Facebook beta for Windows Phone update – tiles and notifications

Facebook Beta for Windows Phone has received one of its regular updates, and this one is a bit bigger than usual.

Notifications and Messages have received big updates, with improved Toast notifications as well as Toast notifications for Messages/Chat. Tiles have also been redesigned, with a variety available, including a Messages Tile.

Toast notifications have often been a bit hit and miss on previous versions of the app, but so far so good, with notifications so far arriving  in parallel with iOS for me, which is a big improvement.

So although the version number has only incrementally change, it’s a bigger update than that suggests, so go get it now using the link below.

Source – WP Central

Link – Facebook Beta in Windows Phone Marketplace

Windows Phone goes big – Vodafone launch Nokia Lumia 1520 in Black

Vodafone have launched the Nokia 1520 in black today, a full 3 days before Nokia’s initial statement suggested.

This monstrous beast is the biggest Windows Phone ever, sporting a massive 6? full HD display. You think the handset’s too big? You should see the price! If you want to be the proud owner of the Lumia 1529, then it’s cost you from £52 per month on a 24 month contract plus £19 up front!

Aside from an epic phone with a 20MP PureView camera and a 2.2GHz quad core Snapdragon 800 processor, what do you get for your £1,267 then? Unlimited texts and minutes, plus 4GB per month data. You can, of course, lower the monthly cost by paying more up front. There are no pay as you go prices currently.

Source – Vodafone

***UPDATE***

It seems Vodafone were a little hasty in putting that link live. It’s actually launching tomorrow (6th December), as per Nokia’s original statement!

Here’s a reminder of the specs and a nice video that Nokia made.

Operating System: Windows Phone 8 with the latest updatesNetworks: GSM/EDGE: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz; WCDMA: 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz; ROW LTE: 1, 3, 7, 8, 20; USA LTE: 2, 4, 5, 7, 17; HSPA+: DL 42 Mbps (Cat 24) / UL 11.5 Mbps (Cat 7)Speed: LTE 150/50 mbps, DC-HSPA 42mbpsMemory: 2GB RAM, 32 GB internal user memory; 7 GB SkyDrive cloud storage, micro SD card support up to 64GBDisplay: 6-inch full HD 1080p LCD , ClearBlack, High Brightness Mode, Sunlight readability, Super sensitive touch for glove and nail usage, Gorilla Glass 2Processor: 2.2GHz Quad Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800Primary camera: PureView 20-megapixel Auto Focus ZEISS optics with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), 2x lossless zoom, oversampling technology, dual LED flash, 1080p @ 30 fps full HD video with optical image stabilizationSecondary Camera: HD 1.2-megapixel wide angleSize & weight: 162.8 x 85.4 x 8.7mm (volumetric). Weight: 209gConnectivity: NFC, A-GPS+GLONASS, WLAN (2.4/5Ghz) a/b/g/n/ac, µUSB, BT 4.0 LE, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Magnetometer, Gyroscope, Ambient Light SensorBattery: 3400 mAh (integrated) with built-in wireless charging (Qi compatible)Audio: Rich Recording with four microphones; Wideband Voice and multi-microphone noise reduction with four microphones; Dolby(R) Headphone, Graphic equalizer, Audio leveling; FM radio

My 2014 wishlist – Windows Phone Edition

Last year we all wrote up our hopes and dreams for the year to come, I wrote about Windows Phone as it’s something I’m fond of and the other guys will all just want to write about Android. So here we go, here is what I would like to happen in the Windows Phone world in 2014.

If first you’re interested in last year’s wishlist it’s here.

Microsoft to attract more manufacturers to the OS

With the purchase of Nokia, Windows Phone stepped onto a slippery surface, a surface that’s also slightly sloped. Windows Phone is in danger of becoming a one horse race manufacturer wise. HTC, Samsung, ZTE and Huawei are all yet to reveal any next generation devices leaving only Nokia to reap the rewards, further cementing it’s position as the number one Windows Phone manufacturer. Without other manufacturers I feel the OS and the devices would be a bit dull, a bit like iOS almost.

Nokia to release a 5? high spec device to rival the other OS’s flagships

With the announcement of the Nokia Lumia 1520 I feel they went a bit too far, yes a bigger device has been needed for a while now, but at six inches they’ve alienated quite a few potential customers. If the new flagship had been the rumoured Lumia 929 or even just a smaller 1520 Nokia would have positioned themselves in a better spot to compete with the other OS’s. No doubt a smaller device will come, but I doubt that it will be in the first few months of 2014, by which time the world will be eyeing up the latest Android devices from Samsung and HTC.

HTC to release a Windows Phone version of the “One”

HTC need to think of something to help them survive, 2013 saw them release some really good Android devices, that just didn’t really succeed. Apart from one that is, the HTC One was in my opinion one of the best products of 2013, combining an amazing design, great hardware and great software. It just wasn’t as popular as the Galaxy S4. If HTC are to keep releasing Windows Phone devices surely they’d want something quick and easy to get to market, surely installing Windows Phone on an existing device would save a lot of time and money on R&D compared to a new device. Yes releasing a device from 2013 would be risky but the spec would still be comparable to anything Nokia release in the next six months.

Taking this wish to the extreme, one could argue that if they also released the HTC One Mini and the HTC One Max as well running Windows Phone they’d also see some success. Especially as they’ve already got a small range of apps to offer their customers, such as that lovely clock tile.

Samsung to release Windows Phone versions of the Galaxy S4 and Note 3

Samsung when they released the Ativ S, basically just released the Galaxy S3 but running Windows Phone. Personally I feel that with the advent of the GDR3 update, that Windows Phone is ready for the Windows Phone versions of the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy Note 3. Yes I included the Note 3, large oversized phones are here to stay and Samsung couldn’t go wrong with a version of the Note 3, especially if they priced it quite a bit cheaper than the Lumia 1520. Samsung have a range of their own software already and it wouldn’t take much effort to make some stylus based note taking apps and maybe a stylus based photo editor.

Microsoft to join Windows Phone and Windows RT

Windows RT is a mess at the moment, I’ve had a Microsoft Surface RT since it launched in the UK and every time I use it it frustrates me, partly because of the hunt for Metro style apps in the app store and partly because of the untapped potential.

In the worlds of Android and iOS, phones and tablets happily co-exist. In the Windows Phone world they are totally separate. Some developers make apps for both platforms and even some of them have managed to make their apps sync between platforms, but it’s still far from ideal.

With the appearance of 8? Windows 8 based tablets things are rather confusing for the consumer. Recently I’ve had to help and explain to several friends the difference between the super cheap non touchscreen Windows 8 laptops, the medium priced touchscreen variants, the hybrid detachable Windows 8 laptops, the fancy expensive Windows 8 tablets, the two new Surface tablets, smaller 8? tablets from the likes of Dell and Acer and most recently the gloriously coloured Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet. Each and every one being slightly different. If the smaller tablets and the RT tablets just basically ran a tablet version of Windows Phone things would make a whole lot more sense.

Windows 8 is partly to blame, Microsoft wanted it to do everything possible and to a certain extent it does. But Windows RT was required to make cheaper tablets, but when you can get a touchscreen laptop running normal Windows 8 for less money Windows RT seems even more pointless.

Microsoft to keep up the drive to attract developers

The last couple of months we’ve seen no end of big name apps appear on the Windows Phone Store, things like Instagram and Vine to name the two most famous. It’s good to see, but you wonder quite how much Microsoft had to pay to get these apps. Maybe they didn’t pay, maybe I’m just being overly cynical.

Microsoft to fix the last few annoying “bugs” in Windows Phone

I’ve been using Windows Phone for a good few years now and a few things really annoy me, things that have been around since Windows Phone 7 and things that I’ve seen implemented on other mobile OS’s. I just hope next year they finally fix these bugs/features.

