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

"Here are the Top 20 mobile apps as selected by our experts. You have 25 votes. Cast them as you wish. Put all 25 on one app. Spread them out. To find out more about an app, click on the app's name or image. To vote, click on the ‘VOTE' button below each app - one click equals one vote."

I'm involved as a judge in the Mobile Apps Showdown for CES 2010, and today the voting has kicked off, so click on through and cast your vote for your favourite application. Sadly, there are only a handful of applications unique to Windows Mobile, but the ones that are there are quite good. Voting is fast and simple - and requires no registration - so please go vote!

Looking to save 50% on some great apps? Today only, check out the Mobile Heist promotion from our software partner, MobiHand.

This is a quick reminder that our giveaway of three pairs of SHURE SE210 headphones ends on the 15th of this month, so if you haven't already entered, you'd better do so quickly!

The only thing better than a contest is an easy contest, so jump over to Pocket PC Soft.net to check out the giveaways for an HP iPAQ 614c Business Navigator and an HP iPAQ Voice Messenger.

That lovely video below is what I was seeing yesterday morning standing in my garage - as I write this it's gotten even worse. Winter has really arrived in full force where I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Blowing snow, roads being shut down, the whole deal. Since Windows Phone Thoughts and Digital Home Thoughts have a world-wide audience, I'm always interested in knowing what it's like where you live. And since I happen to have some now-legacy micro-lights branded with site names that no longer exist (Pocket PC Thoughts, Smartphone Thoughts, and Digital Media Thoughts) I thought there was a way I could clear up some inventory and have some fun at the same time...because who doesn't like cool little flashlights for free?

So here's the deal: I want you to post a picture of what the weather is like where you are right now. Bright sunny day? Cold and wet? Night time? It doesn't matter what it is, I want you to share your environment with the rest of the community - it's always fascinating to me to see the different sorts of things we experience. I have 25 Pocket PC Thoughts micro lights to give away, 15 Smartphone Thoughts micro lights, and 10 Digital Media Thoughts micro lights. That's 50 total prizes, and they'll be given to the first 50 people who post an image of the weather or environment they're in right now. BONUS: If someone posts a video, I'll also include a spare battery for the micro light (while supplies last - I have five extra batteries, so first come first serve). Read more...

"We're all lost without our phones. So this holiday season, we're giving away three brand new Windows® phones from Verizon & AT&T for tweets that share your most embarrassing lost phone story. How creative can you be in under 140 characters?"

Running until December 10th, the "Lost Without My Phone" giveaway is simple to enter - just follow and send a tweet to @windowsphone explaining your most embarrassing lost phone story. Fitting that into 140 characters will be quite a challenge, but three Windows phones are on the line, so go for it!

We've got another great contest for you, and this time because it's an accessory that works with so many different products, it's a network-wide contest. The prizes? I'm giving away three pairs of SHURE SE210 Earphones (MSRP $179.99 USD), courtesy of the generous folks at Shure. Our very own David Tucker reviewed this earphones back in September, and he loved them - so I'm sure the three winners will as well. The SE210's feature a noise-isolating sleeves that block 90 percent of the ambient noise, and the more noise you can block out, the more you can enjoy your tunes.

What do you have to do to win? Simply post a message in this discussion thread telling me which type of device (or devices) you'd use the headphones with. A Windows Mobile smartphone? A Zune? An iPod? An iPhone? A netbook or laptop? That's it - one post per person, and the contest closes on Tuesday the 15th of December at 12pm GMT -7. This contest is world-wide; I'll be shipping you the prizes myself.

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 ensure that you have email notifications turned on. Winners will have 72 hours to claim their prize.

Let's see those entries!

UPDATE:The contest is now closed, and the three winners are GqSkrub, webguy248, and deenoo. Thanks to everyone for entering - it was great to see so many entries! And big thanks to SHURE for donating the prizes!

"You shouldn't have to stand in a long line to get a great deal. We're searching for the best Black Friday deals everywhere--including deals other stores are planning--so we can meet or beat their prices and bring them to you even earlier. These limited-supply offers will go quickly but we'll add new ones throughout the day, every day this week, so you can skip the long lines and still save a bundle."

Amazon.com has some great deals today (Fuji Finepix camera for $79 anyone?), so if you're going to do some online shopping at Amazon, do me a favour and use our affiliate link. It costs you nothing, but gives back a bit to the sites that you enjoy. Thanks! :-)

Just a quick note to say that my Mobius 2009 article has been updated with day two happenings, and some photos, so check it out - I think there are a few items in there that are conversation starters. I've also included my first take on the HTC Touch HD2.

