Category: Software

Mitac has shown off its 7 inch MID which runs Windows CE 6.0 R3.  The screen is a capacitive WVGA number, and runs a custom user interface. The software features flash support and the hardware supports WIFI, HSDPA and and DVB-T and WiMAX.

Most interesting is this carry-case which transforms the device into a smartbook, an accessory which I wish the HTC HD2 had.

The device supports H.264, H.263, WM9/VC1, DivX, MPEG4, MOV video and can output this via the built-in HDMI port at up to 720p.

The full specs are below:

• Processor — 600MHz
• Memory — 512MB of RAM and 4GB or 8GB of flash storage
• Expansion — microSD slot
• Display — seven-inch capacitive touchscreen with 800 x 480 pixel resolution
• Wireless:
  • WLAN — 802.11b/g
  • WAN — 3.5G, WiMAX (optional)
  • GPS (optional)
  • DVB-T receiver
• Other I/O:
  • mini-USB 2.0
  • Headphone jack
  • HDMI
• Battery — 2300mAh; life n/s
• Dimensions — 8.03 x 4.37 x 0.56 inches (204 x 111 x 14.35mm)
• Weight — 15.69 ounces (445g)

Read much more about this interesting device at WindowsforDevices here.

This week has been spectacular for CDMA users, first the leaked Sense 2.5 ROM details, and now a Sprint 6.5 ROM. This ROM originates from the guys at PPCgeeks, and they seemed to have somehow gotten their hands on a test build of the sprint Windows Mobile 6.5 Touch Pro2 update. The build is a very old one, from late last year, 21210 to be exact. The ROM, unlike the Verizon Wirelesses version, it does not include 2.5, only Sense 2.1,which means it is that old.

This might not be news to most, but the Sprint Touch Pro2 would most be rejoicing because they can finally see a ROM in sight, but just a little late. The Sprint costumers, comment and tell us what you think about this development.

Via:MobileOSNews

In this short video Engadget interviews Jerry Shen, CEO of ASUS and with Garmin one of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 partners.

He notes that Windows Mobile 6.5.3 was a significant improvement, and was able to pull a Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10 from his pocket, hopefully suggesting this is his personal device.

He however expressed quite a lot of enthusiasm for Windows Phone 7 (which he called Windows Mobile 7), saying he felt this was the first time it appeared Microsoft was determined to win back the mobile market.

He also said he felt the GPS functionality in smartphones was very important, and thereby justified his relationship with Garmin.

Hop to around 2:40 min to hear the short segment directly.

Source: Engadget.com

Pocketnow have published this video review of the ZuneHD facebook app, which launched yesterday with some problems, but which is now working properly after a hasty fix.

Headline features are the ability to post updates containing a link to the music you are currently listening to on Zune.net, allowing one to share previews of the music with anyone, and full tracks with Zune subscribers.

The main complaint however appears to be the software running quite slowly, something which will hopefully not be an issue on our gigahertz processors when the software shows up on our Windows Phone 7 phones.

Read more at Pocketnow here.

As Steve Ballmer clearly indicates, developers are what’s important. Developers are also the main reason Windows as a desktop OS is so popular.

Wired.com have asked lots of developers what they think of WP7, and it’s well worth a read.

The major complaint of existing WM seems to be the variety of handsets (making it difficult for developers to cover all devices). What’s interesting, is that to me that’s not a huge issue. Yes, you have to make your software resolution aware, but that’s no different to a desktop OS.

The only thing we can really do with regards to WP7 is wait for MIX10, and not have developers bickering about a lack of anything until it’s confirmed!

