bugs

SoundGecko has received an update that fixes a major usability issue with the initial release. However, unlike most patches, the cause wasn’t with the developer, but instead with the Windows Phone Store. When you release an app for all three major smartphone platforms and achieve feature parity across the board, you expect all users to have a similar experience. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case for SoundGecko when it launched for Windows Phone back in September. 

One of the nice features with Windows Phone 8 is the Kid's Corner. If you go into the settings and turn this feature on, you can select games, music, videos, and apps that are age appropriate for your children. While in the Kid's Corner, these selections are all your children have access to. It is designed to create a safe environment for your kids to access and protect the more sensitive stuff on your Windows Phones from curiosity.

But there seems to be a slight bug in accessing the Kid's Corner if you use a PIN Number to lock your Windows Phone. When a PIN Number is set, if you swipe right from the lock screen to access the Kid's Corner that PIN number is required to unlock the Kid's Corner.

AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 with the 8779 Tango update

Well after biting the bullet and factory-resetting our Lumia 900 with a ROM flash, we managed to update our glossy-white AT&T Lumia 900 to the official Tango update. That update is sitting in stand-by on Nokia’s servers, presumably waiting for AT&T to give the go to push out to the Zune servers so the rest of you can update.

Although you can manually do this yourself using a third-party program called Nokia Care Suite, you will factory-flash the phone meaning the device will be completely wiped—no saved games, no saved photos. In that regard, you may be best served by just waiting a few days (weeks?) for it to hit Zune where you can just update the phone and keep everything.

In the meantime, we sacrificed for your knowledge. In turn you can watch our video hands on after the break for our thoughts on the update in addition to our mini-review...

From purple screens to rattles to unresponsive buttons, the Nokia Lumia 900 still has a couple of nagging problems for a few of us. Here's what people are complaining about most.

The Nokia Lumia 900 seems to be doing well for AT&T and for some reason we can't leave our glossy-white one out of reach for long but there are still plenty of bugs and issues rolling in to our inbox at WPCentral. Although that data-bug is now history thanks to a quick response from Nokia these few, seemingly random issues are plaguing numerous Lumia 900 users. We'll go over a few:

• Purple screen - Grays appear with a purple hue when the display brightness is set to low (or automatic and goes to low). Although it could be a software calibration issue it doesn't affect all Lumia 900s, in fact it's just a subset that are out there. Our own glossy-white Lumia 900 has this and it's quite obvious when on the low-setting. You can commiserate with others in our forum who are having this problem. Nokia seems to be trying to isolate which builds it may be and you can submit your device information in this Nokia help thread.
• Camera button won't wake the phone - This issue is caused when the device is powered off/standby and you hold the camera button to launch into the camera app. It's actually easy to replicate: Run any app and leave it on screen then power off the phone. Now try to hold-n-launch the camera via the shutter button. It won't work. Turn the device back on, exit the app, go to stand by and now try it and it will launch. We've had it happen even without an app running under lockscreen. (Thanks, Sepatown for the replication trick)
• Vibrate feature rattles - We complained about this in our 900 review and even have a video of it compared to the Lumia 800. In short, the vibration feature rattles to different degrees on many Lumia 900s often sounding like an electric razor. Once again, the problem is on some phones while not on others. You can follow the threads here at WPCentral and Nokia Support for more info.
• Inline remote on headset issue - The Nokia Monster Purity headphones sometimes won't forward/pause a track. Also, volume rockers when the device is a sleep won't respond and/or require multiple pushes
• Low volume is high - Even on "1" the volume is quite loud and doesn't start to vary till "7".

Nokia sure has a lot on their plate and we know they are actively looking to address these but the question is how much of this is firmware and how much is it Quality Control (QC) with the hardware? We should caution that not all Lumia 900 users are having problems but even Rafael and I both have Lumia 900's with "purple grays" and my vibration rattles a bit too.

We'll be paying attention but for now, you may want to read up in our "Official Lumia 900 Bugs List" to see what others are saying.

Update: Take our poll to see if others are having the same problems or not

Image Credit: tewmgd (XDA forums); See the vibrate-rattle issue demonstrated on video after the break...

Whatever the reason for the Windows Phone Marketplace had for not playing nice earlier, the problems appeasr to have been resolved. We've been able to access the Marketplace online as well as from our Windows Phones.

Even the links to Marketplace apps are behaving as they should. The glitches we've experienced today as well as over the weekend could simply be the result of Microsoft working under the hood.

None the less, all appears to be corrected and we hope everyone is now able to access the Marketplace.  Sound off in the comments if you're still having problems.

The other day we mentioned an SMS Bug that your Windows Phone is vulnerable to. Basically someone sends you a certain text message and it reboots your Windows Phone and disables your Messaging Hub. Microsoft has confirmed that such exists and is diligently working on a solution.

Senior Product Manager for Windows Phone, Greg Sullivan states,

"We are aware of the issue and our engineering teams are examining it now. Once we have more details, we will take appropriate action to help ensure customers are protected."

Should you see your Windows Phone mysteriously re-boot and then loose the ability to launch the Messaging Hub, your only remedy is to perform a hard reset. We'll keep our fingers crossed that Microsoft finds and distributes a fix soon.

source: the verge

If you will recall, the official WordPress app for WP7 was updated to version 1.3 to support Mango, but was quickly pulled from the Marketplace due to a bug that the developers found.  WordPress has made its way to version 1.4, which has resolved the issue and still also sports the Mango support of its predecessor.  Along with fast-switching, the updated WordPress also has the following new features from 1.3:

"You can now share pictures directly from your photo album to a new post in the app, as well as pin your blog to the start screen for quick access."

You can download WordPress 1.4 here.  Happy blogging!

De-Bugs is the latest Windows Phone release from software developers XIMAD. The game has you de-bugging 95 acres of lakes in the land of Mystery Pond.

To clear the ponds of bugs you essentially knock them into each other to get them to fly off. You have two means of accomplishing this. You can flick/swipe at the bugs to get them to slam into each other or the age-old method of tapping, pulling and launching them. You can bank the bugs off the edges of the screens as well as bouncing them off one another.

When hit, the bugs will start to flitter their wings and fly off. Only being hit by a like-colored bug will get them to fly off and to make the game challenging, your racing the clock to clear your lake.  If you miss your target or hit a bug of a different color, you'll loose points.

Another thing to be careful of is leaving a single bug of any particular color in the water. Eventually another bug of the same color will appear but it will cost you precious seconds off the clock. You get three chances per game and then it's game over.

De-Bugs does have an online leaderboard and a "secret" tilt control (hadn't figured that one out yet). De-Bugs is an entertaining, free, ad-supported game. You can download it here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

Not so long ago, 1800PocketPC reported that the Marketplace ranking system which moves apps and games up and down within a category depending on popularity and rating was broken (probably Chuck Norris had his app declined at certification and decided to round-house kick the Marketplace). Everything now seems to be back to normal and rankings reflective of respective ratings.

The problem was most notable with Lunar Lander, released on 11th May, has a two and a half star rating and was frozen at 68th position, while newly released Hydro Thunder GO, which has a four star rating was stamped at 1277th position. While this may not affect big developers much in terms of reach, indie developers who don't have Live titles in the games category would have found this particularly worrying, especially since they already have problems with Live titles getting more coverage.