Facebook Will Remove Chat to Promote Messenger App

Facebook is going to remove chat from the primary iPhone and Android app, in order to force users to install a standalone Facebook Messenger app.

 

Facebook has already notified its users in the United Kingdom, France and other European countries that they will need to install a separate Messenger app if they want to continue using Facebook chat on their smartphones. The company issued a statement, saying that they have created a fast and reliable messaging experience via Messenger, and are now determined to focus on that experience.

The representatives of the company admitted that they plan to eventually require that users all over the world install the Messenger app, but they couldn’t provide a specific timeframe for the change.

The app developers point out that the free, standalone Messenger is faster than the messaging service built into the main Facebook app for smartphones. The users will also be provided more features in the Messenger app, including the ability to make voice phone calls via Wi-Fi in some countries and send texts on Android.

At the moment, Facebook keeps facing increasing competition from new and fast-growing mobile messaging application like Line and WeChat, along with such established brands as Google Hangouts and BlackBerry’s BBM. Fortunately, Facebook managed to acquire one of its biggest messaging competitors, WhatsApp, for $19bn a couple months ago. WhatsApp then announced adding voice calling later in February at Mobile World Congress.

Industry observers believe that Facebook’s decision to encourage users to switch to a separate messaging app on mobiles could either help boost the popularity of its Messenger or cause a backlash if users view the action as heavy-handed. In addition, this standalone app will also directly compete with WhatsApp.

Nevertheless, Facebook is increasingly moving into the mobile space, believing that it is a way to continue expanding its 1.2 billion-strong user base. The company has developed or acquired a catalogue of standalone apps aside from its main application over the past few years. Three months ago, Facebook launched Paper, a photo-heavy news-reading application that has already earned positive reviews. The company also purchased photo-sharing app Instagram a couple years ago, which recently reached 200 million users.

EnjOy..:)

Bugs Of Techn0l0gy

Microsoft announces nine new manufacturing partners for Windows Phone

There will likely be a deluge of new Windows Phone handsets hitting the markets as Microsoft announces nine new manufacturing partners.

When Satya Nadella announced that Microsoft’s strategy going forward would be mobile first, he wasn’t kidding. Microsoft today announced nine new manufacturing partners to Windows Phone, which brings the total list of manufacturers to thirteen.

Among the new partners are LG and Lenovo, two of the biggest names in manufacturing. Microsoft is also focusing its attention on markets like China and India by bringing Foxconn, Gionee, Karbonn Mobiles and Xolo on-board. Manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE have manufactured Windows Phone handsets before, but have since weaned off the platform, like most other manufacturers.

With Nokia’s acquisition in the final stages, Microsoft needs a strong presence in these countries. In China, Windows Phone is well-catered to, as it now has Foxconn, Gionee, HTC, Huawei, Lenovo and ZTE in addition to Samsung and LG as manufacturers set to launch new handsets. However, the lack of Indian manufacturer Micromax from the list is disconcerting, considering that the other two biggest Indian manufacturers, Karbonn Mobiles and Xolo (a wholly owned subsidiary of Lava Mobiles) are included. Micromax is said to be working on a Windows Phone device that was scheduled to launch later this year. Whatever the case might be, it Microsoft is widening its reach by adding new hardware manufacturers.

In addition to new vendors, Microsoft also announced that Windows Phone devices will now support Qualcomm hardware like the Snapdragon 200, 400 and 400 LTE. Furthermore, the platform is said to add functionality for dual-SIM devices, with Live Tiles for each SIM. The first dual-SIM Windows Phone device will likely be the Nokia Lumia 630. With an increased focus on low-end dual-SIM based devices, it is clear that Microsoft is targeting emerging markets.

EnjOy..:)

Bugs Of Techn0l0gy

Nokia to End Support for Symbian and Meego from Jan 1st, 2014

Nokia has just discovered a new way to tarnish your new year celebrations. The Finns have announced that from the very start of 2014, it will be ending the support for its Symbian – once the king of mobile OSes – and Meego Operating Systems.

What that means is that while you will be able to download apps from those operating systems’ app stores, those apps won’t be getting updates any longer. No apps will be posted to the store after that either.

“If you have Symbian and MeeGo content in the Nokia Store, it will continue to be available for download to customers, and you will continue to receive download and revenue reports as well as payouts for downloaded content”, the company said in an email to developers. “However, starting January 1, 2014, you will no longer be able to publish any new content or update existing content for Symbian and MeeGo.”

While this news isn’t a surprise, recent events in the Nokia’s history including the move to Windows Phone and the eventual selling of the phone division to Microsoft meant that this move was probably hastened.

Nokia had already announced earlier this year that it would never make a Symbian phone again.

EnjOy..:)

Bugs Of Techn0l0gy

:6 Reasons Why Nokia Doesn’t Need Android:

6 Reasons Why Nokia Doesn’t Need Android

In the past couple years we’ve all seen Nokia’s market share sliding down the charts.  And we all know that last year they announced a full-on exclusive switch to Windows Phone as the single operating system of choice for their phones in the future.  A number of people wondered why Nokia didn’t just switch to using the successful Android operating system that so many other manufacturers use these days.

