Posts Tagged ‘WM7’

Windows Phone 7 Series it is. After seeing signs of it on Microsoft Canada’s events website for the past week or two, the folks over at Engadget have busted out the clever Photoshop skills to unveil what’s hidden beneath white tape below a Windows Phone banner at MWC 2010. As noted on Engadget, the “Series” mention does steer towards the notion that we may see Consumer and Professional versions of the new Mobile platform. Either way, all the speculation and rumors should be put to rest in just 2 short days when MWC officially kicks off. Below is the image referenced after their fancy Photoshop work:

Windows Phone 7 Series

Source: Engadget

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

I’ve been keeping tabs on Microsoft’s usage of the term “Windows Phone 7″ in place of “Windows Mobile 7″ lately and its frequency of occurrence is increasing. Though many of the Microsoft communities have picked up on the term and started using it, seeing it straight from Microsoft only offers confirmation. On January 29, 2010, I found a reference of “Windows Phone 7” on Microsoft’s events website — the Energize IT 2010 event to be held in Canada on March 30, 2010. There, a session titled “From the Client to the Cloud V 2.0″ contained a Windows Phone 7 reference which has since then been replaced with “Windows Mobile.” To recap, here’s a screen shot of the event’s description followed by a link to the event page:

Link: Windows Phone 7 @ Energize IT 2010

Now, another Canadian Energize IT event has surfaced on Microsoft.com containing the Windows Phone 7 verbiage. Here’s a screen shot (since I’m sure this one will be changed soon as well):

Is it safe to say now that “Windows Mobile 7″ has finally taken a back seat to “Windows Phone 7″ as would be thought to happen with “Windows Mobile” being re-branded “Windows Phone?” I think so. Especially when taking into consideration the fact that they replaced “Windows Phone 7″ with “Windows Mobile” on the event description I dug up back in January. Oh, and @tom_warren (of Neowin fame) on Twitter has a couple of interesting Windows Phone 7 points you may want to take a look at, too.

If there were any doubts left in your mind that Windows Mobile 7 / Windows Phone 7 would be mentioned at Mobile World Congress this month, let all of them be cast aside!

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

To wrap up a rather eventful day here on MSFTKitchen, check out the following reference I just spotted while surfing around Microsoft’s events website. The event, Energize IT 2010, will be held in Canada on March 30, 2010 and the session is titled “From the Client to the Cloud V 2.0.” Here’s a screen shot of the first part of the event’s description:

In more detail:

Windows Azure. Office System 2010. Visual Studio 2010. Windows Phone 7. The Microsoft-based platform presents a bevy of opportunities for all of us. Whether you are an IT Manager, Developer, or IT Pro knowing how these will impact you is critical, especially in the new economic reality.

To start the day we will explore the Microsoft-based platform through a scenario that will demonstrate different points of view – from developer to IT Pro; from consumer to the information worker. From the client to the cloud, this fun-filled demo-intensive exploration will excite you about the possibilities of the Microsoft-based platform. You’ll see how to build next generation applications with technology like Silverlight, .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010. You will find out how to consume those applications on a variety of devices, like mobile devices running Windows Phone, netbooks and PCs running Windows 7, as well as the web. You will learn about how the Microsoft-based platform allows you to connect with your colleagues no matter where you are –office, coffee shops, or your own living room. You’ll also see how you and your colleagues can be even more productive with Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010.

In the afternoon we will split in two tracks focused on managing and deploying infrastructure, and the development process. These tracks will help you answer the question “How do I get to the latest technology from my current reality?” You’ll learn about the technical details required for you to be ready to implement some of the technologies demonstrated in the morning sessions and help offer a clear learning and experimentation roadmap, and action plan.

EnergizeIT: From the Client to the Cloud is your opportunity to learn how to harness the power and flexibility of the Microsoft-based platform from the client to the cloud.

