At the Mobile World Congress on Monday, we are expecting to hear the official word from Microsoft about Windows Phone 7, it’s latest update to the Windows Mobile Operating System. Various rumors have been flying around, but on Monday details will be confirmed as to the changes to the operating system. Will the interface launch mean the creation of the Zune Phone? Will the new interface eliminate multitasking? Check back on Monday to find out!

Nokia Messaging for Symbian S60v5 devices such as the Nokia 5800, N97, X6, 5230, etc could now download the latest version: v10.2 today.  The S60v3 version of the app will be released within a few weeks.

Changelog:

• Localized in 38 languages
• Support for Destinations on S60 5^th edition devices
• Improvements to on-device-setup wizard
• Deleted items folder now automatically empties itself, faster client deletions
• Various bug fixes

Garmin-Asus have announces 2 new GPS enabled phones, the M10 and the A50.  The A50 will run Android and boasts a 3.5-inch HVGA (that’s about 480×320 pixels) capacitive touchscreen, a finger-friendly UI, 4GB of internal storage with microSD expansion, and an accelerometer.  The A50 will launch in Europe in the first half of 2010 at a price thats still to be announced.  Picture above.

The M10 will run Windows Mobile 6.5.3 and comes with HSDPA, also featuring Wi-Fi, 3.5-inch WVGA touch screen and 4GB of Flash memory (512MB RAM/512MB ROM).  Image Above. More info on pricing and availability in the coming weeks

Firmware JB1 for the Samsung i8910 HD is now available for download via PC Studio 7.  The Samsung i8910 HD is available from Negri Electronics from here.  For a small discount use this coupon code: blogjpn020810

Changelog:

• Kinetic scrolling in more parts of the interface (but not in the main Applications menu – behaviour here is unchanged and similar to that in Nokia’s 5800, for example)
• The Next Gen (NG) version of Web: (faster, full-screen automatically)
• Camera improvements, video recording improvements
• Bux fixes and speed improvements throughout

Google’s lastest web based application for mobile devices is Google Buzz.  This app allows users to see what’s going on around you, post messages tagged with your location, and keep up with your friends on the go.  Visit buzz.google.com to start using this app.

PPCGeeks claims to have some inside information before the Mobile World Congress event on February 15th. Below are a list of the leaked details of the new OS. Some seem interesting, including the Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live integration. Some of the features, such as, no multitasking or the application from the app store only, concern me. Is Microsoft taking a step back to create the Zune equivalent of the iPhone? In the process, will Microsoft risk alienating a group of users who have stuck with Windows Mobile through thick and thin?

-The User Interface is based upon codename “METRO”. It will be very similar to the Zune HD User Interface with a complete revamp of the “Start” screen. The UI is “Very Clean”, “Soulful” and “Alive”
-Unfortunately there will be no Flash support at the get go as there was not enough time to implement these features.
-Windows Phone 7 will only support application installation through service based delivery. (i.e Marketplace). Application installation via storage card will not be possible.
- No Multi-Task support. Applications will “Pause” when in the background, however will support notifications via push notifications.
-Marketplace will now support “try before you buy” as well as an API
-No NETCF backwards compatibility. This means the original rumor of no backward compatibility for applications holds to be true. That being said, there are high hopes of porting the NetCF to the newer platform easily.
-Microsoft is confident that devices will be ready by September 2010
-Full Zune Integration
-Windows Mobile Device Center will no longer be used. Zune software to take over syncing via PC.
-OEM Interfaces will not be allowed to run on the device. Say goodbye to Sense UI / SPB Mobile Shell / Point UI / Infinity, etc, etc
-Full XBOX Gaming Integration (Gamer tag, achievements, friends, avatars, merchandising, etc)
-Full support for social networking

The Symbian Foundation has announced that Symbian OS (330,000,000 shipped) is now fully Open Source from today.  Members of the foundation include Nokia, AT&T, LG, Motorola, NTT Docomo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.  This is the result of the weird timer over at Countdown.Symbian.Org.  More news soon.



Nexus One owners can now rejoice; a software update is on it’s way to enable multitouch in the phone’s browser, gallery, and maps applications. According to a post on the google nexus board, new functionality has been implemented in the google maps application including: Starred items synchronized with maps.google.com – access your favorite places from your phone or computer,
Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history – makes it easy to search for places you’ve searched for before, and
Night mode in Google Maps Navigation – automatically changes your screen at night for easier viewing and driving.

The update is being rolled out to phones through the end of the week.  The Nexus One is also available for sale here.

Nokia have announced that since Ovi Maps free navigation launch on the 21st January 2010, the app was downloaded 1.4 million times in a week.  “We’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia. “When we announced free walk & drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer. The number of people now using their Nokia for navigation, and as a result looking for more location-aware software, is growing faster than even we predicted.”

Last Monday, Glen Murphy a user interface designer for Google’s Chrome browser and the Chrome operating system pointed out on twitter that new image and video concepts of a Chrome OS-based tablet that nobody had noticed, that were released 2 days before the iPad release (great timing).  He ointed this out by tweeting “Apparently our tablet mocks have been unearthed.”  As stated on the Chromium form factors site “its primary focus is Netbooks, Chrome OS could eventually scale to a wide variety of devices. Each would have vastly different input methods, available screen space, and processing power,”.