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How to easily update to Windows Phone 8 GDR Update 3

As you might have known by now, Microsoft have just announced the arrival of the Windows Phone GDR Update 3 for all WP8 devices. While the roll out has started, it might take a while to get through to the users after carrier checks, tests and more. But for the first time ever, after actually announcing it in June 2012, the “Enthusiast” program is now live for Windows Phone 8. It basically means that, if you are interested in previewing the latest version of the operating system, with a few constraints, you can get it on any of your Windows Phone 8 devices right away, that too for free! But how? That’s exactly what we are going to see right now. I am going to try and make it as simple and quick as possible for you to get this update.

Check out our visual walkthrough of the GDR3 update

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Microsoft to release Remote Desktop apps for iOS and Android this month

Remote Desktop has been a popular feature for Windows PCs for a long time, mainly used to remotely help your friends or family, usually for troubleshooting. The Server-Client methodology has enabled the clients to exist on many platforms. In fact, the Remote Desktop Protocol is widely known to be used in third party apps, but as always, nothing comes close to the apps done by the people who created it. Microsoft are doing just that, by releasing Remote Desktop apps for iOS and Android later this month, according to the company’s own press release.

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Microsoft wants Windows Phone to run on HTC’s Android phones – Report

Microsoft is apparently trying to court HTC, one of the major Android OEMs, to make Windows Phone run on its Android Phones, according to a report from Bloomberg. Another report from Android Central claims that HTC engineers are already looking at providing Dual Boot options of Windows Phone and Android for its upcoming devices. This is a surprising turn of events for the software giant, as the company has long stood by its licensing model that doesn’t allow this option of dual boot, but things may be changing fast, as the strategy is rapidly moving towards “Devices and Services”, especially with the announcement of a Nokia acquisition.

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Microsoft to merge Windows Phone and Windows 8 app stores

At a company meeting today, Microsoft evidently let out news that the Windows Phone Store and Windows Store will be merged into a single app store. Terry Myserson who heads the operating systems group confirmed the news at an internal meeting. First reported by The Verge and confirmed by our own sources, Myserson confirmed that the changes will appear over the next few releases of Windows and Windows Phone. The next major update for Windows is expected later this year called Windows 8.1. A similar update for Windows Phone called Windows Phone 8.1 will follow it.

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Whatsapp for the Nokia Asha 500 shows up alongside leaked press image

While we have already seen renders of the purported Nokia Asha 500 and its dual shot style shells, the bigger news to report here is that Whatsapp is finally coming to the Asha software platform, which includes the highly popular Asha 501 too. If the above leaked press image is to be believed(usually very trustworthy because of @evleaks), Whatsapp will finally arrive for the new Nokia Asha series. This has been THE highly requested app on Nokia Asha 501, and we are glad to see that it is indeed coming, but when is the question.

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Windows Phone retains the position as India’s second largest smartphone OS with 5.4% marketshare

It’s been almost an year since Windows Phone 8 launched, but the growth has seen a spike only recently, with the Nokia Lumia 520 becoming the most popular Windows Phone, not just in India, but the world. India has definitely been a tough market to crack for anything other than Android. Even with the huge marketing and retail push by Nokia, the most trusted brand in India for quite a number of years, Windows Phone is just at 5.4% of the whole Smartphone market. With iOS and BlackBerry contributed even lesser, Android rules the market with more than 84% marketshare at least.

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Nokia was testing Android on its Lumias before the Microsoft acquisition, could it have worked out?

This has been blowing up on the Internet for the past few hours. New York Times reporter Nick Wingfield initially had this scoop that Nokia was testing Android on its Lumia range of devices as a “Plan B” if Windows Phone completely fails to take off. Yes, Nokia was indeed testing Android on its Lumias and it is speculated that it might have been a possibility in light of growing tensions between the two companies, with Microsoft failing to deliver features at a pace Nokia wanted it to. It is believed that this would have played a role in pushing Microsoft to acquire Nokia, but not a huge one, as insiders say that Microsoft was aware of this early on in the partnership.

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Why the Microsoft – Nokia acquisition happened

Nokia and Microsoft just ended their joint press conference, in an effort to explain the acquisition the companies announced earlier today. As with any major announcement, especially with a brand like Nokia which invokes a lot of emotion, the reactions were predictably…. emotional. Risto Siilasma probably said it best, at the joint Nokia press conference in Finland – The acquisition is “Rationally perfect, emotionally complicated.” which we wholeheartedly agree with. But what drove the companies towards this deal? Why did Microsoft buy Nokia? What’s in it for both the companies? We try to explain with two points of views, read on.

