Nokia announce the Lumia 925!

   Nokia's new flagship is ranked just above the Lumia 920 in the naming convention and essentially this is the Lumia 920 in another disguise. There's a new AMOLED screen with the same 1280 x 768p resolution, which is coated with Gorilla Glass 2. Otherwise there's 1GB of RAM, a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5GHz will be powering Windows Phone 8 and the rear camera is again an 8.7MP sensor from Carl Zeiss. This time though Nokia are adamant that there's some hardware and software improvements which make everything that little bit sharper and a little bit better.

   Otherwise the real achievement here compared to the Lumia 920 is that Nokia have lost the little bit of puppy fat that the 920 carried. This time the device is 8.8mm thick and it is now considerable
lighter, coming in at 135g, which is more what you expect in high-end smartphones!

   The device has also ditched polycarbonate, or as we like to call it plastic, in its place there's now a nice aluminium body, but strangely that means you have to put a plastic case on the back of the phone to enable wireless charging, which seems a little silly to us! But, the addition of global 4G LTE connectivity, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC and Wi-Fi makes up for looking silly while it's charging.

   There's a few software improvements here too with the addition of a new camera mode called Nokia Smart Camera. Essentially it captures 10 photos in quick succession before allowing you to edit the photos with a bunch of cool effects such as Best Shot, Action Shot, Change Faces and Remove Moving Objects.

   The Nokia Lumia 925 will set you back about 469 euros and Vodafone will be carrying the device in Europe, T-Mobile will have it in the USA and we expect to hear more announced soon, but O2 have confirmed they'll have the white one in the UK!

There's a little video showing off the internals of the device below, which also has a really catchy soundtrack to go along with it, which gives you a better idea of what the phone looks like too! For full details check out Nokia Conversations here and for a full run down of the specs check out the Nokia product page here!

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Nokia tease that 'the new Nokia Lumia is coming': Looks as though cameras take centre stage!

   For those of you who live in the UK you may have been tuning into your TV sets last night and if you had your TV on The Inbetweeners on Channel 4 then it's quite likely that you would have seen the ad below which Nokia have kindly uploaded to YouTube!

   As you can see Nokia shows us what is either a Xenon or dual-LED flash, and then we're told there'll be "More than your eyes can see"and that "The new Nokia Lumia is coming". If you check out the picture below then you'll see a distinct similarity between what we see in the advert and some leaked images which were rumoured to be a new Nokia phone! 

   We only have to wait until tomorrow to see the event and this thing should be official! It looks like the age of good cameras in smartphones is starting to dawn in a big way!
Via PocketLint and TheVerge.

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Nokia officially announce the Lumia 928 for Verizon Wireless!

   It's finally here, after weeks of ridiculous leaks which left very little to the imagination we can now confirm that the device above is the Nokia Lumia 928. A device destined for Verizon in the US complete with a very reasonable price tag too, but we'll come to that later!

   The phone is basically as we expected: it's a slimmed down version of the Lumia 920 which AT&T currently offer, with exactly the same internals and everything down to the battery capacity is the same. There's a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon process clocked at 1.5Ghz, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. This time the camera, which is traditionally a strength of Nokia devices, is the same 8.7MP PureView Carl Ziess sensor which is in the Lumia 920, but the flash has been swapped out for a Xenon variant in this version. If you like taking 'selfies' then you have a 1.2MP camera on that side which gives you the ability to take 720p video for those Skype and Viber calls. The battery on this device is a 2,000 mAh unit, which should get you through the best part of a day without needing a recharge, but remember this battery is non-removable so treat it well. The wireless charging support is a nice addition too!

   The two big attractions outside of the camera though will be the 4.5″ WXGA, that's 1280 x 768p, and it's a lovely OLED screen too. This basically means super deep blacks and a very good pixel density of 334ppi, it's not as high as the 1080p Android devices, but it just betters Apple's Retina display on the iPhone, which is good enough for us! The screen has some nice tweaks which give you 300 nits of brightness in the normal mode, but you can crank that up to 500 nits if you activate 'High Brightness Mode' which should help you see the screen in the sun! Naturally it also supports Nokia's 'super-sensitive' features for typing with gloves and or long fingernails! 

  On the connections front there's basically everything you would expect. There's Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS and Glonass and there's an NFC chip. Naturally the device runs Windows Phone 8 as you would expect.

