Windows Phone Blog

Angry Birds Windows Phone 7 review

2011-07-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

We often joke that Angry Birds is everywhere you look – especially on smartphones – but until recently that really hasn’t been true. Rovio’s multi-million seller has only just been catapulted onto the Microsoft platform. Does it hit the target? We take a look at the critical reception so far.

Scores

Eurogamer: 7/10
Know Your Mobile: 10/10 (five stars)
WPCentral: 8.5/10
WMPowerUser: 8/10 (4/5)

We took a look at reviews from four websites covering the full spectrum of Windows Phone fannishness (okay, so I made up a word), from the general gaming focus of Eurogamer to the general smartphone-focuses Know Your Mobile and on to the dedicated Windows Phone sites, WPCentral and WMPowerUser.

All four liked the game, with the average score of 8/10 (rounded down to the nearest whole number) for once managing to typify the general mood across the board. What’s so good about it?

Comments

Eurogamer called Angry Birds on Windows Phone “a pixel perfect port,” and also made reference to the once major addition – “those lovely Xbox achievement points.” Just like any other Xbox 360 game (and a fair few WP7 games), success within Angry Birds on your Windows Phone yields points and awards that go towards your Xbox Live profile. For many gamers, this has become an obsession, which may be what Rovio and Microsoft’s was banking on when it decided to charge four times the amount of the original iPhone version.

KYM is less concerned with such a price disparity in light of the game’s recognised brilliance. As it reminds us, “the physics are spot on and never feel unfair, while the combination of luck and skill means that there’s plenty of fist-in-the-air moments of elation to go along with the frustration of seeing a pig avoiding a seemingly certain death.” The site acknowledges the pricing issue, but points out that there’s “potentially months of enjoyable game time here”. It’s all about perspective, it seems.

WPCentral‘s is pretty consistent with the others, lauding the game’s strength in depth (there are 165 levels divided among four chapters, with more sure to be added). One thing extra thing it does point out is “one small bug in the game that freezes the camera pan,” which thankfully doesn’t seem to be game breaking. Hopefully Rovio will fix this soon, as well as adding the Mighty Eagle smartbomb weapon in subsequent updates.

Finally, the WMPowerUser review talks up the game’s “superb lasting value” and “smooth frame rate”, while bemoaning the age-old Angry Birds issue of having to repeatedly “zoom out in order to see your target and your slingshot in one single view”.

Ultimate version?

It seems as if the inevitable Angry Birds backlash will have to wait a little longer. This Windows Phone 7 versions has been eagerly anticipated and gratefully received by the critics, with its compulsive gameplay and generous level count proving pretty much timeless.

There are reservations over the price of the package which are hard to ignore – especially when you consider that the Android version can be had free of charge (if ad-funded). Still, there is added value here, with the Xbox Live achievements almost making it the definitive version.

Almost, but not quite. The level count in the iPhone and Android versions have two whole additional chapters to play through, while both also have the Seasons and Rio offshoots – all of which can be had for less than it costs to buy this cut-down version for Windows Phone 7. More levels have been promised, but for now, it’s still playing catch-up.

Still, if Windows Phone is your platform of choice, we can recommend Angry Birds wholeheartedly

Hacking Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Onto your WP7 Device

2011-07-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, Microsoft released Windows Phone 7.5, also known as Mango, to its developers for testing their applications. It didn't take long for the hacking community (in the form of Windows HoneHacker.com) to come up with a clever solution to enable the phones of non-developers to upgrade to Mango - and guess what, I did just that. Here are a few thoughts.

Upgrading your non-developer phone to Mango is incredibly easy, but there are a few key concerns you have to think about. First of all, this is a legal grey area, and while Microsoft so far seems to have taken a rather relaxed approach to hacking about Windows Phone 7 - you have been warned. Of course, the usual disclaimers apply: do this at your own risk, you may brick your device, this is not supported by Microsoft, nor they nor I nor WindowsPhoneHacker.com is responsible if this kills your unicorn.

The gist of this 'hack' is that it closely resembles the steps registered developers have to take to upgrade their phones to the Mango beta. First, you need to back up your phone, and move this backup to a safe location. The reason for this is that the Mango beta won't be upgradeable to the final release, so you'll beed the pre-Mango beta backup to restore your phone before upgrading to Mango final.

Then, your phone will be made eligible to receive beta updates. Your phone will need to be updated to NoDo or beyond, but does not require a developer unlock. You need to install the Windows Phone Support Tool first (32bit, 64bit). WindowsPhoneHacker.com has created a simple tool which will backup your phone, move the backup to a safe location (c:PreMangoState), and make your phone eligible for beta updates. You need to close the Zune program before running Update.bat!

