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As if you need any more motivation to ditch whatever phone you are using right now and switch to the Nokia Lumia 820, Abbi gives her reasons to choose the ‘smartphone chameleon’.

The review is liberally spread with phrases like ‘great functionality with some serious style’ so it’s a fair assumption to say she’s a fan of the phone. Focussing on the looks of the phone and the interchangeable coloured covers, Abbi phrases it neatly, saying you can

‘change the look of your mobile as often as you change your pants’

Stuart Miles adds his own take on the Lumia 820 in what one commenter calls the ‘best review’ of the phone. Stuart thinks it ‘takes its own style and approach’, and that the Lumia 820 is ‘a phone you’ll enjoy using’. There’s much more (including a great gallery), covering everything from the camera to wireless charging, so head over and give it a read.

Once you’ve read both posts, let us know what you think of the Nokia Lumia 820 by sharing your thoughts in a comment below, or on Twitter.

Listening to the radio feels intimate and personal in a way that’s difficult to replicate when you are watching TV. Unless, of course, you’re only listening to some pop or dance music station while you are doing the washing up. 

But isn’t that variety part of radio’s magic? You might be listening to a heart-rending eulogy one minute and then a live sports commentary the next.

Another advantage that radio has traditionally enjoyed over TV is that it’s genuinely portable. Portability certainly lies at the heart of the Nokia Internet Radio app for Series 40 devices.

This great app, which is free to download from the Nokia Store, streams hundreds of radio stations from around the world direct to your mobile phone.

It is one of my favourite apps on my Nokia Asha 311, where it uses the WiFi connection so that it is not using any of my precious data allowance.

Finding the stations

Using Nokia Internet Radio is extremely easy and once you are familiar with how it works then you can also set up quick access to your favourite stations. 

To start you will need to select a station to listen to. As you might imagine, there are hundreds of radio stations being streamed online all over the world, so Nokia Internet Radio has created a directory to help you find what you are looking for.

Select the three horizontal lines icon in the top left corner to open the app’s menu and tap on Station Directory. 

The directory itself is further divided into these categories: 

• Genres
• Languages
• Countries and Regions 

There is also a search option if you happen to know the name of the station that you wish to listen to. 

For example, if you want to discover which jazz music stations are available then you would select, Genre and scroll down to Jazz.

Selecting this folder will present you with a list of all jazz stations  – as a matter of fact there happens to be 707 jazz stations listed in the directory. Pressing on any of these stations will start the stream and you can listen to your heart’s content.

As I am writing this, I happen to have 4U Smooth Jazz, a French station, playing on my Asha 311’s fantastic external speaker. That’s not a station I could have picked up with my old analogue radio!

The player 

At any time you can return from the directory to the ‘player’. You do this by again selecting the option in the menu button (or by pressing the back button in the bottom right).

The player gives you further controls such as adjusting the volume, selecting the next station in the directory, or previous station and, where it’s available, the name of the song that is being played will even scroll across your screen.

One thing that may not be immediately obvious is that you can tap on the name of the station in the player and this will give you further information about it.

Saving favourites

Having such a vast directory is fantastic but it can also make navigating through them all rather time consuming.

Thankfully, once you’ve found the station you’re after, or have stumbled upon something that you like, it can be easily saved as a favourite for quick access in the future.

You can do this for any station that is currently playing by bringing up the menu on the player screen and selecting ‘Add to favourites’.

From the menu list – if you select Favourites you will find all your selected stations. After a while you might have a lot of stations stored even in your favourites! However, there is an easy remedy to this problem – you can also create different folders within your favourites to keep them organised.

To create a folder, select the menu button when you are in your Favourites and you will see the ‘Add New Folder’ option appear. You can even name your folders.

Another of my favourite features is the ‘recently played’ list that you can select from the main menu.

This shows you all the songs (where the naming information is available) that you have been listening to across all the radio stations. It’s really handy if you want to get the name of a song.

One final great feature about Nokia Internet Radio is that it continues playing even when you have put the display to sleep and the phone is locked. A minor thing perhaps but it truly turns my Asha 311 into a true Internet Radio.

Nokia Internet Radio is available for a number of Series 40 devices, including Asha. Series 40 devices with a smaller screen than QVGA are not supported.

Od jutra zmieniamy ceny następujących modeli firmy Samsung: Samsung Galaxy Ace Samsung Wave III Samsung Galaxy Gio Cennik

Od jutra zmieniamy ceny następujących modeli firmy Samsung: Samsung Galaxy Ace Samsung Wave III Samsung Galaxy Gio Cennik

In the last ten years film-making has changed in a huge variety of ways. Budget-conscious filmmakers, for example, have shifted their attention away from costly 35mm and 16mm film stock towards cheaper digital alternatives. So, will we ever see a movie shot on a smartphone make it big? 

