Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak is Switching to Nokia Lumia 900

Wow, actually a big big wow. Let's see how the story began.

"Breakfast to waste time awaiting opening of AT&T to see if Lumia 900 available"

It's amazing how a Tweet as simple as this can make so much buzz. You may invest thousands of dollars in advertising without getting a fraction of a result as this Tweet has made. Well, when an all around geek guy like Steve Wozniak posts a message that he's waiting opening of AT&T to see if Lumia 900 is available, that's a killer story.

If "the Woz" actually gets one of these amazing Windows Phone devices is another story but a mere fact of his considering to get one is nice.

Hopefully, more and more highly respected people will switch to Windows Phone. That shall boost the platform as it gains momentum.

SkyManager for Windows Phone 7

From my non-scientific observation, very often, third party apps for various online services (social networks, photo sharing, video, etc) are better than official apps from the owners of the service. Even though there is a pretty nice app for SkyDrive from Microsoft, folks at JDB Pocketware have done a great job and developed a decent SkyDrive client called SkyManager (what else).

The app is really nice in the true spirit of the Metro UI. However, in terms of functionality, it excels over the official app. Let's quickly look at some of the most useful feature of SkyManager:

• The app allows you to work with multiple items like uploading multiple files, moving/deleting multiple files/folders and so on. 
• You can open/edit office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and PDF files. 
• Pin to Start any folder or file. 
• Browse SkyDrive shared folders. 
• Resize photos automatically before uploading them. 
• Cropping photos before uploading them. 

Well, this list is not exhaustive. We highly recommend SkyDrive. The app is commercial, however as you would expect a Lite version is also available (though with limitations).

Anyway, it's always nice to see an alternative coming. If you need more options than the official SkyDrive app, choose SkyManager. If you'd rather stick with a free one, choose the official SkyDrive app. The choice is yours.

View SkyManager at Web Marketplace

Angry Birds Space Not Coming To Windows Phones

According to recent report from Bloomberg, The new “Angry Birds Space” edition of the world’s most popular mobile-phone game won’t appear in Windows Phone marketplace due to the slow demand. Despite being No. 1 app in the Windows Phone app store, guys at Rovio still think that completely rewriting the application is not worth, comparing to huge undertaking required to support it. That’s exactly what Peter Vesterbacka, chief marketing officer of Rovio Entertainment, said in an interview. 

“Rovio has no plans to release “Angry Birds Space” on the Windows Phone platform” - he added.

Rovio is based in the same Espoo, Finland, office park as Nokia and the local Microsoft office. However, the Space addition of the game is available for only Windows personal computers as well as Apple’s iPhone, iPad and Mac computers and android based smartphones as well. 

“If you look at activations, Apple’s iOS and Android are clearly bigger than any other platform. We want to be on all screens, but we have to consider the cost of supplying the smaller platforms. With Windows Phone it’s a lot of work to technically support it.” - Vesterbacka said.

The absence of Angry Birds in Windows Phone app store may make is quite difficult for Nokia to attract gaming-oriented users, especially teenagers. However Nokia Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop is banking on Windows Phone devices and will introduce smartphones next in China, where “Angry Birds” took off last year. On the other hand,  Peter Vesterbacka announced that Rovio is planning to launch several new editions of Angry Birds till the end of the year, so all we have left to do is to hope that at least the new ones will support smartphones running Microsoft’s mobile platform.

Windows Phone Hits China

Windows Phone arrived in China just today, hitting the market with HTC leading the charge with its Triumph or Titan, or even Eternity ( as it is officially referred to) smartphone available in SIM-free and unlocked version, or an “open market”. Most important and distinguishing feature of the smartphone is the interface available in Chinese language.

Microsoft Chinese divisions held an event in Beijing for both phone and press industry execs to demonstrate the Chinese language interface and mark the arrival of the Windows Phone in the country. HTC Eternity comes with numerous popular Chinese applications pre-installed, and is the first of many Windows Phone handsets headed for China this year. However the launch event didn’t shed any further light on whether (and which) local social media services will be pre-installed and integrated into the OS. However it is confirmed that 2,000 plus dedicated Chinese apps are already available for Windows Phone 7 as Microsoft claims.

