Unwired View » Microsoft

New Windows Mobile 7 screenshots leaked

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:24:04 +0000

We’re still about one year ahead of seeing the first Windows Mobile 7 phones launched, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a look at what Microsoft’s next mobile OS will bring.

WMExperts has an image that seems to compare Windows Mobile 6.5 with Windows Mobile 7.

The bottom row in the photo below is “roughly” showing what WM7 will look like, and it’s easy to see that the new OS obviously looks much better than WM 6.5.

As you can see, there’s no start button in WM 7, and everything’s optimized for a finger-friendly touchscreen experience:

More comparative images (including contacts, email and messages) were posted over at PocketNow:

Well, until Windows Mobile 7 is ready, WM fans can check out those new Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones, including the HTC Touch HD2.

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More details on Windows Mobile Marketplace’s Phase 2

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:18:51 +0000

Earlier this month, we told you about the Phase 2 of Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which should be ready in November, bringing the Marketplace to WM 6.0 and WM 6.1 phones.

Now this has been confirmed by Maarten Sonneburg from Microsoft Netherlands, who also provided new details regarding the future of Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

By late November/early December, the Marketplace will host many more apps than it does now, both paid and free. Moreover, a “geo selector” feature will allow users to download applications released in other countries than theirs.

At the moment, Windows Marketplace for Mobile is available only for Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones (like AT&T’s HTC Pure, or Verizon’s HTC Imagio).

Via MoDaCo

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Samsung Giorgio Armani Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone unveiled

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:38:52 +0000

Earlier this year, we told you that a WM 6.5 Samsung Armani smartphone is in the making, and today the handset was officially announced in Italy.

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer himself presented the new device, saying that it’s “the most fashionable phone he’s ever had a chance to talk about.”

Resembling the Samsung Armani W820/W8200 feature phone, the WM 6.5 Samsung Armani doesn’t seem to have a name yet. Anyway, apart from Windows Mobile 6.5, it features a 3.5 inch AMOLED touchscreen display, GPS, 5MP camera, 8GB of internal memory, MicroSD card slot, and a full QWERTY keyboard.

The Samsung Armani Windows phone will cost €700 ($1032), although its release date is not known at the moment. Until the handset hits the market, here’s a video promo of it:

Via Blogosfere.it and Engadget

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Microsoft announces huge list of Windows Mobile 6.5 phones, HTC HD2 included

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:35:56 +0000

Some of the new Windows Mobile 6.5 phones have already been announced by US carriers (HTC Pure and Tilt2 for AT&T, HTC Imagio for Verizon).

Well, today Microsoft has unveiled all the devices that will come with Windows Mobile 6.5 in near future, including some WM 6.1 handsets that will be upgraded to the new version of the mobile OS.

In the US, apart from the already mentioned smartphones, customers will also be able to buy the Samsung Intrepid from Sprint (pictured below), starting October 11. Latin America will also get a taste of Windows Mobile 6.5, as TIM Brasil will launch the Samsung Omnia II in the coming weeks.

Moving on, here’s the list with WM 6.5 devices that will come to Europe:

HTC HD2 from Orange France, available in the coming weeks (the HD2 has been officially announced by HTC too)
MDA Vario V, MDA Compact V, HTC Touch2 and Samsung Omnia II from Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) in select markets
HTC Touch2 from Orange – in France, Spain, Switzerland and Romania
Samsung Omnia II from Orange – in Poland, Switzerland, Slovakia and France
Samsung Omnia LITE from Orange France and Spain
Samsung Omnia PRO B7320 from Orange France and UK
Toshiba TG01 W from Orange – an update to the TG01 coming in the next few weeks in France, the UK, Switzerland and Romania
LG GM750 and Samsung Omnia II from SFR in France
TMN Bluebelt 2 and TMN Silverbelt (both made by ZTE) from TMN Portugal
Samsung Omnia II and Omnia LITE from TMN Portugal
HTC Touch Diamond2 from Vodafone – in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia and South Africa
HTC Touch Pro2 from Vodafone UK and Switzerland
LG GM750 from Vodafone Germany, UK, Spain and Netherlands

In Asia, China Unicom will launch the ZTE X60, while Telstra Australia prepares the HTC Touch Diamond2.

There’s also a list of WM 6.5 phones that are apparently available in Asia on the open market:

Acer neoTouch, beTouch E100, beTouch E101 and beTouch E200
Garmin-ASUS nüvifone M20
HTC Snap, HTC Touch Pro2, HTC Touch Diamond2 and HTC Touch2
LG GM730 and LG GM550
Samsung Omnia II, Omnia PRO B7320 and Omnia PRO B7330

All Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets come with Windows Marketplace for Mobile and Microsoft My Phone.

“A Windows phone lets people take their entire world of digital information, communications, applications and entertainment with them wherever they go,” declared Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Via Microsoft

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Windows Mobile 7 will feature Social Networking integration

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:20:02 +0000

Although Windows Mobile 6.5 phones aren’t officially out yet, Microsoft is already working to complete Windows Mobile 7, which should be launched sometime in 2010.

A job announcement found at Mictosoft’s official website unveils that WM 7 will feature a “Mobile Social Platform” that should “bring social networks to life by integrating them into the core experience” of Windows Mobile 7 phones.

More exactly, Microsoft wants users to get all the news and updates from their favorite social networks in a “single hub” integrated into their phones. So it seems that Windows Mobile 7 will be able to offer what Palm’s Synergy and Motorola’s Blur are offering.

The Mobile Social Platform for WM 7 is in the early stage of development, that’s why Microsoft is looking for a senior program manager to help “several WM7 teams” develop it. The job announcement can be found here.

Via MobileTechWorld

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Nokia Booklet 3G – full specs, price unveiled

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:53:11 +0000

Last week, when Nokia announced the Booklet 3G – its first netbook – the company didn’t unveil all the details about it.

Well, today, while presenting its new phones (N97 mini, X6 and X3) Nokia has also offered more details about the Booklet 3G.

As you probably already know, Nokia Booklet 3G is a Windows 7 netbook. Apparently, customers will be able to choose between Windows 7 Starter Edition, Home Premium, or Professional.

The full specs of Nokia Booklet 3G include:

10.1 inch display with 1280 x 720 pixels
Accelerometer
Intel Atom Z530 CPU at 1.6 GHz
1GB DDR2, 533 Mhz, soldered down
120GB SATA HDD, 8 MB cache, 4200 RPM
Inbuilt 3G modem (data calls only). Different variants: WCDMA: 850/1900/2100 or WCDMA 900/2100 or no modem
WLAN 802.11 b/g/n, 2T2R
A-GPS
Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1.3 MP front facing camera with microphone
16 cell, 56.8 Wh, Li-Ion prismatic battery
Up to 12 hours of usage time
264 x 185 x 19.9 mm
1250 grams

I/O ports:

1 x HDMI 1.2 out
1 x headphone out (OMTP 3.5 mm); the OMTP headsets also functions as audio in
3 x USB 2.0
1 x DC-in
1 x SIM / USIM slot
1 x SD card reader

Nokia has integrated the following services into the Booklet 3G:

Ovi Suite 2.0
Ovi Maps
Nokia Music for PC
Social Hub – helps you keep track of social software feeds; it also “serves as a SMS sender”
Nokia software updater

Other software:

Microsoft Office Small Business (60 day trial)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
HDD protection utility, Hotkey utility, Battery Life utility, Knock Control utility, Power Profile Switcher
F-Secure Internet Security 2010 trial

Nokia Booklet 3G will be available in tree color versions: ice (white), azure (blue) and black. Its price will be of €575 – about $818.

