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Microsoft Secret Prototype Phone Stolen
bossanovalithium writes to tell us that details are emerging about the theft of a top secret prototype mobile device stolen from an executive's pocket. Time to start watching eBay. "There are fears that leaks regarding the features and early bugs in the software could mar the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 which the company hopes will give it the edge over the iPhone and the new Google Android operating system. The new product includes support for touch-screen technology similar to that found on the Apple iPhone. Among the features offered in the new service unveiled by Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, on Tuesday, is a version of Windows Marketplace for Mobiles, which is set to compete with the popular Apple's App Store and provide easy ways to download music and products to mobiles. "
Why would they even be giving out a secret prototype to an executive? Shouldn't it be behind a locked door? Or was this just a way to generate hype?
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
They're just waiting to make the first post from the device be a first post on a story.
that it's an iPhone with the word "Microsoft" engraved on the back
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Probably was an HTC TouchPro2 or something that is known. As for 6.5, it has been leaked before.
I'm not apple fanboy, but explain again how having a phone that will have a touchscreen like the iPhone and an online music store like iTunes is supposed to give Microsoft an "edge" over Apple.
Crap, I thought it was an iPhone!
Their new phone wont have GPS capabilities.
The thief is probably regretting his decision right this minute.
Thief: "Sweet, I bagged another Iphone! Wait, what is this?
M-Phone:"Welcome to Microsoft Windows Phone Edition. Please Wait."
Thief: "NOOOO!" (The thief throws the phone in the 1st available dumpster)
If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
All available information, thus far, suggests that 6.5 is essentially 6.1 with an embarrassingly thin layer of reskinning, arguably inferior to various partner's existing efforts(touchflow, etc.).
What would an industrial spy hope to learn?
His lawyer stood up and said "Thanks, your honor, however my client only has $300 on him at this time, but if you'd allow him a few minutes in the crowd he will gather all the required monies."
Oh, and what's the difference between a Peeping Tom and a pickpocket? A pickpocket snatches watches.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Is this some lame publicity stunt whereby Microsoft tries to draw attention to a product that didn't get leaked on the Internet on it's own?
While you're at it, explain why, if WM 6 is ho-hum, and this new OS is better than the iPhone's, it only rates a 6.5 version number.
I would think you'd need to rebuild WM from the ground up to compete with the iPhone. (The new Palm OS looks fairly promising in that regard.)
but someone stole it...
all micro-phones now have a start menu. Earlier this week, MS announced that they had shipped 50 million windows mobile/windows ce smart phone, 40 Million of those from HTC. HTC has been moving to android and symbian, though. The only advantage Microsoft has is with Office and backwards compatability (on the desktop). Legions of blackberry users prove that no one needs office on their phone. MS lost the smart phone.
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A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
The crook was hoping for an iPhone.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
I've completely given up on the Windows Mobile platform. Slow, buggy, and syncing sucks. And birthday reminders defaulting to 12AM? WTF? Who gives a crap about a birthday reminder notification at 12AM?
read the above topic.
or was it apple?
They'll return it in 3 days because of all the crashing, like everyone else that got a Windows Mobile handheld... doh!
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
How about changing the logo to Steve Ballmer?
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
Hence, we have here a less than trivial loss
Faith: n. -- That human impulse that drives them to steal appliances when the power goes out
or it didn't happen?
. . . like, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_can_telephone
Those executives have big pockets to hold these.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
To generate awareness Microsoft pretends it has been harmed, then overcomes the obstacle. Why? Because it keeps them in the forefront of people's minds. Harming Microsoft intrigues you and you start to believe that software only revolves around them. It heightens the release of their new software. Suckers.. hahaha. They've been doing this to you for years.
I was trying to post a reply but my phone blue screened.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Man, this is the craziest PR leak strategy *ever*.
