Microsoft didn’t hold back at the Windows Phone Summit yesterday, spending two hours demonstrating some of the key attractions of Windows Phone 8, and now you can watch the whole thing on video. The second high-profile Microsoft event of the week – the first being the Surface launch, of course – the Summit saw WP8′s new Metro Start screen debut, along with details of expanded hardware support and new contactless payment technology.
One of the hardware announcements at yesterday’s Windows Phone Summit was that Qualcomm would continue to power Windows Phone handsets going forward. Microsoft had also worked with the company to bring dual-core support to the platform, but exact processor details weren’t dished out at the time. Qualcomm has reached out to Engadget to clarify that Snapdragon S4 Plus chips will be used in Windows Phone 8 devices.
Read The Full Story
Microsoft is playing its Windows Phone 8 cards close to its chest, demonstrating some of the headline features at the Windows Phone Summit but not letting press play with the new platform themselves. That didn’t stop us spending some eyes-on time up close and personal with an upgraded Nokia Lumia 900, however, for a run through of the new Metro homescreen and more.
The video chat and VoIP application Skype has received an upgrade before the push to Windows 8 this week with a go-ahead from Microsoft. This week we're having a peek at everything Windows Phone 8 as we watch the upgrades roll in at the Windows Phone Summit dedicated to the new platform. As Skype's upgrade for the current generation of Windows Phone goes live today, so too do we get a glimpse of what's to come for the Windows Phone 8 OS of the future.
Read The Full Story
Some may be disappointed that recent handsets like the Nokia Lumia 800 won’t be receiving an upgrade to Windows Phone 8, but Microsoft has announced that future phones will be supported via software updates for at least 18 months. In addition to that, the company will deliver all software updates completely over-the-air, removing the need for users to plug their phones into a computer.
Read The Full Story
This week the big Windows Phone 8 wave has begun, and Nokia is jumping right aboard at the Windows Phone Summit with a selection of features that will be exclusive to their devices. Nokia devices will, first, have Nokia Music 3.0 - this is an upgrade which brings gig enhancements, mix radio enhancements, and upgrades to its already well-working offline playback. Nokia Counters is another element that will be on Windows Phone 8 Nokia devices, complete with the ability to let users track the data they're using, their voice minutes, and messaging as well.
Read The Full Story
It appears that in addition to continuing their relationship with Qualcomm for processors on Microsoft's mobile operating system, Windows Phone 8 will be pushed to Nokia, Huawei, Samsung, and HTC devices. These devices will be available in 180 countries and in 50 different languages, and each of these hardware partners have guaranteed their support for Windows 8 in the future, with an 18 month update guarantee for software support included.
Read The Full Story
Windows Phone already had speech recognition, but now the company is opening up the speech platform to all developers. On stage at the Windows Phone Summit, Microsoft detailed how users would be able to have conversations with apps once integrated properly. The company demoed the technology with Audible, asking the app to search for a specific title then continuing from there.
Read The Full Story
Microsoft got credit for ripping up Windows Mobile 6.5 and hitting the reset button: unfortunately it seems to be trying to do the same with Windows Phone 8, leaving early-adopters behind. The news from the Windows Phone Summit today that existing handsets won’t get WP8 but will, instead, get a partial upgrade called Windows Phone 7.8 with the new Metro Start Screen but not much else means everyone who has supported Microsoft and its OEM partners so far can’t expect much in the way of software longevity.
This week the folks at Microsoft have revealed one whole heck of a lot of information on their upcoming operating system for mobile devices: Windows Phone 8 “Apollo”. At the Windows Phone Summit this year we’ve gotten the full pulldown of information ranging from hardware to software to developers and back. Let’s start our journey with a peek at the Star Screen – the face of Windows Phone having been pushed to a new level of powerful here with the simple inclusion of a new tile size – tiny!
Microsoft is pushing its ecosystem hard today at the Windows Phone Summit, stressing just how much Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 will work together in NFC-enabled harmony. As well as being based on the same underlying core, the two platforms are intended to hook up more readily than previous iterations could. Microsoft's concept demo took Windows Phone to a restaurant, with everything from ordering through to payment done with Windows hardware.
Read The Full Story
A nice new feature that Microsoft is adding to Windows Phone 8 is the ability to conduct in-app purchases. The feature has been part of iOS and Android for some time, and now it’s making an appearance in Windows Phone 8. Developers will be able to add the functionality with the new OS, and customers will be able to use financial information stored in the Wallet app to purchase any additional content or upgrades within apps.
Read The Full Story
