If the App Store and Android Marketplace are busy in making noise to grab the attention of consumers, the Windows phone 7 Marketplace is making their own noise too.

Recently, the reports have told us that they have already garnered 25,000 applications in about 8 months.

That number shows a fast and significant growth not to mention that WP7′s Marketplace have not yet reach its anniversary from the time of its launching.

This news was originally reported on WindowsPhoneApplist.Com where the sites have shown statistics regarding the performance of each mobile application stores.

Apparently, the site have recorded that it took eight months and six days for iPhone to hit 25,000 apps, while for the Android Market, it took a year and three months before they have reached 25,000 apps.

Other statistics have also revealed that 75% of the 25,000 apps are in English, 18% are games, 51% of the apps are totally free and there are about 7,000 published app developers.

However, there is no clear report if all of these 25,000 apps are fully functional. We have heard bragging from OS makers regarding the number, but never did we hear about the performance of these apps.

For that reason, we think that this kind of strategy in catching the user’s attention is really tricky. Well, to cut the issue, we congratulate WP7 Marketplace for reaching a milestone.

We are hoping to hear some greater news than this. Specifically, we expect to hear statistics regarding the most sought after mobile applications in the marketplace.

Windows Phone Marketplace Has Gone Past 25,000 Apps In 8 Months is a post from: Tech Pinger

Microsoft has long been known with its strictest product policy. They have hated those people whose intentions are to infringe their products by being unfriendly and so veiled. Unlike its counterparts, it had never allowed the downloading of their products for free in a device, not until now.

Recently, news from Microsoft has surprised us. It seems like there is a change in the weather when they announce that they are no longer punishing those who want to download the Mango on Windows Mobile Devices.

While downloading the Mango is not punishable anymore, still Microsoft warns that the warranty of your device is going to be void if you do as such.

Basically, this latest announcement has led us into thinking that there will be results and consequences in downloading Mango.

One of it is this, if you are going to download the software you will get the advantage of experiencing new light for your Windows Mobile.

Instead of totally abandoning your problematic Windows device, there is a chance in which you can enjoy it again by porting it to Mango. But the downside is that your phone’s warranty will be forfeited.

Generally, the green light that was granted by Microsoft to download the Mango for Windows Mobile does not mean that the same devices will be used to run the next generation Windows Phone 7 OS. It is clear that they are just giving the user an option to decide in downloading Mango or not.

So, if you are really interested and willing enough to take some risks, then go for it.

Microsoft Now Allows Mango Hacking? is a post from: Tech Pinger

1. Eat

Undeniably, everyone needs to eat and loves the pleasure of food. Especially, when we are in a strange large city, it is our common problem to look for the best meal to satisfy your starve.

Thankfully, in the mobile age, there are digital sages available to you. Eat is one such sage. This app is available in Sydney and Melbourne. It was based on the Deck of Secrets food guides, which are decks of cards that list the very best places to dine in a given city.

The app version is, of course, handier than the original card format. You can see what restaurants are nearby, read a review, and make a reservation at the one that takes your fancy. The app will then guide you on your way, so you don’t have to worry about getting lost.

The lack of a “browse by suburb” view or refined categories are a little downside, but the information is great, and you can be sure that you’ll never stumble across a bad meal again.

It also offers Drink apps, which tell you all the best places to drink.

2. Graphic.ly

Graphic.ly is a social network meets comic book store, and they now have a Windows Phone 7 app available.
Comics range from free to US$1.99 and the most compelling feature besides the massive back catalogue, hardware accelerated deep zooming, or thumbnail navigation is the ability to leave public comments about specific panels.

Graphic.ly compares itself to the couch in the middle of the comic book store, only this couch has hundreds of thousands of comic book fans on it.

3. Poynt

Poynt combines location awareness with local directory listings. It started rolling out Australian data last October.
Poynt differentiates itself with Google Maps as it deals more in-depth features, like the ability to watch movie trailers and read reviews before booking movie tickets, and local weather forecasts.

You can also search nearby restaurants, hotels, and other businesses, and call them directly from within the app, or get directions to their doorstep.

Poynt is also available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry OS.

4. Voxofon Call Abroad

With Skype making no plans to release a Windows Phone 7 app, you may think that you will never talk to your Skype buddies again.
But thanks to Voxofon they had brought Skype as well as GTalk and other SIP-providers to Windows Phone 7.

After buying some Voxofon credit, you can add in the ability to make cheap international calls. The app can even show you the price of the call before you dial. And that’s practical and nice.

