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Windows Mobile 7 aka Photon and Windows Phone 7 series

Photon has been killed about 18 months ago. That’s how long development of Windows Phone 7 took them. 18 months. And that’s why the Windows Phone 7 they’ve shown at MWC looks so unfinished: Because it is.

Photon was the original Windows Mobile 7 project. An evolution of Windows Mobile 6. They were hard at work back then, trying to make Windows Mobile 7 competitive to iPhone OS. Windows Mobile 7 was originally planned to be released in mid 2009.

But at some point, they dumped the whole project and decided to start from scratch. Photon was dead. And Windows “Mobile” was doomed, making way for Windows “Phone”. Instead of Photon, they released Windows Mobile 6.5 in mid 2009, a stop gap release to give them more time to finish their new Windows Phone 7 project.
Well, we all know how that turned out.

Windows Mobile 7 wouldn’t have been much different from other platforms, like Android and iPhone OS. Sure, it would have had much more power user features, but it would have been centered around applications, like the others. It would certainly have gained a significant market share, but no dominance. With Windows Phone 7, instead, Microsoft is aiming higher. But that also means a lot of risk. It means Windows Phone 7 might fail completely. In the end, it will come down to how good they are at getting developers excited about their new platform. That’s where Palm failed, despite having a very compelling platform with webOS. Microsoft might fail the same way, though they have a much better starting position than Palm (more money, more resources, better developing tools).
But Windows Phone 7 is very similar to Vista: Just like they killed the “Longhorn” project, they killed “Photon”, and started from scratch. And just like Vista, what they’re going to release by the end of 2010 will be an unfinished product.

They’re trying to make you think that 7 is their lucky number, but actually, it might turn out that it’s not, and Windows Phone 7 is just like Windows 6 (Vista).

Also, Windows Phone 7 is not that different from Palm’s webOS: When the Palm Pre was released, webOS was a nice looking mobile OS, but lacking features and refinements. And lacking third party applications. Expect the same to happen with Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7 ROM ported to HTC Diamond

This is the first Windows Phone 7 custom ROM, cooked for HTC Diamond (currently it’s for testing purpose only). This is the first demo video, download will be available after some tests.

An easy way to get Windows Phone 7 Series on your device

What I actually did was set my desktop in portrait mode, then set it to 720×480, start the Windows Phone 7 Emulator and start Remote Desktop software on the HTC HD2 to control it. Voila!

Windows Phone 7 series theme for SPB Mobile Shell 3.5.3

Contains the following:
+ All new layout with invisible buttons at top of Home Hubs for Carousel (top left) and menu (top right).
+ Links on right side of Home Hub 1 to main functions (top button to sound profile, middle invisible button to connections profile and bottom invisible button to task manager) which can easily be changed if desired.
+ 2 Home Hubs (slide up and down to scroll between them) which you can populate with a selection of panels or make up your own.
+ Panels are mostly made up of shortcuts and custom shortcut skins so easy to change images or look (if desired).
+ New menu bars in mobile shell screens.
+ All Screens fully set up for LandScape mode.
+ Lots more that I cant think of right now. Find out for yourself

Download:

QVGA: Link 1, Link 2
WQVGA: Link 1, Link 2
VGA: Link 1, Link 2
WVGA: 4Shared (20100326), RapidShare (20100326)

Read more info

Windows Phone 7 Series theme for ThrottleLauncher

Windows Phone 7 Series Theme for all Windows Mobile devices, this is a theme for the new and fast ThrottleLauncher 1.0 final version.

Features:

- Scrollable home page
- Animated real contacts on homepage
- Animated pictures tile with differents thumbs from selected folder
- Animated Me tile
- You can choose your own photo for the animation
- Animated contacts name for People page
- People page
- Games page
- You can choose a xbox live Avatar
- Six colors for the tiles(Blue,Orange,Red,Green,DarkBlue,Yellow)
- You can use original wm taskbar
- Original Windows Phone 7 footer
- Battery indicator(Thxs to HDOwner for the graphics)
- Little clock
- You can add your favorites apps on home page

How to install:

1) You will need ThrottleLauncher 1.0.1 – DOWNLOAD
2.) Download the ZIP file given below and move the extracted WindowsPhone7 directory on your phone to \Program Files\ThrottleLauncher\Setups\
3.) Go to Start menu and start ThrottleConfig. Select Windows7 in Themes.
4.) Go to Start menu and start Throttle Launcher

Theme download

Author:  arley12

Windows Phone 7 Series ringtones and wallpapers for download

We have both ringtones (really good sounds) and wallpapers dumped from Windows Phone 7 Series rom, you can download it for free from here:

Ringtones

Wallpapers

Hitler finds out the HTC HD2 won’t get Windows Phone 7 upgrade

Windows Phone 7 Series promotional video

That phone in the video looks like an HTC HD2, but we are not 100% sure. At WMC they had a few HD2 running Windows Phone 7 Series and in a few scenes of this video ad when the kid is playing games and the dad siting on the couch both show an very similar device to HTC HD2.

