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Sparky has been spending some time with the Nokia Lumia 900 (he took the #MyLumiaMoments pic above at dawn – look at the trees ‘on fire’) and it’s fair to say he’s a fan.

I saw his tweet first:

‘after trialling [the] #lumia900, I don’t ever want to leave the #lumia world. #switch as soon as I can.’

I then scooted to his thoughts on the phone, to see just what has got him so enthralled. Everything, it turns out. From the ‘great “pillow” design’ (which feels good to him even though it is glossy), to the fact that he no longer has to wait for a response from the Windows Phone OS (a frustration he has been experiencing with his current phone).

He’s also a fan of the camera, the fact that it’s a ‘quick shooter’ and he doesn’t have to worry about taking photos in low light conditions

‘something almost impossible on my Blackberry’

We caught up with Sparky, to ask him a few questions about the whole experience…

How was it that you discovered our Trial a Nokia programme?

I discovered the Lumia trial by accident, while on the conversations website after clicking through a link on Twitter.

On a daily basis, how does the Lumia compare to your current phone?

On a daily basis I find the phone just helps my day by being quicker. Compared to my Blackberry I can access information and messages just that much quicker. One of the biggest changes to my daily life has been Mix Radio replacing my Walkman to give me fresh music every day. It’s been a very useful feature.

You mentioned that if you #SwitchToLumia you’ll be able to be more creative every day. What do you have in mind and how will the Lumia help with it?

The general thing I’ve found with my Lumia is I can take ad-hoc shots. My photography falls into two types; planned with my DSLR or quick snaps with my mobile. My mobile has been suffering though, as my Blackberry is too slow to take ad-hoc images. My biggest problem is once I press the button it can take up to a minute before it actually shows me what it’s taken. The Lumia doesn’t do that, it just shoots, and then I’m ready to move on.

What have been the highlights of your trial so far, have you turned many heads or photographed a funny moment?

I did manage to turn quite a few heads the first time I used City Lens while going to a new station on foot. Along with Nokia Maps, I found it easily, but thought I’d give it a go and see what it came up with. The passengers on the bus were just as curious of why I was holding my phone like that, while it was raining!

After having my Lumia for two weeks, I’m not looking forward to using my Blackberry again, but hopefully within a couple of weeks, I’ll have the Lumia 920!

Thanks for talking to us Sparky!

What’s your #SwitchToLumia story, have you already made the jump, if so, what did you come from? Or are you still thinking about it? If you are, let us know in the comments section or on Twitter.

The Reinstaller app for Nokia Lumia is a great way to reinstall apps from one Windows Phone to another – perfect if you’ve just purchased the new Nokia Lumia 920 or Nokia Lumia 820. We spent some time with the developer, Ashish Sahu, to find out more about the app.

For anybody that’s used Reinstaller, you’ll realise that it’s a genius idea that makes moving to a new Windows Phone a doddle. How did Ashish come up with the idea?

He explains:

“I came up with the idea because my Windows Phone at the time (last year) stopped working. After I got it working again, my phone was fully reset, but clear of all my apps and data. I thought there must be a way to get it back without going through the process of searching the Windows Phone Store. After a little research I found that scraping the Windows Phone Store was possible, so I created an app that did exactly that.”

Mostly, Ashish has worked on this app alone, receiving support from colleagues to make sure he was heading in the right direction.

Written in C#, he tells us that anybody else who wants to create an app can do it. All you need is a good idea and the passion to make something.

However, there were some problems.

“Scrapping the app information from the windowsphone.com website wasn’t easy but the most difficult part to come up with was the flow of the app. I went to the whiteboard to think and decide the best experience I can provide to the users with the existing limitations.”

While Reinstaller is great for searching the Windows Phone Store for you, it does have some limitations. You still need to install the apps or games manually.

“The APIs that are currently available don’t permit that kind of automation. However, using the Web install links can perhaps make it easier than it is currently. I am planning to look at it soon.”

Naturally, this kind of app is only useful if you’re upgrading from one Windows Phone to another. But how does this kind of app help people make the transition to the latest version of Windows Phone 8, such as the the flagship Windows Phone 8 smartphones, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820?

