"Ready for another long, drawn-out copy and paste controversy to overtake your every waking moment for a year or two? Good: Microsoft just mentioned in a Q&A session here at MIX10 in no uncertain terms that clipboard operations won't be supported on Windows Phone 7 Series... so that's that."

This is one of the groan-worthy things I learned about Windows phone 7 about a month ago, but haven't been able to share because it was under NDA. So...uh, yeah, no copy and paste right now in the product. Every MVP in the room had a fit when this information was revealed; it was real "shock and awe". We of course immediately started asking the team how they could leave out something so core to user experience, and the general response was that they wanted to have it in the product, but they couldn't fit it in by shipping time. I know, I know, many of you will feel they should have left something else out of the product and put in copy and paste. But, you know, there's this update thing that might make painful omissions like this easy for Microsoft to fix in the months after they go code complete, but before the products actually hit the shelves. The Zune HD that I took out of the box was missing a bunch of feature until I connected it and got the update so...there's hope. But proceed with your screaming and ranting anyway. ;-)

"...I sit down with Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher for Microsoft Research and Albert Shum, Director of Mobile Experience Design for Windows Phone 7 Series to talk about creating compelling user experiences, how developers and designers can work together in harmony and random Canadian trivia."

Bill Buxton is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft, and Albert Shum is a Mobile Design Partner - curious titles, but if you want to understand some of the background behind the user experience of Windows phone 7, this video is a must-watch.

UPDATE: The video embed code from channel9 doesn't want to work, so you'll have to jump over to their site to watch the video.

"In the last six months, Apple and Google have jousted over acquisitions, patents, directors, advisers and iPhone applications. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Schmidt have taken shots at each other's companies in the media and in private exchanges with employees."

The New York Times has a very interesting article on the head-butting going on between Apple and Google right now. Frankly, I think the whole thing is a bit silly and is too ego-driven, but on the other hand, the inevitable distraction this will cause both companies gives Microsoft an opportunity to launch a brand new OS that will need some time to grow.

First you'll want to download the development tools at the developer website. Next, once you've got everything installed, you'll want to hit up these samples, demos, and Channel 9 labs at this Windows Team Blog post. From there on it's happy coding to those who want to get their apps ready for the next generation of Windows phones!

Quick reminder, contest for the Gomadic 2-in-1 Charger ends this Friday. You can check out the details and the thread here. DO NOT reply to this posting as your entry won't count unless it is to the original contest thread. Thanks!

"Using "super" to describe your new display technology just begs for criticism. Especially when the word is affixed to a handheld display technology as notoriously difficult (if near impossible) to see in direct sunlight as OLED. Fortunately, Samsung's Super AMOLED appears to have licked the outdoor readability issue while bettering the features that made us fall in love with AMOLEDs in the first place. First off, it's thinner since the touch sensors are now integrated into the display; colors are more vivid due to the removal of the obfuscating touch sensor layer that sits on top of TFT LCD and traditional AMOLED touchscreen displays; and even the viewing angle has been improved. You won't find a soundtrack in the video posted after the break because the technology is already booming enough."

First go and check out the 1:41 minute video here. Ok, are you excited? I am. Outdoor readability, brighter, more vivid colors, viewable from many angles - how could this not be a good thing? My only concern will be how battery life handles an awesome display like this. Video games are going to look fantastic. I just hope it's everything they're boasting it to be. How much brighter? How much more colorful? And is the outdoor readability going to be that much better? Only time will tell but I definitely think we're headed in the right direction.

There is also a short 2-3 minute video of the presentation demoing what it would be like to watch a movie on your phone from Netflix.

"At Microsoft MIX10 today the Windows Phone 7 Series team are handing out a very special picture book all about our favorite user interface, Metro. There is 47 pages full of beautiful text and icons that explain where Metro comes from, what Metro represents and what guide Metro."

Doing the rounds at MIX10 is Microsoft's picture guide to Metro, the UI driving Windows Phone 7 Series. Want a look? Head over to istartedsomething where Long Zheng has delivered a slideshow of this 47-page book in all its page-by-page glory.

There's no denying that the existing Windows Mobile Marketplace is a stretch from what it should be. Enter the Windows Phone Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 Series. Microsoft has significantly revamped the shopping experience to meet user expectations.

