Nokia launches Lumia 1020 with 41-megapixel camera, Windows Phone 8

Finland's Nokia unveiled its latest smartphone Thursday with a powerful 41-megapixel camera touted as offering "more detail than the eye can see."

In unveiling the new device in New York, Nokia said its Lumia 1020 smartphone "is able to produce some of the sharpest images possible by any digital camera."

The Windows-powered phone has six physical lenses and optical image stabilization, and can handle sound pressure levels six times louder than conventional smartphone microphones, the company said.

"We want to take people on a journey from capturing pictures to recording and sharing their lives," said Stephen Elop, president and chief executive.

"The Nokia Lumia 1020 will bring new meaning to pictures and continues to strengthen Nokia's leadership in imaging."

The phone, which will be sold in the US market this month and in Europe and China in the coming weeks, features a new photo application designed for professional quality images.

Using a feature called dual capture, the phone 1020 simultaneously takes a high resolution 38 megapixel image for editing opportunities, and a five-megapixel picture that is easy to share on social networks, Nokia said.

Nokia has seen its past glory fade under pressure of competition from Apple and Asian mobile phone makers.

Microsoft and Nokia joined forces about two years ago in an alliance aimed at making inroads with handsets powered by Windows Phone software.

Windows, boosted by the Windows Phone 8 introduced last year, boosted its US market share to 5.6 percent from 3.8 percent, according to a recent Kantar Worldpanel ComTech survey.

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Apple infringes Samsung patent: U.S. agency

Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) scored a victory over rival Apple Inc (AAPL.O) in their long-running dispute over mobile device patents after a U.S. trade agency issued an order banning older but still-popular Apple products from the U.S. market.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled on Tuesday that the Silicon Valley giant had infringed on a patent owned by Samsung that involves the ability of devices to transmit multiple services simultaneously and correctly through 3G wireless technology.

The independent federal agency slapped a ban on the import or sale of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G distributed by AT&T (T.N), the biggest seller of Apple devices in the United States when Samsung filed its complaint in 2011. The products are assembled in Asia.

U.S. President Barack Obama has 60 days to review the ruling. If he does not veto the order, it will go into effect.

It is not immediately clear what the impact could be on Apple or AT&T should Obama let the ruling stand, since the decision remains subject to a potentially prolonged appeals process.

While the products targeted are more than a year old, some models such as the iPhone 4 remain solid sellers.

The most recent version covered by the ITC's decision - the iPhone 4 - is now given away with a contract offered by carriers including Verizon Wireless, which is not affected by the ruling. The iPhone 4 could be phased out within a year should Apple stick to schedule and release a new version of the iPhone 5 in the fall as many in the industry expect.

Still, if the import ban goes into effect, U.S. customs agencies enforcing the ban could well end up delaying other Apple products, said Susan Kohn Ross, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp.

"This is going to create a huge distortion for Apple," she said. "Customs has a very difficult job now. They have to look at every shipment."

The iPhone accounts for about half of Apple's revenue. While the company doesn't disclose sales data on individual smartphones and tablet models, the most current version of the iPhone typically accounts for the biggest chunk of iPhone shipments of more than 100 million units annually.

GLOBAL WAR

Shares in Apple were little changed at $446.26 in after-hours trade. Samsung stock was also holding steady at about 1.54 million won.

Apple has waged an international patent war since 2010 as it seeks to limit the growth of Google's (GOOG.O) Android, the world's most-used mobile software today. That fight has embroiled Samsung, HTC Corp (2498.TW) and others that use Android, a direct competitor to Apple's iOS.

Tuesday's ruling overturned a decision by ITC Judge James Gildea, who ruled in September that Apple did not violate patents at issue in the case.

Samsung, which is battling Apple in court in some 10 countries, had also accused Apple of infringing on three other patents, but the ITC found that Apple did not infringe those.

"We are disappointed that the commission has overturned an earlier ruling and we plan to appeal. Today's decision has no impact on the availability of Apple products in the United States," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement.

Samsung said the ITC decision "confirmed Apple's history of free-riding on Samsung's technological innovations."