Via Nokia Conversations

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The first Windows Mobile 6.5 phones coming on October 6

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:45:20 +0000

Microsoft has just announced that the first batch of Windows Mobile 6.5 phones will be available around the world starting October 6 this year.

In Microsoft’s words, WM 6.5 “will deliver new customer experiences through an improved, easy-to-use user interface, better browsing capabilities and access to valuable services”.

Among these services, MyPhone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile are probably the most eagerly expected by users.

Microsoft didn’t say what phone models will be launched exactly. However, it did mention who will come with WM 6.5 handsets:

in North America – A&T, Verizon, Sprint, Bell and Telus will have phones from Samsung, LG, HTC, HP and Toshiba
in Europe – Orange, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) will have phones from Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, HTC, Toshiba and Acer
in Asia Pacific – NTT DOCOMO, Softbank, SK Telecom, Telstra and Willcom will also have handsets from Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, HTC, Toshiba and Acer
in Latin America, TIM Brazil will release devices from Samsung, LG and HTC

Via Press release

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Microsoft launches OneApp, helping feature phones to become smarter

Ilinca Nita — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:29:20 +0000

After announcing its Office-related collaboration with Nokia, Microsoft is further expanding its presence in the mobile market beyond Windows Mobile, by launching OneApp.

In Microsoft’s words, OneApp is a software application that offers feature phones the ability to run various mobile apps like Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Twitter and Mobile Wallet.

Targeted at mobile users in emerging markets, OneApp has only 150KB, while its apps have about 30KB. The software includes a cloud service, which lets users access apps that are not stored on their phone.

OneApp will be first launched in South Africa, in collaboration with Blue Label Telecoms.

“When people see these apps running on a feature phone, their eyes light up. It’s pretty exciting. What we’re letting you do is get access to the applications and services you want from a device you already own. If you don’t own a PC, or you share a PC, your mobile phone may be your first or only computing device,” said Tim McDonough, Microsoft ‘s senior director of Mobile Product Management.

A video preview of Microsoft’s OneApp can be watched below (funny – the application is not demoed on a feature phone, but on a Nokia E65 Symbian smartphone):

Via Press release

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Microsoft promotes higher prices for mobile apps

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:06:25 +0000

As it’s getting ready to launch Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Marketplace for Mobile in the next few months, Microsoft indents to attract as many app developers as possible on its side.

More exactly, the software giant encourages developers to price their apps higher than they do when offering them through other app stores.

According to TechFlash, Loke Uei, member of the Microsoft Mobile Developer Experience Team, said yesterday: “It’s up to you to play your pricing, but we would definitely want to promote that you make more money selling applications than selling your application in a dollar store.”

That “one dollar store” is a clear reference to Apple’s App Store, where there are countless applications priced at $0.99.

Microsoft’s idea is to promote high-quality applications that would have a higher price and thus bring more revenue to developers. End users should benefit from this too, since they probably prefer to pay $5 for a really good app rather than $1 for a crappy one.

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Microsoft’s dual platform strategy confirmed, WinMo 6.5 Touch promised

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:16:23 +0000

We’ve heard about Microsoft’s dual platform strategy only few weeks ago, and now this seems to be confirmed.

Unspecified Taiwanese sources have reported to DigiTimes that Microsoft indeed wants to keep Windows Mobile 6.5 on the market even after Windows Mobile 7 is launched.

Once WM 7 is out (sometime in Q4 2010), Microsoft will lower the price of WM 6.5 and make it compete with Android, while WM 7 devices would compete with Apple’s iPhone (which, by then, will reach the fourth or fifth generation).

Windows Mobile 6.5 should be officially launched on October 1 this year, with a WM 6.5 “touch interface” upgrade coming in February 2010.

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Microsoft prepares WinMoDevCamp events for WM developers

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:44:31 +0000

While being busy working with Nokia to bring Office Mobile to Symbian, Microsoft is also getting closer to launch Windows Mobile 6.5.

To lure as many developers as possible, the Redmond company has set up the Windows Mobile Developer Camp, which is a series of future “not-for-profit gatherings to develop applications for the upcoming release of the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 OS.”

The first WinMoDevCamp event will take place in Seattle, on August 19. After that, there will be similar events in New York, San Francisco, Austin, London and Singapore.

Microsoft expects attendees to include mobile developers, UI designers, .Net Developers, web developers, and testers.

Apart from creating new Windows Mobile apps and meeting Microsoft Mobile Developer Experience team members, attendees will also be able to “migrate existing mobile applications from the iPhone, Blackberry and Palm Pre to the Windows Mobile Platform.”

You can find more info, as well as register for the event at the WinMoDevCamp official website.

(thanks to Brian Blank for the tip).

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Nokia, Microsoft sign deal to bring Office Mobile to Symbian smartphones

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:39:06 +0000

Nokia and Microsoft have just announced an agreement that will – as expected – bring Microsoft Office Mobile to Nokia’s Symbian smartphones.

Office Mobile (including Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote) will be first available for the Nokia Eseries handsets (apparently starting 2010), with more S60 smartphones to get it afterwards.

The alliance will also see Nokia bringing Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile and Microsoft SharePoint Server to its smartphones.

“Together with Microsoft, we will develop new and innovative user experiences for employees of small and large businesses alike, ensuring Nokia’s smartphones are an integral part of the office and home-office environment, and addressing the significant opportunity in mobile enterprise productivity,” declared Kai Öistämö, Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices.

This is the first time when Microsoft agrees to work on a version of Office Mobile for mobile devices that don’t run on its Windows Mobile platform.

Via Microsoft

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Nokia, Microsoft to announce alliance tomorrow, possibly related to MS Office

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:59:18 +0000

Microsoft and Nokia aren’t exactly the best pals in the world, so it comes as a surprise the fact that, tomorrow, the two giant companies will be announcing some sort of alliance.

According to CNET, the deal is about Microsoft’s Office suite, which is might become available to Nokia’s Symbian smartphones.

Speculating a bit, Microsoft and Nokia could also unveil an upcoming Nokia smartphone with Windows Mobile – but this will probably never happen

A press conference was announced for tomorrow, August 12, at 11 AM (NY Time), when more details about the Nokia-Microsoft alliance will be unveiled.

Via IntoMobile

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Windows Mobile 6.5 Build 23022 demoed on video

Ilinca Nita — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:20:02 +0000

A new build of Windows Mobile 6.5 has been recently previewed on video, few days after several screenshots of its have appeared over at the xda-developers forum.

This Windows Mobile 6.5 Build 23022 has some new features and it seems to be tweaked for use with capacitive touchscreen displays (hence those that don’t need a stylus).

For example, the OK/close soft button is now located at the bottom of the screen, instead of being at the top. Also, there’s a “iPhone-like magnifier” that should help users better control the cursor with their fingers.

Here’s the video preview:

Pocketnow suggests that this may, in fact, be an interim version of WM, between Windows Mobile 6.5 (shown on video last week) and Windows Mobile 7: perhaps Windows Mobile 6.5.1, or Windows Mobile 6.7.

