Last week we wrote about a clever new Windows Phone 8 feature called Kid’s Corner, which creates a safe place on your Nokia Lumia where a child can enjoy certain games, apps and content while keeping everything else out of bounds.

This is a great idea for anyone with kids or for those occasions when you’re visiting family and you have an army of nephews and nieces eager to play with your Nokia Lumia. For them it’s a toy; for you it’s an essential device that keeps your life in order!

But what if none of this applies to you? Perhaps you’ve got no kids or they’ve all grown up. What use is Kid’s Corner then?

With a little imagination and lateral thinking Kid’s Corner can be reinvented for your own needs and creates another part of your Nokia Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 that is highly customisable.

It might be that you want to group all your favourite games into a Corner, or perhaps albums from your favourite artist. 

Creating a Corner for your favourite content means that you’ll be able to access it quicker and it’ll look great in the customised space together. Perhaps think of it as creating separate and special Start screen.

Custom Corners

It’s worth remembering that Kid’s Corner can be renamed to anything you want, you can select your own screen image and also change the colour accents. 

So rather than Kid’s Corner, you are creating Your Own Custom Corner. First though, let’s remind ourselves of what we can add there:

• Games
• Music
• Videos
• Apps

See my previous post for instructions on how you set up Kid’s Corner and some of the side issues such as text notifications and incoming phone calls.

Here are some other ideas to help spark your imagination.

Location Corner

Your Nokia Lumia smartphone has the best location and navigation tools that you could possibly want.

How about creating a special corner just for Nokia’s suite of location apps?

Perhaps you don’t have room for them all on your regular Start screen but in this corner you can put them all together and access them very quickly even when you are out and about.

Holiday Corner

If you’re going on holiday then you’re likely to use some apps that you may never use again when you’ve got back. Or these are apps that would normally never vie for space on your Start screen.

Why don’t you create a Corner for them? I’m thinking of apps such as currency converters, translator tools or world clocks.

Beatles Corner

For Beatles, insert the band or artist of your choice, but we all have our favourites, don’t we?

You can add albums or playlists to the Corner and, of course, they don’t all have to from the same band. How about a Party Music Corner?

Sports Corner

If, like me, you’re a massive sports fan then you’ve probably got a lot of sports apps on your Nokia Lumia.

If they’re not on your Start screen, you can quickly forget what they’re called and end up scrolling around looking for the app that you want.

Creating a corner for them is a great way of keeping them organised in one place.

Video Corner

Much like the concept behind creating a corner for your favourite music, how about doing one for your favourite TV series or films? 

Video can be synced to your Nokia Lumia or alternatively there are some great apps such as Crackle or Netflix, which both have a huge library of entertainment that can be streamed on your Lumia.

Do you have an alternative idea for Kid’s Corner? Let us know how you are using it in the comments below.

The Nokia Asha 205 is the latest Asha handset to make an appearance, and it couldn’t be more different from the Asha 308 I’ve spent the past month with. It’s bright, it’s seriously colourful and it packs in a full QWERTY keypad. It also has some useful features, and it’s a great choice if you’re a fan of instant messaging. So what’s it been like living with the Asha 205 for the past week? Read on to find out.

Opening the box for the Nokia Asha 205, and the first thing that sprung to mind was “crikey that’s dazzling”! The entire rear of the phone, along with highlights on the front, is bright orange. In a world of black, grey, silver and occasionally white phones, it’s great to see Nokia bringing colour to the Asha party too. The Asha 205 has actually a really nice design and if you want something a bit subtler, you can also go for a stylish black/blue combo, or even pink.

The 2.4-inch screen has a landscape orientation, which is great for browsing the Internet or checking out social networks. The keys on the QWERTY keypad are small, but they’re also perfectly formed, making it easy to type at speed. No doubt some people with overly large fingers may struggle, but for me it was absolutely spot on. After years of touchscreen phones, it’s easy to forget just how good a QWERTY keypad can be.

