So who are the people behind the music service and playlist creation for Nokia Music’s Mix Radio app?  Conversations talked to Mix Radio musicologists Jethro Borthwick, Mark Lampo and Nick Pointon to find out more about its inner workings.

How many people are in the team?

Jethro: The team currently consists of four people based in Bristol and we organise the majority of the data and create the Mixes that can be defined as global playlists. On top of this, we also have volunteers around the office who also create their own Mixes in their spare time based on their own expertise and passions. Ness from the device on-boarding team just created an awesome ‘Influenced by Bowie’ mix:  I highly recommend listening to it.

How are the Mixes created?

J: There are a number of ways that we create Mixes, the main thing is creating mixes that are true to the chosen genre, yet also open the doors to music discovery. The first is based on metadata that we have researched and cleaned over the last five years. This allows us to create candidate lists of tracks that we can then listen to and pick the best ones for the Mixes. We have new release data delivered to us from the labels and chart data that we derive from plays and downloads.  Often, we create Mixes based on current themes and moods that we are in. When people are going on holiday they ask to have their holiday tunes loaded into Mix Radio so they can take the playlist with them.

How are localised Mixes sourced?

J:  We then work with our local entertainment managers who add the finishing touches and localisation to the playlists. We work very closely with our local teams to define the localisation of Mix Radio and feel this is an extremely important part of the service. We have great relationships with record labels from around the world to ensure that we have as much relevant content as possible.

What is your current favourite mix?

J: We have just launched a new daily Mixes section in the UK and it’s proving really popular. I really like the Monday morning wake up mix as it helps me to get out of bed. I have also just created a 90s Big Beat mix which I am loving.

Nick: Emerging artists is a good mix as it is compiled by a group of people with different tastes every two weeks. I’m also really enjoying the Futuristic Beats mix.

Mark: The emerging artist mix is great because of the process and collaboration behind the scenes. But the two Mixes I listen to the most are ‘Deep House’ and ‘House/Bass’.  I love that a lot of the artists in there would have been considered fairly underground a year ago, artists like Disclosure and Gorgon City are now receiving a lot of mainstream and chart success. These Mixes have been gaining popularity and definitely ones to watch for new dance music.

What is the craziest mix you’ve created/had submitted?

N: Steven Elop’s playlist was unexpected but actually became really popular. Also an employee requested a playlist for his son’s upcoming birthday. We made a playlist of pop artists that appear on kid’s movie soundtracks like Kung Fu Panda and Shrek, this was extremely popular plus his son’s party was a hit!

What new music have you discovered via Mix Radio?

N:  Via the Emerging Artists group I discovered piano-led track The Fall from Rhye, which was produced by Milosh.

M: I’m mainly into Dance but love hopping into the other genres and listening to ‘Most Played’, it’s a really cool introduction to any genre.

Where do you get the ideas for new Mixes?

M: All over the place, the smallest thing can seed an idea for a mix. Decade Mixes are always great though because songs of an era can really connect with people and with a particular time in their life.

N: Also any new sounds you start to hear more of, I recently made a playlist on Trap Beats, after Baauer’s increasing popularity.

What new trends are you most looking forward to in music?

N: I am pretty intrigued by the new MySpace. If the new video holds true to what it might be doing it could be a bit of a game changer, making music more dynamic and more social.

So now you know a little more about the inner workings of Mix Radio, what is your current favourite mix?

I’ve been using it as a second phone for a few weeks now. To be completely transparent about this, I couldn’t use it as my main device: work commitments make mobile email essential. So how’s it been? It’s been great. But let me pick out the things that really stood out.

1. Size matters. I had kind of forgotten how nice it is to have a tiny phone that you can carry without even noticing. Twice now, I’ve had to save my Nokia 105 when I threw the shirt that was carrying it into the laundry. I am thinking the compactness might particularly appeal to women who need to carry everything they need for a night out in a small clutch purse.
2. Loud and clear. This might be a small phone, but it’s really loud. This is very much an intentional part of the design, because in the countries that the Nokia 105 is aimed at, there’s a lot of noise from the hustle and bustle of daily life – more so than your average town or city, so clear-sounding calls matter. Extra bonus points, though, for the ring being perfectly audible when the phone is in my bag.
3. Battery life. What normally happens = I realise I didn’t charge my phone yesterday; bring on anxiety about whether my battery will go flat today. What happens with the Nokia 105 = It eventually gets down to one bar and I realise that I can’t actually remember where I left the charger from the last time it needed a top-up, it’s been that long.
4. You can do a lot with less. It’s really nice, of course, to be able to sync your calendar and contacts with the cloud and all that fancy stuff. But the reality is that – email aside – about 95 per cent of my own phone life is that I call and text the same 6-7 numbers. And sometimes *not* getting emails anytime, anywhere is a real breath of fresh air…
5. Snake is still great. It may be a little while before AAA games like Sims Medieval make their way onto a device at the price point the Nokia 105 reaches. But that doesn’t mean it’s no fun. On the contrary, with its simple, compelling gameplay and perfect optimisation for mobile devices, Snake has provided all I need for a little downtime while I’m on the move.