“Windows Phone 8 has its own backup and restore functionality, but that only works going forwards – Windows Phone 8 and above. Reinstaller will be useful if you are upgrading from Windows Phone 7.5 device to Windows Phone 8 to get all your apps up and running.”

What’s next for Reinstaller, are there any updates coming?

“I plan to implement some new functionalities in the Reinstaller app based on the user feedback. I will also update some of my existing apps to Windows Phone 8 to take advantage of the new functionalities and capabilities of Windows Phone 8 – the Toggle app comes in mind before anything else.”

And what about after Reinstaller?

“Yes, I’ve got some app ideas for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. More so because most of the code can be used without much modification and also to cater to a much bigger user base that I’m sure the new Microsoft ecosystem will gather in the coming months.”

Reinstaller app for Windows Phone can be found from the Windows Phone Store, for free – download it today.

Are you planning on installing Reinstaller when you purchase your new Nokia Lumia 920 or Nokia Lumia 820? Let us know, below.

We’ve put the Nokia Lumia 900 in the hands of Jacob Spera as part of Nokia Connects:Go. Jacob likes to off-road. Not in a 4×4, not on a motorbike, but on a…unicycle. Yeah, his one wheel beats anything I could do on two, or even four!

We caught up with Jacob to ask him some burning questions:

Jacob…having seen your videos (link), we wanted to know….why? Why a unicycle?

I started unicycling about eight years ago when I saw my friend ride a unicycle to the bus stop. It looked like something that was very interesting and challenging. it took me a week to learn how to ride and since then I have just been hooked by it because there are so many things you can do on them. The idea of “extreme” unicycling is pretty new so there are a lot of things that people have not done so you get to see what is possible and what isn’t. I enjoy that aspect about unicycling and that is why I enjoy riding them so much.

What’s the biggest challenge about off-roading on one wheel?

The toughest challenge about unicycling in general is that they are a fixed gear, meaning that when the wheel is spinning backwards or forwards the cranks are always rotating. This means that you can go as fast as you can pedal. The biggest challenge with off-road unicycling, AKA muni (mountain unicycling), is the fact that you are balancing on one wheel. The terrain is always changing beneath you, so you always have to be ready for radical balance changes at anytime.

What’s been your biggest wipeout/injury to date?

I have had a few bad injuries over the years but the worst one so far kept me from riding for a few months. The cartilage in my ankle started to build up scar tissue on it and this has caused chronic inflammation. I have also a slipped disk in my back, this one isn’t so bad because I don’t feel it in a painful way. The most entertaining fall I have had was when I was grinding a handrail and I slipped off and landed on the rail with my [edited]. This caused some bleeding and a doctors to work saying that I couldn’t walk for a few days.

What are you planning with the Lumia 900 you’re trialling?Any new tricks to debut?

With the Lumia 900 I plan on filming some long technical downhill lines.

Now you’ve spent a couple of days with phone, are you planning to use a Nokia Lumia as your full time phone?

I would love to use the Lumia as my full time phone! This is the first smart phone I have used and I am amazed with all the features it has. It would be perfect for college right now, you have the internet at your fingertips and endless other features to help you with your everyday life. The camera on the phone is really cool to! I enjoy taking pictures and with my current “flip phone” pictures are lacking that high quality feel.

Keep your eyes open for more from Jacob, especially on his YouTube channel where you’ll see the first videos from his Lumia 900 soon. What would you do with a Nokia Lumia if you got your hands on one? Let us know and you could be part of Nokia Connects: Go soon.

When it comes to the latest fashion trends and styles, I’m not the go-to guy. I stick to what I know works for me. If, however, you’re a little more adventurous and like to change your image every season, in line with the latest celebs, then the Vogue app is a must-have accessory to your Nokia Lumia.

When you think of Vogue, images of red carpets, models, celebrities, glitz and glamour spring to mind. That’s exactly what this app delivers to your Nokia Lumia smartphone. It puts the Hollywood lifestyle in the palm of your hand.

Split into three parts, the Vogue app covers Daily News, People & Parties, and Twitter. As with the most Windows Phone apps, these sections are discovered by swiping your finger or thumb from left to right on the screen.

