Posts tagged Microsoft
Microsoft says no Windows Phone 7 upgrade for Windows Mobile 6x devices
Mar 2nd
Many of the high end Windows Mobile device (like HD2) owners are hoping to get Windows Phone 7 upgrade when Microsoft releases Windows Phone 7 later this year.
Device like HD2 has a snapdragon CPU with high resolution capacity touch screen, 5MP camera and enough RAM seems to be one of the devices that qualified for Windows Phone 7 hardware requirement and likely to receive Windows Phone 7 upgrade.
However, here is a piece of bad news from Microsoft, officially. Natasha Kwan, General Manager for Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business in the Asia-Pacific region, said that the HD2 “doesn’t qualify because it doesn’t have the three buttons”.
“Because we have very specific requirements for Windows Phone 7 Series the current phones we have right now will not be upgradable”, Kwan explained.
And it sounds like all existing Windows Mobile devices in the market will not be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7 and now we have to put our hope to the hackers from XDA-Developers 
[via apcmag]
LG has a Windows Phone 7 series with QWERTY keyboard
Mar 1st
This came out to be a surprise during one of the Engadget show. The Microsoft executive actually brought an LG made prototype Windows Phone.
The device shown was running the early version of Windows Mobile 7. And it has a side sliding QWERTY keyboard with back, home, search and camera dedicated buttons. The camera is found to be 5MP. And the device has an impressive thickness. It is just slightly thicker than iPhone and Nexus One!
We will see more phones from manufacturers that are working with Microsoft to bring Windows Phone 7 series to the market and Microsoft is definitely pushing for a big launch.
[via engadget]
Everything you wanted to know about Windows Phone 7 Series
Feb 18th
Are you excited about the Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series announcement? Do you want to know more about it?
Engadget has a pretty comprehensive article regarding this latest creation from Microsoft. It covers most of the information available now from Microsoft and the net.
Follow this link to view the article.
Windows Phone 7 Series hands on video
Feb 17th
Interested to know more about the recently announced Windows Phone 7 Series? We have a 22 minutes video here to show you lots of things you would like to know about the new platform. It is really interesting to see what Microsoft has been doing to the new mobile OS.
Enjoy!
It is official now – Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series
Feb 16th
Yes, it is official now. Microsoft has officially announced its next generation Mobile OS platform – the Windows Phone 7 Series, to the world during the press conference in MWC.
Yes, it is completely rewritten from ground up and it has nothing similar to the current Windows Mobile 6.5. The entire platform, from the core to the UI, will give the smartphone market a tough competitor. It is a completely new mobile OS to the market. With its Zune like interface (which is very original) and many services brought to the phone, Microsoft will raise the bar again for the rest of the competitors.
The Windows Phone 7 series will bring Xbox LIVE games and that Zune music and video experience to the users. There are “live tiles” which show you real-time content on the main screen. On each phone there will be six “hubs” which bring together related content from the web, applications and services into a single view – People, Pictures, Games, Music+Video, Marketplace and Office.
The “People” hub delivers the social side of your life – it is an address book with integration to social networks, photos and instant updates to Facebook, Windows Live and other sites. The “Pictures” hub organize your pictures and lets you share pictures and video to your social network. The “Games” tab delivers the first Xbox LIVE experience on your phone – Xbox games, Spotlight feed and gamer profile. The”Music and Video” hub brings online services plus content from your PC. The “Marketplace” app takes you into the online application store. The “Office” hub brings the Microsoft Office experience and mobile applications like SharePoint, OneNote and Outlook to the phone.
However, there is no mentioned of the “multitasking” capability of the phone from Microsoft.
Microsoft is confident to have its first Windows Phone 7 Series phone to hit the market before the end of the year from its partners.
The introduction video is after the break. And the official Windows Phone 7 Series’s official web site is up now. You can find a lot of information from here.
Microsoft getting ready for MWC Windows Phone launch?
Feb 11th
So is Microsoft getting ready the big launch event for the new Windows Phone / Windows Mobile 7 in MWC?
According to Engadget, by looking at the decoration and banners, Microsoft seems to be ready to push the Windows Phone’s brand name in the event. And guess what, Steve Ballmer will be there for the event. And hopefully Microsoft is ready for the Windows Mobile 7 announcement.
MWC 2010 is going to be an interest event as we will be expecting quite a number of new products launch.
[via engadget]
Windows Mobile 7 details surfaced: no multitasking and customizable UI
Feb 8th
Before the Microsoft announcement of Windows Mobile 7 at MWC, there are already some in depth details of the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 leaked into the net.
According to PPCGeeks, Windows Mobile 7 will feature a Zune like interface and there will be no multitasking support for third party apps on the phone! Microsoft will control the Windows Mobile 7 about the same way Apple controls the iPhoneOS, except that Microsoft will not make the phone. The manufacturers will build the phone but Microsoft will control the user experience tightly.
Here is the list that PPCGeeks lists:
- The User Interface is based upon codename “METRO”. It will be very similar to the Zune HD User Interface with a complete revamp of the “Start” screen. The UI is “Very Clean”, “Soulful” and “Alive”
- Unfortunately there will be no Flash support at the get go as there was not enough time to implement these features.
- Windows Phone 7 will only support application installation through service based delivery. (i.e Marketplace). Application installation via storage card will not be possible.
- No Multi-Task support. Applications will “Pause” when in the background, however will support notifications via push notifications.
- Marketplace will now support “try before you buy” as well as an API
- No NETCF backwards compatibility. This means the original rumor of no backward compatibility for applications holds to be true. That being said, there are high hopes of porting the NetCF to the newer platform easily.
- Microsoft is confident that devices will be ready by September 2010
- Full Zune Integration
- Windows Mobile Device Center will no longer be used. Zune software to take over syncing via PC.
- OEM Interfaces will not be allowed to run on the device. Say goodbye to Sense UI / SPB Mobile Shell / Point UI / Infinity, etc, etc
- Full XBOX Gaming Integration (Gamer tag, achievements, friends, avatars, merchandising, etc)
- Full support for social networking
Microsoft is clearly learning the experience from its previous Windows Mobile release and obviously also from Apple’s iPhone. Will this make sense to Microsoft as well as the existing hardware partners like HTC and Samsung? May be that’s why HTC goes to Android camp and Samsung created a new Bada OS.
Will this be too late for Microsoft? We will see when Windows Mobile is finally released to market.
[via PPCGeeks]
