GDR2

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Rumor: Nokia to reveal "Catwalk" in London on May 14

Rumors

By Chassit, Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 2:58 am

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.

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Rumor: Nokia’s PR2.0 major firmware update for Lumias aiming for a July release

By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Apr 17, 2013 at 1:03 pm

We brought you the video last week of a forthcoming “major” firmware release for the Lumia 920 (and presumably other Windows Phone 8 Lumias) where the new “double tap to awake” and an on-screen clock were revealed.

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.

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FM Radio to return to Windows Phone 8, Nokia to continue improving their Lumias with new features

Rumors

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Mar 26, 2013 at 11:23 am

If there’s one sore spot with a certain segment of users it was how the release of Windows Phone 8 lacked FM radio support—something which had been around since the Zune player days. No reason was ever stated, though it’s a safe guess that it was something Microsoft simply did not have time to complete by October’s release schedule.

Now, according to sources at the Verge, that situation will change with the expected GDR2 update coming out later this summer. That addition will allow users, when headphones are plugged in, to use their Windows Phone as an FM radio—an important source of news and entertainment for many in emerging markets who can’t afford streaming data plans.

Microsoft and Nokia are already beta testing GDR2 Windows Phone 8 OS update

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Mar 5, 2013 at 11:25 am

It was only last week where we learned about so-called “GDR” or “General Distribution Releases”, which are to be minor OS updates for Windows Phone 8. The “Portico” update that started last December was reportedly GDR1 and according to ZDNet, there are at least two others coming this year as well: GDR2 and GDR3. After that is a “major” OS update with “Blue” coming in the holiday season.

We have now found the new firmware that is in testing on Nokia’s Navifirm servers and it is coincidentally labeled “GDR2 Beta 2”. Since we don’t believe that is by mistake it seems evident that this is actually not just a firmware update but also and OS-level update delivering new features, including the ability to clean temporary storage, improved camera performance and giving users control over their display color profile.

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Between Windows Phone 8 and Blue lies a path of more frequent updates

By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 6:11 pm

With yesterday’s alleged leak of HTC’s next Windows Phone, one of its eyebrow raising aspects was the use of “GDR2” when identifying the OS. The term was new nomenclature for those who follow Microsoft’s update cycles and product code names. Now, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley has learnt of its meaning and Paul Thurrott helps put it into focus.

The term GDR2 stands for “General Distribution Release” with the two denoting its sequence. The first GDR was “Portico” (build 10211), which was delivered starting at the end of December by Nokia (AT&T Lumia 920) and continuing within the last few weeks for the Lumia 810, 820 and HTC 8X devices on various carriers.

The big picture of these new updates is something we spoke about on the last podcast: there will be more frequent but smaller OS updates on Windows Phone 8 over the next 8-12 months before “Blue” is released.