Windows Phone 7 – Page 2

Microsoft rebrands XNA Creators Club as App Hub

October 12, 2010October 13, 2010 Doug Groves App Hub, game development, MSDN, PC gaming, Windows Phone 7, WP7, Xbox 360, XNA, XNA Creators Club4 Comments

When Microsoft first launched the XNA toolset, it was aimed at making cross-platform game development easier for independent game designers, and providing a framework to target them towards not only various Windows operating systems, but the Zune and Xbox 360 as well. To target the Xbox 360, one had to pay an annual membership of $99, which made you a part of the community to submit games for sale directly on the console. It’s actually a pretty innovative approach to letting the individual developer a way into console games creation,…

LG Windows Phone 7 – Optimus 7 and Quantum Hands On Video

October 12, 2010October 15, 2010 Doug Groves Bell, hands-on, LAYAR, LG, Microsoft, Optimus 8, Optimus Quantum, Panorama Shot, Scan Search, ScanSearch, slider, sneak peek, Telus, video, Windows Phone 7, WP7, Xbox Live7 Comments

At a recent LG event, we got some hands on time with LG’s two Windows Phone 7 devices headed towards the Canadian market, the LG Optimus 7 slate style phone on Telus, and the LG Optimus Quantum QWERTY slider on Bell. Both phones sport 16GB of RAM and 1GHz processors, with the real differentiator between the two being the choice of keyboard or not. The Optimus 7 has a 3.8″ screen, while the keyboard packing Optimus Quantum has a slightly smaller 3.5″ screen. During our demonstration, Frank Lee of LG…

Windows Phone 7 in Canada: What We Know So Far

October 11, 2010October 15, 2010 drsquid Bell, canada, event, HTC, LG, Microsoft, Omnia 7, Optimus Quantum, Rogers, Samsung, smartphone, superphone, Telus, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7, WP73 Comments

Today marked the big reveal of Microsoft’s reboot of it’s mobile strategy with Windows Phone 7. At 9.30 AM EST Microsoft finally pulled the covers off for the world to see the initial phones that will be available at launch (November 8th in North America), though much of the OS has already been shown in great detail prior to today. My first reaction was that the handset selection is a little slim, and there is not much innovation beyond the base ‘chassis 1’ specifications. However this is a launch of…

Microsoft expanding Zune Services internationally

September 21, 2010September 24, 2010 Doug Groves Microsoft, MP3, press release, Windows Phone 7, Xbox, Xbox Live, Zune, Zune Pass7 Comments

With Windows Phone 7 just around the corner, it’s no surprise that Microsoft finally announced their first round of international expansion of the Zune service, providing digital entertainment services to more than 20 countries. Not all countries are created equal however. The much vaunted Zune Pass will be available in the UK, France, Italy and Spain, for 9.99 euros. The Zune pass allows users to have unlimited access to the Zune music library from Windows PCs, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Live. Unlike the US version, which costs $14.99 US,…

At X’10 – Windows Phone 7 with Xbox Live

August 24, 2010September 20, 2010 Doug Groves hands-on, interview, Microsoft, Mobile, mobile gaming, smartphone, Windows Phone 7, WP7, x10, Xbox Live68 Comments

Alex and I attended Microsoft’s X’10 event in Toronto, and the first order of business was to get a look at Windows Phone 7 in action – actually, I played a little Fable 3 before Alex showed up, but that’s another interview in the pipeline, but I digress. Greg Milligan of Microsoft gave us a demonstration of the new mobile platform, and showed off some of the Xbox Live integration as well. All in all it looks pretty impressive, and the screen response, even on the LG prototype phone (which…

Windows Phone 7 launch games announced

August 19, 2010 Doug Groves bing, Bing maps, Crackdown, Microsoft, Microsoft Canada, Project Sunburst, Star Wars, THQ, Windows Phone 7, WP7, x10, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live2 Comments

In anticipation of the international fall launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has announced the starting line up of games, clocking in at over 60 titles. This includes some casual mobile classics like Uno and the always addictive Bejewelled, and mobile interpretations of console titles such as Guitar Hero 5, Halo: Waypoint, and Assassins Creeed. For Star Wars fans there’ll be a couple of games developed by THQ – Cantina, which puts you in the role of a Tatooine bar owner, and Battle For Hoth, a tower defense game set…

Microsoft Kin is dead

July 1, 2010 Doug Groves Kin, Microsoft, Windows Phone 7, Zune, Zune Marketplace3 Comments

Just a couple of months out of the gate, and Microsoft has killed it’s KIN line of no-so smart phones, before they even had a chance to get outside the US. This isn’t surprising on a number of levels. While the phones were well-spec’ed, with an interesting take on the UI, the target of younger social-media centric types (read: teens) were probably not ready to shell out real smartphone monthly fees. Not many teens (or their parents) were interested in paying $70 a month for a phone. The launch of…

Dell’s push back into mobile leaked

April 22, 2010 Doug Groves Android, Axim x51, Dell, Dell Lightning, Dell Smoke, Dell Streak, Dell Thunder, google, Microsoft, Windows Phone 7, WP71 Comment

Dell was a pretty major player back in the days before PDAs and mobile phones were mashed together to become smart phones. A device with a 3.7″ VGA screen and a 624Mhz processor sounds like pretty decent specs. Well, Dell released the Axim x50v back in 2004. The next year, they release the x51v, which was the last of their Windows Mobile devices. Although they didn’t have phone capabilities, they were certainly very powerful devices back in the day, and even now holder their own against some mid range smart…

Xperia X10 Launch Event interviews, available now at Rogers

April 15, 2010April 16, 2010 Doug Groves Anderson Teixeira, Android, interview, launch, Raj Doshi, Rogers, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Windows Phone 7, Xperia, Xperia X101 Comment

Today Rogers launched the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android-packing phone, for $149.99 on a 3 year contract, $549 outright. It runs Android 1.6, with Sony Ericsson’s custom Timescape and Mediascape UI. It has 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 4″ (480 x 854) screen and an 8.1 MP camera. Included in the box is a 16gb MicroSD card, charger and wired stereo headset, but sadly no carrying case. We should be getting an X10 to play with soon, and will post our in-depth hands-on review next week. You can buy phone today at…

Copy and paste in Windows Phone 7 coming, just not now

March 19, 2010March 26, 2010 Doug Groves copy, Microsoft, paste, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 7 Series, WP7S0 comment

A minor storm of controversy, at least in some quarters, has broken out as it was reported that Microsoft was excluding copy and paste from Windows Mobile 7. Sure, only a small minority make use of it, but it’s still a feature that long time Windows Mobile users want. It’s also somewhat ironic, since it took a couple of years for the Apple iPhone to get this basic feature. So, when Engadget reported that it wasn’t coming, and that they had “super-double-ultra-plus-confirmed” this, it’s not surprising that hands started flailing…