Big Premiere Time: Nokia at the Microsoft BUILD Conference
Hi, Habr!
As you may know, a large Microsoft BUILD Developer Conference 2014 is being held these days. In 2013, more than 6,000 developers attended the event, and the most memorable event, in addition to announcements and demonstrations, was the impressive interactive light show Nokia Lumia .
However, this year may well surpass the past in terms of the scale of the premieres of Microsoft and Nokia: Windows Phone 8.1, Nokia Lumia 930's flagship smartphone and Nokia Lumia 630/635 line of future bestsellers are represented on the BUILD.
Before we talk about new smartphones, let's focus on their software component, namely on Windows Phone 8.1. A detailed review of the update of the mobile platform is likely to be published in the near future in the official Microsoft blog on Habrahabr, so we will just focus on the key changes.
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The main innovation is, of course, the voice assistant Cortana, which will completely replace the standard search in Windows Phone. Moreover, Cortana, named after the virtual assistant from the popular game series HALO, is not just a voice search, it is a real assistant with a kind of artificial intelligence. During its development, colleagues from Microsoft conducted several dozen interviews with the best personal assistants in order to find out what makes a good assistant the best. Thanks to the support of natural voice prompts, it can not only find any information inside the smartphone and on the global network, but also completely plan its day, launch applications and much more.
About the capabilities of Cortana says, for example, the ability in response to a request for scheduling an event to instantly determine and report a possible overlap of plans, if another scheduled event previously appeared in the correspondence or calendar. Cortana also knows how to find restaurants by the specified parameters (note “find a good sushi bar in Moscow”) and help with booking a table, answer questions about the weather in the desired city, or report the results of a sports match. In addition, the assistant can be instructed to remind the format “the next time I call my sister, remind to ask about her new puppy”.
Cortana is tightly integrated into the system, but its functions can be extended with the help of third-party applications, for example, interaction with Facebook, Skype or Twitter. Moreover, the user can control himself with what data Cortana can work: interests, reminders, music, locations, etc.
At first, Cortana will appear as a beta version in the US market, and then gradually receive support in other regions.
The long-awaited innovation in Windows Phone 8.1 has become the center of notifications. Its menu can be called up with a “traditional” swipe from top to bottom. In addition to displaying the latest events from social networks, instant messengers and other applications, the notification center provides quick access to settings and mode switching. In this case, each user will be able to customize the quick access list to fit their personal needs (for example: to highlight the switches Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS).
Several nice options received interface platform. First, users were able to set a single background image instead of the monochromatic color of the “tiles”. In this case, the background image will be static, and transparent “tiles” will move over it when scrolling up and down.
Secondly, it became possible to install 3 rows of “tiles” on most of the devices on Windows Phone. Recall that the previously three-row "initial screen" was the prerogative of more than a screen Nokia Lumia 1520 and 1320.
Thirdly, it is the ability to customize the "lock screen" thanks to a whole set of built-in themes. They have to add variety to how the user will unlock their smartphone and view notifications.
The application store interface has also undergone a number of changes, including the new look and feel of the app ratings page, the start page, and many other menu items.
Keyboard in Windows Phone, once recognized as the best keyboard for mobile devices, has been significantly updated. Having acquired its own name Word Flow, the keyboard received the support of “swipe gestures” and more developed intellect. She can now not only predict words in context, but, for example, automatically put emoticons in the text.
By the way, now the buttons themselves can be not only touch-sensitive (read “physical”), but also virtual, which gives designers some freedom in developing new smartphones on Windows Phone 8.1. A striking example of this was our new line of smartphones Lumia 630/635, which received a similar way to manage key functions.
These smartphones also support another new feature of WP8.1, namely the ability to work with two SIM cards. But back to this later.
A number of useful features of Windows Phone 8.1, which Nokia Lumia users should like, can be attributed to the long-awaited separate volume for different applications and system menus. Which means, for example, the ability to adjust the volume of the music separately from the overall volume of the smartphone. By the way, the application “Music and Video” with the system update will be divided into two independent services: Xbox Music and Xbox Video.
