Jan 26

Hack brings USB tethering to HTC Windows Phone 7 devices, Dell Venue Pro

Posted in: hack, Microsoft, mobile broadband, mobile internet, mobile os, MobileBroadband, MobileInternet, MobileOs, mod, Today's Chili, usb, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7, wwan

Cutting through the back and forth surrounding Windows Phone 7 tethering are two new hacks, with one being markedly easier than the other to implement. After discovering the option in Samsung’s Focus and Omnia 7 late last year, engineering minds over at xda-developers have now uncovered a method to allow USB internet tethering on HTC’s smattering of Windows Phone 7 handsets. Unfortunately, you’ll need to unlock your device before any of this will work, but the case is definitely different for Dell’s Venue Pro. For that one, you’ll simply need to modify the .INF file — no unlock required. Hit the links below for the devilish details, and try not to set up a P2P farm using your phone’s 3G connection. We hear carriers are none too fond of that foolhardiness.

[Thanks, Lake]

Hack brings USB tethering to HTC Windows Phone 7 devices, Dell Venue Pro originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mobile Tech World (1), (2)  |  sourcexda-developers  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 26

Microsoft: ‘over 2 million’ Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to manufacturers so far

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, Microsoft, Today's Chili, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

Microsoft just dropped a few tidbits of knowledge on us regarding Windows Phone 7’s performance in the marketplace so far. Here’s what we’ve got:

  • ‘Early research’ says 93 percent of WP7 customers are ‘satisfied’ and 90 percent would recommend the platform to others. We don’t know details about the research, though — number of customers polled, time frame, so on.
  • Average of 100 new apps in the Marketplace per day, and over 6,500 total are available right now.
  • Most importantly, “over 2 million” licenses have been sold to OEMs around the world.

What does that tell us? Well, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way: the iPhone 4 sold 3 million units in a little under a month after its launch, so Microsoft clearly has plenty of room to catch up — but that comes as no surprise to us, analysts, or Microsoft itself. Furthermore, selling a license to an OEM isn’t the same as selling a phone to a customer, since many of these manufactured devices are sitting on store shelves; it’s unclear exactly how many WP7 devices are actually in users’ pockets right now, but the number is certainly less than “over 2 million.”

Microsoft’s earnings call is tomorrow where we expect to get more detail on the platform’s performance, but the company is saying today that it sees plenty of reasons to be “bullish about the foundation for long-term success” here — and considering that they simply can’t afford to fail in the mobile game, we hope they’re right.

Microsoft: ‘over 2 million’ Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to manufacturers so far originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 24

Windows Phone 7 jailbreak devs ‘genuinely excited’ by Microsoft’s roadmap

Posted in: homebrew, jailbreak, Microsoft, Today's Chili, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

Microsoft’s been playing it really cool with the nascent Windows Phone 7 hacker community so far, which is winning them friends in all sorts of important places — not the least of which is the ChevronWP7 team itself. The first guys to split the platform open for homebrew apps were recently invited up to Redmond for a powwow with the guys in charge, and it seems the meetings were fruitful to say the least; though much of what they saw was under NDA, they say they’re “genuinely excited” by what Microsoft has in the works. Furthermore, Microsoft was kind enough to give the team a heads-up that an upcoming platform update would break the existing ChevronWP7 tool, though they say they’re “collaborating with Microsoft on an interim solution that will continue to support homebrew developments after the update.” Considering that they’ve already reached out to jailbreaker extraordinaire Geohot as well, it’s clear that Microsoft doesn’t believe this is a black-and-white situation — the ChevronWP7 guys seem to think homebrew has a place somewhere in the platform’s future, it just remains to be seen how that’s going to play out.

