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The 1.66 Rom for the HTC HD2 that was released last week on HTC’s South Asia site is now available globally so you can now head over to your localised support page and download it (if you have an non-branded retail HD2). I’ve been using it for more than five days and can happily report that the majority of the bugs I’ve talked about earlier are now fixed. No more SMS-stuck in the outbox, pinch-to-zoom no works all the time same for the volume overlay etc (they were all related to each other it seems).
Source: HTC support 
In one of my first Windows Mobile 7 posts more than 6 months ago (you know, before everybody started to jump into the WM7 rumor bandwagon…) I highlighted the fact that Silverlight will play a big part in Windows Mobile 7. This has been confirmed several times by Microsoft since then (see here & here). The last piece of news comes from several Microsoft Silverlight & Windows Mobile team members on Twitter a couple of hours ago:
Ckindel(I’m a geek. The future of application development for Windows Phones is in my hands): Just left a great MIX10 planning meeting with @scottgu, @ianet, @bgoldy, @lokeuei, & others. Wow, MIX going to rock this year.
Iant(General Manager of Client Platforms and Tools at Microsoft (WPF, Silverlight, Cider)) : Just saw some keynote prep stuff. Mix10 is going to be mindblowing-awesome-amazing! Totally can’t tell you anything about it 
So there’ you have it. Want to know what silverlight is all about? Just head over here. 
The latest version of SlingPlayer for Windows Mobile was just released and now features a new Icon based Wide-Screen UI. The Windows Mobileversion has always been the most feature rich but was until today still lacking a decent finger friendly UI. To grab this new 2.0 version just head over to http://mobile.slingmedia.com with you handset’s browser. You’ll obviously need a SlingBox to use it and will have to purchase the mobile player ($29.99) when the 30 days trial expires.
 Source: Twitter 
Following the latest Beta 3 released a couple of days ago here comes the final retail version of Resco Explorer 2010 for Windows Mobile. New features in Explorer 2010 include:
•Image Upload to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Picasa, MySpace and Photobucket — the program is now able to upload image files to the most popular social networks including the largest web image database — Flickr.
•Thumbnails View Mode — The new view mode displays previews of images. It becomes handy (improves the navigation) while seeking in folders with many image files.
•Interaction with Resco Photo Manager — The new Explorer can utilize tools and strengths of Resco Photo Manager. If users have both of these programs installed on a device, they will sense that the thumbnail loading is faster as well as the fact that it supports all the photo manager image types.
•Totally Customizable Today Plug-in — Today plug-in gets new shape and becomes totally customizable — add or remove phone tools, applications or documents. The eventual size of the plug-in, therefore, depends only on your choices.
You can get it here for $29.95(!) or try the trial version. Source: Resco 
Here’s what looks like the first render (and live picture) of the upcoming HTC Supersonic (HTC A9292) WiMax smartphone headed to Sprint later this year. As you can see the device looks nearly indentical to the HTC HD2 (check our review here). The main difference here is the lack of physical buttons and the fact that the Supersonic runs Android 2.1 (with HTC’s Sense UI) and has a WiMax radio.
UPDATE: The SuperSonic is officially the HTC EVO 4G
Source: Andoidphones
According to HTC “the Nexus One will raise its global profile this year while the launch of Windows Mobile 7 will lead to the development of more apps for Microsoft phones.” This is one more confirmation that Windows Mobile 7 is definitely coming out this year. The future of the company was discussed during the fourth quarter earnings presentation.
We continue to believe both Windows Mobile and Android offer unique experiences to different consumer segments in their respective ecosystems,[...]Our partnership with Google on the Nexus One shows our strength in innovation. It’s very good for our brand,
Got to agree with Peter Chou here, building Android devices was the best business decision HTC made this pas years. The company has shipped a total of 11.7 million mobile phones in 2009 but no OS breakdown was provided. Nokia’s Symbian OS led the smartphone OS pack last year, shipping in 75.8 million devices, according to market researcher IDC. The BlackBerry OS shipped on 34 million devices, while Apple’s Mac OS X shipped in just over 25 million iPhones. Around 18.3 million Windows Mobile-based handsets shipped in 2009, trailed by Android at 6 million. Shipments of HTC-branded smartphones will rise 30 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, said HTC’s Chou. The first quarter last year was the weakest quarter of the year for HTC, mainly due to the global recession.
Source: Computer World  Old Windows Mobile 7 concept shot Microsoft pushed a new firmware update for the Zune HD today (version 4.2.202.0) and it didn’t take long forIstartedsomething to dig into it to it to find some clues about what’s exactly new. Here’s what he has found in the USB INF file: [Microsoft.NTx86]
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\MS_COMP_MTPZ
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0710
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_063E
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0640
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0641
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0642
%ZuneIp.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZIP, umb\urn:microsoft-com:device:mtpz:1 ; Localizable strings
Msft = “Microsoft”
Zune.DeviceDesc = “Zune”
…
Phone.DeviceDesc = “Phone”
Long believes that this confirms that a Zune phone is in the making, but given that it cleary says “Zune.Device” and “Phone.Device” (never “Zune.Phone” or “ZunePhone”) I will have to disagree with him here. To me it just looks like the Zune services are now probably finally implemented into Windows Mobile (7?). Let’s wait t’ill MWC next month.. Update: Here’s a list of Vendor IDs, as you can see Microsoft has tons of WinMo devices with IDs even-though they have never manufactured or sold one. Source: IstartedSomething 
If the folowing User Agent profiles located on HTC’s MMS (server?) site are to be believed, HTC has no less than 7 Android handsets on the verge of being released:
HTC Espresso: QWERTY keyboard, 320×480 pixel display (here) HTC Huangshan: No physical keyboard, 320×480 pixel display (here) HTC Liberty: No physical keyboard, 320×480 pixel display (here) HTC Halo: QWERTY keyboard version of the Tattoo (here) HTC Paradise: QWERTY keyboard, 240×400 pixel display (here) HTC Legend: No physical keyboard, 320×480 pixel display (here) HTC Supersonic: No physical keyboard, 480×800 pixel display (here)
Source: HTCmms via CellPassion 
Remember the Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK posted only 2 days ago? According to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Dev team the whole thing wasn’t supposed to be released and was posted by mistake. They took it down and plan to re-release it later on:
With regards to 6.5 SDK, we prematurely released an untested SDK which was not ready. We pulled it so proper testing can be completed…. we’ll def make an official announce when the SDK is ready to go. Those responsible have been sent to the dungeons for execution. 
