There is no need to beat around the bush here this is what we have on the whole “will current Gen Windows Phones get the Apollo update.”

According to a source:

Waggener Edstrom person says MSFT has Windows 8 (for x86), Windows RT (for next-gen ARM), & Windows Phone 8 (for current-gen phones).

So you are thinking at this point..”So what? What does this mean to me?”

Waggener Edstrom IS Microsoft’s PUBLIC RELATIONS company! So someone from Waggener Edstrom is likely to have actual knowledge on if  Apollo is coming to current Gen phones.

The same source also stated that this should be just one of many leaks corroborating this information. All leading up to “an official announcement in a few weeks time.”

Nokia has already let it slip that the Nokia Lumia 900 will receive updates “Major ones”.While this is not proof positive current Windows Phones will be updated to Apollo it seems all the whisperings are starting to point in that direction.

VIA

Yesterday LG officially announced the release date of its upcoming Android flagship device, Optimus 4X HD and today they revealed its first promo video.

Check the promo video after the break.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZekW67PF1ug

Optimus 4X HD is the first quad-core powered device by LG. It features a Tegra 3 processor clocked at 1.5 GHz with 1GB of RAM, 4.7-inch 720p HD IPS LCD display, 16 GB of storage, 8-megapixels back camera, 1.3-megapixels front facing camera, 2.150mAh battery and runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The LG Optimus 4X HD release date is set for June for a number of Western European countries like Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Italy and Poland.

[via][via]

There is a post going around the internet written by SamKB on a site called MySymbian.com called 101 Reasons Not to Buy a Windows Phone. Not shockingly it is extremely biases and Anti-WindowsPhone. I decided to take it point by point and just debunk the bigger “Facts” on it that are not really facts. Come with me won’t you?

I am just going to put down the “fact” with the it’s corresponding number on the original post and why it’s not a fact.  Mind you I didn’t look into all the “facts” on the original post I just corrected what I knew off the top of my head so I am sure more of these 101 Reasons are also not true I just don’t have the time right now to research it.

4. No micro-SD card support.

Not true even the 1st Gen Samsung Focus takes up to a 32 Gb card and Windows Phone 8 will let the manufacture decide if they want to use micro-SD card support or not .

8. Your contact details are automatically uploaded to cloud service whether you like it or not.

By cloud service he means your Windows Live account and it’s great when you change phones.

9. Limited to 800×480 resolution.

Getting fixed with WP8

10. No wi-fi hotspot.

Not True that Nokia Lumia 900 is a wifi hotspot with all the Lumias to follow. So this is manufacturer choice not a limit of the OS itself same could be said about Android, Symbian, Bada, MeeGo, iOS, Tizan, BB10, etc…

11. Cannot use any MP3 file as ringtone except those with strict constraints.

Not true there are many 3rd party apps that fix this.

14. Cannot sync directly with Outlook without syncing to Cloud

Not like those other email servers that don’t use the internet at all to get your email.  WHAT? This one is just confusing. Does he mean it when you delete an email on your phone it does it also on your computer?

19. No centralized notification page.

Expect for the lock and your tile page

21. The idle screen is completely blank and cannot display time or notifications.

Not true when you get a text message it gets pushed to the lock screen

27. Cannot silence ringtone or alarm by flipping the phone.

Not true you can on the Nokia Lumia 610 and it coming to the other Nokia phones as well.  This is manufacturer choice not a limit of the OS itself

29. Cannot be upgraded to WP8 (Apollo)

Not true Nokia’s US president just stated that Lumia would be getting “Major update” coming soon. Which is WP8.

USABILITY ISSUES

30. No always visible status bar for battery life, signal strength, carrier, 2G/3G wi-fi, Bluetooth on.

Hmmm…the phone tile shows if you have signal and all you have to do is tap the top of the screen for battery life.

31. Taskmanager has no option to shut down apps you don’t want running in the background.

There is an option for this  Go into settings, pick applications, than background tasks!  TaDa!

