I’d written about the planned acquisition of Danger by Microsoft a few months ago, but now the deal has been completed. Your trusty little Sidekick or Hiptop is now a Microsoft product. It’s still unknown exactly what Microsoft has planned for them, as the press release has been translated from English into Marketingish.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 15, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. has completed its acquisition of Danger, Inc., the company announced today. Danger’s expertise in building great, intuitive client software for mobile handsets connected to powerful hosted back-end services fosters rich consumer experiences in communication, media sharing, entertainment and personalization. The combined force of Danger and Microsoft strengthens the company’s ability to provide innovative mobile experiences to more consumers.

Danger will become a part of the new Premium Mobile Experiences (PMX) team, a group within the Mobile Communications Business (MCB) of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. The PMX team focuses on consumer-facing mobile projects and is led by Roz Ho, corporate vice president of Premium Mobile Experiences, reporting to Andy Lees, senior vice president of the MCB. Danger co-founders Matt Hershenson and Joe Britt will join the new organization, reporting directly to Ho.

 

Microsoft Press Pass

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There is no denying that the Asus EEE PC has changed the scenery in computer land.

But to actually make Microsoft change its mind on killing off Windows XP? That’s quite impressive!

XP was meant to be "EOL" as of June 2008, but has been granted a 2 year stay of execution, just so computers like the EEE PC and the upcoming Intel Classmate can get something other than Linux.

Of course, it could all just be slick marketing by Microsoft and a disguise to prevent them from admitting that Vista isn’t doing what they hoped it would…

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it will keep selling a version of Windows XP for use on a new breed of low-cost computers for at least two years longer than the system will be available for mainstream PCs.

The software maker said Windows XP Home will be available at least through June 2010 for computers like Intel Corp.’s Classmate PC and ASUSTek Computer Inc.’s Eee PC. But Microsoft also vowed to keep XP on the market for those machines for a year after the next version of Windows is released, which could mean 2011 or later.

The low-cost machines have smaller hard drives, less memory and slower processors than most Windows computers sold today, and most would have a hard time running the bulkier Windows Vista.

 

Source: AP

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It’s CTIA time in Vegas, so expect quite a bit of mobile news coming to you.

The first "big news" is the official release of Windows Mobile 6.1.

In what has to be one of the worst kept secrets, there wasn’t a single new feature announced by Microsoft that hadn’t already been shown off. The real news was which phones will be getting this update:

• Alltel Wireless: HTC PPC6800, HTC Touch
• AT&T: Samsung BlackJack II, MOTO Q 9h global, Pantech duo, AT&T Tilt by HTC
• Sprint: A new Palm Treo and updates for the Mogul by HTC, Touch by HTC, MOTO Q 9c, Samsung ACE
• T-Mobile International: T-Mobile MDA Ameo 16 GB, T-Mobile MDA compact IV
• ASUS: New phones including the P320, ZX1, P560, M536 and updates for the P527, P750, M930
• HTC: A new Touch Dual for the U.S. and updates for the AT&T Tilt, Touch by HTC, Mogul by HTC from Sprint, TyTN II
• i-mate: 8502, 9502, 8150, 6150
• Intermec: CN3
• Motorola: MOTO Q 9c, MOTO Q 9h global, MC70, MC9000
• Pantech: Pantech duo
• Samsung: BlackJack II
• Toshiba: Portégé G810,Portégé G910

The updates are meant to start rolling out in Q1, but knowing how vendors deal with upgrades like this, I wouldn’t expect them to actually be available till Q3.

Source: Engadget.com

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I know I’ve been pretty harsh on Palm in the past weeks, it’s hard not to be disappointed by them. But apparently by July all their troubles could be over when they release the Treo 800W.

Last week a Sprint summer lineup roadmap was leaked and subsequently removed because of legal threats, which is usually a sign that it is real.

The Treo 800W is supposedly a Windows Mobile 6.1 device, with a 320×320 screen (a first on a Windows device), real GPS, WiFi (a first on a Palm Treo), options for camera or no camera and Rev.A EVDO (another first on a Treo). As always with a new Treo, Sprint seems to be getting the sole rights on it for a couple of months

All in all it looks only moderately impressive. But when you look what the competition has to offer, then it’s clear that Palm is still a few years behind the rest. I had hoped for something truly revolutionary from Palm, or at least something that would be a departure from the 5 year old Treo form factor.

In a world where the Blackberry still rules the corporate world and newcomers like Apple and HTC are eating away market share from everyone, I had expected more from Palm.

Source: Palminfocenter

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I’ve already posted once how much I enjoy the EEE PC with Windows instead of the default Linux OS. So it was a pleasant surprise when I read that Bestbuy (of all places) will be stocking the EEE (4G) with XP pre-installed around April 9th, for just $399. That’s the same price as the 4G EEE with Linux, so quite a decent deal.

The specifications of the 4G are; 4Gb Flash memory, 512Mb RAM, webcam, VGA output, WiFi, audio in/out and Ethernet.

It’s surprisingly snappy for such a light machine, and I have a feeling they’ll be flying off the shelves as soon as they hit them.

Source and review: Laptop Magazine

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A lot has been said (and posted) about Windows Mobile 6.1. So I’ll join in and show off something better than rumor and speculation…

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Many of the gadget sites were re-reporting an item from the Boy Genius Report this week, which claimed to reveal some new goodies Microsoft would be adding to Windows Mobile 6.1. But the article was flawed. Most of the "goodies" BGR reported on were not Windows features, but third party programs or related to the hardware on the specific phone they were showing off.

You might have remembered our detailed coverage of Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard a few months back. Our Motorola Q9 with Wi-Fi came with it, and we’ve just received a new Motorola Q9 with Wi-Fi, and it’s got some updated Windows Mobile 6.1 goodies in it! Here’s a quick breakdown of the new features:

• Support for AT&T’s Video Share
• New thumbnail browsing
• New Albums feature
• Send to your space (upload to your Windows Live account)
• Updated camera UI
• Updated home screen (more music and multimedia features)
• TV out

(Source: Boy Genius Report)

I’ll break these points down one at a time:

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Google Maps Mobile

Google Maps Mobile was the first decent online mapping program with satellite imagery (built upon the work of Keyhole), and it was also the first online map program for Windows Mobile. There had been other navigation packages, but they all depended on local storage of the maps and were fairly expensive.

With the advent of more Windows powered phones, Google maps mobile made it possible to download an application under 1Mb, and have access to the entire map database Google had to offer.

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