We’re here in New York to follow Nokia’s Lumia announcements. Follow along with us to get the latest about the new products launched today.
10:00am – Nokia CEO Stephen Elop taking the stage. Says that the Lumia 800 was the first “real” Windows Phone on the market. Says China is the biggest Lumia market in the world.
10:04am – Windows Phone has 100,000 apps and growing – the fastest ecosystem in the world.
10:06am – Talking Asha. Bringing excellent data compression to India’s market — almost like a smartphone. Nokia has stabilized its smartphone business in the last quarter. Nice choice of words.
Challenging today’s shortcomings in smartphone experiences. Called Future Disruptions. Nokia wants to differentiate. Designs of the devices “are truly breaking through.”
Talking about optics and image capture. Also talking location and commerce. 4 out of 5 cards today use Nokia’s location and mapping capabilities.
10:08am – Nokia’s Drive, Transport and Maps for Lumia devices have been a huge differentiator for the Lumia line. Other companies are “placing bets” on Nokia’s mapping software. Nokia mapping will be fully integrated into Windows Phone 8.
10:10am – Jo Harlow on stage to talk new Lumia devices. Announces Lumia 920 as expected. “The most advanced smartphone in the world today.” “This is Lumia and it’s time to switch.”
PureView on board, HD Video+, wireless charging, City Lens.
The Lumia 920 “captures better pictures and video than any smartphone on the market.” We’ll see. Looks great, really nice design. Very beautiful, looks like a streamlined Lumia 900.
10:14am – Harlow talking about the amazing photos on the Lumia 920, especially when in low lighting. Talking excellent image stabilization. “Revolutionary imaging technology” – captures between 5 and 10 times the amount of light of a traditional smartphone camera. Has floating lens technology — reacts to minute movements in your hands, so the lens is more stable. Shutter stays open longer, for better lowlight photos.
10:16am – Also replaces your camcorder. Amazing smooth “professional-looking” video. Nokia wants to challenge conventional limitations of conventional cameras.
10:19am – Harlow talking Nokia mapping capabilities. City Lens is part of the new location suite — just came out of beta — using augmented reality. Will be pre-loaded onto all Lumia devices alongside Maps, Drive, Transport. Adding indoor maps to Nokia Maps in Windows Phone 8.
10:22am – Talking new 4.5-inch curved-glass “better than HD” display. Blur-free Scrolling. Screen technology is called PureMotion HD+…better than ClearBlack displays. Excellent bright sunlight viewability.
10:24am – 2000mAh battery inside the Lumia 920. Includes the dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor at 1.5Ghz. 30% more battery life than traditional Snapdragons.
Comes with built-in wireless charging just as expected. “Whenever you recharge, your phone can recharge too.” Recharge pillow. Hilarious.
10:25am – Comes with Qi Wireless Standard capabilities. Partnering with Fatboy for “recharge pillow.”
10:28am – Joe Belfiore going to give us a demo of Windows Phone 8 — “going to give you a preview of a few new things in Windows Phone 8.”
10:31am – Joe is talking about the new start screen, seeing what we saw back in June with the Windows Phone 8 unveiling.
10:32am – Core technology with Windows 8, shares app platform for developer. Bringing more and better apps to Windows Phone 8. All the previous Windows Phone 7 apps will scale up and look great on the HD screens on the new Windows Phone 8 devices.
10:35am – Talking CNN app and how it has been adjusted to support extra-large tiles in Windows Phone 8.
10:37am – Show us the new HTML5 capabilities of Internet Explorer 10. Sharing abilities in the new Windows Phone 8 interface. Power-home button screenshot capabilities. Biggest applause of the day with that feature announcement.
10:40am: Show us some Windows Phone 8 photo inception. Belfiore says he’s not going to show us any more features of Windows Phone 8 — that will be saved for a later conference (boo!) but he’ll spend the rest of the time focusing on photography.
The new photo app looks great, really simple. Can also engage other photo apps that plug into the Photo API directly from within the camera app. Very cool.
10:45am – SkyDrive will upload your photos in real time, presumably over LTE, from all photo apps, including Photosynth and other third-party apps, working seamlessly with the cloud.
10:47am – Burst mode shown off in the camera app. “Best shot” capabilities courtesy of the dedicated DSP in the Snapdragon S4 chip.
Belfiore talking “Blink” app, able to take multiple shots quickly and use an algorithm to choose the “computationally” best photo taken.
10:48am – Kevin Shields, Senior VP at Nokia now on stage.
Lumia 920 stands apart from the crowd. “Lipstick red”, “Slate grey”, “Yummy yellow” (OK, he didn’t say that). Harkens the return of the curved 2.5D glass screen from the Lumia 800.
Material is nearly impossible to scratch. Display is one of the best on the market, he says.
10:54am: Screen is brightest ever to hit a smartphone. Amazing contrast, too. Excellent sunlight viewability. Can also work when gloves are on. Shields put on big red mittens to use as an example. Very cool, especially for us Canadians.
10:56am: Showing off that JBL PowerUp that we showed you the other day. Supports NFC and wireless charging capabilities. Very, very cool demo. Seriously, that little box sounds amazing.
11:03am: New lenses in the camera app: Cinemagraph and Eraser functionality. AWESOME! You can take multiple photos in an art gallery, for example, and erase moving people from the scene using multiple photo exposures.
11:05am: Nokia will bring some of the improvements to the camera technology to existing Lumia devices. Very good news for Lumia 710, 800 and 900 users. Not sure about the Lumia 610.
11:06am: Talking new PureView camera assembly. Putting springs around the entire camera assembly. Dramatic affect for stabilization. Showing off a competitor’s high-end smartphone, in this case a Galaxy S III. The Galaxy S III was noticeably more jittery. I’m not just saying it, it’s absolutely true.
11:08am: Showing off the excellent low-light capture capabilities in the Lumia 920. Where’s the Lumia 820? Hmmm…
11:10am: Oh, here it is! Nokia announces the 4.3-inch Lumia 820. Removable backing, replaceable shells. Wireless charging. All the same camera features as the 920 but doesn’t have the PureView camera.
11:13am: Stephen Elop back on the stage. Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. “World’s most innovative smartphone.”
11:15am: Steve Ballmer on stage, talking Windows Phone and Lumia partnership. Says “Nokia” awkwardly.
He’s saying, “This is the year of Windows.” This is definitely not a launch for Windows Phone 8. Won’t say when the phone is being released, nor the price. Sad but true — likely when Windows Phone 8 is officially announced later this year.
11:18am: Lots of talk about Microsoft’s ecosystem. Live, Xbox, SkyDrive, Bing. 400 million new devices by next year running Windows 8. Largest single opportunity available for software developers today. But will they all build for Windows Phone 8?
11:20am: Elop is eloquent, speaks with confidence. “Best way to capture photos and videos.”
Talking City Lens and how it’s joining the Location Suite in Lumia. “The world’s most innovative smartphone.”
That’s it, folks! Thanks for reading, and demos to come.
