Skype for Windows Phone beta now available

By Matthew Miller at ZDNet:
Skype for Windows Phone is one of the most anticipated apps for this new platform and today a beta version is available for you to try out for free.

One of the services people have been asking for on Windows Phone is Skype and there is good news coming out of Spain today as Skype and Microsoft announce the availability of a beta client that you can download and install from this link directly from your Windows Phone. I installed it on my HTC Radar 4G and it is running smoothly so far.
The final version will be available in April, but so far the beta seems quite stable. You need to have Windows Phone 7.5 on your device and the following have been tested and certified:

• Nokia Lumia 710
• Nokia Lumia 800
• HTC Titan
• HTC Radar
• Samsung Focus S
• Samsung Focus Flash

You can check out the YouTube video of the new application and service in action too.

Vimeo Brings New Apps to Android, Windows Phone and iPad

By Christina Warren at Mashable: 
LAS VEGAS — Just in time for the newest crop of tablets and smartphones at CES 2012, Vimeo is making its mobile app available for Android and Windows Phone.
The Android and Windows Phone apps come nearly a year after Vimeo released its first mobile app, Vimeo for iPhone. In addition to the new platforms, Vimeo is also rolling out a fully iPad-optimized version of its iOS app.
Why the big focus on mobile? According to Vimeo, 15% of its traffic now comes from mobile devices. Moreover, Vimeo’s creators are more frequently using smartphone devices as their cameras of choice. After all, when you can create footage like this on a smartphone, why not?
The Android and Windows Phone apps include the following features:

• Upload raw or edited footage in HD or SD
• Pause/Resume videos
• Replace existing videos
• Edit tags, titles, descriptions and privacy information
• Share via Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, WordPress, email or SMS
• Download your Vimeo videos to your Camera roll
• Watch videos from the Vimeo Inbox and Watch Later queue
• Access stats

The Android version of the app [Market Link] is available in the Android Market and in the Amazon App Store and is compatible with all Android devices running Android 2.3 and higher. This means that devices like the Kindle Fire can get in on the fun.
The Windows Phone version of the app is available in the Windows Phone Marketplace and works with any Windows Phone device running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.

The new iPad-optimized version of the app offers a tablet-optimized view of browsing and discovering video. It also brings over the popular video editing functionality of the iPhone app to the bigger screen iOS device.
In the past 18 months, Vimeo has increasingly focused on streamlining its offerings to provide a consistent user experience across devices and platforms. Vimeo was one of the first major video services to embrace HTML5 and it started targeting the connected device. Vimeo’s Roku app continues to be one of our favorites and we expect the company will continue to target connected devices and platforms.

Evernote for Windows Phone Update: More Social & Gains Ability to Pin Notes to Start Screen

By Todd Ogasawara at SocialTimes: 
Evernote is one of the most useful services around. I use it everyday on a variety of devices using both its web interface as well as native clients which are available for a number of desktop and mobile devices. Evernote just updated its Windows Phone app to take advantage of that platforms unique features.

Evernote for Windows Phone Update: Note Pinning, Templates, New Language Support, and More
One of the unique-to-Windows Phone features is the ability to pin an Evernote note to the start screen. This can be, for example, a to-do list. However, pinned notes are not limited to text. These pinned notes can also be audio notes or snapshot (image) notes. Entire notebooks within an Evernote account can be pinned to the start screen too.
Another new feature for the updated Evernote for Windows Phone app is the ability to create “Template notes” with pre-filled information or even with a workflow that initiates, for example, taking a photo for each new note.
Finally, Evernote notes can now be shared via Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live.
If you do not see the update available for your Windows Phone, just be patient. It can take up to several days for updates to propogate.

GroupMe Rolls Out Major App Update, Adds Direct Messaging, Questions And More

Group messaging service GroupMe has rolled out an update to its apps for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 devices. With the launch of GroupMe 3.0, the service is now available in more than 90 countries and has a bunch of new features.
First is the option to send a direct message to another user. GroupMe is all about communicating with several people at once, but sometimes you might want to say something to just one person in a group. To send a direct message to someone, all you have to do is tap on their avatar anywhere within the app and you can start to have a private conversation with that person. Direct messages are now available on the iPhone and Android apps and the feature will be launching on other platforms soon.

