The dawn of a new Windows phone era arrives in Seattle with not a daylight-saved hour to spare. Microsoft’s long-awaited Windows Phone 7 lineup is now available in the US with the HTC HD7, Surround and Samsung Focus now available from the Microsoft Store. AT&T has also launched its Windows Phone lineup with the Focus and HTC Surround available on its online store for immediate purchase while the LG Quantum is available for pre-order.
T-Mobile has also launched its version of the HD7, with the Dell Venue Pro expected to be available later this month via Dell’s online store and launching today via the Microsoft Store.
All three phones (the Samsung Focus, the HTC Surround, and the LG Quantum) cost $199 with new activation and a data plan from AT&T, and there’s no telling at this point how many phones AT&T has in stock. The worldwide launch starting on October 21st in Australia and Europe was beset with outages, but it remains to be seen if that was a temporary glitch or an indication of a bigger problem.
Robert Scoble reports how Microsoft is “winning over developers due to easier-to-use-and-more-powerful development tools and love and feeding due to 1,100 evangelists working the globe.” Does Apple have 1,100 evangelists? No way. Neither does Google. So both have to find ways to make developers more loyal. Microsoft is coming on strong. The “must see” is the new Zagat app. Can Apple or Google match this look and feel? It’s a winner. At the same time, Microsoft’s Xbox Live is showing signs of becoming a full-blown social network that could make Google very jealous. With Kinect, the gift of the season, able to recognize you from across the room, it’s plenty easy to video conference with friends not to mention use the Xbox to watch movies, and download music. Watch for those features to soon synch up with Windows Phone 7. [24×7]
Post-Mosaic, Netscape and Ning, Marc Andreesen Browses Back with RockMelt
Ashes to ashes, but Netscape to Rockmelt. That is the reincarnation of the Web browser by one Marc Andreesen 16 years after Netscape introduced the first commercial Internet browser, and 12 years after the company was sold to AOL after its defeat by Microsoft in the infamous browser wars. The result is RockMelt, a company founded and financed not by the flames of Mordor, but by a group of Netscape alumni who release the new species of Social Web Browser today.
“We think it is a fantastic time to build a company around a browser,” said Marc Andreessen, whose venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, is behind RockMelt.
RockMelt may look like an ordinary browser, but flanking the main window are two thin rails with icons, one showing a user’s friends on the left, and another displaying a user’s favorite social sites, including Twitter and Facebook, on the right.
Using the “share” button, you can easily post a Web page or a YouTube video to a social venue like Facebook or Twitter. At the same time, users can update their status or keep tabs on their friends’ activities on any social network right out of their browser window. RockMelt is social manager and Web browser melted together. [24×7]
