Daniel Rubino is executive editor of Windows Central. He has been covering Microsoft since 2009 back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Surface, HoloLens, Xbox, and future computing visions. Follow him on Twitter: @daniel_rubino.
For some reason on Monday, the keynote on Windows Phone 7 at 2pm during WPC10 never aired--presumably "technical difficulties" but alas the video is now available to watch in its entirety right here or just click the 'Read the rest of this entry' below. Some interesting tidbits of the nearly hour long video focus in on Office, Outlook, pictures, contacts, maps and basically the core...
Back a few weeks ago we mentioned how Microsoft's Brandon Watson would answer your questions--well a few of your questions, depending if you made the cut or not.Weeks passed and we're worried if we would ever hear back and finally we did. Some good info in here but alas, my fellow Expert-tiers, you seemed to have gone for the gold and asked him a few questions that were met with the...
Hot on the heels of the big Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 comes an updated release of Windows Phone Developer Tools released today, now in beta.Grab the updated tools right here which include:Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone BetaWindows Phone Emulator BetaSilverlight for Windows Phone BetaXNA Game Studio 4.0 Beta
For those of you folks who want to check out the things Microsoft will be talking about this week at their "Worldwide Partner Conference 2010" (WPC10), you can stream the keynote speeches right here.Of interest to us will be Brandon Watson’s reported keynote at 2pm EST, where of course Windows Phone 7 will be discussed.We'll do up a summary afterwords for those who can't watch it live....
It looks like Microsoft has updated Bing for Windows Phones, though what the update provides isn’t immediately clear. Microsoft’s download site shows the "Date Published" as 7/1/2010. My Bing version went from 5.1.2010.5040 to 5.1.2010.6280.The last update we saw to Bing was the big one back in May that gave us turn-by-turn navigation with voice prompts. Grab the download from Microsoft...
No doubt the media seems to be riding Microsoft pretty hard these days, especially with the KIN situation which was a divide that should have stayed behind doors at the company. Throw in the supposedly influential, yet sketchy world, of "analysts" and you have a perfect storm of just bad media complete with regurgitation.The latest comes from 'Gerson Lehrman Group' the "most valuable...
File this under "old, but we missed it" and since s2gordon asked about them in comments yesterday, figured we'd answer...We're going to leave this to you folks to determine if this list of officially supported audio and video codecs in Windows Phone 7 is a good thing/bad thing, since to be honest we're not aficionados in that area.Our off-the-cuff first take? It's basic and expected....
First, Brandon Watson, Microsoft's Director of Developer Experience, fielded questions from various Windows Phone sites. And now Frank Prengel, Technical Evangelist for Windows Phone and Windows Embedded at Microsoft Germany, has opened up in a Q&A session hosted by TamsPPC- the Windows Phone Blog. Prengel touched on how manufacturers can use the different chasis styles to...
While the AT&T LG eXpo made an initial splash, mostly before it even came out, it sort of fizzled in the U.S. market, partially related to limited availability, partially limited to being overwhelmed by HTC's dominance. Still, it's nice to know that LG hasn't forgotten about its small but dedicated user base, as they just released a new ROM update for the eXpo--v10G. While it does...
Geez, we're wondering if Microsoft was ever going to update that 'Windows Mobile 6.5. upgrade' list on their site, specifically the AT&T Samsung Epix (here for the full review, in case you forgot).Actually, jokes on us as Microsoft hasn't updated that list since March 4th. C'mon guys...seriously? Anyways, the real news here is that the Samsung Epix has finally received a proper...
We haven't been covering too much the ongoing attempts to get Google's Android OS to run on Windows Mobile hardware--it's a moving target with varying results depending on your device--but mtllc555 has gone ahead and shown what a fully-functional Android looks like on a Diamond 2. Results? Impressive. The OS is relatively fast for basic functions (a little sluggish on graphics) and...
Awhile back we reported on Seesmic being one of the first Twitter apps being available for Windows Phone 7 and it turns out also back in March it was demoed on video for us to see. While nothing spectacular--it is after all just a Twitter app, it does have some nice features like embedded photos and 'Nearby' which shows all Tweets based on your geographic location. Overall it looks...
Though Windows Phone 7 is primarily aimed at consumers during the initial launch, Microsoft already has a strong focus on enterprise built within the the OS (Office, Sharepoint, Skydrive, remote management, etc.). This enterprise focus will no doubt become even more robust during further revisions to the OS, hopefully giving Microsoft that edge once again over RIM.One area that is of...
At the end of that Cannes Lions video, Kostas takes a photo and it is immediately uploaded to Windows Live SkyDrive. That ability is going to be key to Windows Phone 7 as well as anyone who uses Office Live Workspace. And combined with Sharepoint, you have some serious cloud computing going on.In short, we just got word that Office Live Workspace will be combining with SkyDrive to offer...
Swype has had one heck of a year. First debuting on Windows Mobile, the popular soft-keyboard alternative has quickly grown to be a popular option on various HTC devices including the T-Mobile HD2. More recently, Swype has exploded on the Android scene quickly making an impression on that OS. In fact, 90% of Swype's business is currently on Android.Now the developers of Swype are...
While we don't normally like to throw stones, especially at the competition which pretty much decimated our OS marketshare, who can resist pointing out some of the problems with the new iPhone 4? Sure, when mass-launching such a complicated device, issues are bound to pop up and no doubt 'quality control' is a tough thing--heck Microsoft lost a billion dollars on the Xbox RROD. Holla....
Two parts to this story:The first is about how social network buttons can be implemented in third-party applications in Windows Phone 7. This is something that Android and the iPhone do quite well--they allow you to share your media, scores, basically anything, with social-networking sites. The app can call up the API and it then allows you to send it via that app to a service like...
Awhile back, we made a big deal about Microsoft employee Mel Sampat--after all, that cool Star Trek-esque calendar in Windows Phone 7 was his thing, he also did the MS coding train-race and was most recently tied to the updated Twiikin-for-WP7. He seemed hip, geeky cool and well, he was a face besides Loke Uei's that we could identify.And now he broke our heart. Leaving Microsoft is one...
Wish we could tell you that there was something new or amazing in this extensive look at Windows Phone 7 being demoed last night in New York City, but alas it's just more eye candy. InToMobile did a good job though and at least the video is top notch. We do get to see some pink tiles (WP7--for her) and how they can be moved around as well as the general guided tour. We wonder if WP7 has...
For those who don't know, the Zune Marketplace went offline today and users were only given a few hours notice. As of this writing, they're still offline (6pm) and it could take all night before they're done.But done doing what? That's the cryptic part here as there was no pre-announcement, but as ZDNet did some digging, they found out that Microsoft is arranging a marriage between Bing...