Tuesday 5 April 2011

Windows Phone 7 updates not coming fast enough? There's a hack for that

Maybe none of this will matter a year from now, when the Nokia probably start churning out smartphones powered by Microsoft's Windows 7 Phone (See also: WP7: Not a big hit, but not a disaster). For now, but the sad reality of WP7 is that it is falling further behind in mobile OS market share. The latest data from market research firm comScore show WP7 slipping from 9 percent of U.S. market share last November - just a month after the Redmond's big launch of its new mobile operating system - to 7.7 percent in February. Meanwhile, Google's Android OS 7 points and took the mobile OS market share cord from Research in Motion. Android climbed to 33.0 percent from 26.0 percent, while RIM - which makes the BlackBerry - so its market share decline to 28.9 percent in February from 33.5 percent in November. Third place Apple inched up to 25.2 per cent market share in February from 25.0 percent in November last year. Fifth Palm fell to 2.8 percent from 3.9 percent.
A developer behind the short-lived ChevronWP7 jailbreak for Windows 7 Phone has released a hack that allows you to bypass the Microsoft and transporters to download WP7 updates on their own.
Right now WP7 is not even among the three best options for most smart phone shoppers.
I do not care which carrier you're on, what phone you have, it will only update the phone equivalent, Chris Walsh wrote in a blog post.
There's going to be a year from now, after several product releases (and the media blitz) from Apple, RIM and Android producers, and nothing from Microsoft Nokia? Looking up at the Palm in the No.
The tool is meant to last, to avoid delays controversial WP7 updates.
4 slot, it is there.
The glitches prompted Microsoft to stop a minor update for Samsung smartphones.
Chris Nerney writes about the business side of technology, marketing strategies and trends, legal issues, leadership changes, mergers, venture capital, IPOs and technology stocks.
Walsh used Microsoft's own support for creating a programme that applies to all WP7 updates at once.
Follow him on Twitter @ ChrisNerney.
This includes NoDo, which provides features such as cut and paste to WP7 phones.
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The official updates will be rolling out Tuesday, starts with the HTC HD7.
Typically, Microsoft with operators to send over-the-air software updates.
As Walsh's instructions note, users must download Microsoft's Windows Phone Support Tool before executing ChevronWP7 Updater application.
Walsh added a disclaimer saying download hack will void the phone's warranty.
There is NO return process, again, flash at your own risk, he wrote.
In November last year, Walsh, along with Rafael Rivera and Long Zheng, created a homebrew called jailbreak ChevronWP7 who locked up the operating system.
In January, Microsoft had shut it down.
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