Face your phone while it charges wirelessly: http://nokia.ly/Q7xJPO Simply place your phone on the stand to start charging without having to plug in your phone. At the same time you can use your phone in portrait mode.
The mobile operator "MTS Ukraine" provided statistics on the use of communications services owners of smartphones running the popular mobile operating systems.
As noted by the operator at the end of the third quarter of 2012 in its network, there were almost 3 million smartphones, which is 1 million more than last year. Thus, the number of new smart phones that are registered in the network in one year exceeded the number of new subscribers during the same period (about 800 thousand).
While still on the market is dominated by devices based on the platform Symbian, the most dynamic growth demonstrate smartphones running OS Android, the number of which, compared to the same period last year increased by five times. Devices on iOS and bada has doubled, but the smartphones' OSes »Windows has increased by only 12%.
The number of smartphones in the MTS network in early September 2012 (top 5 most popular OS):
Symbian - 1600 thousand.; Android - 640 thousand piece. iOS - 221 thousand piece. bada - 207 thousand piece. Windows Phone / Mobile - 91 thousand. Owners of smartphones and tablets running Android and iOS are the most active users of mobile Internet services - on average they use about 1 GB of traffic per month. Following them in the ranking are fans of bada. It is these operating systems are leaders in the use of services to reduce the cost of Internet access - "NET at" and a package of Internet traffic.
During a recent announcement smartphone Nokia Lumia 820 was announced that the device will come with removable panels. And now the Finnish company said what exactly options will be offered. So, you can purchase a standard rear panels of polycarbonate: red, yellow, blue, purple or white (glossy) or gray and black (matte).
You can also supplement the Nokia Lumia 820 back panels for wireless induction charging: white, yellow, black, red and blue, all frosted and made of polycarbonate. They can be used to charge the smartphone wirelessly according to Qi, placed on special charging docking stations from Nokia or connect to speakers JBL PowerUp.
Finally, reinforced panels are available in green, orange and yellow colors - matte with a black border. These panels are a little thicker than the others, but it provides the best protection against shell damage, including covering angles of the unit. Release removable panels will be held simultaneously with the start of sales of Nokia Lumia 820.
When it comes to following the latest business news or managing your finances and being ‘in the know’, you want information on your companies and your portfolio right now. Bloomberg, the most-trusted name in business and finance has provided the answer. The brand new, exclusive on Windows Phone Bloomberg Hub is the one-stop app for getting all your business and finance information in a single place. The Bloomberg Hub for Nokia Lumia brings all the Bloomberg properties together to Nokia Lumia to keep market watchers current with personalized business and finance news, global market data and portfolio tracking tools.
Take a look at all the innovative features found in the Bloomberg Hub:
Personalized news, portfolio tracking and breaking news alerts. Customized watchlists for stocks, mutual funds, bonds, ETF’s and more. Download your favorite Bloomberg TV and Radio shows to enjoy offline. Deep pin Live Tiles for stocks, bonds, indices, futures and currencies. Coming from 35 news categories including Economy, Politics, Technology, Bloomberg brings the latest to your phone so you can be empowered to make your financial decisions with the latest insights.
Are you addicted to Bloomberg TV? The Bloomberg Hub app gives you on-demand video access to all the biggest stories right now. Plus, check out favorites including Charlie Rose, Bloomberg West or Sportfolio. Also, the last days’ worth of top financial news clips can be watched just in case you missed something.
If you want to catch up with the news but only wants listen to audio, Bloomberg Radio is there for you, straight in the application with access to shows such as
Bloomberg Surveillance with Tom Keene A Closer Look with Arthur Levitt The Final Word with Ken Prewitt No matter how you want to consume your Bloomberg news or follow your portfolio, the Bloomberg app has you covered. The Bloomberg Hub application is a Nokia Lumia Exclusive and can be found in Marketplace.
What’s your favorite feature of the Bloomberg app?
