Articles about Windows Phone

On Monday, Mozilla announced that the first Firefox OS smartphones will arrive "soon". The initial devices that run the new operating system, the Alcatel One Touch Fire and ZTE Open, are set to be released by mobile operators Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica in a number of regional markets.

"The launch of Firefox OS marks an incredibly exciting time for the Web. Firefox OS powers the first smartphones built entirely on Web technologies and will stimulate an inspiring new wave of innovation for the Web", says Mozilla COO Jay Sullivan. "We are proud to deliver an experience for first time smartphone users that will delight them and really put the power of the Web in people's hands".

Continue reading →

On Wednesday, US mobile operator Sprint announced that the new HTC 8XT and Samsung ATIV S Neo will be the first Windows Phone 8 devices to join its portfolio. The two handsets arrive this summer in Sprint's online and brick and mortar stores.

"We know our customers are anxious to get their hands on these Windows Phone 8 smartphones, HTC 8XT and ATIV S Neo", says Sprint's Fared Adib. "Without a doubt, they will rival any smartphone on the market today". On a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate, the 8XT and the ATIV S Neo will be available for $99.99 and $149.99, respectively.

Continue reading →

Finnish maker Nokia wants to make job hunting easier in nearby user locations with a new Windows Phone 8 app, called JobLens, which leverages augmented reality to display available openings in surrounding areas.

The app, which arrived yesterday in Nokia's exclusive collection, takes advantage of a number of services, like CareerOneStop, Data.uk.gov, Facebook, HERE Maps, Indeed, LinkedIn, Payscale, Salary.com and Twitter, to provide UK and US residents with nearby job listings.

Continue reading →

Despite the fact that both operating systems support Near Field Communication (also known as NFC), users cannot transfer files between Android and Windows Phone devices. The implementation is different on the two platforms, with manufacturers complicating things further by employing branded software to handle any interaction. I've learned this the hard way after trying to move files between the Google Galaxy Nexus and the HTC Windows Phone 8X.

Android and Windows Phone device maker Samsung wants to bridge the NFC gap between the two platforms with ATIV Beam, a new app launched on the tiled smartphone operating system. The software allows ATIV Odyssey and ATIV S users to share files with Android-based Galaxy devices.

Continue reading →

There's more to the rapidly-approaching Google Reader shutdown than the demise of a popular RSS feed aggregator. The service is used by numerous mobile apps on all major platforms, which will soon be unable to deliver the latest news to insatiable users unless developers embrace an alternative (that, hopefully, will not burst into flames due to a growing following).

For Nextgen Reader -- one of the most popular RSS feed delivery apps on Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 and Windows RT -- the alternative is Feedly. Its maker, Next Matters, announced the move in early-June, and, yesterday, launched an update that adds support for the service in the Windows Phone 8 app.

Continue reading →

Microsoft steps in once again to beef up the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem. The software giant just released Network Speed Test, an app which allows users of the tiled mobile operating system to verify cellular data and Wi-Fi connection speeds.

Network Speed Test is one of the most striking to look at apps available on Windows Phone 8. The app features an elegant and minimal design, using only a couple of colors throughout the interface. From a personal point of view, it portrays how other platform offerings should look. Let's go through the features.

Continue reading →

...Or perhaps I should call it the road less traveled? In my previous life I used Windows Mobile for my job and, I must admit, I came away with nothing good to say. But, since Microsoft re-launched the platform as Windows Phone, I have been intrigued. After all, I am a tech junkie -- shiny and new always catches my attention.

A couple of days ago I elected to take the plunge -- the Nokia Lumia 928 arrived via FedEx and the SIM card from my Samsung Galaxy Nexus was immediately popped out and inserted into a brand new Windows Phone.

Continue reading →

Nokia must be quite confident in what will be unveiled at its upcoming press event, held in New York on July 11, because the Finnish maker just touted "41 million reasons to zoom in" on the webcast.

Sadly (as I really wanted to see the complete list), Nokia only wrote about a paltry seven of them on its blog. Either the company has employed someone very bad at counting or it is not doing a very good job at being subtle. Somehow I doubt the former is true, so that (only) leaves the latter up for debate. Nokia followers chimed in, revealing their expectations for the upcoming press event.

