When it comes to looking around museums, it’s a fairly slow experience. You’re there to soak in the atmosphere, taking time to read the plaques that sit beneath each exhibit.

Unless you’re passionate about history or art, after a while it all becomes a bit, samey. And museums know this. They’re often trying to come up with new ways of getting people to interact or engage with their exhibits.

When you visit the 20th-Century Polish Art Gallery in Poland today, you’ll be offered the chance to borrow a Nokia C7 – an NFC-enabled Nokia smartphone. Or you could use your own, if you have one, too.

Once you place your phone against works of art, such as “A girl with the chrysanthemums” by Olga Boznańska, or “Self-Portrait in a white dress” by Jacek Malczewski, you’ll receive extra information about those pieces. Photos, videos and artist details are some of the types of media content available.

Get yourself down to the National Museum in Krakow today to experience a more high-tech art gallery. Although, you’ve got until July when the project ends.

Have you visited the museum and used NFC? Let us know, in the comments below.

What made it worse was that Adele, from Tottenham, was talking to her home crowd who wanted to show appreciation for her six-grammy win, as well as her double Brits triumph last night at the O2.

Despite all the controversy though, it was a great show.

Except maybe for Lady Gaga, who ended up with nothing after winning no less than five Virgin Media Awards last week.

We reckoned there was a Best International Star award with her name on it at the Brit Awards 2012, but Rihanna pipped her at the post. The compilation album from the show, featuring 61 songs – including Adele’s Someone Like You, Gaga’s Born this Way and Rihanna’s S&M – is already available at the Nokia Music Store. On it you’ll find all the other big hits of last year and more, for only £14.99.

Rihanna celebrated her award later at the O2 with a showstopping live performance of We Found Love in a Hopeless Place. Other live performances included Coldplay, Florence and the Machine, Noel Gallagher and Bruno Mars. And early on Adele raised the roof with her hit Rolling in the Deep.

As expected, she took best British Female solo artist but missed out on winning best single with Someone Like You to One Direction’s What Makes You Beautiful. But the night belonged to Adele and her album 21, the biggest selling album of the 21st Century.

Blur closed the TV show with classic hit Parklife.

So nothing for Lady G, who already has five Grammys. But she’s probably not that  bothered because, forget the awards, Lady Gaga is the highest earner by a country mile.

A recent survey put her at the top of the female artists league when it comes to rolling in the cash. Even though Adele outsold Lady G by nearly three to one in album sales last year, Gaga managed to earn £60 million, around 10 times as much as Adele when you add up concert tickets and other merchandise.

And the endless resource for the weird and wonderful, with witty writing and fantastic photography, looks great on my Nokia Lumia 800.

Tumblr, has been around since 2007 and currently hosts more than 47.1 million blogs, featuring a total of more than 18 billion posts – enough to keep even the most overactive web surfer quiet for a few minutes. 

A host of sites such as Pinterest, Typepad and Stumbleupon, offer alternatives but none have captured the real essence of Tumblr.

Typepad, in my opinion, is a great blogging mechanism, but only goes halfway to replicating the fun Tumblr brings to your screen. Stumbleupon simulates the beauty of Tumblr’s media sharing, but offers only one category at a time, limiting the amount of creativity that you have with a page.

Pinterest has come closest to the Tumblr mechanism of matching your interests to stuff that suits you, but through a completely different interactive experience.

Ultimately, Tumblr is still the daddy of online blogging.

The problem most people have though is finding a Tumblr page that suits all their interests. So where do you start? 

To persuade the non-believers, I have highlighted my favourite five Tumblr pages that will inspire you on the path towards blog heaven.

First, although Tumblr works on your browser, I recommend you download the Tumblebee app from the Windows Phone marketplace for your Nokia Lumia phone. The full version is only 79 pence or a dollar. Tumblebee helps you create and manage your very own Tumblr page, quickly and easily.

Searching and bookmarking for your favourite Tumblr pages is also effortless, just search by tag names and you’re away!  

Pleated Jeans 

If you’re new to humour on the web, here is good place to start. A random collection of odd bits in circulation around email inboxes, Pleated Jeans, focuses on instantly digestible humour, without needing to read big blocks of text to understand what is going on, like newspaper comic strips of yore.

It’s highly recommended for daily use, particularly during those boring midweek lunchtimes, as it updates almost hourly. You’ll often see gags here before they go viral on Facebook. Below is a taster of what to expect everyday.

Animals With Stuffed Animals 

Taking the sweet and fluffy from all around the web and chucking it a big indispensable resource of cuteness, the title explains it all. If you are familiar with the blogosphere, you know it’s impossible to avoid an animal wearing some kind of hat, costume, or a teddy in this case.

