Przedstawiciel PLAY LUBLIN

In the last week, New York has played host to a couple of big events. They both starred some real beauties, they both wowed their audiences and they both got people breathless in anticipation. Ours finished after just a day. Now, the other, New York Fashion Week is drawing to a close, too. In homage to it, we’ve taken a closer look at the photographers who put fashion on the map.

Richard Avendon (1923-2004)

For many people, Richard Avedon is the absolute Godfather of fashion photography and the single biggest influence in the genre over the past 30 years.

Once likened to the ‘…white mechanical rabbit that all other photographers are trying to catch up with…’ Avedon spent over 40 years providing images for top clients including Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. His style and capability to move effortlessly from studio to street whilst still creating elegant and sophisticated photographs left others trailing in his wake. Quite simply work that everyone should get to know.

Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991)

Bourdin’s colourful, erotic and controversial images were a giant leap forward in what constituted acceptable fashion photography.

Heavily influenced by the Surrealists (with touches of Edward Hopper along the way), Bourdin began working at French Vogue as early as 1955. However, due to his own reluctance to promote his work or accept offers for publications and exhibitions, he has only posthumously gained wider notoriety.

Bourdin was notoriously difficult to work with. Legend has it that he kept Ursula Andress posing on a table for six hours while his assistants searched for a shade of roses that matched her skin tone! Oh, and he once turned up at Vogue’s Paris office on a camel too! Now that is surreal!

David Bailey (b.1938)

It’s England. It’s the 1960s.  You’re working for British Vogue and rubbing shoulders with everyone from Mick Jagger to Ronnie Kray. London is officially the swinging city and you’re bang in the middle of it…. Yep, David Bailey was certainly living the life. (So much so that Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blowup is largely based on Bailey).

Although widely known for his high contrast black and white studio shots, Bailey’s rise to fame came from the challenge he presented to the traditionalists: shooting with models no one else wanted and in places and positions no one thought would work, Bailey carved an impressive niche for himself.

Despite his exceptional vision, Bailey never forgot the bottom line of the industry: ‘I’m here to sell frocks…’

Terry Richardson (b.1965)

Terry Richardson: One of the best fashion photographers in the world? No, probably not. But, in the past ten years it has been increasingly difficult to avoid his work or those who are clearly trying to emulate it.

With campaigns for Sisley and American Apparel and models that include Kate Moss and Samuel L. Jackson, Richardson’s images have the look of hastily grabbed snaps made with low tech equipment. And not without good reason; many are shot with a simple point and shoot Yashica. Richardson is never far away from controversy, so if you go searching for his work, be prepared for a shock. His view of the world is up close and very, very personal!

Corinne Day (1965 – 2010)

Corinne Day was a hugely important photographer both within the fashion industry and the art world. She is perhaps mostly famously known as being one of the first photographers to work with Kate Moss. Whilst it’d be difficult to credit her with discovering Moss, she was undoubtedly responsible for some of the most iconic images of the super model.

Her work was also foremost in the debate around what became known as ‘Heroin Chic’; the androgynous, pale, skinny and, perhaps, ill looking models that arose as a backlash against the overtly glamorous and voluptuous supermodels of the 1980s. Put simply, Heroin Chic was to fashion what Grunge was to music.

Every one of these five changed the way fashion photos are taken, but who do you admire the most? As ever, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Just a few years ago no one knew what a credit crunch was, banking was still a honourable profession and the Eurozone was a model of financial probity.

How times change. The global economic turmoil has focused all our minds, perhaps more than ever before, on what we earn, what we spend and what we are able to save.

Managing your personal finances can make a big difference. There is some truth in the old investment cliché that you should make your money work for you, rather than you working for your money.

Smart budgeting won’t necessarily make you richer but it can help you stay on top of your finances and make your money go further. 

Your Nokia Lumia smartphone can play a big part in this. With the aid of a few apps, it can help you to keep track of your finances, stay informed of the latest financial news and manage all your money matters.

Let’s not pretend this is a substitute for seeing an accountant or meeting a personal finance advisor. All the same, you may find these various personal finance apps valuable and even enjoyable to use.