And one of the most important innovations for developers (and as a result for end users) was the support of universal applications that can work on both Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1. Moreover, if such an application is a paid application, then users will only need to purchase it once to run on (!) Any of the WP and Windows devices.
The list of innovations in Windows Phone 8.1 also includes:
• Support for VPN and S / MIME;
• DLNA support;
• Improved integration of social networking features Twitter and Facebook in the hub "People";
• Internet Explorer 11 with WebGL support and enhanced HTLM5 support;
• Battery Power Sense to determine the programs most consumes battery power;
• Wi-Fi Sense - a feature that allows you to share a secure connection with contacts in Skype, Facebook and Outlook, without giving them a password;
• Quiet hours, a function that allows you to limit the number of contacts that can contact the user during the specified time period;
• Automatic update for applications over the air (similar to Windows 8.1);
• Changes in the work of NFC;
• Install applications and games on the memory card;
• Support WiFi Direct;
• Improved calendar.
And now the most important thing: Windows Phone 8.1 will start spreading "over the air" to all existing Lumia models with Windows Phone 8 already this summer, along with the proprietary update Lumia Cyan.
In addition to the above innovations in Windows Phone 8.1, Nokia Lumia users will have access to new features for working with images. Major improvements will affect the display of the photo gallery, in addition there will be an advanced application for working with images from Creative Studio.
The Nokia Stories application will also be updated, which will allow you to share your photos in a video slideshow format.
After the upgrade, the Windows Phone 8.1 business package will also be available for all Lumia devices, which includes a number of applications for corporate use and additional data protection systems. With this business package, new devices will be able to strengthen their position in the segment of business devices.
With the Lumia Cyan update, there will be support for SensorCore technology in the new Lumia line of devices. It provides, in fitness solutions such as Bing Health and Fitness, fundamentally new, energy-efficient capabilities for obtaining data from smartphones sensors.
Along with the update, two developer tools were announced:
- SensorCore SDK, which has already been tested in several partner companies, will be useful to the developer when creating applications using SensorCore technology;
- The updated development package Imaging SDK 1.2 BETA for working with images in Nokia Lumia, provides new opportunities for creating the next generation of applications for working with images and social networks.
Starting today, the package is available here . The new Imaging SDK1.2 introduces advanced imaging capabilities and filter effects.
We will definitely report the details of the new tools in our future posts.
The star of the first day of the BUILD conference, of course, was the new flagship smartphone Nokia Lumia 930.
The smartphone is equipped with a five-inch OLED-screen with ClearBlack technology with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (pixel density is 441 pixels / inch). The touch screen, covered with glass Gorilla Glass 3, according to tradition, is highly sensitive and allows you to control your smartphone with gloves.
The Nokia Lumia 930 case consists of two parts: a monolithic metal frame in silver or black and a polycarbonate back cover in black, white, orange or green, which protects the enclosed components. Thanks to this combination of materials and a variety of colors, the smartphone may appeal to both lovers of bright design and fans of strict solutions. By the way, the metal frame that holds all the components of the smartphone, was used not only for the sake of aesthetics, but also to increase the overall strength of the device. The dimensions of the smartphone are 137 x 71 x 9.8 mm with a mass of 167 g.
The smartphone is built on a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with a clock frequency of 2.2 GHz with an Adreno 330 graphics chip. The RAM is 2 GB and the internal memory is 32 GB.
The main camera of Nokia Lumia 930 is made by PureView technology and has a resolution of 20 megapixels (sensor 1 / 2.5 inches). The camera received ZEISS optics and dual LED flash. Due to the maximum aperture value of F / 2.4, the smartphone will be able to take high-quality pictures in dim light.
In addition, thanks to high-quality camera and Rich Recording technology, which includes a system of four microphones, the smartphone allows you to record video in 1080p format with impeccable sound quality.
The smartphone supports all modern communications standards, including LTE networks, Wi-Fi WLAN IEEE 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.
The battery capacity is 2420 mAh, providing 16 hours of talk time and 9 hours of video viewing. As befits Nokia's flagship devices, the smartphone supports Qi standard wireless charging.
