Microsoft have now released a tool that will allow you to recover and update a phone that has crashed due to a failed update. What is also interesting about this tool is that is has enabled Chris Walsh to write a tool that will force an update on your phone even if the carriers have not approved it yet.

Basically they’ve created a managed wrapper over the whole update process for us, rather nice of them.

Official patch http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2530409 

Force Update tool http://blog.walshie.me/2011/04/04/so-who-wants-windows-phone-updates-like-right-now/

Telstra just posted more information about the Windows Phone update due to it being such a “Hot Topic” however it seems that they have only left ask asking more questions?

Here is a screen shot of the web site http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/phones/smartphones.html under the software update tab.

The most glaring error on the site is that they list HTC HD7 as “Expecting to receive software” however the phone comes with NoDo out of the box.

They also have the HTC Mozart and the LG Optimus 7Q listed as  “Expect to receive software for Telstra”. This is very confusing as Microsoft has said they have released the software for testing already so why would Telstra still be waiting to receive the software?????

While its is nice to see more information coming out about the NoDo update from Telstra it is somewhat disappointing that this information is not exactly accurate and seems to raise more questions….

Telstra announced today that the HTC HD7 is now available for sale at their stores.

Today we’re launching a new big-screen mobile that we think caters perfectly for this growing appetite for mobile gaming and video.

In the same announcement they also mentioned the state of the Windows Phone NoDo updates that will be released for their existing Windows Phones.

We know our Windows Phone 7 customers want the latest, best-performing software for their smartphones. We’re working with Microsoft and phone makers to deliver OS updates as quickly as possible. The Windows Phone 7 ‘pre-update’ has passed Telstra’s test program and we expect Microsoft to make it available to our 7 Mozart and LG Optimus 7Q customers late this week or early next week. Additional software updates for both devices will follow in April.

Source: http://exchange.telstra.com.au/2011/03/29/htc-hd7-the-ultimate-entertainment-phone/

Microsoft have just released an update schedule to list the fragmented update status of all the phones by carriers around the world. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/features/update-schedule-world.aspx

As you can see this schedule shows Telstra as still “Testing” the February and March updates which is behind many of the other carriers around the world.

However the official Telstra twitter account ( @telstra ) has confirmed that the HTC HD7 that is being released this Tuesday 29th March will definitely have the NoDo update pre-loaded.

the HD7 is releasing with NoDo

http://www.twitter.com/Telstra/status/50781737348890624

As you can see this does not confirm that other Telstra Windows Phones will be updated on or before this date. But it does mean that Australia users can officially have a Windows Phone with Copy & Paste support in only a few days…

There has been a lot of speculation in the blogosphere as to weather phone carriers have the ability to block rolling out updates to Windows Phone 7. This has certainly made some of the strong supporters of Windows Phone such as Paul Thurrot to be very frustrated that this “Janurary” update has now been pushed back to “late march” due to partly technical issues but also suspected delays from the carriers.

Now the official twitter account of Australia largest carrier has confirmed that the NoDo update is done however the “Telstra” version currently does not have a release date (See below). This pretty much confirms that carriers (and not Microsoft) control the release date of the Windows Phone firmware’s which makes us wounder how much delay this will introduce in releasing the update to phones…

http://twitter.com/Telstra/status/50337161261744129

Update: I have also been able to confirm that unlike Windows Phone there is not “Telstra” version of the iPhone and it is released directly by Apple.

http://www.twitter.com/Telstra/status/50347295463579648

Microsoft has just blog about the issues that were being reported about the pre-Nodo update that has started to be pushed out (here More answers about our first software update). In summary about 90% of phone updates have gone smoothly however and the other 10% have been failing mainly due to “insufficient computer storage space” or poor internet connection. So the update is not going all that bad however it is certainly not without its issues…

Meanwhile back in Australia none of the carriers (according to WMPowerusers.com here)  have started to push out any updates their Windows Phone devices. This is certainly frustrating as Australia was one of the first countries that had Windows Phone 7 devices for sale so its users have been waiting longer than a lot of other countries.

When I asked the @telstra twitter account when the update was coming for the HTZ Mozart they said that were still waiting for details from the “Mobile team”. This would seem to indicate that the update process is initiated by the carriers explaining why Michael Stroh said on the Windows Phone Blog why the update process “could be days—or even weeks—before you’re able to update your phone.”.