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If you detected a hint of anger in our headline, please forgive us, but we’re sure many of you are going through the same rollercoaster of emotions — after all, Dell’s lovely portrait QWERTY Venue Pro has only been sold in ridiculously limited quantities through Microsoft’s seven retail stores so far, making them virtually impossible to buy for most of us. Anyhow, in the event you were lucky enough to get one, you’ll be pleased to know that Dell is aware of the problems you might be having connecting to secure WiFi networks, and the next batch won’t be afflicted — which might explain why they haven’t offered a steady stream of devices through the stores this week. They also mention it’s a “software glitch,” but there’s no mention of timing on an update for phones in the field.
There’s also been a problem with batteries on these inaugural devices being labeled as “engineering samples,” apparently, but Dell assures that they’re production-quality cells that have simply been mislabeled. They say that customers wanting an exchange either for the WiFi issue or the mislabeled battery can get one at their local store “beginning at the end of next week,” so we’d take that to mean there won’t be any stock filtering in for anyone until then. Patience continues to be a virtue we don’t believe in.
Dell confirms protected WiFi problems, mislabeled batteries on the three Venue Pros sold so far originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you’re the proud owner of a Samsung Focus or Omnia 7, you can scratch a pretty major item off the list of basic features missing from WP7: USB tethering. A couple of sites have come upon a quick and relatively easy hack to enable using your handset as a 3G modem on Microsoft’s new platform. You’ll need to dial up ##634# to get into a diagnostics menu, switch over to a “Modem, Tethered Call” mode and deal with a few more prompts along the way, but the end result is that you’ll have a pretty much automated USB tether setup on your hands. Our own testing on HTC’s Trophy and LG’s Optimus 7 hasn’t been quite so productive, perhaps because those devices require a different route to achieving it, but it seems like Windows Phone 7 is perfectly capable of performing the USB tethering task. Let us know how you get along in the comments below!
Windows Phone 7 USB tethering uncovered on Samsung phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 04:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Despite entering a crowded market, Microsoft’s brand-new Windows Phone operating system seems off to a healthy start. Nonetheless, the estimates aren’t impressing cynical tech journalists.
The Street’s Scott Moritz cites a market-research source who claims Microsoft shipped a “mere 40,000 Windows Phone 7 phones Monday.”
“The anemic sales number does not include the 89,000 Microsoft employees that will be given free Windows 7 phones,” Moritz quips.
CNET reporters added their bleak perspective based on the performance of a single AT&T store in San Francisco (where every hipster in sight is already fondling an iPhone), which sold fewer than 20 Windows devices by midday.
“If Microsoft hopes to get back in the smartphone game, it had better hope that Windows Phone 7 makes a bigger impact than it appeared to be having at one AT&T store here,” they wrote.
But let’s put this into perspective. Google claims it’s shipping at least 200,000 Android phones every day, and Apple says 270,000 iPhones are sold each day. However, comparing these numbers to a Windows Phone 7 launch estimate would be foolish: Android has been on the market for two years, and the iPhone for three: Both platforms have reached critical mass.
Windows Phone 7 is two days old. That’s 5 x 10-3 years.
A fairer comparison would be launch numbers. The first iPhone shipped 250,000 units during its launch weekend, according to an analyst’s estimates. That number seems more substantial, but this was when nothing like the iPhone was already on the market.
I couldn’t find firm launch sales for the first Android phone (the T-Mobile G1), but the more popular Droid smartphone was estimated to ship 100,000 units during its launch weekend. That’s a full weekend, not one day — and if 40,000 more Windows phones shipped on day two, then Windows Phone 7’s launch would have performed nearly as well as the Droid.
If you consider that Windows Phone is entering a market where everyone and their mother already seems to be cradling an iPhone or an Android phone, a 40,000 day-one estimate isn’t bad. (It’s certainly better than Google’s failed launch of the Nexus One, which sold 135,000 units over 74 days, according to an estimate.) Sure enough, AT&T and T-Mobile spokespeople contacted by Wired.com said their companies were pleased with early demand of Windows Phone 7 handsets, though they declined to disclose figures.
This all makes the pile of “doom and gloom” stories about Windows Phone 7 look silly (as was the case with the “iPhone is doomed” stories.)
I personally think Windows Phone 7 is going to be huge in two years — largely because Microsoft’s mobile strategy is superior to Android’s, as I argued in a previous piece. But no one should have realistically expected Windows Phone to blow anyone out of the water on day one, this late in the game.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not cheering for Microsoft. But my point is we shouldn’t be projecting failure on anyone trying to push something new into the highly competitive mobile space. I don’t want just two giants with complete domination again, do you?
