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As the title suggests, it’s been another impressive week of content produced by the Nokia community.

Driving across New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge, Johnny W. Lam took some stunning photographs of one of the United States’ oldest suspension bridges using a Lumia 920 camera.

Posted on his Twitter page, he also shows the outstanding picture clarity and light adjustment facilities in this picture of the historic Central Park, once again in the Big Apple City-in-the-North-Eastern-United-States.

This colourful and magnificently detailed image captured by Billy’s Lumia 920 is simply impeccable. The depth of paint colour and textile come to light brilliantly – you’d almost want to put your face in it.

Wasim from the T3CH Boys welcomes the Lumia 920′s ‘really good’ feel in your hands, the ‘nice’ ability to customise the tile sizes and approves the ‘smooth’ running Internet Explorer 10 service. 

Watch this video on YouTube.

Impressed? I thought so. Have you taken a better image with your Nokia Lumia 920? Do you have a hands-on review of your own? Feel free to share your thoughts either here (or on Twitter).

[Image credit(s); Johnny W. Lam, Crystal Phuong & Billy]

If you’ve got an Xbox 360 and a Nokia Lumia, then downloading the Xbox SmartGlass app is a no-brainer. Xbox SmartGlass transforms your Nokia Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 into a controller for your Xbox, enabling you to interact with movie, music, and games content – right from your much loved smartphone. 

Xbox SmartGlass is all about helping you to extend the entertainment experience of the Xbox 360, by placing the power of the Xbox in your hands.

This companion enables you to delve into Xbox Music, Xbox Videos and Bing search, as well as browsing the Internet without having to touch your standard console controller. Connecting to your Xbox 360 much like your wireless controller does, there are no cables to entangle the experience.

To start with, the Xbox SmartGlass start screen displays what you’re currently doing on your Xbox 360 – just as a reminder, I guess. But beneath that, you’re presented with a list of things that you did on your Xbox – played a game or used Internet Explorer, for example. If you’re looking to interact, or play with one of those again, just tap the relevant icon. Otherwise, sliding the screen to the left or right will open up more options.

The discover panel presents you with a selection of featured movies, music and games titles. Selecting any one of these will allow you to dig deeper into the title, showing you details of the item.

If you’ve selected a game, you’ll be able to see if any of your (Xbox LIVE) friends have played the game, along with any achievements that are up for grabs. If it’s a downloadable game, you can then choose to download it to your console there and then.

Selecting a movie will bring up the synopsis, details on the cast and crew – of which are clickable, to show you other films they’ve starred in – and a related item section. There’s also a SmartGlass panel that contains a Video Guide. This guide displays information about a film as you’re watching it, springing to life when actors appear on screen, providing you with their filmography. Ultimately, it delivers a richer experience.

The SmartGlass panel also exists in any music title you’ve stumbled upon, but this contains the Xbox Music Experience. Much like the Video Guide above, it allows you to learn more about the artist that you’re listening to.

Offering tracks, games, or movies in the form of featured content is all well and good, but chances are you’ll want to search for something manually. Slide across again and you’ll reach the Bing search panel.

The great thing about this search function is that you can search by either the song/game/movie title, or by your favourite actor or singer. What you’ll be presented with is a long list of media items, all relating to what you typed in. Some may be songs, others may be games or films; just scroll down to discover new titles or find what it was you were looking for.

Xbox SmartGlass also acts as a trackpad when you’re using the new Internet Explorer that was added in this autumn’s dashboard update.

With Internet Explorer open on your Xbox, sliding your finger across your phone’s screen moves the cursor in exactly the same way on your Xbox – your finger becomes the cursor. Navigating the cursor to the address bar at the top will allow you to enter a URL, and to make things as simple as possible, Xbox SmartGlass launches a keyboard on your phone to allow you to enter in a URL from your Nokia Lumia.

When it comes to clicking on items or links, tap your phone screen to make that happen and zooming into webpages is possible by placing two fingers on the phone screen and pinching together – reverse that to zoom out.

What if you’re browsing the web on your Xbox and have to leave the house? Take that web page with you on your Nokia Lumia. Tap the icon at the bottom that resembles a phone with an arrow pointing to the screen and the webpage you were just looking at on the Xbox will be transferred over to your phone. You can now carry on where you left off, away from your Xbox and on your phone while you hop on a bus.

Xbox SmartGlass is free to download from the Windows Phone Store, so make sure you grab it today.

Do you use an Xbox 360 and Xbox SmartGlass? If so, tell us your experiences with it, using the comments section below.

