Happy Easter Weekend!

It's Easter this weekend, and while I do not celebrate the occassion I know that many do. With that in mind I'd just like to wish everyone a Happy Easter weekend and to enjoy the time you have off.

P.S. Sorry that WPD hasn't been updated since Wednesday. I am aware that some news regarding the Microsoft-Nokia partnership broke this week. To be honest, I have had to deal with a lot of work this week in my personal life and WPD was temporarily sidelined. Don't worry, the site isn't going anywhere but dont be surprised if the site is occassionally silent when it shouldn't be.

Peter Lackman Returns With More Creative WP7 Tweaks

 

On My Nokia Blog, fan Peter Lackman submitted a few of his own concepts for new features in the behavior of Live Tiles. If you recall, Peter Lackman is the same visionary that brought us Symbian-style themes for WP7 in an earlier concept submission. This time he's gone above and beyond the original scope of his concept and has come up with a few novel ideas for the Start page, which Microsoft should seriously consider checking out.

The first idea is what he calls "Live Cubes" in which live tiles are given a three-dimensional depth and can flip around to reveal more features or apps. He expands the concept further by flipping over other adjacent tiles to show context-sensitive shortcuts when holding down on a tile (for example, holding down on IE flips the other tiles to show bookmarks). Lackman has created a pair of videos demonstrating how he imagines the concept might work and those can be seen above. The second part of the concept is "Secondary Tiles" which are just what they sound like: tiles that are linked and offer widget-like functionality. One example shown was the Spotify app that had a secondary tile acting as a quick music controls widget.

Overall Lackman has done a wonderful job once again and is a strong contender for the title of "Best Windows Phone 7 Fan Ever" in our books. For pictures and Lackman's explanation of these concepts, hit up the source link below.

Source: My Nokia Blog

NoDo Update Brings A Few New Changes for Everyone, Some Special Features for Focus

We've all been a little annoyed that the 'premier' carrier of Windows Phone 7 was also the last carrier in the US to update its phones, but maybe we jumped the gun on that one. AT&T began to roll out their NoDo update yesterday to the Samsung Focus and LG Quantum, and it appears the update brings notable changes that differ from the stock NoDo.

First of all, I'd like to address those who forced their NoDo updates early: you may still be able to update to AT&T's NoDo. However it depends on whether or not you used the ChevronWP7.Updater tool or if you upgraded before that and used the VPN timing trick. If you did the former, so far I am unaware if you will be able to update as there have been few reports to be seen yet from that group. If you did the latter, you can upgrade to the AT&T build rather easily. Assuming that you changed the 'MobileOperator' registry value from its default position to 000-88, you will not see the notification for updating until you change that value back to ATT-US. After you do that, plug your device into a PC and check Zune's settings to see if you have an update waiting for you (which you should). Some have pointed out that those updating from the forced NoDo seem to have received a special update in order to transition those users to an officially supported build, which was quite thoughtful of AT&T.

Now that you should be on your way to getting NoDo on your AT&T device, what are those changes we were talking about? There were a couple that we were expecting: the proprietary AT&T Address Book is now available as an account to sync to, and there is a new WISPr protocol that has been enabled in order to let subscribers automatically jump over to an AT&T Wi-Fi Hotspot when in range.

However, the Samsung Focus seems to have received special treatment from the carrier as a few minor changes have appeared post-update. The first is that the camera now sets the Anti-Shaking option to On by default, a small but decidedly worthwhile addition. The second new feature is one that finally puts to rest those occassional accidental taps of the capacitive buttons. Before, for example, when you were playing Rocket Riot and your finger starts on the screen and then is dragged off and into the buttons area, it would activate one of the buttons and kick you out of your game. Now when the app is open, if you do the same thing the buttons are temporarily disabled, meaning the chances of you getting kicked out of a game have been seriously reduced! Sadly, we have only seen this on the Focus so far and it would appear to be hardware-related so the manufacturer would have to do the work themselves to implement it. One more Focus-specific improvement to note is the fixed 'grounding' issue that would cause the phone's touch screen to become unresponsive on certain types of surfaces or fabrics.

