windows phone

T'was just a few days ago that our pals at PreCentral reported that Richard Kerris, beloved VP of Worldwide Developer Relations for webOS, was leaving the company after just nine months to "pursue an opportunity outside of the company." Looks like we now know where "outside" is.

Welcome to Nokia, Mr. Kerris.

It had been rumored that Kerris might be headed to Windows Phone's new best friend. And this morning, Marco Argenti, senior vice president of Developer and Marketplace for Nokia, tweeted that indeed Kerris is now Global Head of Developer Relations. To wit:

Great people are what makes the difference, always. I'm excited to welcome Richard Kerris in my team as Global Head of Developer Relations.

It's a pretty big pickup for Nokia, and in turn we assume Windows Phone.

Source: @marcoargenti; More: PreCentral; Thanks, Achill3s, for the tip!

We made mention of the Windows Phone night parties some time ago. In a nutshell, these parties are meet and greet type events to introduce the second generation Windows Phones. The downside to these events is that they only involved a handful of U.S. cities.

Enter the Windows Phone Inner Circle.

The Inner Circle events add 15 more U.S. cities for a casual encounter with the new Windows Phones.  An event to let you "get into the loop before the loop even starts". Prizes, a chance to win a new Windows Phone, appetizers and cocktails are all on the agenda for the Inner Circle gatherings.

The Inner Circle tour begins on October 28, 2011 in Los Angeles and ends on November 21, 2011 in Seattle. The city list appears to be spread out fairly decent (still no Birmingham on the list!) giving more Windows Phone fans a chance to spend some hands on time with these new phone.

Registration is required and you can find the full list of the dates and locations for the Windows Phone Inner Circle events over here at the Inner Circle web page.

via: WindowsTeamBlog

Wow, just last night we posted about Screen Capturer v2, which allowed one to use take screen caps on their device in Mango--a first without being tethered to a PC. Then Windows Phone Hacker patched it so that you didn't need to have to be interop-unlocked, which cuts down on the requirements.

Now version 3 just hit and will you be impressed:

• Full English version
• Redesigned UI with Metro interface
• No interop-unlock requirement
• Use camera button to take screen caps (!)
• Prevent Capture Task auto run: Capture Task uses BackgroundAgent to run and wait for Camera button event, BackgroundAgent may auto run in some case, enable this option to stop auto capture.
• The Capture Task duration: How long will the Capture Task run before it stop to accept Camera button event.

We just loaded it up and it works like a charm--so simple and easy to use, plus you can keep the "task" open for a few minutes, allowing you to take numerous screenshots without having to reenter the app. Simply brilliant and a must have for anyone who is dev unlocked.

Grab the app here at XDA.

Yves Maitre, senior vice president of devices and mobile multimedia at Orange, has told CNET in an interview this week that Windows Phone is the worst-selling platform in Orange's market (behind Android, iOS and Blackberry) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"Honestly, it hasn't been as successful as we expected."

I'm not sure if every Windows Phone owner shares the same view as Maitre, since we've already covered problems with carriers not displaying working demo units in stores and promoting the platform in the media. Do you see Orange adverts for Windows Phone on TV, online, on billboards, in newspapers or in stores? If the overall response is "no", then how can Orange expect the platform to sell well against competitors that get more reach to their customer base?

"By Barcelona [the site of February's Mobile World Congress conference], we'll know for sure if Microsoft is in the game or not. If Nokia/Microsoft is not successful in Europe then it will be tough in other countries"

He does remain cautiously optimistic that the Nokia brand will push forward the platform and will force other OEMs to compete with one another through advertising. Maitre views Nokia as an expensive vehicle, "it's like you're driving a Mercedes Benz". With smartphones counting for 50% of sales for Orange, the carrier is going to have to work hard, as well as Microsoft, if they want the OS to compete with Android, Blackberry and the iPhone.

Nokia is set to unveil a "bunch" of handsets at Nokia World next week. Microsoft is banking big on this event and top names will be present as speakers. We'll be there too, so be sure to say hello should you be attending.

Source: CNET

Live in the US? Live near New York City, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles or San Francisco? Then you'll want to head over here to the Windows Phone Facebook page to reserve yourself a spot, as Microsoft is set to throw two-night parties in those cities to celebrate the launch of some new Windows Phones.

Free drinks, live music from some indie bands and a chance to see and play with the the HTC Radar, Titan, Samsung Focus S and Flash. There will be food, a lounge and a chance to play others in video games, which sounds like a grand old time, if you ask us.