Important notice: there might be a publishing delay (1-2 days) on Windows Phone Store. Just wait a bit until the Windows Phone Store page updates. Thanks for your patience.
We are hearing more and more about NFC, and the momentum will keep on building especially since it was announced that the Nokia Lumia 920and Lumia 820 will both have NFC connectivity.
So what is it?
NFC, which stands stands for Near Field Communication, is a short-range wireless technology that allows a device, such as a smartphone, to interact and communicate with other objects that are also NFC-enabled or have NFC tags.
For example, the new Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 will be able to connect with NFC to a range of accessories, such as the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker. There’s no need for wires or doing anything technical – you just tap your phone on the speaker to pair them up.
Beyond, pairing your smartphone with funky accessories, there are plenty of other potential applications for NFC. Every time a Londoner uses their ‘Oyster card’ to travel on the Tube or a bus, they are using RFID, NFC’s older brother.
Among many others, NFC can also be used for:
Cashless payments
In advertising on ‘intelligent’ billboards
As a way of tracking an asset
Monitoring attendance
Tickets
Loyalty or membership cards
To find out more about NFC, we spoke to Derek Greene, the founder of track4services.com, a company based in the UK and Finland that has pioneered the use of NFC in areas ranging from public transport to advertising.
By happy coincidence, Derek started his work on NFC with Nokia, and has a long history with the company, so he should feel right at home here on Conversations.
What are the origins of NFC and how does it work?
It goes back to Michael Faraday, who made lots of discoveries on electricity. He realised that you could send energy over a radio wave.
You use it every day when you use your Oyster card. There is an emission from the Oyster card reader, the yellow plate on the tube or on the bus, which energises the antenna inside the Oyster card.
A forerunner of NFC is radio frequency identification (RFID) and that’s been in use for packaging and logistics for about 30 years but it has been incredibly expensive. For example, you can scan an entrance port to a warehouse and everything that goes through will be automatically read and there will be a big powerful gate emitting this energy.
Now, we all have a mobile phone and that is emitting the energy. So the tag can be fixed because the infrastructure is the phone.
How does NFC differ from Bluetooth?
Bluetooth, let’s face it, can reduce you to tears trying to get it to pair with another item. With NFC, it is always on; the security is provided by the fact you have to be near to something.
Bluetooth typically has a 10m range so you have to have a secure pairing, with passwords or a number. It’s got better but it has always been quite a difficult technology.
Another thing is that it tends to get crowded out – there’s lot of people with Bluetooth and if there’s lot of people around, it tends to stop working.
Will NFC drain your battery if it’s always on? And how closely do you have to hold your phone to connect via NFC?
NFC’s energy consumption is miniscule. It literally has no effect on day-to-day use.
Picture the size of the ping-pong ball – the NFC range is half of that. So you do have to physically touch it but in human terms it is very intuitive. You don’t need to do anything. You just see the NFC icon and you touch it.
In which areas are you seeing NFC being used a lot?
The area with the biggest use of NFC for us is advertising. Billboards will have NFC tags and they are then associated with whatever is on the billboard.
The benefits to the advertising industry is that it is transforming what is a visual paper medium, out of the home, which is great for awareness, but is poor when it has to compete with the likes of Google because it doesn’t have a digital element.
Do you sense that NFC is really starting to take off now?
I don’t think take off is the right phrase but we are at least building the airplanes now. NFC is simple to use, but it is also easy to do it wrong.
I was the first agent to promote NFC in the UK. Nokia trained me up about 5 years ago but the market wasn’t right back then. The tags were very expensive and the phones didn’t materialise so we had a stop-start relationship, which was terrible in terms of trying to attract investment and get the commitments that people have to make.
Having NFC on our phones should make a big difference, right?
It is the convergence of technology on smartphones. Our phones are already crucial to our lives and now with NFC if you happen to see a NFC tag at a bus stop then you can touch it, and there’s no need to download the app or do anything.
