Live wallpapers revealed for Windows Phone 8: ESPN, USA Today and Bing
A new image has leaked out tonight revealing for the first time Window Phone 8's new "live" lockscreen wallpaper feature. We have mentioned live lockscreen wallpapers before, specifically when the Windows Phone 8 SDK leaked over the summertime (and we told you about them even before then). The feature is not quite as “live” as Android where things are actually moving around, wasting your battery. Instead, this is truly useful.
The image above, received by the site Nokia Innovation, shows three examples of this Live locksreen wallpaper: Bing, ESPN and USA Today. The former will refresh the lockscreen every day with Bing’s latest background, ESPN can show you sports scores presumably of your favorite team and USA Today highlights news via tile images.
Those are but three examples as any developer can add this feature to their application. What’s more, it can be based off of geo-location, time and pushed updates, giving quite a unique and super useful experience for Windows Phone users. It’s “glance and go” taken to the next level, in our opinion.
There’s a lot more to these lockscreen wallpapers and you’re sure to see more coming Monday morning when Microsoft shows off Windows Phone 8 to the world. We’ll of course be there covering it live.
Source: Nokia Innovation
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VagrantWade says:
I will use the ESPN one for sure.
EJNelly says:
Word.
rubenbest says:
Go eagles
pizzalovinhulk says:
GO COWBOYS
goodfellabk718 says:
Go Giants! :P need this now for Sunday's game.
mmali386 says:
No Redskins fans?........Anyway go Texans!
cannon#WP says:
E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!
rebornempowered says:
HTTR!!!
jdandison says:
I don't think I'd want to see how badly the Panthers got beat all week...but if it works for NCAA bball then it will be awesome
albertleao says:
I guess I'm the only one that's undefeated here? Go Falcons...
Redsharpie says:
Yeah baby. Bring on Philly!
Apoc says:
Go Saints!!!
nizzon says:
While we are on the subject. What are the best American football apps?
greg2k says:
GO LOCAL SPORTS TEAM AND/OR COLLEGE!
tissotti says:
That's very nice.
Live wallpapers made for something useful.
oddom says:
No my mario brothers snes live wallpaper is a live wall paper...this is simply just information over a wallpaper at best and is second fiddle to the real deal.
Daniel Rubino says:
lmao... That argument may convince the 5-year olds who visit this site, I'll admit it.
aubreyq says:
Hahaha!
mjrtoo says:
The OS is about information consumption, if you want toys and games, stick with the other two.
erix_2pac says:
Wow! How cool is that! ^_^
Wyn6 says:
I wonder if you'll be able to use them in combination? So, I can set up say, 5 apps and have it cycle between them. That would be stellar.
rybob1 says:
I'd love to see it prioritize them. Using 2 of the 3 examples above - I'd want to have it show my favorite football team (Seattle Seahawks) - first via ESPN, but only if they are currently playing a game - I don't care about the score 3 hours before or 2 days after the game, so why show me the live wallpaper? If the Seahawks aren't playing, maybe check and see if the Mariners are playing, and show their live wallpaper. If none of the teams I care about are playing, then move to the next app, and in this case, it would show me the bing wallpaper.
aubreyq says:
That'd be awesome. Throw a weather wallpaper in the rotation as well.
jdandison says:
It looks like the USA Today one shows weather, but if there was an API so apps like WeatherFlow can use it, that'd seal it up
JoeDizzle33 says:
Do you currently live in Seattle?
Fishhouse says:
This rocks as is, but that would rock even more! Go MS!
eshy says:
Doesn't look like it, at least not for WP8, I would suggest that on the WP uservoice page once we know for sure.
jmerrey says:
So it replaces the "extended info" option if it's enabled?
irlju#WP says:
Is the ESPN wallpaper push enabled or something? Wouldn't be much use if it's every half hour or so.
rybob1 says:
I'm concerned about what features will be part of 7.8 vs 8. I guess we'll find out Monday. With my luck, all the cool features like live wallpapers will only be in WP8.
vitaliano says:
Only WP8 getting all new features is to be expected.
jasonmalcolmgibbins says:
I have a feeling they will announce more features coming to wp7.8 (all new features that don't rely on the new hardware)
black_lion says:
What's up with the clock being different?
aubreyq says:
Good point! Something's not right.
tbonenga says:
Photo Shop buddy. It's even got the old windows logo
oasis1489 says:
My first thought, too. Color me highly skeptical.
