Lumia

VoIP provider Viber has hit a new milestone.

The company announced today that it now has 100 million worldwide users taking advantage of its free phone calls, texting, and photo-messaging services. It's not clear if those users are actively using the service or have just signed up. Still, the company claims to handle over 2 billion minutes of calls and 6 billion messages every month. An average of 10 million calls are placed each day.

Viber has established itself as a true competitor to Skype, the popular VoIP service now owned by Microsoft. Viber works across iOS, Android, and … Read more

Nokia committed a major gaffe in promoting its Lumia 920, and now the company says it's trying to figure out why.

Last week, the company unveiled its new Windows 8 Phone handsets, with the Lumia 920 starring as its flagship device. Touting the phone's optical image stabilization (OIS), Nokia released a promotional clip supposedly comparing video shot by the 920 using OIS with video shot by a phone without OIS.

But after The Verge noticed an odd reflection in the clip, Nokia fessed up that the OIS-flavored video was actually shot by a normal video camera and not … Read more

There are days when I want to bawl out loud. And then there are days when it's just a need for simpering tears to course slowly down my face, rolling in time to a little Enya.

This morning is a time for the latter, as a company for which I have considerable affection -- Nokia -- has admitted to further dissimulation.

You may remember that last week, as it launched its canary yellow Lumia 920 phone, the company showed a rather nice video to accompany it. It heralded the new PureView technology, which makes images just so pristine.

Sadly, … Read more

Amazon is heating up competition in the tablet sector with three new models of the Kindle Fire that are clearly aimed at wooing those who might buy a tablet from Apple.

The Amazon assault begins with a new $199, 7-inch model with an HD screen that doubles the built-in storage of the previous entry-level Kindle Fire to 16GB. Amazon has also doubled down on that product line with a larger, 8.9-inch model that has a 1,920-by-1,200 resolution, features 16GB of built-in storage, costs $299 and ships November 20. Topping out the line is a new 32GB model … Read more

Nokia's recently unveiled flagship smartphone, the Lumia 920, will be launching in November, new reports claim.

Earlier today, Reuters reported, citing unnamed European carrier sources, that Nokia plans to launch its Lumia 920 in November. Those sources did not provide Reuters with an exact date.

However, The Verge followed that up with a report saying that its own sources have reported a November 2 launch date for the Lumia 920 on AT&T's network. The technology site says that day "isn't set in stone" and could be pushed back in the month.

Nokia unveiled its Lumia 920 earlier this week. … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Nokia again faces make-or-break point with new Lumia phones.

- CNET First Take: Nokia Lumia 820.

- CNET First Take: Nokia Lumia 920.

- Why Nokia nixed an SD card slot for the Lumia 920.

- The secret behind Nokia's 41-megapixel camera phone.

- Nokia's new PureView image stabilizer is amazingly faked in this promo video.

- 4Chan goes public with its API, boasting 22 million unique monthly visitors.

- Spike Jonze's new film is about a man who falls in love with his phone.

- Kinsey Institute pulls app encouraging users to log sexy time.… Read more

Nokia's new Lumia 920 smartphone is missing an SD card slot, but that was intentional.

Speaking with tech news site PC Pro, Nokia executive VP Kevin Shields said that a memory card slot would have ruined the clean design of the phone.

"We started with the premise that we wanted an uncompromised physical form," Shields told PC Pro. "To put an SD card slot in it would have defiled it."

The Lumia 820 comes with only 8GB of internal storage but includes a microSD card slot that can handle up to 32GB worth of data. … Read more

Nokia took the wraps off its new line of Windows Phone 8 smartphones today, along with what one would assume to be a carefully crafted media campaign to demonstrate their strengths.

One of the key features Nokia was touting was the PureView camera, which the handset maker said boosted optical image stabilization (OIS), the function that counteracts hand shake by moving the lens. Nokia even went so far as to claim its OIS was 50 percent more effective than systems in some high-end digital cameras.

But it turns out that Nokia's campaign to attract consumers was the most shaky. … Read more

commentary Twice now, Nokia has announced new generations of visually interesting, standout "Lumia" Windows Phone smartphones, and then twice dampened the spark by referring to them as numbers rather than names.

I am speaking, of course, about the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820 revealed today. Now, I know that not all of you will agree with me, but hear me out, and if you still disagree, then we shall have to agree to disagree.

Why isn't Nokia falling back on numbers to match the phone's name to the personality of each phone's design? … Read more