Windows Phone 7 jailbreak devs ‘genuinely excited’ by Microsoft’s roadmap originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GeekSmack  |  sourceChevronWP7  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 24

WP7 Game Boy emulator demoed, soon you can show your Pokemans in Silverlight (video)

Posted in: Microsoft, Today's Chili, video, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7
WP7 Game Boy Color emulator demo'd, soon showing your Pokemans will be that much easier (video)

Classic gaming on the go is more or less old-hat for many smartphone platforms, but Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 is still playing catch-up. Latest addition is this Game Boy emulator, running in Silverlight courtesy of Samuel Blanchard, who created the video below and then triple-letterboxed it for your squinting pleasure. Right now it is still a work in progress, unable to save your in-game progress and needing some further polish, but it certainly looks like it runs well enough — though hopefully he gets that aspect ratio fixed before offering this up for download.

Continue reading WP7 Game Boy emulator demoed, soon you can show your Pokemans in Silverlight (video)

WP7 Game Boy emulator demoed, soon you can show your Pokemans in Silverlight (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WMPoweruser.com  |  sourceSamuel Blanchard’s Blog  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 24

HTC HD2 can now dual-boot Windows Phone 7 and Android, promises to love them equally

Posted in: Android, hack, hacking, HTC, Today's Chili, video, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

You’ve seen Windows Phone 7 and Android both ported to the stately HTC HD2, now how about having them on the same device at the same time? Well, not literally at the same time, that’d be all sorts of confusing, but the restless souls over at xda-developers have figured out multiple ways to install both WP7 and Android on the HD2 while using the same SD card. We’ve looked at them and none of the methods seem particularly trivial or, you know, easy, but then what would be the point of a dual-boot solution if everyone could just up and do it? Detailed instructions await at the source link.

[Thanks, engadgeteer]

Continue reading HTC HD2 can now dual-boot Windows Phone 7 and Android, promises to love them equally

HTC HD2 can now dual-boot Windows Phone 7 and Android, promises to love them equally originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 04:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocketnow  |  sourcexda-developers, vgeorom (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 23

HTC Arrive and Kyocera Echo bow for Sprint?

Posted in: HTC, rumor, rumors, Sprint, Today's Chili, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

Okay, armchair sleuths, this one’s for you — we’ve got two very legit-looking logos here, but not a lot of proof. Our tipster tells us that both of these high-quality vector graphics are the names of upcoming devices for Sprint, with the HTC Arrive (née Ruby) allegedly an upcoming Windows Phone 7 device, while Kyocera Echo is apparently the retail name for the phone internally known as the Sanyo Orange. It just so happens that the trademark for “HTC Arrive” was registered the very same day we received this logo, so we think we’re onto something here, but the truth of the matter is that all of these codenames are falling on virgin ears.

[Thanks, anonymous]

HTC Arrive and Kyocera Echo bow for Sprint? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 20

How to keep your unlocked HTC WP7 device from re-locking after every sync

Posted in: hack, hacked, HTC, Today's Chili, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7, zune
How to keep your unlocked HTC WP7 device from re-locking after every sync

Okay, so the WP7 hacking community may not be quite as active as that working tirelessly to keep every facet of Android devices splayed to the breeze, but that’s not to say there isn’t a skilled group of tinkerers doing their best on Microsoft’s best. ChevronWP7 is a clear example of that, and though it’s been officially pulled it is still quite certainly being used. Now its functionality has been extended with a second hack that enables you to use Zune to sync your HTC handset without it getting all locked up tight again. You can find all the details on the other end of the source link below, but we’ll go ahead and warn you that as soon as the next WP7 version drops this particular unlock will be disabled. Then it’ll be on to the next one.