Also new to GroupMe is Questions. This feature, which is currently in beta, allows you to start new kinds of conversations on the service. You can ask questions to a select number of people within a group, an entire group or everyone you know. You can push the questions to Twitter and Facebook as well so that everyone in your social graph can participate in the conversation. Right now, you can only ask questions on the iPhone and Android apps as well as the GroupMe website. You can respond to questions via the website, SMS (note: full GroupMe SMS features are only available in the U.S. at this time) or one of the apps.
On the GroupMe website, you can now do everything that you can on the GroupMe mobile apps. As well as asking and answering questions, you can create and manage groups; share photos; send messages and more. This was a widely requested feature from GroupMe users. The website is optimized for mobile devices as well, so you can still use GroupMe even if your phone does not support one of the apps.
Perhaps with user privacy in mind, GroupMe has removed the ability for you to be able to automatically see the phone number of anyone in your groups. However, if you need to know someone’s phone number, you can ask them for it by sending a direct message.

  

In addition to all of these updates, the iPhone and Android apps have been given a fresh look with a new user interface design. The “News” tab in the app now provides you with all of the latest information about GroupMe and there are several other improvements that have been made through the apps.
You can download GroupMe to your iPhone, Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone 7 device now.

Nokia and Microsoft hosting special event August 17th, both companies likely to give their vows

Between the "accidental" unveiling of the Sea Ray, the announcement of Fujitsu's Mango device, and the less-than-stellar Q2 Nokia had, it doesn't take a lot of crazy speculation to surmise that Stephen Elop's quite the eager beaver in ensuring it'll get the most out of its newfound marriage with Microsoft as soon as possible. Thus, hearing word of a special event being thrown at the beginning of Gamescom, an annual gaming conference in Germany, is definitely a good sign; according to press invites sent out today, the party -- to be held on August 17th -- promises "exciting actions and surprises," and we're pretty sure they don't mean a free t-shirt. So join with us in determining what these surprises are, but please... don't try that hard!

IM+ for WP7, Free and Pro Versions Available

The new IM+ for Windows Phone 1.2 is now available in Microsoft Marketplace in two versions. Both apps include optimizations and performance improvements. Please refer to the links below for both the free and pro versions of IM+ for Windows Phone 7.
Download Links:
Free, ad-supported version

Pro version without ads

Fujitsu-Toshiba IS12T Ad, First Windows Phone Mango Commercial

The Fujitsu-Toshiba IS12T is the first smartphone running Windows Phone Mango that was launched. It is a joint effort made by Microsoft, OEM Fujitsu-Toshiba and Japanese carrier KDDI and it looks good so far.


Being the first Windows Phone to run Mango, its commercial is also the first Windows Phone Mango ad to surface on the internet. The clip itself is not made by Microsoft nor the manufacturer but belongs to the carrier KDDI. Needless to say that is shows off all the goodness Mango and Windows Phone in general brings, but it will be interesting to see how the market will react to the new player.



Source: YouTube

Google Plus Apps Roadmap: Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Symbian

The official Google Plus Blog (which is actually a Google+ account) published a brief roadmap for Google+ mobile apps yesterday.



Here’s what we can expect:
- Google+ for Android updated today (Monday, July 25)
- Google+ for iOS sometime this week. It does not say if this iOS update will let the app work on an iPad
- Google+ for Windows Phone “to debut after Public launch.” I’m interpreting this to mean it will be available when the Windows Phone Mango update is released. This will provide multi-tasking for Windows Phone which can enable greater functionality for an app like Google+
- Google+ for Symbian is “under development”
That last item, a Symbian version, is somewhat surprising. However, there are many millions of Symbian phones in use (mostly Nokia phones). Note, however, what is missing from the list. There’s apparently no near future plan to develop Google+ apps for: HP Palm webOS (TouchPad), BlackBerry OS or QNX (RIM PlayBook). The current Google+ app for iPhone does not even install, let alone work, on an iPad. It will be interesting to see if Google supports the iPad due out in sometime this week.

