Mobile Phone News:

Oh, Microsoft, you were doing so, so well. You won me over, as soon as you announced Windows Phone 7 Series, you brought something shiny and new to the table, and you seriously impressed me. You showed off Xbox Live integration, and I bowed down at how awesome you were making the new OS. And then, you told us that Windows Phone 7 Series won’t have true multitasking, support for memory cards, and copy/paste, and all the faith you’d built up went bye-byes.

Honestly, I gave the iPhone hell for not having copy & paste, did you really think I’d let you off the hook for doing the exact same thing?

Now, I’ll be fair to Microsoft. According to IntoMobile, they say that copy & paste is only missing from this first release, implying it be seen in later builds. If that’s the case, then fair enough, but they really need to get it sorted out sooner, rather than later, because 7 Series is basically their big chance to give the competition a shoeing, and steal back the market share they’ve lost. They won’t do that if 7 Series isn’t the absolute best it can be, especially if the features it’s missing are things we take for granted, even on feature phones!

However, you have to wonder whether that is the case, because when they unveiled the Office features in Windows Phone 7 Series, they went so far as to say that people don’t want copy & paste, and instead, only use the phone to view documents, and not edit them. I’d love to see the research that suggests that, because I know at least one person (which would be me) who does want copy & paste. Of course, it’s not just about the lack of that one feature. What about memory cards? Microsoft have said it won’t support swappable memory cards, which is, again, something I consider to be bleedin’ stupid. Why can’t we use our own memory cards? Can’t we be trusted?

I can understand Microsoft blocking third party interfaces from sitting on top of Windows Phone 7 Series, to keep a consistent experience across phones, but really, why have they got such a thing against us being able to change our own memory cards? It’s things like this that have got current Windows Mobile power users up in arms, and I’ll be honest, I agree. The ability to fiddle, and install whatever I want, are two of the things I really love about Windows Mobile. I miss them a lot in 7 Series, so I suspect that I will be getting the HTC HD2 after all, because it’s everything I want in a phone.

And at the minute, despite having Xbox Live integration, Windows Phone 7 Series feels somewhat lacking to me. But hey, they may have got it up to the point where I’ll adopt it, after my contract on the HD2 runs out (yes, I’ve decided I’ll be getting one in the next couple of months).

Until then, if I got 7 Series when it first comes out, I’d be too annoyed about the things it doesn’t yet support…

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Well, the latest news on what features Windows Phone 7 Series will (or, more accurately, will not) have may’ve left me a bit (i.e./ very) disappointed, but there’s still news happening about it, so I’ll continue reporting on it. Today’s news is that the first Windows Phone 7 Series commercial has appeared online. And it stars a woman with mad hair:

She is, apparently, Anna, and she uses her 7 Series phone to share her photos with her loving partner Miles, and their son (I presume it’s their son, it could just be some ET mutant) Luca, to which I say: Luca? Really? They named their kid after a character in The Godfather? So, basically, what they’re saying is that their kid is slow-witted and brutish, but is good at being ruthless, and has an unwavering loyalty to Don Vito Corleone.

Or am I reading too much into that? I tell you what, though, if you assume they are a Mafia family, it gives the advert a whole new undercurrent of tension. When she takes the photo of the car, that’s the car their hit will be in. When they’re in the Volvo at the end, they get directions to the restaurant their target’s eating at.

That’s not a date night, that’s a hit on the Barzini family!

It does imply, as well, that the parents aren’t the actual mob bosses in this tale. No, it looks like they are merely muscle for the kid. Therefore, that kid is Keyser Soze. Or possibly Damien out of The Omen, since he has the same hair, which would make him the son of Satan. And if that’s true, it has all sorts of unfortunate implications for Anna.

So, in conclusion, the new Windows Phone 7 Series is a cross between The Godfather and The Omen. Which would probably explain why they’re taunting us with what definitely appears to be the HTC HD2 running 7 Series (at around the 43 second mark), when Microsoft have definitively said it won’t, which is just cruel.

Ergo, Luca, in that video, is the Anti-Christ…

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So, Palm. They staged a comeback in 2009, and they did so well that I even called it (along with Motorola) the joint comeback of the year. They had the opportunity there to turn the mobile world on its head, thanks to that brilliant, space-age, super whizzy WebOS interface. It’s just a shame that they so clearly haven’t. According to The Register, they have performed better than the first quarter of 2009, but they’re far from being out of the woods yet.