For example, lots of young people have grown with their phones and won’t have any problems putting in long URLs manually but for other people it gets to a point where doing things like that becomes a hassle.
NFC is going to be genuinely hassle-free. You touch it and it just works. It is very, very cool.
Summary: Asus' Windows 8 tablet pricing will start at $599 and run to $1,299. In other words, tablets will be more than laptops in some cases without any enterprise heft to justify a premium.
Asus has a trio of Windows 8 tablets on deck for the holidays, but the pricing is so high---$599 to $1,299 for a hybrid---that it's going to be nearly impossible to compete in the marketplace.
We were leaked Asus' holiday roadmap and the slide below tells the tale.
Asus isn't a business brand yet it is pricing its Windows tablet as if there were some enterprise secret sauce. Asus roadmap only highlighted upcoming products not the big sales pitch to differentiate these tablets.
Also included in Asus' roadmap are details about 12 and 13-inch laptops. What's truly odd is that one laptop is $549 and the next-gen Transformer is $1,399. The Transformer Book is billed as "one device for two personalities between tablet and notebook."
Consumers will balk at these tablet prices and a) either opt for a laptop or b) go with a cheaper tablet such as Apple's iPad or any variety of Android.
The roadmap here is preliminary in that Asus could change its pricing before the tablets launch along with Windows 8. But if the pricing sticks these tablets could have rough sledding ahead. Given the pricing fumbles of OEMs, it's no wonder that Microsoft has cooked up its Surface tablet. After all, Microsoft has the resources to lose money---just look at the billions lost in the search wars---in the name of market share.
When Nokia launched their Lumia 920 smartphone using faked video and photos, it didn't take long for their trickery to be exposed. In this exclusive hands on preview, Nokia's brand recovery specialist Lars show off the Lumia 920 and some of its deceptively good (and not particularly useful) features.
Here is a really nice Specs Sheet comparison between the Innovative Nokia Lumia 920 and the mediorce Apple iPhone5.
As you can see, the Lumia 920 does quite a number on the iPhone5, a bigger 4.5inch screen, dual LED flash, a bigger cloud ctorage, PureView camera with Carl Zeiss lens, super sensitive synaptics touch screen, a bigger battery, array of exclusive and very useful Nokia Apps, wireless charging and more, much more.
The company HTC has created a page on its website dedicated to the new smartphone HTC Elation under the operating system Windows Phone 8. Now, however, the page has been removed - it is, apparently, was established early, even before the official announcement of the device. However, the resource UbuntuLife managed to save a screenshot with the image and the model. It is expected that HTC Elation will be presented at a presentation in New York on 19 September.
As stated on the manufacturer's website, the new model features a dual-core processor with a clock speed of 1.4 GHz and is equipped with 4.7-inch touch screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. Also among the features of the device - 1 GB RAM, 32 GB of internal memory, support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC and a host of sensors: gyroscope, G-sensor, light, distance, and digital compass. The device works in networks GSM and HSDPA.
The network has already appeared information that the first smartphone based on Huawei's new operating system Windows Phone 8 will be released before the end of the year, and are now available some of the details in this regard. Chinese resource Winp reported that the model is called the Huawei Ascend W1 and its announcement will take place next week - September 25. As for putting on sale, it is scheduled for November or December. According to the source, China's Huawei Ascend W1 will be sold for 2,000 yuan (about $ 310). In addition, the model will be released in other regions, including Europe and the U.S.. While no details about the characteristics of the device, and it is not clear how it will look. We only know that the smartphone will be available in black, white, blue and pink colors.
The newly announced Nokia Lumia 820 comes packed with some great features, a 4.3 inch ClearBlack OLED screen, an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics and wireless charging – thanks to the interchangeable shells. These interchangeable shells play a big role in the look of the phone, and more importantly, certain functions of the phone. The brightly coloured shells are more than plastic covers; they activate the wireless charging function or protect your phone if you’re more of an active user. Each one is created to suit a person’s different needs without the need to change your phone.
