You may have seen few weeks back that we announced our 3D printing initiative by releasing the CAD files for the Lumia 820 for anyone to create and print their own case.

The files are there for you to create your own case and customise it as much as you want – use our files as a basis, then let your imagination run wild. A great source of inspiration is the MakerBot Thingiverse, where tons of designs have already been submitted. Your design can be simple or an intricate pattern, or you could use unicorns and rainbows – it’s entirely up to you!

Through our partnership with MakerBot we’ve decided to go one step further, by bringing 3D printing to life at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. So, there will be two MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D printers on the Nokia stand during the show, and they will be used to create the world’s first live social 3D printing experience. For a chance to win your very own personalised 3D printed case, all you have to do is tweet @Nokia_Connects using the hashtag #Lumia820 – something fun, entertaining, witty.

Every day we will pick a few tweets that have used the hashtag and print a personalised Lumia 820 case for them. Runners-up attending MWC will win a custom patterned case by MakerBot.

Oh, and every personalised case we choose and print will come wrapped round its very own Nokia Lumia 820!! There will be a number of winners every day, so keep trying!

This is open to everyone, attending MWC or not: So what are you waiting for? Get tweeting!

For full terms and conditions, check our rules page.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The Nokia 301 is classic Nokia from top to toe, from its iconic numbered keypad to the immediately recognisable design, but this classically designed feature phone has a few surprises up its sleeve.

Image conscious

For starters, the Nokia 301 has a 3.2-megapixel camera, with some clever software features.

It has a self-timer for taking pictures of yourself with other people. The camera also has a handy self-portrait feature that uses voice prompts to tell you how to position the phone so your face is properly in the frame.

It can take panoramic photographs, as well – the first time we’ve offered this on a feature phone, as well as sequential shot, which takes 3-5 frames and lets you choose the perfect picture. Both of these last two were inspired by the digital camera lenses on our Lumia smartphones – nice to see the high-end innovation reaching our mobile phones.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

When you’ve taken the picture and applied effects from the 5-in-1 camera app, you can share the image on social networks. Or you can send it straight to another person’s phone, using the Slam feature.

Net value

The Nokia 301 also supports 3.5G Internet and coupled with the Nokia Xpress Browser, benefits from up to 90% data compression, for fast and smooth browsing. It can even stream videos from YouTube, let you download them from the Vuclip app and watch them in portrait or landscape mode.

Facebook, eBuddy, WhatsApp and Twitter are all preloaded to the home screen and the email app supports a lite version of Mail for Exchange for syncing your calendar, contacts and emails.

The design is striking. The Nokia 301 might sport a traditional ‘candybar’ shape, but its inherent colour and clean lines mean it’s ultra-modern at the same time. It comes in yellow, cyan, magenta, white and black varieties and single SIM or dual SIM versions.

Spec-tacular

In terms of the specifications, two more things stand out. It has a terrific battery life – up to 39 days on standby, when using the single SIM version on a 3G network. Then, it supports HD Voice, for much clearer calls when used with an operator network that supports the protocol.

Asked to sum up this new launch, product manager Vivian Chan told Conversations, “The Nokia 301 has all the features you want, with 3.5G performance and it will never let you down.”

The Nokia 301 is planned to roll out next quarter and, excluding local taxes or operator subsidies, it will be priced at about €65.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

‘Connecting the next billion and beyond’ just got more colourful with the super-dependable Nokia 105, available in cyan and with a colour screen.

Around 2.7 billion people around the world are yet to buy their first mobile, mostly due to financial restraints. The Nokia 105 is set to retail at just €15, making it the most affordable mobile phone in Nokia’s current range.

Others are ready to buy a second phone, perhaps for emergencies, or for sports. That phone will need to be durable and long-lasting, and the Nokia 105 definitely fits the bill.

Fundamental value

The phone was created to offer the essentials – phone calls and SMS – but also some desirable extras. It has an FM radio*, a much-prized addition for people with limited personal entertainment options. Similarly, the phone features a flashlight, useful where reliable electricity is in short supply. The Nokia 105’s sturdy one-piece keymat is dust-proof and splash-proof.