Once and for all Microsoft need to fix the music playing volume bug. Whereby you finish listening to music and yet it retains the details of the song in the volume drop down until you reboot or use an app to clear it.Allow customisation of individual tiles, or allow theming, or wallpapers spread across the tiles, or transparent tiles or just more choices for backgrounds and tile colours. I’m getting sick of having to resort to black and pink based themes some days.Make sharing between apps more open to developers at a system level, not something they have to manually add themselves. Currently it is so hit and miss as to which apps have a share option and even which apps are on the share list.This one isn’t a long term problem it’s just a little niggle. Once the Nokia buyout is done Microsoft REALLY need to open up the Lumia exclusive apps to other manufacturers. When Nokia were a separate entity it made sense but as the hardware of the OS developer it’s insane. Obviously the apps to work with Nokia specific hardware it would make sense to exclude everyone, but things like Nokia Camera REALLY should be available to everyone now. This move would also encourage other manufacturers to join the one horse race.Enable app purchase history within the store on your device. Reminding you of purchases from years ago.Enable a way of checking for app updates within the store for apps installed on your device. Rather than waiting for a random amount of time to be told of them.Tidy up the store. If you currently search for something like “Facebook” or “YouTube” you get hundreds of fake apps that will no doubt harvest your contacts details and subscribe you to no end of unsavory newsletters. Quite how these apps were approved is another question.Try as they might Microsoft just can’t get rid of the “resuming” screen which appears now and again if an app gets a little stuck in the Windows Phone multi-tasking system.

So all in all not a huge amount for Microsoft to fix in the next few months, who knows if anything will get fixed. We can only but wait, come back this time next year to see how it all went. One last thing though would you add anything to the list? And before you say it Nokia won’t ever release a device running Android.

Hill Climb Racing now available on Windows Phone

Hill Climb Racing, the rather popular Android game that has seen over 50 million installs from Google Play has found its way onto Windows Phone.

The game which is published by Fingersoft sees you take control of Newton Bill in order to get your vehicle as far along as many different tracks as possible up hill and down slope whilst trying to defy the laws of physics.

Game features:

16 different vehicles with unique upgrades (many different vehicles: bike, truck, jeep, tank etc)Upgradeable parts include engine, suspension, tires and 4WD15 stages with levels to reach in each (Countryside, Desert, Arctic and the Moon! +++)Share your score with a screenshot with your friends!Cool graphics and smooth physics simulationDesigned to look good on low resolution and high resolution devices (incl. tablets)Real turbo sound when you upgrade your engine!

Meet Newton Bill, the young aspiring uphill racer. He is about to embark on a journey that takes him to where no ride has ever been before. With little respect to the laws of physics, Newton Bill will not rest until he has conquered the highest hills up on the moon!

Face the challenges of unique hill climbing environments with many different cars. Gain bonuses from daring tricks and collect coins to upgrade your car and reach even higher distances. Watch out though – Bill’s stout neck is not what it used to be when he was a kid! And his good ol’ gasoline crematorium will easily run out of fuel.

The best thing about Hill Climb Racing is that it is free.  Totally free.  A game that can be completed without making use of the available in app purchases and where good progress can be made easily.  Be warned though, if you download this you will almost certainly end up wasting far too much time, far far more than you actually should in pursuit of those extra few metres!!

Hill Climb Racing can be downloaded for free from the Windows Phone App Store

OPPO photo teaser shows shiny new phone

OPPO like to indulge in a bit of teasing. So, true to form the leak marketing department has released a rather tasty photo of what seems to be the rumoured R829T Android phone on the company’s Weibo page.

Aside from it looking suspiciously like a Sony Xperia Z1, there’s very little else to go on. OPPO describe the shiny look as a “holographic mirror design”.