There’s more to the Nokia 105 than this, of course. I haven’t actually used the calendar or the FM radio, for example, except to see how they work. But it remains amazing how much phone you can get for $20. Several friends – who didn’t realise you could still buy a simple, no-nonsense phone – have asked me about it and plan to get one because they don’t actually want or need a smartphone. A big battery life is worth more than apps, screen inches or megapixels to a lot of people.

This looks gorgeous, and adds robustness to the phone. But what’s worth noting is that it does not impact on the strength of the signal you’ll be able to receive on the phone.

On the Lumia 925, the aluminium ring around the phone actually act as parts of the phone’s radio antenna system. The main antenna is located in the bottom area of the phone and two more towards the top of the phone. There are then stripes that separate the antennas from the other parts of the metal ring.

Nokia-specific technology incorporated within the antenna solution maximises its use of radio bands – whether you’re on GSM, WCDMA or LTE networks. It will also adjust the ‘balance of power’ between the antennas according to how you’re holding your phone.

The end result is that you’ll get equally good radio performance out of the Lumia 925 as you would from a wholly polycarbonate phone, plus the most important benefit in the form of a stunning design.

Of course, if you deliberately use two hands to cover every edge of the phone, you’ll manage to reduce the signal. But that’s true of any other phone, too. You may also find it a little tricky to operate the buttons that way!

So relax, and enjoy Nokia Lumia 925 and its sleek design, any way you like.

After all, why should we care about 2G, or more accurately, GSM networks when the 4^th generation LTE networks are making all the headlines?

There’s no doubt that LTE is a fantastic technology, and one that Nokia has brought to many smartphones in its Lumia family, but the vast majority of global mobile phone users have yet to experience it.

The reality behind the headlines is that GSM networks are, and will remain for many years to come, the backbone that underpins mobile telecommunications around the world. 

According to the analysts, Informa, there are some 4.6 billion subscribers on GSM networks, which represents about 70 per cent of all mobile subscriptions. In places like India and China, that goes up to 80 or even 90%.

In 2012 alone there were 125 million new subscribers to GSM networks – more than 10 million were signing up every month. So, clearly, GSM networks continue to show remarkable growth.

There’s no doubt that the new Nokia Asha 501, will only add to the GSM subscriber numbers in the coming months. 

This sub-$100 smartphone comes in a 2G + WiFi combo, Bluetooth and the Nokia Xpress browser, which compresses data by up to 90 per cent to make it faster and cheaper to get online.

GSM for all

There are several reasons why GSM remains such a critical technology, says Kai Sahala, head of mobile broadband marketing, for Nokia Siemens Network, who calls GSM a ‘robust and mature technology.’

“New networks, such as 3G and LTE, have spotty coverage at the start and grow their coverage from urban areas. Not many countries have 100 per cent 3G or LTE coverage. So GSM can be the underlying layer for newer networks,” Kai tells Conversations.

In other words, even if you have a fancy LTE-enabled device, you will still be reliant, for some of the time at least, on GSM networks to ensure you get a continuous service.

Let’s not forget as well, that GSM enables all of the functions that you enjoy on more modern technologies – voice calls, SMS and mobile data.

It’s slower, of course, but the lower frequencies of GSM networks tend to have a far wider geographical coverage and require less physical infrastructure. It’s a double benefit: wider coverage with fewer cell towers. 

Modernising GSM

While many countries are now concentrating on their building new generation mobile networks, you might be surprised to discover that this work often also involves modernising their GSM networks.

Kai explains:

“This is about providing service interoperability, but also the hardware that we supply supports all the networks. It makes sense that when you roll out a faster network to also modernise GSM so that it’s in better shape too.” 

