The Nokia Lumia is designed to attract new fans to the Windows Phone ecosystem, and one of its key targets is gamers.
2011 has been the year when smartphone gamers have been able to pick from a wide selection of large-screened devices to make it easier to play games in greater detail in sharp focus. As a Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia also has greater integration with Microsoft products; Xbox Live support makes it easier for gamers to pick up a game on their console and then their phone, or to check their status remotely when away from their Xbox.
Two of the most popular games so far for the device are Jet Car Stunts and Burn the Rope.
Jet car Stunts comes with 3D graphics, perfectly utilizing the AMOLED screen with 800 x 480 pixels and the ClearBlack technology reducing reflection glare. With a fast 1.4 GHz processor and 512 MB of memory, the device is more than capable of keeping gameplay speedy.
The 3D graphic accelerator is put to good use as well in Jet Car Stunts. With colourful tracks, which increase in difficulty the more your progress riders jump through hoops, leap over divides and ramps using 3D graphics to enhance gameplay and the experience. The handset is held like a steering wheel so users tips and turn to navigate the tracks. To speed up or slow down there are large buttons on the screen that only needs users to move their thumbs while playing. The game is available at the Windows Phone Marketplace for $2.99
Burn The Rope again utilizes the Lumia’s fast processor to incorporate movement of the device into gameplay. The aim of the game is to set fire to a rope and then twist and turn the phone to guide the flame until the rope has burnt away. The flame has to be directed upwards so while it may sound simple the phone needs to be tilted to make sure the flame is heading the right way, or it will burn out. The path of the flame gets faster and more intricate as users pass through the different levels. The game is available from the Marketplace for $2.99.
The speedy processor and screen resolution, along with the 3D capability means the Lumia 800 has a real potential for the gaming market. The new device marks the first delivered in the new partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, suggesting a desire to make a greater splash in the smartphone market. Whereas the App Store and the Android marketplace have made a big splash in encouraging gamers to turn off their console and instead play on their smartphone, Windows Phone has not had a similar appeal. Some critics blame this on a limited number of apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace but it could be more to do with a focus on the Xbox as one of the main Microsoft gadgets on the market. The interactivity and integration between the Nokia and the Xbox suggests this is definitely a target market for the Windows Phone. Their existing dominance in the gaming market, and the appeal they already garner amongst gaming fans, suggests Apple and Android may well be looking over their shoulder.
Simon writes on behalf of Best Mobile Contracts, the UK’s leading mobile phone comparison website, where you can find the cheapest mobile phone contracts for the new Nokia Lumia.
I have a wallet filled with stuff. It’s packed full with probably 7 cards, some business cards, a ton of receipts, insurance information, a couple coupons, and sometimes actual money – but usually not. Of all these things, I usually only use a couple cards, so having a The Callet seemed like a pretty good idea.
What is The Callet?
The Callet is the love child of a wallet and a phone case. It protects your phone like many phone cases, but it includes a feature that you don’t see in other phone cases. On the back of this case, there are two pockets for credit cards and the like. The idea is to provide the convenience of an iPhone case with features that replace the most basic need of the common wallet. I mentioned above that I don’t usually have cash in my wallet, and I think that may be more and more common in a society where we’re all in the habit of using credit or reaching for our debit card.
The Callet is available in pink, blue, black, and white for most iPhone and Blackberry devices. It’s also cheaper than a lot of iPhone cases I’ve reviewed, coming in at $19.95
My Wallet-Free Week
OK, ok. I actually carried my wallet, too, but I spent a week with this case around my phone and mostly ignored my wallet. In that time, I noticed a few things.
The Callet mostly nailed it with the two primary functions it was created for. It kept my phone protected and it served as a wallet. The unique feature as a wallet was perfect for holding my debit card and driver’s license, one in each card pocket. I did try to squeeze two cards into one of the card pockets and they fit, but it was a really tight fit. When I was out, I adjusted pretty quickly to pulling out my phone rather than my wallet to pay the bill at restaurants we went to. There was no problem at all with the intended features of this case.
