Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Mango Press Event Summary

So damn early.. 7am Pacific start of this Mango Preview.  I'll be grouping these (hopefully not all 500 new features will be shown because that would be a really long event) into different categories so hopefully it will help you sort out your needs (i.e. business users vs. consumers). 

Just before you get too excited, remember that all these new features are targetted at the US market - most will make the International market but not all - anything that has to do with Zune or Xbox Live are doubtful for non-US markets.

Mango is coming this fall (early fall) - OTA update - really?

Monday, May 23, 2011

Mango Preview Event - May 24..

In case you haven't heard, Microsoft is doing a big Mango Preview event tomorrow. 500+ new features for our beloved wp7 devices coming end of this year. There are also rumours that another 9 new Wp7 devices will be announced tomorrow but Nokia hardware might not be part of that lot. Nokia wants to announce their devices later on I their own event. Of course I will not be writing up all 500+ new features coming in Mango but I will sort through the list of new features and list out the significant ones. Rumour also state that there might be hardware announcements coming from Samsung, HTC, Dell and a newcomer, Acer. Stay tuned.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Canadian AppHub Subscribers Refunds

Just check my credit statement this morning and by now, the AppHub subscription fee refund ($19+tax) should be hitting your accounts by now.

This is of course only applicable to the Canadian AppHub developers who paid $119 for a yearly subscription to publish wp7 apps to the marketplace as described in a previous post.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Hot games incoming!


Haven't posted in awhile, got pretty sick and didn't feel well enough to write stuff on my blog.  I am getting better now so I'll start updating this blog with Canadian WP7 related news.  Apologies to my blog visitors.

Back in February, the Windows Phone Team were telling us that Angry Birds will be released May 24.  However, this is now pushed back to June 29.


The bad news is that it has been delayed but the good news out of this is that the highly fun/addictive game of Plants vs. Zombies is heading our way.  June 22 is the release date.  Cdn$5.49 is the price.

Angry Birds is priced at Cdn$3.49 with 195 levels of angry birding funs.

Source: Windows Team Blog

Monday, May 9, 2011

Venue Pro Spotted on Dell.ca website!

Sorry for not posting more lately but been busy with work and hockey playoffs.  I'll write up something about the WP7 event coming on May 24 with a crapload of Mango (or Windows Phone 7.5) features that are being thrown around tonight or tomorrow night.

What interests me is when I visited dell.ca just now..  Take a look at this screen cap.

It's not the US site.. noticed the "Francais" link at the top.

With the Venue Pro launching on AT&T bands last week, it's only a matter of time (I hope) for Robelus to pick it up.


Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Sweet Deal @ Rogers

If you are contemplating whether or not to get a Samsung Focus from Rogers, now is probably the best chance to do this.

Rogers is currently doing a promotion where you can get a PS3 by activating 2 smartphones on a couples & family voice and data plan.

It's the PS3 120GB with one controller.  The offer ends on June 30.

Click here for more information.

Guess if you must, you could get a WP7 phone with another Android phone.  I am quite sure that the iPhone probably isn't included in this deal but you are welcome to try :)

Interesting bit of news for Canadian Developers

Just got an interesting piece of news in my inbox from Microsoft stating that if you had previously pay $119 Cdn for access to the WP7 marketplace, Microsoft will be refunding the $19 since the price of submitting apps to the marketplace in Canada was changed to $100 Cdn at the end of March.

Canadian developers like myself have been bitching about this for awhile now and it's good to see Microsoft finally doing something about this.  What I didn't expect was the refund.

Way to go Microsoft!  Now let's see those app prices drop to match the US prices for apps.  If you haven't seen the latest exchange rates, Cdn$ > US$.  I hope that this change in pricing for the developers access to the WP7 marketplace is a precursor to MS finally lowering the price of marketplace apps in Canada to the same pricing as in the US.  Then again, I hope for a lot of things.

btw, if you haven't heard, build 7.0.7392.0 is out and is available to update your wp7 handset via Zune.  Nothing major, just a security upgrade.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Go Vote!

Not really WP7 related at all but today is Federal Election day!  Go Vote and shape Canada's future!

I think you can still register at your riding if you haven't received a voter's card.  Click here for if you don't know where to vote.

I know you don't have to vote but it is our DUTY as Canadians to vote!  Think of what's happening around the world, people dying, fighting for the chance to just vote!