Windows Phone 7 Mango Update Beta Now Available For Download If You’re A Developer

Microsoft has just released the Windows Phone 7 Mango update for developers who will have to optimize their apps to support the new OS. The Windows Phone 7 Mango update will come packed with 500 new features and the devs will be able to make use of them. One of the most exciting new features is multitasking support for all applicationsincluding for 3rd-party programs.

The Windows Phone 7 Mango update finds itself in the Beta stage therefore we can hope that the OS will soon reach the Release Candidate stage. We’re very close of getting the Mango update and Microsoft has done a great job in such a short amount of time which is really impressive.

Also Microsoft has released the WP7 Mango Developer Tools Beta 2 for download and you can get it right here.

The first major WP7 update called NoDo was supposed to become available back in January, however, it first started showing up on WP7 devices in March and not all devices in the world have received the upgrade although it’s the end of June. Now you can understand why this is an impressive achievement from Microsoft as the company beat all the expectations and decided to make up to the disappointed users.

According to Microsoft, the Windows Phone 7 Mango update will enjoy full support in 23 countries including Australia, Brazil, US & Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Norway.

In order to make WP7 Mango look more appealing, Microsoft has a interesting project for student developers who will receive 50 WP7 Dev smartphones. Please note that only student devs with a DreamSpark account and a Sketflow-based application can apply for this program so make sure you got what you need.

Microsoft handed out some dev phones to major publications in order to test the Mango software. The results met Microsoft’s expectations as most of them praised Mango because now it’s a complete OS which can compete against the likes of Android and iOS. Windows Phone 7 has been recommended to those who want a fresh looking user interface and no lag on their smartphones so we can only wait for the finalversion of Mango to be released.

Top 10 Best Smartphones In June 2011

A couple of days ago I was wondering what smartphone should I buy and guess what, it was one of the toughest things to do, with such great devices currently on the market. I like the open-source Android, but iOS and Windows 7 are great too. I’d like my smartphone to have a dual-core processor, but the single-core ones are fast, too. Some devices are worth buying only for the way they look. Some are chip and some are costing you a fortune.

Then next thing I did was to eliminate the price factor, then I realized that the job gets even tougher. Finally I compared a lots of smartphones and decided to make a top of the 10 best devices you can buy in June 2011, whether running on Android, iOS or Windows 7.

I personally thought that lots of you are in the same situation and decided to share the “Top 10 Smartphones of June 2011″ with you, so here they are, in descending order:

#10 Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo

Is a smartphone you wont see it in everyone’s hands, even so, it has a superb design and it’s running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. I see it as a direct competitor ofHTC Desire S, but Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo comes with less RAM memory (512MB, compared to Desire S’ 768MB of RAM).

#8 HTC Desire S

It’s the proof that portability and performance can go hand-in-hand. It comes with a 3.7-inch display, 1GHz single-core CPU, 768MB of RAM and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. HTC Desire S’ dimensions recommend it for the smartphone enthusiasts that don’t want to carry a super-size device, like ones with 4.0+ – inch displays.

#7 Samsung Galaxy S I900

Oldies but goldies. Even though Samsung Galaxy S II is out in the wild, people haven’t forgot about Samsung Galaxy S. It comes with a single-core 1GHz Hummingbird processor and Super AMOLED display that still beats lots of competitor’s touchscreens. Oh, and it recently received an update to Android 2.3 Gingerbread, meaning that Samsung haven’t forgot about it yet.

#9 Samsung Omnia 7

When looking at Samsung Onmian 7′s specs you could say that the Korean company took the hardware on the Galaxy S, fit it in a case with sharp edges and installed Windows Phone 7 instead of Google Android. An extraordinary finishing at a price that makes you buy it right away.

#6 Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

Sony Ericsson have bet on Android in 2011 and it seems they hit the jackpot. The most powerful smartphone in their line-up is Xperia Arc… well, until Xperia Duo hits the market (which will be their first dual-core handset). Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc has a generous display of 4.2-inch and lots of interesting foto, video and sound filters. It’s curved design highlights it from the hoard of Android devices.

#5 Apple iPhone 4

The best phone of 2010 comes in fourth place. But don’t forget that iPhone 5 is around the corner and we expect it to debut in Spetember 2011. It’s interesting to see if it’s better than SGS II.

#4 Motorola Atrix 4G

Motorola Atrix 4G comes with a 1GHz Tegra 2 chipset, member of the dual-core tribe and a 4-inch display with a resolution of 540×960. I kind of like the fact that it comes with Android and that it’s able to record HD videos and that it has 1GB of RAM.

