Windows Phone Summary of the Week: May 7 - May 13, 2022

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It's another Sun, which means it's another summary of the week time hither at WPCentral. In this epitomize of the past six days, we harvest all the stories you may have missed that are worth reading up on. And then make a cup of tea, sit down back and enjoy the ride. Equally ever, earlier we crack on with the summary itself we'll run through some WPCentral-related headlines. First upward is a guide by our Daniel Rubino, which walks us through how we can get a new Live ID and keep all Windows Phone app / game purchases. Neat!

WPCentral member SpeedTouch hosted a Windows Phone meetup in St Louis and was a relatively expert success. Faisal Iqbal got fed upward of a problem many smartphone users find themselves hitting where sharing websites can prove to be quite an issue. He developed a modest Javascript bookmark that can exist loaded on you Windows Telephone when browsing a website. This will then load a QR code that some other smartphone can scan to open up that exact webpage. Ingenious.

Have y'all but purchased a shiny new smartphone running Microsoft'due south OS? Are you wandering how the visitor's cloud storage service SkyDrive integrates into the platform? We've got you covered with our introduction to SkyDrive guide. Episode 142 of the WPCentral Podcast is now live on website where we discuss Samsung, Nokia and more than. On our community forum, we've introduced a new user group for residential developers to make use of their experience on our boards. Alas, that'south enough of us, let's become into this summary.

Samsung kicks us off with their plans to take on Nokia in the Windows Telephone market with "Apollo" handsets built with Android hardware, will they succeed? Microsoft has added 300 new titles to the Brazilian Marketplace, which features tighter restrictions and requirements for games. Senior User Experience Designer for Windows Phone, Artuo Toledo, leaves Microsoft. The genius has plans to publish a free ebook for developers using his Metro development series.

Nokia has been a busy bee with Windows Phone. From going overboard with advertising to holding massive events, the manufacturer shows no signs of letting up. This is reaffirmed with news of the company striking new partnerships with developers and companies to bring more official apps to the Marketplace. There accept been growing concerns from the community that these partnerships could cause fragmentation in the ecosystem, much like what Android suffers from, merely we take a expect at how this is non the case.

According to sources familiar with company plans, Microsoft has shown interest in having a Facebook certified telephone run on their platform. Question is: why can't Facebook certify Windows Phone every bit the dominant OS? Information technology's arguably the almost socially connected, particularly with Facebook itself. Nokia has begun rebranding the Marketplace app on Lumia Windows Phones with a new tile that has a cartoon-like bag with an "n" labeled on top. To close upwards our highlights, Microsoft is set to unleash an overhaul of Bing to make the search engine more social and give the feel a simplistic feel.

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Battleship, Mirror'due south Edge, and Fling are coming soon to Xbox Live on Windows Telephone, which is surely going to make a few owners drool. Feed Me Oil has splashed onto the Marketplace, and is only priced at a minute 99 cents. The Xbox Live Deal of the Week is Pocket God though, which requires some serious updating. Speaking of updates, ARMED has recently been patched, and we can also written report that the title is coming to Windows 8.

Nosotros've got our hands on the achievements for 2 upcoming Xbox Alive Windows Phone games: Gun Bros and Contract Killer. What's that? Yous're bored of geoDefense? Well how does geoDefense Swarm sound? It's coming to the platform on May 16th. Following this tower defence title is Droplitz Delight, a mobile-exclusive puzzle game, which is set to arrive on May 23rd. The popular fish feeding game Grow has been updated and now sports a complimentary trial. To wrap up our gaming coverage is news of Monster Isle getting updated and returning to the Marketplace.

Nokia has unveiled Urban center Lens beta for Lumia Windows Phone owners. The app helps users find local POI (points of interest) using augmented reality - it's super cool. Are you interested? Of form you are! Nosotros have a closer look at Nokia City Lens, and should you not own a Lumia Windows Telephone then fearfulness not equally Wikitude is an app available on the Marketplace that features similar functionality. The Caddie + golf app, which we covered previously, is now exclusively available for Lumia owners.

