! And seeing your work framed on a wall will give you some much needed critical space to really assess your pictures.

Having a theme, a deadline or just being ‘forced’ to photograph something you normally wouldn’t look at twice may push your work along and open up new interesting avenues.

Źródło: 6 ways to take better Nokia Lumia photos

 Today we celebrate the unveiling of the Nokia Asha 210, the first mobile phone to feature a WhatsApp button right on the front of the phone, making WhatsApp more accessible than ever. This button is the outward expression of a years-long partnership that brings reliable messaging to Nokia owners the world over.

To get more background on Nokia’s partnership with WhatsApp, we connected with Nokia’s VP and GM of Global Partner and Application Development, Bryan Biniak.

Working hard and having fun, together

The Nokia Asha 210 represents a huge step forward for Asha phones. According to Biniak, the process of producing the deep WhatsApp integration in the Asha 210 was a project that involved working hand-in-hand through ideation, design, product scope & requirements and supporting WhatsApp’s development and testing cycles.

Through this process, Nokia and WhatsApp gained valuable feedback from their ecosystem of partner operators and customers who’d be using the phone on a daily basis.

The WhatsApp and Nokia relationship goes back many years, when WhatsApp appeared early on Symbian phones and now on both Asha and Lumia handsets.

WhatsApp’s commitment to quality

I asked what sets WhatsApp apart from the competition and Biniak said, “WhatsApp is an agile team that has an amazing focus on delivering a quality message experience to their customers. The team gets distracted by nothing. They work every day to make sure their service is reliable and consistent, across many platforms.”

Why is WhatsApp such a good partner choice for Nokia? Biniak told me that WhatsApp and Nokia align on several fronts. “Both WhatsApp and Nokia are companies obsessively focused on making the best mobile products for consumers. WhatsApp’s mission is to ensure every consumer has access to fast and reliable communication anytime, anywhere.

The Asha 210 leverages the strengths of both companies and provides budget conscious consumers with instantaneous, free access to WhatsApp.

The Nokia Asha 210 – the ultimate WhatsApp phone

The WhatsApp button on the Nokia Asha 210’s keypad is the most notable indication that this phone is tied in with WhatsApp. However, the integration doesn’t stop there.

WhatsApp is integrated into the gallery for easy photo sharing and the team built tie-ins to our Social API for use across the Asha experience. There’s also WhatsApp integration into the contact manager, so now it’s just as easy to send a message to a person via WhatsApp as sending an SMS.

“Because messaging and communication is most useful when you can connect with your family, friends, and colleagues at the moment you want to send them a note, picture or video, we worked with WhatsApp to bring this tight integration to Nokia Asha 210,” says Biniak.

Traditionally with WhatsApp, the rich messaging service is free for the first year and 0.99 USD yearly after that. However, the Nokia Asha 210 with the dedicated WhatsApp button, gives you the service for free for the lifetime of the device.

Designed and built to be socialized

The highly social phone comes in single and Dual-SIM models and features Wi-Fi so Nokia Asha 210 owners can experience the entire Internet with support for Twitter, Facebook and even popular email accounts such as Gmail.

Coming in colors such as magenta, white, black, yellow and cyan and taking design cues from the Nokia Lumia line of phones, the Nokia Asha 210 was designed with the continued theme of bringing personality and individuality to devices. So not only does the Asha 210 let you chat with friends and family, it’s a phone that will have them talking as well.

Źródło: WhatsApp and Nokia, an ideal match for the mobile messaging public

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The brand new Nokia Asha 210 offers a smarter way to get social. The QWERTY keyboard, WiFi and a dedicated WhatsApp button mean that access to chat is lightning-fast. Not just a socialite, this phone is also a looker, with a distinctive Nokia design and bold colours.

Your questions answered

We hosted a live Q&A with Neeraj Arora from WhatsApp and Neil Broadley from Nokia’s Mobile Phones team to allow people to ask their questions about the Nokia Asha 210. You can read a transcript of that session here.

All the details

The great quality keyboard will be a favourite with text addicts. As well as WhatsApp, the phone comes with Facebook, Twitter and support for email accounts, so you’ll never be more than a few moments away from status updates, chat and messages.

The Asha 210 is fully equipped for capturing and sharing great photographs. There’s a 2-megapixel camera on the back that can be activated using a dedicated button on the front. This works even when the phone is locked, so you’ll never miss a shot.

The camera comes with smart imaging software that boasts the latest talents. The self-portrait feature gives you voice-guidance on where to point to make sure your face is in the frame. And once you’ve taken your shot, you can edit images directly in the camera app. Then, of course, you can share them using your social networks or the innovative Nokia Slam technology, which allows sharing over Bluetooth, without pairing the devices.

