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As you may recall the blog-o-sphere was all in a tizzy last week (myself included) about Microsoft taking what could have been their easiest money maker yet – the Microsoft version of the App Store – and screwing it and the developers royally by trying to charge $99 per update per application.

Well it appears that someone at Microsoft is paying attention to the shoe phone (works better than a WinMo smartphone rumour has it) and has decided that maybe ripping off the developers wasn’t such a good idea. According to cnet (via wmexperts) Microsoft has changed the policy to be quite a bit more friendly:

Now all updates or version upgrades for applications that have already been submitted to the store will be accepted free of charge, a Microsoft representative confirmed. This applies to minor bug fixes as well as second-generation releases that add new features or capabilities.

Microsoft still plans to charge developers $99 a year, plus $99 per application, to submit applications to Windows Marketplace for Mobile, though this year, developers are being allowed to submit up to five applications free of charge for that $99 yearly fee.

So, while I think the extra $99 per application is still a bit pricy I have to applaud Microsoft for the swift decision making. They’re going to have a better store because of it. The $99 will help curb some of the dumb crap Apple has in their store (hopefully) but unfortunately its going to prohibit some first timers from taking their shot… Oh well.

So – question of the day:

Astute readers may have noticed a whole bunch of new ads around the site.  we are very lucky here at JAMM to have some fantastic sponsors.  Our sponsors make it possible for us to bring you a lot of the great contests you see here on the site, and even help us finance some of the devices and hardware which you see reviewed at JAMM.  simply put, we love our sponsors, and I wanted to take a minute to mention them here and thank them for their fantastic support.

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When you think about it, most mobile users don’t think about what’s under the hood of their device. Let me amend that phone. More than likely 90% of mobile users, no matter what the OS, under utilise their devices, and probably have no idea what sort of powerhouse they have in the palm [well Palm devices excluded, we are waiting for the Pre] of their hands. Me, I’m always looking at specifications, mainly Processor speed and Ram.

So thinking about the evolution of the mobile phone, the truly detached from a vehicle mobile phone, [not a car phone], we have gone from hernia inducing, over the shoulder, communicators, trending down to phones that, you would lose if you blinked, and finally found a form factor that is a compromise with a simple human condition that goes by the name of "usability".

With what seems to be the best form factor for a mobile device comes the miniaturisation and enlargement of the power we expect to be included in a mobile device now.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, is really the next step as far as I can see, handheld devices with a 1Ghz processor, this looks like the future of mobile computing, and gaming, and well , whack this in a WinMo phone and I’ll be happy!

Via ExperienceMobility

This is going to be another short entry to the series.  One of the avenues I wanted to explore was wireless connectivity.  This is an area which really is a sign of things to come.  Down the road, I think these technologies will really come much more to the forefront with things like wireless connections to an online marketplace, wireless sync, and wireless audio.  For now, however, these technologies have gained a pretty minimal foothold into the media player market.  In fact, only one of the players involved in the series (the Zune) offers a wireless connection.  Two of the players (Sony Walkman Video and Samsung YP-P2) offer Bluetooth audio connections.   The other three do not offer any kind of wireless connection.  And even those which do offer such connectivity, leave much to be desired in the implementation.

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There’s been a flurry of innuendo surrounding Windows Mobile Seven, in the past two weeks. Let’s look at what we purportedly know, apparently the base theme will be blue… and hopefully a working, stable version will be available to OEM’s early in 2010. So a whole heap of screenshots, well five, have surfaced, and I’ll happily reserve judgement on their authenticity.

I just see some inconsistencies between the shot’s that are surfacing at the moment, but if you were able to take these screenies and distribute them, you’d be working with a beta of the OS anyway. Generally I think it looks hokey, but considering that these may be from someone with a very early release, it’s a possible teaser, to see what sort of reaction this static interface will elicit. Hey, Show me a video, and I’ll be more enthusiastic!

Via Engadget