Microsoft Secret Prototype Phone Stolen 249
bossanovalithium writes to tell us that details are emerging about the theft of a top secret prototype mobile device stolen from an executive's pocket. Time to start watching eBay. "There are fears that leaks regarding the features and early bugs in the software could mar the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 which the company hopes will give it the edge over the iPhone and the new Google Android operating system. The new product includes support for touch-screen technology similar to that found on the Apple iPhone. Among the features offered in the new service unveiled by Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, on Tuesday, is a version of Windows Marketplace for Mobiles, which is set to compete with the popular Apple's App Store and provide easy ways to download music and products to mobiles. "
andnothingofvaluewaslost (Score:5, Insightful)
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Why would they be building a phone; another area that they are not good at.
See also: Portable media players
--adzaar
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Re:andnothingofvaluewaslost (Score:5, Insightful)
This struck me from TFS:
They're afraid people will find out about their poorly designed, buggy phones. Mod me troll if you wish, but I've seen few MS designs that weren't counterintuitive, ass-backwards, without the end user's needs or wants in mind.
Re:andnothingofvaluewaslost (Score:5, Interesting)
This is pretty much non-news. WM 6.5 beta has been leaked in various iterations and some of the guys at xda-developers have already cooked these into roms for several devices. I've even flashed it onto my HTC Touch Pro just to see what it's like. Guess what, (surprise!) it's slower and even more bloated than WM6.1. It didn't last for more than a couple hours before I got fed up and rolled it back. Honestly, 6.5 didn't add anything useful to 6.1. Just a honey-comb UI that looks crappier/more jerky than TouchFlo/Manilla or Spb Mobile shell.
I don't really think MS has to worry about trade secrets about its "new and improved" mobile OS being leaked to Apple, RIM, or Google. The only benefit a competitor would gain is a quick laugh.
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Why would they even be giving out a secret prototype to an executive? Shouldn't it be behind a locked door?
That's true. And they should have had a sentry gun waiting, maybe had a demo guy or heavy weapons guy waiting as well. Hopefully their scout can bring back the sony prototype phone first.
On an unrelated note, I've been playing a lot of TF2.
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Yeah, I'm stuck playing it on the 360. It will be a cold day in hell when I get to play the updates, or maybe sooner if I cave in and buy a new computer that can run it.
(Before anyone asks why I don't upgrade now, I don't use the computer I have at home already, buying a new one for a single game I already have is something I can't quite justify.
Re:andnothingofvaluewaslost (Score:5, Interesting)
Or was this just a way to generate hype?
Reminds me of the South Park episode where they were trying to figure out who was behind 9/11 (started with Cartman saying the Jews did it), and towards the end President Bush said "Ha! and all along the plans were right here in my hands, and you'll never get them!" - then he turns around and yawns while looking over his shoulder and dropping the "secret plans" on the floor.
Yeah, I could see this being something like that, and if so then they learned from their "leaks" of Windows 7. But that's just me.
Re:andnothingofvaluewaslost (Score:5, Informative)
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Well, other than the gact that is wasn't one of their people.
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Well, other than the gact that is wasn't one of their people.
I have a feeling the above message was typed on that missing mobile device...
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Sometimes you just need to do field testing; the Executive could have used the excuse of determining whether or not to continue the project, funding or some such.
Personally, I hope this spurs a call for anti-theft measures to be integrated into the device. GPS reporting, disabling if reported stolen, so on... Sure, they could be bypassed, but antitheft measures work basically on 'I'm more of a pain in the butt to steal(from) than the next guy'.
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Personally, I hope this spurs a call for anti-theft measures to be integrated into the device. GPS reporting, disabling if reported stolen, so on... Sure, they could be bypassed, but antitheft measures work basically on 'I'm more of a pain in the butt to steal(from) than the next guy'.
That's how antitheft devices work on cars (where you have several vehicles to choose from and can take the time to evaluate the antitheft devices), not on cell phones (the theft of which generally requires pickpocketing or mugging). If somebody is considering stealing your phone, it's unlikely he'll decide not to because he recognizes it as a model he doesn't want. Once he's stolen it, he's sure as hell not going to give it back to you (although he may toss it, if it's not worth trying to sell).
For a cell
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I've never known anybody who had one stolen....
I supposed the ones with sim cards in them could be used with a new card (I've just recently learned about these due to interest in iPhones), but, for other ones like from Sprint and Verizon, you cant' really do much with them, eh?
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I've never known anybody who had one stolen....
Some criminals will steal them in order to make international phone calls for various reasons(like drug deals).
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Because it's all about the dogfood [wikipedia.org] at Microsoft.