Near Field Communication – or NFC as it’s commonly known – is a technology that’s been growing for a couple of years now. But what is it and why would you want to use it? 

What is NFC?

NFC is a short-range wireless technology that allows the exchange of data between devices. It only works with short distances of about four inches at the most, so you have to be very close to another NFC enabled device to transfer the data.

Looking back at Nokia’s NFC phone history, you can see that Nokia  has been active in trialling the use of NFC for a variety of use cases.

Here are some reasons to get excited about having NFC on your phone.

1. Leave your wallet at home. With the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, your smartphone has the ability to remember your credit/debit card details. At the moment, these details are stored in Wallet and can be referred to when you need to type in your card details, or also when making purchases from Windows Phone Store.

Additionally, the ability to tap your phone against an NFC-enabled point-of-sale terminal will be coming in the near future – you’ll then be able to ditch the real-world wallet for good and opt for a digital one.

2. If you’re out of town and staying in a hotel, your door keycard information could be stored on your phone, meaning you’ll never leave your hotel room again without the door key. While this isn’t immediately available, tests have already taken place in a chain of hotels by Nordic Choice Hotels showing that it’s a real possibility.

3. Use your phone as a pass for use on transport systems. Just swipe your phone across the NFC reader, like you do with already existing contactless travel cards. Contactless systems exist in the UK, Germany, China and all around the world.

4. Swapping business cards can be done virtually, easier and cheaper than it’s done now. Put two phones in close proximity with each other and let the phones do the transfer. You’ll never have to buy business cards again, as the data can be rewritten if needed when you change jobs, or change your number.

5. If you do a lot of browsing on your Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 and like to share those great webpages with your friends, you can now send and receive links via NFC.

When you’re on a website, selecting the More option will open up a few options. Select Share Page and then Tap+Send to start the link transfer when you’re phone is held against another NFC-enabled phone, or NFC-enabled Windows 8 PC.

6. Your loyalty is important for businesses and they usually offer a discount for returning customers.

In the future, loyalty cards could be thrown out and your details held on your phone. Buy those shoes you’ve had your eye on with a swipe of your phone. The store will also recognise your loyalty and give the discount.

7. Location aware apps could make use of this technology too. For example, users of Foursquare have to load up the app, find the location, and press the check-in button to check-in. However, there’s no reason that this can’t all be done using NFC.

Hold your phone to an NFC reader and let the system tell all your friends where you are.

Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820

Our first Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

Be a part of it.

8. Sending photos or videos to your friends or family is now made really simple, by using the Tap+Send feature on your Lumia 920 or Lumia 820. Selecting the Tap+Send option within an image or video will start the process – tapping your phone against another NFC-enabled phone will complete it.

That’s just eight ways NFC could be useful to you when you go about your daily routine. But I’m sure there are more ways to use this technology that we’ve not thought of. NFC is going to make lots of things much easier, leaving you with more time to do other, more important things.

How would you like to see NFC used? Will you be using NFC? Let us know your thoughts and ideas, in the comments box below.

Image credit: StockMonkeys.com

One thing we love about our Nokia Lumias are how they help make everyday an adventure, whether it’s recording a buddy’s skateboard moves or directing us to the best surf. Sometimes though adventuring require some inspiration. What better way to find it than to check out amazing movies of real life daredevils. Trust us, these films will make you restless, excited and ready for something other than tea and sleepy TV time. Hold onto your hats!

Touching the void (2003)

This truly is a film about the strength of the human spirit. Adventure = daring = dangerous but for some people, it doesn’t stop their drive to conquer and explore. Watch a man fall from the Siula Grande Mountain in Peru and then against all the odds, spend four days crawling back to base camp – to understand how far you can push yourself. Joe Simpson admitted to uttering a few Hail Marys: ‘25, fit, strong, ambitious, crippled and stuck in a place I was going to die.’ Amazing stuff.

Flying over Everest (2004)

 30,000 feet up in the air! In a hang glider! Over Everest, the highest mountain summit in the world! The ‘human condor’ Angelo d’Arrigo took with him two Himalayan eagles he was releasing back into the wild. He was towed by a microlight. Everest climbers saw an amazing sight. Was it a man or bird hovering above them? ‘There is only one way to live with birds,’ said d’Arrigo. ‘They have to believe you are a bird, too!’ I think he achieved that. Sadly he died in 2010 – but he left quite a legacy.

