Like a lot of you, we’ve been yearning for Microsoft to come up with a gift card solution for Windows Phone. Sunny skies ahead. Looks like Microsoft is finally gearing up to drop the Points system on Xbox and replace it with gift cards and cash.
Just ahead of Nokia's new device revaluation in London, which is supposed to spearhead a whole new wave of new Lumia phones and an exciting new year for the manufacturer, there comes rumor that Chinese Windows Phone OEMs will play their cards cautious for 2013.
Citing insider sources, Chinese tech site WPDang claims that Huawei will churn out one single new Windows Phone for the new year: the Ascend W2, which reportedly sports a 5" screen. Not much to look up to, just this one shot.
Nokia's new product announcement in London is less than a week away, and as usual, the product to be revealed just got leaked in advance. Citing unnamed insider source, Chinese tech site WPDang claims that Nokia's London event is about just one device: the previously leaked "Catwalk" aka Lumia 925 930.
Catwalk reportedly sports a shell design with a mix of polycarbonate and aluminum, as depicted in the leaked picture up above.
The operation team behind Chinese app Love Wallpaper HD recently found new device codenames from Samsung, Huawei and Nokia. Yesterday the guys had another look at their updated server log. And guess what they found? A new device from HTC. That makes almost a full house (save for ZTE) for the next wave of Windows Phone devices.
According to two unnamed sources, Bloomberg is reporting that Verizon will start selling the Nokia Lumia 928 next month. This comes shortly after earlier whispers that Big Red's version of the Lumia 920 would be officially announced on April 25, which seem to fall in line with Bloomberg's findings. Perhaps that ratchets our 5 on the Rum-o-meter up to a 6 or maybe even a 7.
The guys behind popular Chinese app Love Wallpaper HD has dug out traces of several interesting devices out of their server log. Among the traces left by various handsets, the following oddities were caught:
Huawei H889L
Samsung SCH-I930
Nokia RM-860_nam_usa_100
Nokia RM-877_nam_att_205
As to what exactly these devices are, we can only make wild guesses. Huawei isn't working on a lot of Windows Phone devices, so that one should be fairly easy. Most likely H889L will be the rumored Ascend W2. As to Samsung, we know the Ativ S is codenamed GT-I8705, and Aive Odyssey SGH-T900M. Therefore SCH-I930 should be a whole new device, instead of some new variation of existing ones.
By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Apr 18, 2013 at 12:17 pm
Sorry folks who hate hearing news or rumors about Instagram, we feel ya, but we have to get through this story for today so bear with us. (We should also remind readers you are free to not read this story if it bothers you so much, ahem).
We've seen renderings, images and even a video highlighting the screen assembly on the Nokia Lumia 928 that is destined for Verizon. We are now hearing rumors that Nokia will officially announce the Lumia 928 on April 25th with availability in stores a few weeks later.
The Lumia 928 is expected to sport a 4.5" Super AMOLED screen and an 8.7MP OIS Pureview camera. Basically, a lighter, slightly redesigned version of the Lumia 920.
A little over a week ago we told you folks about Windows Phone supporting 1080p displays later this year. Windows Phone 8 added supported for both 720p and 768p displays, both of which were present on handsets like the Lumia 920 and HTC 8X at launch. The 1080p support will be available for handsets over 5 inches, allowing Windows Phone devices to compete against the surprisingly popular ‘phablet’ category. And it looks like Nokia may be one of the first to produce such a phablet, as early as July. But wait, there’s more.
By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Apr 17, 2013 at 3:08 pm
We have no way of verifying the authenticity of these two images, but it appears to be of the upcoming Nokia Lumia ‘Catwalk’, a follow up to the Lumia 920 that reportedly sports a new aluminum chassis to help reduce the size and weight. The images showed up on the popular Chinese social network Sina Weibo.
No other details were given, but earlier information about Catwalk stated the device as having 4.5” display with an OCTA display, S4 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 16GB of storage (down from 32GB), 2000mAh battery and an 8.7MP OIS camera with LED flash.
That update is called PR2.0 with the PR standing for “press release” and it corresponds with the version number. For instance, firmwares that started with 1232.1249.XXXX.XXXX were PR1.0, the ones that started with 1232.5951.XXXX.XXXX were PR1.1 and the new 1308 firmware is PR1.1.5. The forthcoming PR2.0 is obviously a big jump and represents numerous changes and enhancements, of which we’ve only been privy to a few.
There is speculation that with the Windows 8.1 update users will have the option to boot up directly to the traditional desktop view. The 8.1 update, code named Blue (that will also impact Windows Phones), will still have the hot corner functionality for access to the Charms and Start Screen. The option will simply launch the desktop view on the computer at boot up.
No word on whether or not the Start Button will be making a comeback (wouldn't hold your breath) but it will be nice to have the option to go straight to the desktop view. Especially for those who prefer the more traditional Windows view.
My Nokia Blog is reporting on specifications the next Nokia flagship Windows Phone (possibly the RM-877) will feature. Mentioning sources familiar with company plans, it's believed that the device will indeed have a superior camera to what's currently available on the platform. That we can be sure of as Nokia is pushing optics even further, but what about the other entries on the specifications sheet? According to the source, Nokia is working on two different models of the EOS, which we've previously looked at numerous times.
Shh, don't tell Nokia, but the Lumia 928 isn't exactly a secret. The high-end Lumia is destined for Verizon Wireless here in the United States. Further adding to the growing evidence are these parts for the Lumia 928. If you're planning on some DIY repair adventures you'll want to check this out.
Earlier today we shared with you guys news about Microsoft looking to add more live tiles to Windows Phone. It would allow the interface to look better on displays with larger and higher resolutions, something that Windows Phone 8 currently might not excel at. A reader sent a quick mockup of what that would look like. We figured we’d share it with you all.
By Rich Edmonds, Saturday, Apr 13, 2013 at 4:48 am
We've already covered rumours of Microsoft looking to add 1080p support for Windows Phone later this year with the GDR3 update (this is all before the anticipated "Blue" update), but now the company may well be addressing the larger real estate issue that will occur with Live Tiles. Should you own a Samsung ATIV S, the three columns of tiles can appear to be rather limited at times, but Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet has learnt that the Windows Phone team is looking at a solution - to add more tiles.
Huawei hasn’t exactly set the Windows Phone world on fire with a higher end device. Sure the W1 is a nice budget phone for those just getting into the smartphone game, but most people reading this site would probably prefer something a little more impressive. Today the specs of the Ascend W2 from Huawei leaked online, showing off a device more in line with the Lumia 920s and Ativ S devices of the world.
Sources within Microsoft revealed to the Wall Street Journal that the Redmond company is set to unveil a 7-inch tablet later this year. It will be part of the Surface family and launch alongside other Surface branded devices.
The next Xbox is due to come out later this year, but we still don’t know a whole lot about ‘Durango’. One thing revealed today by The Verge is how the next Xbox is being positioned to completely become the center of your living room – for all things entertainment. The next Xbox will reportedly take over a TV through the cable box.
In perhaps not a surprising move, Microsoft is expected to add 1080P resolution support for Windows Phone 8 displays later this year with the General Distribution Release (GDR3) software release to OEMs. Currently, Windows Phone can only support up to 768 and 720 resolutions, which while a marked improvement over its predecessor is still far behind Android.
The resolution will reportedly only be for displays 5 inches and greater, allowing OEMs to expand their Windows Phone offerings into the new “phablet” designs like the Samsung Galaxy Note I, II. That’s also presumably done because supply constraints on manufacturing will also limit initial 1080P displays to certain sizes, though that will change in the future.
We’re not a 100% certain on the specific of this one, but the Samsung SCH-R860U has cleared the FCC sporting Band 12 LTE. That band is used by US Cellular, making this phone destined for that carrier and that carrier only (sorry, Sprint fans).
The question is, does the phone run Android or Windows Phone 8? With the Galaxy S4 right around the corner and Sammy’s slightly cold support of Windows Phone 8, we’d lean on it being another Android phone. But the site Blog of Mobile, who have a pretty decent reputation for finding these filings, claims it sports Windows Phone 8.
We’re still unsure about the supposed “Lumia 950”, a successor of the 920 with some upped specs including 2GB of RAM, better battery life, Xenon flash and a higher megapixel camera which we reported on last week. But now, a new image of a supposed Lumia 950 in yellow has showed up.
There’s not too much to go on with this story but evidently a new Nokia phone, RM-877 (RM-877_nam_att_205) with a 1280x768 display has been caught in the web of AdDuplex.
As to what RM-877 is exactly, we cannot discern. The good news is that being 1280x768, it can only be a 9xx series or higher phone (Lumia 8xx have 800x480 displays, as does everything else below it). From there we can speculate that this is either a Lumia 920 refresh or the anticipated ‘EOS’ phone with a high megapixel camera akin to the Pureview 808, which will be sold alongside the current Lumia 920.
Note:Image above is merely a concept device, not the Catwalk
We’ve been hearing about the Nokia ‘Catwalk’ for some time now (not to be confused with Verizon's 'Laser', though they may be analogous), a sister device of sorts to the Lumia 920 but with a focus on an aluminum chassis to make it more nimble. Now, Italian blogger and personality Flavio has revealed the supposed specs for the device.
Is there anything revelatory? Not really. The device will feature the same 4.5” display but with octaOLED, S4 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 16GB of storage (down from 32GB), 2000mAh battery and an 8.7MP OIS camera with Xenon flash (Correction: no Xenon flash, but LED instead). No mention of a microSD card for expansion, however.
HTC has always been a big partner of Microsoft. They’ve been onboard with Windows Phone since the beginning in 2010, but the history goes back deeper than that. They started out making devices for other companies (running Windows Mobile) and took off when they started to produce devices under their own name. With the upcoming ‘Blue’ update across a variety of Microsoft platforms it’s becoming harder and harder for OEMs to build a Windows Phone and not have a corresponding tablet running Windows 8 to complement it.
NPD DisplaySearch, a market research and consulting firm, believes that HTC is working on a tablet running Windows 8.
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