Play To

Nokia releases Play To beta for Windows Phone 8

Windows Phone News

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 at 8:04 am

Nokia has made its Play To app available as a beta for Windows Phone 8 devices. Those who own new Lumia smartphones will be able to enjoy the wireless streaming experience that was present prior to Microsoft unveiling the latest version of Windows Phone. We last touched on Nokia Play To earlier this month when it was revealed that the company could be waiting for Mobile World Congress before releasing the app (publicly or as beta).

Nokia updates City Lens and Play To apps for Lumia Windows Phones, changlogs are scarce

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Sunday, Sep 16, 2012 at 1:08 pm

City Lens just keeps on getting better

Nokia appears to be in an update mood lately as this weekend we’ve noticed two of their big apps get some small updates.

Update: City Lens update was just a re-submission to fix an error with the Chinese Windows Phone Store

First up is City Lens, which is being bumped to version 1.10.1632. That’s a fairly low number change, so we’re going to assume that these are minor bug fixes and code optimizations to make it all run buttery smooth. In fact it does feel faster for us to load and calibrate but that could be placebo too.

We don’t think this is the ‘big’ new update that Nokia talked about last week—that one includes 3D icons and the ability filter items out of the line of site.

118

Nokia's Camera Extras & Play To available for Lumia Windows Phones

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, Jun 22, 2012 at 12:10 pm

Looks like Nokia was sitting on the release of Camera Extras & Play Now for its Lumia phones as you can now go ahead and download both apps from the Nokia Collection.

Camera Extras is what it sounds like, yet another camera app from the Finnish company that adds a lot of unique features to hopefully improve some of those pics. Features include:

Smart Group Shot - automatically selects faces, lets you create the perfect picture
Panorama - takes numerous photos and stitches them together
Action Shot - rapidly takes photos
Self timer - 10 second countdown

The app downloads as a separate program but it does integrate into the camera module meaning you can just quickly load the whole thing by hitting your dedicated camera button. Overall, the features are pretty good and we think many of you will enjoy the new additions. Nokia may be late to the game but they often get it right in the end.

Next up is Play To, Nokia's DLNA app which has finally made it to their Collection. Allowing you to "stream" your Music, Photos and Videos to any DLNA capable device e.g. your TV, the app is a great way to show off your photos to friends and family.

The system auto searches for any DLNA devices over WiFi such as BluRay Players, PCs and more. We don't have one in house so can't test it, we'll leave that to you for now.

Note: For both apps it says you may need the latest update for your phone in order to work--that would be Windows Phone "Tango" (8773) for some of you or Nokia's latest firmware for others. Things like DLNA require some "ground work" done by Nokia in their firmware to be installed so if you can't install these apps or you don't get all of their features, you may have to wait till you get a phone update first.

If not available in your Market (It appears to be US, China and Inida right now) stay tuned as Nokia is rolling these throughout July.

Pick up Camera Extras here and Play To here in the Nokia Collection. Thanks, CaliforniaDrew, for the heads up

Nokia Beta Labs releases Play To DLNA app for Windows Phone

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Mar 22, 2012 at 1:22 pm

Nokia today just rolled out their Play To app for Windows Phone which enables the user to share photos and video via DLNA to your large screen TV or other DLNA-enabled devices. The addition of a DLNA app was speculated back in December as coming to Nokia.

Play To has been available for Nokia Symbian devices since early 2011, so it's finally great to be able to extend that feature to their Lumia Windows Phone line up. This software, similar to what LG, HTC and Samsung have offered for their devices brings Nokia Windows Phone closer to their competition in terms of feature support and should be a welcomed addition.

The software is beta at this point, which simply means you need to head to the Nokia Labs page, sign up and they'll give you the Marketplace link to download the app. Much like Nokia Drive, we expect to be testing for a few weeks before it is finally released for all Nokia devices to download.

If you're already signed up for Nokia Labs, you can try the Marketplace link here to see if it works. Otherwise, head to their site (http://betalabs.nokia.com) to enroll (it's very simple and only takes a minute). Thanks, chriskringel, for the tip!