Hasta La Gadget!

It’s hard to argue that Windows Phone 7 Series’ Metro UI concept isn’t utterly unique in the mobile world, but it was wasn’t the only option Microsoft considered — far from it, in fact. The company has published a bunch a design concepts it churned through on its wild, wacky journey to finalizing Metro as we know it today, and one thing’s for certain: they’d clearly planned on simple, square lines, partially-obscured typography, and in-your-face colors pretty much from day one. After careful consideration of everything they’ve got here, we still think we like the production design best, but that’s kind of besides the point — why, pray tell, couldn’t these have just been user-selectable themes?

Windows Phone 7 Series’ cutting room floor is an extravaganza of bright colors and chunky fonts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve definitely learned a ton about Windows Phone 7 Series here at MIX, but getting the full picture on multitasking has been difficult, since the OS isn’t ready, no one has final hardware, and the emulator seems to behave differently than actual devices and Microsoft’s descriptions. So let’s set the record straight on multitasking: it’s not going to happen, at least not in the traditional way. Not only have we directly confirmed this with Microsoft executives several times, but the developer sessions here are totally clear on the matter — you don’t tell 1000+ devs that they should expect their apps to be killed whenever the user switches away from them if you don’t mean it. Now, that’s not to say that the OS can’t do multitasking: first-party apps like the Zune player and IE can run in the background, and third-party apps are actually left running in a suspended state (Microsoft calls it “dehydrated”) as long as the system doesn’t need any additional resources. If the user cycles back to an app, it’s resumed (“rehydrated”) and life continues merrily along, but if the user opens other apps and the system needs additional resources, the app is killed without any indication or remorse.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s basically a single-tasking riff on Android and Windows Mobile 6, both of which also purport to intelligently manage multiple running applications like this, and both of which usually find themselves greatly improved with manual task managers. We’ll have to see if Windows Phone 7 Series can do a better job once it ships — we have a feeling it will — and later down the line we’ll see if Microsoft decides to extend multitasking to third-party apps. But for now, just know that you’re not going to be running Pandora in the background while you do other tasks on a 7 Series device — it is a question we have specifically asked, and the answer, unfortunately, is no.

P.S. Still don’t believe us? Hear it for yourself directly from Microsoft’s Todd Brix:

Windows Phone 7 Series multitasking: the real deal originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just spent some quality time with the MIX10 build of Windows Phone 7 Series running on the same prototype hardware sourced from Garmin-Asus that we saw at MWC — and apart from a few Murphy’s Law-style demo hiccups, we loved what we saw. One thing that immediately caught our attention was the fact that lists of items “compress” slightly once you’ve reached their end — something we hadn’t noticed before. In general, it’s pretty impressive how much attention Microsoft is paying to the finer aesthetic points of the platform, from the slight “tilts” of items that you’ve pressed to the 3D effects you encounter as you flip through photos. Another thing we’ve confirmed here is that the test units do have accelerometers, refuting an earlier rumor that had been spreading out in Barcelona — we know this because the display auto-rotated while viewing a photo. Check out the full video — along with a shot of the phone resting alongside its Zune HD cousin — after the break.

Continue reading Windows Phone 7 Series preview, MIX10 edition

Windows Phone 7 Series preview, MIX10 edition originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, we’ve been pushing Microsoft hard for Windows Phone 7 Series details like copy and paste (no) and multitasking (no), but we just realized that we’ve never actually seen a 7 Series device… make a phone call. A little running around later and we’ve got two demo handsets calling each other. We’re told that the little white arrow on the call panel will eventually bring up options like conference calling, speakerphone, and mute, but it’s not working yet — and one of the phones seems to think it’s running on Cingular, so either time travel is an unannounced feature of the OS or Microsoft still has some work to do. Video after the break.

P.S. They’re just demo SIMs, but we’re sure the poor PR folks babysitting the devices would appreciate it if you didn’t call the numbers, okay? Be nice.

Continue reading Yes, Windows Phone 7 Series can make a phone call

Yes, Windows Phone 7 Series can make a phone call originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We couldn’t shake the feeling that the mysterious Samsung-branded Windows Phone 7 Series device being passed around at MIX10 this week was just a warmed-over i8910 HD, and it turns out there’s a very good reason for that: Samsung says it is a warmed-over i8910 HD. Even crazier, TechRadar writes that its contact at Samsung basically pegged the stunt entirely on Microsoft, simply saying “they used the i8910 HD to demo Windows 7” and that “this demo was a one-off.” The whole thing reeks of the original Zune, which began life as a Frankenstein’d Toshiba Gigabeat — but we don’t think this new trick is going to make it all the way to retail since the i8910 HD clocks in with 640 x 360 resolution (WP7S requires 800 x 480) and a processor that falls well short of the standard-issue 1GHz Snapdragon. At any rate, we’re trying to get the straight dope on this from Microsoft now that Samsung’s washed its hands of it and we’ll update you when we’ve got more.

Windows Phone 7 Series device from Samsung is just a hacked i8910 HD originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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