The Marketplace will ship on every Windows Phone 7 Series device and deliver a single, consistent environment from which you can browse through, purchase, and update apps, games, music, and podcasts, and also view special offers and exclusives as they happen. Now, Apple, take note! There's also a Trial API available to developers to release trial versions of apps if they wish to. Microsoft describes the Marketplace in greater detail on The Windows Blog, so be sure to head over there and check out the article.

Other points worth noting? According to Microsoft's Todd Biggs, with the exception of enterprise scenarios, the Marketplace will be the only place developers can deliver apps on to Windows Phone 7 Series devices. Also, most of Microsoft's Marketplace screenshots contain a "Contoso" label. This, according to Biggs, is simply a placeholder entry for a carrier-branded store section, further emphasizing the fact that all content, even carrier-branded content, will be delivered in the same consistent shopping environment.

There's obviously a lot to digest here, and there will be even more later in the week as Microsoft discusses what these changes mean for developers. We'll keep you in the loop as the details unfold.

"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."

Opera Mini 5 for Windows Mobile is actually still in beta, though Opera Mobile 10 has indeed lost its beta tag and is now available as an official release. Head on over to Opera and grab it. It's free and widely seen as a better alternative to Internet Explorer.

"Bad news, HTC HD2 owners: Microsoft has finally come right out and confirmed our suspicions that the mighty HTC HD2 won't be upgraded to Windows Phone 7 Series. Joe Belfiore just told us that the HD2 is "not compliant with the Windows Phone 7 Series hardware specifications," which should end any of the lingering doubt that's clouded this issue since MWC."

Well, it's official. The HD2 will forever remain a Windows Mobile 6.5 device. While it's a bummer, it really shouldn't be all that surprising. Microsoft wants to wipe the slate clean with Windows Phone 7 Series, and that means all-new software and hardware. What we're most interested in is that now that Microsoft has made it official this early in the year, will HD2 sales be negatively impacted? Only time will tell.

Pretty neat technology - although I suspect that it's not a touch screen and an unsure if there are any technological barriers stopping a touch surface from being flexible. Anything that makes our phones more durable with bulk is great in my books!

"Microsoft's flavor of push notifications for Windows Phone 7 Series -- the so-called Microsoft Notification Service -- was just demoed using an MLS (Major League Soccer) app, and it fits in really well with the "Metro" UI motif."

I've never used Exchange or a Blackberry, so I don't know how different this is from the current WM6.5 paradigm. What's disturbing to me is that Engadget are speculating that this is just one more nail in the coffin of multitasking on Windows Phone. While I like the Metro UI and most of the other changes coming with WP7S, this is one development that has me worried.

"The Zune desktop software isn't just a music manager for your computer - it will serve as the music manager for your Windows Phone 7 Series handset. Just connect your Windows Phone to your computer and Zune automatically detects your phone, The "Device" tab allows you to browse, manage, and delete music directly on your phone. All changes are instantly reflected on the handset's Zune hub. Take that, iTunes!"

This is old hat to any Zune owners out there, but if you've never used the Zune desktop software before and you're wondering what it will be like to manage your content and sync it to your phone, here's a brief video demonstrating exactly that. I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to use this! Here's one reason why: when I sync my Zune HD to my PC, I have a Sync Group defined in the Zune software that will automatically sync the last 90 days of photos. So I always have the most recent photos I've taken on my Zune HD, and I don't have to do anything to get that. With my HTC HD2? The photos are two months out of date already, because I have to export the photos from Picasa in a mobile-friendly resolution, then connect my HD2, and drag and drop the folders of photos over into the right directory on the phone. That process sucks. Bring on the Zune software sync - it's going to rock!

"Microsoft just dropped its first press release of MIX 10 on us, and in addition to detailing the Sliverlight and XNA-based Windows Phone 7 Series development situation, we've also got a list of launch software partners and some screenshots of apps in action. There's some heavy hitters here, and everything from games to enterprise apps are represented -- notables include the Associated Press, Citrix, EA Mobile, Foursquare, Namco, Pangeonce, Pandora, Seesmic, Shazam, and Sling."

Engadget has gobs of information, screen shots, and videos about all the good stuff happening at MIX 10 today. The quick takeaway is that Microsoft has done a great job at attracting top-level partners to create software solutions for the forthcoming Windows phone 7 platform. Couple of videos after the break.

