Posts Tagged ‘Nokia’
Microsoft Was Close To A Nokia Acquisition Before Talks Broke Down Recently, WSJ Reports
Author: Tiffany Shoman
Microsoft and Nokia have gotten pretty cosy over the past few years, and at the time of the announcement of the Finnish company’s decision to use Windows Phone OS to power its smartphones, many speculated it was the first overture for a coming acquisition. And that is apparently where things were headed, according to the Wall Street Journal, but the proposed deal has since fallen apart.
The WSJ says talks were taking place as soon as this month, but that they’ve collapsed to the point where they aren’t likely to get revived again, meaning a Microkia or Nokrosoft isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. Talks up until that point had been very advanced, the report says, but eventually broke down because of financial difficulties faced by both MS and Nokia.
Developing…
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Huawei ‘open-minded’ on Nokia acquisition, chairman calls Windows Phone ‘weak’ (update)
Author: Heather Brown
A Nokia Lumia smartphone brought to you by Huawei? The idea might seem preposterous, but Richard Yu — chairman of the Chinese manufacturer’s consumer business unit — says his company is “considering” such acquisitions. “Maybe the combination has some synergies,” Yu told The Financial Times. Of course, he quickly clarified that any deal hinges on Nokia’s willingness to be bought out. “We are open-minded,” Yu said. Nokia’s stock jumped upward as news of the executive’s unprompted remarks spread. The struggling handset maker has given no indication it’s for sale, however. In fact, Nokia is in the midst of a significant hardware push, having just released the Lumia 925 and Lumia 928; an “EOS” Windows Phone featuring a 41-megapixel camera…
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Tags: 'openminded', Acquisition, calls, Chairman, Huawei, Nokia, Phone, Update, Weak, Windows | 
No Comments »Alleged metallic Nokia EOS body teased again, this time with a dozen of them
Author: Brittany Turner
That baffling metallic Nokia EOS chassis we saw the other day? It’s back, but this time the same leakster from Sina Weibo managed to get a shot of at least 12 of them, meaning the device has likely reached some sort of production stage. In another photo, we can see the same button arrangement — presumably volume, power and camera — that’s already present on the current Lumia range. The strange thing is we’ve yet to see a cover plate that will match this seemingly smaller camera opening, but the square shape does make us wonder whether this will fit Pelican Imaging’s 16-lens array camera. After all, Nokia did announce its investment in this plenoptic camera technology. Hopefully Elop will personally explain what’s going on at his event on July 11th — maybe with both this and the plastic EOS in his hands.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia
Via: Engadget China
Source: Sina Weibo (login required)
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Nokia Lumia 925 review: lots of changes, but not much difference
Author: Laura Clark
It’s been just half a year since Nokia revealed its first Windows Phone 8 device, and we’ve already got another flagship to review. The Lumia 925 marks a departure in design for Nokia — it looks nothing like its predecessors, barring an expanse of screen and some capacitive Windows buttons. This time around, the phone is housed in an aluminum frame, making it Nokia’s first metal smartphone since those heady Symbian days. This, alongside some hardware repositioning and (minor) specification changes has been enough for the Lumia 925 to weigh notably less than its 920 forebear — and we think it’s enough to feel in your hand. As we juggled the two Windows Phones ahead of this review, our first impressions were that the 925 was also much easier to hold, despite only a negligible difference in thickness.
This, alongside some hardware repositioning and (minor) specification changes has been enough for the Lumia 925 to weigh notably less than its 920 forebear
Arriving in three comparatively restrained monochrome hues (white, black and grey), Nokia’s returned to OLED for its display tech, although it’s the same 1,280 x 768 resolution as the rest of the 920 series and includes the company’s anti-reflective screen technology for good measure. Its new Smart Camera app debuts on the Lumia 925, standing alongside the stock app and offering up some interesting new picture-taking options.
