Items tagged with Windows Phone
We've been using (and reviewing) Windows Phone devices for years now, and while market share numbers still favor iOS and Android, it's obvious that Microsoft isn't going to give up on the race. The company has been building Windows Phone into a full-fledged mobile OS, and today it stands as a formidable competitor...
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Windows Phone 8.1 is shaping up to be one of the best - if not the best - WP releases ever, and for the sake of shaking things up in the mobile market, I hope that proves to be the case. A couple of weeks ago, we learned that 8.1 would be introducing an "Action Center", in effect, a notifications system overhaul. For Windows Phone users, this...
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Hot on the heels of an earlier report by Nielsen that around two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) announced today that the smartphone market as a whole reached another milestone in 2013 by surpassing the 1 billion shipments mark for the first time. IDC...
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The rumormill surrounding Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 release has been at full power for a couple of weeks, and now, we get our first glimpse at Samsung's accompanying offering - assuming that this leak is accurate. As seen in the shot below, the phone, dubbed "Huron", looks nearly identical to Samsung's...
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Just over 10 years ago, Android was born into this world out of the minds of Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White, who collective envisioned building an advanced operating system for digital cameras. Google had different plans for Android after acquiring the OS in 2005, and on October 22, 2008, the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) launched...
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It's true that Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is the third most popular mobile operating system in the world, but it's a distant third behind iOS and Android, the two big dogs that run the show. If Microsoft is to increase its slice of the pie, it needs to get more handset makers on board rather than tie itself so...
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Microsoft and Sony might be out for blood in the console wars (Xbox One versus PlayStation 4), but on a different battlefield, the two could end up on fighting on the same side. That battlefield is mobile, and word on the web is that these two rivals are in discussions about the possibility of Sony releasing a Windows...
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It's shaping up to be quite the pleasant holiday season for Windows Phone owners, especially those who are fans of the Temple Run series. Just in time for Christmas, Temple Run 2 is now available for Windows Phone 8 users with at least 1GB of RAM as a free download from the Windows Phone store. Better late than never, right? "It probably needs...
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One advantage Microsoft has over the competition in the mobile space is that it owns a number of products and services it can integrate into its Windows Phone platform. Microsoft has done this before and it's doing it again, this time by giving every single Windows Phone user an extra 20GB of free SkyDrive storage for...
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If you've spotted any of the newest Microsoft television spots, you may have picked up on something. The company has been pushing a single Windows for your entire life, and while that's a good catch-phrase, it's not really applicable given today's state of Windows. There's Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone...
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Starting today, Windows Phone users can finally join in the fun that is Instagram, which at its core allows you to add filter effects and "transform everyday moments into works of art," or something like that. That's the good news. The bad news is that in an attempt to rush Instagram to the Windows Phone platform...
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Microsoft can take pause for a moment and celebrate the fact that its Windows Phone platform experienced an impressive 156 percent year-on-year growth rate in the global smartphone market, according to data released by International Data Corporation (IDC). It did it by shipping 9.5 million Windows Phone devices in the...
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Say what you will about the power of the ecosystem, but one of Microsoft's biggest hurdles to overcome in the mobile arena isn't quality hardware nor software. Nokia makes killer phones, and most of the AAA-level apps in the Windows Phone store are of high quality (just look at Evernote, for example). But there's a...
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Not long after Apple unveiled its iPhone 5c, which is available in a variety of attractive colors, Nokia took to Twitter to give a shout-out. On top of a picture showing off its own recent Lumia line, which also comes in a variety of attractive colors, it says, "Imitation Is The Best Form of Flattery". Shots were...
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It should come as a surprise to no one that Microsoft hasn't been pleased with how smartphones equipped with its mobile OS have been selling, with many speculating that a solution could only come about if the company took things into its own hands. Well, with its announced acquisition of Nokia, it's clear that...
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In the hardware world, even the best-selling devices eventually reach EOL (end-of-life) status. And, as fate would have it, it seems that the software world follows suit. But every now and again, a product is killed that leaves us scratching our heads. While Windows Phone 8 is clearly the premier mobile product for Microsoft, it sure doesn't...
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With the introduction of iOS 7 later this week (at least into public hands), Siri is poised to exit "Beta." Finally, right? Of course, language learning takes time, and Siri has been ingesting queries for a long time now in order to improve her understanding of the human voice. Meanwhile, Google Now shipped for Jelly Bean devices, and arguably...
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On Labor Day, Microsoft and Nokia issued a press release confirming that Nokia's devices division was being wholly acquired by Microsoft. It was a fairly short release, and just like that, it was done. But here's the thing: while it was easy to announce, it took a ton of work to get where we are today. The New York...
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One has to wonder why Microsoft has been doing everything it can to bury big news over the past couple of weeks. Ballmer's retirement plan was unveiled in a hush-hush fashion, and a few days ago, Microsoft decided to give a board seat to an activist investor for the first time in the company's history. As if that weren't enough change for...
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If there's one thing Microsoft's Windows Phone platform desperately needs (other than a larger user base), it's more apps. We're not talking about fart apps and other filler type material, but at this point, it's even missing some of the more popular apps available on other platforms. One you can soon cross off the...
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Microsoft is already fighting an uphill battle on its Windows Phone platform in terms of fleshing the number of available of apps so that it's on par (or in the vicinity) of Android and iOS, but it's biggest battle to date has been making a YouTube app available to its users. It should be pretty simple, however...
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The mobile market is dominated by Android and iOS, but lest either platform get too comfortable sitting way out in front of the pack, watch out for Windows Phone. According to the latest figures released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), Windows Phone shipments surged 77 percent year-over-year, the largest...
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