I think they have been waiting for an early release model of the Window Mobile phone to start prototyping after the Zune. http://hideapod.com/
I caught this article the other day and it seems like Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't anything to get excited about or a serious threat to any of the other mobile OS's. Seems like more wishful thinking and promises from Microsoft. They're really not making any headway in this area and probably end up throwing more money into it than they'll get back out. Why don't they abandon some of their non-core businesses and find some uncharted areas to expand into instead of throwing money into non-profitable areas where they have no chance of gaining marketshare or mindshare?
There is nothing in the linked article which implies that a Microsoft-created piece of phone HARDWARE was lost or stolen. All the article states is that a phone with prototype SOFTWARE was lost or stolen.
"she says i'm lousy conversation. as if that's supposed to help."
Marketing slogan: It's a steal!
Same thing Dr. Rodney McKay says, when somebody else, without his help, comes up with anything intuitively obvious.
There is nothing to FEAR but NOTHING itself; and I fear there is a whole lot of nothing going on. --scorpivs
...a couple of days from now, propping up a table in coffee house in Seattle. The barista was quoted, "The guy was trying to his phone to do something, anything. Then he figured out it would stop the table from wobbling. We haven't moved since it's doing a great job..."
Chris
So Buddha walks into a pizza parlor and says: "Hey, make me one with everything."
Microsoft is terrible. I hate Apple, but Microsoft is fucking ridiculous.
A windows marketplace? Are they going to call the programs... Zapps!
"Hey man, check out my ZunePhone with my Zapps on it!"
For once... could MS give us quality? JUST ONCE.. QUALITY.
I'm actually writing this from within Windows 7 beta, and I was just making the discussion to go back to XP 64 because video playback performance in Windows 7 is garbage.
This is gorilla marketing. This story follows a five step plan:
1. Phone gets stolen from executive. Leak story to press.
2. The executive's teenage daughter is arrested by police. She became completely addicted to her father's new Zune phone. She comments: "The new Zune phone is amazingly cool."
3. Make billions of said phone.
4. ???? (Sell Zune Phones????)
5. Profit
At least, that is the story from the marketing department's internal emails ...
On a more serious note, does anyone have any idea how Microsoft plans to generate significant sales of Microsoft phones? Being a late mover in a competitive marketplace with entrenched successful competition does not scream "Instant Sales" to me ...
I heard MS was developing a Zune phone. Do you really think it was lost/stolen? I think the exec, accidentally left it on purpose to be lifted. I expect the thief to return it soon.
This thief should do the right thing and help us answer the one question slashdot needs answered: will it blend? ;-)
If this rumor is true, why not call the cell carrier and get them to get a position? After all, a crime was committed here...
...I doubt Apple has anything to worry about.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today announced a new era at the Seattle software company, announcing their entry six^Wnine^Wtwelve months hence into the cell phone market with the exciting new Zune Phone, to finally get the company properly into the rapidly changing digital media landscape.
Ballmer, speaking to a group of trained-monkey analysts and cynical bloggers at the company headquarters today, unveiled mockups prototypes of the Zune Phone, which combines the Zune music player (with wifi for "squirting" songs), a CDMA cell phone, a PDA, an eight gigabyte hard disk, a camera, a laser pointer and a bottle opener into one semi-portable device. It will also allow you to "squirt" music to and from your Windows 7^W8 Service Pack 1^W2 Media Center computer.
The product underscores the shift the company has attempted to make in recent years from an office supply company to a consumer electronics darling as it aims not to become utterly obsolete in the digital future. "And even Linux fanboys admit our hardware is pretty nice," Ballmer said before the somewhat sullen and cynical crowd. "It's definitely the best music player we've ever made."
Ballmer called the Zune Phone a revolutionary device that will leapfrog current technology. He said the company expects to sell about 100 million of them next year. "Maybe two hundred million. This is so the coolest music player ever." Unlike the MP3 player market, which the iPod has dominated even with the entrance of Microsoft's Zune, the cell phone market is much more fragmented. "There is not one device that everyone buys," said completely independent analyst Rob Enderle, "but this fabulous device should trounce all comers. I've ordered three already in anticipation."
