Grab A Nokia Lumia 925 For $169.95

Every time another price drop hits the Nokia Lumia 925, I wonder what is coming next to replace it. The 4.5” device that is armed with a 8MP camera and 16GB of internal storage has officially dropped below the ridiculous line on HSN.com. The current street price for the device is $199.95, but with a quick click of a coupon code, that price falls to a lowly $169.95.

Beyond the basics listed above, the Lumia 925 features full offline mapping with Here Maps, offline music streams via Nokia Mix Radio and Data Sense to keep an eye on that ‘throttled’ data plan that you might be on. The device is locked to T-Mobile’s network, but it will still work with T-Mobile MVNO’s like Spot Mobile, Simple Mobile, Net10 (T-Mobile SIM) and Straight Talk (T-Mobile SIM.)

When you visit HSN, you should see a pop-up window asking you to join their mailing list. By signing up for that list, you will receive a coupon code that allows you to save an additional 15% off any single item that HSN offers. I would be willing to bet that this deal won’t last long, so grab one this morning before they disappear.

Click the link to get this awesome deal: http://www.hsn.com/products/nokia-lumia-45-smartphone-with-gps-and-87mp-camera/7439113

App Review: Guess Tunes Proves You Really Don’t Know Music

I normally don’t open with an “about section” screen shot, but seriously, you need to read what this is, because it is just plain crazy-awesomeness. Guess Tunes is another solid App delivered to us by Maftusoft, the same author that brought us Just-Me that I featured in my last review. First off, I recommend playing this game on Wi-Fi, not just because of the amount of data it uses, but also, over slower cell connections, the buffering can take a few extra minutes.
Now, the premise of the game is very simple, it’s name that tune. Guess Tunes uses Nokia Mix Radio to power the audio samples. I assume that they are the 30 second clips that you can preview in Mix Radio, which gets around all sorts of crazy licensing deals and such, which just make the programmer of this even more brilliant. The selection of genre’s, songs and styles is amazingly deep. The game modes are single player or two player, in either enter artist and song or multiple choice selections.

Guess Tunes is simple to play as you hear the streaming song, you simply press the talk button (that’s the big green one) or type your answer in the box. If you are right, you get 5 points each for artist or song title. You can rack up points pretty quickly, but spelling seems to count. If you use the ‘voice’ translation, make sure it gets it right for you.

Two player mode works in an additional box below the first in order to allow two separate people to buzz in. It works the same way though after you buzz in, you can use voice or text to enter your guesses.

Multiple choice mode is also available. This gives you three choices that the song could be and you can simply press the 1, 2 or 3 number to guess, or enter the guess via the voice or text input as well. This mode also works great for team playing as well.
Guess Tunes is a great game, though it appears in the “App List” not in the games section after install. It is a clean game with install size of 9.5 MB. With the only speed bump with this game being that I recommend Wi-Fi usage to keep data levels lower and keep buffering to a minimum, I have no problem telling everyone to grab a friend and download this today. You will have a great time playing Guess Tunes both alone and with your friends. You can even break a group into teams and play that way. Guess Tunes makes the perfect addition to any party.
Swing into  the Windows Phone Store today and grab it while it is still free: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/guess-tunes/f55b9a41-af16-4133-be84-0abfc5189714

App Review: Just-Me Puts You At The Center

The latest request in App reviewing came from Maftusoft. His photo editing App, Just-Me, puts all the emphasis of your photos in one place, your subject. The App has 2 quick options for focusing your image. The first is the “spotlight” effect and the second is the “bokeh” or lens blur effect.

The spotlight effect is very simple and quick. You simply select your starting point, then the size. This creates a circular image with a black background for the rest of the original image. Very simple, and with proper cropping, very fun to use with Instagram or other square image sharing software.

The bokeh effect is even better though. The same circle property applies to this one, but instead of blacking out the image, a simple tap and slide begins to blur the background. The more you blur, the more the center circle stands out. The only issue I had with this is that you really need to plan a “circular” image to make this effect really shine.

