After the latest OS update that came down a few weeks ago, there’s a new item called ”Storage Check” under settings. As well, you will find the older “Phone Storage” item. Both apps let you see where the space on your device is being used. This can be extremely helpful with lower capacity devices, or for people that like to store a lot on their phones and have run low on available space.

With Phone Storage, Microsoft’s app you get a clear indication of total usage, and you can set where Windows Phone should store and new Music and Video’s, and of course Pictures. When you tap on the line showing total usage, a new screen will pop up that breaks down the files based on 6 categories – music + videos, pictures, apps, other, system, and free space. This clearly shows that the majority of my storage is used by music and videos. But it doesn’t help me figure out what apps are taking up the most space.

Storage Check from Nokia starts by showing you all the same information that Phone Storage does, except it doesn’t give you the ability to select where new music, videos, and pictures should be stored. Right from the start, you’re looking at a much nicer design that better illustrates what category is using the most amount of data. But if you wanted to know more about what is using that space, simply swipe over to details and you get a better breakdown along with the option to clear temporary files from your device. A quick tap on the details button under Apps, and you get a full breakdown of every app including the ability to see how much space it used for the physical app versus the apps data. I have a few apps that are more than a little large. Thankfully, Storage Check lets me know and I can remove them if space became a concern.

Storage Check is a great example of the extras that Nokia is bringing to Windows Phone. It provides a significantly deeper look into the overall storage usage on your device. The two apps that have similar functionality, but until Phone Storage shows app specific data, or Storage Check allows you to set the location for where new content should be store, both will be required.

By using a Kinect sensor and a projector sitting on a coffee table and aimed at your TV, IllumiRoom can extend what you see on the screen to bring the game to life. The rumors are swirling that IllumiRoom will be included in the next generation of the Xbox console, due to be announced later this month. Watch the video and share your thoughts with us – Will IllumiRoom change the world?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2w-XqW7bF4″

Check out the full press release over here. Or simply head down to your local Rogers, Koodo, or Telus store to see what it’s like for real. The device will only ship with a black back cover, but you can pick up red, yellow, or white available from any retail location. Powerful, affordable, and pocketable. A great combination.

Microsoft has turned over a new leaf for their Windows Phone ads. The latest ad takes a wedding theme where half of the attendees are using Apple devices, and the other half are using Android. In quick order things escalate beyond hurling insults back and forth, and a full on fight ensues. Through all of the fighting, the camera focuses in on 2 staff using their red and yellow Lumia 920′s to capture the mayhem. As the commercial fades out you see the tag line “Don’t fight. Switch” followed by the a picture of the Nokia Lumia 920′s and a reminder that it was voted as “Reader choice: Smartphone of the year” by Engadget.

The video premiered on YouTube on April 29th, and at the time of this post, it has just under 3 million views. Pretty impressive for just a few days old. It’s a very entertaining ad, and a refreshing change from Microsoft. If you liked it, there’s even a quick little behind the scenes video that’s worth checking out.

Check out this video and let us know your thoughts. Personally, I would have used a Dremel or a router to carve out the bottom side of the table as it would be much easier and faster. Of course, if you don’t have either of those tools it would make for a pretty expensive addition to the cost of this project. I’m not sure my boss would like me doing this to my desk at work. So I guess that means buying a nightstand and doing this at home.

Nokia Music offers a free 7 day trial, recommendations for other songs based on the currently playing song, Offline mode allowing you to save your mix to the device for later, streaming music to other devices using DLNA and the Play To feature, along with hundreds of pre-selected mix’s like “Grammys 2013″, “Spring Break 2013″, and “March Madness” to name a few.

The only downside is that the service is being launched in just a few locations, including US, UK, Ireland, and Australia. It is not currently available in Canada. Hopefully that will change soon. It took Microsoft years to bring Zune here. I hope we’re not looking at another multi-year wait.

You can read a more about Nokia Music launching on Windows at the Nokia Conversations blog.

Recently, Microsoft showed off some enhancements that they’ve been working on. First, they reduced the latency in processing speech, which I always found to be fast anyway but who doesn’t like faster. Second, they showed a decrease in the word error rate. And finally, they showed off some much improved accuracy of speech recognition in noisy environments. This last one is pretty impressive, and something I’ve been burned on more than a couple times. So I’m looking forward to seeing this in action. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of when we will see this feature on our devices. Hopefully it’s a backend change, so there’s no need for updates to be pushed to the phone, which would mean a faster rollout for everyone. Fingers crossed! Watch the video below and let us know your thoughts.

(Source = MSFTKitchen)

For those unaware, IP54 means that certified to protect against dust and splashing water. While dust protection is nice and all, it’s the water rating that I’m really interested in. This new 620 shell is rated for splashing water in any direction at a flow rate of 10 liters per minute for 5 minutes at 80-100 kPa. That’s pretty impressive for an affordable smartphone.

Basically, they have better sealed the gaps around the camera window and around the screen. As well, the mesh covering the speaker is more dense. You won’t be able to bring your phone into the pool, but at least you don’t have to leave it behind when you hit the beach.

(Source = Conversations by Nokia)

With spell check built into Windows 8, almost every application should have this enabled. I can excuse new developers, especially if they are individuals or small companies. If Twitter had their client in the Store on launch day, I could understand not having this feature enabled. But so late to the game, and missing such a simple thing is pretty sad. What makes it worse, is with Windows 8 running on so many different form factors, including tablets that might not have a physical keyboard, you’re going to end up making more mistakes especially when you’re trying to bang out a tweet quickly on the go using the on-screen keyboard.

I’m guessing Twitter was going for the clean and simple – Metro type look. However, they may have taken that to the extreme. There’s no reason that Home and Mentions couldn’t share the same page. Or at least allow the user to make this configurable, so I can choose which columns I want to see on my main page. On the plus side, it works and looks very nice when docked on one side of the screen. That benefit could still have been achieved with a better use of space on the default page.

Viewing individual tweets is cool, but the Retweet functionality is limited to straight retweet without allowing the user to add comments. Most third party apps allow you to choose which method you prefer. Sometimes this is a setting, other times it gives the option to add comments when you tap the RT button. With Twitter’s client, you have no choice.

There are plenty of other missing features like pinning search results, support for multiple Twitter accounts, the option to open links in the regular browser or in the app, which URL shorting service to use, what image service to use, and so much more. If you’re looking for a basic Twitter app then this is for you – but, you better know how to spell. If you want something with a little more power and flexibility, keep looking around the Store, and hopefully Twitter will resolve the Token issues soon so developers can start making decent clients again.

If you have a Surface Pro, or Surface RT, this method will allow you to capture the entire screen regardless if it’s a Metro-styled app, or a regular desktop app. Simply press the Windows 8 button on the bottom center of the screen and hold this. Then press and release the volume down button. You will notice the screen get a little darker for a second and then return to normal. This means the capture has completed. Tap over to Photo’s, then Pictures Library and then you should see a new group called Screenshots. This is where you’re screen shot was saved. Don’t forget that you can easily share the picture from the Charms bar. Just swipe in from the right, tap on Share and you’re on your way.