Back when the Lumia 800 was announced there was well founded fear that the “exclusive” EA games that Nokia announced for their Windows Phones would stay exclusive.  Had Microsoft in their desire to bring Nokia into the fold allowed a fragmentation of the gaming situation on their platform?

Fast forward to today and the post on the upcoming Windows Phone games mentioned that the exclusive Nokia games are “would be coming to Windows Phone and first to Nokia Lumia devices.”

So everyone can relax.  Hopefully the exclusivity period will be similar to the one AT&T had on Ilomilo.  No matter what eventually everyone with a Windows Phone will be able to play these games.

This has been a Public Service Announcement.

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The Samsung Focus was a singular type of phone.  With a simple design it was durable and it was beautiful in its simplicity.  The phone knew it wasn’t the main attraction; the OS was.  While some panned the phone and many other Samsung phones for feeling cheap and chintzy, I think this was the Focus’s greatest strength.  It had a beautiful Amoled screen that made the simply hues of Windows Phone pop.  It could be dropped and the pieces would fly apart dispersing the impact and barely leaving a mark on the phone.

At the same time you can tell that HTC would love to put their hyperactive Sense on Windows phones, and often their hardware sometimes feels like the main event.  Samsung has seemed to take a much more minimalist effect letting the OS and the medium through which you experience it—the screen—to talk for itself.

Since I am a dedicated Samsung Focus owner, it was very important to me that its namesake keeps the spirit of the original.  I have to say that I am happy on that account.  For those that thought the build quality was lacking on the original Focus, the Focus S makes many advances in that regard.  The original Focus, perhaps out of pride, didn’t surrender entirely to its understated look.  Chrome framed the sides and buttons of the Focus which gave it a slightly garish feel.  The Focus S gets rid of the chrome on the sides and on the buttons giving the phone a cleaner feel.

Read more after the break…

Continue reading →

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I have already begun my deep dive into the world of the Samsung Focus S, as Microsoft was nice enough to give WMPoweruser a review device. Over the next few days I will post the review in parts, very similar to the way the HTC Radar review has appeared. After all the parts have been posted it will be re-posted as one long article for those among you who like to instapaper things for later.

Since my main device has been a Samsung Focus and because many people who bought the focus might be looking at the Focus S for their next phone, I will do a lot of comparing to the original Focus. But we want to make sure that we answer the questions in which you, our readers, are most interested. What do you want to know about the Samsung Focus S? Let use know in the comments.

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One of the most disappointing pieces of news today was the fact that the HTC Titan did not get a release date today.  However I do have a short hands on and a few points about the device.  First, the screen is pretty spectacular.  It has very deep blacks for an lcd but it is apparent that it is not an amoled.  The construction is excellent and one of the best phones in the hand that I have ever felt.  Tom Warren was nice enough to let me borrow his Titan and the phone has an excellent feel in the pocket due to its razor thinness.  The capacitive buttons are excellent and the volume, power, and shutter buttons are all very nice.  This is by far the nicest windows phone I have ever used and seems to have no negative aspects other than perhaps the 16gb of storage.  Enjoy the video below.

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Wmpoweruser was invited to New York today for a special launch event for the second generation of Windows Phones.  It took place at the New Yorker Hotel, and the team was quite literal with “backstage” with the venue taking place backstage.  All the 7.5 Windows Phones were available to be handled and Microsoft executives like Andy Lees and Joe Belfiore were on hand to talk to the press.

Andy Lees also gave an introduction to the event.  Much of what his speech contained is well known to our readers, but some may find it interesting hearing it straight from a Microsoft executive.

Also the day culminated in the unveiling of a gigantic Windows Phone in Harold Square.  While I think it was all a bit much, it did get the New Yorkers nearby interested in what was going on.  Hours later, there were still long lines to get to see the Windows Phones.

