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While there is a lot to look forward to with Windows Phone 8, some of the changes may not be as noticeable but no less important. Windows Phone 8 will have a number of significant changes under the hood to bolster the security of the platform.

Windows Phone 8 will have device encryption throughout the entire device including the OS and its applications. Designed along the same lines as Windows 7 PCs, encryption kicks in as soon as you power up the device. This system, based off of Bitlocker (but adapted for Windows Phone) was something first reported on back in February as an early rumor.

BitLocker is a logical volume encryption system that is present in Windows 7 and will be present in Windows 8.  BitLocker is designed to protect data by providing encryption for entire volumes or drives within a computer to protect the integrity of a trusted boot path.  The main difference between the PC version of encryption and what we will see on Windows Phone 8 is that the encryption keys are not manageable on our Windows Phone as they are on desktops or laptops.

Till this day, how big exactly is the Windows Phone ecosystem is largely a myth. Microsoft is keeping crucial figures all to itself. Over time, many tried to measure the ecosystem with various ways, such as the active users of the Windows Phone Facebook client.

Now WPDang and OpenXLive have decided to do it a bit more scientifically: with consolidated server data of 112 apps and games. Sadly the report only covers the Chinese market, because the majority of these data source apps either make sense only to Chinese users, or are well ranked only in the Chinese Marketplace...

We mentioned the ESPN Fantasy Football App for Nokia Windows Phone being available shortly just the other day and today, ESPN FFL 2012 is available for download. The free app will let you manage multiple fantasy football teams, check in on player performance and view news and video highlights from ESPN.

ESPN FFL 2012 also taps into FantasyCast Live Scoring that will deliver real time player and matchup scoring to your Windows Phone.

Listening to podcasts on the go is one of my favorite pastimes, a great way to catch up with the latest news or a special interest. For those of us who reside outside of North America, podcast support has been a bit limited to say the least. Unlike our pals in the US, we cannot subscribe to podcasts through the marketplace on either Zune desktop software or directly using the phone. Annoying, but Mango at least introduced a half-workable solution. Unfortunately, after the Tango update it’s no longer possible to use that either.

To subscribe to podcasts prior to Tango, first we needed to set them up in the Zune desktop suite. Once subscribed, simply plugging in the phone and synchronising would pass the podcast to it. Podcasts would the automatically download without further PC interaction. Alas, this is now not the case. What’s going on?

You may not recognize Liquid Daffodil but you may recognize some of the developer's Windows Phone apps. glƏƏk! and Outsider (formerly known as ... I'm a WP7) are likely the two biggies in their portfolio but there's more.

You have also have Add to Contacts which adds local search and Local Scout results directly to your contacts; Calendar Search which adds a keyword search with filters for your Windows Phone calendar; and Outsider Extras which adds a few additional features (add an image to your profile, get access to all the Today's Picks and Category Wallpapers, etc.) to your Outsider app.

Our online poll suggests Samsung has done well but still has to win over many

Yesterday during the IFA trade show in Berlin, Samsung surprisingly unveiled the first Windows Phone 8 device for 2012—the ATIV S—to mostly cheers and approvals from current and prospective Windows Phone users.

In an online 24-hour poll conducted yesterday here at Windows Phone Central, nearly 4,000 respondents (cookie and IP locked) responded to Samsung’s announcement of the Galaxy S3 clone for Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 8 OS.

Unity as a company has one mission: help games developers be more successful. Unity is one of the top game development platforms, routinely seen powering the biggest games on a multitude of platforms such as Castle Warriors, Battle Bears, Max & the Magic Marker, CSR Racing, Temple Run and Shadowgun and now its the turn of Windows Phone to get in on the Unity action.

We recently sat down with CEO of Unity Technologies, David Helgason--freshly back from Unite 12--to hear why they are betting on Windows Phone 8 and why it is good news for developers and gamers alike. 

David tells us right off that they want to bring Unity to the platforms that matter most. Surprisingly their decision to bring Unity to Windows Phone was driven by an upwelling of requests from developers...

The ATIV-S from Samsung featuring Windows Phone 8

Looks like Microsoft wanted to break the news of the new Samsung ATIV-S Windows Phone 8 device as Ben Rudolph just posted his thoughts on the new phone, being unveild today at IFA.

The specs for the device are exactly as reported earlier with the addition of GorillaGlass 2 and either 16GB or 32GB models, both with expandable storage via microSD…

While last week’s Xbox Live release Shoot 1UP is pretty easy as shoot-em-ups go, the frenetic, bullet-filled gameplay may still have been too much for some gamers. This week we get a much more leisurely paced style of game: a physics puzzler. I speak of Roll in the Hole from Electronic Art’s Chillingo label.