LUMIA 925 AND LUMIA 1020 FREEZING ISSUES – FIX IS ON THE WAY

Few weeks ago, many users of Lumia 925 and Lumia 1020 reported a bug in their handsets that would freeze their device while trying to wake it up from sleep mode. The issue started after the devices were updated to Windows Phone 8.1.

Microsoft's Kevin Lee shed some light on the problems customers were reporting since updating to Windows Phone 8.1.

"Beginning in early September we started to receive an increased number of customer feedback regarding Microsoft Lumia 1020 and 925 device freezes. During the last two months we have been reaching out for more and more data and devices to systematically reproduce and narrow down the root cause. It turned out to be a power regulator logic failure where in combination with multiple reasons the device fails to power up the CPU and peripherals after idling into a deep sleep state."

Microsoft has now acknowledged this issue, and promises to provide a fix soon.

“I am pleased to pass on that we have a fix candidate under validation which we expect to push out the soon with the next SW update!”

Source: Microsoft

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NEW WINDOWS PHONE 8.1.1 UPDATE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD

Yesterday's update to Battery Saver hinted at a new build for Windows Phone coming soon. Today There is a new update rolling out for Windows Phone 8.1 Preview for Developers users. 

This new build is notable for enabling a 'real-time Live tile' for the Battery Saver app on Windows Phone 8.1. It also allows you to add Battery Saver to the Quick Settings found in the Action and Notification Center.

To check your phone right now for an update go to settings -> phone update -> check for updates. If you're enrolled in the Preview for Developers program, you should see an update. Look for the 8.10.14203.306 update to be available after checking.

You get a real-time Live tile for Battery Saver, if you pin the app to your Start screen. You can also add it to your Quick Settings.

What else is different with the new update? Let me know in the comments.

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BATTER SAVER FOR WINDOWS PHONE UPDATED

Battery Saver has just picked up an update for Windows Phone. The built-in app allows you to monitor which apps are consuming the most battery and gives you control over which apps run in the background. Today's update gives you more filters on the usage page.

Today's update puts the app at version 1.0.14201.0. Changleog is below.

Battery Saver 1.0.14201.0 Changelog

• Foreground vs Background metrics: Usage bars now show foreground and background showing you how much power a particular app consumes whether you're using it or not using it.
• Time Filters: We've added a filter also in the usage view where you can now specify the timeframe of data to look at. Can now show data from the last day, 2 days or a week.
• What Does Battery saver do anyway?: Re-worded the settings page to more clearly indicate what battery saver mode does.
• Real Time Live Tile: If you pin the battery saver app to start, it now updates in real time! (Requires build 8.1.14203 or higher.)
• Quick Settings: You can now add battery saver to the quick settings menu and cycle through the battery saver options there. (Requires build 8.1.14203 or higher.)
• Turn On until next charge: We added a new option to let users turn on battery saver until next charge!
• Improved Battery usage scaling: The usage data now scales to actual device battery capacity with full width mapping to 100% capacity. Additionally, the bars now use a logarithmic scaling algorithm to make the bars more visible when usage is small for a particular app.

Today's update puts the app at version 1.0.14201.0. We're not seeing an official changelog listed in the Windows Phone Store, but a quick scan of the app after updating reveals a few new features.

Visually Battery Saver will now display how an app is impacting your battery when it's in use and when it's in the background. Tapping an app to go to its detailed page will provide exact values for how it's behaving in use and in the background.

Another change is ability to sort and filter your app usage list by time. By default it will show you how apps are consuming your battery in the past 24 hours. Other options allows to sort by usage in past 48 hours or last one week.

The changelog refers to Windows Phone 8.1 build 14203. The current Windows Phone 8.1.1 build for the Preview for Developers program is 14192, which means that there is a good chance Windows Phone users will get another OS update soon.

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MICROSOFT FIXED 19 YEARS OLD EXPLOIT

On Tuesday, Microsoft fixed an exploit that had existed in every version of the operating system for 19 years, since Windows 95 by issuing large number of updates to currently supported versions of Windows.

The flaw was first discovered by IBM in May and it shared that information privately with Microsoft. 

IBM stated:

"This complex vulnerability is a rare, "unicorn-like" bug found in code that IE relies on but doesn't necessarily belong to. The bug can be used by an attacker for drive-by attacks to reliably run code remotely and take over the user's machine — even sidestepping the Enhanced Protected Mode (EPM) sandbox in IE 11 as well as the highly regarded Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) anti-exploitation tool Microsoft offers for free."

IBM said this flaw has allowed every version of Windows to be remotely exploited since the release of Internet Explorer 3.0 in 1996. So far, there's no evidence that hackers have found and have been using this security hole for attacks. However, the BBC quotes Gavin Millard, from Tenable Network Security, as saying:

"Whilst no proof-of-concept code has surfaced yet, due to Microsoft thankfully being tight-lipped on the exact details of the vulnerability, it won't be long until one does, which could be disastrous for any admin that hasn't updated."

The biggest concern is for all those users who are still using Windows XP, which is not supported by Microsoft any more. The latest statistics for October by Net Applications showed that 17.18% users are still running Windows XP worldwide.

