over the air

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Windows Phone 8 OS update - when can the rest of us expect it?

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Dec 11, 2012 at 1:16 pm

Last night we broke the story about the international version of the HTC 8X receiving the Windows Phone 8 OS 10211 (Portico) update, which included a fix for the rebooting issue and some new features as well.

Of course the majority of you with Nokia Lumias or branded 8Xs are probably frantically checking to see if your update is ready too. So when should we anticipate it?

Unfortunately, we don’t have any specific dates for you—not yet at least. But past experiences and some common knowledge tell us that this will be a controlled, rolled out procedure. The reasons for that should be obvious but in case it’s not, let us explain.

Windows Phone 8 OTA update goes live, gets detailed and fails

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Nov 1, 2012 at 4:28 pm

One of the big new features for Windows Phone 8 is the ability to finally do over-the-air (OTA) updates to the OS—either for big things or little fixes. Previously, we could check for updates but if one were found, you had to head home to your PC and plug in the phone to install (including performing a full backup). Now, things are more streamlined.

In an article over at Mobility Minded, details of the update process were posted, giving a look at what users can expect with these updates. The updates are listed as manual or automatic, with the latter being downloaded behind the scenes and the former involving tapping in Settings to see if there is an update.

Over the air podcasts gone from Windows Phone after Tango update?

By robert brand, Friday, Aug 31, 2012 at 8:23 am

Listening to podcasts on the go is one of my favorite pastimes, a great way to catch up with the latest news or a special interest. For those of us who reside outside of North America, podcast support has been a bit limited to say the least. Unlike our pals in the US, we cannot subscribe to podcasts through the marketplace on either Zune desktop software or directly using the phone. Annoying, but Mango at least introduced a half-workable solution. Unfortunately, after the Tango update it’s no longer possible to use that either.

To subscribe to podcasts prior to Tango, first we needed to set them up in the Zune desktop suite. Once subscribed, simply plugging in the phone and synchronising would pass the podcast to it. Podcasts would the automatically download without further PC interaction. Alas, this is now not the case. What’s going on?

Windows Phone 7 and OS updates: lots of speculation, little to go on

Editorials

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Nov 11, 2010 at 7:10 am

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about how updates will work on Windows Phone 7. Now there's talk about talk about talk in Ars Technica's latest article on the subject. Much of this we find amusing but not too illuminating. Still, we'll take a crack at why some of this is wrong and misguided.

The issue, we believe, starts from what Microsoft's Charlie Kindel said awhile back about WP7:

"We want everyone on the same version of the OS." He continued, "Updates will be available through the Zune desktop or over the air." Larger updates would be handled through the Zune software while minor updates would be handled OTA.

Recently however, Windows Phone Thoughts had an in-depth interview with Andrew Brown, Program Manager for Windows Phone Update who stated that OTA updates are now out of the picture.

Reason? Read more to find out why and why some of Ars Technica's arguments are either incorrect or unimportant.