Nokia Details Nokia Maps 3.0 for Lumia 920 and Lumia 820

Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, Nokia’s first Windows Phone 8 devices, arrive on shelves with a nice range of appealing features coming from the Finnish handset vendor itself, including a new flavor of the Nokia Maps application.

The new app release brings along a nice range of enhancements when compared to what was already available for users, and those who own a Nokia phone should find it available for download via the official Windows Phone Store today. According to Nokia, there are three different ways in which the application can be updated on a Nokia device, all of them simple and intuitive. The Windows Phone Store live tile on the phone’s screen will prompt users to update to the new app flavor, and the app is also available in the Nokia Collection section of the Windows Phone Store. Moreover, users can download and install the app through a Windows computer, should they choose to do so.

The new flavor of Nokia Maps comes with support for storing maps offline for use when no connection is available. However, it will provide specific details on places and the like only when online. “Turn-by-turn navigation is no longer just reserved for people who drive, you can now get precise guided instructions using the pedestrian navigation, too,” Nokia explains. “Whether you’re walking down a street, cutting across parks or climbing public stairs, Nokia Maps will guide you in the right direct to ensure you get to your destination, without the need of an Internet connection.”

The app also delivers info on public transportation, so that users can get to where they want in more ways than before. Of course, there is also the Nokia Drive feature that makes it easy to get to the destination when in a car. “We also understand that often when you navigate somewhere, to a shopping centre, an airport or a stadium for example, your journey doesn’t end at the door. In fact, it continues way into the building, until you reach your desired store, departure gate or stand within the stadium,” Nokia continues. “That’s why we’ve now included venue maps in this new version. While this doesn’t strictly navigate you indoors (yet), it does show you all the different locations within a building.”

With Venue Maps, for example, users receive access to maps of over 18,000 unique buildings in over 40 countries around the world, with multiple floors to browse, info on where escalators are located and more.

Nokia Maps
Image credits to Nokia

Download the latest Nokia Maps from Windows Phone Marketplace for your Lumia Windows Phone 8: http://bit.ly/PPFNLx

Maps just got better than ever. Take a closer look at Nokia Maps for Nokia Lumia on Windows Phone 8. Discover new places to try or just locate what you are looking for at a glance. Get to where you are going with the help of turn-by-turn navigation made for walking or driving and smart routing for public transport. Nokia Maps can do all this in true offline mode, so you have the ability to download cities or even entire countries to your phone and enjoy blazingly fast and reliable maps completely offline. New venue maps let you find everything from stores to restrooms to ATMs indoors in places like shopping malls, airports and transport stations.
Video credits to Nokia

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Zotac ZBOX mini PC Now Using AMD E2-1800 APU

The dual-core 1.7 GHz E2-1800 accelerated processing unit from Advanced Micro Devices may not be Trinity, but it is a fitting choice for the sort of system that Zotac designed the ZBOX as.

Being a reasonably strong processor with a genuine integrated graphics processing unit, the APU handles computing and video tasks with the minimum of energy requirements. This is, in fact, one of the main reasons that Zotac decided to equip the latest ZBOX Mini PC with the chip. The other versions of the small, box-shaped computer use Intel Atom D2550 (1.86 GHz Dual-Core) or Atom D2550 (1.86 GHz Dual-Core), though there are some other AMD-based options as well. According to the official website, the AMD E-450 (1.65 GHz Dual-Core) and A4-3300 (2.5 GHz Dual-Core) APUs are available as well. Intel Celeron and Core Series chips can be chosen too, though. Essentially, Zotac lets buyers decide which of the many chips and accompanying hardware parts they want most.

Zotac has added the E2-1800 APU as an option thanks to its integrated AMD Radeon HD 7340 graphics processor, which boosts performance by up to 10% without noticeable power consumption changes. The only other addition is a quartet of special USB connectors. "The new ZBOX gives users up to a 10-percent performance boost for even greater system responsiveness and usability in applications and games," says Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. "We also add four high-amperage USB ports to quickly charge power hungry devices such as tablets and smartphones to simplify charging multiple devices." Zotac's ZBOX mini PC has an HDD of 320 GB or more, 2 GB to 8 GB of DDR3 RAM (two DDR3 random access memory slots), Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. The product is bundled with an MCE-compatible remote w/ USB IR receiver (for remote controls) and a VESA75/100 mount (good for mounting the ZBOX at the back of monitors or HDTVs).

