Saturday, June 8, 2013

My Nokia Blog

My Nokia Blog

Damian Dinning Explains the Mechanical Shutter to MNB

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 10:28 AM PDT

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Damian’s commented on Ali’s post regarding the mechanical shutter. Thanks Damian for your insights!

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 18.35.00http://mynokiablog.com/2013/06/07/the-benefiet-of-having-a-mechanical-shutter/comment-page-1/#comment-887748

Hi everyone, there are so few factually correct statements in the original piece or related comments (no disrespect intended) I felt compelled to help explain. :)

Please note, my comments are ONLY addressing the general topic of mechanical shutters – no more.

Keeping it simple, the main reason for fitting mechanical shutters is for use with xenon flash. Typically CMOS sensors read light across the sensor from left to right and top to bottom. The time each pixel is 'read' is the effective shutter speed. This is OK in most cases and OK with LED flash as the light is effectively constant/continuous. LED flash in most cases being the equivalent of turning on a torch before the exposure and turning it off after the exposure has been made, effectively increasing the amount of light in the scene more or less for the duration of the picture.

In the case of xenon, the flash fires a very short 'pulse' of light. This pulse can be as short as approximately 1/25,000 (hence why xenon can freeze high speed movement). With a typical CMOS sensor the time difference between the 1st pixel being 'read' and the last is greater than this time. The result would be some pixels would be correctly exposed whilst others would be dark or even potentially black. To overcome this, the pixels are effectively read all at the same time. But to achieve this all pixels are turned on, the shutter opens, the flash fires, the shutter closes and the pixels turned off. And that's why typically mechanical shutters have been needed in products such as n8, n82, n808. In some cases some latest generation sensors can read all their pixels at very high speed (note: again don't ask me to comment on speculation or rumour) allowing xenon to be used. In some cases e.g. Nikon 1 series these later generation sensors are allowing for electronic shutters which can provide potential advantages in high frame rate scenarios which mechanical shutters would not be suitable for.

In some cases a hybrid approach maybe used e.g. a SE product of a few years back which featured xenon only used the mechanical shutter for flash but not other situations, which meant in that case it didn't provide the following potential advantage….

With mechanical shutters, because the pixels are effectively read all at the same time it overcomes the motion skew effect which can typically occur with CMOS sensors due to the time difference between the first and last pixels being read. As the read time from CMOS sensors is increasing (shorter read times) this is becoming less of an issue in some cases.

Mechanical shutters do require additional space, there are no space advantages to them.

As for dust protection there is some theoretical advantage to them but in practice (at least in my experience) I have seen dust penetration in all cameras, there is a fundamental limit to what can be done to prevent dust penetration.

Hope that clarifies things.

Cheers Janne for the heads up

Video: iltalehti.fi endurance tests the Nokia Lumia 920 against Galaxy Xcover 2

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 06:37 AM PDT

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 14.28.09

The Nokia Lumia 920 is paired up against this Samsung designed to be especially rugged apparently. How does it fair? When thrown 20-30 metres and landing on what looks like gravel, the Samsung screen scratches. The 920 somehow survives.

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 14.35.49

In the end with the baseball bat, the samsung sort of just disintegrates in the last final test. The 920 is still in one piece, though the screen is cracked like that time it was buried underneath 24 tons of heavy machinery.  The display did come off the polycarbonate shell and didn’t work. At least it’s in one piece to get it sent back to the repair place :p

http://www.iltalehti.fi/iltvdigi/20130608025700107_v4.shtml

Cheerks ukko for the tip!

Lumiappdates: Accessories v2.5.3.1

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 05:46 AM PDT

MNBwp_ss_20130607_0004

This update was pushed to my Nokia Lumia 920′s store tile last night. It’s just an update to the Accessories app for Nokia Lumia. What has changed, it doesn’t really say.

Update: Accessories 2.5.3.1 includes:

Lumia Accessories 2.5.3.1

 

GSM Arena’s Nokia Lumia 928 Xenon vs SGSIV LED test. Please test out motion.

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 05:31 AM PDT

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 13.25.18

Xenon Flash is a great low light weapon to brighten up images within a certain distance, and especially if they’re moving. Otherwise, longer distances, steady images the OIS on the 920/925/925 is more than sufficient.

People in low light or indoor is where you should see the most advantage with Xenon, as I have with the N82, N8 and 808. People would tend to be closer, and not moving therefore having a bright light in xenon with very quick shutter speeds is more helpful. Taking a picture of a long corridor with xenon simply means that it might look darker which maybe what I’m seeing or is that a tint?

