Microsoft officially launched Windows Phone 7 Series (previously referred to as Windows Mobile 7, Windows Phone 7, or even Photon) on Monday, dropping the gauntlet on what will shape up to be a mighty mobile battle come Christmas.

A whole new OS

Windows Phone 7 Series Phones, as the new devices will be officially known (yikes), will be a complete departure from the Windows Mobile devices we are all familiar with and feature a brand-new, possibly revolutionary UI. The Start menu? Gone. Touch elements designed for six-year-old fingers? Gone. In fact, Microsoft’s new OS is aiming to change the mobile phone paradigm by shifting away from an app-centric model to an experience or task-based system that groups your personal data, social networking streams, location-based services, and media sources into what Microsoft calls ‘hubs’ (more later)

Reflecting their determination to re-define the relationship between end-user and their phone, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced at the Barcelona 2010 Mobile World Congress:

“In a crowded market, filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. Windows Phone 7 marks a turning point toward phones that truly relfect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences.”

Joe Belfiore, vice president of Windows Phone, said it was time to stop thinking about mobile phones like PCs:

“A phone is not a PC, it’s a smaller, more intimate device,” he said. “Too many phones are made to look like PCs. We wanted to come up with a user design that was different, that moved beyond the metaphor of the PC.”

Live Tiles

This ain’t your daddy’s Windows Phone. Microsoft has taken advantage of the fact that it is so late with this product to properly think out how people use their mobile devices. They have no doubt heard for years now about how un-finger-friendly Windows Mobile is and how counter-intuitive it can seem compared to its competition. They’ve seen people complain about icon overload and the app-to-app routine on the iPhone (one app for Facebook, one app for twittering, one app for YouTube, etc); The result? Live Tiles.

The new home screen on WP7 devices will consist of several vertically-scrollable live tiles. The main screen shows 5 live tiles: Internet Explorer, Phone, Text, People. Each of these boxes is “live” and auto-updates with real-time information from all of your various info sources. So when your friend updates his Facebook page, that update shows on the Friends tile. If you miss a phone call, the Phone tile updates to show the number of missed calls, and your most recent photos fade in and out in the Pictures tile.

Hubs

Clicking on any of these main live tiles will bring up the corresponding Hub. There are a bunch of default hubs that will ship with WP7: People, Games, Xbox Live, Pictures, Music & Video (with support for more than just Zune accounts), Zune, Office (with support for multiple exchange accounts), and of course the Marketplace. These hubs pull in data from all of your various sources and present it in a task-oriented manner, rather than using a separate app for each service you use.

For example, the above pic shows the People hub. The first screen you will see when you click on the People tile is the ‘Recent’ screen. Scrolling right will give you all of your peeps, scrolling right again will show you the What’s New tab, which lists all of your friends’ most recent social media updates,

Similarly, when you tap on the Music and Video tile, up pops the Zune menu. Scrolling to the right brings up your History, continuing to scroll brings up the “What’s New” tab, and then Apps that are music or video related. Hubs create an easy way to browse all of your data – both on-device and online – by topic or experience. Very cool.

X-Box and Zune Integration

While Microsoft’s mobile lately may have missed the mark, they have had remarkable success with their X-Box and Zune line. The X-Box model has been a decade in the making and Microsoft has earned a very respectable share of a competitive market – something it needs to do with WP7. The Zune HD was released last year to terrific reviews and great critical, if not commercial, success.

Microsoft is finally taking advantage of these successful platforms and fully integrating X-Box Live and Zune with Windows Phone 7 Series devices. Mobile gaming might be limited initially, but expect this to be a major component and battle ground in the coming year or two, and Microsoft (for once) has a clear advantage over rivals like Palm and Apple here.

As for Zune integration, you can almost thank the Zune for the new UI. Internally at Microsoft, the UI for the Zune HD was referred to as Metro; the same name they use to discuss the Windows Phone 7 Series interface. Beyond that, expect to see complete integration with the Zune service and any Zunes you might have lying around.

