lip
24
We take it for granted every day, but my feeble mind still finds it hard to process that you can actually access the Internet on a mobile phone.
Let’s put it in some kind of perspective. When I was growing up there was really no such thing as the Internet. When I was growing up, people didn’t really have computers at home. Certainly, no one had mobile phones.
Now, a loss of reception for just a few minutes is a matter of anxiety and irritation.
We have come such a long way that apps have even been developed for those moments when we are unable to connect with the ‘information superhighway’. Remember that phrase?
So, in celebration of the progress we have made, and to help mitigate against those cruel occasions when you have no reception on your phone, here’s our pick of the best offline reading apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace for your Nokia Lumia.
This app is a Windows Phone client for Pocket (formerly known as Read It Later), which is a service that allows you to save web pages and online articles that you can then read later, even without an active Internet or data connection.
This client, which is free so beware that it does have adverts, allows you to login and sync your saved articles to your Lumia device. Once they have been synced with an active connection, they will be stored for offline reading.
Other features of this client allow you to mark an article as ‘read’ and to post a tweet about an article.
Alternative Pocket clients: Burn After Reading for £1.49, MetroPaper, £2.49 and Phone Reader, £0.99p (all these apps have free, ad-supported or limited versions).
Doppler is a RSS reader that for those of you with Google Reader accounts and also gives you offline access to articles after synchronisation.
It also offers support for Pocket accounts and can stream podcasts.
Readalicious! is an alternative Google Reader client but costs £0.79p.
Another ‘save-for-later’ service is InstaFetch and this is the app for it.
A nice function of InstaFetch is that you can actually save articles from your mobile browser. Go to Menu > More > Share page > Add to InstaFetch.
A link to the page will then be saved to your InstaFetch account and then the next time you sync the app, the page will be downloaded to your phone for offline reading.
You can also use InstaFetch to save articles to Evernote.
This is a useful tool that doubles up as an offline reader. As its name suggests, HTML to PDF saves web pages into a PDF for local storage and viewing at your leisure.
You type or paste the URL into the app and the web page is then converted into a PDF. At the same time, a short link is also created that you can share or email.
If you have paid subscription with Instapaper, then this is the app you will need to save web pages for reading later on your Nokia Lumia.
This app lets you change fonts, type sizes and share articles on email and social networks.
If you don’t have an account with Pocket, Google Reader, InstaFetch nor Instapaper, then this could be the app for you!
This is fairly expensive (for an app) but it also claims to be the only Windows Phone browser that lets you save complete web pages, including images, to local storage.
Naturally, these saved web pages can then be viewed later when there is no data connection. Even the links between downloaded pages will work when you are offline.
Offline Browser can also be set to automatically download RSS Feeds.
Have we missed any out? Let us know your favourite offline reading apps.
Image credit: gadl
Tags: None
lip
24
We take it for granted every day, but my feeble mind still finds it hard to process that you can actually access the Internet on a mobile phone.
Let’s put it in some kind of perspective. When I was growing up there was really no such thing as the Internet. When I was growing up, people didn’t really have computers at home. Certainly, no one had mobile phones.
Now, a loss of reception for just a few minutes is a matter of anxiety and irritation.
We have come such a long way that apps have even been developed for those moments when we are unable to connect with the ‘information superhighway’. Remember that phrase?
So, in celebration of the progress we have made, and to help mitigate against those cruel occasions when you have no reception on your phone, here’s our pick of the best offline reading apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace for your Nokia Lumia.
This app is a Windows Phone client for Pocket (formerly known as Read It Later), which is a service that allows you to save web pages and online articles that you can then read later, even without an active Internet or data connection.
This client, which is free so beware that it does have adverts, allows you to login and sync your saved articles to your Lumia device. Once they have been synced with an active connection, they will be stored for offline reading.
Other features of this client allow you to mark an article as ‘read’ and to post a tweet about an article.
Alternative Pocket clients: Burn After Reading for £1.49, MetroPaper, £2.49 and Phone Reader, £0.99p (all these apps have free, ad-supported or limited versions).
Doppler is a RSS reader that for those of you with Google Reader accounts and also gives you offline access to articles after synchronisation.
It also offers support for Pocket accounts and can stream podcasts.
Readalicious! is an alternative Google Reader client but costs £0.79p.
Another ‘save-for-later’ service is InstaFetch and this is the app for it.
A nice function of InstaFetch is that you can actually save articles from your mobile browser. Go to Menu > More > Share page > Add to InstaFetch.
A link to the page will then be saved to your InstaFetch account and then the next time you sync the app, the page will be downloaded to your phone for offline reading.
You can also use InstaFetch to save articles to Evernote.
This is a useful tool that doubles up as an offline reader. As its name suggests, HTML to PDF saves web pages into a PDF for local storage and viewing at your leisure.