Budgeting

What could be easier than seeing how much money you’re getting in, and then making sure that you don’t spend anymore than that? Well, it’s a problem that has afflicted most individual households and national governments.

Toshl Finance (FREE) is a tool that helps you to manage your income and your expenses. You can set one-off budgets, or regular budgets over a period of time, say a week, a month or a year.

You can move funds from one period to the next; compare your budget history between different periods; track your spending on holiday with the currency converter; set up repeat expenses and even set up a passcode to keep your finances a secret.

My Expenses (FREE) is another budgeting tool that you might like to try. This app offers good cloud support, where you can export your data to either SkyDrive or Dropbox accounts. You can also view your expenses as a pie chart and create for your start screen live tiles.

A slightly different type of budgeting app is Lemon (FREE), which uses your Lumia’s camera to scan your receipts to help tally up your spending.

Scanning each receipt captures the price, the name of the shop or merchant, the date and assigns a category for the purchase. You can also manually add this data into the app, which is then used to generate your personal spending reports.

Expensify (FREE) is another highly rated app that serves a similar function.

Other budgeting apps you may want to consider are Account Book, My Budget and Budget Buddy.

Shares, stocks and financial news 

If you are lucky enough to own some shares or just have a general interest in stock markets then you will know that information and knowledge is paramount. 

Here are several apps for your Lumia that can help you to keep up to date with the money news. 

Mint (FREE)

Mint is a business news app with analysis and opinions from the financial and economic spheres. As well as the latest and breaking business news there are also features about culture, entertainment and travel.

Mint is the result of a partnership between the Hindustan Times and the Wall Street Journal. 

Stocks (FREE)

This is Microsoft’s app for tracking stock and share prices. You can keep a list of your favourite (or the ones you are interested in anyway) stocks or search to find the company you want.

You can see the quotes at a glance or go into much more detail such as the 52-week high/low, earnings per share (EPS) and the market capitalisation. 

Markets & Me (FREE)

If you are managing a big stock portfolio (or even a small one) then you might find this app much more to your needs.

The app offers real time quotes for most major markets and keeps track of your stock performance and your total holdings over a period of time. It also has integration with your Google Finance account and live tiles for individual stocks, markets or currencies. 

Stock Tiles (FREE) 

As the name suggests, this app helps to monitor stock prices using live tiles on your Lumia’s start screen. You can add as many stock tiles, as you want and there is also information on the back of the live tile. 

Money tools

Finally, here are some more general money apps that you may find useful.

Piggy Bank (FREE) 

Piggy Bank  shows you how much money you could save if you refuse to indulge yourself with impulse purchases. It’s a great idea in principle but how much you are able to save is still ultimately down to you! 

Credit Card Audit (FREE)

Credit cards are one of the easiest ways of racking up a big debt, which then becomes an everlasting drain on your monthly finances. If you’re not careful it can spiral out of control very quickly.

This app helps you to track your credit card transactions and create reports so that you can keep in control of your spending. 

Loan Calculator (FREE)

This app helps you to calculate the monthly repayments for any loan you are taking out, or thinking about taking out. 

Enter all the information such as amount borrowed, interest and the term of the loan and this app does the rest. It will show you the monthly interest as well as the remaining balance.

Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820

Our first Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

Be a part of it.

Are you using a personal finance app on your Lumia? Do you think they can help you to save money? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

It was for some weeks that David regularly astonished us with his Nokia N9 photography. That meant we wanted to know what he could do with a Nokia 808 PureView in his hands.

And here he is to show and tell you! Take it away David!

-Thanks for the opportunity Paul!

#1 Dragonfly: Once I received the PureView, the next day I went out on my bike to the lake at the edge of town, to see if I could find something interesting to shoot. Straight away I saw a dragonfly, which I had to chase for an opportunity to get a good shot of! At that time, I was new to the PureView, therefore I took the photo in full size (34MP) and automatic mode of everything, so afterwards I cut out 5MP size photo.

#2 Still life: Once when I was on my way home I looked out of the train I saw a field of infinite straw bales and electrical wiring. It was a beautiful picture, so I decided that I would one day go back there. After the dragonfly at the lake, I went to the target site this beautiful image.

