Yesterday, Zunited updated about a report from Pocket-lint that claimed Windows Phone 7.5, also known as Mango, would be released on September 1st. The report, however, did not indicate if that was a software launch or a launch of a Mango device.
Though, that could be neither here nor there; it seems either Pocket-lint’s sources aren’t exactly credible or Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore isn’t in the loop. Belfiore took to Twitter to state that the supposed release date for Windows Phone 7.5 is just a rumor.
“Mango September 1st?” he tweeted. “Just a rumor.”
Microsoft has stayed mum on an exact release date for Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, only offering “fall” as their timeline for the update to its mobile operating system. To be over-analytical, autumn equinox doesn’t exactly fall until September 23rd — but we hardly think anyone would mind, either way, if Mango was released a bit early.
Reports indicate that LG, Samsung, and HTC are planning to launch their devices in September; Nokia is planning to launch its device in October. And an accidental confirmation from a Microsoft Twitter profile hinted at a September release for Mango, too.
“If you really love the idea of a glossy console: don’t wait much longer.”
Those are words from a blog post update on Larry Hryb’s Major Nelson website, that’s because starting soon — very — Microsoft will be transitioning all Xbox 360 S consoles from their glossy (user-called “fingerprint magnets”) incarnation to a more original matte finish.
“I wanted to set the record straight and let everyone know that … We are actively transitioning all [of] our Xbox 360 S consoles to a matte finish,” he writes. “The consoles will start to arrive in stores over the coming weeks.”
But if you like a glossy console, don’t be too worried. Hryb states they may still offer glossy consoles for their future special edition models.
User Minago2 screenshots the abnormal activity with his account.
Some Xbox LIVE users started noticing that Microsoft was adding extra Points to their accounts out of nowhere on Thursday. These users saw increases in the thousands to their accounts sporadically.
It all began with Xbox user bentleyma who started a thread on the official Xbox Forum after he realized a more than 1,300 Points increase. Quickly thereafter, other users started posting that they saw gains and increases of Points in their accounts, as well. Of course, it’s no surprise that some users were a little scared that someone could have hacked their accounts or stolen their credit card information.
“Naturally my initial concern was someone had gotten my card details (that are attached to my account) and were buying points,” wrote Xbox user Dark Caesar. It turns out that was not so.
“So like I said, I called [Microsoft] support and told them what was happening,” the user continued. “Anyway, it transpired that Xbox Rewards had glitched on some accounts, which led to some people getting more points than they were entitled to….”
Though one other member claims he or she called and got the same information, nothing has been stated to the entire public. And get this: because of good faith, Microsoft let the users keep the Points, according to the postings.
“[Because] I had called up and had been honest with them, I was told I could keep the aforementioned points as a gesture of goodwill,” Dark Caesar posted. Another user, Varakharne backed up the story.
“I can confirm this[;] I thought someone got my credit card and added points to my account or something,” he or she posted. “Whatever [Microsoft] I am very grateful!”
Xbox Support on Twitter even replied to user @voteDC who asked about the increase in points: “We appreciate your honesty. Enjoy your points.”
But not all ends well. Some users as of the time we wrote this, in the same thread, have noticed that the points have decreased in their accounts (pictured above). So it’s not entirely clear whether Microsoft will re-add them or leave it be. Though, with a public statement that they can keep the points, it seem their hands could be tied.
Windows Phone 7.5, codename Mango, will launch starting September 1st according to a report by Pocket-lint.
Though it’s no surprise, and keep in mind that this isn’t a confirmation either, since rumors began circulating of a September release and an accidental confirmation on Twitter practically sealed the deal.
Pocket-lint reports that their sources have told them “that the start of next month [September] will see the OS … launching on new handsets as well as be available to current WP7 customers.” What wasn’t exactly clear is whether or not the updates to current devices will rollout first or if the first Mango device — from LG, Samsung, or HTC as reported by Zunited previously — will launch on that date.
Pocket-lint said that Nokia will launch its first device in October, also stated in the aforementioned report.
