Nokia is continuing the good fight to consolidate support for Instagram on Windows Phone. They have basically made it their mission to get the popular photo sharing social network app to come to the Windows Phone platform. First they launched #2InstaWithLove campaign complete with an app that allows Windows Phone users to upload and share photos with a stock photo filter that automatically generates the hashtag #2InstaWithLove. I’m sure Instagram is aware of this by now.

Nokia has now started advertising the movement with banner ads. The banner ad is meant to help drive awareness of the #2InstaWithLove app and get more Windows Phone users using the app. The more the merrier as it is important to show that the Windows Phone community wants Instagram on the platform sooner than later.

Get ready to follow March Madness in style. Grab Brackets 2013 to keep up with all the action and scores. This is an excellent app for those of you who are looking for a more focused NCAA Tournament experience than a broader sports app like ESPN ScoreCenter

Features include:

• Auto updating
• Email brackets to friends, self
• Link to Live Scores

You can get the app here

Oh happy day, winphonatics everywhere are flipping out with excitement to confirm that the latest Windows Phone 7.8 update, build 8860, will fix that live tile glitch. While you wait for the OTA, go report your satisfaction on some magazine’s survey. Use Tor so that you can vote fifty times.

Way to drop a game – release it for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Mac. The game itself reminds me of Double Dragon in 3D and modernized (and if you dont appreciate Double Dragon then go away). Just check this out: [youtube yw8N0qenXXE] You can get all of the details and links to download at http://realtech-vr.com/bov/ Here are the features if you want to save a click: Brotherhood of Violence Features Include: * High end 3D engine * Multitouch, third-party controller (iCade) support * Explore 30+ unique environments * More than 400 different stylized opponents to defeat! * Choose from 12 unique fighters or create your own with a deep character editor (features: face, complexion, weight, clothes, accessories and more) * Evolving fighters AI will keep you entertained * Play daily challenges: Hitman, Battle Royale and Survival ! * Backup your progress on the Cloud * Brag about your skills on Facebook with new iOS 6 integration * Game Center integration with ranking, leaderboard and achievements * In-App purchases available for game credits, unlocking more companions, more attacks styles, new abilities, clothes and more! * High quality character animations with 5 different fighting styles: Boxing, Muey-thai, Feral, Kung-fu and Karate * Stunning graphics, full 3D characters, advanced lighting and an unprecedented level of detail * Intuitive controls with jump, roll, attack, quick time events, super moves and more! Equip your character, learn your fighting technique. What’s it going to be? Muey-thai? Kung-fu? With five different disciplines to choose from, you’re ready to jump right into the middle of the action! Get lost in the story with amazing cinematic effects, awesome lighting and intricate detail as you fight to rescue your brother. Your opponents learn through AI, so they’re constantly evolving and learning your moves. What works for one bad guy today, may not work tomorrow! It’s a tough fight, but you can get help if you need it. You can always unlock a companion to help you along the way. Three levels of difficulty ensure that you’ll never be bored as you perfect your fighting style. All you have to decide is whether to follow the light path of the warrior, or go into the dark. Download Brotherhood of Violence now and get your brawl on!

Today Microsoft showed a web demo on its Windows Phone page and it shows the upcoming changes or modifications to its start screen. More Facebook integration and Kids Corner are interesting among others that it shows. http://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2013/03/13/show-friends-what-your-windows-phone-can-do-right-on-their-iphone-or-android.aspx and the interesting thing is in this web demo phone, if you login with your Facebook account, it shows your contacts, status updates and photos etc. into that demo phone. Pretty interestingly the web demo almost looks like your Windows Phone, if you own one, or would be interesting to check even you don’t own one and have Facebook account. http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/cmpn/demo

PC Magazine recently had a Reader’s Choice Award polling, and what mobile operating system ended up on top?

Windows Phone.  Apple came in second, but it’s satisfaction ratings were flat from last year’s polling. No change. Android OS came in third, but improved from last year.

Read the article – it has a lot of the usual things (WP users frustrated with app selection, Android users more satisfied with newer devices), but it’s the third graphic that I found Very Interesting. 88% of MS OS users chose MS because of the OS. Apple’s strength here is in apps, people having had a prior model, and ease of use. Android showed strong in choice for OS, 4G capability, and display size or quality.

Remember: this is a satisfaction survey, and each OS was scored based on the satisfaction numbers, not overall numbers. Yes, Apple and Android make up 90% of the market, but this is looking at only self-reporting satisfaction.

