sie
17
Packed with every type of game imaginable, Windows Phone Marketplace offers something for everyone. If you’re a fan of strategy and massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming, then Age of Sorcery will be right up your street.
At the start of the game you must decide if you want to play on the Holy or the Dark side. Naturally, the Dark side is home to creatures with claws, red eyes and dripping pointy teeth where as the Holy side is more, well, holy looking. Think six-pack, clean capes and shiny silver armour. Then you pick your character; there’s no difference between the characters, none have an advantage over another, it’s just an aesthetic thing.
To get you started, you’re given your first city and it’s placed automatically for you in a vast land of beasts, empty deserts and fellow gamers.
With an empty city at your command you need to construct cottages, warehouses and buildings capable of creating units fit for fighting duty. Only then will you be ready to take on the local wildlife.
Each section of the map is allocated an area number, much like a geo-coordinate on a normal map. Some areas are empty, but the ones that are occupied with beasts are ready to be conquered. Make sure you check out the monster’s level and statistics first, because if you tackle a monster that’s too strong for you, your army will be wiped out in an instant and creating a new one will take lots of time and resources.
To collect resources you need to build farms and collect gold. Gold is built up just by having cottages, so make sure you build lots of those. Food and Mithril are collected by building farms and there’s also special gems that gather at your castle can help to speed up the building military units or buildings. You’ll need to harvest these regularly as once they reach 25, the castle will stop producing them.
Some buildings take hours to build and as you progress through the game they’ll take even longer to upgrade. Upgrading gives your warehouses more storage capacity, your cottages more gold production and your army units increased health and armour. It’s worth taking the time to upgrade in order to get one-up on the enemy.
When the time is right you can decide to take your armies to attack other players in the massive battleground, until then, you’re safe to build up your empire in peace.
Age of Sorcery is expanding all the time and the team have recently switched servers to allow for the increasing population. This means there are more people to play against, more enemies to defeat and more empires to bring down.
Download Age of Sorcery on your Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900.
Tags: None
sie
17
Had he been around today, Hamlet may very well have mused: ‘To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question.
Such is the success and ubiquity of Twitter that it seems to have outgrown its initial role as a ‘micro-blogging’ tool and become a primary method of communication and keeping ourselves informed.
The real question, therefore, is which Twitter client would the Prince of Denmark be using?
Windows Phone, of course, enables you to tweet without the need for installing any further apps, but nonetheless there are many Twitter clients available in the Marketplace for your Lumia smartphone.
We all use Twitter in different ways; maybe there is an app that suits your needs but is not particularly useful for someone who, for example, has to manage multiple accounts?
To help you pick the best Twitter app, here is a look at five apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace and picking out the best feature in each one.
It seems only fair that we start with the official Twitter app and it does the job if you just want something that’s simple and easy to use.
You swipe across each screen to show your timeline, mentions, messages or lists and you press the ‘pencil’ icon to compose a tweet, or the ‘envelope’ icon to write a direct message. The ‘search’ icon shows you trends, the top tweets, categories and your manual search results.
You can pin individual followers or lists to your start screen but there is not much in the way of live tiles.
This is a solid app that is perhaps a little uninspired, but all the same would suit most people’s requirements. Within settings, you can also add more accounts and control your notifications.
Favourite feature: One of the search options is called ‘nearby.’ This is a handy way of finding people that are tweeting in your area right now!
As a paid for app, you would expect Carbon to offer something more than the official Twitter app and it doesn’t disappoint.
One feature that immediately makes a big difference is the ability to see pictures and video without needing to leave your timeline. The Quick Line screen that gives you easy access to your lists, trends and searches is also an improvement.
Carbon also takes advantage of Live Tiles, so you will always be notified if you’ve been mentioned, or if you want to keep an eye on search results. Pinning a ‘compose’ tile to your homescreen so that you can tweet without even opening the application is another plus.
Favourite feature: Carbon rewards you if you take the time and effort to get to grips with it. Double tap a tweet to reply to it without leaving your timeline. Tap a tweet with two fingers if you want to retweet or quote from it.
Twabbit is another paid for app and, just like Carbon, you can try it before you buy, but some functionality may not be available or it will have adverts.
