According to this article found at Computerworld, it looks like Motorola has been purchased by Google!! What will this mean for Windows Phone 7? Nothing good, that is for sure!! Not only does it add a powerful developing market to Android but it isn’t likely we will see any Windows devices coming from Motorola either.

Motorola has been viewed as one of Microsoft’s saviors in the Window Phone 7’s development area and this could be a huge hit to Microsoft. With Motorola out of the loop (at least partially if not totally) Nokia will be the big developer for Windows Phone 7. Some experts are forecasting Android and iOS to be the long-term survivors while  Windows Phone, Blackberry, and HP’s WebOS will fade away eventually. Before this it was optomistic Windows Phone would survive as well, but it will be an even tougher road now. (a great write-up can be found here)

Now….it is important to remember that it isn’t finalized yet and Google is not looking to create a ‘Google-made’ device like the iPhone. They want to run Motorola as a company unto itself, incorporating Android into a lot of devices but not having one corporation take over the other. (more details here)

What do you guys think? Will this create a powerhouse Android world that will threaten even the i-world? What will become of Windows Phone? Will it survive?

Source:  Computerworld  USA Today

There are many GEEKsters out there looking for some numbers from MS to help them make a decision on their next smartphone. Judging by some of the numbers released by MS, things are moving in the right direction. The number of developers downloading the needed tools to develop apps are great considering this is a new platform.

What’s very interesting is the number of apps MS has released does not include the lite versions, ebooks, wallpaper and the apps that have multiple languages count as 1. We all know that the Android and Apple market counts each one of these apps as a seperate app.

Last year many were calling WP7 the new Kin. The numbers are proving many of the nay sayers very wrong.

What do you GEEKmeisters think about this development?
What will the other platform fans say?
Inquiring GEEKS want to know..

Read more here: Intomobile

Microsoft has finally started rolling out the NoDo update after quite a few delays. The latest Windows Phone 7 device (HTC Arrive) has this update and seems to work well. The NoDo update has other functionality updates also, including apps search on the device, performance improvements, Wi-Fi functionality and Outlook e-mail client.

The update is still missing the highly sought after Multi-tasking feature. This function should be added when Microsoft rolls out Mango. Take a look at the video of the copy and paste feature below.

Read the article for more information on the update and let us know what you think. Have you been impressed with the update? Did you expect to see more or are you happy with the update? Leave your comments in the box below.

Source: PCWorld

The folks over at Engadget have leaked another Windows Phone 7 device, this time from HTC and heading to At&t. Its the HTC T8788. While its a slider phone, it slides open to reveal a speaker, not the usual keyboard. Like the Evo, this one also features a kickstand in back, making it great for a multimedia experience.

This is one slick looking phone, but hopefully there’s still a speaker around back. I’m not sure if I would want to be sliding it open every time I wanted to use a speaker.

Source: Engadget

On Cnet’s behind the scene look at the Windows Phone 7 team, we get some insight as to where things actually stand with the new mobile OS and the realistic expectations come the holidays.  Terry Myerson, vice president at Microsoft, is leading the team and explains:

“We’re going to reset, but it is going to take us five years to build a product we all want to have,”

This of course is enough to frustrate the already wavering Windows Phone 7 hopefuls.  He is basically saying you’ll be getting a beta release until 2015!  Of course we are going to see a release this holiday season, but the polished final product they are hoping to achieve is 5  years away!  He goes on to say:

“There were people that looked in the mirror a year ago and said, well, if we aren’t going to win next year, I am out of here,” he said. “There were people that looked in the mirror and said what a great fun project to spend the next three to five years of my life on and kind of buckled down for it…Those are the people you want because that’s how long it is really going to take. The company has that level of commitment.”

Let’s be real here.  Microsoft cannot afford to flop this thing.  It is either going to make or break this company in the mobile OS world, and they are facing very fierce competition from Android with the upcoming release of 2.2 codenamed “Froyo” which improves speed, allows native tethering and more to an already booming user base.  The iPhone 4 had record 600,000+ pre-orders and Apple is frantically looking to supply people with a higher than expected demand, as well as reports that they are planning on releasing CDMA iPhones in Q4 of 2010.  On this Myerson states:

“I think when we look back on the release five years from now this was a foundational release not the release that broke through,”

“We’ve got some tough competition.”

That would be an understatement.

