Windows Phone Summary of the Week: November 1 - 6, 2011

By Rich Edmonds
last updated

It's that time everyone, time for your Windows Phone weekly summary. To kick us off, Dave Blake gives us the latest discussions from our forum. Should an audible breakdown of this week's news be for you, then episode 128 (opens in new tab) of the WPCentral podcast will be right up your street. Speed on past the break for this week's summary.

Making a start on the highlights of the last six days, Nokia has tripled marketing expenditures (opens in new tab) for Windows Phone with the recently announced Lumia family of handsets. In London, the manufacturer has teamed up with Spectrum to offer free WiFi across selected boroughs, and if you're not aware, Duudle is the project that won the Nokia World '11 Hackathon (opens in new tab). According to the "...I'm a WP7!" app, almost 50% of owners have been updated (opens in new tab) to Mango. Our Daniel Rubino takes a look at RIM's woes providing Microsoft's platform (opens in new tab) with ample room for move up to third position, behind the iPhone.

We've received word that Microsoft is rejecting some social apps in Japan (opens in new tab) due to links being spotted connecting to websites such as 2ch/Futaba (Japanese 4chan equivalent). To liven things up, we have a prepaid app reward program (opens in new tab) (courtesy of Microsoft) starting up that will see $25 prepaid cards being handed out for purchasing apps from the Marketplace. Fancy unlocking your handset for a small fee? You can with the opening of ChevronWP7 Labs. Closing up the highlights is comScore with their September '11 report, which shows Windows Phone still hovering in marketshare (opens in new tab)... for now.

Fusion: Sentient is to arrive onto the Marketplace soon, which will be connected to the Xbox 360 version (opens in new tab), Fusion: Genesis. Monopoly, the household classic, has made its way onto the Xbox Live Deal of the Week list once again. If you haven't already noticed, Kinectimals for Xbox Live has returned to the Marketplace, ready for download. Tails, the flying fox, has joined Sonic in his Sonic CD adventures, which is an upcoming Xbox Live title, neat! Rise of Glory has been updated to Mango, bringing fancy features and a ringtone.

Have you noticed a change in colour for two accents (opens in new tab) on your Windows Phone since updating to Mango? You're not alone, and don't fear that it's your eyesight, there has been a slight alteration. Rogers, the Canadian carrier, has made their account app available to customers, which will make keeping track of usage etc. much easier. Nokia is set to release their Maps app to everyone on the platform, opening up the world to all devices. Keeping up support for customers on Symbian, the manufacturer has also made available an app that allows Symbian users to transfer contacts (opens in new tab) - via Bluetooth - to any Nokia Windows Phone.

Microsoft has added Marketplace Extras (opens in new tab) to the web Marketplace that helps consumers find apps with staff picks etc. If you're within the homebrew community and use the screen capturing app, would you be interested in taking screen shots of games too? Should you reside in Australia, New Zealand or Europe, we have some good news for you with offline navigation being made available (opens in new tab) with Turn-by-Turn.

Bing Mobile is going HTML 5 and is bringing new features across the board. This new implementation will make it possible for the team to roll out updates cross-platform without requiring any action from the user. Fuse news reader finally hits v1.3 and receives Mango treatment, Weave has been updated to v3.5, Facebook bumped to v2.2 (opens in new tab), and Prime TV goes Mango with v2.0.

The recently launched, as in today, Samsung Focus S and Flash will both support WiFi tethering (opens in new tab) from the off, something we found the Nokia Lumia 800 to lack. We've got our hands on the Focus S and Flash (opens in new tab), with reviews coming up soon. If you're waiting for our views, check out our first impressions of the Flash for now (or the HTC Titan (opens in new tab) if you're feeling almighty). Since we got a Nokia Lumia 800, we decided to take it for a spin and write up an insightful review, should you be deciding whether or not to make the purchase, check our write up (opens in new tab). Some features of the 800 include the ability to use the handset effectively in sunlight (opens in new tab), but some drawbacks are present with the lack of FF camera, gyroscope and Dolby Digital Plus (opens in new tab).

The Nokia Lumia 800 will be available (delivered from carriers/stores too) from November 16th onwards (opens in new tab), and has topped the sales charts in France. But should you be wandering what the "Lumia" branding is all about, we take a look into how Nokia is naming handsets (opens in new tab) for the platform. The HTC Radar 4G is now available to purchase from T-Mobile (opens in new tab), and is offering $100 guaranteed (opens in new tab) for any old phone traded in. Should you not be familiar with the HTC Radar, check out our first impressions.

According to Samsung Belgium (opens in new tab), the Samsung Omnia W is set to arrive in December while the Focus S will be U.S. only. But good news for those who wish to see the Nokia Lumia 710 in the states, it could be all packaged and ready to head for T-Mobile as the "Sword" (opens in new tab). Nokia and ST-Ericsson have signed a deal (opens in new tab) which sees the hold on Windows Phone held by Qualcomm shatter into pieces.

The fun this week includes a lot of media and promotion, particularly from Nokia. We've seen them take over London Heathrow Airport with huge platforms hanging from the roof, set up their Arch (opens in new tab) in the recently opened Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, and join Microsoft at the Gamex event in Paris (opens in new tab). T-Mobile has also kicked off advertising with a new HTC Radar 4G advert (opens in new tab). And if you weren't aware already, Metro is taking over public transport (opens in new tab), while Guy Fawkes chills out at the Occupy Wall Street with his Focus (opens in new tab).

For developers; Jeff Blankenburg has started a new project - 31 Days of Mango (opens in new tab). Bookmark it for tutorials on developing on Mango. You may (or may not be) aware of Microsoft giving out free phones to developers (opens in new tab), but now we've got photos of the shipping. Got to love Microsoft's support for developers. Finally, to close us off, MS_Nerd spotted on the Windows Phone hardware requirements page that light and proximity sensors are not available to developers "yet".

Highlights

Gaming

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.

1 Comment
  • finally glad to see some tv commercials for the windows phone, t mobile had several commercials during the chiefs dolphins game yesterday for the htc radar as well as being one of the four sponsors for the game and then several more times during the night game on nbc, hopefully we'll start to see more tv commercials for the other phones from the other carriers, i about fell out when i first say the commercial, i believe this is the first time I've seen a commercial for the windows phone in over a year