Zotac ZBOX mini PC
Image credits to Zotac

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Nokia Readies Lumia 830, a Lower Version of Lumia 820

Although Lumia 920 and 820 currently ship in just a handful of countries, Nokia has plans to launch another Windows Phone device, the Lumia 830.

The smartphone has just leaked in China via WPDang and it seems to be a less-featured version of the Lumia 820 (yes, you read that right). According to WPDang, this would be Nokia Lumia 710’s successor. No clue on whether or not Lumia 830 will be powered by Windows Phone 8 or an older version.

There are no details on the phone’s specs sheet for the moment, but we expect more info to emerge in the following days. In fact, we do know Nokia Lumia 830 will be available in five color options as shown in the picture. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.

Nokia Lumia 830
Image credits to WPDang

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TP-Link 3G/3.75G Wireless N Routers 4G Compatible Now

Owners of a 3G or 4G wireless router may want to check out one or more of TP-Link's products: TL-MR3020, TL-MR3220 and TL-MR3420.

These are the so-called newcomers from the company's Wireless N Router series. The older ones are getting 4G support too. Called The Portable Battery-Powered Wireless N Router (TL-MR3040) and Wireless N Routers for home networks (TL-MR3220 and TL-MR3420), they have only supported 3G and/or 3.75G networks before. The networks of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are all compatible with the devices.

DSL and cable network connections are still preferable of course, being faster and more stable. 4G can be a good backup when they crash though, for whatever reason. "The existing inventory of 3G/3.75G Wireless N Routers is being phased out and the 3G/4G products will be in retail channels beginning November 2012," said Lewis Wu, the director of sales at TP-LINK USA.

TP-Link Portable Battery-Powered Wireless N Router

TP-Link Portable Battery-Powered Wireless N Router

TP-Link TL-MR3020

TP-Link TL-MR3220

TP-Link TL-MR3420
Images credits to TP-Link

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Gigabyte H61M-DS2 DVI and H61M-DS2 HDMI, Very Cheap LGA 1155 Motherboards

One would expect a couple of micro-ATX motherboards to have more than one distinctive feature, that does not apply here.

Only the video ports of the H61M-DS2 DVI and H61M-DS2 HDMI are different, as can be seen from the names. Other than that, they both have 4-phase VRM, four SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, 6-channel HD audio, Gigabit Ethernet and three PCI Express slots: one full-size PCIe 2.0 x16, plus two PCIe x1. In addition to the above, Gigabyte implemented dual-UEFI BIOS (one for backup) and the Ultra Durable 4 Classic components (fiber-weave PCB, anti-surge IC, etc.).

Overall, the socket LGA 1155 mainboards (Sandy Bridge- and Ivy Bridge-ready) may be worth more than their price of under $50 / 39-50 Euro. One of them paired with Zotac's low profile GTX 650, or that single-slot GT 640 with three video ports, from MSI, could lead to very good systems.

Gigabyte H61M-DS2 DVI
Image credits to Gigabyte

Gigabyte H61M-DS2 HDMI
Image credits to Gigabyte

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RISC OS Is Now Available for Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi mini PC is a very popular platform and already a lot of developers have ported distributions for it, including RISC OS.

RISC OS is one of the oldest operating systems still around and it was initially developed by the team that built the ARM processor. According to the developers, RISC OS is owned by Castle Technology Ltd, and maintained by RISC OS Open Ltd. This version is made available free of charge to Raspberry Pi users. Keep in mind that it's not a final version, but a release candidate. It might have some bugs and it should be treated as a development version.

Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 512 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports. Download RISC OS for Raspberry Pi 2012-11-01 RC6 right now, here (torrent).

RISC OS in action
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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