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Bleeding Edge TV 408: HTC Titan review and giveaway

The HTC Titan is a beast of a smartphone, and we're here to tell you all about it, and give one away to one of our lucky readers or viewers. This is one of the first Windows Phone 7.5 Mango devices, and it's got a 480x800 4.7-inch display with a 1.5 GHz processor on the inside, along with 16 GB storage and 512 MB RAM. You also get an 8 megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash and BSI sensor that records in 720p HD, and a 1.3 megapixel front camera as well. We give you even more details in this episode, which you can watch above.

Don't forget, you can win one of these from us! Just head on over to our HTC Titan giveaway page to enter.

Big thank you to MozyPro and JackThreads for sponsoring the show - be sure to check them out! MozyPro provides simple, automatic, and secure data backup. As for JackThreads, we've got exclusive invite codes that give you $5 to use towards anything you'd like on the site.


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Giveaway: HTC Titan Windows Phone!

htc titan giveaway

Yes - we're giving away an HTC Titan smartphone, running Windows Phone 7 Mango! We know that Christmas has come and gone, and we hope our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide served you all well, but we're not done with the gift-giving just yet. The HTC Titan we're giving away runs on the AT&T network, and is one of the first Mango devices that are available, and sports a 1.5 GHz processor and has 16 GB of storage built-in.

So, how do you enter to win the HTC Titan? Simply use the widget below to keep track of your entries! We've got a lot of ways for you to enter, but don't check off any that you don't actually perform. If you do, you'll be eliminated:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Samsung Focus S review: The best Windows Phone in the US

Samsung Focus S review

When we first reviewed the Samsung Focus Flash, we felt its smaller form factor and significantly lower price made it a better deal than the Focus S at first glance ($199.99 - $19.99 on Amazon). Now that we've tested the Focus S, we're singing a different tune. True, you're only getting a bigger screen, an improved camera, and a thinner profile, but the Focus S brings Windows Phone 7.5 Mango closer than it has ever been to the high-end. That alone makes this  smartphone worth a close look, especially given its slick OS. Click on through to see why in our full Samsung Focus S review.

Click to continue reading Samsung Focus S review: The best Windows Phone in the US


T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 710 hands-on

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Handhelds, Microsoft,

And the Lumia 710 shall lead them. T-Mobile and Nokia today announced the first Nokia Windows Phone in the U.S.: not the flashy Lumia 800, but its lower-cost sibling, the Lumia 710. I got some time with it and spoke to Nokia and T-Mobile execs about the companies' strategy.

First, the phone: the Lumia 710 is a medium-sized, slab-style cell phone with cropped corners and a curved back. It isn't really a rectangle, but it also isn't as radically shaped as the Lumia 800. Below the 3.7-inch, 800-by-480 LCD screen there's a large physical button, and there's a 5-megapixel camera that records 720p video on the soft-touch back. The phone comes in black and white.

Nokia used pretty classy materials for a $49-with-contract phone, although the 710 doesn't measure up to the Lumia 800's polycarbonate body. The bright, sharp screen is Corning Gorilla Glass, and the phone feels solidly built. Turned off, the black model has the usual problem where it will blend in with a line of other black slab phones, though.

The Lumia 710 runs Microsoft's Windows Phone Mango OS with a few exclusive additions. Nokia's Drive GPS software offers free driving directions, both on and offline, in 2D and 3D. App Highlights helps point out useful apps among the 40,000-plus in Microsoft's store, and T-Mobile TV offers several dozen streaming TV channels.

Click to continue reading T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 710 hands-on


Microsoft releases SkyDrive app for iPhone, Windows Phone

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled a version of its SkyDrive cloud service for Windows Phone and the iPhone.

The move, Microsoft said in a blog post, comes as people increasingly need access to files on-the-go.

"As devices proliferate, having a great experience on the Web is only one piece of a pretty complex puzzle," Microsoft's Mike Torres wrote. "People are choosing where to put their files based on how portable and accessible they are across the various devices they use; therefore, it's critical that we continue to extend the SkyDrive experience to the devices you use every day."

To that end, the most recent version of Windows Phone, known as Mango, included deep integration with SkyDrive via the Pictures and Office hubs, allowing for the sharing of photos via text, email, or IM, for example.