Likewise as signing deals and forming partnerships to bring apps to the platform, Nokia too got Six Flags on-board to create an app for all their theme parks. Official Time Magazine and LinkedIn apps have at present appeared on the Market. With the built-in integration for LinkedIn, it's good to see an official app to compliment Windows Phone. Speaking of publications, The Daily Beast as well releases an official app for Windows Telephone, should you be interested in such opinionated news.

The popular Manga Reader for Windows Phone has been updated and is now available for free without any advertisements. Nextgen Reader also received an update packing more than functionality and features with a helpful tutorial when outset launching the app. YouTube Pro is dead. Long live SuperTube! The video streaming app is also completely free as well. my NHS has been released onto the Marketplace, which also supports Microsoft'south Wellness Vault service.

Pinterest has updated their APIs to block Windows Telephone tertiary-party clients, while Radio Controlled returns in beta and is once again a working Pandora app. HTC has introduced turn-by-turn charges for their Locations app. Voice-conversation app TalkBox gets teased in a new video showing off the service, while Rabobank (RobABank?) releases an official client for customers who ain a Windows Phone.

A few more updates were pushed through this week, including Soundhound with LiveLyrics back up; the official SkyDrive app; and Newegg, which adds live tiles and other new features. Finally, VoIP service Viber has released a feature-limited beta for Windows Phone.

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It would seem every bit though AT&T are either bringing Visual Vox Post to non-LTE Windows Phones or an fault occurred on their function, equally we're noticing this functionality being present merely unfortunately information technology gets stuck on synchronising. The carrier besides announced the Samsung Focus ii LTE 4G Windows Phone. We took a look at some photos and got some hands-on activeness with the upcoming Samsung phone. Should you be interested in the specifications, they're non all that impressive - we're still waiting on Windows Phone 8 hardware of course.

The white version of the Lumia 900 has been added on Amazon, but is already backordered. We've continuously reported on how the device is struggling stock-wise, and Nokia has since confirmed that they're just selling likewise many for supply to cope with. The Nokia flagship device managed to crush the iPhone 4S and Galaxy Due south for best display, which adds to the awards cabinet. The Lumia 900 has hit the British shores though and is available exclusively at Phones 4u.

We get some hands-on activity with a Tango ROM on ane of our Lumia 710s, which has been spotted on Nokia'due south servers. Samsung has also announced the Omnia M, as well as the Focus 2, but the specifications lead to united states categorising it as a lower-terminate device to take on the Lumia 710 / 610. ZTE has finally reiterated their desire to bring Windows Phones to the U.S. merely have raised other questions.

We covered the amusing news this calendar week which saw Siri, Apple tree'southward personal assistant for the iPhone 4S, recommend the Lumia 900 when asked "What is the all-time cell phone ever?" At least information technology's authentic? Ben Rudolph, who started the Smoked by Windows Phone marketing entrada before in the year has released some insightful statistics surrounding the campaign - Windows Phone has a 95% global win rate. Not too shabby!

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Nokia has taken its Great britain-based Dare to Live marketing campaign to Scotland where Glasgow and Edinburgh were challenged to run into if they could shell Windows Phone. Lastly, we have some miscellaneous news with Microsoft changing the Tweet via text when publishing from Windows Phone handsets. Instead of "via Windows Alive", tweets are now sent "via Microsoft".

An upcoming Windows Phone developer conference reveals some details surrounding the upcoming "Apollo" update and states that information technology's due to be out this yr. The Nokia and Microsoft "Ready.Set () {Code}" challenges kicked off this weekend, exist sure to check the event dates out for available places. We shut upwards the developer news and this week's summary with the news of Verious opening upward the pool of resources for Windows Phone developers to tap into.

