Aug 31 2011
At tipster sent wmpoweruser.com this picture, which appears to be the usual format for leaked carrier presentation sheets.
Display: LCD (or CB?) 480×800 pixels, 3.7 inches
Camera: 5MP 2*** x **** pixels resolution, 720p 30fps
Memory: 8GB, 512 (thanks, reply people) MB RAM
General: *** (27*?), November
Aug 25 2011
This is the HTC Omega, an upcoming Windows Phone 7 device from HTC (likely to be announced at the September 1 press event). It’ll come in a white/silver color combination, perhaps with aluminum construction, and may be called the HTC Radar upon release.
Rumored to be powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 SoC (likely to be single-core), and include 512MB of RAM, the HTC Omega also features a front-facing camera, perhaps ushering in the era of Skype integration on WP7 devices for video chat.
The rumor mill puts it as having a 3.8″ SLCD display and an 8MP camera on the rear. We also expect HTC to announce a second, higher-end Windows Phone 7 next week, codenamed the HTC Eternity.
Source: pocketnow.com
Feb 11 2011
Microsoft and Nokia have confirmed the two companies will work together to take Microsoft’s recently released Windows Phone 7 operating system to the next level.
As part of the partnership, Nokia will make Windows Phone 7 their “principal smartphone strategy” (in other words, it’s going to be their main operating system for all their phones) with plans to work in partnership with Microsoft on both software and hardware features, focusing first amongst other things on the Windows Phone 7′s imaging capabilities. They’ll also collaborate with Microsoft on marketing and the Windows Phone 7 roadmap, while assisting with hardware design and language support.
In a big win for Microsoft’s search engine, Nokia will make Bing the default search engine across their range of mobile products, with Microsoft adCenter to power advertising on the service. On the flipside, Nokia will allow Microsoft to use their Nokia Maps technology, which will be integrated in turn into Bing and adCenter to “form a unique local search and advertising experience.”
“I am excited about this partnership with Nokia,” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO said in a statement today. “Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale. The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute.”
Nokia’s app store and content will be made available in the Windows Phone 7 marketplace, while Nokia’s “extensive” operator billing agreements will allow Windows Phone 7 devices to be sold in countries where access to credit cards is low.
It’s expected the deal — which still needs to pass a number of regulatory approvals and checks before being finalized — will see Windows Phone 7′s market share grow considerably with devices available for potentially lower price points and with varying specifications, and could be the boost the relatively new entrant into the smartphone race needs to compete with the likes of Google’s Android offering and Apple’s iPhone.
Nokia confirms that Symbian software will become a “franchise platform”, with MeeGo soon to be open sourced with an emphasis placed on “longer-term market exploration of next generation devices, platforms and user experiences.” Nokia says they will still ship a MeeGo device later this year despite today’s news.
Jan 23 2011
Microsoft will soon support homebrew developments on their Windows Phone 7 platform following two days of meetings with developers behind the ChevronWP7 unlocking tool.
Late last year following the release of Windows Phone 7, a team of developers uncovered a bug which allowed those with a device running the operating system to install applications on their device without using Microsoft’s application store, dubbed the Marketplace.
It made headlines as technology enthusiasts fought over whether the release of the unlocking tool, ChevronWP7, was a good idea to enable freedom on the platform or if it was a bad idea, encouraging jailbreaking and piracy.
However the team behind the software were soon contacted by Microsoft’s Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone 7, who took a keen interest in the matter and encouraged the developers to cease offering the tool while discussions about ChevronWP7′s future continued between Microsoft and the developers.
Fast track to today, and the future is looking bright for developers and users alike seeking to install apps or customise their Windows Phone 7 device further than the Marketplace allows. In a blog post on the ChevronWP7 website, developers Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh and Long Zheng confirm the software giant will soon offer an official way for people to “homebrew” develop on their devices, although just how this will happen is still being discussed.
“We’re collaborating with Microsoft on an interim solution that will continue to support homebrew developments after the update,” the trio wrote. “We will share details of this when it has been finalized.”
The breakthrough comes following a two day meeting held at Microsoft’s Redmond campus earlier in the month, which Rivera, Walsh and Zheng were invited to. Microsoft confirmed during the meetings that an update will be pushed out “soon” which will fix the bug which allowed the Chevron WP7 tool to work, rendering the unlocking tool useless.
The future isn’t looking too gloomy though, with the trio “genuinely excited” about what the future holds for Windows Phone 7, saying they’ll continue to work with Microsoft to “support mutual goals of broadening access to the platform while protecting intellectual property and ensuring platform security.”
“We appreciate Microsoft’s outreach, genuine interest and involvement in this matter and we hope the community can understand we’re working towards a win-win scenario.”
Dec 01 2010
The ChevronWP7 team released the first “homebrew” application for Windows Phone 7 in the form of a custom ringtone manager. It’s been common knowledge that Windows Phone 7 oddly didn’t support custom ringtones at launch, and the ChevronWP7 team beat Microsoft to allowing the functionaility themselves.