If you haven't done it; Update your Windows now. How concerned are you about this Windows "bug" ?

Source: BBC; IBM

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LUMIA 535 - NEW AFFORDABLE SMARTPHONE

Microsoft has released the new Lumia 535, branding it as their '5x5x5' smartphone which is inline with the specs: a 5 inch qHD screen, 5 megapixel front-facing wide-angle camera, and 5 megapixel rear camera.

It is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage space, and 128GB of microSD card support. The phone features dual-sim. The Lumia 535 will be running Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim update out of the box. The price is estimated by Microsoft to be 110 Euros.

The front facing camera is perfect for 'selfies' and the abundance of color selection: cyan, bright green, bright orange, white, dark grey, and black. However, the rear camera will at most be passable, and 1GB of RAM is not very future-proof. microSD, dual sim, and price estimation in Euros show that this phone is targeted at entry level international markets.

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MICROSOFT ENDS UNLOCKING OF WINDOWS PHONE 7 DEVICES FOR DEVELOPERS

Microsoft is sending emails to Windows Phone app developers informing them that they will not  be able to unlock any Windows Phone 7.x devices for app testing after December 31. Microsoft recommends that app developers who want to unlock those phones do so before the deadline so they can continue app testing for another 24 months.

The email said:

"After December 31, 2014, no Windows Phone 7.x unlock capabilities will be available. This means, for those of you who have not unlocked your Windows Phone 7.x device, testing of apps directly from Visual Studio on that device will no longer be possible. However, app testing can still be done on other unlocked phones, or via the Windows Phone Emulator, or by submitting beta apps through the Windows Dev Center."

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WHATSAPP GETS ENHANCEMENTS AND BUG FIXES IN LATEST UPDATE

On November 6th, the popular messaging service WhatsApp had two updates: one was server side and the other was an actual app update. Although bugs and fixes were listed in the changelog, as it turns out much was included than previously thought.

WhatsApp now included detailed 'seen' and 'read' information for messages you sent to either individuals or groups. In fact, for groups it will show who read the message and at what time, alongside who has not yet read your message (but the time it was delivered to them).

The last update, which was a week earlier than this one, brought support for higher resolution screens, the ability to crop and edit photos, and the ability to archive conversations.

This update brings the version number up to 2.11.596.0.

The server side of WhatsApp has been tweaked to make the double checks blue for when someone reads your messages.

It's worth mentioning that some users are still not seeing blue checks when someone reads their message. This is because the other user has not updated it's WhatsApp to the latest version. Although, double blue checks are from the server side, users still need to update their app.

If you are not seeing the double blue checks, ask your friend to update their app.

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WILL THE NEXT VERSION OF WINDOWS PHONE BE CALLED WINDOWS MOBILE?

Microsoft’s job board for Windows Phone related news shows the sign that Windows Mobile is the new name for next version of Windows Phone OS.

Have a look at the examples taken from MS Job Board for Windows Phone

For a post as an Account Executive A&O:

"As the biggest online media company globally, Microsoft Advertising has the scope to reach valuable audiences everywhere. With a portfolio including MSN, Microsoft Media Network, Windows Mobile, Xbox and Bing, our range of deeply targeted channels span the entire digital lifestyle. Reaching 1bn people daily, our rich, immersive and engaging campaigns are grounded in context and insight – delivering the right results for our customers, and the right messages in the right places for their brands."

Another one for a Senior Program Manager:

"Are you passionate about working with partners to help them build and bring to market differentiating device experiences on Windows and Windows Mobile? Do you delight in being the voice of the partner internally? Do you enjoy owning and driving a variety of technical issues and championing the same across feature teams that are building our next generation Windows OS?"

Notice that the name is capitalized in both instances. Of course calling Windows on phone just Windows 10 would have been confusing, due to obvious differences in capabilities and even user interface. Also given that the next version of “Windows Phone” will likely run on tablets the phone name was also no longer appropriate.

Let's wait and see what will be the name of next version of OS for Windows Phone. What do you think it will be?

Source: wmpoweruser

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WINDOWS 10 FOR PHONES UNDER DEVELOPMENT

Earlier this week, Nawzil8 also tweeted about Windows 10 for Phones in being development. According to him Microsoft is working on 3 Windows Phone development streams at present – one for WP8.1 Update 1, one for the next minor version Update 2, and finally the next big version of Windows Phone, Windows 10 for phones.

We all know Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 of course, which delivered Cortana to many handsets. Windows Phone 8.1 Update 2 is rumoured to bring features such as a data toggle in the action centre, sortable settings, support for new processors and Cortana coming in Alpha to more regions. That OS was already expected to be rolling out in October, so will be hitting handsets very soon

Lastly Windows 10 for phones is of course the big mystery, but that OS is expected to bring API unification with Windows 10 Metro, deliver side by side applications for phablets, slight UI modifications to make it consistent with Windows 10 Metro, such as app groups, Windows Phone for tablets and finally the full Office Touch for Windows Phone.

Source: @Nawzil8

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