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HTCInside has posted what appear to be a snapshot and specs of the HTC Eternity, one of the new phones rumored to arrive this fall from the Taiwanese manufacturer.  Along with sporting a whopping 4.7-inch WVGA Super LCD screen, this Mango monster will allegedly pack the following features:

• 1.5GHz single-core processor
• 8MP camera with dual-LED flash and 720p video
• 1.3MP front-facing camera
• 16GB of storage
• DLNA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
• GPS
• 1650mAh battery

The 1.5GHz processor exceeds the current Microsoft WP7 requirements, which only include 1GHz and 800MHz chips.  This could either be a sign of new hardware requirements to come, or the Eternity's spec sheet is incorrect.  With or without the pumped-up CPU, the HTC Eternity sounds like quite the powerhouse.  As with all leaks, we need to take it with a grain of salt, but it's a exciting prospect nonetheless.

Source: HTCInside; Via: PocketNow

Yesterday, we noted how the Beta 1 Mango developer tools still had a reference to a 'self-portrait camera' i.e. front facing camera. We then later received confirmation from a trusted source that indeed, the new Mango hardware specs allow for front-facing cameras, an idea not too crazy when you throw in the 4G support.

Today, we saw the release of the Beta 2 Mango dev tools and intrepid reader 'Q' has forwarded this screenshot showing a brand new icon in the camera application. That icon, is not on NoDo devices nor current preview Mango devices either. To us, it clearly looks like a button to toggle the rear and front cameras, giving even more evidence that this fall video conference chats will be popular and third party devs can release software that utilizes the new camera.

(Thanks, Q, for the screenshot)

While nothing to be fearful about, I wouldn't recommend sending your bank account number and sort code via Kik Messenger for Windows Phone anytime soon, not that you would anyway. While the user's password is sent either hashed or encrypted, it's reported that Kik is sending user email addresses and messages in clear-text, viewable by any middle man, over an open connection (i.e. unsecured WiFi).

Mike Cardwell, a well established IT specialist, reported a year ago how Kik was insecure with Blackberry, Android and iOS. Kik has since resolved these issues this year and have commented on an article over at Within Windows covering the WP7 client:

 "Hi Rafael, Corry from Kik here. Thanks for your analysis.We are aware of this issue and plan to add WP7 message encryption in a future release. We want to reiterate that the password is not being sent in clear-text, and that our Android and iPhone clients feature full SSL encryption (login info + messages), as Mike Cardwell mentioned in his comment."

At least our passwords are safe, although we do recommend using multiple passwords for your online accounts, especially between social networks and e-commerce sites. Hopefully security will be added for emails and messages in Kik at some point in the near future. Use over 3G should be fine since the signal is encrypted.

Source: Within Windows and Mike Cardwell, thanks insi for the tip!

Here we are folks! This is it, a Mango beta ROM (reportedly build 7661) is now available (or will be shortly) for developers to update on their retail devices. Fantastic news for the registered brains. Confirmation comes from both Brandon Watson and Joe Belfiore. Full distribution of Mango to developers will be carried out over the next few weeks (in batches), registered developers will receive invites to the Microsoft Connect site, which will provide you with the update.

Countries explicitly supported for the early access program (your device will be supported by big M and will be processed should it malfunction once the distribution infrastructure is in place):

 "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"

What should you do now? Why not head on over to download the Mango Tools beta 2, which includes a number of  goodies, update your device to Mango and then (as Brandon Watson so fantastically puts it):

"Third, go rub it in your friends’ faces that you have Mango and they don’t. "

There will be a tools update in the coming months that will feature the go-live license required to publish Mango apps to the Marketplace, but be sure to start being creative now since your apps will work in the tools and the developer phone. For more information, check out the official blog post using the link below. These are positive signs my friends, this will surely drive excitement for Mango even further.

Source: WindowsTeam Blog

The big question on everyone's lips is "What about custom ringtones in Mango?" It was teased at MIX11 but even with out preview release, not much info was available on the process or what the limits would be.

Now Microsoft, via their Windows Phone Blog, have come forth with an outline of how custom ringtones will work in our updated OS. We'll summarize:

1. Third party devs have access for creating ringers: basically, any sound app that plays or records can have an option to "Save as Ringtone", allowing you to directly and dynamically create a ringer
2. Create your own ringtones via the Zune software: Yup, you'll be able to sample any of your non-DRM music (i.e. you own it). There are some caveats that have to do with size and limits: "It must 39 seconds or shorter, smaller than 1 megabyte (MB) and saved in MP3 or WMA format."

