Black Comes To AT&T Lumia 925

Courtesy of Nokia Conversations

It appears that some AT&T users are reporting that the Nokia Black Update and GDR3 is downloading to their devices. The key features included with this update are the following:

App Folder – yes, you can finally add groups of Apps to your home screen!

Nokia Glance Screen 2.0 – better notifications and more options for them.

Bluetooth LE – a new standard Bluetooth communication system that works with more products.

Nokia Refocus – allowing you to blend and blur images like never before.

Nokia Beamer – instantly view your Lumia’s images on any computer with a web browser.

Nokia Storyteller (beta) – arranges photos by date and place making it easy to tell stories.

Nokia Camera – has been available for some time, but the new software is coming to the entire Lumia range now.

Overall, Black is a great upgrade for the Lumia line. It brings some needed fixes for some and general improvements for all. GDR3 will also bring some stabilization from the Microsoft side. If you managed to snag it already, let me know what you think of it in the comments below.

Game Review: Avengers Assemble

I have to admit to being a pretty big Avengers movie fan. When I saw that there was an official Marvel Avengers game for Windows Phone, I was ecstatic. Of course, it came with a $4.99 price tag, which is a bit more than I like to drop on a game, so I bypassed it out of the gate. Recently, it took a price drop to $1.99, but I had completely forgotten about it until it became the MyAppFree AOTD. I popped on and downloaded it. The 750MB download is much larger than anything I like to cram on my phone, but hey, it’s the Avengers and it is free today.

I hit the download button and after a few minutes on my WiFi, the game had downloaded and popped up in my Games menu. Ready to get my Avenger’s action on, I pressed it to open and was greeted with the “This game needs additional resources that need to be downloaded – Approximately 4GB.” Ouch! So, after another longer term WiFi session, I had my 5GB game downloaded and ready to run!

After a quick loading cycle, the game opened with the familiar Marvel film stream. Then the gaming action begins. Fighting through the tutorial was a bit boring, but soon after that the game picked up and ran pretty smooth on my Lumia 925. Game play is stellar and the movements are everything I expected when Microsoft first said Xbox games on my phone.

The gaming experience was exceptional and it is well worth the $1.99 for the game. If you can snag it in the next 12 hours, you can get an even better deal than that. Hit the Store now and grab it before the deal disappears.

Nokia Camera Beta Gets An Update

File this under the notes of awesome for this week. The Nokia Camera Beta software got an update with a fix today. The issue of the images disappearing from the camera roll after the device locks up and reboots has been fixed in version 4.5.1.6. Other than that, most of the issues that people are having with the Nokia Camera software have been fixed. Now, will they bring some DNG support to the 900 series soon?

New in beta version 4.5.1.6 (January 15, 2013):

• Fix for issue where pictures disappear from camera roll / photos hub after forced reboot

I haven’t experienced the issue at all with my new Lumia 925, but my 810 was plagued with this issue – even losing some of the images I took occasionally. I’ll run some testing with it later this week and see if the issue has been eliminated.

A New Year, A New Phone…

2013 was a pretty good tech year for me. I was able to hit the EngdgtSEA show and the HTC Elevate meetup. I didn’t spend too much time in tech stores, but there really wasn’t much I was looking for. My little Acer Aspire Netbook and my Nokia Lumia 810 did the job for me for the whole year, without much need to look for something else – well maybe except a Microsoft Surface (or the Dell Venue 8 tablet.)

Yesterday though, I had a tech delivery that makes me so happy… A shiny new Nokia Lumia 925. While my 810 was a trusty soldier, it had a few glitches that might drive the average user a bit nutty. The 925 eliminates the possibilities of these by not including the external Micro SD Slot. The other feature on my 810 that seemed to have issues was the audio out. Many times, music would crackle and pop – and Nokia Mix Music didn’t even work about 90% of the time. Let’s take this 925 for a spin and see what we get.

Overall the devices are physically about the same size. The 925 feels thinner though, mainly due to the fact that it is thinner, but also because of its curved design. The display on the 925 is larger by .2”, but it honesty seems more like a half an inch. Just the wasted space on the 810’s bezel vs. the 925’s makes the actual display seem larger. Also, the resolution is increased to 1280x768 over the 810’s 800x480 resolution.

