Penny Mobiles – Mobile phone news, reviews & information

Despite the general excitement and anticipation for the upcoming Windows Phone 7, there are several people who are not looking forward to the new OS. In fact, if Galen Gruman of InfoWorld has his way, Windows Phone 7 should be cancelled.

Of course, the big question here is why?

The points that Galen points out are strong, but not really all that convincing if you study the hard facts. First off, he points out that the tiles are too big. That is simply a matter of opinion. While it is possible to cram the size big enough to fill up a page with just four tiles, users can opt to have more space. And not everyone wants to have a page full of widgets as well –if you only read a couple of RSS feeds and need to check an organizer every now and then, then that will be all that a user would need.

The UI style was also being slammed. But for exactly what reason we cannot fathom. The UI is dynamic, intuitive and very easy to understand. If critics cannot grasp the concept of bleeding text layouts, then they need to understand the concepts of good UI design more.

What will certainly be new for users is the contacts based navigation. While users can obviously move from one menu to another, Microsoft is heavily focusing on the many functions that one can jump to from the contacts screen. While this is impressive, the fact is that the same function persists throughout the entire handset. There is only emphasis on the contacts list because Microsoft is reminding people that the new OS has been made for general users who love social networking.

In any case, Microsoft is going to push through with the launch (of the Windows Phone 7, not lumps of coal as Galen suggests). Expect to see the first WP7 devices this coming September.

It was not due to lack of testing that the faulty antenna design for the iPhone 4 actually made it to the production. In fact, it was an issue that was already brought up earlier on by one of Apple’s senior engineers and an expert on antenna technology, Ruben Caballero. The information was leaked by a source from within Apple who refused to be named.

With that little trivia known, the only thing we can really ask now is “why Apple, why?”

The iPhone 4 is a major handset. No matter how one looks at it, it has been designed to be the next in line to the throne that was once occupied by the iPhone 3GS. So it makes no sense that Apple would ignore such serious warnings. However, the fact of the matter is that the iPhone 4’s antenna is indeed faulty; the folks at Cupertino could not afford to let such a major flaw be part of the final product.

This is also a major issue internally; after all, experts like Ruben are good at what they do. For their assessment to be ignored and the final product to still have the major flaw they pointed out is an insult to their skills and expertise.

To have this news break out at such as time is also a major blow to the company –as it further undermines their capacity to handle problems with handsets –if they failed to prevent it in the first place, how could people trust them to fix it at all?

In the meanwhile, it is only a few hours before the Apple conference starts and we will finally be able to know what Microsoft has been planning recently. It may have been strange, but at least the emergency conference seems to be focused on dealing with the antenna issue.

With the Kin’s unexpected cancellation in Europe, it is hard to see how Microsoft is ever going to regain its foothold in the European mobile phone markets. However, the American electronics manufacturer seems determined to set things right. Learning from how the social networking centered duo fared in the US, they have instead decided to cut their losses and focus their efforts on the launch of the Windows Phone 7 platform.

Retailers are preparing early for the line of products sporting the new operating system, creating attractive shop displays. Some of the Windows Phone 7 ads are due to be posted even as early as within the month.

According to official Microsoft documents that were leaked to the public, the company confirms a third quarter launch date for the new operating system. People who estimate the arrival date of the Windows Phone 7 platform say that it is actually due to be released on September.

It seems the accelerated release date can be attributed to the Microsoft branded Kin’s lackluster appeal in the mobile market. It was, after all, pitted against heavy competition against Google, Apple as well as Nokia.

With all the promotional shop floor displays and awareness drives, Microsoft really does not want to leave too much to chance. All the publicity and marketing should leave an impression on the consumers, after all, Microsoft has quite a few unique wow factors up its sleeve.

There are plenty of things to look forward to in the Windows Phone 7 platform. The modern user interface, plenty of apps ported from the Xbox Live Arcade as well as a great, Flash capable web browser. Hopefully all of this is enough to boost the Microsoft platform’s 7 percent market share which is only a fraction when compared to the 44 percent that Nokia’s Symbian dominates.

Cambridge based electronics manufacturer ARM is enjoying a very solid position in the mobile phone industry, even with competitors such as Texas Instruments, the company’s CPU’s are the standard hardware for many smart phones by manufacturers all over the world.

Intel, a major player in the computer industry, seems to have their sights on the mobile phone market as well. With the introduction of the Intel Moorestown CPU several months ago and the continuous evolution of the Atom hardware to consume less and less power, the company is getting close to producing hardware that will provide plenty of processing power, but will not be consuming so much energy.

According to recent reports, the first Intel bearing smart phones might be seeing light by 2011.

The company is taking the transition slowly and steadily. The company has already started with several Taiwan made tablets –providing the CPU for handheld devices can go a pretty long way.

The MeeGo operating system which Intel co-developed with Nokia is going to be released in October to November. According to Intel, they intentionally designed the MeeGo to work with a wide range of processors –not exclusively Atom technology. By doing this, their OS can be more widely used. Their previous operating system, the Linux based Moblin OS seems to have been scrapped in favor of the MeeGo mobile platform. Of course, with their team up with Nokia, it is likely that new devices from the Finnish phone maker will be showing the new Intel CPUs next year.

In the meanwhile, ARM is steadily strengthening its position in the industry. They have already acquired the support of Microsoft for Windows Phone 7 –according to Steve Ballmer, Qualcomm will be playing an instrumental role in the development of the OS and as such, a Qualcomm CPU is a requirement for the new platform. Aside from Microsoft, Intel has also teamed up with phone manufacturers HTC and Motorola.

