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Yes, this apparently isn’t a joke . According to several people attending MIX today, Microsoft revealed that Windows Phone 7 Serieswill not feature a clipboard/copy/paste function when launched later this year. I don’t really know what to think of this other than: “WTH are they thinking?!”. Did the Microsoft rep really say that or was his answer mis-interpreted? More to come… I always though that WP7 will feature such a basic function given that text can be highlighted in the browser (as seen a the screenshot I took using the emulator, you can also see this happening during several live demos posted online).
Update: According to Paul Thurrott, Microsoft told him that the functionality isn’t currently present in WP7 but the plan is to implement it before RTM:
So I was told that Windows Phone copy and paste is not definitely, but that they were looking at adding this before RTM. It’s not there now.
Update 2: Accodring to Microsoft’s Todd Brix there’s no plan to add the feature later (!?):
“We don’t enable copy and paste and we do that very intentionally,” [...] “It’s actually an intentional design decision,” he said. “We try to anticipate what the user wants so copy and paste isn’t necessary.” “We tried to focus on what the core use cases were,” Brix said. “Certainly there will be some people that wont be happy with some of those decisions.”
What kind of BS is that ?
 AT&T and Rogers users rejoice! The Nexus One is no longer exclusively tied to T-Mobile. The handset is now compatible with the two carriers 3G bands and is available for purchase on Google’s online store unlocked for $529 of with a contract.
Nexus One now compatible with the AT&T 3G network and shipping to Canada
In early January, we announced the Nexus One, the first device sold through Google’s web store. The Nexus One is unlocked, which means you can use it with a SIM card from most GSM operators worldwide. Currently the device is compatible with most 3G networks, including T-Mobile in the US. However, there are some carriers that have different 3G frequencies, such as AT&T in the US and Rogers Wireless in Canada, so users with these SIM cards can only access 2G or EDGE networks on their Nexus One.
Starting today, an additional version of the Nexus One is available from the Google web store that is compatible with AT&T’s 3G network. This new model can be purchased as an unlocked device without a service plan. In addition to AT&T’s 3G network, this device will also run on Rogers Wireless in Canada. And like the first version of the Nexus One, it can be used with most GSM operators globally.
Additionally, Nexus One devices can now be shipped to Canada from Google’s web store, and will work with a SIM from Rogers Wireless. To find out which version you should purchase, based on your mobile service provider, please visit our Help Center.
Source: Google
Opera announced today the official availibility of the final version of Opera Mobile 10 and Opera Mini 5 on Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian & Blackberry.
Today, Opera Software released the final versions of the world’s most popular mobile Web browsers, Opera Mini 5 and Opera Mobile 10. Now, nearly any mobile phone can support an Opera-driven Web experience, complete with unmatched speed, style and cost savings. Simply go to m.opera.com/ to download it directly to your phone today.
Today’s release puts the finishing touches on the Opera mobile-browsing duo. The focus is on delivering the best Internet experience on nearly any mobile phone, along with a unified look and feel and innovative favorite features, such as Speed Dial, password manager and tabbed browsing.
“Keeping in mind the needs and wants of our 50+ million users, we have emphasized speed, desktop-like functionality and data savings in our mobile browsers. Today, we have made it even easier for everyone to surf, search and socialize on the Web,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.
Grab it here or by pointing you phone’s browser to http://m.opera.com/
Microsoft just sent me an interesting press release a few minutes ago. The company is announcing the launch of a Windows Live Messenger handset in partnership with French carrier SFR. The Messenger Edition 251 by SFR is described as the first phone aimed at the youth market. Interestingly this sounds a lot like what MS is supposedly doing with Project Pink in the US. As you can see in the picture above the phone has a full azerty keyboard and features a dedicated Messenger Buddy button. No info was release on the ODM/OEM building the device or the OS powering it. Microsoft & SFR are also launching a dedicated website: www.meilleursamisdumonde.fr
The Messenger Edition 251 is available today in France for €79 with a pre-paid contract.
Messenger Edition 251 by SFR, au cœur de la stratégie mobilité de Microsoft et SFR
Premier éditeur deservices mobiles en France avec près de 6 millions d’utilisateurs mensuels, dont 2.6 millions sur Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft propose aux utilisateurs une expérience numérique fluide, en leur donnant facilement accès à leurs services préférés, tels que Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail, MSN ou Bing, en situation de mobilité.
En lançant Messenger Edition 251 by SFR, Microsoft souhaite démocratiser le marché des mobiles communautaires en plein essor, en proposant son service de messagerie Instantanée emblématique à une nouvelle catégorie d’utilisateurs.