From there the 16GB of internal memory seems to be enough for me. With Apps loaded, I have about 11GB left open. This equates out to about 5000 photos or more accurately, about 2 months of use before the ‘other’ memory takes up 2GB, the system takes up 2GB, the Apps take up 1.2GB and then 2500 photos and a few long videos of the kiddo. Overall, the 16GB should prove to be plenty for me – and more importantly, be a better option that the 8GB internal that the 810 offered.

The camera on the 810 was fantastic. With the addition of the Nokia Camera Beta from Nokia Labs, the camera performed better than any cellular camera I had ever used. While the 925 is no 1020 (that is the 41MP monster camera/phone from Nokia,) the addition of a PureView camera and the optical image stabilization just makes the 925 shoot a bit better. Also, the f/2.,0 lens seems to shoot with much less noise in darker areas than the f/2.2 lens on the 810.

Other than the significant upgrades in the display, the internal memory and the camera, the Nokia Lumia 925 is every bit as wonderful as my Lumia 810 was. I will have to give it some time before I judge the battery life too heavily as I never let the device gain a full charge yesterday, but the 15% drain per hour when in use was a bit extreme. I’m hoping it was just a breaking in time or maybe a rogue App that was draining it. If not, I will probably have to keep a few more chargers laying around and grab an extra for the car. As of right now, the phone as settled in to a 2.53% discharge per hour and is running quite nicely. Hopefully that keeps up and I don’t have to worry too much.

The 5 Apps I Can’t Do Without

There has been so much made of the Windows Phone App gap, but not many people talk about the ones that are there that they can’t live without. So, without further ado, once you buy that new Windows Phone, give my top 5 a test drive. Of course, these are listed in no particular order, so don’t think it’s a one through five list, they are all great Apps.

The Amazon Kindle App brings your e-books to your Windows Phone. Sure, it is much more useful on the larger screen devices, but even on the smaller 4” 500 series screens, books are very readable. Some have experienced some glitches in syncing, content and function, but I can say I haven’t had the issues that they have. Hopefully when you give it a test run, you won’t either. (FREE)

SkyDrive is a must have for every new Windows Phone user. Although the individual components of Windows Phone allow you to download images or documents from your drive, the SkyDrive app gives you almost total control over it. For those that are totally new to Windows Phone and SkyDrive, it is a cloud storage system that works with your PC, your Xbox and your Windows Phone. The free account includes 7GB of storage with more options being available for paid users. (FREE)

PDF Reader should really be a part of the Office bundle for Windows Phone. There are just too many users that use PDF attachments constantly to not include it. That said, there isn’t a PDF reader built in to the Office suite, so Microsoft had to build one that needed to be installed separately. That said, the Microsoft PDF Reader is nothing amazing, but it does a great job filling my needs and doesn’t take up much storage space. (FREE)

MyAppFree is one of those must have Apps so you can test drive one of their free Apps of the day. Everyday there is something new for you to try and they are all free. The important thing to remember is to download the new App everyday and delete it if you don’t want to use it. Once you purchase the App, even if it is free, it stays in your account so you can grab it again later without paying for it. MyAppFree is a must have just to play with all the goodies they offer. (FREE)

This one comes down to personal preference, but I love the content on Hulu+. During the fall, there are plenty of ‘new’ shows to watch and during the summer there are reruns and original series to stream. Now, some would say Netflix is a better choice and I would agree for movies that it is, but I don’t want to watch a 2-3 hour movie on my phone. I’ll save that for my netbook, tablet or home PC. On my  phone, I like to catch the clips, or maybe even a 25 minute show while I am killing time. Hulu+ is the perfect solution for that. (FREE – Some content requires a subscription)

Honorable Mentions

MetroTalk or MetroTalk Free only get an honorable mention due to the fact that Google is killing all 3rd party API Apps in May. For those that are buying in now, MetroTalk will give you the ability to use your Google Voice account for texting and voice calls. It’s not WiFi calling, but it does give you the option to call from your voice line using your Google number instead of your standard cell number. MetroTalk also gives you the ability to view your messages before you listen to them – and some of the time, they are even close to the actual text translation. (Free or $1.99)

I have to say that if I had a Lumia 1520, Crackle would be much higher on the list. The original content is funny and the free movies are a great addition to any device. The limited selection of good movies and the fact that I just don’t like to watch full length films on my phone anymore just push this out of the top rankings and down to an honorable mention. (FREE)