Alongside HTC, Microsoft confirmed that it is partnering with Nokia, Samsung and ZTE, in a line-up that has been very much expected for some time in China. It is known that Nokia is planning its own press conference on March 28 and is expected to confirm the launch operators, devices, timings and more. Devices from Nokia are the most eagerly anticipated than the other partners mentioned above, and more details are likely to be revealed when the Finish firm launches its Lumia range later this month. Stay tuned, we will keep you updated on each and every manufacturer plans when they are communicated.

How To Add Ringtones To Messages And Contacts On Windows Phone 7

Did you know that you can use your own ringtones so you can match your jingle to your mood, or match just the right tune to your contacts? This is possible without any additional app, all you need is to just make sure the audio file is either in MP3 or WMA format, runs for less than 40 seconds, weighs less than 1 MB and of course is not protected with digital rights management (DRM).

So any file that meets these criteria is capable to become your own ringtone! All you have to do is to assign it the genre of ringtone by Zune software on your PC. If you do not have Zune on your PC yet, install it first. As for Mac users, you should use iTunes to assign the genre to the file, and then sync the file using the Windows Phone Connector for Mac.

Once you’ve assigned the genre successfully, follow these easy steps: first of all, connect your Windows Phone to your computer with a cable and synch the file to your phone. On start, flick left to the App list, then tap Settings and select Ringtones + sounds and finally, tap the Ringtone list to find the new ringtone you’ve just added. That’s all- it’s that simple.

To add the desired ringtone to the Messages, take the following steps: select Get media content now in the text message menu to download the ringtone file, then tap on the file itself and hold to save it. The last step is to rename the ringtone (if you want to) and tap OK – and your messages will rng whatever you like to! 

Lumia 800 Enters Chile With An Amazing Show

Amazing everyday marketing campaign of Nokia Lumia range is not something new for our dedicated users. Following the recent celebration of Lumia 800 entrance in Australia by a giant smartphone in Sydney, Nokia Lumia has launched in Chile recently. The launch celebration was quite in style of London show, with a 3D projection at the boulevard of Parque Arauco in Santiago de Chile watched by thousands of people.

The handset, considered to be more the piece of art rather than technology, is available on Claro, Movistar and Entel, VTR, with priced at around $334,900 CLP (US$ 690) and the free software update including:

• Improvements in load;
• Improvements in voice message notifications;
• Improved response mail messages to Microsoft Exchange 2003 users;
• Improved contrast in bright light display;
• Improved audio quality. 

At the very moment Nokia Lumia line-up smartphones are already available in 35 markets on 60 mobile operators and on every continent except Antarctica. With this said, enjoy the video of Lumia 800 show in Chile below and do not hesitate to have your say!

Nokia Lumia 900 Launch Delayed To Late April

Shown back at CES 2012 for the first time, Nokia Lumia 900 scored favorable impressions from the tech press. Even though it's not the first Windows Phone from Nokia, it definitely is the first high-end Nokia Windows Phone device to launch for a U.S. carrier.

To take a glance at Lumia 900 specs again, it has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens with F2.2 aperture, a 1 GHz processor and support for AT&T's 4G LTE network, and what’s most important, the phone runs Windows 7.5, codenamed Mango.

Some trusted sources who have previously identified March 18 to be the release date of so much wanted Lumia 900 now claim that the release date has been pushed back to April 22. This means that Windows Phone fans might have to wait another six weeks to get Nokia's Lumia 900 on AT&T.

However there are some good news as well, as according to the same source, phone will still sell for $99.99, as it was reported in January. On the other hand, the confirmed story is that AT&T has not yet announced an official price or release date for Nokias Lumia 900 at all.

At whatever time the Lumia 900 does launch, a huge marketing campaign behind it should be expected. As reported earlier, Nokia, AT&T and Microsoft could spend $100 million on marketing the Lumia 900, and Windows insider Paul Thurrott has said, with the help of phone makers, Microsoft may spend $200 million to market Windows Phone in 2012.

As there has not been any significant news in the US smartphone world since last holiday season, relatively the same is expected till the summer. This means that even a delayed Nokia Lumia 900 launch should definitely attract a lot of attention if it occurs in April.