windows phone | Fone Arena

UC Browser on Windows Phone now supports background downloads

UC Browser, one of the best third party browsers on Windows Phone has received an update to support background downloads. The default browser – Internet Explorer doesn’t even support downloads, but UC browser shone as the only third party browser on Windows Phone that could, and it downloaded any file type, even MP3s and let you save them inside your Xbox music app. Previously, one needed to wait for the download to get completed before moving on to another app, but that was mainly due to a reasonable restriction on tightly integrated OSes like Windows Phone and iOS. But since WP8 and more recently GDR3, Microsoft has been a bit lenient and had opened up more options for developers to take advantage of. UC Browser does exactly that by allowing background downloads for the first time on Windows Phone.

Continue reading “UC Browser on Windows Phone now supports background downloads”

Micromax Windows Phones to arrive mid of next year, says co-founder

Is Micromax working on a Windows Phone? Well, the second largest smartphone manufacturer in India by volume recently made big news when it unleashed a series of promotions featuring Hugh Jackman for the Micromax Canvas Turbo, and also announced its plans to enter the European markets like Russia and Romania, but a Windows Phone that is currently dominated by Nokia? The company’s co-founder Rahul Sharma has admitted in an interview that they are indeed working on them, and claims to have them ready for a launch mid next year. Above image is just a mock up we did to see how Windows Phone might look on the recently launched Micromax Canvas Turbo.

Continue reading “Micromax Windows Phones to arrive mid of next year, says co-founder”

Half of the Angry Birds games go free for Windows Phone 8

Angry Birds has been a longstanding mega hit gaming franchise from Rovio and usually, a copy sells for 99 cents, or 55 Indian rupees, in the local currency. There was a time when the original game went free for a while, as a part of Nokia’s promotion, but suddenly now, half of the collection has gone free. We are not sure if this is a store glitch or something, but exactly half of the Angry Birds collection has gone free in the Indian Windows Phone 8 Store. The games that have gone free are – Original Angry Birds, Angry Birds Star Wars and Angry Birds Star Wars II, while the Seasons, Rio and Space are still showing as paid.

Continue reading “Half of the Angry Birds games go free for Windows Phone 8”

Dhoom 3 game exclusively arrives on Windows Phone 8

Another day, another exclusive game/app for Windows Phone in India. Just after Krrish3, we now have Dhoom 3, another highly awaited multi starrer sequel in Bollywood this year, is getting its own game. Publishing games for movies is kind of a new marketing avenue for the respective movie producers and Yash Raj Films, Dhoom 3’s maker acknowledges this, by partnering with game dev 99Games Online Private Limited to release the Dhoom 3 game. It is an endless 3D moto racing game, which follows the popular formula of Temple Run and Subway Surfers with perks, power ups and feels like a good fit in this genre. You play Aamir Khan, whose bike you maneuver, who is being chased by Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra in two other bikes, and thus begins the endless chase to fight your boredom.

You can download the game from the Windows Phone Store here. And here’s a trailer for the game, it’s CG and does not represent actual gameplay –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0zuM-sWROs

Continue reading “Dhoom 3 game exclusively arrives on Windows Phone 8”

Nokia Story Teller, Beamer, Nokia Camera and more coming with Lumia Black Firmware update

The Nokia Lumia 1520 and the Nokia Lumia 1320 are the two new Lumia smartphones that have launched today at the Nokia World event in Abu Dhabi. Hardware differentiators like a massive screen and unibody build aside, Nokia has also announced that its own “Lumia Black” firmware will be running on top of the Windows Phone GDR3 update that started rolling out recently. This is the successor to the Amber update that is currently available for all Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices and it brings all sorts of new app experiences and improvements to the new devices launched today and eventually to other phones too. The new apps shown off today, as a part of this update are – Nokia Story Teller, Nokia Beamer and Nokia camera amongst others.

Continue reading “Nokia Story Teller, Beamer, Nokia Camera and more coming with Lumia Black Firmware update”

Never miss an update with the Nokia Collection app

Screenshot 2013-10-15 02.53.22

The Windows Phone App Store can be a bit finicky with polling for updates and you often end up being stuck on a version or two behind the current release. Nokia’s Lumia series of Windows Phone devices ship with a huge amount of Nokia specific apps that add a lot of value. Nokia also regularly pushes updates to these apps to add new functionality which you really don’t want to miss out on. Though the name would suggest otherwise, the Nokia Collection app is a third party application that allows you to manually check and update Nokia specific apps. Simple in function but it does the trick and we were successfully able to use it to update some apps like Nokia Music which were not getting picked up by inbuilt update polling system. Microsoft has just started rolling out the GDR3 update and we hope this issue is fixed in it. However, in the meanwhile the app is available for a mere $0.99 and you should definitely check it out if you are using a Nokia Lumia phone.