A more modern GSM network means that you can squeeze more traffic out of the same frequency. This allows you to increase the capacity out of your existing frequency, or retain the same capacity by switching to a narrower frequency.

This might sound trivial but it’s an important point – you can create 3G networks out of old GSM frequencies, and LTE networks out of old 3G frequencies.

Even on the hardware side, GSM has come a long way since the first GSM call was made over 20 years ago. The base stations that form the basis of the network are now much smaller, consume up to 70 per cent less energy and are weather-proof, so they don’t need to be housed.

So, while LTE hogs all the headlines, it’s clear that GSM will remain a crucial part of the story for many, many years to come.

Kai definitely thinks so:

“Just think about the nearly 5 billion subscribers by the end of this year. Think about roaming – GSM provides the basic roaming layer for most of us when we go abroad. Practically all devices support GSM. All these factors means there should be a long future ahead for GSM.”

Download Amicus Dual Shot

1. Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
2. Scan the QR code
3. Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
4. Install the application from the Windows Phone Store

Right from the get-go, Amicus Dual Shot gets right to work. There’s no welcome screen, no tutorial, it just launches your camera viewfinder straight away, waiting for you to merge some photos.

To be honest, some instructions would probably be useful, but with just a minute playing around with this app, you’ll know what you need to do.

In order to make the most of Amicus Dual Shot, you need to think of each photo as being made up of two parts.

The first part is the background image. This can be a scene like a beach, a nightclub, a mountaintop, etc. The second part is where you’ll place someone’s face onto that photo.

There are a couple of ways you can construct this postcard-like photo, and that’s by either using the camera to take a photo there and then of the main scene, or by selecting one from your phone’s Photos hub.

Once you’ve selected the perfect scene, you can add a photo of somebody else from again searching through your Photos hub, or taking one from the camera. You could even take a photo of yourself and place it on top of the background, if you’d prefer.

You can choose the template of the foreground image to make it stand out a little. There’s the classic stamp-look, with serrated, perforated edges. Alternatively there are another four to choose from, polaroid, faded edge, heart and circle.

With a background and a photo of a face selected, you can save the image and also upload, or send it, for others to see.

Sharing options include: Tap + Send, Messaging, Email, Facebook, Twitter, OneNote, and many more.

Download Amicus Dual Shot today, for free.

Nokia Asha 501 Shells

All you have to do is hold the Nokia Asha 501 to see how great it looks. Available in six bold colours to fit your own personal style, it’s removable cover makes it easy to get a fresh look whenever you want. So why not stack up on a bundle of them. We sure are.

Nokia Stereo Headset WH-208

Needless to say, you’re going to want to check out your tunes with your Nokia Asha 501 in hand. One great way to enjoy them more is with the Nokia Stereo Headset WH-208. The same headset boxed with the Nokia Lumia 920, it has changeable earbuds for optimised fit and greater comfort, making music and chat all the more enjoyable.

Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-112

Big on style, small in size the Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-112 is the perfect companion to the Nokia Asha 501. Not only do they look great together, it’s also small, and lightweight. What’s more, it lets you pick up your calls at the touch of a button, so there’s no rooting through pockets or wrestling cables. Just click and talk for a great handsfree experience.

Nokia Universal Portable USB Charger DC-18

The Nokia Asha 501 has an incredible battery life of 48 days in standby and 17 hours of talk time. Nonetheless, it’s always good to pocket some extra power and there’s no better mobile option than the stunningly designed USB Charger- DC 18. With it’s 1,720 mAh cell, retractable micro-USB cable, which doubles as a a switch, plus an LED battery level indicator, you’ll never be without juice.

That’s our four favourites accessories from Nokia Gear’s guys and girls, but what about yours? Let us know what’s on your wish list in the comments below.

One country where the people have taken the phones to their hearts is in Russia, where, for the six months after launch, the Nokia Asha 311 was consistently the number one, top-selling device at its price point (4,990 roubles, about 125 euros) and in the top 3 of all smartphones sold by volume. 

There are several factors why Asha Touch has proved so popular in Russia: clever marketing, the launch of special ‘Nokia Charme’ editions, 40 free EA Games and of course, the inherent features and brilliance of the devices themselves.

 In an interview with Conversations, Irina Nechaeva, Nokia Russia’s head of marketing says:

“The key to our success is that it’s a very affordable and easy-to-use smartphone.”

