Hasta La Gadget!

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of September 17th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile

Refresh Roundup: week of September 17th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Sep 2012 20:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re sure that many Windows Phone users were disappointed and possibly angry to learn that their current Windows Phone devices will not be updated to Windows Phone 8, ultimately forcing them to upgrade (we’re hoping this will not be a trend with future Windows Phone iterations). However Micrsoft did “compromise” by offering current-gen Windows Phone devices to be upgraded to Windows Phone 7.8, which basically introduces the update home screen with smaller tiles and a couple of other Windows Phone 8 features to current-gen devices.

Well if you’re wondering how that might look like, it seems that a Nokia Lumia 800 was spotted (via WindowsMania.pl) running on a leaked version of the Windows Phone 7.8 ROM. It looks pretty good and hopefully it will be enough to appease those who do not wish to upgrade their devices yet. This leak isn’t too surprising given that word on street has it that Windows Phone 7.8 will be arriving on Lumia devices “soon”. In the meantime this comparison chart (not official) should give you an idea of the differences between Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Windows Phone 7.8 update arriving on current generation Nokia Lumias soon?, Photo of the Nokia Lumia 920 with PureView leaked,

Word on the Twitter-street has it that the Windows Phone 7.8 update will be making its way to the existing crop of Windows Phone 7-powered handsets of the Nokia Lumia range, where a couple of tweets were spotted as you can read above. Just in case your eyesight fails you, we have made it more legible in a decent font size, where the first tweet stated, “Don’t forget, in all the excitement of this week, we’re updating and improving the existing #Lumia devices all the time.” which was followed by “All will be revealed, my people, all will be revealed!! #Lumia”.

You say to-mah-to, I say to-may-to, just how anyone interprets this is as good a guess as yours. Some might take this as a crystal clear pointer that the Windows Phone 7.8 update will be released sometime later this week for existing Nokia Lumias in the market, while others feel that it might just make an appearance after Windows Phone 8 devices are released to the masses. Which side of the fence are you on?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nokia Windows Phone coming to US in 2012?, Rumor: Is Nokia Planning To Come Up With A Windows 7 Tablet?,

Nokia is still taking its lumps in earnings, but CEO Stephen Elop has an idea as to how the troubled phone giant can carve out its slice of the smartphone market: like a real estate agent, it’s all about location, location, location. As he outlined in the company’s fiscal results call, the aim is to make Nokia the “where?” company — the go-to for location-based services, whether it’s Drive, Transport or anything else that locks in on our whereabouts. Facebook and Google are the “who?” and “what?” companies, Elop says. He also imagines that his own firm “could be a leader” in sensors as a whole, tracking subtler cues like the owner’s pulse rate. Whether or not Nokia puts itself in front through positioning, the executive gave a small tease of the future during the call — the next wave of Lumia phones will have “more differentiation,” and both Windows Phone 7.8 as well as Windows Phone 8 will make their way to budget Nokia hardware.

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia wants to become the ‘where?’ company, Lumias to become sensor masters originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week the folks at Microsoft responsible for the mobile sect of their world have promised a dedicated homepage for Windows Phone version 7.8 specifically. This page will be the future home for Windows Phone 7.8 news, not unlike the page that currently exists for Windows Phone 7.5 and brings with it some excitement surrounding this nearly-next release of the Windows Phone platform. While the next wave of Microsoft smartphones will be rolling out with Windows Phone 8, you’ll be back on Windows Phone 7.8, and you’re going to like it, whether you think you want to or not.

Of course there are quite a few relatively large changes to this next-generation update to the Windows Phone user interface when it comes down to it, beginning with the most obvious: the addition of a tile size. You’ve got colors, three sizes of tiles, and ultra-easy to re-arrange goodness. Next you’ve got an announcement that Audible just hit the Windows Phone app market, and that Words with Friends, Draw Something, and the online banking system PayPal will all be hitting the market soon.

Above you’ll see a brand new Microsoft-made hands-on video focusing specifically on the start screen, with Windows Phone 7.8 live and in-action – this just one of a vast collection of content bits we’re sure will be appearing on the Windows Phone 7.8 homepage soon. The basic push for this version of Windows Phone as a viable alternative for those not quite entirely happy about the fact that their devices will not be upgraded to version 8 of Windows Phone is plain to be seen. Microsoft will certainly be continuing to make an effort to appear fair for legacy users moving forward, you can bank on it.

Have a peek at our own Eyes-on with Windows Phone 7.8 and check out the video from the big event earlier this month here:

Windows Phone 7.5 getting official web presence is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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