How to keep your unlocked HTC WP7 device from re-locking after every sync originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AliWaqas  |  sourcexda-developers  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 20

HTC 7 Pro and Gratia get anglicized, heading to the UK in February

Posted in: Android, cellphone, froyo, HTC, mobile phone, MobilePhone, phone, qwerty, QwertySlider, slider, smartphone, Today's Chili, uk, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

Oh, there’s no need to act like you’re surprised, fellow Brits. As promised, HTC’s going to dish out its latest budget Froyo Android and flagship WP7 slider to the UK next month. Just a quick recap: the “pearl white” Gratia — which is the international version of the Aria — sports a humble 600MHz processor, along with a 3.2-inch 480 x 320 LCD and a 5 megapixel camera with VGA camcorder. As for the 7 Pro, it packs the bog standard WP7 specs (1GHz Snapdragon, 8GB storage, and 5 megapixel camera with 720p recording), as well as a slide-and-tilt 3.6-inch 800 x 480 display that reveals a landscape QWERTY keyboard underneath — the tilting part still a first for WP7. Sadly, it doesn’t look like any carriers have picked up either handset yet, nor has HTC shed light on their standalone costs, but hey, patience is priceless.

Continue reading HTC 7 Pro and Gratia get anglicized, heading to the UK in February

HTC 7 Pro and Gratia get anglicized, heading to the UK in February originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 19

Microsoft tracks down ‘phantom data’ bug in Windows Phone 7, points finger at unnamed third party

Posted in: issue, Microsoft, problem, Today's Chili, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

Tired of your Windows Phone 7 device sending and receiving random bouts of data? Well, Microsoft is, too — and they’ve started to reach some conclusions from that investigation opened a few days ago. Apparently, there’s a “third party” that’s responsible for the misbehavior, and Redmond’s already reached out to help ’em make the necessary fixes; the story isn’t necessarily over, though, because they’re still “investigating additional potential root causes,” which we presume could involve the operating system itself. As for the third party, it seems a “small” number of customers are affected, which probably explains why it’s taken this long for the complaints to come to a rolling boil. Here’s the full statement:

“We have determined that a third-party solution commonly accessed from Windows Phones is configured in a manner that potentially causes larger than expected data downloads. We are in contact with the third party to assist them in making the necessary fixes, and are also pursuing potential workarounds to address the configuration issue in case those are needed. At this point in our investigation, we believe this is responsible for most of the reported incidents.

We are investigating additional potential root causes for the remainder of the reports.

A small (low single-digit) percentage of Windows Phone customers have reported being affected.

We are continuing to investigate this issue and will update with additional information and guidance as it becomes available.”

Microsoft tracks down ‘phantom data’ bug in Windows Phone 7, points finger at unnamed third party originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSeattle Post-Intelligencer  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 19

App review: SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Phone 7

Posted in: app, cellphone, Features, mobile, mobile phone, MobilePhone, phone, review, smartphone, Software, streaming, Today's Chili, video, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

As you might have heard a little while back, Windows Phone 7 is the latest smartphone OS to have joined the SlingPlayer gang, meaning WP7 fanatics like Ballmer can be couch potatoes wherever they are. Well, assuming they have data connectivity — be it 3G or WiFi — and some battery juice on their phones. For better or for worse, the latest SlingPlayer Mobile app is very much like its other flavors — same easy preparation, a familiar interface, and a similarly tear-inducing $30 price tag. There is, however, one nice addition: a new “Zoom” button on the menu page, which actually chops away a good portion of the black border around the picture. Another noteworthy difference is the more stylish interface in comparison to the Android and iOS versions, but of course, some might think otherwise.

Also on the menu page is a “Quality” button for toggling between standard video quality and high video quality. Annoyingly, said switch is always set to standard at every launch. We can’t help but to think that this is for covering up the app’s shortfall — we noticed while high quality streaming does indeed have good picture quality, the frequency of buffering increased over time. Similarly, response time to our button and gesture inputs also got longer and longer — at one point it took about 20 seconds for us to change a channel on our Freeview box, and that’s with our HTC 7 Mozart sitting on the same network as our Slingbox Pro HD! Needless to say, it took even longer over 3G. We then double-checked using our iPhone and Nexus One but failed to reproduce the same bugs. Thankfully, a simple restart of the app eased our frustration, but we expect Sling Media to actually deliver a fix soon. Anyhow, there’s a video walkthrough after the break while you wait for the update.

Gallery: App review: SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Phone 7

Continue reading App review: SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Phone 7

App review: SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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