The Windows Phone Amber Update For Nokia Lumia Smartphones

Nokia recently rolled-out the Nokia Lumia Amber update for smartphones running Windows Phone 8. It promised a better and smarter experience for users, but for how far they it went, quite remarkable I would say. It was built base on users comments and feedback's with innovations on the sideline. Microsoft on the other hand also provided numerous significant additions to the software, here are the rundowns.

Improved image processing

The update brings significantly improved algorithms that offer better noise reduction, color reproduction, exposure control and auto-focus to every phone across the Lumia range. On the Lumia 920, controls to adjust the ISO settings of the camera from 800 to 3200 allow for even better low light performance.

Nokia Smart Camera

Debuted on the Nokia Lumia 925, this new camera app is ideal for taking pictures involving people and movement. Users can now get the app from the Store after downloading Lumia Amber update.

The app brings a slew of different options – use Best Shot to find the sharpest image from a series of 10; combine several shots of people in movement into one with Action Shot; heighten the appearance of speed by blurring the background with Motion Focus; create ideal group shots by choosing the best faces from a series with Change Faces, or remove unwanted objects from pictures.

But the app's performance was scaled according to the capabilities of your device. On the Nokia Lumia 720, 620 and 520, the burst mode used for some effects takes seven pictures rather than ten, and these are a lower resolution than on devices with more RAM (one-megapixel rather than five). Still great for social sharing on the Web.

Nokia Camera Pro

The newly announced Nokia Pro Camera was also made available for Lumia 920, Lumia 925, and Lumia 928. With the app, users can edit images fast and transform them creatively to taste.

 Nokia Video Trimmer and Nokia Video Uploader

Nokia Video Trimmer app is one among the new feature of the update that is capable or trimming taken videos easily without fuss.The said video could then be uploaded straight to youTube and the rest of the video hosting site via the Nokia Video Uploader.

Nokia Glance Screen

By public clamor, Nokia finally released the Sleeping Screen for Symbian counter part, the Nokia Glance Screen that brings a clock to the phone's screen during inactive mode, along with indicators to show battery level when running on a low battery or the phone is charging, and whether your phone is set to ‘silent’.

Users can activate the Nokia Glance screen in the display and touch section in Settings by swiping left to ‘glance’. Nokia Glance screen will be available for all WP8 Lumia devices except the Nokia Lumia 520 and Lumia 625, which have a smaller display memory.

Flip to silence and double-tap to unlock

Another two favorite features from Nokia Symbian phones were the Flipping to silence feature and the double tap to unlock gesture. Flipping the phone over is a great and easy way to mute the incoming call. Double tapping the screen on the other hand is something many people prefer to using the unlock key. Both of these features were optional.

Storage Check and faster map updates.

Storage check is an app that will help free up and manage phone memory while the Nokia Maps could now be updated freely without the need the re-install the whole country anew.

The update covers the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 as well as Lumia 521, Lumia 810, and Lumia 928 in the US, and the global versions of Lumia 520, Lumia 620 and Lumia 720.

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Vyclone now available on Nokia Lumia smartphones

Fun of making videos? The social video app Vyclone can now be downloaded free by Nokia Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone 8.

Vyclone gives users the ability to create and edit multi-camera movies, intuitively and simply without the need for expensive cameras or editing software; and the app allows people to immediately share the content via social networks. Vyclone paired with a PureView camera optics could definitely create a crisper imagery and superior audio resulting to higher quality movies than competitors from other platforms.

Vyclone joins the 145,000 apps available for Windows Phone. Among the top 50 of the aforementioned apps includes: Pandora, Temple Run, Burton, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, ESPN Hub, LinkedIn, TripAdvisor, Vimeo, WhatsApp, Words with Friends, Draw Something, Oreo Skies, World of Red Bull and The Sims Medieval.

CLICK HERE to download.

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Win A Nokia Lumia Of Your Choice! Save This Date... May 1, 2013

Lumia 920, 820, 720, 620 or 520, which one would you switch to?

