Items tagged with Windows Phone 8
If you’re one of the chosen few that is still sticking around with Microsoft’s smartphone operating system despite the clear domination of smartphones running iOS and Android, Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) US Mobile will have a respectable deal for you on Cyber Monday. The company has announced that it will make the Lumia 530 smartphone available for $9.99 starting next week. US Mobile operates on T-Mobile’s wireless network and the Lumia 530 in question will be offered off-contract. Now before you start getting all excited about the prospects of a smartphone for less than $10 without a contract, we have to be upfront about the device’s specs — they definitely won’t blow your socks off....
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Although we have to wait until October 27 when Halo 5 officially launches for the Xbox One, another Halo: Spartan Strike is now available for iOS, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Steam for the relatively low price of $5.99. And you don’t have to worry about dealing with ridiculous microtransactions as seen with the Halo: Spartan Assault. All in-game purchases are taken care of with currency that you earn as you progress through the game. Spartan Strike is a top-down gaming affair and you control your on-screen action using dual control sticks. Compared to Spartan Assault, Microsoft says that Spartan Strike brings with it new and improved controls and a spruced up graphics engine. You play as...
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Windows Phone owners needn't feel like the red-headed stepchildren of the mobile industry. It's true that Microsoft's share of the mobile market is a drop in the bucket compared to Apple (iOS) and Google (Android), but regardless of that, it's all about the apps and hardware, both of which have been steadily improving. That includes Skype, which has just been updated to include location sharing. "Today we’re pleased to release Skype 2.22 for Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Phone 8, which brings location sharing to Skype for the first time! Location sharing lets you have an even better chat experience on the go. Seeing friends or family and want to tell them where to meet you? Simply use this...
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Samsung has won a fair number of fans in the Android space with its Galaxy line of smartphones, so if looking to duplicating that success in Windows Phone territory, it makes sense to stick with a physical design that works. That's what Samsung has done -- the company's ATIV SE is now official and it arrives at Verizon dressed like a Galaxy S4 but rocking Windows Phone 8. It also has an un-named 2.3GHz quad-core processor (our money's on it being a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC), 5-inch Full HD 1080p display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage supplemented with a microSD card slot, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera that's accessible when the phone is locked, 802.11ac...
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By and large, the Lumia line has looked fairly uniform to date, relying on polycarbonate frames, bold colors and stand-out camera features to differentiate itself. The Lumia 925, despite being one of the final Lumias to ship with Nokia's branding, stands as one of the first in the range to truly carve a different path on the design front. It's the first Lumia to roll metal into its design, and while you'll still recognize it as a tried-and-true Lumia at a glance, there's no question that it's cut from a different cloth. In many ways, the Lumia 925 stands as a gentle refresh of the Lumia 920. It adds a bit of metal to its construction, slims down the overall package, and includes a nice boost...
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We're inching closer to the end of an era. Now that Microsoft has acquired Nokia's mobile phone unit, we'll soon see Microsoft-branded handsets rolling out in place of Nokia's own hardware. The company has made a heroic attempt to fight the tide of Apple's growing popularity coupled with the surging share of Android, but currently, Windows Phone holds only around 5% of the global market in smartphones. By and large, the Lumia line has looked fairly uniform to date, relying on polycarbonate frames, bold colors and stand-out camera features to differentiate itself. The Lumia 925, despite being one of the final Lumias to ship with Nokia's branding, stands as one of the first in the range to truly...
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If you've made the decision to swim in Windows Phone waters, you may have been eyeballing Nokia's Lumia 1020 and been turned on by its 41-megapixel rear-facing camera. That's pretty beastly, but a glance at the $299 price tag may have turned you off just as quickly. Would you be interested again if it was $100 cheaper? Whether or not you would be, the new price is $199 with a two-year service agreement with AT&T. That's more in line with competing high-end smartphones like the Galaxy S4 and HTC One, both Android devices. The Lumia 1020 is a strong contender in the Windows Phone space (see our full review). It has a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of...
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There's no question, what we do here at HotHardware definitely has its perks. Sure, the hours are long, the work can be grueling with benchmark run after run, take after take in the video studio or fighting with finicky, just-released products that don't want to cooperate. So what sorts of things do we do to relax and blow off a little steam? Well, sometimes we take the hardware for a joy ride; in this case quite literally. You may recall our recent review and showcase of Nokia's Lumia 1020 Windows Phone, with its high resolution 41 Megapixel camera, floating image stabilization and Carl Zeiss optics. Of course you do. We were pretty impressed by the device actually...
