Introduction

Among the various new features in Lumia 920 and 820 headsets, there’s one called wireless charging. It allows the user to charge their Lumia smartphone by simply placing it on a wireless charging pillow. In this Nokia Fatboy wireless charging pillow review, we’ll take a look at how well this feature performs and delivers, or if it just a novelty without any substantial use.

Skype is one of the most widely used services for voice and video calls. It was acquired by Microsoft for a hefty sum and has continued to improve after that. Today a new Skype for Windows Phone 8 update was released which brings HD video support. High end Windows Phone 8 users will now be able to make high definition video calls straight from their smartphones.

On a sunny afternoon, a few weeks ago, we managed to bag a chance a have tête-à-tête with Alessandro Lamanna – Vice President Marketing IMEA (India, Middle East, Africa) at the launch of Nokia Lumia 920 in Pakistan.

It has been some time since Nokia had sent one of their big guns to Pakistan, in order to make a pitch for Nokia’s newest offering on the Windows Phone scene. And we did not want to let that chance go. So here is our interview with Mr. Alessandro, arguably one of the most well versed guys on Nokia’s technological prowess, whom we have come across in quite some time.

There are two major contenders in the global smartphone arena that are making waves with their products. Apple and Samsung. The iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S 3 are the two most sought after phones of this year, and their predecessors have held the same spot in years that have long gone. Surely these are not the only two manufacturers out there, but others seem to have blended in the background whereas these market titans have been ruling the foreground for quite some time now.

Lo and behold, just two months after the launch of Windows Phone in China it has captured greater market share than iPhone has occupied for last couple of years.  Not much time has passed since Windows Phone started to gain market share in the UK, and a few days ago we saw a rise in its market share in some European countries  as well but now it looks to be doing the same in the world’s largest market too i.e China. This is a pretty interesting worldwide trend and will be a source of serious concern for Apple.

There are a lot of mainstream apps that are not yet available on Windows Phone. And while I cringe at the thought of this, but unfortunately Talking Tomcat is also a very mainstream app. My feelings for this game aside, the app is one of the most popular ones on Android and iOS and has gained world wide recognition. There really isn’t much to this game; it repeats what you say in a funny (subjective opinion) voice. More over you can beat the crap out of the cat and feed it milk. Sounds fun, no?

It’s about time Windows Phone users got a relief. Skype, a well known company for providing VoIP for PC, iPhone and Android has now officially launched its app for Windows Phone 7 users.

Samsung, the largest smart phone manufacturer, rather largest vendor of mobile phones at all, is planning to dig its tentacles deeper into the smart phone market by launching devices running Windows Phone 8 Apollo which will hit the market in the second half of this year. Responding to the questions of reporters, Samsung Taiwan disclosed that it would not be introducing Windows Phone 7 (Mango) in Taiwan, instead looking towards the introduction of Windows Phone 8 (Apollo) handsets this October. The reason being that Mango wasn’t as adept to the higher-end, more feature-packed devices of today’s market, thus its main focus is circulated around Apollo.

Kinect is a motion sensing technology from Microsoft which is currently being used in the Xbox 360. It has added a whole new dimension to games and has garnered a huge fan following. However Microsoft’s other gaming platform, Windows Phone 7 currently doesn’t offer any such technology. That is understandable though considering how Kintect works. 3 cameras, one of which is infrared capable to make night time gaming possible. That kind of space just isn’t available on a smartphone, and an infrared camera alone is far too difficult a task to incorporate in a handheld device.

While initially Nokia Lumia 900 was a AT&T exclusive, it is now about to spread its wings in the United Kingdom. It will be available through Phones4U and the Carphone Warehouse. According to Phones4U the expected delivery date is April 27th where are Carphone Warehouse is not committing to any specific date, but sticking to a very general ‘May’ availability. The phone is identical to the one being sold in USA, the only difference being the lack of any LTE support. UK users will however be able to use HSDPA which is no slouch either.