Exciting event up ahead tomorrow, May 1, 2013, as Nokia Philippines will give everyone a chance to own a Nokia Lumia of their choice by simply telling them why you want to #SwitchToLumia.

All the action is going to happen on their Twitter page (www.twitter.com/nokiapilipinas), so make sure you follow them!

I'm definitely joining and so good luck to us. May the best one wins! :)

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New Camera Extras and Cinemagraph For Nokia Lumia 900, 800, 710, 610 and 510

Nobody is left behind, a promised fulfilled as Nokia announce new Camera Extras and Cinemagraph for the initially released Lumia devices.

Cinemegraph is an exclusive Nokia application for Windows Phone that lets users add animation and movements to a picture taken. The app is one among the most talked about and widely received by users of the Lumia 920 and 820, now every Lumia users will get to enjoy and share the cool animated images with friends and love ones.

Some of the aforementioned Camera Extras on the other hand were the Panorama and Smart Shot. Smart Shot uses a burst mode to take a sequence of photos were users get to choose the best shot, edit it to put a smile in everyone's face or remove unwanted objects. Panorama on the other hand allows users to take continuous shots per frame and combined this shots into one.

We might be seeing other exclusive Nokia Windows Phone 8 apps ported to older Lumia devices in the future, a move that will surely make early Lumia adopters and enthusiasts happy.

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Your finances at your fingertips with the Nokia Lumia range of devices

Times have changed. Life is faster and almost everything is just a few taps away with your mobile phone.

Everyday, we make transactions via cash or credit and it’s important to keep track of where our money is going. To help you do this, the Nokia Lumia has apps available at the Windows Store to help you keep track of your finances, be updated on the latest financial news and manage all your money matters.

One of such app is Toshl Finance, a free tool that helps manage your incomes and expenses on the go. You can budget your cash flow daily, weekly, monthly even yearly to ensure you are not spending more than what you are getting. Toshl Finance also features a reporting tool so that you can compare your spending history, a currency converter when spending on travel, moving funds to a different time period and even set up a passcode to ensure your financial transactions are safe.

Another free budgeting tool that offers more than just recording transactions and reporting finances is My Expenses. This app offers extra features like cloud support so that you can back up your transactions on the web via SkyDrive or Dropbox. You can also make a pie chart for easy viewing of expenses and have it run on your start screen using Live Tiles.

Don’t feel like tapping away numerous receipts on your Lumia? A budget tool that is slightly different from the rest is Lemon Wallet. This app is also free and what makes it stand out is that it utilizes the Lumia’s camera to scan your receipts and tally them for you. Each scanned image of a receipt captures price, merchant name, the date and assigns a category. You can also enter this information manually and use the data to generate reports on spending.

Some other apps you might want to consider are Expensify, My Budget, Account Book and Budget Buddy. These apps are free and some come with a pro version with added bells and whistles to keep financial tracking much more convenient.

Finance apps found in Nokia Lumia phones are not just limited to keeping track of your personal expenses. They can also keep you up-to-date on information on global stock indexes from reliable sources.

The native Microsoft app simply called Stocks deliver up-to-the-minute market news with direct feeds from Bing. The app features a customizable list to view your favorite stocks, a search function to find a specific company and it provides a view that displays price/earnings ratio, market cap, volume and more.

Mint is a relatively new business app developed in partnetship with the Hindustan Times and the Wall Street Journal. The app provides analysis and opinions on different facets of the financial industry and the economic spheres. It also brings the latest and breaking business news that also features culture, entertainment and travel.

For Lumia users that manage stock portfolios, big or small, Markets & Me may be the app you are looking for. The app offers realtime quotes and keeps historical data on stock performance and your total holdings over a given period of time. The app has tight integration with your Google Finance account and uses Live Tiles for individual stocks, markets and currencies.

The aptly named Stock Tiles has similar features to Markets & Me on seamless integration on Live Tiles to utilize the easy notification of updates and you can flip the tile for more detailed information on the displayed stock quote.

Finally, there are also general money apps that suit your mobile lifestyle.

