From the Forums: Which US carrier will you be with for Apollo and how many cores does a smartphone need?

Welcome to yet another From the Forums, where we bring you the latest and most popular threads from the Windows Phone Central forums. Should you find yourself lost with all the ongoing discussions that are taking place on our forum, be sure to check up on our quick selection in this roundup to get you started.

First up we have an interesting poll, created by 12Danny123, that asks the question, "Which US carrier will you be choosing when Apollo is with us?" Of course, one can simply answer with their current carrier should they not expect to move across, but we'll have to see which Windows Phones operators stock before making a final decision.

We've had issues in the past with carriers being slow with updates, should they release them at all, which has led to consumers using tactical evaluations to work out which option is best suited for their needs. Then again, if you're after that exclusive Windows Phone, you're likely going to have to put up with whatever quirks that particular network has.

Be sure to head on over to the poll to throw your input as well as voicing your opinion on which carrier you'll most likely decide on.

How many cores does a Windows Phone need?

The number of CPU cores (and specifications in general) have continuously been centre stage in any heated debate on which platform is more advance. Google's Android generally takes the gold medal with a number of handsets sporting dual-core configurations and more. When it comes to Windows Phone we've been content with just the bog-standard single core chips, which sport good power management and enough power to run Microsoft's OS.

With the announcement of Windows Phone 8, we're set to see smartphones with two or more cores arrive on the platform, but just how many is required? a5cent has attempted to dive into some depth to attempt to ask such a question.

"The problem is that most consumer applications simply don't have the kinds of computational workloads that lend themselves to being packaged up in such a fashion. In all the realm of consumer software, twitch type games are the exception, and even for them making use of any cores beyond the second becomes increasingly difficult.

Even on the PC, were we've had quad-core CPU's for years, you will only very rarely find the occasional game that makes meaningful use of more than two cores (Battlefield3 is one such rare exception). This type of game, which would kill any smartphone's battery in a matter of seconds, simply isn't a realistic proposition for the foreseeable future."

This is definitely true regarding quad-core PC CPUs that are fully supported by a limited number of games. Would we see multi-core support for Windows Phone games? If you'd like bury your battery into an early grave each and every time, then sure why not? While advancing hardware in smartphones is good development, we should remember that they are just "mobile phones" at the end of the day.

What are your thoughts on dual-core / quad-core support for Windows Phone? Do you desire devices making use of such hardware? Head on over to the "How many cores does a smartphone need?" to voice your opinion.

Miscellaneous: AT&T (and Canada) finally rolling out the Tango update

The American carrier has been on the receiving end on flak from customers who were still anticipating the Tango update for their Windows Phones. Thankfully we reported that indeed AT&T has begun rolling out the update for customers. As we expected, readers took to the forums to express their excitement and  disbelief with Figure 8 Dash firing up a thread.

Have you received the update? Be sure to head on over to the "Tango now available for AT&T and Canada" thread to let us know how the process went.