Hasta La Gadget!

You had to know those freebie WP7 devices for Microsoft employees would come with a few strings attached. We imagined the Redmond brain trust was aiming for some word-of-mouth popularization along with a boost in team morale and proactivity, but as it turns out, things are a little more codified than that. TechFlash has what it claims to be the internal memo announcing the free Windows Phone 7 handsets — from mobile chief Andy Lees, who hasn’t been having the best of times lately — which sets out Redmond’s expectation that employees should “evangelize” the product at every opportunity, while also setting aside some spare time before launch to develop apps (but, you know, only if they really want to). The idea, clearly, is to harness Microsoft’s massive talent pool to try and get a headstart on populating the Marketplace with compelling content; we’re just not too sure the “spare time” bit is going to go over quite as well as the “free smartphone” part. Either way, you’ll find the full email from Andy at the source.

[Thanks, Mint]

Microsoft wants employees to code Windows Phone 7 apps ‘in their spare time’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stop. Put down this computer, go pick up your iPad and come back here. Now go get this app: Flipboard. Why? It’s pretty awesome.

Flipboard is one of a growing category of iPad apps that build you a personal newspaper by grabbing content from your social networks. The difference with Flipboard is that it actually feels like picking up a magazine and flipping through it, but the supersimple interface hides some powerful features.

Is it installed on your iPad yet? Good. Go ahead and sign in to your Twitter and Facebook accounts (if you like, visit the settings and add your Instapaper ID, too). Now, go ahead and tap one of the big squares and you’re in the Flipboard. From there you’ll see any articles tweeted by friends, photos and updates from Facebook alongside the actual tweets. So far, so much like every other aggregator.

The difference comes with the interface, which is similar in feel to the Wired app. Turning the iPad makes the page reformat in such as way that you’ll keep turning it, trying to work out how it is done. Flipping to more content is done by swiping to a new page, and to read an article, just tap it. If it is a long article, you can either Instapaper it, or tap to read it on the web.

But the next part is really, really neat. Under (or alongside, depending on how you are holding things) the article you get a panel showing any tweets linking that article. Think of it as being like blog comments, only interesting. You can even tweet a response right there.

Once you’re in an article, you can just swipe to go to the next or hit the little “x” to go back to the main page for that feed. But that’s not all.

Aside from Facebook and Twitter, you can add content from a small range of pre-selected sources. Some of these are actually curated by the Flipboard people (FlipTech, FlipPhotos, etc.) but you can also grab feeds from The Onion and other sites, or search for Twitter feeds.

Even better, Twitter lists finally get a purpose. I searched for “Wired” and one of the results was the Wired Staffers list maintained by @wired. I added that and instantly got a section of news curated by over 200 smart and connected people.

Because Flipboard uses your networks like this, the news is pre-filtered and it’s likely you’ll find far too much interesting stuff to read. I have one more piece of good news to pass along. Flipboard is free, and in the App Store right now. Actually, there is yet another thing to like: The promo video (above) is by Adam Lisagor, aka Lonely Sandwich (aka the guy from the Square ads). If that doesn’t sell you, nothing will.

Flipboard [iTunes]

Flipboard product page [Flipboard]

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Mozilla’s Firefox Home iPhone and iPad app has been approved by Apple and is ready to grab from the App Store. Yes, you read right. Firefox is ready to use on iOS devices, but it’s not quite what you might think.

Firefox Home is not a full browser — indeed, the Mozilla Foundation has no plans to make its own rendering engine for the iPhone. Instead, it’s primarily a way to sync your Firefox desktop browser history, bookmarks and open tabs to your iPhone. You can use it as a browser, but instead of Firefox’s Gecko rendering engine it uses the same speedy, built-in, Webkit engine as Safari.

It also takes a lot more setting-up than the built-in solution. To sync bookmarks with desktop Safari, you just check a box in iTunes. By contrast, to get Firefox Home working you need to follow a ten-step plan, involving installing sync plugins into desktop Firefox, making up passwords and inventing a “secret phrase”. Worse, you get this caveat in the instructions: “Note: The initial sync may take up to 24 hours.”

Once you have managed that, everything is automatic, and the iPhone app refreshes every time it is launched. It could be very handy for quickly moving the web-page you are viewing over to your iPad, but otherwise it seems kind of clunky. Still, it is at least free, unlike Safari. Wait. No. What?

Read more about Firefox on Wired.com’s Webmonkey blog.

How to set up Firefox Home on your iPhone [Mozilla]

Firefox Home [iTunes]

See Also:

• Approved! Plucky Underdog Opera Now on iPhone
• Opera Mini for iPhone is Fast Like a Rocket
• Opera Mini Submitted to App Store
• iPhone Opens to Some 3rd-Party Web Browsers, But Not Mobile …
• New Firefox 'Fennec' Alpha Arrives as Mobile Browser Wars Heat Up …

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

We’ve seen flashy concepts of what Nokia’s seamless cellular infotainment initiative might look like, but it took a pair of Germans from Volkswagen to give us our first glimpse of Terminal Mode in action. At MobileBeat 2010, engineers showed off the video after the break, which shows how a prototype VW Passat might be rigged — in this case duplicating the phone’s display in its entirety (plus additional controls) on the auto’s larger touchscreen. Sadly, VW said the tech’s still a couple years away from commercial integration into vehicles, though they expect to see third parties selling Terminal Mode add-on kits and the like a bit sooner.

Until then, Nokia and partner companies have to figure out how to encourage developers while simultaneously restricting apps that might distract drivers; VW reps told us that while you’ll download car-compatible apps from existing app stores rather than a separate Terminal Mode marketplace, compatible programs will be categorized and restricted from in-motion use based on a set of still-to-be-determined rules. Nerd-to-English translation: don’t expect to watch Netflix for iPhone on the go. Sans a hack, of course.

Continue reading VW Passat takes the red pill, jacks into Nokia’s Terminal Mode (video)

VW Passat takes the red pill, jacks into Nokia’s Terminal Mode (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here we go again, unfortunately. Both 9 to 5 Mac and Ars Technica are reporting a new spat of potentially-fraudulent apps climbed the iTunes charts today, now in the Travel section. This time, the culprit’s purported to be Chinese-based WiiSHii and a series of “GYOYO” Chinese- and English-language maps. The two publications have a screenshot each showing the apps climbing the charts, as well as an apparent receipt from one customer who unwittingly found charges for the software on his or her bill — and yeah, we see them, too, albeit not topping any charts as of this writing. So yet again, we advise caution and double-checking your payment history. Le sigh.

iTunes fraud takes trip to travel section? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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