   If you're interested in the device then you can pick one up on Verizon in America from the 16th of May and it will cost you $99.99 with a $50 mail-in rebate, and if you get in quick you'll also pick up $25 of credit for Windows Phone apps. Check out Nokia's little hands on below if you want to see it in action!

Via Windows Phone Blog, Nokia Conversations and Nokia Press. 

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Nokia announce the Asha 501: Social, inexpensive and a fresh new UI!

   Today Nokia have unveiled their latest budget Asha handset! It seems as though while Nokia go after the high end with their Lumia handsets they've had to ensure that they keep making sales in the budget end of the market to sustain their income and keep the tills ringing!

   It seems that this phone and its software actually took a large leaf out of Meego's book. There's a few funky features such as a double tap to wake and there's two home screens: one being 'fastlane' and the other being the app drawer and you can swipe between the pair. Apparently the new OS will support Facebook, Foursquare, Linkedin, Twitter and Youtube right from day one, something which the Finns hope will reiterate the social credentials of the phone. 

   On the spec front things are about what you'd expect with a budget device. There's a QVGA touchscreen which is 3" and has a QVGA, that's 320 x 240p, and it's capacitive with two-finger multi-touch. The back houses a 3.2MP fixed-focus camera and there's a MicroSD card slot which supports cards up to 32GB in size, although Nokia haven't specified the internal storage size. 

   As you would expect with this sort of device Nokia have added some data saving options. One is the Xpress browser which compresses data for faster delivery and the other is a partnership with Facebook and Airtel in India, which lets people access the social network for free without a data plan, but this deal is for a limited time only and only the first sales will have this feature.

   Other highlights include a dual-SIM option and Bluetooth 3.0. The only issues we can see with this phone are the lack of 3G data and how well it will stack up against budget Android handsets. On the plus side the 1200 mAh battery should be more than enough to get you through the best part of a week with light usage!

   If you're interested in picking up one of these then the Asha 501 will land in 90 countries on 60 operators in June and will set you back $99 before taxes and subsidies for the single-SIM version. If 3G is a necessity then Nokia have promised more Asha 5xx phones will arrive soon with that option! For those of you in America or Canada though, you can definitely rule out this coming to your country unless you're prepared to import one!
Via Nokia, Slashgear and GSMArena.

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Nokia's Lumia 928 now has a low-light theme park test to go along with all the teasers!

   Nokia's Lumia 928 is now all but announced, but that doesn't mean we can't check out some of the features of the new device. To that end there's a new video on the internet which we assume will be used as promotional material for the new flagship device.

   As you can see in the video embedded below, Nokia have spent an evening at the Adventureland fun park in New York. They conducted a couple of tests of their new flagship for Verizon and the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5, with the central idea being to highlight how well Nokia's optical image stabilisation works, whilst simultaneously showing the low light performance of the camera. Seeing as they were at a theme park, the obvious place to test the devices was on the rollercoaster!

   In the interests of fairness it's worth mentioning that Nokia used the Galaxy S3 because they conveniently filmed the video before the Galaxy S4 was available, but to be honest the fact that they're testing it against last year's flagships doesn't matter too much, because it's obvious that the Lumia has good low light and image stabilisation capabilities.

   Seeing as we know so much about this device already Nokia will basically round out the spec sheet on the 14th of May and they'll tell us whether or not the Lumia 928 will be a Verizon exclusive or if it will arrive in the rest of the world too!
Via PocketLint.

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In Other News: 07/05/2013.

• Nokia have announced that they are committed to making a 'more human' orientated brand. The Finns plan to tailor their tech to customers needs, it seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how many companies miss that! Obviously this sounds a bit like Samsung's 'designed for humans' and 'life companion' campaigns and we suppose it is, which isn't necessarily a bad thing! Fingers crossed this can help Nokia onto the right track!
  Via PhoneArena.

• EA and Disney have struck a deal which will see all forthcoming Star Wars games developed and sold by EA for consoles, whereas Disney will make games for mobile and social networks. Hopefully EA will do a better job than they managed with SimCity!
  Via Joystiq.

• Rovio is finally starting to build out cross platform progress syncing for Angry Birds (an The Croods) so you can pick up where you left off on all your devices! It's about time guys! The update is live on the iOS version of the original Angry Birds game!
  Rovio Via Engadget.

