Time for big premieres: Nokia at the Microsoft BUILD conference

Hello, Habr!
As you may know, the big Microsoft BUILD Developer Conference 2014 is taking place these days. In 2013, the event was attended by more than 6,000 developers, and the most memorable event, apart from announcements and demonstrations, was Nokia's impressive interactive light show.





However, this year in terms of the scale of Microsoft and Nokia premieres, it may well surpass last year: Windows Phone 8.1, the flagship smartphone Nokia Lumia 930 and the lineup of future bestsellers Nokia Lumia 630 / 635 are presented at BUILD.

Windows Phone 8.1
Before talking about the new smartphones, let's focus on their software component, namely Windows Phone 8.1. A detailed review of the mobile platform update is likely to be published soon on the official Microsoft blog on Habrahabr, so we will just focus on the key changes.



The main innovation is, of course, the Cortana voice assistant, which will completely replace the standard search in Windows Phone. Moreover, Cortana, named after the virtual assistant from the popular HALO game series, is not just a voice search, it is a real assistant with a kind of artificial intelligence. When developing it, colleagues from Microsoft conducted several dozen interviews with the best personal assistants in order to find out what makes a good assistant the best. Thanks to the support of natural voice requests, it can not only find any information inside the smartphone and in the global network, but also fully plan its day, launch applications and much more.



For example, Cortana's capabilities include the ability to instantly identify and report potential overlapping plans in response to a request to schedule an event if another scheduled event has previously appeared in the conversation or calendar. Cortana can also find restaurants based on the parameters you set. "find a good sushi bar in Moscow") and help in booking a table, answer questions about the weather in the desired city or report the results of a sports match. In addition, the assistant can be assigned a reminder in the format of "the next time I call my sister, remind me to ask about her new puppy."



Cortana is tightly integrated into the system, but its features can be extended with third-party applications, such as interaction with Facebook, Skype, or Twitter. Moreover, the user can control what data Cortana can work with: interests, reminders, music, locations, etc.



Cortana will initially appear as a beta version in the US market, and then gradually gain support in other regions.

A welcome addition to Windows Phone 8.1 is the Notification Center. Its menu can be called up with a "traditional" swipe from top to bottom. In addition to displaying the latest events from social networks, instant messengers and other applications, the notification center provides quick access to settings and switching modes. At the same time, each user will be able to customize the quick access list to their personal needs (for example: bring Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS switches to the forefront).



The interface of the platform received several pleasant options. Firstly, users were able to set a single background image instead of a monochromatic color of the "tiles". This will keep the background image static, and the transparent tiles will move above it as you scroll up and down.



Secondly, it is now possible to install 3 rows of "tiles" on most of the devices on Windows Phone. Recall that earlier the three-row "home screen" was the prerogative of the large-screen Nokia Lumia 1520 and 1320.



Thirdly, it is the ability to customize the "lock screen" thanks to a whole set of built-in themes. They should bring variety to the way the user will unlock their smartphone and view notifications.



The app store interface has also undergone a number of changes, including a new look and feel for the app's rating display page, home page, and many other menu items.

The keyboard in Windows Phone, once recognized as the best keyboard for mobile devices, has been significantly updated. Having acquired its own name Word Flow, the keyboard received support for "swipe gestures" and a more developed intelligence. It can now not only predict words by context, but also, for example, automatically put emoticons in the text.



By the way, now the buttons themselves can now be not only touch (read "physical"), but also virtual, which gives designers a certain freedom when designing new smartphones on Windows Phone 8.1. A prime example of this is our new Lumia 630 / 635 line of smartphones, which has received a similar way of managing key functions.



These smartphones also support another new WP8.1 feature, namely the ability to work with dual SIM cards. But we will return to this a little later.

Some of the useful features of Windows Phone 8.1 that Nokia Lumia users should love include the long-awaited split volume for different apps and system menus. Which means, for example, the ability to adjust the volume of music separately from the general volume of the smartphone. By the way, the Music & Video app will be split into two separate services with the system update: Xbox Music and Xbox Video.

And one of the most important innovations for developers (and eventually for end consumers) is support for universal applications that can run on both Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1. Moreover, if the application is paid, then users will only need to purchase it once to run it on (!) any of the WP and Windows devices.

New features in Windows Phone 8.1 also include:
• VPN and S/MIME support;
• DLNA support;
• Improved integration of Twitter and Facebook social media capabilities in the People hub;
• Internet Explorer 11 with WebGL support and improved HTLM5 support;
• Battery Power Sense to identify the most battery-consuming programs;
• Wi-Fi Sense, a feature that allows you to share a secure connection with your Skype, Facebook, and Outlook contacts without sharing their password.
• Quiet hours, a function that allows you to limit the circle of contacts who can contact the user in a specified period of time;
• Automatic over-the-air updates for apps (similar to Windows 8.1);
• Changes in the operation of NFC;
• Installing applications and games on the memory card;
• WiFi Direct support;
• Improved calendar.