Lights, smartphone, action!

In 2002, Danny Boyle’s acclaimed 28 Days Later was famously shot mostly on DV with a Canon XL1 digital video, which was still seen then as a notably guerrilla approach. Now, though, the likes of DVCPRO, XDCAM, and even HD tapes have given way to even more extreme DIY in-your-pocket movie-making techniques, as smartphone manufacturers make mobiles with video cameras good enough to shoot actual films. But is that a good enough incentive for movie makers to use them?

Mobile movie magic

Apparently so. Plenty of movies have already been shot on mobile phones. The Commuter, for instance, a short film starring Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) and Pamela Anderson, was shot in 2010 on the streets of London and St Albans entirely on a Nokia N8.

In 2011, Old Boy director, Park Chan-wooks, made Paranmanjan (or Night Fishing) using an iPhone, and it won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival. Park said he enjoyed the medium because it meant a wide variety of angles and edits were possible as numerous cameras could be used. And back in 2005, South African director Aryan Kaganof made a film called SMS Sugar Man on a Sony Ericsson W900i. Old skool!

So – if the films are being made and achieving a certain amount of artistic acclaim and critical success at festivals, how about a mainstream blockbuster?

Distribution, distribution, distribution

Well, the problem isn’t with the films themselves; it’s with the distribution and how the films are viewed. If you want a blockbuster, it’s not enough to create a beautiful and entertaining story – you’ve got to get it into the movie theatres. In 2011, director Hooman Khallili, shot a feature-length flick called Olive. 

It was independently financed for under half a million bucks, and filmed, again, on a Nokia N8 (with the help of a custom-made 35mm lens, a helicopter and a motorcycle side-car). Unsurprisingly, it got a ton of media coverage. However, when Khallili asked for $300K from backers on fundraising site, Kickstarter, so he could get his work into mainstream venues, the funding bid failed. Now, he’s turning instead to alternative distribution methods, like video on demand.

Just a matter of time?

But while Khallili is now questioning the importance of cinematic release for art-house movies (which is a fair, but separate, point), the opening weekend ticket sales are definitely a necessity if you want a blockbuster. With the likes of Dolly Parton writing songs for him, and former Facebook exec, Chris Kelly, involved on the production side, Khallili isn’t exactly the lowest of low-profile, low-budget film-makers. So if he can’t convince the Hollywood execs, the future of the smartphone blockbuster might be less than secure.

We reckon it’s all about perception – when the studio bosses and the big financiers can accept that smartphone technology is a staple for today’s creative community, the floodgates will open. But until then, mobile filmmakers might have to stick to polishing their film-festival gongs.   

One of the key new features of our latest mobile phones, the Nokia Asha 205 and Nokia 206, is a new technology called Slam.

This cool addition is made for quick and easy photo sharing. You select ‘Slam’ from the sharing menu and the phone sniffs out the Bluetooth-enabled phone extremely close to you using a super-fast trick that takes around one second.

You see your friend’s phone, bring them close together and press ‘send’. They’re asked if they want the file and if they accept, it’s sent. If your friends’ phones are already Bluetooth-paired, it doesn’t ask anything.

But where did Slam come from?

Like so many other good things, the answer lies in Tampere, Finland. And, in this case, the space between the desks of colleagues Mika Kuulusa and Henrik Hakala.

“We’re cubicle partners and we’ve worked together on a number of projects,” says Mika. “Yeah, I’m a sort of a PowerPoint guy, whereas Henrik is the hard-core coder.”

Henrik (left) and Mika celebrate their invention’s arrival on Nokia phones.

It goes back to 2009. “We wanted to do something about sharing. The options seemed kind of clunky and old-fashioned. We wanted something cool and fast.”

“Henrik was messing about with Bluetooth code and I wanted to try something out. Henrik did one day of coding and bam – it worked – he’d sent me a file without all the usual send-search-wait-stop-select hassle.”

Mika explains that the technique uses Bluetooth at close proximity, where the signal is really strong. “Slamming something to someone is like an act of friendship. It’s almost ritualistic. Like the way business cards are passed over in the Far East. Or like handing someone a framed picture as a gift.”

Henrik reckons that the hardest part was coming up with the name. “We started off with ‘Bluetooth Direct’ and other engineerish expressions, but that didn’t sound right at all for something that was so cool to do. We finally chose – hey it’s… ‘Slam’ – about ten names later.”