This lends to the notion that Microsoft is indeed going to confirm Windows Mobile 7 sometime in the coming weeks, contrary to the, “trust us, we know what we’re talking about” vagaries coming from news sites on the web who say otherwise. Additionally, it was noted at PDC 2009 that Windows Mobile 7 would be making an appearance at MIX 2010. I’m going to jump out on a limb here and say it’s all but 100% obvious at this point that Windows Mobile 7 is going to rear its ubiquitous head here in the next few weeks and I absolutely can’t wait.

Link: Windows Phone 7 @ Energize IT 2010

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

That’s right! For a measly $25 (plus the cost of a flight which I *might* have been willing to pay if I had discovered this soon enough and if entry wasn’t a members-only affair), you could have been a part of an event that took place in Canada on Thursday, January 21, 2010. The CGA Ontario (Certified General Accountants of Ontario) held a session titled, “What Hackers Know That You Don’t and Windows Mobile 7 and the Wireless Landscape in Canada.”

The speaker of the session was Mike Persechini from Motorola, but he was joined by guest speaker Anthony Bartolo from Microsoft who was noted as being the one to discuss Windows Mobile 7. See the snip-it below which I clipped from the CGA agenda:

Naturally, to what extent Windows Mobile 7 was discussed is anyone’s guess but beggars can’t be choosers and where mum is the word on behalf of Microsoft where WM7 is concerned, this little something was surely more than the nothing we’ve heard thus far. Unfortunately, the Windows Mobile 7 mention falls between two very different topics (security and the Canadian wireless landscape) which makes it all the more difficult to discern what exactly might have been discussed. Is there any chance that any of you viewing this were able to attend? If so, would you care to share what you learned?

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

In a 123-page Chinese Office 2010 PDF document I found residing on Microsoft’s servers, dated December 11, 2009, there’s a slide which essentially mirrors the exact same slide I previously unearthed in an English Office 2010 presentation which mentioned a Spring 2010 RTM date for Windows Mobile 7. Also included in the presentation are the exact same images that make reference to Office Mobile 7 and SharePoint for WM7.

All-in-all, the only significant thing to take away here is the date of the document which shows that — up to as recently as December 11, 2009 — Spring still appears to be the time frame Microsoft is shooting for to RTM Windows Mobile 7… at least, that’s what they’re presenting to various partners/conference participants.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com/

In my near-desperate quest to dig up Windows Mobile 7 *anything* prior to its rumored upcoming announcement, I found a rather interesting UX mock-up by one Jeremiah Whitaker, freelance UX designer who has done some UX prototyping for the Windows Mobile 7 team as noted below (description snipped from his LinkedIn profile):

Now, while that job description is certainly enticing, it lends absolutely nothing if not to the imagination. Luckily, he links to his portfolio where something a bit more visual can be found. In his own words, here is how he prefaces the images to follow:

NDA dictates I keep this vague. For a leading cell platform I created UX flows of common controls and usages. After client review I created flash demos. Those demo’s were then reviewed and passed on to SectionSeven development to create interactive prototypes. This process allowed for very efficient UX development.

So, between what we see on his LinkedIn profile and that little description, we know which “leading cell platform” he’s referring to (Windows Mobile, just in case you haven’t been following along *cough, cough*). Unfortunately, the interactive demos he references are not to be found, but he provided a screen shot of the development of one of them along with a rather telling set of UX flows that screams multi-touch. Check ‘em out and take note of the 2 gestures I enclosed in the red box:

Windows Mobile 7 UX Flows: Common Controls and Usages

Windows Mobile 7 UX Demo Development Screen Shot

As noted, you can see a multi-touch gesture in images 2 and 3 within UX flow 02, so that only contributes more to the speculation that Windows Mobile 7 will contain support for multi-touch gestures (even if it doesn’t for whatever reason, this is confirmation that Microsoft has at least considered it to a very high degree). I think WM7 is shaping up to be a fairly awesome mobile OS in theory, but we’ll just have to wait and see how things play out when they finally announce it here soon. Personally, I’m holding out on upgrading my phone for the time being. If Windows Mobile 7 ends up reeking of as much awesomeness as is implied, I’ll be hard-pressed not to wait as long as a year to get it on the first wave of devices it comes standard on. What about you?