#3 LG Optimus 2X

Is the first dual-core smartphone in the world and Tegra has a big contribution in Optimus 2X arriving third in my top 10. Is even faster than Samsung Galaxy S II when it comes to browsing and it records full-HD videos and takes high-quality pictures. We expect the Android 2.3 Gingebread firmware update, which it seems will roll out this summer.

#2 HTC Sensation

It’s the only smartphone that can fight with Samsung Galaxy S II at the moment,  device with a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU. HTC Sense 3.0 is a more than interesting experience, competing with SGSII’s TouchWix 4.0. Some worth-to-be-mentioned specs for HTC Sensation are 1GB of ROM, 768MB of RAM, microSD memory card slot, and a 4.3-inch Super Clear LCD display.

#1 Samsung Galaxy S II

It’s a device worthy to be on the first place of Top 10 Smartphones of June 2011. It only has one problem and it’s related to battery life. It’s obvious that you are facing an 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display with a resolution of 480×800 and the specifications list can stretch to a whole page. It’s a pack of muscles which runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, all this being 8.5 mm thick and weighing in less over 110 grams.

There are lots of smartphones on the market worthy of a place in an extended top of best smartphones, and I am thinking at Google Nexus S and Motorola Droid X2, but I am pretty sure that each of you have their own top 10 best smartphones. If you believe that another smartphone would have been worthy of a place in the top or if you think that another device should have been the best, the below comments section is all yours.

Nokia Android Smartphone Pics Leaked On The Web

This week Nokia has revealed a part of its future plans: the N9, a MeeGo-based smartphone with last year’s hardware specs, but with a gorgeous button-less design, a great UI, nice multitasking capabilities, and a beautiful touchscreen. Soon after that, the Nokia Sea Ray has been leaked, the first Nokia Windows Phone 7 device that should become available for purchase by the end of the year. Now let’s take a look at another Nokia device: an Android-powered smartphone.

The Nokia Android device follows the same design pattern as the N9 and Sea Ray, and I’m talking about that pillowshape which impressed many folks. At first sight it’s hard to understand why Nokia works on an Android smartphone when it has to focus on both MeeGo and WP7, but the answer is simple: in case the Windows Phone 7 platform fails, then Nokia has not one, but two back-up plans.

Android smartphones are selling better and better, and soon they will overtake Symbian as the most popular mobile platform, and it’s open source therefore it can explore the operating system whenever it wants on whatever it wants.

This Nokia device is powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread and it seems like its part of the C-series though that’s not that important for the moment.

The sad part about this story (from Nokia’s point of view) is that Eldar Murtazin was once again right. I remember back when he tweeted that if Nokia’s deal with Microsoft will be a fiasco, then Nokia will finally switch to Android so this kinda contradicts the Finnish officials who’ve said that the Russian blogger’s rumors are getting less accurate.

There is no doubt that this Nokia Android smartphone is only a prototype and that the Finnish-based company is testing the environment, but Espoo should learn how to keep a secret. It already said that it will follow the Apple secrecy-based policy, but that WP7 device was leaked in no time and we know almost everything about it.

Check out the photos below to see for yourself!

Apple’s iOS 5 Will Put An End To iPhone, iPad, And iPod Touch Downgrade

Two years ago Apple was launching iOS 3 together with iPhone 3GS and was introducing a new system that was blocking the users to restore their devices to older iOS versions. Back then Dev Team found a method to overpass this restriction, by saving the SHSH and use it afterwards to be able to restore your device to any older iOS version, based on the saved SHSH.

We had lot of headaches with the SHSHs, and now it seems that Apple wants to save us from having problems with the whole SHSH fuss, by blocking the iOS downgradeprocedure. This means that once you will have iOS 5.1 installed on your device, you will not be able to return to iOS 5.0 at all.

Dev Team explained last night what the new restrictions imposed by Apple involves, comparing the new system with the one already existent for baseband downgrade. At the moment it’s impossible to downgrade the baseband, unless you have an iPhone 4 and install a beta version of iOS that comes with baseband you can return to a lower value. That’s what Apple will do with iOS 5, implementing a system that will generate a unique restore code for each iDevice, a code which will be checked every time you power on your device, and which, for now, is impossible to crack or duplicate.

The unique restore code is generated randomly at every restore and is not related to ECID SHSH, so without the Apple encryption code it will be difficult to “guess” the code or fake the iDevice’s authentication with every power on.