Previous rumours have included a Snapdragon 800 powered successor to the Find 5 to be known as the Find 7, but Oppo Ambassador Kedros Ng has said that the heart of the R829T is to be a Snapdragon 600 CPU, with 2GB of RAM. The screen will be a 720p, 4.5-incher and will carry a price of around 2000 Yuan (about £200) when it’s launched in China. Prices for the rest of the world aren’t actually mentioned, causing speculation that it may never see these shores. I like to think that the glass is half full though.

The model numbering convention suggests that this will be a mid-range beefier brother to the R819, with the Find 5 giving way to the Find 7, and the N1 at the top of the tree. This is all pure speculation, and should be taken as such, but what we can say for certain is that the R829T looks like it’s going to be a stunner aesthetically, and a real bargain if it does hit the magical £199 price point.

Source Weibo
Via Phone Arena

Thinking of buying an OPPO phone? Wait a couple of weeks

If a phone OPPO top its list of mobile phones, may want to high fire on the button buy. You see, I have sent an email today saying that I'm going to make an offer "Black Friday surprise".

Black Friday, the last Friday in November, is a great Christmas shopping the day taken been legendary in the United States. As with many advertised times this is spreading around the world. This means that we will probably see some bargains for many retailers, but OppoStyle have decided to bother us now (and kill their sales for the next couple of weeks in the same breath!).

They do not say much, but they put a live page on their website which will reveal "sharp" for your special event at midnight on Friday, November 29.

So, now you know to keep your credit card in your pocket and sit down with the Refresh button by hand as the Black Friday starts.

Black Friday 2013
Bring to light their Black Friday in style...
OppoStyle is preparing a great and exciting Black Friday surprise to delight our customers.

What is Black Friday?
The last Friday in November, known as the peak sales of shopping before Christmas, we want to excite all our customers with a tempting offer that will amaze you and leaves you speechless.

Stay tuned and keep your temptations until November 29 0.00 acute (GMT), to discover our special event.

The best Android phone on the planet is about to get even better

 

11:10 AM

Back in April, we called the HTC One the closest thing the world has ever seen to a no-compromise smartphone. Four months later when we pitted it against Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4, we said the HTC One was still the best smartphone on the planet. While HTC has struggled to get the phone into consumers’ hands thanks to tremendous competition (and massive marketing budgets) from Apple and Samsung, those who have bought the One seem to enjoy it very much for the most part. According to a new rumor, the One is about to get even better.

We have seen a few images leak that seemingly showed components from HTC’s upcoming One successor, code-named M8, and now @evleaks claims to have confirmed some preliminary details. According to a post on his Twitter account on Friday, the next-generation HTC One will feature a 5-inch display with the same 1080p resolution as the current-generation One. It will also be powered by Android 4.4 KitKat according to @evleaks, and it will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor.

Earlier rumors suggested that the M8 might also feature an integrated fingerprint scanner, which would certainly make sense considering HTC included one on its new HTC One max phablet.

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Jolla phone release date announced

 

Jewel, the Finnish company formed by ex-Nokia employees, has announced the date of release for the first phone of fish sailing ever. The launch will take place in Helsinki on November 27 and will be ready to buy for those who pre-ordered 450 devices. Marc Dillon, one of the founding members of la Jolla, made the announcement yesterday in the slush, the main Conference home to Northern Europe and Russia.

 

Jolla was formed by staff leaving Nokia as the company went All in with Windows phone and left promising operating system Meego. The Meego operating system is a platform for open source software based on Linux that works using HTML, the primary programming language that the majority of web sites use and also joins the flourishing Tizen and Firefox OS operating system in the mobile world. Fish candle is the iteration of la Jolla of Meego and you can run Android applications, as well as applications designed in HTML. The eponymous Jolla phone will come preloaded with the Yandex.Store, an Android app store. While it may not have much brand recognition in the Western world Yandex is a company of Russian Internet that operates the greater search engine in Russia with a 60% market share, and they are well known for the development of a series of products and services based on the Internet. Yandex shop is billed as an app store for Android available in android 2.3.3 + with 85000 more applications and after downloading on my Nexus 4 I can confirm that they have all the big names - opera Brower, Facebook, Skype, Adobe etc..

