Search Results for: windows phone

Microsoft [MSFT] has launched the Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta version. Microsoft clarify that Beta means that the tools are almost ready to be launched and that it represents a near final version of the software.

Since the initial CTP release of the tools just this March, the Windows Phone Developer Tool CTP has been widely embraced by the community, and they have shown what’s possible on our new development platform.

It’s time to get serious about building the actual apps and games for Windows Phone 7 that consumers will be looking for starting this holiday season.

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We’ve heard twice in the last couple of weeks that we will be seeing Microsoft [MSFT] launch Windows Phone 7 sometime in October. Prior to that it was expected the launch would be closer to the end of the year.

The first time we heard an October launch date was when the HTC Mozart WP7 device was spotted with a bad photoshop done on a slightly different handset. The second time was at a Microsoft Advertisers event where the company were discussing advertising options as well as how to sell apps etc… Early on in that presentation the October date was also mentioned.

We now see over on Engadget a picture posted that shows some AT&T retail materials relating to Windows Phone 7 which indicates the launch is sometime soon. [Read more…]

Microsoft [MSFT] recently spoke at an advertisers event. The video shows that the presentation was mainly about advertising on Windows Phone 7 devices and how it will all work. Features such as being able to link direct to the Windows Market Place so advertisers can send people direct to the application in the store.

An interesting bit of information that was mentioned was a release date. Mich Mathews (the Microsoft VP for marketing) comments later on in the video that the Windows Phone 7 release date will be October. This isn’t the first time we have seen this date and in fact, a badly put together poster just last week also revealed October was the release month for Windows Phone 7. [Read more…]

Over on XDA-Developers a picture was posted showing a poster of the HTC Mozart running Windows Phone 7 and coming in October this year.

The picture, larger below, is actually a badly photoshopped HTC Desire with Windows Phone 7 kind of stretched partly over the screen. However, the poster is real and seems to confirm that the HTC Mozart with WP7 is landing in a few months time.

Conflipper also chipped in on the thread by saying the HTC Mozart does exist and that it is coming to T-Mobile in the US as well as Telstra. [Read more…]

Microsoft [MSFT] is trying to play catchup due to companies such as Apple [AAPL] releasing the iPhone and Google [GOOG] releasing Android. Their current Windows Mobile 6.X just doesn’t cut it these days.

To shift things up a gear, Microsoft are in the process of creating Windows Phone 7 and surprisingly, it actually looks good. The OS hasn’t launched yet, but will be doing towards the end of this year.

To try catch back up to Apple, Microsoft is looking at throwing cash towards popular iPhone app developers and offering them that cash to port their popular iPhone OS (or iOS as it’s now called) games over to the Windows Phone 7 platform. [Read more…]

Windows Phone 7 is due to launch later this year. Several companies are planning to launch hardware along side the launch. Microsoft [MSFT] has created a new job opening recently which puts out a request for a strong and experienced developer to help the OEM to design applications. The job offering is worded as follows…

“We are looking for a strong and experienced developer to help the OEM to design and develop applications that make their devices stand out in the marketplace. You will also help them to bring new phones to market.”

Software is what makes a phone work well. Chipsets are similar but as we have seen with a lot of companies trying to produce software, they often get it wrong. Apple has done it right, Android has done it right, but many others tend to fall over at this point. [Read more…]

Microsoft [MSFT] has made a few changes to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace policies that actually give a better deal to developers. It isn’t clear why Microsoft has done this other than probably tempting more developers to develop with less restricted guidelines.

Before these changes were made there was a restriction on how many apps could be submitted per year under the developers licence. That limit was set at 5 application per year for the $99 payment to be in the developers system. This has now changed to allow for unlimited paid apps to be submitted with a restriction of 5 free apps per year. Once the 5 free apps limit has been reached you can pay $19.99 per free application till the end of the year when it renews with another 5 free submissions. [Read more…]

Microsoft [MSFT] has put out a prediction which says that Windows Phone 7 will be on 30 million handsets by the end of 2011. The information comes from a slide presentation shown at ReMIX in Paris France recently.

The sales of 30 million handsets with Windows Phone 7 installed comes from a couple of areas. First is a prediction that the smartphone industry will rise from 14% this year to 40% by next year along with a mix of what Microsoft believes it can sell in the next 18 months (or however short that duration is based on when it launches).

Challenges of course come from the likes of iPhone OS 4.0 that is launching perhaps next month, and Google Android which is seeing 100,000 devices a day being shipped at the moment. [Read more…]

Back in March a Samsung Omnia HD was seen showing off the newly announced Windows Phone 7.

The same device was spotted at the Microsoft ReMIX event where MobileTechWorld were allowed to get some hands-on time with the prototype smartphone. Just to clarify a few things first though, the Samsung Omnia HD will unlikely be used to run Windows Phone 7 when the OS launches later this year. This specific device is a modified unit that runs a Qualcomm SnapDragon chipset rather than the TI OMAP 3430 that is normally found in this unit.

Either way, the 1GHz Snapdragon runs Windows Phone 7 very smoothly with the MobileTechWorld going on to say that the experience offered by the Omnia HD was as good as what the Apple iPhone can do in that it’s very smooth and no lag at all. [Read more…]

We are hearing today that Skype will not be creating a version of it’s VoIP software for Windows Phone 7 devices that will launch later this year. Instead, the company will focus their efforts on iPhone OS, Android OS and Symbian based devices.

Right now the reasons are unknown for this decision, but perhaps it’s due to restrictions that Microsoft [MSFT] have put in place for developers where Skype might feel they cannot do enough. Alternatively they might have just lost a bit of faith in the platform.

Although they have said no to creating a WP7 VoIP app at an event in Sydney Australia, this could change closer to the time and we’ll never know for sure until Skype make an official announcement – or, when Skype never appears for WP7 devices. [Read more…]

Two videos of Microsoft Office running on Windows Phone 7 have been revealed that show the UI and how it all will work.

From what we see, Microsoft [MSFT] seem to have got it right in that the UI looks great, features integrate very well, such as the ability to quickly edit documents.

We know that MS Office isn’t the most exciting of products, but it’s a product that needs to be spot on in terms of usability. [Read more…]

This morning we wrote about three new Dell Android devices that are due to launch late this year and next year.

The next smartphone we hear of (leaked from Dell) is the Dell Lightning. The Lightning is a Windows Phone 7 device that is a portrait slider. Inside a 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon processor is to be found. The screen measures 4.1 inches and is a WVGA format. The screen is OLED.

The Dell Lightning has a 5 megapixel camera that can autofocus. Memory wise it has 1GB of flash, 512MB RAM and 8GB of storage built in that due to Windows Phone 7 requirements will be non user changeable. [Read more…]