Nokia Sabre Windows Phone Spotted? (Photo)

The phone in this image is allegedly a prototype of the upcoming Nokia Sabre Windows Phone we've been hearing about straight from Microsoft's mouth. After recently seeing the Nokia 800 (SeaRay) press renders, the anticipation is building up around Espoo and the Windows Phones it will launch next week.

According to the source, Sabre features a 1.4GHz processor much like recent wave-two devices, 1GB of RAM, a 3.5-inch WVGA screen, five-megapixelcamera and a price tag of around 300-350 EU (around $410-$480). It most definitely should sport the compulsory Back, Home and Search WindowsPhone buttons but due to Mr. Blurrycam, the image is burned out. Together with the 800, it will likely be unveiled by Nokia at the upcoming World event, a gathering where Steve Ballmer has tipped "a bunch" of Windows Phones and Andy Lees is building up the buzz for "a wide range" of Nokia devices.

Facebook Outs Messenger App For BlackBerry

After Facebook recently launched its Messenger application for iOS and Android devices, bringing a separate way to chat with your Friends from yourphone, the social network is now launching the BlackBerry counterpart of the software.

The application brings the same features available on iOS and Android to BlackBerry. This means that you will be able to see who's online and who's on mobile as well as know when the other person is typing. It's also easier to send messages to the people you message most. Of course, group features are also in so you might want to head over to the source link and grab the app for your RIM-phone if it pleases you to have a separate Facebook application dedicated to messaging-only. After Facebook recently launched its Messenger application for iOS and Android devices, bringing a separate way to chat with your Friends from yourphone, the social network is now launching the BlackBerry counterpart of the software. 

The application brings the same features available on iOS and Android to BlackBerry. This means that you will be able to see who's online and who's on mobile as well as know when the other person is typing. It's also easier to send messages to the people you message most. Of course, group features are also in so you might want to head over to the source link and grab the app for your RIM-phone if it pleases you to have a separate Facebook application dedicated to messaging-only. 

Microsoft Starts Broad Delivery of the Mango Update

Three weeks ago, Microsoft introduced its latest update to Windows Phone, codenamed Mango, bumping the version number to 7.5 while bringing more than 500 features to the table. Now Redmond is flipping the switch on the updates as it starts delivering on the wide range.

Eric Hautala notes on the Windows Phone Blog that they're "fully opening the spigot — slightly ahead of schedule — and making Mango available to nearly everyone in the current delivery pool". While this is great news, it doesn't mean that there aren't isolated issues like for instance in France, where Orange and Microsoft work in order to fix problems preventing "full throttle" roll-out.

Passing the ball back to the carriers, Microsoft notes that the update for a couple of devices is "still undergoing carrier tests" but Redmond is "prepared to expedite delivery of Windows Phone 7.5 to you once carrier testing is finished". 

RIM Execs Deny Multi-Platform BBM Plans

Turns out the rumors around RIM's BlackBerry Messenger coming to Android and iOS were just rumors but it was nice while it lasted! Company officials have recently denied any plans of making the service multi-platform.

Alec Saunders, RIM's VP of Developer Relations and Christopher Smith, Senior Director of BlackBerry Development Platform have dismissed all rumored information regarding BBM o other platforms. During a press event at DevCon, Saunders said "he wasn't aware of it" and Smith noted "there were no plans for it". Of course that doesn't mean that it will never come; it just means that the two execs were either poorly informed, hiding something or, face it, there really were no plans! 

Andy Lees: Windows Phone Sold Bettter Than Android In First Year

Microsoft's President of Windows Phone, Andrew Lees, the one who recently spoke about LTE and dual-core chips inside Windows Phones, spoke to Ina Fried at AsiaD on various aspects of Windows Phone.

First of all, Lees noted that Windows Phone actually sold better than Android in its first 12 months. Of course, the market last year, when Windows Phone joined the game, was different that the market back in the day when Google brought the world Android. He also noted that "Android is very techy" but that it is a great OS addressing a certain segment of the market. It brings a grid of icons and apps contrary to Windows Phone which is taking a "people approach".

On the Apple side, Andrew Lees noted that people can also talk to their Windows Phones but a Siri-like implementation is not "super useful." Windows Phone's speech approach relies pretty much on Bing, which brings "the full power of the internet, rather than a certain subset," like the case of Siri and Wolfram Alpha.

Last but not least, he noted that the Nokia event coming soon will bring a wide range of Windows Phones, pretty much in the vein of Steve Ballmer that mentioned "a bunch" last time we checked.