ChazClout

Yesterday it was announced that HTC and Microsoft had struck a deal to licence patents concerning Google’s Android operating system. Some saw this as HTC backing down to Microsoft and others saw it as Microsoft siding with HTC in its recent patent dispute with Apple.

It seems that it may not be the case of Microsoft siding with HTC as Microsoft’s Horacio Gutierrez has issued the following statement:

Microsoft has a decades-long record of investment in software platforms. As a result, we have built a significant patent portfolio in this field, and we have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to ensure that competitors do not free ride on our innovations. We have also consistently taken a proactive approach to licensing to resolve IP infringement by other companies, and have been talking with several device manufacturers to address our concerns relative to the Android mobile platform.

It’s currently unknown which manufacturers Microsoft have been talking to. It’ll be interesting to see if Google have anything to say about any future disputes.

Source: Engadget

Well it seems that WPS7 will be missing quite a lot at launch.

No multitasking. Closed app store. No copy & paste. No memory cards…..
Copy and paste.
Closed app store.
Multitasking and Memory cards.

I am in 2010 aren’t I?

Figures released by Comscore show Android gaining the largest chunk of marketshare in the U.S market with a 4.3% gain and RIM remain number one smartphone platform in the U.S and still managed a 1.7% increase.

Apples gains were at 0.3% whilst Palm and Microsoft took a hit with a 2% and 4.1% loss respectively.

Source: Brainstorm Tech

Here is an interesting video. It shows a single game being played on Windows, XBOX360 and Windows Phone series 7!

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  saves its place and lets you resume from that spot on whichever platform you happen to pick up.

That last bit sounds very interesting! Being able to continue a game nomatter where you are would be a very nice feature.

Source: Engadget

Apple have sued HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents.

CUPERTINO, California—March 2, 2010—Apple® today filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

Microsoft have posted an extensive video of a Windows Phone 7 Series hands on demo at MSDN

This is it! What you’ve all been waiting for: your first look at Windows Phone 7. Corporate Vice President of Windows Phone Program Management Joe Belfiore gives us a full demo of the announcements being made today at Mobile World Congress, including:

• The new user experience
• Integration with social networks like Facebook
• Internet Explorer
• Photos, videos, and music
• E-mail and texting
• GPS and maps
• Search integration
• Hardware standards

The link to the video is here (Microsoft silverlight required)

Microsoft today unvielled its latest phone operating system, Windows Phone 7. Due to be released in Q4 2010, the OS features heavy social networking integration, Zune media playback, XBOX Live support and other things such as 4 point multitouch, Internet Explorer web browser (based on its desktop counterpart), Bing search and maps integration.

Here are a few screenshots of the upcoming UI:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Exciting stuff indeed!

Businessweek has reported that Apple is in talks with Microsoft to replace the default search on the iPhone from Google to Bing search.

“Apple (AAPL) is in talks with Microsoft (MSFT) to replace Google (GOOG) as the default search engine on its iPhone, according to two people familiar with the matter. The talks have been under way for weeks, say the people, who asked not to be named because the details have not been made public.”

There have been reports of increasing competition between Apple and Google which will undoubtedly fuel the debate that relations are not the best between them. I guess we will see what happens in any future releases of iPhone OS.

Sources: Macrumors, Businessweek

I just got an email from Microsoft confirming this: