Joe Belfiore

Now this could be everything, or it could be nothing at all, but Joe Belfiore has teased on Twitter that he may have something for the Windows Phone community (or rather the general public) in the next few days. The manager of the Windows Phone division at Microsoft recently celebrated his Birthday and was greeted by numerous messages on the social network.

Good news for those who are on both Windows Phone 7.8 and the latest version of Microsoft's mobile platform. Joe Belfiore, who heads up the Windows Phone team and is the idol we all secretly praise in a dark, dim-lit room has revealed more information on both system-level Skype integration, as well as the pesky "Other" storage issue that many consumers are experiencing.

The tweets, which were published before Belfiore's tweet about the Windows Phone 7.8 Live Tile issue, went unchecked but we've been rightfully notified by more observant souls. So what's Microsoft looking at when it comes to further integration with its communications service, and will we finally see a fix for the shocking levels of internal storage stolen by the operating system?

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

WPCentral was lucky enough today to sit down with Nokia's senior vice president, Windows Phone program management Kevin Shields and Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President, Windows Phone program management.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the focus was on Nokia, the Lumia 900, re-entering the US market and anything else would could think to ask. Having said that, sorry folks, no new feature announcements were revealed about the Windows Phone OS as both gentlemen outsmarted our attempts. (We're betting on Mobile World Congress next month for more info on "Tango").

The interview, all 25 minutes of it, can be seen above and we think it is quite interesting, especially as we ask about what are Microsoft's and Nokia's biggest challenges in the US, how did the Lumia 900 come to be (including the design process), what should we expect from the LTE experience and more.  Clearly Microsoft is expecting Windows 8 to add another "jolt" to Windows Phone in 2012 and we couldn't agree more.

In addition, we had some more hands-on time with the Lumia 900 and folks, we're really excited about this beauty as it is quite the Windows Phone. More on that later this week in our podcast.

A big thanks to Microsoft and Nokia for extending the opportunity for this interview and iMore's Rene Ritchie for assistance.

Edit: The last few minutes got cut off, so we have a new version coming up in a little bit.

Edit 2: New version uploaded with last 5 minutes.

Lots of folks may be upset with Microsoft and the update process (we're getting a little tired of the drama ourselves) but you have to give them credit: they're listening and trying to make things right. You may not like their response, but at least they're giving a response.

To recap: this week we saw the beginning of the NoDo update, then came the outrage that it could take "weeks" to get it people, then Microsoft gave us a way to check our update status. Last night on Microsoft's Channel 9, Joe Belfiore gave a cheery interview which though entertaining, didn't reveal too much. However, lots of people were miffed to see him saying things were going well and appearing a bit out of touch.

Fast forward 24 hours and he's responding to the criticism, which like we said above, is good damage control. The message, re-posted in its entirety after the break, is quite forthcoming and sincere. A lot can be said about the update process but we do appreciate Microsoft's position in trying to reach out to consumers and developers alike. Like before, sound of in comments on your thoughts.

Keep reading Joe Belfiore's response from Channel 9; Thanks, Windows Phone Metro, for the heads up

Last year, Microsoft’s MIX conference offered the first real glimpse of what Windows Phone 7 was to offer. This year’s event will be a source of information on the major functionality coming in the Mango update. For those interested, Microsoft has announced their speaker lineup. Keynote speakers will include Joe Belfiore and Scott Guthrie of the Windows Phone team and .Net development respectively. Also of note will be a keynote featuring Dean Hachamovitch of the Internet Explorer team.

Conference sessions will include topics on everything from XNA to Application design to overviews of the various development tools.

Source: MIX11 (Keynotes and Windows Phone Sessions)