1. Nokia Belle already feels like Android.

In using the new Nokia Belle operating system on an N8, one new reason became clear…  They’ve already got it!  Nokia Belle, the latest version of Symbian, looks a lot like a customized version of Android.  It has the multiple horizontal-sliding desktop home screens.  It has all sorts of different-sized, different-looking, throw-anywhere widgets.  It has the same drop-down notifications bar.  It has the app tray button at the bottom, and a pop-up menu button.  It’s occasionally unresponsive, has ambiguous navigation buttons, and scrolling stutters sometimes.  Heck, it even has the “open-source” mantra attached to it (at least until April of 2011)!   Why would Nokia want to load Android on their phones when they can make an operating system just like it without much effort?

Well, okay… it’s not exactly like Android.  Nokia’s Belle has much better battery life and a completely different app store which naturally only supports Symbian apps.  Of course it lacks many of the Google apps, but many Android devices (such as those from Amazon) these days lack those as well.  It doesn’t seem to have the same depth of community programming support nor app count either, so there’s that.  Still, I think it’s safe to say that Nokia’s already been down that road.

2. Android isn’t much different from 10 year old Smartphone operating systems.

In terms of user interface, you’ve got notifications from all of your programs at the top, you’ve got a home screen with widgets that you can arrange which will display pertinent information for easy access, and you’ve got a menu where all of your applications reside.  Was I just describing Android?  Or was I describing Microsoft’s Pocket PC Smartphone operating system from 10 years ago?  You’re both right!  Sure there are plenty of other differences and Android has gotten more complicated by adding widgets to the notifications tray and whatnot, but the basic fundamentals really haven’t progressed or improved much in Android.  It’s still home screen widgets, notifications bar, and app launching.

Windows Phone, on the other hand, implements a completely new type of interface design that not only works well on small-screened smartphones, but scales up to larger screens (as you’ll see in Windows 8/Xbox 360) and also leaves room for newer methods of user interaction such as 3D gesture recognition and voice controls that really won’t be possible with the conventional UI’s you see implemented by Apple and Google. Plus you’ve got the content-centric and task-centric structure.  3rd party apps show up within the content that they may be related to as opposed to just a “more programs” menu and “hubs” organize both content and apps from all sorts of different sources in a way that makes a lot of sense, but is also quite different from the “launch an app, then find your stuff” mentality.

3. There’s too many pizza places on this street.

You don’t succeed in business when you do exactly the same thing as everyone else.  There’s really only one manufacturer using Android that has actually seen continued success with it and that’s Samsung.  HTC, LG, Sony, etc, are struggling a bit while Samsung and Apple are at the top. Putting Android on a phone doesn’t automatically make you successful. It would be like opening a pizza place on a street next to 5 other pizza places and one store that sells apples. Sure, pizza is great and some say it tastes better than fruit, but if you want to stand out in the food business, you have to do something new.  That’s why Nokia has gone all in with Windows Phone. It’s fresh, it’s different, and it’s tasty.

4. Implementing Android would be too expensive

I know what you’re thinking… Android is free and open source, how could it be more expensive?  Well, for one, you still have to pay Microsoft licensing fees for intellectual property patents.  Then you have to pay your own developers and spend a lot of time trying to make it something unique enough to be noticed.  Then you have to spend a lot on lawyers when Apple sues you.

By concentrating on Windows Phone, Nokia is actually getting money from Microsoft instead of paying them to use Android.  Nokia has absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of software litigation since Microsoft has already licensed any patents from Apple that they might have used and they’ve vowed to cover Windows Phone manufacturers in this regard.  As for Nokia’s software developers, they’ve got a lot less work to do with Windows Phone.  There’s no need to mess around with the UI and spend years learning how to master Android development.  That leaves more time to develop applications that add and integrate with the operating system, thus increasing the value as opposed to wasting time changing things just for the sake of differentiation.

5. Android wouldn’t look good on Nokia

When I Photoshopped the header image to show an Android screen on the Nokia Lumia 920, I gagged a little.  It looks so extremely out of place.  The styling is all off.  Yes, Nokia could put some developers to work and hire some designers to fix it, but no matter how much Android evolves, an inherit problem with the open-source nature of the operating system is that nothing will ever really be coherent.  Even if you customize and skin the whole operating system and all of the apps you want to bundle in order to make it look unique and different from every other Android device out there… as soon as some one installs a 3rd party app, that’s going to break the cohesive design and cause the experience to fall apart a bit.  On the other hand, Windows Phone follows a consistent design language (codenamed Metro) that maintains a cohesive look throughout both the operating system as well as third party apps.  Plus, the Windows Phone design UI offers a more personal and effortless way of customizing the device.  In many ways it customizes itself based on the stuff that you like and it just looks fantastic on Nokia’s brightly colored phones.

