Colourful Huawei Ascend W1 pictures leak

Colourful Huawei Ascend W1 pictures leak

January 1, 2013 | By Surur

EvLeaks, via Unwiredview.com, have leaked some pictures of the back of the Huawei Ascend W1, showing the multiple colours, which appear to be white, blue, pink and black, the device will be available in.

The low-end Windows Phone 8 handset is expected to be shown off at CES in only a few days time, and is said to have a dual-core 1.2 Ghz processor, 4 GB storage, 512 megabytes RAM and a 5 megapixel camera.

We should see a lot more of the handset at CES 213 will start on the 8th January at Last Vegas.

Via Unwiredview.com

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Keep your New Year’s SMS Group Messages short or else suffer MMS error 225

Keep your New Year’s SMS Group Messages short or else suffer MMS error 225

December 31, 2012 | By Surur

Many people welcome the New Year by sending SMS messages to friends and loved ones. On Windows Phone we have the option of sending group messages, and many of us may be tempted to send the same message to a group of friends when the clock strikes 12.

LandofTechnology however warns that if you try and send a SMS message more than 160 characters long to multiple people you may run into SMS error 225, which is short for Service Denied.

The reason is that Windows Phone automatically convert group SMS messages to MMS messages, and it seems making them more than 160 characters can trigger this network fault (likely an anti-spam measure).

Their advice is simply to keep your message less than 160 characters and spend more time partying and less time on your phone.

Read more at LandofTechnology here.

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Will the Indian Nokia Lumia 920 get TD-LTE support via an OTA update?

Will the Indian Nokia Lumia 920 get TD-LTE support via an OTA update?

December 31, 2012 | By Surur

We have covered recently how the Nokia Lumia 920 coming to India will not support their local variant of LTE, TD-LTE, making the device de facto a 3G phone.

Now according to Nokia support it seems the issue will not be a permanent black mark on the handset in the Indian subcontinent, with support claiming the device will be updated to 4G compliance via a Firmware Over The Air update.

Now we would definitely not recommend buying the smartphone on the promise of an update, even if Nokia confirms it, but if true it would still be a welcome bonus for buyers in the rather small area covered by LTE in India.

Thanks Himadri for the tip.

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Nokia Lumia 920 still got it–Topping AT&T Best Sellers on Amazon

Nokia Lumia 920 still got it–Topping AT&T Best Sellers on Amazon

December 31, 2012 | By Surur

The Christmas rush is over, but that does not mean people have stopped buying phones.  And if its an AT&T phone you are after, it seems on Amazon that phone is a Black Nokia Lumia 920.

The handset has been hovering around the top of the AT&T Best Sellers chart, and at the time of writing is occupying the first slot.

Of course that position unfortunately somewhat transient, but what is not is that the device in all its variants remains AT&T’s top-rated handset on Amazon, in fact with the Lumia 900 taking 7 out of the top 10 spots.

Hopefully all this will translate into a decent quarter for Nokia, who certainly deserves some holiday cheer.

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Symbian stalwart CameraPro App comes to Windows Phone 8

Symbian stalwart CameraPro App comes to Windows Phone 8

December 31, 2012 | By Surur

CameraPro is a software application popular on Symbian for enhancing the functions of your camera.

The software has now made the jump to Windows Phone 8, bringing along unprecedented control over your camera.

The app offers:

• Fast access to camera features
• Support for manual focus distances
• Auto-, Macro-, Touch focus
• Manual exposure times
• Exposure locking
• ISO up to 3200
• Enable disable focus assistant light
• Disable shutter sound
• Custom image filenames
• Front and back camera support
• Overlays including virtual horizon/level meter, compass, grid
• Camera modes: normal, timer, burst, time-lapse, anti-shake, bracketing
• Windows Phone 8 Lens integration
• Upload to Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Twitter from CameraPro

The developer warns features available will differ from phone to phone. Unfortunately they did not include a free trail with the app, which is rather stupid under the circumstances, especially with numerous HTC 8X users reporting the app is crashing on start-up.

Nokia Lumia 920 owners however appear pretty happy, and if you want to take a gamble you can find the app in the Windows Phone Store here for $2.49 or local equivalent.

