We have seen iPhones control nearly everything, and also seen a car controlled by a Windows Mobile phone, but this is the first video showing that Windows Phone 7 is also capable of the feat.
The video above from MIX10 shows a Windows phone 7 device controlling a T-shirt cannon using the touch screen and accelerometer. While there is of course nothing ground breaking, it is reassuring to see more interesting applications also making it to the platform.
Via Engadget.com
uCONVERT is a powerful unit and currency converter for Windows Mobile devices. It runs on older 6.1, 6.5 and the newest 6.5.5 OS version. All common resolutions like WVGA or VGA are supported. The developer himself describes his work with following words: “uCONVERT is designed to make any unit or currency conversion quick and easy, yet at the same time fits in a number of powerful features”.
Read more at BestWindowsMobileApps.com for the full review.
The above brief video from MIX10 shows the Zune media player in action. The software appears to be a pretty full implementation of the ZuneHD client, but lacks the squirting music sharing feature that unfortunately never really caught on.
On interesting feature not demoed is that the Zune client will be able to synchronize media over WIFI, meaning in conjunction with cloud services and OTA updates a Windows Phone 7 devices may be one of those devices one will never have to plug into your PC at all.
Are our readers looking forward to this music experience on their phones? Let us know below.
Now this video would be slightly more believable if T-Mobile’s HTC HD2 has already actually been released, but above is the first in a series of 3 video reviews so far by Stepsanie of the last monster Windows Mobile device.
Props to T-Mobile for trying something new, and if you want to hear more about Stepsanie’s views on the T-Mobile HTC HD2, see her channel here.
Update: David from Tmonews just pointed out that “she wishes the phone had Android on it,” which is a little confusing, but maybe T-mobile wants someone that seems normal and is not trying too hard to get them some sales.
Marvell Moby Android version
Marvell this week announced a new education initiative to deliver a high performance mobile tablet based on its leading silicon platform. For about $99, Marvell’s Moby tablet prototype promises to change the way students learn by delivering an always-on, high performance multimedia tablet featuring live, real-time content, 1080p full-HD and 3D media, and full Flash Internet. Marvell’s Moby tablet could eliminate the need for students to buy and carry bound textbooks and an array of other tools.
Announcing the initiative this week during her keynote speech to the country’s leading publishers at the Future of Publishing conference in New York City, Marvell Co-founder Weili Dai said that the Moby tablet is a technology whose time had come.
"Education is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country and our times. I believe the Marvell Moby tablet can ignite a life-long passion for learning in all students everywhere. Marvell’s goal is to fundamentally improve the way students learn by giving them more efficient, relevant — even fun tools to use. Marvell’s Moby tablet recognizes that every student learns differently and so it delivers an array of media choices for different learning styles," said Weili Dai, Marvell’s Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor’s Consumer and Computing Business Unit. "Marvell can help propel education into the 21st century with an all-in-one device that gives students access to the best live content, information and resources the world has to offer — from books and online sources, in text, video, news, music, data expression or any medium. With Moby tablet, students can conduct primary research, reach out directly to the world’s leading subject experts and even collaborate with one another around the globe. Best of all, the device is highly affordable. I envision Marvell’s Moby tablets to benefit all students around the world."
Powered by high-performance, highly scalable, and low-power Marvell® ARMADA™ 600 series of application processors, the Moby tablet features gigahertz-class processor speed, 1080p full-HD encode and decode, intelligent power management, power-efficient Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM/GPS connectivity, high performance 3D graphics capability and support for multiple software standards including full Adobe Flash, Android™ and Windows Mobile. The ultra low power Moby tablet is designed for long-battery life.
According to Ms. Dai, Marvell will soon announce a pilot program in partnership with the District of Columbia Public School system (DCPS) where the Company will donate a Moby tablet to every child in an at-risk school as part of a multi-year program in new media and learning. Details of this program will be announced at a future date.
Pocketnow have published this video of Word, Excel and PowerPoint in action on the device, and while the software is still pretty raw, they mention that OneNote at least had more options in this version that what’s available on Windows mobile 6.5 at present.
Read more at Pocketnow.com here.
I am sure with all the posts about the Windows Phone 7 emulator many are rearing to try it out for themselves.
Unfortunately you have to install the whole 300 MB development tool set here, and then also run the whole IDE, but RedmondPie has published a solution at least to the last problem.
To learn how to run the whole emulator standalone, read more at RedmondPie here, or if the emulator is installed on your C-Drive simply download the shortcut here.
Remember, to get the unlocked version of the OS you need to download the hacked emulator image, links which can be found here and replace WM70C1.bin at C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\WindowsPhone\v7.0\Emulation\Images\.
Let us know the outcome of your experiments below.
Pocketnow have published this video showing the messaging, email, and calendar applications. Do you find their vision appealing? Let us know below.
Via Pocketnow.com
After managing to sell less than half the phones they shipped last quarter, word of Palm’s impending doom is spreading fast.
