leak

The first screenshots of what looks to be the next major build of Windows Phone 8.x have been revealed. We show you what's new.

A reddit thread posted just over 8 hours ago tells the story of a user who has purchased a Nokia Lumia 920 from eBay only to discover they are in possession of a device that seems to have once belonged to a Microsoft engineer.

Said user has posted several screenshots from the device which appear to show off a brand new calendar design, the ability to organise apps by frequency of use, and perhaps most interestingly: a notification center.

Whilst we can’t be 100% certain of this information, the quantity of screenshots that have been provided, as well as the presence of what appear to be internal apps still in development definitely lends some credibility to this rumour, in fact we're going to go ahead and give this a 7 on the rum-o-meter. Check below for a few of the screenshots and a list of the revealed features so far, or head over to flickr to see the originals yourself.

Evleaks, who is fairly accurate when it comes to leaked renders of upcoming Windows Phone hardware, has published the above render on Twitter. It's believed to be the Huawei Ascend W2, a more advanced successor to the Ascend W1. We've previously looked at the Ascend W2 and how previous reports suggested it was going to be the thinnest Windows Phone yet, but this is the first we've seen of this design.

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. 

A shot taken by the Lumia 928 was uploaded to Picasa by a Nokia employee (according to the associated Google+ account). What's interesting is that the photo was quickly pulled, but remains available thanks to @evleaks where the shot was published again. We're still attempting to create a collage with pieces of information on the Lumia 928, but evidence of the Windows Phone in action is certainly pleasing.

We’re getting mighty close to the official release of Windows 8 occurring on the 26th (and its phone sibling Apollo), so it makes sense that we’re starting to see some things leak out. Specifically we’re talking about four video ads for the new OS that show how the new UI works and can make computing much easier.

The videos come from Israel-based website Techit.co.il and are supposed to be for TV, although as Neowin points out, the 0:56 timing is a little odd (most TV spots are around 31 seconds). We guess they could be trimmed or adjusted for local play and the ads have not been 100% vetted just yet, but if they disappear soon from the web, that may validate the claim.

How would you like one of these running Apollo?

My Nokia Blog have received a photo collection of an N9 successor, codenamed 'Lauta'. If it were released, it's reported to have been the immediate successor to the N9 and would have been launched soon after, but was subsequently scrapped due to Nokia's decision to support Windows Phone and drop MeeGo.

The Lumia 920. Form factor too small for PureView?

Renders of both the Lumia 820 and Lumia 920 have been leaked by EvLeaks. If these images are accurate, then we can at least expect what's about to be announced by Nokia.

Samsung has already unveiled its ATIV S Apollo Windows Phone, we've yet to see anything official from HTC or other OEMs, and there seems to be more interest in what the Finnish manufacturer can come up with to top its already established Lumia line of Windows Phone 7.5 devices.

Images from the Windows Phone 8 SDK show off updated Office, SMS backup

It’s still technically the same day as the leak of the Windows Phone 8 SDK and now some images are showing up online showcasing some new features of the updated OS (we’re visiting Canada and don’t have access to our Win 8 machine to run the SDK ourselves). The images come via WP7.Hu who has thrown no less than 30 images up on their site.

Images are stronger than words so we’ll keep this one brief. These images show of various new or updates features in Windows Phone 8 which consumers will be more than glad to gander. Here’s what is displayed after the break (and above):

• Text message backup to SkyDrive
• Office 2013 for Windows Phone
• Photo options
• New Accent colors
• Lock screen options
• Phone storage (+ SD card support)
• App list + setting backup feature
• Microsoft Account
• Voice Command options
• Xbox Music

Needless to say, it’s a lot so head past the break to see it all in its glory. Make sure to "click to enlarge" to get a better look. Thanks, xajuan, for the tip

We’ve hinted at this before and the leak of the Windows Phone 8 SDK is validating our claim that “Apollo” will allow richer notification support for 3^rd party developers.

Developers will now be able to have their app send notifications to the Lock Screen with the content reflecting the app’s Live Tile:

“In Windows Phone, the lock screen contained a handful of notifications such as the number of new Outlook emails and text messages. In Windows Phone 8 Developer Preview, end users can choose to customize this area with any third party apps they choose. As a developer, you can enable your app to be used in this feature. “

An app can provide content for the following four items on the lock screen:

• The background image. This image is unrelated to lock screen notifications, and is documented at Lock screen background for Windows Phone.
• An app icon
• An app count
• App text