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This sounds like a publicity stunt to me.
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Why would they even be giving out a secret prototype to an executive? Shouldn't it be behind a locked door? Or was this just a way to generate hype?
At least we know their new prototype sucks balls and doesn't have GPS...
Look for it in the nearbye trashcan (Score:2)
The pickpocket thought he was stealing an iPhone but shortly afterward noticed it was not an iPhone and chucked it into the trash.
Or...
The pickpocket tried to use the phone and couldn't get it to work and didn't want to follow a wizard in order to use a phone... then the phone crashed. "F**k it! I'm getting an iPhone."
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Cant be that much of a secret device if they let people take them home.
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The "secret" is (Score:5, Funny)
that it's an iPhone with the word "Microsoft" engraved on the back
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Stupid moderators are at it again. How the hell can the parent be marked "Redundant" when NONE of the above comments even mentioned what he said. Someone needs their mod points revoked.
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"Redundant"
You keep usin tha wor... i do no thin it means wha you thin it means...
An edge? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not apple fanboy, but explain again how having a phone that will have a touchscreen like the iPhone and an online music store like iTunes is supposed to give Microsoft an "edge" over Apple.
Re:An edge? (Score:4, Interesting)
The real edge is that the Exchange client actually works on Windows Mobile.
Can't say this for the iPhone, sadly.
Re:An edge? (Score:5, Insightful)
The real edge is that the Exchange client actually works on Windows Mobile.
You're talking about Exchange, and you think it's just the client that doesn't work?
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Re:An edge? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:An edge? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to start a flame war or a vocal-minority thing here, but am I alone in having virtually no issues at all with iPhone's ActiveSync capability? I've been using it for work email since day one and haven't had a single issue.
This being an open forum, there will always be people complaining about their problems with device nnn - and they'll generally assume their problems are universal and the fault of the vendor.
In a case like the GPs, for all we know he's using a jailbroken iPhone, or trying to run a bastardized copy of the iPhone OS on a user-modified Palm Pilot for that matter. Or he may not even own an iPhone, but just heard from some guy that the "iPawn's ActiveSync sux0rz". I'm not saying any of this actually represents the facts - just that, when an lone individual makes vague/sweeping comments, we just have no idea of the facts.
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That's why Microsoft never ships a device in the nnn stage, but instead waits until they can deliver a product with device zzz. At least via web submission, fewer complaints are registered when a device is in the zzz state, and nobody assumes it's the fault of the vendor.
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Not to start a flame war or a vocal-minority thing here, but am I alone in having virtually no issues at all with iPhone's ActiveSync capability? I've been using it for work email since day one and haven't had a single issue. What issues have you had?
For me, the issue is not what works (email works fine) but what was left out - tasks, meeting invite creation capability; and how the iPhone handles some things such as email sorting. In addition, for some odd reason some of my multi-day all day events don't show up on my iPhone.
From an exchange usability perspective, as someone who wants his phone to handle all the exchange tasks I do on a laptop; the iPhone is no where near as good as my Treo 700p or w.
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The exchange feature is not new. It has been in WinMo since the beginning. 90% of the people who have winmo is for that particular reason. However in total, the number of people who need this feature are a minority.
Again, how does this secret prototype had anything that would give winmobile an edge over iphone (which is overrated itself IMO)?
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90% of the people who have winmo is for that particular reason. However in total, the number of people who need this feature are a minority.
Tell that to the legion of corporate BlackBerry owners who, you know, use their phone for things other than downloading light saber and fart apps.
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Not sure what you mean. I use the ActiveSync on my iPhone and it works pretty much perfectly. Maybe your Exchange server isn't set up right?
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I think they are getting to worked up about releasing gadgets.
The first thing I would do is create exchange clients that work with the iPhone.
Charge 29.99. Why would you want to intentionally lock your product to a few devices when software is where you make your money?
Seriously, I would love to talk to people on Microsoft's board about this.
Unambitous version number (Score:4, Insightful)
While you're at it, explain why, if WM 6 is ho-hum, and this new OS is better than the iPhone's, it only rates a 6.5 version number.
I would think you'd need to rebuild WM from the ground up to compete with the iPhone. (The new Palm OS looks fairly promising in that regard.)
Re:Unambitous version number (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows Mobile 6.5 apparently doesn't even support Capacitive touch screens. It is also lacking in anything really interesting, according to one engadget reporter. It IS kind of pretty. [engadget.com]
Think about it though, in the history of computing, what competitive advantage has Microsoft ever had? Nothing, except momentum, starting with momentum given to them by IBM. It has always been enough for them to make a cheap copy of someone else's technology at a later date, making it 'good enough.' That is there only competitive advantage. And it's worked amazingly well for them. So it is understandable that Balmer would think a product that does nothing other than what their competitors already do would give them a competitive advantage. It always has before.
