Carphone Warehouse selling Nokia Lumia 820 for £380 [plus free wireless charger and Windows 8 upgrade]
December 1, 2012 at 14:53 GMT | By
The Nokia Lumia 820 might not come with PureView camera technology or the 4.5 inch PureMotion HD+ display thats it's bigger sibling has, but remains one of the best mid-range devices money can buy.
You can now get a SIM-free Lumia 820 from Carphone Warehouse for as little as £380 with free delivery and a free wireless charging plate (plus free Windows 8 PC Upgrade for your computer). The device is truly unlocked and work on any network.
The Lumia 820 comes with a large 4.3" OLED screen with ClearBlack display, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of inernal storage, and an 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss main shooter. It is unique in that it makes it possible to use interchangeable shells to add functionality and style to your phone. It also supports wireless charging via the charging shell. The Lumia 820 has one over the it's much coveted sibling 920 in that you can add extra storage via a Micro SD card, which comes in sizes up to 32 gigabytes. The Lumia 820 will be available with interchangeable wireless charging shells that come in yellow, red, and cyan, black and white.
VIA: ITProPortal
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Windows Phone Store expanded to 42 new markets
December 1, 2012 at 13:46 GMT | By
Microsoft on Friday announced a range of updates to the Windows Phone Dev Center and Windows Phone Store. The biggest is the expansion of the Windows Phone Store to 42 new markets, most of which are emerging markets.
The 42 new markets coming next week include: Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo (DRC), Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The expansion brings the total to 113 and somewhat puts Windows Phone at par with Android and iOS: Google Play's paid apps are available in 129 countries and Apples App Store is available in 155. Microsoft is also urging application developers to choose worldwide distribution for their apps as doing so will help maximize reach to these new markets.
SOURCE: TNW
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EE 4G LTE Nokia Lumia 920 rebooting and connection issues explained
December 1, 2012 at 12:29 GMT | By
Those of you that follow WPSuperfanboy know that I'm susceptible to the odd petulant rant from time to time that I usually end up regretting. In the past, I have declared that I would never buy another Samsung Windows Phone [later changed my mind] and recently suggested that Phones 4U was the worst place to buy a Windows Phone. While I still believe that Phones 4U's commission driven store's don't necessarily make for the best shopping experience, it is by no means the worst place to shop for your next Windows Phone device.
The gist of the matter is that I upgraded my contract via Phones 4U as I had settled for the yellow version of the Nokia Lumia 920 - which is exclusive to the retailer and given that WPSuperfanboy had a close working relationship with Phones 4U, it seemed the most logical thing to do. I'm on day 9 now and my Lumia still doesn't accept a 4G EE SIM. This has resulted in my usual mobile number being out of commission which meant I having to use a pay-as-you-go SIM, all which has affected my work tremendously.
I have been to different Phones 4U stores on a daily basis [sometimes more that once] and been in regular contact with EE customer support all through the 9 days and still have had no resolution. Phones 4U eventually offered to cancel my upgrade yesterday, meaning I would have to wait for my number to be ported to Orange - which could take as long as a week. Obviously, that is not an option.
Problems with my Lumia 920 has led me to scour around for an explanation as I do not want to part ways with this wonderful bit of kit. Several readers have also informed us that they have had similar issues with the 4G Lumia 920s on EE. Some have also reported that the EE 4G SIM is causing a continuous restart cycle [rebooting] on the Lumias. Others have reported getting a "No Service" message. Basically, there are so many problems related to the EE Lumia 920.
Known Issues- Rebooting - Devices are reported to be going into a repeated restart cycle when using the 4G EE SIM. This is thought to be related to the SIM as putting on a different device [HTC 8X and Lumia 820] is reported to induce the same behaviour.
- No Service - Some devices show a "No service" status when using a EE 4G SIM. The same devices are reported to be working fine on 3G SIMS. The Lumia 920 is reported to issues with registering a SIM. Also, putting a working 4G SIM on such a device is reported to destroy/corrupt the SIM, meaning it will not work again, even on a non-Nokia/Windows Phone 4G device. I have personally witnessed this.
- EE/Orange Porting - EE is supposed to be having trouble porting Orange users in particular to EE. Although this may just be an excuse by EE, several staff have confirmed to myself that migrating Orange customers to their systems is bringing up unknown errors. Bear in mind that EE is a new network, therefore teething problems are inevitable.
- First Batch 920s - The first batch of Nokia Lumia 920s available in the UK are reported to be the ones having SIM issues. However, exchanging the device may or may not resolve the problem.
