Category: Windows 10 for Phone

As expected and promised, the second Technical Preview of Windows 10 is now available to Windows Insiders.  The update released around 10:00 AM PST this morning and for those who are a part of the Insiders program and have the Windows Insider app on their Lumia phones, you should check for updates on your phone to get it.  The build is 10051 for those keeping score at home.

As I noted in my post earlier this morning, this preview is still very much in beta and will have bugs and other issues.  But it is an update that many of us have been waiting for since February.  You can read the full blog post on the update here.

Later this morning, likely around 10:00 AM PST today, we should see the next preview for Windows 10 for Phone.  This will be the 2nd release of the preview for phones, following on the first release that happened back in February.  This update will have a wide range of Lumia phones which it will work on – virtually all of them – and all indications are this build will be far superior to the that first release with a huge number of bug fixes, new features and applications.  And while I certainly don’t want to be a sourpuss about it, I would like to remind everyone that what we see today in Windows 10 for Phone will very much still be in beta.  Not everything is going to work and there will be issues.  Unless you are willing to put up with those issues, it may be best to wait to installed it.

It has been 40 days since the first Windows 10 for Phone Technical Preview was released to Windows Insiders and unfortunately, there isn’t an update in sight.

Earlier this morning Microsoft’s Gabe Aul posted on Twitter about the updates now available for the Windows 10 Technical Preview for PCs and Tablets. In the thread of replies he was asked about an update for Windows 10 for Phone. Sadly the news was not good.

@mrmhk97 No news to share on phone build yet.

— Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) March 24, 2015

Like the bemoaning that has happened on Windows 10 and the lack of updates, the natives are growing restless with Windows 10 for Phone at this point too.  Microsoft has made it clear that this summer we will see Windows 10 across all devices.  That means testing absolutely needs to get started in earnest across a wide range of Windows Phones.  We know that there will be more phones eligible to run the next update and we also know that the Partition Zipping for higher end phones was needed for it to be loaded onto these devices.  Regardless of this fact the need to get an update out on phones is becoming ever more critical to meet this summer launch date.

The amount of content and information about Windows 10 and Windows 10 for Phone from last week’s WinHEC event in China has been impressive.  Some of it has been reaffirmation of things that we already knew (like further explanation of the Universal App development) while other news has been fresh like the Windows 10 for Phone hardware requirements.  This latest tidbit likely will fall in the “About Time” category for many who have been using Windows Phone for some time.  When we see Windows 10 for Phone roll out later this year it will natively support Wi-Fi Protected Setup, or WPS.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with WPS, it is way of securely connecting to your Wi-Fi network without having to enter in a long password.  The idea behind it is that you can have a secure network but not be encumbered by a massively long security key, the significant reason people at home do not setup secure networks.  While Windows 8.1 supports WPS today, it is not supported in Windows Phone 8.1 so this change will make it easier for users to connect their devices and keep their networks secure.

As part of the new Windows 10 for Phone, Microsoft is making sure that it includes the latest and greatest in Bluetooth Hands-Free Profiles for improved sound and voice quality.  As part of the wide range of announcements they made last week at WinHEC in China, Microsoft announced that the new mobile platform will support the Hands-Free Profile (HFP) standard 1.6 which requires, amongst other things, the support for high definition audio.  Microsoft is referring to this as Wideband speech but you may also know if it as HD Voice and it should significantly improve the audio quality of calls and using voice activated services like Cortana on the new platform.

Continuing their dive to the bottom of the price barrel on smartphones, Microsoft today has announced the new Lumia 430.  This $70 Windows Phone 8.1 powered device has minimal specs as you would expect for that price point but does has a few things going for it in that it is upgradable to Windows 10 for Phone and it is a Dual-SIM device.  Otherwise this phone is not going to set the world alight but that really isn’t want Microsoft is intending with the Lumia 430.  It is a budget friendly phone aimed at specific markets (APAC, IMEA, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus) to go after the “next billion” in Microsoft plans.

That means we will likely never see the Lumia 430 here in the United States.