London

Windows Phone UK has announced that they will be having a ‘Meet Windows Phone’ event later today in Westfield Shopping Centre.

The event, to be held in conjunction with O2 will see a colourful evening of fun with the O2 angels, demos and of course Windows Phone 8. Chances to win Windows Phone handsets and Xbox’s shouldn’t be missed, check the details after the break.

If you couldn't get tickets to the Nokia Deadmau5 Event or simply won't be in the London area today, you can catch all the excitement online. The event is to celebrate the successful launch of Nokia's latest Windows Phones, the Lumia 920 and 820.

The Deadmau5 event starts at 8PM GMT and you can catch it here. Our London Staff (Jay, Rich and Rob) should be in attendance and will report back later on all the goodness that was on hand.

Thanks, korggy, for the tip!

Microsoft appears to be pushing out the golden envelopes for the final reveal-all of Windows Phone 8. The event is scant on actual details but the data is locked in for 5pm GMT on October 29th, London. This matches the upcoming event in San Francisco.

The events held so far have seen journalists physically restricted from properly playing with the OS, so aside from videos and SDKs precious few have any idea how well it works on a real device.

London Travel Live updated with augmented reality

London Travel Live is a useful app for those who either frequently roam London or are simply visiting for the day. Sporting useful features that guide users around the big smoke make it a requirement for anyone who doesn't wish to get lost. We last covered the app back in April when version 3.1 was released into the wild. Now we're back with news of 4.0 reaching Windows Phone owners.

Should you be traveling to or through London's Heathrow Airport, there is now an official app for your Windows Phone to help you find your way around the airport and monitor arrival/departure times.

The Heathrow Airport Guide is rather impressive with the amount of information it provides not only with flights but just getting around the airport. Airport information covers maps, shops, restaurants, parking, baggage claims, internet access, and more.

Attending developers prepping for presentation

Last week, Wednesday 18th to be exact, we headed to the Windows Phone User Group meetup in London. The Shooting Star was the venue of the day's presentations and talks about Windows, Windows Phone, apps and other miscellaneous topics. It's a perfect chance for developers to pitch ideas, make contacts, receive help and advice, and meet us folk from Windows Phone Central.

The reason we pop along is simple - to help you (the developing community) receive as much exposure to our readership and beyond as possible. Without developers, apps and games we wouldn't have the same complete Windows Phone experience we have today, so it's important we provide developers with the opportunities to drive more traffic their way. From reviews to update coverage, Windows Phone Central has the means to help developers kick-start promotion and marketing.

The official 2012 Olympic Games app has landed in the Windows Phone Marketplace. London 2012 was developed by the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and is designed to keep you up to date with the latest Olympic action and Paralympic action.

The app is laid out nicely with the following pages.

• Live Updates Page that currently displays a countdown timer to the Olympic Opening Ceremony. From there, the page will display updates from the games.
• Sports Page that breaks down the events by sports. Each sports tile will pull up the specific events, news items for that sport, a photos page and an About page that covers any rules and venue information on that sport.
• Calendar Page breaks things down by date. Tap on a date and you'll pull up an time listing of events by sport. Tap and hold an event to set a reminder so you won't be late.
• The Favourites Page lists any sport you've tagged as favorite or reminders you've set.
• The Menu Page has links to view the games schedules and results, medal tally, athlete profiles, access the My Games section and access the app's settings. The My Games section can be set to a specific Country to pull up news, reminders and favourites for the Country.

You can toggle between the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games through the three-dot menu that runs across the bottom of the main pages. The Paralympic content isn't currently available but is expected to be available in time for those games (August 29th through September 9th).

London 2012 is a very nice application to keep you informed on the Olympic Game results and schedules. While the app does give a good bit of information about the venues of the Olympics it lacks any mapping support. While you can easily switch over to Bing maps or Nokia maps, it would have been nice to have everything under one roof.  

The LOCOG is working on a companion app for London 2012, the London 2012 Join In app, that is a mobile guide to help plan, enjoy and share your gaming experience for the Olympics and Paralympics.  Hopefully the mapping component will be a part of this companion app but it sounds more like a Twitter/Facebook app.  We'll keep a look out for the Join In app and let you know.

London 2012, the official Olympic Games app, is a free offering (ad supported) that you can find here at the Windows Phone Marketplace. While this is the official app, there are several other 2012 Olympic apps available on the Marketplace. Look for a round-up of these alternative Olympic apps on Friday with this week's Windows Phone Central Roundup.

Should you live in (or be simply visiting) London there are a number of useful Windows Phone apps out there to aid you while using public transport. We've covered London Travel before but here's London Travel Live, which has just been updated to version 3.1. London Travel Live goes further than similar apps on the Marketplace by sporting multiple Oyster card support, Barclays Cycle Hire stand statuses, and more.

A London Underground map is available within the app that clearly shows what zone stations are located in, as well as what lines connect to them. Live departure boards as well as live tiles are supported, with majority of information found in the app available offline (perfect for when actually traveling on the underground where signal is a myth). Some of the features present in London Travel Live (prior to the recent update):

• Tube status live tile updated every 15 mins (not one hour like other apps).
• Tube status toast notifications.
• Oyster balance and season ticket details.
• Live tube departure boards.
• Tube Station facilities.
• Tube map and line maps.
• Most information available offline.

So what's new in version 3.1?

• Oyster card live tile.
• Integrated TFL Journey Planner (styling and functionality improvements).
• Bus routes and bus stop information.
• Pin your bus route or bus stop to the start.
• Barclays Cycle Hire information.
• Pin cycle stations to the start.
• Live traffic map.
• Pin the tube map to the start for quick access.
• Find your nearest tube stations and bus stops.

If you're a frequent "Big Smoke" commuter, or even if you're just visiting for the day to Hamley's, you'll want to check this app out for the latest engineering works / status updates and for navigational aid. You can download London Travel Live from the Marketplace for £0.99.

We mentioned how Nokia was giving away free cab rides in London during Social Media Week back in mid February. In short, the company was sponsoring black-cabs (analogous to our yellow-cabs here in New York) and paying for your destination to wherever. Nice treat, for sure.

But evidently there was more.

Nokia also gave away some Lumia 800's to some lucky guests and when they turned on the device, they were greeted with four London locations that they could go to (presumably the lucky winners would pick just one). Areas included things like spas and laser tag which does look like an amazing way to spend your day...plus, you know, free Nokia phone.

We can't deny we're a little excited to see what they do here in the US with the Lumia 900 launch looming, especially in New York City. Fingers crossed.

Source: Nokia (YouTube)