This new system will be introduced by Apple in the same time with iOS 5 and the interesting part is that Apple could let you return to a previous firmware version. This possibility may be provided by signing the restore codes (similar to SHSHs) for the old devices. Generally, after launching a new version of IOS Apple still singes the SHSS to the old version for a few days, so something similar could happen in iOS 5.

The good news for those owning a device compatible with iOS 5, except for iPad 2, is that limera1n exploit will still allow a tethered jailbreak for iOS 5 and that will be able to downgrade to iOS 4, if you previously saved the SHSH, but older versions of iTunes will be required in order to perform these actions. Dev Team claims that Apple will launch new versions of iTuens which will contain methods to block the restore to iOS versions, so we recommend you to keep iTunes 10.3 installation kit on a safe place on your computer, as you might need it later.

Finally, Dev Team claims that the new system will block the downgrade starting with iOS 5 GM which will be launched in a few months. I believe that lot of us expected Apple to introduce such restrictions, but just like SHSH method appear two years ago, new restore methods will be found, and Dev Team said they already found some ways to combat the restrictions.

In conclusion, starting with iOS 5 we will have to use new ways to restore older iOS firmware versions.

Here Are The First Leaked Pics Of Nokia N5 Running On Symbian Anna

Even though it looks like Nokia is going down, the international press rumored a lot about the Finnish company lately.

First they said that Microsoft will buy Nokia, then they said that Samsung made a bid to for the Finnish telecommunications company.

Leaving the rumors behind, a lot have happened in Nokia’s yard, all very fast. A week ago they launched Nokia N9, the first and only device running on MeeGo, then they confirmed a new developer’s toy, the Nokia N950, we spotted the first Nokia smartphone running on Windows Phone, then one running on Android.

Exactly one week ago, Nokia revealed the release date for their Symbian Ann firmware update. All these happened in just one week, keeping the Nokia officials and thejournalists busy.

Today we are talking about a some leaked photos of a smartphone which apparently is the new Nokia N5.

Nokia N5 is a smartphone underpinned by an updated Symbian platform, delivered with a changed user interface, looking very much alike the one we found on Nokia N9 (that new Finnish smartphone running on MeeGo).

As we could appreciate from the leaked pictures, Nokia N5 features a 3.2-inch display, assisted by buttons for accessing the menus and initiating calls. We could also spot the Volume Up and Down buttons and a button starting the camera on the right side of the device.

The back of Nokia N5 hides a 5MP camera with LED flash and incorporated speaker.

When it will be officially announced, Nokia N5 might come along with some superior-speced versions -Nokia N6 and N9, coming with bigger screens and better cameras.

The new models are meant for the low-end touchscreen smartphones range and they will replace the current models, based on Symbian S60 5th Edition.

Whether low-end or high-end, it’s a new smartphone, so we are eager to learn more about the device, so keep in touch as we are sure that the first specs are just around the corner.

 

  

enTourage Pocket eDGe Dualbook Alternative Android Tablet

Most know of all the popular branded Android tablets available out there in the big wide tablet world such as the Motorola Xoom or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to name just two, but if they are above your price range there are others out there that are a tab more affordable depending on what you wish to do with the device of course.
The enTourage Pocket eDGe Dualbook actually combines a tablet/netbook with a notepad/ereader and audio/video player all into one concise unit that enables the user to take notes, send email and IMs, play music, watch videos, read eBooks and surf the Internet.
So what are the specs of the Android enTourage Pocket eDGe Dualbook? Well the device offers a 7-inch WXGA touch screen, with a 6-inch E-Ink ereader display, a 2 megapixel front facing camera, 1.2GHz Marvel processor, 3GB internal memory, WiFi, Bluetooth and microSD expansion, and runs Android 1.6 Donut OS.
For those that might be interested in the enTourage Pocket eDGe Dualbook, the tablet commands a price tag of $119.99 and $5 shipping and is available in black or red from Woot.

Download Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard to Get OS X Lion

Apple has released its eighth update for Mac O X Snow Leopard which consists of number of bug fixes including Mac Defender Malware. This would be probably the last update before Apple releases Mac OS X Lion. OS X Lion will be released next month and you must upgrade to OS X 10.6.8 in order to get it. OS X Lion will consist of 250 new features and will be available through Mac App Store for $29.99.

According to Apple support page, this update fixes the following issues.

• Enhances the Mac App Store for the Lion OS X Upgrade
• Fixes a bug in Preview that would cause it to quit unexpectedly
• Improves support for IPv6
• Improves VPN reliability
• Identifies and removes known variations of Mac Defender

Update you Macs before OS X Lion hits the Mac App Store in July from Apple Support Page.