Google has just announced its new social network service, which combines elements of all the biggest or more interesting social networks of today.

The service will include a mobile component, but as of yet only clients for the iPhone and Android are available, with Symbian, RIM and Windows Mobile versions being promised.

Hopefully the service will do a bit better than Okurt…

Read more here.

Regular readers will know know we keep a close eye on Microsoft’s job postings, and occasionally come across something interesting.

The one below appears to be a pretty standard Project Natal job post, but then goes off into an unexpected tangent by demanding Windows Phone experience.

Does this mean that gesture-based UI is really coming to Windows Mobile?

Read the job post below and tell us what you think.

Sr Software Test Engineer (SDET) X box Live – Project Natal Job

Date: Feb 8, 2010

Location: Redmond, WA, US

Job Category: Software Engineering: Test
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 707967 11095
Product: Xbox Live
Division: Entertainment & Devices Division

Do you love Graphics? Want to take the latest graphics code, tools, and technologies for a ride before anyone else in the world? Want to participate in an effort to create the next generation of technology that will make our customers jump with excitement and our competitors shake with fear? If so, check out the Natal project – The Natal Platform Team is building the components at the core of this high profile project that is a huge part of the Microsoft consumer strategy. The result will be a revolutionary component for rich game and entertainment experiences that will forever change the face of entertainment. Do you have what it will take to help deliver on the vision? Jump in and find out…

Responsibilities include:
Design and implement graphics test cases which programmatically measure quality.
Investigate & implement new graphics testing techniques
Port existing graphics tests to new platforms
Write graphics test specifications
Lead by example
Own the quality of one or more feature areas in the System Test team
Identify product defects and track to their appropriate resolution
Collaborate with feature area Devs and PMs
Collaborate with partner teams
Provide feedback on key user scenarios, functional and technical designs, and
Contribute to overall product test planning and architecture
specifications.
Contribute to implementation of automation tools & solutions
Create and integrate test tools into test infrastructure
Qualifications include:
Experience writing graphics code with D3D10 or D3D11
Experience writing complex HLSL (or equivalent) shaders
Skills with 3D vector and matrix math
6 + years of product development and testing experience
Demonstrable experience of multiple successful product ship cycles
Strong C/C++ development and debugging skills
Able to work independently or with a team with minimal supervision
Excellent working knowledge of test methodologies and techniques
Utilization and evangelism of testing best practices
Experience with creating and enhancing existing automation systems
Examples of successful implementation of solutions to difficult product quality challenges
Familiar with test-driven development
Excellent problem solving skills
Strong communication and collaboration skills
Self disciplined and detail oriented
Solid understanding of the Xbox 360 software and system architecture desired
Experience working on Windows Mobile Phones a plus
A BA/BS in Computer Science or related technical discipline is required

Read the full job post here.

Microsoft, who has been working at low-end cheap smartphones for the developing world for some time, has teamed up with MediaTek, a chipset manufacturer, to create a reference platform for sub-$200 unsubsidized smartphones.

The phones, which will be Chinese 3G compatible, will use system-on-a-chip designs, which will both lower cost and boost performance and will be made available to low cost OEM and ODMs. 

The phones are expected to run Windows Mobile 6.x and to use Microsoft’s OneApp cross-OS application platform.

"There is a huge thirst for smartphones in emerging markets. For many people, the phone rather than the PC is the main entry point to the internet, resulting in a high demand for rich communication devices. In order to meet this demand, we have teamed up with MediaTek to facilitate the provision of affordable smartphones," said Daren Mancini, general manager for OEM Mobile at Microsoft in a statement.

Microsoft has been discussing smartphones for emerging markets for some years under the auspices of its Unlimited Potential Group. This has developed a concept called Fone+ – a midrange phone that would also serve as a PC, connecting to a TV to provide a large screen. The same group came up with the OneApp software platform for feature phones in emerging economies last year.

Read more at Rethink-wireless here.

Press Release: HTC Corporation, a global designer of mobile phones, has announced the appointment of Vladimir Malugin as its new marketing director for EMEA.  Formerly head of products and marketing at Polaroid Consumer Electronics and head of market development at Eastman Kodak, Malugin will be responsible for HTC’s overall brand, marketing and communications across EMEA.

