Still the best Nokia Lumia 1020 is now $339 without contract in US

Nokia Lumia 1020 just received a massive discount off-contract in the United States. The smartphone is now priced at $339.99 off contract in the Microsoft Store, as well as Amazon. The handset on sale is an AT&T version with LTE on board. All three colors are currently available – white, black, and yellow. With contract the 4.5-inch Windows Phone is now costs $49.

Announced in mid-2013, Nokia Lumia 1020 is still a proper photography powerhouse. Its 41MP camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens is still the gold standard still photography. Though the phone is from 2013, we have been still waiting to see a proper successor to beat this giant in its still photography.

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Verizon offers Windows running Samsung Ativ SE with impressive specs

For the last couple of weeks we saw several photos of a Samsung made galaxy like Windows phone. Now the device is official on Verizon US network with the name Samsung Ativ SE. the device is now up on pre-order and will be delivered on April 12, a day after the Samsung Galaxy S5. And just like with the latter, Verizon is offering a buy one; get one free deal with the ATIV SE. If you get the ATIV SE with a contract and commit to a new two year deal you can get the Galaxy S5, HTC One (M8) or another ATIV SE with no upfront cost. The Windows Phone device will set users back $199.99 on a two year deal or $599.99 without a contract.

Photo Credit: GSMArena

The Samsung Ativ SE has Windows Phone 8 inside with a 5-inch full-HD AMOLED display with pixel density of roughly 440ppi, Gorilla Corning Glass 3, a 13-megapixel camera, and an unspecified 2.3GHz quad-core processor (most likely the Snapdragon 800) with 2GB of RAM. It also has a 2,600mAh battery, 16GB of storage, and microSD card expansion. The Samsung Ativ SE measures 137x69.8x8.3 mm and weighs 135.7 grams. The phone is fully compatible with Verizon 4G LTE network.

Being a Samsung phone, the Ativ SE comes with a heap of "exclusive" features on top of Windows Phone. The most-notable of these are an infra-red blaster, which when paired with a remote control app allows you to control your TV, and "Ativ Beam" software for sharing files with other Samsung devices — including Android phones and tablets — via NFC. It comes with Microsoft Office Hub that enables users to work on Microsoft Word and Excel, edit files and sync from the cloud. Xbox Live also comes built-in with the device.

Hit the link to see the phone on Verizon showcase. It looks appealing to me!

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T-Mobile alone sold half of Nokia’s sales in US in Q4 2013

Kantar, a data consultancy company, has released some interesting information about Nokia sales figure in US for the last quarter of 2013. By reading all these we have to say Nokia can give T-Mobile a big hug for helping to sell almost half of total sales alone. Of those 45%, 56% were low-end Lumia phones, most notably the 521. This leaves right around 32% of sales being premium handsets and flagships like the Lumia 925.

According to other Kantar data, only 9 million US residents would choose a Nokia device over others, while 39 million more would at least consider one. In comparison to China where of their over 1 billion mobile users, some 57 million prefer a Nokia handset, while 123 million would consider using one.



T-Mobile has started out the year strong with its acquisition of the 700MHz A-Block low-band spectrum from Verizon for $3.3 billion, and its agreement with Sony for exclusive sale of the Xperia Z1S - one of the few Sony devices to be offered by a US carrier in quite some time.

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Nokia launches new Lumia 525 and Lumia 1320 in India

Nokia has launched two new Lumia phones in India. The first one is the Lumia 525 which has a budget friendly price tag with it. It has a 4.0-inch, 800x480 resolution IPS LCD, 5 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal and memory with microSD card slot. A 1430 mAh battery powers this 3G enable lumia phone. It is priced at INR 10,399 ($167). The Lumia 525 also comes with free Gameloft games worth ₹2,025 ($33).



Second one is the member of Nokia phablet family member, Lumia 1320, which shortly follows the flagship Lumia 1520 launched last month. The Lumia 1320 has a 6.0-inch, 1280x720 resolution display, dual-core 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 5 megapixel camera with 1080p video, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory and microSD card slot. It supports 4G. Nokia Lumia 1320 battery is very powerful, its 3400 mAh in size. The Nokia Lumia 1320 is priced at INR 23,999 ($385).



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Nokia Lumia 1520 is now just $50 on contract

Judging by Nokia 1520 performance and age, it’s obviously awesome news to those of you based in the US is that the phablet is now available for the tempting $50 on contract through Amazon. But AT&T is your only option if you want to spend $50 only. That’s quite a lot of savings to be had if you don’t mind going with it. With the handset still costing $200 on contract on AT&T that is a tremendous saving on what is the most high-end Windows Phone so far. The handset costs $629 commitment-free.