Overall, Just-Me is a great little tool to add to your Windows Phone camera. It makes quick editing a simple task, and does exactly what it says it does. If you are a heavy user of Apps like Fhotoroom or even Creative Studio, the effect is a bit redundant, but executing it in Just-Me is much quicker.

If you don’t have Just-Me from Maftusoft on your Windows Phone yet, swing in to the Store and grab it. You can get it at this link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/just-me/4c7b3d14-f9ad-438f-9e87-939e5df1a3f9?signin=false

Best Deals For Using Your Phone As A Phone

In the times of unlimited data, throttling, and smartphone usage destroying cellular networks as we know it, there is a large portion of users in the world that are cutting the data plans from their cell phones entirely. While this may seem almost impossible, when you have Wi-Fi for running those ‘data intensive’ Apps and offline storage for your music and videos, living off the grid isn’t as tough as it sounds. Of course there are a number of things you will have to give up if you want to truly live data free, but take a look at the savings below and see how much it could be worth to you.

Spot Mobile is the first carrier that we will take a look at. Spot Mobile opens the volley of unlimited talk plans for $24.99. For that price, users get unlimited talk and text on the T-Mobile network. What’s missing from this plan is MMS messages. That means no picture or video messaging. For an additional $5, you can add 250MB of data that will allow you to use photo and video messaging, which will also include posting to Facebook and Twitter.

This $24.99 plan will allow posting updates via text message to social networks, but almost all Short Code SMS features are shut down by T-Mobile, being labeled as “premium messaging.” Other than that limitation, the $24.99 plan from Spot Mobile is a great, money saving option for those looking to lower their 2 year smartphone cost to under $600. With a smartphone plan on AT&T or T-Mobile setting users back nearly $3000 a year, you will be notching a monthly savings of over $100 a month.

Now, if you make cuts like this, how can you use basic services like Twitter and Facebook?

Twitter: To use a text message to access Twitter, you simply log in to Twitter from a computer, pick the settings menu, then select mobile from the menu at the side. Activate your phone by texting “Go” to 40404. After you activate you mobile number, sending a tweet via SMS (Text) is just as easy as sending a text to 40404. You can go farther in to the settings menus and select who you want to have text updates from, set quiet hours and more.

Facebook: It is just as easy to send a text message to update your twitter status as well. Go to your Facebook page, access the settings tab. Select the mobile settings from the menu at the left of the page. Activate texting for your number by texting the letter “F” to 32665. You will be texted back a confirmation code. Enter this into the confirmation code box online and you can start posting via text by sending an SMS to 32665. Remember, you have a 160 character limit and you can’t post photos or videos this way. Of course, if needed, you can access Wi-Fi and send videos and photos through email to your Facebook account.

Now that you can post to the two most popular social networks via SMS, do you really need that expensive data plan? If you want to give one of these lower cost options a try. You can get a FREE Spot Mobile or Red Pocket Mobile SIM card through www.4gfastdata.com and pick up a discounted refill from www.getsmartphones.info and take the plan for a real world run.

Editorial: This Is Why Going Android Is A Bad Plan

Look, I love my Nokia Lumia 925 and I will keep telling everyone on the planet that it is one of the best phones I have ever owned. When Nokia announced, officially, that they would be putting out handsets with a ‘forked’ version of Google’s Android as the primary OS, I thought, this is the beginning of something very terrible for Nokia. Now that is a scary statement to make, but if the rumors are true, Nokia’s amazing software is already being ripped from the X to other Android handsets, nullifying the need to purchase the hardware that Nokia wants to sell.

You see, any 12 year old with half a brain can figure out how to extract an Android APK file, make a few modifications to it and reupload it for everyone to enjoy. It’s called piracy, and it is what plagues Android more than any other phone OS on the planet. Developers and companies spend thousands of hours programming their games, Apps and widgets only to have them pulled apart, ‘registered’ and posted online for everyone to side load for free. With Android, side loading is as simple as clicking one box in the settings menu. No other OS allows for such an easy side loading system as this.

