Windows Mobile
”First Full Facebook App for Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile users have had to look on in envy as people poked and drew penises on their friends' walls with dedicated apps for BlackBerry and Palm, wistfully hoping that joy could one day be their own. And now it is! Apparently the first full Facebook app for Windows Mobile, FriendMobilizer will let you do all of the basics like stalk your newly single friend, send messages or ignore requests from people you've never met. It's a lot greener (and uglier) than the Centro's app (which I like a lot) but hey, beggars can't be choosers. And I mean, you guys were begging for this, right? [Face of Mobile via ReadWriteWeb]Motorola's "Napolean" Q World Phone Gets Leaked: CDMA + GSM Included
Motorola's got another Q in the queue in the form of the new Napolean world phone. It's a CDMA smartphone for Verizon that does double duty with GSM, so you can use it pretty much anywhere. It also includes Wi-Fi if you're not feeling like using its EV-DO Revision A or EDGE data, runs Windows Mobile 6.1, and includes a fingerprint scanner and a 2-megapixel camera with flash. It sounds like a great phone for world travelers, but probably overkill for anyone else. [BGR]
Sprint's HTC Touch Diamond Gets Photographed By Digital Camera From 1998
Nothing confirms that Sprint is indeed getting the HTC Touch Diamond like a blurry picture of the phone posted in some forum. You can't tell much, but you can see that TouchFLO 3D is still there, and that there's a big yellow Sprint sticker on the top right where the, uh, front camera is supposed to be. Either there's no front cam on this or your face is going to get a Sprint logo all over it during conversations (or it's on the left, but we can't make it out in this vaselined photo). [PPCGeeks via Phone Arena]AT&T 2008 Smartphone Roadmap Leaked
Believe it or not, AT&T actually does have other smartphones coming this year besides the iPhone 3G and BlackBerry Bold. Four sequel-y Windows Mobile phones all slated for winter, and 6.1 updates for existing ones. Besides the Pantech Tech Duo 2, there's the BlackJack 3 (with a better cam and a little faster hardware), Tilt 2 (Update: BGR says Tilt 2 is probably the Touch Pro), and another unnamed Sammy, possibly the Omnia. There's also a "non-QWERTY" LG phone of some sort and a Wi-Fi version of the Curve (8320). Since these are all smartphones, we're guessing there's another consumer roadmap. [Gear Diary]Microsoft's J Allard (Xbox 360 and Zune) Gets a Promotion
J Allard, who most recently helped give the Xbox and the Zune a really, really good user experience has gotten a promotion to "Chief Experience Officer" of the Entertainment and Devices devision. The E&D devision, for those of you who don't know, encompasses Xbox, Games for Windows, Mobile Communications (including Windows Mobile), Zune, Connected TV, Microsoft Surface, Mac Office, Microsoft Auto and Windows Embedded. Now that Allard is essentially going to have his fingers in all these pies, you can expect a Zune/Xbox 360-level of UI polish that projects like Windows Mobile haven't seen before. You can't see it, but we're doing a fist pump now. [ZDNet]Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Available July 15
Since the desktop version of Opera 9.5 officially launched just a bit ago, you'd figure the mobile version would be close behind. You're right: Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta (for Windows Mobile) goes live July 15. It'll bring a lot of the desktop version's features down to your smartphone, including the same browser engine. Enjoy your few weeks left to gloat, HTC Touch Diamond owners. [Opera via via Phone Scoop]HTC Touch Pro Gets Fondled, But That Doesn't Turn It On
The guys over at Phone Mag managed to get their hands on the HTC Touch Pro "Raphael" and its sweet slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately, there was no battery and the device could not be turned on—but no significant changes are expected on that front over the previous Touch handset. All in all, Phone Mag felt that the device would satisfy HTC owners and keyboard lovers alike.
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Wired: How and Why Android Came to Be
You might already know that Google bought Android for $50 million in 2005 after Danger co-founder Andy Rubin just asked them for an endorsement of it. But did you know that Google feared Windows Mobile? Yep, that one, Wired's massive top-to-bottom Android feature (with awesome art) reveals. Google thought Microsoft had beat it to mobile—it had a quickly growing platform, tied to Microsoft's ends. Google, on the other hand, was having its apps, like mobile Picasa, shot down by carriers who wanted to extort users to do the same thing Google offered for free.
