Windows Phone Summary of the Week: July 11-17, 2011

By Rich Edmonds
last updated

Today marks the end of what has been a monster of a week (possibly the most populated summary we've had yet?) but we shall remain vigilant, grab a strong drink and battle through this summary together. We can rejoice that Mr Rubino shares his wonderful voice with the public in another WPCentral Podcast (opens in new tab). Yep, they're still going and this isn't a joke!

Head on past the break for our weekly breakdown. 

To kick us off, Microsoft has revealed their vision of the future; 3 screens and Metro (opens in new tab). AT&T have jumped into our highlight list with their international data plan updates (opens in new tab), while Nokia are planning to spend £80 million on advertising in the UK to compete with Android and iOS. IE9 in Mango still puts Safari in iOS5 beta 3 to shame (opens in new tab) in HTML5 speed tests. Perhaps this is due to Apple funding ventures into suing as many competitors as possible?

Has Microsoft revealed the release month for Mango when announcing the Imagine Cup winners? Whenever the update arrives, we have witnessed some Twitter integration. Microsoft do have big plans though, they've recently made bets that include to sell 100 millions devices a year (opens in new tab). If you're not too interested in the bookies then perhaps the software giant can tempt you with the release of Windows Home Server 2011 Connector?

Have you got a marker pen handy? No worries if you don't as Max and his Magic Marker is this week's deal of the week. Beards and Beaks has always seemed like an odd combination, but they've finally been re-united in the Marketplace and is the first Xbox Live game to feature DLC (Downloadable Content) - make way for Farmville. Sonic the Hedgehog has finally traded in his Nokia 3210 for a WP7 (opens in new tab), about time too! 

Beware of the ocean at night, Tentacles is reportedly crawling around and will be in the Marketplace on July 20th. 3D Paperball sets to impress while old school classic Paper Dash is being delivered to your device. Noticed the lovely array of levels in Angry Birds? Well, have you noticed 105 of them are missing (opens in new tab)? Arcane's Tower Defense is now finally available in the Marketplace (opens in new tab) while Crackdown 2 has mysteriously vanished (opens in new tab). Damn those mutants.

Moving on software, an American team of students in the Imagine Cup '11 have developed an Asthma app (opens in new tab) for WP7. Have a Samsung Focus? Ever desired to reset the handset to factory settings? Now you can with the newly released factory ROM (opens in new tab). I'm a WP7! gets a major bump to version 2.5 and brings with it a range of new features and the Weight Watchers app receives a redesign. Microsoft signs a licensing agreement with Geovector (opens in new tab) for mobile augmented reality patents that will hopefully bring more integration to the platform.

GroupMe is available for WP7 with being the second most requested platform by users. We take a look at not only a demo of the upcoming BBC News Mobile mango app, but the integration with Office 365 (opens in new tab) between the PC, web and WP7.

Hardware time. We have had a few deals open up this week, including an unlocked Samsung Omnia 7 for $280 (opens in new tab) at T-Mobile, Germany. Expansys is offering the HTC 7 Pro for £229 (opens in new tab) and Dell are giving away their Venue Pro for just $299 (opens in new tab), both unlocked. Apple has been after HTC to ban their imports into America (opens in new tab) (this is Apple's 'innovation') while Microsoft focuses on important matters such as revealing a new Samsung device (opens in new tab) running Mango. The Toshiba Fujitsu device shown in the same instance as the above Samsung handset is looking to be released in August to Japanese enthusiasts.

It's now everyones favorite part of the summary - Fun! A judge has denied Apple's "App Store injunction against Amazon (and other companies). Sahas Katta has completely re-designed his portfolio (opens in new tab) website to look just like WP7. Inspiration has been taken by Google as well with their Marketplace revamp, which features more text, squares, pivots and the famous "more-text-off-screen-means-more-content-available" found in the Metro UI. Our readers still gave them 0/10 even though they only had to copy, seems Google still desperately needs proper designers.

Microsoft is being sued over the "Really?" commercials (opens in new tab). No, really. Captain America can now throw his shield at you when you set one of these awesome wallpapers (opens in new tab). Microsoft still plans for WP7 to use their mobile devices less, with potentially adding in Kinect-like motion sensors and gestures (opens in new tab), this will become more of a scary future-based reality (opens in new tab).

Microsoft was recently spotted registering the domains http://sony-microsoft.com and microsoft-sony.com, question being: what are they for? Our Daniel Rubino looks into how one can activate Facebook chat and create custom ringtones in Mango. London-based WP7 app helps the public combat graffiti etc. and keep streets clean (opens in new tab).

It's been a good week for developers with the Applications Development Workshop (opens in new tab) and the newly formed App Exchange (opens in new tab) WP7 Marketplace submission service. We look at a tutorial that runs through how to add Live ID integration into WP7 applications (opens in new tab) and shed light on the new Windows Phone Developer certification. Finally, what do you do once you've submitted your apps (opens in new tab)?

Still awake? Well done! We've made it through this week's highlights, see you again next weekend! Head on past this concluding goodbye for the list of links.

Highlight

Games

Software

Hardware

Fun

Developers

Rich Edmonds
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.