CES news that excites us

The CES 2013 expo in Las Vegas wrapped up last week, and we saw a flood of innovative technologies, great gadgets, and stuff that just made our jaws drop.
Nokia is all about creating “wow” experiences for consumers, so we’re excited to see new technologies and trends that enable us to take Lumia to the next level and augment what we’re already doing in the mobile space.

Qualcomm opened the conference on January 7 with a keynote that had everybody talking (watch it here). The company announced a host of new SnapDragon processors that offers “stunning performance and extreme battery life.” The flagship chip, the Snapdragon 800, is a quadcore monster with speeds up to 2.3 gigahertz per core. It supports video recording in Ultra HD, which has four times as many pixels as 1080p and can handle 55 megapixel photos.

On the wireless front, the Snapdragon 800 offers 4G LTE with data rates up to 150 megabit per second and Wi-Fi at speeds up to one gigabit per second.

Qualcomm expects the Snapdragon 800 processors to show up in premium smartphones, smart TVs, digital media adapters, and tablets in the second half of the year.

Almost unbreakable

Our family of Nokia Lumia smartphones is equipped with the amazingly robust Gorilla Glass to protect the screen and to make sure your phone can survive the rough conditions associated with constantly being on the go. Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass, just announced the third generation of the damage-resistant glass.

Gorilla Glass 3 is designed to resist scratches even better and to retain more strength when it is scratched. Overall, Corning claims that Gorilla Glass 3 is three times more damage-resistant than is its predecessor.

“Our scientists made improvements in the glass composition at the atomic level and have developed a new way to improve durability,” said Joe Dunning, Supervisor of Media Relations at Corning.

What’s even more amazing is that should you actually manage to scratch the glass, it’s going to be much less visible.

Engadget has a great video that shows the strength of Gorilla Glass 3. Check it out on YouTube right here!

Wires no more

Are you a fan of the wireless charging? Well, we have great news from the Wireless Power Consortium behind the Qi standard used in the Nokia Lumia 920 and the wireless charging shells for the Nokia Lumia 822, 820, and 810.

Wireless charging was everywhere at CES, and the Qi standard is now backed by more than 130 well-known companies. The terrific thing about Qi is that you’re able to charge your phone using any Qi-compatible charger, regardless of brand. Fulton Innovations even demonstrated device-to-device wireless charging that can essentially turn any device (like your tablet) into a wireless charging pad.

We were especially excited to see an armrest from Toyota that comes with built-in wireless charging. The new Toyota armrest will be able to wirelessly charge your Nokia Lumia and will be available in the 2013 Toyota Avalon with the technology package. Connect your phone to the infotainment system via Bluetooth, and you’ve officially ditched all wires.

The Wireless Power Consortium is working on improving the Qi standard so that you’ll be able to wirelessly charge larger devices, such as tablets, and increase the distance between the charger and the device.