Hi there OS X fans! If you're coming to this site from the Fake Steve Jobs link or the Daring Fireball link, I'd encourage you to check out Apple Thoughts and join our community there.

Once again, it's Mobius time! Mobius is an invite-only event, hosted by Microsoft, where the invited guests are shown what Microsoft is doing in the mobile space. The 2009 event was held in downtown Seattle at Pravda Studios. Full disclosure: Microsoft covers our flight and hotel expenses, and keeps us well fed during the event - though there are some attendees that pay their own way to get here, and pay for their own hotel. I'm not one of those people - if a company is willing to pay for me to fly out to see what they're up to, I'll take them up on the offer. It won't change my opinion about what they're showing me.

At every Mobius event I've been to in the past, the content has been a mix of presentations that we can talk about, and some that we can't. This event so far has been radically different - the entire day was made up of presentations that we've agreed not to talk about. There was some truly eye-opening stuff; stuff that reminds me again that so many of the rumours we read about online are utterly and completely false. I think if every blog or news site went back correct the rumours they've been wrong about, they'd be too embarrassed to publish rumours...for at least a day or two. I lump myself in this group as well; hot and highly-speculative rumours are always fun to ponder, but they often bear little resemblance to reality.

Figure 2: Out of the 25 attendees, 13 of them were using OS X. The other 12 were using Windows. Interestingly, many of the Windows users were from Europe or Asia; the vast majority of the OS X users were from the USA. This is the only place on the planet where OS X has 53% market share.

Here's a list of who was in attendance, and the sites the represent: Read more...

Hey everyone! This is a quick heads-up for you to check Digital Home Thoughts if you're interested in winning some free stuff. It's by far our #1 site when it comes to contests, largely because it covers a broad spectrum of topics which makes it easier to get giveaway items. We've been running a hard drive giveaway (3350 GB in total storage) for the past five weeks, giving away a variety of hard drives, and this week we're giving away a 500 GB Western Digital hard drive. Also going on is a giveaway for a Skooba Design Checkthrough Brief bag, and on Monday we're launching a contest giving away 10 copies of Corel Digital Studio 2010. Watch for it!

"Our strategy for all of this is pretty straightforward; we want to create a global marketplace for Windows Phones where developers and users meet to sell and buy high quality and high value applications that make work easier and life more fulfilling. We're creating a clear process and new opportunity for developers and ISVs to make money from their investment in innovation. The applications we feature will be well organized, easily accessible by PC or phone and backed by a money back guarantee. And when they're ready to buy, customers will have a variety of payment options to choose from. These are new customer experiences, and frankly, capabilities that will set us apart."

As of this morning afternoon, Windows Marketplace for Mobile is now accepting application submissions from all 29 supported countries - and the Race to Market Challenge contest also kicks off. That site is password protected at the moment but apparently later today it will be live. Yeah, a bit strange. This contest is a way to build up the content on Windows Marketplate for Mobile, and to give developers a "first mover" advantage in terms of getting their applications into the marketplace. I think Microsoft is taking a realistic approach to this - they're not saying "Develop for Windows Mobile, it's the best!" they're saying "Develop for our platform as well - we have something to offer".

Want to build your application? Here's the Windows Mobile 6.5 developer toolkit (it's not an SDK mind you - you'll need to use the 6.1 Professional or Standard SDKs). Want to submit your application? Here are the Application Submission Guidelines. The prizes are a bit unusual: winners get one of four Microsoft Surface tables (Developer Edition), online marketing & promotion of their app, and a challenge trophies.

Think you have what it takes? Let's see those apps!

Remember the iZel review that I published a few weeks back? Well, the makers of the iZel have offered us three to give away to lucky Thoughts Media readers! This contest is open to anyone in the US or Canada (sorry rest-of-world). Entering the contest is really easy: all you have to do is post a message in this discussion thread telling me what kind of device(s) you'd want to use with the iZel. That's it! I'll randomly select three entries and each person will win an iZel. Nice and easy! The contest is open until the 16th of July, at 12pm (GMT -7). Enter now!

UPDATE: Only one entry per person, and if it's your first post, please allow up to 48 hours for it to show up.

UPDATE #2: The contest is now over and the winners have been randomly selected. iZel has a little consolation prize for everyone though. If you use the coupon code 5OFFIZEL you'll get a $5 discount off the normal price of $24.95 from Amazon.com [Affiliate]. The coupon code is valid until midnight July 31st, 2009.

You want an easy contest? You've got an easy contest: Expansys is giving away a Palm Treo Pro, and all you have to do is answer their question about which operating system the Treo Pro runs. I'll give you a hint: it ends in .1 and has the word "Professional" in it. Shh. Don't tell anyone I told you! The contest ends in 10 days, so enter now.

