Nokia has announced it is readying new software updates for three handsets in its Windows Phone-powered Lumia range, containing numerous improvements and fixes.

The Finnish phone-maker has revealed that it will be rolling out firmware bumps for the Lumia 920, the Lumia 820 and the Lumia 620 in the coming weeks.

The Lumia 920 and 820 will receive firmware version 1232.5957.1308.00xx, which brings improved automatic display brightness adjustment, a fix for a bizarre issue where the screen intermittently goes blank during calls and various performance and stability improvements.

The Lumia 620, meanwhile, will get a much chunkier firmware update 1030.6407.1308.00xx, which adds improved touchscreen functions, including corrections in multi-touch action and better voice quality with Bluetooth headsets that support echo/noise reduction. It also comes with enhanced camera performance when flash is used and optimisations to system stability, usability and performance.

Nokia said that a notification will pop-up when the updates are ready for your handset, which will presumably be available as over-the-air downloads. The exact software version received (to replace the ‘xx’) will vary between different regions.

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Via:

Nokia Discussions

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Nokia’s slow but steady steps along the road to recovery continued in the first quarter, amid growing demand for its top-end Lumia smartphones.

Sales of the Windows Phone-powered handsets hit 5.6 million during the first three months of the year. That represents a 27 per cent rise from the final quarter of 2012, with two-thirds made up by newer Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

Rising demand for Lumia phones was not enough, however, to arrest a decline in revenue from handset sales, which dropped by 30 per cent to 1.59 billion Euros.

More positively, losses were down to 339 million Euros (£290 million), compared with a loss of 1.57 billion Euros for the year-ago period.

Francisco Jeronimo, research manager at IDC, claimed the figures now point to a promising next 12 months for the one-time smartphone to dogs.

He said: "They are on a right track and we can see a much better year for Nokia smartphones.

“They are far from volumes of Samsung and Apple, but that is not where Nokia is trying to compete now. Nokia is trying to go for the mass market.”

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Nokia Lumia-branded phablet could be on the way later this year, according to industry insiders, in a move that would see the recovering handset-maker become the latest company to join the super-sized smartphone club.

Sources cited by the Financial Times claim that everyone’s favourite fallen Finns will debut a five or six-inch smartphone-tablet hybrid later this year to take on the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy Note.

However, according to the leakers, the phone will outmuscle Samsung’s device, which pretty much singlehandedly created the market for phablets out of in thin air, in the specs department.

The report also revives long-standing rumours that a Windows Phone-powered Lumia handset equipped with Nokia’s high-end 41 megapixel PureView camera will be along later this year.

The sole handset currently packing said snapper debuted last year and was hugely hobbled by the superannuated Symbian operating system it ran on.

News of Nokia’s gadget timeline for 2013 comes amid signs that it is finally turning its previously ailing business around. Latest figures show Lumia sales rose to 5.6 million during the first quarter, helping to narrow the company’s losses to £290 million.

Source:

Financial Times

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