Microsoft to make Royalty Fees for the Kindle Fire also
Microsoft makes royalty money on a ton of Android devices that violate it’s patents, and the Kindle Fire will probably not be any different. Microsoft and Amazon signed a licensing agreement last year but the Kindle Fire does not fall into the agreement. Almost every Android device sold infringes one of Microsofts patents.
Microsoft has signed cross-licensing agreements with other Android vendors and in 2012 they are estimated to bring home around 444 million dollars in royalty fees. Microsoft has set themselves in a great position to make money off of the patents they own, and this could be very well, while it could be worth Amazon to purchase webOS and own their own software, for their mobile devices. The bottom line would be cut down quite a bit.
(via BGR)
Microsoft Rolls out Mango Starting Today
We have been hearing that the official release date of Mango was going to be on September 27th and today confirmed that all to well. Seems they did it right in the wind of the news about Apple holding an iPhone event. How clever. Either way Microsoft is getting the update process down and rolling them out very smooth and quick.
Microsoft said “Today we’re starting the roll out of Windows Phone 7.5 to more than 98 percent of existing Windows Phone customers. This is a simultaneous, coordinated, global update that cuts across carriers, phone models, and countries. This time, almost everybody is going first.”
So plug up your phone, fire up your Zune Software, and see if your update is available because you have a better chance of it being available than not. We could only wish that Google could get their update process down like this, but it is a lot harder with open source software. So all you Windows Phone 7 owners, get your update and tell us how you like it, if you want to read about some of the newer additions, check out our Guru Inspection of Mango. Enjoy.
Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Improvements
Windows phone has been on the market almost a year now and has struggled since its launch date. The number of devices they are selling is not what Microsoft is wanting but there is no where to go but up from here. Typically, when a new platform launches it takes some time to get the operating system up to where it should be with applications and features. Now, a year later we are going to look at some key features that Microsoft’s biggest update for Windows Phone 7 (Mango 7.5) will have.
Signs Pointing to a September 15th Launch for Mango
Microsoft has been working on Mango for a while now, prepping it with beta versions and making sure everything is ready to go for the public launch. Microsoft leaked out that September would be the month that Mango would be finished but no one knew an exact release date.
HTC has leaked info that they are working closely with Microsoft on the launch and September 15th was looking like the date it would be deployed. After seeing some new HTC devices announced on the first of September that will launch with Mango, we expect to see Mango very soon. Either way, if you are waiting for a device that will get an update, you will have to patiently wait for the carrier to push out your update.
The 7.5 update to Windows Phone is a pretty big one and us here at The Gadget Gurus have a device running Mango currently. Keep a look out for a full write up on our initial thoughts of the operating system, it will be posted before you know it.
(via BGR)
Windows 8 Demo Video
Microsoft released a quick video demoing some of the new elements of Windows 8. Looks like they slapped the Metro UI skin on it and multitasking will be a big part of the experience. This video demos something that is definitely geared toward tablets, so how this will all work with a mouse and keyboard we have yet to see. Take a look below.
