Hot on the heels of Microsoft’s April refresh to the Windows Phone Developer Kit, they have just released a refresh to the Windows Phone Developer Training Kit, too.
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Engadget is reporting that the HTC HD Mini, reported on as the mini HTD HD2, has passed FCC regulations with North American 3G support. This means that it’s just a matter of striking a deal with a carrier… so who will it be? T-Mobile as a companion to the HTC HD2? Or AT&T to replace the HTC Pure?
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The Economic Times of India is reporting that a Microsoft is planning a lower-cost version of Windows Phone 7 specs to come after the initial launch of Windows Phone 7 later this year. Aimed at emerging markets and developing countries, this low-end chassis would probably feature a smaller screen with a lower resolution, possibly the HVGA 480 x 320 resolution that was mentioned at MIX.
Says Sudeep Bharati, director, developer tools for Microsoft India’s Visual Studio Team at Tech.Ed 2010:
“The low-cost version of the phone will have a different chassis than version 1 to be launched by 2010 end… The new version may also have a smaller screen and will thus be priced lower to suit developing markets like India. We are in talks with OEMs to gain their feedback on a new chassis”
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AT&T has launched the beta version of a new social network-meets-search engine called Buzz. The main idea of Buzz is to give and get recommendations for local businesses, services and restaurants from your own friends. Buzz encourages you to register with Facebook, and then whenever you post a question in Buzz it re-posts it to your FB page and tries to get input from your actual friends, as opposed to strangers at other referral sites.
They have a nice little video explaining how it works at Buzz.com, so take a look. The Buzz.com site can be accessed through the desktop or a Windows Phone by going to m.buzz.com. Word is that AT&T is developing a standalone Buzz app a-la Bing Mobile or Facebook Mobile for other OS’s.
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One of my primary sources for Windows Phone information – now and going back for as long as Windows Mobile has existed – is PocketNow.com. Well, the prolific, gadget-loving-Windows-Phone-fanboy-videographers at PocketNow are turning 10 this months an are running a sweet contest in partnership with Wirefly to celebrate.
All you need to do to win your choice of devices from Wirefly is to post in this thread on PocketNow why you are the biggest PocketNow fan. Make it a good one!
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I just saw a post on PocketNow about this cool, free app that lists all the tweets of people near you. If you’re a regular twitterer and want to know what’s happening around you, give Tweets Near Me a download and try it out. You can specify the distance from you and keywords to search for, and then Tweets Near Me shows you all the tweets that match
Download Tweets Near Me for free at the SynergeTech Solutions website.
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Now that the HTC HD2 – the hottest device on the market at the moment – has arrived State-side on T-Mobile, the good folks over at PocketNow have put up a pretty extensive and in-depth review. With more pictures than you can shake a stylus at, they go through everything from the “what’s-in-the-box” routine to a full tour of the hardware and software.
Go check out the HTC HD2 review here.
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The guys over at Engadget have managed to get some leaked specs and pictures of the upcoming Dell Lightning, a portrait-oriented QWERTY slider Windows Phone due to drop this fall with Windows Phone 7.
The specs on this new Dell Lightning are impressive: the zippy 1GHz Qualcomm QSD 8250 Snapdragon processor, a 4.1” OLED display, 5MP camera, 512MB RAM and 1GB of flash storage, plus an included 8GB MicroSD card. It also comes with all basic Windows Phone Chassis requirements: GPS, accelerometer, compass, and FM radio. Plus it looks like this one will be LTE upgradeable in 2011.
Looks like a pretty hot device – here are the full specs:
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The leaked Microsoft document from Tweakers.net gets into a little detail about minimum hardware requirements for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 devices. We already had a good idea of what we were looking forward to, but now we are looking at firm minimum requirements, plus a “Performance Chassis” which boasts slightly better numbers.
Minimum specs look as follows:
- ARM v7-based processor
- feature a “back”, “home” and “search” buttons, volume and camera too
- hardware acceleration for DirectX API
- capacitive multi-touch screen
- digital camera
- Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR and WiFi b/g
- FM radio
- A-GPS
- accelerometer, compass and proximity sensors
The Windows Phone 7 Performance Chassis adds a strict minimum of 480×800 resolution for the screen and something called “gesture interface” support (no details on what that means). There may also be some memory optimization involved.
So, like much of what has come out of these leaked docs: not much surprise here. Of particular interest, however, is the ARM v7 requirement, which keeps Intel’s Moorestown chips.
Check out these other three posts for more details from the leaked Microsoft documents:
- Leaked Docs Show Windows Phone 7 Architecture
- Windows Phone 7 Update Procedure Detailed in Leaked Docs
- Details on Windows Phone 7 Customization from Leaked Microsoft Docs
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These leaked Microsoft documents from Tweakers.net keep giving more and more goodies. In addition to great details on hardware specs, OS architecture, and the Windows Update process for Windows Phone 7 devices, the documents also outlined the types of customizations OEMs and carriers will be allowed to make.
