One are that was not particularly emphasized at today’s Windows Phone 7 announcement was the Marketplace for the new OS.

Peter Wissinger managed to grab pictures of the feature, which really makes us feel sorry for the team to had to code Marketplace for Windows Mobile 6, knowing such a beautiful interface had been denied them.

Of course the real issue is if the WP7 marketplace will be even emptier than the 6.X version, given the complete lack of legacy software and backward compatibility.

Via Pocketnow.com

Lotsa people are having serious memory leak problems with Aperture 3—even our Wilson, who woke up this morning to find that Aperture had eaten his entire hard drive, using it all for virtual memory.

Apple’s in “no comment” mode. Which hopefully means “no comment because we’re so busy working on a patch.” [CW]

In this post we are trying to collect all the hands-on impressions of the newly demonstrated Windows Phone 7 Series device.

Neowin says

Based on the basics that Microsoft demonstrated today, the platform appears to have a bright future. The user interface is simple but extremely useful. It’s clear Microsoft has looked at the criticism of Windows Mobile in the same way it did with Windows Vista and has stepped back and made a great product because of this. We’ll know a lot more about the developer strategy and applications at MIX 2010 next month but until then the underlying OS is a great start. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, confirmed that we should expect devices in time for the holiday season 2010 but Microsoft officials refused to give exact dates.

Read their full post here.

Read more impressions after the break.

Slashgear says:

We had a chance to try out some of the prototypes – though not take photos or video yet – earlier on today, and first impressions are reasonably positive.  Microsoft were at pains to point out that it’s still an in-development build, and indeed we saw various bugs and slow-downs.  Often these would take place when opening an app, with data being pulled in but no on-screen indication of that taking place nor its progress.  The touchscreen on the development device seemed responsive, as was the onscreen keyboard, and the animations are smooth.  The browser supports pinch-zoom and will eventually reflow text on a double-tap.

Read their full hands-on here.

Engadget said:

Forget everything you know about Windows Mobile. Seriously, throw the whole OS concept in a garbage bin or incinerator or something. Microsoft has done what would have been unthinkable for the company just a few years ago: started from scratch. At least, that’s how things look (and feel) with Windows Phone 7 Series. This really is a completely new OS — and not just Microsoft’s new OS, it’s a new smartphone OS, like webOS new, like iPhone OS new. You haven’t used an interface like this before (well, okay, if you’ve used a Zune HD then you’ve kind of used an interface like this). Still, 7 Series goes wider and deeper than the Zune by a longshot, and it’s got some pretty intense ideas about how you’re supposed to be interacting with a mobile device. We had a chance to go hands-on with the dev phone before today’s announcement, and hear from some of the people behind the devices, and here’s our takeaway.

Read Engadget’s full impressions here.

Gizmodo said:

Windows Phone 7 snuck up on the world today, but having played with it, I’ll tell you Microsoft is putting all it’s muscle behind this. No matter who you root for, to be anything short of impressed is stupid.

How does it feel? Nothing like an iPhone, for starters. The slippery, rotate-y screens may take a little getting used to, but they feel right. Microsoft deliberately wanted to get away from icons and this notion that all behaviours get the same size button on the home screen, and you definitely get more of a sense of priorities here: Entertainment, social networking, photo sharing—those matter, and oh yeah, here’s a phone if you need a call, and here’s a browser if you need that too.

Read their full hands-on here.

If there are any other major reviews, let us know below.

With so many posts about the new Windows Phone 7 Series posts conversation can get a bit scattered.

Talk about Windows Phone in one place in our forum here.  All registered users can post.

Gizmodo managed to wheedle some kind of answer regarding multi-tasking on Windows Phone 7.

The answer, from Joe Belfiore, the director of Windows Phone, was ‘complicated’:

"The core operating system is a modern multitasking operating system. If you play music for example, the music will play back as you navigate around the experience…if you’re using email, we have great support for push email and that happens in the background.

For third party applications—we’ll get into a lot more detail on this in MIX—but we have a few ways we’re going to make sure that third parties can bring their value to the user even when the app is not running. Live tiles are an example. Data feeds in the hubs are another example for some apps."

Satisfied?  Let us know below.

Windows Phone 7 snuck up on the world today, but having played with it, I’ll tell you Microsoft is putting all its muscle behind this. No matter who you root for, to be anything short of impressed is stupid.

How does it feel? Nothing like an iPhone, for starters. The slippery, rotate-y screens may take a little getting used to, but they feel right. Microsoft deliberately wanted to get away from icons and this notion that all behaviors get the same size button on the home screen, and you definitely get more of a sense of priorities here: Entertainment, social networking, photo sharing—those matter, and oh yeah, here’s a phone if you need a call, and here’s a browser if you need that too.

