Weekend Reading: March 15th Edition – Windows Phone 8 Wins PCMag.com’s Readers’ Choice Awards for Smartphone Operating Systems

Well, it’s been one heck of a busy week here at Microsoft! This week, Windows Phone 8 won the smartphone category in PCMag.com’s 2013 Readers’ Choice Awards, the Xbox 360 kept the top console spot in the U.S., the Duke of York visited the Yammer office in London and the Twitter app for Windows 8 was released. Phew! Read more about it below.

And the winner is… PCMag.com’s 2013 Readers’ Choice Awards are in and Windows Phone 8 won in the smartphone category! “According to our survey respondents, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 clearly bests Apple and Android. In 2012, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 shared the Readers’ Choice Award for mobile phone platforms with Apple’s iOS. This year, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 stands alone at the top, relegating Apple’s iOS to Honorable Mention,” PCMag.com writer Ben Gottesman reports. You can get the full story over on PCMag.com.

Keep better track of favorite bands using Buzz app for Windows Phone. Do concert and album announcements tend to get lost in the noise of Facebook, Farmville, and family? Do you usually find out local shows from reviews the next day. If that’s the case, you can stay more up to date on the music scene with Buzz, a recently-enabled feature of Windows Phone 8 that rolls up info from social media and Bing to provide a snapshot of what your favorite bands are up to. Where available, you’ll find it in the Music+Videos Hub when you tap on an artist. Read this post on The Windows Phone Blog to get the entire story. Below is a trio of screenshots from the Buzz app.

WinPhone

Twitter for Windows 8 now available in the Windows Store. That’s right! It’s here! The Twitter app for Windows 8! The design of the Twitter app for Windows 8 should look familiar: it utilizes the same design principles seen on Twitter.com and other Twitter mobile apps featuring the Home, Connect, Discover, and Me tabs. And the updated Twitter app for Windows Phone also uses the same design principles. Head on over to the Windows Experience Blog to get the full story.

Twitter App for Windows 8

That’s right! Xbox 360 Stays No. 1 Selling Console in the U.S. for 26th Straight Month! Xbox 360 sold 302,000 units in February, marking its 26th consecutive month as the number-one selling console in the U.S., according to data released today by The NPD Group. Read more about it in Thursday’s post on The Official Microsoft Blog.

Get virtually unlimited attachments and get up-to-date with Outlook.com. Outlook.com left preview just a few weeks ago as the world’s fastest growing email service. Millions of customers continue to join Outlook.com daily.  We have been humbled by some fantastic reviews and today, we wanted to share more about two features that are customer favorites: the ability to share just about anything in a single message using SkyDrive and the ability to keep your address book automatically updated with info from Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. We think these features give you a better experience and embody the way modern email should be designed to meet the needs of modern people. Get the rest of this story over on The Outlook Blog.

The Duke of York visits Yammer’s London office. On Wednesday, His Royal Highness, the Duke of York – supporting the business community in the United Kingdom and enthusiastic about helping to boost East London  as a centre of hi-tech endeavor – was on an official visit to Tech City which encompasses the network of more than 1,300 digital or creative businesses and technology start-ups in the East of London. Yammer co-founder and general manager Adam Pisoni hosted the Duke together with Joanna Shields, CEO of Tech City in our office where he met a selection of entrepreneurs and company founders who have chosen Tech City as the place to imagine, start and grow their businesses. You can read more about the Duke’s visit over on the Yammer Blog. Below is a photo of the Duke at the Yammer office.

The Duke of York Visiting Yammer in London

Thanks for reading!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

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