News: Windows Phone 8 Apollo details surface

Windows Phone Apollo update which will likely bring the Windows Phone platform up to the levels of Android and iOS on hardware and software has got detailed thanks to a leakes video which was meant for Nokia and to the folks at Pocketnow because we don’t have the video but we have all the details thanks to Pocketnow.
Windows Phone Apollo update will make its way after the Tango update(which is said to be a not so major update) and will most likely make its way into Windows Phone smartphones Q4 this year.

Starting from the hardware, Apollo will be bringing support for multi-core processors which will certainly bring it upto Android and iOS in case of hardware. It will also introduce support for three new and as we all know by now, Tango is said to be bringing lower screen resolution support to bring Windows Phones to lower price points. Apollo will make sure there is differentiation among Windows Phones in hardware . It will also bring microSD card support.

NFC (Near Field Communication) will also be fully integrated into the OS as like other features. Along with the usual file transferring, it will have the capability to be carrier- branded and controlled, either by a secure element on the SIM card or utilizing hardware in the phone itself for mobile payments.

Microsoft is also reportedly scrapping the Zune client in favor of a new dedicated companion app for syncing your Windows Phone 8 with your Windows 8 PC. The Xbox app on Windows Phone will also find a companion app on Windows 8. There will also be much deeper integration of SkyDrive with the two platforms.

WP8 will let OEM’s customize the camera interface according to their choice. Skype will also finally make its way into the platform and will be deeply integrated into the OS which will make it a normality with normal calls and Skype calls.

Data management system will also be improved. A feature called DataSmart,
which aims to reduce, and simplify the tracking of, data usage will also be introduced.

It will also let automatically switching to Wi- Fi when available to prevent cellular data use and the new Internet Explorer 10 will feature an Opera Mini-like data compression for faster load times.

Windows Phone 8 will be based on the Windows 8 kernel, unlike Windows Phone 7, which is based on Windows CE. Not only will the new mobile operating system will share a version number and UI with its desktop counterpart, it will also share the same ecosystem, along with the underlying code and components which is great since it’ll make Applications designed for any of them to work on both platforms.The Windows Phone platform is expected to reach 1,00,000 applications at the time of Apollo release and as expected all those apps will surely work on the Windows Phone 8 from the start.

Lastly, in order to capture the enterprise market, Windows Phone 8 will offer full- device encryption with BitLocker, found on desktop platforms. Businesses will also be able to deploy applications to the devices privately without having to
go through the Marketplace.

These features certainly bring the platform so close to the desktop platforms and it seems Apollo will certainly change the game for Microsoft. The platform will have all the features that Android and iOS have and some features even surpass them. The men at Redmond seem poised to get noticed in the smartphone market. We can’t wait to see Apollo unveiled but we’ll certainly have to wait but we are quite sure it’ll be worth the wait!