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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.

 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.

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.

You might remember the Android Open Source Project for Xperia S our Developer World colleagues worked on last year – because of the interest and participation in that initiative, we’re now running a similar AOSP for Xperia Z.

It’s part of our ongoing commitment to support and collaborate with the Android community – the Sony software code will be open for external developers to work with and contribute to, and it’ll be overseen by the same team that was behind the Xperia S AOSP.

It’s worth noting that the software isn’t intended for everyday use, and it doesn’t include apps and services as part of standard phone software – everything you need to get started can be found on Sony’s GitHub and don’t forget to check out Developer World for all the info.

We’re excited to kick this off and look forward to working with as many developers as possible!

In recent weeks we have ran several posts that have underlined the excellent multimedia credentials of the Nokia Asha Touch smartphones.

Whether it’s updating your Tumblr blog or filming and uploading videos to YouTube, it seems your Asha Touch device is always up to the task. 

As well as the native capabilities of Asha Touch, there are also plenty of apps in the Nokia Store to help you get creative and make the most of your photos and videos.

This week’s Asha App Spotlight is Colorizit (free), which is a fun way of manipulating the colour in your images.

Colorizit

This app gives you a feature that is extremely simple but also super effective.

A photo is taken in black and white and then you can isolate certain elements, such as the flower in the example here, to give it a burst of colour.

This technique works really well to highlight people, nature or just so that there’s no confusion about the star attraction in the photo!

It’s also a great way of transforming an ordinary image into something more beautiful.

Transforming your images

Using the app could not be easier. You have a choice of taking a photo with the in-app camera or selecting an existing photo in your gallery.

If you choose an old photo from your gallery then it’ll be opened in Colorizit in black and white; likewise images taken with the in-app camera are also in black and white.

Of course, it’s only black and white to begin with. The onus is on you to add some colour. This is done simply by tapping or brushing a part of the image with your finger.

Colorizit is an app that is very simple to use, but still takes some time to master. Maybe it’s just my chubby fingers but it’s really worth making the effort to refine your technique.

What I found really helpful is that you can change the ‘brush’ sizes so that you can be as precise as possible. If you make a mistake you can always start again with just a few taps of the screen.

If you think there’s a lack of sharing options in the app, then fear not!

Exit the app and go to the gallery where all your regular photos are stored and you’ll see your Colorizit creations saved there too. You can email, MMS, upload it to a social network or share it via Bluetooth just as you would any other image.

I don’t think you’d want to use Colorizit for every photo, but if it’s used selectively and executed well, the results can look fantastic.

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

Following the success of the original Cut The Rope game comes Cut The Rope Experiments, packed with more levels and new gameplay.

Download Cut The Rope Experiments

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 application from the Windows Phone Store

The idea of Cut The Rope, in both versions, is to feed the little green monster named Om Nom (named after the sound of satisfyingly eating, we presume).

The way that happens is by you dropping delicious candy into his mouth from above.

Sounds simple you say. However, there’s always something getting in the way from you doing precisely that.

On every level – of which there are 150 – you’re faced with various objects that make feeding Om Nom a tricky challenge.

Each piece of candy is attached to a piece of string and you can move this candy from one piece of string to another by interacting with the environment.

This might take the form of a pulley system, or bubbles that make the candy float.

However you move it around, there’s usually only one successful way of doing it.

As if feeding Om Nom wasn’t enough, there’s also the added task of collecting three stars on every level.

Stars are positioned in difficult to reach places that can only often only be obtained by taking huge risks and possibly sacrificing the level.

Gamers’ competitive nature, though, means that it’s always on everyone’s agenda to complete every level with all three stars.

As you progress through the 150 levels, you’ll notice the difficulty increase.

At the beginning levels, you’re just working out robe combinations, but the next set of levels you’ll be introduced to bouncy drums and spiders.

Cut The Rope Experiments is an Xbox game, which doesn’t mean it’ll work on your Xbox, but instead will enable you to collect achievements to build up your gamerscore. There’s even the option to compare your own gameplay with those of your Xbox friends for some extra competitive fun.

Cut The Rope Experiments is a great game to while away the hours, especially if you’re after every star on every level. Available for Nokia Lumia 800, Lumia 620, Lumia 920 and others, this game currently available at a special price of £0.79 / $0.99. Grab it while you can before the price goes back to £2.29 / $2.99.

Vimeo was founded in 2004 by a group of filmmakers who wanted a space to showcase their work.

Nearly 10 years on, this creative spirit is very much at the forefront of the Vimeo experience and the release of the official app for Windows Phone 8 means you can now enjoy it on your Nokia Lumia smartphone.

There is really no such thing as a typical Vimeo video but I think it would be fair to say that the website attracts incredibly polished and interesting pieces of work.

For example, take the striking video above, which was produced using imagery from Nokia’s HERE Maps. 

