Internet news

Feb 26 2010 by Andrew Jackson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

MICROSOFT has spent three years catching up with Apple’s iPhone, but last week it finally released something to match it.

The snappily-named Windows Phone 7 system will be appearing on phones pretty much everywhere later this year and it’s unlike anything that we’ve seen from Microsoft before.

For the first time in years, Microsoft has thrown out everything and started from scratch. The new mobile version of Windows blows all previous versions out of the water and gives the iPhone a serious run for its money.

The gorgeous new interface is a series of interlinked canvasses that you navigate by touch. The screen edge is a fluid thing, with chunks of text and images deliberately bleeding off it and out of sight – encouraging people to drag stuff around, to explore further.

The home page is totally different to Apple’s array of static icons. The new Windows system is animated and constantly updating as new data is pushed through to the handset. Microsoft’s web search, www.bing.com is available everywhere with a single touch command.

We’re used to seeing bold innovation and striking design from Apple, but Microsoft’s new products have been sorely lacking in both departments for years. The announcement of Windows Phone 7 is a long overdue leap forwards, and puts Microsoft firmly back in the game.

To find out more, take a look at the demo videos at www.youtube.com/user/windowsphone, or go to the official web site at www.windowsphone.com.

PLEASE ROB ME

Foursquare (foursquare.com) lets you notify your Twitter friends of your whereabouts. You ‘check in’ to Foursquare when you go out and when you reach your destination. Sounds cool? Sort of. A bunch of mild-mannered technical types noticed that this also tells the whole world when your home is empty, which might be a bit of a security risk. So, they set up Please Rob Me (pleaserobme.com), which aggregates all those dodgy Twitter posts on one page. They’re not really promoting crime, just trying to make a point...

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