When the process is complete (and this can take a while), you'll hopefully be running the Mango beta. The first thing you'll notice is just how damn fast Mango really is compared to NoDo. Applications launch and close instanty, and everything seems just a little bit more responsive. It all adds up though, making the whole feel so much faster.

The new Internet Explorer is also included, and it certainly is a hell of a lot faster than the version included with Windows Phone 7.0. The interface has also been redone, and you now finally have access to the url field in landscape mode. I'm still finding rendering a bit 'eh', but maybe it's simply not yet done. It's beta, after all.

The multitasking user interface is basically that of webOS but less useful (no grouping, no swipe up to close, and, oh yeah, no true multitasking), and since this is only the first time developers get a taste of Mango, no application supports it yet, turning it into a glorifed recently used applications list.

There's a lot more stuff in there, but what I like the most are the performance improvements and littl changes and refinements all over the place, which makes using Windows Phone just that little bit more pleasant.

Samsung rebooting Galaxy S2 for Windows Phone 7?

2011-07-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

A new Samsung phone has been outed by the Bluetooth SIG board, with a codename prompting speculation that the next Windows Phone 7 device from the Koreans will be a re-badged Galaxy S2.

The Bluetooth group, which tests new phones using the wireless specification before release, has seen the Samsung SGH-i937 pass through its labs, similar to the Samsung SGH-i927 (The Galaxy S2) and the Samsung SGH-i937 (also known as the Windows Phone 7-powered Focus in the US).

The sequencing of the numbers has prompted many to simply believe that the phone will be an amalgamation of the two devices - and while a Galaxy S2 running Windows Phone 7 might be cool, it's far from certain.

Not much to go on

The specification of the SGH-i937 is pretty sparse - but other than Bluetooth 2.1 standard noted (which would be a step down from the S2) there's nothing else to suggest it will be a Windows Galaxy S2 hybrid.

More likely is the phone will still have the Super AMOLED screen technology both the Focus and the S2 used, but will be in keeping with the new hardware spec Microsoft laid out a few months ago.

We'd rate this as a very unlikely rumour at the moment, so unless Nokia wows us all with dual-core Windows Phone 7 devices during 2011 we won't be seeing a Galaxy S2 OS reboot.

From Bluetooth SIG via WMPoweruser

App of The Week : FourSquare App For Windows Phone 7

2011-07-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

FourSquare is the popular social check-in application lets you earn badges from your Windows Phone handset. You can follow you friends and see the places they frequent. You can also use the app to check-in, share your location with friends, and unlock rewards. Be patient with this app as it is reportedly prone to crashing, a problem that will be addressed in future updates.

Some Screen-shots ( click to see it bigger ) :

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace now has 25,000 apps?

2011-07-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's mobile-app marketplace might now feature more than 25,000 applications, one report claims.

According to Windows Phone App List, a Windows Phone 7 Marketplace app tracker, Microsoft's store currently has 25,076 applications available to users. However, another Windows Phone 7 Marketplace tracker, WP7applist, claims the store has 24,878 applications. What's more, WP7applist claims 4,044 of those programs are currently "inactive."

Either way, it's worth nothing that neither Windows Phone App List nor WP7applist offer the official stats on available applications in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace--that is reserved for Microsoft.

When Windows Phone 7 launched last year, 1,000 applications were available for the platform. At the end of March, the company reported that that figure had jumped to 11,500 applications, including 7,500 paid apps.

In comparison, Apple's App Store at the time had 350,000 available applications, while the Android Market featured more than 150,000 apps. At its Worldwide Developers Conference last month, Apple reported that there are now 425,000 applications available in its marketplace. At Google's I/O Conference in May, the company said there are 200,000 apps available in its Android Market.

Though Microsoft is still far behind in the total number of apps available, the company has consistently said that application quantity doesn't matter to it. In March, Microsoft said that in the mobile space, it's a matter of "quality over quantity."

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how many applications are currently available in its Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.

Angry Birds is finally released on Windows Phone 7

2011-07-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

Microsoft originally said that Rovio’s hit game Angry Birds would make its debut in May, but that date was later pushed until June 29th. That day is finally here and, as promised, the game is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Oddly enough, the title will cost gamers $2.99 — quite a price hike over the free ad-supported version available on Android, and even the $0.99 price tag for iOS devices. Worse yet, it doesn’t appear that Angry Birds Seasons — which is being updated every month with new levels — is available. Hopefully that version will be available soon, too, but we wouldn’t hold our breath. Game on!

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