Also pre-loaded to provide allocation of duties is Nokia are here maps, which have been constantly expanding their mobile presence and can be found on smartphones Windows Phone 8 as well as iOS, Android, FirefoxOS, and TizenOS when a phone comes to market.

La Jolla launched its origin decision is a logical movement that promotes DNA, the Finnish operator that will commercialize the phone from La Jolla and will be present at the event's launch in Helsinki. They say

Finland is our domestic market and DNA will be the operator in the world first to sell phones in la Jolla. However, all customers pre-order from countries in both 1st and 2nd pre-booking campaigns will be served in the order of precedence who have gotten their original orders. In addition, Jolla phones will be gradually available via jolla.com direct online sales.

Jolla have also expressed on your website

At the same time, we will start deliveries of mail in the order of reservation.

Then, a new phone and a new operating system enters the smartphone market. CoolSmartPhone to publish photos and initial impressions as soon as it becomes a phone and I'm very anxious!

Have they previously asked a Jolla phone? Is it too late? Only time will tell it, shoot at the end of November.

4oD TV catchup is now available for Windows Phone

TV catchup apps are pretty damn useful, with the move towards official apps from each channel being the way forward apparently. Last night UK channel “Channel 4? released their TV lso catchup app. Which allows you to watch channel 4, E4 and More4. Streaming only works via WiFi so you unlimited mobile data people are stuffed, the app also has parental controls allowing you to restrict what your kiddies/husband get to watch.

Watch the best of Channel 4, E4 and More4 with our 4oD app for Windows Phone 8.

4oD is free to download and hosts a wide selection of programmes from Channel 4, E4 and More4. Shows are available to watch free of charge, with no limit to the amount you can watch. Streaming is accessible via WiFi networks in UK and Ireland.

Giffgaff phone range announced – Buy yours this month

The network famed for hassle-free SIM-only plans has now announced their very own range of handsets and you can buy them later this month. The initial list includes the following handsets, and there’s a good mix of Android, iPhone and Windows Phone devices..

Samsung Galaxy Young
Samsung Galaxy Fame
Samsung Galaxy S3
Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini
Samsung Galaxy S4
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Nokia 301
Nokia Lumia 520
Nokia Lumia 625
Nokia Lumia 925
Nokia Lumia 1020
Sony Xperia E
Sony Xperia M
Sony Xperia SP
Sony Xperia Z
Sony Xperia Z1
HTC One
BlackBerry Q10
LG G2
iPhone 4 refurb
iPhone 4S refurb

Popular high-end handsets like the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Z1 are on the list, although the iPhone 5 and 5s are sadly nowhere to be seen. Apple fans will instead have to make do with refurbished iPhone 4 devices.

Some 5300 members helped to shape the range and giffgaff will be selling these handsets before the end of the month. They say that prices will be “competitive” and it looks like they’ll be splitting the phone payment and the service plan costs. Phones can be paid for out-right in one hit or in 6 to 24 month payments through a finance deal. You buy a goodybag (which is one of their monthly bundles) seperately if you want.

The network, which uses O2 infrastructure, has also said that you can adjust your monthly phone payments at any time and that handsets won’t be locked to giffgaff. You also won’t need to buy a goodybag with a phone, but if you do then this can also be adjusted as and when you wish.

It seems a pretty good offer, but we’ll have to wait to see the handset prices to compare more.

Head over to giffgaff now for your free SIM or follow us on Twitter to find out when you can buy the phones above.

Really capture the moment with Foundbite for Windows Phone

A picture can only tell so much, imagine adding some sound to your pictures. Well that’s exactly what Foundbite does.