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F1 Racing driver Heikki Kovalainen also thinks his Nokia Lumia 920 camera is “real good”

F1 Racing driver Heikki Kovalainen also thinks his Nokia Lumia 920 camera is “real good”

December 30, 2012 | By Surur

Nokia does not have to pay for all celebrity endorsements. Some just want to use the best device money can buy.

One of those is F1 Racing driver, Heikki Kovalainen, who has previously driven for McLaren and Lotus last year  and is currently driving for CaterhamF1 Team.

Being from Finnish extraction it is no real surprise to see he is using a Nokia Lumia 920, but as the pictures above prove, he is doing it for all the right reasons.

He purchased his Lumia 920  on the 16th December, then noting it “…so far seems very cool. Slightly bigger so easier to use the touchpad when texting…” and has since been rather prolific at tweeting pictures, benefiting particularly from the great low-light sensitivity in the dark Finnish winters.

He tweeted the above pictures most recently, responding to questions about the picturesby saying “Lumia 920 camera is real good”.

With Mark Cuban also recently endorsing the handset, maybe the other phones will soon be known to be as passé as us fans know they are already.

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A look back at our 2012 Windows Phone Predictions

A look back at our 2012 Windows Phone Predictions

December 30, 2012 | By Surur

It is of course a slow news day, which makes it a perfect time to look back on the past and see if our predictions from Jan 1 2012 were accurate.

We predicted more handsets would be announced throughout the year rather than only once per year, and more geographically targeted handsets.

In some ways with the slow roll-out of the Nokia Lumia 900 and the Nokia Lumia 610 this did come true, but I would I would have expected more activity from the other OEMs, and also Nokia moved very slowly with their Tango handsets, only really releasing them in Q3 2012 rather than early in Q2.

We predicted Microsoft would announce high end Xbox Live games at E3, and support for the Unity game engine.

As we know, the first part did not really come true. Support for the Unity Game Engine was however announced in August 2012, which means I guess we will see these high end games at E3 next year.

We predicted Nokia would release an N8-equivalent camera phone in July. This was in line with our idea that Nokia would release devices throughout the year rather than in batches. It turns out we had to wait till November for the Nokia Lumia 920.

We predicted Nokia’s new Windows Phone 8 range would leak in September, and we were nearly right – it happened on the 31st August.

We accurately predicted the new Windows Phone 8 range would only reach US in November, thought this did cause a lot of angst this year, despite this being the normal pattern.  We did however expect the handsets to reach Europe a month earlier, which it did not.

We predicted 100,000 apps by June, which turned out to be accurate and 10 million Windows Phone users by Q2 2012, which I think was also accurate, though we will never really know due to Microsoft’s reluctance to release numbers.

We predicted Windows Phone would take over RIM’s mind-share, and I think that was quite accurate, and we predicted the OS would have 5% market share by the end of the year. We will have to wait till next year to see what the analysts say, but I suspect it will be closer to 3.5%.

Interestingly, looking back at the year, which had its fair share of drama, I don’t think anything really happened which we did not anticipate (except the world ending of course).  While I think many things could have been done better by Microsoft and their partners (higher frequency of handset releases, more updates, upgrades to Windows Phone 8 etc) I think we are now somewhat used to Microsoft’s slow and steady approach to Windows Phone. Our next set of predictions for 2013 in 2 days time will one again reflect that.

How do our readers think we did? Let us know below.

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Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 now available in Oman on Omantel

Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 now available in Oman on Omantel

December 30, 2012 | By Surur

In a press release Nokia Middle East has announced that the new Nokia Lumia 920 and the Nokia Lumia 820 are now available in Oman through Omantel outlets.  Due to the Windows Phone 8 OS the Nokia Lumia 920 including Arabic language capabilities and of course a host of other features.

"Nokia is currently embarking on a journey of executing its winning smartphone strategy by delivering the latest Lumia range with Arabic language support in Oman. Following the significant demand for the international version of the Lumia range, we are confident the new Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 will be a milestone for the company as a whole," said Vithesh Reddy, General Manager, Nokia Lower Gulf.