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

This morning, I awoke to an email sent to me by an individual who travels on forums by the name of Interframe. Keeping a long story short, he pointed me to a post he made nearly 2 weeks ago regarding some Windows Mobile 7 discussion that took place in October of this year at the Windows Mobile DevCamp event. Equal parts astonishing are the lengths of time both the video and his post went unnoticed (especially considering the forum he posted it on was a Windows Mobile site). Even though he emailed me directly about it, I’d like to credit WMExperts as the source of this information since they’re the lucky candidates Interframe decided to grace with this information. Though there’s nothing here that makes you want to run out and slap your nearest mobile provider, the fact that questions were addressed in ANY capacity regarding Windows Mobile 7 back in October is worth this post.

In part, this is what Interframe had to say in his original post on the WMExperts forum:

Back in the beginning October of 2009, the Windows Mobile DevCamp event happened. The Windows Mobile DevCamp people decided to live stream on the web, on uStream. There were exactly 4 people from the Windows Mobile team to help out for the event (which wasn’t being hosted by MS) . Three of these team members were just there to anwser questions about developing on Windows Mobile. However, and this is where it gets interesting, there was one developer from the Windows Mobile 7 team from Microsoft. And he answered people’s question about it during the event’s Q&A session.

 

uStream webpage: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2268849

 

This stream is 2 hours long BUT luckly for you, I will point out where the imporant parts are. First skip to about 01:58 (one hour and fifty-eight minutes, edit: watch it from here to the end of the video, its worth it, trust me. Its about only a half hour) wait a while as your skipping through an hour , eventually, they’ll stop talking about WM7 (until they start talking about a “Zune Phone”, if you’d like to hear what they say, go ahead). After that, skip to about 02:34 (two hours and thirty four minutes) and again, be patient and wait for it to load, it will be worth it. You won’t regret what you’ll see and hear I PROMISE YOU THAT.

 

For those who are to lazy to watch, I will place the Q&A session conversation about WinMo 7 here (as much as i can):

 

First question (roughly translated): “So Steve Ballmer went out and recently said “Windows Mobile 6.1 wasn’t what we wanted it to be, neither was 6.5″, so with that in mind, when is 7 coming out?”

 

(The WM7 developer added to what the others from the WM team had to say about the question)

 

Windows Mobile 7 developer and his anwser (He is the guy in the blue shirt in the video): “I can give you a little inside information there Mike. I’m not gonna give you anymore than Loke gave you, but i can give you some context. My day job, is working on Windows Mobile 7. I own the calendar feature in fact. I had to try really really hard to convince my manager to let me come down here in San Fransisco and take a day off. All day long, working on 7, staying focused. Its on track. The reason its been delayed and you haven’t heard much about it is cause we had to go back to the drawing board with our strategy. Change things a little bit to be more competitive when we come out the door, so were not laughed at. We wanna make the same kind of impact the Zune HD made, if you look at Engadget and the blogosphere, people were very impressed with the Zune HD in many ways except for the lack of an app store. We wanna put out something that we’re all proud of, which is competitive on day one, we don’t wanna wait any longer.”

 

IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOUR HEARING, PLEASE, I BEG YOU, WATCH THE VIDEO AND SKIP TO THE PARTS I WAS TALKING ABOUT ABOVE! THIS STUFF IS 100% REAL!
There was a bit more so i hope you watch the Video!!!

 

Another question asked (roughly translated, at 02:19 two hours and nineteen min. in)
Q: “Are we gonna see better graphics support for Windows mobile? So one of the things i think made the iphone very succesful was how easy it made making rich graphics and UIs, are we going to see anything like that for Windows Mobile?”

