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Microsoft fills in some details on Surface RT during Reddit IAmA

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By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 at 11:43 am

Although we know a lot about the Surface RT from Microsoft, there are still gaps in the finer details that you may want to know—either just for curiosity or because it factors into your decision on whether to buy one.

Luckily for you the Surface team to a Q&A session on Reddit yesterday and they answered quite a few question about the upcoming tablet. To help you sort through, we’ll summarize some of the main points…

HTC announces the 8X with Windows Phone 8

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By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Sep 19, 2012 at 11:19 am

Today, September 19^th, HTC finally took the veil of their 8X device featuring Windows Phone 8. The device features an array of various technologies, including a 4.3” Super LCD2 display with Gorilla Glass2 at 720P resolution. In addition, the 8X features a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm S4 CPU, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of non-expandable storage.

But perhaps the most interesting feature besides the included NFC and 8MP BSI camera, is the Beats audio software and hardware. The software features some advanced DSP and signal correction technology but the 8X also features a 2.55v amplifier to greatly increase sound output.

And just as important, the HTC 8X will be coming to AT&T (US) for an estimated price of $199...

Some details emerge about future Windows Phone 8 update program for enthusiast users

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Aug 28, 2012 at 12:37 pm

Getting updates on Windows Phone 7 so far has been a mixed bag for consumers. On the one end, they’re basically simple, universal OS patches in the form of CAB files, allowing even early prototype phones to keep upgrading, years after release.

On the other end, they’ve been just awful due to the lack of carrier support in actually rolling them out to end-users. The process is still much better than whatever Android has to offer but it still pales compared to the iPhone in many ways.

More Windows Phone 8 dev features revealed - background location, video codecs and more

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By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Jul 26, 2012 at 7:05 pm

Although the day is winding down, we’re still going through the leaked Windows Phone 8 SDK from early this morning. We’re finding some smaller nuggets which aren’t ‘wow’ worthy in of themselves but they are certainly worth a mention, especially since they do add some significant new features to the Windows Phone experience.

We must stress—these are still not the new ‘consumer’ features for Windows Phone 8 which Microsoft has yet to reveal. These are simply more tools for developers to give them more options and features for their apps. These APIs take a long time to write and document which is why SDKs take time to build before going public.

So what are some of these new options for devs?

Background location-tracking for apps
More refined search for apps in the Marketplace
Custom contact store with cloud sync
Media library access for devs
Networking enhancements
Right to Left (RTL) language support
Media codec support and stats

Head past the break for some more details including snippets from the SDK itself…

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Windows Phone 8 details revealed in Nokia-partner video

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Feb 2, 2012 at 2:07 pm

According to Pocketnow, they've seen a video hosted by senior vice president and Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore (see our interview) meant for Nokia and their partners. In the video, new details of Windows Phone 8 (aka 'Apollo') are revealed, of which there are many.

Four new screen resolutions (though exact dimensions not revealed)
Multicore processors
NFC support for a new "Wallet experience" e.g. wireless payments and tap-to-share
Removable microSD storage
Based on Windows 8 kernel, not WinCE: Reuse of Windows 8 Desktop code for Windows Phone apps i.e. kernel, networking stacks, security, and multimedia support
Zune Desktop is going away in exchange for a more native, sync relationship application i.e. the return of ActiveSync
Richer Skydrive support for things like sharing music between devices (Xbox, desktop, phone)
"The New Familiar" may be a tagline for Windows 8/Windows Phone 8
More than 100,000 apps to be expected at Windows Phone 8 launch
Local Scout WiFi "hotspot" integration to aggressively find free data connections; personal recommendations included
Data usage glance-and-go support via Live Tile
Server side data compression for Internet Explore 10 to reduce data traffic and speed up browsing
128-bit native BitLocker data encryption for Enterprise

That certainly is a lot and we're sure just the tip of the iceberg in regards to Windows Phone 8. Clearly Microsoft is gearing up to talk about WP8 in the next few months, so we should start to expect a steady flow of information coming forward soon. What do you folks think? Pleased with the direction Microsoft is heading?

Update: Paul Thurrott is now confirming all the information from the video.

Source: PocketNow

Another HTC Leak Provides some Details to go with the Photos

News

By Dieter Bohn, Wednesday, Mar 4, 2009 at 4:34 pm

HTC's massive 2009 device roadmap leak was heavy on the thumbnail images but light on the details. These details are being filled in now by sina.com [via wmpoweruser]. From the Firestone to the Twin to the Thoth to the Maple, we've got some early specs and release date targets to dish on. So let's get it going, after the break!