“We’ve moved beyond just changing the colour of your phone. People can now decide how they want to use their phone, by doing something as simple as changing a shell to add a function.”
Explains Tuomas Reivo, Lead Designer on the Nokia Lumia 820.
Made from PC/ABS – a material that was developed to make the shells easy to clip on and off and remain strong at the same time – they allow for easy removal whenever needed. And the colours aren’t just painted on; they are inherent in the material. This means that if you were to scratch the shell you won’t be left with a noticeable mark, you’ll actually hardly notice it’s there. It keeps its colour for longer.
When you buy a Nokia Lumia 820 you’ll receive a standard shell in the box, made from the PC/ABS material. High gloss colours available are red, yellow, cyan, purple, and white. Matte colours are grey and black.
To take advantage of the wireless charging function you’ll need to purchase the Wireless Charging shell. With this connected to your Lumia 820, you can place your phone on a Nokia Wireless Charging Plate, Nokia Wireless Charging Stand, the Fatboy™ Recharge Pillow, or the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker. These are available in five matte colours: white, yellow, black, red and cyan – all matte and made from PC/ABS.
If you’re more heavy-handed with your phones, if you have a more active life-style or just want to make sure your phone is protected at any point, there is a ruggedised shell too.
Rather than using a solid, rigid, plastic case like you find on some other phones, this protective shell is built to protect all parts of the phone without making it too bulky. It’s the same width and same length as the other shells, but only a fraction thicker.
This softer shell is also made from PC/ABS but has another rubber-like material around the front and the edges. It covers the back, as you’d expect but also stretches around the front slightly to protect the edges of the screen and the corners – the most at risk area if you drop your phone. These will be available in matte yellow, green and orange with a black TPU trim.
The range of interchangeable shells will be available at launch of the Nokia Lumia 820.
How much do you love Nokia? Are you ready to call yourself a serious fan of Lumia? How about getting up at 3 a.m. to drive 400 miles to be among the first to check out the brand new Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 smartphones with Windows Phone 8? Aaron Hall from Youngstown, Ohio, did just that. The 32-year old system administrator saw the invitation for Nokia’s evening event following the announcement of the new devices in New York. He RSVP’d, got the day off from his boss and got into his Nissan Altima to drive seven hours across the eastern U.S.
“I worked seven days a week since Memorial Day so this is my time off,” Aaron explains to us when Nokia Conversations sat down for a chat.
He was the very first one to stand in line for the fan event, which opened at 6pm. A few friendly Nokia employees tried to make the waiting a little more comfortable, bringing him a chair and some lunch from a nearby restaurant.
“I originally wanted the Nokia Lumia 900 but I’m not eligible for an upgrade until December. Now I have my sights on the Lumia 920 – I want the red one,” he says.
Aaron says he used to only buy HTC phones but was disappointed by the lack of support from the company: “They just release a phone but never update it.”
He says this is a big contrast between Nokia and a lot of the other players in the industry.
“You guys understand what it’s all about. When you realized you had a data connection issue with the Nokia Lumia 900 you took care of it – and fast. Since then you’ve released other updates. Not a lot of companies act that way.”
Aaron can’t wait to get his hands on the Nokia Lumia 920, and he loves the style. “It’s unique and stands out,” he says.
He’s also excited about the PureView camera and OIS technology. “I see this as a killer feature. I think it will really stand out and I can’t wait to be able to show it off to all my friends.”
He admits that he would’ve loved to see more megapixels, maybe a whopping 41 megapixels like in the Nokia 808 PureView. “But I’m technical enough to understand that it’s not about pixels, it’s about quality,” he says.
Aaron left the event tooting a Nokia Play 360° Wireless Speaker and a Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster. We can’t wait for him to hook them up to his Nokia Lumia 920.
The electronics giant Sony is Microsoft's operating system Windows Phone 8 is not playing on his cell phone. Its own system but it should not give, Sony focuses on Google's Android software.