The Daily News segment of this app brings you various fashion news from all over the world; from the latest vocal gaffe from Karl Lagerfeld, to Grace Coddington‘s first nude model photoshoot. Both of which are truly fascinating reads. Naturally, this is updated daily.

If you want to share the news with any of your friends, hitting the share icon at the bottom will enable you to do just that – via Facebook, Twitter or email.

Once you’ve got your news fix, it’s time to pop over to the People & Parties section to see who wore what and at what event. The events are organised into groups, such as Best Dressed of the Week – 26/10/12, or Bond Girls Retrospective. Within these groups you’ll find an endless stream of photos, each with a caption describing what you’re looking at.

The final part of this Vogue app is the Twitter section. As you’d probably expect from the name, it’s a connection directly to the @BritishVogue‘s Twitter channel. From here, you can see join in the conversations with people that have similar interests, and with Vogue itself.

Vogue is available on the Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900, and doesn’t cost a penny – it’s free.

Are you into the latest fashion trends, or celeb news? Give Vogue a try and let us know what you think of it, in the comments below.

Not all smartphone cameras are created equal. Being able to capture an image is now commonplace but results vary in many respects. Nokia is optimizing quality by using industry leading Carl Zeiss optics and bringing innovation to market, like the amazing optical image stabilization for low light and less blurry pictures. But there is more to it than that. 

Download the Cinemagraph app

1. Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
2. Scan the QR code
3. Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
4. Install the application from the Windows Phone Marketplace

We can also change the way in which you capture memories. We’re talking about ‘re-capturing’ moments. Your photos can contain so much information that you can go back and re-capture the moment exactly as it happened. There are amazing software based capabilities we can build into Nokia phones as well. We started by releasing Camera Extras for Nokia Lumia 900. With the Lumia 820 and Lumia 920, we have taken the concept of Camera Extras to a whole new level.

Digital camera lenses unlock new functionality

Digital camera lenses, coming to the Nokia Lumia 820 and Lumia 920, are a new way of snapping and building outstanding images, right on your phone. By selecting a different camera lens from camera viewfinder, you can unleash your creativity.  Choosing from a range of camera lenses in the so-called lens picker, you can create panoramic photos as well as cinemagraphs and smart shots. 

Smart Shoot

Using innovations from our own photography wizards, Smart Shoot lens allows you to do two key functions – change faces and remove unwanted objects.

There’s nothing worse than taking a group photo with friends and realizing that out of the three people in the frame, one had her eyes shut when the camera snapped the photo or that one person was looking slightly off to the left.

When you take a photo using Smart Shoot, you’re actually taking a sequence of photos. You can then flick through the photos, choose the best faces and then combine them to create the perfect group shot.

After you’re done, you end up with a photo that shows everyone’s best face forward:

“Smart Shoot allows you to capture the moment as you would like to remember it”, says Erkko Anttila, the product owner.

Secondly, Smart Shoot allows you to take away moving, un-wanted objects in your photos such as a passerby or person on the perimeter of the shot that spoils the photo. 

With this object removal feature, you can select the best shot and precise moment from a range of alternatives. Smart Shoot automatically suggests objects to be removed from the image and all you need to do is confirm the removal to create the perfect shot.

Live in the moment with Cinemagraph

You’ve likely seen animated photos on the Internet – a single photo that has motion and can show a sequence of photos in succession. Cinemagraph will allow Lumia owners to create a magical blend of photo and movie-like animation, creating photos that are alive with feeling through imagery.

Moving examples (the picture above depends on what browser you use) here and here. They are 3-4MB each, so give them time to properly load.

“We want to enable Lumia owners to create images as they exist in your memories and also add a bit of humor to images.  We can’t wait to see how users get creative with Cinemagraph”, Erkko said.

Once selected from the camera menu, Cinemagraph lets you snap a photo and generate 15 frame-per-second file. The Cinemagraph gives on-screen step-by-step instructions to get you started and even allows you to fine tune and optimize your photo – such as choosing which parts of the photo you want to be animated.

Once you are happy with your Cinemagraph, you can upload it to SkyDrive and share it with your friends. Nokia is also working on an update that will soon allow you to share your Cinemagraph animations easily on Facebook and other social networking sites.

