Isaiah's Tech

Apparently this rumour is now 100% true if you believe it. Microsoft will reportedly unveil the Zune Phone at MWC. This handset will basically be the Zune HD that can actually make calls. It'll be powered by the Nvidia Tegra and will feature an OLED display with a 272 x 480 resolution, an HDMI output, and will be running Windows Mobile 7. It will supposedly weigh 2.45 ounces. If this handset is running WinMo 7 - and those specs are true - it'll actually be one of the crappier handsets running that OS since we've already seen LG and HTC's first WinMo7 handsets.

If the Zune Phone is true, it's gotta have a beefier spec sheet, more specifically a larger display with a higher resolution.

[Gizmodo]

The latest rumour states that we could see that Zune / Project Pink phone in around two months. If this is the case it'll likely be running the rumoured Windows Mobile 6.6 OS which is scheduled to launch soon. Theoretically it should be upgradeable to Windows Mobile 7 since this'll be Microsoft's own phone - like Google's own Nexus One. If the launch is coming in two months we should be expecting it at MWC which takes place a month from now.

[Gizmodo]

I'm not going to cry over this since Microsoft "Pink" never seemed all that desirable in the first place, but it looks like the project has been canned. I don't have much left to say because Mobile Crunch got the scoop on it below. I'm sure this won't make anyone sad anyway. Goodbye Pure and Turtle - even if it isn't official at this point. Anyways, Microsoft should start working on that Zune HD Phone now...

• Much of the Danger/Sidekick team has left or been fired since the 2008 acquisition. According to our source, there is “no braintrust that understands how to build a product” left on the Pink team.
• If a product does ship, it will lack the third party application support/store that rumors have indicated it would have – the remaining team members simply don’t know how to get it done.
• Amongst remaining employees, dissent is high. Much of the team uses iPhones around the office, or their old Sidekick handsets. Employees “hate the product” internally, many feeling that the division exists only to “challenge [the Windows Mobile 7 team] and upset them into competing.” Our source outright indicated that they felt the product was never intended to ship.
• At this point, the project is roughly 2 years behind schedule. In order to continue moving forward toward some undefined launch date, basics such as a calendar application have already ended up on the cutting room floor.
• On the “Turtle” (the smaller of the two devices): The touchscreen is unusable, as there are too many elements on screen at one time. “Your finger covers 50% of the screen”, says the source. The unit was designed “on the fly”, with a design drawn up and then sent to Sharp for verbatim manufacturing. Our source says this backwards design process has lead to a “near disastrous” battery life. “Designers forced Sharp to build to sketch and not ‘worry about that stuff.’”
• The UI concept work was originally done by an outside party, and Microsoft engineers have been “struggling to replicate it ever since”.

[Mobile Crunch]

Seeing how this latest rumour came from a Mac website, this is chalked up pretty lightly. The rumour states that Microsoft will be releasing two mobile phones next year that will compete with the iPhone and they will be under the Project "Pink.". One of the devices - codenamed "Turtle" - will be a Motorola QA1-looking device, which means it'll be a smartphone similar to the BlackBerry - just uglier. The other handset is said to be codenamed "Pure" and will be a candybar slider, which will also be stupid. Don't forget that this is a big rumour.

[9 to 5 Mac, WMExperts]

This video actually outlines a final version of Windows Mobile 6.5 aka Windows Phone. Other features that are also demonstrated in the video is the Windows Marketplace. Clearly, multitouch support is not in WinMo 6.5, but it will, apparently, be in Windows Mobile 7 so that's definitely something to look forward to. You can check out the video demo on an HTC Touch Diamond 2 below on WMPowerUser - you're warned, it's 10-minutes long.

Yeah, you've heard the rumours about the Microsoft Zune Phone, but they've been denied again. This time they were denied by Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Chief, Robbie Back, and Chief Executive, Steve Ballmer, himself. They mentioned that Microsoft "would do better" focusing on "software rather than any hardware." At this point, the Zune Phone is unlikely.

[The Inquirer, WMPowerUser, Stuff.tv (Zune rumours)]

Remember that Zune Phone tweet yesterday? Well, it looks like whoever was in control of the account is not connected to Microsoft because the account is a fake. He fooled us. Microsoft has also reportedly denied all of the Zune rumours that have been hitting the web.

I've got the scoop on a possible future Microsoft smartphone, codenamed Pink. Apparently, Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1 smartphones will have at least a 3.5-inch display, with 256MB or more of RAM, more than 1GB of storage, ARM v6+ processors, and OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics hardware. Other specs include at least a 3MP camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, a compass, and an accelerometer to top things off. Apparently, in addition to all of this sweet news, "NVIDIA's Tegra platform and 'Qualcomm 8k,' which sounds to us like Snapdragon's QSD8xxx-series chips" could also be on-board. We'll see what happens, but we should be expecting these so-called devices next year, since that's when WinMo 7 is set to be released. These look like good specs right now, but in a year this could be lacking. It's a slight possibility, but anything's possible in the tech world. We'll just have to see how fast technology expands in the next year.

[Engadget (Fake Twitter), Engadget (Microsoft Pink)]