“HTC is a brand to watch in the mobile space,” says Vladimir Malugin, marketing director, HTC EMEA. “HTC has a reputation for cutting-edge innovation and design and provides a unique mobile experience for its users. It is an exciting time as HTC builds broad consumer awareness and further reinforces its position as a leading smartphone designer. I am thrilled to be joining at such an important stage in its evolution as a consumer brand and look forward to contributing to its continued success.”

Vladimir Malugin brings a wealth of experience having held top European marketing and management roles in for a variety of leading consumer brands. Malugin has also previously led the business development function for a mobile chipset start-up and established a marketing and digital consultancy supporting a variety of businesses including multi-national companies.

“HTC looks for individuals who are able to articulate and effectively wield HTC’s unique, customer-centric brand,” says Florian Seiche, vice president, HTC Europe. “Vladimir’s appointment is an important step in establishing our global vision for HTC.”

It seems there are all kinds of benefits to launching late. The HTC HD2 ROM for T-Mobile US has leaked onto the internet, and the packages contained in there shows a veritable power house of entertainment software.

To start with, the device will finally support the Amazon music store, meaning music can be purchased directly from the device. Next, the ereader application we recently showed from China will also make it to the US version of the device. 

The smartphone will also come bundled with games like Prince of Persia, Ferrari GT, Tetris and Guitar Hero.  Its not known of these will simply be trials or full versions however.

More interesting additions are Mobi-TV support, Slacker Radio and the presence of a BlockBuster app, and and finally, the smartphone will also come with Swype pre-installed.

Existing HTC HD2 owners can quench their seething jealousy by downloading the ROM from XDA-Developers here.

It seems everyone is jumping on the ereader market, and the latest rumour from Asia is that Cube, who produces a variety of PMP’s, is set to release a Windows Mobile 6.5 powered e-reader with a 6 inch colour capacitive screen.

No other details except for the targeted price is known yet, but at $150 that’s quite enticing enough.

No pictures exist yet, except for the teaser above, which I assume says its better that the iPhone .

Via Akhibaranews.com

Press release: Hit mobile games to be bundled with the HTC HD2 & HTC Touch2, including the chance to win Xbox 360 Arcade consoles and X5 gaming mouses!

StarHub looks set to delight all mobile phone buffs and gaming enthusiasts alike as they proudly announce the bundling of 2 hit mobile games, “Guitar Hero 5 Mobile” & “Diner Dash Flo on the Go Mobile”, free with every HTC HD2 and HTC Touch2 purchase from StarHub beginning today. In conjunction with the exciting collaboration, new HTC smartphone owners also stand to win 12 Xbox 360 Arcade consoles in an exclusive lucky draw contest ending 30 April 2010.

2 of the most sought-after and downloaded mobile games on the market, Guitar Hero® 5 Mobile and Diner Dash Flo on the Go Mobile will be exclusively bundled and preloaded with every new purchase of a HTC HD2 or HTC Touch2 from any of the participating StarHub Shops.

Contest Details
Be the first 10 customers to purchase these HTC phones at each of the 7 participating StarHub Shops* and receive these fabulous gifts for FREE!
* HTC HD2 – 1 HTC Xbox 360 Arcade Console set
* HTC Touch2 – 1 X5 gaming mouse

For those who missed out on the early bird promotion above, simply visit www.wemp.com.sg/htcxboxpromo to participate in the Xbox 360 lucky draw program and you could win a HTC Xbox 360 Arcade Console every week for 12 weeks!

Via MSMobiles.com

Recently a line of HTC device with capacitive displays lost their multi-touch capabilities when released on US soil , but this does not seem to be the case with the HTC HD2.

The HD2 that has been known for some time to be coming to T-mobile USA, and has recently become official with an HTC.com and Sticktogether.com page. The information provided on the page is close to what we already know, but it fortunately does make all the rumoured specs official.

The pages shows the HD2 coming with  1GB internal ROM, supplemented by a 16GB memory card and also 576MB RAM. The page also mentions the device’s capacitive display and, also fortunately, does not fail to speak of its “pinch-to-zoom and haptic capability”.

While most of this is nothing new, it is heartening to see nothing is missing either, and should only increase excitement in the run up to the official US release of the device.