[Source – Windows Phone Store]

Windows Phone GDR3 update is official, brings 1080p display and Snapdragon 800 chipset support

The long awaited Windows Phone GDR3 update has now been officially unveiled and confirms most of the rumors around the update. The biggest and most promising feature is that Windows Phone now supports 1080p displays and the Snapdragon 800 SoC. This means that Windows Phone flagships will no longer be crippled by hardware limits when compared to Android phones. It can be said that WP phones are usually fast enough to not require top of the line hardware but chipsets like the Snapdragon 800 also bring a lot more to the table. Support for 1080p displays means that you can now have up to 6 small tiles or an additional medium sized tile. Alongside 1080p screens, Windows Phone can now also be used on 5-6 inch display devices allowing Windows Phone phablets, something we’ll be seeing very soon in the form of the Lumia 1520.

Windows-Phone-8-GDR3 Continue reading “Windows Phone GDR3 update is official, brings 1080p display and Snapdragon 800 chipset support”

Twitter for Windows Phone updated with Dark Theme option and Lock Screen highlights

It’s been a while since the official Twitter for Windows Phone app got its updates. It had unsurprisingly missed the conversation thread update iOS and Android received. While that feature has still evaded the platform, we have news of an update for the app. The app now arguably brings more choices and interesting changes to the Twitter experience on your Windows Phone. Most notable of the new additions are the new dark theme option and lock screen highlights. Users can now choose between a light and dark theme and have Twitter set as the lock screen picture(using Windows Phone 8’s unique feature) to show recent highlights from your feed.

Continue reading “Twitter for Windows Phone updated with Dark Theme option and Lock Screen highlights”

Nokia Lumia 1520 leaks in red, expected to launch at Nokia World

We’ve seen more than our fair share of leaks for the Lumia 1520. Today’s leak courtesy of @evleaks gives us a glimpse of the red variant of the upcoming handset. The phone will mark a new high for Nokia and will bring the much wanted top of the line specs to the Windows Phone platform.

Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 1520 leaks in red, expected to launch at Nokia World”

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.

Continue reading “Microsoft wants Windows Phone to run on HTC’s Android phones – Report”

Storyteller app for Nokia Lumia 1520 and 2520 Sirius Tablet leaked, Zoe Highlights remixed?

We all know that Nokia is gearing up for a big reveal at Nokia World on October 22nd, but it seems that it’s not going to be just hardware, but Software too. The Nokia Lumia 1520 “Bandit” and the Lumia 2520 “Sirius” are two of the six devices that Nokia are purportedly going to announce at the event in Abu Dhabi, and thanks to @evleaks, we now have a glimpse of a new app called “Storyteller” that’s going to launch for both these devices with the different form factors. The app looks like a neatly arranged photo album with possibly Zoe Highlights-like features? Certainly looks better than the in-built Photos app, we will give it that.

Continue reading “Storyteller app for Nokia Lumia 1520 and 2520 Sirius Tablet leaked, Zoe Highlights remixed?”

Nokia wants to reinvent innovation, teases an event on October 22nd

Nokia has released the above picture on its social media channels, signaling an event in the middle east(likely Dubai or Abu Dhabi) on October 22nd, presumably for the Lumia 1520 Phablet and the Nokia Sirius Windows RT tablet launch. This news comes after rumours that Nokia might delay or cancel some of its products after the Microsoft deal, which makes some sense as some products may overlap within the same company, but if the teaser is to be believed, we will definitely see the Lumia 1520 at least, with the Sirius launch now a big question mark.

Continue reading “Nokia wants to reinvent innovation, teases an event on October 22nd”

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.

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

Official IRCTC apps for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 announced in partnership with Microsoft

This might be the biggest coup for Microsoft in India. IRCTC, the notorious Indian Railways train ticket booking website known for its crashes and slowness under usual heavy Indian loads has received an exclusive app for the Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 platforms, developed in partnership with Microsoft. This app will naturally let you book tickets, make PNR enquiries, check booking and cancellation histories and more. But the most important catch here is that the app will not be able to book tickets between 08:00 to 12:00 or 23:30 to 00:30 hrs of any day. This is presumably to reduce the expected additional load from mobile devices in the peak booking times, due to this app. You can download the app for Windows 8 here (link now LIVE) and Windows Phone 8 here.

Continue reading “Official IRCTC apps for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 announced in partnership with Microsoft”

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.

Continue reading “Microsoft and Nokia, what does it mean?”