Windows Phone 7.5 Already Supports NFC

In an interview with TechRadar, Will Coleman, developer evangelist and product manager at Microsoft UK believes that the current build of Windows Phone 7.5 does, in fact, support Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. The thing is that manufacturers have yet to take advantage of the feature. According to Coleman:

“As far as I’m aware, NFC is supported by [Windows Phone], but needs to be enabled by the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). So, if any OEM wants to enable it, that can be done by all means.”

Coleman also believes that we will soon see some exciting things happening around NFC technology:

“Think it’s about just about timing, in the not too distant future there are some exciting things that will be coming through with NFC from Microsoft.”

Nokia’s head of apps partnerships also chimed in on the future of NFC in their own devices:

“NFC isn’t an if, it’s a when, it will happen. Obviously there’s no NFC on our launch devices, so it’s difficult to comment too much on that, but the main divisions between secure and non-secure [NFC] mean there’s bags of opportunity for the technology [on our phones] especially with so many operators launching services.

“We need to get a [Windows Phone] device into the marketplace with NFC capabilities, and when we do we can really start to showcase our services.”

With Android iterating over and over again at the speed of light, it will become increasingly important for WIndows Phone to stay at feature parity with other platforms. NFC is considered by many to be the future of mobile computing, so it’s good to hear that it’s supported in Windows Phone 7.5, but we need the OEMs to begin to take advantage of that capability.

Source:Windows Phone Metro ; TechRadar

Fujitsu IS12T receives 7740 update

The funky, totally unique Windows Phone sold primarily in Japan has been the envy for many of us but has been overshadowed in recent months (mostly due to Nokia, ahem).

Not to be forgotten, Fujitsu and KDDI have announced that the 7740 OS updateshould be hitting that phone basically right now. We're told that since IS12T doesn't have voicemail in the traditional sense, that aspect of the OS update is negligible here. So only the Exchange 2003 bug fix is really all users will be getting--which makes us wonder why US carriers are so trigger-shy about rolling out here.

For the record, the IS12T is the only Windows Phone with 32GB of memory on board, a 3.7" screen, 13.2 MP camera and is waterproof. That's right, it's a super phone.It's also had three previous software updates, meaning Fujitsu seems keen on keeping it in shape.

Source: WPcentral