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The Nokia Lumia Challenge is a series of challenges by Nokia involving the Lumia line of Windows Phones.  Most of the challenges deal with photography, challenging Lumia owners to show off their camera skills.  The challenge covers a wide range of topics such as panoramas, night-time adventures, Cinemagraphs and the latest Lumia Challenge is Reflections.

Be it a reflection on water, in a window, from a mirror or any other reflective surface.  Much along the lines of the above photo by Abdul Abdurrab, one of our readers who won last week's challenge.

In today’s world, we gather our news from a multitude of sources. Pocket (formally Read it Later) has always been one of my favorite ways to save articles and content on the web for later mobile consumption. Pouch, is a set of apps for both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 that delivers your Pocket content in one of the most elegant designs I have yet seen.

This weekend we’ll be seeing some cool stuff on sale. If you were quick you grabbed a Nokia wireless charger for $25 last night. Don’t worry if you missed that, there’s plenty more to save on. The Microsoft Store is getting in the clearance mindset and has a handful of gadgets and gizmos for sale. Let’s check out some of the good ones.

Greed City, the Windows Phone 8 exclusive location-based game from Torchbear creator Lighthouse Game Studio, seems to be growing almost as fast as a real city. Since we first reported on the game in April, the number of players has jumped exponentially. That surge in players and the businesses they create was slowing down the game (which requires internet connectivity) in a big way.

Thankfully, Lighthouse has just published a major update that increases the speed of checking in to businesses and leaving comments on news feed items tenfold. You can now boot the game up, check in to your businesses, and get on with your day quickly and free of hassle once more.

That’s not all, though. The update adds more than a dozen changes and fixes that each make Greed City just a bit sweeter. And to celebrate the update’s arrival, Lighthouse has released a snazzy new trailer extoling the game’s virtues. See the video and more update details after the break!

Things that make us happy at Windows Phone Central include cool new apps, updated apps, leaked handsets and deals. Here’s a deal that should appeal to a number of you looking to get into the Windows 8 game or complement your current devices. Get $100 off a Windows 8 tablet at Staples. More details below.

Changes continue to impact the Windows Phone Youtube app at a fast pace. First came the official Youtube app recieved a major overhaul, then Google complained that the app violated YouTube's API and Terms of Service, then Microsoft updated the app to comply with some of Google's requests.

The latest chapter in this saga has the Youtube app being pulled from the Windows Phone Store and news of a collaboration between Microsoft and Google for a solution.

Today, Microsoft announced plans to add enhancements and new features to their online Office Web Apps. The service is a direct competitor to Google’s Docs and Microsoft aims to overpower the service with tight SkyDrive integration and a larger feature set inherited from their full desktop Office suite.

New features include real-time co-authoring of documents and the ability for users to run Office Web apps on Android tablets via mobile Chrome web browser support. The new lineup of features aren’t scheduled to be released until a year from now.

A few weeks ago I wrote an editorial piece on how 2013 was finally turning into the year of Windows Phone (after numerous false starts).

There turns out to be another facet though that I missed in my analysis, which I'd like to address here. Besides increased advertising, impressive hardware, a maturing ecosystem and a reinvigorated Nokia who has hit their stride, Microsoft is using another tactic: direct action.

It’s a fascinating change in strategy from previous years where Microsoft took on a more “hands off” approach, often leaving marketing up to their OEM and carrier partners. Now, in 2013, Microsoft is asserting themselves a lot more directly (and it’s not isolated to just Windows Phone as the recent Surface rumor suggests).

Camera Preset+ is a nifty Windows Phone 8 photography app that lets you create custom preset settings for your camera. The app was recently updated to version 1.3 which adds Live Tile support to let you pin presets to your Start Screen.

This option can really come in handy by letting you jump right into the application with the settings you need.  Live Tiles for presets can be customized with a descriptive title and custom color.