Your sig has a stupid link (Score:2)
I want world peace just as much as anybody else, but I tried looking at the site in your sig and got stuck at some animation that doesn't show in my browser. Unless those people redo their site in a manner that's shown in any browser configuration without any hassle being necessary from the part of the reader, they won't get the wide attention they presumably want.
If you happen to have any contact with those people, please inform them that the "http" in "http://p5y.org" stands for "Hyper TEXT Transfer Proto
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Not if those half dozen models collectively sell less than the competitors single model. In fact, having a dozen moving targets makes the developers jobs that much harder, even assuming the same number of total phones sold.
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Because Microsoft won't police software and only allow "approved" apps. That, IMHO, is the biggest weakness of the iPhone.
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I don't like the apple software police either, however I am glad that they do because it ensures that crapware leaky
apps do not run on the phone. Failure to police the software will result in users ultimately blaming the hardware.
MS has a impossible task in front of them at this point.
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Because Microsoft won't police software and only allow "approved" apps.
You mean like XBox?
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Re:An edge? (Score:4, Interesting)
The things that might give Microsoft the edge are proper Windows integration (Exchange etc.) which is important in the business world where the majority of systems are Windows based and also the massive hoarde of .NET developers that can easily develop for Windows mobile.
Whether they will in practice is a different story of course but Microsoft do have some advantages with their platform, the idea is if they can close their disadvantages - i.e. provide the things Apple has, whilst continuing to provide the things they don't have then that would indeed give them the edge.
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Just for the record the iPhone I am posting this with connects to exchange just fine for work.
Normally though I set it up for google's exhange for my google calendar, and IMAP for my personal email. I for personal stuff I don't need push email. However every once in a while I need exchange for work. It takes a few minutes to resetup but works great.
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There's a difference between using Exchange's basic POP3 server and making use of all the vast array of features Exchange provides though. Most business want the full suite of features.
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other than calendar, reminders, and email, there isn't a whole lot.
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Windows mobile already has touch screen support and has had it for a long while.
Publicity (Score:2)
This is gorilla marketing. This story follows a five step plan:
1. Phone gets stolen from executive. Leak story to press.
2. The executive's teenage daughter is arrested by police. She became completely addicted to her father's new Zune phone. She comments: "The new Zune phone is amazingly cool."
3. Make billions of said phone.
4. ???? (Sell Zune Phones????)
5. Profit
At least, that is the story from the marketing depar
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This is gorilla marketing.
That would explain why the honeycomb buttons are so very large. Gorillas have big fingers.
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So Microsoft is monkeying around?
Perhaps you meant *guerilla* marketing...
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Well one thing's for sure (Score:5, Funny)
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I see you're trying to locate a stolen prototype.
Would you like help tossing that chair?
</clippy>
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Actually, it does. But, the latitude, longitude, altitude speed and heading frequently get switched.
After correcting the inconsistencies, it last checked in for an update 3 hours ago from:
Lat/Lon: 47.64408, -122.128556
Lat/Lon: +47 38' 38.69", -122 7' 42.80"
Speed: 5mph
Heading: 180.0
(All information is +- 500 feet or 5%)
If anyone can find where this could be, I'm sure the folks at Microsoft would appreciate it. Email to secret.prototype.department@microsoft.com
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Who? me?
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Why bother (Score:2)
What would an industrial spy hope to learn?
The thief has been caught already (Score:4, Funny)
His lawyer stood up and said "Thanks, your honor, however my client only has $300 on him at this time, but if you'd allow him a few minutes in the crowd he will gather all the required monies."
Oh, and what's the difference between a Peeping Tom and a pickpocket? A pickpocket snatches watches.
We had the next iPhone killer.... (Score:5, Funny)
Ebay (Score:4, Funny)
Your search returned 0 items.
0 results found for phone+brown+squirt
[ Save this searchSaved to My eBay. ]
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Maybe you should try to Google that search string. I'll bet you get a few more results. ;)
Unfortunately... (Score:3, Funny)
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Like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ccWL9cir0 [youtube.com]
how much you want to bet... (Score:2)
Re:how much you want to bet... (Score:5, Funny)
My Boss has a WinMo6 phone that locks up when he answers calls from his wife. He calls this a feature.