• There have been rumours of a Samsung phone which features a camera with excellent camera credentials today. If the rumours are right then the phone will have a 16MP camera, but otherwise it will feature mid-range specs such as a dual-core processor. Obviously this is a rumour, but Samsung has yet to carpet bomb the phones with great imaging capabilities arena, so we think this is a space to watch!
  Via SamMobile.

• Acer's has a good Q1 with profit up 55% compared to this time last year! Head over to PCAdvisor for the full run down!

• Some of you might recognise the name Jon Rubinstein? Well he was an old exec at Palm, who was carried across to HP too. Well he's now got a spot on Qualcomm's board to go with his position on Amazon's board and his past experience working at Apple on the iPod.
  MarketWatch Via IntoMobile. 

• The KeepRunner app for Android and iOS has been updated to add support for the Pebble smartwatch, so you can track the vital details about the speed, time and distance of your run! The company says they're committed to support this sort of wearable solution, which is great news for the future!
  Via Engadget.

• FourSquare have released their app for Windows Phone 8 and it'll be preloaded on certain Lumia phones! The guys have promised an update for the Windows Phone 7 app is in the works too!
  Via TheVerge.

• Windows Phone is getting a lot of app love lately and the YouTube app! Microsoft have rolled out an update which actually makes this an app instead of a web link! You can now watch videos, access channels and playlists within the app and the update also lets you pin things to the start screen! Good stuff Microsoft! (Microsoft make the app for Windows Phone just like they do for the Facebook app).
  Via TheVerge.

• The UK has proposed changes to get 4G rolling out faster, check them out here on V3!

• Any creative students out there might be interested in Adobe's Creative Cloud at a reasonable price? Full details in the tweet below!

Are you a student? Get Adobe Creative Cloud for £15.88 a month... adobe.com/uk/creativeclo…
— Jamie Hoyle (@mightyshakerjnr) May 7, 2013

• The Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update for the Samsung Galaxy Note is rolling out OTA for UK owners! If you're phone is unlocked hit that software update button now!
  Via Eurodroid.

And finally, for those of you in the United States your new 'Un-carrier' T-Mobile have released a new ad aimed at dragging you iPhone owners away from other networks with the promise that you can use your phone the way you're meant to on their network! Check out the video below for full details! T-Mobile have also misplaced all their Windows Phones on their website. We're not sure why they're gone, but they are, possibly they're getting ready for the big announcement next week?

Via TmoNews and PhoneArena.

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The Lumia 928 goes for worst kept secret of the year: Basically takes the award already with appearances online and in Vanity Fair!

   Ohhh Nokia, this has really just happened. It seems that a Nokia employee got all the advertising release dates wrong or Nokia has planned to advertise their new Lumia flagship in the United States a little bit before its release to build some hype!

   You might remember how a few days ago the Lumia 928 was spotted up high on a billboard, well now it seems that it's not only popped up in an issue of Vanity Fair, which you can see pictured above, but it's also up and running on Nokia's website! At the moment you can only see the image embedded below, on that site, but we don't need too much more than that. And yes, it's exactly the same image as in the Vanity Fair publication!

   So we know what the Lumia 928 will look like and we know it's destined for Verizon, but we don't know the specs. What do you guys think? Will we see a 1080p screen or will it be 720p again and will we see anything more than a dual-core Snapdragon processor? We're not sure, but we'd love for this new flagship to step it up in the screen and processor departments!
Via Engadget.

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Nokia's Stephen Elop comes under criticism at AGM: 'Results are what matter'!

   Nokia are an interesting case: they're still one of the companies who ship the most phones in the world, the only problem is that at the moment those phones are the low end ones and they're selling to emerging markets. As of late though budget handsets which offer better features and would be considered 'smartphones' have been eating into Nokia's market share in that segment. That means that margins get slimmer and sales contract. That's bad news for Nokia because they need to keep their volume devices shipping while they build on the image of their Lumia devices and Microsoft brings what they can to the mobile table with Windows Phone!