I LOVE this App… When it works right… There I said it. I have a love/hate relationship with this App. I love that it reads my mind and puts together some brilliant mixes for me to listen to, but I hate the fact that about 50% of the time, the songs don’t actually play and I have to waste a skip to blow past the 4 minutes of silence that would be. Overall, if the folks at Nokia Mix Radio ever figure out why my 810 hates their App, or if Nokia just sends me a new 1520 to replace it (yes, call me greedy, I’m fine with that) then I will bring this into my top 5 immediately. The drawbacks – Lumia devices only… The positives – Free streaming, download up to 4 mixes for offline use and you can set up your own mixes using artists you like as guides. (FREE or $3.99 a month for additional content)

T-Mobile Users: AT&T Offering You Up To $450 To Switch

If you are a T-Mobile Windows Phone user, you might want to take a glance at that higher priced competitor, AT&T. Right now, Ma Bell is offering T-Mobile users up to $450 in credits for porting their number over to their network. The credits come in a two part system – $200 for porting your number in and up to $250 for your current device.

I advise you to do the math well before considering this move as most devices are well under the $100 mark in trade-in value and your bill will probably skyrocket over what it was. For example, a fully loaded T-Mobile Simple Choice bill would be $70 for unlimited talk, text and LTE data, plus $25 for a premium handset with nothing down, plus $10 a month for their JUMP upgrade program. This works out to about $130 a month after taxes and fees. AT&T will run you the same for just the service itself. If you have a T-Mobile device you like already, you can simply run the $60 a month 2.5GB data plan and save about 50% over AT&T’s prices.

Overall, I still recommend going to one of the prepaid MVNO’s that will offer you tax free savings of 30-70% depending on your area and carrier. If you must have the AT&T LTE network for coverage reasons, both the AT&T GoPhone plan ($60 a month for 2GB data) and the Net10 - AT&T plans ($45 a month for 2.5GB LTE data) are great options. If you do not have an LTE capable device, Red Pocket Mobile is a great option as well.

Look for something special from T-Mobile next week to combat this move, which is an apparent preemptive strike from AT&T. T-Mobile has been rumored to have a deal to pay off your termination fee with the trade in of your old phone – up to a $350 value per line. We will see what happens at CES next week though.

Happy New Year

Another year is in the books and it was a good one for Windows Phone in my book. While the market share is still pretty low on my favorite OS, there were some very important things that began to happen in 2013. The low-cost Lumia’s began to sway some users to the platform. The App gap continued to close. Some top end devices, including and phablet were released. Most of all though, the Microsoft buyout of the Nokia Devices division will give an already brilliant relationship even more leverage going forward.

The lower cost Lumia series phones have really started moving like hotcakes all over the world. As the Lumia 520 and Lumia 521 have shown in the US, a sub $100 handset will sell extremely well – especially without a contract. These two phones can be purchased outright from any number of retailers and activated on their original carrier or any number of cost saving MVNO offerings. That makes the Lumia 520 (AT&T) and the Lumia 521 (T-Mobile) a great addition to anyone;s retail lineup.

Apps like Instagram, Vine, Pandora and Kik Messenger finally found a home with Windows Phone this year. This means that the App gap that is so well known is finally starting to close. Sure, there will be some that haven’t ported in yet, but Microsoft really delivered on their promise of getting the top 10 Apps brought to Windows Phone this year. Hopefully, 2014 will bring a few more to that total.

Nokia took advantage of the new GDR3 update’s ability to run larger format screens about as quickly as one could. The Lumia 1320 and 1520 broke late in 2013. These sister phones offer users a 6” display, a 5MP or 20MP camera and one of the best Windows Phone experiences available today. Even the ‘low cost’ Lumia 1320 is a smoking fast device. The $350 street price on the 1320 just makes me dream they would bring it to the Windows Phone store in the US, but for now you need to pick up the overseas version to get this steal. For those that want it all though, the 1520 has the full 20MP PureView camera, 16GB of internal memory and SD slot that will hold another 64GB should be enough to satisfy just about anyone on the planet. The 1520 can be had for about $650 without contract and $199 with 2 year agreement from AT&T.

Probably the most exciting news of the year was the agreement in principle for Microsoft to acquire Nokia’s devices division. This move should allow Microsoft to develop hardware that is more to ‘their desires’ than to Nokia’s. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, but either way, it will be very exciting to see what the first line of devices looks like for 2014. Hopefully they launch that Zune Phone that every has dreamed of for the last few years. If not, maybe the Xbox Phone or the Microsoft Windows Phone One will join the mix later this year. Until then, I will just sit back and enjoy the ride!