Twabbit is fantastic if you like to heavily customise your apps. You can change the settings for just about every feature of the Twabbit including your timeline behaviours, gesture controls and themes (change the theme in the paid app only).
Sometimes, it’s just a simple thing that makes all the difference: You are told how many new tweets have appeared in your timeline and they are also highlighted in red.
Favourite feature: The ability to ‘mute’ and ‘unmute’ your followers. This may seem mean-spirited and go against the spirit of Twitter, but it is undoubtedly handy. Plus, it’s still nicer than unfollowing or blocking them.
Rowi, Free or £1.29p
The free version of Rowi has the same features as the paid for equivalent except you’ll see adverts and there is no push notification.
What I really liked about Rowi is how easily you can configure the homescreen of the app. You can add or remove pretty much anything you want, including your lists or searches. You can even add another user’s timeline.
Tapping on tweets pops up a nice menu that gives you the options of replying to it, retweeting it, marking it as a favourite and so on.
Of all these Twitter apps, Rowi has perhaps the simplest and cleanest interface.
Favourite feature: Integration with Aviary lets you edit and enhance your photos before you tweet them.
Much like the People hub on Windows Phone, Seesmic aims to meet all your social networking needs within a single app.
It’s a fully featured client that is able to hold its own against the standalone Twitter apps considered above. The only glaring omission that I can think of (that is featured in both Carbon and Twabbit) is support for read later services like Pocket.
Where Seesmic is able to punch above the weight of its competitors is that you can also use it to access your Facebook account and post messages there as well. The well-thought out homescreen lets to configure it with Twitter timelines or messages, and from Facebook, your newsfeed, inbox or a friend.
Favourite feature: Facebook and Chatter integration makes this a great app if you want to keep an eye on multiple social networks.
Do you have a favourite Twitter on your Lumia smartphone that you would like to recommend? Let us know in the comments below.
Image credit: Pen Waggener
Tags: None
sie
17
Packed with every type of game imaginable, Windows Phone Marketplace offers something for everyone. If you’re a fan of strategy and massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming, then Age of Sorcery will be right up your street.
At the start of the game you must decide if you want to play on the Holy or the Dark side. Naturally, the Dark side is home to creatures with claws, red eyes and dripping pointy teeth where as the Holy side is more, well, holy looking. Think six-pack, clean capes and shiny silver armour. Then you pick your character; there’s no difference between the characters, none have an advantage over another, it’s just an aesthetic thing.
To get you started, you’re given your first city and it’s placed automatically for you in a vast land of beasts, empty deserts and fellow gamers.
With an empty city at your command you need to construct cottages, warehouses and buildings capable of creating units fit for fighting duty. Only then will you be ready to take on the local wildlife.
Each section of the map is allocated an area number, much like a geo-coordinate on a normal map. Some areas are empty, but the ones that are occupied with beasts are ready to be conquered. Make sure you check out the monster’s level and statistics first, because if you tackle a monster that’s too strong for you, your army will be wiped out in an instant and creating a new one will take lots of time and resources.
To collect resources you need to build farms and collect gold. Gold is built up just by having cottages, so make sure you build lots of those. Food and Mithril are collected by building farms and there’s also special gems that gather at your castle can help to speed up the building military units or buildings. You’ll need to harvest these regularly as once they reach 25, the castle will stop producing them.
Some buildings take hours to build and as you progress through the game they’ll take even longer to upgrade. Upgrading gives your warehouses more storage capacity, your cottages more gold production and your army units increased health and armour. It’s worth taking the time to upgrade in order to get one-up on the enemy.
When the time is right you can decide to take your armies to attack other players in the massive battleground, until then, you’re safe to build up your empire in peace.
Age of Sorcery is expanding all the time and the team have recently switched servers to allow for the increasing population. This means there are more people to play against, more enemies to defeat and more empires to bring down.
Download Age of Sorcery on your Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900.
Tags: None
sie
17
The smash hit games, Draw Something and Zynga Poker, will be coming to Nokia’s Asha Touch range of devices later this year.
This exciting development is the result of a growing partnership between Nokia and Zynga Games that was first announced a few months ago.
Draw Something has been a worldwide hit where friends can challenge each other to draw and then guess each other’s artistic efforts.
Zynga Poker is the classic high-stakes card game that lets you play people from all over the world.
