Isaiah's Tech

Microsoft just held their event and they've obviously announced their Project Pink - finally. Let's just get right down to it, since I'm already behind after taking a nap. The "Turtle" became official as the Kin One and it'll feature a QVGA display, 4GB of internal storage, a 5MP camera with an LED flash, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The "Pure" became official as the Kin Two and it's the higher-end of the two handsets. It features an HVGA display, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, an 8MP camera, and 8GB of internal storage.

They both feature WiFi / Bluetooth support, 3G connectivity, and a "desktop web experience" which is based on Silverlight. Engadget likes the way it works, so it must be pretty good. The UI is similar to the Windows Phone 7 Metro look, with heavy social integration.

Verizon will be launching the Kin One and Two this May, while Vodafone will be launching it in Europe this Fall. Prices weren't mentioned. Check out Engadget's hands-on here.

Update: According to Engadget, there's no microSD card slot on either of these handsets. So much for those SanDisk microSDs.

[Engadget, The Next Web]

Microsoft has just leaked out what they're announcing. In the photo above, it's clearly the Project Pink Turtle. This handset should get announced on Monday at 10 AM PST (1 PM EST). The specs shouldn't be high-end, but it's for "sharing." Check out the picture here.

[WMPowerUser]

Here's an interesting one. Someone in the wild has been spotted with what appears to be one of the Microsoft Pink devices that should get announced on Monday. This is supposedly the Turtle and it's headed to Verizon - clearly you can see why it got its name. This handset has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard along with a touchscreen display. It looks pretty funny, so we'll see how this goes with the teens.



[Slash Gear, Engadget]

Okay, well, Verizon is announcing something on Monday, April 12th. Engadget believes that it's the Microsoft Pink (Pure and Turtle), while Phandroid believes it's the HTC Incredible. It's only 3 days away, so be sure to tune in on Monday to see what's up.

Update: According to Slash Gear, SanDisk has actually confirmed that Pink will be announced on Monday. Both of the handsets will feature microSD card slots (especially SanDisk ones), which is a big positive - seeing how WinPho 7 won't have support for that.

[Engadget]

We just heard that the Microsoft Pink "Turtle" and the Pure made the rounds last night. Clearly (or unclearly that is) it's sporting a touchscreen display (supposedly 480 x 320 resolution) and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Of course, it'll have social integration and that includes Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo!, Windows Live, and even Zune. This handset will be launching on Verizon as well. Apparently, the OS - based on Windows CE - is better than Android and if that's true then it will be off to a good start already.

[Electronista, Slash Gear]

Could this be the Microsoft Pure that we've been hearing a bit about lately? We've seen what the Turtle could be if it passed the FCC (the Sharp PB10ZU). A new device from Sharp has just been spotted at the FCC and it's got the PB20ZU model branding on it so it's pretty close to the Turtle. This handset is expected to have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well as a touchscreen display. It's got Bluetooth / WiFi support along with CDMA connectivity so it'll hit Verizon / Sprint if necessary. Check out the FCC filing here.

[Engadget]

I'm sure you're familiar with Microsoft's Project Pink, it consists two phones: the Turtle (above) and the Pure. Apparently, both of these handsets will be fairly low-end phones targeted for the youth, but they'll still be running on the Tegra chipset which is pretty amazing for a "low-end" phone. The Turtle and Pure are expected to have GSM connectivity and the CDMA variants will reportedly be the Pride and the Lion, respectively. The Turtle / Pride will be sporting a 240 x 320 resolution and the Pure / Lion will be sporting a 320 x 480 resolution. Tegra for a low-end phone? We'll have to wait and see.

[WMExperts, Engadget]

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]

Could what you see above really be what Microsoft is codenaming "Pink" more specifically the "Turtle" (above) and the "Pure" (below)? I really, really, really hope not. This handsets are, apparently, made by Sharp and will have a "youth focus" and will have their own little app store. "Unlike the Sidekick however it will have a music focus, with some kind of Zune integration." I really hope this is a really bad joke. Microsoft, please don't do this!

[9 to 5 Mac, Engadget, Gizmodo, Maximum PC, WMPowerUser]

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]

Microsoft has just confirmed that Windows Mobile 7 will have minimum requirements on their handsets. We heard about the Microsoft "Pink" requirements a while back and they look like pretty decent minimum requirements right now. A year from now, I'm pretty sure most of the features on that list will be standard though. The real details on these requirements haven't been mentioned yet.

[Engadget Mobile]

A couple of days ago, we saw what the future of Windows Mobile 7 devices could be like aka Microsoft "Pink". Well, we've also heard word that Windows Mobile 7 could also implement gesture controls. Keep in mind that these slides are 2 years old, so it's just a rumour. The slides also contain Zune HD mockups and WinMo devices being able to interact with other stuff in your home, including PCs and TVs. Maybe WinMo 7 devices will be able to hook up to the Xbox 360 or something wild like that. Maybe we'll save that for Microsoft's first mobile device - oh wait, that has been denied over and over already. Oh well.

[Gizmodo]

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)]