Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 8 Canada Gets Devices This Weekend, U.S. Users in Coming Weeks Microsoft today officially launched Windows Phone 8, providing some long-awaited details for their latest foray into the smartphone market. According to Microsoft, the new platform will be coming to European carriers this weekend, with United States carriers getting the devices (from Nokia, Samsung and HTC) over the next several weeks. The Nokia Lumia 920 will be going on sale in Canada via Rogers starting tomorrow. With the help of Jessica Alba, Microsoft introduced a flurry of new platform features, including redesigned Twitter, Facebook and Skype applications, a new kid's-only user account dubbed "Kid's Corner," and a new "data sense" application to help users better manage and track their bandwidth usage. As for carriers, Microsoft provided the following device breakdown: • Verizon Wireless will carry the Windows Phone 8X by HTC for $199.99 with a two-year contract, and the Nokia Lumia 822, exclusive to Verizon, for $99.99 with a two-year contract. Both will be available by Thanksgiving. In addition the Samsung ATIV Odyssey, also exclusive to Verizon, will be available in December. • AT&T will carry the Nokia Lumia 920, the Lumia 820 and the Windows Phone 8X by HTC, all going on sale in November. AT&T will have more to share on prices in the coming weeks. • T-Mobile will carry the Windows Phone 8X by HTC starting at $149.996 for the 16GB version and the Nokia Lumia 810 from $99.99.6 T-Mobile is expecting customers to be able to purchase these Windows Phones on Nov. 14. Reviews so far seem average, The Verge giving the platform a 7.9, acknowledging that while Windows Phone 8 closes the gap slightly between itself and Android or Apple, some problems remain.
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  Jim GurdPremium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI | Yawn Who cares? Microsoft is a nobody in the mobile market. | |
|  | | | Re: Yawn They may have a small market share, but if the product is good, there's no reason they cannot rebounce. Not very likely, but possible. | |
| | | | | Re: Yawn lets take a look at the vegas odds makers..lol | |
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| Reviews:
 ·Time Warner Cable
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·voip.ms
| One of my issues w/ my iphone is that it has inconsistencies w/ my backoffice ms products (onenote, cal, exchange, sp, lync). Contacts don't always sync, calendar events (esp for people who use Macs) move or disappear, etc. The same was true of droid, but I must say my Nexus 7 integrates with all of them flawlessly (and my goog calendar too). The iphone (6) still does not.
I would think that the creator of this subpar backoffice software at least can make the connectors work w/ this, so maybe this is useful.
So I may be strange (a business user), but for my crew phone, calendaring, email, and the like are lifeblood.
I happen to hate the metro interface. It's almost just getting usable on the xbox though. The color scheme reminds me of the carpeting @ a Marriott hotel, and lets just say that is not a complement.
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| | |  dnoyeBFerrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI | Re: Yawn what are you using to integrate google calendar with MS outlook? | |
| | | |  BigBlarg
join:2008-02-10
Longueuil, QC
kudos:1
1 edit | Re: Yawn Google does have a software you can install on your computer that will sync your Outlook calendar with your Google account.
I've been using it on my work computer for a while.
Edit : Google Calendar Sync | |
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| | | By this logic, no company should ever enter a market, or try to improve their current standing. Because, you know, before they do, they're a nobody, so why bother. Plus the field is already too busy. There are two (count them!) strong competitors. Now, where else do we hear this argument?
Microsoft has a chance, and they'll take it. Plus, anyone who thinks that they have a chance to grow without trying to expand in the mobile space is kidding themselves. The desktop OS has little room for growth, but plenty of room to shrink. A company that owns the space today has plenty to worry about, if you ask me. | |
| | | | | Re: Yawn It used to be Palm and Microsoft were the only 'players', then RIM, now Apple and Android.
I still use my Windows Mobile phone, and I still like it better than most current phone offerings.
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Yes, I am not employed and looking for IT work. Have passport, will travel. | |
| | |  MaxoYour tax dollars at work.Premium,VIP
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL | said by JackKane :Microsoft has a chance, and they'll take it. Plus, anyone who thinks that they have a chance to grow without trying to expand in the mobile space is kidding themselves. The desktop OS has little room for growth, but plenty of room to shrink. A company that owns the space today has plenty to worry about, if you ask me. That sums it up. Microsoft will either compete in the mobile space or die. I'm guessing they won't do the latter until the try the former first. I'd prefer the latter though.
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| | | Were you saying the same thing about the first Xbox back in the time in wich Sony was so big with it's playstation ? Look where we are today in the gaming console market ! | |
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| | FIRST! Finally!  | |
| |  Duramax08Win8 sucksPremium
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX | Re: FIRST! Yeah!! Way to go Canada!!! | |
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| | Yawn MS just isn't cool, 90% of smart phones are bought for the cool factor. My guess on the 90% but I bet I'm close. | |
| | | | Re: Yawn How "cool" is it to have a bloody phone that looks like everyone else's?