Both games will be free downloads from the Nokia Store and will be available for Nokia’s Asha Touch feature phones, namely the Asha 305, Asha 306 and Asha 311 and underlines that they are superb gaming devices.
Great for gaming
Already, Asha Touch owners can enjoy titles from leading games developers such as EA, Gameloft, Rovio and now, Zynga.
Just last month, over 20 classic games from NAMCO BANDAI were announced for the Asha Touch phones.
Bryan Biniak, Nokia’s Vice-President & General Manager of Global Partnering & Application Development, said:
“It’s great to expand our offering of Zynga games to deliver more blockbuster titles across our portfolio of mobile devices, giving consumers great choice and tremendous value.”
“With premium design, powerful hardware and outstanding gaming capabilities, we’re redefining what consumers expect from today’s feature phone experience.”
The Asha Touch range, which was launched in June, offers a fantastic touchscreen interface, with fast browsing, social networks and, of course, great gaming at their core.
Image credit: Anfuehrer
Tags: None
sie
17
We are always very busy updating our mobile apps. Just recently, for instance, we have released a new version of Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps and Nokia Transport. But mobile apps are only half of the story. In fact, we’re continually updating our web offering so that you can discover new or improved features almost every week.
During the past few weeks, we have introduced some cool new features to maps.nokia.com while other improvements have happened under the hood. So let’s have a closer look at what’s changed since the last time we talked about maps.nokia.com.
First of all we have introduced more ways to interact with routes and map. Sometimes, in fact, you don’t want to plan a route from A to B, but get a feeling of how far apart two or more places are from another.
This is why we have introduced the ruler tool, with which you can measure the straight line distance between two points. And you can also have fun measuring perimeters, like I did with the Chicago Loop. Did you know it’s approximately 8km long?
Another feature you can now enjoy is the ability to drag and drop any point on the route. So it’s going to be much easier to select alternative routes or waypoints by simply interacting with the map.
But the biggest improvement of the last weeks is on the traffic side. You are probably very much familiar with the colour coding we are using to explain which roads are congested and which are relatively free.
Now we are making that experience much richer, by adding more info on congestion. On the map you will see different icons representing different kinds of traffic problems: road closures, planned construction works, incidents, etc. By clicking on the icon you will be given all the details you need in order to plan your journey.
Do you use maps.nokia.com? What is your favourite feature? Let us know in the comments section below.
Tags: None
sie
17
If you’re always on the look out for a bargain, then let your phone do the hard work for you by using the Groupon app on your Nokia Lumia and Nokia Belle smartphone.
Groupon is a company that advertises retailer services, products or other listings on behalf of a supplier. These deals are usually much lower than they’d normally advertise, ranging anywhere from 50 to 90 per cent off the recommended retail price (RRP).
They can do this because they rely on the fact that when these deals are offered, people in vast amounts will snap up these deals, ultimately making a profit for the company offering the goods. For the company, selling 200 marked-down items is better than only selling a few of the same full-priced items. Plus, they’re more likely to get repeat business as a result.
Screenshots of Groupon from a Nokia Lumia 800
On your Nokia Lumia and Nokia Belle smartphone, you first start by signing in, or creating an account if you haven’t got one. Then, using either the built-in GPS or the menu you select where in the world you are; this makes it possible to offer you relevant deals near you. Otherwise, you’ll be receiving deals from all over the world creating confusion and frustration.
The Nokia Lumia version of Groupon shows you the featured first, and by swiping right you’ll have access to some great getaway ideas. If you’re looking for a cheap holiday, then use this section.
On the Nokia Belle version, you don’t have the getaway section and the featured section becomes the main list where all the Groupon deals are located.
In both versions finding an amazing deal is easy. Browse what’s on offer by scrolling down the screen until you see something you like. Found something that peaks your interest? Click it be taken to the purchase page.
Screenshots of Groupon from a Nokia N8
It’s here that you’ll see how much of a saving you’ll be making if you decide to go ahead and purchase what the vendor is selling. The RRP is shown alongside the amount of discount being offered, and to save you doing the maths right next to that is how much you’ll be saving as well as the deal price.
For example, something that’s valued at £140 with a 79 per cent discount saves you £110. That means you spend 30 quid! Is that a deal or what?
