The Lumia 920 (S$899) and Lumia 820 (S$699) will be available in Singapore shelves on 8 December 2012.
Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820 – the new Microsoft Windows Phone 8 smartphones.
Both phones will be available in pentaband LTE and HSPA+ variants and are expected to start shipping in select markets later in the year.
Nokia will announce pricing and specific roll-out dates country by country when sales are due to begin.
The Nokia flagship Lumia 920 comes in yellow, red, grey, white or black
The Nokia Lumia 920 incorporates the latest Nokia PureView imaging innovation.
It uses advanced floating lens technology that claims to take in “five times more light than competing smartphones without using flash, making it possible to capture clear, bright pictures and video indoors and at night”.
The mid-range Nokia Lumia 820 comes in red, yellow, grey, cyan, purple, white and black.
The touch-screen is able to differentiate between a bare finger and a glove one. You can still use the screen while wearing a ski glove.
Yellow Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone.
And it sports the same curved screen design I like in the Lumia 800.
The Nokia Lumia 820 comes with an exchangeable shell design that allows a range of colors, and enables wireless charging.
Beneath the shell is room to insert a microSD memory card.
Although both will feature a new faster 1.5GHz Dual Core Snapdragon S4 processor, the latest phones from Samsung, LG and Huawei will have Quad core processors, as will the iPhone 5 probably.
Nokia location suite
The Nokia Lumia 920 also comes with Nokia City Lens, the latest addition to the Nokia location suite.
The red and yellow Nokia Lumia 820.
By pointing the camera at a city street, City Lens overlays information about restaurants, shops, hotels and more on the surfaces of buildings, for the most intuitive way to explore surroundings.
Nokia City Lens is the start of a new augmented reality experience that also enhances Nokia Maps, making it possible to move between maps view and augmented reality view to help people check their direction and surroundings.
Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport have also been enhanced.
The Nokia Lumia 920 also comes with a large 2000mAh battery and features built-in wireless charging.
Wireless charging partners
Nokia Lumia 820 covers.
Nokia also announced a range of wireless charging accessories and partnerships.
The Fatboy Recharge Pillow provides a fun way to recharge, while JBL introduced the JBL PowerUP, a wireless charging docking station with high quality audio in retro styling.
Deals with Virgin Atlantic to put wireless charging stations in the London Heathrow Clubhouse lounge and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to put charging plates on tables in some of their cafés, were the first of many deals Nokia intends to sign to take wireless charging outside the home and office.
Below are the key technical specifications for the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820, as well as their respective detailed datasheets.
Nokia has unveiled its first hardware running the new mobile operating system from Microsoft.
The Finnish phone maker launched two Windows Phone 8 smartphones – Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 – in a joint media event between Nokia and Microsoft in New York today.
Steve Ballmer (CEO Microsoft) and Stephen Elop (CEO Nokia) brandishing the new Windows Phone 8 Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones at Manhattan today.
The one-and-a-half hour session just ended five minutes ago.
The joint media event saw the unveiling of the Lumia 920 (with PureView) and Lumia 820, with NFC, more powerful processors (1.5GHz Dual Core Snapdragon S4), better displays and new augmented reality apps (City Lens) for its location suite and enhancements to existing apps (Nokia Drive, Maps and Transport).
Check back at this space for more updates on new features of the two new smartphones.
The Singapore White Spaces Pilot Group (SWSPG) added six new members today, and launched three commercial pilot deployments of TV White Spaces (TVWS) smart radio technology.
The three founding members of the SWSPG added six new members today.
The three founding members (Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), Microsoft Singapore and StarHub) of the SWSPG introduced the following six members today.
Neul Ltd, a Cambridge, UK-based TVWS Solutions and Services Company.
Adaptrum, a Silicon Valley, US-based TVWS technology and solutions provider; whose TVWS System ACRS 1.0 was certified by the FCC and commercially deployed in the US.
Power Automation Pte Ltd (a joint venture between Singapore Power and Siemens) which is a provider of smart grid solutions.
Singapore Island Country Club, a golf and country club in Singapore.
Spectrum Bridge Inc, a developer of spectrum management systems and a provider of spectrum sharing solutions, whose TVWS platform was the first to obtain FCC certification in the US.
ZDW Systems Pte Ltd, an equipment manufacturer and solutions provider for wireless communications coverage enhancement networks.
The group also announced the first series of commercial pilot deployments of TVWS smart radio technology in Singapore.
“The Singapore TVWS pilots are very timely with the on-going digital TV transition and rising trends of the Internet of Things and Smart City regionally,” said Michael Thatcher, Chief Technology Officer, Public Sector, Microsoft Asia Pacific.
This will hopefully introduce a new class of wireless connectivity to Singapore, putting the island nation at the forefront of a new wave of wireless services innovation and Smart City applications.