“Bluetooth has developed a bit of a bad reputation. Some people find it tricky to set up and people still think it sucks all the juice out of your phone’s battery.

“The battery thing is not really true. But we want to think of Slam as ‘Bluetooth Rediscovered’: just shoot and it does the job!”

If there’s one thing we all like to do with our phones it is to snap a photo or two to capture the moment. A year ago a study showed that over a quarter of all photos are taken using smartphones, and a quarter of 3.5 billion snaps is a lot of snaps! That said, sometimes we all like to play with the results, and that’s where these apps come in.

Phototastic

Cost: Free in the Marketplace
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: Add filters, make collages

By far the best use of Phototastic that I have found so far is the ability to make a quick montage of a few snaps in your media library and publish directly to Facebook (Twitter and others require the app to be purchased). As Ewan says in his review on AllAboutWindowsPhone Phototastic

‘does something really artistic, but makes it simple’

…and I can’t disagree. The only thing I’d addis that it is worth spending a few extra seconds cropping and positioning a photo in the montage before publishing. My first effort was less than stellar. But that’s my fault, not the app. Ewan’s concluding sentence sums up te app very neatly

‘Definitely worth a look, especially if you are a big shutterbug looking to share photos in a unique way while staying mobile.’

What do you think?

Fhotoroom

Cost: Free in the Marketplace
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: Filter that Fhoto

Despite the questionable spelling throughout the app (don’t get me started), Fhotoroom has received a ‘quite significant’ update since first release, and as Thomas says in his wmpoweruser review, is now

‘clearly focused on enabling users to get better shots’

Which brings me to the crux of the matter – this app aims to allow a user to not only improve the photo once taken, but to improve the capture experience and make the process seamless from snap to share.

Lomogram

Cost: Free in the Marketplace
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: Insta-what?

All filters, all the time – Lomogram is, yes, the

‘next best thing to an actual instagram app’

(that comment from ‘Smiling’ in the review section for the app). In fact, the review on ibuymobile mentions that this app goes beyond just filters and introduces

‘a vast number of lighting effects that really change the mood of a photo’

So there you go. Instagram+.

Which photo manipulation apps do you prefer? Or do you like to share your snaps as you took them, without any filters or twiddles? I’d like to know (I’m curious as to the percentage who tweak compared to those who don’t), so let me know in the comments or on Twitter.

[Image credit: The Nokia Blog]

samstacle was a long time Nokia user who briefly went over to the Dark Side another OS, but now has his hands on the Nokia Lumia 900 and

‘yes! the lumia 900 helped me decide whether I’ll switch to Lumia or not’

Enough said….although he goes on to let his readers know just why the Nokia Lumia 900 was such an inviting prospect.

From the ‘simply gorgeous’ screen (which is ‘much nicer’ than the competitor’s – which broke easily) to the ‘exceptional’ build quality his review is packed with superlatives.

Despite initial fears about the Windows Phone OS, samstacle sums it up thusly:

‘freaking smooth, fast and with an absolute “zero lag”‘

So much did he like the phone, he dubbed it his ‘Dark Knight’ – with an accompanying logo to prove it.

There are many more thoughts, and for anybody thinking of switching, well worth a read. Have you been tempted elsewhere and want to come back to Nokia? Maybe a trial will help you make up your mind. Or you’ve made the step and want to share your experiences with others? Leave a comment or drop us a note on Twitter.

The amazing Nokia Lumia 822 is now for sale at Verizon Wireless stores throughout the United States. As sales kick off, it’s always fun to see what the tech writers and reviewers have to say about the phone.

The Lumia 822 comes to Verizon Wireless’ amazing and ubiquitous 4G LTE network and brings a stunning curved design backed by Nokia’s fantastic exclusive apps including Nokia Drive and Nokia Music.

What did reviewers have to say about the Lumia 822, let’s search the Web and find out…

Slashgear is known as being a geeks’ geek site – with well-written reviews that are analytical and informative.  Regarding the Lumia 822, Slashgear said:

“This device works with a body that’s not going to blast past the top smartphone tier as far as outright beauty goes, nor is it about to keep your iPhone 5 friends at bay with a more high-class feel. What it is going to do is offer you Windows Phone 8 in just about as perfect a combination of hardware and software as you’re going to see on the market today.”

Laptopmag spoke about Datasense, a Verizon Wireless and Nokia exclusive application for Windows Phone 8 that lets you monitor and limit your data usage:

“Two apps that are unique to Verizon’s Windows Phone 8 devices (so far) are Data Sense and Wallet. Data Sense lets you set limits on your own data usage and automatically compresses data-heavy information (such as pictures) as you approach your limit. The utility will also allow you to see how much data individual apps are using; for instance, when we set a 30MB limit for the day, NFL Mobile accounted for 17MB of usage. In our experience, the app did an excellent job ensuring that critical information, such as text, remains legible even as images became increasingly grainy. With only 2MB of data left in our daily limit, we could still clearly read articles on NYTimes.com.”

