Articles about Windows Phone

As a seasoned veteran user of each of the major smartphone operating systems, I must say Windows phone 7 is my favorite. Not because it has the most features, or is the easiest to use, or is the most open, or even the most closed (which apparently some people like), but because it is the most polished.

Apple's iOS has none of the customability, Android none of the perfection, and WebOS none of the usability that Microsoft has managed to scrape together into a gorgeous and unique OS. The structure of Windows Phone 7 means I rarely have to spend any time looking for what I want, and can spend more of my time doing what I want. Sure, there aren't as many apps to chose from, and Windows Phone lacks some features comparably. But the OS has refined, elegant form that sets apart it from competitors.

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Nokia makes it damn hard. No US distribution this year. (Europe? With the Euro zone in state of collapse?) No front-facing camera -- long a standard feature on Nokia handsets -- and, hells bells, Microsoft now owns Skype. Surely that makes front-facing camera selling in Europe, Nokia's and Skype's home turf, required equipment. The phone maker announced the Lumia 800, and lower-cost Lumia 710, today at Nokia World.

I'm a longstanding Nokia enthusiast -- a rare-breed in the United States and particularly among journalists, many of whom trumpet for iPhone. I've owned two different N95s, E71, N79, N97 and N900, among other Nokia handsets -- and loved them all, even with their quirks. But in January 2011, I opined: "Confessions of a former Nokia enthusiast", writing "I love Nokia, but Nokia doesn't love me". I'm still not feeling the love, and perhaps I set expectations too high. A few weeks back I thought of writing a post titled something like: "Will the hottest phone this holiday come from Nokia and not Apple". Good thing, I didn't.

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Along with Nokia's new Lumia line of Windows Phones, the Finnish mobile phone maker also debuted a handful of new applications that it will have that other Windows Phones will not have: Drive, Maps, and Music.

We didn't get to see Music today because of unspecified "licensing issues," but we did get to look at the impressive Drive turn by turn navigation mode and Maps location, positioning and mapping service.

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Nokia World's low-key United States branch event was held on Wednesday morning in a hotel overlooking downtown Manhattan, and the main attractions were the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, Nokia's first devices powered by Windows Phone, which were announced earlier in the morning in London.

The Lumia 800 will be Nokia's premium smartphone for the U.S. market, and the 710 will be the "mainstream" device. Though the two are very similar in terms of internal specs (they differ only in storage capacity and camera quality,) the main difference between the two is in their bodies.

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At the annual Nokia World conference in London Wednesday, Finnish mobile phone company Nokia officially unveiled its first two smartphones that will run the Windows Phone mobile operating system: the Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. These will be the first smartphones Nokia will sell in the United States since it partnered with Microsoft earlier this year.

The Lumia 800 is the device that was known as "Sea Ray" in leaks back in June, and it offers a 3.7" AMOLED curved glass display, a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 processor with 512MB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, and an 8 megapixel camera. The software it runs is Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" and it will be available internationally in both GSM and WCDMA varieties.

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Product placement is the ultimate in marketing. It's relatively cheap -- that's assuming the company pays anything at all -- the value worth millions in potential sales and/or savings paying for actual advertising. Why pay for a 30- or 60-second TV commercial when your product can be part of the show? Or on CBS cop drama "Hawaii 5-0" be one of the stars of the show?

I've been pondering writing about Microsoft's product placement since 5-0's first season aired (season two started last month). The program's actors routinely use the company's big-ass table -- that is Surface -- and Bing to search from Windows Phone. But this week, in episode "Ma'ema'e", Windows Live SkyDrive joins the active placement of Microsoft products -- or cast, if you will.

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Then stop reading this post and hop on over to the Windows Phone Facebook fan page. Tickets are going fast.

As part of a smart marketing campaign to promote Windows Phone, Microsoft will hold events in five cities -- New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco in order of occurrence, starting November 7. Performers: Matt & Kim, The Drums, Young The Giant, MutheMouth and Best Coast. Wow, it's a great lineup. I've got music from most of these groups in my digital collection. Ah, if only there was one of these in San Diego. Hey, Microsoft, why not Boston, with its quarter-million population of students this time of year? Surely you won't be run out by iPhone idolaters, if the right group plays there.

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With the Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" update successfully installing on Microsoft-powered devices worldwide for over a week, Microsoft has decided to open up the update to half of all eligible phones as of Monday. The company said that it will not yet open the upgrade to all phones as it wished to compile data from its smaller operators to ensure smooth updating.