Sales of the Nokia Lumia 930 will begin in June in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and India.
Specifications Nokia Lumia 930.
Future bestsellers, entry-level smartphones Nokia Lumia 630 and Lumia 635 have similar characteristics and design, but they have a number of fundamental differences. Lumia 630 has two versions with support for one and two SIM cards, while the Lumia 635 supports LTE networks. Also, the Lumia 630 has a matte plastic body, and the Lumia 635 model boasts removable panels of two-layer glossy plastic with a “depth effect” (as in the predecessor of the Lumia 625).
An interesting implementation of the support of two SIM cards in Windows Phone 8.1: each of the phone numbers have their own “tiles” for calls and messages. At the same time, in the settings of the smartphone, the user can by default set the choice of a SIM card for calls to a specific number from contacts.
Both smartphones are equipped with 4.5-inch ClearBlack IPS-displays with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. The models are based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor with a clock frequency of 1.2 GHz and have 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory, expandable with microSD to (!) 128 GB. In Windows Phone, work with devices with less than 1 GB of RAM was optimized, so that users can run applications and games without any restrictions.
The camera in each device allows you to take pictures with a resolution of 5 megapixels, which is a good indicator for models of the initial price segment. Batteries have a capacity of 1830 mAh.
The devices offer functionality comparable to the expensive Lumia smartphones. By default, they support SensorCore technology with Bing Health and Fitness, Microsoft Office application package, Nokia Camera, free streaming music from Nokia MixRadio, as well as free world maps and navigation from HERE.
In Russia, the Nokia Lumia 630 is expected in May at an estimated price of 7990 rubles for a device with one SIM card and 8490 rubles for a device with two SIM cards.
The Nokia Lumia 635 will be available in many countries, including the United States, starting this summer.
The devices Lumia 630 and Lumia 635 will be available in white, orange and yellow.
Also in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, a complete set of black color will be available with each device.
Specifications Nokia Lumia 630.
Specifications Nokia Lumia 630 with two SIM cards.
As you may know, a large Microsoft BUILD Developer Conference 2014 is being held these days. In 2013, more than 6,000 developers attended the event, and the most memorable event, in addition to announcements and demonstrations, was the impressive interactive light show Nokia Lumia .
However, this year may well surpass the past in terms of the scale of the premieres of Microsoft and Nokia: Windows Phone 8.1, Nokia Lumia 930's flagship smartphone and Nokia Lumia 630/635 line of future bestsellers are represented on the BUILD.
Windows Phone 8.1
Before we talk about new smartphones, let's focus on their software component, namely on Windows Phone 8.1. A detailed review of the update of the mobile platform is likely to be published in the near future in the official Microsoft blog on Habrahabr, so we will just focus on the key changes.
')
The main innovation is, of course, the voice assistant Cortana, which will completely replace the standard search in Windows Phone. Moreover, Cortana, named after the virtual assistant from the popular game series HALO, is not just a voice search, it is a real assistant with a kind of artificial intelligence. During its development, colleagues from Microsoft conducted several dozen interviews with the best personal assistants in order to find out what makes a good assistant the best. Thanks to the support of natural voice prompts, it can not only find any information inside the smartphone and on the global network, but also completely plan its day, launch applications and much more.
About the capabilities of Cortana says, for example, the ability in response to a request for scheduling an event to instantly determine and report a possible overlap of plans, if another scheduled event previously appeared in the correspondence or calendar. Cortana also knows how to find restaurants by the specified parameters (note “find a good sushi bar in Moscow”) and help with booking a table, answer questions about the weather in the desired city, or report the results of a sports match. In addition, the assistant can be instructed to remind the format “the next time I call my sister, remind to ask about her new puppy”.
Cortana is tightly integrated into the system, but its functions can be extended with the help of third-party applications, for example, interaction with Facebook, Skype or Twitter. Moreover, the user can control himself with what data Cortana can work: interests, reminders, music, locations, etc.
At first, Cortana will appear as a beta version in the US market, and then gradually receive support in other regions.
