Yesterday we got hands on with a Windows Phone 7 prototype. The thing that the Windows Phone 7 seem to be most pleased with about with this phone is the design. But on getting a little hands on, we were baffled. The design looks great, really great, and the news that hubs can be created by developers restores confidence. However, there’s some crucial flaws with the Windows Phone 7 design, one of which struck me more than anything else.
BlackBerry 6 is being teased more often than a ginger kid at playtime, but we’ll play along with RIM’s PR game as long as they keep throwing us tidbits like this: the new BlackBerry 6 OS will pack in a ton of media upgrades, including new music management, a refined camera with Face Detection and improved scene modes, as well as improved sync and a brand new Podcast app.
Been out all morning? We have gathered up the hottest stories you may have missed to serve up as you Lunchtime Lowdown.
We finally had some good news from Apple – and then some – as it shrugged off recent iPhone 4-related calamities by releasing figures that showed the iPad doing ridiculously well. The tablet has almost outsold Apple’s whole range of Macs. With $3.25 billion quarterly profits, we doubt Steve Jobs is losing any sleep.
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Toshiba Media Controller for iPhone just broke cover, and even if you don’t own any Toshiba kit, it’s an awesome app giving iPhone owners an ultra-simple way to bounce music, videos and photos from one device to another without ever touching a PC.
It’ll even turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a DLNA server, ready to fling photos from its image library to other devices around the house.
HP has apparently listed its HP Slate online as running on Windows 7 in another twist for the tablet. It started out as the centrepiece of Steve Ballmer’s CES keynote, but then was reportedly dropping Windows 7, possibly in favour of webOS, after which it was reportedly being dropped altogether, until HP turned up in a slide listing tablet hardware at Ballmer’s most recent keynote speech a few weeks ago. Phew.
We quite liked the Samsung Wave, as you can see from our review. It’s not u there with the iPhone or a decent Android phone in terms of flexibility, but it is solidly put together and well thought out. If you need a smartphone with a handful of good apps that you can just switch on and use then the Wave, with its Bada operating system, is one to check out.
If you are intrigued enough to want to pick one up, our Samsung Wave Ultimate buyer’s guide can help you find the best deals.
Flipboard is the iPad app du jour after tech guru and compulsive tweeter Robert Scoble sang its praises this morning. While we’ve seen some snazzy translations of magazines to the iPad, like the Wired iPad app, Flipboard creates a custom publication built from links, updates and photos shared via Twitter and Facebook. It even makes Twitter lists more useful by grabbing them to form sections. Click through for a look at the app in action and more details on its fiendish features…
Toshiba Australia’s head honcho Mark Whittard has been waving around a tablet prototype dubbed the SmartPad. From a distance, it looks pretty iPad-like rather than opting for the kind of unusual styling we saw in the Toshiba Libretto W100 and its dual touchscreen smarts. Specs for the Toshiba SmartPad are still thin on the ground but Whittard did spill some details and we’ve gathered them up below…
