Nokia has been toying around with a browser that compresses pages on the server side to save data consumption for its S40 range of devices for quite a while now. The Nokia browser, as it was called when it launched, had similar functionality to the Opera Mini web browser, it saved data and made browsing much faster by compressing images and using some server side algorithms for data compression. Now, the same technology is coming to all of Nokia’s Windows Phone devices, the Lumia device range, and it is called Nokia Xpress, but alas, it carries the beta tag, for now.
The Nokia Xpress is actually the name of the cloud technology that powers a lot of Asha devices currently, and of course, all of the previous S40 devices. And Xpress for Lumia works with the Nokia Xpress on the cloud and delivers a fast and an efficient experience by minimizing the data consumed, and in turn saving some of the battery power that is needed to get you through the day. Not only that, the browser, which is more like an app, has more tricks up its sleeve.
The Xpress for Lumia has a magazine mode that enables you to read any website with a RSS feed, like a neat magazine view, with a metro(oops!) design of course. And along with that, you will be able to tap on any word and get a contextual search instantly on bing, YouTube or WikiPedia. Apart from this, there is also an in built translate feature, that can instantly translate your web page to the language you wish to translate it to. That, I consider a huge plus if you are traveling and are stuck on getting local information on the web.
And the most interesting feature according to me, is direct Skydrive downloads. One can apparently download videos and other web content directly to their SkyDrive, without using up any of the data. I think this feature is a huge win for us, having not to spend data, but getting it on our personal cloud anyway.
Overall, even though this is just a beta program to collect a lot of feedback, there is a lot of interesting features in this to not give it a miss, so do not wait, download it here from Nokia’s own Beta Labs website. Oh, and here is a video promo of it, just to give you a fair idea of what the app is about –
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJrLsZ2ZPbU
Source Nokia Beta Labs