Microsoft unveils third Windows Phone 8 update with large display support

Microsoft has finally announced the much-anticipated third update for Windows Phone 8. The company also mentions that the new update will be rolled out in the coming weeks and will be counting for some months depending on the carrier and phone models. However, the company has not detailed anything about region-specific rollouts of the latest third Windows Phone update.

The new update, previously thoughts to be called the Windows Phone GDR3 update, brings some of the most awaited features to the Windows Phone platform that includes support for bigger display (5-inch and 6-inch displays) that will now house six Live Tiles instead of four, as found in previous version; support for higher resolution (full-HD or 1080p) displays, which paves the way for yet to be released Windows Phone devices (like rumoured Nokia Lumia 1520); support for more powerful processors, like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor, and improvements in Internet sharing, which now adds a pairing feature for a Windows Phone 8 device and Windows 8.1 PC or tablet over Bluetooth for sharing cellular data via W-Fi hotspot.

The third Windows Phone 8 update also adds more ‘Mobile Accessibility’ features for Windows Phone 8 devices, including a suite of apps like screen reader, meant for the convenience of blind and visually impaired users, allowing them to manage calls, contacts, texts, emails and also hear notification like calendar, alarm, events and low-battery warnings.

The latest update for the Windows Phone 8 platform brings a new Driving Mode feature that will limit notifications for calls, texts and emails on the phone’s lock screen while driving. This feature can also be set for automatic replies to contacts for calls and texts while driving.

There are some minor changes added to the third WP8 update that include custom ringtones for messages, emails, voicemails, reminders and contacts; new rotation lock option to keep the device’s screen in place while using it; new storage management feature that will allow users to free up space on the phone and manage temporary files; app switcher to close background apps; enhancements in connection quality for Bluetooth-attached accessories and finally a user will be prompted to set Wi-Fi during phone startup process.

Darren Laybourn, Corporate Vice President, Windows Phone further adds in a blog post, "When we sat down to plan our latest official update to Windows Phone 8, we had three main engineering goals in mind - enable incredible new Windows Phone devices, enhance the platform with new capabilities for current users and partners and improve overall quality." 

Rumoured Nokia Lumia 1520 leaks again, pictured alongside Apple iPhone 4S

Images of Nokia’s much-anticipated phablet, the Lumia 1520 have once again surfaced online.

WMPowereuser has posted a couple of images of alleged Nokia Lumia 1520 once again confirming that the upcoming phablet would offer extra columns and rows for apps, very much in-line with previous reports.

The leaked images show the alleged Nokia Lumia 1520 pictured alongside the Apple’s iPhone 4S and a Lumia sibling. The leaked image did not reveal any details about the yet to be officially announced Lumia 1520 phone expect indicating its expected size.

Additionally, the site suggest that the alleged Lumia 1520 will borrow the rear panel features of the Nokia Lumia 925 to accommodate the camera and also to sport the 6 element OIS (optical image stabilizer) lens assembly.

Rumoured specifications of Nokia Lumia 1520 include a 6-inch full-HD display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, a nano-SIM and a microSD card slot. The device has also been expected to ship with a 20-megapixel rear camera.

Meanwhile, Nokia is expected to unveil six new devices at its October 22 event, due to hold at Nokia World in Abu Dhabi, according to a recent report.

The report further suggested that Nokia might unveil the long-rumoured Lumia 1520 phablet along with company’s first Windows RT tablet, the Lumia 2520.

Other Nokia devices expected to be unveiled at Nokia World include the Lumia 525, which is said to be the successor to the Lumia 520; Nokia Asha 502, the successor to the popular Asha 501 and treasure Tag, likely to work with Bluetooth 4.0 and Bluetooth low energy standards. 

Windows Phone gains in Europe, iOS up in US: Survey

Windows-based smartphones are making significant inroads in Europe, while Apple’s iPhone is strengthening its position in the United States, a survey showed Monday.

Data from Kantar World panel ComTech for three month ending in August Showed Windows Phone, the mobile platform from Microsoft, has posted its highest ever sales share of 9.2 percent in the five major Europe markets.

Windows had a 12 percent share in Britain, 10.8 percent in France, 9.5 percent in Italy, 8.8 percent in Germany and 2.2 percent in Spain, the survey found.

“Windows Phone’s latest wave of growth is being driven by Nokia’s expansion into the low and mid range market with the Lumia 520 and Lumia 620 handsets,” said Kantar analyst Dominic Sunnebo.

“These models are hitting the sweet spot with 16 to 24 years-olds and 35 to 49 years-olds, two key groups that look for a balance of price and functionality in their smartphone,” he said.

Android, the Google platform used by Samsung and several other manufacturers, remains the top operating system across Europe with a 70 percent market share but it is being threatened by higher growth from Windows and Apple’s iOS, the survey found.