Piggy Bank is a free and simple app that shows you how much you can save if you avoid impulse purchases. It also provides an option to remind you to transfer the money you saved to your savings account. You can also set your desired goals when saving your cash and Piggy Bank will keep track of your progress.

For mobile users who want to keep track of credit card debt, there is Credit Card Audit.This app helps you keep track of credit card transactions so you won’t be surprised at the end of your billing cycle. This app is a great tool for frequent credit card swipers.

Lastly, there is Loan Calculator. This app provides automatic calculation for loans you currently have or thinking of applying for. All you need is to enter some basic information about your loan and the app takes care of the rest. It even shows you your monthly interest and remaining balance on the loan.

For more information about other finance apps and mobile utilities, visit the Windows Phone Store and check out the latest apps that suit your mobile lifestyle.

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The Most Affordable Windows Phone 8 Is Here, Make Way For The Nokia Lumia 620

Nokia introduced the Nokia Lumia 620, the third and most affordable in its range of Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Alongside the flagship Nokia Lumia 920 and mid-range Nokia Lumia 820, the Nokia Lumia 620 offers a more fun, youthful appeal, and compact design. 

The Nokia Lumia 620 uses a new dual-shot color technique to deliver a variety of striking color and texture effects. Dual-shot adds a second layer of colored, transparent or translucent polycarbonate on top of a base layer to produce secondary color blends and depth effects.  With seven different exchangeable shells to choose from, people can adapt the look of their Nokia Lumia 620 to their own personal taste and style.

Among the features shared with the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820 are exclusive camera lenses that transform the creative power of the Nokia Lumia 620’s five megapixel main camera and VGA front-facing camera. The Cinemagraph lens adds simple animations to still photographs, while Smart Shoot creates a single, perfect shot from multiple images, even removing unwanted objects from the picture.

The Nokia Lumia 620 also provides access to the world’s best maps and location experience, including Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport and the exclusive Nokia City Lens. Nokia City Lens displays information about local surroundings overlaid onto buildings as seen through the camera viewfinder.

Making it easy to discover and enjoy new music, Nokia Music provides free streaming of ad-free tracks withoutregistration or subscription and the ability to download playlists for listening offline. With NFC support, the Nokia Lumia 620can easily pair with NFC-enabled accessories like the JBL PlayUp Portable Speaker for Nokia. Open and secure NFC-connectivitymakes it possible to share and receive content by tapping with compatible devices, or make secure payments using the Wallet application in Windows Phone 8.

Powered byWindows Phone 8, the Nokia Lumia 620 delivers a more personal smartphone experience. Adjustable Live Tiles update direct to the Start Screen. People Hub pulls together contact information from multiple address books and social networks into a single location, making it easy to stay in touch with friends and set up contact Groups andprivate Rooms for sharing. From the Me Tile people can check in to their location, post an update, set chat status, see what’s new and monitor notifications across Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Windows Phone 8 also includes Xbox Live, Microsoft Office, 7GB of online SkyDrive storage and faster, safer surfing with Internet Explorer 10.

The Nokia Lumia 620 will be available in a range of colors including, lime green, orange, magenta, yellow, cyan, white and black. Estimated at 249 USD, excluding taxes and subsidies, the Nokia Lumia 620 will begin selling in January 2013 in Asia, followed closely by Europe and the Middle East before expanding further.

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So Pure, So Human, So Natural, Marko Ahtisaari Describes The Nokia Lumia 920 On This Video

Design and construction for mobilephone took a massive shift when the first unibody polycarbonate device, the Nokia N9, came out. It was so beautiful that people just can't stop noticing it everywhere I go, solid and well contoured that it feels so pleasant touching it with your hand. I call it the ultimate in smartphone world.

The new design became an eye opener for everyone most specially mobilephone designers and engineers from competing brands, that their were other ways to design phones other than look and feel iPhone-like. The design is now being carried forward by Nokia to its Lumia line-ups, still the best there is at the moment. 

