Windows 8 is coming on October 26.

Just in case your're wondering, that's October 26 2012. So mark your calendar. Steven Sinofsky announced during Microsoft annual sales meeting that Windows 8 will be released on that date in the form of upgrade and full version on a new PC starting October 26.


If you've been living on Mars or deep into the Amazonian virgin forest and been out of touch with what's going on, Windows 8 is Microsoft new flagship OS being released 3 years after Windows 7. The new OS will run on PCs, tablets and, kind of, on Windows Phones.


Source: Windows blog

Microsoft unveils Office 2013.

The new Office 2013 includes numerous improvements that will positively impact your productivity. But if I were to resume that extensive list, I'd say that Office 2013 is about touch and sharing. Barely a month ago, Microsoft announced Windows 8, its Surface tablets and Windows Phone 8. All of them powered by the new Windows 8 Metro interface. It's only natural that the Office suite of applications follows the metro trend and that is exactly what Microsoft did with Office 2013. A touch friendly interface for Word, Outlook, Excel, Onenote and Powerpoint. The new interface will also work perfectly with the good old mouse and keyboard.

There will be two versions of the software available. There's the Office 2013 for desktop as we know it and Office 365. The latter lets you use Office 2013 on any machine and access your files anywhere provided you have an internet connection. By default your files will be saved to the cloud and Microsoft will be selling Skydrive storage along with it.


Three editions of Office 365 will be available:



Office 365 Home Premium — designed for families and consumers. This service also includes an additional 20 GB of SkyDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype world minutes per month.


Office 365 Small Business Premium — designed for small businesses. This service also includes business-grade email, shared calendars, website tools and HD webconferencing.


Office 365 ProPlus — designed for enterprise customers who want advanced business capabilities and the flexibility to deploy and manage in the cloud.



Skype integration will also be included in the final release of the product sometime next year. No definite date was announced during yesterday's webcast.


Office Home and Student 2013 RT will be included in Windows RT. Therefore, ARM based devices will have Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. A strong selling point for Windows RT.


For more info about Office 2013, check out Microsoft Press release.


Customer preview available here.

Official Olympics Games app for Windows phone released.

The Olympics Organization committee has posted the official app for the games to Marketplace. The app will let you follow the games wherever you are with its schedule and news live. You can even set your country or any other country you like as your favorite to receive fresh news about your countrymen performances. Of course there are more features to it and the app is beautiful with its metro interface. 

Check it out on Marketplace:

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/4824a32b-1702-4880-8f8a-45db3c3bf1e7

"London 2012" is one of thousands of great apps for Windows Phone.  See more at WindowsPhone.com!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Press release: SPB TV 3.0 comes to Windows Phone.

June 28th, 2012 – MobiWorld Media (SPB TV trademark), the leading provider of technology solutions for mobile and OTT TV, announces the release of SPB TV 3.0, the latest version of the popular mobile TV application for Windows Phone platform. The updated version provides social accounts integration, enriched VoD player functionality and convenient Channel Store; the app is redesigned in the laconic and fine Metro style for the most comfortable and enjoyable user experience.

According to the SPB TV Survey that the company held earlier, more and more people highly value social features of the mobile applications. With SPB TV 3.0 Windows Phone users can stay connected with their friends in Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live and LinkedIn informing them about amusing shows and sharing comments upon the TV content quickly and easily.  

The Channel Store, convenient and well-organized way of content
representation, is now available to WP users. Here one can easily find the desired channel or just browse for interesting content. SPB TV 3.0 also provides advanced video on demand playing options: now the user can rewind, forward, pause and play the clip using handy on-screen buttons.

SPB TV 3.0 for WP has a new original design following all main principles of Windows Phone interface style called Metro. The Metro style highlights simplicity, content and typography emphasis, and purity.

“New SPB TV application fully uses Metro style design principles and very naturally fits the Windows Phone environment. The app provides great usability and comfort to Windows Phone users, who now can enjoy over 150
channels in multiple languages through the accustomed Windows Phone interface,” said Mik Chernomordikov, Evangelism Unit Lead, Microsoft Russia.  

SPB TV 3.0 inherits all the best features of the previous versions: picture-in-picture mode, quick channel previews and easily accessible TV guide. The amount of channels available in SPB TV is constantly growing and has already reached 150 items. All the channels are subscription free. Just like other SPB TV mobile solutions, SPB TV 3.0 ensures smooth and uninterrupted video playback in any network, including Wi-Fi, 3G and Edge, due to adaptive streaming technologies support.  