 

A: “Yes! For sure!”
Windows Mobile 7 developer: “Yeah, it’s about time” (for Windows Mobile to enable rich graphics for developers)

 

Another question asked (roughly translated, 02:34, two hours and thirty-four min. in):
Q: “So one of the only ways to update your (Windows Mobile) phone is to either A: Wait for the carrier to release a patch or B: go to like XDA developers or something, are we gonna see that change for Windows Mobile so that it’ll update like the iphone?”

 

A: Windows Mobile 7 developer: “So (Windows Mobile) 7 isn’t as far away as you think it is”

 

(laughter)
“Yes, we are taking over-the-air updates very seriously”

 

(Guy who asked question: “So will it be in 6.5″)

 

(no one anwsers the question, laughter and long pause)

 

Windows Mobile 7 developer: “It’s coming, its not in 6.5″ (Here, he pretty much confirms over-the-air updates will appear in Windows Mobile 7, similar to the iphone and the Palm Pre)

In addition to all of that, Windows Mobile 6.5.3 was apparently inadvertently documented on MSDN recently, so the Windows Mobile news is beginning to liven up a bit. To add my own contribution to it all, I did some digging around a while back after running across the resume of one Kimi Porter. Therein lies the following:

In other words, that’s referencing a Windows Mobile 7 video. With that in mind, I decided to find out everything I could about it. Naturally, an email to Kimi came back a nil, so I looked up Ben Mor and RSA/Little Minx. Unfortunately, all I found was his little spot on the web on the RSA/Little Minx site. BOO! I was really looking forward to finding something I wasn’t supposed to. lol.

With that being a total bust, I thought back to a video I originally saw on Long Zheng’s site, but since neither of us could find it again on his site when I asked him about it (lol), I dug it up on YouTube. Well, low and behold, there was another video on YouTube I had never seen before. Since neither of these videos seem to showcase Windows Mobile 7 specifically, I don’t think either of them are the video references in Kimi’s resume. Either way, if you’ve never seen them before, check ‘em out:

Windows Mobile 7 in Live Mesh Ad:

SaaS Promo with Windows Mobile 7 Central Menu Experience UI (this was the one Long originally posted way back when):

So, that about wraps up this edition of Windows Mobile 7 stuff. I’ve got my eyes on a couple of other places where information is imminent (some nice placeholders are up but that’s it as of yet), so as soon as something juicy gets posted, I’ll be the first to bring it to you!

*Special thanks to Interframe for the email.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Update 12/1/2009: I’m refreshing this article (originally posted on 9/3/2009) based on a number of comments I’ve seen people make in response to my latest WM7 post.

When I originally posted this article, it didn’t garner much interest, but it seems that with the latest Windows Mobile 7 news I’ve posted, a number of people are making comments like, “I didn’t realize Windows Mobile 7 had been developed for this long,” “Windows Mobile 7 appears to have been created from scratch,” and, “Microsoft had better get it right with Windows Mobile 7, because 6.5 is horrible.” The list goes on, but I couldn’t help and think to myself, “I wonder if these folks even realize just how long WM7 has been on the drawing board… and how much seems to be going into it at that.”

Well, back in September, while digging through LinkedIn profiles (which has almost become a hobby of mine, it seems, lol), I ran across a rather interesting mention of Windows Mobile 7 on the profile of one Vivien Park:

Product / Interaction Designer, Illustrator
Microsoft
2004 – 2005 (1 year)
Illustration for user research and internal communication materials communication applications for Windows Mobile 7 (blue sky exploration)

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “blue sky exploration,” the following is a great explanation:

In some creative circles, ideation is sometimes used along with the phrase “blue sky” exploration. Research and development efforts many times start with a blue-sky phase, meaning a phase of initial work without pressure for particular result. Blue sky efforts often allow all possible alternatives to be placed as possibilities for further examination. Ideation differs from “blue sky” efforts primarily in that “blue sky” thinking is a means of kick-off for a creativity process, while ideation is a process of managing towards final-form ideas.
Source: Adventure Studios