Photo: Mike Kane/Wired.com
Remember the good chap that brought us pictorial evidence of the Venue Pro in Microsoft stores on Monday? Well, he was fortunate enough to snag one of those precious devices for himself and today he’s back on the path of spreading enlightenment by revealing that Dell’s 4.1-inch WP7 slider comes with a microSD card slot. Storage expandability is something of a running joke backstory for Windows Phone 7, with HTC hiding its expansion slots deeply within the 7 Mozart and HD7 and Samsung’s more readily accessible one on the Focus also throwing up issues. The Venue Pro’s approach is closer to Samsung’s, insofar as you don’t have to tear down the phone to stick a new microSD card inside it, but it does expect you to bust through a warranty sticker to get at the port. So it’s there and can be used, but the risk will be all yours if you do.
[Thanks, dawookie]
Dell Venue Pro has a microSD card slot, you’ll just need to void your warranty to use it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 04:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Got yourself a big new Windows Phone 7 device and need something to fill its screen with? Sling Media has your back with its SlingPlayer Mobile app, which has hit the Marketplace just in time to earn its Launch App Partner achievement. Pricing for the software is set at $30 in the US, C$32 in Canada, £23 in the UK, and €21.10 in Europe plus local tax, though you’ll obviously need to have a Slingbox to communicate with as well. It ain’t cheap, but good things rarely are.
Update: We’ve also just come across a signup page for news updates on an iPad version of SlingPlayer Mobile. It’ll be priced identically to the company’s smartphone offerings, at $30, and looks to be coming soon. Thanks, Blake!
Continue reading SlingPlayer arrives in Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, headed to iPad next (updated)
SlingPlayer arrives in Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, headed to iPad next (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today’s movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.
Well, it looks like The Vampire Diaries isn’t the only show that’s hopped on the Windows Phone 7 bandwagon — what appears to be an LG Optimus 7 turned up in the latest episode of Hawaii Five-0, where it was used in yet another awkward attempt to introduce the phrase “Bing it” to a dumbfounded audience. What would Jack Lord think? Head on past the break to check out the ad clip in question.
[Thanks, Nathan]
Continue reading Screen Grabs: Bing it, Danno
Screen Grabs: Bing it, Danno originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Samsung Focus‘s microSD slot has always been an odd little blip on the spec sheet, since it’s only kinda-sorta supported by Windows Phone 7, and now it looks like it’s causing more trouble than it’s worth: Paul Thurrot says AT&T’s telling employees not to install anything in the slot because of reliability issues, and that Microsoft is working on the problem. Now, we’ve had mixed experiences using the microSD slot ourselves, and we’ve been told by numerous sources that AT&T and Samsung added the feature without too much encouragement from Microsoft, which told us at MIX that expansion wouldn’t be supported by WP7 at all. We’ve also been told by reliable sources that the problem is primarily to do with microSD speed and reliability — apparently only the fastest cards will work well, and current microSD class ratings aren’t accurate or meaningful enough to be useful. We’d bet Microsoft and Samsung get together and put out a line of Focus-specific cards before this is all over — but wouldn’t it have been easier to just build in 32GB of storage from the start?
Update: Tipster Jon points out that Microsoft’s own WP7 support docs specifically call out SD class ratings as not being accurate determinants of whether or not a card will work — and further say that only OEMs or carriers should swap out cards. Here are the relevant passages:
The SD card slot in your phone is intended to be used only by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) that built your phone and your Mobile Operator (MO). These partners can add an SD card to this slot to expand the amount of storage on your phone.[…]
Determining whether an SD card is Windows Phone 7 compliant is not a simple matter of judging its speed class. Several other factors, such as the number of random read/write operations per second, play a role in determining how well an SD card performs with Windows Phone 7 devices.
Sounds complicated — and it also sounds like Microsoft needs to call Samsung or SanDisk and kick out a line of WP7-certified cards, like, now.
Samsung Focus having microSD issues, AT&T not installing cards in-store (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It’s perhaps still a bit early to call Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system an out and out success, but Windows Phone 7 has certainly come out of the gate strong. The earliest sign of the OS’s warm reception? The HTC HD7 has been selling out. Good news on that front, however–the handset will likely be in stock again the week.
Heck, the whole thing is good news for Microsoft–much-needed news, in fact. The company has suffered a huge loss of market share in the space, thanks to both stagnation on its part and the runaway success of more recent entrants like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.
According to predictions by tech analyst firm Gartner, Microsoft is set to increase its market share in the space from 4.7- to 5.2-percent next year–though the firm does expect things to sink down quite a bit in the following years. According to the firm’s predictions, Microsoft will be at around 3.9-percent by 2014.
Bing not meeting your needs? Don’t fret, Google just pushed its Google Search app for Windows Phone 7 live in Marketplace. A move the mirrors the Bing app availability on the Android Market. The Google Search app utilizes your location to provide local search results and features suggestions as your type and a search history to quickly repeat any previous queries. While there’s no way to reassign Google Search to the dedicated search “button” on WP7 devices, you could always pin the app to the Start screen. Unfortunately, we’re still not seeing it populated in the UK Marketplace (search for “Google Search”) but that should be remedied anytime now.
Google Search App bungs Bing on Windows Phone 7 Marketplace originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 04:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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