Modern touchscreen Nokia phones feature excellent text prediction software so you can type at speed, but with a QWERTY keypad mistakes just don’t happen. You can spend the day on Facebook and Twitter without fear of embarrassing typos, and it’s particularly welcome when typing out longer text messages. I also loved the fact that all the characters I needed were right there – no need to press a second button to get a full stop, comma, question mark or even ‘@’ symbol, making writing up texts and tweets considerably faster.

The more you use Asha 205, the more it becomes clear that it’s designed around messaging and staying in contact with your friends. The Asha 205 is the first Asha product to feature an integrated Facebook button, nestled to the left of the joypad. Tap the button and Facebook launches instantly – easy!.

The eBuddy app (comes pre-installed) brings all the big instant messaging clients together in one place – including Microsoft Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and Facebook chat. With all these messaging apps the keyboard is joy to use! The Facebook button isn’t the only shortcut key on the Asha 205 either.

On the right side of the phone is another button that looks the same, and you can customise it to open other apps – such as Twitter or email Add in a joypad that can also be customised to open different apps or functions with a tap to the left or right, and you’ll find that the Asha 205 is a phone that can do a lot from a single button.

As with other Asha products, the Asha 205 has Nokia’s excellent Xpress Browser, and it’s a big bonus when you’re searching the Internet. There’s no Wi-Fi capability, so the connection is limited to EDGE speeds, but it’s simply not an issue. With the Nokia Xpress Browser compressing data by up to 90 per cent, web pages still load quickly and you’ll rarely be left waiting.

The Asha 205 is equally handy when it comes to entertainment. It supports MicroSD cards of up to 32GB, so you can store hundreds of hours worth of your favourite music. If you want to listen to something different, there’s an integrated FM radio. The Asha 205 also comes with Nokia’s EA Games Gift, letting you download 40 free games from EA. There are some top titles in there – such as Need for Speed Shift or Tetris – which would otherwise cost £3 each.

Bluetooth is present and easy to use, and I found it paired with my wireless headset within seconds. Bluetooth is about sharing content as well though, and this is where Nokia’s new Slam feature comes in. Using Slam, there’s no need to pair phones; you can share your photographs and media with people at the press of a button (your friend simply has to accept the request), and it even works with non Nokia phones.

The Asha 205 also gave me my first chance to try out Nokia Nearby – and it’s an impressive app!! You can search for places to shop, eat and drink and other local places of interest. Once you find a place you like, you can also share it on Facebook.

Nokia Nearby doesn’t provide turn-by-turn navigation, but then it doesn’t need to. You can check out places on the map, and it’s easy to find out where you are and how to get there. I’ve only been using the phone for a week and it has come in handy on a number of occasions.

Built around social media and messaging, it’s easy to like the Nokia Asha 205. The keypad really is a pleasure to use, and features like the integrated Facebook button make life a little bit easier. Add in the unique design and broad set of features for the money, and it’s a winning package.

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

Lepiej późno niż wcale To był fascynujący rok. Niejeden obserwator rynku przewidywał, że w 2012 roku nic ciekawego się nie wydarzy  Zapewne niektórzy z was oglądali nasze podsumowanie 2011. Dużo się od tego czasu zmieniło W telegraficznym skrócie: Myślę, że największym sukcesem jest utrzymanie wysokiej statystyki przejść z numerem do PLAY.  Wprawdzie nasz [...]

Zobaczcie koniecznie infografikę z danymi na temat aplikacji Bezpieczna Rodzina. Bardzo jesteśmy zadowoleni, że klienci Play mogą korzystać z tak praktycznego oprogramowania, które pomaga zapewnić bezpieczeństwo najbliższym. Koniecznie przetestujcie tą aplikację – przez pierwszy miesiąc za darmo! Szczegóły na stronie Play.pl.

Lepiej późno niż wcale To był fascynujący rok. Niejeden obserwator rynku przewidywał, że w 2012 roku nic ciekawego się nie wydarzy  Zapewne niektórzy z was oglądali nasze podsumowanie 2011. Dużo się od tego czasu zmieniło W telegraficznym skrócie: Myślę, że największym sukcesem jest utrzymanie wysokiej statystyki przejść z numerem do PLAY.  Wprawdzie nasz [...]