The Japanese electronics giant Sony has the American software giant Microsoft a rebuff and do not want the new smartphone operating system, Windows Phone 8 incorporate them into his mobile. "We have no current plans for it," said Kunimasa Suzuki, head of Sony Mobile, in an interview with the "world".
The Group closed but not fundamentally different systems when they were open, so Suzuki. Sony Mobile currently offers its smartphones with the Google software on Android.
Own system includes the Sony -made Mobile CEO: "We are not planning to equip our smartphones with its own operating system." In fact there had been in the past to such considerations.
Sony for example, operates the Playstation game console with its own software. "Maybe we'll turn it into an operating system for mobile devices," said the end of February Sony boss Hirai Kazuro the "Welt am Sonntag". These plans have now apparently rejected.
No fear Apple
Sony looks to be no danger in patent disputes, which are currently held in the industry. Also, the dispute between Apple and Samsung, in which a California court Samsung for patent infringement, a payment of one billion dollars to Apple has condemned, had no impact on Sony.
"We are not afraid of lawsuits, because we have an extensive portfolio of intellectual property rights," said Suzuki. The first touchscreen smartphone Ericsson have introduced back in 2003. For smartphone manufacturer it is increasingly important to have a large body of own patents to defend themselves against the threat of lawsuits can.
Sony Mobile currently plugged into a deep restructuring. In mid-February, Sony has paid the Swedish network equipment maker Ericsson and acquired the mobile business from Sony Ericsson for a billion euros in full.
Now the company has announced to cancel 1,000 jobs mainly in Sweden until March 2014, which represents about 15 percent of the workforce. The headquarters will be moved from Sweden to Tokyo. Susuki defended the relocation. "It's the right decision, because the only way we get to a real integration."
Suspended in the smartphone market
Sony has great difficulty with his smartphone against rivals like Samsung or Apple to say. In statistics, the research firm Gartner, Sony appeared among the ten largest manufacturers of mobile phones on no longer. The market share is steadily shrinking.
In Sony's first fiscal quarter, which ended in June, the group had to identify the segment of mobile products a loss of almost $ 360 million. "We will reduce the cost by erecting our structure more efficient and bring our products to market faster," said Suzuki.
Through coordination processes with partners, the joint venture Sony Ericsson have lost valuable time during product development. This is now no longer the case. "Sony Mobile can now access the resources of the Group in the areas of film, photography and games," said Suzuki.
"All devices are connected to each other"
This was more complicated in the past. In addition, the division is now benefiting from Sony's sales, marketing and purchasing power. Especially in emerging markets, Sony is better represented than it was Sony Ericsson.
Sony been working for years, the company divisions stronger together. Too often departments had been working against each other rather than with each other. Suzuki is now to ensure transparency.
Sony boss Hirai has delegated next to the Principals for Sony Mobile is also responsible for the overall product strategy of the Group. Already belong to Sony Mobile not only smartphones, but also tablets and computers. "All devices are connected to each other, so we need a more horizontal organization," said Suzuki.
What is the next big app out there? The one application that will spur a revolution and perhaps change the way we work and play? We at the AppCampus program are trying to foster the creation of new innovative apps for Windows Phone, and Nokia platforms. AppCampus is led and managed by Aalto University in Finland, and funded by Nokia and Microsoft. The basic idea is this: share your awesome idea or concept for a truly innovative mobile app and AppCampus might help you realize it with funding, coaching and any other help needed.
AppCampus is currently exhibiting at the Tech Crunch Disrupt 2012 expo in San Francisco and is attracting some of the best and brightest developers in the world.
Many projects already in the pipeline
“We’ve already received approximately 1,000 applications from 64 different countries,” says Pekka Sivonen, Head of AppCampus.
“This is the first time we’re having an official presence at an event, and we can’t wait to work with more developers at different events going forward.”
Pekka tells us that there are already 41 projects in the pipeline that have been approved and financed. In total, these 41 companies have received over $1.2 million in funding, but not to worry – there’s still more than $21 million left for what Pekka calls “truly novel ideas that are not yet available.”