While The Callet handled the basics well, it leaves room for at least one thing I’d like to see. Some people carry cash at all times or at least most of the time. The Callet leaves these people to find their own solution for cash. Now, I’m not sure I want my cash visible on the back of my phone every time I make a call in public, but the option might be nice. I would have also liked space for a third card, but this case had to be a little thick for two cards as it is, so perhaps they were right to stop there.
Conclusions
In the end, I switched back to my old case. The Callet is great, but I often have my phone out in a restaurant in case a server goes down and having my ID and debit card in there makes me more nervous about someone swiping it. That may just be me, though. In general, it does what it should and for about 20 bucks, the price is just right. I would pay more for a hard case, though.
In the past, I had a chance to play with a pretty cool cell phone watch from China, but today I’m looking to another part of the globe for an even cooler offering.
I’m Watch, from Italy, seems to be turning some heads lately. This watch from a company called Blue Sky disguises all the tech savvy of a full sized Android or IOS smart phone into a beautifully designed watch. Looking more like an iPhone for your wrist, this Android powered smart watch is set to hit CES in January while it simultaneously opens up for U.S. sales.
The watch will boast an app store filled with applications and compatibility with IOS, Android, Symbian, Bada, RIM, and Windows 7. The I’m Watch also features “the first ever capacitive touch display on curved surface”. This all fits in a device a little bulkier than a normal watch and at a price not too far off from an iPhone. I’m waiting for the availability of review units in January, but until then, the video below offers a pretty good preview of how I’m Watch works.
There was a time when Microsoft and Windows ruled the roost; it’s not so any longer. With many other players in the fray, the once ubiquitous Windows has now been pushed aside unceremoniously by upstarts like Android and the iPhone OS; and going by the numbers on a recent survey carried out by Zokem’s US
Mobile Life panel, the iPhone is the indisputable king of the mobile OS ring.
• iPhone owners are the most loyal to their brand, with 73 percent saying they would stick to Apple no matter what, with Android lagging behind with only 40 percent loyalty. Also, many who don’t currently own an iPhone, say that their next phone will be from the Apple stables.
• Rating loyalty for the Android is a trickier proposition because the OS is available for use on many mobile brands. So its collective sales may be much higher than that of the iPhone OS, especially with the phenomenal success that Froyo (Android version 2.2) is experiencing. Also, according to Zokem, 89 percent of Android users are likely to stick with the same brand of mobile phone, beating the iPhone which has only 85 percent.
• Another once-mighty player in this business, RIM and their BlackBerry OS, rate a poor 30 percent in terms of loyalty. Perhaps this is because of all the new entrants into the field and the low rate of innovation achieved by RIM.
• Windows Mobile and the Palm Pre OS rate very lowly with loyalty scores of 10, but maybe this state of affairs will turn around, what with the prediction that Windows 7 is going to be fastest growing platform for smartphones in 2011. Only time will tell of course, if this OS enjoys the same success in the mobile world as it does in the world of computers.
However, the competition in the mobile industry is fierce – BlackBerry has come out with many new models in the last year and are constantly updating and tweaking their software and OS; the iPhone is looking to stay ahead of the curve by offering multi-tasking and many more options on the mobile, and best of all, Android is being used to simulate a virtual desktop computer when combined with a keyboard and mouse – it has
become powerful enough to act as the CPU of a desktop device (check out Motorola’s Atrix if you’re curious).
So what does the mobile OS industry hold in store? From the looks of what has happened so far, we can see that the main players will be Apple, Google, RIM and Microsoft. And since most mobile platforms offer similar features barring a few minor differences, popularity and sales will boil down to brand loyalty and carrier efficiency (in countries like the US where most smartphones are tied in to a two-year contract with a service provider) – if you’re satisfied with your brand and your carrier, you’re not going to want to switch loyalties unless the competition has something really out of the world to offer.
This guest post is contributed by April Davis, she writes on the topic of Accredited Degrees Online. She welcomes your questions and comments at her email id: april.davis83(@)gmail(.)com.
