If I had to guess myself, I’d guess that within a few months there will be a somewhat clumsily-implemented Zune-on-WinMo setup that will be polished into a far more usable product by mid-year. A Zune layer on top of the new WinMo? An emphasis on device convergence and a full-featured Zune function on some sweet new phone? Who knows? The Zune team is talented and with luck will be doing more than a simple port job.
MIT professor Hal Abelson started today’s final presentation for the school’s “Building Mobile Applications” class by saying, “A course like this couldn’t have existed ten years ago… maybe not even a year ago. Courses like this right now are unique, but in two years they’ll be completely ordinary.”
What’s extraordinary is that on top of a full college course-load at one of the most challenging schools in the country, these groups of students built fully working mobile applications for Windows Mobile, Android, and Symbian devices while mentors from the likes of Google, Nokia, Bank of America, and Microsoft oversaw their progress.
Listen up, people. Consumer Reports is a great publication if you’re in the market for a toaster or AA batteries. In the interest of self-disclosure, I plan to read the hell out of their reviews when I’m shopping around for my next steam iron.
First off, someone at Verizon Wireless must have been drunk or asleep at the wheel when they gave the Omnia the green light because it has Wi-Fi. Isn’t Verizon notorious for stripping that feature from every single phone in its lineup? Something tells me the other manufacturers are going to throw a fit over this bit of news.
Quick Version: The Omnia boasts just about every feature you’d want from a smartphone and Verizon, surprisingly, left it exactly the way it leaves the Samsung factory. Sure, they added their VZ Navigator app and the VZAppZone but we’re okay with that because they left the Omnia untouched. For a Windows Mobile device with a decent skin Samsung calls the TouchWiz, the Omnia is the clear choice for Verizon Wireless customers. Read More
Attentive readers may remember seeing the RedFly mobile companion device floating around over the last several months. I’ve had one for a while here to check out, and now that RedFly is going to be updating the line, I thought it’d be a good time to weigh in. In case you haven’t cared to check just yet, read on for just what this little doodad is all about and what is in store for it. Read More
Short Version: The HTC Touch Pro is easily the best HTC device available from US carriers right now. If you’ve been considering a professional-level Windows Mobile phone with a QWERTY keyboard, the Touch Pro is an excellent choice.
Well, well, well. Looks like Velocity Mobile finally found someone to pick up their Windows Mobile devices.
Today, Pharos introduced the Traveler 117 and Traveler 127 GPS smartphones. Each device hasn’t changed a whole lot since we first saw them at CTIA last year, but they’re now equipped with Pharos’s Smart Navigator software, which is specifically designed for Windows Mobile.
I usually agree with Senor Cringely. He writes thoughtful, longer pieces about tech and he often portends grave changes in the industry. Today, however, I’m not quite sure he’s hit the nail on the head.
His piece posits that there is an 85-10-5 split in most markets, most notably the phone market. In this case you have 85% feature phones, 10% smartphones, and 5 odd ducks like Nextel and MVNOs bringing up the rear where the feature of interest isn’t quite smart but not quite mass market – walkie talkie features being a notable example.
He then extrapolates Samsung’s plan to stop producing “smartphones” for the mass market as proof that what they are actually planning is to produce smartphones masquerading as cheaper feature phones. Instead of trying to beat WinMo, Symbian, or OSX, they are going to use Android in a highly customized way to offer smartphone features at feature phone pricing. Fair enough.
Looks nice! Despite hearing that FireFox Mobile would be tested first on Nokia’s cool little N810 internet tablet, here we have the first real shots of the thing and it’s on an unidentified Windows Mobile phone. Well then! I’m looking forward to using it; the concept demo looked pretty nice and these shots demonstrate that the Gecko engine has made the change intact. Will the next big browser battle be not FF vs IE, but Fennec vs. Chrome? (Meanwhile, Opera will still be awesome)
[via the::unwired]
Somebody must have given Mr. Ballmer his Valium. After blasting Intel for forcing innovation on the industry (damn their eyes!), he used his inside voice to tell us a few secrets about the Zune software. Saying the Zune itself was just the beginning, he hinted that more Zune-ish integration is on the way, including with Windows Mobile.
I think that’s a good thing; the Zune interface is good and the aesthetic is slick. It’s what everyone has asked for — integration with Microsoft’s other services — and although MS has been sluggish in making it happen, it looks like they’re on track to deliver the goods.
Imagine today, but a year from now. You might still be waiting for the next version of Windows Mobile. Apparently hardware vendors had been expecting the final version to arrive “by early next year” but were recently told that it wouldn’t be ready until the second half on next year, according to CNET.
In other news, guess what’s white hot right now? Operating systems for mobile phones. Microsoft stands to lose a lot of market share by sitting on WinMo 6 for another year. Apparently we’re to see a big update to the Internet Explorer mobile browser this year still that’ll allow it to harness the IE6 rendering engine, which means true Ajax and Flash support. That’s a step in the right direction, but I betcha every other mobile browser is about to add the same functionality, and some might even beat Microsoft to the punch.
But not for the US. We’ll have to wait another few months before they make a similar announcement. To showcase all the gloriousness that is the X1, SE will be streaming a live webcast for all to watch on the 15th. The webcast will consist of an in-depth hands-on demo and the world premiere of Johnny X. What the crapcakes is Johnny X? Read More
It’s been five months since Velocity Mobile hit the scene and now they’ve announced that their first Windows Mobile device is finally available. The touchscreen 103 will ship by the end of the month for £334.99.
Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Qualcomm Mobile Station Modem™ (MSM™) MSM7201™ chipset
GSM/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA 850, 1900, 2100
640×480 VGA touch screen
Odyssey Interface
Velocity Over The Air updates (VOTA)
256MB ROM, 128MB RAM
Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS
2.0 megapixel camera, 0.3 megapixel videoconferencing camera
TV/VGA out
MicroSD expansion slot
No clue where this one came from, but posters at Modaco received images of the Windows Mobile 6.1 device. No word on price or carrier, but I’d say it’s coming to T-Mobile. Or it could be AT&T. The Touch HD rocks a 5-megapixel camera, microSD slot, stylus, GPS, WVGA screen and is said to be coming in time for the holidays.
Dammit. Finally the perfect HTC phone for a guy like me and it’s only going to be available in Europe. Who knows, maybe it’ll find its way over here someday. The S740 does NOT have a touchscreen (woo hoo!), has a full, tangible, real QWERTY keyboard (woo hoo!), and a real, big boy 12-key number pad (woo hoo!).
Add to that 7.2 Mbps HSDPA data, GPS, 3.2-megapixel camera, microSD expansion (256MB onboard), 2.4-inch QVGA screen, and Windows Mobile 6.1 hidden underneath HTC’s very-pretty UI and you’ve got what’s shaping up to be a nice little phone.
A firm release date isn’t available other than “from September 2008.” That’s, like, next month, though. Full press release after the jump.
I am not a huge fan of Windows Mobile. I am, however, a huge fan of Palm and, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m befuddled by their recent decisions. As a blogger I’m full of half-baked opinions and prejudices and no where is this more prevalent than in my understanding of Palm and its various incarnations over the years.
That said, I’m going to try to be calm and objective and state, for the record, that the Treo 800w is one of the better Windows Mobile phones I’ve seen in recent years, even surpassing phones like the HTC Touch Diamond. and the T-Mobile Dash in terms of performance, price, and durability.
Apple’s success with the iPod, iPhone and Mac is finally starting to worry Microsoft, according to the company’s recently filed 10-K form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (10-K forms summarize a publicly traded corporation’s performance, as required by the SEC.)
In the filing, Microsoft says the following about a certain vertically integrated rival:
A competing vertically-integrated model, in which a single firm controls both the software and hardware elements of a product, has been successful with certain consumer products such as personal computers, mobile phones and digital music players.
That’s obviously an allusion to Apple, whose iPod is now the equivalent of Klenix or Q-Tips in terms of brand recognition; whose iPhone 3G has sold exceptionally well (despite apparent glitches and other hang-ups); and whose Mac propelled the company’s most recent, highly profitable quarter.
Ah rumors. Microsoft may or may not have had a meeting this week about making (or not) a Zune phone. True or not, either way the idea is interesting for sure. What if Microsoft released a 3G phone to directly compete with the iPhone?
According to Michael Gartenberg the prospect is not likely. Read More
The good people over at jkontherun have “totally unconfirmed” news about Microsoft’s plans for a Zune Phone. Yep, that’s right, even though the Zune hasn’t made much of a splash, Microsoft seems to think that making it a phone will help it compete against the hugely popular iPhone…
jkontherun’s anonymous source said that there was a meeting in Redmond this week about the Zune phone and that it will be based on a specialized variant of Windows Mobile 7, with functionality centered around Windows Live Services and a touch-screen based design.
We’re keeping the Zune phone still at the rumored stage, but it seems those rumors just keep popping up. Keep your ears open.
Although we speculated about the possibility of a Zune phone coming soon (and were subsequently shown the error of our ways), the Zune/phone divide is in fact narrowing, as Ballmer said would happen. But it’s not a “port” as he mentioned; rumor has it that members of the Zune UI team are actually moving to the Windows Mobile team, for what nefarious purpose I will let you imagine yourself.
