Sharp preps widescreen Windows Mobile PDA
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InfoWorld - Sharp has developed a widescreen Windows Mobile-based PDA (personal digital assistant) for a new Japanese cellular carrier that will begin service next month.
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Hoping to whet the appetite of developers specializing in mobile and embedded devices, Microsoft on Monday made available a free technology preview of Windows XP Embedded containing Service Pack 2 (SP2) that it expects to deliver by year's end.
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Voice over Internet calling is now available for  PDA users, with  Skype Technologies officially launching software designed for handhelds running the Microsoft Windows Pocket PC operating system.
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Microsoft  unveiled on  Thursday a new version of its Windows operating system for  mobile devices, making it look more like Windows Vista and  adding features previously only available on personal  computers.
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InfoWorld - For business users who want Microsoft Office on their cell phones, Windows Mobile 6, the upcoming version of Redmond's mobile operating system to be unveiled next week, will be a must-have upgrade.
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Windows Mobile brand will replace Pocket PC and Smartphone labels.
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Microsoft has released details about a new version of Windows Mobile, the software behemoth's operating system designed for devices such as smartphones and PDAs. The OS, called Windows Mobile 6, will be available in the second quarter of 2007, offering an interface that resembles the recently launched Windows Vista.
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Acer is adding a GPS-enabled Windows Mobile PDA to its line of Ferrari-branded computer gear.
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Lean, mean location-tracking machine? Review You're about to launch your latest all-in-one Windows Mobile 5.0 device but need it to stand out from the plethora of similar PDAs and handhelds. What do you do? Simple, give it a quirky brand name and then tout it as the world's thinnest GPS and Wi-Fi enabled Pocket PC phone...â¦
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At CES Qualcomm demonstrated a prototype of its 'pocketable computer,' which runs Windows Mobile and has a slide-out keyboard.
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PalmOne has introduced the new Tungsten T5 PDA. The new Tungsten T5 features 256MB of flash memory, which doesn&#39;t lose data when the device loses its charge.
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In an interview with BetaNews, Microsoft product manager for Windows Mobile and embedded devices John Starkweather said that a key feature of the system developers' kit for Windows Mobile 6 will be a set of tools that expose the functionality of a new graphical desktop synchronization tool for Windows Vista called Windows Mobile Device Center.
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(InfoWorld) - In an effort to show wide support for its newest Windows Mobile operating system, Microsoft is highlighting several announcements from handset makers on Monday at 3GSM in Barcelona. Device manufacturers including Toshiba and LG Electronics are announcing plans to offer phones based onÂ the new Windows Mobile 6.0. Some operators are also allowing customers to upgrade from the previous Windows Mobile software. T-Mobile USA Inc., for example, plans to announce on Monday that it will offer an upgrade to the new operating system to customers who are using the HTC device running Windows Mobile 5.0 Most of the phones running Windows Mobile 6.0 will become available in March or April. Analysts and competitors have criticized the Windows Mobile platform for being available on a smaller range of phones than other operating systems, specifically Nokia's Symbian S60. But Microsoft argues that it is offering the best choice to users. "We are now promoting 140 different form factors from 48 device makers," said Marianne Roling, director of mobile embedded devices for Europe, Middle East and Africa for Microsoft. "We're seeing lots of traction." British Telecommunications PLC (BT) said Monday that it is taking advantage of Windows Mobile 6.0's built-in VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) capabilities by selling a Hewlett-Packard device running the software to customers of its converged Fusion service. TheÂ HP iPaq 514Â running Windows Mobile 6.0 will be offered to business users of the service, which lets customers make low-cost VOIP-over-Wi-Fi calls as well as standard mobile calls. Users can roam between the two networks without dropping calls. Windows Mobile 6.0 includes support for wireless VOIP but users need to subscribe to a service like BT's Fusion in order to seamlessly move between the networks, Roling said. Microsoft also plans to announce on Monday that The Carphone Warehouse Group will offer a hosted mobile e-mail service to small and medium-size businesses based on a hosted server product from Microsoft. End users, who may use Windows Mobile 6.0 phones, will pay a monthly fee for the service.
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There must be a typo in the name of Microsoft's new software for handheld organizers and smartphones. It's called "Windows Mobile 6," but this release seems hardly different from the 2005 Windows Mobile 5.
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Launches a BlackBerry alternative too Smart phone seller i-mate has launched its latest Windows Mobile handhelds: a follow up to the QWERTY keyboard equipped JAQ it launched a few months ago, and a classic tablet-like PDA phone squeezed into a candybar form-factor.â¦
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Microsoft built a custom Windows Mobile user interface for a new phone that T-Mobile USA expects to announce on Monday, evidence that Microsoft may be getting more serious about pursuing the consumer mobile market.The phone, built by HTC, will be the first in a line of phones from T-Mobile using the new Shadow brand, said David Sholkovitz, marketing manager at T-Mobile.While Microsoft has worked with operators to help modify the operating system to fit their needs, this project represented a new level of partnership, said Doug Smith, director of marketing for Microsoft&#39;s mobile communications business. &quot;I&#39;d say this was one of the deeper partner involvements we&#39;ve had on a new product,&quot; he said.The Shadow, which will hit stores on Wednesday, features a home screen that looks very different than other Windows Mobile phones. Users slide a wheel to navigate through icons on the screen that take them directly to e-mail, their music player and photos. The idea was to make it easier to use increasingly complicated phones, said Sholkovitz.The operator approached Microsoft about ways to alter the home screen in order to simplify it and prevent &quot;feature fatigue,&quot; he said. &quot;We wanted to create a product with the feature set that Windows Mobile products have but deliver it in a simple fashion that was user intuitive and icon based,&quot; he said.T-Mobile, Microsoft and HTC began working on the new user interface in November of last year. &quot;I think this was rare for [Microsoft],&quot; said Farah Houston, product development manager, T-Mobile. &quot;We had access to a lot of resources I don&#39;t think they normally make available. Microsoft is trying to show they&#39;re serious about the consumer market and this is what they&#39;re willing to do.&quot;Windows Mobile, which works in tandem with Exchange to push corporate e-mail to the phones, has a reputation primarily as an enterprise tool. T-Mobile hoped to avoid that image with the Shadow and the keyboard design is meant to help. &quot;When users see a full keyboard they think business and productivity,&quot; said Sholkovitz. &quot;So we made it a hidden slide-out keypad.&quot;During a keynote speech at the CTIA I.T. and Entertainment conference in San Francisco last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described what Microsoft thinks will attract consumers. &quot;Consumers will want phones that span all of their life personas,&quot; he said. &quot;My work life, my personal life, my life with my family, my life with my friends. People don&#39;t want to pull out multiple devices.&quot;Another Microsoft executive echoed a similar thought. &quot;We can do multiple things in parallel,&quot; said Scott Horn, general manager of Microsoft&#39;s mobile group, also speaking at CTIA. &quot;We can do both consumer and enterprise... You will see more devices appeal to the consumer side.&quot;The talk of consumer needs shows how the iPhone is likely affecting Microsoft&#39;s strategy, one analyst said. &quot;There&#39;s no doubt the success that Apple had with the iPhone in terms of appealing to the mainstream end user market as opposed to the business market has not gone unnoticed,&quot; said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research. &quot;Microsoft has built these devices to service and solve business needs but Microsoft understands the intersection of business and consumer.&quot;The declining price of Windows Mobile devices will make them more appealing to consumers, said Smith. The Shadow, as an example, will retail for $150 with a two-year voice and data contract. It will work with a new data plan from T-Mobile that costs $20 per month and includes unlimited data use and Wi-Fi access at T-Mobile hotspots.The phone will be displayed in T-Mobile stores along with other lower cost feature phones, not with the higher end smartphones, said Houston.Neither Microsoft nor T-Mobile would comment on intellectual-property ownership for the new software interface on the Shadow.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft announced some new Windows Live applications for mobile phones on Monday, including programs that offer search and mapping capabilities. Live Search for Windows Mobile 6 and Live Search will both be available shortly through operators in the U.S. and the U.K., Microsoft announced at the 3GSM World Congress show in Barcelona. The search software includes category-based searching, which lets people find things without having to type search terms into their phone. They could search for a list of restaurants or hotels in their local area, for example. It can also map local information using Microsoft's Virtual Earth, and provide real-time traffic reports for 25 U.S. cities, including Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The Live Search software is available for Windows Mobile devices, Nokia Series 40 and Series 60 devices, Motorola's Razr and SLVR devices, and some phones from LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics. People interested in the software can find a list of supported devices here or download the software for free from their mobile phone here. Microsoft also announced the availability of Windows Live for Windows Mobile, which includes productivity tools such as messaging and e-mail software, as well as Live Spaces, Microsoft's blogging and photo service. The applications are debuting ahead of the expected mid-year release ofÂ Windows Mobile 6, which Microsoft will demonstrate at 3GSM. 3GSM World Congress runs through Thursday.