In fact, it seems like the next quarter’s not going to be a happy one at all.

First, the positive: last year, at this time, Palm’s balance sheet showed a $95m net loss on revenues of $90m, which is not even good in the slightest. Over this past quarter, however, the balance sheet’s shown net losses of $18.5m on $349.9m in revenues. And that’s much, much healthier, but, let’s be honest, it’s still a loss. And, er, that’s not a good thing. Or, as CEO Jon Rubinstein put it, the performance in the last quarter was “deeply disappointing to me”.

It’s a shame, really, because when the Palm Pre was launched, it looked like it had the chops to capture the minds of the mobile-buying public, thanks to that brilliant WebOS interface. It had a load of potential, but it’s just unfortunate that it went on to not live up to that potential. I’ll be honest, I’m not exactly sure why it hasn’t grabbed people’s attention; if you’d have asked me, when it was first launched, I’d have said it would fly off shelves, and everyone would want one. And I would’ve been wrong, since it’s failed to gain traction against its two biggest rivals, the iPhone and Android (seen at its best in the upcoming HTC Desire).

That’s led many to speculate whether Palm will be the target of a takeover bid. Rubinstein expertly dodged the issue, giving that old response, that they’d consider any reasonable offers. So we’ll have to see what happens, but I hope they get it sorted, because despite you lot not buying it, I really rather like the Palm Pre.

Whatever happens, though, the next quarter’s going to be a toughie, so we’ll have to see how well Palm can weather the storm…

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Ah, here we go, the plot thickens. A few days ago, I reported that Apple have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against HTC, which calls out pretty much every phone in their portfolio. And you’ll recall that I did a bit of thinking out loud, and wondered why such a thing as “scrolling through lists on a screen” is even patentable at all, before going on to say that in my opinion, the patent system is hopelessly boned.

Of course, while I was writing all that, I was waiting to hear HTC’s response, and hoping they would use legalese language that could be easily translated into the noted Scottish phrase, “Get it up ye’s” (one of my all-time favourite Scottish phrases, that).

Well, according to the official press release, HTC have said they “disagree with Apple’s actions”, which is a lot tamer, but amounts to much the same. However, that press release has taken an unusual tack, with HTC defending themselves by saying all the great stuff they’ve done in the past, like introducing the first Windows phone in 2002 and the first gesture-based smartphone in 2002.

Which is all well and good, and I suppose it could be used to demonstrate prior art (I think that’s the phrase), to show you came up with stuff yourself and didn’t nick Apple’s toys, but it’s an unusual tactic.

The thing is, though, it doesn’t address the issue of whether HTC actually nicked Apple’s patents (for what it’s worth, no, I personally don’t believe they did). I think they’re trying to demonstrate how they innovate on their own, and therefore don’t need to infringe on intellectual property, which is fair enough, but a simpler press release would’ve read something more like: “No, we didn’t nick your stuff, stick it where the sun shineth not.”

So, what is my take on all of this? You may have noticed that I’ve been curiously reticent to voice my opinion on it, preferring to stay impartial, wherever possible, which you may have found odd, given my normal predilection for laying into Apple with a 14 pound brickhammer. Well, here’s my opinion. If the patent office can issue such gloriously stupid patents, then the system is broken, quite apart from the fact I honestly think patents stifle innovation anyway. IN MY OPINION (note, opinion, not a factual statement, thank you), Apple are merely being opportunistic, and using what I consider to be the underhanded technique of using a stupid patent system to try and stamp out competitors from the market.

Maybe it’s because the HTC HD2 curbstomps the iPhone on features and desirability? Maybe it’s because the upcoming HTC Desire will curbstomp it even further? Maybe it’s because Apple really want to have a pop at Google, and are trying to hurt the people who made the Nexus One?

We’ll likely never know the true reason, but hey, get the popcorn, because this is shaping up to be one of the most entertaining legal battles of recent times.

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I fancied a bit of a change, today, since I’ve been doing not much on this blog recently, other than saying “ooh look, Windows Phone 7 Series, shiny” and “booooo, Windows Phone 7 Series, no copy paste, bad Microsoft”. In other words, I’ve been pretty much obsessed with Windows Phone 7 Series, because frankly, despite the disappointment of the latest news to appear (no copy paste, what are they thinking?), I do still like Windows Phone 7 Series.