It’s hard to tell from looking at this stuff, but much of it is customizable, including almost everything on that home screen. Don’t let the uniformity of design language fool you, there will be a lot you can do to differentiate from other people.

As you can see, the fluidity of the “panorama” navigation is here—when you enter a hub, you get those little teasers to the right, showing you want you’ll get if you flip one screen over.

Though details are scarce in these early days, the device here is built “to spec,” so probably running 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. I can tell you that everything ran smoothly. This is obviously too early to make any technical statements, but it really was impressive, and where there are a few hiccups, it’s hard to say whether it was human error or a glitch, but we’ll leave it be for now. This is just demo software.

On to the screenshots—click here if thumbs haven’t loaded, or if you just hate gallery format:

As you can see from the screenshots above, most hubs are fleshed out, though we couldn’t have a look at Marketplace. Some of the shots here are “in between” shots, that moment between tapping a start screen element and the whole hub springing in behind it. There is also one shot of the slide transition from sleep screen—which has a lot of great heads-up information—to the start screen.

There aren’t a ton of answers yet, but what we do know you can find above or in Matt’s piece: Windows Phone 7: Everything Is Different Now

[Windows Phone 7 on Gizmodo]

At first glance, Street Fighter IV on the iPhone—coming this March—looks absolutely gorgeous. But it’s most likely what you don’t see that’s really the problem.

While Capcom built the iPhone’s SFIV from original SFIV assets to create one of the most beautiful iPhone games yet, the virtual controls look like to be layered right on top of the two fighters, making all the character artistry in the world a moot point*. I’m one for authenticity where it works, but maybe reconfiguring the layout so that healthbars took up the bottom of the screen would have been a safer call.

But a redesign isn’t necessary. Capcom can just rename iPhone SFIV as Hadouken Thumb War, take my money and call it a day. [IGN via Kotaku]

It should be mentioned, however, that the Bluetooth-enabled head-to-heads sound fantastic.

Long Zheng has published this photo tour of the Windows Phone 7 user interface.

He notes that the OS in use was solid and stable, and that he was pleasantly surprised by an OS far different from anything else on the market.

See even more pictures here.

It’s a time commitment, no doubt. But if you REALLY want to know more about Windows Phone 7, MSDN posted a 22-minute tour with Joe Belfiore (VP of Windows Phone Program Management) explaining each of the features.

If this is a bit too much, you can get a good feel of WP7 in motion here, too. [MSDN]

The Astonishing Tribe, the design firm that more or less defined the look and feel of Android the first time around, has built an entirely new homescreen interface for the OS, in 3D. It’s alternately beautiful, gratuitous and bizarre.

What you’re seeing in the video is a recording of a live demo; TAT Home is a real piece of software, and one that I’ve seen in action on a handset before the concept was made public. My feeling now is the same as it was then: There’s a lot of eye candy here, and some concepts that could definitely stick—I’m thinking about the homescreen switcher, in particular—though a lot of the widgets and concepts go a little overboard. What’s exciting whether you like the UI concept or now, though, is how close it shows we are to full 3D cellphone interfaces, and how well current hardware could run them.

TAT Home could end up as a standalone app, though I’d expect most of the adoption to come through carrier or handset maker partnerships; none have been announced yet, but don’t be surprised if it hit the market under a different name, with a slightly different look. [TAT]

New phones designed for life in motion to debut at holiday 2010.

BARCELONA, Spain – Feb. 15, 2010 – Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the next generation of Windows® Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series. With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series. Partners have already started building phones; customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 2010.
“Today, I’m proud to introduce Windows Phone 7 Series, the next generation of Windows Phones,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. We believe Windows Phone 7 Series is a phone that truly reflects the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people.”

Designed for Life in Motion
With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft takes a fundamentally different approach to phone software. Smart design begins with a new, holistic design system that informs every aspect of the phone, from its visually appealing layout and motion to its function and hardware integration. On the Start screen, dynamically updated “live tiles” show users real-time content directly, breaking the mold of static icons that serve as an intermediate step on the way to an application. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.
Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides intent-specific results, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.
Windows Phone 7 Series creates an unrivaled set of integrated experiences on a phone through Windows Phone hubs. Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks. Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:
* People. This hub delivers an engaging social experience by bringing together relevant content based on the person, including his or her live feeds from social networks and photos. It also provides a central place from which to post updates to Facebook and Windows Live in one step.
*Pictures. This hub makes it easy to share pictures and video to a social network in one step. Windows Phone 7 Series also brings together a user’s photos by integrating with the Web and PC, making the phone the ideal place to view a person’s entire picture and video collection.

