zune for windows mobile 7

CNET confirms Windows Mobile 7 devices “before the end of the year”, ‘Zune phone’ to come earlier

January 27, 2010 | By Surur

We all know Windows Mobile 7 is coming, but a little confirmation from credible sources will never go amiss.

Ina Fried from CNET’s Beyond Binary column reports that sources told them that “Microsoft is still planning to finalize the code for Windows Mobile 7 by summer in order to have the new software on devices that ship before the end of the year.”

They also claim that a phone which connected to the Zune service and which was based on Windows Mobile was also due to arrive this year, and should come earlier in the year ahead of Windows Mobile 7 devices.

CNET’s claims are consistent with various rumours which claim a Zune-compatible phone, which may be branded by Microsoft and the result of work by the Pink team, would be coming in only a few months, and a different branch which would be the actual Windows Mobile used and branded by other OEM’s.

Follow our Windows Mobile 7 coverage by following us on twitter.com/wmpoweruser.

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Confirmed: Windows Mobile 7 is based on Windows CE7

January 19, 2010 | By l3v5y

There have been a few rumours around about Windows Mobile 7 not being based on Windows CE. Sources that prefer to remain unnamed have confirmed the opposite to us, and that Windows Mobile 7 will in fact be based on Microsoft’s latest CE kernel, CE7.

Windows CE 7 has been in development for some time now, and we have written about the purported features of the OS some time ago:

Chelan is to support the following key features.
   – Dual Core Support (SMP, ARMv6)
   – Visual Studio 2008 Plug in
   – WIFI Positioning System
   – Bluetooth 2.1
   – Cellcore
   – DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)
    -DRM
   – Media Transfer Protocol
   – IE7 Rendering Rich Media Plug-Ins
   – NDIS 6.1 support
   – UX C ++ XAML API using technologies like Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight for attractive and functional user interfaces
   – Touch Input

This certainly mesh well with other rumours regarding the advances specs support of Windows Mobile 7 including support for the latest processor technologies such as on the new QSD8672 – a dual core snapdragon device supporting 1080p video and WSXGA screens (more specs here).

Seems a bit of an overkill for a Zune phone, but we are still expecting to find out pretty soon about the many brnaches of Windows Mobile 7

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Zune on Windows Mobile

March 25, 2009 | By Surur

Some more news on Zune for Windows Mobile has reached my inbox. We have recently heard Steve Ballmer talking about spreading the service to other platforms, with Windows Mobile certainly being one candidates.

The bad news is that Windows Mobile 6.5 will not in fact be getting the Zune service. The good news is that Zune is very much coming to Windows Mobile 7, and a pretty full implementation of it too (no mention of squirting though )

Unfortunately for the over the air part of the service Microsoft intends to have the operators very much involved, meaning when music tracks are downloaded via 3G we may end up paying twice as much as if the track was downloaded over WIFI. The Operators will also be involved in billing, with the ability of tracks to be charged directly to your phone bill rather than your credit card.

Of course this also opens up the attractive possibility of cheap music subscriptions being offered as part of your data package when you buy a Windows Mobile 7 Smartphone, which is certainly something I can sign up for.

Keep a close eye on WMPoweruser.com (RSS feed here) for the latest Windows Mobile (7 and other) news.

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