Especially for you: Exclusive apps for your Lumia

Published by Jeppe Christensen on May 23, 2012

ESPN Hub app on white Lumia 900

The recent beta launch of the impressive and beautiful Nokia City Lens app, exclusively for Nokia Lumia phones, got us thinking. There are quite a few apps and services that we alone can access. With more exclusive partnerships announced at CITA last week, the garden is looking very rosy for owners of the Nokia Lumia 900, 800 and 710.

Add the Windows Phone family into the mix and there are plenty of unique of apps and services to show off. Here are some of our favorites, some from the Windows Marketplace and others directly from the innovators at Nokia Beta Labs that you can try today before they meet the rest of the world.

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled to the Nokia Collection on the Windows Phone Marketplace app for all the latest Lumia-optimized goodness.

Let’s start with the newest addition to the exclusive Lumia club. Nokia City Lens is a location-based Augmented Reality app, which provides you with key information about your immediate vicinity. Point your camera lens up the street to see nearby restaurants, the direction in which to find them and, most importantly, whether it’s the best pizza you’ll ever eat. It’s also good for shops, museums and other points of interest.

ESPN Hub
As huge sports nuts, we adore this app. Bringing video highlights, live scores, breaking news and more, the Lumia-exclusive app debuted alongside the Lumia 900 in January. Key updates are incoming though, with glance-and-go Live Scores set to hit Live Tiles and a new Lumia-specific Fantasy Football app, to ensure you’re always prepared to beat your rivals to that last-minute trade.

Microsoft Office
Windows Phone and Symbian remain the only platforms to bring official access to the world’s favorite productivity suite. Nowhere else can you access Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote on a smartphone and with all of your documents syncing effortlessly back to SkyDrive on the Lumia 900, you’ll never be caught without them.

Nokia Transport

This essential public transport guide can be the difference between making it home for dinner and standing in the rain for an hour. Simply input your desired destination and the app will search out a multitude of means (bus, train, tram and good old-fashioned walking) from official public transport agencies in several cities and urban areas worldwide.

You are also welcome to test the next version of Nokia Transport, now available on Nokia Beta Labs.

Xbox Companion app arrives

Xbox Companion
The Xbox 360 is more of a media on-demand platform than a games console these days. Hence, the old faithful control pad isn’t always the best way to navigate through the UI. Using this Windows Phone-exclusive app, it’s easy to discover for new content and send it directly to the Xbox. You can also pull up information from the web on the music or movie you’re currently enjoying without interruption.

Nokia Drive

Nokia Drive While the Toy Story fan in us hates to think of that old satnav unit gathering dust and developing a wheezy cough, we sure do appreciate Nokia Drive. You can download street maps from over 100 countries around the world and turn-by-turn voices in over 50 languages, so you don’t incur in high data costs and you can rely on Nokia Drive also in areas with poor coverage. Personalized speed limit warnings also help you drive more safely.

Nokia Maps

With Nokia Maps you always know what’s around you so that you can feel like a local anywhere. Top nearby places are just a tap away, you can then save them among your favourites, pin them to start or share them with friends. You also get drive, walk or public transport directions to get there.

Creative Studio on white Nokia Lumia 800

Nokia Creative Studio
This photo-friendly suite combines the services of many standalone offerings into one. Want to create landscape panoramas? Check. Want to add retro-style filters? Check. Want to edit and share on the go? Check. Want to morph your own face into a Hall of Mirrors-like horror show? Erm… Check! It’s free too. Give it a spin.

Nokia Play To
Did you know your Nokia Lumia 900 was capable of playing nice with your DNLA-enabled television? Nokia Play To (originally a Symbian app) lets you send your favorite photos, videos, TV shows and movies directly to your TV, laptop or Blu-ray player instantly if they’re on the same Wi-Fi connection. As this app develops, it’ll also allow you to farm music out to your favorite speakers and link up with your Xbox 360 or PS3. Try it now.

Follow us on Twitter at @NokiaUS and on Facebook at Facebook.com/NokiaUS

Comments

  • http://twitter.com/kps91 Kunwar Preet Singh

    still ESPN n nokia music not available in india ….

    • Anonymous

      Yes its almost 6 months post lumia 800 launch now. Nokia you need to hurry up. I would have said at least clarify the plan but you never do that so users end up waiting without end

      • Anonymous

        I think Nokia is concentrating on the Lumia 900 now. Since that’s a true world-phone while the lumia 800 didn’t sell ‘good enough’. I fear the worst

    • Anonymous

      Yes its almost 6 months post lumia 800 launch now. Nokia you need to hurry up. I would have said at least clarify the plan but you never do that so users end up waiting without end

  • Kevin Smith

    Does “exclusive” mean exclusive for Lumia or exclusive for Windows Phone?

    • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

      There’s obviously a mixture here. Basically, think the premise was that there’s a lot of idle talk about you not being able to get any apps for Windows Phone.

      Obviously that’s not true (90,000+ and growing fast), and the reverse side of the coin is that there are a whole bunch of really very good apps that are *only* on Windows Phone and/or Lumia.

      • Anonymous

        Perhaps you can give us some clues?
        because there’s obviously a lot of rif raf between those +90000 apps, isn’t there?