Via:MobileOSNews

:HTC, T-mobile

The latest version of the HTC HD2 ROMs contain some interesting new apps, including an ereader, but also this new HTC Flashlight app, which makes pretty good use of the super-bright dual LEF flashlights in the monster.

The cab  can be downloaded for your HTC HD2 from XDA-Developers here.

Via Pocketnow.com

Early reports are rolling in, suggesting the HTC Nexus One is failing to set the world on fire, despite its high profile launch.

Initial reports had suggested only 20 000 had been sold in the first week, and sales have remained at this low constant, clocking up only 80 000 sales in the first month, according to Flurry Analytics.

This compares pretty poorly with the Motorola Droid, said to have sold 525 000 in its first month, or the iPhone 3GS, which sold 600 000.

While the Nexus One is aggressively Google branded, the very similar HTC Bravo, set to launch soon, is likely to suffer from being tainted as a re-release of a now old and failed handset, making the whole design unlikely to sell well.

This contrasts with roaring sales of the HTC HD2, which run into stock shortages all of December. Recent leaks from the company’s Chinese division, Dopod, has seen handsets destined originally for Android converting to Windows Mobile, which may indicate a loss of confidence in Google and the Android platform.

Istartedsomething.com noticed this cool concept UI by Barton Smith, an Australian designer, which shows what a location-based user interface would look like on a mobile device.

It seems to have elements to Zune and Android widgets and even TouchFlo3D.

It seems pretty lustworthy to me.  What do our readers think? Let us know below.

There has been many Windows Mobile 7 rumours, but the one that made the LG Apollo appear pretty ridiculous was the 720P screen on the device, which frankly appeared impossible last month.

Fats forward 3 weeks however, and we have the Qisda QCM 330, a MID-type device with a 4 inch screen and an amazing 1280x 1024 screen.

The OS is unknown, but likely Android, but that wont stop LG from using a similar screen on their 3.8 inch monster.

Read more about the Qisda QCM-330 here, and the LG Apollo here.

Thanks Hugo for the tip.

If you are like me, you do not appreciate the classic look of the Windows Mobile SMS page, well this might give you a little more appreciation for it. The new design changes the skin, background and that is about it but here is what the developer had to say:

This is your fashion captain speaking
This particular thread by yxyn proved very promising with regard to the old ugly standard Windows Mobile threaded SMS window.
So, I decided to dig a bit deeper and take it to the next level. After my initial proof-of-concept, the many questions received, and the subsequent improvement of the concept, time has come to release my skin to the public.
What does it do?
It modifies certain files with regard to the standard SMS chat window, enhancing its looks.
Why? Is it necessary?
Yeah, duh! See the repulsive centre image above!
What enhancements does it bring?
First of all, and most notably, it adds a top bar with the receiver’s contact picture and his or her name, which remains on top while scrolling through the messages. Secondly, a bunch of images and a different colour scheme give it a new look. Currently, I have two flavours: a Manila / Sense mimicked skin and a Windows 7 inspired one. It works both in landscape and portrait mode.
Any requirements?
Yes sir! Because threading is only supported in WM 6.1 versions and higher, it is only available for 6.1, 6.5 and 6.5.x roms. Use the right version for your device, else it will probably mess up your device.

Via:XDA
Get it:XDA

Chainfire, via Tweakers.net, has posted this collection of Windows Mobile rumours:

Microsoft will drop much of the business side of WM in favor of the consumer side. The traditional business offerings like Office / Exchange functionality will of course still be supported, but the focus will be shifted to gaming and multimedia. The Xbox and Zune brands will be represented, the Zune player willl be included and it will be possible to wirelessly exchange data, multimedia, and games with the Xbox 360.

The first batch of phones that will be released will have pretty much the same chip specs, and HTC, Samsung, LG and SE will be the ones to deliver this first batch of phones. In this first batch (September 2010), the OEMs are apparently not allowed to make big changes, they all have to use the same interface.

This means, no custom UI like Sense, no Opera Mobile either. Instead the default WM UI will be used and a new PocketIE based on IE7, but with some functionality from IE8.

The second batch (end of 2010) will be allowed to have small changes, but likely only theme-based and addition of some custom application.