Riding Giants (2004)

 Director Stacy Peralta was an insider – a real surf obsessive. He made a detailed film about the history of the sport, with amazing visuals and attention to detail. Great names appeared from decades of surfing legend, like Greg Noll and Laird John Hamilton. Why should you see this film? As Peralta says: ‘There’s life and death, discovery, and adventure.’ Noll talked about ‘…the ferocity, if it’s under control. I’m talking about sunset at 15 feet or something like that…sometimes you’re under the water and it’s just beautiful-the bubbles, and it’s like a waterfall…’ Convinced?

Man on a wire (2008)

Walking across the Twin Towers in New York in 1974 without a harness, on a tightrope shot across with a bow and arrow? It made sense to one man. ‘If I die, what a beautiful death,’ uttered Philippe Petit. That gives you some idea of the lyricism of the whole concept. Not one to be tried at home, obviously. But why not do something that makes your heart do the rhumba? Petit said that he was never afraid but ‘…felt an immense elation…that I was actually venturing in another world.’ You will too.

Revolution (2012)

 Four years in the making. Travelling to 15 countries. I defy you not to be inspired by the sheer passion of young conservationist filmmaker Rob Stewart. Biologist, photographer and a man on a mission: ‘I ended up making this movie by setting off across the world, with just my camera.’ He wanted to show the world – a beautiful world – and the danger it faces. Without preaching or depressing the viewer. Instead, we get astonishing cuttlefish that he followed in Malaysia for three weeks. Or his most-loved creature in the world, Hammerhead sharks. Awesome.

These are the five that get our blood racing most, but what about yours? Let us know in the comments below.

Image credit: aspearing

The feature that I have been playing with the most since I was lucky enough to get my Nokia Lumia 820 has been the Cinemagraph app.

This cool ‘lens’ application that Nokia has created allows you to add some movement to your still images. Movement in still images… Sounds paradoxical right?

Cinemagraph is a fantastic app that is sure to provide you and your friends with hours and hours of fun. It’s easy to use but it also rewards creativity, and with some patience and practice you are sure to produce genuinely stunning results!

We have already given you some examples of GIFs to inspire you and show you what’s possible. Now, with this simple guide to using Cinemagraph, it’s your turn to get artistic.

Launch

Starting Cinemagraph on your Nokia Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 can be as simple as launching the app shortcut, but did you know that there’s another way of doing it?

You can also launch Cinemagraph when you’re already using your smartphone’s camera. 

At the bottom of the camera’s viewfinder on your screen you’ll see the icon with two horizontal arrows pointing in opposite directions. 

This is the lenses button that will let you select further features for your camera. Cinemagraph is just one; other great camera features are the Smart Shoot and Panorama lenses. 

No prizes for guessing that to launch Cinemagraph from here, you just tap on the Cinemagraph icon.

Taking Cinemagraphs

The first thing you will see on Cinemagraph is what looks like a regular camera viewfinder. You will see some guidance along the top that reads ‘take picture, holding phone steady’.

Just take a photo as you normally would but it is very important that you hold the phone very still all the way until the full image has been captured.

You’ll see a circle in the middle of the screen while the app processes the image. It’ll only take 3-4 seconds. 

Some things worth keeping in mind. When creating a Cinemagraph, I always find it useful to have an idea in my mind, which part of the photo that I want to animate. 

So try to visualise what (you hope!) your Cinemagraph will look like. You want some movement, so I’ve found that running taps and passing cars are good subject matters for you to get acquainted with the app.

Adding the animation

You’ll first be asked to ‘pick areas to animate’ – these are the places in your photo where the app has detected movement. Most of the time, this should be pretty obvious. For example in the photo below, a little square appeared where the water flows out of the tap. 

Tapping this square turns it orange and the app will show you a preview of the animation. If you’re happy with what you see press the tick at the bottom of the screen. 

Next is the edit screen, which gives you greater control of the animation. There are two key areas here: 

• Looping: Changing the speed at which the Cinemagraph plays itself
• Increasing and decreasing the animation with simple rubbing gestures

To toggle between increasing and decreasing the animation just tap on the paintbrush icon. 

To adjust the looping, tap on the icon and a timeline will appear. Just scrub up and down until you’re happy with the speed and length of the loop.

When you’re happy with everything (often I found that I didn’t need to make any adjustments at all) just press save. A copy will then be saved in the Camera Roll on your Photos.

Have you made any fun Cinemagraphs yet? Let us know how you’ve been getting on in the comments below.

*If the Cinemagraph images at the top and bottom of this page are not loading properly in your browser, then try clicking through on each image.

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