   Today there was an Annual General Meeting for Nokia and their CEO Stephen Elop is clearly aware of what he needs to do. Indeed, before the meeting he told Reuters India that Nokia 'are continuing to renew our portfolio, which includes plans to announce innovation and new products in the Asha line in the days immediately ahead," which is good to hear. The thing is that the area where people make all of their profit is on high-end smartphones, which is why HTC has bet big on their HTC One.

   On the high end front Elop reiterated before the AGM, and again to Reuters, that Nokia:

"Make adjustments as we go. But it's very clear to us that in today's war of ecosystems, we've made a very clear decisions to focus on Windows Phone with our Lumia product line. And it is with that that we will compete with competitors like Samsung and Android." 

   The only problem with that reiteration of their commitment to Windows Phone was that shareholders don't necessarily agree and indeed it seems that some are starting to lose patience with the Windows Phone commitment. One particular shareholder, called Hannu Vitanen, expressed his discontent by saying:

"You're a nice guy ... and the leadership team is doing its best, but clearly, it's not enough... Are you aware that results are what matter? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Please switch to another road."

   The problem for Nokia is that the Windows Phone transition was slated to take two years, it's been two years since Nokia announced that they were going Windows Phone and despite slow increases in sales, things appear to be very stunted and they are nowhere near in the same ballpark as sales of the most expensive models from Samsung and Apple.

   One interesting point which came out of the interviews Reuters did with shareholders was that some people in the audience admitted that they only held shares still because of the sentimentality which came along with them. The company of the 1990's symbolised a rebirth of Finland, which could make do without its old trading partner the Soviet Union when that fell apart.

   When shareholders are hanging onto their shares purely for sentimental reasons that is not good news and Nokia need to turn things around soon. We just wonder whether the change to Android is inevitable or why Nokia refuses to give it a go. Magnus Rehle from Greenwich Consulting put Elop's leadership together in a sentence, saying:

"He's managed to decrease costs but not to increase market share... Maybe they could go back to Google and say we also want to go with Android. Even if it hurts. Microsoft, they've had their chances, and are not managing to take off."

   What do you think? What should Nokia do? Press on with Windows Phone or give Android a shot? Or should they let out their new Lumia flagship and Asha devices and see where things are in three months? Let us know in the comments below!

Via IntoMobile and Slashgear.

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AdDuplex give the Windows Phone breakdown for April: The Lumia 920 is now the Windows Phone king!

   Windows Phone is always an interesting operating system to follow because it has one of the world's biggest companies behind it, it's widely considered to be a fantastic operating system and yet somehow Microsoft and Nokia in particular, just can't quite get it to catch on the way iOS and Android have!

   That being said there's been a bit of growth lately, but the guys over at AdDuplex have used their tracking software, which people put in apps, to give us a much more rounded idea of how well the platform is doing and which devices in particular are stealing the limelight!

   The one device which seems to be setting the ecosystem on fire is the Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia's flagship is now the most popular Windows Phone out on the market and it's finally knocked the Lumia 800 off the top spot for the first time! As you can see in the pie chart below, other phones are selling really well too, with the Windows Phone 8 powered range from the 620, through the 820 to the 920 all starting to catch up with their Windows Phone 7 counterparts which were released the year before! We're surprised to see just how few devices HTC have sold, given the amount of HTC 8S' which we've been seeing around lately, so perhaps we live in a particular hotspot for the device!

   The comparison between Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 sales is also interesting lately with Windows Phone 8 now starting to assert the sales authority on its older sibling in many of the key countries from Microsoft's perspective. Through the majority of Western European countries and indeed in the US, Canada and Australia there are now more Windows Phone 8 handsets than Windows Phone 7 handsets in the wild!

   The final thing which we wanted to point out from AdDuplex's findings was that, in the key market of the United States, Nokia are the most popular Windows Phone manufacturer with 66% of the market. After the Finns it's interesting to see that Samsung's Omnia and ATIV ranges haven't proved very popular, especially not compared to HTC's devices. It'll be interesting to see whether or not Nokia can continue to grow in the United States, which is a market they've traditionally struggled in!

   If you want to read more about the platform then AdDuplex have lots more comparisons and country specific breakdowns on their website which you can find here!
Via WindowsPhoneDaily.

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A billboard lets the Lumia 928 cat out of the bag!

   Ohh Nokia, you've done everything you can to keep your new flagship for the United States of America under wraps and then a good week and a half before said phone is meant to be officially launched, someone goes and does this!