With the support of IDA, these first three commercial pilot projects will attempt to demonstrate the characteristics and benefits of TVWS solutions in different environments and with different usage applications.
The first demo will penetrate the dense vegetation and challenging terrain of the SICC to enable wireless connectivity.
“IDA welcomes industry-led efforts such as the TVWS commercial pilots by the SWSPG. We will continue to support and provide regulatory guidance to industry initiatives looking at new and innovative ways to deploy TVWS,” said Aileen Chia, Deputy Diretor-General (Telecoms & Post), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.
The second demo will provide long-range wireless Internet coverage across the waters at the Singapore harbour.
The third demo will support smart grid applications that will impact the million households in Singapore.
These commercial pilots are conducted under a test licence from IDA and utilise a TVWS Geo-location Database developed by Microsoft, with the advice and inputs from IDA.
Progress Software is collaborating with SingTel to launch cloud-based infrastructure for ISVs to build, test, manage and deploy cloud-based applications.
MoU signing. Keith Budge, Vice President and Managing Director (Asia Pacific & Japan), Progress Software (Left) with Alvin Kok, Head of Infocomm Services, SingTel (right).
From the brief that Budge and Kok gave me, I can see how the collaboration will enable ISVs to mature from providing on-premise one-to-one solutions; to cloud-enabled, single-source, multi-tenanted, pay-per-use solutions.
Essentially, SingTel will provide the foundation with its PowerON IaaS, Progress Software will provide the enabler in the form of OpenEdge PaaS, so that ISVs can quickly and cost-effectively deploy cloud-based applications for their clients’ businesses.
Progress Software Corporation is a global software company that aims to be a leading platform provider for the next-generation, context-aware applications in the Cloud.
“… this [collaboration with SingTel] bolsters our strategy to provide new and existing application partners a singular, unified platform to build and deploy applications in the cloud,” said Keith Budge, Vice President and Managing Director for Asia Pacific and Japan, Progress Software.
Its collaboration with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) will enable software developers from Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to deploy, access and analyze applications in the Cloud using the Progress OpenEdge application development platform.
The Asia Pacific Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) market is attracting considerable interest from businesses due to the flexibility it brings to application development and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Frost & Sullivan projects that the market will grow to reach $523 million in 2016.
Episode 2 of TGIS Season 2 is due tomorrow. But if you’re still awake, you can watch the embedded video here.
In this episode, Joanne-Marie chats with Singapore’s youngest iPhone developer: 12-year-old Lim Ding Wen, who created his first iPhone app (Doodle Kids) when he was only nine.
There is also a contest that ends on 4 September, with SingTel vouchers to be won.
Nikon D4 has received the “European Professional Camera of the Year 2012-2013 Award” while the Nikon D800 has received the “European Camera of the Year 2012-2013 Award”.
Nikon D4 (left) and D800. Not shown to scale.
The Nikon D4 and Nikon D800 FX-format digital-SLR cameras were awarded the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) Photo Awards.
Read the citations by EISA for the two cameras below.
This year’s theme is “Have a safe journey” and features thought leaders such as Jim Reavis from CSA and Tim Grance from NIST, in a full day’s programme bringing CXO attendees through security issues surrounding Cloud Computing.
CloudSec 2012 was held at Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore on 15 August.
I sat through a panel discussion over lunch that shed some light on the thoughts that Reavis, Grance and Nicholas Tan (VMware) had on cloud security.
Jim Reavis, Co-founder & Executive Director Cloud Security Alliance (CSA)
One opinion that may come as a surprise to many people is Reaves’ belief that the choice of whether a company should adopt a private, public or hybrid cloud should not be driven by security alone, which is what most people would use as the immediate and main consideration, if not the sole determinant for their decision.
He felt that security could be a red herring in deciding between the different types of cloud implementation.
Instead, the decision should be based on compliance (regulations on cloud use and location of data centres), performance (whether on-premise servers are needed to reduce latency) and legacy support (transition from existing IT architecture).
Timothy Grance, Senior Computer Scientist, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Grance added that all the models are viable and the choice also involved the need for scale, which has to be balanced with the risk appetite of the organisation making the choice.
All the panelists were unanimous that, in reality, the considerations for security for cloud is no different from traditional systems, although the specific technology employed may be different.
Whether your systems are on a cloud or not, you would be facing threats, you still need to be vigilant, you still need to be rigorous about security, and you’d still need quality people to design and operate the system.
Last year’s CloudSec 2011 at The Sheraton Towers saw more than 300 participants examining the theme of “Have a vision not clouded by fear”.
This year, Trend Micro made the event bigger with more than 500 showing up at the Raffles City Convention Centre on 15 August.
RIM has unveiled the new 4G LTE PlayBook. Available in Canada on 9 August with 32GB and a more powerful 1.5GHz dual-core CPU. Prices TBA.