A rumor has been started from a Russian tech podcast that speaks of the upcoming Android 3.0 operating system. While the new features that were detailed are definitely impressive, there is a large part of the news that would have many Android smart phone owners worried regarding the arrival of the new OS. According to the rumors, the new OS will only be compatible with high-end smart phones.

Considering that Microsoft has already taken this route with the Windows Phone 7, one would think that Google might also try the same approach –determine a minimum hardware requirement for a new OS. In this way, the overall user experience is standardized throughout all devices. At the moment, the Android OS is suffering from cross-handset compatibility issues for some features and apps due to the fact that the hardware used for Android handsets vary depending on the manufacturer.

The podcast goes on to point out that the new OS will only be compatible with mobile phones that have 1GHz CPUs or higher.

While this move makes sense, it is unlikely that Google would actually go in that direction. Unlike the Windows Phone 7 which is an entirely new OS from Windows Mobile, the upcoming Gingerbread is still an update of the current 2.1 Éclair and 2.2 Froyo. Jumping to an entirely new OS would leave a vast majority of Android’s users alienated and that is something that Google cannot risk. After all, it would very likely upset a large number of people if Google brought out an update that made, say, the Samsung Galaxy S obsolete, but supported the HTC Desire.

One of the key topics that Google discussed in the I/O conference and is constantly tackling is the compatibility issue with the Android OS. Their goal is to make the upcoming Gingerbread a standard OS for all the Android smart phones –to set a compatibility standard so that apps and features have no problems running.

Naturally, Google’s newer operating systems would indeed adapt to newer technology, but right now, cutting off any smart phone with a CPU slower than 1GHz is not a viable solution for Google.

According to recent reports, Microsoft has been offering cash incentives to developers and groups in order to encourage them to create new games for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile platform. While some developers have declared that the cash offering is indeed substantial, it would still not cover the cost of developing for the complex platform that the new mobile platform uses.

Prior to this announcement, it has also been known that Microsoft has also been distributing WP7 handsets to developers in order to show programmers what the new OS is capable of.

In many ways, the strategy being employed by Microsoft is actually pretty smart, even Google was giving out Android handsets to developers at the I/O conference. This is because getting programmers to test and see the actual OS at work gives them an idea of what apps will be great for the device.

The fact that Microsoft is also bringing in the Xbox Live Games service to the platform makes the whole act seem a little more desperate. As it is, MS is luring its existing crowd of Xbox gamers to also make use of the Xbox services on the phone –the support for existing accounts and even inclusion of gamer points and in game achievements is meant to show players that the smart phone can also provide a similar gaming environment.

While some players are excited at the prospect, there are those who feel that the inclusion of gamer points and achievements for the many casual games that are played on smart phones should be separate from the achievements they have accomplished on the console.

In many ways, Microsoft is expecting game players to shell out plenty of money this year as the company will not only be launching a new smart phone operating system, they are also launching a second, smaller version of the Xbox 360 as well as the new Microsoft Kinect motion control system accessories as well.

Microsoft’s Window Phone 7 is going to be their biggest move in the mobile phone industry. For many years, they have stayed within the business market, creating their own niche for the Windows Mobile operating system. But as the number of smart phone users increased –and the type of users started to range from business users to the general market, Microsoft has seen the need to create an operating system that appeals to the larger crowd.

Looking at the preliminary versions of the Windows Phone 7 operating system, one cannot help but be impressive by how neat and stylized the interface is. The screens slide and sweep from side to side, panels (or tiles) swivel from the background to the foreground and buttons pop up in smooth fluid animations that create a sense of composition.

Accessing content could not be easier, with just a few taps of the screen; you can be instantly updating all your social networking accounts with a single status update. With a few more taps, you’re at the contact screen viewing all the latest updates online. And just a menu more and you can be instantly uploading new images and content to your favorite social networking site and adding tags to the photos –all using the WP7 interface.

It does not stop there. Zune integration means that you can instantly get access to a large library of media content online –no need to hook up with wires, the WiFi access is more than enough for this sort of task. Silverlight and the MSN player will also be included as well.

Microsoft’s Xbox Live service will also be present in the OS, which means that players now get to earn achievements for their hard work, and they can even connect to their exiting XBL accounts as well.

Despite the fact that most of us are already waiting for the release of the upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile platform, the fact is that Windows Mobile 6.5 is far from dead. In fact, Microsoft has already stated several months ago that even after the WP7 handsets are released, they will still continue to support and develop for WinMo 6.5.

While it is not confirmed if they will push through with the supposed name change from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone Classic, they are certainly going to keep the OS alive. Despite the announcement that Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 will indeed be available for the new OS, people are still looking to the older WinMo OS for business needs. Simply put, the new WP7 is not simply cutting it for business users –this is actually a very important market for Microsoft (they hold the second largest share of the business market next to BlackBerry, and that is how they managed to survive despite WinMo’s lack of support in the general market).

A recent announcement from Samsung further proves that WinMo 6.5 will still be around for a while, the new Samsung Omnia Pro 4 and Omnia Pro 5 smart phones will be making use of the older Microsoft mobile platform with updated versions of Office Mobile and Communicator Mobile.

As to be expected, the two handsets are very business-like in design, with the BlackBerry form factor (candy bar handsets with portrait physical QWERTY keyboards). The design logic for the keyboards is simple, but they work quite effectively, anyone who has been using a Palm or BlackBerry will feel at ease with these handsets.

It is to be noted that the Omnia Pro 4 actually has better specs than the Omnia Pro 5. The biggest advantage of getting the Pro 5 is the fact that the device is a lot lighter and slimmer than the Pro 4.