So here’s the deal, we all have a love hate relationship regarding rumors. If you hate ‘em, move along, this obviously isn’t for you. If you love ‘em, then get ready to not get excited because spoiler alert: this device isn’t going to knock anyone’s socks off. Let me preface this by saying that I know the source personally and he’s not a Windows Phone fan by any stretch of the imagination, so take this how you will.

According to my source, Nokia has been using focus groups to test the waters of their new line of devices. The device he was allowed to see last week had the following specs:

• 3.5” – 4” screen (no mention of AMOLED or LCD)
• Dual-core CPU (undisclosed clock speed or manufacturer)
• 8MP Camera (no pureview here)

Beyond that, the device itself follows very closely with the metro theme, source suggests maybe too much. The device itself is very rectangular, to the point where you can prop it up on it’s side (horizontally). The case itself is not made from the polycarbonate found in the Lumia 800/900 but regular, cheaper feeling plastic. The case was reportedly uncomfortable to hold in one’s hard due to the sharp edges. The device was functional, suggesting that Nokia is pretty far along in bringing this model to market. Perhaps maybe even an announcement when Microsoft debuts Windows Phone 8 later this month.

From the screen size and the lack of polycarbonate shell, I would assume (or hope) that this is not the top tier model, but more of a mid to low end model. However, my source also states that Nokia was pitting this thing against a Samsung Galaxy III, some quad-core HTC model, and an iPhone 4s in their focus group studies. These are all top shelf devices from their respective manufacturers, and I would hope that Nokia doesn’t expect to take them on without their iconic case design.

While this phone definitely won’t excite many people, if paired with a low price point this could easily be a decent entry level phone. For more details we’ll have to wait and see. Let the speculation commence!

The biggest obstacle for Windows Phone is mind share. Since its inception, Windows Phone has had significat problems breaking away from the generally negative consumer sentiment left behind from Windows Mobile. Many people do not know there is a clean break from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone, and assume it’s simply a rebranded upgrade from Windows Mobile. I believe this is partly why sales reps at US carriers dislike Windows Phone so much. In addition, some big name companies continue to confuse consumers by lumping legacy Windows Mobile devices into the new Windows Phone category. Just look at Spotify, they claim support for Windows Phone devices and then proceed to list only Windows Mobile devices.

While companies like Spotify don’t care about the confusion, Microsoft should. At this stage of the game, Microsoft should be less worried about short term profitability and more about overall revenue generation. Windows Phone has already garnered generally good reception from critics, however the general populous do not read tech blogs and the like before they go out and buy a phone. I’m not saying reviewers don’t have an impact, of course they do, but it indirectly affects sales. There are two main ways to directly impact sales, other than traditional marketing. The first is word of mouth. People first and foremost look at what everyone else is using and their general opinion on it. People traditionally ask themselves, “what are my friends/family using?” generally followed by something akin to “are they happy with it?". This is the basis of how most (not all) people go about choosing their next phone. However, this requires phones in the hands of actual people, which Microsoft is, admittedly, not doing very well at. So, what’s the second way?

The other main way to affect consumer mind share is with the main point of contact the consumer has when purchasing their device, the sales rep! Sales rep have more power in the decision making process that anything else (at least here in the US). A good rep can easily steer a customer away from a phone that’s gotten glowing recommendations from friends and a successful ad campaign (eg. various iPhones). I know, I’ve done it. With Windows Phone clearly not getting love from sales reps, this is where Microsoft needs to focus it’s attention. Now it would be hard for Microsoft to directly affect sales reps, but there are things Microsoft can do to encourage carriers to push their reps.

Perhaps Microsoft could offer carrier rebates for their Windows Phone devices. That way, it encourages carriers to empty their shelves of Windows Phones instead of leaving them to gather dust in the corner the way Sprint does. Another way would be to sponsor employee sales contest/reward programs to be done internally at carrier stores. The rep with the highest sales of Windows Phones at each store could be entered into a drawing, and every week, say 5 winners are drawn. This would cost Microsoft a measly 260 phones per year per carrier. Microsoft has given away hundreds of phones at a time via various giveaways and contests already, why not give the sales rep some love too? All of these ideas are costly, but lets be serious here. Windows Phone isn’t exactly Microsoft’ workhorse at this moment. This is clearly evident when royalties from Android manufacturers outweigh revenue from Windows Phone. So why not put some of that money to good use and combat negative mind share? With Nokia getting ready to bring their A game in in the marketing department, Microsoft needs to secure the other major factor in selling devices.

