Following the recent leak of the Windows Live Essentials Suite, a roadmap to the release of Windows Live Wave 4 is doing rounds. According to a comment posted on Facebook the following are the release dates of the various Live Wave 4 builds:
28 April – VIP Testers (probably MVPs)
18 May M3
3 June Complete Public disclosure.
7 June Public Beta Day.
7 June iPhone main languages Messenger.
25 August iPhone additional languages Messenger + PUBLIC RTW
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In a press-release by Microsoft, the infamous hardware virtualization requirement to run XP Mode on Windows 7 will be removed. The Hardware Virtualization restriction required the CPU to support hardware assisted virtualization. A lot of the older generation processors did not have hardware assisted virtualization and as a result posed a problem for many businesses to deploy Windows 7 and support legacy applications. With XP Mode now being supported on a more wider range and a more older series of hardware, businesses should see added benefit in moving to Windows 7.
I’m not really sure of how this will impact the performance of the virtual machine or the host machine (I don’t have a PC that does not have hardware assisted virtualization). If it does affect performance, this move will likely have a negative impact on the user experience. Having the hardware assisted virtualization limitation meant businesses would upgrade their hardware thereby having better performance – fringe benefits to the entire PC ecosystem.
ZDNet got the following from a Microsoft spokesperson on the development:
“Customers already using Windows XP Mode with hardware virtualization should continue using it. Customers not yet using Windows XP Mode can start using the product without having to worry about hardware virtualization. For Windows XP Mode, we expect the performance will be more than acceptable with or without hardware virtualization. For developers using Virtual PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 virtual machines we recommend HAV as the non-HAV is only tuned for XP Mode.”
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At MIX 10 Microsoft released a Platform Preview version of Internet Explorer’s latest version. The browser shows a lot of promise with a high ACID3 score compared to previous versions and that shown at PDC09, support for CSS 3, HTML 5 and Hardware Acceleration. The FAQ page of the the IE9 Platform Preview has the following:
Q. Does Platform Preview run on Windows XP?
A. No. Internet Explorer 9’s GPU-powered graphics take advantage of new technologies available in Windows 7 and back-ported only to Windows Vista. These technologies depend on advancements in the display driver model introduced first in Windows Vista.
According to an interview on in a QnA with the press Dean Hachamovitch confirmed that Internet Explorer Platform Preview only supports Vista SP2 and above, which is effectively Vista SP2 and Windows 7 RTM. The final versions of Internet Explorer 9 will not be supporting anything below Vista SP2 as well. The reason as stated is the GPU powered hardware acceleration that IE9 uses for a rich graphics experience.
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Microsoft kicked of MIX10 with Joe Belfiore talking about Windows Phone 7 Series and giving a quick run through of the phone. Today’s keynote was all about applications for the Windows Phone 7 Series and how to develop them. Microsoft demonstrated a few applications showcasing what the developers can do and announced tools that the developers would require to code the same. Microsoft has pulled off a genius move by allowing developers to use their existing knowledge about common technologies like .net and popular technologies like XNA and Silverlight to code applications for Windows Phone 7 Series devices, which I’ve written about in a previous post. Microsoft had recently showed how you can start a game on the desktop continue it on your phone and then finish it on the Xbox 360, the demo went to show that a lot of code for the game on the different platforms overlapped.
Today, Microsoft has released all necessary tools to begin development for Windows Phone 7 Series applications and the cool part is, all the tools are free. The package includes:
CTP of Visual Studio 2010 Express
Windows Phone 7 Series Emulator
Silverlight
XNA Game Studio
It’s a 290 MB download through a 3.2 MB installer – Download
Microsoft showcased some 3rd party developer apps as well that included:
Seesmic and Foursquare:
Trust me, this is the best Foursquare client you’ve seen yet. The iPhone app doesn’t even compare.
Associated Press client:
Subtle backgrounds for the type of news you’re reading.
3D Game – Harvest:
Other applications showed included a Comic Book reader app and the Netflix app amongst others. In one of the sessions after the keynote, Microsoft showed a LG and Samsung Windows Phone 7 Series device to the attendees. The basic specs (via Neowin) for a Windows Phone 7 Series device are:
3 hardware buttons – Start, Search, and Back
Capacitive touch screen with 4 or more contact points
Only two possible screen resolutions – 800×480 and 480×320
A-GPS, Accelerometer, Compass, Light, Proximity
5 MP camera with flash and dedicated camera button
Codec acceleration for multimedia
256MB RAM with 8GB flash for storage
DirectX 9 accelerated GPU
ARMv7 Cortex/Scorpion CPU
Video showing the LG and Samsung Windows Phone 7 Series devices:
According to information on twitter:
A developer will get 70% of the cost of the app.
The applications will have to be passed by Microsoft.
In a blog post on the team blog, Microsoft has put up details about the Windows Phone marketplace. The blog post loosely defines Microsoft’s guidelines for developers who want their applications to be featured in the marketplace:
In a blog post on the official Microsoft Office blog, the Office team has detailed their roadmap for the next iteration of Microsoft Office – Office 2010. The highlights from the blog post are:
Office 2010 RTM next month
Office 2010 retail availability in June
Free upgrade to Office 2010 for customer to purchase/activate Office 2007 starting today
Business range of products that includes Office 2010, Sharepoint 2010, Project 2010 and Visio 2010 to be available from May 12.