The battery life – up to 12.5 hours talk-time and 35 days standby – once again means you’ll be able to keep talking and texting for ages.

The Nokia 105 carries the same design aesthetic found on our top-end devices, which makes the phone stand out from the crowd. Lead designer Sungwoo Cho said:

“The very human curves and the clean, fresh design make it very distinct from our competitors’ devices in this price range, and utterly modern despite a traditional form factor.

We’re also extremely happy to be able to offer the Nokia 105 in cyan, as well as black. This is pretty unique at this price point.”

Product manager Tracy Chen told Conversations that “Nokia’s experience in optimising phone quality, combined with its global footprint and economies of scale, is a major contributor to being able to work to such a low price.” Working with thoroughly-tested hardware and software means there’s no drop in quality.

Extra special powers

While the major focus of creating the Nokia 105 was on covering the basics and achieving such an affordable price point, the product team also decided to include a speaking clock:

“We wanted to be able to offer a bit of fun, an extra surprise that provides a talking point for the owners.”

The Nokia 105 also comes with pre-loaded games, and the Nokia Life service will also be available in supported countries.

The Nokia 105 marks the end of an era. With colour screens available at such a low price, Nokia officially says farewell to black-and-white screens. We don’t imagine many people will be sad about that!

The Nokia 105 will start selling in the second quarter of 2013.

Właśnie pakuję się na wyjazd do Barcelony. MWC to bardzo ważne wydarzenie dla PLAY, ponieważ tradycyjnie, jak co roku w czasie specjalnej konferencji prasowej zaprezentujemy wyniki finansowe oraz powiemy więcej o planach na 2013 rok. Konferencja odbędzie się już 26 lutego we wtorek o 11. Oczywiście prezentację zobaczycie tutaj na blogu Właśnie ją tłumaczymy. [...]

Właśnie pakuję się na wyjazd do Barcelony. MWC to bardzo ważne wydarzenie dla PLAY, ponieważ tradycyjnie, jak co roku w czasie specjalnej konferencji prasowej zaprezentujemy wyniki finansowe oraz powiemy więcej o planach na 2013 rok. Konferencja odbędzie się już 26 lutego we wtorek o 11. Oczywiście prezentację zobaczycie tutaj na blogu Właśnie ją tłumaczymy. [...]

Od dziś zmieniają się ceny następujących modeli telefonów: HTC Desire C Huawei Ascend G300 LG E610 Swift L5 LG P760 Swift L9 Samsung i8190 Galaxy S III mini Samsung i9070 Galaxy S Advance Ceny w cenniku

Od dziś zmieniają się ceny następujących modeli telefonów: HTC Desire C Huawei Ascend G300 LG E610 Swift L5 LG P760 Swift L9 Samsung i8190 Galaxy S III mini Samsung i9070 Galaxy S Advance Ceny w cenniku

The world’s most innovative smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 920, together with the Nokia Lumia 820 and the affordable Nokia Lumia 620, arrived in Brazil this week.

Like true stars, the Nokia Lumia 920, Lumia 820 and Lumia 620 were launched in a luxurious movie theater to an audience full of Brazilian journalists and bloggers keen to know more about Nokia’s smartphone products.

Amidst a deluge of questions, Almir Luiz Narcizo, general manager of Nokia Brazil, boldly proclaimed:

“Watch out, competition! Nokia is bringing highly competitive devices to the market.”

Eero Salminen, one of Nokia’s top imaging experts, was also among the presenters. He traced the evolution of smartphone cameras from the earliest attempts to Nokia’s innovative PureView technology that has set a new benchmark for imaging excellence in smartphones.

Regarding the Lumia 920, Eero said: “Picture quality in low light has always been a big problem in photography, both in compact cameras and mobile phones. For this reason, we thought how to solve this and, after a lot of research, we developed PureView. This feature makes us different.”

Attendees were also given a chance to experience the Nokia Lumia for themselves. To demonstrate how our Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) works, a remote-controlled car was rolling around the room filming with two smartphones recording simultaneously, leaving little doubt about the incomparable imaging quality of the Lumia 920.