   The image on the billboard above is a currently unannounced phone from Nokia which is set to land in the US. As you can see from the writing, the Lumia 928 is tipped to be 'the best low light smartphone camera' and if you look in the bottom right-hand corner of the advert then you can see that Verizon logo sticking out! 

   We're quite confident that this is what it says it is and if it's not then it's a very well conducted and elaborate hoax, but too many things seem to line up with the rumours for this to be faked! 

   At the moment we don't have any word on the internals of this thing or any other specs. The most interesting thing will be what Nokia have done to the camera on this phone to make it as good as they claim, especially against the HTC One! As you can see from the billboard and as we would expect it'll be running Windows Phone 8 and with a bit of luck it will be a Lumia 920 brought up to this year's flagship standards!

   What do you think? Is this real? Is it a good looker in your opinion and most importantly, would you buy one? Let us know in the comments below!

Via MyNokiaBlog.

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HTC remove their dual mic set up from the HTC One spec sheet: 'Improved' design on the way!

   In recent weeks HTC have had a little bit of trouble with the microphone configuration which they opted for with their new flagship the HTC One. You might remember a little while back we reported that STElectronics, the makers of the component, were in trouble in The Netherlands because they had breached an exclusivity deal with Nokia on the part, which meant they weren't allowed to sell it to HTC in the first place!

   You might remember that late last month, an Amsterdam district court ruled that ST Microelectronics had starting selling a dual membrane microphone to companies outside of the exclusivity period. We reported thay:
"An Amsterdam district court has given STMicroelectronics a ten month ban on their sales of their new 'high-amplitude microphones' to any company other than Nokia! Essentially this means that the dual-membrane microphone which HTC have used in their One was meant to have been in a twelve month exclusivity period with Nokia because they were the co-developers. The story goes that STMicroelectronics believed the exclusivity was only six months so that's where the problem has occurred! 6 months before a 12 month period of exclusivity for Nokia had ended."

   Essentially what this meant for HTC was that they had been caught in the middle of a dispute between two companies which they had not planned and didn't realise would affect them. Because of their innocence in all of this HTC were allowed t use up the rest of the stock of the STElectronics microphones which they had bought, but when they were gone the design would have to change. So today's story is that HTC have updated the specification sheet for the HTC One and the dual-mic part is definitely missing!

   HTC have issued the following statement which suggests that they'll find an improved design when they're out of STM arrangements!

"In light of several misleading stories regarding a recent injunction obtained by Nokia against STM (a supplier of components to HTC in The Netherlands) HTC looks to clarify the following points:

• Nokia has NOT obtained an injunction in The Netherlands, or anywhere else, against the HTC One.
• The Dutch proceedings were brought by Nokia solely against STM. HTC was not sued by Nokia in the Netherlands.
• The Dutch injunction prohibits STM from selling certain microphones to any company other than Nokia for a limited period.
• The judgment against STM states that HTC can continue to use microphones already purchased from STM in its products, because they were purchased in good-faith. Nokia's attempt to obtain a recall of microphones already sold to HTC failed.
• HTC will transition to improved microphone designs once its inventory of STM microphones is exhausted."

   What do you think? Is this a big hoohar about nothing? Let us know in the comments below!
Via Engadget.

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Microsoft's new ad pokes fun at Samsung and Apple fans. Their solution is switching to Lumia!

   Microsoft have been doing their level best to get their Windows Phone platform out there lately. Windows Phone 7 was a good start and Windows Phone 8 carried on the good work, but the one thing they really need to make their platform a success is to convince a lot more people to 'switch'. 

   With that in mind the two obvious places to target are those people who are thinking about either picking up an iPhone or one of Samsung's Galaxy range of smartphones. Both of those groups have a big set of fans and if you read the comments sections on posts then you'll quite often see their fans squabbling. That's something which Microsoft have picked up on and their latest advert, set at a wedding, captures the mood rather well.

   As the ceremony gets under way both sides pull out their phones to capture the special moment, one Samsung owner is asked rather impolitely to get his 'enormous' phone out of the way, before a war of words kicks off. The retort 'enormously awesome' is thrown out, before S-Beam, Siri and the stereotypical age of iPhone users are all brought into the fray, just like the normal 'iSheep' and 'CopyBot' remarks too!