If you spend a little time exploring its curated channels and groups (Staff Picks is a great place to start), you’ll come across some real gems that can be variously described as arty, beautiful, moving, funny or inspiring. 

More often than not, these engaging videos have been produced by aspiring filmmakers, or by amateurs who just want to share their creative endeavours. Many of them look fantastic.

Vimeo on your Lumia

Everything you can do on Vimeo’s website can now be achieved directly through the official app (free) on your Nokia Lumia.

As well as browsing and watching videos, you can favourite them, save them to watch later, add comments, record them on your Lumia and upload them through the app. To make the most of these features then you’ll need to sign up for a Vimeo account.

There is also a great deal for Nokia Lumia smartphone owners: you can get a free 3-month trial of Vimeo Plus, which has benefits such as more storage space and express video conversion.

You need to do this within the app – just swipe across and click on the promo offer. 

Above and beyond all the same functionality that you’d get on the Vimeo website, such as managing your videos and account, using the app on your Lumia has some further advantages.

You can use NFC to send your Vimeo videos to another smartphone and share them via SMS, Facebook, Twitter or email; you can also pin your favourite videos or featured channels as a Live Tile on your Start Screen.

Whether you want to watch videos or create and share them, the Vimeo app is a terrific app, and a fine source of inspiration.

You might think music videos only kicked off with MTV, but they’ve actually been around a lot, lot  longer. In fact, that can be traced all the way back to Spooney Melodies a series of five musical shorts produced by Warner Brothers between 1930 and 1931. Mixing art-deco animation and live-action footage, they revolutionized the way popular tunes were showcased. Fast forward eighty plus years and the Nokia Open Song Project is doing exactly the same.

What is the Nokia Open Song Project? 

It’s the absolute latest in interactive music-making, that’s what it is. You’ve heard of interactive video-making, right? Where bands and songwriters use video clips sent in by fans for their official video? Well, Nokia have turned the tables for this one. They’ve teamed up with Danish electro-dance-rock maestros, Spleen United, to give you the chance to actually remix the band’s latest track, Hibernation.

What makes it so special?

The band recorded the track, then split it into 16 separate parts and uploaded these sounds onto the Nokia Open Song Project website so that fans could assemble the track themselves into a proper kick-ass tune. Head over to the website to check out the results, vote for your favourite, and, for all you budding superstar DJs, to have a go yourselves!

What was the inspiration?

Innovative, for sure. But what’s the thinking behind this electro-open-source talent show? It’s partly about the funky visuals that go with the tune. Each of Spleen United’s sixteen video clips for Hibernation was shot on a Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone. If you check out the Nokia Open Song Project website, you’ll witness the awesome powers of the Lumia 920′s integrated PureView camera.

This 8.7 megapixel camera shoots 1080p video and takes in five times as much as light as competing smartphones, making it one of the best low-light cameras on the market, as well as an absolute zinger in the daytime.

What was the result?

Well, over a thousand wannabe music producers, composers and DJs have already uploaded their versions of Hibernation to the Nokia Open Song Project. Scoot on over there and we promise you’ll be wowed. You can also watch the behind-the-scenes documentary that showcases the band and the Nokia Lumia 920nd even upload your own remix.

Vote for a rocking idea!

We’re not the only ones blown away by this awesome idea. It’s got so much love that it’s also been nominated for a 2013 People’s Voice Webby Awards. These prestigious prizes are awarded every year by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.  Voting closes in on the 25^th April, so if you think the Nokia Open Song Project and the Nokia Lumia 920 rock, why not head over to their website and vote today!

Już za kilka dni udostępnimy Wam piękną, cudowną, pachnącą nowością aplikację Play24 na smartofny z systemem Android oraz iOS. Wszystkich szczegółów nie możemy jeszcze zdradzić ale..

Nowa aplikacja wykonana jest w natywnym interfejsie iOS/Androida. Wykorzystuje najlepsze wzorce projektowe dla aplikacji mobilnych, dostarczając maksymalną użyteczność przy wysokiej estetyce. Funkcjonalnie oczywiście jest to dalej Play24, więc użytkownicy poprzedniej wersji natychmiast się w niej odnajdą, ale myślimy że paroma rozwiązaniami zaskoczy nawet technologicznych wyjadaczy

Co więcej?

• Aplikacja będzie dostępna w wersji na Androida i iOS (smartfony i tablety)
• Dla mniej zaawansowanych telefonów udostępnimy wersję web lite.

A w niedalekiej przyszłości..

• przełączanie między wieloma numerami wewnątrz aplikacji
• nowe usługi i optymalizacja

Jeszcze jedna ważna informacja! W tym roku udostępnimy również aplikację na telefony z Windows Phone! Wiem, że wielu z Was na nią czeka  – pracujemy nad nią intensywnie

A teraz mały sneak peak