Nokia Cyan
And here's the best part: Windows Phone 8.1 will start rolling out over the air to all existing Lumia models with Windows Phone 8 this summer, along with the Lumia Cyan branded update.

In addition to these new features, Windows Phone 8.1 will also offer new imaging options for Nokia Lumia users. The main improvements will affect the display of the photo gallery, in addition, an advanced application for working with images Creative Studio will appear.



The Nokia Stories app will also be updated, allowing you to share your photos as a video slideshow.



After the update, Windows Phone 8.1 will also be available for all Lumia devices, which includes a number of enterprise-grade apps and additional data protection systems. With this business package, the new devices will be able to strengthen their position in the business device segment.

With the Lumia Cyan update, SensorCore technology will be added to the new Lumia lineup. It provides groundbreaking energy-efficient capabilities for smartphone sensor data in fitness solutions such as Bing Health and Fitness.



Along with the update, two developer tools were announced:

- The SensorCore SDK, which has already been tested in several partner companies, will be useful for the developer when creating applications using SensorCore technology;

"The updated Imaging SDK 1.2 BETA for Nokia Lumia imaging brings new capabilities to the next generation of imaging and social networking applications.
Starting today, the package is available here. The new Imaging SDK1.2 introduces advanced imaging capabilities and filter effects.

We will be sure to provide details about the new tools in our future posts.

Nokia Lumia 930



The star of the first day of the BUILD conference, of course, was the new flagship smartphone Nokia Lumia 930. In terms of its characteristics, the new smartphone is the quintessence of the company's best technical and design solutions.



The smartphone is equipped with a five-inch OLED screen with ClearBlack technology with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (pixel density is 441 pixels per inch). The touchscreen, covered with Gorilla Glass 3, is traditionally highly sensitive and allows you to control the smartphone with gloves.



The Nokia Lumia 930 has two parts: a monolithic silver or black metal frame and a polycarbonate back in black, white, orange or green that protects the components inside. Thanks to this combination of materials and a variety of colors, the smartphone can appeal to both lovers of bright design and fans of strict solutions. By the way, the metal frame, which accommodates all the components of the smartphone, was used not only for the sake of aesthetics, but also to increase the overall strength of the device. The dimensions of the smartphone are 137 x 71 x 9.8 mm with a weight of 167 g.



The smartphone is built around a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.2 GHz with an Adreno 330 graphics chip. The amount of RAM is 2 GB with the internal memory of the device at 32 GB.

The main camera of the Nokia Lumia 930 is made using PureView technology and has a resolution of 20 megapixels (1/2.5-inch sensor). The camera received ZEISS optics and a dual LED flash. Thanks to the maximum aperture of F/2.4, the smartphone will be able to take high-quality pictures in low light.



In addition, thanks to the high-quality camera and Rich Recording technology, which includes a system of four microphones, the smartphone allows you to record 1080p video with impeccable sound quality.



The smartphone supports all modern communication standards, including LTE networks, Wi-Fi WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.

The battery capacity is 2420 mAh, providing 16 hours of talk time and 9 hours of video playback. As befits Nokia's flagship devices, the smartphone supports Qi-standard wireless charging.



The Nokia Lumia 930 will be available in June in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and India.

Nokia Lumia 630 / Lumia 635



Future bestsellers, the entry-level Nokia Lumia 630 and Lumia 635 smartphones, have similar specs and design, but have a number of fundamental differences. The Lumia 630 has two versions with support for one and two SIM cards, while the Lumia 635 supports LTE networks. The Lumia 630 also features a brushed plastic body, while the Lumia 635 boasts interchangeable panels made of double-layered glossy plastic with a "depth effect" (similar to its predecessor Lumia 625).



The implementation of support for two SIM cards in Windows Phone 8.1 is interesting: each of the phone numbers has its own personal "tiles" for calls and messages. At the same time, in the smartphone settings, the user can set the SIM card selection by default for calls to a specific number from contacts.



Both smartphones feature 4.5-inch IPS displays with ClearBlack technology with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. The models are based on a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz and have 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory, expandable by microSD up to (!) 128 GB. Windows Phone has optimized the experience with devices with less than 1 GB of RAM, allowing users to run apps and games without any restrictions.



The camera in each of the devices allows you to take pictures with a resolution of 5 megapixels, which is a good indicator for models in the entry-level price segment. The batteries have a capacity of 1830 mAh.



The devices offer functionality comparable to expensive Lumia smartphones. They support SensorCore with Bing Health and Fitness, Microsoft Office Suite, Nokia Camera, free music streaming with Nokia MixRadio, and free world maps and navigation from HERE.



In Russia, the Nokia Lumia 630 is expected in May at an estimated price of 7990 rubles for a device with a single SIM card and 8490 rubles for a device with two SIM cards.

The Nokia Lumia 635 will be available in many countries, including the U.S., starting this summer.

The Lumia 630 and Lumia 635 will be available in white, orange and yellow.

Also in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, a replaceable black case will be available with each device.



Source: habrahabr.ru/company/Nokia/blog/218261/