MobileCrunch |  |
- Will Windows Phone Apps Run On Windows 8?
- Chicago-Based Bidmyway Launches Hyperlocal Mobile Deals App
- T-Mobile’s Next Big Android Phone Gets Caught On Camera
- Deutsche Telekom Is Offering Pre-Orders For A Nebulous, Unnamed Apple Phone
| Will Windows Phone Apps Run On Windows 8? Posted: 05 Sep 2011 12:27 PM PDT  When you look at the combined 70 percent smartphone market share of Android and Apple in the U.S. compared to Microsoft’s measly and shrinking 6 percent, it seems like it’s game over before it really began for Windows Phone. Windows Phone is a decent mobile OS, even promising, but so far it has failed to capture the hearts and minds of developers or consumers. Can Microsoft do anything to change that and will it involve tying Windows Phone more tightly to its next desktop operating system, Windows 8? There are some clues that this is exactly what Microsoft is planning to do. When we first saw the preview videos of Windows 8, with its touch and tile-based interface, people thought immediately of Windows Phone, which has a very similar looking interface. Instead of app icons, both use tiles which can display data and images from the underlying apps without opening them. The tiles themselves become a dashboard displaying the realtime data behind every app. Windows Phone and Windows 8 are two separate operating systems. But what if Microsoft made it really easy for Windows Phone apps to run on Windows 8 PCs? Right now, most mobile apps on Android or Apple’s iOS devices live in their own separate world from the desktop (porting apps from iOS to OS X is possible, but doesn’t seem to be a very popular practice). The link to the desktop today is usually done via the web. If Windows mobile apps had counterparts on the desktop that synced up and presented themselves as a Windows 8 app tile, that could give Windows phone an advantage currently lacking in its rivals. It also would be in line with Microsoft’s classic embrace and extend strategy, whereby it uses its dominance of the desktop to extend to other areas. That strategy may no longer work in the post-PC era, but it is still worth a try. We will probably see all of this come together with Windows Phone 8 and Microsoft’s upcoming developer framework for Windows 8 called “Jupiter.” Just as the god Apollo was the sun of Jupiter, so too is Windows Phone 8 (codenamed Apollo) related to Windows 8. As our own Sarah Perez wrote about Jupiter:
As I noted above, even if this strategy is successful in creating a ton of cool cross-platform mobile-PC apps, it is not clear that will be enough to make a difference for Windows Phone. But it definitely points to the mobile and desktop worlds converging in the not too distant future, and not just on Windows. All your mobile apps should also be available in some form on your desktop. Not the exact same apps, of course, because mobile apps are built for touch interfaces, location, and to take advantage of your phone’s hardware such as cameras and accelerometers. Desktop apps, in contrast, still need to be designed for the mouse and keyboard. But the underlying data can feed native apps on both platforms. Over the past decade, desktop apps have given way to the web. Wouldn’t it be ironic if their popularity makes a comeback thanks to mobile apps? Company: MICROSOFT Website: http://www.microsoft.com Launch Date: 4/4/1974 IPO: 13/3/1986, NASDAQ:MSFT Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of... Windows Phone 7 is the successor of the Windows Mobile 6.5 mobile operating system in development by Microsoft, scheduled for release by October 2010. Microsoft’s goal is to create...
   |
| Chicago-Based Bidmyway Launches Hyperlocal Mobile Deals App Posted: 05 Sep 2011 12:25 PM PDT  Bidmyway is a newly launched local deals app operating in the Chicago market. As opposed to being a deals aggregator for more popular brands like Groupon or Living Social, the app offers exclusive deals made with local merchants. What’s unique about Bidmyway is its interface and how the deals are presented to end users. Consumers “dial up” local deals using a click wheel reminiscent of the one found on old-style iPods. The wheel is used to select the budget you have available for deals. Spin to select the amount, lock it in and Bidmyway shows you the best deals within a specified radius, ranked and listed on a map. You can then purchase the deal right from the mobile app itself. It’s an interesting take on how mobile deals should work – instead of being presented with a single deal for a given geographic region, like a city, you filter a larger list of hyperlocal deals for those that are both within your budget and your vicinity. It’s a concept that could easily help users to better sort through the ever-growing number of deals available, so it’s actually somewhat of a shame (for the rest of us, at least) that Bidmyway launched as an independent deals broker, instead of an aggregator. Bidmyway CEO John T. Shave says he believes that “hyperlocal mobile” is the future of the deals industry. It’s not a surprise, then, that he felt the need to build a new system from the ground-up, right down to the new deal-filtering mechanism. He also notes that Bidmyway is the better option for merchants who need to launch a mobile deal immediately – for example, a restaurant having a slow night. Through the app, a retailer or small business owner can instantly offer a deal and post it, allowing them to attract customers right away, and most importantly, while those customers are out and about looking for something to do. Although Bidmyway is available for download on iPhone and Android right now, as noted above, the only deals available are in the Chicago area (incidentally, also the birthplace of Groupon.) In the future, the company hopes to expand to other markets. Bidmyway is owned and operated by local commerce company Elite Media Worx, which also runs the daily deals site EliteCityDeals. Elite Media Worx previously raised $1.35 million in funding back in April.
  |
| T-Mobile’s Next Big Android Phone Gets Caught On Camera Posted: 05 Sep 2011 11:19 AM PDT  If you recognize the phone up top, ye ol’ hypothalamus is probably already hard at work churnin’ out the “Do Want” signals. If you don’t, here’s all you need to know: it’s called the HTC Amaze 4G (or the HTC “Ruby”, if we’re goin’ by its internal codename), it’s T-Mobile’s next flagship Android smartphone, and it’s a beast. While this is by no means the first time Ruby has found its way behind a lens, it’s the first time we’ve seen it in any state of operation — in other words, it’s the first time we’ve really seen it turned on. As you may note, this specific unit lacks T-Mobile branding — that’s because it was snapped by Thai Android site DroidSans at an event over in their home turf, where HTC is seemingly a bit less worried about keeping this device under wraps. With that said, this is very much the same device as what’s been floating the rumor mil around as T-Mobile’s Amaze 4G. So, why is this one worth firing up the ol’ dopamine production center? Check out the specs, as confirmed by the rather blurry shot #4 below:
Now, the only question that remains: why the heck hasn’t T-Mobile made this thing official yet? Sure, they need to give their Galaxy S II some breathing room — but come on, guys, get this thing on the shelves. T-Mobile is a mobile telephone operator headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile has 101 million subscribers making it the worlds sixth largest mobile... HTC Corp, (TAIEX: 2498) produces smartphones running the Android and Windows Mobile operating systems for themselves and as an OEM to other manufacturers. Since launching its own brand in...
  |
| Deutsche Telekom Is Offering Pre-Orders For A Nebulous, Unnamed Apple Phone Posted: 05 Sep 2011 07:57 AM PDT  In, according to Bloomberg, “anticipation of supply bottlenecks,” Deutsche Telekom aka T-Mobile is offering pre-order coupons to folks who call in asking for the next iPhone, whatever it may be. The move is quite clever: customers won’t have to stand in line, DT is promised a huge rush of sales during the post summer holiday slump, and it allows anti-fanboys to crow about the iSchafe on this gloriously slow federal holiday. Win-win-win. Stunt or actual effort to prevent “bottlenecks?” You decide.
  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from TechCrunch » Mobile To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