I like the look of the new Nokia phones. This is what I'll be looking at when it comes time to get a new phone. I'm confident that these will be extremely high quality devices. | |
| | | Reviews:
 ·T-Mobile US
·Sprint Mobile Br..
| Re: Yawn said by kittyburgers:How "cool" is it to have a bloody phone that looks like everyone else's?
I like the look of the new Nokia phones. This is what I'll be looking at when it comes time to get a new phone. I'm confident that these will be extremely high quality devices.
I have the S3 for Sprint (Personal) and just picked up the Lumia 710 for T-Mobile (Work) and the Lumia is great as far as the quality. And it's the cheap one. As far as the cool factor if I have both phones out people seem to notice the Lumia more often than not. Mostly because everyone has an android and that they don't know about WP. People always seem to like it better but they're "Used to Android" or the similar
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| | |  FBGuyPremium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL | i guess I don't think of things that are "cool" in regards to how they look. | |
| | | | rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | Re: Yawn Well -- I tend to agree but there's a certain point at which something is ugly and I don't want it. For example, take a look at this device that wraps the iPod Touch to give you free WiMax (limitations apply):
»FreedomPop Starts Selling iPod WiMax Sleeve
I don't know why but at first glance, it reminded me of a 1980's era computer like the Commodore Vic20/64 or Coleco Adam. It just has that blocky, retro look and horrible color scheme. | |
| | | | | Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Yawn I tend to agree.
The large / eye hurting color schemed tiles that move about are going to cause someone to have a headache/lose their lunch (lawsuits  ) Speedracer style.
There are a few reasons why many people have flocked to devices like iPhone over others.
1. Simplicity - everything is kept simple (Keep It Simple Stupid) - on a phone, this is pretty much a requirement for use. Apple has done it - Android isn't far behind. Microsoft has features over simplicity (charms, gestures, etc.). In a few years, it may be the 'norm'.
2. High level of integration. This is where Apple has done better than others - as they own the hardware/OS and App store, it is a very integrated design. Android has multiple hardware platforms, vendors, and OS versions as well as App stores. Bottom line... my +3year old iPhone 3GS still runs current OS and apps (minus Siri and Facetime). On some Android versions, you can't get newer OS versions, some don't have access to Google App store. Typically, Android devices are less expensive, but that isn't always the case. For a tablet, this may be less of an issue than a smartphone, as its use is not the same. I'm curious to see how Microsoft's hardware upgrades go. I suspect that its much closer to that of Android than it is Apple in this regard.
Just in case anyone thinks I'm an Apple fan, I have both an iPhone 3GS and an Samsung SII, and run Ubuntu. | |
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| | | | | You mean a rectangle with rounded corners? 
Wonder how long before Apple sues them. | |
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| | | | said by kittyburgers:How "cool" is it to have a bloody phone that looks like everyone else's?
I like the look of the new Nokia phones. This is what I'll be looking at when it comes time to get a new phone. I'm confident that these will be extremely high quality devices.
I come up for upgrade about the time these are supposed to be out. I may jump from my ancient iPhone 4 to one of these like that Nokia if its a quality product as i am not too impressed with iPhone 5. | |
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| | perfect timing Right on top of the biggest storm to hit east coast in years. way to go MS. at least google called off press event for their new nexus events. Amazing. MS should have called the new phones "sandy"
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|  Samus82Radly
join:2002-01-29
Alsip, IL | no chance at all... i remember when everyone said MS had no chance in the console war... | |
| | | | Re: no chance at all... said by Samus82:i remember when everyone said MS had no chance in the console war...
According to Wikipedia they are #8 and beaten handily by the Wii... | |
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| | Yawn The 20 people that like the FUGLY Metro UI will be happy.
The rest of the world will yawn and buy a decent phone. | |
| |  ARGONAUTgot android?Premium
join:2006-01-24
New Albany, IN
kudos:1 | Re: Yawn Fugly Metro +1
I'm not even going Win8 desktop. Win7 is just fine. | |
| |  BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | said by itguy05:The 20 people that like the FUGLY Metro UI will be happy.
The rest of the world will yawn and buy a decent phone.
and you know they are not decent because...............? | |
| | | | See different likes for different folks. I've actually used BB, Android, iOS, and WP UIs between business and personal use. The WP UI is actually pretty slick and I'll be moving to it as my main phone.
Most people that overly hate Metro or WP haven't actually spent much time using it. But I'm sure that wouldn't be you... how reliable that would be is questionable. | |
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Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| ugly I don't like the looks of windows 8. No matter if its on a PC/tablet or phone. I'm staying with window 7 on my gaming rig.