  • Anonymous

    Nokia should better concentrate on features akin to Symbian and absent in WP7. If they truly want to convert Symbian customers to Lumia.

    Things like:

    - A Bluetooth file transfer app (perhaps coupled with a filemanager)

    - 2-way call recording.

    - full haptic feedback throughout the UI (or at least in the keyboard where it is really needed)

    - screen rotation lock in both Nokia drive and Nokia Maps. Especially the former. Plus make the WP7-version as comprehensive as the Symbian version. A lot of things aren’t included like (route-options, POI’s, contact-integration etc…)

    to name a few.
     

    • Anonymous

       Symbian Belle seems much more OS than windowsphone

      • Anonymous

        I’ll correct that for you:

        “Nokia Belle IS much more OS then Windows Phone 7.5″

    • Erkki Ruohtula

      Yes, the file transfer issue needs to be sorted out. Example: you are on a trip in an interesting location that has no fast networks within 500km and you phone memory fills up with fantastic photos and videos. On Symbian: just move pictures to a standard microSD card (they are tiny and it’s no problem to carry dozens of them on the trip), and shoot some more. On Windows Phone: Stop photographing.

    • Anonymous

      There’s already too much haptic feedback on phones as it is… the right amount being none. I hate that I can’t disable it on the back/home/search keys.

      • Anonymous

        Some ppl need more feedback then a feeble clicksound (which you also can’t adjust in WP7). In Symbian users have the option to disable haptic feedback or to adjust it’s strenght and even a tone in several soundsettings. Spoiled for choice. 

        I simply would like to have back choice! 

  • Anonymous

    Nokia should better concentrate on features akin to Symbian and absent in WP7. If they truly want to convert Symbian customers to Lumia.

    Things like:

    - A Bluetooth file transfer app (perhaps coupled with a filemanager)

    - 2-way call recording.

    - full haptic feedback throughout the UI (or at least in the keyboard where it is really needed)

    - screen rotation lock in both Nokia drive and Nokia Maps. Especially the former. Plus make the WP7-version as comprehensive as the Symbian version. A lot of things aren’t included like (route-options, POI’s, contact-integration etc…)

    to name a few.
     

  • Anonymous

    no ESPN and Nokia Music in HK :(

  • http://twitter.com/mancae90 Emanuele Manca

    Can we try “Nokia Drive 3.0″ Beta? 
    And, where is “Usage Monitor”?

    • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

      The next version of Nokia Drive is currently in internal testing and will be released either in Beta or Marketplace soon.

      • http://twitter.com/mancae90 Emanuele Manca

        We’ll wait days, weeks or months?
        And the app ”Usage Monitor” you have news?

      • dalydose

        Can’t wait. I hope it reads street names and….

        *provides a female US voice.
        *saves favorite locations
        *integrates with Bing search and Contacts and even Nokia Maps to send that data into Drive
        *has other map color options that will make it easier to read at a glance

  • http://twitter.com/mancae90 Emanuele Manca

    Can we try “Nokia Drive 3.0″ Beta? 
    And, where is “Usage Monitor”?

  • http://twitter.com/dip666 Shahriar Shahabuddin

    Not enough. We need more cool apps like nokia city lens. Apps like ESPN Hub doesnt seem so exclusive to me. 

  • http://twitter.com/dip666 Shahriar Shahabuddin

    Not enough. We need more cool apps like nokia city lens. Apps like ESPN Hub doesnt seem so exclusive to me. 

  • http://twitter.com/dip666 Shahriar Shahabuddin

    Not enough. We need more cool apps like nokia city lens. Apps like ESPN Hub doesnt seem so exclusive to me. 

  • http://twitter.com/dip666 Shahriar Shahabuddin

    Not enough. We need more cool apps like nokia city lens. Apps like ESPN Hub doesnt seem so exclusive to me. 

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/K57SPYCDEOU6LAUC6X3WXIAUBY ColumA

    I think this is the way Nokia has to go to legitimate people buying a Lumia and not another WP-Phone and secondly it will therefore not be fully reliant to MS

  • http://www.geekchoice.com Dagmar Schneitz

    We need less Xbox apps, that system is complicated enough. But we do need more ESPN apps, and any app that has to do with maps and travel I will take!

    • dalydose

      You want less games?  That is a selling point of the brand.

      You have two official ESPN app and LOADS of travel apps.  So I think everyone should be happy! :)

  • Anonymous

    I am looking for a TV Guide App for my lumia 900. Can someone please recommend a TV Guide App that shows day to day, hour by hour channel, listings of TV shows.  

  • Patrick Adrian Conge

    a lot of those apps are not available in Philippines. I had to give up my iphone for this? so far not worth it..

  • Pingback: 1.6% of apps incompatible with Nokia Lumia 610 – SlashGear

  • dalydose

    Apps do things like give you live tiles about stuff coming up that night.  You can also keep your location constant without having to re-enter it all the time on the site.  You could probably cache the whole week’s schedule in an app.  I’ve been WAITING for a TV listing app for a long time.  IMDb has listings, but they are only prime time and only for the major networks.  Then there are the apps that let you follow specific shows.  The data that they use leads me to believe that there could be a TV Guide style app.