Only at the third batch (early 2011) will the OEMs be allowed to add their own interfaces, like Sense, Panels, TouchWiz and S-Class.

The official announcements of the WM7 phones are not expected to occur more than a few weeks before actual release of the OS, [CF: so we probably won't see official (unleaked) specs and such before the end of July (based on the September release date)].

As hardware goes they say mostly the same as the chassis 1 specs. 1 Ghz+ CPU, Open GL ES 2.0, 800×480+, 3.5"+, 384mb+ (possibly 512+).

According to those we have seen the WM7 interface, it is nothing revolutionary. It should have standard multi-touch support and supports only capacitive. The interface is said to be a hybrid of iPhone / Android / Zune HD elements.

Apparently those that have used WM7 builds differ in opinion about the software. Some state it is much faster than for example the 3GS, while others mention apps are slow to start and experiencing ‘hickups’.

Apps-wise, old applications will in principle not be compatible with Windows Mobile 7, throwing away many thousands of apps that are currently available. It may be compatibility for old apps will be emulated, but this is not clear yet. How exactly this will work will likely be explained at MIX 2010 in March.

It certainly seems like only .NET apps will be supported [CF: ugh!], however it is not clear if the Compact Framework will be a part of that .NET support.

Read more at Chainfire here.

What do our readers think? Let us know below.

Asus have put up this short promotional video for the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10, showing the various features of the device.

Unfortunately due to not understanding Chinese, most are lost on me,  but of note are features such as the taskbar search shortcut, the card-like multi-tasking interface and that the video explicitly mentions Windows Mobile 6.5.3 as a feature of the device, something which we have not seen until now.

Early reports regarding the handset expected sales are good, with Asus noting 1000 pre-orders for the device in the small Taiwanese market, with sales expected to exceed 20 000 there.

Resco Brain Games 3.0 is a great selection of games to help get the “little grey cells” working again. There’s a slick interface which looks strangely similar to the iPhone to flick, slide & scroll through & 44 different challenges, each with multiple levels of difficulty…

Read more and see a further video at BestWindowsMobileApps.com

Have you very wanted to know what your kids are doing at all time? well I haven’t but now you can. This little application is priced at a very high $14.95 a month and what do you get? not much, all you get is the ability to track the calls, massages and service. The application just added Windows Mobile supports and if you get it now, you can start watching in on your kids by today night.

 Get it

AndroidCentral managed to come across this device roadmap for HTC’s subsidiary Dopod, who operates in China.

Besides showing a number of Android devices, it confirms a HVGA windows Mobile phone set to be released at the end of Q2 2010.  This is likely the Chinese version of the HTC Photon, a smaller version of the HTC HD2.

Read more at AndroidCentral here, including speculation of an Android HTC HD2 being changed back to Windows Mobile.

hoss_n2 has contacted HTC support with regards to the 576MB of RAM, and has got an answer that basically says nothing…

does the world wide htc hd2 has a really hidden 576 ram as some one in xda developers has flashed a radio and it seems to work now our devices now show 576 rams and wh were successful to fill ram that we couldn’t fill before we could fill upto 443 mb of ram that we couldn’t fill before flashing the radio my question now does we really has 576 om ram but was hidden for a technical reason or it is all fake and here is a picture of mu device after i fill the ram

HTCs reply:

Hi Hossam, We are unable to confirm these rumours at this time, please monitor our support pages for a formal response to this query. I must caution you that if you use any of the ROM’s on XDA developers you have likely voided your warranty and any repairs to your device will be chargeable. Best REgards Mike HTC

So, we may have 576MB or we may not, but HTC aren’t going to tell us yet! Do you think there is 576MB of RAM or not?

Some interesting things are occurring in the HD2 ROMs!

In some of the latest ROMs (2.05 and 2.07 have it) HTC have added an eBook reader built in to manila in much the same way as the documents tab.

There’s also apparently a torch application (though I’ve not found any screenshots yet).

Maybe HTC are feeling threatened by the iPad (I highly doubt that) or they’ve just seen a new revenue stream, and a way to make the HD2 even better than it is already! Either way, this is looking good!

If anyone out there happens to have either the 2.05 or the 2.07 ROMs, shoot us a message, and I’ll add this stuff into the WMPU HD2 ROM!

Via 3gin.net.