Picture: pcmag.com

Now here is something you don’t see everyday, sure we love to boast about the cameras on our smartphones, but techhive took it to another level. They sent out three professional photographers into the world with a smartphone each as their took! An iPhone 5, Lumia 920 and EVO 4G TLE were the devices. The article could have easily been turned into a versus shootout, instead, it showcases the potential of camera phones in general, especially in the hands of a pro. Such a great piece! Make the jump for the entire article and a lot more images.

iOS: Anne Hamersky

Anne Hamersky

The artist: Anne Hamersky shoots stills and video of real people doing real things. Last year she shot the construction of a straw-bale house on Hopi lands, an urban farm build in the South Bronx, and a wetlands restoration project in Passe a l’Outre, Louisiana. Michael Pollan selected her latest book,Farm Together Now(Chronicle, 2010), as his favorite food book of 2011. Anne lives in San Francisco. Follow her on Instagram (@anneham).

The smartphone: iPhone 5, 8-megapixel iSight camera

Twin Peaks Hike

ANNE HAMERSKYTwin Peaks Hike

I ride my bike a lot up Twin Peaks, the big double hills in the center of my city. The spring flowers are running amok up there right now. So it was fun to try out Photo Grid, a collage-making app for iOS. I used the swap function, the flop function, and the rounded-corner selection.

After using the iPhone’s built-in camera app to take pictures for the collage, I opened the collage in Snapseed and followed this path: Tune image > Contrast +14 > Saturation +6.

 

Windows Phone 8: Carly Marin

Carly Marin

The artist: Carly Marin is a graduate of California College of the Arts, where she received her BFA in photography. She is also the owner and operator of Carly Jean Photography, specializing in wedding photography and portraits. Her interest in photography emerged at the age of 10, and she has since dedicated herself entirely to it. Her work combines different elements of journalistic, traditional, and fashion-based photography. When she’s not photographing, you can find her enjoying coffee shops, doing experimental baking, or relaxing at home obsessing over cats! Although Carly uses mainly a digital SLR for her business, she loves using traditional 35mm film cameras for more-personal work. Apart from building up her commercial photography business, she is also working on fine-art personal projects that she hopes to share with the art world.

The smartphone: Nokia Lumia 920, 8.7-megapixel camera with an f/2.0 autofocus Carl Zeiss lens

A Portrait of Kasi

CARLY MARINA Portrait of Kasi

I took this photo at a park in Pleasanton, California, on a styled shoot with one of my favorite models to work with. Kasi recently got her cosmetology license, so we wanted to highlight her amazing hair and makeup skills with this shoot, as well as her unique sense of style. I used the Lumia’s auto settings, with an ISO of 400, the default exposure value and auto white balance, and aspect ratio 16:9.

Android: Michelle Walker

Michelle Walker

The artist: Michelle Walker is a San Francisco-based wedding, travel, portrait, and dog photographer. A formally trained photographer, she prefers a photojournalistic approach to her work—honest, meaningful, and gorgeous. She runs her own photography business, Michelle Walker Photography.

The smartphone: HTC EVO 4G LTE, 8 megapixels

Umbrellas

Ton Sai Bay, Thailand

MICHELLE WALKERUmbrellas: Ton Sai Bay, Thailand

I love the colors in this photograph—they make me remember exactly what it’s like to be on that beach! I took this using the depth-of-field setting in the native Android camera app.  This is a great setting for creating shallow bokeh (from the Japanese word boke, which means “blur” or “haze”) that draws the viewers’ attention to the area of the image in focus.

Rumors are flying of Verizon finally returning to the Windows Phone world, and they’ll be doing so in style. According to The Verge, Verizon customers can expect to receive the Lumia 928, nice!

But the higher model number is not only that, the rumors state it will be sporting an all aluminum body, which we’ve been hearing about for a few weeks. Although it would be a departure from the now famous polycarbonate Lumia bodies, anything aluminum is the new “premium,” so I’m glad to see Nokia heading that route. Not to mention, the render in the image above from wmpoweruser looks pretty sweet.

Also included in the rumor is a new xenon flash to improve low light images a bit more. This would be a good day when the or if the rumor comes true, I know a ton of Verizon customers itching to get their hands on some Windows Phone glory. Stay tuned!

Heard on NPR on my drive in this morning: in its desire to get a picture of Damascus, Syria for a story, a Danish news show ended up with a shot from Assassins Creed. Oops.

Well Google Glasses are sold to selected few during Google I/O and it will be heading towards General Availability and it is already banned at one of Seattle’s club, http://mobilitydigest.com/mobilityleaks-google-glass-banned-sent-from-windows-mail/. Now it has some kind of competition already from GlassUp (http://www.glassup.net/) with their Augmented Reality Glasses. They are making their glasses compatible with iPhone, Android and Windows Phone too and are available for pre-order at £299 (will be released sometime in September 2013). If you use prescription glasses, they have you covered you. In addition to this there is a Point of View Glasses, which are equipped with 8MP Camera/1080p HD Camcorder from Pivothead, http://pivothead.com/products from $299 and they have iOS and Android Apps to interact with the videos and photos you have taken from their glasses. It is very interesting to see how many are going to make accidents wearing these glasses and getting distracted and also getting banned from places for wearing these.