The free upgrade program is known as Office 2010 Technology Guarantee and is a free online service. To be eligible for the free upgrade, you must fulfill the following conditions:
Purchase Office 2007, or a new PC with Office 2007, and activate it between March 5, 2010 and September 30, 2010.
Have, or create a Windows Live ID.
Redeem your Tech Guarantee before October 31, 2010 by visiting www.office.com/techg.
When Microsoft showed Windows Phone 7 Series, there was very little talk about the app ecosystem around it. Microsoft had said that building apps for Windows Phone would be talked about at their MIX10 event, as the event draws closer details are emerging. With Zune HD and Zune Apps Microsoft was facing a challenge of which app store to pitch to developers and how to make developers code apps for both Windows Mobile and the Zune platform. Microsoft with Windows Phone 7 Series has streamlined their apps platform. The apps that work on Zune will work on the Windows Phone 7 Series and vice versa.
However, this comes at a price that Microsoft is willing to pay. A couple of days back I wrote about Microsoft’s intentions of not allowing an upgrade path for any Windows Mobile device, now there is confirmation that Windows Phone 7 Series devices won’t run Windows Mobile applications. While this might be a bit disturbing for some developers, it’s for the greater good for the entire ecosystem around Windows Phone.
Microsoft is going for a full reset, no legacy support, which is good. Of course the immediate challenge it presents is selling Windows Mobile devices till Windows Phone 7 Series devices are released. While there will be no backward compatibility, details for the future were detailed by a Charlie Kindel, Microsoft engineer working on Windows Phone 7 Series. Developing applications for Windows Phone 7 Series depends on the following:
For some reason it doesn’t seem to be a coincidence that the day Apple announces it’s plans for the iPad availability, new images of Microsoft’s tablet concept – Courier are leaked. The Courier is not an on-paper product, there is a working prototype named Codex within Microsoft Research. Microsoft Courier is a two-screened journal like device that folds pretty much like one. Following are the specs of the device that are known as of now:
A bit bigger than 5×7 when closed
Built-in camera
Head phone jack
Based on Windows CE (that’s what is beneath Windows Phone 7 Series, Zune)
Processor: Tegra 2
Availability Q3/Q4
Here are some of the images that Engadget received:
Apple today announced that their revolutionary and magical iPad will be hitting US stores beginning April 3rd, 2010. Apple will begin taking pre-orders later this month, 12th March to be precise. The iPad is available in two models – with and without 3G. Unfortunately both models will not be available at the same time. Pricing and availability details as mentioned in the press release:
Model
Availability (US Only)
16GB
32GB
64GB
Wi-Fi
April 3
$499
$599
$699
Wi-Fi + 3G
Late April
$629
$729
$829
As far as international availability is concerned the press release says that the following countries will get the iPad in late April:
Australia
Canada
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Spain
Switzerland
UK
iPad pricings for the respective countries will be announced in April.
Google executives in India are planning to launch the Nexus One in India. However, in their words it will not be in its US avatar. This was stated by Shailesh Rao who heads Google India at an Editorial Meet. CNBC TV 18 representative at the meet tweeted the following:
Nexus One will not come to India in its US avatar, the India specific Google Phone may be a stripped down version and priced lower!
Nothing more than these supposed plans is known as of yet. While it is rather surprising that Google would plan to axe features to reduce cost since Apple did not tinker with their iPhone when it launched in India and their decision to give a unified and better experience to anyone who’s willing to pay has been a mantra for their success. There are several ‘cheaper’ Android alternatives with lesser features available in India from HTC and as such Google might be able capitalize on their brand name but there is no sophisticated way to put this – Google’s decision is rather stupid. In an attempt to sell in numbers they’ll be diluting the Nexus One brand. However, I should point out that such moves are often made by handset manufacturers. The HTC Touch2 is available in two versions in India, one is with 3G and Wi-Fi, the other is without, and both these models have a significant price difference.
If you were to ask me, I’d rather not buy a stripped down Nexus One phone knowing that there is a version that has more features and would rather look for alternatives from HTC that will have the missing features at a price point close to that of the stripped down Nexus One.
With 90 Million copies sold, Windows 7 is definitely a success but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from working on updates for Windows 7. WZOR.net has been following the SP1 progress quite closely and according to Softpedia, Microsoft is expected to start rolling out a beta of the Service Pack by next month. According to WZOR.net, the latest internal build of Windows 7 is 7601.16518.100302-1530 where:
7601 is the build number, Windows 7 is 7600
100302 stands for 2nd March 2010 and 1530 is 3:30 PM.
So far Microsoft has been steadily releasing new internal builds. The possibility of new functionality being added to OS are less, the service pack is expected to be a roll up of all Windows 7 updates released so far with some bug fixes. We shall keep you posted about any further development.
Heard about that union that’s been a bane of existence for American technology companies? Yeah, that European Union. Microsoft and the EU have been at logger-heads for quite a while now. There was the Media Player controversy back then which resulted in Microsoft providing a separate version of Windows for the European Union countries that did not feature the Windows Media Player, known as Windows ‘N’. Having Windows without a browser would mean killing the OoBE for a user and as such Microsoft proposed showing European users a screen listing browser alternatives for the user to choose and install. EU accepted Microsoft’s solution and the ballot screen has started appearing for users. Here’s what the ballot screen looks like:
NOTE: The ballot screen will appear if you’re location is set to a country that is a part of the European Union AND Internet Explorer is your default browser. The option comes via Windows Update, alternatively if you’re running the ‘N’ edition, you can trigger it from:
C:\Windows\system\browserchoice.exe
There’s a web implementation of the ballot screen if you’re curious – browserchoice.eu. The following browsers are included:
Google Chrome
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Safari
Opera
K-Melon
Flock
Maxthon
Sleipnir
Avant
FlashPeak
Green Browser
The browsers will appear in a random order based on an algorithm, of course like anything Microsoft does, the ‘random-ness’ is being scrutinized.
While, I for one have been against Microsoft buckling under pressure to have a smooth Windows 7 release simply because this will set a precedent for others to start making noise and get a ballot screen for everything and taking this beyond Europe, which is exactly what happened. The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) has come out with a statement that this ballot screen option should be made available globally because users deserve better. Here’s their statement:
Consumers deserve the same unbiased browser choice on all the world’s more than 1 billion personal computers
NOTE #2: If you’re wondering why Windows 7 doesn’t come bundled with a chat client and email client, well, this is why.
According to Neowin, as part of Microsoft’s efforts to ensure that users stick with Internet Explorer, Microsoft has started airing several TV commercials about Internet Explorer in the United Kingdom.
Even before Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7 Series there were reports of HTC HD2 aka HTC Leo would be the only Windows Mobile 6.5 phone that would qualify for an upgrade to Windows Phone 7. After the announcement of Windows Phone 7, there was an alleged leaked image of the HTC HD2 running Windows Phone 7, the image was declared a fake. A Microsoft official while talking on the Engadget Show said that some Windows Mobile 6.5 phones can support Windows Phone 7 and it is upto the OEMs (manufacturers) to decide. With all those mixed signals, Microsoft’s Natasha Kwan, General Manager for Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business in the Asia-Pacific region in an interview to APC magazine categorically stated that the HTC HD2 will not qualify for an upgrade to Microsoft’s latest mobile phone OS since it doesn’t have the three buttons.
What’s so great about 3 buttons, you ask? Well, Microsoft has provided strict specifications to phone manufacturers for Windows Phone 7 Series devices and one of the specification is that the handset should have these 3 dedicated buttons:
Home
Search
Back
The HTC HD2 five:
Home
Windows Menu
Back
Call
End Call/Power
Though the HTC HD2 fulfills most of the other chassis specifications, chances of having an official upgrade path look slim. Looks like Microsoft is serious about keeping the user experience consistent across all Windows Phone 7 Series devices and is in no mood to compromise on that. Power to them! Sorry HD2 owners. Talking about Windows Phone 7 Series devices, Microsoft, it seems has learnt PR in 2010. Engadget got an exclusive preview of LG’s Windows Phone 7 Series device prototype. A quick demo video courtesy Engadget:
News is doing rounds that LG will be launching the first Windows Phone 7 Series devices by September of this year. Back to HTC HD2, Microsoft stated that more details will be provided at their annual event – MIX10. And as such, we shall wait.
While phone devices were being talked about, Microsoft gave out some more details about Windows Phone editions. There were initial reports that Windows Mobile 6.5.x will be renamed to Windows Phone Classic and be an offering for low end phones. Now according to ZDNet, Microsoft will be offering a Windows Phone Starter edition that will be a stripped down version of Windows Mobile 6.5. The features that will define Windows Phone Starter are:
(Devices) with and without Microsoft Office Mobile and supports 2G (GSM), 2.5G (CDMA2000 xRTT, EDGE, GPRS), CDMA (Rev A, EV-DO Revision A), and TD-SCDMA radios.
Which essentially means that there will be Windows Phone 7 Series and Windows Phone Starter edition as there is no official confirmation on Windows Phone Classic. Though it is still unclear as to whether a stripped down version of Windows Mobile 6.5 will be Windows Phone Starter and Windows Mobile 6.5 will be renamed to Windows Phone Classic or whether there won’t be a Windows Phone Classic and the entire Windows Mobile 6.5 range will be known as Windows Phone Starter, one thing is certain, Microsoft needs to come out with a clear strategy going forward.
The confusion of whether Microsoft plans to support Windows Mobile 6.5 and to what extent will keep on cannibalizing Windows Mobile sales till Windows Phone 7 Series devices are available. Though OEMs like Videocon and HTC seem to be committed to the platform for now, software makers like Skype and Adobe aren’t. Giving credit where it’s due, Microsoft doesn’t seem to be giving up on Windows Mobile 6.5 just as yet. The latest build is Windows Mobile 6.5.5.
PS: That’s what happens when you don’t write about Microsoft for a few weeks. Missed me?