Via WMPoweruser

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Microsoft confirms multi-touch, designates WM7 to high-end, while keeping WM 6.5 for mass market

Staska — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:19:26 +0000

If you into Windows Mobile devices, you’ve probably already seen the video walkthrough of the final build of Windows Mobile OS, posted by Inquirer.

While the new build, icons, UI tweaks and services like MyPhone and QR tags look nice, you may have missed the important bit of news that Microsoft rep let slip about future Microsoft strategy, some WM7 features, and the place of Windows Mobile 6.5 after Windows Mobile 7 comes out.

Starting at about 6:35 min into the video and going until about 8th minute, the discussion turns to the lack of multi-touch availability in WM 6.5, and then proceeds to discuss Microsoft future mobile strategy:

Here are the key points of that discussion and some of my thoughts what it all could mean:

1. “There’s no multi-touch on WM 6.5, because there are 155 different Windows Mobile phones on the market, and each one has a different idea. “

Now, this sounds like a pretty strange statement, since there surely can not be 155 different WM 6.5 phones out there. Microsoft rep is probably talking about WM 6.1, or even 6.0 devices, and, probably, confirms how Microsoft is looking at WM 6.5. As an incremental upgrade/patch, to carry through with it’s partners until the genuine new version of OS (WM 7) is ready. Sort of mobile version of what Windows 3.11 was to Windows 3.1, until Windows 95 came out.

2. “… moving forward we will work closely with [OEM partners] for hardware specifications, etc; so the software we put in can exploit the hardware, introduce multi-touch and the whole new range of experiences exploiting multitasking capabilities of Windows…. Any of the experiences you see on some of our competitor devices today will be knocked in the different realm [Windows Mobile 7].

This statement from Microsoft rep confirms the rumors from a while ago, about pretty demanding hardware specs that Microsoft is planning for the devices running Windows Mobile 7 OS. And, also, quite openly promises to bring the best features from iPhone and Android devices to Windows phones.

3. [Windows Mobile] 6.5 will coexist with 7 when it comes out. [WM] 6.5 will be a breadth play, lower cost device. [Windows Mobile] 7 will be, you know, a premium hardware experience exploiting all the stuff out. As Moore’s law comes in and the hardware comes down, [with] the next version – 8, 9 and 10 – [WM] 7 will become the breadth market, ‘cause the hardware costs will come down, and then you bring out new experiences in future versions…

Now, this one is a really interesting news tidbit.

It looks like from now on Microsoft plans to have two fully supported versions of Windows Mobile OS on the market at the same time. One version for cheap, lower specc’ed mass market devices (Windows Mobile 6.5 for now), and another one for the high end, top of the line devices, with the best software features current hardware can support. As the hardware becomes cheaper and new capabilities are introduced, the newest OS moves down the value chain towards mass market devices, and the new OS is developed to exploit the newest top of the line capabilities at the time.

Sounds like a pretty interesting and smart move on Microsoft part, and pretty similar to what other established mobile OS – Symbian, with at least 2 actively supported versions of OS at any one time – is doing too. Nokia, with the planned introduction of Linux/Maemo based devices, in addition to it’s Symbian smartphones, is moving in the similar direction too.

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Windows Marketplace opens for submissions on July 27; WM 6.0 and 6.1 will be supported

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:15:55 +0000

July 27 is the date when Microsoft will open its Windows Marketplace for submissions in 29 countries – meaning that app developers will finally be able to present the apps that they’d like to be included in the Marketplace.

This will prepare Windows Marketplace for its launch – sometime in the fall of 2009, at the same time with Windows Mobile 6.5.

Interestingly, Microsoft says that by the year’s end, Windows Marketplace will be available for Windows Mobile 6.0 and Windows Mobile 6.1 as well.

Windows Marketplace will include a Business Center, where business users should be able to easily find what they need (i.e. mobile business applications).

Microsoft also said that it would organize a developer contest, but details about it will be announced when Windows Marketplace gets launched.

Via Windows Team Blog

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Microsoft selects agency to create ad campaign for the WM7 Pink phone

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:58:35 +0000

It looks like that rumored Microsoft Pink phone is a real device after all.

According to AdWeek, McCann’s T.A.G. ad agency was selected by Microsoft to create a marketing campaign for the Pink phone.

“Pink” is only a codename for the moment, but it’s said that the device behind this codename will feature Windows Mobile 7, high-end features, and it will be the very first Microsoft-branded smartphone.

Windows Mobile 7 should be ready as early as the fall of 2009, but the Pink phone will probably not be out before 2010.

Reportedly, the Pink handset will feature a new UI on top of WM 7, called Purple. This might be developed by Danger, the company that makes software for T-Mobile’s Sidekick series.

Well, now we have to wait for Microsoft to confirm all this, right?

Via ZDNet

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XPPhone hybrid device actually runs on Windows XP

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:09:19 +0000

A rather unknown company called In Technology Group (ITG) has just unveiled the XPPhone, a combination between a MID and a cell phone that runs on Windows XP.

Presented as a “pocketable mobile internet terminal”, the XPPhone has a generous 4.8 inch TFT touchscreen display with 800 x 480 pixels, and a sliding QWERTY keyboard.

The ITG XPPhone weighs 400 grams (battery included) and features GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an AMD CPU of unknown speed.

Furthermore, the hybrid device supports GSM/WCDMA, CDMA/EVDO, or TD-SCDMA/TD-HSDPA connectivity – so it could be used anywhere around the world.

Apparently, the terminal will be launched in various configurations, which should include hard drives of up to 120GBs.

ITG didn’t say when the XPPhone would be commercially available, and neither for what price, but the company will showcase a prototype at Computex 2009.

Via UMPC Portal

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Windows Mobile 6.5 is now complete, “looks really good”

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:29:09 +0000

Microsoft has just announced, via its developers’ Twitter account, that Windows Mobile 6.5 is finally complete and every bit of it is functional.

According to the WM developers team, the 6.5 OS “looks really good” – and that’s not a surprise, since we’ve seen quite a few images of it.

Of course, we still have to wait for the commercial release of Windows Mobile 6.5, but it’s good news that everything is now ready for primetime.

To better illustrate what the new Windows Mobile is offering, Microsoft has published a video preview of it, running on the HTC Touch Pro (well, actually it’s AT&T’s version of the Touch Pro – the Fuze, reviewed by us here).

The video includes most of WM 6.5’s features, like MyPhone – which backups your data on a Microsoft server (for free), so if you lose your handset you will be able to restore all the data from it on a new phone.

To view the video, visit Microsoft’s Tech-ed website – it’s definitely worth watching it.

All in all, although it’s not a major upgrade from Windows Mobile 6.1, Windows Mobile 6.5 does seem pretty cool, so WM fans will probably love it.

Needless to say, many WM 6.1 handsets will be upgradeable to WM 6.5 as soon as this is out – handsets like HTC Touch Diamond2, Toshiba TG01 and so on.

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No new Zune device in June after all

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:52:08 +0000

Earlier today, we’ve reported about a possible Zune device that would be released in June this year to compete with the iPhone and the Palm Pre.

The info was based on two twitter posts which turned out to come from an account that actually has nothing to do with Microsoft. Instead, it’s an account of an iPhone application developer, created to raise awareness about iPhone software piracy. Weird way of doing that, isn’t it?

Anyway, Microsoft has debunked the June-Zune rumor by confirming to Neowin that no Zune device will be released next month.