« Les jeunes de moins de 25 ans comptent parmi les plus fervents utilisateurs de nos services Internet, affirme Nicolas Petit, Directeur de la Division Mobilité chez Microsoft France. Nous sommes donc heureux de pouvoir leur offrir, en partenariat avec SFR, la première offre mobile parfaitement adaptée à leurs besoins, pour une expérience de messagerie instantanée sans limite, même en mobilité. Avec Messenger Edition 251 by SFR, le phénomène Messenger va connaître un nouvel essor, une nouvelle fois porté par les jeunes qui ont contribué à son succès depuis 10 ans. ».
« Messenger est incontournable aujourd’hui pour les jeunes et s’inscrit naturellement dans la promesse que fait SFR à ses clients : rester tout le temps en contact avec leursamis, en illimité ! s’enthousiasme Hala Bavière, Directrice Marketing Clients Jeunes chez SFR. Pour que les clients SFR La Carte puissent également profiter de ce service en toute liberté, nous avons choisi de lancer conjointement Messenger Edition 251 by SFR et une recharge avec Texto etMessenger en illimité spécialement adaptée ».
Unfortunately Microsoft won’t be able to please everybody with Windows phone 7 Series . The lack of multi-tasking shouldn’t come as a surprise especially given that I (with PPCGeeks) was the first to post the full specs of WP7 more than a month ago (one week before the official announcement, thanks again anonymous tipster..). We all expected this and today Microsoft confirmed it to Mary Jo Foley; third-party apps won’t be able to multi-task but will have the ability to use the push-notification services (just like on the iPhone). This doesn’t really bother me given that I rarely use a task-manager to jump from one app to another. Additionally, the Metro UI and design helps to make the whole UX free of any multi-tasking needs.
But what bothers me is the total lack of file explorer and access to the file system (and build-in storage on the phone). First-off, removable storage cards are out. WP7 devices will come with non-removable Flash memory (minimum 8Gb) and the only way to install an app will be through the Marketplace (enterprise customers will be able to deploy apps without going through the Marketplace). Secondly it looks like the phone’s internal memory will be encrypted (like the Zune HD & iPhone). This means that the only way to transfer data to your phone from the PC will be via the Zune software (you can no longer use your handset as a USB HDD). Also remember that on the Zune HD and iPhone, pictures transferred to the device are always automatically resized and compressed (it’s still not know if this is going to be the case here though).
This is obviously the first release of a new OS and Microsoft has already announced that OTA updates with new features & improvements will be pushed out on a regular basis. My only hope is that Microsoft allows third-party developers to build file explorers (I’m not holding my breath tho..)
Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore unveiled Samsung’s first Windows Phone 7 Series handset during one of his MIX10 session a few hours ago. As you can see in the video, the phone physically looks nearly identical to the OmniaHD released more than a year ago and seems to feature the same 8Mpix camera (capable of 720P encoding). Hopefully this one also packs Samsung’s new SuperAMOLED screen. Engadget posted some new pitures of the 2 WP7 handsets:
Source: WindowsPhoneForum
It’s finally official; contrary to what HTC’s support team has been saying last week, Joe Belfiore confirmed today that the HTC HD2won’t be upgradable to Windows Phone 7. There isn’t much else to say I guess (looks like 8GB of Flash memory is required to run WP7 alongside 256Mb of Ram). Those of you who really want one are free to buy the T-Mobile version in the coming days. But remember that all the cool stuff we have seen today won’t be available on the most powerful smartphone currently sold…
Here’s the full list of Codecs natively supported by Windows Phone 7 Series straight from the development documents on MSDN:
| Audio |
WAV (PCM, MSADPCM, IMAADPCM, G.711) |
WAV |
| Audio |
MP3 |
MP3 |
| Audio |
WMA Lossless |
ASF (WMA) |
| Audio |
WMA Pro |
ASF (WMA) |
| Audio |
WMA Standard v9 |
ASF (WMA) |
| Audio |
AAC-LC (Low Complexity) |
3GP, 3G2, MP4, M4A |
| Audio |
HE-AAC v1 (AAC+) |
3GP, 3G2, MP4, M4A |
| Audio |
HE-AAC v2 (eAAC+) |
3GP, 3G2, MP4, M4A |
| Audio |
Adaptive Multi-Rate Narrow Band (AMR-NB) |
3GP, 3G2, MP4 |
| Audio |
Adaptive Multi-Rate ide Band (AMR-WB) |
3GP, 3G2, MP4 |
| Audio |
Qcelp |
3GP, 3G2, MP4 |
| Video |
WMV (VC-1) – Simple Profile |
ASF (WMV) |
| Video |
WMV (VC-1) – Main Profile |
ASF (WMV) |
| Video |
WMV (VC-1) – Advanced Profile |
ASF (WMV) |
| Video |
WMV v9 |
ASF (WMV) |
| Video |
MPEG-4 Part 2 – Simple Profile |
3GP, 3G2, MP4, AVI |
| Video |
MPEG-4 Part 2 – Advanced Simple Profile |
AVI, MP4 |
| Video |
DivX 4.x/5.x/6.x |
AVI |
| Video |
MPEG-4 Part 10 (MPEG-4 AVC, H.264) – Baseline Profile |
3GP, 3G2, MP4, M4V |
| Video |
MPEG-4 Part 10 (MPEG-4 AVC, H.264) – Main Profile |
3GP, 3G2, MP4, M4V |
| Video |
MPEG-4 Part 10 (MPEG-4 AVC, H.264) – High Profile |
3GP, 3G2, MP4, M4V |
| Video |
H.263 |
3GP, 3G2 |
| Images |
JPEG |
JPG |
| Images |
PNG |
PNG |
| Images |
GIF (both GIF87a and GIF89a) |
As you can see DivX (4/5/6) is finally supported same for HD video formats (something that was severely lacking in WM6.X).