Manufacturers and Carriers

Just as with Windows Mobile, Microsoft has lined up a top-notch list of manufactures who are eager to start putting out Windows Phone 7 Series devices. The list includes longtime Windows Mobile supporters HTC, LG, Samsung and Toshiba, as well as Garmin-Asus, on-the-fence Sony Ericsson, and even Dell.

Unlike with Windows Mobile, however, and this is absolutely critical, Microsoft has imposed a Chassis requirement for all WP7 devices. This means that all WP7 phones will need have a minimum hardware spec that – so far – includes several mandatory hardware buttons (home, search and back), CPU and screen size/resolution requirements, plus an accelerometer, GPS, camera and other goodies.

This Chassis system should help maintain a good user experience and avoid manufacturers putting out shoddy hardware that gives Windows Phone 7 devices a bad rap.

Carriers will include all of the Big Four US carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon – as well as Deutsche Telekom, Orange, SFR, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telstra, and Vodafone. Rogers and Telus haven’t made any comment yet.

WP7: Do or Die for Microsoft

By most accounts, it’s do or die time for Microsoft. For whatever reason, most likely because they simply underestimated the growth of the smartphone/mobile market, Microsoft hasn’t taken the mobile space very seriously for the past four or five years… despite being one of the first out of the gate.

By the time the first Windows Phone 7 Series device hits the market, we’ll be looking at a new iPhone, a new version of Google’s Android, and an updated webOS from Palm… very serious competition for Windows Phones. If Microsoft blunders, they might just miss the last train out of the desktop station.

I’m giving it a try this weekend, I’m going to see how fast I can kayak down the Rideau Canal! If you’d like to give it a while, it is available for download for free from XDA. You’ll need to get the .Net framework too, if you don’t already have it installed.

Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road. What does that mean? It means it collects passive information from all its users as they drive, in addition to using active feedback from drivers who choose to submit updates, photos, road changes, and so on, to provide its users with real-time traffic and road information.

This is a really great concept and a terrific use of the built-in GPS in most smartphones these days. Waze has been available for the iPhone and Android for a bit, but their site indicates the development of a Windows Mobile version. Watch the Waze guided tour to get a better understanding of how it works.

I imagine it requires a critical mass of users in any given area to be effective, but I haven’t tried it yet. In fact, their alpha program is looking for candidates to help get this project rolling, so why not head over to the Waze website and sign up?

I love Twitter. There’s no secret there. While I’m on the go (which seems to be most times) I use my Windows Mobile phone to tweet to the world. If you’re like me – a total tweet addict – you’ll absolutely want to check out my top 5 best Twitter applications for your Windows Mobile phone. There are some really great ones in there that you shouldn’t miss out on!

Here it is:

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ceTwit

1. ceTwit – This app uses the .net compact framework. It features timeline display (both merged and filtered), account storage (it remembers you every time!), status updates, direct messages, click to reply, auto refresh, avatars in timeline (with local caching), relative timestamps, follow/unfollow, Twitpic support, ping.fm support, audible/vibrate alerts, and retweeting. This is the Twitter client that I use on my phone because I use Twitpic and Ping.fm often. I also love the user interface of this app – very quick and easy to use.

2. Twitter Answers – This really cool app lets you to Tweet questions and get answers. Like Yahoo Answers but for Twitter, powered by Mosio.

3. GPS Twit – This app, for the iPhone and Windows Mobile, makes it easy for your friends to find you. GPS Twit answers the question, “Where are you and what are you doing?” by polling your GPS and posting it to the front of your tweets.

4. Quakk – This is an Open Source WinMo Twitter app. If you’re the kind that can, you can get your greedy mitts on the source code here and make your own mobile Twitter app!

