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

"New from Windows Mobile: a Facebook application for your phone! Download the new Facebook application for Windows Mobile and: Send messages to any of the people in your Friends list; Take pictures and videos on your phone, then upload them right to Facebook; Send messages or call people in your Friends list; Manage your profile and post anytime, anywhere. Keep up with the latest news and posts with Facebook on your phone. Now your status updates can be up-to-the moment accounts of what you're doing. Photos and videos are about as close to live-action as you can get. Show your friends what you're up to, while you're out and about. Connecting and sharing on Facebook just got a lot livelier!"

In typical fashion, this had been leaked elsewhere previously, but now it's official: the release version of the software is public and available for immediate download. What I find most interesting about this is that it's a Facebook application developed and released by Microsoft. On the iPhone, Facebook developed their own app for it. On Windows Mobile, Microsoft had to do it. That doesn't say much for what Facebook thinks of the Windows Mobile platform, now does it? Looks like RIM developed their own app for the Blackberry though, so this isn't without precedent. Guess the people at Facebook just love their iPhones.

The app will work on all Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 smartphones, both Professional and Standard - sorry all you Windows Mobile 5 owners. You can grab a mobile download here if you wish. I haven't taken it for a spin yet, but will shortly. Let me know what you think of it!

"On a related note, the presentation confirmed that the new Windows Marketplace for Mobile will apply application updates directly on the device. However it also appears application updates will require developers to resubmit their application for approval which would then cost a submission token or fee and take time to process."

Allow me to place Long Zheng's words (quoted above) into context. When Microsoft unveiled the Windows Marketplace for Mobile a week ago, it outlined details pertaining to program enrollment and the application submission process. To join the program, developers pay an annual registration fee of $99. That fee includes five application submissions per year. When a developer consumes all five submission tokens in a given year, each additional application submission within the same year costs $99, whether it's a free or paid application.

Now, this probably wouldn't restrict the average developer too much, as he or she is unlikely to release five new applications in a given year. However, a real problem emerges once these submission tokens are applied to application updates as well as new applications, which is actually the case, if Long's words speak the truth. It's not uncommon for developers, especially those who actively respond to customer feedback, to release more than five application updates in a given year. But who can blame a developer for being discouraged when they're being slapped with a $99 fee per update after the fifth update?

Read more...

"Electric Pocket, developer of mobile media and media applications for Smartphones, today introduces FindMe for Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices. FindMe enables users, their friends, family and colleagues to share their current locations automatically and securely through their BlackBerry or Windows Mobile Smartphones without needing GPS. FindMe offers the opportunity to “tag” commonly visited locations, such as home, office, soccer field or favorite bars and restaurants, and post those locations on their Facebook profiles."



This is probably one of the coolest applications I have seen come out in a while. There really isn't much to say on it as the program itself is pretty basic. In a nutshell, what you do is install a tiny application on your Windows Mobile device. This application grabs information about the cell tower that you are connected to and allows you to assign a tag to that location. Then the application uploads your current location to Facebook which in turn allows all of your friends to see where you are. The only downside of this application that I can see is it will make a bit harder to hide from those individuals that you do not want to hang out with.

If you're a Facebook user then I recommend giving FindMe a download to play around with this simple, yet fun, program.