The latest built of Windows 8 includes a touch gesture to close Metro applications which resembles very much to swipe down to close found in MeeGo Harmattan of Nokia N9 and N950. Since Nokia and Microsoft are currently best friends, so it will be very unlikely that Nokia would get upset about this. On the contrary, Nokia may have well suggested this addition to Microsoft. I personally think it's a good thing. Swipe gestures are one of the best features in Nokia N9, so I'm happy to see that these will be used in future products as well. In fact, I hope this feature will be in future versions of Windows Phone too. Check out the video to see Microsoft's implementation of "swiping".

Source: winrumors

When talking about cloud storage, one of the most known services is Dropbox. I personally use it quite extensively and having Dropbox client on my smartphone is a must. If you are an owner of a Nokia N9 or N950, you may be pleased to know that not only one, but three Dropbox clients are currently available from Nokia Store, which is one more proof that great apps are indeed available for Nokia N9.

I'm happy to announce that the free version of Countdown Timer for Nokia N9 (and N950) is available now from Nokia Store. The free version is the same as the full version, but with some limitations. First of all, you cannot set hours in Countdown Timer Free. So the timer limit is 00:59:59. Also, the amount of Timer Groups and Timers in it is limited to three. Otherwise, they are basically the same. But at least now you can test the app for free on your Nokia N9 or N950. If you find it useful, please buy the full version. It's not that expensive.

Here are the links for downloading the free version:

• Countdown Timer FREE for Nokia N9 (Fixed web browser)
• Countdown Timer FREE for Nokia N9 (Nokia mobile browser)

Here are the links for the full version:

• Countdown Timer for Nokia N9 (Fixed web browser)
• Countdown Timer for Nokia N9 (Nokia mobile browser)

Are you a proud owner of a new Nokia N9 (or N950)? Or perhaps you are looking into buying one (the N9, since the N950 is developer only model)? In both cases you would probably like to know what kind of apps are available for it. While the Nokia N9 doesn't and will not ever have as many apps as some other platforms, it does have apps and quite a few of them are really good. The trick is to find them.

With so many passwords and PIN numbers to remember, most of us need a better and more reliable memory than our own brain to store all this vital information. Since we carry our mobile phone with us most of the time, storing passwords and pin numbers in it, seems like a good idea. However, since this kind of information is not something you usually would like to share with everyone, especially with the punk who stole your phone, encryption would be desirable. This is exactly what Safe for Nokia N9 does.

According to information received by WMPoweruser, Microsoft has set an internal goal to sell about 100 million Windows Phone devices in 2012. That seems to be quite a lot, but perhaps it's not impossible. To put it into perspective, in 2010 more than 111 million Symbian smart phones were sold according to Gartner. So, with Nokia's help, this goal could be achieved. Network operators seem to be quite optimistic. They are expecting a 30% market share in 2012 for Windows Phone. Obviously, Nokia really needs to ramp up production and availability of Nokia's current Lumia line and future Windows Phone devices for this to happen.

Recently some analyst reported, based on some shaky Google Trends data, that Nokia Lumia sales are much lower than expected, although there was another article in Forbes yesterday, which cast some doubt on the validity of it. Today Nokia's spokesman James Etheridge said that "while it is not our policy to disclose individual product sales figures outside our quarterly financial results, we feel there has been premature sales analysis on the performance of the Lumia 800". Considering that Nokia Lumia 800 has been available in selected markets less than a week, I think it is fair to say these "analyst" have indeed been premature. "Based on earliest data, the sales start of the Lumia 800 is the best ever first week of Nokia smart phone sales in the U.K. in recent history", Etheridge said. According to Nokia, the Lumia 800 has received the highest score in Net Promoter Scores, which measure a consumer's willingness to recommend the product to a friend, of any Nokia device launched in recent history in the U.K.

Source: MarketWatch

Do you want the new Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone now, but live in a country where it's not released yet? If yes, chances are that you may get one from Expansys, including in USA. They have already had the Nokia N9 for quite some time, but now it seems Lumia 800 has been added in quite a few locations, including countries where Lumia 800 is not officially available yet. However, the pricing is a bit on the steep side, especially in Expansys USA where at $789.99 it's even more expensive than Nokia N9 ($689.99 for the 16GB and $794.99 for the 64GB version). But this is not always the case. For example, in Expansys Finland the price for Nokia Lumia 800 is €529.99 while for Nokia N9 16GB it is €589.99 and Nokia N9 64GB it is €689.99.

Source: Expansys

Here is a video which celebrates 25 years of innovation at Nokia Research Center. As seen in the video, many of the things we take for granted nowadays, have been invented by Nokia. Evidently, there is much more up their sleeves. Nokia Conversations has an interesting interview with Dr Leo Kärkkäinen from Media Technologies Laboratory. He seems to dream up quite a few things, including telepathy control.

I'm pleased to announce that Countdown Timer, the app I've been working on for a while now, is finally available in Nokia Store for Nokia N9. It is, as you may guess from the name, a countdown timer and may be used to do just that, like an egg timer, but is also much more.