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Nokia, perhaps more-so than any other smartphone manufacturer in the game right now, needed to find a way to make something special. The new Nokia Lumia 1020, though it sports essentially the same internals and display as Nokia's Lumia 920, most definitely is different, and perhaps even a very attractive alternative, depending on your specific needs. 41 megapixels of resolution, floating image stabilization and a powerful camera app to back it up, will make the Lumia 1020 pretty "special" to a lot of people, some of whom might be considering a Windows Phone for the first time as a result. We're quickly working up a detailed review on Nokia's new Lumia 1020 but wanted to give you our initial...
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Nokia has been trying hard to play catch-up in the smartphone race for a long time now, and as Microsoft's strategic partner with the Windows Phone operating system and ecosystem, they've got their work cut out for them, with a gridiron full of Android and iOS devices offering compelling and powerful solutions. And so, Nokia, perhaps more-so than any other smartphone manufacturer in the game right now, needed to find a way to make something special. The new Nokia Lumia 1020, though it sports essentially the same internals and display as Nokia's Lumia 920, most definitely is different, and perhaps even a very attractive alternative, depending on your specific needs. 41 megapixels of resolution,...
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Nokia went all-in with Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, and lest anyone think the Finnish phone maker was going to give it a halfhearted effort, the handset maker added yet another Lumia device to its growing Windows Phone 8 lineup. It's the Lumia 625, an "accessibly priced" 4G handset with a spacious 4.7-inch super-sensitive IPS LCD screen and 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor. It also has 512MB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage (supports up to 64GB via SD card), 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus and LED flash, VGA front-facing camera, 2000 mAh battery, and of course the latest version of Windows Phone 8. "With our largest smartphone screen to date, the Nokia Lumia...
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Been considering a move from your current platform over to Windows Phone 8? If you're on the fence, Nokia hopes its trade-up offer will serve as the nudge you need to jump ship and swim over to a Lumia device. As long as you're a U.S. resident, the Finnish phone maker will pay you up to $300 for your old phone in the form of a Visa pre-paid card. Nokia posted a special Trade-Up portal where you can determine the trade value of your current phone. Your mileage will vary depending on your handset and the condition it's in, but to give some examples, Nokia will pay up to $250 for an iPhone 4S or HTC One, $210 for a Samsung Galaxy S III, and $175 for a Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD. After you purchase...
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Since even before the release of Windows 8, Acer has been one of the more outspoken critics of Microsoft's hardware strategy, especially as it pertains to Surface RT/Pro. As for smartphones, however, Acer's been a little more receptive, although it still isn't ready to make the jump into Windows Phone 8 territory. It's not that Acer has a grudge against the platform. Just the opposite, Acer's VP of Smartphones, Allen Burnes, told TechRadar it thinks Windows Phone 8 is a "great OS." and that "everyone in our smartphone team would really like to deploy Windows OS." If that's the case, then what's stopping Acer? "The way WP8 integrates in the rest of the Windows ecosystem is phenomenal, so yes we...
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A wise person once said that all good things must eventually arrive at an end, and Microsoft has typically been fairly proactive about giving its user base a heads-up as to when support would end for its products. There's generally an amount of buzz surrounding the expiration of support on a Windows OS, but now that Windows Phone is around, the company has yet another operating system to keep in mind when it comes to long-term support planning. Recently, the company made clear that Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.5 support will cease in July of 2014, giving it around 18 months of support. Specifically, WP 7.5 will see support end on September 9, 2014, while WP8 will see support end on July...
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When Microsoft revealed Windows Phone 7 devices would not be capable of receiving an upgrade, many customers were quite unhappy. Thankfully, Microsoft learned a lesson and doesn't intend to repeat this policy with Windows Phone 8. Greg Sullivan, a senior marketing manager at Microsoft, recently confirmed to PC Magazine that the company has an upgrade path for Windows Phone 8 devices moving forward. He also suggested Microsoft's current mobile OS is powerful enough to adopt to new hardware components. “Windows Phone 8 can evolve. We have an architecture that enables portability and is fundamentally hardware independent,” he said. “As the market evolves and customer requirements...