So, basically, if Windows Mobile 7 does indeed hit the market in 2010 as currently planned, that will give it a total planning and development time span of ~6 years. Naturally, things change and change again through the course of development (especially in Microsoft), so there’s no doubt in my mind that the OS we will see in 2010 will barely resemble the original WM7 plans that began back in 2004. And though it’s merely coincidental, is Windows Mobile 7’s 6-year course of development – along with Microsoft’s mention of how big of a bet it is for the company – bringing back memories of Longhorn for anyone else? In all seriousness, the main difference there is – unlike with Windows Longhorn – Microsoft has made no promises or official mention whatsoever in regards to Windows Mobile 7. Any build-up and expectation at this point is purely the result of speculation, rumor, and leaked information (slide decks, resumes, job profiles, etc.).

With that said, that doesn’t mean we haven’t gathered enough from it all to expect (or hope, at least) to be blown away! Something tells me Microsoft won’t disappoint with this one, though. What do you think?

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

It’s been a while since I’ve done the good ol’ scouring of LinkedIn to find Windows Mobile 7 content, so I figured I would snap to it today to see what I could find. Luckily, I found a couple of great things along with a few honorable mentions! First, we’ll start with what appears to be the name of a central element of Windows Mobile 7’s user interface. If I’m not too far out of bounds here, I would venture to say the UI we’re all familiar with in regards to WM7 is the one the following is speaking of:

Program Manager
Microsoft IDC, Hyderabad
(Information Technology and Services industry)
April 2008 — May 2008 (2 months)

Designed a completely New feature (Central Menu Experience) which is integrated in Windows Mobile 7. Responsible for getting Central Menu Experience features code-ready for CTP release well within specified time-frame. (Link)

“Central Menu Experience” does indeed sound like the perfect (if not downright obvious, but I’m not going to just assume) description for the UI we have seen in all the supposed Windows Mobile 7 screen shots, considering it all looks, well… central, I suppose. But as I’ve said before, I can’t imagine Microsoft will actually launch Windows Mobile 7 using said UI. Perhaps it has been used for the CTP UI for developers/vendors working with it (considering the mention of Central Menu Experience features being code-ready for the CTP). Obligatory image:

Catalyst For WM Seven:
Client : Microsoft Corporation (Since December 2007 to May 2009)
Team Size/Role : 7/Onsite Coordinator

Description: Catalyst for Seven is designed to work with Windows Mobile powered devices. This is the next version of Windows Live for Windows Mobile. The new Windows Mobile 7 devices will give the richest mobile connection to Catalyst. Catalyst consists of Messenger, Mail, Spaces and Photos. All these applications help user keeping in touch with friends, family, and co-workers. (Link)

That one is fairly self-explanatory. Any of you Windows Mobile fanatics out there have any additional information on, “Catalyst?”

Lead Led a PM team and responsible for the strategies define, design and implementation for Windows Mobile 7 camera and photo application. (Link)

And now, for the honorable mentions:

On assignment at Microsoft to edit documentation for Windows Mobile 7. (Link)

 

Primary engineer on the touch gesture support in Windows Mobile 7 and 6.5 and did the initial specification of the touch gesture API. (Link)

 

Responsible for Windows Mobile 7 Outlook development. (Link)

 

Led HW Board bring-up activity effort for Window Mobile 7 OS based Mobile product having QUALCOMM 72xx chipset. The board bring up activities includes implementing MAX controller based keypad driver, configuring I2C and GPIO driver and coordinating HW-SW architecture meetings. (Link)

Beyond everything posted above, there were additional mentions of Windows Mobile 7, but they were all generic/vague, so I didn’t worry about posting them. Likewise, I didn’t elaborate as much as I wanted to on all of the information above, but I wanted to post something since it’s been a while (things are busy here aside from the freelance journalism thing, so bear with me). With that in mind, I’ve got a lot more to post here in the near future, so stay tuned!

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

This article has recently been updated to reflect recent information. It can be found here: Windows Mobile 7: 6 Years in the Making (Refresh)

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com