One of the surprise 3rd party apps shown off at MIX10 was by Netflix, which unlike on other platforms, support the full experience, including Watch Instantly, which allows the streaming of full movies over 3G.
The availability of this app goes far in addressing scarcity of media on the platform, and will allow Microsoft to leverage a service that’s already in pretty wide use, which can only be good for the popularity of Microsoft’s new mobile OS.
Via Engadget.com
Samsung’s first Windows Phone 7 handset was shown off today at MIX, and while the devices were called prototype hardware, Microsoft did make a big deal about the “fantastic camera” built into the smartphone.
The device likely features an AMOLED screen as has been a trade-mark feature of recent Samsung hardware and has a hint of Blackberry-like styling.
At present no more details are available.
Click picture for larger version.
Via Unwiredview.com, picture via Engadget.com
Microsoft’s MIX10 developer conference is where we expect to hear the nitty gritty on Windows Phone 7 series.
Fortunately for those of us who will not be able to make it, Microsoft is also streaming all the sessions live, starting with the keynote.
To see the live streams, starting at 4 PM GMT, visit live.visitmix.com.
Press Release: VeriSign, Inc. the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world, has been selected by Microsoft Corp. to provide code signing services for applications distributed through Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
Microsoft is relying on VeriSign® Code Signing Services to safeguard applications developed for Windows® phones. When a mobile application is signed with a VeriSign® Code Signing Certificate, it signals to Windows phone owners that the application comes from a trusted publisher. A code signing certificate serves as virtual "shrink wrap" for downloaded applications by applying a digital signature that is independently verified by VeriSign. A broken digital signature tells users that the application has been tampered with or modified, and protects them from hackers or malicious code.
"Code signing follows the best practices of software development, and helps to ensure that all Windows phone applications will install and run with the right privileges — and without limiting features or functionality," said Jason Lim, director of ISV and developer experience at Microsoft. "We protect applications with VeriSign Code Signing Certificates because only VeriSign offers the robustness and scale that a fast-growing applications store demands. This world-class, customizable code signing solution protects our investment in Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and gives us more ways to control the integrity and quality of the Windows phone experience."
Windows Marketplace offers people an easy way to find and purchase high-quality mobile applications for both work and play, while creating a new opportunity for developers to reach millions of people using Windows phones worldwide. In addition to an array of essential business applications, Windows phone owners can download applications for Facebook, MySpace, Netflix, Twikini, WunderRadio and ZAGAT, as well as leading game titles including Sudoku, "Guitar Hero World Tour" and the "PAC-MAN" series, all of which can be easily purchased and installed directly on a Windows phone. All purchased applications are certified by Microsoft to run on Windows phones and are backed by a simple return policy.
"Mobile apps call for the same kind of protections that PC applications have relied on for years, and that’s what VeriSign Code Signing Certificates offer to Windows phone app developers," said Michael Lin, vice president and general manager of SSL at VeriSign. "We’re delighted to serve as the code signing partner for Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Microsoft and the Windows phone development community can be assured that as the marketplace grows, VeriSign’s code signing platform will scale with it, providing the same reliable safeguards down the road as it does with every download today."
VeriSign’s role as code signing partner for Windows phone applications is the latest in a long history of collaboration with Microsoft. The companies recently announced plans for Microsoft to use proven VeriSign® Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates and VeriSign® Code Signing Certificates to safeguard cloud-based services and applications developed and deployed on the Windows® Azure™ platform.
Now that ThrottleLauncher is out of beta and has reached version 1.0, what better way to celebrate than with a Windows Phone 7 theme.
The one above from XDA-Developers is by arley12 and is certainly pretty nice.
Read more about it at xda-developers.com here.
Via 1800PocketPC.com
The Windows Mobile UI replacement ThrottleLauncher has finally reached its 1.0 release, and as can be seen from the video above is incredibly smooth on the HTC HD2.
To download the app visit ThrottleLauncher.com here and this XDA thread.
Via FuzeMobility.com
Rumours are running rife that Microsoft will be giving away free Windows Phone 7 series phones to all MIX10 attendees to prime the developer pump. The move would emulate a similar action by Google recently, who gave away Nexus One’s to Android’s Developers, and much poorer Palm who is only giving developers a 20% discount on handsets.
While the move is clearly not without precedent, and Microsoft often gives developers deep discounts on Windows Mobile handsets, in this particular case Microsoft would be giving away alpha software on beta hardware, which does seem rather unlikely.
I am sure many MIX10 developers will continue to dream however … 
TMoNews managed to record this quick look at the HTC HD2 destined for T-Mobile USA, and this time included a look at the BlockBuster app, which looks pretty cool. They also mention that the uploaded video was recorded by another HTC HD2, which is pretty impressive
The smartphone is still expected for release on the 23 or 24th March, less than 10 days from now. I bet many readers can hardly wait.
Read more at TMoNEws here.
Microsoft has over the years come under much criticism for disabling support for Windows Mobile in their free Visual Studio Express application, which allows non-commercial development on the desktop and web.
It seems Windows Phone 7 will reverse this regrettable move, if this Visual Studio Express page is anything to go. As can be seen above, the page claims “free tools that empower you to quickly get started learning and building Web, Windows, Phone and Database applications”.
Of course the rest of the page makes no mention of that capability, but we have heard rumours that his will be one of the announcements Microsoft will be making at MIX10.
Thanks Ap0llo for the tip.
Rishi from Orktane.com has published this Silverlight based Sudoku game which is a port of his iPhone app ported using nRoute Toolkit.
The software gives a taste of the UI we can see in these puzzle-type games and I must say, the cut-off text started grating pretty quickly.
What the game does however demonstrate is the ease with which good-looking user interfaces can be created in Silverlight relatively quickly, and will hopefully mean we can look forward to a large number of good looking applications soon after the release of Windows phone 7.
Read more about the project at Orktane.com here.
A poster at XDA-Developers who claims to have inside knowledge of HTC’s release plans has said HTC intends to release the latest version of HTC Touch Pro franchise this summer.
Just had a dinner with a friend of mine who is the main distributor for HTC in Europe, and he informed that they will receive the first shipment of Touch Pro3’s this summer and they will be on sale in Europe third quarter of this year. This is my main contact for HTC devices and he arranges a Touch Pro2 for me 4 months before it was officially released…He told me that the device will be much smaller and thinner, and soon he will provide me with the evidence including the full specifications
Do you guys think this would be something you would purchase or would you rather wait for the Windows Phone 7?
With the claimed device said to be smaller, the poster is likely referring to the HTC Tera, a QWERTY slider with a 3.0 inch WQVGA resistive screen. Given that Microsoft is basically sunsetting Windows Mobile, it is unlikely HTC will release any high end Windows Mobile handsets until the arrival of Windows Phone 7.
Is there a market for these low-end devices? Let us know below.
Via Techie-buzz.com
Bing, Windows Phone and PayPal are donating $0.75 for each person checking in in Austin, Texas and 50 km surrounding it. If you tweet #sxswHaiti there is an additional $0.25 available, to be donated to charity Save the Children.
The charity campaign is a joint venture between StudioGood, Microsoft (Bing and Windows Phone) and PayPal.
So far, according to checkinforcharity.com. So far, after 42,900 check-ins, more than $11,000 has been raised.
For the first time Windows Mobile users can get in on the charity game, with an unofficial but very functional version of the FourSquare client now available for free in Marketplace.
Read more at CheckinforCharity.com here.
Via MediaBistro.com
The Dreambox is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television receivers (set-top box), produced by German multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia. It’s "kind of" of open-source which has led many teams to develop so called "images" for this receiver as an alternative to the original one furnished by Dream Multimedia. In addition, many other hardware manufactures have produced their own receivers (some of them are actually clones while others are not) using the same concept of the Dreambox i.e. Linux-powered.
You can access the Dreambox (or any other satellite-receiver based on Enigma or Enigma2) through your local network or through Internet,and manage features such as handling timer-events, read EPG etc.
At present there are several applications to manage these boxes via the iPhone, but WM Dreambox Remote is the first for Windows Mobile.
The current version 0.6 of the software features:
The developer, Tilleke, intends to implement in later versions:
For more about the app and for the download read this XDA-Developer thread here.
Jaxbot has released a new version of his Windows Phone 7 theme for Windows Mobile.
The software currently features:
Jaxbot plans to add more hubs in upcoming versions, and refine the animations some more.
Read more at WindowsPhoneHacker or follow this XDA-Dev thread and download the cab here.
Via 1800pocketpc.com
Its been a long wait, but HTC Imagio users will finally be able to take part in the custom ROM party most Windows Mobile devices enjoy.
CMonex has released a Hard-SPL for the device, and NRG has already released a 6.5.3 ROM with all the latest tweaks.
Read more at PPCGeeks here.
Thanks dmlemery for the tip.
Microsoft has laid out its vision of Windows Phone 7 gaming at GDC, and it relieves heavily on XNA Game Studio 4, the latest version of the software, and the only version that will support Windows Phone 7.
Above is part 1 of their presentation, and part 2 and 3 is after the break.
A bit more real than our last video, the above demo shows a pretty functional Windows 95 running in VGA mode on the Qemu processor emulator.
The 1 Ghz processor clearly makes quite a difference, with the desktop OS running fast enough to even play games such as Starcraft on.
Read more on the process of getting this emulator to run on your HTC HD2 in this XDA-Dev thread here.
A more useful OS has finally been ported to Nokia’s internet tablet. The project is still early, which accounts for the slow speed, but hopefully this will improve with time.
Or probably not
In this Channel 9 video we have Michael Klucher describing the gaming experience on Windows Phone 7. The Games hub will be much more than a collection of icons, with editorial content about games appearing, as well as game invitations, achievements and of course your Xbox Avatar. Xbox Live games will be in a separate section to regular games in the hub unfortunately, but it will not be difficult for developers to integrate Xbox live into their own games also.
See more in the video above.
TechRadar reports that Microsoft is launching a Hulu-like BBC iPlayer competitor tomorrow, after a successful trial.
The Silverlight-bases MSN service already has more than 1000 hours of video, and support by major UK content houses such as Endermol and Shed Media, and has been used by more than a million people in beta to watch full-length programmes, trailers and clips.
"We are expanding our catalogue to over 1,000 hours," explained MSN’s Rob Crossen. "We’ve signed a number of new deals…we’ve gone out there and sourced content that appeals to our audience.
"The other aspect is that we are launching a new platform and it really puts content at the centre. It’s not about other brands it’s really about programmes.
"The reasons we are chasing the audiences that we are is that we know there is advertiser demand for those audiences because they are very tech savvy.
"It’s not a discussion around getting thousands and thousands of hours [of content] it’s more about a targeted offering."
The platform is optimised for Microsoft’s Silverlight and some of the content is available in HD streaming at 720p on connections of 2Mbps and upwards.
When asked about the service coming to Windows Phone 7 he Crossen said:
"There are a number of ways that we could choose to explore."
"We have a fantastic product coming later in the year, but no fixed plans that we are announcing today.
"It’s a reflection of our users telling us what they want and they also express their views how they want their content and how they consume it so it’s absolutely no mystery to any of us how it could grow."
The service should be available at player.uk.msn.com soon.