Microsoft has been quite stringent with the minimum requirements till the first and the second Windows Phone hardware specifications with minimum requirements rest assure that the Developers didn’t have to take that extra effort or compromise the quality of the apps and games for the platform.

But that was until now,since they have updated the new chassis requirements according to a post on MSDN which now makes some previously mandatory requirements as optional one’s.So from now on Camera(both front facing and rear facing),Gyro and Compass would not be an mandatory requirement to be a Windows Phone device.

This might very well be a sign of things to come as we have already been hearing about the Cheap Windows Phones from Nokia to capture the entry level market,this move with no camera requirements would definitely save a huge amount of costs targeted for big enterprises or office places like the data centers where the use of camera phones and camera’s are restricted.

Apart from these changes the rest of the requirements remains the same as of the earlier Windows Phone Chassis,

Standard Hardware

• A common set of hardware controls and buttons that include the Start, Search, and Back buttons.
• A large WVGA (800 x 480) format display capable of rendering most web content in full-page width and displaying movies in widescreen.
• Capacitive 4-point multi-touch screens for quick, simple control of the phone and its features.
• Support for data connectivity using cellular networks and Wi-Fi.
• 256 MB (or more) of RAM and 8 GB (or more) of flash storage.
• A-GPS
• Accelerometer

It remains to be seen whether this would be a welcome move from the end users who are demanding more high end stuff now a days with each and every new smartphone in the market.

Via[Mobility Digest]

Nokia recently unveiled their first Windows Phones with the Lumia series,the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800, but sadly though we didn’t see the dual core Windows Phones from them this time around but thats only a matter of time.

Nokia will be launching more devices in the 2012 calendar year and as reported earlier by mynokiablog ST Ericsson will provide the dual core chipsets exclusively to Nokia for their upcoming Dual core Windows Phone expected to be launched with the next major Windows Phone update codenamed “Apollo”. So with this we will see another chipset manufacturer along with Qualcomm in the Windows Phone business which was the leading chipset maker for the first generation Windows Phones with their snapdragon series.

The first 2 Nokia Windows Phones which are ready for the launch i.e the Lumia 800 and 710 are however on the Qualcomm chipsets.The Novathor  series  U8500 chipset is a dual core with support for 1080p recording with 20MP stills.So we are surely in for a high end hardware treat from Windows Phone platform which is currently missing a dual core category while the other platforms are pitching in with their ginormous hardware specifications.

The NoDO update, which is the upcoming firmware update for Windows Phone 7 bringing in the much required Copy-Paste functionality has been reportedly leaked by a site called 911sniper.

This leak contains an unreleased NoDo update for the CDMA version of HTC 7 Pro! Its been confirmed by dumping the Firmware that this leak actually contains the Copy-Paste code and is infact the NoDo release!

While its impossible to make use of this ROM for any other Official WP7 device due to lack of a custom bootloader, there’s a very high possibility that the HD2 will get this working in a matter of weeks. Hopefully this is the case, as if you’re the owner of a slick WP7 handset, it’s a bit embarrassing not to be able to copy and paste your high score at http://pt.partypoker.com on a 2011 phone if you are a poker fanatic like me.

Right now the only people who can get this working on the HD2 is the DFT Team. Only they seem to have the proper reloc tools required to port this successfully.

If you are a Developer and need to tinker around with the ROM check out the following downloads:

Full NBH:
http://ce7.ondraster.cz/RUU_Gold_C_S…RELEASE.exe.7z

IMGFS:
raw IMGFS.bin http://ce7.ondraster.cz/IMGFS.bin.7z
Dumped IMGFS with built packages http://ce7.ondraster.cz/IMGFS.7z
Dumped IMGFS without built packages http://ce7.ondraster.cz/rawimgfs.7z

NK:
raw NK.bin http://ce7.ondraster.cz/NK.bin.7z
Dumped NK with built packages http://ce7.ondraster.cz/XIP.7z
Dumped NK without built packages http://ce7.ondraster.cz/rawnk.7z

[xda]

The HTC HD2 was launched more than a year back around October 2009. It was succeeded by the HTC HD7. Both the devices have almost the same specs with the major difference of the latter one supporting Windows Phone 7.

Now that Windows Phone 7 has been fully ported over to the HD2 check out the comparison video below showing a year old HD2 beating the recently launched HD7 in terms of speed in both 2D applications as well as graphic intensive 3D apps!

Many HD2 owners have already installed Windows Phone 7 on their HD2′s. There were several issues like Very loud volume, the need to manually modify certain registery keys, no 3rd party keyboard language support, Unused RAM.

Its been almost a month since the release for WP7 for HD2 and finally there seems to be some activity in this area. Some Russian folks over at 4pda.ru have released 2 Custom variants of the Windows Phone 7 ROM.

Take a look at what ROMs they’ve made available :

HD2 1.00.00.WP7

Change log:

• Added new theme from HTC
• Activated system (seem to doesn’t work always need serial!!)
• Activated Chevron
• Reduced sound volume
• Added Russian keyboard
• Added new security policy
• Added profile MMS
• Added the software section of HTC market

Download Link : http://www.multiupload.com/UGXVOC3VBG

Moon light HD2 Rom

Change log:

• The latest build of Windows Phone.
• Built-in Russian keyboard (Replace Spanish).
• Built-in jailbreak ChevronWP7.
• Registry Patch to ChevronWP7.
• New security policies from HTC.
• Set as HTC HD7 T9292.
• Registry Patch to improve performance.
• Reduced the maximum volume level.

Download Link : http://www.multiupload.com/JWGH9N8C6E

Thanks to MagLite,Football,AnDim and the DFT team.

