While discussing the move to Microsoft's next great hope in the mobile space, the Redmond COO told the world that the transition is expected to happen in the October timeframe across Europe, and in the November timeframe in the US. This is the most explicit anyone from Microsoft has been about the likely launch date for Windows Phone 7, and sets up the intriguing potentiality of Europeans getting to savor the goodness of the brand new OS ahead of their US brethren. See Kevin dishing the info on video after the break.

If you think Street View is awesome, you've got to check Microsoft's Street Slide. Virtual sightseeing (and even window shopping) will from now on be a lot more fun. Check out the video demo inside.

Street View is my favorite Google Maps feature but that doesn’t mean that I’ve missed its flaws. Moving along the street (virtually) happens by moving from one 360-degree photographic bubble to another. While you’re in a bubble you can hardly see what’s in the next. And zooming in doesn’t help much either so you need to move to the next bubble – step by step, click by click.

That might not only ruin all the fun but can also be quite disorienting.

Well, the guys over at Microsoft Research seem to have found the solution for that. They have just demonstrated the Street Slide. The new technology stitches bubbles into a large strip that allows you to easily zoom in and out and move along the street facades.

What you actually get is a multi-perspective street slide panorama. Above and below the strip there is additional information (such as street names and signs, building numbers, store names, even a mini-map) which helps you find what you’re looking for a lot easier than before.

And here comes the video demonstrating the impressive Street Slide:

Microsoft in a bid to revive its flagging mobile phone strategy, is to introduce a new line of handsets with social networking capabilities aimed at the younger market. 

The new mobile phones will be on sale in the US some time in April according to information reported in theWall Street Journal. They are based on a Microsoft development project code-named “Pink” and made available through a partnership with Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc and the Vodafone Group PLC. 

Microsoft has scheduled a press event for the 12 April in San Francisco, which has prompted speculation that the company will reveal its new Pink range. Coupled with the slogan: “It’s time to share”, this would fit the profile of the new social-oriented phones. 

The new development shows that Microsoft is becoming more focused on the hardware aspect of the mobile phone business in order to satisfy consumers’ need for greater sophistication in handsets. 

It is Microsoft itself that has designed the software, hardware and online services for the Pink mobile phones, while Sharp of Japan are responsible for their manufacture. 

Microsoft need a handset that can show off the abilities for its new Windows Phone 7 Series, if they are to gain ground against Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Nexus One. Pink could be the handset range to flex the muscles of Windows Phone 7 Series and truly give Apple and Google something to think about. 

However, given the immense success of the iPad which sold 300,000 units last week, Microsoft's press announcement could well be for its Courier e-tablet, which is also waiting in the wings. 

No big surprise here, but HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley just flat-out confirmed to CNBC that HP will not be making any Windows Phone 7 devices, preferring instead to focus on the newly-acquired webOS for its line of smartphones. Here's the entire exchange:

Q: Can you make webOS successful with developers when you're selling Windows Phone 7, maybe Android or Linux at the same time?

A: We continue to be Microsoft's biggest customer, and we continue to believe we will drive innovation with Microsoft. At the same time, I think it's clear to say, that we're very focused on the customer, and giving the customer the experience that's important to them. We won't do -- will not do a Linux / Android phone. We won't do a Microsoft phone.

Q: So no Windows Phone 7?

A: We will continue to more broadly deliver the webOS-based phones that are in the market today, and Jon and his team have driven a strong roadmap for the future.

Q: So does that mean you're going webOS only for phones?

A: For smartphones it does. Our intent is to focus those resources and really make webOS the best OS it can be.

You'll remember that yesterday Microsoft was being uber generous by providing all its 90,000 employees around the world with a free Windows Phone 7 device... well you know the old saying, nothing in life is free. TechFlash has a hold of what they are saying is an internal memo from Microsoft. The memo basically says that Microsoft expects its employees, (you know, the ones getting the free phones) to "evangelize" the product at every possible opportunity. Ok so that's not unreasonable, especially if they're working for the company that makes the OS powering the phone. However, there's a bit more to it because Microsoft are also expecting their employees to set aside some spare time to develop apps for the platform, and yes I did indeed type 'spare time'. How much 'sapre time' Microsoft employees have, and whether they will want to use it developing apps remains to be seen. Still a free phone is not so bad, even if you do have to look busy using it.

Nothing gets you going quite like a good old fashioned leak! It comes in the form of a list of leaked HTC codenames from ROM hacker extrodinaire 'Conflipper'. The story goes that Conflipper is calling it a day in terms of Windows Phone modding and as such he's posted up HTC's codenames for their forthcoming Windows Phone 7 handsets. Conflipper's site, Shipped-ROMS, will no longer be updated and will effectively cease operations although it will remain up and running in its present form for users to access. This came about at the request of HTC who sent a cease & desist letter in the mould of other manufacturers who don't seem to realise the enormous benefit that modding sites and communities bring to their brands.