The new PlayBook comes with much needed cellular connectivity.
The 4G LTE version of the BlackBerry PlayBook will make its debut in Canada next Thursday, with availability in other countries in the following months.
Cellular connectivity
LTE
700, 1700 MHz
HSPA+
100, 1900, 1700, 800, 900 MHz
Given the incompatibility of 4G networks in different countries, it could be some time before a version compatible with your country becomes available.
In the meantime, the new PlayBook will at least bring much needed cellular connectivity (on 3G) for users from countries which do not have a 4G network yet (or who have incompatible networks).
Available in Canada on 9 Aug.
Research In Motion (RIM) had announced earlier that the PlayBook will eventually run on BlackBerry 10 OS.
So the 4G LTE should be upgradeable from the current BlackBerry Tablet OS when BB10 becomes available next year.
Apart from the 4G LTE connectivity and CPU speed-up, the hardware for the new PlayBook remains the same – which is a testimony of how advanced it was to begin with when the original PlayBook was launched last year.
Milestone signals Windows 8 has completed product development and testing, and is being handed-off to hardware partners to get ready for October 26 general availability. Release schedule below.
Windows 8 has reached RTM (Release to Manufacturing).
Microsoft has just announced that Windows 8 has reached Release to Manufacturing (RTM), the latest milestone in the launch of the new Windows 8 operating system.
Users buying a new Windows 7 PC between 2 June 2012 to 31 January 2013 can purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for S$17.99 (including GST) on the day of Windows 8 launch.
Those currently on Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 (prior to 2 June) can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for US$39.99.
For those wanting to try a pre-release version of Windows 8 before general availability, the Windows 8 Release Preview is available for download here.
Developers can visit the Windows Dev Center to get access to all the tools and resources they need to design, build, and sell apps in the Windows Store.
Whereas all apps during the preview phases were free, developers can now begin charging for apps with the RTM.
Those with access to RTM bits will begin to see paid apps appear in the Windows Store.
The schedule for releasing the final RTM code to select audiences – including developers, IT professionals and partners – will begin in mid-August.
August 15th
Developers building new apps for Windows 8 will be able to download the final version of Windows 8 via an MSDN subscription. You can visit the Windows Dev Center to get access to the final build of Visual Studio 2012.
IT professionals testing Windows 8 in organizations will be able to access the final version of Windows 8 through a TechNet subscription.
August 16th
Customers with existing Microsoft Software Assurance for Windows will be able to download Windows 8 Enterprise edition through the Volume License Service Center (VLSC), allowing you to test, pilot and begin adopting Windows 8 Enterprise within your organization.
Microsoft Partner Network members will have access to Windows 8.
August 20th
Microsoft Action Pack Providers (MAPS) receive access to Windows 8.
Apple has just announced its financial results for its fiscal 2012 third quarter ended 30 June, 2012. Profits missed analysts’ predictions.
Major news agencies reacted negatively towards Apple’s quarterly results.
Compared to analysts’ predictions for a profit of $10.37 a share on revenue of $37.2 billion, net income was reported as $9.32 a share on sales of $35 billion.
“Apple’s profit and sales fell short of analysts’ projections for only the second time since 2003 as customers held off on iPhone purchases while waiting for a new model to be introduced later in the year,” reported Bloomberg today.
The major news agencies don’t seem to have taken the results in positive light.
The consensus seems to be that customers are holding off on iPhone purchases in anticipation of a new model, which is expected to be introduced later this year.
Shares fell some 6 percent in late trading.
This is the first full quarter of sales for Apple’s latest iPad, which was released in March.
Note the 84% growth in iPad sales over the same quarter last year.
Some 17 million iPads were sold in the quarter alone!
Sales growth this quarter
Device
Number of units sold
Compared to year-ago quarter
iPhone
26 m
28%
iPad
17 m
84%
Mac
4 m
2%
iPod
6.8 m
-10%
It’s interesting to note the 10% decline in iPod sales.
It is an indication that it may be made redundant by the proliferation of smartphones which can fulfil the functions of a mobile personal music player cum entertainment device.
On the other hand, Sony is still launching new models in its rejuvenated Walkman media players cum entertainment devices.
Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock.
“Apple disappointed analysts despite reporting profits up 21% year-on-year to $8.8bn (£5.6bn) and revenues up 23% to $35bn, after missing targets that Wall Street had forecast,” Guardian reported.
The dividend is payable on August 16, 2012, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on August 13, 2012.
This continues Tim Cook’s announcement in March to pay dividends – something that Apple had not done in 17 years until then.
The dividends are estimated to cost Apple about $10 billion a year.
Apple has around $100 billion in cash which many investors have called over the years to be returned to investors.