   One of our personal favourites in this ad is where a Galaxy user says, 'Autocorrect this', before proceeding to start a brawl, during which an iPhone user is thrown into the cake and asked 'is there an app for that?' which also made us chuckle.

   When all is said and done a pair of brightly coloured Nokia Lumia 920's are held out by the catering staff with the ultimate suggestion being 'Don't fight. Switch'. Will this ad be enough to stop the slide in Lumia sales in the US lately? Possibly not, but it's a good fun advert which certainly hits the mark!

Via TheVerge.

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Nokia make as much profit from super-cheap phones as Lumia flagships!

   Today it's come to light that Nokia make just as much profit their insanely cheap handsets as they do from their high-end Lumia devices!

   That's actually really interesting because it means that they are selling so many of their super cheap handsets, like the Nokia 105, pictured above, that their R&D costs on devices like this are not important because of the sheet volumes of these phones which they can sell.

   Nokia China's platform and technology R&D director, Jun Wang, said that the money which the company makes from shifting a tonne of these devices actually adds up to the profit which the company makes from their high-end Lumia smartphones. Wang was speaking at the launch of the 105 in China, a market which is important to Nokia because of the vast amount of people and the huge growth of the mobile phone market in the area lately.

   Nokia will have a relatively tough time in the region though; they have to compete with huge swathes of Android devices which sell at tiny prices for a slice of the 60 per cent of mobile phone sales in China which are less than 2000 Yuan (£250 or $385).

   Nokia is hoping that because they create feature phones with some of the goodies of smartphones that they can tempt people with the tiny £15 price tag that comes with this phone, instead of the slightly higher price which people have to pay for smartphones with touchscreens and faster processors which Android requires.

   What do you think? Have Nokia got a chance? Should they try to focus more on their Windows Phone business? Or would you like to see more in-between phones like the Asha 210? Let us know in the comments below!
Via Pocketlint.

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Nokia's Lumia story continues on May 14th! What could be in the works?

   This May is shaping up to be one of the busiest months for us techies; we already know that Google will be hosting their I/O conference and Blackberry will have their Live gathering and now Nokia has dedicated a day to telling us what comes next for their Windows Phone based Lumia series.

  On May the 14th we can probably expect to hear news of a few more Windows Phones and it's quite likely that Nokia will show us a new flagship! You might remember that Stephen Elop promised us 'a new season of product launches' and it's quite likely this is exactly what he was referring to! Obviously the much rumoured Nokia Lumia 928 could be a part of this, but it's impossible to say at the moment and it seems a little unlikely because that's meant to be being made for Verizon in the USA!

   The most interesting thing will be whether Microsoft decides that this is a good point to update Windows Phone to a new version with this launch too. We've heard that a GDR is in the works and it'll be good to see if Microsoft has been busy improving their operating system!
Via Pocketlint.

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Nokia and STMicroelectronics argument might mean a small redesign for the HTC One!

   Over the last few days it's come to light that Nokia have complained to Dutch courts that HTC have been using a microphone arrangement in the HTC One which is meant to belong solely to Nokia. The real issue here though isn't between Nokia and HTC it's between Nokia and STMicroelectronics and there seems to have been a little bit of a misunderstanding!

   Essentially the ruling from earlier this week, which was handed down from an Amsterdam district court has given STMicroelectronics a ten month ban on their sales of their new 'high-amplitude microphones' to any company other than Nokia! Essentially this means that the dual-membrane microphone which HTC have used in their One was meant to have been in a twelve month exclusivity period with Nokia because they were the co-developers. The story goes that STMicroelectronics believed the exclusivity was only six months so that's where the problem has occurred!

   What this means for HTC is a little problematic because the Taiwanese guys are basically, as the court said, 'blameless' because there was no way they could have known about the exclusivity deal. For the moment this means that HTC's flagship will be available in the Netherlands with the dual-mic set-up, but there won't be any more allowed to ship any more phones with this arrangement for the time being.

   It might be possible for HTC to find another way around this problem and one of their spokespeople issued this statement to Engadget, which gives you a good idea of where the company are at the moment:

"HTC is disappointed in the decision. We are consulting with STM and will decide whether it is necessary to explore alternative solutions in due course. In the meanwhile, we do not expect this decision to have any immediate impact on our handset sales."

