WP7.nl and a number of other sources are reporting that the Windows Phone 7.8 software update has started rolling out for the Nokia Lumia 800. The Dutch Windows Phone site says that the four part updates takes the device's software to version 7.10.8858.136. Windows Phone 7.8 provides a number of updates including a new start screen experience (variable sized Live Tiles), a doubling in number of the accent colours, and the option to use the Bing picture of the day in the lockscreen.
Google has announced the end of life for Google Sync, which was designed to give access to Gmail, Google Calendar and Contacts via Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync protocol. Starting from January 30th 2013, consumers will no longer be able to set up new devices using Google Sync, although existing connections will continue to function. The news will, potentially, effect those setting up a new sync connection to their Google Calendar and Contacts from a Windows Phone device after the specified date.
Nokia has revealed a new Lumia phone, the 505, following our earlier (unconfirmed) story, specifically for Mexico and its Telcel network. It's low end - mainly because of the 4GB unexpandable storage - but is running Windows Phone 7.8, with a 3.7" AMOLED WVGA display and 8 megapixel camera. Some photos and main specs below.
In a post on the Windows Phone blog Terry Myerson, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Windows Phone, offers an update on the availability of, and features in, Windows Phone 7.8. For existing devices the update will arrive in early 2013, pending approval by Microsoft's hardware partners and operators.
The Windows Phone SDK 8.0 is now available for download. It is a full-featured development environment, sitting on top of Visual Studio 2012, which can be used to create apps and games for Windows Phone 7.5 and Window Phone 8.0 devices. In addition the Dev Center has been refreshed, and is now open for Windows Phone 8 app submissions. As an added incentive to encourage developers to submit apps for publication Microsoft is reducing the registration fee for Dev Center to $8, after a $91 rebate, for the next 8 days.
More than 125,000 apps have now been published in the Windows Phone Marketplace and new content is currently being added at the rate of 215 apps per day. At the time of writing, 126,530 apps have been published, of which 113,170 are available for download (live). Of these, 15,822 were added in the last three months and 5,673 were added in the last month. These apps come from just over 30,000 different publishers.
Nokia today announced a new Windows Phone, the Lumia 510, with an estimated launch price point of $199 (£125 / €150) before taxes and subsidies, making it the lowest cost Windows Phone device to date.
The device, which runs on Windows Phone 7.5, has a 800 MHz Snapdragon S1 processor with 256 MB of RAM, a 4 inch TFT capacitive touch screen (480 x 800 resolution), 5 megapixel camera, and 4GB of internal storage. The Lumia 510 is expected to become available in November, and will launch in India and China, followed closely by other Asia-Pacific and South American countries.
Nokia Xpress for Lumia has been brought into the Windows Phone world via Beta Labs and 'offers a new way to save data, time and money while you find and enjoy interesting web content'. In other words, it's a proxy-server-based browsing system that compresses web content in much the same way as the famous Opera Mini - though there are some very interesting layout and subscription twists here, which we break down for you below.
On Monday Kantar released its latest set of Worldpanel data about smartphone market share in the EU5 (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain), the US, Australia, Brazil and Mexico. The year-on-year figures showed mixed fortunes for Windows Phones with increased share in Europe (3.8% to 5%), but a fall in the US (3.5% to 2.7%). Brazil is another bright spot with market share increasing from 3.8% to 12.2%, Mexico, by contrast, show a small fall from 2.9% to 2.7%.
Nokia Reading, an eBook and news reading app, has received a major update to version 1.4.86.978. The key new feature is News Stream, which provides a friendly and visually rich user experience for consuming RSS (news) feeds from newspapers, blogs, and other websites. In addition, DRM-free eBooks (PDF and ePUB formats) can now be imported from SkyDrive, complementing the built in eBook store.
