Kochani dziś taki lekki weekendowy temat, bardziej organizacyjny niż newsowy Zgodnie z Waszymi sugestiami rozwiązaliśmy kilka zaległości: Karty CardEasy otrzymują: Marcin (marcin_gluch) Niutek Pam HEAVY (slr9) Za szybkość w poszukiwaniu informacji nagrodę (dwie koszulki) otrzymuje: Diego_Armando Za trafną odpowiedź, modem HUAWEI otrzymuje: Karol (scors) Za konkurs na profilu Rzecznika na FB, koszulki otrzymują: Kajetan [...]

Yes i know to most of you out there this information about the iPad using a MicroSIM is not new to you, but for most of you in the Middle-East hungry for an iPad in your hands; HOLD YOUR HORSES!!! Let me first say that 100% of all GSM operators in the world use the default SIM size. Now good old Steve has given a nudge to the telecom operators around the world.

Apple’s big reveal of 2010 was the glorious iPad, some have given their critical analysis of the device. I say the device will pick up like any Apple device in the market. Now the jolt that the mobile industry got was that the iPad uses a MicroSIM enable it to use 3G. Apple’s tie or (love/hate) relationship with AT&T gave it a heads up on orders of MicroSIMS to deliver its service to its customers in the US.

So what is the (MicroSIM) : The 3FF SIM card, or the micro SIM, is 52% smaller than a regular SIM card so instead of a 15 x 25mm card you get a 12 x 15mm one. It’s still a GSM SIM so it will work in most markets. Now I believe Apple’s attempt to lock the SIM during the iPhone launch days blew up in their face.

Last, This MicroSIM isn’t an industry stopper is it. Well no, most operators are going to offer a this MicroSIM as a bundle package with the iPad. I say why bother, request a twin SIM from your local operator, shave the new SIM with plastic or acrylic filer and your good to go. Haven’t tested it myself, I will surely let you know if it works as soon as my iPad lands.

The sense of freedom, the sense of mobility, the outstanding feeling of knowing you left nothing behind. The Nokia Booklet 3G, where do I start? , but first let me make a statement. The Nokia Booklet 3G is a ‘Netbook’ and not a laptop so treat it as such.

Design, Size, Weight, Screen are flawless. I couldn’t say anything else, because I was surely impressed on how much Nokia put thought into this device. Speed for me is just fine; some have complained about its RAM and processor, frankly I would tell them they have no idea about computer mechanics. There is something they haven’t noticed and people like me would pay top dollars for. That is the NO FAN option, finally can sit in bed and not disturb anyone with the whizzing sound of the cooling fan. Plus what more can you ask from a netbook, use it as it was design and supposed to be used so just plug in a 2GB Flash drive and use it as a ReadyBoost or have you totally forgot about that?. Coming back to the essential elements of this device, using the 3G gave me the ability to sit where and when ever I want. No Dongles, Bluetooth, or Cable connections required. Power on and connect, simply amazing feeling you’ve got knowing you can get what you want in no time. The Nokia Booklet 3G is such a good device that I know use it as my own corporate computer device. Called in IT and asked them to remove my bulky laptop back it up on the local network so I could access it on my booklet. My desk is so clean right now it’s not even funny. I put this device to the ultimate test on the first day of work, dropped my notebook pens and every manual item you can possibly take to a meeting. Fired up OneNote, held a 3 hour meeting took all the notes I needed on my Booklet, attached pictures from my N900 and I was the first one out of the door. Didn’t have to gather all my papers, put together my laptop disconnect my charger, and wind up all sorts of wires. The best part I even leave quicker, All I’ve got is my Booklet and I’m out, charger is at home.

Last but not least, and I know most of you want to hear some partially negative things about this device and I don’t blame you. Nothing is perfect, and yes for some the Nokia Booklet is not the perfect device. But I can highlight some things that can be on the list of improvements for the RX-80 probably. First I would love a touch screen integration, which would make things a lot faster for me. The keyboard keys to be backlit, would make a big difference in low light environments. The ‘Ctrl’ key to be on the very left instead of the ‘fn’ key. More Nokia related software built-in, to control the connectivity. Would love a remote viewer built-in so I could make calls with my device but talk and hear it through my booklet or my BH-504 connected to my booklet. Why bother all your customers with the SIM lock by AT&T, It’s very easy to crack save us the hassle and include a Nokia UI for the SIM connectivity.

Final review thought, if you’re looking for being connected ‘Full Internet As It Happens’ the Nokia Booklet 3G is the device for you. If you’re a laptop speed oriented and has 16 million applications and programs the Nokia Booklet 3G won’t do for you. If you’re a on the move business person, looking for agility and essential connectivity, the Nokia Booklet 3G serves every single part of that.

