Hasta La Gadget!

We know Windows CE jibes with ARM-based architecture, but full-blown Windows? Looks like everyone and their respective mothers today — to be specific, Bloomberg, AllThingsD, and the Wall Street Journal — are reporting “sources” that claim Microsoft is set to announce Windows compatibility with ARM chips, which currently rule the roost in the mobile and embedded scenes, and more importantly dominate the tablet market. So yeah, we get the need for such a merge, and it’d really put Microsoft in a smart position for lower-power devices, but here’s the catch: the products aren’t expected for some time — two years according to WSJ — as drivers need to be written for the hardware.

Then again, this may all be for nothing. Cue another well-connected Microsoft reporter, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, who has a decidedly tamer prediction: a new Windows CE / Embedded Contact — you’ll remember we saw it running on a Tegra 2 tablet back at Computex — and maybe ARM support for Windows 8 (or Windows 8 “Lite”). In other words, no one has a clear, 100 percent idea of what to expect in January, so as we say, just stay tuned.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Microsoft to announce ARM-based Windows at CES? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia, known for its religious-like devotion to the Symbian operating system, may be working with Microsoft to develop new phones running the Windows phone OS instead.

Nokia and Microsoft have begun talks to make Nokia-branded smartphones running the Windows Phone 7 OS, according to Eldar Murtazin, editor in chief of Mobile-Review editor. (Murtazin is known for gaining early access to the Nokia N8 phone long before its release, which led Nokia to file a report with the Russian police).

If true, adopting Windows Phone 7 could work well for Nokia, whose Symbian OS is outdated compared to more user-friendly Android-powered phones and Apple’s iPhone. Critics have called the Symbian OS “broken.”

The Windows Phone 7 strategy, as I’ve reported before, is more thought out than Google’s. Rather than simply license the OS to any manufacturer, Microsoft is requiring OEMs to adhere to a standard set of hardware features for any phone running Windows Phone 7. (Each phone must have three buttons, for example, and include a Snapdragon processor.)

What would Nokia get in return for playing by Microsoft’s rules? As part of the negotiation, manufacturers get a few default tiles on the Windows Phone 7 home screen devoted to the OEM’s proprietary applications; the rest of the space goes to Microsoft’s default apps (phone, calendar, etc).

So hypothetically, Nokia could put its own fancy GPS app on the home screen that charges a monthly rate to customers, for example.  (Most of us would call this “bloatware,” but proprietary OEM apps are removable on Windows Phone 7, unlike bloatware on Android.)

From Unwired View

See Also:

• Why Windows Phone 7 Will Make Android Look Chaotic
• Windows Phone 7 Doomed? Actually, It's Just Getting Started …
• Windows Phone 7 Debuts in U.S. Stores
• How Microsoft Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL on Windows Phone

Image courtesy of Microsoft

Hacked your Kinect recently? Then you probably know something most regular Xbox 360 gamers don’t — namely, that the Kinect’s infrared camera is actually capable of higher resolution than the game console itself supports. Though Microsoft originally told us it ran at 320 x 240, you’ll find both color and depth cameras display 640 x 480 images if you hook the peripheral up to a PC, and now an anonymous source tells Eurogamer that Microsoft wants to do the very same in the video game space. Reportedly, Redmond artificially limited the Kinect on console in order to leave room for other USB peripherals to run at the same time, but if the company can find a way around the limitation, it could issue a firmware update that could make the Kinect sensitive enough to detect individual finger motions and inevitably lead to gesture control. One of multiple ways Microsoft intends to make the world of Minority Report a reality, we’re sure.

Microsoft seeking to quadruple Kinect accuracy? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Dec 2010 20:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We heard News Corp’s “iPad newspaper” The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific — week of January 17th, in fact, with the caveat that the launch plans have “moved around a couple of times in the past few months.” From what we’ve gathered previously, The Daily will be published daily (surprise, surprise) and cost 99 cents per week (about $4.25 per month) and might leverage a new App Store subscription payment system that could be announced at an Apple event. So… nothing definitive, really. Got that? Good.

News Corp’s ‘The Daily’ pub to hit iPad in January? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ll warn you that we have nothing but the word of an alleged Sprint employee that this is the real deal, but we don’t know what else it could be — if it walks like a duck and quacks like an EVO with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, we’re inclined to believe it’s the HTC EVO Shift 4G. Factor in the noticeable lack of front-facing camera, silver trackpad and those throwback flat keys, and we’re even willing to forgive those hastily penciled watermarks on the keyboard and on top of the clearly ‘shopped screen. Even if this shot is legit, we haven’t seen the full device yet — it sure looks like this Knight is wearing a suit of plastic armor around the edges.

In possibly related news, Android Central nabbed an alleged screenshot of a Sprint database showing an “HTC A7373” handset coming to Sprint on January 9th, and while one Russian e-tailer seems to think that codename refers to the GSM-friendly Desire Z, we have to imagine a Knight / Speedy / EVO Shift release is far more likely than a T-Mobile G2 redux on Sprint’s CDMA frequencies.

Update: Just to be clear, there are a few things about this image that irk us, not least of which that pasted-on screen. We’re inclined to think this might be a dummy unit that was touched up to look like a real phone.

HTC EVO Shift 4G (Knight / Speedy) gets leaked picture, January 9th release date? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Dec 2010 18:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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