Nokia emits Windows Phone 8.1 'Cyan' upgrade for Lumia gear Nokia is rolling out Windows Phone 8.1 as an over-the-air update that comes bundled with "Cyan," a special feature package that's exclusive to Lumia devices. The move comes two months after the Finnish firm launched the Lumia 630, its first new device since becoming a Microsoft subsidiary and the first phone to ship with …
Back in the days of scoffing at that "fruity company" Nokia bought Navteq for about $8B. "How ever will you make that money back?" gasped the analysts, and an early answer was free S60 Ovi Maps with paid-license navigation. But after a while, as Google-equipped iPhones and then Androids loomed in the windscreen (the front one...) the license became perpetual and free.
Roll on the WP era, and the low-end devices came with regionally-locked HERE navigation, with a paid upgrade option. And once again this has withered, perhaps in the face of Android (sluggishly) improving off-line support. Just possibly the cost of designing, implementing, translating, testing and supporting this option was even covered by the sales to low-end Lumia globe-trotters.
All of which leaves me wondering how much of a direct asset mapping has been for any of the phone makers, as opposed to its absence being a certain deal-breaker. And did companies such as Nokia fully appreciate this all along and the licenses were more to pacify the shareholders by showing some (small-but-watch-'em-grow!) revenue streams?
Except that some people cannot understand how you could buy a phone that relied on a data connection to have maps. They are far too important to me to trust to a ropey or non-existent data connection.
I know that it might be possible to get off-line maps in some way on other phones but I doubt that it is nearly as good as HERE maps not to mention the turn by turn voice navigation and all the countries supported and the integration within the system as a whole.
Personally, I like the built-in double-finger, double-tap, auto-zoom feature in WP, hardly ever mentioned and very useful for quickly seeing something small on a web page without actually having to pinch etc.
Please remember that Microsoft DON'T own HERE Maps - that's part of Nokia.
Microsoft only bought the Lumia brand and divices and services business, and a licence to the Nokia brand for devices.
There is still an independent Nokia business that owns HERE Maps (with a 4-year licencing deal with Microsoft to bundle on their phones for 4 years), the IP portfolio (10-year MS licence).
I have a lumia with the developer 8.1 preview and it works a *lot* better than 8 (and that is very well indeed before anyone sneers). Any idea when the actual cyan update will roll out to continental europe, they say a rolling update, but which way.
Yes I know, I like windows phone 8.1, go on flog me if you like :-)
I noticed that S/MIME was promised with windows phone 8.1 and it seems not to work with us mere plebs. From what I've read it works in an enterprise environment, where you're linked to an exchange server and use an MDM. However as a standalone product (i.e. a x509 certificate and an e-mail client) it seems not to be possible. Does the equivalent in Android or iOS work out of the box?
I know, I can download 3rd party apps to do it, however it would be better if it just worked with the stock OS (most other things do now with 8.1).
If you're going to attempt sarcasm veti then at least ensure you have the details correct before posting.
Cortana is currently available to anyone who cares to change the phones language and region setting to USA. It will be rolled out to other countries soon with China and UK being next in line to get Cortana.
Staged rollouts of killer feature. Just like Apple did with Siri. Probably Google too.
I've been using Cortana since the release month or so ago, and I'm in Germany.
Not killer feature, but I am using it more and more. The geofencing stuff is good.
As alluded to by earlier posters...one of the main 'killer' features is an excellent, free, offline map and navigation app. A quantifiably better feature than on any of the competition.
ditto here. I've had Here+ on my 620 for a long while.
I quite like the commute aspect - lets you know the expected time to complete the daily grind to (or fro) work and shows indicators of traffic density along the way. And it doesn't try to tell you directions for a route you already know.
I'm hoping Cyan may also bring some Bluetooth respite.
With one car (2010 Toyota Verso) the handsfree kicks in, but because I use Aux to play podcasts over the headphone jack, I get no audio - the handsfree kicks in BT and cuts normal audio, as it should, but the Lumia keeps on using the headphone jack for audio out, instead of switching to BT.
In the other car (2012 Citroen C3), it works fine A2DP for audio and BT handsfree for incoming calls and SMS. But I can't reply to SMS, it cuts out the BT microphone before I can answer. And if I make a call over the phone it won't activate BT, even though it says BT is active - if I dial using the phonebook in the radio, it works fine.
Those are my only quibbles with the Lumia and luckily I have to make a call about once a month from the car and probably get 2 SMS a month where I would want to reply. It is annoying, not a deal breaker.
But for a heavy duty handsfree user, I can see it being a major problem.
Wow. I was confused by your BT requirements, let alone the phone & cars. I take it your cars won't connect as full BT speakers then (mine won't either)? Surely you could transfer/copy the audio onto USB stick(s) to plug into the sound system, leaving off the earphone jack connection?
The Toyota doesn't have A2DP, only Aux-In. Also no USB.
The BT handsfree worked flawlessly with the Toyota, as long as I wasn't using the phone for navigation or podcasts / audio books through the headphone jack.
The Citroen has A2DP and that works flawlessly. Likewise incoming calls work fine, as do calls started over the radio. Calls started from the phone won't switch to BT handsfree (or the phone doesn't accurately tell the Citroen to switch on BT handsfree). With the automatic SMS reading on the Lumia, it reads me the SMS, then turns off the microphone, making impossible to reply.
My company Galaxy works fine with both cars, although it doesn't read SMS to me. But I have all my apps and media on my private phone.
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