The Obama administration has been pressing for infringement of "standard essential patents" to mostly be punished by monetary charges, not sales bans.

It reiterated that stand on Tuesday with a White House statement that - among other steps - urged the ITC to raise its bar for order sales bans so that it matches district courts.

Designed to be a trade panel, the ITC has become a popular venue for patent lawsuits because it acts relatively quickly and it can order import bans, which are more difficult to get from district courts.

While the ITC was created to ensure that U.S. companies got a fair shake competing against imports, a fair number of non-U.S. companies have filed for relief at the agency based on the fact that they have U.S. manufacturing plants or do research in this country.

Samsung has a manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas.

"I can't really point to any time that the foreign complainants or respondents got anything but a justice-is-blind fair shake," said one patent expert who spoke privately because he did not have permission from his firm to speak to the media.

ITC cases can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and from there go to the Supreme Court.

Apple has a parallel complaint filed against Samsung at the ITC, accusing Samsung, an Apple chip provider, of blatantly copying its iPhones and iPads. An ITC judge in that case found that Samsung had violated one patent but not a second one. A final decision is due in August.

The case at the International Trade Commission is No. 337-794.

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Samsung launches Galaxy S4 Mini

Samsung has launched the Galaxy S4 Mini, a smaller and cheaper version of its flagship smartphone.

The device has a 4.3in (10.9cm) screen, which is slightly bigger than its predecessor, the S3 Mini.

The company will show off the smartphone at an event next month, but has not yet given a date for when it will go on sale.

The 5in (12.5cm) S4 phone launched in April, and according to Samsung has sold more than 10 million units.

The mini version, the specifications of which were leaked online earlier this week, will need to convince consumers that it is not simply an underpowered phone sold with the help of Samsung's "premium" Galaxy brand.

Driving sales

Last year, the company released the S3 Mini, which was criticised at the time for being much less powerful than its bigger sibling.

"Those hoping Samsung's Galaxy S3 Mini was simply a smaller version of the company's flagship phone may be disappointed," wrote technology news site GigaOM at the time of the S3 Mini's release. "This is for the budget market."

Another site, knowyourmobile.com, said: "Given the competition, [it's] way too expensive for what's on offer."

The S4 Mini has an eight-megapixel camera on its rear, compared with the S4's 13 megapixels. The Mini's 1.7GHz dual core processor is also less powerful than the quad-core chip found in the larger model.

But such hardware downgrades were understandable, said Nick Dillion, mobile analyst for Ovum.

The point of it is to offer some of the bits of flagship device to a user who isn't quite as demanding and doesn't want the latest features and spec.

Watch Video: Samsung Galaxy S4 Vs iPhone 5 - Comparison

"They are shaving off price with the processor and screen and memory and so on - but the experience will be similar."

Samsung said many of the software functions shown off at the S4's glitzy launch earlier this year would be available on the cheaper model.

Experimental

The S4 Mini is the company's latest move in its strategy of offering a smorgasbord of shapes and sizes of its devices to customers - rather than Apple's one-iPhone-per-year approach.

At a recent conference, Apple boss Tim Cook said his company did not want to get "defocused" on having multiple lines, but did not rule out future variants of the iPhone.

"It takes a lot of work, a lot of really detailed work to do a phone right when you manage the hardware, the software and the services around it," Mr Cook said.

"We've chosen to put our energies into getting those right."

At Samsung's event on 20 June, analysts and insiders predict even more products on the Galaxy brand, potentially including a model with optical camera zoom functionality, as well as a waterproof phone.

"They almost make every single permutation of a device as possible, seemingly to test out the market - they've had a certain degree of success with that, especially if you look at the [8in] Galaxy Note.

"That was very much an experiment. It's proved to be a very popular device that has spawned a whole new market segment."

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Samsung Galaxy S4 review

Expectations were sky high when Samsung announced the Galaxy S4, since the South Korean giant had to better its very own offering, the Galaxy S III, which not only ruled the Android world, but also went on to become one of the best selling smartphones of all times.