"We have launched a pre-order campaign end of last month to enable our customers to be the first to own these stunning devices where the first 100 buyers are provided with free Nokia Luna Bluetooth Headset and a Fatboy Wireless Charging Pillow. Moreover, Lumia smartphones come with free mobile broadband for six months of up to 1 GB per month," said Saleem Ahmed Abdullatiff General Manager of Marketing at Omantel Consumer Business Unit.

"We are delighted to offer the first Windows Phone 8 innovative smartphones from Nokia to our customers. This is yet another step from Omantel to ensure that our customers are not only enjoying innovative services but also the most advanced smartphones in the world," Saleem Abdullatiff added.

"After seeing the enthusiastic response to the incredible innovation in the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820, we’re eager for people to start experiencing the phones for themselves. We are focusing our efforts on working with partners like Omantel who recognize the value of that innovation, and who are committed to helping Lumia and the Windows Phone platform breakthrough in Oman," added Reddy.

The Nokia Lumia 920 is available in yellow, red, white and black, while the the Nokia Lumia 820 comes in red, white and black. The Nokia Lumia 920 can be had for RO 260 ($675) while the 820 will retail for RO 200 ($519) and still comes with 1 GB data free for 6 months.

Both phones will be available at Omantel outlets in the country. See the handsets on offer at Omantel here.

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MyVideo.de planning to support Windows Phone soon

MyVideo.de planning to support Windows Phone soon

December 30, 2012 | By Surur

Not all streaming TV services are as stubborn as BBC iPlayer. A similar TV service in Germany, MyVideo.de, which houses numerous TV programs and music videos, amongst other content, have informed WPArea.de that they soon plan to support Windows Phone both on their website and with an app.

A reader emailed their support and received the following answer:

Hello,

to make the answer very quickly. Yes there will be both!
We have changed a few days ago on HTML5 player and now already have a lot of content on the normal mobile MyVideo.de also available.
But also we will bring an app for Windows Phone Windows8 and out.

Sincerely yours

MyVideo your support team.

It seems it will only be a matter of time before the difference between the mobile platforms, when it comes to important apps at least, will be erased.

Read more at WPArea.de

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Nokia removes LTE frequency references from Indian NL 920 site due to lack of local support

Nokia removes LTE frequency references from Indian NL 920 site due to lack of local support

December 30, 2012 | By Surur

We posted recently on the wide LTE frequency support of the Nokia Lumia 920 in India, but it turns out that supporting 9 LTE bands does not really matter of its not on the right protocol.

The Indian Nokia Lumia 920 supports LTE, but unfortunately India chose to use TD-LTE, similar to China Mobile, which renders the normal LTE on Nokia Lumia 920 moot. It seems due to this Nokia has removed references to the supported frequencies from the device’s specs page.

The issue also affect other western imports such as the iPhone 5, leaving the devices on a level playing field, but of course Nokia already has TD-LTE support on the Nokia Lumia 920T, and I expect if there is real demand they can produce a special model for India.

LTE however remain a nascent technology in India, with only Airtel supporting it in some cities, so I suspect Indians will have to wait for the next generation of Nokia flagships for proper support for the  4G technology.

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Second shipment of Chinese Nokia Lumia 920’s sell out in only 20 minutes

Second shipment of Chinese Nokia Lumia 920’s sell out in only 20 minutes

December 29, 2012 | By Surur

WinP.cn reports that the appetite for the Nokia Lumia 920 in China has not slacked, with large crowds queuing for a chance to purchase the handset.

The queues were at the flagship Nokia store in Shanghai, and even those that queued had to pre-book ahead of time, and despite this the yellow Nokia Lumia 920 sold out in only 20 minutes.

Second shipments of the handset has also become available  at  retailers 360Buy and 51Buy.

Of course we do not know whether Nokia has sorted out their supply issues yet, but all indications so far is that we can look forward to a bumper Q4 2012.

Via NokiaPoweruser.com

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SkyMotion Weather App Now Available For Windows Phone Devices

SkyMotion Weather App Now Available For Windows Phone Devices

December 29, 2012 | By Pradeep

SkyMotion weather app is now available for Windows Phone users. This app lets you know exactly when precipitation will start and end for your exact location. Plan the next 2 hours with precise knowledge of how precipitation will impact you, your family or your business. The only downside of this app is that it is available only in US and Canada for now.