Top Four Best Window Phone Apps! is a post from: Tech Pinger

To start, the number of apps now stands at 11,500 and it is being downloaded 1.5 million times. But the number of the members of the AppHub is what they parade the most. Currently, they have an accurate 36,000 developers for the platform. Add to that 1, 100 apps in the Marketplace are ad-supported and generating revenue with its Ad Control platform.

Furthermore, updates on Windows Phone 7 is getting exciting with its copy and paste features, faster apps and games, and a better Marketplace search. With Windows Phone 7, you can copy and paste any text such as text from emails, text messages, web pages and Office mobile documents to anywhere you can type. Also the time in starting up games and apps is already whittled to give the user efficiency. Most of all, finding specific apps, games or songs in Marketplace is easier. You can now choose to see results for only apps and games or only games when you search it on Marketplace.

Another reason to be excited about this platform is that you can start it always at your fingertips. The Start screen is home on Windows Phone 7, which the user can quickly customized and constantly update. With one glance it tells you what is going on, what is happening next and what you have missed? It also depends on the app, like the Start’s animated Live Tiles might show pending messages and appointments, news and weather, or game and friend status. These will be all refreshed wireless via the web. You can also decorate it by pinning people, apps, playlists, pictures, and other favorites.

Windows Phone 7 Status Report is a post from: Tech Pinger

If you want a QWERTY-enabled Windows Phone 7 handset and you don’t want to go with the T-Mobile Dell Venue Pro nor wait for the Sprint HTC Arrive, AT&T might have a deal for you. AT&T has a very nice offer for you by way of the LQ Quantum. Said Windows Phone 7 device is being offered by AT&T for a low price of $0.01. That prices comes in after you’ve applied for an online discount of $99.98.

LG’s Quantum smartphone is now retailing for one cent whenever you decide to sign up for a 2-year plan with AT&T. Bear in mind that this deal works only for new activations, and you will need to keep it company with a minimum data service of $15 monthly.

The LG Quantum has a 1 GHz processor, 16 GB of internal memory, 512 MB of RAM, a 5 MP camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording, as well as the usual bells and whistles such as 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Oh, and that side-sliding full physical QWERTY keyboard.

Furthermore, some of us forget that the Samsung Captivate isn’t the only high powered Android smartphone on AT&T’s lineup. And when we see that the upcoming HTC Inspire 4G is set to debut very shortly at the impressive price of $99.99, you know that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10′s drop in price to $19.99 makes for an equally alluring proposition. For $20, you’ll be getting yourself a reasonably respectable Android smartphone that can still contend in the high-end space.

It seems that AT&T is waiving the activation fee for most of its phone, plus they’re offering free shipping as effectively. There’s no telling how long this offer will last, so if you don’t mind having to commit to AT&T for the next couple of years.

AT&T Slashes LG Quantum WP7 Phone Price to 0.01 is a post from: Tech Pinger

HTC 7 Pro is one of the Smartphone with Slide out Keyboard and recently announced by Microsoft and was also an most signifcant launch for Microsoft Windows Phone 7 yet in 2011, so lets make a short review here about the device.

First we go through the design of the design of the device  The HTC 7 Pro carries the company’s typical solid build quality, coming with quality plastic covered all around. Compared to its siblings, the HD7 and Mozart, HTC 7 Pro really is a beast.

A brushed metal ellipse also marks out the area where the 5MP camera with LED flash, and the loudspeaker are on the back. HTC-branded cover that offers access to the battery and SIM slot. The volume rocker on the leftis flush with the side, and that’s where the microUSB port is located, too. The scales strain under its 185g weight, and it’s hardly a slim handset, at 16mm thick. It’s all down to the slide-out Qwerty keyboard.

Just below the screen are the capacitive buttons – back, home and search. They’re sensitive and backlit, but unfortunately, the back-lighting did not remain functional for very long. The Back cover can only be removed if the keyboard is opened and pops off with relatively ease.

When you look at other features , The display is of the odd 3.6” size, and carries the 480×800 pixels of resolution each of its WP7 brethren is boasting. It is a nice, bright LCD screen, with relatively decent viewing angles, but it could use a bit more contrast to its colors. The Pro feels like a step down from its older brother, the 4.3-inch HD7. It’s more akin to the Android-based, 3.7-inch HTC Desire Z, which also offers a physical keyboard.

Software and Functionality

When you look at side of software, to say that this mobile OS has one of the best Facebook contact integrations on a smartphone, managing to rival Android overlays of Samsung and HTC. And, if you happen to use Hotmail (still the most popular web email service), Windows Live, SkyDrive or other parts of the Microsoft cloud ecosystem.