Nokia is building these apps to further enhance the photo capabilities of the Lumia 820 and Lumia 920. Coupled with the hardware capabilities of the new Nokia Lumia phones, it’s amazing to see these software solutions that set the Lumia apart from the competition out there. 

It’s one more thing that makes your Nokia Lumia unique. 

What’s your dream lens  – how do you plan on using it?

[Disclaimer: the pictures above were created with pre-release software and hardware. Results on the production versions should be even better. ]

image credit (home page slider): wwarby

On September 5^th, Nokia introduced the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820.  These phones are available globally in a matter of weeks and will be available on AT&T in the US. In addition, Nokia also announced the Nokia Lumia 810 for T-Mobile USA and the Nokia Lumia 822 for Verizon Wireless.

We’ve received a lot questions about the differences between the 810, 820 and 822 on Twitter and Facebook, and with this post we will help classify each phone and answer questions for all of you out there.

The quick specifications overview

We’re going into more detail on each device later in this post but for those of you in a hurry here’s a quick overview of the main differences:

The Lumia 820 is available on AT&T’s fast 4G LTE network, and comes with eight gigabytes of storage, a 1,650 mAH battery and interchangeable shells in five different colors. The front-camera provides a VGA resolution of 640×480 pixels.

The Lumia 822 is made for Verizon’s vast 4G LTE network, comes with 16 gigabytes of storage and a 1800 mAh battery. Here we’ve got interchangeable shells in grey, black and white, and the front-facing camera is HD-capable, offering a resolution of 1280×960 pixels.

And last, but not least, we’ve got the Lumia 810 on T-Mobile’s 4G HSPA+ network with support for up to 42 Mbps download speeds. It comes with eight gigabytes of internal storage, a 1800 mAh battery and interchangeable shells in cyan and black. The front-facing camera on this Lumia also supports HD-resolution for clear and crisp video calls. 

Now, let’s get dive into the details of each device:

Nokia Lumia 820

The Lumia 820 will be available for AT&T alongside the Lumia 920. The Lumia 820 will support AT&T’s super fast 4G LTE network for amazing call quality and super fast data transfers.

Beating inside the Lumia 820 is a fast 1.5 GHz dual-core SnapDragon S4 processor and the phone features a 4.3” OLED Clear Black Display with 800×480 pixels. With winter coming, Lumia 820 owners will be happy to know that the phone comes with a super sensitive touch display, meaning you can use your phone with gloves on.

Speaking of internals, the Lumia 820 will also have one gigabyte of memory, eight gigabytes of storage and will support MicroSD cards up to 64 gigabytes. The battery is removable and offers 1,650 mAh on a full charge. 

For those wanting to snap amazing images, the Lumia 820 has an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and Carl Zeiss Optics. The front facing camera, used for self-portrait shots and video calls is VGA quality at 640×480 pixels. 

Helping pair with accessories and for mobile payments, the Lumia 820 has secure NFC built in. Also – for those wanting to accessorize the Lumia 820 there are changeable shells in five colors, and some come with built-in wireless charging capability. 

Nokia Lumia 822

Perfect for the super fast and ubiquitous Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network, the Nokia Lumia 822 has some similarities to the Lumia 820.

The Lumia 822 comes in white, black and grey, has the same 1.5 GHz SnapDragon S4 processor, and a 4.3” OLED Clear Black display with super sensitive touch capability.

The removable battery on the Lumia 822 gives you a full 1800 mAh, and the interchangeable shells include support for wireless charging.

The Lumia 822 has more storage than the Lumia 820 as it has 16 gigabytes of internal storage accompanied by one gigabyte of memory. You also get a MicroSD slot for up to 64 gigabytes of removable memory.

For snapping photos and shooting video, the 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens can also shoot HD video. If you’re a fan of video calls, you’ll be happy to know that the Verizon bound Lumia 822 has a 720p HD front facing camera for crystal clear video calls.

Nokia Lumia 810

Coming on November 14^th to T-Mobile USA is the Nokia Lumia 810 which supports T-Mobile’s amazingly fast 4G HSPA+ network that is sure to impress with its speed and reach.