A definite must for lazy Sunday afternoons with a cup of tea.

(Source: exc3ption)

Fotojournalismus  

Inspired by National Geographic and Time magazine photo journalism, this tasteful and unique blog focuses on the beautiful snappings of some of the best snappers, out there in the thick of it, capturing the world one moment at a time. 

Events of the 20th and 21st centuries are all covered, enhancing its appeal to every generation. 

(Source: Uriel Sinai / Getty Images]

The Burning House 

What would you save from your burning house? My list would include running trainers, decks, golf clubs, cd collection… The list is endless but you have to make sacrifices in life, and this blog highlights what is important to you and others. 

Everyday people send their pictures in with a pile of what they would save, and describe themselves. Think about what you would save and send your picture in, you’d be surprised how hard it can be.

(Source: theburninghouse.com)

All that’s interesting 

Encapsulating all that is random about the world, ‘All that’s interesting’ focuses purely on the interesting things in life that you never really hear about. Updated almost daily, this incredibly popular Tumblr blog provides a platform for news that often never reaches the mainstream.

Check back regularly for stunning imagery, anecdotes and quality news. Below is a sample of what to expect.

GLOBAL – Nokia Social is our Symbian app for keeping in touch with your social networks, and it’s recently been updated to make creating and viewing updates simpler than ever.

The main visible improvement is the addition of extra widgets to take full advantage of the extra screen real-estate that comes with Nokia Belle. With Social 1.5, there’s a choice of four different widgets so you can see more or less of your networks right from your homescreen.

A picture paints a thousand words in this case, so this is what you’ll get:

Of course, it’s entirely your choice to use any of these widgets. Starting with the left-hand picture, there’s the Facebook summary widget. This is reasonably compact (4×2), and gives both a field to create an update, with access to the camera, and also notifications of messages, events, updates and invites.

The lower two 4×1 widgets on the left are simpler and give quick access to the main apps, plus notifications.

On the right is the 4×3 mega widget. It’s hard to tell, but this is actually scrollable, so you can see ten recent status updates from your friends. You can also post updates (with an optional picture), which go to both networks simultaneously.

Under the hood, as it were, there are full apps for both Facebook and Twitter.

Nokia Social 1.5 is a free download from Nokia Store. Give it a spin and let us know what you think. [NB: it's called 'Social Networking Client' in the Store listings, if you're trying to search for it].

UPDATE: If you couldn’t get this through the link provided, a new version is rolling out through Software Update on your phone itself or through Nokia Suite.

But many people want to go deeper than that when it comes to personalising their phone. So let’s take a look at the options.

The first modification you might want to play with is to change the colour scheme inside your phone. If you really want dark blue tiles on your magenta phone, then that’s up to you. It’s your eyesight.

Changing the colour scheme is simple. From the app list, choose ‘Settings’, then ‘Theme’. Tap the ‘Accent color’ list and choose from the list available. (For those who aren’t satisfied with the default choices, check out Wiztiles in the Marketplace)

It’s also possible to choose between black and white backgrounds on the same ‘Theme’ screen. Tap ‘Background’ and choose between dark and light. Note that with an AMOLED screen, the dark background uses less battery power, since black pixels are achieved by turning off the light, unlike LCD displays.

Next you’ll want to change the picture on your lock screen. Go to settings, then ‘Lock + wallpaper’ and press ‘Change wallpaper’ and you can choose any image from your phone and pan the selection box to choose the bit you want. There are apps available to do this for you, but I’ve found it as easy to just find and download an image with regular Bing search. I use Pictures Lab for on-phone picture editing.

To change the ringtone, the settings entry is, of course, ‘Ringtones and Sounds’. There’s a bunch available pre-installed, but we know a lot of people will want to assign a custom tune here. There’s two options here:

(1) Use a free music editor such as Audacity to create a 40 second ringtone on your computer – Audacity can load MP3s and other music formats so you shouldn’t have a problem with your existing music collection. Add it to the playlist you use for your mobile in Zune, assigning it the genre ‘ringtone’. Once it’s synchronised onto your phone, it will be available from the list.

(2) There’s a whole bunch of free and paid ringtone apps available on the Marketplace. We found easyRing&Music perhaps the most powerful. It will let you pick tunes from Amazon and other sources, or your SkyDrive, and edit them on your phone.

The Marketplace is also your friend when it comes to customising your tiles. Of especial interest is Quick Tiles, which is enormously useful, allowing you to create completely custom tiles for a whole bunch of new purposes such as reminders, countdowns, city-clocks and now even moon phases.