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Please excuse the March Madness sports metaphor, but Microsoft is picking up the intensity around its innovative new products (and earlier-stage projects) this week. Between its TechFest research showcase, healthcare software product announcements, and a special local appearance by CEO Steve Ballmer, the Redmond, WA-based company is on a serious PR roll, getting the word out about its technology across a wide range of sectors. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. All of this takes place in the afterglow of Microsoft’s introduction of Windows 7 last fall, and its new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series. Here’s a quick wrap-up:

—CEO Steve Ballmer is giving a talk on the future of cloud computing at the University of Washington tomorrow morning. It will be at 10 am in the Microsoft Atrium of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering. And for the hands-on techies out there, you can take a tour of a portable Microsoft data center (housed in a cargo container), which demonstrates part of the company’s plan to “modularize” this crucial piece of equipment.

—TechFest, the annual showcase of Microsoft Research demos, was in full swing this week. A few projects to improve user interfaces grabbed me the most. One is “Body Computing,” whereby a person could use finger gestures or could tap on his or her own arm to control a computer; the system tracks electrical muscle activity and/or mechanical vibrations using sensors embedded in an armband. Another project is “Mobile Surface,” whereby you can interact with a screen projected on a table (which might show pictures or documents, say) using a mobile phone connected to a camera and projector system. The technology behind it is a bit similar to Project Natal, the Xbox add-on interface slated for release later this year.

—Health-IT software has become a major effort within Microsoft. Its Health Solutions Group numbers about 700 staff (800 if you count the new Sentillion team in Andover, MA). This week, the company announced HealthVault Community Connect, a unified software platform that allows hospitals to gather patients’ electronic medical information and make it available to patients and their referring doctors. It’s a big step in Microsoft’s plan to reach consumers through their physicians and drive mainstream adoption of electronic health records (and the HealthVault platform). The new software for hospitals will be widely available in the third quarter of 2010.

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:  

 
 
 

We have no idea who first posted this picture, but just to set the record straight, the sign is using a bilingual pun on the Japanese word 貧乏 (binbo) which can be translated as “poor.” It’s apparently promoting a store that sells cheap PCs and computer parts, though we do kind of like the sound of “binbows,” and may just start using it around the office when we want to refer to Michaelsoft’s flagship product. Or other products that are deemed worthy of such an appellation.

Erin Kutz wrote:

Novell has received an unsolicited offer from one of its largest stockholders to acquire all of the Waltham, MA-based network software maker’s outstanding shares for $5.75 a share, the company confirmed in a press release. The bid from Elliott Associates, which owns 8.5 percent of Novell common stock, represents a 49 percent premium over Novell’s current value, the private equity firm said in a letter to the Novell board Tuesday. The $2 billion offer will go under review by the company’s board of directors.

Comments | Reprints | Share:  

 
 
 

Oded Ran, head of consumer marketing, Windows Phone UK has once again confirmed Microsoft’s stance on upgrading Windows Mobile 6.5 devices to Windows Phone 7 series:

“We’ve received many questions about the upgradability of HTC HD2 and we currently do not have plans to update the HTC HD2 to Windows Phone 7 Series”, he said.

Clearly trying to placate owners of the premier handset, he notes that Windows Mobile 6.5 is not a mere compromise.

“We are proud of the Windows Phone experience we introduced with Windows Mobile 6.5 and we will continue to partner closely with mobile networks and phone manufacturers to support and invest in the platform". "Windows Mobile 6.5 represents a significant part of the portfolio family that is Windows Phones. With over 50 phones available around the world today, it offers customers the freedom to choose from among the widest selection of device form factors and price points”.

He goes on to note that, as we already know, new handsets will be released with Windows Mobile 6.5 over the coming months and of course these handsets, even if they fit the “Chassis” criteria will likely not be eligible for an update either.

“For Windows Phone 7 Series we are enforcing a strict set of hardware requirements to ensure a consistently great experience for end-users and developers…we cannot confirm that Windows Mobile 6.5 phones that satisfy those requirements will be upgradeable”.

If there is one consolation it is that Microsoft is in fact promising future upgrades to Windows Phone 7 devices, just not Windows Mobile ones.

"Every Windows Phone 7 Series device will be upgradeable with improvements and features we deliver with subsequent Windows Phone 7 Series releases" Ran ended.

