Odd Nokia Lumia 900 ad shows new Live Tile behavior

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

We're not to sure what to make of this ad for the Nokia Lumia 900 showing up on some sites but it caught one of our reader's attention and indeed, it is intriguing.

The ad is simple enough. It shows the 'beautifully different' Lumia 900 in glossy-white with a 4G icon (this is for the international version, not AT&T) spinning around, displaying various features.

But what is different relates to the Live Tiles:

  1. Contacts - The tiles flip and it says "Meet up with Sarah"
  2. Photo Hub - Flips and splits into two tiles, one with the latest photo, the other with a count

Anyone who has used Windows Phone, any version, knows very well that the Live Tiles do neither of those things. Yet there they are flipping around like they belong there are a new ad.

Now we could easily chalk this up as some marketing error, a glitch made by someone getting Photoshop happy and not accurately representing Windows Phone 7.5--and to be honest, there's a good case for that theory. Or perhaps we're looking at something else, maybe something along the lines of Windows Phone 8 behavior. After all, those are small enough changes that also make tremendous amount of sense for "new features" in an updated OS.

No real way to know of course but if this isn't a Windows Phone 8 leak then Microsoft, you should probably make those changes because they're quite nice. And if a mistake, Nokia you should probably fix it.

Source of ad: PC Advisor; Thanks, Victor V., for the tip

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

28 Comments
  • the '85' doesn't really match the messenger / email number does it... also the tile looks like its a different colour. photoshop maybe.
  • Why I think it may be legit: it's so specific. It's one thing to write "Windows Mobile" accidentally but this is so detailed in flipping and behavior that it would be odd to invent "single large tile splits into two" unless marketing has a lot of leeway in creativity ;-) The font thing is true but then again, I wouldn't expect these to be 100% renders of an OS. Fun fodder to think about though...
  • I saw a pic with more like cube tiles that flip
  • This is photoshop, somebody mis-marketed it. Look at the spacing between the messaging icon and the number.
  • Well, of course it's Photoshop...it's not like that's a real phone after all. It's not a video of a Lumia 900 in action, it's all a mockup. So saying "It's photoshop!" is like saying it has color. Of course. The real question is: accident or on purpose? Someone making up that behavior or accidentally slipping it in?
  • Sometimes they use emulators. I think it was on accident.
  • Definitely too weird to be made up.
  • It's Nokia, after seeing their WP UI reimagined and ugly app store icon, I won't be surprised
  • Weird and more importantly pretty useless looking functionality, in particular the picture count. Why on earth would I want to be constantly told how many pics I have? The one on contacts might have some use but even there - would just show a random update of any of.my contacts or is that a reminder for me to e.g. meet someone? If so, isn't that already covered by the calendar?
  • "Why on earth would I want to be constantly told how many pics I have?"
    New photo updates form contacts that you haven't viewed yet?
  • Ok, you are right. If that is the number then it could be somewhat useful (I would still turn it off, assuming it can) Until you have 85 of course ;)
  • Now I'll be wrenching on this today at work...
  • Now I'll be wrenching on this today at work...
  • Hmm, do they changed the ad? If I enter the site, there is only a static image showing the startscreen as in the first pic on this site ... should it be animated? I tried it with FF and Chrome without AdBlock ... I think somebody just took the picture and modified it. You can zoom the before/after pic and see, that on after pic the upper line of the contact tile is broken ... and the area with "meet up with sarah" is not "scrambled" like the rest of the tile, same with picture tile ... So, maybe this is not a fault by MS or Nokia ... its just a fanboy who tries to spread hoax like "the next iphone" mockups?
  • I think so too. The contacts tile is nothing new. Just imagine your profile pucture i "meet up with sarah" the picture would be visible on the people hub... So easy! And thats not a new feature if you all ask me because we have calendar which does the same only with more info than this one :) and on the lockscreen also. I dont need this on my people hub. That are only fanboy wishes
  • Yeah, it wouldn't make any sense to have one large tile split into two just in order to show a number. That would be confusing. What happens if you tap one or the other? Does it take you to two different places? Two different Photo Hubs? If there are two different Photo Hubs then the only way to get to the second Photo Hub would be to wait for the tile to flip? They could have simply put the number somewhere in the single large tile.
  • And the number on the picture hub looks similar to nokias font they use for a long time
  • Quite interesting, all those Windows Phone 8 rumours. I wonder if the UI in Windows Phone 8 will be so much different than the WP7.5 version. I really wonder if the UI get's a major overhaul or not. Personally I'd like to think Microsoft is staying with the award winning UI and implements the missing elements from WP7.5 in WP8 and adding more functionality and hardware support. Because, we all love the WP UI don't we? And if the UI changes completely from the one we know today, wouldn't that be a silly move from Microsoft...? Cause, then it's like it's another mobile OS meaning they have to start the marketing campaigns all over again... They wouldn't do that would they?
  • They would do it if it would mean better sales :) but i think we get an overhaul of the UI but in the style of metro. Maybe backgrounds like on windows 8 colored backgrounds? They could make it colored only on the start screen and would be a succes. With some "tatoos" like in w8 in similar color. Maybe one or more screens to the left or right... I looked yesterday at the new backgrounds from Microsoft and think they're a hint! To the left of the device is a little bit of the background picture (1 screen) to the right more (2 or more screens) i think it will be similar to wp7.5 but with a slight difference. Better difference
  • I think you are right, I too don't expect any major overhaul to the UI - at the very least the familiar elements of tiles, pivots, panoramas will remain,  I am pretty sure. They may and hopefully will add things around the edges - more Live Tile options, customizations, perhaps some improvemets to the notifications system, maybe even some new swipe gestures... would not expect any new "homescreens" though.
    The folks who claim to be in the know have all also described the UI changes as relatively small.
    But who knows, perhaps MS will surprise us! :)
  • There is no contacts! It's "People" and this isn't going to change.. I seriously doubt the WP team would approve a huge picture count numbers like this. So things fishy about this. It Just steers away from the WP formula a bit,, and not in a good way. But, you never know, it could be 8. But I doubt it......
  • Are you sure about contacts??? In the german version of windows phone there is "kontakte" (contacts) instead of people. Switch the language and try it yourself :) and why would not nokia rename it? They changed the marketplace icon some names are little pieces to that change
  • Perhaps the back of the tile is simply the wide tile with a verticle black line drawn on it so that it looks like 2 tiles. That would explain why the spacing between the two parts is narrower than normal.
  • What the heck is the "Contacts" tile?  I have never seen that.  I have a "People" tile, but not a contacts tile.
     
    This whole thing is just pure B.S.
  • The only cool thing is that the Picture tile splits into two, then back to one. That's awesome. That should happen IRL for sure.
  • Shouldn't contacts be people?
  • I have been using W8CP(build 8250) on my HP Tablet for a few weeks. I discovered, quite by accident, that I can change the size of the tiles from one wide to two wide and vise-versa. I do think this ad is unoffical, but I wold LOVE to be able to resize a tile on my Mango phone (and make it 2/3 size to have three across as well, but that is another discussion).
  • It says contacts not people. So fake.