Anyway, now that you have a small understanding of stealing an Android App, I’ll tell you why I’m posting this in my Windows Phone forum. People are going to want to borrow your IMEI number and your device code. You see, the Nokia Mix Radio APK was already stolen out of the Nokia X model. While the APK is locked to the Nokia X, it should be easy enough for a developer to go in and override the App into thinking that the device is something that it isn’t, and thus bypassing the security that Nokia has in place to keep their software exclusive to their devices. Think of it as a permanent way to run the ‘Fiddler Hack’ for that App.

What this will lead to is millions of Android users logging in to Nokia services without having to purchase a Nokia handset. This will lead to increased overhead, which will lead to higher costs, lower quality streams, longer buffering times and an overall service decline for everyone involved. Nokia entering the Android market may gain them some emerging market share, but the loss of the service revenue that Android will cost them is far greater than the gain of a few users in those markets.

Again, this is a completely, “Just My Thought” post, so feel free to disagree if you’d like, but I fail to see how offering up low cost Android hardware will help you reach emerging markets when the first thing that those markets are doing is replacing the “X” OS with regular Android. You may as well have stuck with a Lumia 500 series and made them cheaper.

Source: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2668241

App Review: True Explorer

True Explorer by santronix is another great title from yet another developer in the DVLUP crowd. True Explorer is a very low power consuming mapping program for locating and tracking your movements. As a cyclist, I’ve tried quite a few of the “mapping” options available for my Nokia Lumia 925, but in my quest to find something a bit different continued, making True Explorer a perfect fit for my next adventure.

The mapping functions are great. The locating service took only a few seconds to find me. The map offered street view, satellite view, global view and terrain view options. These can be toggled by simply selecting the icon to the left of the map for the view you would like to have.

As I said, the location services found me in seconds. It gave me my location, my address, and the latitude and longitude of my location. Checking it against a ‘real GPS’ revealed how close it really was – and it was darn near perfect. The last little piece of the my location menu was the addition that really made this the must have mapping App for my cycling journeys. The Send SOS SMS button…

This simple little addition to the App now made me feel like I could ride safely and not be concerned with how I was going to call someone if I encountered a crash. In just seconds, I programmed in an emergency contact from my address book, set a message to send if I fell and couldn’t use my phone to call. As I said, a brilliant addition to this App.

The exercise section of the App is obviously aimed at running, not cycling, but the time and distance trackers worked perfectly with either activity. That said, I am now going to get to my one small complaint about the App… The in App advertising placement.

At the top of the screen, some of the App features place ads on top of other ads. I’m not sure if this is one of those things that is a coding error or just something that didn’t show up in testing, but for some really silly reason, it bugged me. That said, this is not a reason to avoid True Explorer at all. It’s simply a visual thing that I found to be a bit irritating. Nothing more. The other minor issue is that I haven’t found a way to change from km to miles in the App. Maybe a future version could include that for our US friends?

Comparing True Explorer to other ‘fitness mapping’ Apps really isn’t fair. True Explorer clocks in at 10MB installed on my Lumia 925. This makes a fully functional mapping App come in at a smaller size than the Amazon Kindle App, Adobe Reader, and even a clean install of moTweets for Twitter! That kind of functionality for that tiny amount of resources is ridiculous!

If you are an avid outdoors type, that loves walking, running or cycling, you need to check out True Explorer. If you trail hike, snow ski or do anything outdoors, True True Explorer should be on your Windows Phone. As with any newer App, watch for glitches and hang ups that may help the developer out and remember to give props for this great App in the Store after you try it. True Explorer is definitely worth the download and will be my cycling App of choice due to the compact size and great functionality.