During an appearance Tuesday at Oppenheimer’s Technology & Communications Conference in Boston, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said he “is completely open” to creating a relationship with Microsoft and Windows Phone despite the patent battles both companies have been fighting against each other.
Motorola has been making a name for itself past the RAZR era by almost exclusively using Google’s Android operating system and nothing else.
“I would have to consider whether defocusing from Android to Windows Phone will be the right thing for us to do,” Jha said. “But if the capabilities on Windows are such that that is the right thing for us, I think we will consider it.”
What could push Jha and company over the edge? At a time when the company is focusing entirely on Android while still trying to differentiate itself from competitors, a Nokia-like deal could be the answer.
“Nokia seems to be disproportionately well positioned in that ecosystem. I actually don’t understand that deal with precision, but if our position in that ecosystem could be made to be somewhat equivalent, that would be an interesting option for us to consider,” he stated before getting back on track: Android.
Motorola plans on releasing another device of its Droid series later this year, alongside Mango device releases.
HTC is poised to make an announcement on Thursday about an exclusive partnership the company has entered into with Beats Audio. Though the details were scarce when word of the announcement hit, HTC CEO Peter Chou spoke of it with AllThingsD.
Beats already has a partnership with HP, where the company has its electronics in its laptops and tablets, and that relationship will continue. This $300 million deal, however, makes HTC the exclusive cellphone manufacturer to have Beats Audio in their devices, a move AllThingsD says will help the company create an “emotional connection” with consumers while strengthening the brand and creating a household name, all at once.
The first device to have Beats Audio will debut “later this year.” Could it be a Windows Phone device?
We have previously reported about Tango: it is the reported intermittent release between Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) and Windows Phone 8 (Apollo), believed to make its debut in spring and was rumored to have Nokia-exclusive features.
Well, it appears it may actually be an operating system that’s just for Nokia and will be for the lower-priced cellphone market if ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley is correct.
One of my contacts who asked to remain anonymous said he believed there would be at least one and maybe two Tango releases hitting before the Windows Phone 8 Apollo release. He said Tango was “all about Nokia” and focused on hitting the lower-price point for Windows Phones that Microsoft and Nokia execs have been promising. My contact also said the Tango release may be focused largely or even exclusively on the Asian market.
Last month, Google took a slight hit in market share as it fell from a massive 66.1 % to a still massive 65.2 % from November of last year to July of this year. All the while Google was dropping slightly, Bing was picking up a lot of slack by growing from 11.8% to 14.4% from November to July. Before Microsoft could celebrate its gains, Google, Yahoo, AOL (yes, America Online from when dinosaurs used computers), and Ask all experienced slight increases in market share at Bing’s expense this last month. Bing slipped from 14.14% to 13.39% from July to the beginning of August. AOL’s recent purchase of the Huffington Post may be helping the ex-internet giant in their attempt at a rebrand. Whatever they are doing, I’m sure they are going to keep doing it because despite their slight gain in search marketshare, it actually shows a huge gain in revenues that AOL has not seen in quite some time.
Yahoo mail has always been successful and always a huge draw to its front page. Yahoo has effectively positioned itself out of the way of Google to become a very user friendly topic specific search engine. Set up two computers, and try to find movie times, prices, and locations for a movie that you want to see on both Google and Yahoo. Yahoo is the undisputed winner when it comes to things of this nature, and has done right in moving out of the way of Google and becoming its own item.
Contrary to what the last Zunited podcast would have you believe, it is very unlikely that Bing, in its current form, will ever be extremely successful. Bing has made great strides of integrating itself into several websites, but Bing has been lacking in bringing something new to the game. Bing is doing what Google has had perfected for many many years. As long as it is sitting in front of Google, it will be mowed over every day of the week. It will take a lot more than clever marketing to make huge gains on Google in the search engine market. Let’s see what happens to Bing and if any, what innovations are made to make it the best place to go to get the information from the web.
The blogosphere has been buzzing with the following “leaked” marketing video allegedly taken from Nokia itself that shows off Windows Phone devices and concepts other than Sea Ray, first spotted by My Nokia Blog.
