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Microsoft to Attack RIM with Magneto
An anonymous reader writes "At this week's Mobile and Embedded DevCon (MEDC) in Las Vegas, it's anticipated that Microsoft will finally unveil 'Magneto', widely expected to be dubbed Windows Mobile 2005. Magneto is rumored to merge the Pocket PC and Smartphone versions of Windows Mobile into a single platform that combines smartphone and PDA capabilities. Consistent with that strategy, Pocket Office will reportedly be renamed Office Mobile, with other key apps similarly redesignated Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, and Outlook Mobile."
Shut the fuck up already. Every cellphone-related story has a few idiots like you bitching about modern technology, while ignoring the fact that every major phone manufacturer has an extensive lineup of budget phones with black&white or greyscale screens and almost no extra (useless) features. They aren't going to turn into Windows Mobile smartphones overnight. Go buy a $60 new phone and quit complaining.
Nope. There is and always will be a huge market for basic phones. They just don't make slashdot front page.
Can anyone accurately predict what protocols, air interfaces, and file format standards will end up winning in this (now) mobile free for all?
I'll bite. Well, they all have mail and web access, so they are fairly standard, use IMAP for your mail of course. Files get stored on SD-cards, which is a standard format. Notes are txt files. Emails in the inbox are stored in a unique way, just like every other mail package on the planet (with the exception of direct-access stuff like Maildir of course). Recorded audio is plain wav with a choice of codecs.
The only thing that you might actually have to export manually would be contacts and schedules. Both can be dumped to XML IIRC. I've helped people export data from a variety of phones, and these things are very open compared to others it has to be said.
Thing is, I can't think of an alternative office are appliction that encompasses shedules, contacts and tasks in an easily workable format, and allows synchronization between mobile devices. I'd be happy to use one if it existed, but hate it or not, Outlook is actually very well featured. That's half the problem here; the competetion isn't all that much of a competion. Yet.
My real fear is that in the future you won't be able to get a phone without windozeXX on it, or be able to use any air interface not supported by M$ pocket-mobile-crap software.
Sure, lack of choice bites, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "pocket-mobile-crap software". Have you actually used one? Personally, I think they are the dogs bollocks and there is nothing else as good as them on the market right now. Zealotry aside, that's all that matters.