Source: Twitter 
Engadget just posted what is supposedly a render of an upcoming Motorola Android smartphone called the MOTOSPLIT. their source says that it is powered by a Qualcomm SnapDragon chipset and should be out in Q3 2010 on AT&T. Could be a fake thought, so let’s just wait a see how it turns out.
Source: Engadget It was discovered yesterday that the T-Mobile US version of the handset will have 576Mb of Ram & 1gb of Rom compared to the 448Mb of Ram & 512 Mb or Rom available on the HD2s currently sold worldwide. Some posters over at the Chinese XDA forums have reported a couple of days ago (before the T-Mobile US info came out) that their HD2s are now reporting 576Mb of Ram after being flashed with some unreleased Radio Rom (2.06.5.04) . Check out the screenshots above to see what I’m talking about. There’s also a video ( here) showing the system information. This could mean that all HTC HD2 do have more ram than initially advertised (remember that the pre-release Roms only reported 320MB, the official “448Mb” was only reported when the devices were flashed with the retail Rom, so anything is possible..). Hopefully HTC will say something soon.. Source: XDA-china via XDA Thanks to the good folks at XDA-Devs (SjG & Xmoo) you can now try the HTC & Qualcomm debug tools for the HTC HD2 (these are applications used to test the different functionalities of the handset, like GPS, FM-Transmitter, TV-Out, Digital Compass , sensors etc..). They are not really useful to us, but if you really want to try them out just click here. FYI, the TV-out and FM-Transmitter features are reported as not implemented yet (in the rom?). Source: HTC Debug Tools via XDA Similar to what we have seen on the Windows Mobile devices a couple days ago, here comes a video of a Nokia N900 running Android. The trick here is a Dual-booting mode letting the user select Android or Maemo5. Unlike the Windows Mobile hacks this more of a proof-of-concept (Android 2.0 is nearly fully useable on Windows Mobile). Source: Brandon Posterous via Slashgear 
Looks like European and Asian/Pacific HTC HD2 owners are getting the “shaft” this time around. According to the specs sheet of the T-Mobile HTC HD2 which is set to be launched in the US in a couple of weeks the device will feature 1Gb of Rom & 576Mb of Ram compared to the 512 Mb of Rom & 448 Mb of Ram on the current HD2 available now. Don’t be surprised if HTC/Microsoft claims that this newer version is the only one to be upgradable to Windows Mobile 7later this year even though the “Original” meets the WM7 Chassis 1 specs…
Update: There’s a slight probability that all HTC HD2s have 576Mb of Ram Update2: Reader Oliwer just told that he contacted HTC’s German support about this and asked them if he could return his un-opened HTC HD2 untill he can get the one with more memory and got told that this version of the HTC HD2 will only be available in the US. Source: HTC via xda-devs 
Microsoft has released an updated Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK with WM 6.5.3 support yesterday shortly after Garmin-Asus announced the first WM6.5.3 device (the M10). Accroding to Pocketnow the OS was RTM back in December which means that we can expect quite a few handsets running it in a few weeks/months. You can download it here and check out a a quick overview here
Source: Microsoft via Pocketnow 
The boys at AI.rs just posted a new redner of HTC‘s upcoming Android handset, the Legend. This new render shows the new aluminum color (the device will be sold in different colors I guess) and the volume rocker (with engraved +&-). Check out the previous render here
Source: AI.rs
HTC has just released a new Rom for the HTC HD2 but it currently only available on the South-Asia support site. Not much is known about it yet other than:
Improved Functions: Keeping in touch has always been very important, and this update delivers fast and reliable SMS messaging.
I’m not holding my breath here, especially given that it has already been demonstrated that the bug doesn’t only affect the SMS function of the device (see here please). I will update this post ass soon a the ROM is made available in other parts of the world. Source: HTC 
Gamrin-Asus jumped the gun and announced the M10 before MWC. The Garmin-Asus M10is the first officially announced Windows Mobile 6.5.3(Maldives) smartphone. As you can see in the specs sheet below, the devices, packs a Qualcomm MSM 7227 @600MHZ, 512Mb of Ram & 512Mb of ROM, 4Gb of internal storage and a MicroSD slot. The 3.5″ WVGA touchscreen is said to be resistive. the whole package also includes a car-holder as is priced at 13,900 TWD ($435).
Source: Garmin-Asus via Engadget 
Digitimes is at it again.This time contradicting their previous rumors by claiming that their sources are indicating a September 2010 availability for OEMs and Q4 2010 launch on the market etc.. My guess is that they just made this up based on all the latest Windows Mobile 7 rumors floating around lately…Windows Mobile 7 will never ship in Q4 2010 if OEMs only get it in September. Fact is that OEMs already have WM7 as proven by the info found in the latest HTC HD2 Sense/Manila scripts and here’swhere they got the “lack of Asian language” support rumor/info.
Source: Digitimes | |
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