Tag: Microsoft

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

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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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Windows Phone 8.1 update with notification center, additional features spotted

Jeremiah Wong,  a Reddit user, has posted a series of screenshots that are said to be from a Lumia 920 running on pre release software. The handset that was purchased via eBay is running on a software version that identifies itself as 12084.WPMAIN(wpbldlab).20130509-1407. This particular build was compiled on 5th May and has a number of additions that Windows Phone users have been clamoring for.

WP 8.1 leak Notification Centre

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Jetpack Joyride finally arrives on Windows Phone 8

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Months and years after making its presence felt on other platforms, including Windows 8, the Halfbrick hit game “Jetpack Joyride” has finally landed on the Windows Phone 8 store. It is incredibly frustrating that the Windows Phone 8 version took nearly 8 months after launching on Windows 8, and we thought Windows Phone 8 shared code with its parent. But anyways, the game is finally here and it’s free. The “endless runner + Helicopter” style gameplay is incredibly addictive and the power ups are worth playing for.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 to power future Windows RT 8.1 tablets

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It is a well known fact that Qualcomm is one of the leading chip providers for the Windows RT ecosystem as well as the Windows Phone ecosystem. At the Computex event in Taipei, they have gone ahead and announced that their Snapdragon 800 series of powerful high end chipsets will include support for the Windows RT 8.1 platform. Powered by quad core processors with upto 2.2 GHz clock speeds per core, this marks a huge upgrade from the yesteryear dual core S4 plus chipsets that were used for the first Windows RT tablets, like the Dell XPS 10 for example. The Adreno 330 graphics is supposed to offer even greater graphics performance, and with additional support of in-built LTE and USB 3.0, the performance and feature gains for the Windows RT 8.1 are massive.

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SkyDrive updated for iOS, brings iPhone 5 support and high resolution image downloads

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SkyDrive, the cloud storage solution from Microsoft has its app updated for iOS finally, after a long time. The reason it took so long was due to Apple wanting a cut from Microsoft for an in-app subscription model for SkyDrive storage upgrades, initially planned for the iOS app. The app was reportedly re submitted a number of times until now, when Apple and Microsoft have finally come into a consensus on what to do with the IAP type subscription. Microsoft now doesn’t have an option for storage upgrade inside the app but users can always upgrade the storage from the web.

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Photosynth arrives for Windows Phone 8 with a lens app

Photosynth, the 360 degree(horizontal and vertical) photo stitching panorama app that has been there on Windows Phone for quite a while, has finally received an update for Windows Phone 8, with a nice lens app as an addition. Microsoft has been pushing the Photosynth service for a long time with its nice photo stitching capabilities, that are very similar to what you can find in the Android 4.2 camera’s photo sphere application. The Windows Phone 7 version has been there for the Mango devices and above since May 2012 and it is about time that it has been updated for Windows Phone 8, that too with a lens app for the camera.

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Google has no plans to build Windows 8, WP8 apps

Hoping to use an official Gmail or Youtube app on your brand new Windows Phone device ? You might be out of luck as the company is not too keen on bringing its products to Microsoft’s mobile offering.

 Google Apps Product Manager, Clay Bavor, said in an interview with V3 that the lack of interest in the platform means that the company is not planning to develop apps for the platform just yet.  Continue reading “Google has no plans to build Windows 8, WP8 apps”

Microsoft Surface with Windows RT Unboxing

The Microsoft Surface has landed at the FoneArena HQ and we got it here all the way from the US just for you . The Surface RT is the first real Windows Tablet designed and developed by Microsoft and boy , the hardware is amazing for version 1 of a product.Want to find out how the Microsoft Surface tablet looks and works ? Check out our unboxing video embedded below. We also got the Cyan Touch Cover to go along with FoneArena colours .

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfZQ0rs1s5Q Continue reading “Microsoft Surface with Windows RT Unboxing”

HTC Windows Phone 8X Review

One of the first phones to roll out in the market running the long awaited Windows Phone 8 operating system, the HTC Windows Phone 8X is being dubbed as a signature Windows Phone device. Meant to provide an experience tailor-made for the tiled UI, the 8X marries exquisite design with what might just be the third ecosystem we’ve all been waiting for.

HTC has a long history with Microsoft being one of their biggest partners for Windows Mobile devices. Will they be able to recreate the magic here with their first Windows Phone 8 device ? Read on to find out more. Continue reading “HTC Windows Phone 8X Review”

Windows Phone 8 Review

Back in 2010 when Microsoft introduced its brand new take on the smartphone dubbed Windows Phone, it was a brand new take on how a smartphone should work. Gone was the desktop-inspired UI and the inherent sluggishness, dependence on stylus input. The new and improved OS was designed ground up for a more modern world but inside was ticking the same core which brought along with it several limitations. Today we have yet another reboot but this time with a brand new core while retaining the best of and improving on the rest of the experience.

In our Windows Phone 8 preview we touched upon some of the more obvious changes in the OS.  We’ll be taking a look at those in addition to the MANY other new features in the OS in a step by step manner below. Keep reading to learn more about Windows Phone 8 ! Continue reading “Windows Phone 8 Review”

Windows Phone 8 Preview

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 has been long expected to be the major update which brings it in line with competing smartphone platforms. With the brand new core and lots of nifty additions throughout the operating system, there’s are substantial improvements to the operating system. We go hands on with the OS to bring you a brief preview of the latest out of Redmond.

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Huawei will not be attending the Microsoft Windows Phone 8 launch

In the midst of press releases, smartphone launch events comes yet another shocker when Huawei that was earlier expected to be present for the Windows Phone 8 launch on October 29thnow confirms its absence for the same.

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