33. Lockscreen need to be activated to show missed call/sms notification.

Not true if phone is “sleeping” notifications will pop up also if you are using the phone.

34. No way to close an app except pressing back button all the way to the first screen.

Not True….if you push the Home button, the back button, the search button, or the lock button the program closes, and saves a it’s spot for next use. So pretty much ANY BUTTON will close a program.

35. Tiny fonts in messages is very hard to read for those over 45.

Really? By tiny font you mean a full text message can take up to half the real estate on my screen? How much bigger do you want it?

39. Cannot close music player, can only pause. Music player on lockscreen will stay until you reboot. Be careful not to touch it in a meeting.

Unless of course you download a free app that does this oddly enough it’s called “Stop the music”

40. No draggable progress bar for current track playing and no indication which track in an album is currently playing…

What? It tells you what song is playing on the lock screen and the music player itself!  As for no draggable progress bar if you hold down on the skip track button it does the same thing.

41. Cannot lock screen orientation.

Umm..yeah so only apps work in landscape mode so no need to lock the screen.

42. Online and phone contacts are mixed together with no ability to filter.

Not true try using the options menu.  You can have just your contacts, your contacts and Windows Live contacts, Your contacts, Windows Live contacts and Facebook…you get the point.

43. Cumbersome dialing with no smartdial. Not able to enter alphabets into dialer for name lookup.

Not true…Rap dialer free app does exactly that!

44. Cannot save draft sms messages.

Unless you don’t send the text than it saves it Automatically for you.

46. Cannot recognize phone numbers in sms or email to save or use as calling number.

Unless of course you edit your contacts to do this.

47. Text messages can only be deleted one by one or the whole thread.

??? How else would you do it?

50. Apps are listed alphabetically with no way to group by category. Can be hard to find if you don’t remember the name.

Windows Phone 8 has folders coming also..Plus you can pin whatever you want to your start screen.

51. Calendar scheduler has no weekly view and monthly view is non-zoomable.

No monthly view unless of course you hit the icon that looks like a calendar.  (That one is tough to figure out I know)

52. No peak time/off-peak time scheduling for email downloads to prevent unnecessary email downloads at overnight.

So this is an issue how? My Windows Phone will let me know I have an email when someone sends it to me?  Such a horrible feature!

53. If both wi-fi and data connection are available which one it chooses to use is unpredictable. User experiences don’t agree with Microsoft that it “typically” choose wi-fi over 3G.

Not True you can shut off either one at any time therefore you can pick which one to use.

FEATURE LIMITATIONS

54. No video call.

Hello…..Skype?

62. No auto wallpaper changer and no app to do it.

Again of course unless you want it to and download the free app that does it.

65. FM radio doesn’t work on speaker.

Because you can’t get any radio stations on I heart Radio right?

66. IE browser has no text reflow, no download capability and no offline reading.

Right unless it’s the last page you read on the internet and you push the back arrow and choose that tile. So it pretty much does do it.

68. No built-in pdf file reader, need a separate app.

The Horror!!  I have to download a free app!

72. No native Google maps and Bing maps is useless for most countries outside U.S.

Not true…There is Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, HTC GPS, ATT’s GPS, etc….

73. Email time stamp does not show the year.

Really? Now we are just reaching

74. Wide difference in apps availability in different markets and users locked to one market??

So those apps that will tell what the weather will be in India I can’t get here stateside?  There will ALWAYS be apps tailored to specific market.  Symbian has a TON  of them.

DUMB AND DUMBER

77. Wi-fi disconnects when screen sleeps. Too bad if you are in the middle of a download.

Ahh…phone continues download on wifi when it goes to sleep.

79. Can only enter one mobile phone no. for each contact. Mobile nos. entered in other fields will not accept sms.

So all those people you know with 13 cell phone numbers are out of luck!!

80. Cannot send/receive MMS without enabling 3G data connection. MMS does not use 3G data.

This one is just confusing…I can’t send MMS without enabling data connection so it clearly uses it to get the MMS (how else would you get it?)  but it doesn’t use the MMS data contection?

81. Phone cannot be charged when off.

True but who cares?