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While at the Windows Phone Event yesterday, Wmpoweruser was able to talk to Brandon Watson. We asked about two of the applications that our readers are most excited about; Skype and Audible. It seems, from listening to Brandon that actually buying Skype has made the process to make a Windows Phone application more complicated from a logistical and legal standpoint. Beyond that he didn’t have any timeline to give us on when we can see Skype. To be fair this isn’t his department and he has no control over it.

The news regarding audible seems to be much more positive. Brandon said that it is one of the apps that is most requested and that he and Microsoft “listen(s) to what people want.” I got the impression from the way he said it that it wont be long until we see the audible app and from previous rumors it is actually being developed by Microsoft.

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Spotify will be available very soon in the market and we got a hands on at Microsoft’s Windows Phone backstage event.  The representatives from Spotify kindly gave us a short hands-on with the app pointing out the features that the Windows Phone version has that no other platform has gotten.

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This little device was off my radar but I was very impressed with it during my hands on.  It is running the Qualcomm MSM8255 but it is downclocked to 1 Ghz.  In my quick hands on I didn’t notice any problems with speed but then again that has never been an issue for Windows Phone.

The device sports a 3.6 lcd screen which had very nice brightness and seemed to be of very good quality for a low end device.  While some would find the device to be a bit chubby, I found the feel of the plastic phone to be quite nice and it is also pleasing visually.

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I will have a longer write up later in the day on Microsoft’s Event in New York.  But until then here are some pictures to get you through .

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For those interested in Homebrew, this is an auspicious day indeed.  Chevron Labs has gone live with their inexpensive unlocking solution (see $9) that is officially supported by Microsoft.

It is a relatively easy process which requires one to have a live id and purchase an unlocking token.  One then downloads an unlocking solution similar to the developer one and that is all she wrote.

If you are interested you can find it on ChevronLab’s website here.

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We ran a piece a few days ago about Ms-Nerd’s assertion that Microsoft was not moving to Windows NT kernel as the basis for Windows Phone in WP8.  He asserted that this had been talked about but it had been scrapped, especially due to the fact that Nokia is trying to drive windows phone into the mid and low range and the windows kernel has too much overhead for that work.

For non technical readers I believe I need to define what exactly is going on here.  If Windows Phone 8 was to move to Windows NT kernel it would not change what the user sees.  The phone interface could stay the same but the core of how it runs would change.  I don’t want to go into more detail than that because my knowledge is limited, but it wouldn’t mean a change in the UI of windows phone.

Wmpoweruser has learned from sources very close to the matter that this is incorrect.  Not only will Windows Phone 8 be based on the Windows NT Kernel, most of the work has already been completed.  They are now approaching the third milestone for Apollo out of three total.  What’s more regarding Ms-Nerd’s assertion that Win NT would have to much overhead for lower end chips; well this doesn’t seem to be true.  What is actually the problem is that Win CE, which windows runs on right now, is nearing its limit on the newer chipsets in version 7 and windows phone is still running on version 6.  Perhaps this is the real reason we haven’t seen any dual core Windows Phones.

What’s more this makes sense.  Why do you think we haven’t seen NFC on Windows Phones and why hasn’t Microsoft allowed game engines like EPIC to run on Windows Phone?  Why continue to add features to the Win CE kernel they are working with now when they are about to change it anyways?  Native game development would become broken once kernels are switched out.

And for a final juicy rumor; our sources tell us that the July launch date for Apollo leaked by the Nokia executive at Nokia World isn’t too far fetched and both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 are supposed to launch simultaneously.  That’s very interesting.

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Well some interesting news coming from Engadget today.  A Nokia executive, Michael Halbherr, Executive VP for Location and Commerce, told engadget that Apollo, or Windows Phone 8, will be arriving in mid 2012.  What is more they are pushing Microsoft to include NFC and “positioning framework” for the new release.   This seems like a very quick turnaround and points again to the fact that Nokia had very little input into Mango and instead has played a large role in the development of Apollo.

This does make one ask the question of timing.  How will Microsoft release two Tango updates and then Apollo before the second half of the year?  Seems a bit unlikely but we will be following this developing story.

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