The long-awaited innovation in Windows Phone 8.1 has become the center of notifications. Its menu can be called up with a “traditional” swipe from top to bottom. In addition to displaying the latest events from social networks, instant messengers and other applications, the notification center provides quick access to settings and mode switching. In this case, each user will be able to customize the quick access list to fit their personal needs (for example: to highlight the switches Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS).
Several nice options received interface platform. First, users were able to set a single background image instead of the monochromatic color of the “tiles”. In this case, the background image will be static, and transparent “tiles” will move over it when scrolling up and down.
Secondly, it became possible to install 3 rows of “tiles” on most of the devices on Windows Phone. Recall that the previously three-row "initial screen" was the prerogative of more than a screen Nokia Lumia 1520 and 1320.
Thirdly, it is the ability to customize the "lock screen" thanks to a whole set of built-in themes. They have to add variety to how the user will unlock their smartphone and view notifications.
The application store interface has also undergone a number of changes, including the new look and feel of the app ratings page, the start page, and many other menu items.
Keyboard in Windows Phone, once recognized as the best keyboard for mobile devices, has been significantly updated. Having acquired its own name Word Flow, the keyboard received the support of “swipe gestures” and more developed intellect. She can now not only predict words in context, but, for example, automatically put emoticons in the text.
By the way, now the buttons themselves can be not only touch-sensitive (read “physical”), but also virtual, which gives designers some freedom in developing new smartphones on Windows Phone 8.1. A striking example of this was our new line of smartphones Lumia 630/635, which received a similar way to manage key functions.
These smartphones also support another new feature of WP8.1, namely the ability to work with two SIM cards. But back to this later.
A number of useful features of Windows Phone 8.1, which Nokia Lumia users should like, can be attributed to the long-awaited separate volume for different applications and system menus. Which means, for example, the ability to adjust the volume of the music separately from the overall volume of the smartphone. By the way, the application “Music and Video” with the system update will be divided into two independent services: Xbox Music and Xbox Video.
And one of the most important innovations for developers (and as a result for end users) was the support of universal applications that can work on both Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1. Moreover, if such an application is a paid application, then users will only need to purchase it once to run on (!) Any of the WP and Windows devices.
The list of innovations in Windows Phone 8.1 also includes:
• Support for VPN and S / MIME;
• DLNA support;
• Improved integration of social networking features Twitter and Facebook in the hub "People";
• Internet Explorer 11 with WebGL support and enhanced HTLM5 support;
• Battery Power Sense to determine the programs most consumes battery power;
• Wi-Fi Sense - a feature that allows you to share a secure connection with contacts in Skype, Facebook and Outlook, without giving them a password;
• Quiet hours, a function that allows you to limit the number of contacts that can contact the user during the specified time period;
• Automatic update for applications over the air (similar to Windows 8.1);
• Changes in the work of NFC;
• Install applications and games on the memory card;
• Support WiFi Direct;
• Improved calendar.
Nokia Cyan
And now the most important thing: Windows Phone 8.1 will start spreading "over the air" to all existing Lumia models with Windows Phone 8 already this summer, along with the proprietary update Lumia Cyan.
In addition to the above innovations in Windows Phone 8.1, Nokia Lumia users will have access to new features for working with images. Major improvements will affect the display of the photo gallery, in addition there will be an advanced application for working with images from Creative Studio.
The Nokia Stories application will also be updated, which will allow you to share your photos in a video slideshow format.
After the upgrade, the Windows Phone 8.1 business package will also be available for all Lumia devices, which includes a number of applications for corporate use and additional data protection systems. With this business package, new devices will be able to strengthen their position in the segment of business devices.
With the Lumia Cyan update, there will be support for SensorCore technology in the new Lumia line of devices. It provides, in fitness solutions such as Bing Health and Fitness, fundamentally new, energy-efficient capabilities for obtaining data from smartphones sensors.
Along with the update, two developer tools were announced:
- SensorCore SDK, which has already been tested in several partner companies, will be useful to the developer when creating applications using SensorCore technology;
- The updated development package Imaging SDK 1.2 BETA for working with images in Nokia Lumia, provides new opportunities for creating the next generation of applications for working with images and social networks.