Like the Lumia 822 and 820, the Lumia 810 has a 1.5 GHz dual-core SnapDragon S4 processor and a 4.3” OLED Clear Black display with super sensitive touch.

The Lumia 810’s battery is removable, offering 1800 mAh on a full charge. 

The Lumia 810 comes with one gigabyte of memory and eight gigabytes of internal storage. Like its cousins, the Lumia 810 supports MicroSD cards, providing support for up to 64 gigabytes of removable memory, meaning you should never run out of space while shooting video or snapping photos.

Speaking of imaging, the Lumia 810 has a fantastic 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting HD video. For the front facing camera, Skype users will love the 720p HD-resolution for great video call quality and crisp self-portrait still images. 

The Lumia 810 supports wireless charging with interchangble shells in black and cyan.

And as with the other phones, the Lumia 810 has secure NFC on board for easy pairing with accessories and wireless payments.

We hope this answers your questions about the Nokia Lumia variants for the USA – which phone will you be picking up this fall?

Sparky has been spending some time with the Nokia Lumia 900 (he took the #MyLumiaMoments pic above at dawn – look at the trees ‘on fire’) and it’s fair to say he’s a fan.

I saw his tweet first:

‘after trialling [the] #lumia900, I don’t ever want to leave the #lumia world. #switch as soon as I can.’

I then scooted to his thoughts on the phone, to see just what has got him so enthralled. Everything, it turns out. From the ‘great “pillow” design’ (which feels good to him even though it is glossy), to the fact that he no longer has to wait for a response from the Windows Phone OS (a frustration he has been experiencing with his current phone).

He’s also a fan of the camera, the fact that it’s a ‘quick shooter’ and he doesn’t have to worry about taking photos in low light conditions

‘something almost impossible on my Blackberry’

We caught up with Sparky, to ask him a few questions about the whole experience…

How was it that you discovered our Trial a Nokia programme?

I discovered the Lumia trial by accident, while on the conversations website after clicking through a link on Twitter.

On a daily basis, how does the Lumia compare to your current phone?

On a daily basis I find the phone just helps my day by being quicker. Compared to my Blackberry I can access information and messages just that much quicker. One of the biggest changes to my daily life has been Mix Radio replacing my Walkman to give me fresh music every day. It’s been a very useful feature.

You mentioned that if you #SwitchToLumia you’ll be able to be more creative every day. What do you have in mind and how will the Lumia help with it?

The general thing I’ve found with my Lumia is I can take ad-hoc shots. My photography falls into two types; planned with my DSLR or quick snaps with my mobile. My mobile has been suffering though, as my Blackberry is too slow to take ad-hoc images. My biggest problem is once I press the button it can take up to a minute before it actually shows me what it’s taken. The Lumia doesn’t do that, it just shoots, and then I’m ready to move on.

What have been the highlights of your trial so far, have you turned many heads or photographed a funny moment?

I did manage to turn quite a few heads the first time I used City Lens while going to a new station on foot. Along with Nokia Maps, I found it easily, but thought I’d give it a go and see what it came up with. The passengers on the bus were just as curious of why I was holding my phone like that, while it was raining!

After having my Lumia for two weeks, I’m not looking forward to using my Blackberry again, but hopefully within a couple of weeks, I’ll have the Lumia 920!

Thanks for talking to us Sparky!

What’s your #SwitchToLumia story, have you already made the jump, if so, what did you come from? Or are you still thinking about it? If you are, let us know in the comments section or on Twitter.

The humble emoticon has gone through an amazing transformation during the past few decades, initially being used in universities, becoming popular with teenagers on phones and finally making it into the mainstream. From work, to schools, to websites and social media, the little faces of joy appear to be everywhere, but how did it all happen?

It’s easy to associate emoticons with mobile phones, but they were actually in use long before phones became popular. Research Professor Scott Fahlman was the first person to suggest using characters arranged as a sideways face to express emotions.

Scott proposed the use of a series of markers for online bulletin boards at Carnegie Mellon University during the early 1980s. With sarcasm and humour often proving difficult to detect in text, Scott wanted to explicitly mark posts that were light hearted, resulting in for humorous posts, and for posts that were meant to be taken seriously.

