Hasta La Gadget!

It’s a milestone in the life of any OS: the day you reach that magical 10,000 app number. Windows Phone 7 is the latest kindred soul to achieve the feat, accomplishing the task in just over four and a half months — that’s faster than both the Android Marketplace and iTunes App Store. Microsoft’s been adding around 1,000 apps a week since it hit 5k right before the New Year, and as of late that rate’s been picking up. Congrats WP7 devs, you’ve officially issued more software updates than Microsoft itself. Your move Microsoft, we’re still waiting for copy & paste.

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace hits 10,000 apps, Microsoft WP7 updates still way outnumbered originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eric Hautala — the cog in the Microsoft machine responsible for Windows Phone 7’s update mechanism — has taken to the company’s official Windows Phone blog today to deep-dive on some of the concerns, problems, and delays that have dogged the platform’s updates so far. In brief, Hautala says that the glitches that hosed the small February update for a few customers has brought the company to pause and take the time to make sure everything’s rock solid before proceeding with the so-called NoDo update — which includes copy and paste, performance improvements, and CDMA support — and had originally been scheduled for the early part of March. Now, they’re looking at “the latter half of March,” which lines up with what Microsoft France had reported yesterday. He goes on to say that the problems have zero effect on the timeline for awesome new features previewed at MWC last month, which would seem to allay fears that the Mango update had been pushed to 2012. Needless to say, Windows Phone’s still got some catching up to do — so that’s good news.

Microsoft taking ‘extra time’ to make sure Windows Phone 7 copy and paste update is solid, targeting late March originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How much is a Nokia deal worth to the future of Microsoft’s mobile business? Leave it to Redmond to put a very round price tag on the deal. The software giant is reportedly shelling out $1 billion for Nokia to develop and promote handsets based around its slightly stagnant Windows Phone platform.

Sony Ericsson Windows Phone 7 device said to be just an ‘old prototype’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

At the launch of the new iPad – superior for video chat, group presentations, and cutting cake — Apple didn’t miss a few opportunities to rub salt in the open air vents of Microsoft’s tablet efforts. Apple noted that sales of the iPad have exceeded those of every other tablet PC ever sold, and that Microsoft (along with other competitors) were chasing doomed strategies that extended outmoded models.

Microsoft has been clear that it will continue to use its “desktop” operating system – Windows – rather than its mobile operating system – the device-specifying Windows Phone 7 – as its operating system for tablets. Considering the critical importance of an intuitive touchscreen UI on tablet — where Windows Phone 7 excels and desktop Windows has struggled — this seems risky on its face. But it is important to remember from Microsoft’s perspective that the question is not whether Windows is the best choice for tablets but whether it is a better choice for Microsoft than Windows Phone. While the company faces an uphill battle regardless of which OS it chooses, its flagship could be the better answer for several reasons.

Continue reading Switched On: Padded Windows

Switched On: Padded Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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