Windows Phone Italy's Facebook page reveals WP7.8 features

The big Microsoft event came and went and there wasn’t even a word about Windows Phone 7.8. Joe Belfiore and co didn’t even announce a date when the update will be released, but it will probably be a while after WP8 hits the shelves (which is already happening).

Whoever is managing the Windows Phone Italia Facebook page was more talkative, however, and answered a question from a fan, revealing the new features that v7.8 will bring. The response has been deleted since.

The list includes the new homescreen (which we already knew), something called 'Club', which we guess is Rooms, Xbox Music and SmartGlass.

Facebook is hardly a reliable source of info, but the features listed seem quite probable - we already know about the homescreen, Rooms and SmartGlass are available for other OSes too, so it's unlikely they will be excluded from WP7.8 and Xbox Music will bring the existing user base to Microsoft's new music service.

In case you don't know yet, Windows Phone 7.8 will be released for 7 and 7.5 devices, as the old hardware won't get updated to WP8.

Source (in Italian) | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/_windows_phone_italys_facebook_page_reveals_wp78_features-news-5028.php

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Windows Phone 7.8 update rumored for weeks after WP8

The home screen is about all that changes with 7.8

While Windows Phone 8 early adopters eagerly await for the first handsets to arrive in the next few days, current Windows Phone users may have to hold out a bit longer for their OS update.

Chinese tech blog WPDang cited unspecified sources that claim that Windows Phone 7.8 will make its debut pre-installed on a new line of low-end WP7 handsets four to six weeks after the Windows Phone 8 launch.

Only after the new handsets hit the market will carriers start pushing the 7.8 update to subscribers.

Microsoft may not be looking for any news to distract from the new Windows Phone 8 smartphones, so it is difficult to be skeptical about rumors of a delayed 7.8 launch.

Windows Phone 8 stealing the spotlight

While the Windows Phone 7.8 update will miss out on most of the new features for Windows Phone 8, it will bring Wi-Fi tethering to legacy smartphones.

Also look for WP7.8 to include an updated home screen with live tiles that take advantage of the entire screen space.

A Nokia document hinted that the camera software on its WP7 smartphones will also see an upgrade, though other OEMs have not made similar announcements.

WP7 users will still miss out on new Windows Phone 8 features, like true multi-tasking, NFC support, over-the-air updates, multi-core processor support and IE 10.

The HTC 8X will be the first Windows Phone 8 handset on the market, arriving Nov. 2, and followed by the Nokia Lumia 920, Lumia 820 and Samsung Galaxy Ativ S.

In the mean time, WP7 users will just have to wait until the Windows Phone 8 furor calms down enough for Microsoft to give 7.8 another look.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/windows-phone-7-8-update-rumored-for-weeks-after-wp8-1109106

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BlackBerry 10 phones being tested by carriers as Pentagon says it will keep using RIM handsets

Research In Motion boss Thorsten Heins has announced that devices running the firm's next-generation OS, BlackBerry 10, are now being tested by carriers around the world, keeping it on course for release early next year. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has said it will continue to use BlackBerry devices in its work.

It’s encouraging. It’s a step in the right direction. It might mean Research In Motion (RIM) really will fulfill its promise of a first-quarter 2013 launch of its next-generation BlackBerry 10 OS and handsets.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins announced in a statement on Wednesday that handsets running the new OS were now being tested by more than 50 carriers worldwide.

Heins said reaching the testing phase meant the company had “passed a critical milestone” in the development of its new mobile computing platform.

“The hard work will not stop here as we build towards launch,” Heins said in the statement, adding, “Our developer teams are continuing to generate momentum to bring a wealth of applications to BlackBerry 10, our enterprise teams have started to present BlackBerry 10 devices and services to our business customers, and our engineers are fully mobilized to ensure that BlackBerry 10 launches flawlessly in the first quarter of 2013.”

In an interview with the BBC last week, Heins urged consumers not to underestimate “the dynamic [BlackBerry 10] is going to create in the market.”

In other news involving the mobile company, the Pentagon made clear this week that it would carry on supporting “large numbers” of BlackBerry handsets despite going ahead with plans to allow the US military to use other devices such as the iPhone.

“The Defense Information Systems Agency is managing an enterprise email capability that continues to support large numbers of RIM devices,” a spokesman told Reuters this week. A number of government agencies and businesses have said in the last year they would be issuing staff with iOS or Android devices, ending long-standing contracts with BlackBerry. While the Pentagon also appears to be relaxing its association with RIM, things are so serious at the Canadian company that the defense agency’s announcement that it’s not switching entirely to rival devices will actually be perceived as good news by many.

The BlackBerry was once the phone of choice for many agencies and firms thanks largely to its strong security features. However, security on rival handsets such as Apple’s iPhone and a number of Android-powered devices has improved over time, offering an alternative to the BlackBerry.

