Today is day two of Nokia Lumia 800 sales in Finland. I can’t really give you numbers of how much it has sold in the store where I work (Gigantti), but I can tell you this – it is selling a lot! Without looking at actual sales numbers, I’d say that I’ve sold more Lumia’s after the launch than N8′s during its few days of sales.
The Nokia Lumia 800 has actually sold out in some stores in Finland. Elisa Shopit told publicly today that the Nokia Lumia 800 has sold out in some of their 60 retail stores.
This is especially great when you know that Finland is currently being plagued by a crazy cold wave. In Vaasa, where I live, its currently -27 °C!! Imagine going out in that weather, trying to cold start your car when you’re not even sure it will start, and drive to the nearest retailer to get yourself a Nokia Lumia 800. It needs some serious dedication just to buy a phone in this country. Apparently there are enough of us crazy people who go out in that cold weather just to buy a phone.
Joe Belfiore, Senior Vice President and Windows Phone Manager, Microsoft
Pocketnow has seen a video where Joe Belfiore, Senior Vice President and Windows Phone manager, talks about Windows Phone 8, codenamed Apollo. Apparently the video was meant for Nokia partners, but somewhere along its route it took a wrong turn and leaked out. The video talks about a number of Windows Phone 8 features that we’ll most probably see officially announced Mobile World Congress in a few weeks.
Here’s a summary of the article:
Hardware changes: Multicore processors (in plural), four new screen resolutions, removable microSD card storage, NFC
Windows 8 integration: WP8 will use many of the same components as Windows 8, meaning that developers can reuse code when porting an app from app to desktop, or vise versa. Mr. Belfiore mentioned the kernel, networking stacks, security, and multimedia support. Desktop Zune is out, a new companion app and syncing software on their way. Deeper SkyDrive integration. More seamless cloud syncing.
Application ecosystem: Microsoft expectes 100,000 available applications in the Marketplace Apollo is released. This would mean that we’re possibly looking at a release in the fourth quarter. Native code (C++) support. Apps will be able to communicate with other applications (app-to-app communication).
Data management: DataSmart, which aims to reduce and simplify tracking of data usage. WP8 will actively attempt to give WiFi connections priority, and even auto-joining carrier-owner WiFi networks. Data usage Live Tile. Internet Explorer 10 will use a proxy server to compress web traffic before its being sent to the device, which ultimately will reduce data usage.
Business: Native BitLocker encryption (128-bit, full-disk encryption). A “Private Marketplace” where companies can deploy proprietary software behind their company firewalls.
The Australian wrote today that the Nokia Lumia 800 will be going down under in March. Australian carriers Opus, Telstra and Vodafone will all pick up Lumia 800. This doesn’t really affect me much, but what actually does, is that the Australian announcement brings with it a new color for the Lumia 800, which is white! Let’s hope the white color alternative will hit other parts of the world, too.
Here’s what The Australian wrote:
THE first Nokia handset with the Windows Phone 7 operating system, the Nokia Lumia 800, will be sold in Australia from March.
Optus, Telstra and Vodafone are gearing up to sell the Lumia 800, which will be available in black, cyan, magenta and white, Nokia announced today.
I really don’t know what to make of this. The image above is from a Swiss site that claims to have information of Windows Phone Tango. First, they claim that Windows Phone Tango will be Windows Phone 7.6 (image of build 7.20.1050.5). The original version was 7.0, and Mango is 7.5, so 7.6 for Tango sounds possible. What is more interesting is that they also claim Tango to bring Skype and Google+ integration. The image HAS to be a fake. Google+ is spelled as “Google +”, with a space before the +. Additionally, the double-o in Facebook and Google+ don’t have the same font-spacing. The third thing in the image that doesn’t really compute, is that the watermark is behind the text.
The image is obviously a fake, but could the intel be correct? Would it make sense to bring Google+ integration to the platform? Skype is already on its way to the platform, but will it be ready for Tango, or will Microsoft have to postpone it till Apollo? ALOT of questions remain unanswered. I guess we just have to wait :(
The guys over at Pocketnow has managed to get some hands-on time with the brand new Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T. As many of you should know, what’s packed inside the Nokia Lumia 900′s polycarbonate case is delicious. The screen is a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display (WVGA resolution), 1.4GHz Qualcomm APQ8055 + MDM9200 (WCDMA), 512 MB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 8-megapixel f/2.2 28mm back camera with LED flash, 1-megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.4, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 1,830 mAh battery. Windows Phone 7.5 is what makes all of the above work together.
Current rumors and leaked roadmaps suggest that this thing will be released on March 18th by AT&T for $99.99.
Nokia Conversations provided a list of EA games that will be exclusive to Nokia’s Windows Phones. It’s possible that these titles will be exclusive for the first, lets say, 90 days, and then be available to other devices.
Here’s a list of the games.
Mirror’s Edge – award winning Parkour sim with a futuristic spy thriller plot.
Real Racing 2 – hit racing sim pits you over 40 miles in 30 officially licensed cars.
Sims Medieval – The Sims meets Fable in genre-crossing adventures.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour – Go golfing with the Pros in this leading simulation.
Monopoly – no need for an introduction to the classic property-baron board game.
Spy Mouse – a new one to us, it’s a portable puzzler with a flight control vibe.
Yahtzee – it’s poker but with dice. Good one for a train trip or the back seat of the car.
The Game of Life – another family board game; and an unknown quantity here. Opinions?
Vampire Rush – an combination of tower defence and survival horror.
Parking Mania – never played this one. Looks suspiciously like a parking simulation. Hope there is something we’re missing here…
Picnic Wars – an evolution of the ‘annoyed avians’ formula – this time featuring vicious veggies.
BGR got hold of a portion of AT&T’s roadmap for 2012. The site stated that the roadmap reveals some juicy information, but only told about the best part, which regards the Nokia Lumia 900. According to their source, the Nokia Lumia 900 will hit the U.S. on March 18th. AT&T will sell the device for $99.99 on a two-year contract. That’s a very low price when you consider that the Lumia 900 is Nokia’s flagship device! For comparisons sake, the 8GB iPhone 4 is currently selling for that price. Let’s hope this translates into massive Lumia 900 sales!
Check. This. Out! An awesome video showing how future shopping could be done. It involves Windows Phone, Windows 8 Tablet, QR codes/Tags, Surface 2.0, and Kinect. I love the seamless integration from one device to another. Another thing I do like is the tie-testing part ;) I have to watch this video again! Enjoy!
Eldar Murtazin posted today on his Twitter account that Nokia is currently working on a Lumia 910. According to Mr. Murtazin, the Lumia 910 will feature a 12-megapixel camera, and it will be available as early as in May. The dude has a pretty decent track record in everything mobile. Many of his predictions have often turned out to be true, but recently some of them have also been totally inaccurate.
Just remember to take this piece of information with a massive grain of salt :) We’ll possibly hear more on the matter at Mobile World Congress next month.