Grab True Explorer by santronix from the Store today at this link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/true-explorer/2e2e29e6-8424-4ced-aad1-7216040c407d

Accessory Review: Nokia Lumia 925 Charging Cover

If you own a Nokia Lumia 925, or are thinking about getting one soon, one piece of gear that is a must have is the CC-3065 Wireless Charging Cover from Nokia. While wireless charging was built in to the Lumia 920, the Lumia 925’s thinner design didn’t lend itself to the thicker electronics that the Qi charging system required quite as easily. Nokia’s answer for this was the CC-3065. Just like the Lumia 810, a simple cover contains all the parts needed to allow your Lumia 925 to charge off the DT-900 charging plates, the JBL Power-Up speakers or just about any other Qi enabled charger on the planet.

The case is easy enough to place on the device. by just placing the the 925 in bottom first, then snapping the top into the two ‘tabs’ located at the edges of the cover. While this doesn’t offer a huge amount of protection, it does lift the camera lens off the surface and will eliminate the risk of scratching the back of your 925.

The Qi interface is located at the bottom of the cover. The simple three prong connector attaches to the charging contacts on the back of the 925. The Qi pad then covers most of the inside of the cover itself, making device placement a minimal concern when placing it on an item like the DT-900 charging plate.

If there is a weak piece in the design of the CC-3065, it would be the small attachment area of the cover. What holds the cover to the phone is simply a pressure fit corner. If one of those corners becomes weakened in any way, the cover will not attach to your 925 much longer. I’ve been trolling the forums on some of the major Windows Phone sites and haven’t seen more than a handful of reports of these failing, and most of those were due to people swapping them out regularly.

The CC-3065 is available in your choice of 4 colors: Black, White, Red and Yellow. They retail for around $30 and can be found week to week for less at sites like our partner site from www.4gfastdata.com. You can see the price varies at times, but you run the risk of losing your first choice of color if you wait too long.

Available Colors:
Nokia CC-3065 Wireless Charging Cover for Lumia 925 - Retail Packaging – Red
Nokia CC-3065 Wireless Charging Cover for Lumia 925 - Retail Packaging – Black
Nokia CC-3065 Wireless Charging Cover for Lumia 925 – Retail Packaging – White
Nokia CC-3065 Wireless Charging Cover for Lumia 925 - Retail Packaging – Yellow

Other Accessories:

Nokia DT-900 Wireless Charging Plate - Retail Packaging – Black

You can read the full review of the DT-900 plate here: http://wpfocus.blogspot.com/2013/10/accessory-review-nokia-dt-900-wireless.html

Game Review: Flappy Bat

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, or had a Windows Phone, and never caught on to the Flappy Bird craze, allow me to tell you just how big this game was. Everyone is playing it, or at least they were playing it until the developer yanked the game from the universe and disappeared. To tell you how big this was, at the height of its popularity, it was generating the developer about $50,000 a day. That title never made it to the Windows Phone store though, but many Flappy Titles did. Flappy Bat, by Rune Selvag Golf, is the title that I’ll be diving into today.

I’m going to throw two things out here before we get started. I don’t get the Flappy Bird craze and those “runner” style scrolling games annoy me to no end because I have a talent for HITTING the objects, not avoiding them. That said, I downloaded Flappy Bat from the Store and gave it a try. Did I mention I’m terrible at these games yet?

Before I delve into the actual game play, I wanted to take a second to describe the graphics on this game, because they are easy to miss. The textures and shading on Flappy Bat are just amazing. The bat is cute as a button, reminding me of a Sanrio character. The background is clean and clear and there’s no distracting items that were added in for flash. The walls are also equally well done, with perfect coloring and layering to create a nearly perfect playing experience on my Nokia Lumia 925. But enough about how beautiful the game is, let’s get down to play.

