BostonPocketPC

Hey I am sure you wouldn't mind getting a free 8 GB Zune right? You may be wondering what is the catch, well all you have to do is send an email via your Windows Mobile device via a Hotmail account and you are entered, that's it.

Here are the details on how to enter to win:

You could win a Zune every day until March 31, 2008 —here's how**:

1. Select "Hotmail" on your mobile phone menu,

Or

To make it even easier, click here and enter your mobile number — we'll send
you a text with the link.*

2. Sign in to Hotmail with your existing Passport or Windows Live ID.

3. Send an e-mail to WINAZUNE@live.com with "Go Zune" in the
subject line.

Good Luck!!!!

VITO Technology has turned 7 years old. In "Windows Mobile Years", that's... well, REALLY old

To celebrate, VITO is passing on some really incredible savings to everyone -

19th February, 2008 - VITO Technology celebrates its 7 years of success in the mobile market with a HUGE DISCOUNT on all software titles. During 7 days all VITO products at http://iwindowsmobile.com and http://vitotechnology.com are available for as much as $7*.

After 7 successful years in the market VITO Technology has so far released over 40 programs for Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Smartphone, and Symbian phones. The range of programs stretches from GPS navigation to multimedia, including communication and utilities.

Practically all VITO software titles - VITO AudioNotes, VITO SoundExplorer, VITO Voice2Go to name just a few - have become winners of the annual Best Software Awards held by Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine. You can find all these prize winning best sellers at www.vitotechnology.com and www.iwindowsmobile.com AVAILABLE JUST FOR $7* FOR 7 days. We celebrate our birthday by offering you the best of the breed mobile software for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone that give you truly boundless opportunities with your mobile device.

You can use VITO Technology software for GPS navigation, for voice dialing, for controlling your device with voice, for audio playback and recording, for remote controlling, for creating ringtones, for various sports activities, for star gazing, not enough? The brand-new sparkling software at iwindowsmobile.com allows you to control your device just with fingers: scroll list of contacts in FunContact like on iPhone, indulge yourself in threaded SMS messaging with SMS-Chat, type with fingers on ZoomBoard, launch and manage tasks with finger-friendly GoodWin, and even more...

Make sure you get your slice of VITO's 7th Birthday Cake - $7* for 7 days only at www.iwindowsmobile.com and www.vitotechnology.com!

*for PayPal and Google Checkout purchases at www.iwindowsmobile.com and www.vitotechnology.com. The offer expires on the 26th of February.

It looks like a birthday party is in order. That is, if you define "birthday party" as "buying really good Windows Mobile apps at a great price"!

OK one of the things that always irked me about the built-in Task Manager in Windows was that it only let you shut down applications. I am a huge multi-tasker and start one task and have another running in the background (some claim its the way my brain is wired for parallel computing others think I have ADD, it may be a combination of the two), what I really want from Task Manager is more granular control over what programs have focus and get the majority of processing power. This became an even larger concern when I started using my P1610 for the majority of my computing needs, granted I generally flip-flop between two or three computers and even have a few RDCs (Remote Desktop Clients) and virtual PC images running as well, but when I am out of the Office the P1610 is my main PC. The problem is that it only has 1GB of memory, (which if the BIOS can handle it I may upgrade to 2GB) and only a Intel Core Solo processor at 1.2 GHz, when running always seems to be maxed out at 100% when I seem to be doing normal stuff like having Outlook open (yes I have a large PST file), an Excel spreadsheet, MS Project file, OneNote, and Visio. All of which work fine on my Ferrari Laptop, but slows down the responsiveness of my P1610 to a crawl especially when switching between applications or using a dual monitor display.

I had upgraded the hard drive to an SSD drive, which improved some of the response time and battery life, but this free application called Process Lasso did much more. This program saved me from upgrading my P1610 to the P1620 (for the meantime anyway), to my kids dismay and made my P1610 much more usable again.

Here it is before and after with normal applications like Outlook, OneNote and a browser with a few tabs open. How did it do it? 

Well Process Lasso monitors the processor usage from Task Manager and Resource Manager for applications and limits how much they are allowed to use at a limit set by default or that can be set by you. The main screen monitors CPU usage in red as well as responsiveness in green. As well as giving you all the information you would find in Task Manager and Resource Monitor.

Installing the program takes up minimal space on your hard drive clocking in at a nice small 1.2MB, which I like (MS, Apple, Adobe, Google, Java, please not the small application size.)

I found that worked pretty well with the default settings(pictured above) after you first install the application) and tweaked it even further for my own needs.

