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Windows Phone 8 Apollo Gets Detailed

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A video featuring Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore which was intended for the eyes of Nokia executives only has made its way to the internet today and it reveals details about something that Windows Phone and mobile enthusiasts everywhere have been wondering about. Yes folks, the video has detailed Windows Phone 8 Apollo, the next major Windows Phone update which is slated to roll out later this year.

From hardware to UI tweaks, Belfiore dishes on everything and needless to say, we’re excited about what Microsoft has in store for us later on in 2012.

First though, it has to push out the Windows Phone Tango update which is expected to arrive around the time the Nokia Lumia 900 arrives for AT&T’s next-generation 4G LTE network.

So what’s coming with Windows Phone Mango?

Let’s have a look.

WindowsWindows 8

Windows Phone 8 is apparently going to share a lot of same components as the upcoming Windows 8. Yes, the similarities go beyond the UI. According to Belfiore, because the mobile OS and the desktop OS are so similar, developers will be able to reuse a lot of their code when porting an application from the phone to the desktop and vice versa.

Belfiore says that the Xbox Companion App, which is currently available for mobile devices, will become available for Windows 8 PCs’ which will allow for seamless data sharing across Windows devices.

In addition, it appears that Microsoft will swap the current Zune desktop client with a dedicated companion application.

Hardware

Along with the Windows 8 integration, Apollo will bring support for multi-core processors, higher screen resolutions – there are four in total but they were not revealed, as well as removable microSD card storage. Apollo will also bring support for near-field-communication (NFC) which Belfiore calls “the wallet experience.”

For those unfamiliar with NFC, it allows for mobile phone users to make payments just by using their smartphone. It’s fairly limited here in the United States but it’s expected to explode if the iPhone 5 has support for it.

Apps

Microsoft is going to be including native code support which will allow developers to more easily port over their applications from iOS and Android. It should also allow for devs to create even more powerful applications.

Skype will also apparently be built into the operating system and Microsoft is also going to be introducing lens apps for the camera which should bring more features to those who love to use their camera.

Enterprise

Redmond will apparently add native 128-bit BitLocker encryption which will not only give enterprise customers more security, but will allow them to use software behind a company firewall.

Data

Last but not least, Windows Phone Apollo will be bringing something called DataSmart which will be a feature used to easily track data usage. For example, the feature will automatically connect to WLAN’s owned by carriers when the phone is in range.

There will also be a live tile included for easy access to data usage.

Microsoft also plans to use a proxy server in an effort to reduce the data used when viewing a webpage. The company claims that it should be able to cut down data usage by as much as 30%.

If true, those of you who are data hogs should be thrilled.

Overall, it looks like Microsoft has something pretty massive on the way in the form of Windows Phone 8. And while we still don’t know about all of the features that will be arriving with Apollo, what we do know sounds great.

The software isn’t expected to be released until Q4 of this year so unfortunately, we have some waiting to do.

Via: Pocketnow

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Ike Pigott

    02/02/2012 at 2:25 pm

    You think the leak wasn’t an accident?

  2. David V. Kimball

    02/02/2012 at 2:49 pm

    Awesome. Looking forward to WinPhone 8.

  3. Anonymous

    02/05/2012 at 9:00 am

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