As we pretty much knew already, carriers and OEM manufacturers will not be allowed to change the UI very much. The leaked documents show that minor changes to the interface will be allowed:
- Connection icons (3G, etc.)
- Add logo and tiles to home screen, can NOT remove default Microsoft tiles
- Can add apps BUT:
- maximum of six apps
- must be approved my Microsoft first
- no bigger than 60MB total
- Change web search provider in IE only, other apps still use Bing
- Customize the boot screen
- Add wallpaper and ringtones
- Camera software can be tweaked
While we already knew the total customization available on Windows Mobile 6.x with apps like Spb Mobile Shell or HTC’s TouchFlo/Sense UIs was gone, it still hurts to see it in black and white. Microsoft is really reigning in the carriers and OEMs here in an effort to maintain a consistent(ly high) user experience.
That said, Microsoft is implementing some nice controls on bloatware, which should help address one of the primary causes for poor user experiences on Windows Mobile devices in the past.
Check out these other three posts for more details from the leaked Microsoft documents:
- Leaked Docs Show Windows Phone 7 Architecture
- Windows Phone 7 Update Procedure Detailed in Leaked Docs
- A Bit More Detail on Windows Phone 7 Hardware Requirements
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This screenshot from a leaked Microsoft document that Tweakers.net got their hands on shows the update process for Windows Phone 7 devices.
As you can clearly see, all roads lead to Microsoft! All updates – from Microsoft, manufacturers, carriers or others – will be distributed via Microsoft’s Windows Update service. It looks like the Windows Phone 7 device will check OTA to see if there are updates available, and then you download and install the the updates through your PC using Activesync/Zune software.
This is terrific news! No more waiting for your carrier to put out an updated ROM (which they never do) or tracking down a pirated ROM on the forums because you want the latest version of your OS. Plus, it ensures a consistent experience for Microsoft, one of their primary goals with Windows Phone 7.
Good move, Microsoft.
Check out these other three posts for more details from the leaked Microsoft documents:
- Leaked Docs Show Windows Phone 7 Architecture
- Details on Windows Phone 7 Customization from Leaked Microsoft Docs
- A Bit More Detail on Windows Phone 7 Hardware Requirements
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The Dutch website Tweakers.net managed to get their hands on some internal Microsoft documents that outline the OS architecture – including memory, graphics and storage details.
To start with, Windows phone 7 is going to be a 32-bit, dual-layer (User space and Kernel space) OS. There’s no surprise here – with Microsoft’s rigid minimum chassis requirements for Windows Phone 7 there’s no need for any kind of hardware layer, and I don’t see anything shocking in the individual components of the Kernel space. Everything in the Kernel interacts directly with the core components of the Shell and driver services, and then on to your applications. This general layout is quite similar to Windows Mobile 6.x.
Memory on Windows Phone 7 devices will be organized differently. Like Windows Mobile 6.x, up to 2GB will be available to each layer but, unlike WM6, the non-kernel memory is limited to nice, big 1GB per application instead of a measly 32MB on 6.x. This means much more memory available to apps and – ironically – better multitasking (even though multitasking is gone in WP7).
File storage is taken care of on Windows Phone 7 using IMGFS and TexFAT, for system files and user storage respectively. The user storage will employ a Unified Storage System structure, which means users will see a unified list of files, regardless of their actual storage location.
Graphics is taken care of on the Microsoft side by a generic 2D graphics runtime and a Direct3D 11 runtime for 3D graphics. This uses the same Direct3D11-on-top-of-10-on-top-of-9 scheme we’ve seen on the desktop version of Windows 7 and leaves actual 2D and 3D drivers to the manufacturer.
So is this good or bad?
Nothing here stopped me in my tracks, but a few things are of note:
- The graphics driver situation might be a source for concern, as manufacturers aren’t always known for the best drivers, but that could be an area where some OEMs distinguish themselves.
- Nice to see up to 1GB of memory for running applications, this should make all kinds of sweet apps and games possible. Still too bad Microsoft doesn’t use this new memory schema to provide multitasking though…
- I’m interested to see how the Unified Storage System works. One of the perks of the TexFAT file system is that the system can treat multiple locations as the same, thus enabling this USS… could simplify storage of synchronized pics and videos, etc.
The document that Tweakers.net nabbed was clearly marked “revision 3.0” and makes no bones: “The Architecture for Windows Phone OS 7.0 describers features that are subject to change, and should therefore be considered preliminary.” Still, a little fodder is always fun.
