windows phone 7

Microsoft will be launching its Windows Phone 7.8 upgrade on Wednesday, if rumors reported by Tonis Tech Blog today are correct.

The blog cited unnamed sources "near the subject." Meanwhile, WPCentral found some Finnish promotional materials that revealed there will be another update after the 7.8 update.

The materials also appear to shed some light on new features. The operating system will have a new start screen and more color themes to chose from, according to the translation posted to WPCentral.

CNET has contacted Microsoft for a comment and will update when we hear back, but … Read more

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Connector is a slick app that syncs media files between your Mac and your Windows Phone 7 device or Zune. Windows Phone 7 Connector installs quickly and has a nice interface that shows your media files by category, as well as giving a schematic of the connected Windows Phone 7 device's capacity and disk usage.

The Windows Phone 7 Connector interface is really simple to use and will feel remarkably familiar to any iTunes user. Select the files you want to sync (pretty much any non-DRM media file) and click the Sync button. The … Read more

Previously showcased as the ZTE Orbit during this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the ZTE Render is a Windows Phone 7.5 Tango handset available from U.S. Cellular.

The phone sports a 4-inch WVGA display, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, and 4GB of onboard memory.

It's also powered by a 1,600mAh lithium ion battery and a 1GHz processor.

In addition, as a Windows Phone device, the Render features Xbox Live, Zune music and video portals, Microsoft Office, and 7GB of SkyDrive cloud computing storage.

Interested users can nab the device for $80, after … Read more

Nokia may offer entry-level Windows Phone 7.5 devices by year's end, according to DigiTimes.

Citing the usual "industry sources," DigiTimes said the new phones would be aimed at consumers in emerging markets, who are considered more price-sensitive.

The hardware requirements for Windows Phone 8 are stricter than those for its predecessor, demanding a dual-core processor and support for near-field communication (NFC). Those features would be difficult to add to more entry-level and mid-level phones, according to the sources, prompting the need for less pricey Windows Phone 7.5 devices.

A Nokia spokesman told CNET that the … Read more

VoIP provider Viber has hit a new milestone.

The company announced today that it now has 100 million worldwide users taking advantage of its free phone calls, texting, and photo-messaging services. It's not clear if those users are actively using the service or have just signed up. Still, the company claims to handle over 2 billion minutes of calls and 6 billion messages every month. An average of 10 million calls are placed each day.

Viber has established itself as a true competitor to Skype, the popular VoIP service now owned by Microsoft. Viber works across iOS, Android, and … Read more

The term "Metro" is officially verboten as the name for Microsoft's Windows 8 interface. The question is: why?

The folks in Redmond recently revealed that the term is off limits, at first claiming it was just a code name but then apparently fessing up that the dumping of Metro was due to legal reasons.

As described by ZDNet columnist Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft seemed to run into brand name issues with a European partner called Metro Group. And apparently Microsoft was unable or simply disinclined to resolve those issues.

The ban on the term "Metro" … Read more

Nokia Lumia 710 and 800 users are starting to receive the updates to Microsoft's Windows Phone "Mango" operating system that are known as "Tango."

These updates will be rolling out in June and July, according to a June 27 Nokia Conversations blog post. WPCentral reported that some Nokia 710 users on Rogers in Canada were getting these updates as of last week. (WPCentral and WMPoweruser noted the coming Tango updates today, as well.)

A quick codename refresher for those who thought we were already up to "Apollo," or Windows Phone OS 8: … Read more

In today's show, Facebook shareholders are fuming, Windows Phones need updating and Prime subscribers are streaming:

Facebook and several banks have been slapped with a lawsuit, accused of hiding some details about revenue estimates days before the stock went public. The charge is this: Facebook spoke with select analysts about additional information on revenue expectations than what was disclosed in amended filings. Smaller investors are upset they were left out of the loop, and say they lost money because they didn't know the full picture. But even if Facebook did give extra info to analysts, it's not … Read more

Anyone with a Windows Phone that hasn't been upgraded to version 7.5 won't be able to use Microsoft's Marketplace app store as of today.

Microsoft announced today that in order to download, buy, update, or review apps in Marketplace, users have to be running Windows Phone 7.5. This change is required for both the phone and web Marketplace storefronts.

"Most phones are already running Windows Phone 7.5, which was released last fall, and so most of you won't notice anything different about how the Marketplace works," Microsoft's director of program … Read more