Via Engadget.

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Nokia announce the Asha 210 with WhatsApp button built in!

   A couple of days back we reported Nokia's latest teaser which showed off a device with a qwerty keyboard and the insanely bright colouring! We've now got confirmation that the device does exist and there it is pictured above in all it's glory!

   As you can see the device does indeed have a full physical qwerty keyboard and it's a nice candybar device! This is one of the Asha series of devices, this is the 210, and as you would expect with that range of devices there's Symbian on board, but one of the key features with this exact

phone is the WhatsApp integration. There's actually a dedicated button, which you can see better in
the image embedded to the right and Nokia have seemingly done a deal to make sure that you don't have to pay a subscription to keep this version of WhatsApp going! Nokia have said that in some markets the WhatsApp button will be swapped out for a Facebook button!

   The version of Symbian here is the good old trust S40 version, so this is no Windows Phone 8, but for a budget device, aimed at emerging markets, this seems to be a pretty nice little phone. On the inside there's 2G and Wi-Fi capabilities, a rear 2 mega-pixel camera, and a processor which is clocked somewhere below 1Ghz, but Nokia didn't offer exact details.

   The device is priced to sell at $72 in the US. People will be able to pick this phone up for $72 for either the single or dual-SIM option. If we're being totally honest at that price it should give you a relatively good experience, but we can't help but feel that the lack of 3G will hamper this device in day to day use, but perhaps Nokia are doing some compression or something, but we doubt it somehow!

   What do you guys think? Is thee something which would have made this more compelling at such a low price? Can it compete with the budget Android devices? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Via Pocketlint.

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Nokia tease a qwerty smartphone with their iconic bright colours!

   Official teasers are always interesting. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're frustrating and sometimes they tease you just about the right amount. It seems Nokia's latest device will keep up their iconic bold design, but it also looks like there's going to be a qwerty keyboard here too!

   Judging from the picture it seems as though Nokia have created a device with a physical qwerty here and if our hunch is right this phone will probably be like those old touch and type devices and it'll probably be a candy bar device running Symbian so there won't be too many bells and whistles, but it should be great for emerging markets!

   The device was meant to have been released this morning, but we can't track down anything on Nokia's press sites at the moment, but if and when we spot anything we'll let you know the full details!

Via Engadget.

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In Other News: 23/04/2013.

• Sony have decided to add the Xperia Z to their AOSP github. That means that they're busy at work for the Xperia Z which is good to hear, you can check out the video below showing where they've got to and head to the Sony developer blog here for full details!
  Via AndroidPolice.

• Microsoft is expanding the availability of their Surface tablets. From April 25th you can get one of the RT devices in Malaysia and at some point relatively soon after you will be able to get one in Mexico or Korea and then they'll arrive in Thailand in either May or June. The Surface Pro on the other hand will arrive in 19 more countries which are spread across Europe, Asia and Oceania for this time next month! One of those places in the UK!
  Via Engadget.

• Lenovo have confirmed that their K900 smartphone, the first to be powered by a dual-core Intel processor will be available on the 6th of May in China! We're not sure if this uber thin, 5.5" screened monster will head West, but we'll bring you more details if we have them after the big day!
  Via GSMInsider.

• Facebook have redesigned their mobile website to work better with the touchscreens which you'll be viewing it on! It looks a little bit like Google Now, but we'll forgive that if it is an improvement!
  Via AndroidCommunity.

• Geeksphone are the first company out of the block with a Firefox OS phone and you might have tried to get the Keon or Peak today, but you may well have been greeted with issues on the Geeksphone Store. It seems they had a bit more attention then they were expecting!

We are aware some of you have experienced issues due to the number of concurrent visitors... working on it! Sorry for the inconveniences
— Geeksphone (@geeksphone) April 23, 2013

• Bloomberg are reporting that Nokia will show off their much rumoured Lumia 928 for Verizon in May! We'll have to wait and see!
  Via TheVerge.

• BeagleBone are back with a new dev board. This is called the 'black' board and for $45 you can buy yourself a 1GHz SitaraT AM335x ARM CortexT-A8 processor from Texas Instruments, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of internal storage, Linux or Android compatibility, a micro-HDMI port, as well as USB and Ethernet ports! If you're interested head over here to get more details!
  Via Hothardware.

