Motorola fantasizes about a future Windows Phone, we eagerly join them

When it comes to hardware manufacturers for Windows Phone, the more the merrier we say. One OEM we didn't expect to see itself open to Windows Phone was the very same beast behind the Droid legacy -- Motorola. Yet that's exactly what Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha has said recently:

“I think we’re completely open to the notion of Windows as a platform,” Jha said in an appearance at the Oppenheimer Technology & Communications Conference. “Clearly, all of our focus today is on Android.”

Jha goes on to say that Windows Phone would be pursued as long as "the conditions were right", but for now would sit back and let Microsoft duke it out with WebOS and BlackBerry for third place. Good call as far as we're concerned, but if Motorola doesn't jump on the platform soon Nokia may just choke the supply before other manufacturers can get in and really succeed.

Via: MobileTechWorld
Source: FierceWireless

Free Download Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

Apple has released a free utility called Lion Recovery Disk Assistant that lets users repair disks or reinstall OS X Lion without the need for a physical disc.

“The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant lets you create Lion Recovery on an external drive that has all of the same capabilities as the built-in Lion Recovery: reinstall Lion, repair the disk using Disk Utility, restore from a Time Machine backup, or browse the web with Safari,” Apple reveals in a technical note.

Users must have an existing Recovery HD at hand before proceeding with the creation of an external Lion Recovery using the Lion Recovery Assistant.

The steps are fairly easy. Users must first download the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant application, then insert an external drive, launch the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant,  select the desired destination, and complete the installation process by following the instructions displayed on screen.

Then, to access Lion Recovery, users must reboot the computer while holding down the Option key. Finally, users can then select Recovery HD from the Startup Manager.

An accompanying Support document outlines the procedure for employing Lion Recovery Disk Assistant on an even broader scale.

There, Apple cautions that the assistant utillity will erase all data on the external drive when creating the Recovery HD.

As such, “You should either backup your data before running the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, or create a new partition on the external drive,” the company says.

Also of importance, according to Apple, “If the computer shipped with Lion, the external recovery drive can only be used with the system that created it.”

The Mac maker posts one final note before offering up the utility download, saying “If the system was upgraded from Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard to Lion, the external recovery drive can be used with other systems that were upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion.”

Requirements:

· An existing Recovery HD
· An external USB hard drive or thumb drive with at least 1GB of free space

Download Lion Recovery Disk Assistant (Free)

Download Senuti 1.2.8 for Mac OS X - Lion

Senuti, the popular file transfer utility for iOS device owners, is now available at version 1.2.8 with fixes for some known issues, as well as support for OS X 10.7 Lion.

As many iDevice owners already know, Apple has a thing about tying all your file transfers to iTunes, whether it’s an app, a song, or a video you want to get on the iPhone, or off the iPhone.

With Senuti, that restriction is gone. The app reads a hidden file on your iPod in order to get all of the information quickly and accurately.

It then allows you to grab any audio and video file and copy it to your desktop computer in no time.

You can bet this utility will never make it in the Mac App Store.

The latest version of Senuti, fixes issues recognizing some devices on OS X 10.5 (Leopard), a crash when updating from an earlier version, as well as a rare crash while copying.

Although not specifically noted by developer Whitney Young, Senuti now fully supports OS X Lion.

Based on tests carried out by our staff, we can confirm Senuti runs smoothly on OS X 10.7, and we even noticed an improvement in file transfer speeds.

“Need to recover music, playlists, or videos from your iPod or iPhone? Look no further! With Senuti, you can recreate your iTunes music library in just one click,” reads the developer’s official description.

Although Senuti is a paid solution, users can download a trial version that works for 30 days and permits the transfer of 1,000 titles back and / or forth.

Senuti doesn’t require the latest version of Mac OS X to run (it even supports Tiger and Leopard), and it doesn’t need Intel hardware either, although it will work better on newer Mac configurations.

Download Senuti for Mac OS X

iOS 5 GM IPSW Release Close as Beta 5 Gets Jailbroken

The iPhone Dev Team is signaling that Apple is one step closer to releasing the iOS 5 GM (Golden Master), while confirming that their Redsn0w utility is capable of hacking the latest beta from Apple.

A tweet authored Musclenerd that hit the wires earlier today reads: “redsn0w 0.9.8b5 tethered JB released for iOS 5 beta5 (JB app devs only please) […] (GM is getting closer!).”

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Musclenerd is telling the jailbreak community (in fact, the entire iOS community) to expect the final iOS 5 build to arrive soon.

Golden Master builds, whether it’s Mac OS X or iOS, generally represent the final bits that make it to end customers once the formalities are over.

An update on the iPhone Dev Team blog also confirms the news:

“Redsn0w has been updated to 0.9.8b5, adding support for Apple’s new iOS5 beta5 (point it directly at the beta5 IPSW).”

The Team urges jailbreakers, “Please use this only if you’re a jailbreak app developer with a legit Apple dev account, and remember it’s a tethered jailbreak for now!”

