Angry Birds Windows Phone 7 review

We often joke that Angry Birds is everywhere you look – especially on smartphones – but until recently that really hasn’t been true. Rovio’s multi-million seller has only just been catapulted onto the Microsoft platform. Does it hit the target? We take a look at the critical reception so far.

Scores

Eurogamer: 7/10
Know Your Mobile: 10/10 (five stars)
WPCentral: 8.5/10
WMPowerUser: 8/10 (4/5)

We took a look at reviews from four websites covering the full spectrum of Windows Phone fannishness (okay, so I made up a word), from the general gaming focus of Eurogamer to the general smartphone-focuses Know Your Mobile and on to the dedicated Windows Phone sites, WPCentral and WMPowerUser.

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Hacking Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Onto your WP7 Device

A few days ago, Microsoft released Windows Phone 7.5, also known as Mango, to its developers for testing their applications. It didn't take long for the hacking community (in the form of Windows HoneHacker.com) to come up with a clever solution to enable the phones of non-developers to upgrade to Mango - and guess what, I did just that. Here are a few thoughts.

Upgrading your non-developer phone to Mango is incredibly easy, but there are a few key concerns you have to think about. First of all, this is a legal grey area, and while Microsoft so far seems to have taken a rather relaxed approach to hacking about Windows Phone 7 - you have been warned. Of course, the usual disclaimers apply: do this at your own risk, you may brick your device, this is not supported by Microsoft, nor they nor I nor WindowsPhoneHacker.com is responsible if this kills your unicorn.

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Samsung rebooting Galaxy S2 for Windows Phone 7?

A new Samsung phone has been outed by the Bluetooth SIG board, with a codename prompting speculation that the next Windows Phone 7 device from the Koreans will be a re-badged Galaxy S2.

The Bluetooth group, which tests new phones using the wireless specification before release, has seen the Samsung SGH-i937 pass through its labs, similar to the Samsung SGH-i927 (The Galaxy S2) and the Samsung SGH-i937 (also known as the Windows Phone 7-powered Focus in the US).

The sequencing of the numbers has prompted many to simply believe that the phone will be an amalgamation of the two devices - and while a Galaxy S2 running Windows Phone 7 might be cool, it's far from certain.

Not much to go on

The specification of the SGH-i937 is pretty sparse - but other than Bluetooth 2.1 standard noted (which would be a step down from the S2) there's nothing else to suggest it will be a Windows Galaxy S2 hybrid.

More likely is the phone will still have the Super AMOLED screen technology both the Focus and the S2 used, but will be in keeping with the new hardware spec Microsoft laid out a few months ago.

We'd rate this as a very unlikely rumour at the moment, so unless Nokia wows us all with dual-core Windows Phone 7 devices during 2011 we won't be seeing a Galaxy S2 OS reboot.

From Bluetooth SIG via WMPoweruser

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App of The Week : FourSquare App For Windows Phone 7

FourSquare is the popular social check-in application lets you earn badges from your Windows Phone handset. You can follow you friends and see the places they frequent. You can also use the app to check-in, share your location with friends, and unlock rewards. Be patient with this app as it is reportedly prone to crashing, a problem that will be addressed in future updates.


Some Screen-shots ( click to see it bigger ) :

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Windows Phone 7 Marketplace now has 25,000 apps?

Microsoft's mobile-app marketplace might now feature more than 25,000 applications, one report claims.

According to Windows Phone App List, a Windows Phone 7 Marketplace app tracker, Microsoft's store currently has 25,076 applications available to users. However, another Windows Phone 7 Marketplace tracker, WP7applist, claims the store has 24,878 applications. What's more, WP7applist claims 4,044 of those programs are currently "inactive."

Either way, it's worth nothing that neither Windows Phone App List nor WP7applist offer the official stats on available applications in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace--that is reserved for Microsoft.

When Windows Phone 7 launched last year, 1,000 applications were available for the platform. At the end of March, the company reported that that figure had jumped to 11,500 applications, including 7,500 paid apps.

In comparison, Apple's App Store at the time had 350,000 available applications, while the Android Market featured more than 150,000 apps. At its Worldwide Developers Conference last month, Apple reported that there are now 425,000 applications available in its marketplace. At Google's I/O Conference in May, the company said there are 200,000 apps available in its Android Market.

Though Microsoft is still far behind in the total number of apps available, the company has consistently said that application quantity doesn't matter to it. In March, Microsoft said that in the mobile space, it's a matter of "quality over quantity."

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how many applications are currently available in its Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.

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Angry Birds is finally released on Windows Phone 7

Microsoft originally said that Rovio’s hit game Angry Birds would make its debut in May, but that date was later pushed until June 29th. That day is finally here and, as promised, the game is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Oddly enough, the title will cost gamers $2.99 — quite a price hike over the free ad-supported version available on Android, and even the $0.99 price tag for iOS devices. Worse yet, it doesn’t appear that Angry Birds Seasons — which is being updated every month with new levels — is available. Hopefully that version will be available soon, too, but we wouldn’t hold our breath. Game on!

source

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