A few days ago, Nokia has unofficially started rolling out the Windows Phone 7.8 update for the Lumia 800 handset. But, the Finnish mobile maker confirmed that the update won’t be distributed until early 2013, so users still have a bit of wait ahead of them and that’s sad news. Nokia also confirmed they are currently sedding the update to a set of the specific pre-production Lumia 800 handsets to test the behaviour of the WP 7.8 build.
If you are an owner of any Samsung-made Windows Phone 7.5 OS powered handset and eagerly awaiting the imminent update to the next OS version for your handsets, we’ve some news for you. The good folks over Windows Phone Italy said that Samsung’s technical department told them that the South Korean manufacturer has planned to roll out the much awaited Windows Phone 7.8 update to all the existed Samsung handsets that are currently running with Windows Phone 7.5 OS. This is indeed a great news for Samsung Omnia W (also known as Focus Flash in some regions) users, as some previous rumors suggested this handset wouldn’t be getting WP 7.8 refresh and won’t go beyond current OS version 7.10.8107.7.
Microsoft has already confirmed that there will be no Windows Phone 7.8 refresh this year. The good news is that that next year is just a couple of weeks out. Of course, Microosft has targeted early 2013 timeframe for the update distribution, that means we may also see it happening in March or April.
Here are some of the key features that Windows Phone 7.8 update brings to the table:
# Addition of three Live Tile sizes with a wider selection of colors
# 20 more themes to choose from
# Users can create ringtones by editing the MP3 files
# Users can customise their lock screen with Bing wallpapers which will be updated everyday
# Internet Explorer with security upgrades
# You will be seeing new boot screen with new Windows Phone logo
# New logos for Xbox Games, Office and Store and other apps
# You can share the Calendar using the function called ‘Club’ (which matches that of ‘Rooms’ feature includes in Windows Phone 8)
# Access to key services and Xbox Music Store library
# Addition of the DataSmart app for keeping track of your data
Source: Windows Phone Italy