Mobile Phone News

Resco development on Windows Phone software seems to have slowed down, but at least one of their most popular software was updated earlier in the month. Resco Explorer is one of the first software that I ever knew when I bought my first Tilt, and now 2 years later… it has more features than you could ever imagine. The update was released just on the July 4th week, and now reading the feature list… I am loving it.

New features:

Upload to Social Network

Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Picasa, MySpace and Photobucket

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Thumbnails View Mode

The new view mode displays previews of images

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Today Plugin

Launch your favorite applications and documents with a single tap

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Task Manager

Experience smooth and touch friendly interface

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Other features:

Full Touch Optimization

Navigate through your files easily using your finger

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Letter Bar Navigation

Features the letter preview of the files you would like to access

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Virtual Folders For All Documents

Very useful when looking for files of the same type

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Quick Search Function

Instantly search for files you need by typing in the starting letters

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The Registry Editor

It allows you to export, import, view or modify the registry keys.

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ZIP Compression

Simplest and cheapest way to save significant amounts of storage space.

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The FTP Explorer

Gives the possibility to browse the FTP server’s content directly in your device

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The Network Browser

Simply map the shared network folders

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Recycle Bin

Moves deleted files into a virtual folder "Recycle Bin" instead of immediate deletion

More…

Now that is enough new features to make it worth the price, but again… if you do not find any of these things useful to you, I would not buy this or any software.

Read more about the software

Now I am not quite sure how Verizon, T-mobile, and Sprint will feel about this, but it seems AT&T (the nation’s worst provider if you live around lake Erie) now says they are your best option for Windows Phone 7 devices. This news comes from PCWorld, which just recently had an interview with an AT&T spokesman who are now claiming they are the best WP7 source. This claim comes to me as a surprise considering how much I thought T-mobile (nation’s most accepting carrier) would be taking the plunge into the new world of connected.

“We’ll be the premier carrier for Windows Phone 7,” a spokeswoman said via e-mail on Monday. “We haven’t given guidance on timing.”

Now I love Windows Phone 7 (weird since I have never used it before), but I really would never switch to AT&T just for it. T-mobile will most likely also get some great devices and will have them on its HSDPA+ network (I hope).

That is just me, but does anyone else want Windows Phone 7 that bad that they will go to AT&T for it? Comment below.

A few days ago, news broke that Microsoft was going to offer WP7 devices to all their employees worldwide. The act in itself will give WP7 a huge boost and exposure as it tries to claw its way back to relevance in the smartphone market. Brandon Watson, head of the developer experience team, then upped the ante by stating that not only would the employees be getting free phones, they will also be encouraged to write apps for the OS. Microsoft then changed their policies that now allows the aforementioned employees, to profit from such endeavors. On the surface, the idea is excellent, and there is already even a RSS reader created by Microsoft interns, but when you dig deeper, there is an issue, or two that I hope MS thought through about.

Firstly, say for example  an employee creates an app that eventually becomes very popular, is approached and offered a lot of money by Google or Apple for the app and Intellectual  property, is there anything MS can do to stop it? Do they get the right of first refusal? (they’d better have that clause in there!) in order to avoid the debacle like they have in Japan where Yahoo went with Google for search instead of Bing.

Secondly, will some employees now save their good ideas and try to commercialize through apps instead of contributing to the company?

Thirdly, does this mean that we are going to see more apps coming from the Microsoft Research? I sure hope so. There have been so many great projects that have been demoed by this division over the years that unfortunately never saw the light of day. My fingers are crossed that this policy change will bring some of these applications to the mass market.

I have no qualms with MS offering the phones to their workers, heck I wish I was getting one! I just hope their lawyers took care of the fine print before signing off on the deal.

The video speaks for itself. The developer started working on his app at 3 pm and already has it up and running  just a few hours later, and at the same stage as a similar Android app that he has spent two weeks on! The demo proves how it is easy to code for WP7 (move over Android App inventor!) and with that in mind, I pose this question, are there still doubters out there who think that WP7 will not have a quantity of quality apps at launch?

With the WP7 devices shipping to developers and the reviews of the technical preview out, some people may feel overloaded with demo videos the OS. For those of us who cannot get enough, Pocketnow.com has posted a set of four videos, featuring Microsoft’s Greg Sullivan, Senior Product Manager for Windows Phone, that provides the best overall look of the OS far.  We also get more details about what the OEMs will or will not be able to do and so much more. Click on the link for the rest of the Videos.

Last week, we saw a demo of speech recognition features for WP7 powered by Tellme.  The app had robust web searching capabilities providing great local results. The only problem (technically missing functionality), was that the application, as far as I know, could not stitch together two or more searches and relate them to each other, to provide a comprehensive answer to the search. A good example for such use would be when making dinner and movie plans like in the video above. Apple bought Siri, the company behind the app and I’m sure we will see that functionality on the IOS platform sooner or later. I have even come with the name for the app, “Bing Personal Assistant” (it just roll off the tounge doesn’t it?) in keeping with Microsoft’s knack for long names, so please Microsoft, make it happen?

As good as the latest Beta SDK tools for WP7 are, Microsoft, for some unknown reason, has chosen not to release the templates for Panorama and Pivot controls; two key features of the OS. This forces developers to individually write code to mimic the effect wasting a lot of valuable resources in the process.  In order to save time, Stephane Crozatier at Codeplex, has posted the sample code to make this process a breeze. The Code includes both Panorama and Pivot controls. There is on caveat though

This project is a temporary solution while the official controls are being worked out. You are encouraged to replace the Panorama and Pivot controls in your app with the official Microsoft implementation when they are released.

I hope this helps any aspiring developers out there who may have been pulling their hair out to get the feature working for their apps.

Via Don Burnett

We already know that Windows phone 7 will provide a tight integration with social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Windows Live etc but with one exception, and it is a big one; Twitter. Apparently, Twitter changed its policies in regards to how Windows live accessed their APIs therefore in the meantime, we are stuck with relying on a 3rd party app to fill in the void until MS and Twitter work out their differences. The guys at Microsoftfeed.com, a Middle East focused blog, came up with a concept for such an app. The UI looks sleek and fits perfectly with the metro concept. I would like to see it move from the concept stage, to a working demo using the latest beta development tools. It reminds me a lot of the MetroTwit desktop app( I personally use this app and highly recommend it) that I would also like to see a WP7 version. Click here for more screenshots of the concept Twitter app.

Thanks to KeyboardP for the link

The fart application dethrone of iPhone has already began for the unreleased OS, and here is the first. This application posted by MD is a preview of what we might have to die from if Microsoft does not put a stop to it. The fart application is for people that pretty much hate technology and cannot find any use for their expensive device.

I cannot say how disappointed I am to see this. I seriously thought Windows Phone 7 was going to be used for something a bit better.

This just showed up on Pocketnow as a render of how HTC will modify their version of Windows Phone 7, and I think its stupid. The image above is simple fake (you can tell), and I would never see HTC doing something this stupid in terms of looks and function. Putting all the work to release something like this is simple a waste of money because:

1) All these things are already a part of the original UI.

2) The color looks gross with the things added

3) Nothing really added to the UI

Now if I was to see HTC adding something, they will always make it worth the development time and look great. HTC is a smart company and they bought someone just to do all this work for them, so I have a high expectation for them.