Windows Phone 7 ROM dump files and more info

A couple of days ago we’ve got a Windows Phone 7 ROM dump from the official emulator images (leaked over XDA-Developers), now we have more information and details about Windows Phone 7 OS and apps inside. First of all the registry structure is the same as WM6.5 and it’s WindowsCE based + .net Comact Framework 3.7 insisde, but the security model have changed and to access something you need policy. The good news – there is a chance to build custom ROMs!

Here is the Windows Phone 7 ROM dump:

http://www.multiupload.com/WYKJJNBZOV

Windows Phone 7 is not Windows Mobile? Are you sure , check this registry info:

E:\dump2\SYS\SHARED\COMMON\BASEAPPS>dir /B
7790d42f-9141-429d-aa0f-78fd9c7424f6.dsm
7790d42f-9141-429d-aa0f-78fd9c7424f6.rgu
coreres.dll
GAC_Microsoft.WindowsMobile.Configuration_v1_0_0_0_cneutral_1.dll
GAC_Microsoft.WindowsMobile.Status_v1_0_0_0_cneutral_1.dll
GAC_Microsoft.WindowsMobile.Telephony_v1_0_0_0_cneutral_1.dll
GAC_Microsoft.WindowsMobile.Utilities_v1_0_0_0_cneutral_1.dll
GAC_Microsoft.WindowsMobile_v1_0_0_0_cneutral_1.dll

And another one, what we have inside:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\PackageManager\BlackList]
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5600}"=dword:0 ;Shortcut
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5602}"=dword:0 ;Say It
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5603}"=dword:0 ;Calculator
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5605}"=dword:0 ;~About
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5606}"=dword:0 ;~Date Time
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5607}"=dword:0 ;~Phone Lock Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5609}"=dword:0 ;Speed Type
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5610}"=dword:0 ;Text
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5611}"=dword:0 ;Call History
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5612}"=dword:0 ;Calendar
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5614}"=dword:0 ;Email
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5615}"=dword:0 ;People
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5616}"=dword:0 ;AccountsManage
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5617}"=dword:0 ;Word Mobile
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5618}"=dword:0 ;Excel Mobile
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5619}"=dword:0 ;PowerPoint Mobile
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA561A}"=dword:0 ;SharePoint Mobile
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA561B}"=dword:0 ;OneNote Mobile
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA561C}"=dword:0 ;~Call Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA561D}"=dword:0 ;~Contacts Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA561F}"=dword:0 ;~Cell Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5620}"=dword:0 ;~Bluetooth Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5621}"=dword:0 ;~Flightmode
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5622}"=dword:0 ;~Office Mobile Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5623}"=dword:0 ;~Wifi Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5624}"=dword:0 ;~OBExParser
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5625}"=dword:0 ;~Find My Phone
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5626}"=dword:0 ;~Backup Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5630}"=dword:0 ;Zune
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5631}"=dword:0 ;Camera
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5632}"=dword:0 ;Pictures
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5633}"=dword:0 ;Marketplace
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5634}"=dword:0 ;Games
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5635}"=dword:0 ;Picture Camera CPL
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5640}"=dword:0 ;~Device Update Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5641}"=dword:0 ;~Location Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5642}"=dword:0 ;~Location Settings
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5661}"=dword:0 ;Maps
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5671}"=dword:0 ;Convert
"{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5672}"=dword:0 ;StartKITL
"{5687D2BD-E507-46ff-84FD-FBE296DAF170}"=dword:0 ;~brightness
"{4e466928-cdd9-438e-be16-3b2dfb18cbc9}"=dword:0 ;~sounds
"{eec1f6e1-c3b6-4da6-bbf6-0aaee694f7a1}"=dword:0 ;~about
"{3B1D7EA1-F8F2-434c-B09B-116589ED54AE}"=dword:0 ;Alarms
"{be937011-98b7-45d2-9735-6828d4c9a750}"=dword:0 ;SystemInfo
"{D76C40E0-616D-4e29-929C-B40697732696}"=dword:0 ;OfficeUrlStartToken
"{534c16be-a6d3-4560-a537-f5c9ccdb6ddc}"=dword:0 ;Microsoft Office
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Settings\{69DAA7D1-09EA-4eae-A67E-56E4B0B4CA5B}\SecureItems]
"{B193A538-115B-4789-93D1-F3981B9D7B11}"=-

No memory cards on Windows Phone 7 Series

We found out from Todd Brix of Microsoft that Windows Phone 7 Series will eschew user-replaceable memory. Memory cards may still be used by manufacturers and OEMs, but those won’t be easily or readily accessible to the end-user. This will allow, as Microsoft puts it, for a better user experience on the device, and we’re not sure that the primary motive for locking down storage memory is for a better experience – we’re guessing it has to do with DRM though the strategy would go well with Microsoft’s move to remove a file management system.