The launch of RIM’s next-generation OS and handsets is its make-or-break moment. Perhaps the Canadian mobile maker – once the country’s most valuable company – can still turn things around, remain a viable player in the mobile game and consequently help to keep competitors on their toes.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/blackberry-10-phones-being-tested-by-carriers-as-pentagon-says-it-will-keep-using-rim-handsets/

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Activision ups its mobile game with Activate and two new Skylanders titles

Activision's bid to conquer the mobile gaming market continues as the company announces a new Game Center-style social network called Activate and two new Skylanders titles for mobile devices.

Activision has started its fall blitz. Licensed small fries like 007 Legends and Wipeout 3 are getting back up from giants like the appropriately named sequel Skylanders: Giants and the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Even as Activision goes for broke chasing the console gamer dollar, the company continues to expand its meager mobile gaming operations.

The latest mobile gaming effort from Activision is Activate, the company’s new mobile gaming network. Described as a social platform, Activate is Activision’s answer to Apple’s Game Center, Amazon’s GameCircle, GREE’s OpenFeint, DeNA’s Mobage and even Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Users can login to the Activate network using their Facebook ID and password or create a specific account and then look at features common to these types of services. Friends lists, achievements, cloud saves, etc.

Activision hasn’t announced a start date for Activate, but when it is ready for primetime, the company will have a significant weapon for differentiating itself in the mobile market: Skylanders. Billed as the company’s “next billion dollar franchise,” the announcement of Activate came alongside the reveal of two new mobile Skylanders games, Skylanders: Lost Islands and Skylanders: Battlegrounds. The former is a resource management game, not unlike Farmville, while the later is a way to bulk up Skylanders characters and action figures that can be used in the console game as well. Both games will have social features supported by Activate.

Activision will also bring Activate support to older titles like last year’s iOS game Skylanders: Cloud Patrol. The new mode for that game will be a shooting game called Showdown, and if a player beats the score of anyone on their Activate friends list, the earn more in-game currency.

After ignoring the booming mobile market for years, licensing out its properties to other developers, Activision seems to have found the perfect blend of services and properties to become a player in the field. It already invested heavily in opening new mobile studios this year, like the UK-based Blast Furnace, whose Pitfall! reboot came out in August. It also partnered with Flurry in June to promote indie mobile games on iOS devices.

How big is Activision’s potential audience for Activate? It’s sold 30 million Skylanders toys alone in the past year. That’s a whole lot of people already spending on small goods beyond the game, so microtransactions in the games on Activate are a sure thing.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/activision-ups-its-mobile-game-with-activate-and-two-new-skylanders-titles/

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iPad 4 more than twice as fast as iPad 3, benchmarks reveal

Well, it certainly looks like an iPad

The fourth-generation iPad, or iPad 4, appears to be a major upgrade over the third-gen iPad 3, according to new benchmark tests.

Apple executives including CEO Tim Cook took the stage at a special press conference last Tuesday to introduce the new iPad, along with the iPad Mini and other new devices.

"This 4th generation is a powerhouse," Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller told the audience and viewers. "What's inside it? A new chip, the A6X. It doubles the performance of CPU tasks."

That's a big promise, but according to the latest report, Schiller's claim that the iPad 4 has double the power may have even been a little conservative.

The numbers don't lie

In TechRadar's side-by-side comparison of the iPad 4 and iPad 3, we noted that the new Apple tablet, dubbed the "iPad with Retina display" despite the last iPad carrying the same screen, might not be a significant upgrade.

But according to a new report from Slashgear, the iPad 4 has more than twice the processing power of its predecessor.

That may in fact be due to Apple's new A6 chip. The benchmark results indicate that the iPad 4's A6 chip clocks in at 1.4GHz, up from the last iPad's 1GHz A5 processor.

The iPad 4's quad-core graphics likely don't hurt, either, and the device doesn't appear to suffer from having the same 1GB of RAM that the last iPad did.

Apple's new A6 chip is also found in the iPhone 5, where it clocks in at 1.3GHz, and according to the same benchmark report, the latest iPhone more than doubles the iPad 3's power as well.

Is it worth an upgrade?

Apple revealed some interesting figures during the iPad press conference, including that 100 million iPads have been sold, and that iPads make up 91 percent of all tablet web traffic.

Apple's previous iPad, the third-gen model with Retina display, was released in March, so some users might be understandably hesitant to upgrade to the iPad 4.

The fourth-gen Apple tablet is priced starting at $US499/£399/AUD$539 for the 16GB Wi-Fi version, while $US629/£499/AUD$679 is the starting price for the same size iPad 4 with LTE data.

TechRadar also compared the iPad 4 to the Microsoft Surface RT, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, and the Asus Tranformer Prime.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/ipad-4-more-than-twice-as-fast-as-ipad-3-benchmarks-reveal-1108743

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Microsoft says games will make Windows Phone 8 a winner, but what’s different?