Zobaczcie koniecznie infografikę z danymi na temat aplikacji Bezpieczna Rodzina. Bardzo jesteśmy zadowoleni, że klienci Play mogą korzystać z tak praktycznego oprogramowania, które pomaga zapewnić bezpieczeństwo najbliższym. Koniecznie przetestujcie tą aplikację – przez pierwszy miesiąc za darmo! Szczegóły na stronie Play.pl.

Hi all – a quick note on the week that was,

I’m still feeling the strain of being on my feet all/every day during CES 2013; meeting with partners and media and speaking to people on the show floor was tiring stuff, but as always, the fun far outweighed the fatigue

The response in Vegas was phenomenal; a palpable buzz from bloggers, media, analysts and show visitors alike that surpassed even our (high) expectations! Now we’re looking forward to launching our Android smartphone, Xperia Z in the coming weeks, into the hands of consumers across the world.

Someone from the team asked me to share my top highlight/favourite memory from the week. Too many to choose from really, but if forced I’d actually pick the raft of 12 awards, that by my reckoning made Xperia Z the most-awarded product of CES

Winner

Popular Mechanics | CES 2013: Editor’s Choice Awards | http://bit.ly/VMdbTH 

TechnoBuffalo | Best of CES 2013 | http://tchno.be/WFKbsM 

Laptop Magazine | Best of CES 2013 | http://bit.ly/RJU10f  

Tech Radar | Best of CES 2013: Best Cell Phone | http://bit.ly/WzWoPM 

Stuff | CES 2013 Hot Stuff | http://bit.ly/VYxxGr 

Gotta Be Mobile | CES 2013: Best Phone | http://bit.ly/XoKkE3 

PC Pro | CES 2013 Greatest Hits: Best smartphone | http://bit.ly/WY32Ad 

Mobile Geeks | Best Smartphone

Ubergizmo | Best of CES 2013

Computer Act!ve | Best of CES 2013

Contender/finalist

TechnoBuffalo | Reader’s Choice | http://tchno.be/ZIowr3

CNet | Best of CES | http://bit.ly/VP1yrk

Wow. What a tally! Without being overly immodest, it is just great to see a product which the team has put so much care, attention and love into be recognised in this way. It’s a fantastic start to what we think will be an incredibly exciting year.

There’s no rest for the wicked, even before CES we began planning for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona so keep an eye on us during the event, and see what else we have in store…

We’ll also be bringing you more live content from the ground and who knows, hopefully I’ll retain my guest blogging slot!

Quick heads up everyone – starting today, you’ll be able to get a free PlayStation Mobile* game every seven days for the next six weeks…

Samurai Beatdown is up for grabs first – it’s a rhythmic-action scroller where you slash/dash your way through vibrant landscapes by tapping the screen to a funky synth soundtrack.

If you haven’t already done so, download the app at PlayStation Store for your PlayStation Certified Sony smartphone or tablet and keep all eyes on @SonyMobileNews, as we’ll be revealing the game-giveaway each week

For more info, check out our blog post and the official PlayStation Mobile site.

*Currently only available in Japan, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Australia

Hello everyone,

A quick heads up on something we’re running on @SonyMobileNews tomorrow and Thursday – live Twitter chats with two of the brains behind Xperia Z.

We’ll be sitting down with Xperia Product Marketing managers, Sharath Muddaiah and Lego Svardsater, who’ll be answering your questions on anything and everything Xperia Z, news from the show and maybe a nugget or two on the future.

Each session will last thirty minutes; tomorrow we’ll be kicking off at 10.00 PST with Lego, and then 19.00 PST Thursday with Sharath.

Taking part couldn’t be easier, simply –

• Follow @SonyMobileNews on Twitter
• Use #XperiaZchat to ask a question
• Then feel free to RT, share an answer as you see fit

We’ll try and get to as many questions as possible and for those who can’t make it, we’ll be posting full session transcripts right here on the newsroom.

Hope to see you there!