Regarding hardware integration, he states:

“The OEM partnership model we have is more complicated…
We aspire to have the same level of end-user finish as Apple, but getting that level of user finish requires a level of partnership…
Between Qualcomm and Broadcom and Samsung and LG and HTC, AT&T and T-Mobile it’s just very partnership complex, it just is…
I don’t know any other way to describe it…
We’ve made it work many times in the past and as you know, there’s times in the past where it hasn’t worked out so well…
We’re aspiring to do it well, which unfortunately does take more time.”

Time is something Microsoft doesn’t have much of though, people are getting anxious.  Take a look at our forums and you’ll see people becoming exasperated and jumping ship over to Android and iPhones.  With the inability to cut and paste, no backward compatibility to your Windows Mobile 6.x apps, no ability to install apps from your SD, no ability to change the Metro UI other than what’s on the tiles, MS is taking a huge risk and a giant leap with this thing and putting all their chips in the middle of the table.  Myerson is hopeful, however.

“We’ve got a good product,” he said. ” I actually do believe that. I think we are going to actually have a lot of happy customers.”

That remains to be seen.  Does this change your mind about Windows Phone 7?  Does it frustrate you even more?

thanks to darren.wlsn1 for the cdma iPhone tip and for the WP7 taking 5 years tip!

Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience at Microsoft posted on manyniches.com on June 8th that:

“Developer devices are also on everyone’s lips. During the Windows Phone session yesterday, Terry Myerson (he runs engineering for Windows Phone 7) stated that we will start putting phones into select developers’ hands next month. That’s exciting stuff. Obviously we’re starting with the developers who have invested in the Silverlight and .NET platforms, registered at Windows Phone Marketplace and have begun building apps with the Windows Phones Developer Tools. Specifics of the programs are TBD, but we are going to want to get phones into large ISV hands, small team hands…you name it. We’re definitely not going to carpet bomb phones; we want to get maximum leverage for our phone distribution to developers.”

Then just 2 days ago on social.msdn.microsoft.com he again posted an update that:

“we are putting devices in hands starting next month.  We will be doing so for a broad range of developers…not just big ISVs.  Individual developers with great ideas are just as important. “ And he also mentions that of course not everyone who wants a device is going to get one. “We can’t give a phone to everyone who asks in the immediate time frame.  We can’t make 100K developer phones by next month.   I wish we could.  We will do our best, but invariably someone is going to be disappointed. “

And of course he states that this will not be a final build for obvious reasons:

“The developer phones going out next month, and through the summer, won’t be final build quality – they are meant for testing and readiness for the marketplace opening later this year.  Developer purchasable phones (ones you can buy, which are unlocked) probably won’t be available until after launch.  The OEMs and mobile operators don’t want final phone designs hitting the market ahead of launch.”

So who are going to be the lucky (or unlucky if you’ve read some of the threads on WP7 lately) ones to get these early devices?  If you’re a ‘geeker like me you’re of course wondering if we can get some ROMs dumped, taken apart, and somehow someway made flashable to another device. A lot you already know about Da_G’s efforts to port the Mondrian ROM to the HD2. Maybe this will help the effort some.

I know this is exciting news for the WP7 gang who have staved off a bombardment of iPhone 4 and Android news amongst a dry spell in the WP7 world.

What do you think? Are you a believer that WP7 is something worth checking out? Will you try to get an early phone? Or do you think WP7 is just an iPhone and Android rip-off, combining the worst of the two in a too little too late effort by Microsoft to stay afloat in mobile OS world?

While most of us are CDMA users here, this is still for a good cause. As you probably know, XDA has been working on porting the Windows Phone 7 ROM to the HTC HD2. Da_G has done most of the work on this, but he needs a few things before he can get any further. As most developers know, its difficult to work on something without actually having a device to test it on. So, XDA has started a donations thread for this to try to get Da_G a HD2 and a Trace 32 tool so he can find the JTAG. These are estimated to be about $1400. As of now, the donations total about $630. This is no guarantee that he’ll be able to get a fully working port, but he can’t get any further without these tools.

For those of you who don’t know who Da_G is, he has a good reputation at XDA and is a moderator there. I’ve worked with him back in my Touch Pro days and I can vouch that he’s a good guy. I know he will try his hardest and won’t give up. He’s also the one that has given the GSM community most of their WM6.5 files.

The donation thread can be found here.

His donation link is here.

If you donate, please reply in the donation thread at XDA with the amount and your transaction ID.

This weekend, the folks at XDA got their hands on a new Windows Phone 7 leaked ROM, which supposedly comes from a device codenamed the HTC Mondrian on Cingular USA. This is a bit strange since Cingular has been long gone and it has been At&t Mobility since 2007. There’s a long thread over at XDA with some of the top chefs working on it.

