72 Windows Phone 7 tips and tricks
If you’re new to the OS or thinking about getting a phone with it on, check out our whopping list of 72 tips and tricks to get you started.
1. Using the Windows Phone 7 voice controls
Press and hold the Windows key at the bottom of your screen and you can start talking to your phone. Try saying “Open Calendar”, to see what we mean.
2. Adding apps to the Start screen
When you are in the long applications list on your phone pressing on an icon and holding brings up a contextual menu that gives you a series of options, one of which is “pin to start”. Press on this option and the app will be shown on the Start screen. Read more 
Adobe announces Air 2.5 for TVs, tablets and phones, launches Adobe InMarket to package apps
Adobe’s making a serious play for the app space today, and it’s not limiting itself to phones — its new Air cross-platform runtime environment is designed to toss apps on your smart televisions and tablets as well. Air 2.5 supports accelerometers, multi-touch gestures, cameras and microphones, GPS data and hardware acceleration in a variety of silicon. What’s more, the company wants a piece of the action, so it’s going to help developers bring their Air 2.5 apps to market by partnering with the stores themselves, and charging a mere 30 percent to take care of your hosting, billing and app store approval — though we’re informed the service will be free for the first year if you sign up today. The newly-christened Adobe InMarket won’t help you get into the iTunes App Store, as you might expect, but it should assist with the Intel AppUp store… and perhaps a pair of brand-new marketplaces from RIM and Samsung as well.
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iPhone 4 82% higher screen damage rate than 3GS?
Specifically, iPhone 4 owners reported 82-percent more damaged screens in the first 4 months, compared to iPhone 3GS owners. The company is also not entirely impressed with the aluminosilicate glass, which they reckon “doesn’t seem any less likely to break than previous models.”
At least a quarter of the broken glass claims involved the back panel, SquareTrade says, and the company is projecting accident rates of 15.5-percent by twelve months after purchase. Of course, as a warranty company it’s perhaps in SquareTrade’s best interests to be ominous about the figures, but with over 20,000 handsets covered you do have to wonder if there’s still something to it all.
Samsung Galaxy Tab available in Israel
The Samsung Galaxy is on an all out, world-wide blitz (I’m in defensive NFL mode, its Sunday) ready to take on the ever demanding and popular iPad.
Israel is the latest, adding another location the Samsung Galaxy Tab is available. The tab will be offered exclusively by Cellcom where it’ll cost 89NIS ($25 US) per month in 36 installments, which adds up to 3,604NIS ($900 US). The only Galaxy Tab available is the 16GB version, not the 32GB . If you decide to grab this Galaxy Tab, the purchase requires an additional 89NIS ($25 US) monthly data plan.
Acer Liquid Metal S120 spotted running Android 2.2 on AT&T bands in FCC
Rumors of a 3.6-inch 800 x 480 Liquid Metal handset from Acer have been heating up in recent months. Now the aluminum handset said to be housing an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7230-1 processor just cleared the FCC sporting GSM/EDGE 850/1900 and WCDMA Band II and V making it the perfect candidate for an AT&T launch. The listing also confirms Android 2.2 Froyo, GPS, Bluetooth, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi on the tested model S120 DVT2 (that’s Design Verification Test 2) prototype. With an October launch set for the UK, well, it won’t be long before we see this babe in North America. A bit of documentary evidence after the break.
Apple MacBook Air
Unveiled at the company’s “Back to the Mac” event, the new MacBook Air is said to be Apple’s lightest and most portable notebook ever, owing much to the decision to scrap a hard drive for the same flash storage technology used for the iPad which is said to deliver an impressive battery life of up to seven hours.
Apple MacBook Air Specs
The 13-inch weighs 2.9 pounds and boasts an 11.6-inch high-res LED-backlit display.