Starting today, the package is available here . The new Imaging SDK1.2 introduces advanced imaging capabilities and filter effects.
We will definitely report the details of the new tools in our future posts.
Nokia Lumia 930
The star of the first day of the BUILD conference, of course, was the new flagship smartphone Nokia Lumia 930.
The smartphone is equipped with a five-inch OLED-screen with ClearBlack technology with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (pixel density is 441 pixels / inch). The touch screen, covered with glass Gorilla Glass 3, according to tradition, is highly sensitive and allows you to control your smartphone with gloves.
The Nokia Lumia 930 case consists of two parts: a monolithic metal frame in silver or black and a polycarbonate back cover in black, white, orange or green, which protects the enclosed components. Thanks to this combination of materials and a variety of colors, the smartphone may appeal to both lovers of bright design and fans of strict solutions. By the way, the metal frame that holds all the components of the smartphone, was used not only for the sake of aesthetics, but also to increase the overall strength of the device. The dimensions of the smartphone are 137 x 71 x 9.8 mm with a mass of 167 g.
The smartphone is built on a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with a clock frequency of 2.2 GHz with an Adreno 330 graphics chip. The RAM is 2 GB and the internal memory is 32 GB.
The main camera of Nokia Lumia 930 is made by PureView technology and has a resolution of 20 megapixels (sensor 1 / 2.5 inches). The camera received ZEISS optics and dual LED flash. Due to the maximum aperture value of F / 2.4, the smartphone will be able to take high-quality pictures in dim light.
In addition, thanks to high-quality camera and Rich Recording technology, which includes a system of four microphones, the smartphone allows you to record video in 1080p format with impeccable sound quality.
The smartphone supports all modern communications standards, including LTE networks, Wi-Fi WLAN IEEE 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.
The battery capacity is 2420 mAh, providing 16 hours of talk time and 9 hours of video viewing. As befits Nokia's flagship devices, the smartphone supports Qi standard wireless charging.
Sales of the Nokia Lumia 930 will begin in June in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and India.
Specifications Nokia Lumia 930.
Nokia Lumia 630 / Lumia 635
Future bestsellers, entry-level smartphones Nokia Lumia 630 and Lumia 635 have similar characteristics and design, but they have a number of fundamental differences. Lumia 630 has two versions with support for one and two SIM cards, while the Lumia 635 supports LTE networks. Also, the Lumia 630 has a matte plastic body, and the Lumia 635 model boasts removable panels of two-layer glossy plastic with a “depth effect” (as in the predecessor of the Lumia 625).
An interesting implementation of the support of two SIM cards in Windows Phone 8.1: each of the phone numbers have their own “tiles” for calls and messages. At the same time, in the settings of the smartphone, the user can by default set the choice of a SIM card for calls to a specific number from contacts.
Both smartphones are equipped with 4.5-inch ClearBlack IPS-displays with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. The models are based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor with a clock frequency of 1.2 GHz and have 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory, expandable with microSD to (!) 128 GB. In Windows Phone, work with devices with less than 1 GB of RAM was optimized, so that users can run applications and games without any restrictions.
The camera in each device allows you to take pictures with a resolution of 5 megapixels, which is a good indicator for models of the initial price segment. Batteries have a capacity of 1830 mAh.
The devices offer functionality comparable to the expensive Lumia smartphones. By default, they support SensorCore technology with Bing Health and Fitness, Microsoft Office application package, Nokia Camera, free streaming music from Nokia MixRadio, as well as free world maps and navigation from HERE.
In Russia, the Nokia Lumia 630 is expected in May at an estimated price of 7990 rubles for a device with one SIM card and 8490 rubles for a device with two SIM cards.
The Nokia Lumia 635 will be available in many countries, including the United States, starting this summer.
The devices Lumia 630 and Lumia 635 will be available in white, orange and yellow.
Also in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, a complete set of black color will be available with each device.
Specifications Nokia Lumia 630.
Specifications Nokia Lumia 630 with two SIM cards.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/218261/
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