Some Windows Mobile 7 Thoughts

On Monday at a developers conference being held in Barcelona Microsoft previewed to the world Windows Mobile 7. This is the release of Windows Mobile that Microsoft are hoping gets them back in the game against Apple and Google.

From the reaction I have seen online so far it does sound like Microsoft may have done just that.

But there are a few caveats with this coverage and the opinions being expressed at the moment (including this one here). No one has a phone with this on at the moment and nor have they used it. Phones with Windows Mobile 7 on are not due out until the end of 2010 I believe.  These phones will be from some of the usual Microsoft partners which includes the biggie HTC.

HTC are really the leaders outside of Apple in designing smart phones. They have been doing it for years now, mainly with Windows Mobile and more recently with Google Android.

So until folks have a Windows Mobile 7 based phone in their hands and they are using the final production version of Windows Mobile 7 we really won’t know whether Microsoft has really pulled it off and got themselves back in the game.

It’s also a long time between now and the end of 2010, in that time there is an expected version 4 of the iPhone OS to be released. Plus there is very strong reasons to think that we will see at least one if not two more major releases of Google Android.

One thing I am sure of though is that Nokia and the Symbian OS are an also ran and we are seeing the possible death throws of that OS. That is despite the recent open sourcing of the Symbian OS and making it free to other manufacturers. It comes across as too little too late, or to hammer the point home even more shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. Don’t get me wrong Nokia will still make phones I just think they will move eventually to Android for their smart phones.

The Palm Pre is also going to be an also ran if not already dead. I have seen rumours that production has been stopped currently on the Palm Pre range. Whether this is due to the supply line being at full capacity or that they are just not selling and well you get the picture. The Palm Pre was always a last throw of the dice for Palm. A gamble that is not paying off.

RIM and the Blackberry they have yet to respond properly to all the above. I’m not writing them off yet. But based on their attempt to take on the iPhone in the past I’m not holding my breathe.

The main points are we need hands on, we need to see how it compares to the expected updates from the competition, and only then can we make a better more informed discussion about this all. But in the meantime it does look like Microsoft have stepped up to the mark.

Some Great Free Stuff From Microsoft

Wow I bet that title shocked folks. Yep Microsoft do some great stuff, and it is free as well!

Windows Live Writer (WLW) – I had to start with this it for me is the best bit of blogging software out there at the moment. So good in fact that on my Macbook I have VMWare Fusion running an XP virtual machine so I can use WLW on my Macbook. It really is worth the effort. There are also some nice free plugins that can be installed that expand it’s functionality.

Windows Live Photos (WLP) – You can install this at the same time as you install WLW, which I do recommend. There is one feature here that I find very useful indeed, and that is the ability to stitch photos together to make a panorama (details here). You can see the results I got from a panorama I did with it here.

Live Mesh – 5GB of online storage for your files. Runs on Windows (naturally), Macs (although there is a Snow Leopard incompatibility at the moment), the web and other mobile devices (no iPhone client yet). So 5GB of synced stored files, and the ability to access the desk top of the computer as well. So when you are away from your desk or office your able to get easy access to them and the apps that access them.

Office Live – Want another 5GB of storage just for your office documents? Want to collaborate on them as well? Then this great M$ freebie is just for you.

Sky Drive – 25GB of online storage! Yep a massive 25GB of free online storage. ‘nuff said really.

Of course with the above there may be file size restrictions. But if you are using these to back up photos, documents and the odd mp3, then this shouldn’t be a problem.

So using three free Microsoft services I make that 35GB of free online storage. Not bad if you ask me. Plus don’t forget when Office 10 comes out there will be a free online version of that to include in this list. It won’t be the full version naturally, but hopefully be more functional than Google Docs. I think that Google Docs will have some pretty stiff competition.

Microsoft Security Advisory For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Users

If you are running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 then you will need to take heed of a new Security Advisory being issued by Microsoft. The vulnerability is “in Microsoft Video ActiveX Control. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. When using Internet Explorer, code execution is remote and may not require any user intervention.”

Microsoft are saying that:

“For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 customers, Microsoft is recommending removing support for this ActiveX Control within Internet Explorer using all the Class Identifiers listed in the Workaround section. Though unaffected by this vulnerability, Microsoft is recommending that Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 customers remove support for this ActiveX Control within Internet Explorer using the same Class Identifiers as a defense-in-depth measure.”

As you can see from the above quote Microsoft are also recommending that Vista and Windows Server 2008 users also do this.

There is an automated fix for this available from Microsoft, which makes things easier for you.

You can get the Microsoft fix at the following link:

“Microsoft Security Advisory: Vulnerability in Microsoft Video ActiveX control could allow remote code execution”

For those that want to read more go to the following link:

“Microsoft Security Advisory (972890) Vulnerability in Microsoft Video ActiveX Control Could Allow Remote Code Execution”

Stating The Bloody Obvious

I couldn't resist linking to this story on Gizmodo "Microsoft Says Less Phones Will Have WinMo in the Future".

Apart from the fact in the story M$ are saying they will be the ones limiting the number of phones with their OS on. Somehow I think that with the other choices out there being better than the M$ offering, they may find that the manufacturers were already planning to use them less anyway.

Windows Mobile 7 needs to be something special to compete with the competition. Yet it is already late to the party. From the rumblings online I don't think it will be good enough to compete either.

So by force or by choice the M$ claim was always going to be stating the bloody obvious.