So how does AppCampus work? You submit your idea via the AppCampus website – a process that shouldn’t take more than an hour. Within two to four weeks you’ll get an initial response: Thumbs up, thumbs down … or maybe.
If selected your project will get a cash injection depending on the complexity and use of backend services such as Nokia Maps, Near Field Communication and imaging. Pekka explains that they’re on the lookout for “first to market ideas that don’t exist in any other marketplace today.”
Show us something disruptive
But it’s not all about cash. AppCampus also helps with coaching from Nokia and Microsoft, and with something as basic as office space, creating a business plan or planning go-to-market promotion. AppCampus consists of a team of eight people with a combined experience of 100+ years in mobile software. These are the kind of guys you want on your side.
“We’re getting a strong interest at TechCrunch Disrupt, not only from developers but also from angel investors that see this as a really strong value proposition,” says Pekka.
Nokia and App Campus also sponsored the prize for ‘The Most Disruptive Mobile Application Concept’ shown at Disrupt 2012. The winner, Livebolt, received $50,000.00 and a place in the AppCampus program.
Livebolt created a cloud based identity management system that consists of a block that slides on the back of the lock. That block links to an app that lets you authorize a piece of metal that actually locks and unlocks the door.
MOLOME, a photo editing and sharing app, is the latest to achieve 1 million downloads at the Nokia Store.
Available on Nokia Belle and Nokia MeeGo smartphones, it’s no surprise that this app has finally reached this momentous stage. Its easy to use interface and filtering effects make this a must-have app for anybody wanting to spice up a photo and share it with their friends and as well as an engaged community.
We caught up with founder of MOLOME, Sittiphol Phanvilai to find out how he feels about reaching this milestone.
Reaching 1 million downloads must feel good, right?
“I am totally happy right now!”
You may see MOLOME as just another app with filter effects, but there’s more to it than that, explains Sittiphol.
“MOLOME is not just a photo sharing social network appellation, it also has a Gamification and cross-platform offering. The game aspect of MOLOME allows users to collect badges when they upload photos as a reward and also join in a monthly campaign. And cross-platform means that we plan to make it available on everysingle possible mobile platform.”
We wondered what it must feel like having reached 1 million downloads for an app that’s free. If he received a dollar for every download…
“Nice idea. One million dollars? Wow! As nice of an idea that is, I’ve still got no plans to turn this into a paid app. I don’t think it’s easy to sell apps anymore. I prefer the model of distributing the app for free and gaining some money from another way; in-app purchases, for example.”
“At the moment you might not see any options like this in MOLOME, but you will shortly.”
When creating an app, Sittiphol tells us that it’s important to listen to your users.
“Our users are always giving us advice and we find it invaluable. They let us know of any bugs, new features they’d like to see and sometimes just praise on the app. Using customer feedback is the best way of knowing what parts need improving.”
Having a successful app doesn’t happen by chance. Sittiphol believes there are many reasons why MOLOME has reached 1 million downloads but gives four main reasons.
Choose the right platform – We first released MOLOME on the Nokia Store back in early 2011. Nokia has so many incredible camera phones in the portfolio that a photo-sharing app for these just made sense.
Great support from Nokia – Nokia Thailand and Nokia Global has helped us a lot on promoting the app in their channels.
Listen and learn – We always listen to the feedback we get from the users of MOLOME and we improve it as fast as we can.
Social Network power – If you want people to share their images, you have to make it easy for them to do it. That’s what MOLOME allows you to share to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, VK, Picasa, Dropbox and Google Drive.
Having created a successful app in MOLOME, what’s next?
“We do have something in the pipeline. Something related to MOLO, the owl from MOLOME. That’s all I’m saying for now, stay tuned!”
Congratulations to MOLOME on reaching 1 million downloads and we wish them more success in the future.
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.
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.
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.