My friend, who happens to be on Sprint, was looking for a new phone and asked me for a recommendation. Being in love with my Windows Phone, I of course recommended a similar device and offered to let her play with mine to see what she thought. She loved it! So we went to the Sprint store to get her one.

Sprint only sells one Windows Phone device, the HTC Arrive. I’m not a huge fan of this particular device, especially when stacked up against the array of Android devices in the store. However, I’m a big believer in usability over reasonably superior hardware, and since she’s not the most tech-savvy person who doesn’t want to spend too much time with learning curves(the phone she’s replacing is not a smartphone) I don’t feel that Android is for her. Android is great for people who know what they’re doing and/or have the time to learn and take full advantage of their device. She, however is not one of those people.

My problem arises when I notice the price tag on the Arrive, a whopping $200 with a 2 year service contract!!! Are you joking Sprint? This is a year old device and you’re still asking $200 for it? The, just released, 16GB iPhone 4S is priced at the exact same price! The top of the line Android smartphones are all priced no higher then $200, so what is the year old Arrive doing at that same price point? How can I recommend an almost obsolete device for the price of a new high-end one? Look at AT&T and T-Mobile, T-Mobile’s HD7 brand new Radar 4G are both priced at $100, AT&T has dropped the price of the Focus to just $50 and the HD7 to $100, all of which I think are better than the Arrive in terms of build quality and/or screen size/quality.

So here’s my problem, I’ve all but sold my friend on a Windows Phone. Would’ve been able to get Sprint’s customer to renew their contract (something Sprint needs judging by their recent quarterly earnings report) and a new Windows Phone user (something Microsoft needs more of). But can I seal the deal? Nope. Because I cannot honestly recommend a year old device for $200. That’s just silly. So either she’s got to switch carriers to get a decent price on the UX she likes, or take a UX that she wont like as much and stay with Sprint. Most likely she will just stay with Sprint and get an iPhone, which is probably why Sprint doesn’t care about lowering the price.

Ever wonder what’s inside the solid polycarbonate encasing the Lumia 800? Goldphone has made a short video of how to disassemble the N9 and gives you a quick tour of the internals. Unfortunately it’s all in Russian, but you don’t need to understand the narrator to enjoy a pretty piece of tech getting stripped down to her bare circuits.

[via] mynokiablog

ST-Ericsson has announced that they have been selected by Nokia as a supplier for Windows Phone 8 devices. Since this clearly states Windows Phone 8, don’t expect anything new anytime soon. Even with the extended release date, we can glean some nice things to come. For one, dual-core chips are definitely in the pipeline (even if they are a awhile from getting into consumer hands) as NovaThor is a set of dual-core CPUs (U5500, U8500, U9500). The U5500, the little baby of the bunch, packs a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with support for 720p recording and up to 12MP camera sensors. The SoC includes the ARM Mali-400 GPU. At the high-end we have the U9500, which ups video recording to 1080p and supports either a single WXGA screen or dual (no, that’s not a typo…) XGA screens. I doubt Windows Phone will support dual screens by the time Windows Phone 8 (aka Apollo) is released, but it’s nice to know this chipset is powerful enough to handle it. Camera Sensor support is pushed to 20MP (here’s to hoping Nokia will bring the 12MP sensor along with accompanying xenon flash from the N8 over to a Windows Phone model) with all the usual Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi, etc. support. Most interesting is support for WCDMA/HSPA+ penta band support. Hopefully Microsoft will be so kind as to let Nokia resume making penta band UMTS phones, it makes importing phones so much more friendly. Looks like Qualcomm wont have a monopoly on Windows Phone manufacturers for much longer.

ST-Ericsson Press Release is below:

We are pleased to announce that Nokia has selected ST-Ericsson as a supplier for future devices it plans to introduce based on Windows Phone OS. ST-Ericsson’s selection by Nokia as a key partner for Windows smartphones confirms our company strategy to be present in all segments and its capability to port all major operating systems.

Today’s announcement also highlights the traction that our NovaThor platforms are beginning to get as ST-Ericsson continues to gain in the market, enabling our customers to bring great smartphones to the market.

Nokia is giving away 5 Lumia 800s via a Facebook giveaway. There are no regional restrictions this time, unlike a previous Nokia giveaway that was for UK residents only. All you have to do is like their Facebook page and submit yourself to enter. If you choose to invite your friends, every referral will add another entry for you. The contest ends on November 12th, 2011 at 12:00 p.m GMT. I love that Nokia is a on a role with creating buzz for the 800! Now if they can keep it up going into the holiday season, Nokia might be able to post some marginal profits in their next quarterly earnings report!

Dear Nokia Design Team,

At Nokia World 2011, two great phones for Nokia as a company were released. Some may criticize you for not bringing anything new to the table when compared to your competitor’s offerings on the Windows Phone platform, but I for one understand that you’ve been working mostly to fine tune hardware compatibility with Microsoft’s platform. In addition, reusing previous designs, is both efficient and practical for a company that, let’s be honest, is trying to stop losing money as opposed to making more of it. This is not meant to be a criticism or an insult, but an acknowledgement of your current predicament. I personally find that reusing an old but nonetheless good design, especially that of the N9 was a brilliant business decision.

While I cannot wait for your first truly Metro-inspired designs to come to fruition, I write this letter to implore you to, at least for now, continue that fine sound business strategy of modifying another previous design for compliance with Windows Phone, the Nokia E7. I think the E7 is easily my favorite design so far from any manufacturer. The only thing holding me back from buying one is the fact that it’s still running Symbian and I’ve had a terrible time with Symbian on my N97. But lets not dwell on the past, and look to the future instead. If you could bring the Windows Phone OS onto the E7, I think you will have yourself a killer device, especially for an early 2012 US launch. There are currently only 3 Windows Phone devices I know of that have a physical QWERTY keyboard. All 3 of them have sold poorly, either due to horrible design cues (LG C900), being locked to a small network like Sprint with almost no retail support from stores (the HTC Arrive), and horrible firmware/quality control issues (the Dell Venue Pro). If you can make a splash with a high-quality slider, in addition to a good low/mid-range device like the 710 you will have an instant hit with American Windows Phone users.

The Lumia 800 is a nice phone, and I think it looks great. It looks like it’s positioned to sell well throughout Europe. But you at Nokia know all too well that what sells in Europe isn’t necessarily what sell’s over here in the US. US critics seem to be the most critical of the Lumia series and what they see to be a lackluster revival of your smartphone portfolio. Americans prefer metal over plastic, even really high quality plastics like those used in the N9/800. We’re a stubborn bunch, and even if you tell us it’s more durable we will still choose the shiny one over the plastic one. The E7 has this covered, The 8MP camera with dual-LED flash makes it essentially the same specs as the Lumia 800. But do us all a favor and leave the beautiful 4” AMOLED ClearBlack display on the E7 untouched. Instead cut out 2 additional buttons to flank the single button on the E7 and give us high-end owners some premium tactile buttons. I absolutely HATE the capacitive touch buttons on my Dell Venue Pro. I accidently press them at all the wrong times and it’s frustratingly annoying. Almost considered importing the 710 just because of the physical buttons had it not been for the standard LCD and minimal local storage space. Finally give us 32GB of internal storage space, and I’m not including SkyDrive…that cannot replace real physical memory (thanks for the reminder Jim, completely forgot how many people want this). Without the ability to add microSD cards like on Symbian and Android devices, users of Windows Phone look very closely at storage space. With most current models only supporting 8GB or 16GB, a 32GB device from Nokia would easily mark it as a high-end device. Some would ask for a 64GB model, and I would love that if it were an option as well, but I don’t recommend only shipping a 64GB model. Simply because it will increase your price point, and that could drive away customers. 32GB is bigger than anyone else without going too overboard with cost.

In summary, do to the E7 what you did to the N9 and the 603 and you will have a major hit in the US. A high-end device that offers not one, but three key features that no one else has: a premium QWERTY keyboard, an 8MP Carl-Zeiss Camera, and 32GB of built-in storage space. Combine that with the dazzling display that is the 4” ClearBlack screen, and you will be hard pressed to find anyone choosing another phone over this one save for price point. But that’s what the 710 is for!

Your Proud and Ever Optimistic Supporter,

Danny Lam

So WinRumors was kind enough to point out that the FCC tested Nokia 710 has the unique T-Mobile USA AWS Band or 1700Mhz. Now many know that T-Mobile is the only carrier in the US to use the 1700Mhz band for 3G. Many(I wont name names…) have also assumed that because the 710 has this frequency, it must be destined for T-Mobile. Well it this was a HTC phone, this line of reasoning would be sound, however we are not talking about HTC, Samsung, Motorola, or any other manufacturer. This is Nokia, the makers of the only (as far as I know of) pentaband 3G antennas in consumer phones today.

