Hasta La Gadget!

Today the Nokia Lumia 720 has been spotted running through the hoops at the FCC, this being one of the prerequisites for a USA release and a generally OK indicator that a launch here in the states is imminent. We got to take a peek at the Lumia 720 just a week ago at Mobile World Congress 2013 and found it to be a rather impressive machine – especially considering how inexpensive the company aims for it to be. We’re to understand that this device may be heated to AT&T first, with the other major carriers coming up quickly behind.

This device works with a lovely 4.3-inch back-lit color display with a 1GHz dual-core processor from Qualcomm and will be arriving in the states in a variety of colors. Though we’ve seen the device in just Blue and White, you’ll be seeing Black and possible Red coming in as well. And then there’s the case options – case options galore!

UPDATE: We’ve seen black as well – the colors are endless!

Below you’re going to see a hands-on look at the Nokia Lumia 720 as we saw it at Mobile World Congress. Here we’re rolling out at the official Nokia stand, you’ll notice too. This stand was more of a whole experience in and of itself, complete with massive shows of the devices revealed that week – Nokia Lumia 520 as well as the smaller devices too! Have a peek at more of our MWC 2013 content right this minute to see the full run-down.

WIth the Lumia 720 we’re expecting some more awesome customization of options too – have a peek at our hands-on with the brand new Nokia NFC-laden car stand to see how Nokia continues to innovate with their accessories surrounding the whole Lumia lineup. Then get pumped up about the release of the Lumia 720 which should be coming up quick – with Windows Phone 8 included – straight to a AT&T outlet near you!

[via FCC]

Nokia Lumia 720 USA release imminent: FCC tapped is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Today is a big day for Google’s Chrome web browser. It received an update on four major platforms, including Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android. While Windows and Linux users aren’t getting huge updates for their versions of Chrome, both iOS and Android are getting their own new features that they’ll definitely enjoy.

The Windows and Linux versions of Chrome are receiving mere security updates and bug fixes — nothing that you’ll probably get overly excited about. However, the Android version has optimized scrolling with an updated Javascript engine — perfect for smaller screens, according to Google, which mostly applies to older devices.

As for iOS, there are a couple of nifty new features that users will get a kick out of. Holding down on the back button will bring up the history tab, and will allow you to quickly access any page that’s stored in your history. Furthermore, you can also quickly share web pages through Messages on iOS.

Sadly, the iOS update of Chrome resulted in the app crashing every time I would start it up, so if you’re still on iOS 5.1.1, let this be a word of warning if you’re thinking about upgrading. Hopefully Google will soon release a smaller, incremental update to fix the bugs present in this big update, but for now I’m stuck with an unusable Chrome app.

Google Chrome updated on Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft’s Surface RT is getting a welcome boost in visibility, in the UK at least, as heavyweight retailers PC World and Currys add the Windows tablet to their line-up. The slate will be sold online and via both retailers’ click-and-collect service; however, there’s no sign that either store will actually stock the Surface RT on-site unless its been previously ordered through the web.

That’s a blow to Microsoft, seeing as it means those would-be tableteers simply browsing the shelves at PC World or Currys are unlikely to actually see the Surface RT and add it to their list of contenders. Both retailers stock the iPad and iPad mini in-store, for instance, giving Apple’s tablet an instant boost in impulse-purchase appeal.

Still, given retailers and manufacturers alike were concerned that there would be no interest whatsoever in Surface when Microsoft first announced its intentions to enter the tablet hardware business, even getting PC World and Currys onboard is arguably a success. Microsoft is still yet to announce any official sales figures; the Surface RT showed up in the UK first in John Lewis stores.

Meanwhile, there’s no sign of the Surface Pro – which runs the full version of Windows 8 – showing up at the two new stores. Released last month, the Surface Pro comes with a special digital stylus for handwriting recognition, sketching, and more, though is significantly more expensive than its RT-based sibling.

Currys and PC World will be selling the Surface RT from £399.99 for the 32GB tablet-only, while adding in the Touch Cover takes that to £479.99.

Microsoft expands Surface RT sales as UK big-box retailers wade in is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Years and years of personal computer use has conditioned humanity to feel a sense a dread, of worry, and stress, whenever they see a warning message. So if you need to leave someone a note that they absolutely can’t ignore, what better way than with a pack of fake Windows error message sticky notes? More »

It looks like Microsoft has had its fair share of problems this week. Microsoft Azure, a cloud-based computer platform, suffered from outages yesterday beginning at 4:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. Though people could assume that it’s because of the recent cyber attack Microsoft experienced, it unfortunately is just a case of a minor oversight. According to Microsoft, the outage that affected Azure was due to something as minor as an expired SSL certificate.

Someone accidentally forgot to renew the SSL Certificate for the service, which expires one year after it’s renewal date, and thus caused outages throughout the entire Azure cloud-system. Over 52 different Azure services were offline or suffering from poor performance due to the SSL certificate expiring, which also shed some light on a similar outage that Azure faced back in August of 2012. The outage back then was caused by a similar system configuration mistake and left many users in Western Europe without access to the service.

Alongside the outages of Windows Azure, many users have also reported that they had issues with their Xbox’s Music and Videos services. Users were unable to stream, download, or purchase products from the Zune Marketplace. While the Zune Marketplace is also based on a cloud-platform, Microsoft stated that the issues with Zune have no relation to the Azure outages.

Microsoft has restored the Azure cloud-platform today, but are still currently undergoing some tests. While users may have access to their information, Microsoft issues a warning saying that within the next 24 hours, they might see some disruptions to their service. Hopefully these outage issues don’t become an annual thing with Microsoft Azure.

[via Microsoft]

Expired SSL certificate causes Microsoft Azure outages is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.