So, me being me, my idea of ‘a bit of a change’ is to blog about something I actively don’t like…

Thus, I’ve decided to blog about an upcoming football game (and I loathe football… seriously, I can’t stand it) for the iPhone (which I don’t loathe, but which I have little time for). After the frankly disappointing week I’ve had, if I can manage to get myself excited about something I actively don’t like, then I’d call that win. Okay, that might be a completely stupid justification for blogging about something, but then, if you’re surprised by that, I’m forced to ask whether you’ve actually read any of my blog posts before. Never assume I won’t do something completely silly, because it’s very, very likely I will.

Er, yes. Anyway.

As is well known, EA Sports have made a career out of releasing essentially the same games every year, with increasingly bigger numbers at the end. Well, you know, if that’s your cynical view of how they work. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course, because people still buy them, so there’s a big market there, and hell, I’d do the same in their position. However, EA are also a key developer for the iPhone, so this year, what with it being World Cup year, and everything, we get a World Cup on the iPhone: 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

Obviously, everything’s all super secret at the minute, until EA officially take the wraps off it, but I would imagine it’ll be not completely unlike last year’s FIFA 10 for the iPhone. Which, if you like that sort of thing, will be good, because apparently FIFA 10 is a brilliant game (if you like that sort of thing). Features-wise, again, no details have been forthcoming, but given the name, I’d expect it to be structured around trying to get your team to win the World Cup. Which’d be good for us Brits since, y’know, we haven’t won it since 1966 (coincidentally, that decade is also the last time Britain was cool, and it’s when we made The Italian Job, which can be considered as the absolute highest point of British history).

So, if you like football, and you have an iPhone (top tip? Have an iPhone 3GS, it’s faster), then you’ll no doubt love 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. It’s due to be released on April 27th, and although there’s no word on pricing, it’ll most likely be around the six quid mark, the same as FIFA 10.

See? I got through that whole post without suggesting all footballers should be rounded up, put in a big sack, and thrown into the sea.

Damn. So close…

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Ooh, now here’s an interesting thing. Not long back, Sony Ericsson were letting people come up with ideas for what they want in their smartphone, as part of the SE-dot initiative. And that’s a pretty cool idea. And now, it seems that Nokia are doing something similar, although this time, is not just about coming up with apps. No, the Design By Community site is aiming to get people to design a whole new concept phone.

It’s dead easy, too: you go onto that site, find the slidy bars (that look like the ones in the pic on this post), fiddle about with ‘em, and when a big green light pops on saying “Great”, you click submit. And then, presumably, the people on the Design By Community site will, when the whole project’s finished, knock together a design concept based on it.

Just, er, don’t expect to see it as a real production phone.

The first week’s poll is for ‘Display and user interface’, to be followed by ‘Size and shape’, then ‘Materials’, then ‘Operating system’ (that’ll be easy, it’ll either be Symbian or MeeGo… MeeGo being, of course, the new name for Maemo, as seen on the Nokia N900), then ‘Connectivity’, then ‘Camera’, and then, finally, ‘Enhancements’, for all the weird stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else. Or, y’know, GPS. Once all that’s been collated (I love that word), then we can expect to see them bang it all together into a new concept. Which’ll be pretty cool to see, although it’s a bit of a shame the phone’s unlikely to ever make it into production.

So, yes, get yourself involved, and let’s see what new stuff you can come up with!

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Normal procedure for the naming of a phone, if one were to exercise logic, would seem to be this: if you’re going to use a name for a phone, and possibly carry it over to a whole series of phones, it might be an idea to wait until you own the trademark on the name, before, y’know, using it. At least, that’s what I’d be inclined to think, anyway. Apparently, though, that logic doesn’t apply if you’re Google. Y’see, according to The Register, they’ve applied for the trademark “Nexus One”, and then released the phone before a decision came back.

And then, their trademark application was declined…

Ah. Was it Philip K. Dick’s daughter, causing problems for Google, since the name’s originally from the book that would become Bladerunner? Surprisingly, no; it was declined because Nexus One is apparently already the trademark of a company called Integra Telecom. Apparently, the trademark covers a suite of, er, stuff, that includes “transmission of data and voice… conference calling, call forwarding, call rejection, call return, call waiting, caller ID, caller ID block… and high-speed access to a global computer network.”