Weighing in at only 15 ounces (425 grams), with a 5-inch 640-by-480 pixel screen, the $498 (with three-year $80/month contract) Z-Phone, a rebadged version of the LG Smart Display from 2003 with new firmware, looks like a Classic Brown Zune (to come in mission, chocolate, corduroy and meconium) with a phone touchpad in place of its imitation scroll wheel. It runs Windows Mobile, Pocket Internet Explorer, Pocket Microsoft Office, Pocket Solitaire and Pocket Pool. MSN will supply e-mail, mapping, search and other Internet services to the Z-Phone. It also features an amazing 1.3 megapixel (300,000 pixels interpolated) black and white camera. Battery life is estimated at up to four hours in Microsoft tests.
To better work with its content partners and ensure that you, the user, can rest safe in the knowledge that the artists and their representatives have been paid properly for all their hard work, Microsoft has limited "squirtable" songs to encrypted WMA files purchased from the Zune Music Store, which can be listened to three times or within three days before automatically being deleted from both the Zune Phone and the Media Center computer. Songs may also be "squirted" between two Zune Phones (though not the original Zune) if both are registered with Microsoft as being linked to that installation of Media Center. Users are advised to purchase Microsoft Zune Secure Headphones ($129), which encrypt the signal between the Zune Phone and your ears, as playback quality is degraded on conventional "analog hole" earphones or when playing back unencrypted MP3 files. Phone calls may be made to or received from any number on the network carrier you bought the Zune Phone from, with only a 99-cent charge for humming a song to someone you call or are called by on the phone or ten cents per use of the camera, laser pointer or bottle opener. Microsoft will also pay $20 from each Zune Phone sold to Universal Music. In addition to the ability to "squirt" songs, the user may "squirt" his calls, which are stored on Microsoft Zune Live servers and cost $40 per month to access.
In other news, Ballmer said that Microsoft had reached over 600 music downloads since introducing it
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I'll have Windows Mobile 6.5 on my T-Mobile MDA before Microsoft even releases it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=480099
Cool, they must finally be releasing the ZunePhone(tm) !!
Check out the ZunePhone on YouTube!
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in a market place against entrenched device by ..offering the same thing.
Seriously, MS needs to hire me just to tell people no.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
who stole Windows 7 Beta. Same old, same old.
It could be that what was lost wasn't some partner's phone running 6.5, but an original device commissioned by Microsoft. This actually makes sense, as I could see an exec arguing that many of the problems with Windows Mobile is imperfect implementation by the cell phone manufacturers. (Clearly this is an oversimplification, but you could see that being put on a PowerPoint slide.) A closed architecture would allow Microsoft to make sure that the hardware was tightly and properly integrated with Windows. So, for instance, you potentially wouldn't have the issue with some Windows Mobile devices locking up when the user put it in "vibrate" mode. (I had a phone that would consistently do this.)
Of course, as someone else pointed out, Microsoft has no history of making cell phones, so the results would probably be ghastly. But you could see them making the attempt.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
But does it work as a phone? Sure touch screens and app stores are nice but I want mine to work as a phone to.
sorry for my comments, I'm drunk
...keep people hyping and posting expectations when you know they're never met. So how about that Cloud OS MS was talking about? Oh wait...
People: Microsoft only makes patches and small upgrades. The only thing that is top secret at MS is the source code.
Here be signatures
sed -e 's/stolen/left/' -e 's/from/on/' -e 's/executive\'s pocket/Starbucks table/' < TFA
End anonymous moderation and posting on
I know everyone likes to enjoy a good joke at Microsoft's expense, but nobody here is seriously considering what will happen to the thief if he is caught. Theft of a prototype device from a high profile company is enough to get the FBI involved. This could end up very ugly for the thief.