From what it looks like, the Zune software will do all the heavy lifting for you. You'll just point it at the song you want and you can sample it for the ringer, so long as it doesn't go over those above limits (which seem fair enough).

Finally, Microsoft mentions that they've added nine new ringtones to "Mango", so you'll have even more built in.  We're assuming that these custom ringtones will show up with the native ones (see above pic), allowing you to assign them seamlessly to individual contacts. Overall, we're happy with the strategy and like Microsoft, we envision many 3rd party apps showing up this fall that will take advantage of these new tools allowing customers to really create some new and unique sounds for their phones.

There, everyone happy now? If not, sound off in comments.

Source: Windows Phone Blog

Although gyroscopes are expected to the big hardware change in "Mango" (along with some new CPUs), front facing cameras are sort of up in the air--nothing official from Microsoft on it, yet it doesn't seem forbidden either. Going further, now that Microsoft owns Skype, video calling all but seems a certainty at some point in the OSs continued development. (There were also some rumors awhile back that front-facing cameras were coming from @MS_Nerd)

Looking at the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK, we can still see the SelfPortraitCamera enumeration value listed. We say "still listed" because it is technically not new--it's been there since the 7.0 SDK but obviously was not put to use. Seeing though that MS has yet to remove it, there's a good chance that (a) WP7 has always been meant to have a front-facing camera and (b) it's still on the table.

Whether or not the APIs go deeper than that and the software can fully support it is another matter. The early Samsung Taylor developer devices did have a front facing camera, but ultimately the hardware was either not active or the APIs were yet to be written (or both). However, those 1st generation phones also lacked 4G--something that is added in "Mango" and usually desired in the U.S. for phones with front-facing cameras. Having said all that, we're betting on later "Mango" devices to have ff-cameras, just because we dont' want to get our hopes up.

Update: We've received confirmation from a trusted source (i.e. you've heard of him) that the new Mango hardware specs do list front-facing cameras, meaning we can expect some video goodness from some OEMs in the fall. This is looking to be confirmed, at least from our standpoint.

via: Leon Zandman (Twitter)

Back in February, Microsoft held a contest to name the top healthcare and medical apps available for WP7.  The results were announced earlier this month and are as follows:

• 6 Week Training
• A Pose For That
• Healthy U
• Pregnancy e-Wheel
• My Sleep
• Nutrition Missions
• HealthCaddyFree

What is interesting to note here, is that the winners listed above fit more into the Health and Fitness category, rather than Medical.  Dan Buckland from MedGadget is quick to point out that WP7 is somewhat lacking when it comes to straight-up medical apps, especially some of the big names that medical professionals often use.  While users can find a couple of well-known names, like Unbound Medicine and Microsoft HealthVault (of course!), others like Skyscape, Medscape and Epocrates remain absent.  When MedGadget put the question to an Epocrates representative of whther or not a WP7 version was in the works, they vaguely replied that they are “currently investigating the Windows 7 platform and will update website with more details as they become available.”

Microsoft has been touting the wide-range capabilities of Windows Phone for business use, but it seems that they would be well-served to make that include specialized fields, such as medicine.  It is certainly a large enough market to help the platform gain ground on its competitors.

What do our medically-inclined readers think?  Is WP7 falling behind early?

Source: Microsoft; Via: MedGadget

Compal Electronics, Inc. CEO, Ray Chen, used today's annual stockholders meeting to make a big announcement: Compal signed an agreement with Microsoft to begin manufacturing Windows Phone devices.  Compal will be an ODM, which means that even though they will build the phones, they will carry the branding of other companies.  The new handsets, which will be made for Acer and Nokia, will are expected to go to market in Q4 of this year.

"Compal will build up a foundation based on the WP7 platform that will enable it to shorten time to market for customized smartphones while expanding the pool of Windows Phone-based clients," said Chen.  The Taiwan-based company joins the ranks of Nokia, HTC, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE, who all have licensing deals for WP7, but is currently the only ODM. 

Source: DigiTimes; Via: MobileTechWorld