windows phone

For holidays, T-Mobile goes big on Android and Windows Phone 8

Hurricane Sandy forced T-Mobile to cancel a Holiday Showcase event planned for New York City today, but the storm didn't prevent the carrier from announcing its 2012 product lineup for the holiday season. The iPhone is absent, of course, but T-Mobile will deliver a strong lineup of Android and Windows Phone 8 tablets and smartphones. As you'd expect from the carrier, some devices, like the LG Optimus L9 and Nokia Lumia 810, are decidedly midrange. Yet, other handsets, like the HTC Windows Phone 8X and new LG Nexus 5 are top of the line.

Here's the skinny … Read more

Will Windows 8 bring Windows Phone into focus?

After months of teasing, Windows Phone 8 finally takes center stage. Whether Microsoft's mobile efforts will have some staying power or be doomed to a short run still remains to be seen.

Just days after the large, splashy launch of Windows 8 in Manhattan, Microsoft is holding a similar event for its Windows Phone 8 platform. Also on hand were key partners, such as HTC, Nokia, and Samsung Electronics, which all had phones ready to show off.

At stake for Microsoft is its future in the world of technology and consumer electronics. While the traditional Windows software remains the … Read more

Windows Phone 8 trio hitting Verizon for the holidays

Microsoft is getting a little cozier with Verizon, saying the nation's biggest carrier will offer three Windows Phone 8 devices for the coming holiday season.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, speaking during an event today, said Verizon will be offering the Nokia Lumia 822, and that the 8X by HTC will ship by Thanksgiving. Verizon also will offer the Samsung ATIV Odyssey in December.

The 8X will retail at $199 for 16 GB, while the Lumia 822 will sell for $99.

Meanwhile, AT&T will be selling the Lumia 820, Lumia 920, and Windows Phone 8X, while T-Mobile will … Read more

Microsoft brings out Jessica Alba to show off 'Kid's Corner'

She's been a presence at tech conferences of late, and today Microsoft brought out actor-turned-entrepreneur Jessica Alba to talk up the virtues of Windows Phone 8, which the company is launching at an event in San Francisco.

Alba was on stage to tout Kid's Corner, Microsoft's new user account of sorts for kids. Kid's Corner, which acts as a second lock screen for kids, lets an adult choose which apps the kids see, which music they can listen to, and which games they can play. Kids can choose their own theme colors, but they can't … Read more

Windows Phone 8 users can access 46 of top 50 apps

Windows Phone 8 is getting a big app boost, with the platform now featuring 46 out of the 50 most heavily used mobile apps.

"That's huge progress for us," Joe Belfiore, manager of Microsoft's Windows Phone program, said during a presentation today.

There are now 120,000 apps in the Windows Phone marketplace. That's pretty good for Microsoft, but it still falls well short of Android and iOS. Apple last month said its store had 700,000 applications, while Google said its Play store offered 675,000.

Microsoft has been working closely with app developers … Read more

Microsoft dishes more Windows Phone 8 goods

Four months after Microsoft previewed its new Windows Phone 8 operating system for mobile phones, the Redmond crew returned to San Francisco today to reveal even more details.

Windows Phone 8, which is characterized by its newly expanded Start screen, maintains the distinctive design that first set it apart from iOS and Android. Hardware features like support for NFC, multiple processing cores, and expandable memory will help bring Windows phones up to speed against the competition, along with in-app purchases, integrated Skype, and the shared Internet Explorer 10 code that Redmond also revealed months ago.

Read our Windows Phone 8 deep dive … Read more

Microsoft Windows Phone Store up to 120,000 apps

In the numbers race that dominates the headline competition between big technology providers these days, here are a couple more figures, courtesy of Microsoft: The Windows Store now has 120,000 apps, accessible in 191 countries. That's according to Windows Phone Program Manager Joe Belfiore, who took the stage in San Francisco on Monday morning as the company officially launched Windows Phone 8. Out of the 50 top smartphone apps, 46 are now on the Windows Phone, he added. For comparison, Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms each have more than 700,000 app available.

Microsoft … Read more

Hurricane Sandy puts Google's Nexus event on hold

Due to the severe weather conditions of Hurricane Sandy, we won't be filming a CNET Update show out of our New York studio. We'll return once the storm passes. In the meantime, here are some of the top tech headlines for Monday:

- Tracking Sandy: Many on the east coast spent the weekend boarding up windows rather than upgrading Windows. You can keep tabs on Sandy news through several websites, apps and Twitter accounts. Google has a helpful Crisis Response map that marks emergency shelters, evacuation routes and the storm forecast. News outlets like the The New York … Read more

Meet the real Windows Phone 8: Join us Monday (live blog)

CNET's live Windows Phone 8 coverage begins here Monday at 9:30 a.m. PT. The keynote kicks off at 10 a.m. PT.

With Windows 8 launched and the holiday shopping season upon us, the time has come for Microsoft to show the world all that Windows Phone 8 can do.

Back in June, Microsoft previewed a handful of Windows Phone 8 capabilities. Some were hardware-related, like NFC, multicore processing support, and the addition of HD screen resolutions.

Others were software-based: a new home-screen look with resizable widgets and much more space for all those live tiles, plus … Read more

HTC can't take the heat, warns of rough holiday quarter

HTC today warned that its revenue and profitability will continue to slide in the fourth quarter amid continued pressure in the smartphone business.

The Taiwan-based company, which primarily builds smartphones and some tablets, warned that its revenue will fall 40 percent year over year to 60 billion Taiwan dollars ($2.05 billion). Its gross margins are expected to decline to 23 percent in the period vs. 27.1 percent a year ago.

The results reflect the continued struggles that virtually every handset manufacturer face, with too many competitors scrambling for a piece of a pie that increasingly is getting eaten … Read more