Ah, so you’ve just been given a Windows Phone 7 handset. If that’s what you’d been begging for all this time, then many congratulations; but if not, don’t hit eBay just yet — sure, WP7′s range of apps is comparatively limited with its recent 5,000 milestone, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? Even at its infancy, WP7 has proven to be a nice alternative choice if you want to stand out from the rest of the smartphone crowd, and don’t forget its two powerful weapons: Zune and Xbox Live integration. Until WP7 gets its major upgrade early next year, our holiday guide should keep you and your new phone going for a little longer. Go ahead and read on.
If there’s one thing the 90s taught us, it’s that these silly 2D interfaces are only a passing fancy, and soon everything will be VRML-based mirror worlds of our physical space. SurfCube is a small, tentative step in that direction, turning the browser into a fake 3D experience of sorts, with favorites on “top,” and history and settings on the “sides,” while the front face of the cube is, naturally, the browser part. You can get around with swipes and flashy tilt gestures, and for $1.99 on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace it’s hard to go wrong. Just remember our VRML warning, and start investing in MicroVideoGoggles Inc. stock with your carphone once you get home from the record store.
Microsoft has decided to finally dish out some sales figures for its new Windows Phone 7 platform, but alas, these are not the sales figures we are looking for. Instead of giving us the juicy number of actual devices sold to end users, the Redmond crew has provided a neatly rounded figure of 1.5 million sales to mobile operators and retailers. That tells us that the mobile industry is cautiously buying into Microsoft’s new OS, and it’d be foolish not to, but it doesn’t really educate us on the relative success of the platform’s launch — 1.5 million units is a tiny, tiny number when you consider the platform launched on 10 devices on over 60 carriers in over 30 countries. All that Microsoft’s Achim Berg would say is that early sales have been “in line” with expectations.
What do you get when you cross an HTC HD7 with a Mondrian ROM? Or a Schubert ROM? (‘Elephino… wait, that’s not right.) Nothing too crazy, we imagine, but in doing so, xda-developers patron ansar.ath.gr has provided a proof of concept that custom ROMs can be implemented on Windows Phone 7 devices. In more technical terms, “this proves that the imgfs.bin can be used from any branded device to any other branded device.” It’s okay, you don’t have to know what an imgfs.bin is, but if you’re the sort who likes to tweak phones well beyond what’s in the settings menu / user manual, just be patient and know there’s at least a few brilliant coders who’ll capitalize on this freshly laid groundwork.
It’s still technically in beta, but Microsoft has just rolled out a fairly significant update to its Windows Phone 7 Connector software for Mac. Among other things, the software now has a new device setup process, support for manual file imports from the device, and the ability to sync content purchased on your phone back to your Mac — not to mention a slew of bug fixes and other more minor tweaks. Hit up the source link below to start downloading, or just look for it in the Microsoft AutoUpdate app.
Why simply download a movie when you can download a movie app? That’s the thinking at Paramount, at least, which launched it’s first Silverlight-enhanced movie app, School of Rock, for Windows Phone 7 devices this week. That’s one of an initial batch of ten movies that will be released before the end of the year, which will also include Zoolander, GI JOE: The Rise of Cobra and Waiting for Superman, among other yet-to-be-announced titles. In addition to the movie itself, each of those will come packed with a range of extras including trailers, DVD-style special features, a Scene It? pop-up trivia mode, and the ability to create custom movie clips. As for how much they’ll cost, School of Rock currently runs $10, although it’s not clear if that will be the standard pricing for all releases.
The observant among you will have noticed that we’re a week past December 9th, yet Venue Pros are still conspicuously absent from their pre-orderers’ hands. Dell’s ever-changing shipping date was last bumped back to early January, though the company itself said it was hopeful that some units will ship out this week. And guess what? At least one did. Our tipster placed his order for the 8GB Venue Pro on December 2nd, and according to FedEx’s online tracking service, his shipment has been picked up from El Paso, Texas, and is currently en route to him. What say you, brave Windows Phone buyers, has your Venue Pro broken out of the warehouses ahead of its (delayed) release?
We’d already heard that Windows Phone 7 is set to get an update of some sort early next year — possibly coinciding with Mobile World Congress in February — but ZD Net’s Mary Jo Foley is now reporting that an even bigger update could be following in August or September. According to her sources, the update is codenamed “Mango,” and it will effectively amount to Windows Phone 7.5, which she says might even be the actual name when it’s released. That update will apparently bring Silverlight runtime and HTML5 support to the OS, along with Far Eastern language support, and some other unspecified features and functionality. It will also presumably be the most significant update until Windows Phone 8, which Foley says is codenamed “Apollo,” and is on track for a release in late 2012.
Buy this phone, won’t you please buy this phone? We’ve no idea why Telus has to try so hard to convince Canadian buyers to grab themselves a Windows Phone 7 handset, but the carrier’s expected to sweeten the deal dramatically over the next few days by bundling a freebie Xbox 360 with every WP7 device activation or renewal. The offer starts today, according to this leaked memo, and will last through to the end of the week, December 19th. Telus carries the HTC 7 Surround and LG Optimus 7, neither of which would seem to have caught fire quite the way Microsoft would have wanted. Ah well, if you’re going to sell your wireless soul for a whole three years, you might as well do it for a phone-plus-console combo.
Though the final nail in the Microsoft Kin coffin has yet to be tapped into place, the software that made the pair of ill-fated handsets strangely compelling will soon get the axe. Come January 31st, Kin Studio will be no more, effectively neutering existing Kin phones by removing them from the cloud. They’ll still be able to make calls, send SMS, email, browse the web and even stream music via Zune Pass, but their formerly live homescreens will become lifeless, stripped of social networking functionality — and will actually remain stuck on their very last status update, much like a broken clock. Their online repository of pictures, videos and contacts will cease to exist, though you can back them up to a personal computer if you act now. Thankfully, Verizon seems to understands that not all Kin customers will be happy with a zombiephone, and has taken a drastic measure to help them out — through March 31st, 2011, Kin owners can trade it in for a free 3G phone of their choice. How kind. Find full Verizon FAQs on the transition at our more coverage links.