Here’s a short video (from the MIX10 keynote) of The Harvest 3D game shown running on the protoype Windows Phone 7 Series handset:
Microsoft just made available for free the development tools necessary to start working on Windows Phone 7 series applications & games:
Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone CTP
Windows Phone Emulator CTP
Silverlight for Windows Phone CTP
XNA 4.0 Game Studio CTP
You can download everything right now from here and found all the documentation here
That’s right folks: Microsft just announced & demo’d Netflix for Windows Phone 7 Series. As you can see the application has the same Metro UI as the whole OS, it’s build on SilverLight and use Smooth Streaming for video viewing. It alos integrates into the Music & Video Hub.
Here’s how the Windows Phone 7 emulator looks like. The emulator is actually the full WP7 OS running on your PC. So you’ll get awesome debug features. The Emulator will also support multi-touch directly on the PC if the developer is using a multi-touch enabled PC/screen. Update: The dev tools are now available for free.
Microsoft just sent out some new info Windows Phone 7 Series info via a press release:
End -to-End Mobile Development Platform: By combining Silverlight for rich internet applications and the XNA Framework for game development, developers and designers will be able to build visually stunning and immersive applications and games on the Windows Phone 7 Series.
Free Windows Phone Developer Tools: Microsoft will release a free comprehensive tool support package for Silverlight on Windows Phone 7 Series, available for download. Expression Blend for Windows Phone and a preview of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone will be also included as part of the download.
Windows Phone Marketplace: Microsoft made available a new merchandising tool that will enable developers and designers to bring applications and games to market and increase the discoverability of applications with customers while supporting one-time credit card purchases, mobile operator billing and advertising-funded applications. Also at MIX, Microsoft will detail how developers and designers from 30 countries will bring content to market with Windows Phone Marketplace, the evolution of Microsoft’s mobile application market which was initially introduced with the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5. With Windows Phone Marketplace and the new Marketplace hub, developers can easily promote applications and games to Windows Phone customers right on the phone, while earning a 70 % revenue share.
Silverlight 4 Release Candidate (RC): In addition, Microsoft announced a release candidate (RC) for Silverlight 4 which will enable developers to create and deploy even more robust applications and rich interactive experiences.
Expression Blend 4 Beta: Microsoft will demonstrate Expression Blend and announce the availability of a Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone. Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone provides exactly the same streamlined development workflow for Windows Phone that was previously only available for Silverlight and .Net applications; including features such as Behaviors, sample data and the visual state manager.
HEre’s the full list of developers announced:
•The Associated Press
•Archetype International
•AWS Convergence Technologies — Weatherbug
•Citrix Systems
•Clarity Consulting
•Cypress Consulting
•EA Mobile
•Fandango
•Foursquare
•frog design
•Glu Mobile
•Graphic.ly
•Hudson Entertainment
•IdentityMine
•IMDB
•Larva Labs
•Match.com
•Matchbox Mobile
•Microsoft Game Studios
•Namco
•Oberon Media
•Pageonce
•Pandora
•Photobucket
•PopCap Games
•Seesmic
•Shazam
•Sling Media
•SPB Software
•Stimulant
•TeleCommunications Systems
•Touchality
•Vertigo Software
Stay tuned for more
Check out the Netflix application here, and the emulator here
File this under the unverified rumor but according to some one on XDA-Devs HTC is planning to launch the HTC Touch Pro3 in time for the summer season. The device is said to be smaller than its predecessor which makes me believe that this may be the HTC Tera we have seen a couple of months ago during the HTC roadmap leak. The handset will be running Windows Mobile 6.5.X and feature low-res (wqvga) resistive touchscreen.