An explosion in emoticons

Scott explains on his website: “Within a few months, we started seeing the lists with dozens of “smilies”: open-mouthed surprise, person wearing glasses, Abraham Lincoln, Santa Claus, the pope, and so on.”

The smilies spread to other universities, and within a couple of years other cultures were also starting to embrace emoticons. People in Japan started to use characters to emphasize emotions during the mid 1980s. Their emoticons differed a lot, with (^_^) replacing , and faces always appearing upright. China and South Korea have since adopted their own styles, with a number of hybrid variations appearing around the world.

Emoticons have become especially popular with younger people on their mobile phones during the past decade; keeping messages quick, short and sweet. Even popular handsets like the Nokia 5110 could only offer monochrome displays, low pixel counts and simple support for text and characters during the 90s, however.

Better screens and actual smiley faces

By the start of the next century, mobile phones like the Nokia 6100 were already sporting more advanced screens, boasting a far higher pixel count to go hand in hand with the introduction of colour. As with computers, it was only a matter of time before pictorial representations were introduced, with genuine smiling faces, frowning faces and other emoticons now a possibility.

Japanese culture has been influential in the rise of images in place of characters, with ‘Emoji’ (‘picture, in Japanese’) resulting in a whole subset of different icons and tiny pictures, including everything from small penguins to sharks and other animals.

Although designed for Japanese mobile phones, Emoji has proved surprisingly popular in Western countries as well, with the code required helping emoticons to appear in Windows Phone 7 devices like the Nokia Lumia 800, the iPhone and on Apple’s OS X operating system.

Becoming ever more popular, emoticons are on Internet forums – with a vast and seemingly infinite amount of different options available – and they’re also popping up on thousands of websites. Print, books and news publications appear to be the last bastion, but it seems like the future definitely involves little faces filled with emotion.

It’s the simple smiley face that still seems to be the most enduring, however. Not a day goes by where , :-/ or fails to make an appearance on Facebook and Twitter, and many of us are also being bombarded by tiny renderings in work emails.

Scott, in particular, has been surprised by just how many people want to express themselves with his series of characters. He told Conversations: “When I sent that message, I thought it might amuse the dozen or so people participating in the discussion, and that would be the end of it.  I didn’t even save a copy.”
 
The future

So what’s next for the emoticon? It’s hard to believe the has already been around for three decades, but for lots of us it definitely feels like a part of everyday life. We asked Scott what he thought would happen to his creation:

“The could die off, but after 30 years, I think it has become a part of our language – though admittedly a small and silly part. As long as people send text messages typed on a keyboard, I think there may be a place for . If all that goes away, and nobody communicates informally by written text, then of course the will go away as well, along with the exclamation mark and the comma.”

The Reinstaller app for Nokia Lumia is a great way to reinstall apps from one Windows Phone to another – perfect if you’ve just purchased the new Nokia Lumia 920 or Nokia Lumia 820. We spent some time with the developer, Ashish Sahu, to find out more about the app.

For anybody that’s used Reinstaller, you’ll realise that it’s a genius idea that makes moving to a new Windows Phone a doddle. How did Ashish come up with the idea?

He explains:

“I came up with the idea because my Windows Phone at the time (last year) stopped working. After I got it working again, my phone was fully reset, but clear of all my apps and data. I thought there must be a way to get it back without going through the process of searching the Windows Phone Store. After a little research I found that scraping the Windows Phone Store was possible, so I created an app that did exactly that.”

Mostly, Ashish has worked on this app alone, receiving support from colleagues to make sure he was heading in the right direction.

Written in C#, he tells us that anybody else who wants to create an app can do it. All you need is a good idea and the passion to make something.

However, there were some problems.

“Scrapping the app information from the windowsphone.com website wasn’t easy but the most difficult part to come up with was the flow of the app. I went to the whiteboard to think and decide the best experience I can provide to the users with the existing limitations.”

While Reinstaller is great for searching the Windows Phone Store for you, it does have some limitations. You still need to install the apps or games manually.

