Brandon Foy hired by Microsoft, officially more of a WP7 geek than you are

A little creativity can go a long way. A few months after the launch of Windows Phone, a viral fanmade commercial was making the rounds on the internet from 'WELOVEWP7' on YouTube. Many felt that video single-handedly blew Microsoft's own advertising efforts out of the water...and Microsoft noticed that. Later at MIX '11, Joe Belfiore was onstage and brought the man behind the video, Brandon Foy, along with him. Then Foy debuted a new viral video that he created at the request of Microsoft and it rocked. Belfiore also promised that if that video reached 200,000 hits that the video would become an official TV broadcast advertisement.

Unfortunately the video never did reach 200,000 views, but it turns out Brandon Foy didn't lose much in the end. According to his own Twitter account, Mr. Foy is working as a user experience designer for Microsoft! I think it's easy to say that Brandon Foy will go down in history as the Official Geek Elite of Windows Phone 7. Not bad for a video made in a few weeks, eh?

P.S. If you missed his previous work, both videos are embedded just past the break.

Via: LiveSide.net
Source: Twitter (@brandonfoy)

UberMusic for Android skinnable as Zune lookalike, Google Music left high and dry

Ever since Windows Phone launched late last year, there has been a serious amount of tech nerd love towards the still-sexy Metro UI. Now one of the most high quality reproductions of the Metro UI has made its way onto the Android Market for users everywhere to enjoy. We talked about UberMusic before when it was lacking a name, and the impressive quality seems to have held up from the early video developer Federico Carnales recorded. If you know your Android, that name should ring a bell if you've seen his incredible work on the LauncherPro app.

We think it's pretty phenomenal that Android developers are trying to mimic Windows Phone's good looks, and that platform has proven it is flexible enough to do just about anything. However, the presence of UberMusic does remind us of a certain point: the full Zune experience is still completely absent from other platforms. We've said that Zune needs to get Bing'd and invade as many platforms as it possibly can (even a Zune Pass-only app would do) if it wants to gain any sort of real traction against iTunes. UberMusic is a reminder to us that Microsoft has won in some areas (in this case, the Metro UI) but still needs to work hard in others.

If you happen to have an Android device floating around, you can pick up UberMusic for a fair $3.49 from the Android Market right here (the hands-on video is embedded below). To everyone else, just unlock your phone and open the Music+Videos Hub and we don't think you'll be very jealous of this app!

Via: Engadget
Source: Android Market (UberMusic)

Brandon Watson Challenges Web Personalities to try Windows Phone, Will Donate $1000 to Charity if They Don't Like It

Do you think more people should give Windows Phone a chance and try it out for themselves? You can do your part by sharing with your friends and loved ones, but if you're as well-connected as Microsoft's Brandon Watson you can issue a true "Windows Phone Challenge". That's exactly what he's been doing, promising to send web personalities frustrated with Android a developer device running Mango. Why? To win some good buzz of course!

The first person to receive Watson's challenge is the famous Dilbert creator Scott Adams, posting the comment on a rant Adams wrote about his frustrations with other phones. Here's the interesting part of the challenge:

Give [Windows Phone Mango] an honest run, and if you don't love it more than either of your iPhone or Android experiences, I'll make a $1000 donation to the charity of your choice. You can't really lose on this deal.

Watson has promised the same exact terms to CNET's Molly Wood through his Twitter account. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved: Windows Phone gets good press, Adams and Wood get to try a smartphone for free, and if they don't like it $1000 will go towards charity! Talk about good PR.

Source: Twitter (@BrandonWatson), Scott Adams Blog

Sonic uses a Windows Phone, Mario stuck with a 3DS

A few weeks ago as part of the "Must Have Games" program, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I was released. Since then it's done well based on its protagonist's recognition, but it looks like Sonic is starting to get pretty comfortable living inside Metro. Windows Phone Metro spotted the blue blur whip out a Windows Phone and rock on with some tunes as a short break from his life of fame and fortune.

Source: Windows Phone Metro

Penny Arcade does Windows Phone, we've officially made it

Nothing says more about a smartphone platform's maturity and acceptance into the technology field than a web comic. Luckily that's exactly what Penny Arcade has give the Windows Phone faithful as somebody makes the switch from a certain fruit device to Microsoft's latest. Enjoy!

Via: WPCentral
Source: Penny Arcade

Joe Belfiore spotted with Mango Twitter integration, #insanelyjealous

Oh, okay. We get it. A bunch of developers just got upgraded to a shiny new beta build of Mango and everyone was happy, but you just had to rain on everyone's parade didn't you Mr. Belfiore? Here we are, enjoying this beta in all of its glory when suddenly you send out a tweet...using your Windows Phone. It just so happens that the beta build that was released doesn't have Twitter integration because it's "coming soon", but apparently "soon" for the high and mighty was on July 9th.