Source: XDA-Devs
Mary Jo Foley was quick enough to notice that Microsoft posted the Silverlight Beta executable & tools for Symbian on March 11 before everything was pulled out a few hours later. Here’s the tools description:
“The installable executable file enables users to run Silverlight applications on the Nokia S60 5th Edition platform. The executable file includes the Silverlight runtime for Nokia S60 5th Edition devices, the Silverlight runtime for Nokia S60 5th Edition emulator, sample applications, and developer documentation.”
And the executable description:
“The installable executable enables user to run Silverlight applications on the Nokia S60 5th Edition platform.”
Nokia is currently the only mobile company who has signed a deal with Microsoft to make Silverlight available on their platform. We should expect more news on this subject next week at MIX.
Source: All About Microsoft
It’s starting to look like Verizon is soon going to be the second US carrier to have the Nexus One according to the screenshot above (which supposedly comes from the company’s internal equiment listing). The most interesting bit is that the handset will only be sold through Google’s online store (and not in Verizon’s stores) just like the T-Mobile version.
Source: AndroidCentral
Things are going to get ugly folks. To ad more confusion to a confusing problem HTC’s support reps are now telling consumers that HTC is working with Microsoft on a Windows Phone 7 Series update for the HTC HD2:
Translation from Spanish to Englsih:
“Concerning your question, we can inform you that we are working along with Microsoft and plan to bring a Windows Mobile 7 ROM update, but for now we do not have a release date.”
Here’s another answer received from the UK suppport team:
When Windows Mobile 7 been released then your device can upgrade to WM7.
Ugh….Come one HTC & Microsoft! Can we finally have an official answer and end all this nonsense? MIX10?
Via: XDA-Devs & Pocketnow
Hot on the heels of the unboxing gallery comes the unboxing video of the soon to be release US version of the HTC HD2 on T-Mobile:
I find it interesting to see that a protective rubber case is supplied in the box. Unfortunitely this won’t protect the massive 4.3 screen.
Via: TMoNews & Pocketnow
Microsoft demonstrated all the new effects available in the XNA Game Studio 4.0 release during a GDC session and my pal Chuong from Pocketnow had the chance to capture it on video. The first video principally covers the new guidelines and resolutions supported by WP7 (WVGA & HVGA). Microsoft is also suggesting to developers that developing intensive 3D games at WVGA isn’t really recommended. Using the build-in hardware scaler seems to be the preferred solution. For example, a game can be rendered by the GPU at 600×360 & then upscaled to 800×480 by the scaler (same aspect ratio) to achieve greater framerate. I’m guessing that this is what Apple is implementing on the iPad (iPhone apps are upscaled for “free”) and feature higher-res iPhone phones.
Tse second video is an overview of the 5 new effects added to the XNA 4.0: BassidEffect, DualTexttureEffect, AplhaTestEffect, SkinnedEffect & EnvironementMapEffect:
Here’s description of each one of them:
BassicEffect:
- 0-3 Directional lights
- Blinn-Phong Shading
- Optional Texture
- Optional Fog
- Optional Vertex Color
DualTextureEffect:
- For lightmaps, detail textures, decals
- Blends two textures
- Separate texture coordinates
- Modulate 2X combine mode
- Good visuals at low pixel cost
AplhaTestEffect:
- For billboards & imposters
- Adds alpha test operations (pixel kill)
- Standard blending is free with all effects
- Only need alpha test if you want too disable depth/stencil writes
SkinnedEffect:
- For animated models and instancing
- Game code animates bones on GPU
- Vertex skinning performed by the GPU
- Up to 72 bones
- One, tow or four weights per vertex
EnvironementMapEffect:
- Oh Shinny!
- Difuse Texture + cube environement map
- Cheap way to fake many complex lights
- Frsnel term simulates behaviour when lights reaches a surface and some reflects, some penetrates
More info and pictures of the HTC Incredible have popped-up today. According to some poster at the Androidforums, the Android 2.1 device packs a SnapDragon chipset under-clocked at 768Mhz (like the Acer Liquid), 512MB of Ram (+ a 8Gb micro-SD?), 8Mpx camera with WVGA video capture and It measures 117.5 x 58.5 x 11.9mm. It should be head to Verizon in Q2 2010.
source: Androidforums via Engadget
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