Features:

• Accurate Minute-by-Minute Precipitation Schedule
• Forecasts Rain, Snow, Freezing Rain, Ice Pellets and Hail
• Live Tile Support
• Interactive Weather Data Received in Real-Time
• Data available in Fahrenheit or Celsius
• Save & Personalize Unlimited Number of Locations as Favorites
• Available in 16,000,000 Zones Across the Contiguous United States and Canada

Download it for free from Windows Phone Store here.

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AT&T HTC 8X now available from free on Amazon Wireless

AT&T HTC 8X now available from free on Amazon Wireless

December 29, 2012 | By Surur

While the HTC 8X is still $99 on contract on AT&T’s website, the handset is now available for much bigger discounts on Amazon Wireless.

There the 8 GB handset can be purchased from free on contract if you are willing to wait a few weeks for delivery, or for either $39.99 for the 8 GB handset or $49.99 for the 16 GB version.

While the device generally plays second fiddle to the Nokia Lumia 920, also available for similar prices on AT&T, it is definitely the device for those who prefer a light, svelte device with an amazing screen and more than passable camera.

Seen the offers at Amazon here.

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Mehdoh Twitter Client Updated With WP8 Support And New Features

Mehdoh Twitter Client Updated With WP8 Support And New Features

December 29, 2012 | By Pradeep

Mehdoh, one of the popular Twitter clients on Windows Phone Store just got updated with WP8 support. The new version 3.0  which is currently only available for WP8 devices brings many new features such as Lock screen notifications, fast app resume and more.

Change log:

+ lock screen notifications (icon + text, WP8 only features)
+ voice commands (WP8 only feature) – UK only at present
+ twitter profile banner images
+ twitter api 1.1
+ changed menu options around
+ fast app resume (WP8 only feature)
+ lots of small bug fixes
- removed several retweet homescreen options (due to 1.1 API)
- temporarily removed custom themes (WP8 only)
- unfortunately removed tile options in order to provide lock screen info (WP8 only)

Find the app here from Windows Phone Store.

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Windows Phone Hacker’s Notification Centre now in the Windows Phone Store

Windows Phone Hacker’s Notification Centre now in the Windows Phone Store

December 29, 2012 | By Pradeep

Jaxbot has finally managed to get his Notification Centre app in the Windows Phone Store.

The app collects notifications from a variety of apps sent to the phone, and uses an online server component run by Windows Phone Hacker.

For this reason it is unfortunately not a free app, but the $2.99 app does have a free trial. The app will only work on Windows Phone 7.5. This is not a standalone app, so you need to configure the app with a desktop executable.

Instructions:

1. Install Notification Center on the phone

2. Run NotificationServer on your PC

2. Connect your phone to your computer, and sync it with Zune

3. Restart the phone, without disconnecting

4. Run Notification Center

5. Done!

Give the app a try by finding it in Marketplace here and read more about the app at Windows Phone Hacker here. I tried it several times and faced “Request Timed Out” issue. Let us know your experience in the comments below.

Thanks Jens for the tip.

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Portico hits UK as T-Mobile UK starts pushing out Windows Phone update to the HTC 8X

Portico hits UK as T-Mobile UK starts pushing out Windows Phone update to the HTC 8X

December 28, 2012 | By Surur

The Windows Phone 8 update has been making its very slow progression around the world, and we have just been informed that the software is now being pushed out to the HTC 8X on T-Mobile UK.

As a reminder, built 8.0.10211.204 is meant to bring:

Messaging improvements. A great messaging experience is now even better. You can now add multiple recipients at the same time when you send a text message and automatically save unsent text messages as drafts. You can even edit received text messages before you forward them.

Text replies to incoming calls. Can’t take a call? Now you can send a prewritten text reply to a caller directly from the call answer screen. It’s a nice way to let people know that you’re not ignoring them.

Internet Explorer improvements. You can now change your settings to prevent pictures from downloading automatically—an easy way to help keep data usage low. You can also delete selected sites from your browsing history and leave the rest intact.

Wi-Fi connectivity. Got a favorite Wi-Fi network? Windows Phone 8 will now prioritize Wi-Fi connections based on your connection history.

Other improvements. Includes many other improvements to Windows Phone.

