UPDATED 11:59 EDT / NOVEMBER 29 2012

Microsoft To Deliver Window Phone 7.8 Update Early 2013

In today’s mobile news roundup: Microsoft to release Windows Phone 7.8 in 2013; RIM draws last breath with Titanium; AT&T rated worst service provider; and Google adds spreadsheet to Drive app.

Microsoft to release Windows Phone 7.8 in 2013

Even before Windows Phone 8 was officially launched, Microsoft already revealed that current Windows Phone 7 handsets in the market will not be able to upgrade their device to the newest mobile OS.  Though this sounded pretty bad for consumers, Microsoft did say that they will be giving an update for Windows Phone 7 in order to deliver nearly the same experience as the WP8.  The question back then was, when will it be available?

Microsoft finally broke their silence and said that WP7.8 will be available by early 2013.  WP7.5 users will be able to upgrade their devices to WP7.8 sometime in early 2012, and they can expect so see resizable Live Tiles on their screen as well as more theme and accent colors to personalize their device, plus new lock screen features such as the option to automatically display the Bing Picture of the Day plus the ‘A1B2C3’ PIN/password challenge to prevent accidental device wipes on phones connected to Exchange accounts.

No exact date yet for the WP7.8 release. Contributing editor John Cassaretto has more on the matter. See his clip from yesterday’s NewsDesk segment with Kristin Feledy below.

RIM draws last breath with Titanium

Research in Motion is enticing developers to build for the BlackBerry 10 platform through their partnership with Appcelerator, the company behind Titanium – a platform that lets developers create apps for different platforms in one go through the use of cross-platform technologies such as HTML5.

RIM stated that Titanium for BlackBerry 10 will be available on December 7, 2012 and the first 100 developers who sign up for the program will receive a free BlackBerry Alpha Dev unit when their app has been submitted for review.  They are also offering a year’s worth of Appcelerator Cloud Service and Analytics for free to 10,000 developers once their app has been approved and put on sale.

“Developers and enterprises continue to look for robust cross-platform solutions and we are thrilled to work with Appcelerator to have Titanium support for BlackBerry 10,” RIM developer chief Alec Saunders said in a statement.

AT&T rated worst service provider

Consumer Reports released their annual carrier ratings, which put Verizon at the top followed but Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T in fourth place.  Though AT&T was behind, their 4G LTE offering beat Verizon’s, but that wasn’t enough to make their subscribers satisfied.

AT&T did not let the rating affect them much, as they stated that providing service to their customers is a continuous process, so they’re doing everything to make things work.

“While delivering an even better customer experience is a never-ending job, we’re pleased that our customers rate their 4G experience as best of any carrier,” says an AT&T spokesperson.  “We’ve invested significantly to deliver unique advantages, including offering the nation’s largest 4G network, which enables the fastest iPhone 5 downloads and simultaneous talk and surf.”

Google adds spreadsheet to Drive app

If you’re one of those people who loves making spreadsheets, and you’re an Android user, you’ll be happy to know that Google has added the ability to view, edit and of course create spreadsheets while on the go via the Google Drive app.  You can now switch fonts, resize columns, sort data, and even see people’s edits while on the go.

The Drive app has also some new features such as better text formatting when you paste from one Google document to another, edit text within tables in documents and add a shortcut on the homescreen of your device to any specific file in Drive.
The app is free for download on Google Play.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU