Computerworld calls this market changing but I’m not so sure. Here’s the skinny: when you buy an app from the Windows Marketplace for WinMo you can share that app with four people you know. You can also get a full refund within 24 hours of purchase. You can also run the apps on up to five of your own devices if you don’t want to share.

This move is supposed to help the Marketplace grow at a healthy clip an ensure that folks don’t go suffer too much when they download a fart app for WinMo 6.5 that doesn’t live up to expectations. It should also reduce piracy:

Microsoft will use its LiveID authentication system for tracking. “It will be very hard for the casual, semi-casual or semi-pro user to pirate apps,” Bouie said.

Yeah, right.

By all major counts, I should hate this phone. I don’t generally like candybar QWERTY phones, and I don’t like Windows Mobile 6.1. But somehow, HTC has brought both of these things together in a way that I really like.

The hardware itself is rock solid; it’s well balanced and nicely weighted in the hand, and the 12mm profile looks deadly sharp.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Ballmer also reminded everyone that Windows Mobile 6.5 was just announced (photo, left) and will be rolled out in the second half of 2009, so perhaps that’ll tide people over for a bit.

He also denied any plans to produce a Microsoft phone, reaffirming his company’s commitment to license the OS to outside hardware manufacturers.

[WMPowerUser via PhoneScoop]

The REDFLY Mobile Companion embiggens even the smallest of compatible Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs. In light of this, the Memphis police department just threw down for 1,200 of the devices and deployed them in their cruisers, saying, “The REDFLYs save hardware costs while increasing productivity and also improving the quality and accuracy of the officers’ field reports.”

The department had previously been doing everything by smartphone but the small screens and keyboards “limited the officers’ ability to effectively use the [Memphis PD] databases and applications to aid in their jobs.” And reports had a tendency to be much shorter than they should have been since they had to be typed using a thumb keyboard. Spelling errors were frequent as well. The REDFLYs make it much easier to type detailed reports from the field.

Here’s the full press release:

Celio Corp today announced that the Memphis, Tennessee, Police Department (MPD) has purchased and deployed 1,200 REDFLY Mobile Companions to officers in the field as an alternative to in-car laptops. The REDFLY is a smartphone terminal with a large screen and full keyboard that lets officers use their Windows Mobile-compatible smartphones as if they were full-blown PCs. The REDFLYs save hardware costs while increasing productivity and also improving the quality and the accuracy of the officers’ field reports.

The REDFLY links to the smartphone via a USB cable or wireless Bluetooth connection. REDFLY enables users to comfortably use email, read attachments, view Web sites, and use applications that reside on their smartphones for greater mobile productivity.

Prior to the REDFLYs, the Memphis PD was using smartphones to gain access to sites and applications such as the Watson Field Reporting Suite and the MPD’s own web database. However, it quickly became apparent that working and typing on the smartphone’s small screen and keyboard limited the officers’ ability to effectively use the databases and applications to aid in their jobs.

“We noticed that when officers use only their smartphones, reports had typos and the quality of the narratives were not as detailed as they needed to be,” said Major Jim Harvey. “The larger screen and keyboard has given our officers what they need to bring up mug shots and individuals’ information from our databases, as well as implement a new Paperless Reporting program to submit incident report narratives. Now they can do their jobs more effectively and are very comfortable using their smartphones to file their reports.”

The purchase of REDFLY has enabled the Memphis PD to improve incident report narratives. The officers now have much larger screen real estate and a larger QWERTY keyboard provided by the REDFLY’s eight-inch display and keyboard.

Harvey continued, “We want to provide our officers with the best technology, while being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money. This is a good investment.”

“The Memphis PD’s decision to use the REDFLY Mobile Companion is a tremendous example of the efficiency and cost savings this technology can provide,” said Kirt Bailey, president and CEO of Celio Corp. “They are showing organizations of every size how to get the most out of their mobile technology investment.”

For more information about the REDFLY Mobile Companion, visit www.celiocorp.com.

[via Tracy and Matt’s Blog]

LG just agreed to a deal with Microsoft to not only include Windows Mobile on more of its cellphones, but to increase the number of cellphones it makes in order to prop up Windows Mobile. Now, depending on whether or not you’re one of those “WinMo sucks!” people, this is either good or bad news: LG makes decent phones (right?), but “subjecting” it to Windows Mobile may be seen, by some, as unfortunate.

Not that it matters: the Palm Pre is still the cool kid in class, while the iPhone is more or less fully entrenched in its position as smartphone for the masses; BlackBerry, what can you say?

LG says it’ll up its production to 26 different WinMo phones by 2012—provided, of course, that we all haven’t descended into anarchy by then. I’m fine either way.

Long-term, LG and Microsoft are pooling their R&D resources together so they can produce decent hardware to go along with decent software. (I think my artwork to the left would be a fine start for a joint logo.) You don’t want a T-Mobile G1 situation, where the hardware is so-so, while the software is amazing.

Like lipstick on a pig, here comes WinMo 6.5: the next amazing interface from everyone’s favorite mobile software company. I could go the “Looks like iPhone” route, but I won’t. In fact, Microsoft should have been way ahead of the game six years ago yet they clung to a dated OS for so long that this looks like catch up – to the freaking Palm Pre. While I’m sure a lot of man-hours went into producing this, those man-hours should have been put in before the iPhone was a glimmer in Steve’s eye. Sadly, as we all know, Microsoft is Me Too and not Me First.

