nokia

Since first being captivated by the beauty and excellence of Nokia's Lumia family of Windows Phone devices, people having been wondering if Nokia would follow Microsoft's lead by creating a Windows-based tablet, like the Surface. While we're nowhere closer to learning the answer to that question, what we do know is that Nokia had their sights on building a tablet back in 2011.

There's nothing worse than your Windows Phone taking some physical damage as the appearance of a smartphone is fairly important, especially when it's a Lumia 920 or other Windows Phone. There's really only one instance when an issue can prove more irritating and that's when the software (or a combination of it and hardware) royally breaks and thus bricking the device. How useful is a bricked Windows Phone? Well, it's good paperweight, I suppose. This is what happened to my poor white Lumia 920. Let me tell you a short story of what happened and how quickly the issue was resolved by Nokia.

The Lumia 800, a Windows Phone that launched back in 2011 was taken into the depths in Oulu, Finland on Saturday. Kiiminki Egyptian Timo was diving and handed the Lumia 800 to a friend to take photos for the trip album.

Unfortunately the ice broke and the friend (as well as the Windows Phone) fell into the water. One would immediately assume all is lost and a new smartphone will need to be purchased, but it booted up when recovered.

The Lumia 900 was a popular Windows Phone and still proves to be a thorn in the back Windows Phone 8 when we're looking at the usage margin between version 7.x and 8. The Nokia device has been taken on a backpacking tour around Europe. Windows Phone Central reader Matthew Cosentino is originally from Melbourne, Australia but has uprooted his life by quiting his job, selling his business and decided to move beyond the border. The past 8 months has seen the Windows Phone owner travel across Europe, focusing more on the Eastern side.

Note: Image above is merely a concept device, not the Catwalk

We’ve been hearing about the Nokia ‘Catwalk’ for some time now (not to be confused with Verizon's 'Laser', though they may be analogous), a sister device of sorts to the Lumia 920 but with a focus on an aluminum chassis to make it more nimble. Now, Italian blogger and personality Flavio has revealed the supposed specs for the device.

Is there anything revelatory? Not really. The device will feature the same 4.5” display but with octaOLED, S4 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 16GB of storage (down from 32GB), 2000mAh battery and an 8.7MP OIS camera with Xenon flash (Correction: no Xenon flash, but LED instead). No mention of a microSD card for expansion, however.

Microsoft and Nokia are preparing to hold a Windows Phone Developer Camp in London. May 11th this year will mark the day when the two companies will provide an introduction to the Windows Phone platform for developers who haven't quite looked into hopping on to the train just yet. Numerous sessions will be held with some hands-on labs. It's set to be a worthwhile day for anyone looking to develop apps for Windows Phone.

The Lumia 720 is now available for pre-order on the N-Store in Russia. Nokia's new Windows Phone will sell for 14,990 rubles ($480) as was previously covered, and will be available in red, white, yellow and black. The device will launch on April 12th, according to the pre-order page.