There have also been reports that some other small changes that have occurred in NoDo updates of any type, not just AT&T, like:

• A new option in the People Hub when editing contact information to restore the contact's default photo from a social network.
• Ability to pan left or right in text bars (i.e. Internet Explorer address bar)
• On-screen keyboard improvements.
• Improvements while downloading apps or games over 3G
• Bluetooth connection improvements
• Trials of apps now update properly in the Marketplace (no more uninstalling/reinstalling of trials)

So enjoy the update and if you haven't read our take on the update yet be sure to check it out. Also, if you notice anything else new we didn't mention, drop a comment below!

Xbox Live Deal of the Week: Uno HD

Xbox Live Deal of the Week gets you gaming on the cheap. Every Wednesday an Xbox Live game goes on sale and the discount stays in effect until the new Deal is released.

Click the tile to get the game!

This week's Deal is Uno HD by Gameloft. Here's the official description:

Play the #1 classic card game for fun with friends and family on your Windows phone! The world-famous card game is faithfully reproduced for mobile and also features exciting new rules. Relive all the crazy fun of UNO™: match colors or numbers with all your favorite cards or challenge yourself with increasingly difficult games in Tournament Mode. Playing UNO™ has never been so fun and easy, so be the first to get rid of all your cards! - The UNO™ video game reproduces the classic game’s identity. All your favorites cards are here: Skip, Reverse, and more! - Intuitive controls: simply drag & drop cards using your finger on the screen and be the first to get rid of all your cards. - Customize your game with varied rules including 7-0 and Jump-In. - Take on increasingly hard challenges in Tournament Mode.

Uno HD has dropped from $4.99 to $2.99 for the rest of the week. The standard free trial is also available.

Click on the tile above to get the game (opens Zune).

Xbox Live Wednesday: Game Room: Asteroids Deluxe

It's Wednesday and do you know what that means? New Xbox Live games for Windows Phone!

Click the tile to get the game!

This week’s new Xbox Live game is Game Room: Asteroids Deluxe published by Microsoft Game Studios. Here is the official description of the game:

Play the revamped classic Atari arcade game anytime, anywhere on your Windows Phone 7. Alone in space, you must blast the asteroids into nothingness and evade the flying saucers and the killer satellite! Can you earn the "Unidentified Flying Object" Achievement?

Game Room: Asteroids Deluxe is available in the Marketplace for $2.99 along with the standard free trial.

Click on the tile above to get the game (opens Zune).

Beautiful Results from Collaboration, Technology and Crowdsourcing

My friend Mat's just prompted me to post this.  I have so many things I want to post about, it's just time that's lacking, and just embedding a video is a wee bit lazy, but suffice to say that this is a lovely example of when crowdsourcing and collaboration faciliated by technology can bring about beautiful results.

Just watch.  Or better still, push back your chair, plug in your headphones, close your eyes and enjoy a few minutes of calm. You'll feel better for it.  Trust me.

Enable HSUPA for your Samsung Focus and Feel the 4G-ish Speeds

We all know that AT&T is pretty behind when it comes to mobile network speeds, being the number two mobile operator in America that still doesn't even have any real kind of 4G planned until next year. Instead they have decided to follow T-Mobile's lead and slap 4G on top of their HSPA+ capable phones but ironically HSUPA, the upload side of the technology, is completely disabled on those phones as of now.

Luckily, if you have a Samsung Focus you can now enable HSUPA in order to boost those upload speeds to something more bearable. Windows Phone Hacker has the full steps and you don't even need to be jailbroken to enable the new speeds. Okay, it's not really 4G yet but you'll definitely see a nice bump in upload speeds so it could be worth your while.

Here's a rundown of the basics via the site and head over there for some more info:

• Open up the phone keypad
• Dial ##634# and press call
• A diagnostics menu with a number pad should appear. At this screen, enter *#32489#
• A test mode screen should appear. Press the small back button on the screen (not your phone's back button).
• Click 5 for the RRC (HSPA) control
• Press 1 to see what you're currently set to
• Press 2 to change it, and select option 3 for Release 6 HSDPA/HSUPA
• Press the End button, then restart your phone.

Source: Windows Phone Hacker