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Something like that actually happened to me. I picked a custom ring tone for calls from home, and the only time it would play correctly was just after a fresh reboot. If an audible alert - say, from the calendar - had previously sounded, a call from home would lock up the phone. I'm told it was something about part of the OS not releasing the audio driver or something. The solution was not to use custom ring tones.
I understand how this could be considered a feature, but you have to go home sometime..
Re:how much you want to bet... (Score:5, Insightful)
What's wrong with cascading menus is that there's not enough real-estate on a mobile device to do them well. It becomes an exercise in patience and fine motor skills. It takes a remarkable number of gestures to get to some arbitrary app (up to seven on the WM phone I suffered with for 3 months) and there isn't enough real-estate to put all the apps one commonly uses on the front page. Cascading menus are OK on a PC, endurable (barely) on a netbook, and intolerable on a mobile device. Microsoft apparently thinks that users will endure decreased usability and eyestrain for a consistent interface across their PC, netbook and mobile devices. It appears that in some cases they're right. But I suspect it's because the users haven't adequately explored the alternatives.
What is important on a mobile device is navigation on a small screen with imprecise gestures. The best I've ever experienced was a tab-based interface (LauncherX) on Palm -- you move between screens of applications by rocking left and right, and rock down to choose an app. I had about 40 apps in 5 categories and could get to any of them in 2-3 seconds. The second best was the iPod Touch -- wiping to different screens of apps is fast and something a toddler could pick up in minutes. Third is Blackberry, (trackball) which only has one "page" but supports hierarchical folders. Even at that, you have to choose your app placement carefully to avoid spending all your time opening and closing folders. The absolute worst is tapping "Start", then "Programs", then "Accessories", then "Entertainment" and so forth. Try another gui -- practically any other current mobile gui -- and you'll find that just about any operation is faster and more intuitive.
Who steals my purse steals... (Score:2)
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
Hence, we have here a less than trivial loss
I've seen that thing already . . . (Score:3, Funny)
. . . like, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_can_telephone [wikipedia.org]
Those executives have big pockets to hold these.
oops! (Score:2)
I was trying to post a reply but my phone blue screened.
New lows (Score:2)
Man, this is the craziest PR leak strategy *ever*.
An Engadget Editorial on Windows Mobile 6.5 (Score:4, Interesting)
Article title is completely wrong. (Score:3, Informative)
Microsoft announces new Zune-phone (Score:4, Funny)
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today announced a new era at the Seattle software company, announcing their entry six^Wnine^Wtwelve months hence into the cell phone market with the exciting new Zune Phone [today.com], to finally get the company properly into the rapidly changing digital media landscape.
Ballmer, speaking to a group of trained-monkey analysts and cynical bloggers at the company headquarters today, unveiled mockups prototypes of the Zune Phone, which combines the Zune music player (with wifi for "squirting" songs), a CDMA cell phone, a PDA, an eight gigabyte hard disk, a camera, a laser pointer and a bottle opener into one semi-portable device. It will also allow you to "squirt" music to and from your Windows 7^W8 Service Pack 1^W2 Media Center computer.
The product underscores the shift the company has attempted to make in recent years from an office supply company to a consumer electronics darling as it aims not to become utterly obsolete in the digital future. "And even Linux fanboys admit our hardware is pretty nice," Ballmer said before the somewhat sullen and cynical crowd. "It's definitely the best music player we've ever made."
Ballmer called the Zune Phone a revolutionary device that will leapfrog current technology. He said the company expects to sell about 100 million of them next year. "Maybe two hundred million. This is so the coolest music player ever." Unlike the MP3 player market, which the iPod has dominated even with the entrance of Microsoft's Zune, the cell phone market is much more fragmented. "There is not one device that everyone buys," said completely independent analyst Rob Enderle, "but this fabulous device should trounce all comers. I've ordered three already in anticipation."
Weighing in at only 15 ounces (425 grams), with a 5-inch 640-by-480 pixel screen, the $498 (with three-year $80/month contract) Z-Phone, a rebadged version of the LG Smart Display from 2003 with new firmware, looks like a Classic Brown Zune (to come in mission, chocolate, corduroy and meconium) with a phone touchpad in place of its imitation scroll wheel. It runs Windows Mobile, Pocket Internet Explorer, Pocket Microsoft Office, Pocket Solitaire and Pocket Pool. MSN will supply e-mail, mapping, search and other Internet services to the Z-Phone. It also features an amazing 1.3 megapixel (300,000 pixels interpolated) black and white camera. Battery life is estimated at up to four hours in Microsoft tests.