Foundbite combines photos and sound to capture the real atmosphere of a place, event or experience in a new and unique way.

From the cheering of a crowd at a gig in Croatia to the lashing of rain in India, explore the four corners of the world through sounds others have uploaded.

It’s an interesting new app for Windows Phone, especially as it becomes it’s own little social network. But it’s good harmless fun, available for free on the link below.

Windows Phone Store Link – Foundbite

Motorola’s budget Moto G phone specs, pictures purportedly leak

 

7:45 PM

Earlier this week, Motorola temporarily listed an unannounced device on its website — the Moto G. The mention was very quickly removed, but the Moto G is likely the name of Motorola’s low-cost follow-up to its flagship Moto X. On Thursday, @evleaks produced what appears to be a mostly complete list of specs for the handset, including a 1.5GHz Qualcomm S4 Pro processor, a 4.7-inch display at 720p resolution and a 1950 mAh battery. The leak also claims that there will be two separate models with 8GB and 16GB of internal storage, and that the phone will be free on contract. Motorola has yet to release any official information about the smartphone, but @evleaks included a photo in the leak that might be the first sighting of the Moto G.

 

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Carphone Warehouse launch quite possibly the greatest phone in the world

So, you know how we’ve kinda reached a plateau with mobile phones? Surely you’ve heard people saying that new handsets don’t have the same “wow” factor that they once had?

Well there’s something new. Something that’ll replace your flashy iPhone 5s or your Samsung Galaxy S4. You’re going to want to flush those things down the toilet in a minute because this… this is going to change everything. Honestly, your iPhone is like a block of wood compared to this thing. This is the single greatest phone ever. It’ll spin the world backwards with its’ greatness …….. and it costs a mere 50 quid.

It is…. THE BRICK. Da-da-DAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Designed by Binatone, when it rings you can hear the 1980's calling (joking), because it’s an 80's style mobile phone. Not only that, but it includes that retro mobile game – Snake!

You can use it two different ways, either by connecting it to your existing mobile phone via Bluetooth or you can whack a SIM card in a use it as your main phone. Oh yeah! 2G action, all the way and it’s got a torch too. This. Just. Rocks.

It doesn’t weigh anywhere near as much as those original handsets, it’s just 206 grams and even has a microSD card slot so that you can pipe out some tunes via the speaker. The best bit? The battery lasts for ONE WHOLE MONTH!!

This, my friends, is innovation. If we can’t go any further forwards, let’s go back. It’s got an aerial… an actual aerial. None of this retractable rubbish – that daft 90's tech has no place in these parts. An aerial… an actual aerial. It’s all bringing a tear to my eye, it really is. Oh… I can’t cope… Here, have some pictures….

Get yourself down to Carphone Warehouse to bag one exclusively (for the next two weeks, then it’s available elsewhere). Get one, take it home, then put one of those VHS tapes into the video recorder, rewind the tape, then submerge yourself in the 80's…

THE BRICK NOW AT CARPHONE WAREHOUSE

It’s big, it’s bulky and its battery lasts for a month

LONDON, 24 th October 2013 – The Brick, a 80s style retro mobile phone designed by Binatone, is available from today exclusively at Carphone Warehouse*, in selected stores and online at www.carphonewarehouse.com.

Available for £50, The Brick can be connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth and used as a funky accessory to make and receive calls and text messages, even when your smartphone is tucked snugly away in your bag. Or, simply insert a SIM card and use your big and bulky Brick as a 80s throwback alternative to your modern handset.

The Brick may be retro in appearance but does offer several upgrades on the original 80s mobile phone, including 2G, a built in LED torch and colour screen. It can also be used as a loudspeaker with a Micro SD slot for your music collection, perfect for pumping out those old-school favourite tunes. The Brick is surprisingly lighter than its older counterparts, coming in at 206 grams.

However, perhaps the number one reason to go out and get yourself a Brick is that it comes equipped with everyone’s original (and favourite) mobile game – Snake –giving you a chance to recapture your lost and carefree youth by brightening up a dull morning commute to work.