YouTube is one of the wonders of the digital world. If something has been filmed, whether it is a music video, a political speech or a home movie then the chances are it’s available to watch on YouTube. The numbers alone are enough to make your head pop. According to YouTube’s own statistics:
Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month Over 4 billion hours of video are watch each month 72 hours of video are uploaded every hour Mobile devices have played a big hand in these numbers as well. Over 20% of all YouTube’s views are from mobile devices and three hours of video is uploaded to the video-sharing site from mobile devices every minute.
YouTube on your Lumia
Your Nokia Lumia smartphones, with their fantastic screens, are an ideal way of watching YouTube when you are on the move – or even when you’re just sitting around the house!
There is an official YouTube app in the Windows Phone Marketplace for your Nokia Lumia but it is little more than a link to the mobile web version of YouTube. It works well enough and it’s fine for watching videos but it’s just not very exciting, is it?
You are left with the feeling that the app could be so much more. Thankfully, that’s where the independent developers come in. Here’s a pick of some of the third party YouTube apps for your Lumia. Happy watching.
easyTube, £.079p
This is a paid for app, but you can also try it out without any limitations on its features but you will see ads.
easyTube has a slick interface, supports your YouTube account and there is also integration with social networks so you share clips with friends. Perhaps best of all is that you can download clips to your Lumia and arrange them in different folders.
You can also record your own videos within the app and then upload them to YouTube.
Metrotube, FREE
Metrotube is everything you wanted the official YouTube app to be. It is a beautiful app that chimes perfectly with the Windows Phone interface.
Once you’ve logged in with your YouTube account you could be mistaken for thinking that this is the official YouTube app. You can watch your favourites, your subscription videos or your playlists – all of which you can also pin to your start screen.
Sometimes an app just works and you don’t need tonnes of fancy features to be impressed by it. Metrotube is such an example. There’s no downloading or uploading, but for just watching YouTube, it is a delight.
PrimeTube, FREE
PrimeTube is a cross between Metrotube and easyTube. It has the great Windows Phone-style interface of the former with some of the added functionality of the latter.
Again, this app serves you better if you do have a YouTube account so you can access all your favourites and subscriptions. Particularly useful is that your subscription videos get their own screen (most viewed and trending are the others) when the app starts up.
You can also record and upload videos, although you can’t download them. You can pin videos, playlists and authors, with live tile support, to the start screen.
Tube Pro, FREE
Tube Pro is another app that supports recording and uploading of your own videos to YouTube. You can also download videos to your Lumia.
There are a few nice features that set it apart, such as different themes and backgrounds and the location function, which shows you the videos in your area. If you are listening to a music video or concert recording then the app will play the audio underneath the lock screen.
Udownldr, FREE
I like this app purely on the basis that it doesn’t feature the word ‘tube’ in its title. As its name suggests, Udownldr has been developed in mind to make it easy for you to download, as well as watch, YouTube videos.
MP3 Tube, FREE
This is a YouTube downloading app with a difference. It downloads YouTube videos and converts them into MP3 audio files. Dare I suggest that this could work quite well for music videos?
Within the app, you listen to the MP3 and create a playlist of your downloaded files. You can also edit your MP3 files to create ringtones for your Lumia.
MegaTube, FREE
MegaTube does not currently support your YouTube account login or video uploading, but the developer says these will come with future updates.
What MegaTube does allow you to do is search, watch and download videos. Perhaps the one thing that sets this apart is the choice of feeds – you can see the most shared, most popular, most recent, most discussed, trending videos etc.
Reading the comments or browsing through the author information while you are watching a video also works well on this app.
phoneTUBE, FREE
This app takes a somewhat niche approach to the abundance of content available on YouTube. It has selected the full-length movies that are available on the site and essentially created a free film service for your Lumia.
It’s a good idea in principle but you may become frustrated at the limited choice on offer, although the developer has promised to keep his list updated.
If this sounds like something you might be interested in, then you might want to give Crackle a try.