The company unveiled the Galaxy S4 amidst much fanfare and did not disappoint in terms of upping the game in terms of hardware specifications, which included an octa-core processor and a big bright high-definition screen. It also endowed the phone with some unique 'smart' features and added all sorts of sensors and motion detection controls.

However, the phone doesn't look much different from its predecessor; though it fits a larger screen in an even more compact form factor and comes with a more refined build. Some believe that the lack of cosmetic changes may harm the phone's prospects. So is the Galaxy S4 the best phone that money can buy? Is it a worthy upgrade if you already own a Galaxy S III? We try to answer these and other questions.

Build/ Design

As we mentioned earlier, the Galaxy S4 looks very similar to the Galaxy S III. Someone may even take them for the same phone from a distance. However, if you compare the two at close quarters, you'll notice that the S4 is thinner and sleeker.

Just like its predecessor, the phone is built from polycarbonate (read plastic) materials and doesn't feel alluring when compared to the likes of the iPhone 5 and HTC One. In fact, the plastic doesn't compare favourably with Nokia's Lumia range either.

From the front, the Galaxy S4 is not beveled above and below the screen and is flatter compared to the Galaxy S III. The phone's front panel is surrounded by a chrome frame, which gives a premium feel to the otherwise staid form factor.

The phone is available in two colours - Black Mist and White Frost, and we got a Black Mist phone as our review unit. The phone doesn't feel bulky and for a device that packs in a 5-inch screen, the Galaxy S4 feels more like a phone and less like a phablet thanks to its narrow frame and thinner bezel.

The front of the phone still features a physical Home button and two capacitive touch buttons for Menu and Back controls. The different sensors, front camera, notification light and earpiece grill sit above the screen.

You see a power button on the right side of the phone, volume rocker on the left, a 3.5mm headset jack and Infrared receiver on the top and Micro-USB port at the bottom. We like the fact that Samsung has placed the power button on the side and not on the top, in line with other large screen phones.

The back of the phone features the 13-megapixel-camera lens, with the LED flash right below it. The back still has that pseudo textured finish on the glossy plastic surface that attracts a lot of fingerprints. The Indian version of the Galaxy S4 doesn't feature the Galaxy S4 branding at the back. There's a small speaker outlet towards the bottom.

The back is removable and unfortunately you actually get to experience how flimsy the build is when you remove the back cover. The SIM card, microSD card slot, NFC module and battery are hidden inside. Samsung has been able to please people who advocate the use of a removable battery and memory card slot, but we must confess to be fans of the unibody designs.

Display

The year 2013 has seen phone makers like HTC and Sony offering HD screens with their flagship smartphones. So how could Samsung stay behind? The Galaxy S4 comes with a 5-inch full-HD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels packing 441 pixels per inch.

While we weren't too impressed with the Galaxy S4's build, the moment we turned the phone on, we were smitten by its vibrant display. It's among the best displays we've seen so far.

While AMOLED displays are usually known to render a little over-satuarated colour, Samsung offers what it calls, Adapt Display, to optimise colours according to ambient light conditions. You can choose between four manual modes (Dynamic, Standard, Professional Photo and Movie) and seven automatic modes if you select the Adapt Display option.

We found that text, images and icons appear extremely sharp. Reading text and browsing the web was a joyful experience. Once you get used to an HD display, it's hard to go back.

The display was not very reflective and under sun visibility was great. The viewing angles on the phone are excellent.

While the HTC One offers more pixels per inch on its display, we couldn't notice much difference between the displays of the two phones on that front.

Software/ User Interface

The Samsung Galaxy S4 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the OS and TouchWiz Nature UX, Samsung's own UI that includes custom apps in addition to a skinned interface.

While some people prefer stock Android to any kind of skinning, Samsung's TouchWiz UI has been panned for employing big, glossy and cartoon-like icons and menus. The intent might be to make the UI user-friendly, but it ends up looking anything but pleasant. The Galaxy S4's HD screen, however, makes it look tolerable.

Thanks to Samsung shipping the Galaxy S4 with Android 4.2, the phone gets lock screen widgets. Although these are not enabled by default, users can place select third party widgets, in addition to a choice between access to their favourite apps and camera. Users can also enable lock screen shortcuts that allow them to unlock directly into their respective apps. The phone offers a choice between the familiar Ripple effect and the new Light effect for the unlock animation.