With a standby battery life of up to one month, ‘The Brick’ will keep going as long as you do.

The Brick is available exclusively* in selected Carphone Warehouse stores and online at www.carphonewarehouse.com for £50.

* The Brick will be exclusive to Carphone Warehouse for the first two weeks of sale

Angry Birds goes free on Windows Phone

Nearly all the Angry Birds apps (apart from Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Seasons) are now showing as free on the Windows Phone store.

You can now get Angry Birds Star Wars and Angry Birds Star Wars II (although both are confusingly listed as just “Angry Birds Star Wars” and, for some reason, they’re in a category called “puzzle + trivia”)..

Head over to the Rovio page for all the details. We don’t know currently if this is a temporary price drop, so get them while they’re free.

Maxthon Cloud Browser is now available for Windows Phone

Maxthon is one of those alternative browsers that is available on various different platforms allowing you to easily sync your favourites between machines, now you can add your Windows Phone devices to that list as Maxthon have released a Windows Phone 8 version of their browser.

Maxthon Cloud Browser, now available to take mobile browsing on Windows Phones to new heights. Taking full advantage of our history of great out of the box experience, ease of use, high performance and features you can’t find anywhere our new browser brings you the best browsing experience on Windows Phone.

Features:

* Cloud Services Make the Multi-Device Web Easier
Sign in with a free Maxthon Passport account and sync your favorites online, and to other devices using the Maxthon Cloud Browser on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac.

* A New Take on Tabs for Windows Phone
Easily view, and move forward and backward between your tabs.

* Live Tiles in Quick Access
Maxthon has taken its famous ‘Quick Access’ feature and reinvented it for Windows Phone. Easily pick, apply and access live Windows ’tiles’ right from Maxthon’s ‘Quick Access’ feature.

* Pop – Up Address Bar
Access search and the address bar when you want it. A simple gesture causes it to pop-up.

Maxthon is free on the link below, so you can try it out. One thing that is obvious from testing it is that it’s really really fast. There doesn’t seem to be a desktop mode switch either. Hopefully a future update will fox that. But for now you can revel in bookmark syncing like your peers using Android and iOS.

Windows Phone Store Link – Maxthon

Windows Phone 8 GDR – Further details leak out, and it sounds very promising

The new version of Windows Phone 8, which has received the natty title “General Distribution Release 3?, now appears to be revealing some additional goodies.

Firstly, you can now actually attach Office files (.doc, .xls, .ppt and .pdf) to emails. Whoopa! Next up, you can actually stop the screen rotating should use wish. Other improvements include support for 1080p screens and new processor support.

Another new feature includes the ability to close apps by clicking an “X” on the top right of the screen. We’ve got an exclusive picture of that in action below…

..oooohhh no, wait. Wrong shot. Here it is..

 

Another feature, which we’ve wanted for ABSOLUTELY RUDDY AGES is CUSTOM RINGTONES for messaging, emails, voicemails and reminders. Other features include the ability to have either 3 medium or 6 small tiles in a row with certain screen resolutions (1280×768 minimum) and a driving mode which will turn off all notifications apart from calls and texts (because, as you know, we simply have to read texts at the wheel). Luckily you can turn these off completely and have it reply to texts for you, so you can have it say, “Hey, I’m driving, and I’m not like the several other people who blatantly read and type out texts whilst driving”.

 

 

More details are available from nawzil.com but, in my mind, this update can’t come soon enough and brings a lot of improvements.

Ring, ring, ring, banana phone!

 

LG are going to be producing displays that are thin enough and strong enough to curve, producing phones with interesting new shapes. Perhaps even a banana-shaped handset. Sadly they’ve already been beaten to the punch by Samsung, who’ve launched the Galaxy Round this morning.