Fellow blogger Michael Wittenburg had issues with his Nokia Lumia 920 which he documented on his blog [wittenburg.com] and persevered until he found a fix. He also made a contribution on the Microsoft Answers forum where he documented his findings:
No service- Cause: This is a consequence of a failed network registration. That means that the MSISDN and/or SIM card are incorrectly registered on the network. Consequently the phone can't determine which network to connect to, so can't register the SIM/MSISDN with the network.
- Resolution: Call up your network, hope you get someone with a long screw driver that can manually resolve this. Note that there are up to five services that must be registered to the SIM (I believe these to be voice, SMS, MMS, fax, and IP/Internet, but not sure).
- Cause: A specific cause hasn't, as far as I know, been identified. I do know, however, that it is either the SIM card, the manufacturer's firmware, the Windows Phone 8 (WP8) operating system, or a combination of any or all of these.
- Resolution: Insert the SIM card into a non-WP8 handset. Make a call and send an SMS. Ideally also receive a call and SMS. This registers the SIM/MSISDN with the network, which is what the Lumia 920 fails to do, and consequently causes the restarts. It also confirms that your SIM card works. I've successfully tested this using a Galaxy Note II, a Galaxy SIII, a Samsung Omnia 7, and a Lumia 800. My first attempt using this procedure failed. However, trying again about 6 hours later worked, and I now have a Lumia 920 that successfully connects to the EE network at 4G. Further up I mentioned that a Phones4U SIM card resolves the restarting issue. This is correct. Their SIM cards are from a different manufacturer than the EE SIM cards, and do indeed resolve the restarts. Another technique that's produced results for both problems (anecdotal, read this online) is to soft reset the phone. If that fails then try a hard reset.
- Cause: Unknown
- Resolution: Insert a 3G SIM card into the phone. Go to Settings > Mobile Network (UK)/Cell Network (US), and set "Highest connection speed" to 3G. Remove 3G SIM card, replace with 4G SIM card. This should now connect at 3G. Return to Mobile/Cell network setting, change to 4G, and it should connect at 4G.
While most of the above techniques are reported to have worked in many cases, there's no guarantees. We believe Microsoft, Nokia, HTC and carriers are aware of these issues and hopefully, a fix will be rolled out in the shape of a firmware update soon. Have you had any issues with you Lumia 920? If so, let us know in the comments section below.
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Xbox Live Gold free this weekend [Except in Europe]
December 1, 2012 at 08:36 GMT | By
Xbox Live Gold will be available for free this weekend, Microsoft has announced. The free trial grants access to online gaming features, entertainment apps and internet explorer.
"If you haven't had a chance to check out the latest entertainment experiences on Xbox, this weekend is a great chance to give it a try. From Thursday, Nov. 29 through Sunday, Dec. 2, we're unlocking Xbox LIVE Gold in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States. All Xbox owners in these regions, regardless of their current subscription, will have access to online multiplayer gaming, (like Halo 4 Spartan Op) Internet Explorer, Video Kinect and our entire catalogue of entertainment apps, during that time period," reads a Microsoft statement.
The free weekend comes two weeks after Xbox Live celebrated its ten-year anniversary. Microsoft recently added many new features with its annual Xbox Live fall update, including a new user interface, Internet explorer, and the SmartGlass application. Xbox Live officially launched after the release of the original Xbox, being expanded into two tiers - the free Silver membership (now classed as Free) and the premium Gold membership. It has since branched out onto Windows Phone devices and PCs in many forms, from the Games for Windows Live service to Xbox Games on Windows 8. Xbox Live's gold membership cost $59.99 for a yearly subscription or $24.99 for a three-months.
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HTC Windows Phone 8S confirmed not be coming to the US
December 1, 2012 at 06:56 GMT | By
While we doubt many prospective Windows Phone 8 buyers will be bothered that the HTC Windows Phone 8S wont be making it's way to the US, we are pretty sure that there will be some that were eyeing this gorgeous little gem of a phone that will be left disappointed. Engadget claims to have had official confirmation that the 8S will not be coming to the US, although previous rumours had suggested that the mid-range device will be carried by US Cellular.
"The Windows Phone 8X by HTC is our signature Windows Phone available at AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless in the U.S. With our focus on the Windows Phone 8X by HTC, the Windows Phone 8S is not currently planned for distribution in the U.S. market," the official statement reads.
HTC is said to be focusing all of its stateside efforts on the 8X, however, we are still likely see the 8S show up as an unlocked and unsubsidized smartphone on various online retailers. The mid-range Windows Phone device features a 4-inch WVGA display, 1GHz dual core S4 chipset, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, 5-Megapixel f/2.8 camera, microSD slot-support, Beats Audio and is available in domino, fiesta red, Atlantic blue and High-Rise grey.
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