The above image was extracted from oemavatar.cab. This could either be a generic image being used as a placeholder, or it could actually be the Mondrian, which has been referenced throughout the ROM. In addition to that image, they believe it has a 4.3″ WVGA display from Optrex and a 1.3GHz QSD8650A/B Snapdragon (the new 45nm) processor.

Source: XDA-Developers

Dell hasn’t really been big in the smartphone scene, but that looks like its about to change. The interwebs are all a flutter with leaks of 4 new Dell smartphones, running Windows Phone 7 and Android. The specs on some of these are quite impressive, and the images are even better. Most of them appear to be GSM/HSDPA compatible, so we’re sorry Verizon and Sprint (and other CDMA) users. Looks like At&t and T-Mobile might be getting some devices to compete with the Droid Incredible and Evo.

The Lightning is running WP7, it is a vertical QWERTY slider with a 4.1″ WVGA AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, 802.11b/g/n, 8GB microSD card, 1GB ROM / 512MB RAM and 1GHz processor.

Then the Thunder is equipped with Android 2.1 Eclair and Dell’s social medial-friendly “Stage” UI overlay, its specs closely mirror the Lightning’s except in lieu of a full-QWERTY keypad it has an 8 megapixel camera. Rumored to also have a Hulu app.

Next we have the Flash, which features Android 2.2 “Froyo” with Stage UI. Rumored to be released in Q1 2011. It has a 3.5″ WVGA touchscreen display, a 5 megapixel camera, support for microSD cards up to 64GB, Wi-Fi, TV-out, Bluetooth 3.0, 512MB ROM / RAM, AT&T-friendly tri-band HSPA that peaks at 14.4Mbps down all powered by an 800MHz processor.

Finally there’s the Smoke, which is another Froyo device and the most affordable of the bunch, it has a 2.8″ QVGA display, QWERTY keypad, 800MHz processor, 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 14.4Mbps HSDPA and sports dual-microphones.

Source: Engadget via BGR

Source: Twitter

Ever since Android came out, I’ve been wanting to try a device with it. I did the Android 2.0 port to my Fuze, but at the time it wasn’t very refined and not everything was working. Of course, At&t was one of the last carriers to get an Android device, probably because of their exclusive deal with Apple for the iPhone. I was jealous of T-Mobile users once the Nexus One was released, I even thought about buying it even though I knew it wouldn’t work with At&t 3G. Last week, Google released an At&t 3G-compatible version of the Nexus One (with no previous announcement other than a FCC approval), and of course, I was all over it.

After having it for a week now, I must say that I’m very impressed. For such a young OS, it feels much more responsive than Windows Mobile. Of course the hardware is a lot better than the Touch Pro, and I’ve never used a HD2 to compare it to another Snapdragon phone. If I had to compare it, I think Android is a cross between Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and the iPhone. It is very finger-friendly and doesn’t come with any sort of stylus. The screen is brilliant with AMOLED and is very bright. It has a thin form factor, which I’ve always loved.

Android 2.1 comes with 5 homescreens, which you can customize with shortcuts or widgets. For shortcuts, the layout is similar to the iPhone, with an icon and short description. The app menu is similar to all over smartphones, with 4 columns and the ability to flick-scroll through pages. You can do shortcuts to contacts for quick dialing or messaging. Widgets can be live, downloading information from the internet, or offline, with different parts of apps. You can drag things around to organize them however you want. The notification panel works quite well. You drag the titlebar down to see all of your notifications. If you’re in an app and you get a text message, it will scroll through it in the title bar. I haven’t found much use for the trackball yet, but I’m sure some people like it. It also serves as your LED notification light.

Battery life for me has been about the same as Windows Mobile phones, which usually gets me through the day, but not much past that, especially with heavy data usage. The touchscreen work similar to Windows Mobile devices too, which allows for kinetic scrolling. It also features mutlitouch, which most Windows Mobile phones don’t have yet. I know there are lots of people on this site that say they “must have” a hardware keyboard. I thought I was one of those people too, but I can actually type about the same speed with the Nexus One’s onscreen keyboard as I could with my Touch Pro’s hardware one. I suggest trying Better Keyboard over the stock one though. Both platforms also offer a new app called Swype, which is gaining popularity fast.

Another thing to remember with Windows Mobile is that TouchFlo3D (aka Manila) is a HTC add-on. While it improves the user experience greatly, its not actually a part of Windows Mobile from Microsoft. With Windows Mobile 6.5, if you don’t use TF3D, then you can use Microsoft’s Titanium interface, which is similar to their Zune homescreen. Some people like it, but most prefer TF3D.

