The focus on Instagram goes well beyond photo sharing apps for Windows Phone. No matter what my thoughts are on that situation, it doesn’t take away from the fact that there are cross platform apps that perform a similar function available for Windows Phone.
Last May I took a look at Eyeem, an app for Windows Phone 7, that was a deserving photo sharing network, with a great focus on the art of photography, with apps for Android and iOS as well. A really good service, and large enough to be a decent competitor to Instagram with out the backing of Facebook. Unfortunately, they have not delivered in terms of keeping up with the Windows Phone platform, not delivering an update for Windows Phone 8. Even though I still use it, Eyeem has followed the money, Android and iOS, leaving Windows Phone users languishing.
Recently another service, PhotoPlay, using basically the same model entered the frey, but how much bearing do apps like these have on the current situation?
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The idea that Microsoft would make it’s own Windows Phone hardware [ when we say make their own hardware, it would involve some third party manufacturer making devices to their design specs] has been speculated upon for a while. We have seen concept phones, like the one pictured above, but these have been “on paper only” wishful thinking. The rumour has persisted though, and today in two separate stories, WPCentral, and Boy Genius Report have taken the rumour up a notch.
The ever popular anonymous, well not anonymous but those that cannot be named sources, are saying that the phones are already in testing and will be marketed under the surface brand.
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We all have an expectation when we sign up for a service from a mobile carrier, that we will be informed by the carrier if any service or software they provide, whether directly or indirectly will affect our service. Much more importantly if those said services or software will adversely affect our devices, while using them.
It seems to be a line that is blurred though, if you ask a question of your service provider, who you pay for the service, are you not entitled to a reasonable answer? You may also find that the urgency of any response you receive is tempered by the mobile OS that you use, the openness of the corporate structure of your carrier, and then the moderators of the forum on which you try to communicate, ask your questions.
TO bring that pre amble into perspective, we have to go back just a little while, about a month and a half to when Telstra released an update for their Telstra One application, which really didn’t add a lot of features
The “My Account” page is direct access to your data stats, customer support, your purchases etc.
What it did do though is introduce some technical issues, that led to the app being withdrawn from the marketplace, store, about a week after the update. As news of the update spread the disdain and wonderment at it’s absence grew amongst users trying to get a hold of the app.
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I’d have to assume that this is an incredible bit of sleuthing on the part of Robert McLaws, or he’s just very familiar with the way Microsoft do things. He discovered and shared on Twitter, the landing page for the Windows Phone 8 SDK, hidden within the files on the Windows Phone Dev Center.
What he has found is obviously the page which when revealed, will be the place for developers to download the official SDK from Microsoft. or the place for developers to watch when MS gives us some real info abut he SDK’s availability.
My guess would be that September 5, the date of the Microsoft Nokia Event in New York, and what we expect to be the reveal of Nokia’s WP8 offerings at Nokia World, will be when this page is revealed. It’s likely that availability of the SDK will be announced at the New York event, to be distributed at a later date, and that this page will go live to coincide with that announcement.
Metro style, Metro UI, Metro has been the design style that we have become accustomed to since the introduction of Windows Phone. It’s synonymous with all the new releases we have seen from Microsoft of late, from Windows 8’s home screen app tiles to the new outlook.com mail service. In one foul swoop it seems to have been curtailed though, It’s not Metro any more.
sources are telling us that this is coming to an abrupt end after the company’s Legal and Corporate Affairs team sent out a memo banning the word “Metro.” LCA’s memo reportedly says that Microsoft has been threatened with legal action for infringing on “Metro” trademarks held by German retailer Metro AG
This is a phenomenal situation considering that Windows 8 went RTM this week and looks to be seeded to people with different levels of access over the next two months.
From now on, the new terminology that Microsoft is using is “Windows 8-style UI” when talking about Windows 8 applications, and “New User Interface” when talking about the company’s full product line-up
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We’ve been bombarded locally with the Samsung Galaxy range, the SIII being the latest android super phone from the ever more popular OEM. It’s full of all sorts of doo dads and smart tech, well more tan enough to keep the raging tech lust of many sated. Or then again, a whole heap of features that most people wont ever find a use for, as long as they can text, call and take a photo.
Not to bag Samsung or anything, and it looks to be their most popular phone ever, selling something like 10 million units in a very short time, but the device is large and made of plastic. This allows for a lot of chassis flex in the device, and makes it more prone to damage on a drop from a reasonable height.
Gizmo Slip is a sight that takes the latest devices and puts them through a series of tests to see how they survive, what may be everyday mishaps. If the device survives they give it away to their readers, if it doesn’t…, well you’ll find that out in the video below. [NB: I’ve edited advertising out of the video below, do GizmoSlip a favour and watch the vid at the link above as well 
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Microsoft must be hearing the clamour around the Windows Phone community concerning the WP7.8 upgrade, announced last week at the Windows Phone Summit. As yet we know little more about the upgrade than that it will bring the Windows Phone 8 start screen UI to WP7, what other features will it bring is the burning question.
What we have seen of the update, shows only the re-sizable tiles, small. large and larger, filling the complete screen. Gone is the right hand side offset and the Metro style arrow icon that indicates which way to swipe for the program list. All demos we have seen, focus purely on the start screen, in the first video reveal, the person demonstrating announces that the build is still buggy, and therefore He could not show any more.
Users are incensed that no more, if any, features have been revealed as being present in the update. This has generated a lot of negative feedback around the web, which continues to grow as their questions go unanswered. This lack of knowledge about the update prompted Simon Luk, admin at WeLoveWP.HK to appeal to Microsoft on it’s Uservoice Forum.
The gist of Simons post is simple, and it resides in the feature suggestion category, “Microsoft, please bring new features of WP8 that are supported by existing WP7.5 hardware to WP7.8”. As a suggestion, it has already gone to number 1 on the list, garnering a whopping 25,388 points to date, that’s in a period of five days. Simons request is not unreasonable, though passionate, I think he echo’s the hopes of a lot of WP7 users.
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With Microsoft expected to reveal Windows Phone 8 this week, at its Windows Phone Summit in San Fran Cisco in a couple of days, June 20, there’s plenty of speculation as to what we will see or not see in it’s OS overhaul. One thing that is interesting though, is that the Tango update for the OS, the real update for older devices, is also rumoured to see a concentrated roll out, similar to the Mango update at the same time. As if to confirm this, Microsoft has started updating the Windows Phone Update History page, on it’s Windows Phone website in market regions around the world.
The Australian site updated with the Tango details some time today, and WMPoweruser is reporting that the Spanish site has also had the details added. Notice the little disclaimer, “ This update is not available in all markets or for all phones”.
With confusion still surrounding how much of the Apollo update, or it’s features, will make it to WP7 devices, which hopefully will be cleared up once and for all at the summit.Is news of an impending update, distraction enough for current users of WP7, who will not get full Windows Phone 8 without a device upgrade? Considering that leaked road maps point to WP8 coming in October, that’s plenty of time for people to grumble.
![Another Surface Phone Concept! [Drool]](/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/surfNcon_thumb-238x196.png)