Daniel Rubino says:
Renders are renders. The function does exist.
nizzon says:
I LOVE it! I hope it looks like that.
Never really cared for the current lockscreen-layout. MS need to use more fat font as well throughout the OS UI, like in the marketplace.
dalydose says:
OK, this is awesome. I'd love to have the ESPN version linked to "My Teams", then it would automatically show Michigan on Saturday and the Lions on Sunday. Mix in the Red Wings, Pistons and Tigers and that's a dynamic lock screen. :D
Can anyone tell that I'm from Michigan? Haha
Jey Si says:
Hmmm. It looks like that feature will be coming to existing Windows Phone devices. Look at the Windows logo. LOL!!!!!
GuilhermeManso says:
I wanna a live weather update!!!!!!! NOW!!!!!!!
JoeDizzle33 says:
Just look outside your window. Now your updated. You're welcome.
gusterbo says:
But what if I'm in bed...?
You wanna come and update my thermo-sensor rod for me...?
pulkit10 says:
I think this one might make it over to 7.8 (judging by the easy implementation and old Windows logo).
Thinking the same about improved lock screen notifications.
NIST says:
Damn. My WP7 is gonna start looking old pretty quick.
gfunk84 says:
Can't say I like the new layout for the time and date (it looks unpolished), but I guess it gives more room for the background.
jaethos says:
Yeah. it doesn't look very good. I guess that's the trade-off when you enable a live wallpaper. Unless I find a wallpaper I really like I probably won't use them specifically due to the less attractive date and time and the apparent loss of detailed info for my calender.
SaviorXX9 says:
ESPN/boxing on my lockscreen! I love it and Me love you long time MS!
snowmutt says:
I thought I was the last Boxing fan alive!! I am in- home screen with the weekends best KOs....
mmoses1978 says:
Go Arsenal
ricardios says:
Very cool. Sometimes I get numb looking at my lockscreen. Not anymore
1jaxstate1 says:
Blah, better come to WP7.8 or in getting a WP8! ...wait.
1jaxstate1 says:
Oh and LOL at the wack shot at android. I actually think their live wall paper is great.
MajickmanW says:
Will your lovely app have this feature Daniel? (possible spoiler in the reply's)
TonyDedrick says:
Pretty cool feature.
And I actually like Android's live wallpaper feature (currently using an Android til I see what WP8 has to offer). I guess it depends on the phone and what wallpaper is used as they don't really waste my battery very much. Can get about a day and half out of one full charge while using the Paperland live wallpaper
ejlee072006 says:
Omg
al.cantara says:
Awesome! More wp8 goodness.. Will definitely be following the events on Monday.
pittphan says:
Go Eagles! This is a really smart idea and a great point of differentiation for the WP8 platform that fits well with the platform.
I cannot wait for Windows Phone 8!
edjr07 says:
Anyway we know this is activated on the OS? Is it the Nokia ESPN app or the regular ESPN app?
monigal2 says:
Cowboys!!
monigal2 says:
I we get this on the 7.8 upgrade
sdreamer says:
Why the old Windows logo? I know it can be attributed to using old graphics from the previous emulator... but I can't imagine why they would do that... I think the WP8 emulators have the new logo.
Hammered Pizza says:
Hope this gets on WP 7.8 too, no reason for it not to be.
vThylacine says:
I wnder why the windows logo is still the old one.
Any thoughts?
Redsharpie says:
I just got an iPhone 5 after my Arrive breaking. But only because Sprint seems to be wholly against WP. Hopefully by March Sprint will get some and I can steal my wife's upgrade. These are the types of things I prefer in my OS.
jasonmalcolmgibbins says:
I would have the Bing wallpapers, just like I have for my desktop on my pc. Love it! However I agree with some of you about the time and date format isn't as nice looking.
nelson799 says:
I'd love to see something like this for photos in the phone. Every few hours or so many unlocks it could cycle to a new pic from your selected gallery so you don't have to change it yourself all the time. I could set it to cycle through my favorited pictures.
jonesyvoor says:
Very cool. If the ESPN Live Wallpaper updated everytime the score changed that would be awesome. I can also see having a Live Wallpaper for a traffic app with a up-to-date picture of the local area if there were a traffic incident.
atroc says:
GO EAGLES!!!!
