lumia

Nokia shutters its flagship China store

Nokia has closed its flagship store in China, once touted as its largest worldwide.

Nokia told ZDNet that the Shanghai store, which opened in 2007, shut down at the end of March. CNET also confirmed the closure.

"For a while now, Nokia has been focusing on growing its presence in operator and third-party retail outlets, rather than through our own physical stores," according to a company representative. "We are, of course, also continuously beefing up our online presence."

Nokia is shuttering the store even as it presses further to regain lost ground in China, considered one … Read more

Pictures of possible early Nokia Lumia 950 leaked

Could this be one of the next Nokia Lumias that'll be hitting the market soon?

According to Windows Phone Central, the above image may be a picture of an early (and rather drab) prototype model of the Lumia 950.

The site further goes on to note that its possible specs include an AMOLED touch screen with a 1,280x768-pixel resolution, 2GB of RAM, and an extended battery life.

We here at CNET have to throw our hats in and say that this photo looks like a no-go. And personally, I think it looks more like a midlevel LG Optimus … Read more

T-Mobile to Lumia 810 users: No LTE for you

Nokia Lumia 810 owners hoping for an update to 4G LTE are out of luck.

The Lumia 810's hardware can support both HSPA+ and LTE; however, T-Mobile has confirmed that an update to LTE isn't going to happen -- at least not at this point, according to a statement sent to CNET today:

While the Nokia Lumia 810 features a chipset, which provides the hardware capability to support both HSPA+42 and LTE, the device will not automatically access our LTE network and, at this time, it will not receive an update to do so.

T-Mobile is committed … Read more

In trouble, tech CEO? Bash the iPhone

I've spent the whole week uttering rude words at my iPhone 5.

Some had four letters, some have had fewer. Several had four syllables. All were expressions of utter disdain, frustration or disappointment.

I'm very suggestible, you see. And this week, two very clever tech CEOs publicly denigrated Apple's lucky charm, making it seem like it was the result of a couple of parts that had fallen off a Segway.

First, there was BlackBerry's Thorsten Heins, who declared that the iPhone user interface is as old as Jay Leno's jokes. Well, his actual words were: &… Read more

Nokia CEO Elop throws iPhone on live TV

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has certainly made clear his feelings about the iPhone.

In an interview on Finnish TV this week, Elop is repeatedly asked about the Lumia 928, which will reportedly pop up next month via Verizon. Despite the interviewer's persistence, the jovial Nokia chief keeps dodging questions about the 928, claiming he doesn't know anything about it because it hasn't yet been announced.

Instead, Elop tries to tout the Lumia 620, a lower-end Windows Phone handset that popped up in January and is now debuting in Finland. Eventually, the frustrated interviewer pulls out his iPhone, … Read more

Microsoft ad touts Nokia Lumia over Samsung Galaxy S3

Would your average Galaxy S3 owner trade in their phone for a Nokia Lumia 920? That's Microsoft's angle for its latest promotional spot.

The new Windows Phone Challenge ad finds Ben Rudolph, Microsoft's director for Windows Phone Experiential Marketing, aka Ben the PC Guy, trying to convince "Brittany" that the Lumia 920 can take a better photo than can her Galaxy S3. If she prefers her phone, she gets $100.

Naturally, the photo snapped by the Lumia shows a bright, clear, crisp image, while the one taken by the S3 is dark and blurry. And … Read more

All-aluminum Nokia Lumia rumored for Verizon next month

Verizon will start selling an all-metal Nokia Lumia 920 variant in April, the Nokia Lumia 928, according to The Verge.

The aluminum-body Lumia 928 would rise up as Verizon's marquee Windows Phone 8 device, larger and with more absolute features than the HTC Windows Phone 8 competitor, and with a fancier finish than the Lumia 822.

In addition to the all-metal finish versus the polycarbonate material that Nokia's been favoring for the Lumia line, the Lumia 928 could also come with a xenon and LED camera flash and have a lighter, slimmer build.

Nokia declined to comment.

Out … Read more

The elusive third great mobile OS

There's no better illustration of the intense competition in the wireless industry than the race to establish another legitimate operating system behind Android and Apple -- where else is third place considered a lofty goal for so many major players?

Yet that's exactly what nearly a dozen companies are trying to achieve. While this year's Mobile World Congress wireless trade show was light on blockbuster smartphone and tablet announcements, it was heavy on burgeoning operating systems and new ways of thinking about mobile devices.

Mozilla's FireFox OS made a big splash at the show, as did … Read more

Nokia still owes Microsoft $650M in Windows Phone fees

Nokia still has to pay Microsoft 500 million euros ($650 million) as part of its agreement to use the Windows Phone operating system.

That's the amount that Nokia will have to pay over the life of their agreement after taking into account the "platform support payments" that Microsoft pays to aid in the development of Windows Phone products. The length of the agreement wasn't disclosed in the company's annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Curiously, Nokia has yet to take a real financial hit from the licensing fees it is required to … Read more

Nokia 'Catwalk' phone aims to top Lumia 920

Nokia's much-rumored "Catwalk" phone apparently purred its way into last week's Mobile World Congress courtesy of a special invitation-only session.

Attending the session was Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin who got a chance to peek at and play with the phone. In a blog out today, Murtazin said that Nokia is gearing up the Catwalk as an enhancement over the Lumia 920.

Catwalk will be housed in a slimmer, all-aluminum body and offer a thinner version of the 920's PureView Phase 2 camera, according to a translation of Murtazin's comments by Electronista.

Prior reports about … Read more