Well, that’s too bad for Zune fans. I guess we’re still far from seeing a Zune phone – if such a phone will ever be made.

Now let’s see if the rumors about the Windows Mobile 7 specs will also be debunked.

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Possible specs for Microsoft’s Pink phone, Windows Mobile 7

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:35:37 +0000

Windows Mobile 7 is still quite far away (it should come in 2010), but it looks like we can already get a glimpse of it.

The folks over at ZDNet have stumbled upon a list of specs that, reportedly, are for “the Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1”.

Apparently, the Chassis 1 is the heart of the rumored Microsoft Pink phone and it could also be used in other Windows Mobile 7 handsets.

It’s said that the leaked list comes from a trustworthy source, although it’s a few months old – thus the specs might have changed in the meantime.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s exactly what ZDNet says the WM7 Chassis 1 specifications might be:

Core requirements:
Processor: ARM v6+, L2 Cache, VFP, Open GL ES 2.0 graphics HW (examples: QCOM 8k, Nvidia AP15/16, TI 3430)
Memory: 256MB+ DRAM, 1G+ Flash (at least 512MB fast flash – 5MB/s unbuffered read @4K block size)
Display: WVGA (800 × 480) or FWVGA (854 × 480) 3.5” or greater diagonal
Touch: Multi-touch required
Battery: Sufficient to meet Days of Use LTK requirements.
Controls: Start, Back, Send and End are required (soft controls allowed as long as they are always present).

Peripherals:
Camera: 3MP+, flash optional, 2nd camera optional (VGA resolution sufficient)
GPS: aGPS required
Sensors required: Light Sensor, Compass (3 axis, 5 degrees, 100 Hz sample rate), Accelerometer (3 axis, 2mg resolution, 100 Hz sample rate)
USB: High speed required, 20 MB/s transfer rate.
BlueTooth: BT2.1 required, must run MSFT BT stack, CSR BlueCore6 or later recommended.
Wi-Fi: 802.11B/G required, must run MSFT Native Wi-Fi stack, Atheros 6002 or Broadcomm 4325 recommended.
Connectors: Micro USB and 3.5mm Audio required.

Options:
FM tuner: If tuner HW is present it will be detected and supported by the Media application.
Haptics
SD Card (Micro SD recommended)
DPAD, qwerty or 12/20 key keyboards all optional

So we’re looking at high-end devices that will most likely be capable of competing with what Apple, Nokia and Palm would release next year.

Hopefully, Microsoft and its partners (HTC, Samsung, LG and so on) will not disappoint when the actual WM7 phones come out.

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Windows Marketplace is now open for registration

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:17:28 +0000

Microsoft is now one step closer to launching its Windows Marketplace for Mobile, as it has just announced that the app store is open for developers who want to register and develop applications.

In order to register, you need to visit the official Windows Mobile website.

The registration process will provide you with “links to key documentation for distributing apps through Windows Marketplace for Mobile.”

So there you have it, if you feel you can develop apps for the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 platform, you can start doing it now.

It’s still not clear when the first Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone will hit the market, but this should happen in the second half of 2009.

Via MSDN Blogs

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Facebook for Windows Mobile officially launched

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:50:44 +0000

Shortly after Facebook 1.5 for BlackBerry was launched, Microsoft has now introduced an official Facebook app for Windows Mobile 6 and Windows Mobile 6.1.

As you’d expect from a Facebook application, the new Windows Mobile one lets you: easily send messages to your Facebook buddies; upload pics and videos directly from your phone; manage your profile and update your status.

Keep in mind that the app only works with Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 devices (WM 5 is not supported) and it will also be compatible with Windows Mobile 6.5 – so you’ll be able to use it on handsets like, say, i-mate Legionnaire and i-mate Centurion.

You can download Facebook for Windows Mobile 6 / 6.1 from here, or directly on your smartphone / Pocket PC from here.

Via WM Experts

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Microsoft is negotiating carrier-branded versions of Windows Marketplace

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:58:27 +0000

I’m sure you already know quite many things about Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace for mobile, but you probably haven’t heard about this: the Redmond-based company is currently in talks with giant European carriers (like Vodafone and O2), in order to launch branded versions of the Marketplace.

So we might soon see a Vodafone Windows Marketplace, an O2 Windows Marketplace and so on.

According to Tweakers.net, Maarten Sonneveld from Microsoft Mobile Netherlands has officially confirmed that Microsoft is negotiating with European carriers, although exact details are currently not known.

Windows Marketplace for mobile will be launched at the same time with the first phones running on Windows Mobile 6.5, thus sometime in Q3 or Q4, 2009.

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Windows Mobile 6.5 will feature voice command software from Tellme

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:21:38 +0000

Microsoft subsidiary Tellme Networks has just announced a new voice command service that will be available, for free, on Windows Mobile 6.5 phones.

Reportedly, the Tellme service is the first that allows users to press only one button, say what they need and get it. Whether you want to make a call, send a text, or search for info on the Web, Tellme should make your life easier.

Microsoft’s subsidiary says that its service will make Windows Mobile 6.5 phones faster than Apple’s iPhone in some cases.

For example:

“it requires four touches and more than 20 keystrokes to find a business with the Apple iPhone, while it only takes one button push and one verbal command to find the same business with Tellme.”

A video presentation with the Tellme app for Windows Mobile 6.5 can be seen below:

Via Press release

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Mobile Connect application for Microsoft Surface

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:40:36 +0000

Microsoft has recently unveiled a new application for Microsoft Surface – its multi-touch computing platform currently available only in a commercial and a developer version (priced at $12,500 and $15,000, respectively).

The application is Mobile Connect and it enables you to connect a Windows Mobile handset to a Microsoft Surface unit, in order to interact with data found both on the phone and on the multi-touch platform.

For example, you can easily transfer contacts, ringtones, photos and other types of content.

The application is available at the Surface Community website, but for the moment only Community members can download it.

Anyway, here’s the demo video with the new Microsoft Surface application – I’m sure you’ll find it interesting:

Source: MSDN blogs via PDA.pl

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Windows Mobile 7 to come with Zune?

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:59:23 +0000

That rumored Zunephone may never become reality, but this doesn’t mean Microsoft can’t bring Zune software to Windows Mobile, right?

And while chances for this to happen with Windows Mobile 6.5 are low, it’s said that Windows Mobile 7 will likely come with Zune integration.

Last time we heard about it, WM 7 was scheduled for a 2010 release, so it looks like we have to wait quite a bit until Zune hits Microsoft’s mobile platform.

Well, at least the Redmond company has all the time in the world to properly integrate Zune with its upcoming Windows Mobile 7 smartphones.

Most probably, Zune for Windows Mobile will work like the desktop version – so users will be able to organize music and access Zune Marketplace or Zune Social.

The problem is, if you don’t have an unlimited data plan, you’ll probably end up paying quite a lot if you’re downloading a high number of songs. Anyway, let’s first wait for Zune to actually come to Windows Mobile, and then we can talk about stuff like downloading songs and such.

Via WMPoweruser

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Microsoft announces Windows Marketplace details

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:51:24 +0000

Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Microsoft’s own app store, was announced during MWC 2009, but with little details about how software developers would be able to create and sell applications.

Today, Microsoft has come up with more info about Windows Marketplace, unveiling the fact that developers will get to keep 70% of the sales revenues.