5. TwitToday – A free Twitter widget that allows you to post updates from your device’s Today screen.

Other Twitter apps for Windows Mobile:

• PockeTwit
• Locify with Twitter
• Twitter deBolsillo (in Spanish)
• Twitter2Go
• SQIJ

A forum post over at PPC Geeks has just revealed how to go about unlocking the GPS on HTC Touch Pro handsets from Verizon Wireless.

The fix is a beta (I can’t stress that enough) and has no guarantee of not totally messing up your phone, however unlikely. That being said, those of you who are still brave enough (GPS-desperate enough) can check out the thread right here for step by step instructions!

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According to some Verizon Wireless users, responses they’ve received from the carrier company addressing GPS related concerns suggest that the company may be removing the virtual lockdown of the GPS capabilities in certain WinMo phones in 2009.

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Currently, most Verizon Wireless phones that have GPS features are restricted from using anything but Verizon’s own branded VZ Navigator.

A VW customer over at WMExperts has posted up this response given to him regarding his email message demanding that Verizon Wireless unlock the GPS capabilities of its phones:

Verizon Wireless, like all carriers, orders devices to meet certain specifications inclusive of features. Each of these specs is tested to determine if it meets our performance goals. There are instances when the phone will pass our extensive testing process but a specific feature may not meet the standard. We will often choose to introduce the phone without that feature but ask that the manufacturer come back to us with revised software that has to be tested to make sure the service works the same across our entire wireless footprint –from Maine to Hawaii. In the case of open standalone GPS, we are partnering with the Windows Mobile device manufacturers to provide a software upgrade that will add this capability to the existing assisted GPS capability. This is a complex development project to provide open standalone GPS while maintaining the assisted GPS capability with the level of performance and security that our customers expect. The recently introduced Windows Mobile devices including Omnia, Saga, and Touch Pro are targeted to add open standalone GPS in the 1st half of 2009.

Steve Schwed
Verizon Wireless
HQ Executive Relations Supervisor

We’re hopeful and Verizon customers – you should be too!

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The Samsung Omnia’s biggest selling point is its touch screen – it’s huge, very responsive, and looks very sharp. Also worth noting are its 8GB internal memory (expandable to 24GB with a 16GB microSD card!), great battery life, GPS built right in, and a 5MP auto-focus camera (with LED flash).

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Mitchell Oke of GadgetZone had this to say about the Omnia:

The Omnia has a beautiful 3.2 inch 240×400 display that dominates the front of the device. It isn’t quite as high-res as some of its competitors, but it looks great and is extremely responsive. The biggest problem with some of these touch screen handsets is that the display isn’t sensitive enough to a finger press. Fortunately the Omnia passes with flying colours.

In fact, Samsung are so adamant that you won’t need a stylus that there isn’t a slot for one! Some may see this as a nuisance, but in a week of use without it we can safely say that the stylus can stay in the box.

That’s a glowing recommendation if we’ve ever heard one!

Sadly the Samsung Omnia still uses proprietary connectors for power, syncing, and audio. But so many phones still do that we can’t be that disappointed. Someday, my friends. Someday phone manufacturers will light up our lives with 3.5 mm headphone jacks…

Have an Omnia? Be sure to let us know what you think of it in the comments below.

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This sleek little phone comes out of Russia from RoverPC and features 3G, quadband GSM, WiFi, 624MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, mini USB and microSD slots, 3MP camera, GPS and an accelerometer.

The G7 will run Windows Mobile 6.1 will be available in Russia sometime this month for around $616 – not too shabby, huh?

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Today Tele Atlas, and mobile navigation software provider Sygic, have announced the availability of McGuider Europe 2009, the next generation of the popular software that turns users’ mobile devices into powerful navigation systems. McGuider is designed to help mobile phone users easily leverage their devices as powerful navigation systems.

Check out the official press release right here!

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Sygic and Tele Atlas Team Up to Power McGuider 2009 Wireless Navigation Worldwide

McGuider Delivers Enhanced Features for Mobile Navigation in Europe, North America and Greater China

Gent, Belgium and Bratislava, Slovak Republic – December 2, 2008 — Mobile navigation software provider Sygic and Tele Atlas, a leading global provider of digital maps and dynamic content for navigation and location-based solutions, have announced the availability of McGuider® Europe 2009, the next generation of the popular software that turns users’ mobile devices into powerful navigation systems.

McGuider 2009 features a 4GB memory card to convert PDAs and smartphones using Windows Mobile or Symbian systems into fully functioning navigation devices. The new release includes enhanced navigation content and features to enrich the user experience such as safety cameras data, multilingual support for major cities and McGuider Assistant, which enables easy downloads for fresh content. The new, larger micro SD card will also deliver 2GB of free space for photos, music and videos.

Designed to help mobile phone users easily leverage their devices as powerful navigation systems, McGuider installs quickly and automatically. It delivers a simple, intuitive, touch screen or keyboard operation, based on the latest Sygic software, as well as clear graphics, fast refresh and detailed guidance including lane assistance and dynamic signpost indications. McGuider Europe 2009 features comprehensive Tele Atlas digital maps and content such as millions of points of interest (POIs) in all western European countries, including Scandinavia and Malta, and expanded coverage of Eastern Europe. Maps of Russia and North America for global travelers will be available soon.

McGuider helps mobile device users enhance their lifestyle with rich navigation information. Accurate digital maps and powerful location-based content ensure they can effectively leverage our products to find and navigate to what they need, wherever they are,” said Michael Stencl, CEO and Founder, Sygic. “Now enhanced with community input and new content, high-quality maps from Tele Atlas give our users the best experience around the world.

Sygic is making wireless navigation ever more accessible by instantly delivering full featured navigation capabilities on almost any mobile device,” said Nicolas Brissaud, Market Director of Global Data Products, Tele Atlas. “We are excited to be the map foundation of an important solution that puts so much useful content into the hands of more and more mobile consumers, and provides wireless navigation to the masses.

At a suggested retail price of €79, McGuider is an affordable and easy solution to carry a personal navigation device at all times. Devices pre-equipped with a GPS receiver can leverage the McGuider solution to instantly add the new functionality with little need for user intervention; for other devices, the addition of a Bluetooth-enabled GPS detector enables this functionality. Users are empowered with a full scope of navigation features and content at their fingertips, including:

• Alerts when a user crosses international borders and instant delivery of key country information such as speed limits, currency and time zones;
• Over 70 categories of POI information reaching well beyond the conventional lists of hotels and restaurants to include amusements parks and beaches, mountain peaks, tourist information centers and more;
• Tailored navigation options for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians;
• Voice guidance in 20 languages.

McGuider products are also available for mobile devices users in North America and Taiwan (coverage for China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan). McGuider Europe is the first joint Tele Atlas–Sygic end-user product tested according to the procedures certified by TÜV SÜD. The launch of McGuider Europe 2009 strengthens the portfolio of products that leverage Tele Atlas digital maps and content to all western European countries.

McGuider Europe 2009 is available immediately at Tele Atlas’ online map shop at http://navigation.teleatlas.com and also from retailers throughout Europe; McGuider navigation can be purchased separately or bundled with compatible phones. Further information, including phone compatibility details and demonstrations with intrepid adventurer John McGuider can be found at http://www.mcguider.com.

We at WindowsMobile Cool heard about this device at the end of last week, but we had no idea just how much hype this device would get!

Now, just so we’re clear, this isn’t a Windows Mobile device – but it’s still pretty rockin’! Check out these features: Touch display which slides and tilts to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, ssisted GPS, 5MP camera with dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss lens, 3G with HSDPA, WiFi, A2DP Bluetooth and 32GB of onboard memory, plus a slot for another 16GB via MicroSD card. Cool!

For more info and specs, check out Dial-a-phone’s full review.
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