Nokia Z Launcher gets minor update, still in beta

While the Nokia sub-unit that Microsoft acquired is going through some hard times, the Nokia company still musters some excitement and continues to develop its launcher replacement, the Nokia Z Launcher.

The latest update brings a short changelog but it’s all welcome improvements. New functionality allows you to change the wallpaper from the launcher settings. Some visual feedback has been added to show where you touched the screen.

The rest includes unnamed bugfixes and performance improvements and those are always welcome. You can update the Z Launcher (still in Beta) from the Play Store.

Samsung drops Google Maps, licences Nokia’s Here Maps for its Tizen powered devices and Galaxy smartphones

Samsung is slowly but surely severing ties with Google, and the company’s latest move had it signing up Nokia’s Here Maps for its Gear smartwatch and Galaxy smartphones. The application is being made available for Tizen devices and since the upcoming Samsung Gear S is the only wearable from the brand with a GPS chip, it will only work with this one as far as we know for now.

The beta version of Nokia Here Maps for Samsung Galaxy handsets will also be rolled out for free in early October, coinciding with the date on which the aforesaid smartwatch will be launched. As we’ve known for some time, Samsung is gearing up to become independent of Google even though it announced an Android Wear device for 2014.

Since Samsung owes a big part of its success to Android and continues to earn profits from its products running on Google’s mobile OS, it’s easy to see why the company is taking it slow. But this new move to incorporate Nokia’s Here Maps into its Tizen and Android offerings cannot be disguised as anything but an open snub against the Mountain View giant.

Nokia Here Maps will power an app dubbed Navigator on Samsung’s Gear S. This is designed to deliver turn-by-turn navigation for pedestrians as well as public transit routing. While it can work as a standalone software and allows people to store data on the smartwatch for offline use, the developers say that it may be paired with Here beta for Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy smartphone owners can download the beta version of Nokia’s Here Maps for offline usage too. It offers turn-by-turn driving or walking guidance without a data connection for nearly 100 countries across the globe. It also manages to provide public transport maps for over 750 cities without needed Internet connectivity and live traffic information for more than 40 nations.

We bet Samsung is praying that Tizen will take off well, because who knows if decisions such as this move to Nokia Here Maps for its Galaxy phones and smartwatches will be taken kindly by Google.

Nokia Lumia 530, the low price Windows Phone, announced

Microsoft unveiled the Nokia Lumia 530 smartphone today, this is the first device from Microsoft post Nokia acquisition. The device is likely to cost less than the launch price of the Lumia 520 smartphone as it has relatively low end specs and features. The major drawback of the Lumia 530 is its fixed focus rear camera, which is likely to be criticized by reviewers around the world.

In terms of design this device merges the Lumia 630 and Lumia 520, it is not as curved as the Lumia 520 and also not has flat as the Lumia 630. The curves are minimized on the rear plastic shell and it manages to ditch the rear facing camera flash. Like the Lumia 630 this one also has the capacitive touch buttons embedded in the display, off screen buttons are now likely to be history for Nokia.

This smartphone comes with the latest Windows Phone 8.1 OS and is powered by a 1.2GHz Dual-Core Snapdragon 200 processor paired with 512MB of RAM. It has 4GB ROM on board and as you would expect it has a micro SD card slot for memory expansion. The display on the device has an 854x480 pixels resolution and measure 4-inches diagonally. It is likely to come in Dual SIM variant soon, the Dual SIM functionality on the device offers call waiting and forwarding on both the SIM cards at the same time. There is no front facing camera on this smartphone but it has a decent 1,430mAH battery for the power supply.

Nokia Lumia 520 was launched with a price tag of Rs 9,000, we expect the Lumia 530 to cost around Rs 7,000 initially during the launch. We are not very much happy with the launch of this device, let us know your reaction on this one below in the comment box.

Nokia Lumia 530 up for preorder in India

Nokia announced the Lumia 530 smartphone recently but the company did not announce the price. It just gave a hint that the price of the device will be under Rs 8000 category but Indian online retailer Snapdeal has already put this device for preorder on their site. Snapdeal while skipping mention of the price, has said that the device will start selling in the 3rd week of August.

The Nokia Lumia 530 is the successor model of the popular Lumia 520 and Lumia 525 smartphones. In terms of specs it is not a true successor of the Lumia 525 smartphone, the specs are lower end and Nokia has cut down heavily on internal storage department.

Lumia 530 would come with the latest Windows Phone 8.1 OS and will have 4GB ROM on board. Like Lumia 520 this one too will have 512MB of RAM, the rear camera will have the same 5-MP resolution but the focus will be fixed. There is no front facing camera on this device and it will have a 1,430mAH battery for power supply. Connectivity options are to include Dual SIM slots, 3G, Wifi and Bluetooth.

What do you think has Nokia done with the Lumia 530? Has it failed to bring a true successor or is it just a smart move to provide cheap smartphone? Let us know your reactions.

Download and convert Youtube videos to mp3 ring tones with Mp3Tube

Mp3Tube is a tool for downloading Youtube videos and converting them to mp3 songs.
Mp3Tube provides a neat interface with the below features

• Search videos and browse hot music videos on Youtube.com
• Download and convert videos to mp3
• Make and manage playlists
• Pin your favorite playlists to the start screen
• Listen to the downloaded songs
• Edit mp3 songs to make ringtones

Users can get Mp3Tube for free (ads-supported version) here or pay only $0.99 for a full version without ads here.

Is this Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 range?

Nokia is rumoured to be announcing 3 Windows Phone 8 handsets on September 5th at Nokia World and also at a Microsoft and Nokia event in New York on the same day.

Coincidentally three Nokia-branded Windows Phone devices have also leaked, depicted above.

On the far left is the supposed Nokia Phi, a Lumia 900-type device with a dual core processor, HD screen, NFC, LTE and a 4.65 inch screen.

The other two handsets are not named or specced, but one has a 4.3 inch screen, and the other one that’s around 4 inches. Both screens are flat, unlike the curved screen on the Nokia Phi. It is likely the smallest, cheapest device will have an WVGA screen rather than an HD screen however. For these devices only the bezel has leaked, and the final device may look significantly different.

All three features holes for front-facing cameras and have soft, rather than hard keys.

What do our readers think of this collection? Let us know below.