Otherwise, it’s an awful lot like the Lumia 920, at least on paper: there’s the same lauded 8.7-megapixel camera sensor, the same dual-core 1.5GHz processor and the same OS (albeit with some beta goodies). Nokia reckons that the phone is geared towards a different buyer than those who bought the Lumia 920, but alongside Verizon’s recent US-only Lumia 928, is there enough to get fans that skipped on last year’s model to buy this time around? And is there enough to persuade you not to hold out for what’s on the horizon?
Gallery: Nokia Lumia 925 review
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia
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Latest leak suggests Nokia EOS to pack 41MP camera, possible metallic variant also spotted
Author:
We gotta say, originally we weren’t very confident in the above alleged spy shots of the rumored Nokia EOS smartphone, but after talking to the leakster from Sina Weibo, we think we got this figured out. First of all, there are two parts here: the paint-less camera cover plate that now says “41 megapixel” — the same camera resolution featured on the 808 PureView — instead of “XX megapixel,” and a metallic chassis of the EOS phone. But the latter (pictured center and right) looks slightly different to the other leaks we’ve come across so far: the bump is significantly smaller, and the holes inside don’t match the ones on the cover plate. If you look even closer, the pin hole for what seems to be a SIM slot at the top is now on the other side of the slot.
Judging by his background and track record so far (he claims he also leaked the red EOS factory photos), we have reason to believe that this leakster does have a good source on the factory floor. Hence our two assumptions: either this chassis is an early engineering sample, or that this is a metallic variant of the plastic EOS. You know, like what the Lumia 925 is to the Lumia 920. We’ve been promised a few more photos in the coming days, and hopefully they’ll unravel more mystery before Nokia lets the cat out of the bag next month.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia
Source: Sina Weibo (1), (2)
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Nokia Lumia 925 review
Author: Laura Clark
The Lumia 800 was a great phone without an ecosystem. The Lumia 900 made that phone bigger, without significantly improving on the software or specifications. The Lumia 920 came with a massively improved camera, and the updated Windows Phone 8, but it was too bulky for many consumers.
With the 925, Nokia thinks it’s perfected the Lumia formula: It’s essentially the same phone as the 920 in a vastly thinner and lighter aluminum shell. Nokia’s also made some improvements to the Lumia 920′s camera, both in hardware and software. Is this finally the Lumia that can go head-to-head with the HTC Ones, iPhone 5s, and Galaxy S4s of the world? Read on to find out.
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Nokia and Microsoft ‘working even closer’, will have something to show us soon
Author: Antonio Pierce
At a UK briefing for Nokia’s incoming Lumia 925, the company revealed that it’s continuing to deepen its relationship with Microsoft. Nokia UK’s Ray Haddow said that it was “working even closer” with the Windows Phone 8 maker and that we can expect to see the fruits of this pairing “in the next few weeks.” While we’re not sure what that will entail just yet (and we’re already expecting to see some beta software functionality land on our review model), we’re hoping to see some new features from the team-up. Better still, we’ve just received our very own Lumia 925 to test, so expect a review very soon.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia
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Nokia releases ‘Glance Screen’ beta with double-tap to wake as Lumia 925 sales begin
Author: Jamie Colby
Nokia has been working on additional firmware improvements for its Lumia Windows Phone 8 range, and the company is announcing a beta of its “Glance Screen” software on Monday. Glance Screen works as a clock for the standby screen that also provides battery level notifications and a double-tap to wake feature to activate a phone. The feature will always show the clock, even when the device is not in use, and also includes a night mode for when a phone is used in the dark. If the functionality of Glance Screen sounds familiar, that’s because Nokia has taken the feature straight from its old Symbian phones — a platform it dropped in favor of Windows Phone.
Glance Screen launches exclusively on the Lumia 925 initially, and Nokia says it…
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Samsung And Nokia Could Be Gearing Up For A Smartphone Camera War
Author: Janet Odell
So Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Mini and Galaxy S4 Active have officially made the leap from unimaginative rumors to unimaginative reality, which leaves only one oft-rumored version of the popular smartphone left unaccounted for — the curious S4 Zoom.
