noozy: Zune Style Android Media Player With Podcast & Sound Processors

Elegant and power-packed Android music players are plentiful in the Google Play Store, and quite a few of them try to replicate the looks and functionality of Microsoft’s Zune player, such as the previously-reviewed InstaMusic and Fede’s Music Player. The latest to join the club of Metro-style Android music players is noozy – a sleek freemium that not just possesses powerful audio playback capabilities (courtesy of enhanced sound technology imported from the Noozxoide Laboratories), but also supports playing videos. In addition, the app lets users subscribe to, stream & download podcasts, listen to live audio broadcasts from noozy.live & last.fm services, and keep a close tab on the world's leading tracks, artists & albums. noozy also happens to be a great online music discovery tool that suggests tracks based on whatever you’re currently listening to. Users can get listen to samples of recommended tracks, browse complete albums of suggested artists, and purchase their favorite albums from various global music stores. Die-hard music lovers can also keep an eye on their favorite artists’ biographies, top tracks, album reviews & playlists, and get recommendations for similar artists. We’re not done with the app’s features yet; continue reading past the break to find out what else noozy has on offer. Read More

How To Update To Windows Phone Tango Right Now Without Losing Unlock

Microsoft announced Windows Phone 8 a few days back, and consigned all current WP7 devices to the consolation update labelled WP 7.8. However, WP8 is still a few months away, and going by the news making the rounds on the internet this morning, the 7.8 update will arrive even later than Apollo. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that there will be no updates in the intervening period. In fact, the Tango roll out has started already. Although this is a relatively small update when you compare it to Mango or the upcoming 7.8 one, there are still a lot of performance improvements on offer, and that might be no small matter for many users. For Lumia devices, Tango also brings internet tethering. Officially, the rollout has started only for Nokia Lumia devices, but luckily, there is a method using which all Mango users can update to Tango right now! This force updating method can also prove to be useful for Lumia owners who are experiencing delay in receiving the update via Zune. Read More

How To Bring Back Windows Phone Marketplace In Zune [Hack]

A few days back, Microsoft announced two major changes regarding WP7 - app support for pre-Mango versions of Windows Phone 7 was finally dropped (which shouldn’t be much of an issue, given the fact that no existing WP7 device is incompatible with Mango), and rather surprisingly, the guys over in Redmond killed the Windows Phone Marketplace in Zune. This may be to counter cracking of apps, or maybe the Zune Marketplace was just thought to be extraneous after the web Marketplace became active. Whatever the reason behind this move may be, apparently, it isn’t too difficult to get the Zune Marketplace back. Anyone can do this, even those who don’t have a developer unlocked device. In fact, to follow the method to hack the WP7 Marketplace back to Zune, you won’t even need to touch your phone, as everything will be done on PC. Read More

InstaMusic: A Free, Metro-Style Music Player For Android

Windows Phone might not be the most popular mobile OS right now, but that does not mean it doesn't have anything that users of other platforms would want to see on their devices. Take WP7’s stock music player, Zune, for example. The visually appealing Metro interface of the player alone is enough to put any of its current counterparts to shame on any given day. The Android Market already has a handful of music players that replicate the looks and functionality of Zune Player. However, most of them are either paid (Ubermusic, for instance) or cluttered with too many needless features. That’s not the case with InstaMusic – the latest addition to the list of Zune-style music players for Android. What sets it apart from its competitors is the fact that it’s free, minimalistic and brings several new and handy options of its own to the table. Read More

How To Update To Mango On Your Windows Phone 7 Right Now [Complete Guide]

The wait is finally over and Mango has now seen the light of day. But not so fast. For all the Windows Phone 7 enthusiasts out there, Mango might still be a few annoying days or even weeks away. The size of the WP7 community isn’t as small as some think and this is the reason the complete roll out across all carriers and to all device models will take about a month. Some of you might be lucky enough to have received the update by now. However, if you are not among those lucky few, you can force update to Mango from Nodo using the handy little method described below. If you have already tried this method unsuccessfully, then skip straight ahead to the important note at the end of the post. Read More

How To Restore NoDo On Your WP7 Before The Official Mango Update

As everyone always knew (at least we hope you did, because otherwise, this spells trouble for you) that you will need to revert back to NoDo or any official version of Windows Phone 7 if you want to get the real Mango instead of the beta or leaked RTM you are currently running. Developers will of course be getting Microsoft’s pre-update cleanup release named Mango Friends & Family Bundle. That clean-up update will take care of everything and will leave your device on NoDo and then will update it to Mango. But if people around you start getting pre-update clean-up and Microsoft keeps ignoring you, you need to revert back manually, using the backup file. For that purpose, it is necessary to have your restoration file saved to your computer when you were updating to Mango beta. With the official Mango just hours away, you better start getting ready to go back to NoDo. Read on to find out a few things that can be helpful in this situation, and just might save you from staying stuck on Mango's beta version forever. Read More