In the first quarter Palm shipped 960,000 Pre and Pixi’s to Sprint and Verizon, but shoppers only purchased 408,000, resulting in a shut down of Palm’s production lines in early February for most of the month.
Now the company has revealed it expects similarly bleak results in Q2 2010, and rumours are spreading of carriers backing away from the troubled smartphone maker.
Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek feels Palm’s troubles will likely accelerate as its partners question the company’s solvency and withdraw their support.
"With what appears to be roughly 12 months of cash on hand, an accelerating burn rate, a complete lack of earnings visibility, and substantial debt and preferred equity, we no longer see any value in the company’s common equity," he said in a note.
The shares has already dropped a further 19% since their earnings call yesterday, and is trading at around $4.60 at present. At it’s darkest hour the stock traded at $1.52 in December 2008, so it clearly still has some way to fall.
Other analysts also predict bankruptcy. Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu cut his rating on the shares to "sell" from "hold".
"While we believe Palm has some value with its webOS …we are unsure of the company’s prospects as an ongoing concern," he said in a client note.
Morgan Joseph & Co analyst Ilya Grozovsky said "Palm is essentially an accelerating death spiral. They have had a tremendous problem selling their devices even at carriers like Verizon with 80 million subscribers,"
"They keep saying, ‘we need to market, market, market,’ because in their mind it’s a marketing problem," he said. "But it’s not about the trainees and the sales people, it’s just too competitive of a space right now for Palm to make any difference."
At its height on its IPO in 2000 the company was valued around $950 per share. Canaccord Adams’s Mistek and Morgan Joseph & Co’s Grozovsky currently gives the stock a price target of $0.
Palm serves as a object case of the dangers of neglecting and abandoning your user base while pursuing new markets. Much like Windows Mobile, PalmOS stagnated for more than 3 years while the company developed and re-developed a next generation OS in secret, and of course launched without any backward compatibility and with a very small amount of applications. Much like Windows Phone 7, the OS was also lauded for its breakthrough user interface concepts and ability to mesh with cloud services. In the case of WebOS this has clearly not translated into sales.
While Microsoft is of course not at all dependent on their mobile business, hopefully their Windows phone division will manage this feat better.
Read more at Yahoo! Finance here.
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The hacked Windows Phone 7 emulator has revealed more than just a task manager and file explorer. Hidden in its depths were also the first looks at Windows Phone 7 Office, and it certainly does not look like anything to get excited about. The application looks as uninspiring as before, both in terms of UI and capabilities, and certainly does not bolster Microsoft’s argument that the OS is designed for business as much as pleasure.
Source: TechAU via Engadget.com
In a blog post Charlie Kindel admitted their message on the consumer focus of Windows Phone 7 may have been misleading regarding the suitability to business of the OS
We are building a phone that will be GREAT for helping end-users deal with BOTH their personal & business lives.
Windows Phone 7 Series will be a great business phone. We applied the same end user focus to designing the phone’s business capabilities that we did with every other element of the phone. We asked people and even IT administrators what they need from a phone. The answer was consistent. They want a single device that excels at core business functions like email, reading and editing Office documents and collaboration, while also offering rich features and capabilities that help people stay on top of the different parts of their lives, at home and at work.
We expect Windows Phone 7 Series to appeal to people who are active, connected and working, so Exchange & SharePoint integration and the features within the new Office hub are core to the phone’s value. Similarly, we know that people add these phones to corporate networks and that we need to make that process easy for administrators. Interestingly, when we talk to corporate IT staff and business decision makers they ask us to give them a compelling phone that will not only improve productivity, but also appeal to the end user’s “whole life,” as people wish to carry only one Smartphone to meet both business and personal needs. We think Windows Phone 7 Series will do this better than any other phone on the market today.
While the post of course remains vague, it does hint strongly at business management features as already common with Windows Mobile, and we of course already know business handsets will be exempt from the Marketplace-only rule that applies to everyone else when it comes to apps.
It is however clear that, unless Microsoft transplants bits of code wholesale from Windows Mobile 6.5, the handsets are unlikely to have as many business-targeted features as its older existing sibling has. They clearly have a lot of work to do to make the OS suitable for work, not least cut and paste functionality.
Read the full post here.
Samsung has now admitted that the Samsung device shown of running Windows Phone 7 at MIX10 recently was in fact a hacked Samsung i890 Omnia HD.
"The launch was from Microsoft, not Samsung, and they used the i8910HD to demo Windows 7," said a Samsung spokesperson.
"It’s not yet clear whether existing i8910HD users will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 as this demo was a one-off."
An upgrade is however unlikely, with Techradar suggesting that not just the buttons needed to be silk-screened, but the processor and screen also needed to be upgraded to 1 Ghz Snapdragon and a multi-touch WVGA version too.
That Microsoft and Samsung could so easily shoehorn Windows Phone 7 into the shell of another smartphone speaks to both an opportunity and danger for the OS and OEMs. The OS has very strict and standardized requirements, meaning in the end there will likely be only one hardware design with different shells used by all OEMs, with OEMs having great difficulty differentiating themselves. On the other hand, they will likely be able to easily, cheaply and quickly churn out a huge number of minor variations quite rapidly, which could potentially mean the market will be flooded with relatively low cost Windows Phone 7 devices.
Is the strict hardware requirements for Windows Phone 7 a benefit or a curse? Let us know below.
Source: Techradar via Ubergizmo.com
Long Zheng from the istartedsomething blog reports that the Windows Phone 7 Series emulator ROM has been completely unlocked, allowing users to access the full OS, rather that just the settings and web browser as previously.
Dan Ardelean has published a modified version of the “BIN” file , allowing one to interact with the live tiles,hubs, use the elusive voice search feature, and even the basic apps that are preloaded.
Read more about getting the emulator up and running at XDA-Developers here. Hopefully the real OS will fall as fast as the emulator version has 
More screen shots after the break.
Via Pocketnow.com
Engadget has managed to grab another video of the Windows phone 7 game Harvest in action. The WVGA game is running at 30 frames per second in full 3D, in a fully destructible environment.
Interestingly while this 3 week old title is clearly a success Microsoft does not imagine that the majority of games on Windows Phone 7 will be like this, envisioning Farmville-like turn based games to be more popular.
Read more at Engadget here.
Version 1.30 of TrueCaller for Windows Mobile has been released, which brings the following features:
TrueCaller is a one-time fee of $6.99.
Read more about the app at TrueCaller.com here.
A video of the twitter integration can be seen after the break.
Tablet Concept – running Windows Phone 7 Series from umang on Vimeo.
It appears Microsoft may regret sticking phone in the Windows phone 7 name, as it turns out the OS makes a pretty nice tablet also.
Umang Dokey has created this concept of an 8 inch tablet that features 3D video calling, twin joysticks behind the screen and a built-in stand that also doubles as a full QWERTY keyboard.
Pity Microsoft is so rigid about the Windows Phone specs, meaning the device will remain unfortunately vaporous forever.
Via Gizmodo.com
Wirefly have published their full review of T-Mobile’s version of the HTC HD2, which is of course, due to its heavy emphasis on entertainment while retaining the power of the original device, the best version yet, and have had this to say:
This has to be the best user experience of any phone on the market.
I’m an iPhone geek, and I’d trade my iPhone in for this puppy in a heartbeat.
Will I switch to T-Mobile? That’s the question I haven’t answered yet.
High praise indeed.
The T-Mobile HTC HD2 should reach the market in less than a week. Remember, US readers can win one commitment-free by following us on our twitter account. Read more about that here.
Windows Phone 7 was designed to serve the needs of two prototypical users, Miles and Anna, so-called life maximisers that want to use their phone to work and play, and enhance their family life.
The above video shows how their Windows Phone 7 fits in their lives. While the scenarios do appear rather idyllic, at least in this case Microsoft did not have to mock up attractive user interfaces to go along with the pretty visuals.
Do you see a Windows Phone 7 device slotting neatly in your life? Let us know below.
Source: istartedsomething.com via bestwindowsmobileapps.com
HTC Corporation today outlined its disagreement with Apple’s legal actions and reiterated its commitment to creating a portfolio of innovative smartphones that gives consumers a variety of choices. Founded in 1997 with a passion for innovation and a vision for how smartphones would change people’s lives, HTC has continually driven this vision by consistently introducing award-winning smartphones with U.S. mobile operators.
"HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible," said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. "From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then."
The industry has recognized HTC’s contributions through a variety of awards including Fast Company’s 2010 Top 50 Most Innovative Companies and MIT Technology Review’s 2010 50 Most Innovative Companies. The GSMA also recently awarded the HTC Hero as the "Best Phone of 2009." Some of HTC’s technology firsts include:
First Windows PDA (1998)
First Windows Phone (June 2002)
First 3G CDMA EVDO smartphone (October 2005)
First gesture-based smartphone (June 2007)
First Google Android smartphone (October 2008)
First 4G WIMAX smartphone (November 2008)
In 2009, HTC launched its branded user experience, HTC Sense. HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the center by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. This experience was fundamentally based on listening and observing how people live and communicate.
"HTC has always taken a partnership-oriented, collaborative approach to business. This has led to long-standing strategic partnerships with the top software, Internet and wireless technology companies in the industry as well as the top U.S., European and Asian mobile operators," said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America. "It is through these relationships that we have been able to deliver the world’s most diverse series of smartphones to an even more diverse group of people around the world, recognizing that customers have very different needs."
For more information on HTC’s history of innovation, please visit: www.htc.com/history.
Comment: It seems most of that innovation took place on the Windows Mobile platform…
Via Engadget.com