#3 Darling eye: A few days later I went on a photo tour with my girlfriend in Szeged. We rested at the edge of the fountain front of the museum, when I saw an opportunity in my girlfriend’s eyes. At this time, I already knew the capabilities of the PureView, so this amazing photo was quickly born!

#4 Splash in the Balaton & #5 Lightning and Love: On vacation with some friends at the Balaton lake. Our primary goal was have a wonderful time partying, but we broke up time for shooting too! One of my best photos was of my buddy kicking into the water, which summed up our time there perfectly. Another night we went to Siofok, and at dawn was a big lightning storm, which I also managed to create a stunning photo of while lying on a bench.

#6 & #7 A creative crisis: ‘Creative crisis’, I hate it, especially when I know that time is limited! However, the idea I had was to shoot water filling up a sink. Poor light conditions didn’t help at all, I used the flash, I took down the exposure compensation but to no avail. I took hundreds of pictures and it was very hard to catch the right moment, but it was worth it in the end! All of them are very special photos. This is one of my favorites. A water drop resulting in a crater. The splash was unpredictable so I cut it to 1600×900.

 #8 Firework & #9 Ferenc Móra Museum: St Stephen’s Day 2012, Szeged. Having had experienced long exposed pictures with the PureView, I was ready for this day of fireworks. I took my time choosing the right spot, I wanted to capture the firework reflections in the water.  The results simply stopped my words… Incredibly good photographs, not to mention the fact that I did all of this with a phone! After the fireworks we went for a walk and we stopped in front of the museum. This time I could take sharp pictures with GPS-holder, and managed to get the building beautifully reflected in the water!

#10 ♥ NOKIA: I was saving this idea of ​​the end of the trial period. Since I already knew how to make a two-second (or more) exposure, I asked a few people with some bike lights to write “♥ NOKIA”. The results look fantastic and I can not sufficiently emphasize that all of this was done with a phone … incredible! With these photos I say thank you to Nokia, and that I have been part of a miracle!

That about wraps it up for David’s top 10 808 PureView photos! If you want to see the rest of his photography take a look here!

It was for some weeks that David regularly astonished us with his Nokia N9 photography. That meant we wanted to know what he could do with a Nokia 808 PureView in his hands.

And here he is to show and tell you! Take it away David!

-Thanks for the opportunity Paul!

#1 Dragonfly: Once I received the PureView, the next day I went out on my bike to the lake at the edge of town, to see if I could find something interesting to shoot. Straight away I saw a dragonfly, which I had to chase for an opportunity to get a good shot of! At that time, I was new to the PureView, therefore I took the photo in full size (34MP) and automatic mode of everything, so afterwards I cut out 5MP size photo.

#2 Still life: Once when I was on my way home I looked out of the train I saw a field of infinite straw bales and electrical wiring. It was a beautiful picture, so I decided that I would one day go back there. After the dragonfly at the lake, I went to the target site this beautiful image.

#3 Darling eye: A few days later I went on a photo tour with my girlfriend in Szeged. We rested at the edge of the fountain front of the museum, when I saw an opportunity in my girlfriend’s eyes. At this time, I already knew the capabilities of the PureView, so this amazing photo was quickly born!

#4 Splash in the Balaton & #5 Lightning and Love: On vacation with some friends at the Balaton lake. Our primary goal was have a wonderful time partying, but we broke up time for shooting too! One of my best photos was of my buddy kicking into the water, which summed up our time there perfectly. Another night we went to Siofok, and at dawn was a big lightning storm, which I also managed to create a stunning photo of while lying on a bench.

#6 & #7 A creative crisis: ‘Creative crisis’, I hate it, especially when I know that time is limited! However, the idea I had was to shoot water filling up a sink. Poor light conditions didn’t help at all, I used the flash, I took down the exposure compensation but to no avail. I took hundreds of pictures and it was very hard to catch the right moment, but it was worth it in the end! All of them are very special photos. This is one of my favorites. A water drop resulting in a crater. The splash was unpredictable so I cut it to 1600×900.