I won't upgrade till MS learns to stay away from that ugly look format. The look of desktop of a windows 8 OS. Looks like it should be on a Fisher Price Toy. | |
| | | | Re: ugly said by Lowtarget:I don't like the looks of windows 8. No matter if its on a PC/tablet or phone. I'm staying with window 7 on my gaming rig.
I won't upgrade till MS learns to stay away from that ugly look format. The look of desktop of a windows 8 OS. Looks like it should be on a Fisher Price Toy.
You have no clue on how to work a computer! You can make Win 8 to look like Win 7 desktop... Really it look like a Fisher Price Toy?? lol... | |
| | BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | said by Lowtarget:I don't like the looks of windows 8. No matter if its on a PC/tablet or phone. I'm staying with window 7 on my gaming rig.
I won't upgrade till MS learns to stay away from that ugly look format. The look of desktop of a windows 8 OS. Looks like it should be on a Fisher Price Toy.
Well I guess you'll be on windows 7 forever. This is the future get used to it. Nothing wrong with 7 but all the windows 8 haters never actually tried it. But hey don't make things easier for yourself or anything. | |
| | | | | Re: ugly said by BF69:said by Lowtarget:I don't like the looks of windows 8. No matter if its on a PC/tablet or phone. I'm staying with window 7 on my gaming rig.
I won't upgrade till MS learns to stay away from that ugly look format. The look of desktop of a windows 8 OS. Looks like it should be on a Fisher Price Toy.
Well I guess you'll be on windows 7 forever. This is the future get used to it. Nothing wrong with 7 but all the windows 8 haters never actually tried it. But hey don't make things easier for yourself or anything. I did try the beta and it was horrible. The tiles are very unusable and not that good of an idea. The UI is missing cues about how to navigate. Do I go up/down, left/right, what? Then there's the desktop/Metro switch, lots of inconsistencies, etc.
And the tiles are horrible. Had something similar on my Android phone for Facebook and you could never see statuses past the most recent one. In other words there was no scrolling.
Sorry, it's very very bad design. But I expect that from Microsoft as they have pretty much always had bad design. | |
| | | | | said by BF69:said by Lowtarget:I don't like the looks of windows 8. No matter if its on a PC/tablet or phone. I'm staying with window 7 on my gaming rig.
I won't upgrade till MS learns to stay away from that ugly look format. The look of desktop of a windows 8 OS. Looks like it should be on a Fisher Price Toy.
Well I guess you'll be on windows 7 forever. This is the future get used to it. Nothing wrong with 7 but all the windows 8 haters never actually tried it. But hey don't make things easier for yourself or anything. I am a Win8 hater and I tried it. | |
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| | | +1000
Windows 8 is complete garbage, they made a phone/tablet out of a home pc!
If I wanted a tablet I would have bought one, now MS is pushing this new unusale os that turns an advanced home/business pc into a dumbed down tablet, which is very annoying to use with a mouse as its designed for touch screen, which 99% of pcs don't have nor need.
To use this windows8 pc for anything besides explorer and email takes 10x longer! And the interface is not intuitive at all.
I was able to figure out every version of windows in 5 mins or less, since win 3.11, and this win8 crap I couldn't even minimize or close an app!
This os is like a bad port of a game from a console into a pc, and its like they took a tablet os and made it work on a pc. Total crap. | |
| | | | said by Lowtarget:I don't like the looks of windows 8. No matter if its on a PC/tablet or phone. I'm staying with window 7 on my gaming rig.
I won't upgrade till MS learns to stay away from that ugly look format. The look of desktop of a windows 8 OS. Looks like it should be on a Fisher Price Toy.
I never see the Metro UI unless i want to. Just click desktop on the lower left on metro and to the desktop you go no darn biggie. | |
| | | | FUGLY then Fisher Price Toy. Soiled my adult diapers over all that.
Still struggling as to whether to bother w/ Win 8 Pro since happy enough w/ Win 7 x64 Ultimate. Once there's an auto load into desktop rather than lower corner.... So far the Source Forge prg seems best Start hack but not sure if Metro/Modern, whatever. doesn't flash its appearance. And MS rushing out a fix patch right away, so comforting lol. Sandy 8. | |
| | | | | Reviews:
·Time Warner Cable
·Verizon FiOS
·voip.ms
| Re: ugly I just installed the new metro update to my xbox in the last couple of days. It is getting better (less movement), but it is far from usable. I can't easily pin with a remote (xbox controller needed). It's like they talk about home media, but then create the experience for the controller and gamer. IDIOTS. For instance I use xbox for gaming (kids) but also as an extender. So for all of the xboxes with kid accounts, I need to upgrade, re-login to xbl, agree to new TOS, and then login again. The process sucks up over 20 minutes on each xbox, and I have 5 of them. This is totally ridiculous, and they have never fixed xbl for multiple users or have flexibility for media users. It's all centered around gaming. It's like their marketing department and engineering are on two different continents I want to love it, but it's like MSFT does their hardest to make life difficult.