To whomever marked me off-topic (regrettably, /. cannot foresee the need to create for each story a category called "unattributable anonymous frack's slights" so that responses of negative sentiment don't appear to be aimed at the thread not really responsible...)
If every one knows it's cronyism, and accepts it, then i guess it IS offtopic. I never DID think /. was anything approaching democratic. This kind of off-topic slight by someone out there (being allowed to stand as marked) just underscores it.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Just use Google Latitude
moderators.
To get a story posted here, i've wondered whom i'd have to rim or suck to just ONCE not be fucked over by having a well-worn moderator ALWAYS have his/her submission 12 to 15 hours AFTER MINE get posted, and his is basically a paraphrasing of the parent website.
It's almost becoming a personal point of shame that i even grouse about it, but it sure would be nice if thunder from on high rocked and lightning shocked those who perpetuate cronyism here. One way to put an end to it is to force them to get out of their heads they're NOT going to be getting CNN or BBC or CNET positions by virtue of having a hard-on-raging, ego-as-big-as-Hoover-Dam, 3,442 published submissions. The way to do it is to make sure that when multiple people submit the same story suggestion within a few hours of each other (ESPECIALLY if the never-published person scoops the frat-rat), the scooped gets listed, but below the one scooping. It could enhance the sense of community many of us may mistakenly presume to be here. Most of us end up just shouting at a writing wall, and a handful of moderators (some good, some retaliatory) ultimately have the last laugh.
Slashdot needs:
-- a multi-submitter recognition system
-- a histogrm of scoring, not "most recent score"
-- a troll-/flambait-/off-topic-/ outing scheme to prevent hit-and-run whackos having anonymity
-- better meta-association of comments that often get shoved around out of relation/context to their initial parent
-- a term limit on standing-moderator status
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
they really know how to name things. not something silly and easy to say like "app store".
Windows Marketplace for Mobiles ftw!
*sighs*
The pickpocket thought he was stealing an iPhone but shortly afterward noticed it was not an iPhone and chucked it into the trash.
Or...
The pickpocket tried to use the phone and couldn't get it to work and didn't want to follow a wizard in order to use a phone... then the phone crashed. "F**k it! I'm getting an iPhone."
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Am I the only one reading "Windows Marketplace for Mobiles, which is set to compete with the popular Apple's App Store" and imagining handcuffs competing with bracelets?
this thing is greeat. Thee keybooard worrks good. I can ppostt to slaashdot rightt formm myy hpone. MOobile 6.5555555 kickss aaass over 666.0 that I use tooo hav. Itt is raelly fasttt. ANdd checks mmmy speelling which I foor one needd. Theree are harddlly any bugggs. All iin aall it siii the besst thhing I ever stole. 2 thumbss up.
Imagine anybody who found it just didn't undergo the effort to tell a journalist about it.
Then again, maybe anybody who found it did undergo the effort to tell a journalist about it.
Imagine this journalist just didn't care to write a single line about it.
"What? Another Win Mobile phone? Labeled TOP SECRET all over? Found it where? Oh yes, I see. Listen, leave me alone, will you?" Click.
Thus, Disappointment and Despair (D&D) in Redmond growing, and growing, and chairs flying low these days...
Telstra not Telstar.
And it couldn't have happened to better person.
Sol Trujillo is a wanker.
Will Microsoft's phone be the Zune of phones or the Vista of phones or the Microsoft Bob of phones?
Will Microsoft's phone cost $50 per year to protect it against sloppy, unfinished programming?
Will customers have to wait for the phone's service pack 3 before it works as it should?
Will the phone have DRM?
Will the billionaires who own Microsoft assume that anyone who isn't a billionaire is a criminal, and allow government to spy on the customers?
To keep the Microcrap groupies horney.
In other news:
The U.S. signed a peace accord with the Chinese to turn over the United States to China because of the U.S.A. bankrupcy?