However, for submitting apps, you need to pay a $99 annual tax, which allows you to submit up to five apps per year. An extra of $99 is required for each app you want to submit in addition to the five ones included in the annual tax.

The Redmond company also said it wants to provide “transparency throughout the certification process”, as well as “guidance and support from the stage of development to the final sale to the consumer.”

If you know your way around Windows Mobile apps, you can go to Microsoft’s website and get the needed tools to start developing.

Initially, Windows Marketplace for Mobile will be available in 29 countries. It will most probably be activated at the same time with the release of the first Windows Mobile 6.5 devices.

Via Press release

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Vodafone announces Microsoft Online Services with voice and data

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:19:59 +0000

Vodafone has just announced a global partnership with Microsoft under which the carrier will start offering its business customers Microsoft Online Services with voice and data.

The new communication solution will integrate the following: Microsoft Exchange Online for e-mail and calendars; Microsoft Office Communications Online; Microsoft SharePoint Online; and Microsoft Office Live Meeting (for webconferencing and videoconferencing);

Vodafone’s new offering will be first available in Germany and Spain, sometime later this year. After that, other Vodafone markets will get it too.

Vodafone says that the partnership with Microsoft will be extended in the future, as to provide “a fully converged fixed and mobile communications solution for businesses”.

Via Press release

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Secrets @ MWC09. Nokia Sparrow, Android 3.0, Luxury Android from Motorola and more

Staska — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:11:11 +0000

Eldar Murtazin from mobile-review.com is probably the best connected journalist covering the mobile industry, with amazing access inside almost any major cellphone maker.

And he proved that again at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

When we all were busily running around reporting on all the new mobile products , Eldar was sneaking inside the closed demo rooms of Nokia, Motorola and others to check out what these companies are preparing to launch as far as in 2011.

Lucky for us Eldar has started sharing some bits and pieces about these things on his personal blog and in some other public places. (Disclaimer: everything below is only rumors, but considering the source, I put a lot of trust in them)

Let’s start with some pretty far out stuff.

Nokia Sparrow multi-core computer running Linux

ARM’s multi-core Sparrow chip has just been announced last week, and Nokia is already working on it’s first compact mobile computer with some blow-out specs, running Linux OS on this CPU. But don’t get your hopes up – this Nokia device is slated only for 2011 release.

Eldar got to play some with the early prototype and found it mighty interesting.

The design of Nokia Sparrow device does not follow the current netbook trend, going more the MID way, with some passing resemblance to Nokia N800 internet tablet.

It will have multi-slide keyboard, with different layouts/keys revealed as you slide it in different directions. The display also slides in several directions for different functions – think Nokia N97 tilting display.

The new Nokia computer has a very interesting keyboard with diamond shaped, elevated keys inverted to each other. At first glance it seems very uncomfortable – the keys are pretty small (about half the size of normal key), actually the device itself is rather small. But when you start typing on it, it works very well. It is very difficult to hit multiple keys with a finger, even on purpose.

The Nokia Sparrow computer has a novel, transparent widget based interface. Each running application gets it’s own semi-transparent widget to put it’s content in. Multiple applications can be stored in memory “for months”. E.g. when you are writing a document or e-mail, just swipe the finger through the screen and semi-transparent panels with active or pre-set applications and their content pop-up. Select one and you can start working with it at once.

Well, that’s about it for now. I asked our Ilinca to draw up something from the musings above. What with all the things lost in translation, and not really very exhaustive visual description from Eldar, I’m sure it’s pretty far off the real thing. But one needs to start somewhere:

Understanding Android

Android is pretty well stuck right now, because of Google, which does not really want to strongly promote Android devices yet. They have a key partner – HTC – which already released/announced phones (Dream, Magic) based on Android 1.0.

The first release of Android OS – it’s Google making a claim for the future position in mobile OS market. It is more like a marketing tool to train the public on Android and also to give the developers a live device to make the apps for. Though there will be some interesting new Android devices coming from HTC and others later this year.

Android 2.0 looks pretty sad. Android won’t get to the level Google and partners want to see it on until releases 3.0 and 4.0. It has multiple partners working on Android 3.0 devices and there were some demos of the handsets with Android 3 in closed showrooms. They look fantastic. The problem is that Android 3.0 is not slated for release until the mid of 2010, with version 4 to follow in 2011. So it will be a while until Android devices reach their full potential.

Some good news for Motorola?

There might have been a reason why Motorola looked so lame at MWC 09. According to Eldar:

The biggest surprise of the show? Motorola –no doubt about it. 100, 1000 percent. Elegant and very unusual. Common words hide very uncommon things. Someone smart, very smart joined the company. And clearly with the experience not from the University bench.

Disinformation is pouring through all the channels inside the company and everyone gets his own, different spin. The foot solders get one part of the picture, which, while using the right words totally confuses true meaning. Middle management gets confided with a bigger part of the story, as a “big secret”. Higher level managers outside the States get one more peace of the puzzle. But even the partners of the company do not have the full info.

Everyone is confused, competitors won’t even look Motorola’s way, which allows it to do some very unusual things.

Will it work or not? I won’t say. Actually I can’t say, because I’m not sure myself yet. The basic idea is very simple and elegant. It could work.

But before it get’s public, there will still be some announcements of the models we are used to. So do not expect anything exciting from the next few announcements. They are just placeholders.

Motorola is also definitely working on an Android device. And will use the chassis of one of the recently cancelled models. It may be VE1/RAZR3/Ruby, but I am not sure about that. Eldar mentions that there’s something of the RAZR style in the new phone, but it’s actually kind of new form factor, which will be launched at the end of the year.

The most interesting thing about the new Motorola Android phone is that it is not targeting the mass market. It’s aiming towards the truly luxury one. Something on the theme of Moto Aura – expensive chassis and unusual services, somewhat comparable to Concierge from Vertu.

Other interesting tidbits

Sony Idou presented at MWC was only a plastic mock-up. SE does not have a working Idou model yet. And, regarding the 12mpx camera, Sony Ericsson themselves have not yet seen the actual camera modules.

Windows Mobile ain’t doing too well. Plans to reduce the WM license price by half are under way, just to keep WM handset makers on board. Very many of them are looking Google’s way.

About WM Dialer app. It was a major problem in earlier WM versions, resulting in dropped and lost calls, etc;. The reason was pretty bad quality programming of dialer app, which was constantly reloading every 30 mins. When Eldar asked some Microsoft reps whether they solved the problem and rewrote the Dialer app, the answer was – “Yes, sure, everything’s OK now. We don’t have to relaunch it anymore, now we have a separate utility that clears memory from it… every 15 mins…”

Well, that’s about all I was able to fish out of Eldar’s musings for now.

But stay tuned

Source: Eldar Murtazin Live Journal, Radio-T podcast (mp3 in Russian)

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Windows Mobile 6.5 and MyPhone video demo and pics

Staska — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:30:00 +0000

One of the bigger news from MWC 09 in Barcelona is that Microsoft was finally able to announce their finger touch optimized Windows Mobile 6.5 OS version, along with a couple of new services – Marketplace (for mobile apps) and MyPhone (for phone back-up).

Not that they are ready to put WM 6.5 on any device yet. You will only start seeing them this fall, so all serious vendors had to go out of their way to promise free upgrades to newly announced handsets that will start with WM 6.1 at first.

