Windows 7.5 Users to Get Windows 7.8 Update

Posted on Jul 4, 2012 in News | 0 comments

The VP of Microsoft’s Windows Phone Division announced at the 2012 Windows Phone Summit in San Francisco a new feature for Windows Phone 7.5:  the new Start screen of the Windows Phone 8. The keyword in the announcement is “feature” as smartphone users will not get upgrades to Windows Phone 8 for their Windows Phone 7.5. The software company will give users a partial upgrade of the operating system through an update of Windows Phone 7.8.

Samsung, HTC, and Nokia Lumia owners will get a portion of the new features while Microsoft is developing new hardware support. Consumers should be less worried because all of their Windows Phone 7 and 7.5 applications. They will still run on Windows Phone 7.8, although they will receive the Start screen upgrade, the core of both Windows Phone 8’s update and Windows Phone 7.8’s visual feature.

After the update Windows Phone 7.8 users will see two new tile sizes aside from the classic Metro array of live tiles. Microsoft has modified the tiles to become more customizable and created a bigger screen layout for Start. Consumers can customize their screen’s appearance by selecting their own theme colors. The two new tile sizes are small and large.

The small tiles are about the size of iPhone apps icons. They are however interactive and still display information like the Start tiles. Microsoft designed tiles to be part of an application. Windows Phone 7.8 can also generate the tiles automatically for any application. The software reserved the large tile for the phone’s original manufacturer, operators and Microsoft’s own apps. The tile occupies most of the Start screen.

Even if the update enables application developers to add a large tile to their code, the problem of developing apps for Windows Phone 7.8 will not be resolved.  Many developers can choose to create new apps exclusively for Windows Phone 8 or apps that run on all versions but not on the Windows Phone 8. They will need to create separate versions of their apps for older and new phones, apps that are not running Windows Phone 7.8.

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