The promo is available on all available colors of the Nokia Lumia 1520 – black, red and yellow and white, so you don’t need to make any sacrifices there. Check out Amazon offer this way if you want to take advantage of the deal and start the New Year with a brand new Nokia phablet.

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Microsoft‘s Latest Attempt to Augment Windows Phone Application Base

Microsoft introduced to the public its latest development tool last Tuesday, which is designed for new programmers who in one way or another might be interested to build up their own Windows Phone apps. This is line with the company’s commitment to provide quality technological innovations in this regard to the delight of app lovers from all over the world.

The Microsoft-developed tool is totally different from the previous development tools or projects, as stressed by the company’s spokesperson. Called the Windows Phone App Studio, this free tool is a web-based app creation intended to assist anyone to make their concepts in mind realized by applying the text, imagery, web content and design to any of the customizable available templates.

Getting started is easy
This tool is indeed very easy to operate that even if you are not really adept on the technical aspect, still you can do it with aplomb. Simply create a Microsoft account then choose the template you want to use and start adding content to it. Once everything is set, Windows Phone App Studio takes charge of the other things. And when your app is finally done, you can easily download such app to your own business phone or you may share it with other people by making it public through the Windows Phone Store.

As you can see, Windows Phone App Studio is user-friendly so you have nothing to worry as far as maneuvering such tool is concerned. Even modifying an app is an easy task. This latest dev tool is better than the previous version which is optimized for the IE10 and has only a limited number of templates to choose from. It is very promising that the company has already in mind an upgrading in the future as regards its capabilities to attract more users.

Undeniable app-gap
Microsoft really hopes to achieve a remarkable growth in their Windows Phone application base. That is why their research and development department keeps on looking for ways to make this goal become a reality. And their Windows Phone App Studio serves as one of their arsenals in this regard. Presently, it has an approximately 160,000 apps and hoping to produce more to further strengthen its status and establish strong dominance in the industry.

At any rate, it can’t be denied that there’s still the never-ending app-gap among iPhone, Android Phone and Windows Phone according to Nick Landry, Infragistics current Senior Program Manager and the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the Windows Phone Development. But Landry argues the enormity of the situation as what some experts believe to have transpired, prompting many app users to ignore the Windows Phone Application Base.

Availability of apps for the three phone platforms
Landry made a comparison of the three phone platforms as to the availability of the 100 top phone apps. His findings clearly emphasized that it’s just a measure of the official app availability of these platforms. All of Landry’s self-selected top 100 phone apps run on iOS and almost all of these also run on Android too but only 63 percent are applicable on Windows Phone. This only shows that the latter still needs to catch up with the other two platforms to ensure public support.

Windows Phone App Studio is not really intended at developers of the sort of apps that Landry have measured. Nevertheless Microsoft is actually hoping that this dev tool might appeal to those who have great concepts for apps, though not necessarily the type of programming background as well as the competence to turn these ideas into full apps. The company is very optimistic that their latest offering will create wonders for them.

Author’s bio:
Chiastine Ross, a freelance article writer and contributor who focus more on technology, mainly Gadgets and all the latest trends which are interesting for readers and tech enthusiasts. And how these smartphones and other Voip Service Provider like RingCentral, can help change our life. You can reach her through Facebook and Twitter

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Microsoft files one after another patent suits against Android

A senior Microsoft attorney says the number of patent lawsuits filed between tech companies is natural because of U.S. patent laws, suggesting the company will likely continue its legal attack on Google's Android system. Horacio Gutierrez, deputy general counsel for Microsoft, told the San Francisco Chronicle patent protections are a necessary part of the industry. Microsoft has already patented several "features that just make the phone much more efficient," for which Android makers should compensate Microsoft, according to Gutierrez.

Microsoft's strong stance comes as it signs licensing agreements with HTC and Samsung, generating more revenue from those arrangements than it makes from its own Windows Phone operating system.

These agreements are often the goal of patent-related legal actions, and most companies would rather come to licensing agreements rather than halt the production of the devices due to bans and injunctions. But the rise of patent lawsuits has escalated of late, prompting debate over the effects on innovation and reform of the patent system.

Gutierrez denied, however, that Microsoft is waging a vendetta against Android, saying patent battles often happen when "technologies are really disruptive."

Gutierrez says the rise is unique to this time and place and that the U.S. patent system isn't in need or a reboot.

"People who lived in that particular time would look and say, 'What a mess, we certainly must live in the worst time. The system is broken and something has to be done to fix it,'" he said. "That's the situation we're in right now. If you think of a mobile phone or a tablet computer today, they're not your father's or your grandfather's cell phone."

One proposed remedy, the America Invents Act, attempts to clean up patent regulation by granting intellectual property rights on a first-filed, rather than first-invented basis.
Source: Brothersoft News

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