Dvorak kind of agrees with me (”Windows Mobile 6.5… CRIPES! Are you kidding me?”) and Greg hasn’t seen this thing yet at MWC so feel free to hold back judgment but I’d say “cripes” is right. I’ve been waiting for a reason to like WinMo and this isn’t it. This is just WinMo with a new shell and, from what I can tell, very little in terms of earth-shattering improvement. My Phone is basically Handango plus Active Sync. Oh well, some companies can never win.

 

BARCELONA, Spain – Feb. 16, 2009 – Today at Mobile World Congress 2009, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer along with key mobile partners unveiled new Windows® phones featuring new user-friendly software and services. The next generation of Windows® phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and feature a new user interface and a richer browsing experience. In addition, Windows® phones will feature two new services: My Phone, to sync text messages, photos, video and contacts to the Web; and Windows® Marketplace for Mobile, a new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications that can be controlled from both the phone and the Web.
“Windows® phones bring together the best of the Web, the PC and the phone so you can connect instantly to the experiences you care about, no matter where you are,” Ballmer said. “We’re working with partners across the industry to deliver a new generation of Windows® phones that break down the barriers between people, information, and applications and provide great end-to-end experiences that span your entire life, at work and at home.”

Windows Mobile 6.5 Delivers New User Experience
Windows Mobile 6.5 includes a new home screen with customizable widgets that display glanceable updates from users’ favorite Web services and let users tap into them quickly, along with faster, more efficient access to personal e-mail, work e-mail, phone messages and instant messaging. It also includes an improved touch-screen interface, making it easy to take action with a finger, and an updated version of the latest Internet Explorer Mobile browser, which in a third party research study by sponsored by Microsoft, supported execution of up to 48 percent more assigned tasks than the other browsers and phones studied.
My Phone Service Connects the Phone to the Web
The free My Phone service will enable people to access, manage and back up their personal information on their device to a password-protected Web-based service, making it easier to upgrade phones without the worry of losing important information. With automatic syncing and backup, users can count on their contacts, appointments, text messages and other information being kept up to date and easily restored should they lose or upgrade their phone. Consumers also will be able to wirelessly update photos and video from their Windows® phone directly to the My Phone service, making it simple to share content that, in the past, would have lived and died on the phone. The My Phone service is currently available in a limited invitation-only beta.
Rich and Integrated Marketplace Service Will Offer Easy Access to Mobile Applications
The new operating system features Windows® Marketplace for Mobile, a rich and integrated marketplace for searching, browsing and purchasing mobile applications from Windows® phones or from a PC by simply using a Windows Live ID. The new marketplace will ship inside all Windows phones based on Windows Mobile 6.5, which will allow consumers to easily find, install and experience those applications that fit their needs and make the phone truly personal. Developers, who have already built more than 20,000 applications for Windows® phones, will be able to offer applications to customers through the marketplace via a simple security and compatibility check from Microsoft.
The new Windows® phones are expected to be available at the beginning of the second half of 2009. Additional information about Microsoft at Mobile World Congress 2009 is available on the Microsoft MWC Web page at http://www.windowsmobile.com/mobileworldcongress.

 

We have already seen what 6.5 screenshots of the next WinMo refresh, but now we have a roadmap of the mobile OS. It seems that manufacturers will get the 6.5 update in April and those devices should hit consumer’s hands the following September. WinMo 7, however, should be released to manufacturers in November followed by devices in April 2010. Hopefully the upcoming release of 6.5 is special enough to keep our attention cause the mobile platform is dying and we can only imagine what the open source Android will evolve into a year from now; not to mention Palm’s webOS.

The Palm Pre made a huge splash last week at CES, partly due to the sleek looking form factor which is a large departure from the Palm Treo or Centro stodgy form factor. Dell would have to find the same mojo ’cause design matters these days. A great OS (more on that later) doesn’t mean squat if it’s loaded on grey box-type phone. 

Thankfully, Dell picked up the driving force behind the Motorola RAZR back in 2007 and slapped the title President of Consumer Business on his nameplate. Hopefully, if Dell does indeed have a smartphone coming, Ron Garriques will be able to steer the huge PC maker in the right direction in terms of design and also away from the Windows Mobile Platform.

Windows Mobile is dying a slow death. It’s still one of the most popular operating systems on mobile devices, right behind Symbian in terms of install base, but hopefully Dell isn’t betting it all on the antiquated platform. What a Dell smartphone really needs is a solid Android or Symbian UI for the smartphone, but chances are Dell will turn to Microsoft’s deep coffers. 

Dell and Microsoft have a long history together and they both need an ace in the latest smartphone marathon. But unless Microsoft has recoded Windows Mobile into a stellar system, this phone would be simply cast aside in favor of a better OS no matter how good the hardware happens to be.

So, here’s hoping that Dell does have a non-Windows Mobile smartphone ready to drop and that it’s competitively priced too. Oh, and on a good carrier.

Asus appears to be taking various pages from the playbooks of its competitors with the Galaxy 7, a WinMo smartphone with a big 800×480 touchscreen, TouchFlo-like UI, and BlackBerry-esque trackball. Russian site Mobile-Review got a hands-on with an early version of the device – formally called the P835 – and found the build quality to be excellent (metal battery cover, leather around the trackball, soft/velvety plastic elsewhere) although the processor turned out to be a 528MHz CPU, when it was previously thought that it’d be an 800MHz Marvell CPU.

The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.1 with a custom UI shell over the top, drawing comparisons to HTC’s line of TouchFLO devices. Other features include built-in GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an accelerometer, and a five-megapixel camera. The GSM/EDGE/HSDPA P835 will apparently be available around Europe sometime in March or April for a whopping 20,000 Rubles (about $737 dollars).

[via wmpoweruser.com]