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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."
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.
Their new phone wont have GPS capabilities.
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!
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...
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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.
BB OS 4.5 includes Documents To Go, which can view and edit word docs and powerpoint presentations.
Guess there's still a need for office on the phone.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
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?
Well, if it does end up on eBay, it'll be a marketing nightmare if the auction ends without a single bid...
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?
I would say it's more likely that the person will try to use it, get extremely frustrated, and then smash it to bits... But I guess they might try to ebay the bits.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
It proves the need for compatibility with documents created in Office on the phone.
A very important difference.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
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!
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."
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 ...
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'd love to have an iPhone, but there is one problem - I'm a man, and as such I don't carry a purse. I've yet to see anyone but women with iPhones.
I need a phone that will fit in my pocket, preferably a clamshell. The one I'm using now is a candy bar type and it irks me no end; I have keylock enabled so it doesn't go making random calls, which it sometimes does anyway if I stick it in my pocket before the keys lock.
My daughter had a clamshell phone that opened up like a miniature laptop, that was great - except it was too big.
I guess I'll have to get another Razr.
Free Martian Whores!
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.
What?! This beta software doesn't work properly?! UNPOSSIBLE!
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
My iPhone fits in pocket perfectly fine. In three months, I've never had it call or do anything while in my pocket.
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...
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...
bullshit. htc currently manufactures one single (and very lonely) android device while making 10 different wm models.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Word.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
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"
For those that haven't heard, Telstra is a partially privatised government monopoly telecommunications company (has aspects of the worst of government and the worst of private enterprise) run by an mexican bandit who is getting well rewarded for epic failures. Neither the shareholders nor the government (which owns a lot of the company via the "future fund") have any control over it. The CEO and 13 million per year bandit, Sol Trujillo, was the one that was given the phone which has now vanished.
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.
"Gently used", right?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
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.
Actually, HTC has made 80% of all Windows Mobile devices ever sold. Which makes it very curious why Microsoft's greatest partner by far has chosen to advocate and pioneer development of Android, making the first (T-Mobile G1) and announcing the second (the Vodaphone).
The only reason HTC isn't more vocal is that Microsoft paid it to shut up about Android at MWC, just as it did with LG, the other founding member of the Google OHA with Android phones planned , but only chatting up Windows Mobile 6.5 at the event.
Why did Microsoft need to pay these companies for their headlines? And why are they both still making Android phones if they're happy with Microsoft?
Microsoft: HTC has made 80% of all Windows Mobile phones
Did Microsoft kill Android at Mobile World Congress 2009?
Is the iPhone much bigger than the current gen iPod Touch? I own the latter, and it's easily pocketable. it's just that I have to tack on one of those protective silicone slip covers in order to keep it from sliding out of my pockets when I sit.
I just bought an LG Env2; clamshell type that opens up like a miniature laptop. Very good phone. Love it, except that the speaker phone/speaker setup is less than optimal. It's small though, in the ballpark of the Blackberry Pearl, just shorter. Maybe look into that. Definitely not Razr territory, but it's not a phone you'd have to worry about snapping in half either.
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 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.
uhm, not windows mobile devices, just windows mobile phone edition devices. there are lots of pdas with windows mobile but without a phone function. still, i own probably a good half of all htc models they ever made.
because they can? it is an easy task for htc to make an android phone - they basically have to rebadge an existing windows mobile device. most of their older devices can boot android already. it is not that either of them are somehow forced to use a single operating system for their products.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
...that the new store will entertain a "plays for sure, no really!"-logo.
There was never any significant market for Pocket PC / WinCE PDAs. Gartner once talked about the entire market for PDAs as being close to 10 million per year, but that counted BlackBerry phones as PDAs (but not Palm Treos; guess who Gartner was working for).
Take out Windows Mobile devices and the WinCE pool dries up into a light dusting of ridiculousness.
No, HTC wants to use Android because its free and unrestricted, not "because they can." The problem with Android is that it doesn't "just work" yet. One thing Microsoft has done in the last ten years of WinCE work is get its phone stack working across a wide variety of hardware. That's why HTC doesn't just poop out its existing phones in Android versions.
There is a huge amount of work involved in getting any smartphone finished. It's basically a computer running whatever "mobile OS" runs the interface, tied to a self contained cellular unit with all sorts of its own oddities that require lots of time to get working properly.
The problem for Microsoft is that the world doesn't need that sort of integration. Users want a nice phone that works, not a huge array of slightly different phones that all look like crap.
The Case of the Top Secret, Missing Windows Mobile Phone
The GP didn't mention anything about Apple. You just made the assumption that his questions were based on what Apple has done. But Microsoft has an equally long, if not longer, history of forcing DRM (in some cases, even more restrictive DRM) upon its users. Both Apple and Microsoft are equally guilty when it comes to using DRM and both should be strongly criticised for it.
By reading this signature, you hereby agree with the content of the above comment.
They gave it to Obama.
It's a phone. It's an appliance. You shouldn't have to reboot your phone any more than you should have to reboot your TV or your car. It boggles the mind why anyone would put up with this.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.