At long last, Skype comes to Windows Phone 7

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Nokia's Lumia 710 is among the phones that work with Skype

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Microsoft's multibillion-dollar Skype acquisition is starting to pay off. The software giant today announced that Skype for Windows Phone Beta is now available. Windows Phone 7 device owners can opt to download the software directly to their device or from the Marketplace on their PC.

Skype for Windows Phone Beta comes with features one might expect, including free audio and video calls to other Skype users over 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi, as well as the ability to call landlines or mobile phones for a fee. Group chats and one-to-one instant messaging are also available.

Skype has already been made available on Android, iOS, and Symbian. It took last year's $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype to bring the service to Microsoft's own mobile operating system. In addition to Windows Phone, Microsoft plans to integrate Skype into its many other platforms.

Microsoft says that Skype for Windows Phone Beta will work best on Nokia's Lumia 710 and 800 devices, as well as the HTC Titan and HTC Radar. The Samsung Focus S and Samsung Focus Flash have also been certified to work with the software.

Skype for Windows Phone Beta is only available on Windows Phone 7.5. Microsoft hopes to release the "gold" version of the software in April.

Source: CNET

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Huawei claims first-ever quad-core 10-inch tablet

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(Credit: Huawei)

Chinese electronics company Huawei just made bold claims at MWC when its chairman, Richard Yu, said the Ascend D Quad is the world's fastest phone. Naming another milestone, Huawei has announced plans for the first 10-inch tablet powered by a quad-core processor.

Called the MediaPad10 FHD, the slate uses a similar 1.5GHz K3 CPU Huawei expects to place in the Ascend D Quad. Another alluring attribute you'll find in the MediaPad FHD is a 10-inch IPS LCD screen with a supersharp resolution of 1,920x1,200 pixels. Dolby Surround Sound audio processing will be onboard as well, along with an 8-megapixel main camera and 1.3-megapixel front-facing shooter.

The tablet runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, too, and it will support 4G cellular data networks, either HSPA+ (21/42/84Mbps) or LTE. At 0.35 inch thick, the MediaPad10 FHD also appears to be just as svelte as its main Android rival, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

While Huawei hasn't announced pricing for the MediaPad10 FHD, it says the powerful slate will hit the market globally in Q2 of 2012.

Source: CNET 

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