To better work with its content partners and ensure that you, the user, can rest safe in the knowledge that the artists and their representatives have been paid properly for all their hard work, Microsoft has limited "squirtable" songs to encrypted WMA files purchased from the Zune Music Store, which can be listened to three times or within three days before automatically being deleted from both the Zune Phone and the Media Center computer. Songs may also be "squirted" between two Zune Phones (though not the original Zune) if both are registered with Microsoft as being linked to that installation of Media Center. Users are advised to purchase Microsoft Zune Secure Headphones ($129), which encrypt the signal between the Zune Phone and your ears, as playback quality is degraded on conventional "analog hole" earphones or when playing back unencrypted MP3 files. Phone calls may be made to or received from any number on the network carrier you bought the Zune Phone from, with only a 99-cent charge for humming a song to someone you call or are called by on the phone or ten cents per use of the camera, laser pointer or bottle opener. Microsoft will also pay $20 from each Zune Phone sold to Universal Music. In addition to the ability to "squirt" songs, the user may "squirt" his calls, which are stored on Microsoft Zune Live servers and cost $40 per month to access.
In other news, Ballmer said that Microsoft had reached over 600 music downloads since introducing it
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Awesome. Truly awesome prose, there.
I hate to just post acclaim (with nothing to add), but that is fantastic.
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I have a toddler. Trust me when I say IT'S ALL ABOUT THE POO.
(To keep vaguely on-topic, she loves my cheap Chinese MP3 player [s1mp3.org], and keeps picking it up and holding it to her head like a phone and talking into it.)
It must be the ZunePhone(tm) !! (Score:2)
Check out the ZunePhone on YouTube! [youtube.com]
They expect to gain an edge (Score:2)
in a market place against entrenched device by ..offering the same thing.
Seriously, MS needs to hire me just to tell people no.
bet it was the same theif ... (Score:2)
who stole Windows 7 Beta. Same old, same old.
The Microsoft phone? (Score:2)
It could be that what was lost wasn't some partner's phone running 6.5, but an original device commissioned by Microsoft. This actually makes sense, as I could see an exec arguing that many of the problems with Windows Mobile is imperfect implementation by the cell phone manufacturers. (Clearly this is an oversimplification, but you could see that being put on a PowerPoint slide.) A closed architecture would allow Microsoft to make sure that the hardware was tightly and properly integrated with Windows.
Fixed it for you (Score:2)
sed -e 's/stolen/left/' -e 's/from/on/' -e 's/executive\'s pocket/Starbucks table/' < TFA
Seriously, folks... (Score:2)
I know everyone likes to enjoy a good joke at Microsoft's expense, but nobody here is seriously considering what will happen to the thief if he is caught. Theft of a prototype device from a high profile company is enough to get the FBI involved. This could end up very ugly for the thief.
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Er. Okay. So? If it was some random jerk stealing a random cellphone who didn't (still doesn't?) realize what he's scored, and he's busted, ha ha, screw you thief. If it was industrial espionage and they're busted, ha ha, screw you incompetent thief.
The reason i'm not considering what happens to the thief is... i don't really care. Except, perhaps, should opportunity present, to point and laugh.
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hip name (Score:2)
they really know how to name things. not something silly and easy to say like "app store".
Windows Marketplace for Mobiles ftw!
*sighs*
What a competition (Score:4, Funny)
Am I the only one reading "Windows Marketplace for Mobiles, which is set to compete with the popular Apple's App Store" and imagining handcuffs competing with bracelets?
Maybe they dropped it somewhere on purpose. (Score:2)
Imagine anybody who found it just didn't undergo the effort to tell a journalist about it.
Then again, maybe anybody who found it did undergo the effort to tell a journalist about it.
Imagine this journalist just didn't care to write a single line about it.
"What? Another Win Mobile phone? Labeled TOP SECRET all over? Found it where? Oh yes, I see. Listen, leave me alone, will you?" Click.
Thus, Disappointment and Despair (D&D) in Redmond growing, and growing, and chairs flying low these days...
easy (Score:2)
If you want to know what the next Microsoft phone looks like, just have a look at the shipping versions of Android, iPhone, and Symbian...
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BB OS 4.5 includes Documents To Go, which can view and edit word docs and powerpoint presentations.
Guess there's still a need for office on the phone.
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A very important difference.
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I'd love to have an iPhone, but there is one problem - I'm a man, and as such I don't carry a purse. I've yet to see anyone but women with iPhones.
I need a phone that will fit in my pocket, preferably a clamshell. The one I'm using now is a candy bar type and it irks me no end; I have keylock enabled so it doesn't go making random calls, which it sometimes does anyway if I stick it in my pocket before the keys lock.
My daughter had a clamshell phone that opened up like a miniature laptop, that was great - ex