For those who aren’t very familiar with the terminology, ‘tethered’ means that every time you reboot, you need to jailbreak again.

A tethered jailbreak is already a fuss, an considering the fact that iOS 5 is now in beta, it’s very likely that some users will end up bricking their devices, therefore the Team’s advice should really be taken into consideration.

According to Redmond Pie, Redsn0w is still capable to apply a standard tethered jailbreak on almost any iOS device, but not for the second-generation iPad.

The jailbreak-centric site notes that iOS hackers will likely avoid disclosing vulnerabilities for iPad 2 yet, since iOS 5 Beta 5 is an experimental build, which means even a tethered jailbreak is likely out of the question, not to mention an untethered one.

Xbox Live announcement for Windows Phone teased, what could it be?

We could go on and on about how Xbox Live has disappointed us in the past, but lately the XBL crew at Microsoft have made up for it with plenty of great games and weekly deals on games they probably shouldn't have charged much for in the first place. Still, we yearn for Microsoft to really deliver the AAA gaming experience the Xbox Live brand is supposed to represent.

Fortunately it looks like some kind of gaming-related announcement is in the works. @PlayXBLA, an official Xbox Live-related Twitter account teased "pretty cool Windows Phone game news" that was supposed to come out today. Well for about half of the United States, the day is already done so it looks like the announcement has been slightly delayed, but the tweet hasn't been deleted so that's a good sign.

We have a feeling Microsoft is prepping another gaming program for the titles announced at E3 a few months ago (similar to Must Have Games). Or Microsoft will finally talk about Xbox Live multiplayer gaming for Mango. What do you think it could be?

Source: Twitter (@PlayXBLA)

Mango drops support for old Office documents due to "an unacceptable risk of data and formatting loss"

Mango brings a lot to the table and definitely raises the overall functionality of the OS tenfold. However sometimes when an OS goes under the microscope before an update is planned, some existing features may be cut. In this case, it looks like Mango's Office Hub will be losing its support for older Office documents (the .doc, 97-2003 variety). It's a shame that it's being cut as old types of documents are still widely used to ensure broad support for everyone, so why is Microsoft cutting it? PocketNow talked to Microsoft's Office Mobile Product Manager, Guy Gilbert, to find out. Here's his response (emphasis ours):

Office Mobile on the next release of Windows Phone, codenamed Mango, will be available later this year and will deliver many improvements for customers. With Office Mobile on the Mango release, people will be able to open and view most Office files with the rich formatting they expect. In addition, newer Office files created with Office 2007 SP2, Office 2010 or the Office Web Apps (e.g., files with extensions .docx, .xlsx, .pptx) can be edited with Office Mobile on Mango. When it comes to older Office files (e.g. files with extensions .doc, .xls, .ppt), our testing revealed an unacceptable risk of data and formatting loss during editing, and therefore, these files can only be opened and viewed. Some newer Office files will also open as “read-only” if they contain certain elements, for example: documents that are marked final, digitally signed or have tracked changes; or Excel workbooks with macros, data tables or external references. We will provide documentation of these cases in a Microsoft support article before Mango becomes available to customers.

How do you feel about Microsoft completely dropping older document support? Would you rather accept that there's a risk of losing data and editing them anyway, or is Microsoft making the right call to protect us from ourselves?

Source: PocketNow

Musixmatch 'Lyrics' receives major v2.0 update, new looks to boot

One of my must-have apps as a music lover is undoubtedly Musixmatch's Lyrics. Since it's release around Windows Phone's launch, the app was one of the first to show off just how wonderfully integrated apps can be in the OS. It was one of the first that really made use of the Music+Videos Hub's 'Marquee' feature and once you open it, it automatically tries to find lyrics for the song you're playing. Easy, fast, and efficient. Well Musixmatch has just given Lyrics an update to v2.0 and it's received a slick new look and a few new features too. Here's the app's description:

** Finally solved copyright issues with most lyrics! **

Lyrics by musiXmatch is a deep dive into the world of song lyrics. This application lets you match lyrics to your own music collection, instantly search for the lyrics to any song and always have a current chart of top lyrics country-by-country.

KEY FEATURES IN V2.0
♫ Seamlessly integrates with the Zune Player
♫ Instantly search for songs by title, artist name, or lyrics phrase!
♫ Provide quality feedback for any lyrics.
♫ Share a single verse or the full song on Twitter
♫ Dedicate the lyrics through Facebook/SMS/Email to your significant other
♫ Profanity filter
♫ Performance tweaks (you can disable animations/backgrouns)
♫ Follows Windows Phone Theme

Get started now and experience lyrics like never before!

This will definitely come in handy with that new album everyone is talking about today. If you need lyrics at the touch of a finger, I highly recommend you pick up the (free!)Lyrics from Musixmatch by clicking the tile below.

Lyrics Musixmatch FREE Version 2.0