Still, Windows Mobile 6.5 is a pretty significant upgrade for the struggling operating system. It is less cluttered, much more user friendly and handles the finger touch navigation much better.

Microsoft was making a presentation of their new Windows Mobile OS running on HTC Touch Diamond2 handset at their stand and here’s the video with quite extensive feature overview of WM 6.5, along with their new MyPhone service:

And here’s some live pictures of WM 6.5 on HTC Touch Diamond2:

Overall, the new OS looks pretty nice. But will it be enough to really improve Windows Mobile fortunes?

Yes, all the touch improvements look good. But by now everyone is has more or less figured out how to do touch on mobile. And another 6-8 months until the new WM 6.5 based devices are ready to ship is a darn long time.

With your main partners suspending or deemphasizing WM handset development in favor of Android, almost all current vendors going out of their way to create their own touch interfaces and to hide WM presence from the user, and significant WM7 upgrade more then a year away, I don’t know…

Microsoft has tons of money and incredible perseverance. But it faces an uphill battle here, with many years of effort, very limited results to show for it, and with an upgrade that will change WM fortunes, perpetually just around the corner

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Microsoft My Phone and Google Sync mobile cloud services announced

Staska — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:30:19 +0000

2009 is shaping to be the year when Mobile Internet/Web/Cloud services really started going

After success of Apple, everyone and their grandma is lunching their own mobile app stores. Music and games delivered to your phone via operator’s data connection is a nobrainer for most of the mobile players. And let’s not get started about Mapping/Location based/Social thing. .

The next frontier is creating a cloud service for all that data on your smartphone and syncing it, so it’s safe, up to date and accessible from anywhere. Nokia tries to do this with OVI, Apple has Mobile.me. Now Microsoft and Google is joining the fray.

Microsoft will be launching the beta version of it’s MyPhone service for syncing information between mobile phone and the web during MWC 2009 in Barcelona next week.

Microsoft already has a preview site running and says that the the new service will allow you to “…back-up and restore phone’s information to a password protected website, access and update appointments through the web and share the photos on your phone with family and friends…”

For now service is free and works only with Windows Mobile handsets. But these things will probably change in not too distant future.

Careful wording on MyPhone site – “…we do not charge for the My Phone service at this time” suggests that there may be a paid offering in the future. Probably with basic free version and more advanced paid one.

I also have it on pretty good authority that the exclusivity of Windows Mobile phones on this service is not a permanent thing. Microsoft will open My Phone to third party/OS handsets through ActiveSync Exchange as soon the service is ready.

Google today also announced their own synchronization service – Google Sync (beta) for iPhone, WinMo and SyncML phones.

iPhone and WinMo phone owners can sync their contacts and calendars with GMail and Google calendar. All the data will be updated via push technology over the air, using two way connection. So your data on the phone and PC will be always fresh and synchronized, without the hassles of manual updates or wired connections.

Unfortunately other phones with SyncML support are not so lucky and will not get calendar sync just yet. Only contact updates are available for them.

For now Google Sync service seems rather limited compared to offerings from Microsoft, Nokia and Apple. But everyone appears to be moving in the same direction with their mobile cloud services, and the clash between the big players in this field seems imminent.

My guess is that this year all of them will continue rolling out and integrating various mobile/cloud offerings, with the real showdown and fight for the user attention starting sometime next year, probably around MWC 2010.

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First Windows Mobile 7 devices to come in April 2010

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:07:32 +0000

With Android gaining more and more popularity, Windows Mobile’s future may not look as bright as Microsoft wants to see it. And unless the Redmond company comes quickly with a new and revolutionary edition of its mobile OS, WM could suffer a serious market share loss.

I’m sure you already know that Microsoft has two versions of its mobile platform in the making: Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Mobile 7.

While WM 6.5 will probably not bring many changes when compared to the 6.1 version, WM 7 is expected to be Microsoft’s truly innovative OS.

According to ZDNet, Windows Mobile 7.0 might be released to testers in November 2009, while the first handsets to run the upcoming OS could be outed in April 2010.

Of course, until then, WM 6.5 should be released, and it’s said that this will happen in April 2009, with the first devices launched starting September 2009.

For the moment, there are no clear details on what WM 6.5 and WM 7 can bring, but as long as it’s new and useful stuff, we’ll all be happy campers.

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Microsoft patents the interface to transform your phone into a PC

Staska — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:51:51 +0000

The power of modern smartphones in many ways equals and even surpasses the power of a desktop PC of just few years ago. You know, things like CPUs faster then 800 Mhz, hundreds of megabytes of RAM, tens of gygabytes of storage, dedicated graphics accelerators, etc;.

So why not just ditch the old laptop and buy a new smartphone for all your computing and communication needs? Well, you can’t.

The small form factor of the device, including miniscule screen, keyboard and arcane input methods are just not up to the task for the most basic personal computing needs.

But Microsoft seems to have found a way to actually replace your PC with a smartphone without any of the problems mentioned above.

The answer comes in a form of a docking cradle for a mobile phone that connects to your LAN, external HDD, keyboard, mouse, display and any other peripheral you like. It’s described in a patent application “Smart interface system for mobile communication devices”.

The smart interface system is a bit smarter then your average phone cradle. It contains it’s own CPU, memory and embedded OS that handles the communication between the phone and peripheral devices.

Embedded OS acts as an intermediary – storing, updating and using drivers for peripherals and simulating a computer for them. It intercepts signals coming from the docked handset and translates them into commands and data that the active peripheral can understand, and does the same for the signals coming from the peripheral to the phone.

So if video stream is coming from the handset, it gets intercepted by the cradle OS, transcoded there and then gets sent to the connected overhead projector to be displayed. When keyboard or mouse input is detected, it gets translated into a command sequence that docked phone can understand and is sent there to be executed.

The kind of peripherals that can be connected to such “smart system” is virtually unlimited and can include:

… televisions (TVs), monitors, displays (e.g., LCD, LED, etc.), projectors, mice, keyboards, gesture input systems, touchpads, touch screen displays, and other human interface devices (HIDs). The peripheral devices 108 can also include printers, cameras, audio and audio processing systems (e.g., speakers, electronic music systems, etc.), image/video and image/video processing systems (e.g., video cameras, digital cameras, scanners, etc.), and storage systems (e.g., USB (universal serial bus) drives, IEEE 1394 drives, external drives, flash drives, etc.), for example. The networks 110 include the IEEE 802 family of wire and wireless networks. The other systems 112 can include set-top-boxes (e.g., cable TV boxes), high-definition systems, home theater systems, security systems, sensor systems, sensor systems (e.g., temperature, humidity, pressure, time, etc.)

Seems like a simple and pretty elegant concept. And it moves a dream of a single all purpose computing and communications device a step closer to reality. Actually, for many of us not interested in latest games and high def video editing, the needed processing capacity is already there.

Just ask yourself – are the most of the things you do today on your PC that different from the things you did on your 400 MHz Pentium II laptop with 128 MB of RAM and 20GB HDD 10 years ago? And every second smartphone today already carries more computing power then this.

The things most of us do on a PC – Net access, text and spreadsheet editing, image viewing and limited editing, standard video playback – worked pretty well on any Pentium II machine. It seems that the only missing link here is in the quality software to make the features described in MS patent app work.