Have any of our other readers received the OTA update yet? Let us know below.

Thanks Aenedor for the tip and screen shot.

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HTC updates ‘Make More Space’ app

HTC updates ‘Make More Space’ app

December 28, 2012 | By Surur

Here is an HTC exclusive app which I did not even know about.

HTC has created an app which allows users to monitor the amount of free space on their phone and also tell you what is taking up your space, thereby allowing you to manage your content better.

The app is meant for the HTC 8S, which only has 4 GB of storage, and does not work on the HTC 8X, which come in 8 and 16 GB variants.

The app has now been updated to version 1.2, hopefully fixing the compatibility issues,  and can be downloaded from your HTC device only.

Via WindowsPhoneItaly.com

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VLC KickStarter for WP8/W8 in last 24 hours, contribute now!

VLC KickStarter for WP8/W8 in last 24 hours, contribute now!

December 28, 2012 | By Surur

The VideoLan team is close to concluding their KickStarter round of funding, with only 17 hours left.

After reaching their £40,000 goal 5 days ago, any additional money raised is targeted at speeding the release of VLC for Windows Phone 8, which means if you have not contributed already and want VLC on your Windows Phone sooner rather than later now is the time to do so.

In their latest update the VLC team writes:

Dear backers,

We have come a long way and we are finally there. It’s 24 hours to go for our Kickstarter campaign. So far, more than £45,000 were pledged by almost 3000 backers.

This is a tremendous success and we are very pleased about it. Thanks so much!

In the last week, we’ve prepared our project management tools, collected hardware and software needs for the developers who will work on VLC for Windows 8, RT and Phone and set up our major development milestones. We will start right-away as soon as the campaign is over.

Our fulfilment team is set up, too, so we can ship all the goodies on time. Thanks again and you’ll hear back from shortly!

Jean-Baptiste & Felix for the VLC for Windows 8 team.

See the update and contribute at KickStarter here.

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IM+ Cross Platform IM Client Updated To v2.6 With Performance Improvements

IM+ Cross Platform IM Client Updated To v2.6 With Performance Improvements

December 28, 2012 | By Pradeep

IM+ cross platform, cross network messaging app just got updated to v2.6 with new features and performance improvements.

Change log:

- Beep mobile-to-mobile instant messaging service;
- Customizable Push sesssion timeout;
- Performance improvements.

You can download the app for free here. 

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Rdio Music Streaming App Updated With WP8 Support And Improved UX

Rdio Music Streaming App Updated With WP8 Support And Improved UX

December 28, 2012 | By Pradeep

 Rdio is a music streaming service that lets you listen to millions of songs ad-free on your Windows Phone devices. Rdio app got updated with Windows Phone 8 device compatibility and improved UX. Find the full change log here.

New in version 3.14:

• Windows Phone 8 compatibility
• Improved online streaming/playback
• Browse Recommendations
• Metro Interface Enhancements

Download the app here from the Windows Phone Store for free.

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Windows Phone on track for a 7 million + sales in Q4 2012

Windows Phone on track for a 7 million + sales in Q4 2012

December 28, 2012 | By Surur

(Gartner quarterly WP sales vs Quarterly MAU of the built-in Facebook app added, Q4 2012 sales predicted)

It seems Windows Phones have continued to fly of the shelves, and in Nokia’s case as fast as they can make them.

Our proxy numbers, monthly active Facebook users, have continued to soar in the month of December, adding half a million MAU in December and more than 1 million in Q4 2012. This compares to 100,000 added in December last year and 250,000 for the whole Q4 2012. It seems sales have held true to Microsoft’s earlier estimate of being 4 times as fast as last year.

Translating that into actual devices sold, that would correlate to around 7.4 million handsets sold this quarter. up from 4.05 million sold in Q3 2012, which is a rather healthy boost.   On the other hand in that quarter only 550 thousand MAU of the built-in Facebook function was added, vs more than a million in this quarter, indicating that there are definitely more new phones in more hands.

Now we have seen some who doubt the correlation between added Facebook users and Quarterly sales according to Gartner (who claims to measure handsets sold to consumers rather than shipped devices), so we went to the trouble of working out the R-value of our data from Q2 2011 to Q3 2012, and the result is 0.92, which is pretty close to a straight 1:1 correlation.

