While Microsoft was one of the last to launch an app store on Windows Mobile 6, the company will be the first to shut one down as well. Microsoft has alerted Windows Mobile 6 customers that the company plans to shut down the entire service, including the ability for new developers to submit new applications on July 15th. Though customers will still be able to purchase and redownload apps, we’re guessing that’s coming to a close pretty soon as well. Additionally, Microsoft’s My Phone service — the software and service that backs up data on your phone including multimedia — will be going offline as well on August 7th. The goods news is that there’s Windows Phone, and this is a logical step towards shifting consumers over to the new ecosystem.

Thanks, Joshua!

According to new data released by Nielsen on Tuesday, Android’s market share has hit a plateau in the United States. Android remains the most popular operating system — ahead of iOS and BlackBerry OS, and Windows Mobile — with a 36% share of the market. However, that figure is on a par with the 37% share it had in Nielsen’s last report, released in April, when the operating system made a 22% leap over the study released in June 2010. Nielsen also found that 26% of U.S. mobile users own an iPhone, 23% carry a BlackBerry, 9% use Windows Mobile, 2% carry HP webOS devices, 2% have a Symbian-powered phone, and just 1% have a Windows Phone 7 device. Android users devour the most data, too, downloading an average of 582MB of data each month, compared to the 492MB of data that iOS users download and the 448MB of data HP webOS users consume. Hit the jump for a two more charts reflecting data from Nielsen’s report.

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This week, we inadvertently stumbled across a pretty neat, cross-platform, geo-location mobile app titled echoecho. The premise behind echoecho is simple: instead of using a service like Facebook or foursquare to broadcast where you are, it offers a way of requesting the location of a single friend. The application integrates with your phone’s address book and sends a message to friends asking: “Where are you?” If your echo’ed friend chooses to reply, you are given their location and can then view that location — complete with the distance between the two of you — on a map . It is definitely an interesting, more personal twist on geo-location. We can see the service being useful in crowded bars, clubs, and the work place; amongst other locations/situations. Echoecho is available for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. If you’re interested in learning more, hit the read link to check out ee’s website or your mobile platforms app store to download the goods.

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Today, Verizon announced a new video application that will allow subscribers of their FiOS television service to watch live, linear programming on an iPad. Before anyone gets too excited, the application — which is scheduled to be released early next year — does have one fairly enormous catch. As reported by Gigaom, “subscribers with an iPad will only be able to watch linear programming within their own home, which allows Verizon to authenticate and make certain that the users have access to whatever content they have paid for.” Verizon has said that all the backend legwork to make the TV streams available has been completed; they are now woking on getting content providers comfortable with the idea of their precious shows being available on devices other than television sets.

Verizon also announced a new video-on-demand application that will debut in Q4. The application, “will allow subscribers to purchase and rent videos and watch them across multiple devices and multiple platforms,” including the DROID X, DROID 2, BlackBerry Storm and handsets running Windows Mobile 6.5 (wah?).

All pretty exciting stuff in the mobile entertainment realm. Our one question is: why would we want to watch TV on a 9.7-inch iPad screen when we’re in the same vicinity as our HDTV? Thoughts?

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It’s the epitome of cruel irony- folks who were brave enough to score one of the last Windows Mobile handsets are enjoying the latest OS Android has to offer while the rest of Android world waits idly for Froyo to land on their non-Nexus One handsets. HTC HD2 owners need to look no further than xda-developers to discover a treasure trove of updated ROMs which offer stock Android 2.2 or Android 2.1 with Sense. Though a bit rough around the edges, these ROMs give HD2 owners some serious bragging rights over their Android counterparts, at least for the time being.

[Via Android Community]

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As with any leak, we suggest you approach this with a healthy amount of skepticism, but if a post made to PConline is to be believed, this upcoming Windows Phone 7 handset from HTC — the HD3 — is going to be an absolute beast. We mean, take a look at the purported specs:

• 4.5″ WXGA Super AMOLED multi-touch display
• 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash
• 720p HD video recording
• 1080p HD playback
• Wi-Fi / Bluetooth
• 3G / 4G connectivity
• 32GB microSD support
• 1GB RAM / 1GB ROM
• 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor
• 1800 mAh battery
• 115mm x 65mm x 10mm

Like we said, this is strictly a rumor, but how great would it be if it all came true?

[Via Gizmodo]

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LG officially opened the doors to its online applications store on Thursday. The app store offers social networking, navigation, VoIP, and instant messaging applications for both feature phones and Windows OS phones. LG will expand its offerings to include an estimated 4,000 applications — including those for Android-powered smartphones – by the end of the year. Currently in beta, the app store launched with high profile titles like Spore, Worms 2010, Assassin’s Creed, and The Sims 3. It also includes an incentive program that awards you points for logging in and leaving reviews. The more points you earn, the more applications that are available for you to download. Available in 22 markets at launch, the app store will soon be available in 33 countries including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.

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Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t dead, it’s just been given a bizarre makeover and loaded onto a strange new handset from Motorola in the ES400. Created specifically for enterprise customers that need a handset that’s as secure as it is rugged, the Sprint-bound ES400 will run Microsoft’s newly announced Windows Embedded Handheld, an OS that is currently based on WinMo 6.5.3. An EV-DO world phone with support for HSDPA roaming, the ES400 is kitted out with a 3″ VGA touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi a/b/g, barcode scanner, 600MHz ARM 11 processor, 256MB RAM and 1GB of internal flash memory. Pricing and a release date have not been set.