Receive Carrier Independent Windows Phone 7 Updates On Samsung Devices

Any operating system that is completely static can not survive for long in today’s world. Everything is changing constantly, along with the needs of customers and users . That is why new OS updates are the norm no matter what OS you are taking into consideration. Windows Phone 7 is no exception with updates getting rolled out on pretty regular basis. But with WP7 expanding across different carriers and mobile manufacturers, the whole process is getting a bit slow. This does not mean that it’s entirely Microsoft’s fault, in fact most of the times even when an update has been released by Windows, some carriers delay it for their users. But luckily, there is a way to remove this limitation. Read More

Use Your Windows Phone 7 Device As A USB Drive [Guide]

Windows Phone 7 is a platform that comes with a strict regard for its security and privacy of the operating system. This makes accessing its file system extremely complicated, if not altogether impossible. You have to rely on the official syncing software “Zune” to get anything in or out of your WP7 device but that means that your phone can not act like a data carrier and you can not get any non-supported file on your device. That is quite a big set back for users in a variety of ways. Many people use a moderate number of apps on their WP7 device, and keep their photos and music synced with Zune. So, a lot of the space in your Windows Phone might be going to waste, as you can't use it as a USB drive. Won’t it be a huge boost if it was somehow possible that you plug-in your WP7 mobile into your PC and it showed up just like a mass storage device? As a matter of fact, it is possible! Read More

Find ID Of Windows Phone 7 App And Create Direct Zune Marketplace Link

Currently, the simplest way to download a Windows Phone 7 application is to search for it from within the Marketplace of the Zune application. It isn’t the fastest method though. When you find an app that you fancy, wouldn’t you rather click on a direct link to it than search for it yourself? In what follows, we’ll take through a step-by-step guide on how to find the ID of a WP7 application, using which you can create links that open directly to the app’s Marketplace page within the Zune application. Read More

2 Best Tools To Convert Or Encode HD Videos For Windows Phone 7

If you’ve been hanging around Windows Phone 7 device for quite a while, you may have struggled a lot to get the best video quality with Zune. Since Zune video encoder often fails to encode videos in high definition, it becomes indispensable to get a third party video encoder which can directly encode videos for Windows Phone 7 compatible phones. If you’re looking for a video encoder for your Windows Phone 7 device, you can use previously featured VidCoder or Oxelon for this very purpose. Both tools offer a wide range of Audio and Video parameters to tweak with. In this post, we will look at how to set Audio and Video parameters in both Oxelon and VidCoder for achieving best video quality on your Windows Phone 7 device Read More

LauncherPro Developer Releases WP7 Music Player Look-Alike For Android

Previously, we have seen Windows Phone 7’s simple yet elegant “Metro” user interface duplicated on Android in homescreen replacement apps the likes of Launcher 7, 7 Launcher and Metro UI. LauncherPro developer, Federico Carnales is working on a “WP7ish music app” for Android. The developer released an alpha preview of his Zune Music Player doppleganger yesterday on his Twitter account, mentioning that it was yet to be given a name. Apart from the fact that this Android ‘Metro Player’ (let’s just call it that for now) does not, of course, support Zune integration, it is close to identical to Windows Phone 7’s native music player. The user interface is an absolute gift for the eyes and the animations are smoother and faster than those seen in the aforementioned WP7-style launchers. We’re hoping that the player doesn’t run into legal trouble if and when it finally hits the Android Market. It would be a welcome addition to the shelves and an undoubtedly sleeker, less bland alternative to the stock Android music player. Read More

How To Enable Tethering On Samsung WP7 Phone

It’s just been a few days since the launch of the first Windows Phone 7 devices, and as people anticipated tethering, it has been confirmed now that the Samsung WP7 devices can actually be tethered on AT&T network. Reportedly, Samsung Focus has been successfully tethered via 3G on AT&T network. Doing so requires entering into the device’s Diagnosis menu, and it is due to this reason that tethering on Windows Phone 7 devices can only be done for Samsung phones yet, as they are the only ones for which the Diagnose mode is accessible. Read More

Remove Zune Software Completely

As name implies UnZoone is an app designed to completely remove Microsoft Zune software from the system. The main reason for using this app is Zune installation package includes multiple value-added apps. Upon installation, these apps get installed automatically along with registry keys & LIB files including numerous DLLs. Read More

How To Convert Zune Playlist(.zpl) To Windows Media Player Playlist(.wpl)

Microsoft’s free Zune software is a great place for managing your music collection, for $15 a month you can have access to unlimited music downloads and 10 DRM free downloads every month.You can download and manage your music playlists, but these playlists are not compatible with Windows Media Center. ZplToWpl is a free opensource tool that converts Microsoft Zune playlist to Windows Media Player/Windows Media Center compatible playlist.

My Advise To Microsoft: Making Zune playlist compatible with Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center gives users a choice to listen to their music anywhere they want. Wonder why nobody is buying Zune? One reason among many is that it’s not compatible with other Windows Media software, so for God’s sake fix this issue fast.

Read More