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Microsoft and LG go hand in hand in mobile deal

David Gonzales — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:09:55 +0000

Remember how your momma always told you, it’s going to be a dog eat dog world “out there?” Well, times are a-changing, at least as far as Microsoft and LG are concerned. The two companies have just signed an agreement to collaborate with each other in mobile technology.

According to a statement issued by LG: “The agreement ensures continued strategic collaboration in R&D, marketing, applications, and services in the field of converged mobile devices.”

So basically, LG and Microsoft are going to level with each other in terms of mobile technology development. “Both companies will continue to define and align their mobile strategies through annual top management meeting,” the statement further goes.

Of course, all this is part of the larger battle in the smartphone arena, which is currently ruled by Nokia, and where the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Google Android phone lay wait for their own chances to strike. But by any means, I think it’s going to take a long time before anyone single-handedly, or even collaboratively, takes down Nokia as the ruler of the smartphone roost, whose mobile OS is running on two-thirds of smartphones in the world.

And don’t even get me started about the Symbian Foundation. There’s an alliance you can be sure will shake the industry soon.

Via Reuters

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Microsoft wants to combine multiple WinMo devices into a single system

Staska — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:01:53 +0000

One of the biggest problems in mobile phone development are the limited resources that can be crammed into a small portable body. Various trade-offs to screen size, power consumption, CPU capacity, amount of available memory, etc; have to be accommodated in the name of portability.

At the same time, everyone around seems to be carrying some portable device. But when we want to share something with a friend, or do some things together on some smartphone, all other devices around stay idle.

What if there was a possibility to pool all the resources, including CPU’s, memory, displays, storage, etc; of all portable devices around us to accomplish certain tasks?

Well, Microsoft is exploring possibilities along these lines in it’s patent application called “Mobile device collaboration”.

Microsoft wants the phone hardware and software with built-in “proximity detection”, “synchronizer ” and “resource coordinator” modules. When such phones are brought close together, they are combined into a single computing module and act as a single device sharing all the resources.

The main attention in the patent app is focused on video sharing among multiple devices, including one case where 21 cell phone display screen is combined. But that is only one potential use of such system.

The scenarios explored by Microsoft include:

Video Display Aggregation- creating a single display from several phones

CPU/Memory Aggregation to perform tasks that are otherwise not possible or when the processing power of a single device is not enough for the task. E.g. HD video decoding, gaming apps, etc;

Storage Aggregation for external storage, remote backup and file sharing

Battery Aggregation – when connected via wired interface, several phones can share battery power. E.g for call forwarding when one phone runs out of power

Radio/Antenna Aggregation to increase communication bandwidth

Multiple microphone aggregation to perform stereo recording, or to support other microphone-array enabled applications such as determining the speaker’s position, etc.

Speaker aggregation to create stereo audio playback, or provide “orchestra” and other surround-sound effects if more than two mobile devices are available.

Camera aggregation to perform stereo video capturing or super-resolution recordings

Keypad aggregation to provide better input means

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Microsoft patents lego-like modular GPS Navigator, camera, phone thingy

Staska — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:35:40 +0000

It seems that these days mobile phone is becoming a hub to any any other electronic device/function. You know – digital camera, TV, media player, GPS navigator, perfume dispenser…

But not everyone may be happy that it is a phone first. Maybe they would like their device to be something else first, and the phone only second or third? (Although for us, phone junkies that may sound crazy a bit …)

Still, it seems that even Microsoft might be thinking along these lines. And has a patent app for a modular lego-like GPS Navigator with attachable phone, camera and other functions to prove it:

The basic idea is pretty simple: Create a slim and efficient base for a GPS navigator to carry easily around. With big touchscreen, battery, GPS, CPU, memory and other necessary chips and software. Add some connection ports to the sides of the device. And then create external modules for additional functionality (e.g. phone, modem, camera, card reader, additional power pack, etc;) for users to buy and attach to the base unit.

I guess it’s not a really new idea. And it is not even necessary to have GPS Navigator at the base – Modu already has a similar working phone.

But it may be a pretty interesting and useful idea to some. And I have yet to see a such a device in the retail store near me.

So, if Microsoft decides adapt their mobile OS and/or make a reference design for such a thingy, maybe someone will get busy making one eventually?

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Microsoft Veda. New look at mobile convergence

Staska — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:32:17 +0000

It was so easy to tell what is what and what for when we only had mobile phone and laptop to carry around.

But today, with the proliferation of smartphones, PDA phones, communicators, MID’s, UMPC’s, sub-notebooks and what not, sometimes it’s pretty difficult to know where to put any particular device and how best to use it.

The latest such device to come out of Microsoft R&D labs will not make this task any easier.

Revealed in a patent application “Multi-mode multimedia device and computing system” it describes a thingie like this:

And why would we need such a device? Microsoft gives the following rationale – while computers are able to perform most of the tasks carried out by dedicated devices, sometimes it’s harder to perform the same action on a PC:

“… making a telephone call using a computer involves knowing what application is used on a computer to make a call, starting the application and figuring out how to use it using input devices attached to the computer like keyboard and mouse. Instead if the device had a hardware keypad that is normally used in a telephone, along with appropriate software then dialing a call would just involve pressing “Dial” button, followed by the numbers to be dialed on hardware keypad and the required software will come up and complete the call for the user. In this way the interaction of the user with the device would be the same as the interaction with a special purpose device for making a telephone call”.

So the device, described above, can be used as a phone, when in closed position, as a multimedia player when the screen is open, and as a normal portable PC by opening the screen and extracting the keyboard.

To be even marginally useful, such a device would be bigger then your normal phone. But external accessories can be added, if you would want to use such device as a mobile phone too:

On the left there’s a remote control, wirelessly coupled to the computing device. It can be used for making telephone calls and controlling other device functions.

Other figures in the picture above, show some features of User Interface on the device. And they might be even showing the it’s name – Microsoft Veda.

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Windows Sideshow is now available for Windows Mobile devices

bogdan — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:55:56 +0000

A beta version of Windows Sideshow has been made available for Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0. Even though the software is a developer-intended beta, you can still try out its current features.

Windows Sideshow is a technology that Microsoft rolled out in Windows Vista. It supports a secondary screen on your mobile PC and allows you to use it to view information, whether the laptop is on, off or in sleep mode. It does this through the use of gadgets, small applications that extend the information on your PC.

The fact that it is now available on mobile devices may open a world of possibilities in terms of controlling your computer from your PDA-phone.

The current developers’ preview allows you to use Windows Sideshow to control Windows Media Player or PowerPoint from your Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6.0 device. Still, the possibilities are endless in the future, considering the modular style of the application.

Programmers could use the software and Managed Application Software Development Kit to build all kinds of new gadgets. You could check your e-mail without an Internet connection on your mobile device, or listen to the MP3 files on your computer without even starting it.

The beta can be downloaded here.

Via: msmvps.com

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Microsoft wants to teach manners to you mobile device

Staska — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:47:30 +0000

In addition to many benefits brought to us by mobile phones, there have been a few drawbacks as well. Especially, related to ethics/culture/social issues of the mobile phone use.

Don’t you just hate it, when during an engaging presentation, show or movie, a mobile phone of some as#$%^&&, sorry, forgetful person, begins to ring? What about someone taking out his high end cameraphone and doing something with it in the locker room? Can you be sure he’s not taking your nude pictures in the shower? What about someone secretly recording confidential conversation on his mobile phone?