I worked with Win8 and I absolutely detest it. The usability is horrid on a PC, and will need a refresh just like the xbox to get partly usable. And the color scheme is about as bad as my old Samsung Charge. I think this is by far the ugliest UI I have ever seen in modern times, bar none. Visually it's like mahjong and it's hard to separate duties (maybe that's the point). I see absolutely no reason to hurry to Win 8, especially because they have ejected media center. Sooner or later I will be dragged because that's what they do, but I won't be in a rush. I waited out Vista, I can do the same. I happen to like how these chromebooks are coming along.
Microsoft's strategy is fractured, pure in simple. It's design by committee, the GM of computing. They can't get out of their own way. And they continue the trend of throwing out all old phones and not giving them access to the latest OS. Want WinMo 8, too bad buy the latest. Your Win 7 phone may get patches if we feel like it. Now Android was in that place (due to forking, not hardware), but I have a drawer full of old tablets and phones from Microsoft that were deprecated the day they went out the door. | |
| | | | stridr69
join:2003-05-19
San Luis Obispo, CA | Re: ugly Nice take. Not sure what Redmond is thinking here with the PC version of Win8. Doesn't anybody there notice why XP is still around after all these years? Hello?. I have no problem with a complete update but why such a radical UI change? For a phone/tablet or a touch screen, I can see using the tile UI. A home PC is a different matter IMHO. Too bad as MS has a great deal right now for upgrade cost from XP, Vista, Win7. Is there a legacy screen that's available on Win8? Otherwise Win7 is as far as I go...as well as typing this on an iPad3....  | |
| | | | | | | Re: ugly I'm a little confused by the all the complaints that Win8 is not usable on a PC with a mouse. I've been using Win8 for over a month and the desktop UI feels very similar to Win7. I'm in the desktop probably 99% of the time...it's just no big deal. But I do enjoy some of the new Win8 features (file copy is much better, the client Hyper-V technology is really really great). | |
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| | It will take years Before enough apps are made and MS is hoping Google will help them with apps. Android has way more apps so MS 8 will have a ways to go to catch up. It is after all not cross compatible. YET! | |
|  jasqidFiber In Your Diet?
join:2002-04-02
East Palestine, OH | Returning iPhone 5 for 8x I just moved to verizion during the pre-order/launch for iPhone 5. Purchased 4 iPhones for the family to move carriers (from Sprint).
I am returning my iPhone 5 for a Windows Phone 8. I would have gone with the N920 if it would come to V, but settle for the next best thing.
(I had an HTC Arrive on Sprint but the $h!tty network drove me nuts.) Paid 2 ETFs and haven't looked back. Don't regret my carrier change... however, I wish MS would have launched a month ago.  | |
|  RoboticsSee You On The Dark SidePremium
join:2003-10-23
Louisa, VA | Windows Phone 8 lol If it is anything like their Windows 8 OS for pc's, then I feel sorry for those phone owners. | |
| | | | Re: Windows Phone 8 lol I just spent 9 days on a schedule-packed road trip with my teenage son: 2000 miles of driving from appointment to appointment, hotel arrangements on the fly, driving directions, restaurants. My son is a huge Android fan (Samsung Galaxy), but by the end of the trip he had given up using the Android....he was getting "smoked" by my Windows phone for navigation, restaurant searches, most every thing was just simpler and faster to arrange on the Windows phone. I wasn't telling him which phone to use as he co-piloted the trip, but by the end, he was almost always using the Windows phone. I'm not sure what this says, but the Windows phone was much easier and more fluid to use. | |
| | | RoboticsSee You On The Dark SidePremium
join:2003-10-23
Louisa, VA Reviews:
·Verizon Wireless..
·Comcast
| Re: Windows Phone 8 lol I'm sure they are nice. I will admit I have never owned one so I don't know.
But I do know the windows 8 operating system for pc's is terrible compared to say windows 7.
Probably a different world when it comes to pc OS's and phone OS's
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Long you live and high you fly, and smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry,
and all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be. | |
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| | The only people with barbs about WP8 is Fandroids Every thread I see it's them with the biggest retarded comments on WP7-8 . These people have never in their life spent 20 minutes with one.
/Just to let you in on a clue , Most people can give one fark what phone OS you're on | |
| | | Wither Canadian carriers? The subtitle is "Canada gets devices this weekend" - but no mention of any Canadian carriers that will be offering them? Only the US carriers are mentioned. | |
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