I hope it's true because the Obama plan WON'T work.
Yours In Communism,
Kilgore Trout
I want world peace just as much as anybody else, but I tried looking at the site in your sig and got stuck at some animation that doesn't show in my browser. Unless those people redo their site in a manner that's shown in any browser configuration without any hassle being necessary from the part of the reader, they won't get the wide attention they presumably want.
If you happen to have any contact with those people, please inform them that the "http" in "http://p5y.org" stands for "Hyper TEXT Transfer Protocol". Get it? "http" is a method for transferring TEXT, not video.
If you want to know what the next Microsoft phone looks like, just have a look at the shipping versions of Android, iPhone, and Symbian...
Rebooting your phone isn't so bad... unless you have to plug it into a PC to do it.
Can I make the obvious joke, yet? Given how 'secure' Windows is is there ANY surtprise from them having a physical object stolen from them as opposed to a digital one?
I mean, seriously! You expect a company with a poor track record of OS security to have any CLUE about physical security?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I'm going to burn some karma... with:
DAMN YOU you bastard. If you hate me that much, come out from behind that keyboard. But, you won't because it's your refuge, your sanctuary. Dishing out negative points and off-topic as if it fucking doesn't matter that you screw over people who annoy you.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
What have you gots in your pocket, Baggins?
Thank god for those guys at microsoft and their amazing ability to find untapped markets and innovate technology that enriches our lives. What amazing foresight, touch screen phones and an online app store. wow whooda thunk it ?? I applaud the precognition of these peerless innovators who have demonstrated time and time again, microsoft is the unparalleled, world-class ground breaking trendsetter of the technological world.
The exec went to a local bar to tip back a few and mistakenly left it on the bar-top. Thinking that his bosses might not find that amusing, he made up the pic-pocket story.
Maybe their version of an app store will be as wildly popular as their ipod killing zune.
Wait...I admit it...I stole the phone. I keep trying M$'s number to give the damn thing back to them, but I keep getting a wrong number. What's up with this damn phone, anyway????
Wait...a peculiar red telephone booth just appeared next to me...I'll go try the phone inside it..........
they started to realize how poorly it was designed so far, so they released it hoping someone else would steal it and take the fall for their mistakes. Then, they can sue them for "stealing" it, and attempt to improve on it from examining all the flamed feedback the thieves received.
It's a small typo I know but the linked article says Telstar.
Sol Trujillo is the head of Australia's biggest telco "TELSTRA" and is majorly responsible for keeping Australia in the dark ages.
It was stolen from a Telstra (not "Telstar", as the article stated) executive.
As anyone who has had the misfortune of relying on Telstra can attest, this level of incompetence is utterly believable.
Ah, so Microsoft thinks it has some new features that will put it above the competition...
Sounds like everything the competition already has. Yes, Windows Mobile 6.5 will have an edge over the competition by copying all their features and then adding that special Microsoft touch of "quality" and "ease of use".
The phone was a HTC pre-release device running WM6.5 - It was stolen from Telstras Sol Trujillo. Hardly earth shattering. Slashdots journalism standards are so low.
...that the new store will entertain a "plays for sure, no really!"-logo.
And the wanker who lost it was none other than Telstra Australia's CEO Sol Trujillo (US reject). He's shown how incapable he is of running Australia's largest telco and wannabe ISP (shares are at an all time low and service is pathetic) and they also failed to submit a proper bid for the national broadband tender. But of course he will head back to the US soon with his tail between his legs and a big fat payout for his incompetence, along with the rest of his failed team of amigos.
Haven't people begun to realize that M$ has always copied Apple poorly. Why buy their inferior good? They charge almost as much, and in some cases more than the superior good. The iPhone is really neat and Balmer thinks that the M$ version of it will be popular. I doubt it. Who cares that people see them acting as the runner up again. Nothing newsworthy here
They gave it to Obama.