To send a Microsoft Word document, for example, you have to go into the Office hub,  and email it from the document itself, so tough luck if you need to send both an Excel and a Word file in one and the same email. Microsoft has to step up its Office integration game as this is one of its main points to differentiate. Hopefully the Nokia collaboration will prod Redmond to do so.

At browsing level  The WP7 browser is a speedy machine with minimalistic interface, but the lack of Adobe Flash support cripples it a bit. when IE9 comes with the “Mango” update in the fall. Until then, you will have a Flashless experience in the browser.

HTC offers customized the default WP7 homescreen adding its own tiles like the HTC Hub, which takes you to the familiar HTC animated weather screen, a YouTube client which is way better than the default WP7 one, as well as the Sound Enhancement app which allows you to turn on or off the surround sound mode and equalizer presets.

HTC 7 Pro is available in both GSM and CDMA flavors  and GSM versin provides trraditional 7.2Mnps data download speed in 3G mode, the handset is not away from WiFi, and also features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and A-GPS radios. For GPS functionality the software used is bing Maps and doesn’t feature a free turn by turn navigation. It is based on NAVTEQ cartography as is Ovi Maps, that is why the Nokia-Microsoft deal will be so valuable in that department for… Microsoft.

At hardware level the phone is equipped with 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor,  448MB RAM/512 MB ROM on the HTC 7 Pro. You can install additional applications from the Marketplace, which now has more than 9000 apps, covering most of the basics and Marketplace is expected to cover 10000 in the Mid of March 2011.

Camera and Multimedia

HTC 7 Pro has 5MP camera as you know Smartphones released nowadays offer more than 5MP, anyway the camera is complete with LED Flash.  The camera interface is pretty basic compared to the way HTC is able to customize it on its Android handsets, but it has still managed to sneak in a few metering modes and preset scenes like Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Beach, Backlight, Candlelight, as well as a Macro mode. There are four effects in your disposal which are  Grayscale, Negative, Sepia and Solarize.

As for the audio and video media players, they are, naturally, rolled into the Zune interface on Windows Phone 7, which has cool and simple interface, but the phone itself doesn’t support DivX/Xvid video playback out of the box, only MPEG-4 codecs. The loud speaker is pretty weak so better to listen audio with headset that is compatible with surround sound.

Conclusion

The overall performance is average and has some default such as with loud speakers but earpieces on HTC 7 Pro is pretty good the Battery of the device is  The 1500mAh and lasts 7 hours of talk time in 3G mode, which is about average, and you will have to charge the handset daily unless you use it very lightly. Keyboard of the device is built in good manner and while typing it functionally works fine so HTC 7 Pro will keep its boasting with best slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Lack of Adobe Flash player support for browser is really frustrating at least until the new browser is available for the device, you can’t attach both Word and Excel file in one and the same email with the default email client. And now you can decide how far it is useful for you and not in my opinion it is an average smartphone and hopes Microsoft and Nokia collaboration will bring more functional and exciting Smartphones soon.

HTC 7 Pro Windows Phone 7 Smartphone Review is a post from: Tech Pinger

According to Somereports, HTC new Handset named HTC Trophy Windows Phone 7 has been spotted online, The Smartphone is likely to be the first Windows Phone 7 to come with a brand name of Verizon. For sure, The image appeared online shows the Verizon Logo.

The Smartphone is expected to be running on latest version of Windows Phone 7 even with Copy/Paste support. The specification of the Smartphone is expected to be same as HTC Surround that is available on AT&T network though the Trophy could be running on latest version of Windows Phone 7 OS.

We hope more details will be coming soon about this Trophy Smartphone, Anyway what do you think about the phone? will you get one if the trophy hits the market via Verizon or only prefers Android or iPhone?

HTC Trophy Windows Phone 7 appeared online with Verizon Logo is a post from: Tech Pinger

After having encountered great success on the iPhone and Android, the game Angry Birds will soon be available on Windows Phone 7. The Angry Birds will be launched on April 6 in the platform that will be joined by other games. Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds had initially differences with Microsoft, when the latter used the icon of Angry Birds for a promotional purpose during launch of WP7.

Although, Microsoft was initially of the opinion that apps do not necessarily contribute to the success of a smartphone platform, their present move seems that they have changed their mind. Software editor Rovio has continued their expansion strategy based around the success of Angry Birds, a hit on iOS and Android (where it is available for free with advertising) with numerous other products derived from this also having been released since.