Nokia Booklet 3G

If you’re a music aficionado, you’ll be pleased to hear about Nokia Music’s documentary series New American Noise, made in collaboration with the Sundance film festival. Charting the music scenes of six US cities, it gives us an unprecedented insight into what makes the US rock. Today, we take a closer look at one of the places featured. Make some noise for Portland.

Seattle’s cooler cousin

Satyrican nightclub might have been the place where Kurt Cobain first set eyes on Courtney Love, but this Oregon city’s musical legacy neither starts nor ends with grunge. Seattle’s cooler cousin, tucked away in the rainy north-west of the USA, Portland has a music scene that’s nothing if not eclectic. From the underground indie-chic featured in the New American Noise: Electric Noise documentary, to bluegrass, punk and house, Portland has it all. And, as befitting musicians from America’s Greenest City, Portland’s soundsmiths urge their fellow citizens to sample the home-grown wares and listen locally. But the rest of the world is curious, too: what’s so special about Portland?

Louie, Louie in hardcore heaven

Back in the early 1960s, Portland band The Kingsmen’s cover of Richard Berrry’s Louie, Louie blew America’s cotton socks off, but it was the 1980s when Portland really came into its own as a kick-ass breeding ground for hardcore punk. Bands like The Wipers, Poison Idea, the Stiphnoyds and Final Warning all cut their teeth here. The Stiphnoyds were early members of the Alternative Arts Association, a punk-group organisation that were trying to spread the word about their new sound, and The Wipers’ frontman, Greg Sage, said, ‘We were even farther out in left field than the punk movement because we didn’t even wish to be classified.’ Now, that’s hardcore.

Singing in the rain

On to the 1990s: while Seattle was grabbing the grunge headlines a couple of hours’ drive north, Portland was rocking out to Everclear and Elliott Smith. Everclear’s lament, Portland Rain, might have been a love-song (of sorts), but it’s also a shout-out to the local weather – that sad, cold, melancholy climate mentioned in American Noise that seems to fertilise a huge amount of musical creativity. Singer-songwriter Smith, who went to school in Portland and lived there throughout the mid-90s, hit the big-time when fellow Portland artist, Gus Van Sant, featured his tracks in his film, Good Will Hunting; one of them, Miss Misery, even got an Academy Award nomination.

Punk edge fiddling and hipster house

Stepping outside the rock world, we can’t forget Portland’s bluegrass scene. Native stars include Foghorn Stringband – described by the press as old-time mountain fiddling with a punk edge – and The Water Tower Bucket Boys, who started as buskers and moved onto square dances. And every year the city hosts the Portland Old-Time Music Gathering, a grass-roots festival celebrating traditional Appalachian-style stringband musicians. On the other side of the dance-floor, house music’s getting big in Portland, too: hipster-house or chill-rave artists like Chromatics, Glass Candy, and, more recently, the Miracles Club are busy pumping beats out of Oregon. The Miracles Club’s Honey Owens and Rafael Fauria have their own label, too, Ecstacy, catering to a small but mighty Portland dance scene.  

You’ve probably heard of other Portland exports, like The Dandy Warhols, Sleater-Kinney, The Shins, Blitzen Trapper and The Decemberists – but that’s just a tiny sample. Want more? Check out the documentary, then get to Oregon and get your groove on!

When it comes to creating games or apps for mobile devices, we imagine it’s a tiring, lengthy process. However, that’s not always the case. A team of six interns from Päivölä, Finland spent six weeks at one of Nokia’s offices coming up with an idea for a game, creating, and then publishing it. What they created was Cosmos Conquest – downloadable now.

The challenge was to see if some semi-newbies to the app development scene could produce a fully functional and fun game from start to finish in six weeks.

Developing started last spring and continued into the summer between the hours of 9-to-5, Monday to Friday, taking a total of 30 workdays to produce.

The initial stages were focused on creating several (16, to be precise) prototypes. The team then needed to decide on which one game to focus their efforts on as to not waste time and resources.

Some of the game ideas were experimental, and sometimes slightly unconventional, but they decided on something they all knew and enjoyed – a space game, Cosmos Conquest.

While having developing experience would naturally help, Kimo Boissonnier, Project Manager at Nokia Student Innovation Lab explains that prior knowledge isn’t always essential:

The students had no experience in developing and publishing prior to joining our internship. Although some had coded before at school, they learnt everything they need to know about Windows Phone last spring with us.

Nokia Lumia 620

Our newest Windows Phone 8 smartphone.

The family is growing.

As a project manager, Kimo’s role was to guide the students along the right paths to make sure that the team could focus on what was important – creating the game. In reality, Kimo tells us that this means dealing with all the “Boring, but necessary details” such as booking meeting rooms, chasing different team members for reports, and providing support at every step of the way. Although, he did manage to get his hands dirty and participate in game design on a couple of occasions.