You type or paste the URL into the app and the web page is then converted into a PDF. At the same time, a short link is also created that you can share or email.
If you have paid subscription with Instapaper, then this is the app you will need to save web pages for reading later on your Nokia Lumia.
This app lets you change fonts, type sizes and share articles on email and social networks.
If you don’t have an account with Pocket, Google Reader, InstaFetch nor Instapaper, then this could be the app for you!
This is fairly expensive (for an app) but it also claims to be the only Windows Phone browser that lets you save complete web pages, including images, to local storage.
Naturally, these saved web pages can then be viewed later when there is no data connection. Even the links between downloaded pages will work when you are offline.
Offline Browser can also be set to automatically download RSS Feeds.
Have we missed any out? Let us know your favourite offline reading apps.
Image credit: gadl
Tags: None
lip
24
As a young boy Quinn Damerell enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together again.
What started with ‘monster creations’ using Lego many years ago, has lead to an acclaimed Windows Phone app called Baconit that was recently voted app of the year in the inaugural Community App Awards.
The app is a mobile client for Reddit, a popular social and user generated website that provides links to articles around the web that other Reddit users have liked.
According to its developer, Baconit is the first Reddit client on any mobile platform to have full synchronisation between the website and a phone.
Click here to view the video on YouTube.
Quinn, 23, was born in Indiana and has just graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Computer Science. In August he will be moving to Seattle to start a new job with Microsoft on their Windows Phone team.
He spoke with Conversations about Baconit, why he prefers developing for Windows Phone and why he can’t make up his mind between the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Lumia 900.
Where did your interest in programming and computers come from?
I’ve always liked to take things apart. As a kid we would walk to the park and one time we found this old radio that someone had put out. I would make use of anything that was broken with all kinds of buttons that you could push and play with. So I’ve always saved things and taken them apart.
Growing up, I think that all translated to computers. I liked messing about with them and got really intrigued by programming.
Before I even started on mobile, I programmed a few apps, which I enjoyed but no one ever got to use them because they were just on my personal site that no one knew about. With a mobile platform you can get your work out.
How would you describe Baconit?
It’s a Reddit client, but a lot of people don’t know what Reddit is and that’s a hard thing to explain on its own.
Reddit is a website where people send stories and submit content, and other users rate them. So the stuff that people like gets pushed to the top.
Then when you have your own account you can create subreddits for things you like, for example Windows Phone, technology or programming. People can then submit stories to those as well.
Your front page becomes a culmination of all the subreddits you like – your personalised news feed of sorts.
Baconit is a full featured, completely integrated WP client for Reddit. It displays everything that you see on the Reddit website but on a nice mobile interface. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to subreddits, check messages and do all kinds of stuff.
What was the inspiration behind Baconit?
I got my Windows Phone and the first thing I realised was that there wasn’t really a Reddit client that I enjoyed. There were three on the market already but they were slow and they didn’t work on Mango yet.
So I was using them but I told my friends that I bet I could make a better client than this because you couldn’t upload or download from the list of stories.
I made a mock up real quickly one night in October or November last year and everyone said, ‘oh, that’s pretty cool, you should make it’ so I made Baconit 1.0, which came onto the Market on December 25th. That was a very basic version and from there I have been improving it and rolling out new features.
What is the future plan for Baconit?
I’m really looking forward to porting Baconit to Windows Phone 8 because I love the Live Tiles and I can’t wait to use them for Baconit.
I love the new start screen because I have always wanted to change the size of the tiles. So I’m really looking forward to all the potential of WP8 and to make Baconit that much richer.
What Windows Phone do you have?
I have a Lumia 800 and I really like it. My girlfriend has a Lumia 900 and I really want one too but I love the curve glass thing on the 800. I really want the big screen on the 900 though so I’m really torn between the two.
Tags: None
lip
24
Going on holiday is supposed to be a pleasure but, let’s be honest, we have all had trips when it’s been a pain.
The potential for things to go wrong when you are in a strange and foreign land is almost limitless.
However, your Nokia Lumia can ensure that you are as well prepared as possible.
Whether you are lost, need to find a hotel at short notice or need some help with translation, we have selected ten apps to help you on your holiday.
Don’t forget your passport and don’t forget to pack these apps!
Being a tourist and haggling in a local market can be really good fun. It’s less fun when you realise that you’ve got your sums wrong and paid far too much for some tacky holiday keepsake.
Guard against such mistakes with the XE Currency converter. Set your ‘Home’ currency and then see what your money is worth against 10 other currencies.
You can get live rates for the very latest and most accurate conversions, but you can also use this app offline.
Trying to get my head around world time zones is enough to give me a headache. Who wants to have a headache on holiday?
A couple of nice features on this app are its nice map interface and also that it allows you to pin one or two Live Tiles on your start screen.