82. Need to be plugged in to wall charger to sync wirelessly.

Again True but who cares?  (This list was made to compare to Symbian and Symbian doesn’t sync wirelessly at all.)

83. Oversized fonts for headings with cut off words treat you like an idiot

Umm…IT’S A HUB!! the screen you can see is one out of many.

84. Phone will wake up and display sms content on lockscreen when locked – a privacy violation.

Hold up lets go back to number 21. ” The idle screen is completely blank and cannot display time or notifications.”   You can’t tell me that it doesn’t do it than complain that it does!!

85. Phone can be rebooted without entering security code.

Unless of course you want it to and choose that in the options screen.

FEATURES EVEN DUMB PHONES HAVE BUT WP7.5 DOESN’T

86. No bluetooth file transfer.

Tango update fixes this.

92. Call history does not group calls by contact.

Unless of course you make a group in tile on the homescreen than it does it all day long.

93. Call history does not show the time of call for calls older than current day.

What?  It does this I just checked.

94. Cannot set custom sounds for different types of notifications.

Again What?  I have a different sound for calls, texts, emails, a special ring tone for my wife, for my one friend, etc…

96. No silent option (no vibrate and no ring) from ringer menu. Need a trip to settings and another trip to revert.

Half true touch the volume button and than push the button that pops up to do just that on your screen. So you don’t have to go into the ringer menu it can be done from ANYWHERE on your phone at ANYTIME.  Super inconvenient right?

99. Cannot save contact to SIM card.

Because it saves to your Windows Live acct automatically …remember your own rant about it in number 8?

As you can see Windows Phone does a TON of things that the original post claims it does not do. Again these were just things I know off the top of my head. If I can rebuke almost of half these claims without ANY RESEARCH AT ALL how do you think the other half of the claims hold up?

It is true that Windows Phone doesn’t do everything that Symbian does…but it’s a young OS and with Nokia on board now I have a feeling that Windows Phone 8 will address many of the outstanding  issues.

Lisa Gade from Mobile TechReview reviews the LG Viper 4G LTE Android smartphone on Sprint.

Check the video review after the break.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EokNNEmLpDM

The LG Viper 4G LTE runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 CPU with 1GB of RAM. It has a 4-inch WVGA (480 x 800) IPS display, NFC with Google Wallet, 3G EV-DO Rev. A, LTE, a 5MP rear camera, front facing VGA camera and 1700 mAh battery. It sells for $99 with a new two-year service agreement.

via

One of the worst things about today smartphones is battery life. With bigger screens, more social networking, and everything in between your battery drains pretty quick. The answer Power packs…

Everyone is looking for a good, inexpensive, convent power pack right now so I decided to do a quick hands on/review of my Anker 3200Mah power pack.   It is slim, lightweight and convenient. It has a micro usb baked right into it. (No need to carry a USB cable!)

You should be able buy one for around 20 dollars on Amazon or Ebay it seems like pretty good deal to me, but this post is more about introducing people not familiar with power packs to them.  They are a great idea for any smart phone user.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBJGwuoWIJU

A little over two months ago I got a Nokia Lumia 710 to test for a few weeks and was kind of having a hard time adjusting from Symbian/MeeGo to Windows Phone. So I wrote a post called “Nokia Needs to “Nokiafy” Windows Phone to Keep It’s Base” Now I have decided to revisit this post with a few months of Windows Phone experience under my belt. Coming along with me won’t you?

What I am going to do here is post the original posts with the Windows Phone “change” that I felt needed to be made than I will post my feelings about it today below it. Got it? Good lets begin.

Ability to Change the Hubs Landing Pages:

Original Post:

Hubs are a nifty little thing in Windows Phones that group like functions to make your life easier..the problem you ask?  When you push the “hub tile” it lands where ever it feels like, doesn’t matter if that’s the most useful spot or not to you.

Example? When you push the dialer button you don’t get the dialer like you would expect… No, you get your call history then you have to push another button to get the dialer. It’s like that with all the hubs, sometimes it lands in place where it makes sense and other times not so much.