Quick Tiles (left) and Tile Painter (right)

Also of note is Tile Painter. This does a similar job to Quick Tiles but with a different set of possible actions to perform when your custom tile is created. In particular, if you’re using tiles to create bookmarks to your favourite websites, this will allow you to customise its appearance.

 Are you dressing up your Lumia? What’s the most important piece of customisation for you?

PORTLAND, OR, United States – When I bought my first Nokia phone, years ago, I noticed straightaway the technical support offered by the Nokia Care US team.

It’s your back-up organization, comprising top-notch folks who reach out actively on social networks, making sure you feel supported from the minute you take your Nokia out of the box.

Buying gadgets is a leap of faith. You might buy a mobile phone based on reviews and what you’ve heard about the device and its capabilities. But you may forget that you are also buying in to the company’s ability to support you after the sale – this is where Nokia shines.

Based in Irving, Texas, Nokia Care US is staffed by an amazing army of folks who go the extra mile to make sure your phone is operating to its fullest potential and to help rectify any situations before they disrupt your mobile life. 

In some cases, Nokia Care remedy situations which are way beyond the handset maker’s responsibility. If they see a way to fix issues, they just do.

So, although we don’t expect our phones to go wrong, we want to be reassured that if we ever did have a problem, Nokia would help And that’s exactly what Nokia Care is there for.

Getting in touch

There are many ways to get in touch with Nokia Care US, as you can see below – the team is actively assisting people on many channels.

Live chat available: Monday-Friday 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM EST and Saturday 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST.

Phone center hours: Monday-Friday 9:00 AM – 9:0o PM EST and Saturday 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST. Nokia Care professionals can be reached at 1-888-665-4228.

Email support is available at: http://www.nokia.com/us-en/support/contact/ask-nokia 

Twitter support is available at @NokiaCareUS and is staffed Monday – Friday from 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Central.

Also, an active Facebook page is maintained by the Nokia Care US team.

Also, for those seeking self-help options, the NokiaUSA.com features a “How We Can Help” page that features:

• SW updates
• FAQ, Nokia Suite
• Repair services
• Easy fixes
• Discussions
• Tweet Us
• Quick Answers

Have you ever utilized Nokia Care US’ support?

Photo credit: mugley

In January 2011, the Web was reached on mobile phones by 4.3 per cent of us across the world. One year on, in 2012, that figure has doubled to 8.5 per cent.

Just three years ago, the percentage of people connecting to the Internet via their phone was only 0.7 per cent.

As well as charting this super-fast general growth, StatCounter also looked at which devices are being used to connect to the Net.

Nokia holds the top position, with 38.4 per cent of all the mobile Internet traffic generated by a Nokia phone, ahead of Apple with 27.6 per cent and RIM with 13.7 per cent.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Mobile Vendor (Beta) Market Share

The Internet has been available on your Nokia mobile phone for many years, but it’s only now that the technology  is capable of producing the same results and feel you’d expect from a computer

And there’s no reason to think Nokia won’t retain this No1 position on the Internet. The Next Web reports that Windows Phone 7 is performing really well, especially with social networking fans.

“One of the real positives for Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is how engaged its users appear to be with its devices,” says Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel. “Eighty one per cent of handset owners have used social networking on their device in the past month, higher than both iOS & Android. Meanwhile, three quarters have used GPS, indicating that its decision to include Nokia maps for free was a price worth paying to drive user engagement.”

Are you a mobile Internet user? What would you use first to access somewhere online? Your phone or your computer? Let us know, in the comments below

Image credit: Simon Blackley

Last week it was the turn of New York. This week it’s London Fashion Week, where Stella McCartney went down a storm. Kate Middleton’s favourite label Temperley, House of Holland and Vivienne Westwood were also under the spotlight.

How do I, know this? By spending an hour or so investigating with my Nokia Lumia.

The three main ways to keep up with the fashion curve on your Nokia, apart from selecting a colour to suit you, are via Twitter, YouTube and apps. If you follow the right people on Twitter, you can capture all of the looks way before they hit the shops. The best tweets come complete with pictures. There’s even a site devoted to the top catwalk chirps.

The fashion channels on YouTube are also a great way to get  an idea of what is on trend at the big shows. Catwalkqueen.TV have particularly cool clips that work well on your mobile because they are so short, as well as being very informative. But there’s loads of other channels to explore, including Fashiontv which features everything from high fashion to lingerie and swimwear. You can also find big publications at YouTube such as Vogue.

Another way of checking for fashion news and tips is from within an app on your Nokia smartphone. Such as:

E! Red Carpet, £Free

When it comes to red carpet events, E! is always on scene to bring you the latest gossip of celebs around the world. E! is also a good source of who’s wearing what, with lots of photos to prove it.

