Tag Archives: microsoft

Windows Phone 7 Series: the complete guide

By melissa | Published: March 18, 2010
After Windows Phone 7 Series' grand unveiling at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress last month, Microsoft has circled back over the last several days during GDC and its own MIX10 conference to fill in many of the holes in this story -- in particular, details around the app development ecosystem and how third parties can take full advantage of it have been focal points. Of course, it makes sense: a modern smartphone is only as good as its software catalog, and Redmond's clearly keen to show that it knows how very true that is. XNA -- the technology that underpins Zune games and a host of Xbox content -- figures prominently into the equation, but Silverlight is a huge, unavoidable component as well, making development for WP7S devices a starkly different experience for studios and independent code monkeys than in versions prior. We're going to be periodically updating this post as we get new info on the platform, but for now, follow the break for everything you need to know -- so far -- about Microsoft's latest and greatest mobile platform. Continue reading Windows Phone 7 Series: the complete guide Windows Phone 7 Series: the complete guide originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST
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Microsoft takes a note from Palm in new Windows Phone 7 Series ad

By anthony | Published: March 18, 2010
We've held no punches in sharing our thoughts on Palm's recent ad campaigns , but the one spot that was actually not heinous has seemingly served as the basis for one of Microsoft's first-ever WP7S commercials. Debuting here at the tail-end of MIX , the ad spotlights Anna -- a fictitious gal we've certainly heard of before -- using her new smartphone to share photos with her dear lover Miles. It also features Luca, a kid with an undying love for playing Xbox LIVE titles , who seems to be caught somewhere in between the world of nature and nurture. At any rate, it's worth your while to give the new Microsoft commercial and the Palm ad which it has oh-so-much in common with right after the break. Oh, and Palm -- we guess "Windows Phone 7 Series was your idea ," right
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Windows Phone 7 Series’ cutting room floor is an extravaganza of bright colors and chunky fonts

By admin | Published: March 18, 2010
It's hard to argue that Windows Phone 7 Series' Metro UI concept isn't utterly unique in the mobile world, but it was wasn't the only option Microsoft considered -- far from it, in fact. The company has published a bunch a design concepts it churned through on its wild, wacky journey to finalizing Metro as we know it today, and one thing's for certain: they'd clearly planned on simple, square lines, partially-obscured typography, and in-your-face colors pretty much from day one. After careful consideration of everything they've got here, we still think we like the production design best, but that's kind of besides the point -- why, pray tell, couldn't these have just been user-selectable themes? Windows Phone 7 Series' cutting room floor is an extravaganza of bright colors and chunky fonts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:02:00 EST.
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Windows Phone 7 Series multitasking: the real deal

By anthony | Published: March 18, 2010
We've definitely learned a ton about Windows Phone 7 Series here at MIX , but getting the full picture on multitasking has been difficult, since the OS isn't ready, no one has final hardware, and the emulator seems to behave differently than actual devices and Microsoft's descriptions. So let's set the record straight on multitasking: it's not going to happen, at least not in the traditional way. Not only have we directly confirmed this with Microsoft executives several times, but the developer sessions here are totally clear on the matter -- you don't tell 1000+ devs that they should expect their apps to be killed whenever the user switches away from them if you don't mean it. Now, that's not to say that the OS can't do multitasking: first-party apps like the Zune player and IE can run in the background, and third-party apps are actually left running in a suspended state (Microsoft calls it "dehydrated") as long as the system doesn't need any additional resources
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Remains of the Day: 24 Hours of YouTube Every Minute Edition [For What It's Worth]

By admin | Published: March 17, 2010
Google's partners and aims for its set-top box are revealed, young folks' issues with identity theft are studied, Microsoft kinda-sorta lets us play with IE9, and YouTube reaches a staggering milestone of video uploading rates. More
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Track Your Favorite Band’s Online Buzz with Next Big Sound

By melissa | Published: March 17, 2010
This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here . The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Next Big Sound Quick Pitch: Next Big Sound is a tool that gauges the popularity of bands and artists via fan activity on a variety of social networking sites. Genius Idea: As the music industry and the online world become more and more enmeshed, tracking band popularity via album sales — and even digital downloads (Hello, piracy!) — seems rather arcane.
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New Bing Maps Feature: Stargaze from Street Level

By melissa | Published: March 17, 2010
A Microsoft architect has developed an application that lets you stargaze from Bing Map ’s street level view. You can use it to identify constellations, planets and other objects of interest in the night sky. The app (called World Wide Telescope) is a real-time simulation, so it shows the night sky as it would appear from wherever you’re virtually standing at the time you’re doing so. It works during the day, too.
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No Copy And Paste for Windows Phone 7 Devices

By admin | Published: March 17, 2010
Talk about not learning from others’ mistakes. Apple has been bashed for months due to lack of copy and paste on its iPhone – never mind if you actually use clipboard or not (I bet most people don’t), it’s a smart phone, and not having this functionality makes the phone seem a lot less smart. Users gave Apple no rest until it finally included the functionality , and it seems like Microsoft will have to go through the same ordeal on its Windows Phone 7 devices, as Engadget discovered they won’t have copy and paste , either.
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Windows Phone 7 Series will have themes… sort of

By admin | Published: March 17, 2010
It's no TouchFLO or SPB Mobile Shell, but it turns out you will be able theme Windows Phone 7 Series ... a little. Although we've only ever seen the classy "dark" theme with the black background, Microsoft just demoed a "light" theme with dark text on a white background. Earth-shattering, we know. Both themes also have selectable accent colors, but don't expect to go crazy here: your choices are red, orange, green and blue.
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The New IE9: More HTML5, CSS3, and No Windows XP

By admin | Published: March 17, 2010
Today Microsoft released the developer preview of Internet Explorer 9 . It’s the first look we’ve had at Microsoft’s flagship browser since it first revealed details late last year. The preview is bare-bones: after playing around with it, I can tell you that it doesn’t have much in terms of user interface — or anything else for that matter.
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