However, there’s a slight caveat on Integra Telecom’s trademark, and you can guarantee Google will be appealing, based on it. Y’see their suite of stuff is explicitly stated to be for people in the ‘physical oil industry’. Which Google aren’t. Yet. Although knowing Google, it can only be a matter of time…

See, the reason it was declined was because it could lead to confusion between the two products, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office. I can see both sides of the argument, though: I can see where there could be confusion between that suite of services and Google’s baby, but by the same token, I can see the fact that they’re in two separate markets. So, we’ll have to wait and see if Google’s appeal is successful, although I’ll be honest, it’d be a shame if not, because Nexus One is a bleedin’ cool name for a phone.

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Well, Microsoft did promise more 7 Series news at the MIX conference, and, just like I said yesterday, they’re coming up with the goods, throwing out loads of new info about the OS, the development ecosystem, and what the new OS’s favourite pet is (okay, I made that last one up). So, without further ado, let’s get into the details.

And we begin with some bad news: the HTC HD2 ain’t getting an upgrade to 7 Series…

That’s a bit of a downer, to start with, so I apologise for that. I was looking forward to the HD2 getting an upgrade, too, but it ain’t happening, so let’s move on (besides, you can bet HTC will make a phone similar in spec, but with Windows Phone 7 Series on it), and see what else Microsoft have announced. And the biggest bit of news has to be the phone that they showed off. That Samsung one in the pic, on the left hand side, up there. The one that’s an absolute dead ringer for the Samsung i8910 HD. No idea on the specs of it, but hey, it looks rather purdy, and you can guarantee it’ll have decent specs (since, y’know, Microsoft insist on it).

So, what of the other stuff we haven’t yet been told?

Well, first, there’s the app situation, and Microsoft have confirmed that all apps for Windows Phone 7 Series need to be downloaded through Windows Marketplace. No more sideloading of apps, as you can currently do in Windows Mobile, which means Microsoft are following the same route as Apple, and maintaining control over what apps can appear on their phones. Er, which isn’t something I entirely approve of, but we’ll have to see how it pans out. Of course, you can bet the modding community will be working on unlocking Windows phones to work with other apps, just like the way you can jailbreak the iPhone. Of course, that means it’s unlikely I’ll see my beloved Swype keyboard on 7 Series, which, if I’m honest, is a massive blow…

However, the really nice bit about the Marketplace is that you can trial apps before buying them, to see if they’re worth buying.

Oh, and then, there’s the other bit we’ve been waiting to hear about: multitasking. And the answer to the question of whether Windows Phone 7 Series will have multitasking is… er, sort of. But it’ll work like it does on the iPhone, where things like the music player can run in the background, but third party apps won’t. Or rather, they sort of will, but the app will pause, rather than drawing resources in the background, and then pick up where it paused when you go back into it. Which, again, is a bit of a bummer, if you run a lot of apps at any given moment. Similarly to the iPhone, 7 Series will also use push notifications for when anything important happens in an app.

So, there we have it. We have our answers to the important questions people were asking, and I’ll admit, they’re not really the answers I wanted to hear. I still love the approach Windows Phone 7 Series is taking in its hub setup, and things like that, but for me, the biggest blow is the fact that it’s unlikely we’ll officially see the Swype keyboard on the new OS. Which is a massive shame, because I love Swype.

Oh, and there’s one other thing. In a Q&A session at MIX, Microsoft have just said that Windows Phone 7 Series won’t support clipboard functions at launch. So, no cut, copy or paste. And don’t expect me to go easy on them just because they’re not Apple; not having copy & paste was bleedin’ stupid on the iPhone, and it’s bleedin’ stupid on Windows Phone 7 Series, especially since 7 Series is supposed to be the newest of the new!

Of course, we can but hope that they do add it before the launch later in the year, as a nice surprise. I’ll be grumpy, if not.

Come on Markus, focus on the positive. Ah well, at least there’s still Xbox Live integration, which is by way of being a very good thing indeed, especially since today’s announcements have put a bit of a tarnish on the Windows Phone 7 Series shine…

(Picture courtesy of Engadget Mobile)

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Well, they’ve been saying since the launch that they’d be unveiling more details ‘at MIX’, and true to their word, Microsoft are there with the good stuff. Or, at least, they will be throughout the rest of the day; but, y’know, time differences and all that, so I’m going to do the main coverage of MIX tomorrow, after they’ve unveiled everything. Otherwise I’ll be here all night.

So, now, I’m going to just focus on the stuff that’s already been unveiled today, because there’s already some good stuff to talk about.