 #8 Firework & #9 Ferenc Móra Museum: St Stephen’s Day 2012, Szeged. Having had experienced long exposed pictures with the PureView, I was ready for this day of fireworks. I took my time choosing the right spot, I wanted to capture the firework reflections in the water.  The results simply stopped my words… Incredibly good photographs, not to mention the fact that I did all of this with a phone! After the fireworks we went for a walk and we stopped in front of the museum. This time I could take sharp pictures with GPS-holder, and managed to get the building beautifully reflected in the water!

#10 ♥ NOKIA: I was saving this idea of ​​the end of the trial period. Since I already knew how to make a two-second (or more) exposure, I asked a few people with some bike lights to write “♥ NOKIA”. The results look fantastic and I can not sufficiently emphasize that all of this was done with a phone … incredible! With these photos I say thank you to Nokia, and that I have been part of a miracle!

That about wraps it up for David’s top 10 808 PureView photos! If you want to see the rest of his photography take a look here!

In the last week, New York has played host to a couple of big events. They both starred some real beauties, they both wowed their audiences and they both got people breathless in anticipation. Ours finished after just a day. Now, the other, New York Fashion Week is drawing to a close, too. In homage to it, we’ve taken a closer look at the photographers who put fashion on the map.

Richard Avendon (1923-2004)

For many people, Richard Avedon is the absolute Godfather of fashion photography and the single biggest influence in the genre over the past 30 years.

Once likened to the ‘…white mechanical rabbit that all other photographers are trying to catch up with…’ Avedon spent over 40 years providing images for top clients including Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. His style and capability to move effortlessly from studio to street whilst still creating elegant and sophisticated photographs left others trailing in his wake. Quite simply work that everyone should get to know.

Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991)

Bourdin’s colourful, erotic and controversial images were a giant leap forward in what constituted acceptable fashion photography.

Heavily influenced by the Surrealists (with touches of Edward Hopper along the way), Bourdin began working at French Vogue as early as 1955. However, due to his own reluctance to promote his work or accept offers for publications and exhibitions, he has only posthumously gained wider notoriety.

Bourdin was notoriously difficult to work with. Legend has it that he kept Ursula Andress posing on a table for six hours while his assistants searched for a shade of roses that matched her skin tone! Oh, and he once turned up at Vogue’s Paris office on a camel too! Now that is surreal!

David Bailey (b.1938)

It’s England. It’s the 1960s.  You’re working for British Vogue and rubbing shoulders with everyone from Mick Jagger to Ronnie Kray. London is officially the swinging city and you’re bang in the middle of it…. Yep, David Bailey was certainly living the life. (So much so that Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blowup is largely based on Bailey).

Although widely known for his high contrast black and white studio shots, Bailey’s rise to fame came from the challenge he presented to the traditionalists: shooting with models no one else wanted and in places and positions no one thought would work, Bailey carved an impressive niche for himself.

Despite his exceptional vision, Bailey never forgot the bottom line of the industry: ‘I’m here to sell frocks…’

Terry Richardson (b.1965)

Terry Richardson: One of the best fashion photographers in the world? No, probably not. But, in the past ten years it has been increasingly difficult to avoid his work or those who are clearly trying to emulate it.

With campaigns for Sisley and American Apparel and models that include Kate Moss and Samuel L. Jackson, Richardson’s images have the look of hastily grabbed snaps made with low tech equipment. And not without good reason; many are shot with a simple point and shoot Yashica. Richardson is never far away from controversy, so if you go searching for his work, be prepared for a shock. His view of the world is up close and very, very personal!

Corinne Day (1965 – 2010)

Corinne Day was a hugely important photographer both within the fashion industry and the art world. She is perhaps mostly famously known as being one of the first photographers to work with Kate Moss. Whilst it’d be difficult to credit her with discovering Moss, she was undoubtedly responsible for some of the most iconic images of the super model.

Her work was also foremost in the debate around what became known as ‘Heroin Chic’; the androgynous, pale, skinny and, perhaps, ill looking models that arose as a backlash against the overtly glamorous and voluptuous supermodels of the 1980s. Put simply, Heroin Chic was to fashion what Grunge was to music.

