Hasta La Gadget!

Though it’s billed strictly as a technology demo — not something we’ll necessarily see in any imminent over-the-air update — Microsoft showed off a pretty cool demo of how Windows Phone 7’s Xbox Live integration could take advantage of Kinect down the road at Steve Ballmer’s MWC keynote today. How, you ask? Using the Rally Ball game, a Windows Phone user was shown tossing balls to an on-screen character that’s controlled by someone else on an Xbox using a Kinect. Simple, yes — but perhaps as interesting as the Kinect aspect is the viability of real-time cross-platform gaming that Microsoft seems to be throwing its support behind. Seems like a good way to torture your friends into working out from thousands of miles away, doesn’t it?

Update: We have a video of this in action after the break!

Continue reading Microsoft Rally Ball demo shows Windows Phone 7, Kinect, Xbox Live living in perfect harmony (video)

Microsoft Rally Ball demo shows Windows Phone 7, Kinect, Xbox Live living in perfect harmony (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve just barely begun to get ready with Steve Ballmer’s keynote at MWC 2011, yet the company’s Twitter and press feeds just scooped its main man. It’s confirmed that Windows Phone 7 is getting multitasking for third-party apps and a suite of other updates, including Twitter integration and IE9 Mobile. We’re still waiting on details on the multitasking, but the company has confirmed a “new wave of multitasking applications” in this next release, though hopefully that means open to all.

Twitter will be integrated into the People Hub, so you can get your real-time “what’s for dinner” updates right there. And, of course, Microsoft confirmed IE9 is coming. It’ll deliver a “dramatically enhanced web browser experience” thanks to graphics and hardware acceleration that’ll make the most of what your handset has to offer. Sounds tasty to us. We’re told to expect the update in “early March,” which isn’t that far away at all.

Continue reading Microsoft shows off WP7’s future with multitasking, Twitter integration, and IE9, all coming this year

Microsoft shows off WP7’s future with multitasking, Twitter integration, and IE9, all coming this year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who’s ready for the special Grammys edition of the Engadget Podcast? When we said “Grammys,” we meant “consumer electronics,” and when we said “special,” we meant “just like every other week, but still pretty special.”

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Guest: Chris Ziegler
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: March of the Pigs

00:02:45 – Nokia CEO Stephen Elop rallies troops in brutally honest ‘burning platform’ memo? (update: it’s real!)
00:05:15 – Nokia and Microsoft enter strategic alliance on Windows Phone, Bing, Xbox Live and more
00:09:13 – RIP: Symbian
00:11:15 – Nokia: Symbian and MeeGo not dead yet, still shipping this year (updated)
00:18:41 – Nokia tells investors that 2011 and 2012 will be ‘transition years’
00:32:50 – Exclusive: Nokia’s Windows Phone 7 concept revealed!
00:39:34 – Live from HP / Palm’s ‘Think Beyond’ webOS event!
00:41:15 – RIP, Palm: 1992 – 2011
00:42:07 – The Engadget Interview: Jon Rubinstein and Steven McArthur talk webOS on PCs, ‘Music Synergy,’ competition, and more
00:43:20 – HP’s 9.7-inch TouchPad: webOS 3.0 tablet with 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon, coming this summer
00:45:07 – HP TouchPad first hands-on! (updated with video!)
00:48:00 – webOS Enyo framework free to developers today, brings pixel density agnostic apps to phones, tablets and PC (video)
00:48:22 – HP Pre 3: 1.4GHz Qualcomm CPU, 3.6-inch WVGA, coming this summer (video)
00:49:00 – HP Pre 3 first hands-on! (updated with video)
00:49:27 – HP Veer: smallest smartphone in the webOS stable, 2.6-inch display, coming this spring
00:50:45 – HP Veer, first hands-on! (updated with video!)
00:52:40 – HP’s Touch to Share eyes-on, starring the TouchPad and HP Pre 3 (video)
01:11:52 – Palm Pre 2 vs. HP Pre 3: what’s changed?
01:18:40 – Looking for our Motorola Atrix 4G review?
01:21:05 – We’re live at Mobile World Congress 2011!

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 232 – 02.13.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Feb 2011 21:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been gathered at the same cozy venue as two years ago (for the introduction of the E52, if memory serves correctly) for Nokia’s event at MWC 2011 this evening… and frankly, in light of what’s happened the past few days, we’re not quite sure what to expect. CEO Stephen Elop should be on stage to take some questions — but in terms of product or strategy announcements, it’s anyone’s guess. Follow the break for all the fun!

Continue reading Live from ‘An Evening With Nokia’ at MWC 2011!

Live from ‘An Evening With Nokia’ at MWC 2011! originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Feb 2011 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday’s announcement by Nokia that it’s switching to Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone platform has already had, and will continue to have, great repercussions for plenty of parties besides the Finnish company and its new best bud Microsoft. One of the biggest effects of that deal was that Nokia now no longer considers MeeGo — the open-source OS it was co-developing with Intel — an item of priority, classifying it as a “learning project.” No prizes for guessing Intel’s nowhere near happy about that, but would you have also guessed Nokia kept Chipzilla in the dark about its new direction until the day it announced it to the world? Such is the word from TechCrunch‘s well placed sources, who also say that Nokia dedicated only a three-man external team to the development of UI customizations for MeeGo. Not exactly the hugest investment in the world, we’d say, and when you consider Nokia and Microsoft already have concept devices drawn up, you’ve got to think plans to abandon MeeGo as a sincere flagship strategy were materializing in Espoo a long time before this event. It would probably have been nice to tell Intel, though, just to be classy. Hit the source link for more detail, including confirmation that Nokia’s N9-00, its first planned MeeGo device, was canned — apparently due to complaints from operators about its hinge.

Nokia’s marginalization of MeeGo came as a surprise to Intel originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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