I've never been super impressed with the design of the current Windows Marketplace for Mobile; it loads slowly and feels a bit cumbersome and awkward when compared to the iPhone app store. The Windows phone 7 Marketplace is a radical leap beyond anything we've seen before - it makes the iPhone app store look positively weak in comparison. Damn this looks fine!

"We weren't given that much time to look at the device, and we weren't able to actually touch or play with it, but from what they were showing off, it looks like Samsung is determined to offer a quality handset to the Windows Phone 7 Series line-up. Especially along side the two other manufacturers that Microsoft showcased on screen, ASUS and LG, Samsung is definitely in the game. While Microsoft wouldn't elaborate on any real details about the device itself, you can obviously see that the standard hardware keys are on the phone: Back, Start, and Search. Microsoft also pointed out that the Samsung device has a very bright screen (an AMOLED display, perhaps?), and then the camera. The Samsung will have a terrific camera, and considering how beefy it looks on the back of the phone, we are hoping that's very true."

In addition to the Samsung phone being shown, the big news is that the minimum hardware specs are finalized and public...and boy do they rock! Screen resolution will be either WVGA (800 x 480) or HVGA (480 x 320), and while there's no mention of screen size, it's logical to guess that the WVGA devices will have larger physical screens (think 4+ inches) and the HVGA devices will likely be in the 3 inch range. All screens will be capacitive screens with a least four contact points, which means a great multi-touch experience.

All phones will have aGPS, an accelerometer, compass, light and proximity sensors. The cameras on the phones will be at least 5 megapixels, with a flash, and the phone has to have a dedicated hardware button for the camera. I know I've been irked more than once at my HD2 for not having a dedicated hardware button for the camera, so I think this is great news.

A minimum of 256 MB of RAM and 8 GB of flash storage will mean a highly usable device - and if you think 256 MB of RAM sounds a bit on the slim side, remember there is no crazy HTC Sense on the home screen taking up gobs of RAM, and since there's no true multi-tasking (from what I understand) you won't be sharing that RAM amongst a dozen apps at once. The GPU has to be DirectX 9 compatible, and the CPU needs to be an ARMv7 Cortex/Scorpion or better.

Remember also these are minimum specifications, so I'm sure well see Windows phone 7 devices with 16 GB of storage, an 8 megapixel camera, and other high-end specs.

Jump over to Slashgear to check out the videos!

Want to see some live Channel 9 Mix 10 content? Watch this video stream then - there's some really interesting stuff!

MIX10 is on now in Las Vegas and while I'm not there personally (unfortunately I'm in dreary Manhattan this morning) I do have some great tidbits from Scott Guthrie & Joe Belfiore. Here's the lowdown:

• The Mobile device application story is this: Silverlight for Internet-based applications, and XNA for gaming.
• Free developer tools: Expression Blend, and Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone.
• Windows Phone Marketplace is getting one-time credit card transactions, mobile-operator based billing, and advertising-funded applications!
• Silverlight 4 Release Candidate and Expression Blend beta 4 are on their way!

And if that's not enough, you can keep up on all of the action at MIX here!

"Pocket Stock Monitor features an easy-to-use portfolio manager, four advanced stock information views, stock charts, stock price alarms, detailed stock quote information, profit/loss and portfolio value calculations and an automatic quote fetch timer. Best in class user interface coupled with multiple stock data viewing options. Access to latest company news, multiple color schemes and large, easy to read text used for price information make Pocket Stock Monitor a must-have for everyone interested in becoming a more sophisticated investor."

Now that we're seeing some sanity coming back to equity and bond markets worldwide, software like PocketX Stock Monitor becomes more interesting and useful (and less a source of anxiety and heart attacks) - unless of course you've been shorting stocks. Version 5.9 adds some finger-friendly enhancements to the UI, as well as adding support for WM6.5.x which covers a whole slew of devices including the HTC HD2 and Touch Pro 2, Samsung Omnia II, and Sony-Ericsson's Xperia X2. I do wish they had better international exchange coverage, but you can't have everything. You can try out a demo or purchase the software for $24.95 through our affiliate link. PocketX Stock Monitor 5.9 is a free upgrade for registered users if you purchased Stock Monitor within the past year; otherwise an upgrade costs $17.95.