This week Microsoft has announced that they're bringing on a whole new Skype app for their Windows Phone 8 app. This update allows Skype to be on always, or "always-on", as it were, not draining the battery as a normal app would. This is allowed quite simply because Microsoft owns the bulk of Skype, thus letting them work as close as possible with the developers running the show - integration as never before.
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- Google I/O 2013 on-site Wrap-up: Glass, Developers, and Services on tap
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- Google I/O and the year of the Context Ecosystem
- Google Glass lead industrial designer talks modular fashion at I/O 2013
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‘Windows Phone 8’ Stories
Skype gets “always-on” feature for Windows Phone 8
Pandora for Windows Phone 8 official with 1-year ad-free included
Windows Phone 8 devices will get a year's ad-free access to Pandora, the streaming music service, Microsoft has confirmed at its launch event today. The new app was a much-demanded one by would-be Windows Phone users in the US, and is part of Microsoft's attempt to fill in empty gaps in the smartphone platform's line-up.
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Windows Phone 8 gets Live Apps for lock screen
This week Microsoft has introduced an update to Windows Phone 8 with a brand new set of features for their lock screen - starting with Live Apps. This update brings on a feature similar to what we're seeing with Windows 8, the desktop system being released here right at the same time as Windows Phone 8. Here with Live Apps comes a unique version of Facebook, made specifically for the Windows Phone 8 environment - personalization for your everyday first look at the smart mobile world.
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Verizon Nokia Lumia 822 official with 4G LTE [Update: $100]
Verizon and Nokia have officially announced the CDMA version of Nokia's Lumia 820, the Verizon Lumia 822, running Windows Phone 8. Supporting Verizon's EVDO Rev.A and 4G LTE networks, the Lumia 822 is otherwise identical to the GSM model which will be offered on both AT&T and T-Mobile USA, complete with interchangeable covers and the possibility of wireless charging.
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Windows Phone Marketplace surpasses 125,000 apps milestone
We're just a few days away from Microsoft's big Windows Phone 8 launch event, and today we're receiving a bit of encouraging news about the Windows Phone Marketplace. All About Windows Phone has announced that the Windows Phone Marketplace has passed the 125,000 apps milestone, with a total of 126,530 apps being published to the marketplace in the past 20 months. It's important to keep in mind that these aren't official numbers from Microsoft, but All About Windows Phone has been right on the money when talking about published Marketplace apps plenty of times in the past.
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$150 AT&T Nokia Lumia 920 priced to undercut rivals (but not HTC)
Nokia's Lumia 920 has been prematurely priced up for its US-exclusive launch on AT&T, with Best Buy spilling the competitive costs for the Windows Phone 8 handset. The 32GB 4G smartphone will be $149.99 with a new, two-year AT&T agreement, according to Best Buy's listing, while unactivated it will set shoppers back $599.99. However, even undercutting most mainstream smartphones by fifty bucks won't make it the cheapest Windows Phone 8 flagship.
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T-Mobile product event brings full Fall lineup October 29th
It’s more than a little bit of a coincidence that T-Mobile has just released invites to an event that will take place the same day as Google’s own Android event and the Microsoft Windows 8 event earlier in the day – the 29th of October. This T-Mobile event will more than likely be the first reveal of the new Nexus smartphone made by LG – a device we’ve seen leaked quite a few times now – and it’d be a pretty good bet that T-Mobile will be carrying it right out of the gate. It could also very well be the hands-on point for a collection of T-Mobile Windows Phone 8 devices all at once. Or both possibilities could coincide!
Windows Phone 8 launch event invites sent for October 29 with Nokia as hero
If you’re ready for Windows Phone 8, Microsoft hears you – with an event scheduled for the 29th of October and set to show off Nokia as their brand hero right up front and center. If this doesn’t calm your mind on how Microsoft will be pushing the mobile OS, nothing will – there’s no Surface smartphone in the mix (yet, of course.) What we’ll be seeing here is several sizes of tiles, a lovely new set of integrations with Windows 8, and perhaps a few new bits of hardware as well.
Nokia’s Elop: A “Surface” Windows Phone 8? Bring it on!
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has dismissed concerns that Microsoft might sway the Windows Phone 8 market by releasing a "Surface" branding smartphone of its own, saying instead that the company would welcome it. Speaking in the aftermath of Nokia's less-than-glowing Q3 2012 financial results, Elop said that while he had seen "no indications" that Microsoft planned to follow its Surface tablet with a phone, such a device would be "certainly a stimulant to the ecosystem."
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Nokia: Q4 2012 is likely to be rough too
Nokia may have a new range of Windows Phone 8 devices headed to stores imminently, but the company still predicts the next quarter will be a seriously difficult one. "Nokia expects the fourth quarter 2012 to be a challenging quarter in Smart Devices," the company said today, "with a lower-than-normal benefit from seasonality in volumes, primarily due to product transitions and our ramp up plan for our new devices." In fact, it expects operating margin to be down to -6%.
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Nokia North American phone sales slashed in half in Q3
Sales of Nokia handsets in the North American market dived by 50-percent in Q3 2012 versus the previous quarter, the company has confirmed, with just 300,000 phones sold in the lucrative region. In fact, Nokia sales only increased in Q3 in two markets - up 10-percent in Europe and 5-percent in Asia-Pacific - with Greater China sales ditching 27-percent and Latin America down 9-percent, for a total decline of 1-percent in volumes compared to Q2 2012.
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Nokia Q3 2012: Just 2.9m Windows Phones shipped
Nokia sold 2.9m Lumia Windows Phones in Q3 2012, down quarter-on-quarter, with operating losses of $755m on $9.4bn in revenue. The company’s Q3 2012 financial results have been revealed this morning, and it’s been tough going for Nokia’s recreation, with CEO Stephen Elop describing the three month period as “a difficult quarter” and blaming the incoming Windows Phone 8 line-up for souring sales of existing devices. In short, there’s plenty of uphill struggle for Nokia to face yet.
REVIEWS
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