Fashion Daily, £Free
Receive daily updates on international fashion with lots of glossy photos. If you see something you’d like to buy, you can go on to buy it from an online store or be directed to the nearest story.

360 Fashion, £Free

Using many different sources, this app collects fashion information from bloggers, writers and brands from a variety of different channels.

ELLE Quiz, £Free

Are you a fashionista? Or do you have a penchant for ponchos? Take the ELLE quiz to find out what works well for you across the different seasons. You’ll pick up some great tips along the way, too.

Clearly, smartphones are a great way to spread the news from the big shows. And shopping apps and sites, make it simple to buy the finished product. But  phones are also a key tool for the copycats. All it takes is for someone to send a few pics of the latest outfits to a factory anywhere in the world and some of the looks can end up in the shops virtually before the final curtain call at the show.

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PORTLAND, OR, United States – What happens when you decide you’re ready for a night out, whether with someone special or a group of friends, but you’re not quite sure where to go and what to order? 

The Nokia Lumia 710 is an excellent tool to have at your disposal, especially if you want to eat out. Let’s dig in to a few options as to how you can plan your evening on your Nokia Lumia.

Foodspotting

Here’s the situation: you’re not quite sure where you want to go eat, but you know what kind of dish or the type of food you’re looking for. Alternatively, you’re in a new city and you have a craving for Greek food. How do you see what yummy restaurants  are around you, and quell your craving for an amazing falafel?

Foodspotting is a popular app for folks who want to find (and see) the food and available dishes in a certain city or location, regardless of what specific restaurant it’s available at.

Think of Foodspotting as a really cool way to discover amazing new dishes that you never knew about at restaurants you may already frequent.

Using Foodspotting, I like the application’s sorting and filtering options, with default views that show me what’s nearest, the latest pictures uploaded and ‘best’ that shows the highest rated foods with pictures around me.  

Local Scout

While many phone users go to the Marketplace for separate apps to find what great restaurants or experiences are available to them on their phone, on Windows Phone, don’t forget that in addition to Nokia Maps‘ local insights, there’s the search button with built-in Bing search capabilities that give us Local Scout.

Local Scout is accessed by clicking the search button on your Nokia Lumia (I’m using the Lumia 710) and then click at bottom on the icon that looks like building outlines.  

From there, you’re presented with options for Eat+Drink, See+Do and Shop.

I use Local Scout to find food around me when I’m in a new part of town but also experiences that I can share with my wife when we’re out on the town. For example, in Portland this weekend is the Yard, Garden and Patio Show – happening real close to my work. As you can see Local Scout presents time-limited events in addition to everyday attractions.

Yelp

A wayfinding application that can’t go without mention in Yelp. Also, as good news for Lumia 710 owners in the US, Windows Phone has a fantastic Yelp application available for users.

Yelp is a service that sets itself apart with the wide array of data it has available. Yelp has been around for years, meaning users have contributed reviews and ratings for all types of businesses all over. With Yelp, you can check out restaurants, doctors and even dentists – basically any address can be indexed and reviewed on Yelp.

Yelp’s Windows Phone app keeps the Metro UI look and feel and provides an easy way to find the business you seek by type. Also, you can see ‘hot and new’ businesses based on Yelps user generated reviews and your location.

Have you ever found your way using just your Lumia device?  Which app or service helped you out?  Sounds off below!

image credit: Dylan Passmore

For all the number junkies out there, the latest release of the Nokia Store is version 3.22.053 (the previous one is 3.22.044).

When it comes to added features, or a new glitzy UI, well, there’s none of that in this new update. All the updates have gone on behind the scene to fix bugs and align it with the latest Nokia Store back-end.

What’s meant by alignment? Steve Litchfield from AllAboutSymbian explained it really well when he wrote about the update:

“By ‘alignment’ with the ‘back end’, Nokia means that the functionality at the client end better matches that available in its custom Store server software and databases”

As for Nokia Drop, it’s a great way of getting content from your computer to your phone, just by clicking a button on your PC screen. So no cable or Bluetooth connection is required. The content is pushed to your phone and received via whatever data connection you’re using.

With Nokia Drop you can perform some really useful tasks. You can change the wallpaper on your phone to one from your computer. You could also send a URL to your phone browser. This could be really useful for when you’re reading something on your computer but haven’t got time to finish reading it. Simply push the link to your phone for reading later.

Another great feature is the ability to send a Nokia Maps location from the Web to the Maps mobile client on your phone. This makes navigating anywhere really easy.

This new beta release includes some extra features for Nokia Belle users. Integration to the status panel makes using Nokia Drop quicker and easier.

Have you updated Nokia Store or Nokia Drop betas from the Labs, yet? Let us know, using the comments below.