The keynote address for Unite 12 has seen the announcement that Windows Phone 8 will get full support for the Unity engine. Unity is a very popular engine and it was notably absent from the Windows Phone 8 announcement. The next version of the OS looks to be getting some excellent gaming support with native code and these powerful rendering engines. The engine is used to power a host...
Statistics from Localytics are showing that Nokia is now the key supplier of Windows Phones handsets worldwide. Whilst this news might not surprise many considering Nokias considerable push in the retail channels, it does paint an interesting picture of the state of play with the three main manufacturers. According to Localytics survey, Nokia is now clearly in pole position as of July...
We knew a while back about the proposed Odyssey and Marco handsets from Samsung. Well it looks like some more detailed specs and pricing has emerged. With Windows Phone 8 only a whisper away from being launched it seems as if the leaks just keeps on coming. Samsung are one of Microsoft’s launch partners and it looks like we can expect some impressive hardware for this round of devices....
For those that are looking to advance their skills in English, Oxford has recently launched their best seller for Windows Phone. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary app contains a full A-Z dictionary and samples of British and North American speakers to help tailor your desired skill set. We certainly love to see more official apps filling in those blanks, and this looks like a...
Financial news for HTC continues to get worse with the company now chalking up another $40m (US) loss. From underperforming on smartphone sales to “restructuring” its investment in Beats audio, HTC is not having a good time of it. The hit this time comes from the cloud gaming service OnLive. HTC’s hope, was that cloud gaming could help bring high end games to those without the beefy...
Twitter has announced some sweeping changes to their all-important application programming interface or just API. This API is essential plumbing to allow application developers access to the “fire hose” of data from twitter. It has been no secret that Twitter wish to tighten their grip ever more over whom can access their system. With their latest set of guidelines, they show they mean...
We had a chance to sit down and chat with Thom Brenner, Vice President of Location and Commerce for Nokia and Pino Bonetti who writes about location on the Nokia Conversations blog. We wanted to hear what Nokia are planning for the future with its location services, which the company has touted as its main focus and differentiator for Windows Phone. Being number one in location and...
Looks like Windows Phone’s big brother Windows 8 has coughed up some interesting details on allowing games to be paused, resumed across various platforms. The Xbox Live games, Minesweeper, Solitaire and Mahjong all seem to indicate we’ll finally experience the dream of picking up one device and resuming play on with another. Early on in Windows Phones lifecycle, we saw a demo of the...
The speech recognition service, offering similar capabilities to Apples Siri is set to get a sweet little cash injection. The company has just walked away from talks to inject $5 million US into expanding its service to include more accents and languages. The company is working closely with Nuance Communications to deliver mobile apps for Android and Apple devices and even bring the...
Windows 8 is done, recently reaching RTM and tomorrow some folks will be lucky enough to get their hands on the final code. Word from a few prominent bloggers is that Microsoft may not quite be finished with WinRT just yet. Suggestion is that MS maybe moving to update the WinRT environment faster than the current three-year cycle dictates. If this rumour were true then it would mean a...
Microsoft has so far been rather coy when it comes to the actual performance characteristics of their forthcoming WinRT tablets. That’s to have been expected due to the new ARM requirements but many have wondered how frugal with battery and weight a Windows RT tablet could really be. Windows on ARM devices are designed to compete with existing tablets currently available in the market....
For a long time, Windows Phone users have speculated about the possibility of a Tablet based on the OS. It never happened, but even now, I’m left wondering if Windows Phone is the more capable and desirable portable computing experience. Microsoft are on the cusp of releasing Windows 8 and with it we see the software giant plunging head first into the world of true mobile computing....
As with all non-official announcements, a good measure of trepidation is required before accepting these rumours. Those chaps at wpdang are reporting that HTC is to kick off its range of new phones with an announcement in the third week of September in either London or New York. The website then goes on to say that, they now have two separate sources confirming the launch. Interesting...
Windows Live Essentials has been part of most Windows Users standard installation for many years now. This familiar and ‘essentials’ set of applications does much to make Windows come to life as a useful productivity tool. Providing photo editing, movie making, blogging, email, synchronising and instant messaging apps, ‘Essentials’ forms a solid backbone for basic computing throughput...
Microsoft today has announced the replacement for the App Hub dev portal. It's said to have been months in the making and having the underpinnings of a more robust and scalable backend the site is available to use now. Among new feature highlights, the new website includes support of PayPal to pay for your developer account as well as be paid from the Marketplace. You are also now able...
A recent paper presented at Black hat 2012 by Peter Hannay has demonstrated a vulnerability in how iOS and Android deal with certificates whilst operating with an Exchange Server. The good news in this report is that Peter was unable to trick Windows Phone 7.5 devices using the same methods. Using a man in the middle attack combined with a generic fake certificate, they were able to...
At the start of the year I took up driving with gusto, you see, being a Londoner I have really had little need of a car. For one reason or another, it had started to become a nuisance not driving so I decided to change my wicked, public transport loving ways and get a license to burn fossil fuels. I took an intensive course and recently passed. During the process of getting my license I...
Atoms, the Amiga inspired board game is now available to all in the Marketplace. We previously caught up with Ross, the developer of the game at the Bournemouth Dev Day where he was kind enough to give us a first look. It’s a turn based board game that Ross has been working to release for some time. There is an Xbox360 variant in the works and a homebrew Nintendo DS version too. The...
Whilst at the Windows Phone Dev Day in Bournemouth we got a chance to meet Ross Gouldthorpe, who has been developing for Windows Phone for two years. Ross was kind enough to give us a walkthrough of his upcoming Windows phone game, Atoms. The game is also currently in development for the Xbox 360 and has a Nintendo DS homebrew counterpart. The game Atoms has roots as an old Amiga game...
Yesterday saw the start of a new developer group, this time not based in London but on the south coast in Bournemouth. Scott Lovegrove of Ferret Labs and Dan Thomas of Moov2 conceived the meet up. The core idea in creating the group is simple, to bring developers interested in both Windows Phone and Windows development together. With the looming releases of both Windows Phone 8 and...