PCMag focused on the Lumia 822’s awesome blend of exclusive applications and snappy performance in their review:

“As before, Nokia developed some exclusive apps for Windows Phone 8, and they’re not your garden-variety bloatware. Nokia Drive delivers solid, turn-by-turn, voice-enabled GPS navigation, while Nokia Transit offers public transportation info, and Nokia Maps is a general workhorse app for finding things while on the go. The Lumia 822′s 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is an excellent performer, and turns in fast benchmark results and contributes to a zippy feel in day-to-day usage.”

Myriam Joire, Senior Mobile Editor at Engadget, keyed in on the Lumia’s design and the unique grey color option for Verizon Wireless customers:

“Build quality is solid, which is pretty much what you’d expect from Nokia. The phone will be available in three colors: black, white and our favorite, a stunning shade of grey. “

Speaking about the exclusive Nokia City Lens app, Techradar focuses on how useful this application is and how well the Lumia 822 performed while using it:

“Nokia City Lens is a fun combination of Yelp-style recommendations and augmented reality app. After choosing from various categories for nearby destinations like food, hotels or sights, holding the phone in portrait mode gives you a list of adjacent businesses. Turning the phone to landscape mode uses the camera to provide an AR view, guiding you to nearby locations. The 822 was quite snappy transitioning between the two modes. Just don’t walk into any walls while using it.” 

Have you picked up a Lumia 822 at Verizon yet?  What do you like most about it?

In the last ten years film-making has changed in a huge variety of ways. Budget-conscious filmmakers, for example, have shifted their attention away from costly 35mm and 16mm film stock towards cheaper digital alternatives. So, will we ever see a movie shot on a smartphone make it big? 

Lights, smartphone, action!

In 2002, Danny Boyle’s acclaimed 28 Days Later was famously shot mostly on DV with a Canon XL1 digital video, which was still seen then as a notably guerrilla approach. Now, though, the likes of DVCPRO, XDCAM, and even HD tapes have given way to even more extreme DIY in-your-pocket movie-making techniques, as smartphone manufacturers make mobiles with video cameras good enough to shoot actual films. But is that a good enough incentive for movie makers to use them?

Mobile movie magic

Apparently so. Plenty of movies have already been shot on mobile phones. The Commuter, for instance, a short film starring Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) and Pamela Anderson, was shot in 2010 on the streets of London and St Albans entirely on a Nokia N8.

In 2011, Old Boy director, Park Chan-wooks, made Paranmanjan (or Night Fishing) using an iPhone, and it won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival. Park said he enjoyed the medium because it meant a wide variety of angles and edits were possible as numerous cameras could be used. And back in 2005, South African director Aryan Kaganof made a film called SMS Sugar Man on a Sony Ericsson W900i. Old skool!

So – if the films are being made and achieving a certain amount of artistic acclaim and critical success at festivals, how about a mainstream blockbuster?

Distribution, distribution, distribution

Well, the problem isn’t with the films themselves; it’s with the distribution and how the films are viewed. If you want a blockbuster, it’s not enough to create a beautiful and entertaining story – you’ve got to get it into the movie theatres. In 2011, director Hooman Khallili, shot a feature-length flick called Olive. 

It was independently financed for under half a million bucks, and filmed, again, on a Nokia N8 (with the help of a custom-made 35mm lens, a helicopter and a motorcycle side-car). Unsurprisingly, it got a ton of media coverage. However, when Khallili asked for $300K from backers on fundraising site, Kickstarter, so he could get his work into mainstream venues, the funding bid failed. Now, he’s turning instead to alternative distribution methods, like video on demand.

Just a matter of time?

But while Khallili is now questioning the importance of cinematic release for art-house movies (which is a fair, but separate, point), the opening weekend ticket sales are definitely a necessity if you want a blockbuster. With the likes of Dolly Parton writing songs for him, and former Facebook exec, Chris Kelly, involved on the production side, Khallili isn’t exactly the lowest of low-profile, low-budget film-makers. So if he can’t convince the Hollywood execs, the future of the smartphone blockbuster might be less than secure.

We reckon it’s all about perception – when the studio bosses and the big financiers can accept that smartphone technology is a staple for today’s creative community, the floodgates will open. But until then, mobile filmmakers might have to stick to polishing their film-festival gongs.