They’ll be curved but rigid and, in theory, would fit the contour of your face better. How will this make the user experience any better? Well, we’re not quite sure. Imagine trying to draw on a plastic plate.

Whilst not bendable, the phones are expected to flex if they’re sat on. The thin screens could also mean fold-out screens or the ability to create stylish handsets unlike anything currently available.

 

Oh, and if you’re wondering what I’m talking about with all that banana phone stuff, check here.

YouTube for Windows Phone reverts to the old web version

The ongoing dispute between Microsoft and Google about a Windows Phone version of YouTube has continued during the night.

Basically after years of having a rubbish web based app made by Microsoft we recently got a really really good native Windows Phone app, again made by Microsoft. Google weren’t happy with it as Microsoft had ignored Googles demands for how they wanted the app to function. The main issues were that Microsoft had added a download option and the app didn’t include adverts.

They then brought back the old app back, no doubt after some angry emails from Google. Then shortly after that Microsoft re-released the previous app minus the download function and needless to say Google weren’t happy. Instead of trying to negotiate they just blocked the Microsoft YouTube app from their end. So if a Windows Phone user with the Microsoft app tried to watch anything they were presented with errors.

The latest stage in this dispute is Microsoft updating their app last night. Yep you guessed it, they’ve gone back to the web version. So at least you can watch videos now, but for me I’ve been using MetroTube  all along.

I do hope one day we actually get a nice Metro YouTube app. But along with a load of other Google apps I really doubt it’ll ever happen.

If you fancy trying the “new” version install/update it on the link below.

Windows Phone Store Link – YouTube

Has Windows Phone turned a corner?

Yesterday a lot of people picked up on the fact that Windows Phone was hitting a 9.2% sales share across five major European markets. Those five markets? Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Wehay! Surely it’s time to party, yes?

It must be. Here in Great Britain and over in France the news is even better ..

Windows Phone has hit double digit sales share figures in France and Great Britain with 10.8% and 12% respectively – the first time it has recorded double digits in two major markets.

 

There’s stacks of figures to go through and we can see that Microsoft and Nokia seem to be turning a corner.

Erm…

But wait. If we dig a little deeper and download the full details we can indeed see that the Smartphone OS Sales Share in France shows Windows Phone jumping from 5.6% to 10.8% in the last year. In Great Britain it’s jumped from 4.5% to 12%, in both cases it’s mostly at the expense of BlackBerry. In America the news isn’t so good, with Windows Phone grabbing 3%, only nudging up 0.4% on last year. Don’t even look at China, where figures are down from a 4.7% “sales share” to a tiny 2.1%. In Spain things are largely unchanged.

Are these real sales figures? Do we know the market share now? Can we say for definite that Windows Phone is seeing a promising uplift? Well, it’s.. tricky. These figures are, according to Kantar Worldpanel, made from …

…information .. based on the research extracted from the Kantar Worldpanel ComTech global consumer panel. ComTech is the largest continuous research consumer mobile phone tracking panel of its kind in the world, conducting over one million interviews per year in Europe alone. ComTech tracks mobile phone behaviour, including purchasing of phones, mobile phone bills/airtime, source of purchase and phone usage and delivers beyond market share tracking to understand drivers of share changes, market dynamics through consumer insight – the data included in this release is excluding enterprise sales.

So, no enterprise sales are included and this data is sourced from interviews. I’m sorry, but although this is encouraging I’m going to reserve judgement until I see some hard sales figures.

Cbeebies App launches on Windows Phone

 

Back in August the BBC launched the CBeebies app on iOS, Android and for the Kindle and now the same app has been released for the Windows Phone platform.

The app which is completely free of in app purchases has since kept my little one occupied with its content which features the Octonauts, , Tree Fu Tom, the Alphablocks and the ever annoying Mr Tumble.

Graphically rich and entertaining for all those of a pre school age (and probably some of those of a more mature age too) the app will give hours of fun and enjoyment.

The app is available for free from the Windows Phone App store.