Welcome back to our weekly “Windows 10 Mobile news recap” series where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Microsoft’s mobile operating system. Let’s get started.
The new Windows 10 Mobile device from VAIO, the Phone Biz, won’t be arriving in the US, according to a new report. The news was confirmed via VAIO’s official Twitter account via an exchange with a tech reviewer, whose obvious interest in the new handset received a pretty harsh douse of proverbial cold water. Read more about that here.
With the kerfuffle of the Lumia 950 and 950 XL not making it to other carriers beyond AT&T quietly simmering into non-relevant news, Windows Phone fans may be able to look to T-Mobile for the next available Windows 10 Mobile device. The Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL is being reported to be nearing a release date on the third ranked US carrier with more pricing information included. More on that here.
When Microsoft rebranded the Xbox Music service to Groove Music, some people thought that perhaps the Redmond company had purchased Groove, an iOS music player that specialized in intelligent music discovery. At the time, no such acquisition was in the works. However, it looks like everything has come full-circle, as Microsoft is indeed acquiring Groove.
Microsoft pushed a new cumulative update for Windows Insiders part of the Windows 10 Mobile insider program fixing bugs and issues that users have been experiencing. This update was made available to the fast ring as build 10586.107. A day later, Microsoft rolled out the same update to those in the slow ring.
We already have the recently announced Windows 10 update history page making its way to the web for all Windows Insiders to see. Now, Microsoft has also pulled back the curtain on Windows 10 Mobile update developments with a special page just for Mobile.
Microsoft’s Insider Hub is the tool that allows users to get news about upcoming Windows 10 builds and to send feedback on Windows 10 bugs or suggestions to Microsoft. It’s currently only available to install on PCs running Windows 10 Insider builds, but it used to be also available on phones.
According to @evleaks, the HP Falcon will hit the market as the HP Elite x3. The device was rumored to be introduced by HP at Mobile World Congress 2016. InGFXBench tests, the HP Falcon shows up as a 5.8″ Windows 10 Mobile device sporting a 2560 x 1440 pixel display, with a Snapdragon 820 processor and Adreno 530 GPU. More on that here.
A new third-party Snapchat app for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile called Specter (here’s the link to the Windows Store app listing) was brought to our attention this past week. This app costs $1.49 and supposedly allows you to login to Snapchat with your account details, send image messages, and receive text, image, and video messages. It’s a very basic app that lacks a lot of features and polish. But here’s the thing. We don’t recommend you waste your money on this app. Head over here to read why.
Stay tuned for another exciting week of Windows 10 Mobile news!