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HTC Touch Diamond Hands-on Update
I'm still working on the full review, but I wanted to give everyone an update on that performance fix that was released last week for the HTC Touch Diamond. I installed the new ROM (it was easy, just run the executable on your PC), and now TouchFLO is noticeably faster. It's still not instant, but it's definitely improved to the point where it's usable and you won't really mind it. Yeah, it's passed that bar. I'd even say that it's just as fast as the iPhone. Current owners will be able to upgrade to the newer official ROM soon.AOL Blesses Windows Mobile With New AIM Client
After years of neglect, AOL has apparently remembered that Windows Mobile exists and just released a new official AIM client. Though still in beta, it's supposedly compatible with all WinMo 5 and 6 devices. It looks pretty swank, at least as far as WinMo apps go, and more than satisfying for a mobile AIM client. Hopefully this means they're cooking up one for the iPhone too. [AOL via XDA Developers via BGR]Video: Samsung Omnia i900 in Action
MobiFrance got a hands on with the Samsung Omnia i900 at the launch event in Singapore, and as the video shows, there are some nice multimedia features at work with the UI. Homescreen widgets, touch friendly camera interface, clean looking icons, etc. However, the UI also looks a bit clunky with its animations and overall responsiveness. And it seems like the user had to repeatedly tap the same on-screen button/icon to make it work. But if you're brave enough to trudge through the 10+ minutes of footage, check it out for yourself. [MobiFrance via Pocket PC Thoughts via UberGizmo]HTC Touch Diamond Impressions (Verdict: It's Kinda Slow)
Addy fiddled with the HTC Touch at the official unveiling about a month ago, but we've just got our own units delivered to us for extensive in-home testing. The exterior looks as nice as we've already seen in unboxing shots, and the TouchFlo is much more refined than the previous incarnations in HTC's ever-expanding Touch line. The problem? TouchFlo is slow as balls. And that's kind of an insult to balls, which are actually pretty fast from our past experience.
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Qik's Cellphone Video Broadcasting App Coming to Windows Mobile
Microsoft Patents Mobile Manners Device Policy For Your Phones, Cameras and PDAs
Microsoft's device manners policy (DMP) patent seems very interesting, enforcing manners on people via automated wireless servers because they can't be bothered to be polite themselves. There are some examples inside the patent application, but the basic gist is that if you take a mobile device (cellphone, camera or laptop) into an area designated not-acceptable for that device to be used, it'll automatically be shut off or that particular feature will be locked. Imagine a no photography policy in museums turning off your phone, or no recording in movie theaters, or no calling in hospitals. Not a bad idea for the office either. [Unwired View]
Palm Treo 800w Caught Running Windows Mobile
We know, huuugggeee surprise that the upcoming Palm Treo 800w will be running Windows Mobile. But now we've got the photographic confirmation. If only the blogosphere was so committed to capturing Big Foot in poorly whitebalanced lowlight photography, we'd really have something. Here's a shot of the rear:
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Sony Ericsson xPeria X1 Reviewed, Now Dubbed SEX1
That dirty dirty BengalBoy has got his dirty dirty paws all over the Sony Ericsson xPeria X1, putting it through his usual battery of tests: girls in bikini holding it, girls in bikini licking it, girls in bikini fondling it, and girls in bikini trying to find it inside their bikinis because they just lost it somewhere in the last test. He also tried it himself, defining it as "Stainless Steel Wireless Erotica" and dubbing it SEX1. And yes, his other impressions and photos—including the obligatory comparison shot with the previous generation iPhone—can be applied to sex toys as well. More »HTC Touch Pro Advances Slide-Out Windows Mobile Action
HTC's going back to what they do best—Windows Mobile phones with slide-out QWERTY keyboards—by way of the HTC Touch Pro, also known as the HTC Raphael. It's got a very Touch-Diamond-like back, and has 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, 512MB internal storage, 288MB RAM, microSD slot, a 2.8-inch VGA screen, 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, video calling and a 1350 mAh battery that gives 8 hours of talk time.
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