Do you think HTC HD2’s are better of with Windows Mobile 6.5 than Windows Phone 7? Let us know below.

Source: Pocketlint.com

Hunting around in the iPhone/iPad SDK, one developer spotted this option to make an emergency call.

The above was easily achieved by enabled a passcode lock, and then entering it incorrectly about 5 times. You can then slide for a emergency call.

So does this mean the iPad will make emergency calls?

Possibly. There are two schools of thought here, and they both hold some validity.

The skeptic’s response is simple, “that’s leftover from the iPhone SDK, on which the iPad SDK is based!” It could be.

But, what I might call the more reasoned response, is that the iPads with 3G chips, speakers and mics could (technically) make such calls just fine. Plus, as 9To5Mac points out, FCC regulations mandate that all cellphones must be able to place emergency calls, even when not under subscription.

By offering iPad owners the option to make emergency calls, Apple could be sidestepping any FCC issues while also being generally cool about their device assisting those in emergencies.

Besides, I always knew the iPad was just a big iPhone! [Gumball Tech via 9To5Mac]

Luke Timmerman wrote:

The faster and cheaper that gene sequencing gets, the better things start to look for Seattle-based Geospiza. This small angel-backed company has stuck to its guns for 13 years, many of them lean, arguing that biologists need better software to make sense of the digital mountains of DNA being created every day.

Geospiza—knock wood—has now won over enough customers that it is operating on a consistent cash-flow positive basis, says president Rob Arnold. It’s a modest milestone, but an important lesson in perseverance for a little operation with about 20 employees. Arnold says Geospiza has built a roster with “hundreds” of paying customers for its lab software and analysis products, including scientists at the Institute for Systems Biology and University of Washington, Harvard Medical School, Yale University, Children’s Hospital Boston, and the University of Florida.

“We’ve made enormous progress,” Arnold says. “We are able to financially power ourselves now.”

Gene sequencing has been on a torrid pace of innovation over the past few years, as the established toolmakers like Illumina, Life Technologies, and Roche have been racing to lower the cost of sequencing an entire human genome to as little as $10,000. Others, like Mountain View, CA-based Complete Genomics say they can do it for as little as $5,000. This is creating terabyte-size piles of digital data in the form of A, C, G, and T. Once those digits have been recorded from a biological sample, scientists need to be able to store, analyze, compare, and visualize the patterns on their computers before they can have a “Eureka” moment that might lead to a top-notch scientific paper or a medical insight.

The sequencing instruments themselves can cost as much as $500,000. So quite a few researchers over the years have figured they could get by on the cheap by dumping their data into old Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that were never designed for this kind of thing, or whipping up their own “home-brew” software for custom experiments.

Geospiza has long argued that it can do better. It now offers a Web-based product in which it charges $30,000 a year to provide its genomic data service to researchers, plus another $2,500 a year for each researcher who wants to analyze the data from the lab. The system is supported by Geospiza’s cloud computing infrastructure, or a cloud run by Amazon Web Services. That means the research lab doesn’t need to host the data on its own servers.

The big players in sequencing have traditionally concentrated on selling their sequencing tools, not software. But Geospiza has shown the toolmakers that computing matters …Next Page »

Comments (2) | Reprints | Share:  

 
 
 

For months now the TouchPro2 world has been trapped using the HD2’s version of Sense 2.5, but that will all change soon. Verizon Wireless is reportedly working on a TouchPro2 version of Sense 2.5, and it is said to be available soon.

This news is coming from a ppcgeek thread where a test ROM was made available to employees for testing.

brent372 from ppcgeek had this to say about it.

Recently posted for internal testing…
A new 6.5 (sorry to say not 6.5.3) VZW ROM – the big surprise was Sense 2.5

Before you ask… NO – I cannot send you the ROM – I like my job way too much to jeapordize it – please don’t bother asking.

