Mobile phone market
Microsoft may have Windows in most of the world's computers, but it continues to limp along in the Smartphone world, watching competitors like Apple's iPhone, Research in Motion's Blackberry and Palm's Pre snap up all the headlines and market share.
This week Microsoft took the wraps off of Windows Mobile 6.5. It's a slightly newer look to the operating system that has always been targeted toward business use, thanks to solid support for Outlook e-mail.
Windows Mobile 6.5 is all about the touch-screen support. It features staggered icons on the desktop for supposedly easier access.
There are also nods to what more and more consumers are using Smartphones for - access to social networks. It's quicker now to share photos on Facebook, Flickr and other social media from a Windows mobile phone. Microsoft also tweaked the Internet Explorer mobile interface, because Smartphones are becoming more like PCs - that is, portable computers. And that means getting on the web from wherever you are.
Microsoft is launching its version of an app store, called Windows Marketplace for mobile, with about 250 applications ready to go. Apple had, at last count, some 80,000 apps in its app store.
One cool new feature: The phone service, which lets you back up data on your phone and store it in the cloud. It's free through Nov. 30, then it's $5 every time you use it.
Two new phones out later this month using Windows Mobile 6.5: The Samsung Instinct, and the HTC Tilt 2.
The influential tech blog Gizmodo didn't like 6.5. It ran the headline, "there's no excuse for this" in its review. Venture Beat's review was better, saying 6.5. was a big step up from the usual "crappy" Windows Mobile experience.
Amazon
The other big dog in the Seattle technology kennel, Amazon, also made a deeper move this week into its recent hardware investment, the Kindle book reader.
Having already captured plenty of headlines with the Kindle 2, Jeff Bezos' company announced an international version of the Kindle, which allows wireless overseas downloading of books in more than 100 countries, thanks to support from AT&T's networks and its worldwide partners.
The Kindle 2, now available, could only allow downloads in the United States because of support by sprint's Whispernet wireless network. This opens up a potentially huge market for Amazon.
How interesting that Amazon launches this a few months before Apple is allegedly revealing its version of a tablet PC, which may also have e-reader capabilities.
The international Kindle will sell for $279 when it launches in two week. Possibly lost in all this news, the domestic Kindle 2 is now cheaper. It now sells for $259, down from $299.
Media toys
While on the subject of $250 media toys, would you pay that much for a handheld device that would let you watch live news and sports from all the major networks, broadcast and cable, as well as other time-shifted programming?
FLO TV, which is introducing its new personal television, with a 3.5-inch touch-screen, is banking that you will. The company, a division of Qualcomm, already provides live mobile TV services to AT&T and Verizon for a few of their Smartphones, but this is FLO TV's dedicated device.
A FLO TV executive told me the company wants to provide mobile broadcast television for whichever way you want it - on a mobile phone or on a device you can give to the kids in the backseat.
Retail sales partners will be announced soon, but the executive told me it will be available in time for the holidays.
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