Creating an app or a game doesn’t mean you need to go out and buy lots of expensive equipment. Instead, you can develop using freely available programs, such as Visual Studio – the interns actually used Visual Studio Express edition – that has everything you need, including a Windows Phone emulator.

However, there is a yearly fee if you want to publish content to Windows Phone Marketplace of about €100. This fee covers some advertising costs and development support should you need it.

We wanted to know if there were any problems or issues that they encountered during the whole development process. Kimo told us:

Honestly, no. Everything went according to plan. We created timeframes when things needed to be done and we were fortunate enough to stick to them.

And what now? After a successfully completed challenge, will the interns continue to develop?

“Once you create a game, you could stop there, but we don’t want to. We plan on continuing to develop Cosmos Conquest by adding more levels, more worlds, different environments, new enemies and possibly a new weapon. We want to keep it fresh and exciting.”

Kimo concludes:

“We may even look at some of those prototype games we made last spring and put some life into them. We’ll see.”

Have you played Cosmos Conquest yet? It’s free and ad-free, too. Let us (and the interns) know what you think of it, using the comments section below.

Image credit: Chatirygirl

So far, I’ve made $457 just by doing surveys

- Wszyscy ze wszystkimi zawarli dobrowolne aneksy MTR. Operatorzy mają stabilność prowadzenia działalności, o którą mi chodziło. A nie tak, jak to miało miejsce do tej pory: decyzje administracyjne i wszystkie w sądzie. Czuję ogromną satysfakcję – powiedziała serwisowi rpkom.pl Gaj. (cały tekst) Udało się! Jednak stanęło na naszym Dokładnie takie rozwiązanie proponowaliśmy i [...]

- Wszyscy ze wszystkimi zawarli dobrowolne aneksy MTR. Operatorzy mają stabilność prowadzenia działalności, o którą mi chodziło. A nie tak, jak to miało miejsce do tej pory: decyzje administracyjne i wszystkie w sądzie. Czuję ogromną satysfakcję – powiedziała serwisowi rpkom.pl Gaj. (cały tekst) Udało się! Jednak stanęło na naszym Dokładnie takie rozwiązanie proponowaliśmy i [...]

Back in November we teamed up with LeiVanKash for #NokiaLVK and the results were incredible. We were certain the potential for something amazing was there to be shared and created, but we were not ready for just how amazing it would be!

After all of the brilliant mood board submissions, there could only be one winner. After much deliberation it was Sonya who shone through, and was promptly flown to London, joining Leila to help inspire and create a new piece of jewellery.

Congratulations Sonya!

One of the key reasons why Asha Touch devices are now considered smartphones is because of the fantastic range of apps that are available for them in the Nokia Store. 

They are beautiful devices that are easy to use, that keep you socially connected and there’s a model to suit everyone’s needs and budgets. But we know a lot of the magic is in the apps.

With this in mind, we want to introduce an occasional series where we throw the spotlight on a particular app that we believe is worth championing.

Whatever happens from here on in, and no matter how many great apps we feature in the future, no one will ever be able to change the fact that the honour of being the very first app in the series is… 

Soundtracker Radio (free)

Soundtracker Radio is a music player with a difference. You discover and play new music by seeing what your friends and the people around you are listening to. Think of it as a musical discovery through a social network.

The app has an impressive archive of over 22m songs, where you can listen by artist or by genre, create your own radio stations and share them with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or email.

Alternatively, just have a listen to the current most popular artists in your city.

Tuning up

The first thing you’ll need to do after installing Soundtracker Radio is to sign in. You can do so using your Twitter account, which is very handy, or alternatively you can register a Soundtracker Radio account.

Once you’ve signed up you’ll see the choices on the main screen:

• Create station
• My Stations
• Station by location
• Trending Stations
• Liked Stations
• Settings 

When you first create a station, you enter an artist you like and the app will create a radio station that streams songs by this artist and similar ones.

For example, I entered Radiohead and as well their songs, I also heard songs from other indie bands such as Interpol and The Pixies.

Once it’s set up, you can rename this station to anything you like and also share it with your friends by posting a tweet.

This station will now appear in the My Stations list.

For music discovery and seeing what other people are listening to, you can try searching for other stations by location, or the stations that currently are trending. If you’ve found a station you like, tap the star icon and it’ll appear in your Liked Stations list.

This is an extremely easy app to get to grips with. I found the streaming on my Nokia Asha 311 to be loud and clear and there was never any buffering. Best of all, you could even skip tracks!

I was using WiFi, so you may want to be careful if you’re using mobile data, but otherwise Soundtracker Radio gets a definite thumbs up!