“T-Mobile has the release honors and is now showing the HD2 as “coming soon” in its phone inventory. We’ve also got the first “in the wild” shots courtesy of TmoNews showing that big Blockbuster shortcut linked front and center for downloading On Demand movies directly to the device. Still no firm price or date but $199.99 on contract ($449.99 unlocked) sometime around 24 March sounds about right”

Photo Courtesy of TmoNews, and a piece by Engadget to as well, are the latest proof that the HD2 is about to drop on T-Mobile USA. Start preparing your credit card or bank account now…

This was originally posted at Windows Phone Thoughts, check out the the source for discussion… Continue reading

“Guess we don’t have to wait until MIX to have all our Windows Phone 7 Series questions answered! Microsoft’s Eric Rudder, speaking at TechEd Middle East, showed off a game developed in Visual Studio as a singular project (with 90% shared code) that plays on Windows with a keyboard, a Windows Phone 7 Series prototype device with accelerometer and touch controls, and the Xbox 360 with the Xbox gamepad. Interestingly, not only is the development cross-platform friendly, but the game itself (a simple Indiana Jones platformer was demoed) saves its place and lets you resume from that spot on whichever platform you happen to pick up.”

So if you’re wondering what is meant by the Xbox live tile on a Windows Phone 7… Continue reading

“One final note at today’s event is that Microsoft has now officially confirmed for the first time that 7 represents a clean break from Windows Mobile as we know it today; existing apps won’t be compatible. Though that’s likely to be a pain for existing owners with specialized apps who are looking to stay in the Microsoft ecosystem, Windows Phone 7 Series itself is a very different beast than the operating system it replaces — it feels different, seeks a different demographic, and symbolically represents a very important clean-slate departure for a company that had lost its way in the mobile space. The bright side for the 6.5 faithful, we suppose, is that Kindel closes by saying that they “will continue to work with our partners to… Continue reading

“Join us for the Launch of Visual Studio 2010 – and get in-depth sessions from the best speakers in the industry! On April 12, Microsoft will launch Visual Studio 2010, and by joining us at the Microsoft Visual Studio Conference & Expo, you will not only experience the launch alongside the Visual Studio team and industry legends – you’ll get three days of sessions by the best speakers in the industry on the latest and greatest technologies, such as Silverlight and .NET 4.0. The topics will range from all the new, great features in Visual Studio 2010 to Silverlight, WPF, WF, WCF, Application Lifecycle Management, .NET 4.0, ASP.NET 4.0 AJAX, ASP.NET MVC and much more! And remember: If you sign up for Microsoft Visual Studio Conference &amp… Continue reading

“LG’s first Windows Phone 7 handset, which got shown off recently in the sweaty palm of a Microsoft director at the Engadget Show, will be called the LG Panther. Apparently. We know LG likes silly names, but Panther?”

Seriously, Panther? Aside from the fact it’s already been used, (good luck with branding), the name just doesn’t sound exciting to me. While corporate naming decisions can be screwy (Xfinity anyone?), a well placed name can really work for a product (e.g., Treo, Razr, etc..). The first phone we know about from a new platform named after an apple-esque animal? Here’s to hoping that this is mostly baseless rumor!

This was originally posted at Windows Phone Thoughts, check out the the

“We’ve had it up here with these shenanigans. You’re jerking us around, and we’re sick of it. We get it, you have a very particular concept of what sort of phones you want running your new Windows Phone 7 Series OS. Not only do we get it, but we’re kind of proud of you for sticking up for yourself for once and ensuring some sort of sameness across your platform. Unfortunately, it’s not the holiday season yet, so we can’t buy one of these fancy WP7S phones yet. Meanwhile, on the other end of town, HTC is bringing the HD2 to T-Mobile in the US this month. Sure, it runs your soon-to-be-outdated Windows Mobile 6.5 OS which nobody wants, but it’s also pretty much the best hardware we’ve ever seen… Continue reading

“One of our ninjas just dropped some tantalizing and blurry details for us to feast on. We’ve been informed that T-Mobile will be releasing the Motorola CLIQ XT on March 10th, the HTC HD2 (listed as “Dark Handset” on the screen capture) is confirmed on March 24th, and a Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook, complete with T-Mobile broadband access, on the 24th as well.”

While technically a rumor since we haven’t had an official announcement yet (Come on T-Mo…!), this looks pretty solid as we’ve seen other references to the HD2 as the “Dark” handset. I predict come March 24 I’ll be visiting a T-Mobile store!

This was originally posted at Windows Phone Thoughts, check out the the source for discussion… Continue reading

“Neowin first reported over a week ago that Microsoft was planning a Starter version of its mobile operating system. But that news was overshadowed by all the Windows Phone 7 Series hoopla from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Windows Phone Starter is similar in concept to the original Windows Starter Edition products. Windows XP and Windows Vista Starter were products exclusively tailored for emerging markets. With Windows 7, Microsoft broadened the availability of the Starter Edition to include all countries, with Home Basic becoming the new emerging-market-only SKU. So far, it seems as though Phone Starter is going to be an emerging-market play only and not a low-end platform for users in developed countries.”

Mary Jo Foley has posted a Q&A regarding the interestingly-named Windows Phone Starter… Continue reading

“Microsoft’s Aaron Woodman just pulled off a little surprise here at The Engadget Show: he brought out LG’s Windows Phone 7 Series pre-production prototype! The QWERTY slider is the first branded Windows Phone 7 Series device the world’s ever seen”

5 MP Camera! Flash! 3.5 mm Jack! And more pictures available over on Engadget’s site. And while I like the look of the front, I’m not too crazy about the keypad’s buttons. Thoughts?

This was originally posted at Windows Phone Thoughts, check out the the source for discussion… Continue reading

“When you activate SharePlug, it creates a virtual computer that represents your real computer back at home or office behind firewall. You can use this virtual computer to securely access Windows shared folders, Web server or any service running on the real computer that’s compatible with TCP port forwarding. You don’t need to sign-up for any monthly service or install software on every computer you wish to connect to. You simply need to setup a sharing gateway server on your remote site and run SharePlug.”

At first glance, SharePlug sounds sorta magical. However it’s actually a pretty simple app that lets you easily harness the power of SSH Port Forwarding (Think PocketPuTTY plus Port Forwarding & a good UI). If you can install… Continue reading