One thing Windows Mobile has over Android is its Microsoft Exchange support. With Android, you can only sync 1 month worth of emails, which is a big disappointment. You can sync your calendar (which probably requires an additional install) and your contacts. There’s no support for syncing notes or tasks. There are third party apps that gives you much more flexibility with Exchange though, but they’re not free.

The Android Market is a lot better than the Windows Marketplace. There are a few developers that take advantage of the system, but for the most part, there are quality apps in both. Gaming is another story. Windows Mobile has always been marketed for the business user, so there were never many game developers for WM. I know as a WM user, I was jealous of all the 3D iPhone games that I saw on the commercials. Now, I can finally say that I have a phone that has some good quality games. There are smooth racing games and first person shooters. There are quite a few free ones, but even the ones you have to buy are cheap, usually less than $5.

Just like Windows Mobile, you can unlock the phone and flash custom ROMs. Most of these offer HighMem support, giving you access to more RAM than the stock ROM. Some of them let you put HTC’s SenseUI on the Nexus One, and some just offer other improvements. The unlocking procedure is easy once you download the correct drivers. The flashing process is also easy once you do it a few times. The ROM I use even has an app in the Market that will check for updates and can install them by itself. The other benefit of this is if you’re updating the same ROM, you won’t lose your data! With Windows Mobile you basically wiped everything from the device and had to reinstall or use a customization script. With Android, an update will keep your apps and settings. If you move to another ROM you will have to perform a wipe though.

I know there are many people that are excited about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series, but there are just as many people that think it will be a disappointment. Only time will tell if it turns out to be a success or a flop.

In the mean time, Android is on a record pace. In different forums around the internet, I’ve read where lots of people have given up their iPhone for the Nexus One, which is saying a lot. CNet recently said the Nexus One was the best smartphone for March 2010, with the iPhone 3Gs in 2nd place. More and more people seem to be moving to Android, and I can’t say that I blame them. For a young OS, its very fast and stable and has a lot to offer. As people move away from Windows Mobile 6.5, I believe most will either stick with Microsoft and use Windows Phone 7, and others will jump to Android. There’s not much hate between the two platforms.

With the announcement of Sprint’s HTC Evo 4G (aka Supersonic), and the rumored HTC Incredible coming to Verizon, I think even more people will make the jump to Android, especially since neither carrier has the HTC HD2. Many people already upgraded to the Touch Pro2, but its specs are weak compared to the HD2, and especially compared to the Evo.

I will probably give Windows Phone 7 a chance, but as of now, I’m the happy new owner of the HTC Google Nexus One and I’m not looking back.

Time for some feedback. Have you made the jump from Windows Mobile to Android? What has been your experience?

While we can’t use it on our devices, it may offer some more insight into Windows Phone 7 Series and may reveal details that Microsoft hasn’t released yet. This build was extracted from the emulator that was released yesterday at MIX10. The build date is March 2, 2010 and it will only run on x86 machines. Maybe, just maybe, someone will be able to port this for our devices, but even if they can’t, it will give us something to watch until the official release.

Source: XDA-Developers

We knew Microsoft was planning big things for MIX10, which started today. There are quite a few announcements from the blogosphere today, including developer tools, Marketplace news, etc. Read on for more details!

First, according to Endgadget, the only official way to get apps on a Windows Phone 7 Series device is through the Marketplace app. In a meeting with Todd Higgs, he confirmed this rumor, which means that all developers will have to follow Microsoft’s guidelines to get published. Sound familiar? Very Apple-like if you ask us. While this is the only “official” way to get apps, that doesn’t rule out the fact that there may be “unofficial” ways to do it too. According to Todd, Microsoft plans on avoiding the headaches like Apple head by making the process transparent and predictable.

• Windows Phone Marketplace appears to take some of the best parts of the App Store and the Android Market and throw them together into a hodgepodge, but they’ve strayed a bit with the trial period system — with the Marketplace, it’s up to the developer to decide how the trial works. There are API hooks to let the developer manage the whole process, actually — to quote Biggs, a game dev could end the trial after you’ve killed 50 trolls, for example. There’s no additional download after the trial expires; the game just unlocks if you choose to buy it.
• Marketplace membership for developers still costs $99 a year, though Biggs says they’re looking at tweaking the 5-app limit per account present in 6.5 — whether that means they’ll remove the limit altogether, though, we don’t yet know.
• There are no fees for developers to update their apps, nor fees for users to download them.
• Speaking of user downloads, you’ll be able to uninstall purchased apps and redownload them at a later time at your leisure — the purchases are tied to your Live account, not your phone, so you can move between devices at will. That’s a Microsoft policy that developers won’t be able to override.
• If a dev wants to post a free, ad-supported app, they’ve only got two hurdles: the $99 fee and — of course — approval by Microsoft. For ad-supported apps specifically, the company will have some guidelines specifically targeted at making sure the ads are appropriate and germane.
• Microsoft’s only dealing in real money here — no points (though there’s still an opportunity for direct carrier billing).
• Though there’s some development synergy between Zune and WP7S at this point (with XNA, specifically), there’s no ecosystem synergy beyond that — different marketplaces for the developers to submit to and manage.
• You’ll be able to browse and buy apps and games through the Zune client.