Close competitor Apple and Palm have both eschewed removable storage for built-in storage of varying capacities between 8 GB to 32 GB on current generation phone models, but that decision was met with upset users who may want to augment the storage capacity on their devices or swap memory cards. With the case of Apple, the iPhone’s lack of removable memory is probably due to the fact that the company doesn’t want users to access the file structure.

Original source

Windows Phone 7 Series will not have a file nanager and USB mass storage support

Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business Senior Director Todd Brix has revealed to us that the company will enable a different methodology for file management on the next-generation mobile OS. Rather than have the traditional File Explorer, Microsoft will hide all the file structure from end-users, much like the iPhone, and instead will offer to organize files into relevant hubs, as one method. The company did not reveal any details in our brief conversation, but files will be automatically handled by the platform, from synchronization with the PC or cloud to arranging and managing the content and data on the device.

Also, as a consequent to lacking a true file management system, gone will be USB mass storage mode, which was a popular feature for users to plug their phones into a PC and mount their storage card on their desktop to quickly access or migrate data between PCs.

Original source

Windows Phone 7 Series – device requirements and developer tools

On the devices… Accelerometer, location based services, notifications for push, hardware accelerated video with DRM, Information Services Smooth Streaming for highest quality content viewing, camera, mic, and multitouch support for WP7 developer support.

Apps to come from The Associated Press, Archetype International, AWS Convergence Tech, WeatherBug, Citrix Systems, Clarity Consulting, EA Mobile, FourSquare, Fandango, frog Design, Larva Lab, March.com, Matchbox, Microsoft, Namco, Pageonce, pandora, photobucket, PopCap Games, Seesmix, Shazam, Sling Media, SPB, etc.

To create apps, Microsoft is providing Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7 Series add-in to use with Visual Studio 2010 RC, XNA Game Studio 4.0, Windows Phone 7 Series emulator for app testing, Expression Blend for Windows Phone Community Technology Preview.

On marketplace… panoramic design and active merchandising to increase discoverability of games and apps. Supports 1-time credit card puchases, mobile operator billing and ad-funded apps, and allows developers to cross-promote apps thru deep linking.

WP7 brings together a rich application environment, powerful hardware, a fresh approach to software and a smart new design. It was designed to generate incredible opportunities for developers and designers to quickly and easily deliver compelling apps and games.

Windows Phone 7 Series theme – beta version released

To use it, install the cab file below, then click on the icon in the start menu.
To exit, long-tap on the right side of the screen.
Settings is also listed in the long-tap menu.

To lock the device, click on the top of the screen, near the clock.

Current features:
People hub with recent, all contacts, and a list of contacts Facebook status updates.
Bing search with background changing depending on Bing picture of day.
Live tiles (Javascript based, set a URL in the settings to your own)
Program launcher
Lock screen

Upcoming features:
More hubs (give me ideas!)
Better animations
More social network integration
(Ideas?)

Known issues:
Facebook does not stay logged in
Facebook lags when viewing What’s New

Download

Jaxbot’s Windows Phone 7 Series Theme – Beta released! Hello I have released the BETA version of my Windows Phone 7 Series Theme, and am looking for some feedback To use it, install the cab file below, then click on the icon in the start menu. To exit, long-tap on the right side of the screen. Settings is also listed in the long-tap menu. To lock the device, click on the top of the screen, near the clock. Current features: People hub with recent, all contacts, and a list of contacts Facebook status updates. Bing search with background changing depending on Bing picture of day. Live tiles (Javascript based, set a URL in the settings to your own) Program launcher Lock screen Upcoming features: More hubs (give me ideas!) Better animations More social network integration (Ideas?) Known issues: Facebook does not stay logged in Facebook lags when viewing What’s New Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEYzUhnmRFk Download: http://windowsphonehacker.jaxbot.com…/wp7s_beta.CAB __________________ Website: http://windowsphonehacker.jaxbot.com/ Shake2Send – Bump-like app Windows Phone 7 Series Theme Main: HTC Fuze (AT&T) Others: 8525 [Love!], LG Incite [Sold. Hated it.] Last edited by Jaxbot; Today at 02:34 AM..

3D Games on Windows Phone 7 Series and visual effects

Windows Phone 7 theme running on HTC HD2

This is Windows Phone 7 Series theme for Throttle Launcher, it’s free for download and use – more info HERE.

Windows Phone 7 Series theme for iPhone = LOL

A new theme for iPhone has been released, that mimics the look of the yet to be released Windows Phone 7 Series devices. This theme, created by yours truly,you can download it for free from Cydia, and is available right now for jailbroken iPhone and iPod touch. Whole world used to get an iPhone theme, but now LOL -  Windows Phone 7 theme for iPhone users, that’s news !

Windows Phone 7 and full 3D games support

Windows Phone 7 Series XNA screenshots:

Alright, we’re going to be straight with you: you’re not going to like this. See, Microsoft just showed us a pair of 3D games running on its ASUS Windows Phone prototype and built with its brand new XNA Game Studio 4.0, but wouldn’t let us nab a single photo or video of the process. What we can tell you is that they exist, they work, and at least Microsoft tossed us some screenshots to wave in your face.

Original source