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All posts tagged "updates"


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Fix For Lumia 900 On The Way

Posted by Nurhisham Hussein in "Nokia Windows Phones" @ 11:00 PM

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news...data-glitch.ars

"Some Nokia Lumia 900 customers have been experiencing a loss of data connectivity-both LTE and 3G-on their new handsets. Nokia has identified the problem and devised a software fix, which will be rolled out on or around April 16th. Customers not wanting to wait can have their phones swapped for updated versions in AT&T stores. The company will also give any AT&T customer buying a Lumia between now and April 21 a $100 credit on their next bill."

At the price AT&T are retailing the Lumia for (with contract), that $100 credit means you're effectively getting the Lumia for free. If you aren't afraid of hooking up with AT&T, that's a pretty good deal for what looks like one of the better Windows Phone 7 devices out there. And kudos to Nokia for the fast turnaround.


Thursday, September 22, 2011

Mango's Around The Corner

Posted by Nurhisham Hussein in "Windows Phone News" @ 09:00 PM

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_...-on-timing.aspx

""For months, we and dozens of our partner companies have been laying the groundwork for the Windows Phone 7.5 update-and making solid progress. As a result, we now expect to start rolling it out in the next week or two. At that time, we'll also refresh the Where's My Phone Update? table to reflect the worldwide rollout status."

It's almost here, but given the vagaries of the update process and the vagueness of the statement, I think an October 1st rollout is the likeliest, with as long as a month until everyone gets it. There's a real dependency on carrier testing, even if Microsoft's actually pushing out the updates, and given the trouble with NoDo, there's no guarantees the process will be smooth sailing.


Thursday, March 24, 2011

Microsoft Gives Us An Update Schedule

Posted by Jon Westfall in "Windows Phone News" @ 05:33 AM

http://www.microsoft.com/windowspho...hedule-usa.aspx

"This table provides update status for Windows Phone customers in the U.S. Find your phone model, then check to see what stage your update is in."

In the list of Smart Ideas I Never Thought I'd See Microsoft Implement, this schedule above surely ranks near the top. For years all I've wanted (and I suspect others have too) is just to know that an update is in the works, and maybe approximately where it is. With carriers given iron curtain-like secrecy about their timing, it almost seemed as if Microsoft was complacent in their partner's delays. This sends a clear signal: Carrier partners - Get your acts together, because now everyone knows that it isn't Microsoft that's holding up the update for X phone, it's the carrier who apparently doesn't care if you get the functionality soon or not so soon. Congratulations Microsoft, you've taken your case to the people.


Saturday, November 6, 2010

Maximum PC's 10 Ways to Make Windows Phone 7 Mo' Betta'

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Windows Phone Articles & Resources" @ 05:00 PM

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...windows_phone_7

"Earning Xbox Live achievements on the toilet? Awesome. Being able to play online multiplayer games with my other Xbox Live friends and earning achievements while on the toilet? That would be even awesomer. Right now, Windows Phone's link to Xbox Live is only medium satisfying, but the potential for amazing things is eyeball-explodingly obvious. Full-on Xbox Live multiplayer. Xbox Live Arcade games that you start playing on your Xbox and then pick up waiting in line at Starbucks, like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Earning items in a Fable Windows Phone game to use in Fable IV. Truly ubiquitous Xbox gaming, so even the most atrophied addicts can leave the house and still get their game on. Windows Phone should be the portable Xbox. (And it should be a remote for your Xbox too.)"

There's no shortage of ways that Microsoft can improve Windows Phone 7 - despite the version number, it's really 1.0 software, and has lots of growth required before it's on even footing with rival platforms that have 3-5 years of growth behind them. There are some interesting things on this list, though some of them are kind of odd - would you really power off your phone in the middle of a game instead of exiting the game, then powering it off? The author of this piece is complaining about how it takes a few seconds to resume a game that's behind the lock screen when he powers the phone back on - I'll have to try the same thing on my iPod Touch to see how iOS handles it...


Saturday, February 6, 2010

Sony Ericsson Talks XPERIA X2 Software Updates

Posted by Darius Wey in "Windows Phone News" @ 10:55 AM

http://xperiancers.com/2010/02/02/x...pport-schedule/

"It's not news to say that we attracted some criticism for this on the X1 and we're not going to go there again with the X2. So, for the record, this is what X2 customers can expect in terms of software upgrades."

In an attempt to be upfront with consumers, Sony Ericsson has announced the software update schedule for the XPERIA X2. According to the company, March should bring a major update: Windows Mobile will be upped from 6.5.1 to 6.5.2, most applications will receive tweaks, and there will be added support for video telephony, an FM radio, and faster GPS fixes. Then sometime in May, it'll get the Windows Mobile 6.5.3 treatment. Of course, the value of all this is heavily dependent on the device making it into the hands of consumers in a timely fashion, which we're sorry to say, is not happening.


Thursday, August 7, 2008

HTC e-Club Undergoes Changes, ROM Updates Available to (Almost) Everyone

Posted by Darius Wey in "Pocket PC News" @ 05:53 AM

http://www.htc.com/www/support.aspx

There's a fresh breeze going through HTC HQ at the moment. The company has opened up ROM updates to almost everyone. I say "almost", because you still need your device's serial number to download the updates, but that's a heck of a lot better than the notoriously flaky process of registering your device in the e-Club.

With ROM updates available in the Support section, the e-Club now serves as a hub for mobile content. While only twenty ringtones are up for grabs at the moment, they're surprisingly decent. Four of them are the tunes featured in the Touch Diamond promo videos. The rest are a mix of electronic, folk, rock, hip-hop, and new age beats. You do need to be an e-Club member to download them, but it's free for anyone (even non-HTC customers) to register.


Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The Broken Ecosystem for Windows Mobile Updates

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Pocket PC Talk" @ 01:30 PM

Another interesting discussion came up on the private Mobius discussion list, and my response was a bit long so I thought it was worth sharing here. One of the Mobius group members made a comment about how it was time for something to be done to separate the firmware from the customizations that operators made - allowing for easy OS and application updates. My response, slightly expanded for public consumption...

We were at that point back in 2001 when some of the first generation Pocket PCs were denied upgrades to the new OS. This has been a sore point for Windows Mobile from the start.

iPhone = Two phones + one OS + one company = easy updates

Zune = Three devices + one OS + one company = easy updates

Windows Mobile = Dozens (hundreds?) of phones + two OS' + dozens of companies = nightmare update scenario

This issue has come up time and time again: because of all the different phone hardware, and the low-level software customization required for drivers and whatnot, OS updates and even simple patches are much more complicated than they could be if the underlying system was simpler. Every time there's a new version of Windows Mobile, we hear that updates are going to be made easier, but it never seems to translate into actual updates for users. Someone smarter than me can probably explain this, but on desktop PCs (at least with Windows) you have a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that takes care of certain important things related to hardware and software talking to each other. Here's part of the Wikipedia definition:

"A hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is an abstraction layer, implemented in software, between the physical hardware of a computer and the software that runs on that computer. Its function is to hide differences in hardware from most of the operating system kernel, so that most of the kernel-mode code does not need to be changed to run on systems with different hardware. On a PC, HAL can basically be considered to be the driver for the motherboard and allows instructions from higher level computer languages to communicate with lower level components, such as directly with hardware." Read more...


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