HoFo Blog

Howard gave me the Rogers LTE Rocket hub to put through it's paces and post up a review. How could I say no?
1> it's LTE
2> it's LTE data that isn't counting towards my 6 gig package
3> refer to #2

So with the Rocket Hub in hand I happily trotted down Free LTE MAD SEEG lane to test some speeds, download some stuff* and generally pillage and plunder the Rogers LTE network.
...

Here's my report on Nokia's Lumia 820 and 920 launch.

I'm here in New York where Nokia is launching 2 new Windows Phones. The Lumia 920 and Lumia 820.


The Lumia 920 is the higher end phone with a 4.5" 1280x768 600 nit IPS LCD, 8.7MP Pureview camera with optical image stabilization, a polycarbonate unibody and a 2000mAh battery. I noticed during the demo that Joe Belfiore's 920 was connected to LTE whereas someone else who looked like they were from Europe had 4G. According to the Forum Nokia page the 920 supports LTE Band 1 (2100), LTE Band 20 (800), LTE Band 3 (1800), LTE Band 7 (2600), LTE Band 8 (900). Not sure if this one version of the 920 supports all these LTE bands or if they're mentioning all the bands the different 920 variants support. Note that LTE on AWS isn't listed - so I'm guessing those specs are for the 'Euro' variant.

Powering all this is a 1.5Ghz dual core Snapdragon S4 processor (like some Samsung GS3 and HTC One X variants along with the Motorola ATRIX). You get 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The storage is not expandable.

The screen has a brightness level of 600nits. Just for reference the Xperia ION (another extremely bright phone) measures 500nits so the 920's screen will probably work amazing even in direct sunlight. ...

Stephen Elop is coming to the stage

18 months ago, Nokia unveiled their new strategy. They realized it's gone from a war of devices to a war of ecosystems.

In 6 months Nokia brought the Lumia 800 and 710. Reminds us that the 800 is the first 'real' Windows Phones.

They helped Microsoft expand to lower points and into new markets. Apparently China is the biggest Windows Phone market.

Here in the 'States they brought the 900 and 710 to AT&T and T-Mo respectively.

over 100,000 apps in the marketplace. now growing 3x faster than before Nokia joined.

Now talking about Asha, trying to use those to connect another 1B users to the mobile phone market.

Mentions that Nokia has stabilized their phone business in the last quarter.

Now talking about the 3rd part of their business - their future disruptions. Maps, optics, etc.

Nokia maps will be embedded into Windows Phone.

Jo Harlow, Executive Pres of Nokia is now up.

They're now showing a pretty epic video of a new Lumia device. Couldn't help noticing it has a Snapdragon processor.



The new Lumia is called The Nokia Lumia 920.

Includes Pureview camera

Nokia City Lens

Nokia Pure motion HD Plus

Built in wireless charging

"This is Nokia, and it's time to switch"

Now talking about PureView. 2012 will be the year the number of pictures taken with mobile phones will surpass those taken with regular cameras.

Talking about how slow shutter speeds result in blurry pictures. The Pureview camera captures 5x to 10x the amount of light that competitors does. The camera has 'floating lens' technology to help reduce blur (I'm guessing she's talking about image stabilization).

Yes, it's IS. It's used in videos too.

Now talking about navigation. It's supposed to be one of the reasons why people choose a Lumia. They're bringing their navigation products together into an integrated Location suite. Mentioning offline maps - not just cached maps. Daily commute feature will tell you how long it will take to get to work. It will tell you what time you have to leave. Nokia Transit includes how much time it takes to get to the next stop and how much time you have to spend at statioin



Nokia city lens is an augmented reality apps. Nokia maps will also get augmented reality.

This is cool, set a route in Nokia maps and use the augmented reality feature to see where you have to go. No more having to figure out which direction to go.

Nokia Pure Motion HD Plus is the name of the display. 4.5" curved glass display with 'better than HD resolution'.

The colour tone (and brightness) adjust automatically in bright sunlight.

2000mAh battery, Qualcomm S4 Snapdragon processor. Up to 30% more efficient that 'quad core alternatives'.

Wireless charger. One accessory is the 'fatboy wireless charging pillow'. It's based on the Qi wireless charger standard (woohoo, standards)

Virgin Atantic will place charging plates at their lounge in Heathrow. Coffee Bean will also place charging plates in their stores.

Joe Belfiore is now on stage talking about Windows Phone 8.

You can now take screenshots with Windows Phone 8 (finally)

The camera apps supports lenses from WITHIN the camera. Basically, instead of using a separate app that controls your camera you can select the app from within the camera app.

There's tap to share via NFC.

Kevin Shields

920 introduces new colours: Yellow, Red, Grey in addition on Black and White.

920 is stronger than the 900. Strong body and glass. Polycarbonate body is good for RF. Nothing to block RF.

Strip on the back where the camera is doesn't scratch easily now.

It looks like a giant Lumia 800 (that's a good thing).

It's a LCD display. They say it's the fastest LCD display available (fastest pixel transition) and brightest.

WXGA resolution (1280x768).

The display has super sensitive technology. You can use it with gloves (good for the winter). It has 2 modes, bare skin and with gloves on.

Nokia Music is coming to the 'States. Try downloading it now.

Cool NFC/wireless charging accessory from JBL (I'll upload a video of it later).

Now talking about exclusive apps that come with the Lumia. Out of the box location apps.

New Rovio game called Angry Birds Roost coming to Lumia.

Now talking about the camera 'lenses' again. Cool! say you're at a gallery and want to take a picture of someone. Your subject stands in the center of the frame while random people are walking around. You can use this lens to REMOVE the other people. < applause > Very, very cool

Nokia Lumia 820 just announced. Polycarbonate unibody, Carl Zeiss lens, 4.3" clearback display, NFC.

the back shell pops off, 1650mAh battery. (how is it a unibody?)

Yellow, red, blue, purple, grey, white and black shells

Also have wireless charging shells (optional).

Steve Balmer is on stage now.

I'll have a hand-on and some demos later. ...

...

Recently, Android hardware reached a point where I felt you didn’t have to buy the fanciest phone in order to be happy. While the HTC One X is a great phone most users will be happy with the One S, that sort of thing. I recently reviewed the Motorola ATRIX which is another fantastic device. Turns out the ATRIX has a smaller sibling the RAZR V XT885. Is the RAZR V good enough?
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The verdict is in. A jury has found Samsung guilty for infringing on Apple's patents. They've been ordered to pay $1,051,855,000 (at $600 a shot that's around 1,753,090 Galaxy S III's) in damages to Apple.

FYI Samsung's 2011 net income was ~$12 billion USD. ...

In terms of 2012 flagship Android phones, first came the HTC One X which was followed by the Samsung Galaxy S III. Both share very similar specs including support for LTE. Now we have the Motorola ATRIX HD LTE which is packing similar hardware. So which of the 3 should you buy?

While pretty much all Smartphones are plain slabs these days, last year’s Motorola RAZR was an interesting interpretation of the plain slab. It was wide and had sharp angles. The Kevlar back is bare with its weave exposed. There were some nice details including the Motorola logo and the volume buttons. ...