WP8 for WP7/Lumia devices rumour round up.

The will it, won’t it drama of whether any current WP devices will get an update to Windows Phone 8 continues.

I say, is the phone you’re looking at a decent proposition for the price? If you’re happy with the current performance, do you know if it will remain like this a year down the line? As a reader and commenter here once said,

To be completely fair, I don’t get this obsession with OS “updates” which essentially change the OS from the ground up and make it more difficult to run on old hardware.

If you buy a phone, it’s best to do so going by what it can do right now, at this very moment, than by what a company promised or hasn’t promised for the future.

Dr_Zorg

For some, however, they do feel updates are important. Regardless of Dr_Zorg’s advice, they will still pick up a phone in the hopes that certain improvements will come in a software update, OR they simply want to be included in future releases. With contract phones, you may be stuck for 2 years so updates may add longevity to your phone.

Either way, it’s up to you whether it matters or not.

Let’s go through some of the news related to this that I’ve come across:

1) WP7 apps are compatible with WP8. The original rumour cleared up, apparently the source was confused with compatibility and updates.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9226381/Microsoft_evangelist_corrects_comment_that_Windows_Phone_7_devices_will_get_upgrade_to_Apollo_?

Microsoft are keeping a tight lip on information about Apollo/WP8.

2) Nokia Lumia 800 being tested with Apollo?

This site is relatively new, but after checking another tip, it was also talked about by WMPU.

http://www.insideris.com/windows-phone-8-features-vpn-uncertain/

http://wmpoweruser.com/rumor-windows-phone-8-being-tested-on-nokia-lumia-800-new-features-detailed/

Now, insideris seems to be a new site and despite being self acclaimed ‘insider information you can trust’, well we can’t just trust because it tells us to.

3) Ignore this because it’s a hoax. Someone posing as Joe Belfiore to ‘clear up rumours’.

Hey guys ! Sorry I’m so busy ..Well no problem, don’t worry.. I’ve been using lumia 800 & 900 for weeks and it rocks! 😉 Lumia 800, 710, 610, 900 and others will get WP8. That’s my Xbox avatar on lumia screen. Do you like it? ahahaha Stay tuned for the final victory.. Great news for you bye 😉

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=294706937271024&set=a.136048169803569.33739.135109193230800&type=3&theater

For a verified Joe Belfiore:

https://twitter.com/#!/joebelfiore

He is aware of the rumour mill surrounding WP but generally, things as high profile as this is not talked about. Not unless there’s a major source already discussing it, i.e. one of their partners.

For example, Verizon talked about backing Windows Phone.

Going back to insideris, MS are apparently keeping a tighter lip on anything to do with Apollo? Why? Because of the nature of the smartphone market, popular things get copied by your competitors. If you announce too far away from launch, then by the time your products are out, competitors might already have that feature on their own devices. It’s about that WebOS moment when Palm announced something completely unexpected and groundbreaking. That however, also shows that a good OS will die with bad execution to market. His source is msnerd, who did a ‘Ask Me Anything’ at reddit. Now that again is another source we can’t just trust without question – all rumours in general must be remembered as just rumours. MSnerd has cleared up himself that a lot of his info is already known and he’s just repeating it. A little better than certain others who like to claim to ‘predict things’ that we already read about.

http://www.reddit.com/r/casualiama/comments/r4q5l/iama_someone_who_leaks_information_about/c4413z0

4) I just glanced at this but didn’t have a chance to save it. I read more rumours that WP7 handsets will still get some form of Apollo. Apollo ‘lite’. Not actual Apollo but many of the features, like how some of the older Nokia phones got new Anna browser and such, but not actually Anna.

I have no link for this. But if you feel the need to click on textbox links and whilst I’m talking about mobile browsers, I have some cute for you, courtesy of Reddit also

http://i.imgur.com/5LfGD.jpg

http://imgur.com/IKlLE

Thank you everyone who sent these tips in.

Category: Nokia, Windows Phone