The list of devices includes Salsa, Motion, Maestro, Swing, Blitz, Sage, Tango, and Vienna. Admittedly the codenames sound like a combination between an evening of dancing  and kids' cartoon characters, but nevertheless it's an exciting list. Mozart has already been confirmed as a Windows Phone 7 device from HTC and ties in nicely with the musical/dance theme we see here. There isn't a massive amount of information available on each handset, but here's what's being bandied around at the moment:

• Maestro - global handset supporting both GSM & CDMA
• Swing, Salsa & Vienna - GSM handsets
• Swing#C, Salsa#C & Vienna#C - CDMA handsets

Of course some, or even all, of these handsets might not make it to market, but they are apparently all current codenames of handsets that are at the very least in the planning stage. It also demonstrate that Windows Phone 7 won't just be a one trick pny for HTC, they look to be embracing it as widely as they have done with Android and Windows Mobile in the past.

Microsoft confirms Windows Phone 7 manufacturers: ASUS, Dell, HTC, LG, and Samsung

Microsoft is no stranger to having partners galore in the phone business, but its lineup of manufacturers for the upcoming, surprisingly promising Windows Phone 7 launch is no less impressive. After plenty of rumoring, Microsoft has confirmed that Dell and HTC will be making Windows Phone 7 phones, in addition to ASUS, LG, and Samsung who had already been confirmed. All of these companies should have their stamp on hardware by the end of the year, with the launch of the OS still vaguely slated for the "holidays" We have no doubt that all five manufacturers can build some compelling, sexy hardware, but we're particularly enthused to see Dell really getting into the game after the impressive Streak and that drool worthy leak a little while back.

Microsoft to employees: "Everybody gets a Windows Phone 7!"

Microsoft guru extraordinaire Mary Jo Foley has retweeted a company employee boasting of a commitment to hand out Windows Phone 7 devices to each and every one of Redmond's 90,000-plus employees around the world. That's certainly one way to spread the word and realistically, the cost to Microsoft is a drop in the bucket if they can really take advantage of the word of mouth advertising effect here. Of course, step one in that process is going to be making sure the product is absolutely rock solid by the time those gratis units start getting handed out. 

The newer and less popular Silverlight, which is Microsoft alternative to Flash, is spreading to mobile OSes too the Symbian^1 version just became available in the Ovi Store.

Silverlight has been available for Windows Mobile for a while now (of course, Microsoft's plug-in for Microsoft's OS) but now it’s also available on a non-Redmond platform. You can download Silverlight for Symbian^1 (or S60 5th edition if you will) from here.

The Silverlight plug-in integrates into the S60 browser and helps run Silverlight content inside the browser. Silverlight also enables installable apps – and since Silverlight uses .NET languages, there’s already a big potential developer base. Dev tools for Silverlight for Symbian can be downloaded by following the link.

There’s no word if Silverlight will be available on iOS (easy guess – when hell freezes over), or Android (2.2 Froyo enabled Flash, so maybe 3.0 Gingerbread?), but interestingly there will be Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 – it just won’t run in the browser, or at least not at first. That’s an odd decision by Microsoft.

And so ends Microsoft's brief spell as a phone manufacturer. The company has just announced that it's terminating its KIN line and focusing all of its resources on the development of their upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS.

Here comes the official statement:

"Microsoft has made the decision to focus on the Windows Phone 7 launch and will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones."

So the KIN duo never lived to see it GSM-supporting versions become available. It only made it to Verizon's CDMA network in the US (where it has been available for just under two months), but its sales didn't even reach 10 000 units milestone.

After that and the universally negative reviews that the KIN handsets got after their release it's hardly a surprise that Microsoft decided to give up on it. When you spend so much time and effort (and mostly so much money) and you end up with a product often described as one of the biggest flops in history, simply giving up seems the right thing to do.

Trying to bring the project back on the right track would be a really demanding task (if at all possible with so much catching up to do) and Microsoft simply cannot afford to waste resources on it. Not with the Windows Mobile OS market share dropping into irrelevance and its future hanging by a thread.

With the fierce competition from Android and iOS, Windows Phone 7 has to be (close to) perfect to regain some of the past glory of the Microsoft smartphone platforms. So if dropping the KINs is what needs to be done to make it perfect, we wholeheartedly support the Redmond-based company on this decision.

Source

With the Kin duo now gone for good, and the WinMo 6.5 market share bordering on insignificance, Microsoft have all their eggs in one WP7 basket. As it seems though they will do everything they can to make sure they stay on the smartphone market. Today they revealed more information about theWindows Phone 7 synchronization and remote access capabilities and those certainly look impressive.

Much like the just announced BlackBerry Protect, Windows Phone 7 will get you the full suite of services you'll need in case your phone gets stolen or lost. You get remote wipe so you can protect your valuable private information, plus you can locate your device wirelessly and hopefully get it back. A remotely activated ringer is also available to help you find the phone if you have misplaced it. Maybe Windows Phone 7 isn't quite as useful when you lose your phone as the recently announced BlackBerry Protect, but it still does a pretty great job at it.

Besides it will offer another valuable feature that should give it an edge against its competitors. Windows Phone 7 will support offer synchronization between all your Microsoft devices (those being your Windows PC, your Xbox and, of course, your smartphone). You can transfer everything from contacts to OneNote entries and images, allowing you to continue where you left off each time you alternate those gadgets. Cool right?

Microsoft are joining the high-end smartphone market with competition at its highest, but they sure as hell won't give up without a fight.