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Microsoft and Nokia, what does it mean?

By now, you’ve likely read about Nokia’s Devices and Services division being acquired in a deal by Microsoft. You’ve also likely read about the movement of CEO Stephen Elop amongst others back to Redmond and Microsoft. What has been less clear is the fallout likely to come from this deal as well as the reasoning behind this acquisition.

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Microsoft agrees deal to buy Nokia Devices and Services Division

In a deal that would surprise noone in it’s happening but everyone in it’s timing, Microsoft will be acquiring Nokia’s Devices and services division in addition to licensing a significant portion of Nokia’s patents in addition to their mapping services. The deal in it’s entirety amounts to 5.4 Billion Euros paid in cash, 3.79 Billion for devices and services 1.65 Billion for the associated patents.

The transaction will see 32,000 Nokia employees transitioned over to Microsoft including 4,700 in Finland and 18,300 employed in manufacturing positions worldwide. In addition, a significant number of senior executives are expected to be transferring to positions within Microsoft, including Stephen Elop, Jo Harlow, Juha Putkiranta, Timo Toikkanen, and Chris Weber.

This is an absolutely monumental transaction and will go a long way towards shaping the smartphone landscape for years to come. We will keep you updated with any details as we receive them.

Via: Microsoft News Center

There Are Six Major Problems with Windows Phone, and Apps Isn’t One of Them

I keep running into this same sentence, over and over again “Windows Phone lacks apps”. Every single review of a Lumia for example ends with the same foregone conclusion: “it’s a great phone but there are no apps”. I usually shake my head at this statement, but the recent talks about Nokia blaming Microsoft and the lack of apps have me worried.

If anyone — at Nokia, or elsewhere — thinks that this is the culprit behind Windows Phone’s failure to gain market traction, then they’re clearly disillusioned. It’s not as if the release of Instagram will be the magical panacea to the platform’s issues.

While the app problem is partly true, it is in no way, shape or form, the sole reason why Windows Phone isn’t gaining traction. As a matter of fact, you will likely find 80-90% of the same or equivalent apps that you are used to on Android or iOS, and the community is very active — and creative — in trying to fill the remaining gap, so the app problem is only minor, if anything.

Windows Phone’s issues run way deeper than that. The apps are a symptom of the problem, an outward expression of it, if you will, but they are not the underlying cause. And while I don’t claim to be an expert on mobile phone markets and strategies, there are six problems I can see with Windows Phone that I will explain below.

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Google extends Windows Phone calendar and contact syncing deadline to December 31st

There was huge uproar after Google announced its plans to drop EAS support for all non-corporate GMail accounts, mainly because that affected Windows Phone, which has no in-built support for the new CardDAV and CalDAV technologies. Hence Microsoft and Google decided to extend the support for Windows Phone devices until July 31st, yesterday, a date from which devices without the GDR2 update would have stopped supporting syncing to Google servers. Thankfully, the companies have extended the date yet again, to December 31st, since most devices haven’t got the update yet.

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Halo: Spartan Assault lands on the Windows Phone and Windows 8 Stores

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Halo has been a celebrated game franchise that was popularized during the original Xbox era. People had longed for a similar gaming experience on other Microsoft devices as the company slowly brought their different divisions together, and to much surprise, Microsoft’s own 343 game studio announced Halo: Spartan Assault for Windows 8 and Windows Phone. A trailer that was revealed along with the announcement showed off a much different type of gameplay, based in the Halo universe. And today, it has landed on the Windows Phone store at $6.99, and for the same amount, you can grab it for Windows 8 here, while watching the trailer below –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxsYQtltOco

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Age of Empires to land on iOS and Android in 2013, more first party games later

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In a landmark change to the mobile gaming scenario, Microsoft has decided to bring some of its hugely popular first party titles to iOS and Android beginning with the Age of Empires in 2013. This is facilitated thanks to a license agreement by Microsoft with Klab, a mobile game developer in Japan which plans to port Age of Empires within this year to iOS and Android.

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Microsoft almost bought Nokia’s phone business – WSJ

nokia-microsoft-wp7-1297413404

Wall Street Journal, the publication that is always bang on target with rumours and speculations reports that Microsoft recently held talks with Nokia to acquire its mobile phone business. The recently held meetings apparently broke down due to various reasons like price and market position. The most interesting thing is that these meetings were held recently and not a thing of the past. Recently there was a non-news that Huawei was planning to acquire Nokia and later completely denied it.

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