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Taking the Windows Phone 7 Series emulator for a test drive (video)
If you've been following the news about Microsoft's reinvention of its mobile presence, Windows Phone 7 Series, chances are you heard about how the company's developer-friendly emulator was... modified slightly by Dan Ardelean to expose a series of applications and hubs that you weren't supposed to see yet. Microsoft was quite gracious about it, indicating it basically expected this would happen and simply reminded everyone that these newly discovered apps are far from complete. With that in mind, let's take a look at the unlocked version of the OS, and we'll spell out for you exactly how you can do the same to see it for yourself.
Jaxbot's Windows Phone 7 Series Theme now available in beta (video)
Even if your handset of choice won't be eligible for upgrade to Windows Phone 7, there's no reason you can't enjoy the look and feel of Microsoft's latest and greatest with a well-executed skin, right? Looks like Jaxbot's Windows Phone 7 Series Theme is available in passable beta form -- great news for any and all of you jealous WinMo 6.5 users who might be reading this -- and it can be had right now (as in now!) at the XDA Developers forum. Want to see it do its thing? Peep the video after the break.
Windows Phone 7 Series themes for WinMo abound in dev forums
We know that it ain't always practical or desirable to put money down on a phone every time a new OS or interface comes out -- so what is a gadget hound to do when they realize their hardware won't be supported by Windows Phone 7 Series? Well, if you're anything like these enterprising individuals you roll your own. Both Jaxbot and LeSScro, members of the XDA Developers forum, have skins in the works that mimic the new OS on WinMo devices with varying degrees of success. The work of the former is still pretty slow and buggy but it does offer some functionality -- including info on live tiles and the ability to see upcoming appointments on your lock screen. The latter theme, on the other hand, sports time, date, and notifications on the lock screen, profile settings, transitional animations, a handful of hubs (including games, media, and Office), and an apps launcher. Check out the source links for more info -- but not before checking out the demo videos after the break. [Thanks, Geever]
Windows Phone 7 Series: everything you ever wanted to know
Microsoft just planted a massive flag in the ground with the debut of Windows Phone 7 Series. The company's new mobile operating system is a radical and potent departure from the past, and there's a lot to take in -- so we've gathered together all our knowledge and impressions of the device so far and rolled them into a single, concise guide. Of course, there will be plenty more to learn in the coming months, and we're going to be beating down Redmond's door for more details on this thing, but for now let's dive into what Microsoft has revealed so far about its latest and (potentially) greatest phone operating system. %Gallery-85544%
Windows Phone 7 Series is official, and Microsoft is playing to win
Windows Phone 7 Series. Get used to the name, because it's now a part of the smartphone vernacular... however verbose it may seem. Today Microsoft launches one of its most ambitious (if not most ambitious) projects: the rebranding of Windows Mobile. The company is introducing the new mobile OS at Mobile World Congress 2010, in Barcelona, and if the press is anything to be believed, this is just the beginning. The phone operating system does away with pretty much every scrap of previous mobile efforts from Microsoft, from the look and feel down to the underlying code -- everything is brand new. 7 Series has rebuilt Windows Mobile from the ground up, featuring a completely altered home screen and user interface experience, robust Xbox LIVE and Zune integration, and vastly new and improved social networking tools. Gone is the familiar Start screen, now replaced with "tiles" which scroll vertically and can be customized as quick launches, links to contacts, or self contained widgets. The look of the OS has also been radically upended, mirroring the Zune HD experience closely, replete with that large, iconic text for menus, and content transitions which elegantly (and dimensionally) slide a user into and out of different views. The OS is also heavily focused on social networking, providing integrated contact pages which show status updates from multiple services and allow fast jumps to richer cloud content (such as photo galleries). The Xbox integration will include LIVE games, avatars, and profiles, while the Zune end of things appears to be a carbon copy of the standalone device's features (including FM radio). Besides just flipping the script on the brand, the company seems to be taking a much more vertical approach with hardware and user experience, dictating rigid specs for 7 Series devices (a specific CPU and speed, screen aspect ratio and resolution, memory, and even button configuration), and doing away with carrier or partner UI customizations such as Sense or TouchWiz. That's right -- there will be a single Windows Phone identity regardless of carrier or device brand. Those new phones will likely look similar at first, featuring a high res touchscreen, three front-facing buttons (back, start, and perhaps not shockingly, a Bing key), and little else. Carrier partnerships are far and wide, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, while hardware partners include Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm. We're told that we likely won't get to see any third-party devices at MWC, though Microsoft is showing off dev units of unknown origin, and the first handsets are supposed to hit the market by the holidays of this year. We had chance to go hands-on with a device before the announcement, and we've got some detail to share on just what the experience is like, so click here to read our hands-on impressions (with lots of pics and video on the way!). %Gallery-85544% %Gallery-85542%
