Nokia earlier launched the Lumia 720 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a mid-range device that sits below the flagship Lumia 920 but above the newly unveiled Lumia 520.
The smartphone has a 4.3-inch display, 6.7 megapixel rear-facing camera and 8GB of onboard memory. Under the hood Nokia has installed a 1GHz dual-core processor, complete with 512 MB of RAM.
It will be available in five colors and will retail for 249 euros ($328 USD) when it launches in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore in the first quarter of this year. China and other key markets, including Europe, Asia, Africa and India, will follow during the second quarter.
We were given the chance to go hands-on with the Lumia 720 this morning and have posted a gallery showcasing the device below:
The Finnish smartphone manufacturer also launched two new feature phones – the 105 and 301 – aimed at emerging markets including China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Vietnam and other markets in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop revealed during the event today that there are now 130,000 apps available to download from the Windows Phone Marketplace . It follows a similar announcement by Microsoft last year, who announced that there were 75,000 new apps during 2012.
Samsung Galaxy device owners affected by crashes related to TouchWiz clipboard copying bug
Update at foot of post.
Samsung device owners have discovered a rather odd bug: if you use the copy feature a certain number of times (some say as many as 20), the phone or tablet crashes. Furthermore, affected devices reportedly require a factory reset to properly copy and paste again.
The issue, which was discovered sometime last year, doesn’t occur on all devices, and it appears TouchWiz is the culprit. Users have noted, however, that the bug affects Android versions 3.0 to 4.1, meaning it doesn’t seem to have been fixed for all devices yet, despite Samsung’s multiple updates to TouchWiz.
The bug was first brought up on a Samsung developer forum by a user named Veeti Paananen:
Here’s a video from Terence Eden, who brought the bug to our attention:
The issue isn’t just limited to text. Other functions like the camera can trigger the bug when copying images because they rely on the clipboard as well. We here at TNW were unable to replicate the issue ourselves.
The Android ecosystem requires carrier and manufacturer hands-on software updates, rather than just a simple patch that can be pushed out to Nexus or iOS devices. While this is clearly an edge-case, it is rather troublesome to fix as it needs to be tested on multiple devices and then be approved by multiple carriers.
The aforementioned thread was started on October 22, 2012. Yet users are still posting about it to this day. The most recent post at the time of writing, by Daniele Mazzoni, pleads for Samsung to at least acknowledge the bug:
We have contacted Samsung for further details about this issue.
Hat tip to Terence Eden .
UPDATE: Samsung has sent us the following statement: “We would like to assure our customers that this issue can only occur in extremely rare circumstances. Furthermore, this issue can be easily and quickly prevented through a regular Over-The-Air (OTA) software update which began rolling out last year.”
Image credit: Kevork Djansezian /Getty Images
ParaShoot returns to Kickstarter with improved version of its wearable photo/video taking device
We were saddened to see that ParaShoot , a Go Pro-style wearable gadget that lets users record HD video on the fly, was unsuccessful in its efforts to raise $260,000 from Kickstarter . Undeterred, the team is back just three weeks later with a campaign to raise a more realistic $60,000 to make the improved ParaShoot 2.0 a reality.
The gadget aims to make life’s important moments instantly recordable, without a rush for a phone or camera.
Capable of snapping video or photos, it now comes with clips and mounts that mean “you can now pretty much place the ParaShoot anywhere,” the team says. That’s an improvement on the original ParaShoot, which was designed to be worn via a neck strap — which is included in the updated version.
Other improvements include faster data processing, a wider, 100-degree, viewing angle (up from 65 degrees), improved video processing and a longer-lasting battery.
As was the case with its predecessor, the ParaShoot 2.0 owners can shoot photos or video using a button on the device itself, or using an accompanying smartphone app for iOS and Android devices.
The first 500 backers can get a ParaShoot 2.0 for $149, assuming that the project is fully funded, with the first devices set to ship in December…aka ready for Christmas.
Matt Sandy, one of the team of founders, tells TNW that the company has been working on this new version for some time:
With a lower fundraising target and more versatility for shooting images and videos, we have greater optimistic that ParaShoot can run the Kickstarter gauntlet successfully. Certainly, at $149, we can think of a few people who would appreciate this little gadget in their Xmas stocking.
If the ParaShoot 2.0 takes your fancy, then Go Pro , Memeto and Autographer are among the other wearable ‘life-logging’ devices worth looking at.
➤ Parashoot 2.0 [Kickstarter]
Want to know how to succeed on Kickstarter? Check out this Academy class on KickstarterHacks .
Related: Is GoPro in trouble because of Google Glass? Yes. [Video]
Images via Parashoot