Android's UK market share explodes as Apple overtakes Symbian

Look at the chart above and you'll see two things happening. First, Apple has overtaken Symbian to become the top smartphone platform in the UK (with a 27 percent market share).

And secondly, Android has grown 634 percent year-over-year to shoot into second place, with less than half a percentage point keeping it from the top spot (other reports already place it ahead). As you might expect, much of that growth isn't coming from folks switching from one smartphone to the other, but from new smartphone users -- Comscore found that 42 percent of all mobile users in the UK used a smartphone in May of this year, compared to just 27 percent a year ago. Of course, that also means that 58 percent of UK cellphone users are still potential smartphone users (to say nothing of those that still don't have a cellphone at all), so there's certainly still plenty up for grabs for all involved.

Windows Phone Mango App Submissions Begin in August, New App Hub Now Launched

Microsoft has announced that developers building mobile applications for its next big release of the Windows Phone operating system, code-named "Mango," will be able to submit those applications to its app marketplace starting in August. Or more specifically, August 22nd.
This news comes at the same time as a rollout of an updated developer portal is underway. The new "App Hub" will support more geographic markets, private distribution options and will offer better application and account management capabilities.

More Countries, More Markets, More Languages

According to a Microsoft blog post, Windows Phone developers can now target 19 more countries, in addition to the 16 already supported. The new markets include:
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan.
Also new are developer markets in:
Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, South Africa and South Korea.
In addition, Chinese developers will be able to register in fall 2011, and registration support for India will be expanded at that time. Korean and Chinese will be added as new localization options for the revamped dev portal, too.
And, as Apple did recently, Microsoft says it's adjusting pricing tiers based on global currency exchange rates fluctuations. Developers with apps under $5 (US) will now have more flexibility in terms of pricing tier options, notes Microsoft. In-app advertising will expand to more markets, too.

Betas & Private Apps Supported, Better App Management and More

The updated App Hub will also include an interesting new feature: support for betas! App developers who want to distribute apps to limited audiences (up to 100) will be able to do so for up to 90 days before they are published publicly in the marketplace. Another private method of publishing will be supported, too, for developers who want to hide their apps, only making them available to those who have the deep link (the direct URL).
With Mango on the horizon, Microsoft is adding new app management tools for developers, which include the following:

• Better application management: By selecting 'Edit catalog details' on the app 'Lifecycle' tab, you can now change the app metadata without submitting your app for re-certification, thus reducing the time to update and publish new information.
• Enhanced developer dashboard: Now from a single location, when you sign in you can quickly see all top app performance metrics, payout status, distribution reporting and all available ratings & reviews on your app(s) on a per language basis.
• More detailed reporting: You are now able to select between 'Summary' and 'Detail' views of all reports and export them in an Excel-compatible format for offline data handling and analysis.
• New 'Crash Count' report: App Hub now enables you to retrieve data on crash counts and stack traces for each of your apps to use in debugging publisher updates faster.
• Streamlined application submission process: Developers no longer need to upload artwork files one-by-one. By clicking the 'Browse' button, developers can bulk select upload multiple artwork files all at once during the app submission process. The App Hub will automatically detect the image sizes of all artwork and place them in the correct artwork locations for developers to edit or delete before final app submission.
• New App Categories: To make discoverability of apps easier, Microsoft has added three new top level categories (education, kids & family and government & politics) and several new sub-categories. In addition, during the app submission process, developers can now select categories and sub-categories for all languages.

Social network integration in Windows Phone Mango demoed on video

Deeper social network integration is one of the many new features that the Mango update will bring to Windows Phone, and thanks to this newly-released video, we now have a better idea how that is going to work exactly. Fortunately, we are not dealing with a demo made by using a leaked beta version of the platform. It is Stuart Bottom himself, Program Manager at the Communications Group on Windows Phone, who clarifies what he and his team have done to make Windows Phone a more social-centric operating system.

First of all, Twitter and LinkedIn are going to be a seamless part of Windows Phone along with Facebook and Windows Live, which means that users may get bombarded by notifications once they are logged in to all social networks simultaneously. That is why the ability to filter your notification feeds has been added meaning that users will be able to view either all notifications at one place, or just the ones from a network of their choice.