“The APIs that are currently available don’t permit that kind of automation. However, using the Web install links can perhaps make it easier than it is currently. I am planning to look at it soon.”

Naturally, this kind of app is only useful if you’re upgrading from one Windows Phone to another. But how does this kind of app help people make the transition to the latest version of Windows Phone 8, such as the the flagship Windows Phone 8 smartphones, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820?

“Windows Phone 8 has its own backup and restore functionality, but that only works going forwards – Windows Phone 8 and above. Reinstaller will be useful if you are upgrading from Windows Phone 7.5 device to Windows Phone 8 to get all your apps up and running.”

What’s next for Reinstaller, are there any updates coming?

“I plan to implement some new functionalities in the Reinstaller app based on the user feedback. I will also update some of my existing apps to Windows Phone 8 to take advantage of the new functionalities and capabilities of Windows Phone 8 – the Toggle app comes in mind before anything else.”

And what about after Reinstaller?

“Yes, I’ve got some app ideas for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. More so because most of the code can be used without much modification and also to cater to a much bigger user base that I’m sure the new Microsoft ecosystem will gather in the coming months.”

Reinstaller app for Windows Phone can be found from the Windows Phone Store, for free – download it today.

Are you planning on installing Reinstaller when you purchase your new Nokia Lumia 920 or Nokia Lumia 820? Let us know, below.

Our lives are so mediated by the web today that it’s hard to recall life in the pre-digital era. I faintly recall hearing URLs read out on the radio in the mid-nineties, and puzzling over whether I ought to spell out the word ‘dot’– but just try explaining that to the kids! This year the Web celebrates its 21st birthday. In honor of it finally growing up, we’ve taken a look at the story of its conception and the man who made it all happen, Tim Berners-Lee.

A computer genius family 

A Londoner by birth, and the son of a pair of computer geeks – Conway Berners-Lee and Mary Lee Woods, who themselves worked on the first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1 – Berners-Lee studied physics at Queen’s College, Oxford, in the late 1970s. While he was there, he built his own first computer using little other than a soldering iron, an M6800 processor, and an old television.

Enquiring mind

It all must have paid off, because in 1980, within four years of graduation, he was taken on as a contractor at CERN – the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva that’s more recently hit the news because of its Large Hadron Collider and investigations into the Higgs Boson particle. Well, CERN’s always been cutting-edge; while Berners-Lee was there, he kept himself busy writing a hypertext program called Enquire – a method for storing information using random associations – which was just for personal use, and never published, but which formed the conceptual basis for the behemoth we now call the World Wide Web.

“An act of desperation”

After a few years away – developing his networking skills by working on a real-time remote procedure calls project in Bournemouth, England – Berners-Lee came back to CERN on a fellowship, and this time, it went stellar. He took his earlier hypertext work and the existing nuts and bolts of the internet and jammed them together in what he called ‘an act of desperation’ to create a ‘larger documentation system’. Although the internet, in its most basic form, had been knocking around since the late 1960s Berners-Lee’s innovations now allowed any document to be linked to any other document.

It’s alive!

He wrote the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP ring any bells?) that made that possible, and he came up with HTML, the language in which hypertext pages were (and are) written. Voila: the Web! The first website went live in 1991. Sadly, there are no available screenshots of the original content, but here’s a scree shot taken from a NeXT computer running Tim Berners-Lee’s original World Wide Web browser.

Free and democratic

Berners-Lee – who’s now Sir Tim Berners-Lee – went on, in 1994, to form the Worldwide Web Consortium, or W3C, at MIT, in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, or CSAIL. This was set up to create standards and recommendations to improve everybody’s web experience. Berners-Lee made his idea, the web, freely available, with no royalties due, so that we can all easily use it, and today he’s co-director of the Open Data Institute. Smart and democratic – that’s what we like in an inventor!

The next 21 years?

In twenty one years, Berners- Lee’s creation has transformed our lives beyond belief, but what about the next couple of decades? While predicting the future is always a risky business, one thing we can say for certain is the web will be ever more mobile. In fact, according to Gartner, already in 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access devices worldwide. Pretty impressive for something that started off as a hobby.

Image credits: Silvio Tanaka