And yes, at least some of us will be attending (cough, me, New York City), so perhaps we'll see you there. But reserve now as space is limited! You will need a Facebook account though.

Bonus cool feature: You can send your e-Ticked to your Windows Phone, which you use to get into the event.

Bonus cool feature 2: First 20 registrants for each night get a VIP upgrade...go go!

Source: Windows Phone Blog, Windows Phone Facebook page

...at least according to Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft at the recent Web 2.0 summit. Now, we suppose we can engage in a semantic debate about what constitutes a "bunch" combined with social-linguistic and pragmatic uses of the term, but up till this point, we were only really expecting maybe two devices from Nokia: SeaRay/800 and the Sabre/703/710.

But perhaps we need to re-think what Nokia may be doing. We know at the very least the SeaRay will be going on sale in various countries in November e.g. France, Italy, so for certain we'll see those devices for respective carriers. But Nokia has always talked about "shipping in volume" in 2012 in addition to bold claims like a new device every three months (remember that one?). So maybe, just maybe we'll see more than just 2011 devices but also what's in store for 2012--like perhaps that rumored Nokia Windows Phone for AT&T?

Then again, if Ballmer was just being colloquial, perhaps a "bunch" really is just two. We'll be live in London next week at Nokia World to find out, so stay tuned...

Source: Mary Jo Foley (Twitter)

Summarizing our iPhone 4S summary - the handset lags in terms of innovation and improvements that many Apple fans were hopeful of, especially a new design. What's positive from the keynote is what this means for manufacturers on Android and Windows Phone (as well as other platforms). HTC, Samsung, Nokia, Acer, Dell and the rest now have the opportunity to push forward beyond the reaches of the iPhone in this brawl.

DigiTimes has learned from industry sources that the iPhone 4S is now lagging behind mainstream smartphones:

"The iPhone 4S comes without a larger display and with a download speed of only 14.4Mbps for HSPA, and does not support LTE and NFC technologies although it is powered by a more powerful processor and comes with more advanced camera and video functionality, the sources pointed out.

Although Apple also launched an entry-level 8GB iPhone 4 and cut the price of its iPhone 3GS, the effectiveness of such tactics will be limited as iPhone fans will still prefer to buy new models and the low-priced iPhones will not be able to compete with Android phones in the entry-level segment, commented the sources."

We only have to look at HTC's beast of a handset - the Titan - to see how far behind the iPhone is. Not only does the HTC Windows Phone boast an incredible screen with a simple, but elegant UI, but it's not featuring immense horsepower that drains battery. Simply because it doesn't require it (although having dual core will of course improve games and multi-tasking).

It's all down to Nokia and other manufacturers now to shows consumers what they've got up their sleeves.

Source: DigiTimes

Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop confirmed today what was expected all along, the first Nokia Windows Phones will be coming very soon. It has been long suspected that the Finnish manufacturer would unveil the first of their WP7 devices at the Nokia World conference in London on October 26th, and at a Helsinki technology fair this morning, Elop spoke of introducing "products" in the current quarter. What's exciting here is his use of the plural form, denoting that we can expect at least a couple models this year. With Apple's new iPhone about to launch, Elop said, "Our belief is that there is a clear opportunity for an alternative ecosystem."

Elop compared the company's decision to abandon Symbian for Windows Phone to jumping off of a burning oil platform, which is pretty accurate. Nokia saw Symbian steadily losing ground and had to act, though moving to a completely new platform left them in a state of financial limbo with nothing to offer investors or consumers for eight months. With that stagnancy drawing to an end, we're close to seeing if the gamble paid off.

Source: Reuters; Via: PhoneScoop

Microsoft has launched a website where Windows Phone users can express their thoughts about the mobile OS and offer suggestions on how to improve it.  Once an idea is posted, others can vote on them, presumably to direct Microsoft on what to work on next.  You can filter the list by what's new, hot, accepted, completed and most liked.  Completed suggestions even get responses from Microsoft explaining what actions have been taken.

What's particularly cool about the site's setup is that each member is given 10, and only 10, votes that they can distribute among the suggestions on the site.  You are free to change your votes around by moving them from one idea to the next, and your vote will be returned to you if the idea you vote on gets completed by Microsoft or deleted.

In order to vote, you must either create a login using your email address, or sign in using joined logins, like FaceBook, Gmail, Twitter, etc. (there are a lot of them).  Click on the source link to get started.

Source: Microsoft (Thanks for the tip, ShipWreck!)