Every one of these five changed the way fashion photos are taken, but who do you admire the most? As ever, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Just a few years ago no one knew what a credit crunch was, banking was still a honourable profession and the Eurozone was a model of financial probity.

How times change. The global economic turmoil has focused all our minds, perhaps more than ever before, on what we earn, what we spend and what we are able to save.

Managing your personal finances can make a big difference. There is some truth in the old investment cliché that you should make your money work for you, rather than you working for your money.

Smart budgeting won’t necessarily make you richer but it can help you stay on top of your finances and make your money go further. 

Your Nokia Lumia smartphone can play a big part in this. With the aid of a few apps, it can help you to keep track of your finances, stay informed of the latest financial news and manage all your money matters.

Let’s not pretend this is a substitute for seeing an accountant or meeting a personal finance advisor. All the same, you may find these various personal finance apps valuable and even enjoyable to use.

Budgeting

What could be easier than seeing how much money you’re getting in, and then making sure that you don’t spend anymore than that? Well, it’s a problem that has afflicted most individual households and national governments.

Toshl Finance (FREE) is a tool that helps you to manage your income and your expenses. You can set one-off budgets, or regular budgets over a period of time, say a week, a month or a year.

You can move funds from one period to the next; compare your budget history between different periods; track your spending on holiday with the currency converter; set up repeat expenses and even set up a passcode to keep your finances a secret.

My Expenses (FREE) is another budgeting tool that you might like to try. This app offers good cloud support, where you can export your data to either SkyDrive or Dropbox accounts. You can also view your expenses as a pie chart and create for your start screen live tiles.

A slightly different type of budgeting app is Lemon (FREE), which uses your Lumia’s camera to scan your receipts to help tally up your spending.

Scanning each receipt captures the price, the name of the shop or merchant, the date and assigns a category for the purchase. You can also manually add this data into the app, which is then used to generate your personal spending reports.

Expensify (FREE) is another highly rated app that serves a similar function.

Other budgeting apps you may want to consider are Account Book, My Budget and Budget Buddy.

Shares, stocks and financial news 

If you are lucky enough to own some shares or just have a general interest in stock markets then you will know that information and knowledge is paramount. 

Here are several apps for your Lumia that can help you to keep up to date with the money news. 

Mint (FREE)

Mint is a business news app with analysis and opinions from the financial and economic spheres. As well as the latest and breaking business news there are also features about culture, entertainment and travel.

Mint is the result of a partnership between the Hindustan Times and the Wall Street Journal. 

Stocks (FREE)

This is Microsoft’s app for tracking stock and share prices. You can keep a list of your favourite (or the ones you are interested in anyway) stocks or search to find the company you want.

You can see the quotes at a glance or go into much more detail such as the 52-week high/low, earnings per share (EPS) and the market capitalisation. 

Markets & Me (FREE)

If you are managing a big stock portfolio (or even a small one) then you might find this app much more to your needs.

The app offers real time quotes for most major markets and keeps track of your stock performance and your total holdings over a period of time. It also has integration with your Google Finance account and live tiles for individual stocks, markets or currencies. 

Stock Tiles (FREE) 

As the name suggests, this app helps to monitor stock prices using live tiles on your Lumia’s start screen. You can add as many stock tiles, as you want and there is also information on the back of the live tile. 

Money tools

Finally, here are some more general money apps that you may find useful.

Piggy Bank (FREE) 

Piggy Bank  shows you how much money you could save if you refuse to indulge yourself with impulse purchases. It’s a great idea in principle but how much you are able to save is still ultimately down to you! 

Credit Card Audit (FREE)

Credit cards are one of the easiest ways of racking up a big debt, which then becomes an everlasting drain on your monthly finances. If you’re not careful it can spiral out of control very quickly.

This app helps you to track your credit card transactions and create reports so that you can keep in control of your spending. 

Loan Calculator (FREE)

This app helps you to calculate the monthly repayments for any loan you are taking out, or thinking about taking out. 

Enter all the information such as amount borrowed, interest and the term of the loan and this app does the rest. It will show you the monthly interest as well as the remaining balance.

Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820

Our first Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

Be a part of it.