"We are busy building the next generation features for Mobile Phone Backup. Completely re-engineering backup to make the most of the features offered in Microsoft's new Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7. We would like to invite you to take part in a massive prize contest we're calling the Sprite Backup 7 Feature Hunt. You can win some great prizes..."

The crew over at Sprite Software are busy working on the next version of Sprite Backup, and they're interested in hearing from users of their software about what feature they'd like to see the most in version 7.0 of Sprite Backup. That's it - talk about an easy contest! The contest starts today (April 21st) and goes until May 8th. The prizes? Two winners will get the first prize, which is a Touch HD! Five winners will get the second prize, which is a Bluetooth GPS, and 30 winners will get the third prize, which is an 8GB microSD card. Nice! Winners will be announced on May 15th. Jump on over to their contest page and enter now.

HTC has a pretty rockin' contest going on right now for people located in the USA (sorry rest-of-world) that's worth checking out: the grand prize is $25,000 in cash with two HTC Fuze devices, the first-place prize (given out to four people) is a $15,000 American Express gift card with two HTC Fuze devices, and the daily winner gets an HTC Fuze. That's a lot of prizes! So how do you enter? If you're in the USA, you'll no doubt see the green HTC Fuze banners on this Web site - click on one of the banners (turn down your speakers first), and once it loads, you'll see an orange "WIN" graphic in the upper-right corner. Click on that and you'll be taken to the HTC Fuze contest page. Have fun! The contest is open until the 5th of April.

UPDATE: Our contest is now live, post your entry here.

Remember that awesome 31 Days of the Dragon giveaway contest Digital Home Thoughts was a part of earlier this year? Well this new contest from HP that we've been invited to partake in dwarfs that one on a number of levels. First, the prize pack is even bigger: $6000 in total prizes, consisting of one desktop PC, three laptops, a Media Center extender, a printer, and some software and accessories. Whew! There's some awesome hardware here. The scope is bigger too: there are 50 different blogs involved, and they range from tech blogs like this one, to women's blogs, to student blogs, to Spanish and Portuguese blogs. The complete list is further on in this post. If you do the math, that's $300,000 USD in total prizes, thanks to HP and Microsoft's Windows Live team.

The HP Magic Giveaway is designed around the idea of the magic of sharing, so it's not a coincidence that it's happening as we lead up to the Christmas & holiday season. Each blog is running their own type of contest (and you can enter all of them), but the idea that many of us are focusing on is sharing. One person probably doesn't need four computers all to themselves, so when I kick off my contest later on, it will include some sort of prize-sharing element. Start thinking of who and how you'd share this with others. A contest like this is even more timely when you look around at the financial markets world-wide, and even in your neighbourhood. Stay tuned for more details on my contest.

So what's included in this huge giveaway? Here's the full list:

Hardware

• HP TouchSmart IQ816 PC

• HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC

• HP MediaSmart Connect

• HP Pavilion dv4 series Entertainment Notebook PC (with Windows Live)

• HP Mini 1000 (with XP)

Accessories

• HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO (printer)

• HP 564 Photo Value Pak [thanks for the PDF Gear Diary!]

Software & Entertainment

• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate/Home Premium or Microsoft Windows XP pre-installed on all units (Mini 1000 runs XP)

• Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 (Student-Teacher Edition) – 1 DVD with 3 licenses

• Microsoft Windows Live

• Corel VideoStudio X2

• Kung Fu Panda (2 widescreen DVDs; 1 widescreen Blu-ray disc)

Read more...

The seventh and final of our 8th anniversary contests is now over: the winner of the one week vacation stay, selected randomly from amongst all the entries, is makicr. Congratulations! Thanks to everyone that entered this contest, and all of the other contests. It was a lot of fun to give away so many devices! Special thanks to PPC Techs for their prize donation, and to all of the companies who allowed me to give away devices that I'd been holding on to for a while. I hope all the winners enjoy their devices, and all of you enjoyed the contests. Thanks for supporting Pocket PC Thoughts!

The sixth of our anniversary contests is now over: the winner of the MWg Zinc II, selected randomly from amongst all the entries, is Kassad. Congratulations! Thanks to everyone that entered.

A word about the final contest: I had intended to launch the last contest last Friday, but you can all guess what I was working hard on. There's some some more work to be done, so I'm going to schedule the final contest for this coming Friday. Watch for it!

The fifth of our anniversary contests is now over: the winners of the PPC Techs Super Packs, three of 'em, selected from amongst all the entries are martin_ayton, V-IPAQ, and Pony99CA. Congratulations! Thanks to everyone that entered.