If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I’m pretty much becoming obsessed with Windows Phone 7 Series, and that obsession has grown even while we didn’t know that much about third party apps, or the real, in-depth workings of the new OS. So, imagine how I feel today, now that some more juicy details have emerged. I could talk, here, about the new developer toolkit, or about the development partners who are already signed up, blah di blah di blah.

But I’m not going to. Because what everyone cares about (at least, us non-developers) is what kind of funky stuff we can expect on Windows Phone 7 Series.

Well, it seems that there’s no specific requirement for an app to follow the ‘Metro’ UI (as seen in the hub structure 7 Series uses), although they can if they want, as shown in the Associated Press app. Or, instead, they can follow their own, completely bespoke design structure, like the Hush Hush diary app that Microsoft are teasing. Oh, and it seems developers can make actual plug-ins for the OS. Hence the image editing app, which could plug into the OS, and let you edit photos directly in the photo viewer.

That is pretty damn cool.

However, we all know which bit of Windows Phone 7 Series is exciting me the most. You know it’s Xbox Live integration, as demonstrated by the fact I’ve not shut up about it since it was unveiled. I mean it, I mither at everyone I meet about how brilliant having XBL integration on phones is. And, of course, when we saw screenshots of that 3D game The Harvest, it’s fair to say I got a bit excited.

Well, we have better, now. We have footage of it in action. And it’s brilliant. And it has destructible environments, and everything. And it looks stunning. And I’ll shut up and show you the video, sorry.

All of this leads me to an interesting thought, which is the point of this blog post. There have been rumours that there would be 3 basic chassis for 7 Series phones: a full touchscreen model, one with a QWERTY keyboard and… another one. No-one really knows what that third chassis is. So here’s my thought: what if it’s a phone with full gaming controls? You could have a massive touchscreen, and then have a slide-out gamepad, like the design of the PSP Go, but modelled after the control scheme of the Xbox 360.

Anyway, that’s my idle speculation for the day. I’ll be back tomorrow with full coverage of the MIX conference (or of the important bits, anyway)…

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If you remember, I said, when it was still firmly in the realm of rumour, that the Nexus One would cause problems for other manufacturers, if Google actually released it themselves. Y’know, ‘cos it’s the actual Googlephone, so people might see that, and think it’s better than any other Android phone out there. You may also remember that I name-checked one upcoming phone, in particular: the Sony Ericsson X10.

And that got me thinking. Maybe the Nexus One will cause problems for the X10, but when you get right down to it, which one is the better phone?

Well, if you look at the hardware, first of all, you may well be inclined to say the Sony Ericsson X10 is the better phone. It’s got the same 1GHz Snapdragon processor, but on top of that, it’s got a bigger screen, and a substantially better camera. Fair enough, the screen on the X10 isn’t an AMOLED screen (which the Nexus One is), but it is nearly half an inch bigger, and anyone who tells you that size doesn’t matter is lying (as confirmed by a lady friend… don’t ask).

And as for the camera, well… it’s 8 megapixels, instead of 5, and it’s following on from the legacy of Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-Shot series. In other words, it’s impossible for it to not be better than the Nexus One’s camera. When it comes to software, though, things aren’t quite as cut and dried. Y’see, the Nexus One has version 2.1 of Android, whereas the X10’s running version 1.6, and there are quite a few differences between the two, most notably that the Nexus One can run Google Earth, and has proper turn by turn navigation in the Maps app. To mitigate against that, the Sony Ericsson X10 uses its own interface on top, and that’s one of the areas is garnered a fair bit of praise.

[UPDATE: Thanks to new info in the comments on this story, we now know the X10 will be getting an upgrade to version 2.1 at some point. Much rock.]

Y’see, they’ve installed a social-networking-friendly interface on top, called Timescape. And although it looks very different, it’s a similar concept to the MOTOBLUR UI you find on the Motorola DEXT, with the emphasis being on aggregating your social networking feeds into one big, centralised lump. So, in all honesty, it’s a bit of a Mexican stand-off in terms of the interface.

And so we come to the usual bit I do at the end of these handset battles, where all pretence of objectivity goes completely out the window. In other words, it’s the “which one would I have” section. Well, that’s an easy one. Bigger screen, better camera, thinner body, and it just looks cooler. It’s the Sony Ericsson X10.

Of course, I’ll never actually have one, because I prefer Windows Mobile/Windows Phone to Android, but the result still stands. Advantage, X10…

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