“In Russia there is a very big percentage of feature phone users who aspire to own a smartphone but have limited budgets so they are concerned that it would be too difficult to switch.

“Also, the Nokia brand is still quite important in our market, so a smartphone from Nokia was a big driver.” 

The Russian market

Irina told me that as of February 2013, Russia’s mobile phones market consisted of 39% smartphones and 61% in mobile phones. Clearly, that leaves a lot of people who are still eager to experience their first touchscreen smartphone.

From the beginning, Asha Touch devices were positioned as entry-level smartphones in Russia. The slogan for the campaign was  a Russian phrase with a double meaning: affordable and easy to use:

Мир смартфонов стал доступным

This slogan turned out to be ‘perfect’ for the campaign.

“Asha consumers in Russia are a bit older and are first-time smartphone buyers. A lot of them fear that if they buy a smartphone, it will be too difficult to use. Of course, when they use a Nokia Asha it is really easy,” says Irina.

The Russian Nokia Asha project team of 12 also found clever ways of making the devices visible to large audiences, such as the Nokia Asha 311 being regularly used in a popular TV shows, like “Dom 2” and “Big dances”.

Nokia Charme

Another innovative approach that has contributed to the strong momentum behind Asha Touch in Russia was the introduction of Nokia Asha Charme.

These are special editions of the Nokia Asha 311, the Asha 308 and Asha 309, decorated in a pretty floral pattern of chrysanthemums aimed directly at women.

The pattern on the cover of the phone is complemented with additional elements such as special screensavers, wallpapers and pre-loaded, local social networks. 

The availability of Nokia Asha Charme smartphones coincided with Women’s Day in Russia, when it is traditional for men to buy women flowers and nice gifts. What could be nicer than a new smartphone?

Successful and important

The Asha Charme initiative – designed and managed entirely by the local team in Russia –  has been a big success, with the potential to also be in used in China and other Asian countries.

Asha Touch isn’t just popular in Russia, but it’s important, too.

Many people buying Asha Touch smartphones will be connecting to the mobile Internet for the first time. This opens up a world of new possibilities and experiences for every Nokia Asha owner in Russia.

So the mobile market isn’t all boys’ toys, and phones like Nokia’s Lumia 620 have huge cross-gender appeal. So why do the ladies love the Nokia Lumia 620?

1. Better for bargain hunting

The OgilvyAction report found that women are more likely to use their phones for more than just calls: one in six of those surveyed had bought something on their mobile, opposed to one in nine men. The Nokia Lumia 620 uses the Windows Store, which hosts hundreds of shopping apps from Amazon, eBay and Ocado on The Go, to deals and vouchers apps like Groupon. A shopper’s paradise!

 2. Cooler with colour

Nikki Barton, Vice President of User Experience Design for Smart Devices at Nokia, points out that women make up a market share greater than China and India combined – and that one thing constantly demanded by that market is a selection of different colours. The Nokia Lumia 620 hits that button: it comes in six different hues, and the dual-shot shells lets your phone wear two colours at once for a unique layered effect.

3. Super for social

The International Data Corporation released a global study that showed that young women are driving social digital behaviours worldwide – that is, females aged 25-39 are more likely to use social media and content sharing online than other demographic sectors. Not only is the Nokia Lumia 620 very well-connected, with integrated Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Skype apps, the ‘Me Tile’ lets you post a Facebook status without  actually entering the app, and the People Hub gives you a useful snapshot of everything your friends have been up to on social media.

4. Handier for health

The Pew Research Centre in California claims that 33% of female smartphone owners (as opposed to 29% of male users) use their mobiles to look up health information. Well, again, the Nokia Lumia 620 scores highly on the health app front: the Windows Store is particularly handy for fertility tracking apps and contraction calculators. Definitely a man-free zone…

5. Optimised for organising 

Back to Nikki Barton, who claims that women, rather than being concerned with stats about processor speed and power, see their phones as accessories that make it easier to manage their lives – to keep schedules, find directions and edit documents. No wonder the Nokia Lumia 620 is a hit: it comes with Microsoft Office, and HERE Drive, Maps, Transit and CityLens are all bundled. SkyDrive provides cloud storage for documents and notes, and handy Agenda and To-Do functions integrate with the native calendar. You couldn’t be more organised if you tried… 

6. Crafted for convenience

Just like men, women want their smartphones to be light and portable, with screen-size maximised. And the Nokia Lumia 620 delivers. At just 11mm thick, weighing 127g, and with a screen display size of 3.8 inches, it’s light without being too flimsy, and the screen is the perfect size for on-the-go browsing. Plus, it’s got excellent outdoors visibility, which is good news for female (and male!) photographers. Top marks!