• Virgin Mobile are offering the Samsung Galaxy S4 on contract soon! The pricing will be a £99 up front charge for the phone with either a £36 ‘Starter’ package which give you 200 minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of data, or the £41 ‘Essential’ package which offers 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data or you can go for the £44 ‘Premiere’ deal in which case you can have 2500 minutes and unlimited texts and data. If you want to reduce the upfront cost you can pay £2 per month extra and get the phone for £69 and don't forget if you're a Virgin broadband customer you get your £5 a month discount which makes these plans much more appealing!
  Via TrustedReviews.

And finally, Gamestick have unboxed the developer edition of their Kickstarter backed project. You can check out the video below if you're a backer because it shows you how the menus will look and how Riptide plays on the console!

Via AndroidCommunity.

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Stephen Elop teases a new 'hero' device for the US which will mark the new season of phone announcements!

   We already heard today that Nokia are doing a bit better on their balance sheet, even if it's not quite a profit, but it seems that their Lumia sales are still growing slowly. The best way to bump sales up is brand new, super shiny phones and that what CEO Stephen Elop dropped a little hint about today.

   In one of his earnings calls Elop said that:

"Later this quarter a new Lumia device is anticipated to have hero status with a leading US carrier... [which will] mark the beginning of a season of new product introductions."

   Elop refused to say any more than that, but if we're getting a hero device with a US carrier we expect that this will be the much rumoured Lumia 928! He could be making reference to the aluminium-clad device which supposedly showed up on a Chinese social media site yesterday, which you can see pictured below, or alternatively he might be referring to the often rumoured version of the 808 PureView which is expected to run Windows Phone, both of which people expect to arrive by the end of the year!

   Perhaps this new generation of devices will help Nokia gain some more traction in the US market which they've seemingly been losing of late! What do you think? Are you excited by these devices? let us know in the comments below!
Via WPCentral and TheVerge.

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Nokia's Q1 result are in: It's a bit better but there's still a long way to go!

   Nokia might still be in their huge fall from grace, but that doesn't mean things don't keep ticking over inside the Finnish giant. Their Lumia Windows Phones seem to be grabbing a bit more attention with every device release, but how are the sales looking?

   Well the latest quarterly earnings call shows improvement in Lumia sales once again! In the last quarter of 2012 they managed to ship 4.4 million devices and sales grew again last quarter, up 1.2 million to a grand total of 5.6 million! Of those devices Nokia claims that only one third of them are running versions of Windows Phone 7, the remain two-thirds were powered by Windows Phone 8. If we compare this to the Q1 2012 then sales of Lumia devices are more than 100% up from the 2 million which they had shipped! When everything is added together Nokia has now sold 19.9 million Lumia devices since their inception in November of 2011. That is by no means exception, but it's a good start! 

   If we break things down into regions slightly more, then things are looking better basically everywhere except for America. In the Greater China region revenues are up, something which has been attributed to the sales of the more expensive Lumia devices in the area, despite the company actually selling less devices as Symbian continues it's free-fall, as you can see in the chart below which suggests Nokia needs to get those cheaper Windows Phones selling in order to make up for the loss of Symbian sales! Symbian sales took a big hit as you can see in the tweet from Benedict Evans embedded below!

Very nasty lurch down in sales for Nokia's non-smart business. 56m units, down 21% y-on-y twitter.com/BenedictEvans/…

— Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) April 18, 2013

   Unfortunately for Nokia North American is proving difficult to crack still, with device sales sliding back down to a total of 400,000, making that 33% less than sales at the same time last year and this is notably less than the sales over the holiday season which gave a Q4 2012 sales total of 700,000 in the region.

   Sales are all well and good, but what really matters is the overall profit or loss. You might remember that in Q4 2012 Nokia managed to turn a small profit, but the Finns were back in the red this quarter, posting a loss of €150 million (which is around about $196 million or £128 million) on €5.85 billion ($7.65 billion or £5 billion) worth of revenue. Interesting the company regarded this as a relatively good result as their restructuring efforts have managed to bring the losses right down compared to the mammoth hit their bank account took in Q1 2012 of €1.34 billion!

   If you're interested in full details of how Nokia did then check out their full results PDF here!

   

Via TheVerge (1), (2)

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