The game stats out innocent enough with a tap to move up, drop automatically style of controlling. Given the fact that I stink at games like this, I really appreciated the simplicity of the controls. After about 4 tries, I made it thought the first hole in the wall. After a few more attempts, I started progressing in the game, but I still liked to run into the walls or, for even more fun, tried to fly off the top of the screen – and no, that doesn’t work…

After playing for a few minutes – which actually turned out to be 45 minutes – it struck me, this is what that Flappy craze is all about and Flappy Bat nailed it. Needing a break from running into the walls, I took a minute to explore the options menu, which contains various control settings like the sound, vibration and whether or not to submit your high scores.

It also offers a choice of themes. There’s the classic “city” theme with brown walls and blue background. There’s the “cave” with its black walls and green background and the new “winter” theme that takes me right back to watching Frozen and humming Let It Go in my head with the brilliant white walls and purplish background.

Flappy Bat is a free title Rune Selvag Golf. It does feature ads at the bottom of the play area, but they are unobtrusive and very easy to ignore. The graphics on Flappy Bat are simply stunning for a “Flappy” style game, clean, clear and easy to see. The optional themes in the options only extend the entertaining factor of the game. Flappy Bat is definitely one of the best time killers out there right now and yes, I get the Flappy Craze now.

That said, you should, no, you need to go to the Store right now and check out this free title. The 25MB install size won’t even dent the storage area on a Nokia Lumia 520. For that 25MB of storage, you get a game that delivers amazing graphics, a stellar playing experience and hours of frustration – may I suggest investing in an Otterbox case? – for nothing out of your pocket. If you are not a fan of all things Flappy, then by all means, please download this game and become a fan. If you are a fan and are disappointed that Windows Phone never got it, then ball all means, please download this game and after you download it, stop by the Store and give it that 5 star review it deserves.

Grab it right now in the Windows Phone Store by clicking the link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/flappy-bat/be73e8cb-147b-4a62-9b32-5a17a76a3372

Game Review: Space Shooter X

When I was a kid, I remember playing games like Galaga, Galaxian and even Raiden in the arcades. Plopping quarter after quarter in to those games and grabbing $5 worth of quarters at the local 7-11 to put a few bucks on top of the machine to make sure I could play for a few hours. I had no idea that a simple Twitter request from borneo mobile was going to transport me instantly back to this time in my life, sans the quarters of course…

Space Shooter X took only a few seconds to download over my Wi-Fi connection. I figured I would give a quick look before getting in to the other 5 requests that came in today, but I was completely wrong. After it finished installing, I was roped in to what I can only describe as complete childhood bliss. Space Shooter X features gorgeous overhead shooter graphics. simple controls and a fast paced action that keeps you engaged from the start.

Game play gets even more intense as you quickly progress from the easy part of level one to about the middle of the level. The enemy ships start coming faster and it’s almost a necessity to start snagging the power ups along the way.

The obstacles get larger, tougher and more challenging as the game continues to throw bigger and badder enemies your way. This is one of those games that no matter how much you play it, you will keep wanting to put more quarters in to keep the action going. Two things I would love to see in future updates though: a continuation option (even if it is just like 2 credits) and an option save a game (if it’s there, I didn’t find it.)

Now, how does Space Shooter X actually rate in the real world? I’m giving it 5 out of 5 in the Store, and a 9 out of 10 on a personal scale. The Free version of the game is Ad Supported, but the ads are non-existent during game play, but they do pop up after playing, so I recommend shelling out the $1.99 to remove all the ads and support the developer on this one. borneo mobile has seriously hit one out of the park with this classic flashback.

A few tips for the newbies though, position your ship about in the middle of the screen, lift your finger and replace it about 1/2” below the ship. This will give you a clear view of what is in front of you, instead of trying to see through you finger on top of the ship. Don’t use your specials too fast. They aren’t readily available, so make sure to conserve them. Most of all, keep a charger near by, you’re going to need it because this game isn’t easy to put down. Grab it right now at the Store with the link below.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/space-shooter-x/1d9d8899-6f6f-4806-98f9-f1218ccfadc6