In the promotional video below, Marko Ahtisaari, one of the brilliant minds behind the unique design, describes the current mobilephone market as noisy and difficult to cut through but his team focused on making everything simple and humane and they were able to create a masterclass. His full story on the Nokia Lumia 920 design and construction is captured in the video. Watch it to find out more.

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Why People Switch To Lumia, Survey Says!

More and more people are discovering the amazing experience of having a Nokia Lumia device. That is why a Nokia team conducted a survey on Twitter and traveled across the globe to know what people have to say about their new found love for Lumia.

From the responses gathered, the Nokia team made a special infographic. The colorful tiled graph showed that 20.8% of the mobile users switched to Nokia Lumia for its unique design. Without a doubt, Nokia Lumia’s sleek body, ClearBlack display, vibrant colors and personalized Live Tiles are sure to convince anyone to switch mobile phones.

Nokia Lumia users are also raving about the new software (20.5%) which gives top notch performance, quick social connectivity and entertainment. Equipped with the Internet Explorer 9, the Nokia Lumia phones offer the best mobile browsing. You can also easily access your social networks with its integrated communication threads.

To stand out is also another reason why people choose Nokia Lumia (20%). With many smartphones in the market, having a state-of-the-art image technology and camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, SkyDrive storage, and Microsoft Office programs on your Nokia Lumia phone sets you apart from the others.

Other responses on the survey include the availability and accessibility of Nokia Care Centers (5.5%), and the exclusive apps for Nokia such as the People Hub, Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps (7.6%).

With these information gathered, it is no wonder people are joining the Nokia Lumia craze. The Nokia Survey replies came from over 41 countries but most came from the United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada and the Philippines.

The current Lumia range of smartphones include the Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 710 and Nokia Lumia 610.  Check them out at your nearest Nokia Store.

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Contest Alert! Capture Nokia Lumia moments and win amazing prizes

An easy contest here for Nokia Lumia users! Get a chance to win great prizes just by showing Nokia Philippines how much you love your Lumia! 

I cannot relate to this promotion though because I'm not a Lumia user, someday though when my budget permits me, maybe in about 2-3 years from now when I'm done with my budget breaker Law school... :)  

 Anyways, ‘Show Me Amazing’ is an online photo contest open to all Nokia Lumia users. It allows participants to show their creativity and mad photography skills by interpreting the theme given for each stage through photos. There will be three stages and each stage will have two prizes that you can choose from. 

The first stage runs until October 19, 2012.  Theme is “Live Amazing”:  Why did you switch to a Nokia Lumia device?  Participants can choose to win either a Rustans shopping spree worth PhP50,000 or a private screening of the movie of your choice at Ayala MyCinema for up to 50 people!

To join, go to the Nokia Philippines Facebook page (http://facebook.com/nokiaphilippines) and access the ‘Show Me Amazing’ Facebook app. Register and complete the required information on the promo page to be able to submit your entry.  Participants are also required to write a testimonial in line with the monthly theme for their submitted entry in 500 characters or less.

All photos must be your own and must be in JPG or PNG format (min 800x600, max 800kb).  Photos can be taken using any smartphone or camera.  Photo manipulation is allowed but limited to filters, levels, resizing, and cropping only.  Only entries for each stage sent within its corresponding promo period will be valid.

The second stage is set from October 22 to November 16, 2012. Theme is “Look Amazing”: Why would you recommend a Nokia Lumia to your friends?  Choose between these exciting prizes: a photoshoot session and makeover with Team Onsite Studio or a crash course in DJ/spinning by DJ Danger Sanchez of Tribomanila.

Finally, the third stage with the theme “Feel Amazing”: What is your favorite thing about your Nokia Lumia? is slated for November 19 to December 14, 2012.  Contestants choose to win a party package worth Php60,000 for your chosen charity or 3days/2 nights’ accommodation in Misibis Bay for two.

Entries will be judged based on Creativity (30%), Composition (25%), Visual appeal (25%), Overall impact (10%), and Execution (10%).