"I know some of you have questions about how Windows Phones are selected to receive the update," general manager of Windows Phone 7 customer experience Eric Hautala wrote. "Put simply, it’s done totally at random, with absolutely no preference for carrier, model, or country. Random sampling is an important engineering technique to accurately measure quality and pinpoint issues early."

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What's that saying about my enemy being my ally?

Samsung has finally agreed to pay licensing fees to Microsoft for patents allegedly infringed by Android. I say, allegedly, since Microsoft accomplished this feat without firing one legal shot. It's a diplomatic agreement, of sorts, although the threat of patent warfare was always there. Perhaps Samsung has had enough fighting Apple patent and other intellectual property violation claims and didn't want to open yet another front on the battlefield. Or perhaps Samsung saw how many other phone manufacturers were cutting similar deals with Microsoft. Bottom line: Samsung will now essentially pay a licensing fee for Android, not to Google, but to Microsoft.

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I'm not one of the lucky people who owns a Windows Phone handset, so I'm calling on those of you who do to help me out and your fellow Betanews readers. Today, Microsoft started rolling out Windows Phone 7.5 to most people using a WP smartphone. If that's you, "Mango" is coming soon, as an over-the-air update, if you don't already have it.

If you've got it, please share your first impressions about the software in comments. Or, better, contact me about writing a review. We love reader submissions. Last week, reader Joseph LoRe wrote a first-impressions review of the Epic 4G Touch, Sprint's variant of the Samsung Galaxy S II. Please email me if you're interested in reviewing Windows Phone 7.5: joe at betanews dot com.

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Nokia officially launched the N9 today, the Finnish mobile phone maker's first (and potentially only) smartphone to be powered by mobile Linux distribution MeeGo.

The slick N9 impressed us quite a bit when it was announced back in July: 3.9" (854 x 480) AMOLED display with convex Gorilla Glass, a 1 GHz TI OMAP3630 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16 or 64GB of storage, an 8 Megapixel flash camera, and front-facing chat cam, and global wireless support. It will be available in 20 countries for €480 (16GB) or €560 (64GB).

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Samsung unveiled a new smartphone based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango," the Omnia W on Monday. The Omnia W is the latest in a line of higher-end Microsoft-powered smartphones from the company, all which carry the "Omnia" brand.

The Omnia W features a 1.4GHz processor and HSPA capable of 14.4Mbps connectivity. The screen is a 3.7" Super AMOLED and features both front and rear facing cameras. It also features built-in Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, and LinkedIn connectivity through Microsoft's "People Hub."

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AT&T on Monday announced its complete launch lineup of Windows Phone "Mango" devices, which will include both new hardware and already-released models that will be receiving a software upgrade to the new version of Windows Phone.

"Mango" represents a major upgrade to the Windows Phone platform, and Microsoft in the past said it includes more than 500 new features such as multitasking, improved search, new hubs, and so forth. When the upgrade arrives in the fall, Windows Phone will have been at the bottom of the smartphone popularity ladder for at least six months.

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Can you hear it? Can you hear it coming? Microsoft's Windows developer conference is almost here. BUILD kicks off September 13 in Anaheim, Calif., and it's going to be big, big, BIG. Microsoft will give Windows 8 its formal unveiling -- everything else before was just movie previews. No new Windows version is really official until Microsoft presents it to developers.

But there's more. Microsoft moved its annual Financial Analyst Meeting from July to September, coinciding with BUILD. It's a colossally smart move. Wall Street geeks and technophobes will have chance to get caught up in the energy and enthusiasm of Windows 8 -- and Windows Phone "Mango", too. Microsoft really needs to energize analysts about these products and how they're not so much the past but vital forces for the so-called post-PC era.

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Taiwanese smartphone veterans HTC today unveiled their new Windows Phones, Titan and Radar, which are powered by Mango, the latest version of Windows Phone. They both come in familiar HTC shapes, but offer some improvements in performance and design.

Titan, as the name suggests, is rather big. With a 4.7" screen, it's actually HTC's largest smartphone to use the company's 9.9mm aluminum casing. HTC drew inspiration from Apple's Macbook laptops, and originally debuted these aluminum shells on the Legend early last year, but that was a single machined piece, and the phone was considerably smaller.

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