Windows Phone 8 phones are coming out this fall, marking the next phase of Microsoft's grand Windows 8 transformation. The company says that video games will help the mobile platform thrive, but the company's made the same claims before and failed.

This time! This time we will actually stake our claim in the mobile market! That’s Microsoft’s message with Windows Phone 8, the next generation of its mobile operating system and entertainment ecosystem. Past efforts like 2010’s Windows Phone 7 and Microsoft’s subsequent partnership with Nokia, as well as the iPhone 1 contemporary Windows Mobile 6 and its half-step successors 6.1 and 6.5, have barely kept Microsoft alive in the smartphone market dominated by Google’s Android and Apple’s devices. When Windows Phone 8 arrives in November, says Microsoft, it will finally have a worthy platform and you can tell by the games that support it.

On Monday, Microsoft hosted a debut event for its new mobile platform, promising that its digital app market will be every bit as robust as its competitors. While Microsoft’s boast of having 120,000 apps available in the Windows Phone Store may seem wan compared to the iOS App Store’s more than 700,000 apps, the company proudly claims that it will have the most popular titles on its machine. Temple Run, Disney’s Where’s My Water, Rovio earners like Angry Birds Star Wars are just some of the games backed by entertainment apps like Pandora. Zynga is also onboard with its recognizable time consumers like Draw Something and Words With Friends.

Xbox Live support for games sold in the Windows Phone Store, as well as Windows Phone 8’s built-in compatibility with Xbox 360 and Windows 8 PCs will, Microsoft’s thinking goes, make the HTC, Samsung and Nokia handsets carrying the OS attractive to people who want the complete home entertainment experience. The Xbox brand and the Xbox 360 home console are feathers in Microsoft’s cap considering that Google and Apple don’t have products in that space. Development for the platform will also be easy for publishers. Microsoft claims that porting Xbox-branded games between Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Windows RT is simple.

The truth is, though, that Microsoft has performed this song and dance before. Microsoft held a massive event at the Gamescom conference in 2010 to debut its first wave of Xbox Live-branded games for Windows Phone 7. “Windows Phone 7 is the launch of a major gaming platform for Microsoft,” said the company’s GM of mobile gaming Matt Booty, “Just like we’ve done with Xbox 360, our charter is to push the envelope and deliver definitive games that maximize the platform. We  will have an incredible lineup of MGS titles, and that’s just the beginning.”

Microsoft has sold 70 million Xbox 360s over the past seven years, so there’s no denying the company’s power as a gaming platform holder. The Xbox name and Microsoft’s game business savvy didn’t help Windows Phone 7, though. As of August, the platform controls just 3.5 percent of the global smartphone market. If Windows Phone 8 is going to succeed where Windows Phone 7 failed as a gaming machine, it will need more than just the same games everyone else has.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/games-will-make-windows-phone-8-a-winner/

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Verizon lights up online orders for 4G LTE-equipped LG Spectrum 2

Verizon nabs another exclusive with the Spectrum 2 by LG

Verizon Wireless scored yet another exclusive for its 4G LTE network with the LG Spectrum 2 - but you'll need to get online if you're in the market for one right away.

Taking a break from its usual Thursday new product introductions, Verizon Wireless and LG Electronics USA announced the debut of the Spectrum 2 on Tuesday, a budget-priced Android 4.0 handset perfectly paired with the nation's largest 4G LTE network.

Available online starting today for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year agreement, the Spectrum 2 by LG offers a 4.7-inch IPS True HD screen with Corning Gorilla Glass, Snapdragon S4 Krait 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 1GB RAM and near-field communications (NFC) chip for sharing contacts, maps and websites with others.

If you'd rather head to your nearby Verizon Wireless store, you may have a bit of a wait ahead - the LG Spectrum 2 is only available online for now, with retail availability promised "in the coming weeks."

Smart sharing (and more)

Although the LG Spectrum 2 is arriving out of the gate with last year's Ice Cream Sandwich flavor of Android, the smartphone comes packed with a wide range of other features to help level the playing field.

The global and Mobile Hotspot-ready LG Spectrum 2 includes an 8MP rear-facing camera capable of recording full 1080p HD video along with a 1.3MP front-facing camera for video chats over Verizon's fast 4G LTE network.

LG also includes Smart Share for wirelessly viewing photos or watching videos on any DLNA-enabled device, while the Advanced Image Editor and Video Wiz features make short work of sprucing up anything you shoot with it.

Reprogrammable LG Tag+ stickers can be used to create special smartphone modes just by tapping the NFC-equipped Spectrum 2 against them, perfect for customized home, car and office use.

The Spectrum 2 by LG is also capable of wireless charging when using a unique battery cover included in the box, with an optional $24.99 Premium Sleeve with Smart Display also available for keeping up-to-date with your notifications.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/verizon-lights-up-online-orders-for-4g-lte-equipped-lg-spectrum-2-1108717

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