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While the total number of apps available for Windows Phone 8 still lags behind Apple's App Store and Google's Play store, Windows Phone 8 users should be happy to see more and more developers pay attention to the Windows Phone 8 platform. Recently, the Windows Phone store received a couple of additions in the form of a third-party voice-activated personal assistant and Asphalt 7: Heat. While most people have heard of Siri, Apple's voice-activated personal assistant that comes on iPhones, we're betting far fewer people have heard of Maluuba, a personal assistant app that is now available to Windows Phone 8 users. If you're familiar with Windows Phone 8, you know the phone already supports various...
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Microsoft has put a huge amount of effort, money, time, and resources into pumping up the Windows Phone Store. And there's no question as to why. Apple and Google both enjoy remarkably robust app marketplaces, and in the war of ecosystems, having an enviable app store goes a long way to attracting new users. Now, Windows Phone has yet another flagship app in its pocket: Spotify. What has become the most talked-about music streaming app in the U.S. now has a home on Windows Phone 8, and we'd guess that it'll surpass Microsoft's own music app in a short period of time. The initial release is just a beta, but it'll still let users create their own playlists, discover new artists, and enjoy offline...
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Numbers are a funny thing, and contrary to their very nature, far from absolute when a human element is involved. The latest mobile data from two market research firms underscores this dilemma and proves you should always take market share figures with a pinch of salt. One of those firms is Strategy Analytics, which just a few days ago reported that Microsoft had, for the first time, surpassed BlackBerry in the fourth quarter of 2012 to become the third most popular mobile operating system in the U.S. and Canada behind iOS and Android. Specific figures were only shared with its clients, not the press, so we don't have an idea of the margin of victory, if indeed there was one. Say what? According...
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Samsung on Wednesday sent out emails announcing that its ATIV Odyssey handset will be available to purchase in the U.S. starting tomorrow. You'll be able to pick one up from Verizon on the web or in stores for $50 (after a $50 mail-in-rebate) with a two-year service agreement. A quick refresher on the specs. The ATIV Odyssey sports a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display with an 800x480 resolution, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, 1.2MP front-facing camera, 5MP rear-facing camera with LED flash and Full HD 1080p recording, microSD card slot, 2100 mAh battery, and a 4G LTE radio. The ATIV Odyssey is Verizon's third Windows Phone 8 device, the other two being the...
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Nokia is reportedly prepping a successor to its flagship Lumia 920 device. Codenamed "Catwalk," the new smartphone will feature a chassis constructed from aluminum rather than the polycarbonate body found on previous Lumia devices. As a result, the Catwalk will be much lighter and thinner than existing Lumia smartphones. Not a lot of specifics are known at this time. According to The Verge, the Catwalk will run Windows Phone 8 and sport similar internal hardware as the Lumia 920, which itself boasts a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snadragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, 4.5-inch touchscreen (1280x768), 1.2MP front-facing camera, and 8.7MP rear-facing camera with Carl Zeiss optics....
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If you're in the market for a new smartphone in the post-holiday season, you'll have a few Windows Phone 8 smartphone options to consider, including the new Nokia Lumia 810 which is exclusive to T-Mobile and the Lumia 820 which is exclusive to AT&T. These new Windows Phone smartphones come with all of the Windows Phone 8 features you'd expect as well as some additional software from Nokia that is designed to bolster their capabilities in a number of areas. The Lumia 810 has a 4.3-inch OLED WVGA Clear Black display as well as an 8-megapixel camera that utilizes Carl Zeiss optics. Let's have a look......
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Microsoft and its partners were pushing Windows Phone 8-based smartphones hard this holiday season. In a market that's already crowded with plenty of great Android and iOS options, Microsoft and its partners definitely have their work cut out for them. Given its touch-friendly features, unique UI, and personalization options though, Windows Phone 8 is getting a second look from a lot of people. If you're in the market for a new smartphone in the post-holiday season, you'll have a few Windows Phone 8 smartphone options to consider, including the new Lumia 810 which is exclusive to T-Mobile and the Lumia 820 which is exclusive to AT&T. These new Windows Phone 8 smartphones...
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