Well enjoy that feature your highness, while the rest of us normal citizens are stuck with a now inferior Mango. We hope you enjoy watching grown men cry.

Via: PocketNow
Source: Twitter (@joebelfiore)

How Does iOS 5 Compare to Windows Phone Mango?

We've heard a lot of things about this Eye OS doohickey everyone's been talking about lately. Apparently a company called Maple made it and it's going to be released for the Eye Fone and Eye Pad. Anyway, we've also heard that a ton of features in Eye OS are pretty similar to Windows Phone Mango's new features in a lot of key ways. So how will Maple's next iteration of Eye OS stack up to Microsoft's impending Mango-flavored assault? Well Windows Phone 7 Center has constructed a lofty list of all the comparable features (including distinct categories for the iPhone and iPad). The result? It looks like Mango is getting you a lot more bang-for-your-buck and comprises of a larger amount of built-in features.

Of course, this list isn't bias-free coming from a Windows Phone site (if we made it, we'd say the same thing) but it's a nice way to gauge how Mango will stack up to the competition this Fall. At least we know one thing for certain after seeing these features: Apple sure is scared of Microsoft.

Source: Windows Phone 7 Center

"Designed in Finland" Fan Concept Mixes the Best of Windows Phone and Symbian 'Anna'

We love to check out fan concepts of ways to improve Windows Phone, and even though many aren't exactly feasible we still think it's worth checking out with an open mind. Today we fall onto the more radical side of concept designs, with Tommy Incrosnatu's "Designed in Finland" take on what Nokia should be doing with Windows Phone and Symbian. Here's his description of the concept:

So Nokia's Symbian is bitter sweet history and Windows 7 phone is the next big thing? I like to think so. The Windows 7 phone is really great, but the Metro UI alone doesn't quite cut it for me. I certainly hope that we'll see some scandinavian quality design in Nokia's phones. This feeling inspired me to add some Finnish look and feel by pimping the Metro tiles a bit and adding those lovely ANNA -icons. I also dropped out those redundant hardware keys from the phone, I think we all know by now that multitouch gestures work well.

As you can tell from the screenshots above and below, he really has done quite a bit of nipping and tucking to our precious Windows Phone Metro UI but we quite like it. In our opinion, this should be what Nokia updates Symbian to in order to create a consistent user experience across all of their devices.

What do you think of Tommy Incrosnatu's "Designed in Finland" concept? Radical, or radical?

Via: NGanu.com
Source: sciant.net

WP7 Music Player Recreated for Android, Imitation Still the Sincerest Form of Flattery

As much as we Windows Phone fanatics try to write-off Android, it certainly has its advantages. In this case, the powerful customization abilities of Android have given birth to an extremely close copy of Windows Phone's Zune music player. The Android equivalent currently lacks a name but it was designed by Federico Carnales, one of the brains behind Launcher Pro which is one of the OS's most popular apps. In the Android world, you don't need a name for your app if it comes from a well-loved developer like that. Engadget's Richard Lai went hands on with the app and notes that Carnales has done a superb job recreating all of the same animations and the entire layout found in the original music player, except obviously lacking Zune support.

Carnales went one step further, even beyond Microsoft, and has teased a tablet friendly version of the app for Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The large screen view of artist images faithfully imitates the Zune desktop software experience and makes us really really want a Windows Phone (or at least Metro'd) tablet OS. See that picture below. There's clearly a lot of love in the air for Microsoft's stylish Metro UI, and we can't wait to see it expanded more over the years, starting with Mango.

Via: Engadget
Source: Twitter (Federico Carnales) (@Basil_Knows)

Peter Lackman Returns With More Creative WP7 Tweaks

 

On My Nokia Blog, fan Peter Lackman submitted a few of his own concepts for new features in the behavior of Live Tiles. If you recall, Peter Lackman is the same visionary that brought us Symbian-style themes for WP7 in an earlier concept submission. This time he's gone above and beyond the original scope of his concept and has come up with a few novel ideas for the Start page, which Microsoft should seriously consider checking out.

The first idea is what he calls "Live Cubes" in which live tiles are given a three-dimensional depth and can flip around to reveal more features or apps. He expands the concept further by flipping over other adjacent tiles to show context-sensitive shortcuts when holding down on a tile (for example, holding down on IE flips the other tiles to show bookmarks). Lackman has created a pair of videos demonstrating how he imagines the concept might work and those can be seen above. The second part of the concept is "Secondary Tiles" which are just what they sound like: tiles that are linked and offer widget-like functionality. One example shown was the Spotify app that had a secondary tile acting as a quick music controls widget.

Overall Lackman has done a wonderful job once again and is a strong contender for the title of "Best Windows Phone 7 Fan Ever" in our books. For pictures and Lackman's explanation of these concepts, hit up the source link below.

Source: My Nokia Blog