MWC 2012
The world's main annual mobile event takes place this week in Barcelona. Tune in here for our full coverage, including hands-on with new phones from HTC, LG, Nokia, Sony, Huawei, and ZTE.
Nokia Maps and Bing Maps Tie the Visual Knot
Nokia today announced that it and partner Microsoft has refreshed the appearance of Nokia maps to unify the user interface of both the Nokia Maps and Bing Maps systems. Nokia says that the overarching goal of the redesign was to make the maps easier to understand, yet still provide detail and context for what's in view. Nokia said that it has reduced the amount of clutter and icons visible on the maps, as well as toned down its color palette. Nokia explains that maps that are more contextual when expanded, and more detailed when zoomed in. The new version of Nokia Maps will be rolled out gradually, first to maps.nokia.com, to m.maps.nokia.com (the mobile browser version for iOS and Android), and to the Nokia Maps app for Lumia smartphones. The availability of Nokia Maps will expand to other platforms and products from there.
Hands-On: Nokia Lumia 610
Nokia introduced the Lumia 610 today at Mobile World Congress, an entry-level Windows Phone that steps down the specs in favor of affordability.
Nokia Debuts the Lumia 610
Nokia today announced the Lumia 610 Windows Phone. This phone is a low-cost model aimed at younger users. It has an 800MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, a 5-megapixel camera, and Windows Phone 7.5. It will debut later this year for about 189 Euro.
Microsoft Releases Skype Beta for Windows Phone
Microsoft today announced that a beta version of Skype is now available for Windows Phone devices in the Marketplace for Mobile. The beta can be downloaded for free and the full launch is expected later this year.