Highlights

Samsung plans to accept on Nokia with Windows Phone 8. Can they practice it with Android hardware?
Microsoft boosts Brazilian Windows Telephone Marketplace with 300 new titles
Senior User Experience Designer for Windows Phone, Arturo Toledo leaves Microsoft
Nokia reveals upcoming sectional apps and games for Lumia Windows Phones
Dart exec says he is "still bullish on Apollo"
Is Nokia causing fragmentation on Windows Phone with their sectional apps? Nope.
Microsoft wants the Facebook Phone to run Windows in favour of Android?
Windows Telephone Marketplace begins rebranding on Nokia devices
Microsoft demos new Bing Search, now with more social

Gaming

Battleship, Mirror's Edge, and Fling coming shortly to Xbox Live on Windows Phone
Xbox Live: Feed Me Oil splashes onto the Marketplace
Xbox Live Deal of the Week, Pocket God in serious need of updating
ARMED updated on Windows Telephone, coming to Windows 8 likewise
Check out the Xbox Alive Achievements for Gun Bros and Contract Killer on Windows Telephone
geoDefense Swarm bringing the Creeps to Xbox Live on May 16
Droplitz Delight making a splash on Xbox Live for Windows Phone May 23
Popular fish feeding game Grow gets a free-trial for all in latest update
Xbox Alive: Monster Island updated and back on the Marketplace

Software

Nokia City Lens (beta), discover local interests with augmented reality
Nokia City Lens (Beta): A Closer Look
Don't have a Nokia Windows Phone but want Augmented Reality? Try Wikitude.
The Caddie + golf app is now exclusively bachelor for Nokia Windows Phones
Nokia partners with Six Flags for official Windows Phone app
Official Time Magazine & LinkedIn apps drop for Windows Phone
The Daily Animal gets official for Windows Phone
Manga Reader for Windows Phone is now free
Nextgen Reader gets updated with improvements and new features
Deal Alarm: YouTube Pro is expressionless, long alive SuperTube. And now it's completely free.
my NHS available on the Marketplace with Microsoft HealthVault integration
Pinterest blocks API and breaks third-party Windows Phone apps
Pandora Windows Phone app Radio Controlled back in beta, working again
HTC Locations introduces service charges for plough-past-turn navigation features
Voice-conversation app TalkBox gets teased for Windows Telephone in new video
Rabobank releases mobile cyberbanking app for Windows Telephone
Soundhound for Windows Phone gets LiveLyrics support in latest update
SkyDrive app for Windows Phones gets a minor bump to version two.1
Newegg Windows Telephone app v1.1 update adds alive tiles and more than
Viber feature-limited beta at present bachelor for Windows Phone

Hardware

AT&T pushing out Visual Voicemail to non-LTE Windows Phones?
AT&T announces the Samsung Focus two 4G LTE Windows Phone
AT&T Samsung Focus 2 Windows Telephone first photos
AT&T Samsung Focus 2 specs surface
Samsung Focus two easily-on
White Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T arrives on Amazon Wireless. Already on backorder.
Lumia 900 bachelor at Norwegian retailer Elkjøp on June 1st for 4,290 kr
Nokia Lumia 900 beats out the iPhone 4s and Milky way Due south for best brandish
Lumia 900 sales yet 'outpacing supply' says Nokia US President
Nokia Lumia 900 exclusively available at Phones 4u
Lumia 900 Tango ROM for Finland pops up on Nokia'southward servers
Hands on with Windows Phone Tango and the Nokia Lumia 710
Nokia Lumia 610 and 900 set to launch in Commonwealth of australia
Samsung announces low-finish Omnia M Windows Phone for Europe
ZTE reiterates desire to bring their devices to the United states but raises other questions

Media

What's the all-time mobile phone ever according to Apple'south Siri? The Lumia 900 of course
Smoked by Windows Phone, new numbers and ads
Nokia "Dare to Live" Windows Phone challenge hits Scotland
Tweeting from your Windows Phone? It's 'via Microsoft' from now on

Developers

Upcoming Windows Telephone developer conference reveals Apollo info
Verious adding Windows Phone to their lineup to help developers in making apps
Nokia's "Ready.Set () {Code}" Programmer Challenge kicks off this weekend
How satisfied are yous as a Windows Phone programmer?

It'south here

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