The phone offers up to seven home screens that can be populated with widgets and app shortcuts or folders. The pinch-in gesture lets you add or remove home screens.

The app plus widgets drawer lets you arrange app shortcuts as per your own preference or alphabetically.

The drop down notification tray features a settings shortcut and a clear all notifications button, along with expandable notifications (expanded with the two finger pull gesture). Toggles for 20 settings are also located on the tray - which makes it look rather silly albeit very convenient - and you can choose to scroll through them horizontally or expand to get a grid of all the settings on one screen.

One can navigate the phone through the Back and Menu capacitive touch buttons and the Home physical key. The Home button on long press takes you to the app switcher and you can fire up the task manager, kill all apps or access Google now through the shortcuts offered with the task switcher. Double pressing the Home key launches S-Voice, Samsung's voice assistant. Long pressing the Menu key also launches Search.

Samsung also offers some of its pre-loaded apps including S Planner, Voice Recorder, ChatOn messaging app, Samsung Apps app store, Samsung Hub content store, Samsung Link for transferring and syncing content to other devices via cloud services like Dropbox, WatchON - a universal remote control software that also offers program guide functionality, S Translator, Optical Reader, S Memo, S Health, Story Album and Group Play.

Samsung Hub is a content store that offers video, books, games and learning content (in the Indian market). All content stores are integrated in one central Samsung Hubs app as well as available through individual Video Player and Music player apps.

S Health is a fitness-tracking app where you can create your health profile, set goals and keep count of your workout regimen. It also detects the ambient temperature and humidity through the phone's built in sensors.

The WatchOn app allows you to use the phone's IR blaster as a universal remote. You can configure it to work with televisions, set top boxes, DVD players and other AV equipment. We were able to use it with Samsung and Toshiba TVs and Dish TV's Zenega and Tata Sky's HD+ set top boxes.

The S Translator supports speech to text and text-to-text translation for English, French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Korean.

In our usage we found that Samsung's voice assistant app, S Voice, works well with Indian accents and offers good functionality.

The Group Play feature allows you to transfer and instantly view or play documents, music files, photos, and other content to other Galaxy S4 handsets with just a simple tap. All phones need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

But the major attraction of the Galaxy S4 is its motion and hand gesture driven controls. The Air gestures include Quick Glance that lets you glance at information like missed calls, time and unread message count when you move your hand over the phone, Air Jump that lets you move up and down web pages and emails when you move your hands, Air Browse to essentially browse the Gallery, web pages, music tracks and memo notes, Air move to move icons or S planner events with one hand while you're holding them with the other, and even accept calls with the wave of your hand. Motion gestures allow you to tilt your phone to zoom in while looking at an image or turn over the phone to mute while receiving a call.

The Smart screen features include Smart Stay which keeps the screen on as long as you're looking at it, Smart Pause that pauses a running video when you look away and Smart Scroll that scrolls webpages or emails according to the angle at which you tilt your head or the phone.

Another similar feature is Air View that lets you preview text inside emails and SMS or images inside a folder when you hover your finger over the screen. This even works for speed-dial contacts and for tracking progress bars while watching videos.

It's worth pointing out that Air gestures can track the user's hand up to 7cm and only native apps support them, for the time being. We might see some developers bringing support for these gestures in the future, though.

In our experience of using the phone, we observed that at times you have to try a little longer for the gestures to work. This might be because the phone's sensors take time to initialise. It does display an indicator when the phone's ready. Features like Smart Scroll are a hit and miss and don't work if you're wearing spectacles. We've said this before, the gesture controls are gimmicky at best and you'll probably not even remember them after a week or two of showing them off to your family, friends and co-workers.

The phone also offers voice commands for accepting and rejecting calls, taking pictures and controlling music. In our use we observed that it worked intermittently.

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Nokia to unveil new Asha models soon

Nokia will unveil new models in its Asha range of mid-tier phones, after first-quarter results showed a sharp fall in sales of mobile phones while management focused on boosting sales of Lumia smartphones.