The smarter Internet experience on the Asha 210 means that when you’re not on WiFi, the phone goes easy on your data plan. The Nokia Xpress Browser uses cloud-based technology to reduce data consumption by up to 90 per cent. You’ll also find the Nokia Nearby web app to help you discover local sights, restaurants and other points of interest.

It comes in Single and Dual-SIM variants, with Nokia’s Easy-Swap technology to allow you to change SIM cards on the go. You don’t even have to switch the phone off to change the SIM in the slot on the side.

Like every Nokia Asha, the Asha 210 offers an astonishing battery life. You’ll get up to 46 days standby with the Single SIM model; up to 24 days with Dual SIM.

The Nokia Asha 210 will be available in yellow, cyan, black, magenta and white. Before taxes or any operator subsidies, it is expected to be priced at around USD 72 and will go on sale in the second quarter of 2013.

Źródło: The keys to getting social: Nokia Asha 210

Patrick Walsh is a man on a mission. In the last six years, he’s travelled through seven continents, visiting everywhere from the Antarctica to Zimbabwe, and one thing he always packs first is his Nokia. During his adventures, he’s had a Nokia N95, a Nokia N8, a Nokia Lumia 800 and a Nokia 808 PureView. In a two part series, he shares the reasons why he uses ‘Nothing but a Nokia’ to travel through some of the most remote destinations on earth.

The camera

When I started out on my trip, my Nokia N95 had a fantastic 5-megapixel camera.  Then I got a Nokia N8 that had an awesome 12-megapixel camera.  Now I have a Nokia 808 PureView that has a mind-blowing 41-megapixel camera.  Nokia devices have always been ahead of the game when it came to the cameras.  

However, I must stress that the megapixel count only tells one part of the story of why they appeal to me so much. The high qualify images derived from Nokia cameras results from the high-resolution sensor, the inbuilt ND filter, the lossless zoom, the Carl Zeiss Tessar f/2.4 lens and the lowlight performance oversampling.  It is this that sets the new breed of Nokia devices apart from the rest and has them competing at a DSLR level.

The battery life

Whether I am camping in the Middle East, sitting on a train in Siberia or on safari in Africa, then one thing that I need to be able to rely on is the durability of the battery in my equipment. 

When those with DSLR and ‘point and shoot’ cameras or other brand mobile phones are frantically searching for a power point for a recharge, my Nokia devices (which I keep on powersave mode) can run for up to a five days without a recharge.

The connectivity

I set out to travel the world with the plan of using only my Nokia devices to meet all my requirements, from camera to email to alarm clock – thus the name ‘Nothing but a Nokia’.  During this time, I have maintained a fully interactive journey.

This has enabled people from across the globe to follow my journey online as I utilise the functionality of my Nokia device to interact on places of interest, to-do’s and whatever other unexpected experiences my adventures throw up.  It is only as a result of the fantastic connectivity of my Nokia devices, starting out with the N95 and right up to the current Nokia Lumia 920, that this has been possible.

The memory size

I always take into consideration the ability of my equipment to safely store and retrieve my information.  Whether that is the ‘phoneographs’ that I capture or my daily journal and insights, I have to place huge trust in my equipment to store what I document. 

In the regard, my Nokia devices have always been so reliable that I actually used them to write my books.  I wrote nearly all of my first book ‘is: The Phenomenon of the Facebook Status’ on my Nokia N95 by typing the ‘insights’ into my phone and then mailing them to myself when I got in range of wifi.  My new book ‘Life is’ consists of 50 ‘phoneographs’, all of which I captured and stored on my Nokia devices during my travels.  I am yet to run out of memory space on a Nokia device.

The ‘basics’

For a backpacker each of these, so-called, ‘basics’ are some of the most important features on a Nokia device as if they weren’t built it, I would have to carry them with me:

1. Alarm clock – With many flights, trains and buses leaving early in the morning, a reliable alarm clock is a necessity. 

2.Calculator – When dealing in many different currencies, even an accountant needs to have a calculator handy to ensure I am not being ripped off. 

3. Calendar – How many days, weeks or months have I left until my next flight?

4. Reminders – You know the saying “Time flies when we are having fun”?  Well, that applies to backpackers more than anyone, so I need to be reminded of important dates every so often.

5. Messaging – With roaming rates so high, I keep my Nokia on flight mode and each evening I will ‘go live’ to receive messages from friends and family.  This is the simplest, easiest and most cost effective way of staying in touch when far from a wifi connection. 

Five fantastic reasons why you should put a Nokia smartphone at the top of your packing list. But these aren’t the only reasons, Patrick will share five more next week. However, if you can’t wait that long feel free to share your reasons why a Nokia is the perfect travel companion for every modern day Phileas Foggs.

Image credits: Patrick Walsh

Źródło: Why every world traveller needs a Nokia smartphone (Part 1)