6. Being part of the Windows 8/Xbox Ecosystem has huge potential.

Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into competing as a full computing ecosystem.  They’ve already been very successful with Windows on the desktop and laptop PC side of things, and they’re also very successful in the living room with the Xbox 360.  Microsoft isn’t doing so great on the web search, music store, tablets, and smartphones side of things though.  Apple and Google have been excelling in those areas.  However, Microsoft’s plans to compete in those areas have been gaining steam.  Bing has forced Google to start innovating with their web search results again and has been gaining market share itself.  Microsoft’s Surface tablets have been able to generate a large amount of buzz in the tech world, and Xbox Music is slated to launch with as-yet-unknown new features.  Nokia could tap into these other markets and has already since Microsoft has implemented Nokia Maps into Bing, Windows 8 Maps app, and even Facebook.  If Nokia had partnered with Google, you know Google wouldn’t be bringing more customers to Nokia’s mapping services.  Google has very little presence in the living room, too.  The potential in Microsoft’s growing new ecosystem just seems greater.

Why not both Windows Phone and Android?

If you’ve gotten this far, you may be asking yourself, “Why shouldn’t Nokia build both Android and Windows Phones?”  Samsung, HTC, etc., all do it.  Sure, that seems like an option, but some could also see that as an identity crisis or lack of commitment.  Nokia wants to build its brand around Windows Phone and bring some real competition to the table.  Android is the one that has torn down Nokia’s mobile phone empire.  Nokia doesn’t want to give in and help their enemies. They want to put up a fight and concentrate their efforts on making something better than Android.

EnjOy..:)

MamoOn..

Nokia Lumia 720 Windows Phone (review)

The Nokia Lumia 720 highlighs the company's commitment to competitively priced smartphones

Nokia used this year's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona to unveil two new low-cost Lumia devices, highlighting the company's commitment to the competitively priced smartphones. The Lumia 720 is a lightweight, colourful smartphone that Nokia claims has the "best camera experience of any mid-range smartphone."

Pros

• Likely low cost
• f1.9 apeture camera
• Slim and colourful design

Cons

• No 4G capabilities
• No full HD video recording
• No Australian ETA

Bottom Line

The Nokia Lumia 720 is a lightweight, colourful smartphone that Nokia claims has the "best camera experience of any mid-range smartphone."

The Lumia 720 follows the design trend set by previous Nokia Windows phones like the Lumia 620. It has a relatively slim profile at 9mm and uses a polycarbonate, unibody design that weighs just 128g. Nokia says the Lumia 720 is the first phone to feature curved glass at this price point. The phone comes in five bright colours — white, red, yellow, cyan and black.

The Lumia 720 has a 4.3in 'Clear Black' display with a resolution of 480x800. It can't quite match the full HD displays that are being used on most flagship models this year but it shouldn't have to at this price. So as long as it's competitively priced in Australia, the Lumia 720's screen will perfectly suit the average consumer.

The Nokia Lumia 720 comes in five bright colours: white, red, yellow, cyan and black.

Nokia is really pushing its cameras and the Lumia 720 is no exception. The 6.7-megapixel rear-facing camera has a Carl Zeiss lens and an f/1.9 aperture. The company claims the latter is bigger than almost any high-end smartphone on the market and will therefore capture better photos in low-light conditions. It can't record full HD video, though, topping out at a maximum of 720p.

The Lumia 720 also includes a 1.3-megapixel camera with a wide-angle lens. The phone comes preloaded with a number of Nokia's existing digital camera lens apps, including the Cinemagraph, Smart Shoot, and Panorama lens, and comes with new 'Glam Me' and 'Place Tag' lenses. The latter adds geotag information to photos captured with the main camera, while the Glam Me lens is a filter that allows users to spruce up "selfies" captured with the front camera.

The Lumia 720 has a 6.7-megapixel rear-facing camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and an f/1.9 aperture.

The Nokia Lumia 720 is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, has 512MB RAM and comes with 8GB of internal memory. There's a microSD card slot to expand the memory, along with built-in NFC connectivity. Nokia also provides a wireless charging option, which can be utilised by purchasing an optional, snap-on cover for the Lumia 720. The phone has a 2000mAh battery that lists 520 hours of standby time and up to 13 hours and 20 minutes of talk time.

Like all of Nokia's Windows Phone 8 devices, the Lumia 720 comes preloaded with the company's suite of exclusive apps, Drive, Transit, Maps and Music. Interestingly, the apps have been re-branded from 'Nokia' to 'Here', so they're now called Here Maps, Here Drive and Here Transit.

The Lumia 720 has a relatively slim profile at 9mm and uses a polycarbonate, unibody design.

There's been no word of an Australian launch time or local pricing details, but the Lumia 720 is expected to sell in Asia and parts of Europe in from Q2 2013.

EnjOy..:) 

MamoOn..