Latest smartphones give HTC a new lease of life

Onwards and upwards

HTC could well be on the road to recovery after a rocky year, as sales jumped more than 20 per cent in November.
The Taiwanese firm managed to rake in $730 million (around £453 million/AU$698 million) in November, which is 23.3 per cent more than it managed to coin in October.
The firm has launched several new handsets at the back end of 2012, with the HTC One X+, 8X and 8S all helping to boost sales, revenue and popularity of the brand which has been suffering a little of late.

Not all good

A strong November aside, HTC is still dramatically down on revenue in 2012 compared to 2011.
The latest figures show that total revenue for the year is still down a whopping 39 per cent compared to the same time last year, which shows HTC still has some way to go to regain a strong position in the market.
At least these latest figures are strong for HTC and we hope they signal the start of an upwards trend for a firm which makes some beautiful handsets, but has struggled to compete with Apple and Samsung in 2012.

From Digitimes

Windows Phone 7.8 could hit devices in a matter of days

Soon, WP7 fans. Soon.

Nokia has let slip that Windows Phone 7.8 could be landing on users' handsets in just weeks, if not days, as the updated software has now been released to manufacturers.
The news comes from a developer seminar in Singapore, where the head of Nokia Asia Pacific Developer division let slip that the RTM had happened.
Reportedly, he told devs that the consumer roll-out would definitely happen before 2013, and added that WP7.8 won't be getting the swish new IE10 browser because the aging hardware can't support it.

Nearly but not quite

The not-quite-Windows Phone 8 software update will see Windows Phone 7 devices get some almost-WP8 updates like a revamped Start screen and Xbox Music, among other consolatory prizes.
We'd previously heard tell of a Windows Phone 7.8 release date following shortly after the Windows Phone 8 launch date (which was October 29), thanks to a post on the Italian Windows Phone Facebook page.
This was also backed up by a leak on a Chinese blog last week; so although nothing's for sure, all signs point to an imminent software treat for WP7 users.

From WM Power User via PocketNow

Early Windows Phone 8 adopters reporting 'random reboot' issues

The Windows Phone 8 operating system is causing new handsets to randomly reboot, according to reports from early adopters.
Users of the brand new HTC 8X and the Nokia Lumia 920 handset have taken to the various support forums to complain of unprompted reboots and, in Nokia's case, poor battery life, and device freezes.
Threads on the WPCentral site and the Microsoft and Nokia support forums all feature a litany of complaints from owners of the handsets, which went on sale at the beginning of the month.

WPCentral poster mberdych, who began one of the threads, wrote: "So far, within 3 days of use, I have had 2 random reboots. Device just suddenly reboots itself, ending in PIN screen. Quite annoying."

Bricked Lumia

Lumia 920 users are also complaining of poor battery life and some attempts to remedy that with a factory reset have simply 'bricked' the device, leaving it stuck on a Nokia splash screen.
WPCentral user, Brian McBride posts: "I thought I'd hard reset my phone and start from scratch to see if I could get better battery life. Now it is stuck on the Nokia splash screen. Resetting it with the buttons only causes a vibrate, the AT&T logo, then back to the Nokia splash screen."
Nokia, HTC and Microsoft are yet to comment on the reported issue.

Via TheVerge, WPCentral

Lumia 920 Available Unactivated for $450 on Ebay

Great news for anyone who’s been eyeing the beautiful Lumia 920, Ebay has put up the phones for preorder, listed at $150 on contract, and $599 off contract. However Ebay have a promotional offer going that reduces 25% of the phones price, meaning the Lumia 920 can be yours contract free for $449.99!

Just use the code “EBSAVE25” when checking out here: https://ebay.bbymsolutions.com/category/devices

Via

Microsoft ran out of time to get notification centre in WP8?

Whilst there are plenty of areas for you to see notifications on WP8 (lock screen, home screen, toast notifications, me tile etc) there’s still quite a demand for the unified notification area.
We could go the way of Android/iOS/Symbian and have that pull down screen. Or in a somewhat N9/Metro way, have it as a third homescreen on the main menu.  Or perhaps activated by an extended volume menu (the one that currently controls music buttons/profile)
Whatever way it was supposed to happen it was definitely something intended for WP8 it’s just that MS, with all of it’s might, ran out of time.
Rather than delay WP8 release, we get what we have now. Well as long as it’s still super fluid and bug free.
Whilst we’re at it, how about landscape view and orientation lock controls, eh? I’d certainly find the notifications screen more useful for me as a shortcut to things like screen brightness and other quick controls (bt/wifi).
Source: TheVerge

Microsoft Reportedly Testing Smartphone with Asian Suppliers

This isn’t the first rumor we hear regarding a Microsoft phone, also being called the “surface” phone; and honestly it’s pretty much a sure thing, the real question is only when? Well according to the Wall Street JOurnal Microsoft are currently testing out the phone with some Asian suppliers, with a rumored screen size somewhere between 4-5″ . On the other hand The Verge’s sources confirm the phone’s production but insist that it’s a “Plan B” device in case all else fails from the WP8 OEMs:

Microsoft has gone out of its way to promote the efforts of hardware partners such as HTC and Nokia, and our sources tell us that any “Surface phone” would likely be deployed as a “Plan B” should Windows Phone 8 fail to gain significant traction

Source Via