GSM Arena have compared some low light conditions but this isn’t really what you’d use the xeenon flash for.

http://blog.gsmarena.com/see-how-the-nokia-lumia-928-fares-against-the-samsung-galaxy-s4-in-low-light-conditions/

I think the Xenon is more suitable in realistic life like situations. Now whether the 928′s xenon fulfils my expectations of xenon I’m not quite sure as I haven’t used one.

Cheers Alvester for the tip!

Ebay Lumia 920 Ships With New Firmware! Brings Notification Center, Daily Calendar View, Close Background Tasks and Much More

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 05:25 AM PDT

tAR7wIL

A user on reddit posts that he ordered a Lumia 920 on Ebay, and got a bit extra with it. I believe we might be looking at the first images of GDR2 or possibly even 3 that brings a slew of new features that have been requested by many.

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Up first is the ability close background tasks (as seen in the screenshot above) by tapping on the little “X” while in the multitasking view. This is useful when you want to completely kill an app instead of keeping it frozen in the background (although low ram isn’t an issue on most Windows Phones it might be helpful on the lower end of the spectrum).

Also seen is a notification center of sorts *OMG!!!** which shows a list of notifications for each app with the apparent ability to delete them (you can probably swipe away as well); the notifications center seems to run through a live tile (middle tile top row in the second screenshot below).

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Also present is the ability to organize your apps by usage or by alphabetical order (currently it’s only by alphabet)
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Also a much needed feature is a weekly view of the calendar, rather than the eye straining monthly view that we have now! YAY!8985451456_1e9fab99af_z

Check out some more screenshots at the flickr gallery below (including data sense, more organized apps and others):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/poppingseed/with/8984057409/

Michael: I was posting this at the same time as Ali – so I’ll just merge a few thoughts that I had that differ from the above.

From the screenshots over on Flickr, you can see there is a new version of HERE Drive Beta – “Blue”, as well as zFaceBlue – which is Facebook for Windows Phone Blue (I assume). There is also iCalendar Import which most likely is indicative that this update WILL support CalDav.

Of course, there are TONS of apps shown in the app list, many of which will be buried from the user, but its nice to see that there will be substantial changes (I felt pretty ripped off going from WP7 to WP8 t0 be honest – but I know it was all core changes etc).

Via: Reddit 

Microsoft Design Story, Windows Phone UIs over time

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 05:22 AM PDT

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 13.15.58

There’s a microsite over at MS showing the design history, in particular for their mobile devices.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/stories/design/

Love it or loathe it, it really has stamped out its own design principles to be consistent and Pure with the ethos they’re going for.
Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 13.16.10

Cheers Viipottaja for the tip

Weekend LOL: Kelly Rowland texting boyfriend with Nokia Communicator via Excel

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 05:05 AM PDT

CsetmrQ

Reader, sunnyvale noticed this in Reddit. It’s a Nokia Communicator (points if you can name it without looking at the comments or the second screenshot :p or is that even correct ;) ) using excel like app to text her boyfriend.

 

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 13.00.33

Destiny’s Child founder, Kelly Rowland, was featured on Nelly’s 2009 single titled Dilemma, from the Nellyvile album.

As was to be expected, she was also featured on the music video of this song.  But the LoL fact about this video, is Kelly Rowland’s attempt to send a text message using an Excel application on a venerable Nokia Communicator. Following the song’s theme, it seems she never received a reply, as noted by her discontent gesture.

IMGUR Link (via Reddit): http://i.imgur.com/CsetmrQ.jpg

Reddit Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1fvqf4/not_sure_if_intentional_or_just_stupid/

For the lazy, here’s the Youtube Link at the exact moment, YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE THE NOKIA BRANDING!!  A Nokia communicato promo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8WYHDfJDPDc#t=196s

Cheers sunnyvale for the tip!

AdDuplex Stats: WP8 Devices Outnumber WP7, 9/10 Top Ten Most Popular WPs are Nokia

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 04:25 AM PDT

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Today we got a nice serving of Windows Phone stats, thanks to AdDuplex; up first WP8 devices now outnumber WP7 devices (meaning in less than one year they’ve outsold 3 years of WP7) :

Another interesting fact is that if only WP8 devices are counted At&t is no longer the largest WP provider in the US; I assume Verizon would take the crown? (Seeing some great success with the 822, and now the 928?)  T-Mobile could still be in the contest thanks to the 521, but both the 810 and the 710 were never “hits” before.

And perhaps the least surprising of them all 9 out of the top ten most popular Windows Phones are Nokias, (spots 1-8 and #10), at this point I think HTC really needs a new WP flagship stat. perhaps a WP flavored ONE? Otherwise WP will be a one manned horse race VERY soon.
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