What a long, strange trip it’s been. As Microsoft throws their considerable weight behind the Windows Phone platform, they’re running out of love for their still-kicking Windows Mobile OS, and today they’ve driven another nail into its coffin. According to a new email being circulated to users as I write this, the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace will officially shut down on May 9. → Read More
Considering the immense fragmentation that characterizes the mobile apps industry, it’s good to see decent research help us try and make sense of what’s going on in that particular part of the digital economy, one that is consistently growing in size and importance across the globe. Hence, I invite anyone with a vested interest in the mobile developer ecosystem to check out VisionMobile’s… → Read More
Google-powered Android phones and iPhones are both gobbling up market share. The combined worldwide market share of both operating systems reached 25 percent in the first quarter, up from 12 percent the year before, according to Gartner. The iPhone still has a bigger share, at 15.4 percent (up 5 points), but Android is catching up fast with 9.6 percent (up 8 points). All other smartphones lost… → Read More
Google-powered Android phones and iPhones are both gobbling up market share. The combined worldwide market share of both operating systems reached 25 percent in the first quarter, up from 12 percent the year before, according to Gartner. The iPhone still has a bigger share, at 15.4 percent (up 5 points), but Android is catching up fast with 9.6 percent (up 8 points). All other smartphones lost… → Read More
Mobile advertising and ad optimization company Smaato has released its March figures on mobile ad click-through rates around the world, and some of its findings are quite surprising.
According to Smaato, Symbian still reigns supreme in its global OS click-through rate index, outshining feature phones (non-smartphones with a proprietary operating system), Windows Phones and Apple iPhone and iPod… → Read More
Now here’s a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. LookTel is an object identifier – you point it at something and it tells you what it is. You can teach it to recognize new objects and by aiming it at a product, the program can tell what it is using real speech and when you need to ID something on the fly, you can stick on an image sticker and read that sticker. It’s more or less a barcode and QR… → Read More
No wonder Apple is suing HTC for patent infringement over its Android phones. In the three months between October and January, Android’s overall share of smartphone subscribers in the U.S. rose 4.3 points to 7.1 percent, according to mobile market share data released by comScore. Android showed the biggest single gain of any of the top five smartphone platforms. Apple’s share was virtually… → Read More
Opera Software has been busy lately, releasing fresh finalized and beta products on a near-daily basis. This morning, the company announced that it has released a native version of Opera Mini 5 beta for handsets running Windows Mobile 5 and 6.
Interestingly, the new WinMo version of Opera Mini does not require Java. That basically means any Windows Mobile phone can accommodate the app. Despite… → Read More
Opera Software has been busy lately, releasing fresh finalized and beta products on a near-daily basis. This morning, the company announced that it has released a native version of Opera Mini 5 beta for handsets running Windows Mobile 5 and 6.
Interestingly, the new WinMo version of Opera Mini does not require Java. That basically means any Windows Mobile phone can accommodate the app. Despite… → Read More
Last year, Apple’s iPhone nearly doubled its worldwide market share of smartphone sales to 14.4 percent, up 6.2 points from the year before, according to the latest market share figures put out by Gartner. The iPhone still trails behind Nokia’s Symbian-powered smartphones (No. 1), which saw their share decline 5.5 points to 46.9 percent, and RIM Blackberries (No. 2), which gained 3.3 points to… → Read More
Earlier this week we told you guys that Windows Mobile 6.5 was going to stick around after Windows Phone 7 hits the masses. It would even take on a new name — Windows Phone Classic. With everyone sticking around and playing nice at this party, you’d think that maybe current WinMo 6.5 handsets might get a little Windows Phone 7 love. Sorry to burst your bubble. → Read More
Here’s a question. What use is an iPad if you live IN AN AVALANCHE? Even its high-quality multi-touch screen won’t help it there. And what if you like to SWIM IN POOLS OF MAGMA? How will you check your email then? Not on your Windows Phone! It will have melted! This is why you need the AIS Ultra-Rugged RPDA37! → Read More
If you thought that Windows Mobile 6 would fade into oblivion because Windows Phone 7 is coming soon, think again. Not only will the OS stick around for a while longer, but it’s getting a name change, too: Windows Phone Classic. Of course, we all knew this was going to happen, so no surprises here, right? → Read More
Last week, T-Mobile teased us all with a little jab on Twitter about the HTC HD2 that it will be shipping soon. It was exciting and, to be frank, it made me a little antsy. As promised, T-Mobile announced new features for the HD2 at Mobile World Congress today and I’ve gotta say, it isn’t all that thrilling. → Read More
So the next generation of Windows Mobile, now Windows Phone, has been unveiled at MWC in Barcelona. Greg has already gotten his mitts all over it, and has posted his in-depth impressions over at MobileCrunch, but we thought it was worthwhile to post our thoughts on Microsoft’s new look and feel. Beautiful? Ugly? Too little, too late? Feel free to add your opinions to the pile. → Read More