This is an extremely useful app to have anyway, but even more so when you are abroad.
You should be aware that data roaming charges are often expensive, so it can be best to use Wi-Fi wherever possible. You might even want to turn off your cellular data so you’re not confronted with a nasty bill when you get home.
This app offers shortcuts to your Lumia’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellular and Airplane Mode connectivity options. You can pin all or some of these to your start screen.
On any holiday, your time is limited so an app like this is helpful to ensure you are staying at a decent hotel and making the most of every meal at a good restaurant.
TripAdvisor has over 50 million reviews from fellow travellers that can help you to find the best places to eat or stay.
It also has a handy ‘Near Me’ function so, wherever you are, you can get the best recommendations.
No trip overseas is complete without absorbing a little local culture and history.
This app offers up-to-date information about museums, exhibitions and cultural events in cities around the world.
Each featured museum has information such as opening times, location, galleries and reviews, which you can write as well, if you are so inclined.
Using GPS, it can also show you museums that are closest to you.
This app definitely falls into the ‘better safe, than sorry’ category.
Search by continent and by country to find contact numbers for the local emergency services, such as police, fire and ambulance.
A simple app and hopefully you’ll never have to use, but it could be invaluable all the same.
Tripit, FREE
Back in the olden days, i.e. before I got my Nokia Lumia 800, I was accompanied on each and every trip by a transparent plastic folder.
Inside this folder were travel tickets, hotel reservation print outs, maps and the like.
Tripit is an app, which allows you to carry all this crucial information on your phone instead.
Unlike the plastic folder, Tripit can also send you alerts when your flight is delayed or the departure gate has been changed.
There are plenty of other free translator apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace but this one has the best reviews and it is easy to see why.
Speak a word or phrase into your Lumia and listen to the app give you a translation in a native accent.
Take a picture with the Lumia’s camera of a street sign or some text and this app will translate it for you.
Or, simply type in some text yourself and get it translated that way.
You can also download language packs to use the app when you’re offline.
This is an augmented reality (AR) based browser that comes into its own when you’re on holiday.
Hold your Lumia’s camera up to a landmark and the AR browser will tell you what you are looking at and give you easy access to information, reviews and other interactive content, from sources such as Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia.
This app can also be used to explore places of interest around you. For example, searching for a restaurant or a coffee shop.
It would be remiss of me not to mention that for mapping and transport tools, you really can’t get much better than Nokia Maps and Nokia Transport.
But this is a mapping app with a difference that could be especially informative when you’re on holiday.
By running in the background of your smartphone, this app will tell you where you have been, for how long and how far you have travelled.
So after a long day sightseeing, when you felt you must have walked miles, now you will have the proof to show for it.
Which apps are indispensable when you go on holiday? Let us know in the comments below.
Image credit: The Aslier
Tags: None
lip
23
Kilka razy pisaliśmy już o obniżkach cen telefonów. Tym razem wakacyjnie “rabatujemy” również popularny abonament Zobaczcie nowe promocje na telefony marki Nokia. Klienci, którzy skorzystają z ww. promocji i wybiorą telefon Nokia C5 lub Nokia 500 ze zobowiązaniem od 59 zł (LongPlay II 49) otrzymają rabat 100 % na pakiet danych 250 MB, przyznawany przez 12 [...]
Tags: None
lip
23
Kilka razy pisaliśmy już o obniżkach cen telefonów. Tym razem wakacyjnie “rabatujemy” również popularny abonament Zobaczcie nowe promocje na telefony marki Nokia. Klienci, którzy skorzystają z ww. promocji i wybiorą telefon Nokia C5 lub Nokia 500 ze zobowiązaniem od 59 zł (LongPlay II 49) otrzymają rabat 100 % na pakiet danych 250 MB, przyznawany przez 12 [...]
Tags: None
lip
21
Click here to view the video on YouTube.
One of your favourite apps for Nokia Lumia is Nokia Drive, which brings you the best turn-by-turn voice guided navigation experience and allows you to reach any destination safely and easily, even without a data connection.
Download Nokia Drive now 
- Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
- Scan the barcode
- Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
- Install the application from the Windows Phone Marketplace
We have also recently mentioned why we are going to offer Nokia Drive to all Windows Phone 8 partners and why Nokia is basically the world’s largest mapping company that continues to build momentum by rapidly and constantly improving its location-based applications.
Today we are excited to introduce an update to Nokia Drive, validating that if you have a Nokia Lumia you don’t have to wait for Windows Phone 8 to enjoy the following new features.
Make your commute smoother
As thoroughly explained in the video above, Nokia Drive with My Commute learns your driving preferences and uses information about the latest traffic conditions to help you choose between the different routes you usually take to get to the places you travel most. It even remembers when you usually leave, providing traffic updates along your route so you’ll know in advance whether there are delays or if you have time to stop by that new café on your way home.
