Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"T-Mobile has the release honors and is now showing the HD2 as "coming soon" in its phone inventory. We've also got the first "in the wild" shots courtesy of TmoNews showing that big Blockbuster shortcut linked front and center for downloading On Demand movies directly to the device. Still no firm price or date but $199.99 on contract ($449.99 unlocked) sometime around 24 March sounds about right"

Photo Courtesy of TmoNews, and a piece by Engadget to as well, are the latest proof that the HD2 is about to drop on T-Mobile USA. Start preparing your credit card or bank account now...

"Opera Software today launched a native version of Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows Mobile 5- and 6-based handsets. By integrating Opera Mini with the Windows Mobile platform, Opera is able to deliver an optimized version of the popular Opera Mini browser that dramatically improves performance and the overall user experience. While Opera Mini traditionally requires Java, the new Windows Mobile version does not, which means that Opera Mini will work on any Windows Mobile phone. The Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows Mobile includes the same rich feature set as the Java-based version. Renowned features, including tabbed browsing, the password manager, bookmarks and Speed Dial, are built-in to deliver convenience while on-the-go."

If you've found Opera Mobile to be too much for your needs and prefer something a little more lightweight such as Opera Mini, then you'll be happy to know that the latest beta is now native on Windows Mobile. That's right, there's no longer any need for a JVM. It's free, so head over to the Opera web site, download it, and give it a whirl.

"Guess we don't have to wait until MIX to have all our Windows Phone 7 Series questions answered! Microsoft's Eric Rudder, speaking at TechEd Middle East, showed off a game developed in Visual Studio as a singular project (with 90% shared code) that plays on Windows with a keyboard, a Windows Phone 7 Series prototype device with accelerometer and touch controls, and the Xbox 360 with the Xbox gamepad. Interestingly, not only is the development cross-platform friendly, but the game itself (a simple Indiana Jones platformer was demoed) saves its place and lets you resume from that spot on whichever platform you happen to pick up."

So if you're wondering what is meant by the Xbox live tile on a Windows Phone 7, this video should help explain what will soon be possible. Hit up this video, and find out! Warning: It's pretty cool!

Charlie Kindel of Microsoft recently gave CNET a demonstration of the WP7 interface showing off some new apps and the XBox Live hub. He also explains the primary tools for WP7 apps (XNA and Silverlight) and Microsoft's more specific direction for developers that'll make it much easier to build apps and extend them to the new Start page.

"One final note at today's event is that Microsoft has now officially confirmed for the first time that 7 represents a clean break from Windows Mobile as we know it today; existing apps won't be compatible. Though that's likely to be a pain for existing owners with specialized apps who are looking to stay in the Microsoft ecosystem, Windows Phone 7 Series itself is a very different beast than the operating system it replaces -- it feels different, seeks a different demographic, and symbolically represents a very important clean-slate departure for a company that had lost its way in the mobile space. The bright side for the 6.5 faithful, we suppose, is that Kindel closes by saying that they "will continue to work with our partners to deliver new devices based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and will support those products for many years to come" -- a message Microsoft has been echoing recently."

In case you hadn't heard deduced this, our favorite third party apps won't work with Windows Phone 7 out of the box. Will this mean that developers will flock to technologies such as XNA and Silverlight to re-design their apps? Or do you think they may just leave the platform?

Sometimes there are advantages to living nearby to Microsoft - Chris Pirillo got some hands-on time with a Windows 7 phone via a walk-through with Microsoft's Greg Sullivan. Well worth watching!

The Gomadic chargers are very slick, and we recently did a Quick Look on the 2-in-1 Charger pictured above. If you aren't familiar, the system uses what they call "Tip Exchange" so all you need is one cable and a tip for each device, instead of having to carry around separate charging cables. They pretty much cover every device know to man, or at least it seems that way (the brand list is here).

Now the folks at Gomadic are being generous enough to give away four (4) of their 2-in-1 Charging cables as well as two tips to be chosen by each winner. Since Gomadic has such wide coverage on devices, this is a network-wide contest. To win, all you have to do is go to the Tip Exchange page and pick two of the charging tips you want to go with your 2-in-1 Charger. Post the two numbers along with a reply to this post and you are entered. You MUST post the two tip numbers in your reply or your entry won't be counted.

One post per person, and the contest closes on Friday the 19th of March at 12pm Pacific time, GMT -7. This contest is world-wide with Gomadic providing the shipping. Remember that all first posts in our system are held in moderation, so if this contest entry is your first post, please wait up to 48 hours before getting concerned if your post hasn't shown up yet - it will. Winners will be contacted via private forum message, so have email notifications turned on. Winners will have 72 hours to claim their prize.

"Join us for the Launch of Visual Studio 2010 - and get in-depth sessions from the best speakers in the industry! On April 12, Microsoft will launch Visual Studio 2010, and by joining us at the Microsoft Visual Studio Conference & Expo, you will not only experience the launch alongside the Visual Studio team and industry legends - you'll get three days of sessions by the best speakers in the industry on the latest and greatest technologies, such as Silverlight and .NET 4.0. The topics will range from all the new, great features in Visual Studio 2010 to Silverlight, WPF, WF, WCF, Application Lifecycle Management, .NET 4.0, ASP.NET 4.0 AJAX, ASP.NET MVC and much more! And remember: If you sign up for Microsoft Visual Studio Conference & Expo, you'll automatically get access to both the ASP.NET and Silverlight and the SQL Conference and Expo! That's a Visual Studio launch and three conferences for the price of one!"

Thoughts Readers get a discount of $50 on registration for the Visual Studio 2010 Launch, the ASP.NET, AJAX, & Silverlight Conference, and the SQL Server Conference when they use the discount code WESTF during registration! If you're heading out to the launch, be sure to save some cash (Or use that extra $50 on some Vegas-style entertainment!).

"We've had it up here with these shenanigans. You're jerking us around, and we're sick of it. We get it, you have a very particular concept of what sort of phones you want running your new Windows Phone 7 Series OS. Not only do we get it, but we're kind of proud of you for sticking up for yourself for once and ensuring some sort of sameness across your platform. Unfortunately, it's not the holiday season yet, so we can't buy one of these fancy WP7S phones yet. Meanwhile, on the other end of town, HTC is bringing the HD2 to T-Mobile in the US this month. Sure, it runs your soon-to-be-outdated Windows Mobile 6.5 OS which nobody wants, but it's also pretty much the best hardware we've ever seen. Bar none."

Paul Miller published an editorial at Engadget yesterday that made me think about the consequences of corporate secrecy and policy when it comes to the geek community. Even as someone willing to play by these rules (as evidenced by my own NDA with Microsoft), I still long for a time where geeks can have what they want, and companies can keep mainstream customers happy. Unfortunately I don't see that happening any time soon for some very practical reasons. And in the end, as frustrating as it is, I think it is for the better.

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"Different is often good. Especially when it's different for good reasons. Windows Phone 7 Series is different because we reset everything we were doing to focus on end user experience. This extends directly to the developer platform. Developers, designers, and producers of applications, games, and content these days are demanding that we be different as well. Over the last year we've had face to face conversations with 100s of developers all over the world about what we should do with Windows Phone 7 Series."

I think the above screen shot is fantastic, because it shows exactly how different Windows phone 7 really is - there's a strong sense of sameness as you move from left to right, but when you hit the Windows phone 7 user interface, you have to stop and take note that it's completely different from the others. Microsoft is taking a big risk by breaking away from the pack of normalcy every other mobile phone OS brings to the table. Read more...