Check out these other three posts for more details from the leaked Microsoft documents:
- Windows Phone 7 Update Procedure Detailed in Leaked Docs
- Details on Windows Phone 7 Customization from Leaked Microsoft Docs
- A Bit More Detail on Windows Phone 7 Hardware Requirements
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Just for those of you who may be curious, this is a sneak peek at the competition. A poor, drunken Apple employee left this iPhone 4 prototype at a bar a few weeks ago, from where it made it onto eBay and then into the salivating hands of the Gizmodo staff. It’s a pretty funny story, so check it out of you’ve got a few minutes.
This is certainly the biggest failure of Apple security ever, and it gives the rest of the mobile community a chance to scope the new iPhone months ahead of its release date. We all also get a look at some of the new features:
- Front-facing video chat camera
- Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
- Camera flash
- Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
- Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the "Connect to iTunes" screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
- What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
- Split buttons for volume
- Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic
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Software developer SpaceTime has just made their crazy-powerful math application for Windows Mobile free, as they’re discontinuing future development in favor of a Windows Phone 7 version (which isn’t backwards compatible, of course).
This math app is ridiculous and makes me wish I was a scientist. Its full features could only be used by university-level students or mathematicians: SpaceTime’s low-end features are things like solving limits, derivatives and integrals, but it allows you to move, zoom and rotate 2D, 3D and time graphs in real-time, explore mathematical concepts with their innovative interface, and even write your own scripts with their proprietary programming language.
If this sounds like a good time to you, head over to SpaceTime’s website and download a copy of SpaceTime 4.0 for free!
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A new SDK is available that apparently allows developers to enable multitouch capabilities on Windows Mobile devices with single-touch resistive screens. Apparently this SDK enables:
- Pinch to Zoom Support
- Drag (swipe) support.
- Replacement events for the mouse move fires only when a single finger detected.
- Multiple events based on gestures.
- Performance optimized, memory footprint is minimal.
Neat-o! Check out the XDA thread or Windows Phone Middle East for more info on this SDK for enabling multitouch on non-multitouch devices!
I just read over on Engadget that some folks over at ZuneBoards have announced that the Zune HD – and all its predecessors – have been hacked open!
The Zunes have been pried open before, but not to this full extent. According to ZuneBoards, this hack gives developers access to “everything XNA withheld before”, meaning any application that can run on Zune hardware… games, apps, emulators, anything.
This might have implications for Windows Phone 7 when it is released later this year, says WMExperts, as Windows Phone 7 is also a closed environment like the Zune. With this new Zune hack, which allows for limitless side-loading of apps from any source at all, are we looking at the possibility of the same work-around on Windows Phone 7?
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The new Kin channel on YouTube documents a girl named Rosa’s adventures as she tries to find out if she’s really friends with the people she’s friends with online by going to visit them. Not bad…
I also just saw a post over at PocketNow in which they’re impressed by the number of Facebook fans on the Kin page (over 30,000). I’m not – I think Microsoft might have a hit on their hands.
Check out the Kin YouTube channel here.
These grainy video snapshots are from Manan’s website, where he has posted a couple neat videos from Microsoft’s Hyderabad IDC guys at Tech Ed India 2010. Understandably excited to present their work, they demoed a 3D spinning browser, and in another they played with the X and Y orientation of a video while it was playing. Neat tricks, guys!
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Sony Ericsson reported its first quarterly profit since 2008. Reporting a profit of 21 million euro for Q1 2010, Sony Ericsson surely hopes this represents the end of a dismal year which saw them lose 293 million euro in the first quarter of ‘09.
But the boost in profits is really just the silver lining, as it all comes from reorganized business activity and other cost savings and not from greater sales. In fact, SE reported a 38% drop in units shipped (10.5 million vs. 14.5 million in Q1 09) and a 23% drop in sales, but noted a 31% gross margin, up almost 400% since Q1 09.
Sony Ericsson has steadily lost market share over the past year as smartphones became the hottest selling phones. While initially praised for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, SE’s follow-up, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2, was a bit of a disappointment. Sony Ericsson is just launching the new SE Xperia X10 running Android, as well as a Symbian-based device called Vivaz, but who knows if this diversification will result in more handset sales.
You can only trim so much…
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I read an interesting post over at PocketNow in which Chuong Nguyen looks at the likelihood of the new iPhone OS4 starting a fragmentation of the iPhone market. I say ‘Yay!’
Since iPhone OS3-and-under iPhones and iPod Touches won’t be upgradeable to iPhone OS4, Apple will inevitably end up with iPhone users wanting to run apps their devices don’t support, and possibly unable to re-install their OS or legacy apps after a crash or a hard reset. Chuong goes on to compare this to the fragmentation troubles that Android now finds itself facing and from which Windows Mobile has long suffered.
He correctly points out that the schism in Apple’s case comes from a software update, not hardware differences. In Android-land, the fragmentation comes not only by way of software updates (from both Google and the open-source community) but also from hardware differences between devices, like strange screen resolutions, differing CPUs, GPUs and form factors, touchscreen/not touchscreen, etc.
And Microsoft?