But users wanted more, Torres said. "Many still want the full SkyDrive experience from Windows Phone, including tasks like browsing their entire SkyDrive, sharing links to folders or files, deleting files, and creating folders." As a result, phones running Windows Phone 7.5 can now download the SkyDrive app from the Windows Phone Marketplace and do just that.

For those on iOS, the same app was also released in the App Store. See the video above for more.

Click to continue reading Microsoft releases SkyDrive app for iPhone, Windows Phone


Nokia’s Windows Phones: Lumia 800 and 710

Nokia Lumia 800 and 710

Nokia finally announced its first two Windows Phones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, which feature exclusive navigation, music, and sports applications.

"Lumia is the first real Windows Phone," Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said. "We are signaling our intent right now to be today's leaders in smartphone design and craftmanship, no question about it."

And while the 800 may not make it to the U.S., "We will be introducing a portfolio of products into the United States in early 2012," Elop said.

Those U.S. phones may include "LTE and CDMA products" as well as "WCDMA and HSPA" phones, Elop said. That means every U.S. carrier is on the table, including Verizon and Sprint. Nokia hasn't made a phone compatible with either of those carriers' networks since 2005.

Click to continue reading Nokia’s Windows Phones: Lumia 800 and 710


Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update now available to pretty much everyone

HTC Trophy

Microsoft is opening up the Windows Phone 7.5 firehose, releasing the latest version of its mobile OS, known as Mango, to the majority of Windows Phone users.

"Today we're fully opening the spigot—slightly ahead of schedule—and making Mango available to nearly everyone in the current delivery pool," Eric Hautala, general manager of Customer Experience Engineering at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft officially launched Mango in late September with a slow rollout to Windows Phone users. Unlike the first update to the OS earlier this year, which was marred by glitches, the Mango update went smoothly, prompting Microsoft to release it to 50 percent of eligible customers by October 3. Hautala said today that that effort has also "gone well," so Microsoft has opened the Mango floodgates.

Click to continue reading Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update now available to pretty much everyone


Bleeding Edge TV 389: Windows Phone 7 Mango Preview

We give you a look at Windows Phone 7 Mango, technically known as Windows Phone 7.5. Mango introduces a ton of new features into the Windows Phone 7 library, and at GDGT Seattle we were able to chat with Andy Colley from the Microsoft Windows Phone team to get a thorough walkthrough of everything new, like Bing Audio, Bing Vision, Smart DJ, Linked Inbox, and much, much more.

Big thank you to Carbonite and JackThreads for sponsoring the show - be sure to check them out! Carbonite offers off-site backup of your computer, and you can get a 15-day free trial (no credit card needed!) by visiting Carbonite and using promo code TPN. As for JackThreads, we've got exclusive invite codes that give you $5 to use towards anything you'd like.


HTC Trophy Windows Phone unboxing gallery

HTC Trophy welcome tiles

Verizon Wireless customers who've been waiting for a Windows Phone 7 device to show up on their network, you can now take solace that the HTC Trophy has arrived. The Trophy is the first Windows Phone 7 device to be released on Verizon, and it sports a 3.8-inch WVGA capacitive touch screen. It's also got a 5 megapixel camera that records in 720p HD with autofocus and an LED flash, and 16 GB of internal memory. We've got one in and are tearing into it, and before we hit you with our HTC Trophy review, we thought we'd give you an HTC Trophy unboxing gallery to tide you over.

Gallery:


Nokia planning to release Windows Phone 7 devices on a frequent basis

Nokia Windows Phone 7

Nokia's Windows Phones will start coming out at a relatively rapid clip after the first one appears later this year, Nokia's executive vice president of smart devices, Jo Harlow said today.

"We should be launching new devices in a rhythm that might be every couple of months, every three months, something like that," she said.

The first Windows Phones came out in October, and we haven't seen many devices since then. According to recent sales figures from Gartner, the phones haven't sold very well, although our Reader's Choice survey shows that the relatively few people who own Windows Phone devices love them.

The slow pace of Windows Phone hardware may be due to Windows Phone 7 being a "secondary platform" for manufacturers like HTC and Samsung, Harlow said. But as Windows will be Nokia's primary platform, Nokia will focus more heavily on Windows Phones, she said.

"We're going to keep coming with new devices in order to have something to talk about," she said.

Click to continue reading Nokia planning to release Windows Phone 7 devices on a frequent basis


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