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Ars Technica has an interesting write-up on the rules and regulations developers will have to follow in order to publish to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. For the most part, Microsoft’s terms seem pretty standard – especially when compared to other mobile application ecosystems such as Android’s Market or Apple’s App Store — however, there are a few exceptions. For starters, a developer account will be priced at $99, which is slightly more than Android’s $0 price point but right on par with Apple’s iPhone Developer account. The $99 includes an unlimited number of paid application submissions and 5 free-applications submissions per year; additional free-app submissions will cost $19.99. This should, as Ars put it, “discourage mass submissions of junk applications.” Moving on, WP7 Store will allow applications to have time-limited, fully-featured trials — thank you Microsoft! Ars goes on to point out that: “Many of the free programs on Apple’s store are just cut-down versions of other, paid applications; with Marketplace’s built-in support of trials [...] these free programs might not be necessary.” Right on. Finally, the store’s terms of service indicate that apps that, “generally fall under the category of pornography” (as well as several other categories), will not be allowed. So there you have it. Any Windows Mobile developers out there excited about the WP7 setup?

Read [Ars Technica] Read [Microsoft WP7 Developer Terms (PDF)]

Are you a diehard Windows Mobile fans that think Microsoft is making a huge mistake with Windows Phone 7? Than you had better make with $150 post-haste, because one of the last Windows Mobile 6.5 devices you’ll ever see — the LG Fathom — is now available from Verizon. This things been the subject of more than its fair share of leaks, but in case you never caught the memo, you’re looking at a 1GHz processor, 3.2″ WVGA display with haptic feedback, 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fib/g/n, GPS, EV-DO Rev. A, 2100MHz 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 512MB ROM / 256MB RAM, and WinMo 6.5.3.

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It seems T-Mobile simply can’t catch a break when it comes to software updates. Not even three months removed from its disastrous CLIQ update, T-Mobile has been forced to remove the recently released software update for the HTC HD2 after a load of complaints from users started. What sort of complaints? Oh, you know, just the typical “I can’t download the update” / “my battery life has been shot to hell” / “my phone is bricked” / “my phone is slower than Bengie Molina”. So far there’s no official timeline for a new update, but a T-Mobile forum mod has gone on the record as saying “once the issues have been resolved, the software update will be re-posted on www.t-mobile.com/wmupgrade.” Good to know…

Read [Issues] Read [Pulled]

According to mobile ad firm Smaato, U.S.-based Symbian users are 2.7 times more likely to click on a mobile ad than their iPhone OS using countrymen. The findings, based on 6 billion ads served up by 40 ad companies in the month of April, are quite puzzling when considering the infinitesimally small share of the U.S. smartphone market Symbian currently occupies. But GigaOm’s Kevin Tofel has what sounds like a very reasonable explanation for the stats: “Symbian is a more mature operating system in terms of age, and both advertisers and developers have used that time to optimize mobile advertising on the platform. Apple’s iPhone OS is a relative youngster compared to Symbian, having only initially launched on a product in June of 2007.” Kind of makes one wonder why the FTC is making such a stink over Google’s attempt at acquiring AdMob and the launch of Apple’s iAd. Moving on… Anyone else think it’s pretty incredible that feature phone users click on more ads than Android, BlackBerry, Palm and Windows Phone users?

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We know there’s a big Apple iPhone announcement looming over, but that still shouldn’t stop some of those Verizon faithfuls from getting excited over brand new devices, right? We’ve scored shots of the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and LG Fathom making its way into Verizon’s internal systems. Most of you know all about the 9650, but the Fathom VS750, is a global Windows Phone with a QWERTY slider, 3.2″ WVGA display and 3.2 megapixel shooter. Couple this discovery with Verizon’s teaser that went out about six new devices coming, we should probably assume that the wait is almost over folks. Hit the break for a shot of the Fathom resting easy in Big Red’s system.

We haven’t been able to independently verify this in any way, but nonetheless we thought we’d share it with everyone as it makes a lot of sense. One our of Verizon connects hit us up last night and let us know what they’ve heard are five of the six upcoming handsets VZW was teasing about yesterday: the HTC Incredible, LG VS750, Microsoft’s “Pure” and “Turtle” and the Samsung Reality. As we mentioned, our connect isn’t sure what the sixth is, but we’re guessing it could be either the BlackBerry Bold 9650 or even Verizon’s Google Nexus One. Anyone hear otherwise?

Thanks, VZW!

T-Mobile is tapping into the popularity of the HTC HD2 with the creation of a trade-in program which allows iPhone owners to turn in their hardware in exchange for a credit ranging from $100 to $350 to be used towards the newly released smartphone. Available only by phone, at non-corporate dealers and through the usual business channels, the only conditions are that the iPhone being traded in must be in full working condition. Not a bad deal at all considering anyone taking up the offer doesn’t even need to sign up for a service contract. Now if only T-Mobile was able to keep these things in stock until the promotion ends on May 19th.

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