As the name sort of implies, this Galaxy variant is said to blur the line between smartphone and camera, and we may now be getting our first look at the thing. A set of images from both SamMobile and TechTastic purportedly show off the photo-centric S4 Zoom ahead of a big Samsung press event in London later this month.
It’s hard to judge from the unflattering angles, but these images depict a device seems to be more camera than phone. The thickish frame, protruding lens obscuring a 16-megapixel sensor, and rounded butt are all design choices that are more reminiscent of point-and-shoots than they are of any standard smartphone. Too bad then that the supposed spec sheet that’s been attached to the S4 Zoom seems wimpy in comparison — that hefty sensor will supposedly be accompanied by a 4.3-inch qHD AMOLED display and a 1.6GHz dual-core processor.
If the S4 Zoom is indeed the real deal — and at this point it just about seems like a lock — Samsung may find that it’s not alone in using smartphones as a platform to show off their camera prowess. Persistent rumors of a Nokia Windows Phone sporting one of the company’s mind-boggling PureView sensors have been floating around for over a year now, and a handful of spurious “leaked” images of one such device (codenamed “EOS “)have been circulating these past days. Hell, just earlier this morning we were treated to what may be the smoking gun — a purported recording of the EOS’ gigantic rear camera pod blinking at us.
In case you missed the PureView hullabaloo from last year, Nokia’s EOS isn’t expected to feature the comparatively puny sensors seen in the company’s recent Windows Phones. No no, rumor has it that it will instead sport the same 41-megapixel camera sensor that first graced the chubby 808 PureView back in 2012.
But I think there’s a bigger question here that hasn’t been adequately answered yet — who do these companies think we’ll buy these things? I suspect I may be in the minority on this one, but I’ve always though that the camera-first approach that some OEMs fiddle around with is just sort of silly. Yes, there’s definite value in being able to capture compelling shots on the run, but really: do people really care how good their photos look once quality inches past a certain threshold?
After all, the way we visually memorialize things has changed since the dawn of smartphone epoch — most images don’t wind up printed and tucked away in photo albums any more. They get hastily MMSed to friends. They get marred by fugly filters and splayed up on Instagram. And in some cases (I’m looking at you Snapchat), the real value of these photos is knowing that they’ll quickly be lost to the ages, a pointed rejection of the archaic permanence of images chemically etched on dead tree material. Camera quality ranks pretty low on my list of criteria when it comes time to buy a new phone, and leaning too heavily on one aspect of a device could be… problematic to say the least.
The closest thing Samsung has had to the S4 Zoom to date is the Galaxy Camera, and the company has never broken out Galaxy Camera sales for we hardware business dorks to dig into. Still, the device was hamstrung by carriers requiring customers to buy a data plan along with the thing (a Wi-Fi version was announced just two months ago). And while Nokia has kept its PureView numbers a closely guarded secret, enthusiasts have estimated that the Finnish phone company managed to sell over half a million as of Fall 2012.
That’s a very solid number considering all the 808′s potential sticking points, and Nokia’s moving a solid number of Lumia phones these days so Nokia must be hoping that PureView and Lumia are two great tastes that really do taste great together. Thankfully, we probably won’t have to wait much longer to see these two duke it out — while the S4 Zoom is expected to be outed this month, the EOS could see the light of day as early as July 9.
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Nokia 41-megapixel ‘EOS’ video demo shows camera lens in detail
Author: Brandon Zimmerman
We’ve seen a number of images of Nokia’s “EOS” 41-megapixel Windows Phone leak in recent days, but a new video shows the camera in a lot more detail. Originating from the Vizileaks Twitter account, the video shows the lens shutter opening and closing on Nokia’s upcoming handset. An XX-megapixel moniker is shown on the rear of the device, indicating this is likely a Nokia prototype still undergoing testing. Little else is shown, but a recent blog post hints that sample photos will be forthcoming.
The original PureView, with Windows Phone
Codenamed EOS, Nokia’s upcoming Lumia will be the Windows Phone equivalent to the company’s 808 PureView handset. Nokia is believed to be testing the device with AT&T as its US partner. Recent reports…