"We are continuing to renew our portfolio, which includes plans to announce innovation and new products in the Asha line in the days immediately ahead," Chief Executive Stephen Elop told investors at an annual general meeting on Tuesday.

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Facebook releases 'home' software for Android phones

Facebook is releasing software that puts feeds from the social network on the home page of Android phones.

The software will act like a "wrapper" for the Android operating system and become the main way to use a phone.

Notifications, images and messages will appear on the main screen of the phone instead of being accessible via a downloadable app.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the change would put people, not apps, at the heart of the mobile experience.

Handset home

In a presentation given at Facebook's campus, Mr Zuckerberg said phone apps were a legacy of the computer world in which people clicked on an icon to start a program.

While this worked well with desktops and laptops, it made less sense with phones, he said.

"Now there's a new use case that's more and more important," he said. "We have our phones with us all the time and we want to know more what's happening to our friends."

Facebook's Home software will hide apps and instead pipe all the content and chat carried on via the social network to the home screen.

The software "wrapper" will also change the way that people swap messages or content by letting them respond by tapping on pop-up images, known as chat heads, rather than opening up apps and navigating through menus.

The software will be available via Google's Play Store as a download and will work only with phones running Android 4.0 or higher. Facebook home will be available from 12 April on six phones - three from HTC and three from Samsung. Only four of these handsets are available now. The others are set to launch alongside Facebook home.

No information was given about whether home would be re-developed to work with Apple or Microsoft phones.

Facebook said users could try the software rather than have to commit to use it all the time. Initially, the code will only be available for phones but a version for tablets is under development.

Cory Ondrejka, Facebook's head of engineering, said the company started its push to make everything it did centre on mobiles in early 2012. Figures from Facebook suggest that users spend about 25% of their time on their handsets looking at their feeds and chatting with friends.

Facebook's fourth quarter earnings revealed that about 23% of the money it made from advertising came from adverts shown to mobile users.

Prior to the news conference, many people speculated that Facebook would announce a branded handset. Mr Zuckerberg said the firm shied away from doing this because even the best selling phones would only reach a small percentage of its user base.

"This can start to be a change in the relationship that we have with how we use these computing devices," he said.

Jan Dawson, senior telecoms analyst at Ovum, said: "To Facebook, this is about becoming more deeply embedded in the operating system on mobile devices, and creating a broader platform.

"Since Facebook doesn't make an operating system for mobile devices, this is the next best thing," he said.

Mr Dawson added that the change would let Facebook track more of a user's behaviour on devices and to serve up ads.

"That presents the biggest obstacle to success for this experiment: Facebook's objectives and users' are once again in conflict," he said. "Users don't want more advertising or tracking, and Facebook wants to do more of both."

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Airtel has to stop 3G services as court vacates stay order

The Delhi High Court on Thursday set aside its single judge order which allowed Bharti Airtel to continue providing 3G intra-circle roaming facilities with other service providers.

A division bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain set aside the single judge’s order that stayed the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) March 15 notification restraining Bharti from providing 3G intra-circle roaming facilities.

DoT had asked the mobile company to stop intra-circle 3G roaming in seven circles where it did not have the spectrum and also levied a penalty of Rs 350 crore (Rs 50 crore per circle) for violating the licence terms and conditions.

The bench passed the order on a plea by Reliance Communications Ltd challenging the single judge’s March 18 order saying it has been incurring huge losses for the 3G on daily basis and Bharti has been using it free of cost.

The bench allowed Reliance’s plea to be impleaded as a party in the case filed by Bharti before the single judge.

However, a detailed order is yet to come.

Reliance in its plea said, “declare and hold 3G intra-circle roaming agreements entered into between Bharti and other service providers as illegal and in violation of Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.”

“It has paid thousands of crores for the 3G spectrum and Bharti is using it for free in as many as seven circles, therefore, disrupting the level playing field. If this is allowed, then there is no requirement for any licensee to participate and purchase 3G spectrum in auction. This defeats the purpose of auction,” the plea also said.

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