HTC Eternity Rumored, Pictured, Spec'd, and Drooled Over

German site HTCInside has managed upon two very important sets of photos of a new, unannounced Windows Phone called the HTC Eternity. The first is the one above featuring a shot of the device itself, which is pretty much an exact replica of the Desire HD except for the always-there Windows Phone hardware buttons. But the more interesting part is the second photo (past the break), which includes a spec sheet containing all of the goodies you can't see in the first. Let's take a look shall we?

• 1.5 GHz Qualcomm MSM 8255 SoC (system-on-a-chip)
• Windows Phone Mango
• HSDPA 14.4 Mbps
• 4.7" WVGA (800x480) Super LCD
• 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with dual-LED flash
• 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera
• Records up to 720p HD video
• 16 GB storage, 512 MB RAM
• 1650 mAh battery
• DLNA support

Sounds pretty cool right? There's just one thing: we don't buy it. First of all, it's 2011 and HTC knows that it cannot come out with a replica of the Desire HD for Windows Phone and call it "new", even if it does have that gargantuan 4.7" screen. Second of all, the software on the phone does not look like Mango from what we can see. We know that most of Microsoft's press photos showing the Mango software usually displays a Linked Inbox tile in place of the typical Outlook one, and would also likely include the new People tile. Third of all, the specs are just a little too outlandish for us to really believe. A 4.7-inch screen? Probably won't happen. A 1.5 GHz MSM 8255 chip? Would be nice, but the 8255 can only go up to 1.4 GHz.

So you should join us as we take a spoonful of salt with this rumor. Yet despite our skepticism, we still hope we won't be waiting an eternity to see this one come out.

Via: PocketNow
Source: HTCInside

Data to blow your mind....

It is not new news that there is almost ungraspable amounts of data pinging around the world, and data is growing at an amazing rate.  Those rather knowledgeable bods at Cisco have come up with a lovely infographic, from which this is just a part so you can get your head around the relativity of scale of data metrics.  Kinda makes the fact that my work inbox has just been downgraded to a max 1gb even more of a joke....

Digital GOLD: The simplest ideas are often the best

 This is pure genius:  For those of us that spend hours a day stuck behind a keyboard, often out of sight of nature, then you need to bookmark this RIGHT NOW:

Challenge your ADD, a condition that makes us jumpy and impatient, and (here's that link again - click, you know you want to) take two minutes to just pause and think.  Hands off that keyboard!

So simple.  Made my day.

Developers: If You Have Mango, You Can't Talk About It

So you received your invite to download the Mango beta and you're planning to write up a 1500 word epic feature-palooza all about it? Better think twice about that kid, because Microsoft could sue you if you do that. See if you paid attention to that legal agreement that you were forced to sign in order to update, you'd have known that there's a confidentiality clause that you have agreed to. You didn't read it? Well here's the part we're talking about:

8. Confidentiality: By participating in this program, the developer agrees to not publish any content, screenshots or comments in any media in advance of the official launch of Windows Phone ‘Mango’.

Now if you're not good with legal-speak, this means that you can't talk about Mango at all in any form of media. This isn't just limited to news sites like ours: it includes talking, Twitter, Facebook, email, text messages, and whatever other kind of sharing medium you can probably think of.

For us, this really really really sucks. You cannot even begin to imagine just how much this has ruined our plans to have Mango coverage. Sadly our site was not big enough to participate in the Mango previews that Microsoft handed out to multiple members of the press, and our one saving grace would have been this beta update because we have a student developer account. Now this has really fudged things up on our side, and there's no real reason that we have seen to justify this from Microsoft's perspective. Journalists obviously didn't have a non-disclosure agreement to sign because they ripped Mango wide open once the embargo was lifted, so why are developers getting the short end of the stick?

Anyway besides our own issues we recommend you to proceed with a lot of caution when talking about Mango. For the most part, avoid taking photos and screenshots of your Mango phone and if you're releasing an update of your app for Mango devices to test, don't specifically mention what features you've included.

What do you think about this NDA, developers?

Via: WinRumors

Spam Continues in the Marketplace, Microsoft Looking for Certification Product Manager to Help

When will Microsoft ever learn? Courtesy of our friend Cris Rowlands, it appears the Windows Phone Marketplace is still being assaulted left and right by spam apps. What you see above is 14 of the 36 apps that have been published to the Marketplace in the last four days by developer Mark Agholor. Like many of the spam apps we have reported on, Mark Agholor's university and sports team news apps are nothing more than glorified RSS readers that could easily have been consolidated into a single app. To make matters worse, this is what all of them look like:

So the taking initiative Microsoft promised to do in order to fix their "bulk publishing" woes doesn't appear to have worked, even if they had bothered trying. But let's not be too harsh on them, because we've discovered that Microsoft probably is trying to solve this issue. We spotted a new open position at the Microsoft Careers site titled "Product Manager, Windows Phone Marketplace Policy" and the description sounds like the Seattle campus is actively looking for somebody to lead the charge on their certification process (we've picked out the relevant bits):

Key responsibilities include:
- Run the Marketplace application and content policy certification process to ensure all published apps are compliant with the program policies
[...]
- Own, evolve and refine application and content policies over time
- Periodically revise application and content policies, in order to adapt to new business requirements and reduce developer friction
[...]
- Manage the Marketplace application take-down process to promptly remove apps from the catalog that violate program policies, infringe on other people’s IP or threaten the security of Windows Phone devices or users
- Partner with engineering teams to evolve and optimize the application certification workflow as we expand to more markets, languages, operators and device manufacturers

We're very intrigued to see that Microsoft may be taking two different approaches to the Marketplace certification control. It appears that they are both tightening up the initial certification process as well as the "application take-down process" in order to pull apps that shouldn't have made it into the store in the first place.

So what say you, Windows Phone faithful: should Microsoft take this approach if that really is what the job post is implying? How do you feel about "bulk publishing" of apps in general?

Via: Twitter (@CrisRowlands)
Source: Mark Agholor (WP7Applist), Microsoft Careers

4th & Mayor updated to version 2.0, becomes the Mayor of App Updates

We can only imagine how incredible compliment as a developer it is when your third-party app becomes an officially endorsed solution by a company and a mark that you are a truly talented programmer. That's exactly what happened to Jeff Wilcox's 4th & Mayor earlier this May, when we broke news on Foursquare pulling their official app and instead offering up its users the unofficial client instead while they were working on their new version. Well today Foursquare users on Windows Phone are going to be pretty darn happy as 4th & Mayor has just leaped up to v2.0 and it brings along enough for us to call it the mayor of app updates. Here's the changelog:

Version 2:
• Accurate location reporting more often
• More responsive
• Replaces the Places pivot page with a dedicated Check In button and experience
• Lets you add photos to check-ins
• Expore profiles, including leaderboard progress, favorite categories and top places of friends
• Quick check-in respects your sharing preferences
• International users now get the complete maps experience, too
• Fixes a crash when checking in to a place too quickly
• Retires the dedicated Shout button
• Revamped user experience and interface
• Many, many other improvements and bug fixes - thanks for the bug reports!
• Explore is updated, adds the Outdoors item, moves Trending Now and Specials into new items

Ever since the official fiasco, we decided to take 4th & Mayor for a spin ourselves and since then we've really enjoyed it. The app has single-handedly made us Foursquare users as well as mobile check-in addicts, so kudos to them for achieving all of that with just an app. For those already addicted you should have received your update notice by now. If you've been thinking of joining Foursquare and have been looking for just the right app to suck you in, click out the tile below to see it in the Marketplace.

4th & Mayor Jeff Wilcox FREE Version 2.0

Developers: Start your engines -- the Mango update is here (plus an updated Mango SDK)!

The rumors are really true, but that's besides the point now: the Mango update for developers is available now! Brandon Watson has taken to the Windows Phone Developer Blog and laid out all the details devs need to know to get their "goodie basket" update.

First of all, not every single developer may get the update today; Watson cited, "final kinks in the distribution and support infrastructure for delivering Mango to all of our registered developers around the world," that are limiting them but invites to update are on their way to developers starting now. So if you've been a pretty active dev for Windows Phone 7, it may be worth refreshing your inbox several thousand times today. Plus you don't need a developer phone because this Mango update should be compliant with all available retail products and yes student developers will also have access to the Mango update!

If you have an invite in your hand and you're ready to download that Mango goodness, STOP. Watson left very important words of caution before you proceed to do anything: first go get the new Mango SDK Beta 2 which is ready for your downloading pleasure, and second read the instructions. Since this is considered an unofficial update, there are always risks to updating your device and if you're using your personal phone with the update it's best to be cautious and read every single step before going through with it.

Finally, here is the list of officially supported countries for the roll out:

• Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States

Want to know more about Beta 2 of the Mango SDK? Read up on all of the new changes here, but the biggest change is undoubtedly the ability to actually publish Mango-compliant updates in the Marketplace which means we'll start to see more apps really make use of those tucked away Mango APIs!

So what are you waiting for, an invitation? Oh, right...you probably are. Well you can still keep yourself busy by downloading that new Beta 2 but if you've already done that we recommend checking out what the journalists said about Mango in order to whet your appetite.

Update: According to Microsoft's Cliff Simpkins, we were wrong and every single registered developer should receive an invite to download the update TODAY. Awesome!

Source: Windows Phone Developer Blog