The second major improvement regarding social network integration in Windows Phone Mango is that the notification experience has been taken to a whole different level. Users will be notified upon events such as their mentioning in a Tweet or whenever there is some activity on their Facebook wall, for example.

Feel free to watch the whole video, which we have embedded for you below, and do not hesitate to share with us whether you find the new social features of Windows Phone to your liking.

source: Windows Phone (YouTube) via WPCentral

Nokia Windows Phone set for October launch in London

 

Nokia could reveal its first Windows Phone devices in October. The world's largest phone manufacturer is holding its annual Nokia World conference at the end of October this year, setting the stage for its hotly anticipated -- and desperately needed -- Windows Phone smart phones.
Nokia World takes place on 26 and 27 October right here in Britain, so you better believe the Crave team will be on hand for all the news from Nokia.

A late October launch could put Nokia's Windows Phone devices in shops in time for Christmas. Talkative Nokia boss Stephen Elop has repeatedly promised Windows Phones before the end of the year, and they can't come a moment too soon for the troubled phone-fabricating Finns.
Whenever they come, Nokia promises the UK will be first in line, along with the other big European countries that its heartland. There are also plans for ten new Symbian devices this year, so we'll probably see them at Nokia World too.
Crave toddled along to Nokia World last year, when the atmosphere was buoyant as a dramatically revamped version of Symbian arrived on powerhouse new phones, including the Nokia N8.
But the mood soured faster than the vol-au-vents dished up on the show floor, and the past year has been a series of calamities for the Finnish company: the N8 turned out to be rubbish, Symbian is just clinging to life, MeeGo is dead and doesn't even know it, and thousands of jobs have gone. But this year also saw the news that could turn things round for those crazy Finns: the adoption of Microsoft's Windows Phone software in all its smart phones.
Nokia is still the largest phone manufacturer on the planet, thanks to the sheer number of handsets it shifts, particularly in developing markets. But smart phones are the battleground of the future, and Apple and Android have a hefty head-start.

Via: Crave

Nokia's Stephen Elop demonstrates the first Nokia Windows Phone device

Wow, Nokia has been making quite a lot of headlines lately. Only days after the announcement of the Nokia N9 – a supposedly “market disrupting” device powered by the MeeGo platform, the company has lifted the veil off its very first Windows Phone handset. It was Stephen Elop himself who introduced the smartphone in front of an unsuspecting audience, after which Jukka Kiiskinen, a services sales manager at Nokia, demonstrated Microsoft's mobile platform running on the device.


The smartphone is only known by its Sea Ray codename so far, and if Nokia's plans unfold as expected, it should hit the market by the end of this year. Little details have been mentioned about the device, but what we know is that it will launch running Windows Phone with the Mango update on top, which packs goodies like deeper SkyDrive integration and Internet Explorer 9. What we also have confirmed about the smartphone is that it will boast an 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a Gorilla Glass-protected touchscreen display.

During the presentation, Stephen Elop later added that “other devices completely different from that” were already running so it wouldn't be surprising for Nokia to treat us to another unexpected announcement like today's in the near future. In the meantime, if you are curious to see Nokia's first Windows Phone device in action, feel free to check out the video embedded below where it shows up around the 2-minute mark.


via Gizmodo

If the video is taking longer than usual to start, please, be patient as the server seems to be under heavy load right now.

Stephen Elop: Nokia won't build just another tablet

Apple has a tablet. So does RIM. HP Palm too, soon enough. And Android tablets, particularly those running Honeycomb... they're everywhere -- hell, even Sony has a few on the way. That leaves Nokia as the glaring anomaly conspicuously absent from the tablet wars. Understandable, we guess, given the company's urgent need to transition its smartphone strategy to Windows Phone. That doesn't mean the company is standing still though. According to an interview with YLE television in Finland, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is taking a very calculated approach to tablets,
saying, "We could take advantage of Microsoft technology and software, and build a Windows-oriented tablet, or we could do things with some of the other software assets that we have. Our team right now is assessing what's the right tablet strategy for Nokia." In other words, Nokia is investigating tablets running Windows 7 (doubtful), MeeGo (doubtful), and Windows Next, aka that tablet-friendly Windows 8 OS (likely). But here's the most illuminating exchange from the well-mannered Canadian:

There are now over 200 different tablets on the marketplace, only one of them is doing really well. And, my challenge to the team is I don't wanna be the 201st tablet on the market that you can't tell from all of the others. We have to take a uniquely Nokia prospective and so the teams are working very hard on something that would be differentiating relative to everything else that's going on in the market.