There’s a full-sized keyboard and a glass Multi-Touch track pad, mic, speakers and notably a built-in FaceTime camera to make video calls between the iPhone, iPod Touch and now Macs which Apple also announced at the event. Read more
Samsung Focus review
Even though we’ve seen a torrent of Windows Phone 7 devices, we couldn’t leave you hanging on a review of the Samsung Focus. In the last few days, a flurry of new Microsoft-powered devices have hit the market, boasting slight differences, but all looking and acting largely the same. We’ve taken a deep dive on the operating system itself, the Omnia 7, Optimus 7, Mozart, HD7, and Surround (phew!) — now it’s time to focus on the, er… Focus. The device itself has a lot in common with its European brother, the Omnia 7, boasting the same 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 8GB of internal storage, 1GHz CPU, and 5 megapixel camera. The device will soon go on sale in America for $199.99 on AT&T’s network — in fact, it’s the only Windows Phone 7 device you’ll be able to buy on the network when they go public on November 8th. But is it really worth your hard earned cash when there are so many other options in the market? Read on for the full Engadget review to find out! Read more
Windows Phone 7 Marketplace adds YouTube, Twitter and more
They might not have been there at the start of day one, but by the end a number of “flagship” apps hit the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.
Those who’ve picked up a new HTC, LG or Samsung device powered by Microsoft’s new operating system can now watch YouTube videos, tweet on the official Twitter app and chat with their mates via a Windows Live Messenger app.
If you are giddy by the excitement, then brace yourself for the news that Adobe has released Acrobat Reader for Windows Phone 7, allowing you to read pdf files on the go. Whoop!
All the above apps are free.
Sadly the YouTube app is only half the story, as it only allows you to view content on YouTube’s mobile site and doesn’t support embedded YouTube content, like the sorts of videos you’ll find on lots of websites.
Others now in the Marketplace include Shazam and GoVoice – a Google Voice app costing a couple of quid.
The new high-profile additions add to the bevy of big names like Facebook, Ebay and Foursquare, all of which are already available.
HP Slate 500, rings up at $799
Nope, you’re not dreaming, but feel free to pinch yourself, rub your eyes or take a cold shower! You’ve read right — the HP Slate is finally official, and after all the teasing, back and forth, and (very recent) leaks, the Atom-powered, Windows 7 Slate will finally see the light of day — though in a different way than originally intended. While the first videos released by HP may have made it seem like it would be for consumers, HP’s tactfully changed its tune (don’t forget it’s got Palm / WebOS tablets on the way) and is now aiming the Slate at the enterprise and business market. Still, it will be available on HP’s site for $799 to anyone who wishes to purchase one.
So, what does $800 of your hard earned cash buy you? Well, in addition to the dock and case, which are included in the box, the tablet packs pretty much everything we’d heard over the last year — it’s powered by a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor, 2GB of RAM, 64GB SSD and packs Broadcom’s Crystal HD accelerator for handling 1080p video. (The included dock has an HDMI-out port if you want to hook it up to the big screen.) Obviously, the 8.9-inch capacitive touch Slate runs Windows 7 Professional, but it’s got a Wacom active digitizer for taking notes, which certainly sets it apart from the other Win 7 tablets we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks. Oh, and don’t forget its front facing VGA cam and 3 megapixel camera on its back. We got a chance to finally grope the tablet earlier this week, so hit the break for our early impressions and a short video.
Lumigon T1 with ICEpower amplifiers officially unveiled, to arrive 'by the very end of this year'
Just as promised, Denmark-based Lumigon has finally lifted the curtains over its much hyped T1 Android handset. Specs include an 800MHz Freescale i.MX515 chipset with an optional Qualcomm HSDPA modem, along with a 3.5-inch 480 x 800 capacitive touchscreen LCD, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, A-GPS, Bluetooth and FM radio. What the Scandinavian company’s really selling here, though, is the phone’s multimedia features: not only does it have a FM transmitter, a HDMI dock and Bang & Olufsen’s renowned ICEpower audio amplifiers, but it also doubles up as an “innovative” universal remote control for your various AV devices — pretty unique for an Android device, we’ll give you that. Interestingly, the press release omits any mention of Froyo, so here’s a glimmer of hope that Lumigon will manage to skin whatever the latest version of Android will be in time for the launch — a few lucky outlets will receive the phones “by the very end of this year,” just in time for your Christmas refunds.
AIVAnet 