The procedure to install Windows Phone 7 on your HD2 is the same as we’d posted before. Follow that and you’d be good to go!

[4pda.ru]

The HTC HD2 was launched more than a year back and is still receiving tremendous support from the Developer community. Windows Phone 7 for the HTC HD2 was launched just a couple of weeks back by the famed Dark Forces Team.

I’ve been personally using WP7 on my HD2 for 2 weeks now and I’ve to say that I’m really impressed. This comes from someone who’s vigorously used iOS and Android on a daily basis. Sure, WP7 lacks some features but it makes up for it in terms of User Experience and overall Speed of the OS.

I highly recommend anyone with a HTC HD2 to go ahead and Install Windows Phone 7.

To Install Windows Phone 7 on your HD2 make sure you have HSPL 2.08 or higher installed.

If you don’t have HSPL installed follow this post to Install HSPL on your HD2.

Once you’ve confirmed that you have HSPL, download the following:

Tools you need:

• WP7 ROM
• MAGLDR 1.12
• LATEST LEO512(EU) OR LEO1024(T-MOBILE) RADIO

You can download all of these from Click here

Now follow the Video Tutorial below by XDA Member 96edwy :

The HTC HD2 is a device with a lot of tricks under its belt. Not only can it run Windows Mobile 6.5 but a lot of other really cool stuffs like Custom ROMs, Android, Meego, Ubuntu and also Windows Phone 7.

But to do all this you first need to flash in a patched Bootloader which allows running of unsigned code and as a result allowing you to run all these other Operating Systems and Custom ROMs.

Why install HSPL and not SSLP?

Installing H(Hard)SPL is the most safest way to try out different third party ROMs on your device. In case you brick your device, HSPL will force the phone to enter into Bootloader Mode from where you can simply flash another ROM incase something goes wrong while flashing the previous one.

Pre-requisites before Installing HSPL on your HD2 :

Make sure your current SPL version is 1.42.000

To check your SPL version. Restart the Phone while holding the Volume Down Button

Installing HSPL 3 on your HD2 :

__________________________________________

1. Download HardSPL package from Click Here and extract to an empty folder.
2. Connect your HD2 to your Windows PC in ActiveSync Mode. Make sure Windows Mobile Device Center detects it correctly.
3. Run HSPL3_PKG.exe from your PC and read all the text carefully
4. Click Next in the HardSPL program
5. The program will now check the usb connection and Enter Bootloader screen (Tri Colour)
*You can select between SPL2.08.0000 or 2.08.HSPL. This is to avoid people with 1024LEO’s installing an incompatable version and bricking their device*
6. Select 2.08.HSPL for HardSPL and click NEXT.
7. Your choice will be flashed to your phone.
8. After the progress bar reaches 100% your Phone will restart.
9. Click Ok to Exit the program.
10. Congrats, you just flashed HardSPL.

__________________________________________

Here’s a Video Tutorial showing the above steps in action :

I’d previously posted about a Rumor of HD2 getting a WP7S Beta ROM which was later confirmed by multiple sources.

Now a Htcpedia user named ‘MagLite‘ has posed another Video which shows Calculator and Internet Explorer Running on the HD2.

Have a look:

You can see the previous Video and some snaps in my earlier post.

A very popular Site’s Administrator has leaked the information about a Windows Phone 7 Series ROM for HTC HD2. He has provided snaps of the HD2 running WP7S, but that doesn’t mean anything. It could even be simple pictures being viewed via the HD2′s Album Application.

But there’s some credit to the Source as it’s been put up by the Admin of that Forum.

WP7S is still a long way from release and if HD2 is the 1st Device to run it, looking at the current sales of the HD2 in the US, those sales will certainly get even a higher boost due to this.

Is it really true or not? We’ll know soon enough now!

*Update* One of the Moderators at XDA has Confirmed this! Now we all wait with bated breath!

*Update 2* Now updated with Video.

It’s been said that at this moment its not possible to revert back to Windows Mobile 6.5 once you install this WP7S ROM as the Bootloader and AMSS (Advanced Mobile Subscriber Software) have been modified!

Check out Video, more snaps and link after the break.

[via : Htcpedia.com]

Windows Phone 7 Series was announced yesterday. One of the major point to be taken into consideration is the Hardware Specification. The minimum Hardware requirements for a Windows Phone 7 is actually not so minimum.

The previously leaked Chassis 1 Requirement mentions a minimum of 512Mb RAM, a Qualcomm 1Ghz Processor, WVGA Screen, MultiTouch Support among others.

There are a few devices on the market which currently meet those specifications. The HTC HD2 is one of them and it does have a large userbase. So everyone is hoping that the HD2 gets a Windows Phone 7 Update.

Will the HTC HD2 get a Windows Phone 7 Update? Well, probably! Here’s why :

1. The Demo Unit at MWC ran the same processor as HD2, the Qualcomm Snapdragon. HD2 meets all the minimal requirements. (4 Point MultiTouch support on the HD2 is still unknown)

2.HTC Russia had previously Tweeted about the HD2 getting a Windows Phone 7 Upgrade which they later retracted.

3. T-Mobile US has hinted theres something big coming for the US Version of HD2. This point makes it almost sure the HD2 will get an update.

The T-Mobile HD2 is yet not launched, and after the MWC announcement its pretty obvious that no one will buy the T-Mo HD2 now just to see Windows Phone 7 Series launching 6 months later and not supporting it!

Also note that the T-Mobile HD2 has 1Gb ROM which was set as a minimum requirement for Windows Phone 7.

4. Now take a look at a Screen Grab from the Windows Phone 7 Commercial (Forward to 6:51:30) :