If you want it, go ahead and press the Buy! button and enter your card details to buy the deal. But be careful to read the fine print on the deal though, as they are only valid for a short period of time. If it’s a service you’ve purchased, you must use it between the times indicated.
Download Groupon for Nokia Lumia or Groupon for Nokia Belle today, for free. Groupon is available for the Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900, as well as Nokia Belle powered smartphones.
Image credit: HowardLake
Tags: None
sie
17
Had he been around today, Hamlet may very well have mused: ‘To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question.
Such is the success and ubiquity of Twitter that it seems to have outgrown its initial role as a ‘micro-blogging’ tool and become a primary method of communication and keeping ourselves informed.
The real question, therefore, is which Twitter client would the Prince of Denmark be using?
Windows Phone, of course, enables you to tweet without the need for installing any further apps, but nonetheless there are many Twitter clients available in the Marketplace for your Lumia smartphone.
We all use Twitter in different ways; maybe there is an app that suits your needs but is not particularly useful for someone who, for example, has to manage multiple accounts?
To help you pick the best Twitter app, here is a look at five apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace and picking out the best feature in each one.
It seems only fair that we start with the official Twitter app and it does the job if you just want something that’s simple and easy to use.
You swipe across each screen to show your timeline, mentions, messages or lists and you press the ‘pencil’ icon to compose a tweet, or the ‘envelope’ icon to write a direct message. The ‘search’ icon shows you trends, the top tweets, categories and your manual search results.
You can pin individual followers or lists to your start screen but there is not much in the way of live tiles.
This is a solid app that is perhaps a little uninspired, but all the same would suit most people’s requirements. Within settings, you can also add more accounts and control your notifications.
Favourite feature: One of the search options is called ‘nearby.’ This is a handy way of finding people that are tweeting in your area right now!
As a paid for app, you would expect Carbon to offer something more than the official Twitter app and it doesn’t disappoint.
One feature that immediately makes a big difference is the ability to see pictures and video without needing to leave your timeline. The Quick Line screen that gives you easy access to your lists, trends and searches is also an improvement.
Carbon also takes advantage of Live Tiles, so you will always be notified if you’ve been mentioned, or if you want to keep an eye on search results. Pinning a ‘compose’ tile to your homescreen so that you can tweet without even opening the application is another plus.
Favourite feature: Carbon rewards you if you take the time and effort to get to grips with it. Double tap a tweet to reply to it without leaving your timeline. Tap a tweet with two fingers if you want to retweet or quote from it.
Twabbit is another paid for app and, just like Carbon, you can try it before you buy, but some functionality may not be available or it will have adverts.
Twabbit is fantastic if you like to heavily customise your apps. You can change the settings for just about every feature of the Twabbit including your timeline behaviours, gesture controls and themes (change the theme in the paid app only).
Sometimes, it’s just a simple thing that makes all the difference: You are told how many new tweets have appeared in your timeline and they are also highlighted in red.
Favourite feature: The ability to ‘mute’ and ‘unmute’ your followers. This may seem mean-spirited and go against the spirit of Twitter, but it is undoubtedly handy. Plus, it’s still nicer than unfollowing or blocking them.
Rowi, Free or £1.29p
The free version of Rowi has the same features as the paid for equivalent except you’ll see adverts and there is no push notification.
What I really liked about Rowi is how easily you can configure the homescreen of the app. You can add or remove pretty much anything you want, including your lists or searches. You can even add another user’s timeline.
Tapping on tweets pops up a nice menu that gives you the options of replying to it, retweeting it, marking it as a favourite and so on.
Of all these Twitter apps, Rowi has perhaps the simplest and cleanest interface.
Favourite feature: Integration with Aviary lets you edit and enhance your photos before you tweet them.
Much like the People hub on Windows Phone, Seesmic aims to meet all your social networking needs within a single app.
It’s a fully featured client that is able to hold its own against the standalone Twitter apps considered above. The only glaring omission that I can think of (that is featured in both Carbon and Twabbit) is support for read later services like Pocket.
Where Seesmic is able to punch above the weight of its competitors is that you can also use it to access your Facebook account and post messages there as well. The well-thought out homescreen lets to configure it with Twitter timelines or messages, and from Facebook, your newsfeed, inbox or a friend.