According to Gizmodo, Microsoft’s Marketplace Partners include Pandora, Foursquare, EA Mobile, AP, and more.

According to MobileTechWorld, Microsoft’s development tools for Windows Phone 7 is available for download now.

According to WMExperts, Microsoft has also released a carrier’s worst nightmare, Netflix Streaming! You can also manage your queue and browse their catalog, but the live streaming is huge. We wonder if carriers will try to make this a WiFi only feature.

Slashgear has reported on a new feature, which reminds us of Android, and that’s push notifications. Even apps that aren’t running in the background can use the new system, which has a blue scrolling bar across of the top of the device.

WMExperts is also highlighting Microsoft’s huge use of using Silverlight 4 in the new Windows Phone 7 Series.

• Hardware-accelerated video with multicodec digital rights management (DRM) and Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming support
• Vector and bitmap graphics with perspective 3-D
• Multitouch support with Accelerometer, an intuitive control that responds to motion
• Deep Zoom support for rich reading experiences
• Camera and microphone support
• Notification Service for pushing information to the phone, regardless of whether or not an application is running
• Integration with the core Windows Phone 7 Series experience features such as hubs

IntoMobile has just posted a picture of the second known Windows Phone 7 device, made by Samsung! We’re not sure where the HTC devices are, but so far we have seen a LG device and now a Samsung one, which was shown during Joe Belfiore’s UI demo.

GSMArena has released the hardware requirements for Windows 7 Phones. At launch, the only available resolution will be WVGA (480×800) with HVGA (320×480) being available later. They will be required to have capacitative touchscreens. Hardware keyboard is optional. The CPU needs to have a Cortex or Scorpion, which is inside the Snapdragon. At least 256Mb of RAM and at least 8Gb of flash storage (rumors are that there will be no external storage, so no more memory cards). There is also mandatory GPU acceleration and DirectX support. It will also natively support DivX and H.264. The camera has to be a minimum 5MP with a hardware shutter key and LED flash. Other requirements include A-GPS, compass, accelerometer, ambient light and proximity sensor. The other three required hardware keys are Start, Search and Back.

Also, it has been confirmed that the HD2 will not be getting an upgrade.

Source: Slashgear

Here is The Harvest (click on the images to see the original size):

Here is Battle Punks (click on the images to see the original size):

Source: Engadget

Now you can see Windows Phone 7 in action. It looks very smooth and you can see working hubs also. Let us know what you think!

WMPowerUser has posted this video from TechEd Middle East that shows cross-platform gaming between a PC, Windows Phone 7, and the XBox.

WMPowerUser also posted this video from TechEd Middle East of 2 forms of multi-tasking (which, according to the rumors, didn’t exist in WP7).

This makes sense because of the time frame of Android and the iPhone, which were both gaining popularity. Microsoft knew they had to come up with something new and innovative instead of just further enhancing their old kernel.

With the announcement of a Windows Phone 7 Starter Edition, could they further enhance WM6.5.5 with the old PhotonUI? Given what we know about the new MetroUI and the images of Photon, which would you prefer? I know there’s some lovers and haters of the MetroUI out there, so feel free to voice your opinion.

Source: MoPocket (Thanks to those that sent this in!)

In the mean time, you can always sign the online petition we talked about here.

In other news, Microsoft has confirmed that Windows Mobile 6.5 will be called Windows Phone Starter Edition, so even though Windows Phone 7 is coming out, development shouldn’t stop on WM6.5

Source: APCMag

One of the things that caught our attention was the fact that the device looks like it has a smaller screen compared to the Touch Pro 2 or the HD2, and it has a large bezel around it like earlier 2009 or even late 2008 devices. From the video below, it also looks thinner than the Touch Pro and Touch Pro 2, which is a positive for me.

Source: Slashgear

While petitions haven’t necessarily worked in the past with HTC, there’s no reason not to sign it if you want WP7 on the HD2.

You can find it here.