About a week ago, we heard several reports of Windows Phone 7 users mysteriously sending out large chunks of "phantom data," even when a WiFi connection was available. It may have taken the company a little longer than we would've liked to come forward and address the issue, but yesterday they did just that. Speaking with the BBC, Microsoft admitted that they are investigating the issue and will update us with more information as its available.
One other interesting WP7-related tidbit: it appears that Microsoft may be planning a competitor to Apple's FaceTime video chat client. A "key WP7 employee" has allegedly come forward and said that the company is hard at work on the feature, although they weren't sure if it would appear in WP7 or get delayed until WP8. Some enterprising users have discovered a Microsoft.Phone.Media.Extended.dll file which references both a regular rear camera and a front-facing one.
Considering how many WP7 users are likely on AT&T with limited amounts of data, the "phantom data" issue is something that the company needs to fix soon. In the previous post we did on the subject, one user reported that his handset used up over 500MB of data over a couple of weeks, which is a quarter of the maximum amount of data that many ATT smartphone owners have. I'm sure there are some lucky ATT customers out there that are still holding on to their unlimited data plans, but for those who aren't, the solution can't come soon enough. As for the video chat rumor, I wouldn't be surprised if it became reality. After all, its present in both iOS and Android, and I'm sure that Microsoft doesn't want to miss out on the fad. There's currently no WP7 phones on the market with a front-facing camera, but don't be shocked to see some arrive at some point in the future.