SPB TV 3.0 is available for all smartphones running Windows Phone 7.5. It can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft Marketplace.
http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=83e3b3ed-d9b0-45d1-9f27-c9bc0df24dd1

Mauritius makes it to the list of Windows Phone 8 release countries.

With the upcoming release of Windows Phone 8, Microsoft is opening up marketplace to 180 countries, including Mauritius. What that means, is Mauritians will simply be able to buy apps and games from Marketplace for their brand new Windows Phone 8. Local developers will also be able to signup to App Hub and start publish their apps right now. So no need to wait for the Windows Phone 8 release to start coding. Besides Mauritius, the other Indian Ocean countries to appear on the release list are Madagascar, Seychelles and Maldives.

While this is great news, it will be interesting to see how Microsoft will get developers, resellers and, most importantly, customers excited about Windows Phone 8. Windows Phone is relatively unknown in Mauritius where the smartphone market is dominated by Android made by Samsung. The island has seen the release of first generation of Windows Phone (HTC Mozart and Samsung Omnia 7) two years ago. These two devices are still available at an exorbitant price and have gathered much dust on the shelves ever since. No second generation Windows Phone managed to reach our shores. On the other hand , Android has been living happily here, basking under the sun and selling like hot cakes. Will the release of Windows Phone 8 reverse the trend? Let's wait and see. For that to happen resellers and Microsoft will have to get their act together.

Check out the list after the break

Ben Rudolph shows off new Windows Phone 7.8 Start screen.

Remember Ben? He's the guy who gives away Windows Phones or vouchers if you manage to beat a Windows Phone with your Android or iPhone. He's been doing that a lot recently and that contributed to making Windows Phone a little bit more popular. With last week announcements of Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.8, Ben, aka Ben the PC Guy, has posted a short video showing the new Start screen that Microsoft will push out to the most current Windows Phone 7.5 devices soon.

For this video, Ben Rudolph uses a Nokia Lumia 900 - what else?. The new Start screen will let users have more control on home screen customization with the ability to re-size the tiles to small, medium and large. The thing that bothers me with Ben Rudolph's post is the constant reference to Nokia Lumia as if that's the only recent Windows Phone 7.5 released.



Source: Windows Phone blog

Facebook app updated.

Version 2.5 of the Facebook app for Windows Phone is now available in Marketplace. The free update include such features like threaded messaging, better tagging, wall cleanup, hot links and the ability to "Like" comments. The Wall cleanup is quite interesting as it lets you delete posts and comments from your hold. A tap and hold will do that.







Download Facebook 2.5


Source: Windows Phone Blog

Whatsapp 2.0 lets you set profile picture within the app.

There's a minor update for Whatsapp on Marketplace. Version 2.0 lets you set your profile picture from within the app itself. This feature can be considered as the main new functionality in this new release. Otherwise it's the usual mysterious bug fixes.
As a FYI, Whatsapp is a messaging app that lets you send text, picture and video messages. The app is free for the first year and costs $0.99 after that. I call it the app that wants to kill SMS. However, unlike SMS, Whatsapp requires a data connection. Whatsapp is also available for iOS, Android, and Blackberry.
Download Whatsapp on Marketplace if you do not have it already or check Marketplace notification on your Windows Phone to update.

Friend Tracker for Windows Phone

Friend Tracker is a simple app that let's you keep track of your friends no matter which social network you use. At least it works with Facebook and Windows Live. It may work with other services as well but I cannot confirm for now.

Friend Tracker is free to download on Marketplace.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/1672c093-8e9f-4d13-980b-77a3ce2cffa5

Via: http://wmpoweruser.com

Viber beta for Windows Phone now available.

Viber is another app that lets you make phone calls, send/receive messages over the web free of charge. Of course, you have to incur data charges. Finally, Viber has released a beta version for the Windows Phone platform. However, it does not let you currently make phone calls, only messaging and photo messages are supported right now. Maybe the Viber team are trying to come around the Skype limitation whereby the latter cannot receive calls when running in the background. But this is more about how the Windows Phone OS works.


Viber is already available on iOS and Android. The Windows Phone version can be downloaded in MarketPlace.


Source: Viber

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble join forces for e-reading advancement; settle litigation.

According to a communiqué issued today, Microsoft and Barnes & Noble (BN) seems to have settled the patent litigation that opposed them in the creation of a new company called Newco. The aim of the partnership is to "accelerate the transition to e-reading, which is revolutionizing the way people consume, create, share and enjoy digital content." From now on, "Barnes & Noble and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft’s patents for its NOOK eReader and Tablet products. This paves the way for both companies to collaborate and reach a broader set of customers."

