Install Windows Phone 7 Mango update on a non-rooted, non-developer-unlocked Dell Venue Pro (India)

Mango is the much awaited update for Windows Phone 7. The Mango update brings 500 new features, over the latest NoDo update. These features include multitasking, E-mail conversation view, Internet Explorer 9, Twittter and Linkedin integration and custom ringtones.

As of now Mango is in beta. The beta update is available to those with a developer account and pretty much limited to certain countries which does not include India. But my Dell Venue Pro bought in India is powered by Mango Beta now! It was earlier running official NoDo update (OS version: 7.0.7390). Following is how I updated my Dell Venue Pro without rooting it, unlocking it and without a developer account. Read the rest of this entry »

Tethering a Dell Venue Pro bought in India

Tethering allows the sharing of a mobile phone’s GPRS/EDGE/3G Internet connection with a PC, typically via USB or Bluetooth/WiFi. Nokia, Andorid and Windows Mobile (before Windows Phone 7) phones support tethering. Most service providers in India have data plans that allow tethering, enabling access to the Internet on laptops while on the move.

In fact, tethering has often come to my rescue where most other ways to connect to the Internet have failed. I blame it on the lack of their availability and/or price. Hence I aptly demand tethering from every phone I own or use. But my latest  phone, a Dell Venue Pro (powered by Windows Phone 7), does not support tethering out of the box.

Googling reveals a hack which is repeated across the Web. But the hack never worked on my Dell Venue Pro. Read the rest of this entry »

Xbox Support in India: 3 Red Rings of death

While it has been a few months, I did not want this experience gone untold. And hence this blog post. This blog post can serve as a guide to those in India experiencing issues (esp. the red rings issue) with their Microsoft Xbox.

In my case, the issue sprung up on the night of 25th October. I switched on my Xbox after a long time, updated it (as prompted) and started playing a game. After a few minutes of playing, Xbox hung, all of a sudden. I rebooted the console. This time it hung immediately during the welcome animation. I did not miss to notice 3 Red Lights flashing on the front of the XBox. Red means something wrong, 3 Reds mean something screwed up. Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft Tag Reader for Android

What is Microsoft Tag? In simple words, Microsoft Tag allows you to store information in images (Tags). More on Microsoft Tag can be found here. My excitement about Microsoft Tag is, the Tag Reader app is now available for Android phones.  

I own an Android Dev Phone 1 (a.k.a. ADP1). It was just today that Microsoft Tag Reader app for Android was announced. The Tag Reader app allows to scan, extract and store information in Microsoft Tags using the phone’s camera. Read the rest of this entry »

Slice out my latest post

The second beta of the upcoming version  of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE 8 ) web browser was released last month. One of the touted features of IE 8 is Web Slices.

Many of us cut out articles from the newspapers if we find them interesting. Think of Web Slices to be cuttings from Web sites. But with a difference. If these cuttings (web content) are updated on the respective web sites, you will be notified, as well as your cuttings will be updated. Technically, you “subscribe to a Web Slice”, instead of saying cutting it off which may offend the webmasters

The latest post on my Blog is Web Slice enabled (or say, it is a Web Slice). In fact, it is Web Slice enabled since some time. Perhaps, some of you (who are using IE 8 ) would have noticed it.

Read the rest of this entry »