This revolutionary feature is so new that we are going to roll it out selectively based on the available traffic data. We are then going to collect experiences that we can learn from and that will help us improving the service. The first country where My Commute is going to be available is the United States.
Automatic day/night mode for optimum visibility
Unless you are driving in Lapland in summer, when the sun never sets, you have to probably adjust your settings to day or night mode depending on the light conditions. This does not apply to Nokia Drive anymore: the app will automatically adjust your Nokia Lumia display for better viewing during day or night driving conditions, reducing potential distractions.
Pin to start: find your way with a tap
Last but not least, you can now pin to start your favourite destinations for one-tap access to directions there. This was one of the most requested features of Nokia Drive and we are happy to have implemented it in this update. We think this one of the best examples how to use the Windows Phone tiles: one tap on the start screen and you are all set to drive to your destination. It doesn’t get easier than that – no continuous search and browsing through different options and menus. What destination are you going to pin to start?
Nokia Drive runs on the Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900. The Windows Phone Marketplace will soon notify you of the available update or download it today, for free, following the instructions above.
Important notice: there might be a publishing delay (1-2 days) on Windows Phone Marketplace in your country or region. The new version of Nokia Drive is labelled as 3.0.0.0, so check for that version when you launch Windows Phone Marketplace. If you see 2.0.0.0, then it’s the old version of Nokia Drive. Just wait a bit until the Windows Phone Marketplace page updates. Thanks for your patience.
Tags: None
lip
21
Click here to view the video on YouTube.
One of your favourite apps for Nokia Lumia is Nokia Drive, which brings you the best turn-by-turn voice guided navigation experience and allows you to reach any destination safely and easily, even without a data connection.
Download Nokia Drive now
- Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
- Scan the barcode
- Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
- Install the application from the Windows Phone Marketplace
We have also recently mentioned why we are going to offer Nokia Drive to all Windows Phone 8 partners and why Nokia is basically the world’s largest mapping company that continues to build momentum by rapidly and constantly improving its location-based applications.
Today we are excited to introduce an update to Nokia Drive, validating that if you have a Nokia Lumia you don’t have to wait for Windows Phone 8 to enjoy the following new features.
Make your commute smoother
As thoroughly explained in the video above, Nokia Drive with My Commute learns your driving preferences and uses information about the latest traffic conditions to help you choose between the different routes you usually take to get to the places you travel most. It even remembers when you usually leave, providing traffic updates along your route so you’ll know in advance whether there are delays or if you have time to stop by that new café on your way home.
This revolutionary feature is so new that we are going to roll it out selectively based on the available traffic data. We are then going to collect experiences that we can learn from and that will help us improving the service. The first country where My Commute is going to be available is the United States.
Automatic day/night mode for optimum visibility
Unless you are driving in Lapland in summer, when the sun never sets, you have to probably adjust your settings to day or night mode depending on the light conditions. This does not apply to Nokia Drive anymore: the app will automatically adjust your Nokia Lumia display for better viewing during day or night driving conditions, reducing potential distractions.
Pin to start: find your way with a tap
Last but not least, you can now pin to start your favourite destinations for one-tap access to directions there. This was one of the most requested features of Nokia Drive and we are happy to have implemented it in this update. We think this one of the best examples how to use the Windows Phone tiles: one tap on the start screen and you are all set to drive to your destination. It doesn’t get easier than that – no continuous search and browsing through different options and menus. What destination are you going to pin to start?
Nokia Drive runs on the Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900. The Windows Phone Marketplace will soon notify you of the available update or download it today, for free, following the instructions above.
Important notice: there might be a publishing delay (1-2 days) on Windows Phone Marketplace in your country or region. The new version of Nokia Drive is labelled as 3.0.0.0, so check for that version when you launch Windows Phone Marketplace. If you see 2.0.0.0, then it’s the old version of Nokia Drive. Just wait a bit until the Windows Phone Marketplace page updates. Thanks for your patience.
Tags: None
lip
20
Play razem z agencją Grandes Kochonos przygotował kampanię promującą wakacyjną obniżkę wybranych smartfonów. „Wakacyjny zjazd cenowy” w Play obejmuje m.in. Nokię 500, która została przeceniona z 229zł na 1zł oraz wysokiej klasy smartfon Sony XperiaTM arc S, którego cena została obniżona z 579zł również na 1zł. Nokia 500 posiada kolorowe, wymienne obudowy, które można dopasowywać [...]
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lip
20
Od jutra w sklepie internetowym obowiązuje weekendowy zjazd cenowy w rozmiarze XL! Ceny telefonów spadają nawet o 1000 zł 
HTC Sensation XL Solo z Beatsaudio HTC Sensation XL z Beatsaudio Cennik Przypominamy relację z premiery HTC z rodziny Beats Audio 
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