Windows Phone News

Windows Phone 7 is out there

Tuesday, 20 July 2010 09:25 greg

Microsoft have announced that after the Windows Phone 7 OS has been used daily by more than 1,000 people in Microsoft and over 10,000 developers that the technical preview is now out there to the broader community. From yesterday they say that thousands of prototype phones from Asus, LG and Samsung are making their way into the hands of developers over the next few weeks.

The whole mobile OS has moved on massively since Microsoft first released Pocket PC and this early preview is getting some pretty mixed reviews.

The BoyGenius Report states that "There is no killer application on Windows Phone 7, and we can’t see an overwhelming reason to use one instead of an iPhone, BlackBerry or Android handset. Whether Microsoft’s OS updates to the platform will be enough to change our minds in the future is up to them, but for now, they’ve created a decent mobile operating system from scratch, but it unfortunately still has that Microsoft feel. And that’s not the best thing sometimes."

Infoworld is alot more brutal stating "Windows Phone 7: Don't bother with this disaster Microsoft's demos of its great mobile hope shows Windows Phone 7 to be only a tepid knockoff of a 2007-era iPhone"

ZDNet balance the views stating "After using the Technical Preview version of Windows Phone 7 in an up close and personal way I can honestly say that I am quite excited for the holiday season when we will see these devices launching from Microsoft".

Finally Engadget give a more cautious review "What we've been presented with here doesn't exactly feel like a complete mobile operating system in many ways. Some parts of Windows Phone 7 are more like a wireframe -- an interesting design study, an example of what a next-gen phone platform could be. That's both good and bad. On one side, we're still really excited by the prospect of Metro as a viable, clean-slate approach to the mobile user experience, and there are lots of smart moves being made that could lead to greatness. On the other side, Microsoft has to turn this into a viable retail product that can hang with the fiercest competition in the history of the cellphone in just a few months' time, and there are some serious issues that need to be addressed. Frankly, it's a little scary."

So what does that tell us? In my view this a pre-Beta v1 Mobile OS and thus is going to have some flaws and missing capabilities, the problem is that Microsoft has to finalise this quickyl to get it out to the vendors and carriers so that they can do their testing in order to get it released before the end of the year, so the time to make any changes is almost over. Let's face it, huge changes like multi tasking and cut n paste aren't going to be there. With iPhone now on v4 hardware and the 4th iteration of the OS, and Android making some major changes with Froyo, is it all too late from Microsoft? Time and sales figures will tell...

Dual boot your Windows Mobile device

Friday, 16 July 2010 21:14 greg

Fancy trying Android on your HD2? Well this thread shows you how you can dual boot between Windows Mobile and Android on an HD2, other Windows Mobile users may want to check out this thread for an alternate solution.

Has anyone tried Android on a Windows Mobile phone? How did it go for you?

Lots of details on Windows Phone 7

Wednesday, 14 July 2010 21:03 greg

The Microsoft senior VP for Mobile Communications Business, Andy Lees was talking and showing Windows Phone 7 to thousands of Microsoft partners in Washington yesterday as reported  on the Windows Phone blog.

Firstly he is talking about connected entertainment which is where Microsoft are bringing together experiences from Xbox 360, Windows 7 machines and Windows Phone 7 coupled with XBox lvie for games, Zune for music and video, Windows live for email, calendar, pictures and services (by which I assume they mean presence, IM etc) and finally the Microsoft search/decision engine Bing. For Windows Phone they will be aiming to have a UI that focuses on what you want to do rather than having to run specific apps.

They also talk about a push notification service that will be opened up to third part application developers, for real time updates from within applications and services.

For the first time Microsoft announced a 25GB Skydrive capability which could be used to view and share contacts, files, photos and also will be used to host the Find My Phone service to find and manage a misplaced phone. 

They talked about availability still talking about the 'holiday season' - Americanism for Christmas/late Decemeber and say initial availability will be available in 17 countries; Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK and United States.

This all sounds very encouraging and if Microsoft can pull it off, then Apple and Android could have some serious competition on their hands.

Microsoft kills off Kin, trying to simplify?

Thursday, 01 July 2010 08:40 greg

Gizmodo are hearing that Microsoft are killing off the Kin project, which is hardly surprising given the poor uptake and the bad reviews that the device received. I actually think this is good news, with Kin and Windows Phone 7, as well as the recently announced Windows Phone Enterprise edition, Microsoft was making their mobile phone OS story confusing and fragmented. By moving the Kin team into the Windows Phone team, hopefully can only be goodness.

Microsoft's official statement is We have made the decision to focus on our Windows Phone 7 launch and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones

source: gizmodo.com

Hands on video of the new Windows Phone 7 interface

Thursday, 24 June 2010 15:02 greg

Well what a surprise, with lots of hype around the iPhone v4 launch today, Microsoft choose to release a prototype Samsung phone to PCMag, who report back that it is "fast and smooth, with all the features we've come to expect from Windows Phone 7: big, bold text, Xbox Live, Zune, Bing and such"

With it still being six months away from launch, and the competition from Android and Apple iPhone heating up it will be very interesting to see how Microsoft and the hardware companies respond.

Last Updated (Thursday, 24 June 2010 15:13)

Microsoft announces plans for Enterprise Mobile OS

Monday, 21 June 2010 07:47 greg

Microsoft have clarified some points around wether they would have a consumer and enterprise version of their Windows Phone 7 OS with the news that they will release a new mobile OS for embedded and enterprise devices based on Windows Mobile 6.5, to be followed by an enterprise-focused version of Windows Phone 7 in 2011. This was announced by Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer by video at the launch of a new Motorola enterprise smartphone on Thursday.

The ability to work well with Microsoft's enterprise Exchange for email, calendar and contracts has always been a strength in my view, and where Windows Mobile still has an advantage over the iPhone. As an example, you cannot reply all to an Exchange calendar request something that I have been able to do even with Windows Mobile 6.

"In the next six months we will release a new embedded OS called Windows Embedded Handheld, based on Windows Mobile 6.5 technologies ... [and] in the second half of 2011, we will release a version of Windows Embedded Handheld based on Windows Phone 7 technology," Ballmer said on the video.

Microsoft will spend the intervening time "working on a clear path for enterprises to migrate their line-of-business applications to our new application platform" for Windows Phone 7, Ballmer said.

full details here

A peak behind the curtains of Windows Phone 7

Thursday, 17 June 2010 19:53 greg

With Windows Phone not slated to ship until the Christmas holiday period you may be surprised to hear that Microsoft need to finalise the code base very shortly in order to get it out to the carriers and manufacturers in order for them to do all their tests and get products shipped in 2010.

CNet has a very detailed story on this and some interesting quotes:

Vice president Terry Myerson stated "I think we are going to have something very high-quality and different this holiday"

Other interesting snippets " the device is now booting in 19.5 seconds, one second away from the eventual goal"  and "We're going to reset, but it is going to take us five years to build a product we all want to have"