What is it?
It’s here! That’s right, the Nokia Amber update has been released which includes the Microsoft GDR2 and a whole bunch of treats from Nokia.
What does it give me?
- Data Sense – on the Start screen you will get a new tile for data sense which records your data usage. Two of the main features are; Overview and Usage. Overview gives you a breakdown of your data usage over your connections (Mobile and Wi-Fi, for instance) and it’s super handy for keeping check of things if your tariff isn’t “Unlimited” data. The Usage screen shows you which Apps are consuming data, and best of all, how much. Another excellent feature of Data Sense is the ability to see nearby Wi-Fi hotspots on a map from the Wi-Fi menu (in Settings)
- Glance – Under the Settings > Display+Touch menu is a new option called glance is available. A popular setting is “Always” and “Night Mode”. This enables a clock to be shown at all times on the phone, saving you having to turn the phone on to check the time, at night time it shows the clock in a dimmed red so it isn’t too bright in the dark
- Double tap to wake up phone – Again, under the Settings > Display+Touch menu you can enable this “Double Tap” feature, which is quite neat, as it saves you having to press the power button on the side of the phone to wake it up. Yes ok, it drains the battery a little, but it’s one of my favourite new features
- Network+ – This has been updated to now include the ability to manage all your diverts properly. What’s cooler than that is the ability to now divert your phone to your Lync DDI so you get your voicemail in Exchange, amazing!
- Colour profile – Another one under Settings > Display+Touch, you can now adjust the colour (yes, colour) saturation and temperature
- Call+SMS filter – This enables the blocking of calls and SMS from a user-defined list. Although this requires pre-scanning by Nokia, the information is not stored/shared by Nokia or third parties
- SmartCam – this new camera lens offers new camera shooting modes. For the 920 and above users, it has near-SLR levels of tweaking available. Happy snapping!
Who can have it?
It started rolling out in August but is now available for the following Nokia Lumia phones; 520, 521, 620, 720, 810, 820, 822, 920 and 928.
Shut up, and tell me how to update
Whoa! Ok, it’s easy enough (as with everything WP) but as an owner of two Nokia 820’s, I should forewarn you that you may be looking at an hour or so over Wi-Fi. So, first things first, switch on your Wi-Fi and get connected.
- Once connected, head over to Settings
- Now scroll down and find Phone Update
- Wait for the download to complete and follow the on-screen instructions
- Once you’re done, go to Settings > Extras+Info and check you’re up-to-date, enjoy! 🙂
Final Note
I can’t take the full credit for this post as the majority of such a great write up is courtesy of one of our directors, Alun Rogers, thank you!
I’m really interested to know what Apps the WP community is using the most. After you’ve applied the Amber update, why not leave a comment and let me know which App is top of your list in Data Sense? I’ll start the ball rolling… My work phone is Internet Sharing and my personal phone is Baconit.
