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Gates Releases Details on New Mobile OS
rjelks writes "Microsoft's Bill Gates released details about the company's new mobile operating system, code-named Magneto, at the Mobile & Embedded Developers Conference in Las Vegas today. There has been a lot of recent speculation about the new OS. People have been describing it as a possible 'Blackberry killer.' Windows Mobile 2005 will be released to hardware manufacturers immediately. The OS will integrate Smartphone, Pocket PC, and Pocket PC Phone Edition operating systems into one platform. It will also include updates to the mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint." Relatedly, ZDNet has an interview with Gates about the initiative.
as in "man, this Magneto OS is really killing my Blackberry, It takes 128 MB RAM and a 1gHz processor".
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
... so-called because it has a nasty tendancy to wipe your hard drive every so often. I still wish Microsoft would go back to the naming scheme used with WinCE - naming their operating systems after their users' first reactions.
I'm you from the future! We have to finish our time machine before the Angels of Destruction find the portal!
More information on Magneto:
Years later Magnus reemerged as Magneto, who was determined to conquer the human race to prevent their oppression of mutants. Xavier's original team of X-Men thwarted his first public move in his war with humanity, the takeover of the Cape Citadel missile base. When they next clashed, Magneto was leading his original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which included Wanda and Pietro, now known as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
Not until years later would Magneto learn that they were actually his children. At one point Magneto genetically engineered a being called Alpha the Ultimate Mutant, who rebelled against him and turned Magneto back into an infant. Magneto thereafter had a series of battles with Xavier's new team of X-Men.
Yeah, that's a good PR move.
What happened to MS naming their releases after cities?
Next OS is going to be 'Red Skull', but with none of the anti-semitism that so many would like to accuse MS of.
After that, look forward to 'Kingpin' OS, with plenty of features to make sure that Microsoft stays at the top of the heap, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
The 'Juggernaut' OS will mark MS's return to using the X-Men's enemies as code names, but will also describe the install footprint.
'Apocalypse' OS will be release immediately after Billy G. has been declared world dictator for life, forever and ever amen.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
I have one, won it in a contest, an Orange SPV-C500.
They're going to have to make a whole lot of changes to make this dog hunt. Problems with the current SmartPhone:
* Sync: you can sync with (just) one device. Don't ever try to unsync with that device, tho - in my case, you just can't. My notebook and phone are bonded forever.
* Interface: One more time: the Windows Start button metaphor doesn't work on small devices. Other issues include that it can take several steps to get to common programs.
* Non-intuitive/inconsistent UI: Sometimes, you can cancel out of something with the "red phone" button like on other phones. Sometimes you have to back out of things with the cursor button. Users of pretty much any other phone UI will go crazy.
* Not invented here syndrome: MMS uses AMR encoding for audio. Smartphone (at least my version) just doesn't support it, period.
* Crashes: It crashes a lot more than other phone OSes I've tried. Sometimes the crashes are partial - like losing networking ability.
* LONG boot time: takes over a minute for my phone to come up.
* Difficult to configure: the interface for configuring email and other internet apps is horrid and slow. Can't do it from a desktop app.
* Web browser is just totally wonky: some things load. Some things don't. What loaded yesterday doesn't work today.
* Slow: I believe that my device as a 200mhz processor in it, but screen updates and nav is really, really slow.
* You get charged for everything: there is seemingly no community, but just software vendors. Folks that are spoiled by all the nice gadgety apps available on Palm and Symbian are going to be disappointed.
Give me a Treo or Symbian device any day. I only use the thing because it was free, and I'm thinking seriously about ebaying it anyway.
Microsoft has a lot of work here before they kill anything. I'm hating this thing so much that I'm about ready to go back to my "dumb" phone and PDA combo that I used before.
jh
People dont use blackberries because of the OS. They use them because of the small form factor (new ones are even better) and the push email.
Hell, I think PalmOne's Treo could kill the blackberry if it offered REAL push email and instant messanger applications.
But knowing Microsoft, this thing is going to end up bundled with Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, the entire Microsoft Office suite, and be just slightly too big for my pocket.
I want: 1. small as possible 2. best screen possible 3. blackberry/treo keyboard 4. push email 5. IM
That's it.