UPDATE: Something that’s been happening way too much on ones posted here on Zunited this week, the video has been removed by the user. My Nokia Blog has some screenshots, though.
A huge disclaimer, of course, is that the video could actually be real. But here’s a few reasons to think it’s probably not.
No one actually uses the phones
All throughout the video we see people… running(?), a montage of their faces(?), taking road trips to the beach(?), with the generic tagline of “connecting” people and businesses and opportunity. Yet no one actually uses any Windows Phone during this footage. Sure, they use actual phones, but no screens are shown and we’d be shocked to find out if any of those are actually Windows Phones.
But don’t think for too long before the word “Nokia” with images of Windows Phone concepts previously “leaked” as well start flashing all over the random video footage!
I can understand that it’s a concept video and thus there would be no phones to actually use in the video, but really they don’t have stock footage of people using Windows Phones somewhere at Microsoft?
“Borrowed” video content
At the end, when we finally see the screen of a device someone is using… well it turns out that’s not exactly original content. The usage I’m talking about starts around the 50 second mark in the marketing video and also starts around the 2:35 markin this video about Microsoft’s vision of the future (in 2019) released in 2009 — which is neither here nor there nor had anything to do with Nokia in any way.
Oftentimes, companies use old concept footage and blend it together in this way but doesn’t this seem a bit farfetched — to show upcoming devices coming quite soon and then to jump almost a decade ahead in time?
Mr. Blurry Cam
The Blurry Cam has been the bane of leaked images and videos’ existences. Sometimes, they give credibility in a “we must shoot evidence of this quickly in fear of being caught!” sort of way. The same is done hear as the Nokia marketing video is being shot by some camcorder while the actual video is being played via a projector onto a screen from a computer (which is a guess because the end of the video shows Windows Media Player). Perhaps extracting the actual video file would have been way too hard and be cause of this person getting caught for leaking this video but…
Well, actually that’s not entirely a reason that this video could be fake but it would have been pretty stealthy.
What do you think? Is the Nokia internal marketing video a real leak or is it just something someone whipped up for amusement?
Last month, we reported that Microsoft had offered Dilbert creator Scott Adams and CNET’s Molly Wood to take on the Windows Phone challenge — basically they both ranted about Android so Microsoft decided to send them Mango devices, if they didn’t like it, they will donate $1,000 to charity. We haven’t heard any updates about the challenge until now, however.
In Wood’s first video update (posted below) on the Windows Phone challenge (she had previously posted an article, but it was mainly about what lead her to take on the challenge), she states briefly what she likes and thinks won’t work out as she uses the HTC Trophy as her primary phone for all of her tasks.
“So far, I have to say… there’s nothing wrong with Windows Phone 7,” she states as the beginning her assessment of the operating system. “It’s really pretty. I like the tiles; I like the, kind of, scrolling interface.”
But it’s not all good.
“One thing I have noticed off the bat, though, … I am already feeling the lack of apps on Windows Phone 7. And that, I think, is going to be a problem,” she says — but not before mentioning how she likes the integration of Facebook, Twitter, and her personal and corporate email. She plans on trying out Zune Pass, but only because Spotify isn’t available on the platform, and was greatly disappointed by the lack of Words With Friends. (Might we offer AlphaJax as an alternative?)
Furthermore, she thought the speech to text worked really well even in a loud restaurant and can’t wait to further test out the turn-by-turn navigation.
Perhaps the most accurate assessment of the simplest pleasures of Windows Phone 7: “And I gotta say, it makes really pretty, um, sounds when the — I get text messages and things,” she said with a smile after an SMS interrupts during the video. We agree, in fact in our initial review of WP7 OS we were a little frightened that the sounds wouldn’t wake us up as an alarm. They’re just that pretty.
Zunited was founded in early 2008 as a community for Microsoft Zune enthusiasts. It has since relaunched and redesigned itself as a place for all Microsoft news, as well as a resource for all fanatics to get the latest information on Zune, Xbox, and Windows Phone.
