Windows release is coming closer, Many are wondering what feature will be included in the Windows Phone 8, One feature that is nice to have will be the ability to take screenshots with a Windows Phone 8 handset. The video below shows how it is expected to work.

According to some sources, it will be a simple matter of pressing the home and camera buttons together. This was discovered on the SDK although there are no guarantees that it will make the final version of the OS. One thing that Microsoft did to make using this feature easy was to set up a separate file in the Photo Hub so that users will know which photos came from the screenshot function.

Today, Financial Times is reporting that Nokia will change its marketing tactics with the launch of its first Windows Phone 8 smartphone (which is expected on October). The new plan is to enter into a partnership to offer a new smartphone on the network of just one or two European carriers. The financial newspaper says that Nokia has had secret negotiations with a number of carriers including France Telecom, but no deal has been agreed to at this time. Another carrier that could get involved is Deutsche Telekom.

Nokia's current marketing strategy calls for the Finnish based handset manufacturer to flood all distribution channels with phones, getting them into as many hands as possible. The new plan calls for entering into agreements with a carrier or two that would support Nokia's models.

Full Report

When Nokia announced its Q2,2012 financial results, CEO Stephen Elop said that the upcoming launch of Windows Phone 8 would "be an important catalyst" for the company's range of Lumia smartphones.

The New York Times reports that Elops also gave more specific details on Windows Phone 8. Reportedly, Nokia's chief mentioned that WP8 would be released in October... Specifically 26,October. And this does make sense, as Windows 8 for PCs and tablets is also going to be out that month.

Source

Microsoft has reportedly given Windows Phone 8 developers access to the lock screen in order to allow displaying of their app notifications there. The sources said that there will be not one or two, but four options how to display notifications on the lock screen, giving both devs and phone makers the ability to customize the look and feel of their apps and devices further.

Here are Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 current guidelines for 3rd party app developers to build a lock screen presence, and we are glad something is definitely brewing in that department:

"Lock screen basics:

• To determine whether your app is a good candidate for a lock screen presence, you must understand the operation and limitations of the lock screen. A summary of the lock screen is given here. For more information, see the Lock screen overview.

• A maximum of seven app badges can appear on the lock screen. The badge information reflects the badge information on the app's Start screen tile. The badge (either a glyph or a number) is accompanied by a monochrome icon (logo image) to identify the app the badge is associated with.

• Only one of those seven apps can occupy a detailed status slot, which allows it to display the text content of the app's most recent tile update.

• The lock screen's detailed status tile does not show images included in that tile update.

• The user is in charge of which apps can display information on the lock screen, and which one of those apps can display detailed status.

• All apps that have a lock screen presence can also run background tasks. All apps that can run background tasks have a lock screen presence. An app cannot use background tasks without also claiming a slot on the lock screen.

• The notification queue is not supported by the lock screen's detailed status tile. Only the latest update is shown.

• An app with a lock screen presence, as long as it has set the Toast Capable option to "Yes" in its manifest, displays its received toast notifications on the lock screen when the lock screen is showing. Toast shown on the lock screen is identical to toast shown elsewhere.

• Tile updates, badge updates, and toast notifications are not specifically designed for or sent to the lock screen. You, as the sender, don't know if the device is currently locked. For an app with a lock screen presence, any notification is reflected both on the Start screen and on the lock screen."

The Microsoft Windows Marketplace was available only in 63 countries, and only 38 of those countries were allowed to submit apps. But now, Microsoft is planning on expanding that list considerably and has announced to bring the New Windows 8 Marketplace to over 180 countries at launch. Here is the omplete list Below: