Leaked Windows Phone 8 Template/Layout?

 

First off let me start by saying that this is by no means official or even somewhat confirmed, what I can tell you is that this interesting Concept/Layout popped up in my twitter feed last night (unfortunately I can't seem to find the source where this image first came from). Regardless lets treat this as a wishlist/concept render rather than a rumored update. 

What you can see above are some navigation/Ui changes that would hopefully come to Windows Phone 8 or whatever the next update after Tango is going to be. Starting from the First tile/Image render on the upper left I'll work my way across and down trying to explain what I understood from each one.

• The very first screen render seems to be a "Recent Applications Folder" possibly showing you the latest applications along with your pinned applications (similar to pinning applications to the toolbar on Windows 7 PC??)

 

•  Next we see the new multitasking view which shows you the same elongated mini screen of the running apps, however there's now a "X" button to presumably kill the application as well as a new set of toggles that pop up when entering multitasking mode. The toggles appear to be for Wifi, 3G, Battery Saver, Lock screen or app??, and possibly a restart/Power switch. We can also so a Quick app launch/shortcut on the bottom part of the screen (possibly the "Pinned" apps from the previous render?

 

• Next up is the new app list/view which now gives you the option to organize your applications via category or via Alphabet (interesting to see how the category organization will work, will it be preorganized or do you get to move them around?)

 

•  Also included is one feature that I agree should have been implemented form the start, a notification bar that informs you of missed calls/Unread messages as well as the option to differentiate between multiple ringer volumes.
  Could the presence of this notification bar mean that tiles will become optional? something to please those who don't like them?
  
  
  
   
•  Also the much asked for "Folders" feature seems to have been implemented allowing multiple folders each with their own settings to be set as Tile shortcuts as well as accessed within the menu- Also present seems to be landscape support for menu/homescreen which is a nice touch (maybe one of the toggles seen above was for screen orientation?)
  
  
  
  
  Finally we see an interesting feature which is the ability to view apps while the phone screen is locked (demoed here with the maps application)- which could possibly mean that this update could support running WiFi while the phone is locked.
   
  
  
  What are your thoughts? Are some of these features unnecessary? how many have you been waiting for? and most importantly is this the real deal or a fan made concept?
  
  
  
  
  SOURCE

Conspiracy Theory: Lumia 900 Has A Mystery Platform

If anyone follows me on twitter (which I doubt)- there's a theory I've been toying with a while now which is basically that the Lumia 900 will get a certain set of updates (read: Apollo) that won't be available to the other Lumias (mainly 800 & 710)- although there would be no reason for them not to get the same set of updates it could all come down to marketing (900 = US Market = Special Treatment) plus the fact that a case could be made that the 900 is Newer and is the flagship phone. Regardless The Screenshot above while not proving anything solid does open up the questions a bit, why isn't the platform for the Lumia 900 posted as "Windows Phone Mango 7.5" As it is for both the Lumia 710 & 800?? I'll let you guys fill in the blanks.

(Screen shot is from Nokia-US when choosing a side-by-side comparison)

Lumia 900 & Better Devices Coming in October- No 800 for KSA

Ok last "Leak" for now; if you head over to the Nokia KSA twitter you'll find loads of confirmation tweets about Lumia devices coming in October with full arabic support- but the following tweet stood out:

"When will the Lumia 800 be available in KSA"
"It wont be launched in Saudi Arabia, we will however bring the Lumia 900 and better phones in October- god willing"

Now call me crazy but why would you differentiate between the 800 and the 900 if they both have the same future? Nokia KSA previously singled out the Lumia 900 as supporting Arabic, so why not the 800? and what exactly are these Better phones to come? Obviously Windows 8 phones, maybe with a hint of pureview? Why would you launch the Lumia 900 alongside windows 8 devices if it was going to be running outdated software by then- unless it'll be running something else?

Could this be a controlled leak to re-instill confidence and banish the fears from those tempted to upgrade but afraid of being left out in the dark? It would certainly make some sense, as Nokia India confirmed similar theories before; and yet none of the tweets have been redacted removed or denied in a way. It certainly would make sense considering how some blogs have been punching holes in Nokia's Lumia strategy trying to lower their worth.

what do you guys think?

Simple Logic, Apollo on the Lumia 610?

 

Just now while reading some of the comments on MNB about what people would like to see in WP8, and thinking about all the controversy currently going on between  2nd Gen WP to gen WP to get WP8 or not. When I realized that the answer was right in-front of us all the time, a widely asked for feature on WP and a huge reason why alot of Symbian users ARE NOT converting to WP is because of the Blue-tooth file transfer constrictions; but wait, if you can only use BT on WP7.5 to connect to speakers/cars and limited transfer ability why would Nokia bother making a second version of the Lumia 610? specifically one that has NFC support? 

As of now NFC is NOT supported in WP 7.5 and has no real world value due to WP constrictions, so the only logical reason would be that NFC will become relevant on the 610 in an upcoming update (similar to what happened with the C7 where it's NFC chip was useless until Anna) ... which could only be APOLLO/WP8. And since the 610 is the lowest spec phone of the current WP series shouldn't that mean that all other WP devices (that are more powerful than the 610) be privy to the same updates/features?

Remember-

 NFC support was one of the “leaked” features of WP8:

Support for microSD cards is also added, along with NFC support. The latter will work either via NFC built inside a smartphone or via NFC enabled SIM cards.- VIA

NFC and Wallet. Windows Phone 8 will allow users to securely pay and share via NFC and manage an integrated Wallet experience-VIA

Another "clue" to support my theory is that Nokia announced the NFC Lumia 610 less than a month after announcing the Normal 610 and before it was even released, is it possible that they received confirmation from MSFT that the 610 will support WP8 so they went ahead and added NFC support?

Am I overlooking something or is WP8 on 610/710/800/900 a sure thing?