The application, which is available now, allows a user to load up to 5 audio files onto the phone. The format is very strict, though, with ringtones only working in 48Khz Windows Media Audio format. The application actually runs on the users desktop PC and pushes the ringtones into an application with-in the phone, which then allows the user to set the ringtone.
Nov 29 2010
The following step by step guide will help you jailbreak (or unlock; that’s what the developers are calling it for WP7 phones) your device so that you can install apps without needing Windows Marketplace.
Step 1: Download and install the latest version of Zune desktop software for Windows.
Step 2: Download and install the latest version of Windows Phone SDK, OR simply download this registry key and execute it on your Windows machine with administrative access. This registry key will add the following entry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsPhone\ProxyPorts]
“DeviceReg”=dword:000069C5
Step 3: Now connect your Windows Phone 7 device (Samsung Omnia 7 in my case) with your PC via USB.
Step 4: Start Zune software and sync your device. Make sure your device has a “full sync” relationship, and NOT “guest” relationship with the Zune software as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 5: Download ChevronWP7 (Windows Phone 7 Unlocker app) and run it.
Step 6: Before unlocking, make sure your device is not locked with a PIN.
Step 7: Check “Ensure your phone isn’t PIN-locked” and “Install certificate on phone using Internet Explorer at http://chevronwp7.com/cert” options, and then click on the “Unlock” button.
Step 8: That’s it! your phone is now unlocked ! You can now install (sideload) any third-party WP7 app without requiring a Marketplace developer account.
The best thing about this “unlocker / jailbreak” is that it is completely reversible. If you connect your phone with PC again and run ChevronWP7 app, you will notice a “Relock” button which will allow you to relock your phone to its original state.
Nov 26 2010
So there’s a small tool that was released 2 hours ago that will enable any Windows Phone 7 user to “unlock” his device and side-load any application on it.
The official and legal way to do this is to register as a developer and pay $99/y. So what’s the big here other than having the ability to side-load (currently via Visual Studio) any application son any WP7?
Well this looks like the beginning of a big mess folks. First off Microsoft, thanks to its PVK system, can detect and ban all the devices unlocked with this method (yeah re-locking it afterwards won’t help you if you Device ID is blacklisted). Secondly, couple this new unlocker with the security issue of the curent Marketplace (anyone can’t free download an app directly from the marketplace by bypassing the Zune software etc..) and we are now in piracy heaven…
Anyway, it’s up to you to decide if you want to unlock your device this way at the risk of being blocked by MS (if they decide to take this route) but I won’t be surprised to see a WP7 update in the near future “fix” this potential security hole.
I’m all for tweaking your device etc (hey I actually found out how to enable USB drive mode on Window Phone 7!) , but I’m still unsure about this one…
The ChevronWP7 unlocker can be found here.
Dont confuse this unlocker with what is equivalent to ultrasn0w on the iphone, this tool does not unlock your carrier on your phone, is basically just hacks the phone to run unauthorized code/apps.
Nov 15 2010
As per an update by Hacker Chris Walshie
I’ll be posting the code in a couple of days, need to clean it all up. And yes, it’s a managed app running unmanaged code
You’ve got FULL access, create, delete, browse files etc. Just can’t delete system ROM files, IE coredll.dll (obviously).
Nov 13 2010
Microsoft launched their Windows Phone 7 to the market last week, and hackers have already compromised the operating system 
to allow unauthorized code to be run, allowing users to run applications that Microsoft would normally not approve of.
An Australian hacker named Chris Walshie discovered a method to run native, unmanaged code on a retail Windows Phone 7 phone, which could allow for future applications to be run on the device. As reported by Long Zheng of istartedsomething, Walshie found a DLL called “Microsoft.Phone.InteropServices”, which if exploited could provide users root access to the device.
Jailbreaking is very popular amongst iDevices, enabling users to run unauthorized code that Apple wouldn’t normally allow on their App Store. Jailbreaking of iDevices allows for themes, tweaks, any many more applications that will probably never be available on the App Store.
As Long suggestions, the benefits of jailbreaking Windows Phone 7 could mean that users can gain access to the microphone or camera, or even overriding the Bing search bar, allowing for users to customize their search engine.
The development for jailbreaking Windows Phone 7 is still ways off and could be months before users develop any useful applications, like Cydia for iOS.
Oct 27 2010
A number of users tend to implement MAC address filtering for security on their routers; this means that they can stop anyone accessing their network unless they have the correct MAC address. This is one an additional way of making sure you are as secure as possible at home and in businesses. Some universities such as those in Cambridge require students to provide the computer offices of the MAC addresses of their devices before they will connect them up to the w-fi networks, another problematic issue for users.
The problem here is that Microsoft doesn’t seem to allow anyone to find out what their MAC address is, so entering it into your router becomes more difficult. This means the user has to then open up their network and try to find out the phone’s MAC address. This is not exactly the easiest and safest route and certainly not the way it has been in the past for nearly every other Wi-Fi based smartphone on the market today.
Various posts on the Microsoft Answers forum and on the Internet in general have had responses from Microsoft MVP’s who have also stated that this is the only way around the issue at present. No word yet from Microsoft as to whether the MAC address information will be added to the operating system in a future update.