Microsoft seems to have an idea how to solve all these problems at once. By creating device manners policy DMP), to which all mobile devices will have to comply to. And they even want to patent it.

According to Microsoft:

Such policy may be used to communicate to various mobile and other devices the “manners” with which compliance is expected or required. Similar to some of the social manners honored among people, such as with “no smoking” or “employees only” zones, “no swimming” or “no flash photography” areas, and scenarios for “please wash your hands” or “no talking out loud”, devices may recognize and comply with analogous “device manners” policy.

The system can be implemented in several ways. Bigger venues and businesses may have a separate box – DMP server – which transmits information about allowed actions to all mobile devices within it’s reach. Nearby devices can wirelessly talk to each other and agree on the limits of acceptable behavior. Policies might be transmitted via carrier network and implemented at certain locations via GPS positioning or tower triangulation. In some cases even some non-perceptible to human signals, like invisible (to human eye) watermark, or inaudible (to human ear) audio signals and RFID tags may be used to lock some functionality of the mobile device.

Examples of the use of such Device Manners Policy include:

a museum, which provides additional exhibit info to users mobile phone, but transmits a “no photography” policy and allows to bring in only those gadgets that indicate compliance with it
the “no photography” DMP may be provided in the form of a special tag such as a unique watermark (generally not visible to humans), radio frequency identification (”RFID”) device, or the like located on or near various exhibits, such a tag being detectable and/or identifiable by a DMP-enabled device via optical, RF, or other appropriate means.
“no recording” DMP may be provided in the form of an audio signal, typically inaudible to human listeners, in connection with music or some other audio or audio/video reproduction.
“no noise” or “no light” DMP may be provided to watches with audible alarms, shoes with lights (as sometimes worn by children, for example), cameras, flashlights, cell phones, PDAs, or any other device that may benefit from compliance with a “no noise” or “no light” DMP.
DMPs may be used in particular zones to limit the speed and/or acceleration of vehicles, to require the use of lights, to verify an indication of insurance coverage and/or current registration, or the like.
DMPs may be propagated with acceptable usage times for mobile devices, such as when on an airplane with being restrictions common at times of landing and/or take-off.
DMPs may be used to cause devices to be reconfigured for silent operation in locations such as libraries, court rooms, hospitals, meeting rooms, theatres, or the like.
DMPs may be the result of voting or a consensus among current members of an ad-hoc network or the like. For example, the majority of current bus riders may agree upon and propagate “silence please” DMPs that cause cell phones to reconfigure for vibrate versus audible rings, that cause audio devices to work only with headphones, that cause gaming devise to switch to a silent mode of operation, and the like.

I really like most of the ideas described in here. But I’m not sure about the need or even use of patenting it.

In order for the whole scheme to work, Microsoft will have get all major cellphone makers on board. And then do some serious footwork convincing third parties about buying additional equipment, needed to implement DMP. And there’s not much point of implementing the whole thing on WinMo devices, if iPhones, Nokias, and Blackberries do not care about it.

Still, I think it’s an interesting approach to a problem. As our devices are getting smarter and smarter, it would be nice to see them getting some manners and social sense too.

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Microsoft working on Fone+ for developing countries

David Gonzales — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:02:47 +0000

Quite remarkably, Microsoft has been working on an idea called Fone+ for a number of years already, and yet we are finding more info about it only now. It is said that this project went full speed from the time that Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft, took over the company’s Unlimited Potential Group to focus on the developing world.

Fone+ is simply Microsoft’s idea of an affordable phone, which would be nothing more than a Windows Mobile based handset that can connect to a larger display for better viewing for users. In fact, this idea sounds so ridiculously simple, I’m surprised no one has come up with a similar solution to it yet, considering all the technology that we have now.

The idea, according to recent reports, is to “connect a low-to-mid-end smartphone based on the Windows Mobile OS to a TV via a docking station so data on the handset can be displayed on the TV screen. That way, people can use the computing power in the smartphone on a big screen.”

“It’s a lot cheaper than having to buy a whole separate computer,” said Mundie in an interview at Microsoft’s Government Leaders Forum in Jakarta, Indonesia last Thursday.

It’s a great idea, and when it finally comes to fruition, it’s certain to impact a lot more people than say, a UMPC or low-cost desktop. Simply because more people have cellphones. (Some people even have more than one phone.) When this finally happens, that’s the time to say that “portable computing” really exists.

Via PC World

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Microsoft Gaming System for your Zune, Xbox, PC and PDA

Staska — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:15:53 +0000

Microsoft already has one of the best gaming systems around with Xbox 360 gaming console. With Xbox Live it also has one of the best online gaming services. Zune is great music player so far, but Microsoft has plans to transform it into a mobile gaming platform.

And the recent Microsoft patent filing called “Multi-component gaming system” shows how it will bring it all together into an ultimate networked gaming nirvana. Here’s how this system will work:

Any device that has CPU, memory, appropriate connection interface and necessary software, will be able connect to the system. The device can be your portable Zune player, PDA Phone running Windows Mobile x.0, Xbox 360 Elite, your Vista Laptop or Desktop PC, or a Windows XP server running in your basement. It can even be your friends pocket PC connected via 4G network.

The devices can be connected via any wired or wireless interface, e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LAN, UWB, USB, Firewire docking station.

When connected, all of these devices become a component of a single system and are able to share all of their resources and features with each other. Thus you and your friend can use your Windows Mobile Smartphones to control XBox 360 game that is streamed to your big plasma TV through the Media Center in the living room, while the special sound effects are delivered to the surround sound system from your docked Zune media player.

The key here is the software that allows for the seamless connection and sharing of processing, memory , storage, connectivity and other resources among all the components (devices) connected to the system.

Microsoft gives a number of very interesting examples how this system can be used:

console gaming device can be processing a game application provided by a handheld gaming device
handheld gaming device can use the console gaming device’s spare memory to store results of previous games
handheld device can comprise at least one flash memory compatible port and the console gaming device 44 can comprise at least one Universal Serial Bus (USB) compatible port.When combined, the flash memory compatible port(s) are available to the console gaming device 44 via its USB compatible port(s) thus increasing game console memory capacity
one of the input/output ports of the console gaming device 42 can be coupled to a large screen display and another of the console gaming device’s 42 input/output ports can be coupled to a home theater audio system. Accordingly, the video and audio of a game being played on the handheld gaming device 40 can be rendered on the large screen display and the home theater system, respectively, via the console gaming device 42
handheld gaming device 40 can comprise sound effects for displayed objects, but not-include Doppler for objects in motion. Another handheld gaming device 38 can comprise a library of Doppler sound effects for object in motion. When combined, one handheld gaming device 40 can download other handheld gaming device’s 38 Doppler sound effect library to enhance it’s sound effects.
if console gaming device does not have enough power to process 3 pictures for Picture in Picture functionality, it can offload the processing for two pictures to the handheld gaming devices, therein utilizing the them as adjunct processors
gaming components can provide updates and/or modifications to other gaming components in combination.
non-gaming applications on a gaming component can be controlled by another gaming component in combination. For example, the handheld gaming device can be used to control music playback on the console gaming device.

There are a lot more possible combinations and functions for the integrated gaming system described in the patent application.

And if it is really implemented in the future, you might find yourself playing Halo on your fridge screen in the kitchen, while having breakfast at the same time.

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