We chose to use numbers from Q2 2011, as that was, according to Gartner, from then no significant numbers of Windows Mobile handsets were sold, which would of course have messed up the correlation.

See the data below:

	Quarterly Added MAU FB WP	Gartner Quarterly WP sales	Ratio
Q2-2011	209855	1723800	8.2
Q3-2011	189778	1707900	9.0
Q4-2011	248607	2759000	11.1
Q1 2012	457143	2712500	5.9
Q2 2012	571429	4087000	7.2
Q3 2012	549206	4058200	7.4
Q4 2012	1022222	7432300 (Predicted)	7.3

Note this does not necessarily mean Nokia will boast large sales on the 24th of January.  We know from other sources that some of the best selling handsets were Nokia Lumia 800 phones which Nokia must have shipped 3 quarters ago and Nokia Lumia 610s which shipped in Q3. However developers do not care about shipments but phones in the hands of potential customers, and from the data available it seems that market just grew by close to 30% this quarter.

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Exclusive Nokia Weather Channel app updated to version 2.6

Exclusive Nokia Weather Channel app updated to version 2.6

December 28, 2012 | By Surur

The Nokia Weather app, which is their custom Weather Channel App, has been updated from version 2.0 to 2.6.

As is often the case, there is no changelog, but Windows Phone Italy compared the old and new apps side by side, and found a number of UI tweaks, and also the ability to pin the weather of a specific city as a secondary live tile.

The app has been updated for both Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8 and can be found for free in the Nokia Collection or via this link.

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HTC 8S unable to install Guns for Hire due to 1 GB RAM limit

HTC 8S unable to install Guns for Hire due to 1 GB RAM limit

December 28, 2012 | By Surur

Its Tango all over again, as the 512 MB RAM in the HTC 8S is starting to show its limitations.

WinPhoneViet reports that the HTC 8S, HTC’s low-end Windows Phone, is unable to install the Guns For Hire game, with the warning that it needs a device with at least 1 GB of RAM, a warning which interestingly does not appear in the listing for the app in Marketplace.

This will presumably also affect the Nokia Lumia 620, which also has 512 MB RAM, and which I expect will be a wildly popular device.

It is likely it will mostly be high-end games which are affected, rather than apps, but buyers should be aware that app limitations are also part of buying a cheap handset.

Via WinPhoneViet.com

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UI Designer For Windows Phone lets you design your app on the move

UI Designer For Windows Phone lets you design your app on the move

December 28, 2012 | By PeyPey

UI Designer

The Idea -I built the UI Designer in hopes of allowing anyone anywhere to design UI for the Windows Phone.

The Functions – The UI Designer currently has 6 basic controls you can add, Text Boxes, Text Blocks, Buttons, Check Boxes, and Radio Buttons. You can customize various things about the control such as title and color of the control. The ultimate goal is to have every function available to users by the final update. We will also be developing a full blown YouTube curriculum along with it.

The Trial -The trial includes a limit on the number of controls you can add to the page at one time, but allows you full access to the various customization options.

The Paid Version -The paid version unlocks full access to all the controls.

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Petition for Google apps on Windows Phones

Petition for Google apps on Windows Phones

December 28, 2012 | By Ferrarifan

To this day, Google has ignored Windows Phone users by making the controversial and arguably anti-competitive decision to not build apps for the platform beyond a very basic search app.  Here is a petition that the goal is to make Google hear the Windows Phone community and to get them on the path of making polished apps on the Windows Phone platform.

Sign by clicking here.

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Nokia Lumia 510 received second Windows Phone 7.8 ROM update

Nokia Lumia 510 received second Windows Phone 7.8 ROM update

December 28, 2012 | By Surur

If there is any doubt Windows Phone 7.8 is still a work in progress the news of Nokia is pushing out a second ROM update for the Nokia Lumia 510, which ships with the OS, should erase it.

New firmware for the handset has just appeared on Navifirm which takes the OS from firmware version 12460 to 12490.

There is no word on what’s new with this build, but presumably at the very least it brings performance and stability tweaks.

Have any of our readers flashed the new ROM? Let us know what’s new below.

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