In less than 24 hours, the new Lumias had begun to show their appeal in Brazil. They were sold out in pre-sale promotions at several stores, and many people expressed that they couldn’t wait to get their hands on the devices. While many can’t yet decide between the Lumia 920 or Lumia 820, it looks as if the compact Lumia 620, so popular in other markets, may be a hit amongst the Brazilians, too.

Where you at the launch in Brazil? If so, we’d like to hear your impressions.

Report by Rubia Pria, from the Nokia Brazil blog.

In our poll last week we asked whether you thought smartphones still needed physical buttons.

By buttons we meant the ones on the side, such as the camera shutter, volume and power keys. I argued that these were rapidly becoming obsolete and their removal would enable smartphones to be sleeker and more beautiful.

This informal poll is now closed and nearly 1,000 votes were cast! How many of you agreed with me? As it turns out, not very many…

Do smartphones still need physical buttons?

• Yes: 71.43%
• No: 28.57

A clear majority thought I was being foolish and, if there was any doubt before, these side buttons are clearly valued by many people.

The voting was remarkably consistent from country to country with a clear majority all in favour of keeping the buttons.

Just as illuminating were some of the comments left on the original post. It was an excellent debate that obviously generated some strong opinions.

One very clear message was that the camera button are seen as sacrosanct – so if any smartphone designers are reading this, remove this at your peril! 

Naufal Shazwan

“Bring the double tap on the screen to wake up the phone to Lumia! That’s a cool feature! Other than that, a gesture based volume would be cool to but a physical shutter button is a must have! It is necessary to focus more accurately on a subject.”

Many of the comments also made the distinction between the physical side buttons and the capacitive buttons for back, home and search that are found on the front of the Lumia smartphones. 

These front buttons, at least, do not appear to have many fans at all. This comment below was one of the more mild ones about the front capacitive buttons.

John Doherty

“In addition to keeping ALL of the current buttons, it would be nice to 1) have a true SILENCE switch, and 2) have non-capacitive buttons on the front. Ever try to let a 3 year old watch Netflix on your phone?… What a disaster.”

Meanwhile, there was an excellent point about the physical buttons making smartphones more accessible.

Randall “texrat” Arnold:

“How do we accommodate the vision-impaired customers? Who’s thinking of them as the industry continues to strip away physical buttons?”

Finally, there was a single comment swimming against the tide of opinion: 

Sai Kiran

“Removal of Buttons makes A Phone SMARTER….”

Remember this poll was just a bit a fun so please don’t read anything into it about the future direction that Nokia might take. Or not take.

Thanks for all your comments and votes!

For almost two weeks we’ve been enjoying your #NokiaLumiaChallenge Cinemagraphs. They’ve been cool, cute, funny, weird and sometimes a bit scary!

As always, there can only be two winners, which is hard for us considering how great the submissions have been. So, let’s showcase some of our favourites first, before announcing the two winners.

High flying diving action in this one, exciting stuff!

We really like this tranquil scene submitted by Timothy. It’s calming and full of colour, just like a postcard.

This is what I meant by scary. There were a few similar Cinemagraphs but this was the best of the lot!

Christopher Lux captured this really cool guy jamming on his banjo. Not much to say apart from it needs a sound track! Awesome!

This Cinemagraph from Josemari Gago is cool in a couple of ways. The freaky bubble machine is just one of them. The other is a moment when a bubble on the right comes close to the camera then retreats back, in an almost seamless motion. Very nice to watch!

If you submitted one of the Cinemagraphs that is not credited, please let me know in the comments section who you are and I’ll add you.

Now onto the winners!

Donald Strand submitted a string of amazing Cinemagraphs all captured on the subway. I feel this one is the best. It’s simple but framed very well and there are hidden gems everywhere. Well done Donald!

Well, this is simply hilarious. Gifted with a bit of snow, Duncan Nagle went outside and recreated a skiing trip. Are those ski poles legit? Take a closer look guys! Well done Duncan and thanks for the laughs, brilliant!

Winners, please drop me an email so we can arrange your prize. We’ll be taking a one week break from the challenges, so the next challenge will commence in March, after Mobile World Congress.