Microsoft

In an interview published yesterday, Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates said that the software giant will not launch a product that competes directly with the iPhone.

“In the so-called smart phone business we will concentrate solely on software with our Windows Mobile programme”

It looks like this may be a good idea considering the partnerships Microsoft has with other phone manufacturers and Microsoft’s past run -ins with Apple products.

Although Microsoft’s Windows platform maintains a clear lead in the OS wars, their attempt to compete directly with Apple’s iPod fell way short. The success of the Zune portable music player, despite interesting features like song squirting, has not been able to break the global marketshare dominance of Apple’s iPod line.

[Via Guardian]

Things are looking promising for those of us who are waiting for Microsoft Exchange support on the iPhone. AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is seeking a “motivated, highly-technical Exchange test/sync engineer with excellent problem solving and communication skills.”

“You will join a dynamic team responsible for qualifying the latest iPhone products,” the company wrote. “Your focus will be testing Exchange and Outlook functionality with Apple’s innovative new phone.”

I personally, cannot wait for this to happen so I can finally ditch my second phone. I am currently lugging around my Motorola Q in addition to my iPhone with the sole purpose of syncing my work email and calendar.

How about you? Will you be able to use an Exchange sync on your iPhone?

[Via AppleInsider]

George Hotz, the 17 year old New Jersey hacker, who has become the darling of the blogosphere and beyond since the news broke last friday. But apparently, our friends down under got really excited and didn’t fact check their content.

The Herald Sun, Australia’s largest daily newspaper, published a news flash online this morning with the following subhead, “HACKERS have unlocked Microsoft’s new iPhone, allowing it to be used by any network.” No word on whether they called Microsoft for a comment!

Just in case, they realize the mistake and correct it, here is a screenshot.

There is nothing quite like summer carnivals and town fairs and all the carnival games that go with it. My personal fave? Whack-a-mole. You know the game: plastic mole pops up randomly out of holes and you..well..whack the heck out of its head.

So now imagine taking that carnival joy and shrinking it down to an iPhone screen-sized scale. Now imagine having some added incentive to whacking that mole. With iWhack that mole is none other than Steve Ballmer himself.

The game, released by myNuMo, can be played here. Start whacking! And if you need some added incentive, remember what Steve Ballmer said back in April,

Theress no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get.

Enjoy.

Yes you must be asking just why virtualization Software would allow you to tack on another layer to access already redundant date. Unfortunately some of us use our iPhone in a Windows dominant world and are forced to adapt to Windows based tools for data management. This, as ironic and redundant as it sounds is incredibly useful for users stuck in a pro Windows business.

This feature is only available in the new beta which can be downloaded here.

Via: TUAW

Steve Jobs had a goal of reaching 10 million iPhone sales by the end of 2008, but according to SeekingAlpha analysts, Apple will reach 13.5 million units by the end of 2008.

SeekingAlpha also suggest that Apple will be releasing new iPhone products soon, with a 16GB version available at some point next year and a 3G enabled handset by Spring (but this particular writer is hoping that 3G reaches Europe before then).

Whilst market share will still be rather low after 13.5 million shipped units next year, it’s thought that this number will crush Microsoft’s Windows Mobile devices as last year only 4 million units were sold. Whether or not the iPhone trend will slowly come down to a calm next year is anyone’s guess but it appears that it’s selling like hot-cakes at th minute.

Looks like a bunch of smart folks in the U.K. have figured out a way for iPhone users to get their Exchange email on their iPhone. They are doing this without relying on enterprises to turn on IMAP access on the server side (which has security issues). How? By leveraging Outlook Web Access, the product included in Exchange that allows web access to email.

Commenting on the decision to support Microsoft Exchange synchronization with the Apple iPhone, Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica said, “The iPhone is a very attractive smartphone, appealing to both the consumer and prosumer market. However, IT Managers are not going to permit their executives to synchronize a device that requires them to punch holes in the corporate firewall. Mobile Gateway already supports synchronization with Microsoft Exchange, but does not require firewall modification or any software to be installed in the corporate network, so this won’t be an issue. From a carrier’s perspective, we are significantly expanding the reach of the iPhone into the business user and prosumer segments.”

What isn’t clear to me is what is required from the user standpoint. Does the corporation need to download something and install it? The… more...

When you sync your iPhone contacts with Outlook, a few glitches can create some headaches for you. Big surprise. When has a Microsoft application ever flawlessly work with an Apple device?

In a ”technical bulletin” put out by Apple yesterday, there are specific glitches mentioned including:

- Some URLs added to an iPhone contact may not show up in Outlook after the data has been synchronized.
- Contacts created with iPhone’s “Custom” labeled phone numbers feature will show up in Outlook’s “Other” files because of software incompatibilities between the two platforms.
- If notes in an iPhone contact record contain any blank lines, unexpected formatting—such as bold text—may occur when the data is ported from iPhone’s software to Outlook.

As we reported before the iPhone launch, many days of road testing occurred to ensure a great initial release. I am starting to think, none of those hours were logged in using real applications or real day-to-day applications.

[Via Information Week]

Got a Windows Mobile device? Envy the fact that Apple has come up with yet another thing hotter than something Microsoft has to offer? Then why not download the iContact 0.2?

Take a look at the video and I’m sure you’ll soon get the idea!

We know Steve, you have told us a million times. The iPhone will kick ass for business. But even if the multi-touch display keyboard works better than people fear, will it be big enough or robust enough to truly do business?

Park your reservations about anything Microsoft at the door because once you see this demonstration, your jaw might hit the floor. Here is Microsoft’s Center for Information’s concept demonstrated at the Convergence 2007 conference.