Screenshots below show the phone exactly after the ROM flash.
The only thing installed was SOTI Pocket Controller for screen caps.
The only other thing done to this phone was connect it to my WiFi, as this is a test device, and is not active.
Screenshots have been reduced in size by 50%

One thing I did note – most of the green highlights have been replaced by gray.
There are no PROGRAMS, E-READER, DOCUMENTS, or FOOTPRINTS tabs

It is plain to see this was stripped down so it could work quite speedy on the 528mhz processor on the Touch Pro2.

What do you guys think? will you use it with its speed but lack of big new tabs?

Via:MobileOSNews

Navizon today announced that the company has signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft Corp., under which Microsoft will use Navizon’s global WIFI location database to provide an enhanced experience to its mobile users.

"This agreement with Microsoft validates the power of Navizon’s crowd-sourcing technology," said Cyril Houri, founder and CEO of Navizon, Inc. “We are excited to see Microsoft join our fast-growing list of customers who have chosen Navizon for geo-positioning”.

Navizon, a software-only hybrid wireless positioning system, helps users navigate in most major cities across the globe. Navizon works by triangulating signals broadcasted from Wi-Fi access points and cellular towers, and the company’s software is now embedded in numerous smartphone applications which are fast becoming essential tools for the modern urban lifestyle. Navizon’s diverse user community of more than 1 million users is spread across various platforms and carriers. Through rapid expansion in numbers, the community of users is able to constantly improve the precision and success rates of its wireless geolocation system.

Apple uses a similar system called Skyhook Wireless for geo-location.

While this service will likely be used primarily for more accurate local searches without needing to use power-hungry GPS, the software will also benefit users of Microsoft’s My Phone service when trying to locate a lost phone.

Read more about Navizon here.

Via BusinessWire.com

HTC issued a response to Apple’s patent law suit filed yesterday, insisting it has developed its technology, including its iconic HTC Sense user interface, in-house  and has a 13 year history of rolling out innovative smartphones.

In what may be good news for US readers expecting the HTC HD2 soon, HTC also stated it believes that the patent complaint is unlikely to result in a significant impact on its operations in the near team, or affect its business guidance for the first quarter of 2010.

Apple has claimed a number of software and hardware patent infringements, many of them attacking fundamental OS operations found in the open source Linux core of Android, which may see Apple taking on a much larger pantheon of companies than they initially expected.

Via Digitimes.com

Do you suspect your teen of looking at porn? Or maybe even your spouse. Well here is one way to know for sure. Paraben’s Porn Detection Stick is a USB thumb drive that comes preloaded with special porn detection software. Plug in the thumb drive and the software will go to work scanning through all the images on a computer for pornographic content. The software is even able to scan deleted images, so that nothing is hidden. “The Porn Detection Stick uses a complex series of algorithms to analyze flesh tones, shapes and curvatures, face detection, body part separation, and more to alert you to images likely to contain pornographic material.” You can pick up the Porn Detection Stick from Proof Pronto for $98.95.

(Via 69adget)

Sony Online Entertainment’s Tucson studio released the latest PoxNora game update to better meet the needs of the online strategy gamer. Improvements have made PoxNora sleeker and more accessible (along with an updated website), while still holding true to the incredible turn-based fantasy gameplay that originally captivated its dedicated player base. With enhancements to the user interface and a streamlined player experience, PoxNora also introduces the fifth midterm expansion, Heirs to Legend, where eight new champions add to the 800 iconic pieces already available in game.

PoxNora game update features:

• New Rune Manager – A new, easier to use rune manager simplifies staying organized and managing collections
• New User Interface – Includes a sleek, streamlined rune dock, iconic ability buttons and a separate cool-down location
• New and Redesigned Maps – Over 20 new and redesigned maps provide uber replayability
• Updated Attack and Defense System – Efficient attack and defense system provides a clearer understanding of damage and statistics
• Restructured Leveling System – Updated leveling system makes customization easier and straightforward
• New and Improved Tutorial – New players can jump right into the action with the new and improved tutorial