Lumia

New Microsoft ad says iPhone 6 Plus only makes Siri bigger, not smarter

Friday, Windows giant Microsoft published a new Apple-bashing ad on its YouTube channel.

The 30-second television commercial shows off the latest version of Cortana, Microsoft's Siri-like personal assistant, running on the Lumia 830 and interacting with a bunch of built-in applications.

Cortana amusingly brags to Siri about being able to perform functions Apple's personal assistant can't, like alert users to leave early for an appointment using traffic alerts, remind them of things based on who calls or texts and more.

Galaxy S5 takes Ice Bucket Challenge, nominates iPhone 5s, HTC One M8 and Nokia Lumia 930

Samsung's marketing department has cleverly piggy-backed on the popularity of Ice Bucket Challenge, a phenomenon which has taken the world by storm.

For those who've been sleeping under the rock lately, the initiative saw such celebrities and Silicon Valley execs as Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and marketing honcho Phil Schiller, along with former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and many others, getting ice baths in the name of helping fund ALS research and benefitting the Motor Disease Association.

The official YouTube channel for Samsung Mobile UK this morning posted a video depicting its Galaxy S5 flagship smartphone taking the challenge.

Needless to say, the waterproof handset (IP67-certified) passes the test.

The best part is when Samsung nominates three handsets from its rivals: Apple's iPhone 5s, HTC's One M8 and Nokia's Lumia 930.

Microsoft likely unveiling new Lumia devices at September 4 IFA event

Apple's chief rival Samsung has already blocked out a Galaxy Note 4 related slot at the upcoming IFA trade show for consumer electronics in Berlin, Germany and now software giant Microsoft has sent out invites for an IFA event of its own.

It's scheduled for Thursday, September 4, and we're expecting some nice new Lumias with major upgrades in the camera department — and maybe even a rumored Lumia 'selfie' phone. Photography and camera performance have always been the hallmarks of Nokia's design.

High-end Lumias such as the 41-megapixel Lumia 1020 are widely recognized and regarded as the best smartphones for mobile photography. But mobile photography is just as important to Apple so it'll be interesting seeing what new hardware and software features are Microsoft and Nokia have in tow...

Microsoft’s Nokia Lumia 630 ad shows how to do a smartphone switch with a football

Microsoft-owned Nokia earlier this week announced its first Windows Phone 8.1 handset, the Lumia 630, with sales starting in Asia this week, followed by Europe and the United States.

In promoting the low-to-mid-range smartphone, Microsoft and Nokia put together a commercial sporting Finnish goalkeeper and Trick Shot master Lassi Hurskainen who shows how to do a smartphone switch with a football.

And some of the handsets flying out of people's hands seemingly resemble a certain iconic smartphone from a certain California company. Have a look at the video included after the break and meet us in comments...

Christmas Lumia sales collapse, Nokia schedules media event to – unveil Android device?

After reading a Forbes article two days ago highlighting 24 countries where Windows Phones outsells the iPhone - which disregards the fact that Microsoft is gaining traction in markets where the iPhone doesn’t compete because Windows Phone sales are most in the low-end - I wanted to write a reality check type of an article.

Today, both Nokia and Microsoft were served a reality check after the struggling Finnish handset maker reported a whopping 29 percent lower handset revenue in the Christmas quarter. Worse, sales are decelerating at an alarming clip: Nokia said it sold 8.2 million phones during the Christmas quarter versus Wall Street consensus of ten million units. And they only sold 30 million handsets during 2013.

The company has now scheduled a press conference at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in February amid persisting rumors of a budget Android phone with the Nokia logo on it, the ambitious project apparently code-named Normandy...

iPhone 5s beats Nokia Lumia 1020 in camera shootout

You know how they say that sometimes more is less. Some also say that specs don't really matter anymore. Well, it all comes true in a camera shootout carried out by the folks at Laptop Mag between the Nokia Lumia 1020, and the iPhone 5s. For those who are still keeping track of specs out there, let's note that the Lumia 1020 comes with a whopping 41MP camera. Apparently that wasn't enough to beat the iPhone 5s 8MP camera though...

The iPhone 5s conclusively beat the Nokia Lumia 1020 in our photo face-off, taking seven out of 10 rounds–and tying one. Even after updating the Lumia 1020′s camera software, which reduced issues with the blue color cast on many images, colors were still more accurate on the iPhone. Apple’s device also excelled when delivering detail and contrast.

Nokia’s Lumia 925 ad lambasts iPhone 5 camera

Microsoft's Apple-bashing in Surface commercials was just a start. Now the harsh criticism of Apple's devices extends to Microsoft-backed Nokia, whose Lumia 925 television commercial takes aim squarely at the iPhone 5's eight-megapixel iSight camera.

As you know, iPhones are Flickr's top three most popular cameras as "every day, more photos are taken with the iPhone than any other camera," per Apple's Photos Every Day ad. Nokia cleverly puts an interesting spin on the fact by believing that "better photos are taken with the Nokia Lumia than any other cameraphone"...

Microsoft reorganizes as Nokia unveils new 41MP phone

Seemingly taking a page from Apple's playbook, Microsoft announced a major reorganization this morning. It's calling the move 'One Microsoft,' as it looks to rally behind a single strategy as one company, instead of a collection of separate divisional strategies.

The company says that moving forward, it will continue to release new devices and services. And this new approach will allow it to innovate with greater speed, efficiency and capability in a "fast-changing world," while helping them execute better than ever...

New Nokia ad pegs iPhone users as mindless zombies

You know you're doing something right when your competition spends more time in its commercials bad-mouthing you and your products than it does actually advertising its own. So Apple must be doing something extremely right.

We've seen it with Samsung, we've seen it with Microsoft, and now Nokia is getting in on the action. The Finnish handset maker released a new ad this morning that portrays iPhone users as mindless zombies. Full clip after the fold...

Gartner: more than half of all handsets sold in 2012 were Apple, Samsung

The battle between Apple and Samsung for smartphone supremacy rages on. While the two rivals accounted for more than half of smartphones sold during 2012, demand for the South Korean firm's phones rose nearly 86 percent while iPhone sales rose by around 22 percent last year. According to Gartner, the two companies took No. 1 and No. 3 spots in overall while ranking first and second in the growing market for smartphones, respectively.

This as the cell phone industry saw its first dip in sales since 2009. Other vendors, of course, were left fighting each other for scraps...

iPhone 5 helps Apple regain lead over Android in US smartphone market

Apple's iPhone 5 has helped the California-based gadget maker propel itself into the first place in the United States, topping Google's Android in arguably the world's most important smartphone market. Specifically, Apple's iPhone doubled its share of US smartphone sales and now enjoys a 48.1 percent share compared to 46.7 percent for Android.

The last time Apple held the lead in the US smartphone market was after the introduction of the iPhone 4S. Market research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech announced Tuesday Google's mobile operating system still dominates in Europe, where it holds up to 81 percent of the market share in some countries...

Nokia ad slams the iPhone over lack of color

Nokia took issue with Apple's black and white iPhone color options in an interesting new commercial for its Lumia range of smartphones. The ad, included right after the break, sets the tone by depicting a gloomy world where mindless drones come to Apple Stores to buy iPhones. When a customer suggest color other than standard black and white iPhone options, hell breaks loose. The clip then switches to Nokia's recently refreshed Lumia lineup, available in a bunch of colors...