Those are our six super reasons why ladies should check out the Nokia Lumia 620, but what about yours? As ever, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Download HERE Maps

1. Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
2. Scan the QR code
3. Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
4. Install the application from the Windows Phone Store

At HERE, we believe that this technology is going to shape the future of mobile devices and the way we interact with them. Whether they are smartphones, the windshield of a car or something completely new.

Because sight is the sense we depend on most for exploring, and because it helps us bridge the virtual and real worlds, we’re investing heavily in sight recognition technologies. In particular, when we marry sight recognition with accurate 3D models of the real world and live map information, you get what we call LiveSight.

“As AR takes off into the mainstream… the value lies in the discovery it helps enable and monetize” Kit Eaton wrote recently in Fast Company.

It’s therefore not a coincidence that the latest release of Foursquare for Windows Phone 8 uses our LiveSight technology to help you find specials and discover the best places around you.

How is HERE better with LiveSight?

HERE uses sight navigation as a new way to discover and find your way through the world. Sometimes pins on a map are not quite enough, LiveSight uses sight to recognize and identify places around you simply, by looking around through your phone’s display.

In HERE Maps, LiveSight allows you to pinpoint exactly where you’re going just by looking. Just open HERE Maps, tap the LiveSight icon and pan around. LiveSight reveals shops, restaurants and your favourite places as virtual signs on buildings right on your screen.

With LiveSight you can ‘see’ the place you’re looking for, and know which way you need to walk, even in crowded areas.

HERE Maps with LiveSight is about getting you where you’re going quickly, even when there are no house numbers or if all the buildings look alike. So LiveSight in HERE Maps lets you literally see your destination.

And there’s one more bonus… LiveSight in HERE Maps works completely offline too.

Since that festive launch, iPlayer has become a huge success and one of the BBC’s strongest brands. In fact, it was using such a significant chunk of the UK’s Internet bandwidth that it led to early rows between the public service broadcaster and the nation’s ISPs.

At least part of iPlayer’s success has been the BBC’s strategy of getting the service on as many platforms as possible. After starting on the desktop computer, iPlayer has since become available on gaming consoles, tablets, connected TVs, media streamers and, obviously, smartphones.

While it’s still only available in the UK, none other than Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore was moved to tweet its arrival on Windows Phone last week:

Of course, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that in the future it will be made available for all the BBC’s international fans too!

Programmes galore

For most Britons, using iPlayer is now as familiar as changing the channels with their remote controls. You can watch, on demand, any programme that has been broadcast on the BBC’s TV channels and radio stations from the last seven days.

This new app for Nokia Lumia smartphones running on Windows Phone 8 is reassuringly familiar.

It opens with a list of ‘Featured’ TV shows and as you scroll down, you also see lists for the ‘Most Popular’ and ‘The Latest’.

See something you like? Just tap on it and you’ll be taken to that programme page where another tap on the ‘Click to Play’ icon will start the stream.

However, the real glory of iPlayer is that it’s a repository of everything (or nearly everything – due to rights restrictions, the odd programme is sometimes missing) that’s been broadcast over the last week.

There are several ways you can find a programme. There’s a search box, but what if you don’t know the name of the programme you’re looking for?

Say you caught the last 10 minutes of a show on BBC2 and you want to watch the rest of it?

You can still find it by using the channel listings, which is a daily ‘timetable’ of all the shows broadcast in the last seven days, as long as you can remember what time and day the programme was on. 

If you fancy being a little more adventurous you can also search by category. This works well, if you have no specific programme in mind, but you feel in the mood for a bit of drama, music, or a documentary. There are over a dozen categories to choose from.

Just as the TV content is easy to search, find and discover, so is the radio programming. In fact, it’s easy to forget that iPlayer also includes the hundreds of hours of radio output that is broadcast by the BBC on its national and regional stations every week.

BBC iPlayer isn’t a fancy app. In fact, the only real feature of note is that you can save your favourite programmes; new episodes will automatically appear in your favourites tab when they become available.

However, iPlayer isn’t about the app. What matters is that, in the UK at least, you’ll be able to watch Doctor Who, EastEnders or The Apprentice on your Nokia Lumia smartphone wherever and whenever you like.