Hasta La Gadget!

Tribune is hardly the first media monolith to try something like this, but the more the merrier, right? And for once, a company’s out to provide an elegant, useful news aggregator for a platform not named iOS. Mosaic is a fresh piece of software, designed to pull together news and information from all sorts of sources onto Windows 7-based tablets. At least, that’s what we’re guessing. According to the official press release, it’ll be available for use “with Microsoft’s Windows 7 Mobile-based tablets” starting on January 31st, and unless the folks in Redmond have yet another OS up their sleeve, we’re guessing they simply mean Win7 slates. Furthermore, a companion app for Windows Phone 7, iPad and Android will be following shortly, and it sure sounds as if both versions will be completely gratis.

Continue reading Tribune’s Mosaic app brings elegant media aggregation to Windows 7 tablets, soon to Windows Phone 7

Tribune’s Mosaic app brings elegant media aggregation to Windows 7 tablets, soon to Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 10:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft suggests Windows Phone Live will get more Kin Studio-like features originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 14:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no secret that Microsoft is anxious to get copy / paste functionality rolled out to Windows Phone 7 users on the double. In his CES keynote last night, Steve Ballmer himself said that it’d be coming soon — but a little hint on Microsoft’s site indicates that it might be coming as soon as this month: the URL Microsoft is using for the update’s details page includes “january-update.aspx” in it, which we’d say is pretty telling. Of course, launch dates inevitably slip, and perennial Microsoft guru Paul Thurrott thinks it’s tracking for early February before it’ll actually reach users’ devices… so we wouldn’t go canceling vacations you’ve got scheduled this month just so you can be around to score the update as soon as it’s available.

Microsoft’s first Windows Phone 7 update coming this month? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Word on the street from Microsoft savant Paul Thurrott is that Windows Phone 7’s first update might go gold as early as this week — in time for Ballmer’s CES keynote, in fact, which means he might give it a mention and / or spend a few minutes showing it off. It’s said to be codenamed “NoDo,” short for “No Donuts” — a pretty obscure (and odd) reference to the fact that Redmond doesn’t want to release incremental, minor updates like Google did with Android 1.6 Donut. We’re not sure why they’d bother taking a swipe at an Android build that happened… oh, four versions ago, but Microsoft works in mysterious ways. Anyhow, it’ll apparently add copy / paste, CDMA location support (which might be the only thing holding up Verizon and Sprint from launching at this point), support for additional Qualcomm chipsets, and miscellaneous bug fixes.

Moving on, Thurrott says that the rumored Mango update isn’t the next update after NoDo, but it’s real — and it’s big. It’ll add Internet Explorer 9 with HTML 5 and Silverlight support, but notably, its code line is being referred to internally as the “entertainment branch,” so there might be some other magic in store. Current version numbers for Mango are in the 7.2 range, but builds are in the 7500 range, suggesting Windows Phone 7.5 branding is a possibility. An exciting 2011 for Microsoft on the mobile side? Looks like.

Update: Microsoft’s Charlie Kindel has chimed in on Twitter in direct response to Thurrott:

“BTW, a guy failed to bring donuts to a meeting after loosing [sic] a bet. The ‘nodo’ codename had nothing to do with Android.”

Makes a heck of a lot more sense — and it confirms the accuracy of the codename. Thanks, CrookedC!

Windows Phone 7 ‘NoDo’ update hitting phones in early February, ‘Mango’ coming later with IE9? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apps, apps, apps! Everywhere you look, more apps. Both Android and Windows Phone 7 have reportedly crossed a couple of round number milestones recently, giving us a decent idea of the maturity gap between the two. Microsoft’s brand new OS with an old OS’ name has rounded the 5,000 available apps corner — that’s according to two sources keeping track of what’s on offer in the Marketplace — while AndroLib’s latest data indicates Android’s crossed the 200,000 threshold when it comes to apps and games taken together. We’re cautious on taking either of these numbers as hard truth, particularly since AndroLib was reporting 100,000 Android apps when there were only 70,000 — but they do provide rough estimates as to where each platform is in terms of quantity, if not quality. Now, where do you think each will be this time in 2011?

Continue reading App store milestones: Windows Phone 7 hits 5,000 as Android passes 200,000 available apps

App store milestones: Windows Phone 7 hits 5,000 as Android passes 200,000 available apps originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 15:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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