“After years of increasing market share, Android has now reached a point where significant growth in developed markets is becoming harder to find, “Sunnebo said.

“Android’s growth has been spearheaded by Samsung, but the manufacturer is now seeing its share of sales across the major European economic dip year as a sustained comeback from Sony, Nokia and LG begins to broaden the competitive landscape.

In the United States, Android has also seen its market share drop to 55.8 percent from 60.7 percent a year earlier, while Apple’s share was up more than five percentage points at 39.3 percent. Windows rose to 3.0 percent from 2.6 percent.

Kantar said it expects Apple’s share “to spike in the coming months with the release of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5C,” unveiled on September 20.

Apple and Android are roughly even in Japan with 48.6 percent for iOS and 47.4 percent for Android. But the agreement with Japan’s largest carrier, NTT DoCoMo, for the first time makes it likely that Apple will pull ahead of Android in this market, according to Kantar.

Apple also made strong gains in Britain, France and Spain, the survey found.

Blackberry’s woes have deepened, with the Canadian firm accounting for just 2.4 percent of sales across the five European markets and 1.8 percent in the United States, Kantar said. 

Huawei Ascend W3 Windows Phone spotted in leaked images

Huawei has managed to make its presence known this year with a few of its Android-based smart phone. However, it seems that the China-based company is getting ready to unveil a new Windows Phone device.

Huawei’s expected third-generation of Window Phone 8 devices; the Ascend W3 has been spotted leaked images. The images of the alleged Huawei Ascend W3 were leaked from china and were first reported by GSMinsider which notes that the alleged Windows Phone device will come in two color models – Blue and Yellow. The leaked images show the Ascend W3’s front panel with Live Tiles and Huawei logo branding on top beneath the earpiece alongside the front-facing camera.

The rear panel of the device sports a camera and comes again with a Huawei logo branding in the centre. Presently, there is no word about the innards of the device. However, the site notes that alleged Ascend W3 will support multiple LTE networks in China.

This is not the first Windows Phone that Huawei has manufactured till now. The company had launched Ascend W2 earlier this year at the Mobile Asia Expo 2013. Ascend W2 was the successor to Huawei Ascend W1, which was launched in January.

The Huawei Ascend W2 is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8230 Snapdragon S4 Plus processor with a dual-core clocked at 1.4GHz along with Adreno 305 GPU. It comes with 512MB of RAM and 8GB of inbuilt storage, which can be further expanded by up to 32GB through a microSD card. Huawei Ascend W2 features a 4.3-inch display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels.

On the other hand, the Huawei Ascend W1 comes with a 4-inch LCD display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels with OGS Technology. The device is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8230 processor and 512 MB RAM. It sports a 5-megapixel auto-focus rear camera with LED flash and a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It includes 4GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 32GB through microSD card. It is backed by a 1950mAh battery.

New Windows Phone 8 GDR 2 update rolling out - select non Nokia phones

More than two months after Microsoft announced the GDR 2 update for Windows Phone 8, the software update appears to be finally rolling out to HTC 8X and Samsung Ativ S smartphones.

Various online reports including one by WP Central(http://www.wpcentral.com/htc-8x-getting-gdr2-os-update-today) and comments on online forums by several users have confirmed the development.

Users who own an HTC 8X phone can check for the availability of the update through the 'Phone Update' option in the phone's Settings menu. The update can be downloaded over the air or through Windows Phone desktop software.

It's worth pointing out that the update has not yet hit Nokia's phones as the company is expected to roll out its own Amber update that also brings some additional functionality, in August.

However, the update is expected to reach other Non-Nokia phones later this month.

The update brings features like FM radio and adds CalDAV and CardDav support, which extend support for Gmail and other Google services. It activates FM radio in handsets that feature capable hardware. It's interesting to note that Windows Phone 7.x supported FM radio while Windows Phone 8 did not have this feature until this update. Nokia's new lineup of smartphones (barring the Lumia 620) sport FM hardware that will become functional after the update. The HTC 8X also features an FM tuner that gets activated after the update.

As we pointed out earlier, the update brings support for the protocols CalDAV (for Calendars) and CardDAV (for Contacts), which, when combined with IMAP (for Email, already in Windows Phone 8) will be able to fully replace the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol, to synchronise email, contacts, and calendar with Google and other services that support these protocols. The update's rollout was expected as Google had earlier announced that it would cease support for its Google Sync service for new users starting 30th January 2013, later extending the date to 31st July. This would've meant Windows Phone users won't have been able to setup their Google account on the OS beyond this 'sunset date'.

The update also brings some changes to Xbox Music making it easier to select, download, and pin tunes in Xbox Music and improves the accuracy of song information and other metadata. It will also extend the Data Sense feature of Windows Phone 8 to more telecom operators.