Q. So you're not in a hurry?

We're always in a hurry to do the right things, but we're mostly in a hurry to do the right thing.

Makes sense to us and echoes what we've heard about Sony's relatively delayed entry into consumer tablets. Why should Nokia build another me-too tablet when it can tap into the combined Microsoft / Nokia ecosystem and make a grab at some real market share and profit? The entire 20 minute interview is interesting as Elop discusses layoffs, the first Nokia Windows Phone, Symbian, and competing against Apple and Google. Hit the source link for the full deal -- the tablet discussion begins at 10 minutes and 32 seconds.

[Thanks, Pauli N.]
By Thomas Ricker

Android phones are the MOST WANTED, beating iPhone, Blackberry and others

Want an Android phone on your next upgrade? Well, you’re not alone… not by a long shot. According to a survey by Nielsen, when asked which smartphone users would want to buy most on their next upgrade,
the resounding answer was Android. The same survey was done last June – September, showing users wanted (by percentage) iOS (33%), followed by Android (26%), with Blackberry coming in last (13%).
However, this time the results showed:

1. Android – 31%
2. iOS – 30%
3. Blackberry – 11%
4. Windows Mobile – 6%
5. Palm / WebOS – 1%
6. Symbian – 0%
7. Other – 1%
8. Unsure – 18%

A 5% jump in consumer demand? Not bad, Google… not bad at all. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments.
[via mobileattack]

Nokia Already Testing Windows Phone 7 Handsets

A leak has revealed that Nokia is currently testing Windows Phone 7 on two smartphone handsets
Reports have indicated that Nokia is testing two prototype handsets running Windows Phone 7.
The two handsets that Nokia is reportedly testing are said to be
running a forthcoming version of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) operating system.
Mango is due out later this year and it aims to close the gaps with Android and Apple’s iOS in a number of core areas. Despite Microsoft experiencing some problems recently in rolling out an update to its mobile OS, Mango is said to offer better multitasking and improved web browsing.

W7 And W8

Nokia has previously said that it intends to have Windows Phone 7 handsets out by 2012, but latest indications are that the Finnish handset giant could be looking to bring these handsets to market before the end of the year, as it seeks to regain lost ground.
Nokia has only just formally signed its partnership deal with Microsoft, announced in February, for the use of the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system.
According to Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin, regarded as something of an industry source, the two Nokia handsets have been dubbed the W7 and W8. The first handset to market is expected to be the W7 prototype, which will be based on the Nokia X7 that has just been released.
The W8 will use the N8 at its starting point.
On his blog (in Russian) Murtazin said that W7 will feature a first generation 1GHz Snapdragon QSD8250 processor, a capacitive touch screen that has a 4-inch AMOLED display, and an 8 MP camera with LED flash

Signs Are There

According to an interview with Nokia executive vice president Kai Oistamo and Microsoft phone unit President Andy Lees on All Things Digital, Nokia is confident that things are ahead of schedule and that considerable progress has been made since the February announcement in London.
“We’ve gotten to where we have gotten to faster than we thought,” Lees said. “Now we know who is exactly writing each piece of code.”
Both men said that in order to get to this point, there had been many conference calls, emails and meetings, as well as visits between Finland and Redmond.
Oistamo, meanwhile, said he was pleased with the technical work that has taken place in the past 60 days – including getting the first Nokia hardware running Microsoft’s operating system.
“A contract is just a contract,” Oistamo reportedly said. “The real thing is about creating something jointly together. The products are not done yet. But you can already see the signs. Everything that we talked conceptually with you in London is actually coming into real fruition.”
Meanwhile despite throwing its weight behind Windows Phone 7, Nokia remains publicly committed to support its Symbian OS through at least 2014. The company’s roadmap features new Symbian phones hitting the market in 2011 and 2012.