Today’s Post:

I pretty much feel the same way. It doesn’t really bother me at all anymore but…. that doesn’t mean that it’s not a good idea. Again the whole purpose of Windows Phone is to be quicker so why not let me pick my most used “landing spot”

Unlocking the Phone:

Original Post:

Unlocking a Windows Phone right now requires you to find the power button (and the power button only) push it and swipe up to unlock. On a Symbian phone any front facing button will do, and on a MeeGo phone you simply “double tap” the screen and swipe any direction.

For Nokia users this “find the power button” game is annoying. Nokia could easily fix this issue by giving Windows Phone the “double tap” feature and by letting me swipe anyway I want to unlock my phone.

Today’s Post:

I have softened on this one a great deal. I no longer think that the front facing buttons need to used to unlocked the phone however….The “Double Tap” to awake feature is should also be integrated into every Nokia phone.

Themes! We need themes!

Original Post:

I don’t know about anyone else but changing the tile color on my phone does not count a personalization in my book. When you are use to Symbian and the ability to personalize everything about your phone, (to the point where it acts like an iPhone, Windows Phone, etc..) this changing the color of tile stuff doesn’t cut it.

Nokia could easily allow themes on Windows Phone and not affect the core of Windows Phone at all. A picture in the background of the start screen that stays there in the hubs, different fonts in the live tiles, etc…

Today’s Post:

I pretty much feel that exact same way about this. It’s my phone how about you let me make it mine. If I wanted to like everyone else I would have just gone out bought and iPhone.

Control of Normal Functions from the Start Screen:

Original Post:

To turn on/off simple things like WiFi you need to dig in the secondary menu, swipe down to settings then chose what you want turned on/off, then flip the switch. (I just tested it on my 710 it took six gestures six!)  There are apps in the Market Place that fix this issue but we shouldn’t have to get an app for a basic function like controlling our WiFi.

Again easy fix here for Nokia, all we need is a live tile with a toggle switch for the basic functions that you toggle often. If a third party can do it so can Nokia.

Today’s Post:

While this is not a huge issue anymore (because I have Connectivity Shortcuts) I still feel that this should be “baked in” to the Windows Phone OS. Consumers should not have to be made to get an app for such a basic function.

Wifi That Stays on When Phone is Locked:

Original Post:

This one just dumbfounds me. When you lock your Windows Phone it shuts the WiFi off which leads to your carrier data being used, which leads to you using up your entire data plan too soon.

Nokia I don’t know why this happens but it HAS TO be fixed there really is nothing else even to say about this one it’s so simple

Today’s Post:

This still needs to be fixed.  Lucky it doesn’t affect me at all because I am one of the 20 people in the United States that still has unlimited data but it’s an issue for 99.987% of consumers so lets fix it.

Real Multitasking:

Original Post:

All Nokia needs to do here is bring the multitasking us Nokia users expect on our phones to Windows Phone. (The pausing programs in the background and calling it multitasking is not multitasking.) We expect real multitasking on our Nokia Windows Phone because all Nokia phones have it. In fact sometimes I am running (really running) 16 things on my N9.  So to go to a phone where I can’t really multitask at all is a disappointment to say the least.

Today’s Post:

I would still like some form of Real Multitasking. I know it eats battery, sucks up my RAM and slows down my phone however…..Would it be too much to ask to let me truly multi-task two or three apps of my choosing at once? ( don’t need the 16 things like my N9 but come on throw a bone here)

Bottom line for Nokia:

Original Post:

This is merely a starter list that would “Nokiafy” a Windows Phone. With every other Nokia phone you can customize every aspect the phone to your likings. There are VERY FEW options for the user right now. While this will get new users,  it will infuriate the loyal Nokia base and push them toward an Android phone.  Symbian users will be searching for that “Nokia experience” and sadly they will not be able to get it on a Nokia phone anymore. This is why a Nokia Windows Phone doesn’t “feel like a Nokia” and Nokia need to take steps to “Nokiafy” it or risk losing there their very loyal base.

