WP7 Nodo, less than a month away, still no specific date.
Posted Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 10:02 pm by Jason Cartwright
In the very early hours of the morning, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer keynoted in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2011. Naturally Ballmer spent time discussing the recent Nokia deal, but then called on Joe Belfiore to demonstrate some of the upcoming WP7.5 (Mango) features due later this year. These included:
- IE9 Mobile with hardware acceleration
- Multitasking (read: fast-app switching)
- SkyDrive integration
- Kinect support
Problem is, there’s actually an update WP7 users are waiting for now. Originally scheduled for January, it’s now been delayed till the ‘first couple of weeks in March’. So how is that the first update to the WP7 platform is less than a month away, but Microsoft seems completely incapable of locking down an actual release date. It’ll be 6 months since WP7 devices started shipping before the first update to the platform lands.
Image credit: Miss karen
Mobile World Congress: Microsoft keynote tomorrow morning
Posted Monday, February 15, 2010 at 8:31 pm by Jason Cartwright
At 1am AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time) Microsoft will take the stage at Mobile World Congress for their keynote. Amidst a number of other companies keynoting Microsoft’s is highly anticipated, set to announce Windows Mobile 7.
After being heavily criticised for an incomplete, unpolished 6.5 release, the Windows Mobile team need to have an impressive release for Windows Mobile to be seen as a serious competitor in today’s smart phone market. Also the conditions and pricing of the developer deal needs to change to incentivise developers back to the Windows Mobile platform.
It’s expected Microsoft will integrate Zune in Windows Phones to compete with the iTunes on the iPhone. There’s also rumours online that we’ll see the introduction of My Phone 2. There’s been a lot of stories around today that WinMo7 won’t support Flash out of the box, but may ad it in the months to come. This seems to come from a single source, so we’ll have to wait till tomorrow’s keynote for official confirmation. I hope they at least have some kind of flash support, even if it’s Flash Lite.
I’m also seriously hoping for some new, innovative user experiences from Microsoft. Copying the competition isn’t enough to gain the attention of the smart phone market, they need to leapfrog the competition. The HTC HD2 is currently the best Windows Mobile device.. will we see a new introduction tomorrow that’ll take that crown ?
Microsoft do a great job (Apple, take note) of streaming their events live online, so head over to http://microsoft.com if your stupid like me and are getting up at 1am to watch live. Microsoft’s mobile site will also have all the details post-event – http://microsoft.com/windowsmobile
The event will also be live blogged by one of Australia’s best Microsoft bloggers – Long Zheng from iStartedSomething.com in collaboration with Tom Warren from Neowin.net.
