How To Get Early GDR3 Update For Your Windows Phone

As you already know, Microsoft has announced the rollout of GDR3 update with enhanced features for Windows Phone 8 devices. That being said, it will actually take up to a few months for most of us to get the update on our handsets because the rollout is done in a phased manner. However, there is still a way to download the GDR3 update to your WP handset, or at least the preview, as long as you have developer credentials.

Microsoft Announces Windows Phone GDR3 Update With Lots Of Enhancements

Microsoft has announced the availability of the GDR3 update for all Windows Phone 8 handsets. As you may already know, the GDR3 or General Distribution Release 3, (also known unofficially as Lumia bittersweet shimmer for Nokia Lumia smartphones), is an update for WP8 that is analogous to a Service Pack for the desktop Windows OS. GDR2 has brought in several nifty updates. As you may be aware, GDR2 brought in a few new features including major improvements to the camera app and enabling of the dormant FM Radio in supporting handsets. GDR3 update brings in a few more sought-after improvements that were missed in GDR2 including support for more tiles on WP handsets with larger 1080p displays. There will be custom ringtones, better storage management, app switcher, better Bluetooth, and phone setup for Wi-Fi.

New Exclusive Shots Of Nokia Lumia 1520, Giant 6" Windows Phone By The Verge

The Verge has got its hands on the Nokia Lumia 1520, which is the largest Windows Phone offering from the Finnish manufacturer. The Lumia 1520 has been in rumourville since the past few weeks, but the exclusive photos on the website alongside a Sony Xperia for comparison's sake seem to be authentic. The upcoming handset sports a 6" screen, thus making it official that Nokia is also going to join the large screen mobile phones bandwagon after most Android phone manufacturers have already done that.

The large screen boasts of pixel dimensions of 1080x1920, thus allowing it to natively display Full HD movies. There is a 16 MP camera at the back with a Carl Zeiss lens and PureView technology. The camera is capable of shooting still shots at 16 MP and saving an additional 5 MP photo to quickly share on social networks. An LED flash is present on top. There are buttons for volume control, lock, and camera shutter on the right of the handset, while the left has caddy slots for micro-SIM and microSD cards.

Judging from the photos, the Lumia 1520 appears to have a unibody design, which basically means that the battery will not be replaceable, but you may not want to complain about that because the device seems to be considerably slim. The thin bezels should make it good to watch movies, but it also increases the chances of inadvertently triggering the touch interface. As expected, the large screen handset runs GDR3, which bears the codename "Lumia Bittersweet shimmer". Nokia provides several Lumia-exclusive apps as can be seen in one of the photos. Check out a few of the shots below and visit The Verge at the above URL to view them all: