This 10 minute video by Engadget shows what we were all excited about before all of the bad news arrived. The UI is interesting and engaging, and clearly would make for an extremely interesting experience as a day to day main phone.
The Microsoft rep also demonstrated IE loading web pages in the background, which is an example of what he called “smart multi-tasking”, with apps only multi-tasking where users expect them to.
Is any-one’s interest re-ignited? Let us know below.
Here’s a quick little tip for the Evernote users out there — emailed notes can now be sent to specific notebooks. The new feature was mentioned over at GottaBeMobile and although it sounds like a small tweak, it’s actually a huge productivity booster. You simply use one of two new tags in a email note to help organize your thoughts. Let’s say you use Evernote for tasks and you maintain the list in a notebook called Tasks. Use the @Tasks tag in the subject line your email, shoot it to Evernote and the information is sucked into your Tasks notebook. Of course, you can attach objects to the email and they’ll get pulled in too, so it’s not limited to text only. And there’s no need to move emailed notes from the default notebook, since you can now specify which notebook to use.
The other new tweak is the hashtag. Again, use this in the subject line of an email note. Maybe you just keep tasks in a default notebook, but keep other info there too. Sending a note with #tasks creates a searchable tag in your notebook to help you find tasks. Obviously, you can use any custom tags with the hashtag — I’m just using tasks as an example. A few caveats with the new features:
Just when I thought Evernote couldn’t get any better, it does. Not using Evernote to collect your thoughts? You’re missing out on a great tool that’s cross-platform, works well with mobiles and is free to use liberally. You can also go premium for $45 a year to gain boosted upload capacity, SSL encryption, PDF notebooks and offline notebook usage on the iPhone client.
There has been some rumours that the reason Microsoft has left out Copy and Paste on Windows phone 7 was due to development priorities and basically running out of time.
Now Todd Brix, Senior Director for Windows Phone Product Management has revealed that this major omission was not in fact by accident.
"We don’t enable copy and paste and we do that very intentionally," Windows Phone executive Todd Brix said in an interview. "It’s actually an intentional design decision," he said. "We try to anticipate what the user wants so copy and paste isn’t necessary."
The replacement is supposed to be "smart linking," which lets a user double click on a phone number and either call it or add it to the phone book. For an address, one can get a map without having to copy and paste the address.
Apparently Brix felt that for most cases this will suffice, but of course offers no solution for the occasions when it does not.
"We tried to focus on what the core use cases were," Brix said. "Certainly there will be some people that wont be happy with some of those decisions."
Has Microsoft just undone all the goodwill their MWC announcements generated? Let us know below.
via CNET.com
Luke Timmerman wrote:
Entrepreneurs have been trying to kill off pen and paper with software for the healthcare industry for at least a decade. But it has really only leaped toward the top of the U.S. political agenda since January 2009, when President Obama said he wanted the nation’s health records to go electronic within five years. A few months later, Congress pumped in an estimated $19 billion in stimulus money for it. Yet many healthcare providers, as well as consumers, are still struggling to adopt technologies that promise to usher in a new era of more efficient, personalized healthcare.
It’s clear that the Northwest, with its diverse talents in software, biotech and healthcare, could be a petri dish where this concept is proven. So Xconomy is bringing together some of the region’s leaders who are using information technology to drive all sorts of innovations across the health spectrum—things that go far beyond simply making electronic medical records. This emerging IT is helping to create more effective new medicines, help consumers take better control of their wellness, and enable providers to deliver healthcare more efficiently.
We have assembled an amazing group of speakers to explore these issues at an event on May 12. The list includes Swedish Medical Center CEO Rod Hochman, who oversees the largest nonprofit hospital in Seattle; Stephen Friend, the founder of Sage Bionetworks, a nonprofit effort to get researchers and physicians to combine data from genomes with clinical observations; and Don Listwin, the founder of the Canary Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to early detection of cancer, partially through a strong biological IT emphasis. Before starting Canary, Listwin was the No. 2 executive at computer networking giant Cisco Systems.
And that’s just the start. We will hear from David Cerino, who oversees Microsoft’s HealthVault program, and Chad Waite of OVP Venture Partners, who has invested for years in companies that seek to apply IT to biological and medical problems. We’ll hear from executives at a number of startups from across the Northwest with a strong biological and healthcare-IT bent, including Seattle-based Geospiza, Victoria, BC-based Genologics, Bellevue, WA-based Talyst, Seattle-based Appature, and Hillsboro, OR-based Kryptiq. And, last but not least, we’ll hear from Greg Foltz, a neurosurgeon at Swedish who works in partnership with the Institute for Systems Biology to come up with personalized treatments for cancer patients.
This event will be from 2 to 6:30 pm on May 12 at the Frye Art Museum, in the heart of Seattle’s hospital district on First Hill. Greg Huang and I will be there to help you direct your questions to this stellar group of speakers. As always, there will be time to carry the conversation further during the networking portion of the evening. You can find out more details on how to register, by clicking here.
Blackberry’s push notifications are now available to any developer who’d like to stick ’em in any Blackberry app. Since battery-friendly push is the best part of owning a Blackberry, this update sounds fantastic. More »
Just because we are not happy with Microsoft’s WP7 restrictions does not mean we are not interested in what they are doing with the UI.
In the above Engadget video we have two WP7 devices phoning each other, and we see Microsoft’s interesting implementation of the phone UI, where it does not cover the full user interface, ironically hinting strongly that one multi-tasks by continuing to use the applications while on a phone call.
Apparently the software is still not fully developed yet, with simple features such as speaker phone not even implemented yet. Some hope for C&P then?
Read more at Engadget here.
Ryan McBride wrote:
Massachusetts is going to be the focus of the health IT universe late next month — if it isn’t already. Governor Deval Patrick and his staff have invited power players in both the healthcare and technology fields to Boston in April for a conference that is expected to highlight the state’s fast-growing health IT sector.
The conclave comes as state organizations in Massachusetts and other parts of the U.S. begin spending more than $1 billon awarded to them by the federal government since February for regional and statewide systems for sharing electronic health records. To headline the conference, the governor has attracted at least two of the top federal officials involved in national health IT initiatives: Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology. The conference is slated for April 29-30 at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel in South Boston.
Several factors are playing into Patrick’s strategy for bringing these and other heavy hitters to the state, according to people involved with the conference. Massachusetts has a huge stake in President Obama’s plan to invest $19.5 billion from the federal economic stimulus passed last year to drive adoption of health information technology over the next several years; a bright spot in the mostly stormy economy in recent years has been the growth of tech companies such as Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, and Meditech that provide software and services to hospitals and other healthcare organizations. These Bay State firms are competing with companies around the world for their share of the billions of dollars in new business that will be generated by Obama’s health IT initiative, which is expected to create jobs while reducing healthcare costs and improving patient care.
Bay State officials have invited state health IT and Medicaid leaders from around the country, as well as healthcare software firms from Massachusetts, to the conference. To help ensure their participation at the conference, the plan is to pay for the travel expenses of …Next Page »
Gregory T. Huang wrote:
Portland, OR-based Second Porch, an Internet startup that lets people rent and trade vacation homes through social networks, announced today it has closed $1 million in Series A financing, led by the Oregon Angel Fund. The company has a Facebook application that lets consumers discover their friends’ vacation rental homes and helps homeowners find trusted renters. Second Porch was founded in 2009 and is led by CEO Brent Hieggelke.
Microsoft has seriously alienated the current Windows Mobile user group, and current user Blackwheel is not letting Microsoft go on his way without at least raising some noise.
I will send this off to Microsoft after a significant number of people have signed.
Here is the message:
“Windows Mobile:
Function: Extremely capable OS
Form: Dense, outdated user interface.Windows Phone 7 Series:
Function: OS crippled by a lack of basic features
Form: Intuitive, modern user interface.Microsoft has selected form over functionality and that is a decision we can not and will not support with our own monetary funds. Microsoft, you’re decision to neglect basic features such as…
– an open file system accessible to the user
– copy + paste
– true multitasking
– true customization
… has resulted in our collective decision to boycott all future Windows Phones until the above issues are addressed.”
Sign here: www.petitionspot.com/petitions/7seriesphoneboycott
This post was submitted by Blackwheel.
MobilityDigest reports that that extremely functional Blockbuster app, which has been extracted from the HTC HD2, is now ready to deliver its movie-streaming goodness to any US Windows Mobile phone.
The T-Mobile version of the HTC HD2 saw its official launch yesterday, likely explaining the activation, and apparently the software allows $2.99 to $3.99 movie streaming rentals and even purchases, and allows one to stream to the device, pause the movie, and continue on an other Blockbuster equipped device such as a TV set top box.
Read more at MobilityDigest here, and see this post for the Blockbuster cab.
Gregory T. Huang wrote:
As Don Corleone said in The Godfather, “A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.” If that’s true, then a Seattle company called Cozi should help quite a few people become real men.
Cozi is a tech startup focused on family-related software for the home. That includes things like online calendars, shopping lists, to-do lists, message boards, and family journals for sharing family memories and photos. These are the kinds of things, the company reasons, that busy families want to have to keep the trains running on time, and which most still do with paper and pen, or a physical bulletin board. Cozi puts it all online.
But there’s something deeper here. Cozi’s mission statement is to help family members improve their relationships with each other, through its software. I’m paraphrasing, but this is essentially the company’s 10-year “audacious goal.” It’s posted on the wall of Cozi’s meeting room at its headquarters in the Smith Tower near Pioneer Square. The place feels like a comfortable living room, as CEO and co-founder Robbie Cape pointed out when he showed me around. I came away with a strong sense that Cozi is a family, not just a company. And that if Cape were in a Godfather movie, you’d call him Don Cozi. (I’m kind of hoping that sticks.)
In any case, a sweeping mission to help families is all good—and atypical of tech startups, where 80-hour weeks and product focus are the norm. But it’s one thing to have a noble mission, and another to deliver on it. That’s why Cozi is interesting right now: for the first time, it can see a viable path to achieving its mission. “We are only now starting to see signs that the vision we had when we started the company can become a reality,” Cape says.
Cozi seems to have surged ahead of most startups in family organization software, including Fircle, Famundo, and Nesting.com. Seattle-based Trumba started as an online calendar service for families, but has switched to focusing on businesses and other organizations. Meanwhile, most big companies like Microsoft and Google don’t focus on family software because to them, the market is too small.
Being privately held, Cozi doesn’t disclose its financial performance and growth rates. But here are some hints of success. Cozi’s software now comes pre-loaded on all Dell machines. It has …Next Page »
Erin Kutz wrote:
New England’s life sciences and software companies kept us busy with news of early venture rounds, IPOs, and partnerships.
—Battery Ventures, with offices locally in Waltham, MA, announced the close of its ninth fund, at $750 million. Existing limited partners account for about 85 percent of the fund’s investors, said the firm, which also has locations in Israel and California. The new fund will invest in a gamut of industries, including digital media, clean tech, enterprise IT, and semiconductors.
—Sensata Technologies (NYSE:ST), an Attleboro, MA-headquartered maker of sensors and switches, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange last week in an initial public offering priced at $18 a share, the low end of its proposed range of $18 to $20 per share. The 31.6 million-share IPO raised $568.8 million.
—Rapid7, a Boston maker of network security software, pulled in half of a planned $4 million equity offering, according to a regulatory filing. Members of Bain Capital Ventures, an existing Rapid7 investor, were listed as directors on the filing for the $2 million financing, which included a total of eight investors.
—In more IPO news, Cambridge, MA-based Aveo Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVEO) made its public debut, selling 9 million shares at $9 apiece, well below the initially proposed range of $13 to $15 a share. The cancer drug developer’s stock started trading on the Nasdaq on Friday, and dropped a penny to close at $8.99. Luke wrote that the conservative maiden offering for Aveo attests to public investors’ reluctance toward biotech companies.
—Venture investors, on the other had, showed a bit of enthusiasm. Genetix Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge developer of gene therapies, pulled in a $35 million Series B round that …Next Page »
When I consider cloud services, one of the first things I look for is cross-platform support. That used to mean support for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. These days however, I also consider what mobile platforms work with the service. ZumoDrive just added appeal with news of both Android and webOS clients to complement its existing iPhone app. I’ve been using the software for the past few days on my Google Nexus One and it’s a must have for any ZumoDrive customers with a supported device.
Since ZumoDrive can sync any local computer file with the cloud, the new Android and webOS titles offer full access to files and folders stored online in a ZumoDrive account. It’s an easy way to get important files with just a phone. And that includes media files too — with the new ZumoDrive software, you can view your photos stored online or stream digital media like audio or video. The audio streaming is one of the features that first drew me to ZumoDrive — in the past, I used the iPhone client to stream music files that didn’t fit on my iPhone. It worked great back then and the Android experience is no different. Using the music player in the ZumoDrive client, I’ve been streaming tunes again. And since both Android and webOS allow third-party apps to run in the background, I enjoyed the streaming audio while multitasking.
One minor downside I came across is in playlist support. ZumoDrive does work with music playlists that you’ve created elsewhere, like iTunes, for example. But you can’t pick and choose these playlists for import — it’s currently an all-or-none situation with the playlists and iTunes libraries. On the plus side, ZumoDrive doesn’t require any changes to your local file structures. Using the ZumoDrive Console software, I can tell the service which folders to scan for changes — I don’t have to move them or store files in a special place. And once I tell ZumoDrive which folders to monitor, they simply appear on my phone. I linked the iPhoto library on my MacBook, for example, and shortly after doing so, I had mobile access to my photos, making it easy for viewing. I also linked my DoubleTwist folder since that’s what I use for music management. In the future, I’d love to see the ability to share or email these photos from my handset, but for now, just being able to get at them remotely is great. I was able to share a text file from the Documents folder, but can’t share pics at the moment.
I find the app very useful on my Android device and since the functionality is generally the same, I’d expect it be handy on a webOS device. In fact, I’ve missed the ZumoDrive app since I got rid of my iPhone a few weeks ago. The mobile software is free and if you already have a ZumoDrive account, it’s a no-brainer to download the new Android or webOS clients. If you’re not using ZumoDrive, but want to try a new cloud storage and synchronization solution, I recommend the look. A free gigabyte of storage is yours for the taking and the company reduced the monthly pricing for higher capacities about a year ago. It’s a good service made even better with the new mobile clients.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Kaleidoscopes: Fun for five minutes when you were a kid until you discover the joy of the opposite gender. KaleidoVid, however, is fun for considerably longer, because it involves your phone! More »
Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:
San Diego-based EMN8, which develops self-service, touchscreen displays and systems for use in fast-food restaurants, theaters, theme parks, and other retailers, has ordered up more than $14.4 million in venture funding, according to a recent filing with government regulators.
The venture-backed company says it has raised all but $179,550 of a secondary round that began in January and aimed to raise about $14.6 million. EMN8 identifies Sid R. Bass Associates, GRP Partners, and Fort Washington Capital as investors on its website. Former Enterprise Partners VC partner Ron Taylor and Allegis Capital’s Spencer Tall are members of EMN8’s board.
An EMN8 kiosk
Telephone calls to CEO Perse Faily at EMN8’s San Diego office went unanswered this afternoon. The startup specializes in point-of-transaction kiosks that feature animated software and graphics for placing and paying for orders. The company says its customers include the Carl’s Jr. and Jack in the Box restaurant chains, and Walt Disney World.
In an interview with a trade publication last year, Faily said, “Our mission at EMN8 is to deliver a compelling guest experience, improved guest satisfaction, and increased profit margins for our customers.”
Last August, EMN8 and New York-based IBM announced an agreement to jointly manufacture, market, and support EMN8’s self-service order and pay kiosks. As part of the deal, EMN8 said it would move production of certain kiosk hardware to IBM, calling its “OrderM8 4000″ equipment the “kiosk design of choice” for quick-service restaurant operators. The partners also plan to develop future generations of kiosk products.
While similar technology has existed in banking in the form of ATMs, point-of-sale terminals have only become prevalent in recent years in such places as movie theaters, and at airline ticket counters where kiosks dispense boarding passes.
The fast-food industry, which began installing such kiosks about five years ago, represents a huge market for companies like EMN8. In the interview last year, CEO Faily says restaurant self-service technology has evolved into an integrated program that involves operations, marketing, and IT. EMN8 specializes in technology that includes the user interface, data and media storage, core software, point-of-sale interface, electronic payment interface, device drivers, hardware, network capabilities, and manager’s console.
NEWS:
The feature that many of us has become accustomed to and made fun of the Iphone for, seems to be departing the Windows Phones World. Engadget recently got a chance to interview a MS employee who made them aware of the new feature policy in WP7S. The employee says the new and improved mobile OS, will come without copy and paste. I am just stunned hearing this, no copy and paste. Copy and paste, a very simple and under appreciated feature will not make it to the original release of WP7S.
This means you cannot copy anything across applications, you will be limited to hyperlinks. I do not see what Microsoft has been smoking in their developer room recently, they take away flash(not 100% yet) okay, they take away multi tasking, ehhh okay, and now they are taking away copy and paste.
.Reaction:
After all this news that some might call a “negative,” why don’t we find the positives.
No Copy and paste: This feature has been a good addition to the devices, but do we really need it?
How often do you use it? How much do you need it? Do you want it that bad?
My answer is very simple, I don’t need it.
The Iphone was originally released without a lot of these features that WP7S does not have, and it was named “revolutionary.” That means the Iphone did well without half the features WP7S has included. That might not be enough for many people but really all these things that Microsoft is taking out can really better your experience. Removable memory is not really needed if you have a free backup service, and 16GB memory. You do not need copy and paste if you are not a business man that uses it on a daily bases. You do not need a WP7S device if you are a true business man.
There are many things that people see as a down side to Microsoft’s new os. I say, you do not need it unless you use it. I am quite excited about WP7S because it has all I need, music, videos, smooth, fast, apps, looks. I am a very simple user, I am currently using Windows Mobile, Android, WebOS, Symbian OS and even MacOS(not alot). With all these devices in my hand, I can say they one thing that beat Windows Mobile in is the availability of applications and speed.
Wrap it up
All these negatives are and can easily be positive, if you think you do not need it, they do not need include it. There is another up side to this also. The devices will come with OTA, which means new features can be added in a heart beat, and a whole in experience in seconds.
Comment below and tell me how you feel about all this and what you think of my thoughts
No way. It just can not be possible. No multi-tasking. No removable storage. No file system. No side-loading of apps. Now Engadget reports Windows Phone 7 does not have cut and paste either.
I’m sorry Microsoft, but I’m not buying it. Thank God the Toshiba K01 will still run a real smartphone OS.
Am I wrong? Let us know below.
Via Engadget.com
Gregory T. Huang wrote:
Twitter, the San Francisco-based micro-messaging company, announced it has developed a new set of frameworks to let consumers tweet, and follow others’ tweets, from within other websites outside of Twitter.com. Initial launch partners for the service, called “@anywhere,” include Seattle-area sites Amazon.com, Microsoft’s Bing, and MSNBC.com. Financial details of the partnerships weren’t given. Other big partners include The New York Times, The Huffington Post, eBay, Yahoo, and YouTube.
Xobni — Inbox spelled backwards — is one of those email utilities that when you try it you wonder how you lived without it. It integrates into Outlook and turns your email into a personal assistant. It’s so good that it almost makes me wish I still used Outlook — almost. We first covered Xobni two years ago, and it has gotten even better over time.
While it was rumored a while back that Xobni would be hitting the smartphone, the BlackBerry specifically, according to word just received from the Xobni folks, that day has arrived. Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry smartly extracts useful information about your contacts from the conversations you have with them — email, SMS and phone calls. It then presents the information to you as needed. You’ll always know the last time you were in touch with someone, and what was discussed.
A new Xobni One service is being launched to keep Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry in sync with desktop Outlook. Once in sync, you will have access on the BlackBerry to every single person you’ve ever contacted. Even if you’ve only received one email from someone, you’ll know that on your BlackBerry.
Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry is available for a one-time fee of $9.99. Xobni One with Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry is $6.99 plus a recurring fee of $3.99 monthly, or just an annual fee of $39.90.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
If this morning’s news of Internet Explorer 9’s support for HTML5 and video acceleration got you excited, and you happen to run Windows XP, prepare to get unexcited: You won’t be able to install it on your OS. Sorry! [IE9] More »