Acer isn’t showing any signs of slowing down at Mobile World Congress this week. Just this morning, the manufacturer announced the Liquid e and now we have the neoTouch and beTouch. A little strange with the name scheme, but let’s see just what these devices are packing, shall we? → Read More
In case you didn’t know, snappy processors are all the rage these days. When I think of fast processors, the first one that comes to mind is Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor which is currently found on devices like the Nexus One, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and the LG eXpo. After Microsoft made its Windows Phone 7 announcement this morning, Qualcomm has come out and said that it will be the first… → Read More
It’s finally happening. Maybe. According to sources close to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is going to make a pretty big announcement at Mobile World Congress on February 15. After acknowledging that Windows Mobile isn’t exactly where it should be in terms of development and progression, Microsoft appears to be ready to announce and unveil Windows Mobile 7. But what happened to WinMo 6.5.3? → Read More
If there is one rumor that tends to come and go and agonizes Windows Mobile fans, it’s the one about a Zune phone. Although it’s not officially confirmed, Gizmodo has it on good word that Microsoft will be introducing a Zune phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year. More specifically, it will be a Windows Mobile 7 phone with Zune features and capabilities, so it’s… → Read More
For much of the past year, the major criticism of Foursquare was that it only worked in a few select cities in the U.S. and was basically iPhone-only. In the past few months, both Foursquare itself and a growing core of third-party developers have changed that. Today brings yet another expansion in the Foursquare universe with the beta launch of a Windows Mobile app.
To be clear, this app is only… → Read More
It’s the case of the missing money. Or, less dumb, it’s a case of nobody knowing what’s going on. Several Windows Mobile developers have complained loudly that they’re owed monies by Microsoft. Microsoft is all, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll get it sorted out,” but then doesn’t, in fact, sort it. → Read More
MWC is a few weeks away – it starts on February 15 – and we’re expecting to see a new version of Windows Mobile, version 7, to be launched with hardware soon to follow. We’ve heard some rumors about potential improvements over the current 6.x codebase, but a developer has told us that this new version is so distant from the old WinMo that it is almost unrecognizable. The… → Read More
Our buddies over at Phonescoop spotted a handset running a copy of the as-of-yet unreleased Windows Mobile 6.5.3 floating around at CES, and were nice enough to snap some footage for everyone not living in the Las Vegas Convention Center this week. They run through just about everything 6.5.3 has to offer, from the new finger-friendly UI to the brand new, seemingly much improved onscreen keyboard… → Read More
If HTC’s trying to keep their device releases top-secret, they’re not doin’ a very good job. While individual leaks seem to be rare, they seem to be making a habit out of bundling up all their upcoming releases into one big presentation, which in turn leaks all over the internet. It happened right at the beginning of 2009 and, sure enough, it looks like the first half of 2010 has already been… → Read More
This is one mobile application I think everyone should have installed. And be recommended by them to all of their friends and relatives to boot.
Meet iMobile Care, a potential life-saver that you can carry around in your pocket.
Launched at the beginning of this month, the app is primarily a reference guide that lets you obtain essential information about medical conditions and situations… → Read More
Earlier this afternoon Fake Steve Jobs took one look at Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile commercial and wrote, “Dancing Twitter icons do not translate into cutting-edge advertising.”
I don’t know. I think the commercial is pretty good, but only because it seems to me the strategy here was to turn Internet Explorer, Outlook, Microsoft Messenger and the others into Party Boy from Jackass. → Read More
Boy howdy could I use this thing at CEATEC today. Running on a Windows Mobile handheld, Toshiba has a real-time voice translation demonstration. It worked quite well. How much longer until we get the Star Trek universal translators? Video inside! → Read More
Coinciding with the introduction of the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, Microsoft has upgraded and launched its free phone backup service My Phone – previously in beta – and added a couple of useful premium features to it.
Despite the fact that the official My Phone blog and Twitter account remain silent for the time being, users have definitely taken notice and started tweeting about… → Read More
Coinciding with the introduction of the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, Microsoft has upgraded and launched its free phone backup service My Phone – previously in beta – and added a couple of useful premium features to it.
Despite the fact that the official My Phone blog and Twitter account remain silent for the time being, users have definitely taken notice and started tweeting about… → Read More
Turn-by-turn navigation was one of the features that iPhone users were most looking forward to with the release of the iPhone 3.0 software. Unfortunately, as users quickly found out, turn-by-turn meant either significantly more expensive apps, or a monthly fee. Not only does Waze do it for free, but it offers an interesting gaming element to boot.
The reason Waze can be free while other… → Read More
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