Continue reading →

Microsoft just released the second major iteration of its Blink Windows Phone 8 app which now introduces GIF (the pronunciation is still open for debate) support, new features and improved functionality.

The app, which is built by Microsoft Research (the software giant's research arm), allows users to take advantage of its burst shot feature to combine multiple pictures (the number is user-selectable) into a GIF image. The GIF can be viewed directly after creating it and can be shared via email and three social networks -- Facebook, Microsoft's Socl and Twitter. (It's time to test this with the help of your pet and post the results, for posterity's sake of course.)

Continue reading →

Despite its limitations, the Windows Phone voice assistant has at least one good thing going for it. The speech recognition service quickly understands words, sentences and commands, with answers to questions like "What is the weather in New York" popping up in a matter of seconds.

Microsoft still hasn't tackled the feature set but, today, the software giant announced that the Windows Phone voice assistant is now even "more accurate and twice as fast". According to the Bing Speech Team, DNNs (Deep Neural Networks) fuel the under-the-hood improvements, which have quietly rolled out over the past couple of weeks.

Continue reading →

Yesterday, despite "credible" rumors suggesting a full-on iOS approach, Microsoft released Office for iPhone but left iPad users stranded. The company also planted a little trojan horse -- the app is free but it is not free to use, requiring an Office 365 subscription, which runs for $99.99 per year, to take advantage of Excel, PowerPoint and Word.

But, based on my own experience with Office on Windows Phone, the suite is not really in its own element on a small display. iPhone users are most likely to run the app just to perform quick edits and (in the most-optimistic scenario) create very short and basic documents, presentations or spreadsheets. Office would really shine on bigger screens, however Microsoft doesn't want iPad users to actually use it. I've asked the software giant to explain the iPhone-only design and here is the company's response.

Continue reading →

Telerik, a company that specializes in development tools and solutions for building cross-platform and mobile applications, today announces the latest evolution of Telerik DevCraft, delivering what it claims is better and faster development of .NET apps for modern devices.

Citing recent research by analyst firm Canalys, Telerik says Microsoft's market share for mobile adoption is forecast to grow from 2.4 percent in 2012 to 12.7 percent in 2017, and its new toolset has been prepared to take advantage of that market growth. The toolset is for both XAML and HTML and is built to provide .NET and HTML5 developers with an array of tools to deliver modern, clean mobile applications, including Calendar, Image and Tile controls.

Continue reading →

Following the smartphone's German launch on Monday, the Lumia 925 arrived in the UK today courtesy of local mobile operator Vodafone. The carrier offers the handset in an exclusive 32 GB storage trim with no upfront cost alongside two-year agreements starting at £34 per month.

In order to get the Lumia 925 for free local Vodafone subscribers have to go with either a Red L or Red XL plan. Both contracts offer unlimited minutes and texts. The former goes for £34 per month and also includes 2 GB of mobile data while the latter runs for £39 per month and adds 4 GB of cellular traffic.

Continue reading →

Following Splashtop 2, a new remote control app is now available on Windows Phone 8. The popular TeamViewer just launched, allowing users of the tiled mobile operating system to access Linux, Mac and Windows computers while on the go.

TeamViewer is pretty easy to use, only requiring folks to type in a "partner ID" and passcode in order to remotely control a PC. The app offers essential functionality -- remote typing using a virtual keyboard, direct access to the CTRL + ALT + Del menu and the ability to move the cursor -- and keeps things secure by implementing 256-bit AES encoding and 1024-bit RSA key exchange.

Continue reading →

Today, cross-promotion network AdDuplex sent me its latest Windows Phone report for June 2013 which, once again, places the Nokia Lumia 920 as the most popular device running Microsoft's tiled mobile operating system. The handset accounts for 12 percent of all Windows Phones, followed by the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800 with 11.6 percent and 10.6 percent share, respectively.

According to the report, the Finnish maker is behind nine of the 10 most popular Windows Phones. The only non-Lumia entry in the top is HTC's Windows Phone 8X which takes the ninth place. The most noteworthy changes in the rankings comes from the Lumia 520 and the Lumia 620, which have managed to surpass older Nokia-branded Windows Phone to take the fourth and the fifth place, respectively.

Continue reading →