Favourite feature: Facebook and Chatter integration makes this a great app if you want to keep an eye on multiple social networks.
Do you have a favourite Twitter on your Lumia smartphone that you would like to recommend? Let us know in the comments below.
Image credit: Pen Waggener
Tags: None
sie
16
There’s a fair few smiles in the office this morning, as we’ve discovered Xperia P has been named European Green Smart Phone 2012-2013 by EISA!
Last year we were proud to pickup awards for both Xperia arc and Xperia mini, and now Xperia P has also been recognised for its range of green innovations.
EISA (European Imaging and Sound Association) is an industry body representing 50 tech-focused magazines from 19 countries – here’s what they had to say about Xperia P:
“The smart phone market is developing rapidly as models come packed with ever-increasing functionality. Unfortunately, the trend towards the use of bigger screens and embedded batteries can make recycling harder. The Sony Xperia P outperforms the competition in terms of energy performance while making efficient use of materials of environmental concern, such as precious metals and has a low copper content. With the Xperia P, Sony successfully follows the performance of last year’s winner, its Xperia Mini.”
Xperia P is the world’s first smartphone to use Sony’s WhiteMagic technology to boost screen brightness, yet in power save mode, WhiteMagic reduces backlight power consumption by up to 50%. Don’t take it from us though; Xperia P came top of the smartphone screen class back in May, when we commissioned an independent testing lab to put it through its paces against other latest smartphones!
We’re continuing our efforts to make our entire Xperia smartphone portfolio cleaner and greener. Simple things can have a huge impact; using smaller, lighter packaging not only costs less to produce but also reduces the environmental impact in terms of transportation and preserving natural resources. Paper instruction manuals have also become a thing of the past and our energy-efficient chargers limit max power consumption to an efficient 30mW in stand-by mode 
Category: Sony Ericsson | Leave a Comment
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sie
16
Hey, we have a few cool Xperia S updates to share with you today…
The first Sony smartphone has recently been identified as having the sharpest* HD smartphone display and what’s more, is that it’s coming in a new colour over the next few weeks!
There’s a fair few smartphones on the market today, but the Xperia S display is sharper than-the-rest, with 341.5 PPI (pixels per inch), compared to many others that are around the 329.7 mark.
As if the screen wasn’t eye-catching enough, Xperia S is about to arrive in Dark Silver – so keep your eyes peeled!
Ant.
*As verified by Strategy Analytics SpecTRAX Database, as of 15th June 2012
Category: Sony Ericsson | Leave a Comment
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sie
16
What’s better than taking photos of your friends while poking silly faces? Swapping their faces around afterwards, that’s what.
Face Swap is a fun app for your Nokia Lumia that pulls the faces off two of your friends and slaps them on the other’s head; digitally speaking, of course.
With a bevy of apps out there that add blurry, grainy or coloured filters to your photos, this one is slightly different and there aren’t many on the market that do it this well. Using clever algorithms (I imagine that’s what happens) Face Swap searches for faces in the photo and delicately cuts them out then stitches them – almost – seamlessly together.
We say almost, because there’s a knack to getting this right. When you stand your two friends side-by-side make sure their heads are pointing in the same direction. If they’re looking in different directions the face-transplant won’t look right and you’ll have to take the photo again.
However, get it right and what you’re left with is an often hilarious photo of somebody you know very well looking, well, quite different but also familiar because they look like your other friend; it’s quite a confusion of the mind.
If you want to try this out right now but don’t have any friends immediately with you, then you can select a photo from the Pictures hub. This also means that you can download photos of celebrities and switch their faces over, too, just for a laugh.
I thought the two guys in the screenshot above looked a little serious, so I swapped the faces of two colleagues who were a little less so.
Once you’ve swapped faces and stopped laughing, you’ll probably want to share your creation with your friends. Face Swap can share your photos to Facebook, Twitter, SkyDrive and Sina Weibo.
If you don’t want to share it, you can just save the image and find it in the Saved Pictures section of the Pictures hub or in a recent section of the app.
Face Swap is a free app and is available on the Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900.
Have you swapped any faces using Face Swap? Feel free to post them in the comments for us all to see.
Image credit: Soundlessfall
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