Telstra Mango approved as well

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We recently covered Vodafone announcing that they've completed Mango testing and are now awaiting Microsoft's green light for the roll-out to begin. We've now caught wind of Telstra being prepped and ready to release the major update to customers too. So let's throw this news into the cauldron with Taiwan's HTC store upgrade and it could almost be mistaken as a dream. The 'Spring' ETD almost had our eyeballs roll across the floor.

Ballmer: Windows Phones aren't selling very well, but we're not worried

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Microsoft's Steve Ballmer was his usual frank self when he met financial analysts yesterday, admitting that the world isn't yet as keen on Windows Phone as he'd hoped. To be precise, AllThingsD reported him as saying: "We haven't sold quite as many as I would have liked in the first year." His cunning plan? Well, that's easy: make it all Nokia's problem. Or, as he put it: "With Nokia we have a dedicated hardware partner that is all-in on Windows Phones." Indeed, the Finnish manufacturer has now staked far more than Microsoft on the success of this "third ecosystem" and, if its imminent Mango handsets fail to turn things around, we may eventually see Stephen Elop standing behind that silent cash register.

Taiwan launching Mango on September 16th--update only through shops though

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Yesterday morning we mentioned that Windows Phone users in Taiwan are supposedly scheduled to get WP7.5 Mango on the 16th and sure enough, that's true. What's also true is that the update won't be coming via their Zune software but instead they need to take their phone to a supported shop (with an appointment) to have a tech flash the phone. Estimated wait time: 20 minutes.



One such place is the HTC flagship store, which will be opening and taking in people to flash their phones to the Chinese-build of Mango, but users will have to have their phone backed-up themselves. While this may not be the most elegant method, it's a method where Microsoft's infrastructure is obviously still being put in place. And hey, what AT&T user here wouldn't go down to the store tomorrow if it meant getting Mango, amirite?

Source: wpcentral.com

Xbox Live - Collapse! finally falls onto the Marketplace

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Logic puzzles, physics puzzles… It’s been a while since we’ve seen a straight up match-3 puzzle game released to Xbox Live. That changes today, now that Collapse! - the game that sent some of our more hardcore readers into fits of rage - is now available on the Marketplace.

In GameHouse’s Collapse!, lines of colored blocks slowly rise from the bottom of the screen. Players simply tap groups of three or more same-colored blocks to clear them, which in turn causes other blocks to fall or… COLLAPSE!!!1! I’m not being sarcastic; I just wanted to type it that way. Exclamation marks in titles get my adrenaline pumping, ya know? Anyway, the game’s tap-tap rhythm makes it easy to pick up and play on the go. Gamers who need goals and variety aren’t out of luck, as the extensive Adventure mode contains all kinds of twists on the standard gameplay.

When's Mango Going To Get Here?

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Is Windows Phone 7.5 Mango nearly upon us? Some developers think so, and reports have been circulating about instructions from on-high that hint at Mango distribution in what's possibly the very near future.

An anonymous source contacted WPCentral to inform the site about some e-mails he has received from both Microsoft and the unnamed Windows Phone manufacturer whose hardware he had been testing. According to him, the message asks users of the device to back-track to an earlier pre-Mango test version of the phone's software, so that once Microsoft could see how the devices would perform trying to retrieve their updates from its servers.

New Windows Phone 7.5 commercial nails it. Touts Metro Design, elegance. (Plus eBay Live Tile)

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Microsoft finally looks to be hitting their stride. This new web-commercial for developers shows off the elegance, simplicity and drives home the Metro interface. We really like the look of this, even if it's for devs and not necessarily consumers. Still, we could see Microsoft editing this or redoing some parts for TV and they really should--it's a good start to show off their new UI. After all, it's going to be everywhere soon.

HTC Radar Arriving On October 1?

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It looks like Mango could be nearly upon us, with rumors suggesting Microsoft could officially launch the OS any day now. Once that happens, we can expect the floodgates to open and start to see the arrival of all the new Windows Phone hardware we've been hearing about for months and months. One such model will be HTC's Radar, which we've already seen described as "coming soon" to a carrier. Now we may be able to put a date to its release, with one retailer announcing plans to carry the phone beginning October 1.

The UK's Phones 4u made a statement today concerning its sales of the just-announced HTC Sensation XE Android, and its plans to carry the phone in white starting October 1.

Nokia's First Windows Phone To Ship In One Month? [Update]

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The first Nokia Windows Phone -- we just assume it will be the SeaRay but we've heard names like Nokia 703 and 800 too -- is going to ship in the middle of month October, according to recent reports. We initially heard that Nokia is planning a Europe-only launch limited to six countries this year and one month from now allegedly seems to be the date.

The American market will get its Nokia Windows Phone treat around March 2012 and Australia doesn't seem to be in luck either, as Q1 2012 is the timeframe Nokia made public.

Of course, the phone shipping in Europe mid-October is still just a rumor as we've heard nothing official from Nokia. We didn't even hear anything official from Microsoft either, but a Mango launch announcement is expected really soon (tomorrow, according to some rumors).

Belfiore, Watson implore devs to update apps as Mango draws near

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We've been talking about September 15th for awhile now as being the official date for Mango and this morning we had some solid news to confirm that indeed, the launch is close.

Now Microsoft's Joe Belfiore and Brandon Watson are asking devs to upgrade their apps ASAP using the v7.1 SDK--simply recompiling the app using these tools will enable fast-app switching (multitasking) for the huge OS update.

Of course, if Watson and Belfiore are asking devs to do this now, really stressing the timing, it can only mean the update is close. And we have an odd feeling that tomorrow will bring some official announcement on the matter. Stay tuned...

Microsoft’s YouTube app breaks

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I never use Microsoft’s own YouTube app, it being merely a shortcut to Google’s mobile web page and some underlying code to pipe the video stream to the media player.

That would explain why I never noticed that it is no longer working, and according to the tweets above for at least a few days now.

We know some bad blood exists between Google and Microsoft after the later refused to allow Microsoft to build a much better dedicated YouTube app. It seems Google has now managed to break even Microsoft’s limited effort.