Are you using a personal finance app on your Lumia? Do you think they can help you to save money? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Od 11 do 18 września każdy użytkownik mixa lub prepaid może za darmo włączyć jeden z trzech utworów:   Aby je włączyć za darmo, wystarczy wysłać kod na numer 333. Utwór Kod Mateusz Mijal feat. Liber – Winny WINNY Not All About The Money-La La Land, Timati NOT Shaggy&Eve-Girls Just Want To Have Fun SHA [...]

Od 11 do 18 września każdy użytkownik mixa lub prepaid może za darmo włączyć jeden z trzech utworów:   Aby je włączyć za darmo, wystarczy wysłać kod na numer 333. Utwór Kod Mateusz Mijal feat. Liber – Winny WINNY Not All About The Money-La La Land, Timati NOT Shaggy&Eve-Girls Just Want To Have Fun SHA [...]

A few weeks back we announced the new Xperia V, which is a smart, sleek and durable LTE smartphone. It also features Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2 and OptiContrast Panel, which delivers a superior viewing experience. But did you know that Xperia™ V includes innovative sensor-on-lens touch screen technology? This technology adds the same user benefits as in-cell and on-cell touch technology, which means you will get better image quality and a true direct touch experience.

Read on to learn more about sensor-on-lens technology and its benefits.

Sensor-on-lens touch technology means that the number of physical layers in the touch panel (handset stackup) is reduced, as the sensor layer is actually part of the lens itself. This in turn means that you will get better image quality, as there is no interference from the touch sensor component.  There is one less layer of glass and one less layer of glue, compared to conventional touch panels. Typically, you will get less haze and about 5% better display luminance without those extra layers.

With the sensor-on-lens touch technology, the phone is also made lighter and thinner, as an extra glass layer is removed (as needed in conventional handset stackups using a discrete touch sensor). This technology also moves the image plane closer to you as a user, which makes it feel like you are actually touching the image itself. With this direct touch experience, you will get less parallax issues compared to a conventional touch panel, as the image and the point of touch are closer together in the sensor-on-lens touch screen technology.

Do you want to know more about this topic? Feel free to drop us a comment below.

More information:

• Learn more about the Xperia V, Xperia T and Xperia J.
• Check out the Xperia V, Xperia T and Xperia J video.

After introducing the first smartphones in the Nokia Lumia family to be built on Windows Phone 8, there is one message that needs to be made loud and clear: existing Lumia owners also have plenty to look forward to and are definitely not being left behind.

The current Lumia range of smartphones will continue to be supported by Nokia with a new updated user interface, new features, apps and upgrades.

In short, there is everything that you currently love about your Lumia, plus new developments coming in the future to help ensure that your Lumia experience will remain the envy of your friends!

Support from day one

Ever since the Lumia handsets were first launched, Nokia has delivered a series of updates that have improved the battery performance and introduced exciting new features. 

Recently, we have brought Internet sharing, Flip-to-Silence and Camera Extras to the whole Lumia range.

There have also been new apps such as Contact Share and PlayTo and updates to Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, Nokia Transport and Nokia Music. 

In the pipeline

Brand new, compelling updates are in the pipeline. Nokia City Lens, launched just last week to make exploring surroundings more intuitive, is already available in the Windows Phone Marketplace for Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900, as is Nokia Counters, to help you keep an eye on your phone usage.

We will also bring Cinemagraph and updates to Smart Group Shot to the existing Lumia devices with some additional surprises to make photo shooting and sharing as easy as possible. Additional new features for all Lumia devices will include:

• A new Start screen look and feel, familiar from Windows Phone 8, giving you a whole new look the moment you unlock your phone
• Ringtone maker app to selected markets to create a personal ringtone
• Contact share app updated to support sharing over Bluetooth in addition to SMS and email
• Bluetooth file transfer to send media files via Bluetooth from your Lumia device to any other phone 

The rollout of these updates for the Lumia 610, Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 smartphones will be phased, and we will share more details closer to the start of delivery.

New and exclusive apps continue to be launched in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Coming up, there is Zynga’s smash hit games Draw Something and Words with Friends, new apps from Bloomberg, WhatsApp, Groupon and a whole lot more.