After several weeks since the Mobile World Congress, Microsoft has been bringing out one major news update after another. The Windows Phone 7 is highly anticipated, and the weekly newsfeeds about upcoming features, hardware settings and other information just keeps the curiosity boiling. While we are currently catching our breath with all the updates, here’s a summary of everything we know so far.
WP7 is going to be an entirely new mobile platform instead of an upgrade for WinMo 6. This means that old devices running WinMo will not be able to run WP7 –even the HTC HD2. The platform will also not be compatible with apps for older versions of the OS; new apps will have to be made especially for this new operating system.
The user interface is completely touch based and will require both a capacitive touch screen and a high speed processor to keep up with all the dynamic elements such as animations. 3G and WiFi support will also be needed with all the live update functions.
The release of the SDK showed off the device’s support for game developing app XNA Game Studio and Visual Studio which will allow players to transfer their game state directly to a PC or an Xbox 360. For regular applications, the Silverlight is a perfect tool for making visually impressive apps.
Microsoft has also put in pre-set hardware requirements for WP7 devices. This means that a specific set of components and features will be constant in all Windows Phone handsets. There will also be chassis types that are compatible with the mobile platform. New to WP7 is the inclusion of the MSN Play, XBL, MS Location services, Bing, Zune and MS Notification services.
For more about Windows Phone 7 and what the industry has learned about the OS in the past few weeks, go to Tech Radar.
Tags: Windows-Phone-7