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There's a lot going on in the world of Windows Phone. So much, in fact, that it is sometimes tough to catch every important story. Device rumors come and go.
New apps join the Windows Phone Store, and your favorite app can get a big update with a new look or new features.
Therefore, every week we will compile a list of the Windows Phone news that you just shouldn't miss. Welcome to the "Windows Phone Weekly Digest."
Windows Phone
It looks like China will soon be getting one big mamma-jamma of a phone. The 7-inch Q7 Windows Phone made by Ramos was approved by TENNA, China's version of the FCC. There was some positive news regarding sales of Windows phones. Microsoft saw more than a 10% bump in Lumia sales, with over 8.4 million sold this year.
Slow ring members got treated to Windows 10 Mobile build 10166 this week.
And Microsoft confirmed the minimum requirements that phones will need to run Windows 10 Mobile. All it will take is a 800 x 480 display, 512MB RAM, 4GB of storage, and a VGA rear camera.
But it wasn't low-end phones that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was concerned about this week. In a conference call on Wednesday, Nadella acknowledge the lack of good flagship phones and said that the goal was to change that with Windows 10.
"We're going to have great flagship phones for Windows fans. That's actually a segment we don't today have good devices and we hope to change that with Windows 10."
Our Editor-in-Chief, Daniel Rubino gave Windows Central readers a rundown of Microsoft's two upcoming flagship devices, "Cityman" and "Talkman."
Based on what we know, we put together our own renders of the Cityman, which will likely be dubbed the Lumia 950 XL.
Other notable items:
- Microsoft Lumia 435, 640, and 640XL now available in Ireland at Argos
- Lumia 640 and 640 XL evidently becoming big sellers in US, Russia, and India
- AT&T quietly begins selling Microsoft Lumia 640 as a pre-paid GoPhone for $79
- Four code-execution bugs publicly revealed in IE11 for Windows Phone
- Buy an O2 Lumia 535 or 635 in August and score £30 Microsoft voucher and free portable speaker
Apps
Microsoft pushed out an unspecified update to its Windows Insider app for phones, as well as to some of its core Windows 10 Mobile apps. Outlook Mail and Calendar, Windows Camera and Calculator all got patches with no change logs, so we assume they were just tune-ups.
Spotify will be adding a new feature to its music service. Discover Weekly will help listeners find new music by creating a two-hour playlist based on their listening habits.
Buckstar, one of the last third-party Starbucks apps that let users log into their Starbucks accounts, has discontinued that feature and looks like it will be retired. The change came when Starbucks enabled a security feature called "snooping" or device fingerprinting, which causes the account login feature to stop working.
Microsoft is going to be retiring one of their apps. Lumia Camera will eventually be discontinued in favor of Windows Camera on Windows 10 Mobile. The good news is that all of the functionality you know and love in Lumia Camera will make its way to its successor.
Microsoft also launched their new Send email app. Unfortunately, it was for iPhone. The Microsoft Garage project will be coming to Windows Phone soon, though.
Finally, we took a look at the new Opera Mini for Windows Phone. Check out our full review of the mobile browser.
Other notable items:
- Skyscanner app for Windows Phone pulled from the store in the U.S.
- Hyperlapse for Windows Phone updated to work on more Lumia devices
- NFL Game Pass will let you watch the whole football season on-demand
- Gloomlogue is this week's myAppFree Windows Phone deal
- Saavn for Windows is coming soon with an official announcement on July 29th
- DailyMotion for Windows Phone adds a video mini-player and design improvements
- Lumia Creative Studio Beta brings support for editing Living Images
- File-sharing service Xender is coming to Windows Phone
- Zomato Order launched for Windows Phone; available across 14 cities in India
- 10Calc – a sleek, feature rich Windows Phone calculator
- Lumia Camera adds transparent tile and icon support with latest update
- Calculator² for Windows Phone gets a huge upgrade, Windows 10 version coming soon
Games
The fact that the hit game Minecraft is being turned into a movie is not news, as it has been in the works for some time. What is news is that Rob McElhenney, the co-creator and co-star of the off-the-wall series "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia," has been tagged as the movie's director.
Mojang, the studio that created Minecraft and is now owned by Microsoft, made the announcement and posted a picture of McElhenney at their Minecon event. Given his track record, the Micecraft movie should prove to be both odd and hilarious.
Subway Surfers has once again taken on a new world city. This time, they travel down under to Sydney, Australia. The update brings with it new scenery, new rewards, and new outfits.
Game Troopers is at it again. They released a teaser trailer for Abyss, their next Xbox Live game for Windows Phone. There isn't an official release date for the deep sea exploration adventure, but it could land in the store "as soon as next week".
Other notable items:
- SlashDash review: A local multiplayer ninja party game for Xbox One
- Squadron - a fast paced arcade shooter for Windows Phone
- Fire Fu - One hot Windows Phone game
Be sure to weigh in on this week's news in the comments section. See you next week!