* Games. This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer’s avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.
* Music + Video. This hub creates an incredible media experience that brings the best of Zune, including content from a user’s PC, online music services and even a built-in FM radio into one simple place that is all about music and video. Users can turn their media experience into a social one with Zune Social on a PC and share their media recommendations with like-minded music lovers. The playback experience is rich and easy to navigate, and immerses the listener in the content.
* Marketplace. This hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.
* Office. This hub brings the familiar experience of the world’s leading productivity software to the Windows Phone. With access to Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace all in one place, users can easily read, edit and share documents. With the additional power of Outlook Mobile, users stay productive and up to date while on the go.

Availability
Partners from around the world have committed to include Windows Phone 7 Series in their portfolio plans. They include mobile operators AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, and manufacturers Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC Corp., HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm Inc. The first phones will be available by holiday 2010. Customers who would like to receive additional information about Windows Phone 7 Series and be notified when it is available can register at http://www.windowsphone7series.com.
To watch the full replay of Steve Ballmer’s press conference at Mobile World Congress, and to experience Windows Phone 7 Series through an online product demo, readers can visit http://www.microsoft.com/news/windowsphone.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Apple may have the iPhone, but the iPhone doesn’t have the Xbox. Today, Microsoft leveraged their most compelling entertainment asset, the Xbox 360, into Windows Phone 7 Series. But what does this mean, practically speaking?

(Note: If you don’t understand what the heck Windows Phone 7 is, read this first.)

Here’s the official word from Microsoft on how WP7 will incorporate Xbox Live.

“Games—This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer’s avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.”

What we saw in Microsoft’s demo today fleshes that concept out a bit. There will be a Spotlight section, with your Xbox Live avatar and notice of friends’ achievements. And of course, there will be games—”premium titles” with achievements and multiplayer connected to other cellphones, PCs and Xbox 360 consoles.

Don’t let the simple interface fool you. Xbox Live on a phone is more than having your avatar on one more screen because of the three types of games I believe we’ll see on Windows Phone 7.

The Three Games of Windows 7 Phone

The first type of game will be a lot like an iPhone title. Powerful pocket hardware will push impressive graphics (that make the PSP and DS look sad). That’s a simple idea that I know all of you can wrap your heads around.

Now, some of these games may be released cross-platform, as Microsoft teased today. They’ll be what I classify as the second type of gaming on Windows Phone 7—casual, connected titles that allow anyone with a Live account to join in (no matter if they’re on a WP7, 360 or PC). You won’t see the most beautiful XBLA titles on the phone, of course, but something like Worms? Why not? A buy it once, play it anywhere model would make this type of game incredibly enticing.

The third type of game—the one that will appeal most to the hardcore gamers—is the Xbox 360 expanded title, something unmentioned by Microsoft but that I see coming a mile away. Imagine a minigame accompaniment to Halo that could unlock more content/resources/anything. Now imagine that such a game is driven by some of the most powerful handheld processors in the world. (You should be picturing something that looks a lot like Call of Duty’s Nazi Zombies on the iPhone.) But with the iPhone, Nazi Zombies never leaves your phone—nothing about it will affect your Call of Duty experience on your home console.

Such no longer needs to be the case when the game is connected to Live. AAA franchises can make their way to the mobile space with Microsoft in a way that they never could with Apple. Put differently, pocketable games can have console-level repercussions.

Microsoft’s Mobile Trump Card: Nobody Else Has an Xbox Live…Not Really

While the iPhone is a treasure trove of pocketable amusements, they’re pretty much self-contained entities working in a closed box. Sadly, pretty much the same thing can be said about the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Nintendo and Sony have both experimented with connecting their mobile and home platforms on a title-by-title basis (and no doubt, the PSP’s early promise of Remote Play still sounds like a revolutionary idea today), but neither company has been all that successful in bridging the gap to create a seamless digital experience.

Plus, let’s face it, neither Sony nor Nintendo is relevant in the smartphone business—the present and future of pocket gaming. And while the iPhone is tough competition, it’s one phone. Windows Phone 7 Series is a specification (that includes baseline hardware specs and software specs) for many phones that could potentially be on many carriers.

Imagine if Nintendo let any willing manufacturer integrate Wii/DS services. That’s essentially what Microsoft is doing here.

But when it really comes down to it, is Microsoft selling us the Xbox 360 experience on cellphones, or are they pitching putting cellphone games on the Xbox 360? And will anyone want to create original, non-ported content for the Windows 7 Phone Series when there are 75 million iPhones and iPod touches out there already?

Time will tell. Despite what promises to be the most full-featured mobile gaming platform of all time, Microsoft must woo developers to create compelling mobile content before any of this matters.

