This week has been fairly quiet, but we must kick off this weekly summary with wishing our Dieter Bohn a fond farewell. Onto serious business, Windows 8 was shown in a demo video featuring the Windows Phone 7 live tiles, which shows positive signs on combining the look of Windows on multiple platforms - hopefully building WP7 sales too.
A backup tool is being developed within the homebrew community allowing users to take and apply backups of their devices via Zune. Kik Messenger is to be with us within the month of June after being first heard of at MIX '11. We recently ran an editorial on the amount of spam being added to the Marketplace, Microsoft has responded to all the complaints and states they will add caps. Speaking of the Marketplace, we had the pleasure in interviewing Luke Lowrey, the developer behind Phonealytics.
Many of our readers have been complaining and mentioning about how negative the sales team are at network/retail stores around the world with regards to WP7. You can share your experiences and opinions to unite all detail for it to be channeled to Microsoft so they can look into it with partners and carriers.
Gaming wise, we've had an interview for an insight into Pixelbite Studios and Hydro Thunder GO with CEO Mattias Olsson. U.N.I MEGA Pack is now available for download which includes seven penny arcade style games - perfect for killing time. Both Harbor Master and Haypi Kingdom have been updated, however Haypi Kingdom is experiencing some performance issues on WP7 since updating. Good news is a fix is presently available.
Onto Mango for a small rumor, according to the leaked shots of a HTC device equipped with a 12MP camera, there is a "save settings" button in the camera settings slide. We touched on security this week in light of recent attacks on Gmail accounts. Google have provided resources to help users enable 2-step verification and OTP (One Time Password) and is coupled with a neat little video. For the cloud, SkyDrive is beginning to receive some attention with proposed support coming in Mango, but wouldn't a SkyDrive stand-alone app with music streaming be great? Speaking of music Microsoft have also detailed music & video hub changes.
Acer have been in the spotlight with their W4 making a few stories with specification reports and hands-on videos. The Verizon Trophy (now it's actually out) has been slashed to $49 at AmazonWireless, an unbelievable price. The AT&T HTC HD7S is now availoable at Amazon, among other locations.
Quiet week for developers, but Telerik have their WP7 webinars on the go, not to mention some devices to give away and licenses for one of their products.
Surf on past the break for highlights.
Highlights
- Windows 8 leaning heavily on Windows Phone 7
- WP7 Backup tool [Homebrew]
- Kik Messenger for WP7 due "within a month"
- Microsoft responds to 'App spamming' complaints, adds caps
- Developer Interview: Luke Lowrey of Phonealytics
- Bad WP7 sales experience? Express your concern
Gaming
- Developer Interview: Pixelbite Studios, makers of Hydro Thunder GO
- U.N.I. MEGA Pack now available
- Haypi Kingdom version 3.0 update breaks the game, but there is a fix
- Harbor Master version 1.1 update comes to port
Software
- Windows Phone Mango can save camera settings?
- Tip: Enable 2-step verification in Gmail for WP7
- Is a SkyDrive App in Windows Phone's future?
- Microsoft details music & video hub changes in Mango
Hardware
- AT&T HD7S Review
- Acer W4 spotted at Computex 2011, November release? [Update: Specs]
- Verizon HTC Trophy just $49 at AmazonWireless (+ Amazon gift card)
- Another version of Sony Ericsson WP7 Prototype "Julie"
Developers
