Yesterday, Sep 5, 2012 was Nokia and Microsoft’s big announcement of the new Lumia 920 and 820 phones. I was invited to the after party by @jjklee and @harrisja at Center 548 by Chelsea Piers in New York.
@douglashwang accompanied me to the showcases, some new features that stood out to us were:
City Lens:
You can use City Lens to find things you want nearby. Categories include food, hotels, shopping, fun, sights, transportation, etc. What makes City Lens different from similar utility apps is the way you use it: you hold the phone up towards your surroundings, and City Lens will display where potential areas of interests are on the screen. It makes augmented reality practical! Here is a good demo:
Cinemagraph:
This reminded me immediately of “Create your own animated GIFs”, which is super cool! I saw a demo where you take a video of the showroom, choose the area you want animated, and the finish product is everything frozen like a picture, but that area you chose moving. Here’s a good demo:
Floating Lens:
This feature has been highlighted everywhere with its PureView imaging technology and 8.7-megapixel camera the Lumia 920 comes with. The Nokia Floating Lens is supposed to take image stabilization to new heights. So no more blurry pictures! At least that’s the goal. I saw a demo where someone was shaking their hand while taking a picture, and the picture turned out pretty good. I know better than my iPhone can take.
Floating Lens explained from WP Central:
“As Nokia’s Kevin Shields mentioned in today’s New York event, the key to taking good pictures is light. There are two basic ways to get more light with a camera. First, create a larger opening for light to pass through. The Nokia Lumia 920 will be fitted with a f2.0 aperture lens which allow more light to the camera sensor than the current Lumia Windows Phone models.
The second way to get more light is to leave the shutter open longer. To do this, you run the risk of camera motion blurring the subject. To help reduce this motion blur, the Lumia 920 will have image stabilization through floating lens technology. Essentially the entire optical assembly will be suspended and stabilized by springs. It will keep the lens steady for low light pictures.
http://www.wpcentral.com/more-nokia-lumia-920-pureview-camera-lens-stabilization”
Another good feature that stood out to me is the phone screen actually responds to gloves and long nails very well. I know some people who would appreciate this!
Special thanks Jason Gregory from Nokia for demoing these fun features to me at Center 548.