The coloured birds will soon be able to cause trouble on a new platform which is non-other than Windows Phone 7, as was announced yesterday by Microsoft in San Francisco. The news is hardly a surprise thought as the Angry Birds icon had started to appear on presentations made available on the Windows Phone Marketplace download portal a few months ago.

Along with Angry Birds, other games that will hit beginning April 6 include: Doodle Jump, Plants vs. Zombies, Hydro Thunder Go, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, and geoDefense. Angry Birds, Hydro Thunder Go, and geoDefense are all being published under the Microsoft Game Studios brand.

Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7 Coming in April 6 is a post from: Tech Pinger

Microsoft on Wednesday confirmed that it suspended its first Windows Phone 7 update for Samsung phones amidst a glitch that affected about 10 percent of those who received the update. The move is part of the software maker’s efforts to deal with numerous problems caused by the update, which went live this week.

The problems are estimated to have affected tens of thousands of Samsung smartphones running Windows Phone 7. Users complained that Microsoft’s first update to its new smartphone operating system, release gradually this week, caused their devices to freeze. In some cases the crashes were apparently permanent.

“We’ve identified a technical issue with the Windows Phone update process that impacts a small number of Samsung phones,” Microsoft spokesman Michael Stroh wrote in a blog post. “We’re working to correct the problem as quickly as possible. But as a precaution, we’ve briefly suspended updates to Samsung phones. We are continuing to update other Windows Phone models as scheduled.”

Various models of Windows Phone 7 devices are also made by HTC, Dell, and LG. Stroh did not provide specific details about the problem with Samsung phones. Stroh said about 10% of Windows Phone 7 users who tried to install the update, which, ironically, is a utility designed to ensure future updates go smoothly, had problems. Most were the result of a faulty Internet connection or a lack of local storage space.

Those who receive the update will see a notification on their phones. It is not happening over the air, so to install, you must connect the device to a computer and update via the Zune software of Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac. If you don’t update your phone now, “the patch will simply be bundled together with our next update,” Stroh said.

For some of them, including owners of the top-of-the-range Samsung Omnia 7, the only immediate option follwoing the update is to return their device to the retailer. Microsoft has said it is working to solve the problems remotely as quickly as possible, however. The update only crashed Samsung handsets because each manufacturer has its own software runnning underneath Windows Phone 7, to allow the operating system to control the hardware.

Microsoft introduced the Windows Phone 7 platform in November in an effort to keep up with rivals Apple and Google in the smartphone market. To date, the company has provided few details about sales volumes. Earlier this month, Microsoft struck a deal with Nokia under which the Finnish handset maker agreed to use Windows Phone 7 as the default OS for its smartphones. Microsoft hopes the pact will expose Windows Phone 7 to a wider group of users and increase its market share outside the U.S., where Nokia remains the world’s largest distributor of handsets.

Windows Phone 7 Update Issues with Samsung Phones is a post from: Tech Pinger

Just a day after Nokia and Microsoft announced partnership in Smartphone Business, hot images of anticipated Nokia Windows Phone 7 Images are out here, look at the images which Engadget managed to snoop out, the phone really looks appealing.

Nokia’s new design — the shape of these handsets is somewhere between its recent N8 and C7 Symbian devices and there is, as usual for Nokia, a choice of sprightly colors. These concept devices would put together elements inherited from Nokia’s latest Symbian^3 handsets (N8, C7), as well as design features specific to Windows Phone 7, such as the three physical buttons.

Even though concept looks similar to Nokia C7 and Nokia N8, there’s no chance of the N8 and C7 getting a Windows Phone 7 update, because of the strict hardware requirements Microsoft has.

Some other report says that the Nokia will be allowed to customize the WP7 OS as part of the partnership, to prove this the report mentions the some sentences said by CEO Stephen Elop which reads:

“We have the ability to do customisations and extensions to the software environment that are unique and therefore differentiate. It’s very important to understand this is not a standard OEM agreement. Microsoft is placing a big bet on us.”

This is the case, certainly no doubt that the Windows Phone OS will be accepted worldwide that the Nokia will surely integrate its simplicity in to the OS.

Nothing has been confirmed; this is a rumor and yet to be confirmed by either of the companies. So let’s wait for a word about the device from Nokia or Microsoft. Anyway, what do you think about the device shown above?

Nokia Windows Phone 7 Concept Smartphone Images leaked; Nokia customizing WP OS? is a post from: Tech Pinger