Microsoft will make a $300 million investment for approximately 17.6% equity stake in Newco. BN will own approximately 82.4% of the company. The result of this partnership will be the availability of a Nook app for Windows 8. Most importantly, in terms of content, "the inclusion of Barnes & Noble's College business is an important component of Newco's strategic vision." “The formation of Newco and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalize on the rapid growth of the NOOK business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments,” said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble.


For his part, Andy Lees, President at Microsoft said, “The shift to digital is putting the world’s libraries and newsstands in the palm of every person’s hand, and is the beginning of a journey that will impact how people read, interact with, and enjoy new forms of content,”. He also added, “Our complementary assets will accelerate e-reading innovation across a broad range of Windows devices, enabling people to not just read stories, but to be part of them. We’re at the cusp of a revolution in reading.”


Read the full statement

Microsoft cuts app purchase in Zune and disable access to pre-Mango phones..

Don't go into panic mode. There's really nothing to worry about. According to Microsoft, most people use the Marketplace web interface and their device to purchase and download apps. As such, there's no reason to keep that option in the Zune PC software. Next time you run Zune on your computer, it will inform you of changes made to the software and ask you to restart - the software, not your computer. Do that and you'll see that you no more have access to the Windows Phone Marketplace. 


Second part of the announcement is about the requirement to run Windows Phone 7.5 to access Marketplace. Most phones out there already upgraded or come pre-loaded with Microsoft latest version of the OS. Some users out there seems no to have made the jump to 7.5. In a few weeks, those will start getting errors when attempting to access Marketplace. Wait no more and plug your phone to your PC and Zune will offer to upgrade your phone.


There's more info on the Windows Phone blog post.

New Facebook app to be released soon.

The Facebook for Windows Phone team posted an announcement about the upcoming version of the Facebook app to Marketplace. According to the post, the team has been hard at work putting together the features users has been asking for. Therefore version 2.5 of the app will finally see the ability to "Like" comments.

Skype out of beta. Supports landline but no background calls.

Skype for Windows Phone is officially out of beta since yesterday. Version 1.0 now lets you makes calls to landline phones and mobile phones using Skype credit. Video calls in portrait mode is also supported as well as managing your contacts and 18 additional languages.
Unfortunately, this new version still does not support working in the background. So you won't be able to receive calls while using another app on the phone.


Marketplace download link.
See it in action:



Source: Skype

Poll: Would you buy a current Windows Phone knowing that your chances to get an upgrade to Windows Phone 8 are slim?

Answer the poll below by selecting an answer(s) and clicking the cast button. Or click here to vote online at Vizu: Would you buy a current Windows Phone knowing that your chances to get an upgrade to Windows Phone 8 are slim? Yes No Poll not working? Click here to vote online at Vizu.com. 1000's more polls are available at Vizu.com where you can see what the world thinks.

Bing Translator app updated.

Bing Translator app lets you use your Windows Phone camera to translate such things as road signs, menus, etc. Almost anything that has text that you cannot understand. Better yet, and very useful when travelling, Bing will let you interact with locals by translating whatever you say and render it into the local language or the language that you want.


This is the download link.


See it in action:

Announcing Windows 8 editions.

This is an interesting post over at the Windows Team blog about the different upcoming editions of Windows 8. Does that mean that Windows 8 is just around the corner? I don't know, but now I know the upgrade path to Windows 8 from Windows 7. As Brandon LeBlanc writes in his post, the official product name of for the x86/64 bits is - drum roll - Windows 8.


 Devices like PCs and Tablets powered by 32/64 bits processors will come in two flavors: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro.


Windows 8 is probably the edition most of us will use. It will include features such as an updated version of Internet Explorer, Task Manager, better multi-monitor support and, my preferred one, the ability to change language on the fly.


Windows 8 Pro, you must have guessed by now, is intended for tech enthusiasts and businesses. Windows 8 Pro is the equivalent of Windows 7 Ultimate and include all the features of Windows 8 plus encryption, virtualization, PC Management and Domain connectivity.


The other edition of Windows 8 is Windows RT. You probably heard about it as Windows on ARM or WOA. This edition will be installed on devices powered by ARM processors. Windows RT is the only edition of Windows that will natively include Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.


Want to learn more? Read more on the Windows Team Blog.

Evernote update: Notebook Sharing, Improved Editing, Smarter Searching, and More

This updated version of Evernote - the best note app out there - lets you easily share your notes. Premium subscribers can allow recipients to add and edit content.  The People panel lets you share with individuals via email whereas the Public panel creates a URL which you can then attach to an email or share via social apps.
Another addition is the ability to perform contextual searches within a notebook. Searches will remain within that notebook and not bring up irrelevant results.


Read more...


Get Evernote from Marketplace.

Free: SafeWallet Free Viewer for Windows Phone.

SafeWallet Free Viewer is now available for free in Windows Phone Marketplace. The app is one of the best and most secure password manager out there to store your passwords, credit cards info, bank accounts details, account logins and more.



❖ The MOST secure solution for your important information! 256bit AES encryption, rainbow hash hacking attacks protection and more!
❖ PC SafeWallet collects and fills online logins automatically as-you-browser with SafeWallet add-ons, available for all major Windows browsers.
❖ Search for cards easily and efficiently.
❖ Designed for security - Automatic wallet lock for maximum safety.



√ Makes your life easier - never forget passwords again.
√ Online identities - desktop browser add-on automatically collects and fills online logins on desktop and makes them available on mobile too.
√ Always synced - keeps your passwords in sync between all your devices - securely!
√ Protects you – keeps your passwords secure, creates strong passwords for you and more.
√ Makes your password management a breeze.
√ Secure Dropbox cloud sync – access your passwords anywhere.
√ Multiplatform - available for desktop and mobiles.

Download your free copy here.

Nokia and China Telecom launch two CDMA Windows Phones in China.

With Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, currently visiting China for reasons that we can only guess - release of new iPad, Proview lawsuit over the iPad name - Stephen Elop on his side had joined Mr. Wang Xiaochu, the chairman of China Telecom, to launch two CDMA Windows Phone in China: The Nokia Lumia 800c and the Lumia 610c. The latter will be available in quarter 2.
"We're excited to introduce our first Lumia Smartphone, the Nokia 800c, to this important market with our exclusive launch partner, China Telecom. Working closely together, we've created a compelling, locally relevant experience on the Nokia 800c especially tailored for people in China," said Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia.
For his part, Wang Xiaochu said: "This grand launch for China's first CDMA Windows Phone represents our optimism and excitement for the future of Windows Phone and Nokia Lumia in China."
Will Windows Phone succeed in China and get a grip on the world biggest smartphone market? Only time will tell. Tim Cook's visit to China is still a secret, but it's certainly not to drink tea with China's officials.
Read the full press release after the break

Kindle preview for Windows 8 available.

Kindle for Windows 8

Just noticed that Amazon has published a metro-compatible version of the Kindle reader app for Windows. The app is available free on Windows Store.

After downloading and signing in, Kindle preview automatically listed my purchased books. So the books are stored in Amazon's cloud until I choose to download them to my PC's drive for reading. The download was flawless. I did get a connection error after I switched to another app during the download. My first thought was that the app was designed to not take advantage of Windows 8 multitasking. But I was wrong. It worked just fine for the second download. One feature I'd like to see is the ability to download multiple books at a time.

Once the book is downloaded, it opens up fast and navigation is easy. A right click reveals the top menu with options like Bookmark, Go to etc. The tools you're already familiar with in other versions of Kindle on other platforms. The right click also reveals the page slider at the bottom.

Google redesigns Google Search for Windows Phone.

Google has published a redesigned version of the search app to Marketplace for Windows Phone.
Check out the features:

• Google Autocomplete: As you type in your search, our autocomplete feature offers search predictions that often match your intended search term making search entry easier and faster.


• Voice Search: With our voice feature, you can avoid typing all together. Simply press the microphone and begin speaking your query.


• My Location: With your permission, Google can use your device location to provide nearby results easily and accurately. For instance, a search for “coffee shops” quickly displays the nearest places you can go to for a cup of coffee.

Download Google Search here.

Microsoft discontinues Marketplace for WM6.x. HTC Advantage kills self.

This is bad news if you happen to own a Windows Mobile device. Microsoft is definitely killing Marketplace for devices running it's very old operating system. Owners of Windows Mobile 6.x have to consider an upgrade to the newest and more modern Windows Phone platform. After May 9, Marketplace will just cease to exist. Therefore a hard reset of a WM6.x device now means no ability to re-download your apps and games.


Shortly after reading the notification email from Microsoft, my good old HTC Advantage reached the edge of my desk and dramatically threw itself into the void. I picked it up physically unscathed, but definitely brain dead. No more response, no power, the end of an era.


Read the full discontinuation notice after the break.

Facebook Messenger finally lands in Windows world.

Finally the Facebook Messenger app for Windows [Desktop] is here. From now on you'll be able to chat, keep up with comments, photo tags as they happen on your desktop. The app will happily retrieve all these stuffs for you in the background while you're busy browsing or editing a Word document.


The app is Windows 7 friendly. Understand that it will not work with previous versions of Windows including Windows XP and Windows Vista. 

Click here to install.