Today’s Post:

There is still work that needs to be done, from all the information I can gather Nokia is working very hard behind the scenes to give their WP8 phones a more “Nokia like” experience. Will they do enough to keep all the old Nokia users? Nope! There will always be a some that will run for Android and it’s Symbian Belle like open OS experience not matter what Nokia does.

For the remaining Nokia users the OS switch to Windows Phone will be mix of Nokia using it’s leverage with Windows Phone to change it and the user themselves forgetting that they have a Nokia phone in their hand for a week or two so they don’t expect a Symbian like experience from it.

We already learned earlier this week that Verizon has plans to push Windows Phone to make it “Third Eco-System” however recently Reuters put out a report in which we learn a little more.

Quick recap: Last week Verizon’s CFO Fran Shammo came out and stated that Verizon will soon actively push Windows Phone in hope of bring in a Third Eco-System to compete with Android and Verizon’s number one loss leader the iPhone.

Now we find out that they will only start pushing Windows Phone when it evolves into Windows Phone 8.  Also we learned “that Verizon Wireless expects to have phones based on the next Microsoft software in time for the 2012 end of year holiday shopping season” and is ramping up for a big push than.

To quote Shammo:

“We’re really looking at the Windows Phone 8.0 platform because that’s a differentiator. We’re working with Microsoft on it.

So even though Microsoft never officially put out a time frame for Widnows Phone 8 one can concluded that Microsoft will have WP8 ready by November of 2012 at the latest.  Windows Phone is finally starting to pick up steam and Microsoft worked long and hard to Verizon on the Windows Phone train.  You can be sure that they will do everything in their power to make sure that the nations number one carrier Verizon gets it’s WP8 phones in time for the holiday season.

Lisa Gade reviews the LG Lucid Android smartphone on Verizon.

Check the video review after the break

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M_LKodu5kk

LG Lucid is an LTE enabled Android 2.3 smartphone for Verizon Wireless. It features a 4-inch IPS display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM, 5MP rear camera and front facing camera.

LG Lucid is available on Verizon starting today for $79.99 with a new 2-year contract.

The original iPhone was the first smartphone shipped with an embedded non-removable battery. Well, they were removable, just not (officially) by the end user. A trend was born; nowadays numerous smartphone’s come with embedded batteries. The Nokia Lumia 900 and the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx are two high-end devices following this concept.

Personally, I hate the thought of limited access to my smartphone’s battery. It turns a device I use every day into a black box where replacing the battery is as easy as sending it back to the manufacturer… that thought alone sends shivers down my spine. Supporters and iPhone fanboys suggest embedded batteries allow manufacturers to experiment with design and produce smaller devices. The potential marriage of style and engineering genius (as quoted from one deluded individual).
It also allows manufacturers to leave their customers at the alter, especially when the batteries begin to fail. Remember iPod Gate, sometimes referred to as Battery Gate? When iPod users suffered battery failure after 18 months, they were told:

• Pay for an iPod refurbishment, costing $255 (plus a mailing fee).
• Buy a new iPod.

Just as I was getting all amped up for the release of newer more affordable Tango Windows Phones a giant wrench on the track seems to have derailed that train.

From what I can gather from this Microsoft “Windows Phone Basics” page it seems that Mango devices WILL NOT “Multitask.  Lets clarify what I mean by multitasking here. Some of you are saying “Wait a minute no Windows Phones Multitask!”  This is true to a point. Windows Phone does not truly multitask like say Symbian, Android, or MeeGo.

Rather it “tombstones” apps like iOS by just suspending them in the background for quick access later. This is the type of multitasking that from what I can tell Tango phones will not do.

Here is the part of the page that makes me think that Tango will not multitask. (Let me know if I am reading this wrong)

Switch between apps

Many apps can run at the same time on a Windows Phone, and there’s an easy way to switch between the last five you’ve used:

• 1 Press and hold the Back button to see up to five of the apps that you’ve used most recently.
  
• 2  Flick right to see all of the open apps, then tap the one you want to open.