Don’t own a Nokia Lumia yet? Go to the Nokia Store nearest you and experience amazing every day.   Let your photos speak about your love for Nokia Lumia and don’t miss this chance of winning amazing prizes! For complete information about the contest, visit Nokia Philippines on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/nokiaphilippines) and click on the Show Me Amazing app.

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Top 10 Fun Apps For Kids On Your Nokia Lumia

It’s not an easy task to keep your young ones occupied and entertained all the time. Thankfully, mobile technology has presented more options and activities that will allow kids to learn new things, play games and explore their talents. Now, while you’re in transit to the mall or waiting for your kid’s turn at the dentist, you can lend your Nokia Lumia smartphone to him and kill some time. Better yet, turn this opportunity into another bonding moment with him -- solving puzzles, answer quizzes and creating artworks together.

Here are 10 free fun and educational apps that can help you keep your kids busy virtually anywhere, anytime!

10. Origami Pro. Learn the ancient Japanese art of paper folding with this app. Your little one can choose what to make from a host of traditional and non-traditional origami models. Step-by-step diagrams with easy instructions will guide him through creating ingenious items.

9. Simon Cow. Kids and adults alike will get hooked in this highly amusing and devilishly addictive version of the classic Simon Says memory game. Repeat the exact sequence of sounds from the different animals on the screen, which starts off really easy and soon becomes a stern test of your memory. An online leader board keeps the highest score for whoever can remember the longest sequence, so you can see your standing against friends and other people from all over the world!

8. National Flags Quiz. Bond with your kids over this fun game that tests your knowledge of more than 200 national flags. National Flags Quiz has a practice mode for learning the national flags. Learn the correct answers for each flag if you get the question wrong. A timed mode will test you on random flags around the world or by continent. Your score will be based on speed and accuracy. Submit your score to an online scoreboard and see how you fair with other players around the world.

7. Pixelator. Encourage your kid’s creativity with this fun and simple pixel art drawing app that lets you draw and color your art one pixel at a time! The pixel art can be saved on your phone, uploaded to image sharing site imgur, and also be set as your Lumia’s lock screen.

6. Draw FREE. Let their imagination come to life with this conventional finger drawing app for your Lumia. Start from scratch or draw over and add effects to an existing photo. Your kids will also enjoy creative features, such as fun rainbow brushes and animated fills, stamps to add colorful graphics, sound effects, and warp and twist options. You can undo and redo actions and shake your phone to clear the artwork.

5. Hangman. This classic word game is transported on your Nokia Lumia to let today’s young generation experience the thrill of solving the puzzle. Choose from different word categories that range from basic English words, animals and colors to sports, weather and world countries. It comes in three classic themes: Pencil on paper, Chalk on blackboard, and Parchment.

4. Breakout. A little arcade action is sure to delight your kid. The objective of Breakout is to block the ball as it falls down the screen and use it to smash the bricks as it rebounds back up. This free game hosts great features, such as 150 levels, different weapons and power-ups, and online scoreboards. Plus, you can even create your own game screens.

3. 4 In A Row. This challenging game, also known as 4 in a Line or Connect 4, will test one’s strategic skills as you try to outthink your opponent. You can play the game with your kid with the two players’ mode or play against the phone. Be the first player to get four pieces of his color in a row, whether in horizontal, vertical or diagonal. This game has 8 levels of difficulty and features cool graphics and sound effects.

2. NumberTap. Make learning Mathematics fun for your kids. NumberTap is a competitive math game where his arithmetic skills will be tested against other players around the world for the highest scores. Tap for the answers fast, starting from easy and quickly becoming harder, as the clock ticks.

1. Sketch Match. This app combines the element of drawing and gaming. Your kid will be challenged to sketch an image shown within the allocated time. The better your artistic efforts are, the higher your rating will be. Another fun way of playing this app is the ‘search by sketch’ feature. Sketch an object and hit the search button to see photos of similar items.

With these great apps for your Nokia Lumia phones, you are sure to keep kids occupied anytime and anywhere.

I will surely enjoy this apps myself being young at heart on my soon to be Nokia Luma 920 phone! :) How I wish!

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