For 3G signals, there are 5 major frequencies(850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100) used worldwide by carrers. pentaband for 3G is equivalent to quadband for 2G, in the sense that it covers EVERYTHING under the sky in terms of compatibility. Nokia has been making phones with pentaband radios for awhile now, just look at the N8, E7, N9 (the Lumia 800’s Meego Sibling), and the 603 (the Lumia 710’s Symbian sister). For all of these phones 1700Mhz is fully supported, and absolutely NONE of them are available for purchase from T-Moblie USA.

So the take away? The FCC test means that the 710 will likely sell in the US, it doesn’t support any claim that suggests it will come to T-Mobile. It, however, doesn’t mean that T-Mobile wont get it. I only wanted to point out the fact that this info was being greatly misinterpreted by many and I wanted to relieve you all of your false hopes. Disagree with my assessment? Let me know in the comments!

Update: I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong, and I think this might one of those times…thanks Surer!

[via] Engadget

For those of you considering to take Windows 8 for a spin, or those that are just curious about what’s new in Windows 8, I’ve made this video showing you the features I’ve discovered so far. I’ve been using Windows 8 for the better part of 3 days now and I can safely say that this is far beyond what I expected from even beta software(in terms of usability and bugs). I’ve experienced maybe one or two bugs and have only a few nitpicks, that in all probability will be corrected by the beta release. If you want to try out Windows 8 first hand, check out our guide for setting up a dual-boot system. Some things I forgot to mention in the video:

• When connecting to new networks you’re no longer required to choose between defining it as public, work, or home. Instead you simply choose to share or not share you files with the network. (A much better solution in my eyes)
• VMware installed but does not work.

Enjoy the videos!

I’m sure many of you want to try out Windows 8, now that the developer preview is widely available. I personally didn’t want to replace my main operating system with one that wasn’t even at an alpha stage yet. First, I tried installing Windows 8 in a virtual machine. The installer failed to load on both VMware and VirtualBox. With that option gone, I figured I’d try to dual-boot Windows 8. Low and behold, it works and was rather painless. Below are the simple steps I took to get it going.

Step 0: Acquire Installation Media

This is pretty much common sense, but for the sake of having all all the bases covered, don’t forget to download Windows 8 Developer Preview from Microsoft and burn the ISO image to a DVD.

Step 1: Backup your files

You can use the Windows Backup Utility or some 3rd party software. Linux users, you don’t need me to tell you what to do here…

Step 2: Making Room for Windows 8

You will need to repartition your hard drive to give Windows 8 room to install; alternatively you could use another hard drive, but that’s not nearly as fun. From Windows 7 you can use Disk Management to shrink the C drive (Right click on “Computer” > Select “Manage” > Select “Disk Management”). For Vista and XP user, you will need to get 3rd party software(like Acronis), to do it. If you have Linux this can be done from whatever partitioning software that was included with the distro you selected.

Step 3: Installing

Restart the computer and insert the installation media you created in Step 0. When prompted, hit a key to boot from CD (make sure your bootloader is set to boot from CD before the hard drive or this will not work). Click all of the accept/install/continue buttons and check all the appropriate boxes. DO NOT click “UPGRADE” when prompted. You will choose to the clean install. Select the unallocated partition you made in Step 2. Double check that this is the correct partition by checking the partition size and free space(the numbers should match). Highlight the correct partition and continue on. Now grab something to drink while Windows 8 does the rest of the work.

Step 4: Bootloader Setup

After the installer finishes, it will restart and take you to the bootloader. Windows 8 should’ve automatically detected your previous OS and added it as a tile below “developer preview”. Below that should be an option to configure additional option, click on that. You will now be able to select your default OS, as well as the auto-select duration for the bootloader. Windows 8 integrates the bootloader with the OS(this is pure speculation from the behavior I’ve experienced) so if you choose your old OS from this screen, the system will restart and you will be taken to the original bootloader instead of the flashy windows 8 bootloader.

Step 5: Have Fun!

Congratulations, you’re all done and ready to play around with Windows 8. You should be able to see all the files from your previous OS, within Windows 8, as long as it’s in a format that Windows recognizes. I’ll be doing a more in-depth article on my experience with Windows 8 so far. Expect pictures and videos to follow.