Nokia’s Battles Apple and Google With Megapixels

These are the days in Helsinki when the sun never seems to set. So maybe it’s not so surprising that Stephen Elop, the CEO of the beleaguered Finnish phone giant Nokia, rejects the conventional wisdom that his company is as lifeless as the salted cod served in local restaurants. Instead, he sees a moment ripe with opportunity.

Apple’s pioneering iPhone has not seen a major reset in many months. Samsung, the dominant player in the Android system, just released a flagship phone with a chaotic blur of features, none of them truly memorable.

So Nokia’s unveiling today of the Lumia 1020 represents a chance — maybe the last, best one — to make its case to users, and to demonstrate that there’s actually room for the “third ecosystem” that Elop hopes Nokia will become. The case for the previous Lumias –- the well-received WinPhone operating system, a slick design, and some other nice features — has won a foothold but not much more. For Nokia to gain true momentum, it must provide something new and big. Something that people can not get elsewhere. Something technolust-worthy. Something actually useful. To engage in Elop-speak: a true differentiator.

“The basis we’ve chosen to compete on is innovation and differentiation,” he says. “We have to set ourselves apart from the people who are leading the smartphone industry. The tonality has changed a little bit in the industry. Look at the recent products launched. Their makers say: ‘This is the next one.’ But is it that innovative? Have they really differentiated this current generation from the previous generation product?”

The Nokia 1020 — to be released on July 26 for $300 and a two-year AT&T contract — does have something genuinely unique. It boasts a suite of imaging features built around a technology called PureView, involving what Nokia describes as a “41-megapixel backside illuminated sensor.” Cut the jargon and what you get is a leap in camera tech.

As I saw first-hand at Nokia’s research center in Tampere, Finland, the PureView sensor captures so much information that you can do a detailed zoom after you take the picture. It’s like a real-time implementation of all the rigmarole that the photographer in the 1966 movie “Blow Up” went through when he noticed a detail in his photo that proved evidence to a murder. Years after the fact, information stored in these “superpixels” could unearth similarly amazing, if not incriminating, artifacts.

The Lumia 1020 is also augmented with a Xenon flash that grabs sharp pictures in low light that the iPhone and the Samsung portray as blurs. Nokia has augmented its already excellent capabilities in image stabilization to allow users to capture steady high-def video, even in rocky conditions. And it will be a platform for an endless parade of nifty features. One example available on launch is the ability to use part of an image as an animated GIF while the rest of the image remains a static photo.

PureView really is a differentiator. When I got a demo of it early last year in Nokia’s research lab, it was clear that this could make a difference to a lot of users. After all, taking photos is a core smart phone activity. But I was disappointed to learn that Nokia’s first implementation of the technology would not be appear in the Lumia series of Windows phones that represented the company’s future. Instead, Nokia chose to put its most amazing advances in the PureView 808 — a phone running the doomed Symbian operating system. It was like opening a new Danny Meyer restaurant in Chernobyl.

Elop defends the move now by saying that the 808 was successful on its own terms. “It sold well,” he said, while not giving any numbers. (But I’ll bet most of you have never seen one in the wild.) Its photography-crazy users loved it. But 808’s real value was as a test bed for PureView. Nokia was able to gauge from real users how to improve the technology for the next iteration, the one now on the 1020.

Sure enough, this version of PureView seems ready for prime time. To accommodate the advanced camera, the 808 had a hideous unsightly bulge in its middle. It looked like it was momentarily about to give birth to an MP3 player. The 1020 has only a modest rise where around the lens — it reminds me of the stoic eye of HAL in Kubrick’s “2001” — and is around the same thickness as the trim Lumia 920.

If this powerful imaging technology had been part of the last iPhone release, the internet would have exploded with Blogosphere hosannas and the lines outside Apple stores would have clogged entire metropolitan areas. But can innovation and differentiation really help Nokia make today’s one-on-one smartphone battle into something more à trois? Skeptics — and plenty of people not normally inclined to skepticism — will probably stick to their view that at this point there is nothing Nokia can do to turn things around, and that the Finnish giant will wind up, with Blackberry, in high-tech’s dustbin.

But Elop has a point to make about tables turning. “If you had asked anyone in the smartphone world on January 1, 2007, they would have said Nokia was incomparable,” he says. “It had such a strong share, so much lock-in, so much brand awareness that no one could challenge it. And yet innovation, disorientation, disruption changed that. It set Nokia on an entirely different trajectory.”

That trajectory turned downward so precipitously that Nokia’s very survival is at stake. But Elop believes that PureView — along with future differentiators he says are in the works — will help him paint a very different picture. With 41 megapixels.