As we see in this first ever video, the Windows Phone 7 interface is filled with simple, beautiful animations not so dissimilar to the Zune HD. UPDATE:

UPDATE: Here’s more video showing us the experience of maps and web browsing. Very sharp.

UPDATE 2: And here’s a full features rundown clip that’s a must-watch.

UPDATE 3: One last video from Recombu—here we see a giant Windows 7 Series mockup running the interface in real time. It probably offers the best feel of general navigation we’ve seen yet.

Steve Ballmer. Aggressive. Unpredictable. Highly territorial. He’ll be unveiling Windows Phone 7 today, Microsoft’s smartphone that looks every bit as bold as Ballmer. And you can watch the press conference live starting at 9am Eastern right here:

[Microsoft Livestream and Image]

Above is a video interview with representatives from Opera at Mobile World Congress 2010.

From our representative, Opera remains very committed to Windows Mobile, and we should see their browser being released in lock step with other platforms.

Behold! Windows Phone 7. Someone wasn’t quite careful enough with his last minute update of this MWC signage and a passerby managed to snap this first glimpse of the WP7 interface, featuring bold, rectangular icons and Xbox integration.

This shot seems to confirm, to some extent, the bit of the last significant batch of rumors that promised tight Xbox integration. It also shows off the simplistic, geometric start page, including big, square icons for phone calls, messages, Twitter, and Facebook and a large band for accessing your pictures.

The device in the shot is a simple one: the screen is surrounded by a black bezel with a thin metal trim. Three hardware (or maybe touch?) buttons below the screen are the only visible controls, with a backwards arrow, a home-button with the Windows icon, and something that looks like a sideways magnifying glass. Is this the Zune phone? Or just another device in the WP7 stable? [Engadget]

Press Release: TeleCommunication Systems, Inc., a world leader in high availability and secure mobile communication technology, today announced that they will be powering the turn-by-turn navigation on the new Sony Ericsson Aspen(TM) smartphone. The phone will be available with the Gokivo(TM) Navigator application preloaded, providing Aspen users with immediate access to the highly acclaimed hyper-local search and navigation service.

The Sony Ericsson Aspen(TM) phone is the first Windows Mobile device to leverage the new partnership between Sony Ericsson and TCS. The navigation functions integrate with Sony Ericsson’s “On the Road” panel, and users are able to press a “maps” button to automatically launch Gokivo Navigator and provide immediate access to a powerful voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation experience.

“Consumers have come to expect turn-by-turn navigation on their mobile devices,” said Doug Antone, senior vice president of TCS’ navigation and telematics group. “At TCS, we strive to provide a product that gives users the peace of mind that they will always be able to find their destination. We have focused our expert development team on making sure Gokivo Navigator is tightly integrated with the core user experience of the Aspen phone, and we believe Sony Ericsson users around the world will appreciate the power of the device and application being put at their fingertips.”

“The Sony Ericsson Aspen is truly a next generation smartphone, and we thought it was essential that users had access to a premium navigation solution,” said Martin Essl, Head of Windows Mobile Application Proposition Planning at Sony Ericsson. “Gokivo Navigator has everything that we look for from a navigation product, and we feel that turn-by-turn navigation has now become a real strong point for the Sony Ericsson Aspen.”

Gokivo Navigator for the Sony Ericsson Aspen(TM) includes the following popular features:

• Local Search — Gokivo Navigator users have access to top-of-the-line search features that enable consumers to find nearby restaurants, petrol stations, ATMs, hotels, hospitals, and more. Users can also stay within the app and access additional information about nearby POIs, such as showtimes for films playing at the local theater.
• Traffic and Weather — Users can save time and energy by tapping into the traffic and weather features of Gokivo Navigator. The navigator displays the current weather and weekly forecast information for any location, and highlights any local traffic incidents with a view of the incident report details.
• Share Your Location — When Gokivo Navigator users wish to share their location, they have the option to send a message to another mobile device with a geo-coded place. This message will allow the recipient to see a map or a route that shows them how to get to the original location.

Gokivo Navigator will be available for free to all Sony Ericsson Aspen(TM) users on a trial basis for the first 30 days. Once the trial period ends, users will have several options to continue using Gokivo Navigator. Facts and features may vary depending on local variant.

The Sony Ericsson Aspen(TM) smartphone will be shown in both the Sony Ericsson booth (8B56) and the TCS booth (1A03) at the upcoming Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona Spain from February 15-18. A demo of Gokivo Navigator will be available for all consumers that stop by those booths.

To learn more about Gokivo Navigator, visit: http://www.gokivo.com/.