Mobile Phone Blog:

Ooh, now, here’s a thing! If you’ve got a Windows Phone 7 handset on Orange, then July is going to be a good month for you, ‘cos according to Mobile Choices, the network has teamed up with Microsoft to offer you free apps for the whole of July. Basically, there’s 31 apps being offered (one per day), for free, the combined value of which is about 70 quid.

As far as I understand, there’ll be a list of top apps (which will change every day), selected by Orange, that users can vote on. The winning app will then be free to download for that day. I think. That sounds like how it will work, anyway. What I’m not sure on, though, is what will happen about apps from before today, since it’s already 8th… (more…)

While I do have a bit of a soft spot for Blackberry phones, it’d be plain daft for me to suggest there as big as Android phones, or the iPhone. The sales and market share figures speak for themselves, really; just have a look at how Android is utterly dominating the smartphone industry, while Blackberry sort of, in a very definite way, aren’t.

I’m not the only one who recognises that, no sirree, Bobby. According to BGR, RIM’s own employees are well aware of it, and they posted an open letter online to let the brass know exactly what the problem was, with some (in my opinion) entirely reasonable solutions to the problem.

Wanna guess how that went down? (more…)

If you’re in any way, shape or form a gamer, then there’s every chance you’ve heard of Plants vs. Zombies, a game that basically does exactly what it says on the tin. If you’ve got an Android phone (y’know, something like the HTC Sensation, maybe, ‘cos it has that big ol’ screen, for better gaming), then there’s also every chance you’ve heard of Plants vs. Zombies. That game is one of those legitimate sensations; it’s gone from nothing to become unbelievably popular, and loved by millions (also known as “pulling an Angry Birds“).

And now, according to Joystiq, Windows Phone 7 users can finally get in on the action, as Plants vs. Zombies has shambled (shambled, see, ‘cos it’s zombies) its way onto Microsoft’s OS… (more…)

Well, that’s it, Microsoft have made a liar of me. I’m sure they said, at one point, that they wouldn’t allow replacement keyboards to be used on Windows Phone 7 devices. I’m certain they said that. So, imagine my surprise, now that, according to the Windows Phone App List, a new replacement keyboard has appeared on the Windows Marketplace; even better, it’s one that uses slidy finger gestures to trace out words, just like my favourite ever keyboard, Swype. Which is brilliant, right?

Well, no. It would be, but there’s a problem, and it’s a big’n. According to the reviews on that source link, Invoke IT’s Sliding Keyboard isn’t actually very good… (more…)

You may remember me mentioning, in the past, that I love the IM+ app, made by Shape Services. Ever since I first found it on Symbian, every single smartphone I’ve ever had has got IM+ more or less on the day I bought the phone; it’s basically one of my core apps that I always get, any time I switch phones.

And now, according to PocketNow, it’s finally turned up on Windows Phone 7. Er, but there’s a problem; on Windows Phone 7, the IM+ app doesn’t support Windows Live Messenger, which is a bit rubbish, for both customers, and Shape Services themselves. They bill it as an all-in-one messenger, how happy do you think they are about not being able to include Live Messenger? (more…)

Ooh, here we go; another day, another snippet of info about the first Windows phone that Nokia will be releasing. There’s no specs, or anything, but the latest bit of info does confirm when (well, roughly, anyway) and where it will be hitting shelves first. According to WMPoweruser, the first Nokia phone running on WP7 will hit shelves in six European countries first, before going worldwide.

The best news is that we are one of the six countries. The UK, along with France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, will get the phone before anyone else. The only odd thing about this announcement is the fact that Finland (y’know, where Nokia are from) is not one of the six countries… (more…)

Apps. Rightly or wrongly, they’re what modern smartphones always get judged on, to the point where manufacturers and platform providers never shut up about them. Microsoft know this, which is why, according to their own developer blog, they’ve launched a new tool to encourage Android developers to port their stuff across to Windows Phone 7.

So, what’s the crack? Well, simple; it’s an API mapping tool that’s basically the same as the one designed to make it easy to port iPhone apps across to WP7, that I blogged about a few weeks ago, only this time, it’s a tool for Android, not iOS. So, it looks at what Android APIs your app uses, then picks the right ones within WP7. (more…)

Ooh, time for a first, now. There’s a rumour going about that HTC are working on a Windows phone with a honking great 12MP in it, and that means it’s a double first, because: 1/ it’s the first Windows Phone 7 device to have a 12MP camera; and 2/ it’s the first HTC device with a 12MP camera in. According to Elder Murtazin’s Twitter, this thing is actually happening, and while it’s still in the realms of rumour, he’s been bang on the money before.

Oh, and of course, he has pics, too, one of which you can see just there, to the right. The phone in question is a dead ringer for the HTC Trophy, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, as the Trophy’s nowhere near as pretty as the HTC Mozart, but there ye go… (more…)

Normally, I don’t put a lot of stock in things that analysts say, but I’m going to be a bit open-minded, today, and give Gartner a chance to put their viewpoint forward, to see if it is indeed accurate, before tearing them a new one. Basically, the crack is this: Gartner has done some analysis type stuff, and one of the points they’re making is that Windows Phone 7 is underperforming, selling only 1.6 million phones in the first three months of its life.

In fact, they say that Windows Phone 7 was, during this three month period, outperformed by old school Windows Mobile, the OS that WP7 was meant to replace! If that’s the case, then surely it’s a bit rubbish, no? So what’s the crack? What, in actuality, is going on? (more…)

Here we go, second post of the day, and it’s another brilliant bit of news. According to My Kind Of Phone, Microsoft and Orange have teamed up, and activated operator billing for WP7 phones on that network. So yeah, basically, what this means is that you can now buy apps through your phone, and instead of needing a credit card to pay for ‘em, you can pay for them on your monthly bill.

And that is brilliant. After the past couple of weeks, I can see something like this being a rather tempting prospect for users. I know it’s not part of the mobile industry, but consider the now infamous PSN hack, where user details were compromised. People may be hesitant to use their card details on app stores and suchlike, in future… (more…)