At the top of the application you have few things to tweak and change. First you have Actions, which is simple control how you interact with the application with the ability to shut it down to really see how well it works. Trust me you will turn it back on.

File is pretty cool in that if you have a configuration that works well on one PC and you want to carry over your customizations of Lasso over to another PC you can! You can also save and choose different configuration files to see what settings work for you and your computer.

View just lets you turn the color legend of CPU and Response on and off.

Under Options is where you make the biggest changes in the program. Here under General Settings you can choose how fast Process Lasso works, I went with the default Normal at first then opted to go High. You can actually see the polling going on in the graph and table data. Here  you can also set Process Lasso to startup when you start Windows and to check for updates.

The next option is the Out-of-control restraint settings that pop up on the install here you can make further changes if needed like totally stopping programs from launching as well as setting priority levels for programs.

Under Edit Default Process  CPU Affinities  you can choose, which applications run under each processor.

One thing for me that was great was the ability to turn on Foreground Boosting not only for the application, but for threads as well.

There are some more advanced options as well if you really want to tweak.

If you mouse over the application running in the Taskbar you will see which program is consuming the most CPU usage as well as your CPU usage and responsiveness in percentage. Something great for the anal retentive, I mean detail orientated.

To put it to the test I ran the Zune Encoder, which generally brought my system to a crawl while it ran in the background encoding downloaded video podcasts while I tried to work. Running Process Lasso I didn't even notice it running in the background even though my CPU usage was pegged at 100%. It brought a nice smile to my face. I was pretty impressed!

I also ran all the applications I normally run with no problems. The big test for me is rotating the screen with all these applications open. Before it used to take FOREVER now its doesn't take as long, but it is still slow. I think this has more to do with the physical memory on board as well as the performance of the video card and the fact that it is a single core processor. The P1620 may have resolved this issue for me. On my older Fujitsu Tablet PC that has a slower processor, older video card, but has 2GB of memory has no problem in rotating screens with the same applications and files open. So I am leaning toward the rotation lag being a physical memory issue. For the amount of money I could plunk down on a 1GB memory upgrade I would be a 1/4 of the way there of picking up a new 1620. So the jury is still out on this one.

I haven't run this with Vista SP1 yet on my P1610 and made comparisons in performance. I was going to do benchmarks, but to me that doesn't really matter if you PC doesn't "Feel responsive" all the benchmarks in the world mean squat.

On a dual processor laptop (AMD) and computer (Intel) both running Vista 64-bit, I placed it on I was able to target applications to run off a particular processor enhancing my response time tremendously. While compiling some code I was able to target one processor for doing so in the background while still being able to work with other applications on the other processor with no lag. I also did the same playing a video of a DVD I ripped to MPEG and I was able to dedicate a processor to it solely while using the other for other applications.This really impressed me.

If you don't believe me try it yourself. To read up on the documentation head here.

Hey you can't beat free! If you really like the program, please donate to keep development of this great product alive!

Back on Feb. 6th, Steve Hughes posted on some... um - "irregularities" regarding the now-infamous zzzPhone, which promised a fully-customized phone with lots of bells and whistles, including Windows Mobile for the OS, for only $149. At the time, Steve made some very valid points that led to the conclusion that this was in fact a scam - at least from the point of the price including a licensed copy of Windows Mobile on board.

Turn to today, when I decided to pay a visit back to the zzzPhone web site. Lo and behold - the specs now list the operating system as Windows for Mobiles.

Folks, this is the third time I have seen this operating system change. First, it went from Windows Mobile to Windows Mobile 6. This was not long after there were some inquiries to the "manufacturer" regarding whether or not Windows Mobile 6 was included. On a side note - the radio stack frequencies supported conveniently changed early on after it was noted in some forums that the frequencies listed would not support all US networks. Timing is everything, they say...

I still encourage people to take a good look around the zzzPhone web site. Try to find any copyright notices for operating systems. Any partnerships with OS licensers. Take a good long look at the mockups of the screen for the zzzPhone. It could very well turn out that these phones are running a legitimate OS on them, but Windows Mobile or Symbian? I don't think so.

I will be curious to hear from those who have spent the $149 to find out what they discover. Hopefully, they aren't expecting a refund if Windows Mobile is not on board. You see - the "service guarantee" on the zzzPhone web site states the following:

We guarantee our products to be free from manufacturer defects and will repair or replace your order within 30 days if there are any manufacturer defects in your phone.

A different operating system that works likely won't be considered a "defect", and there is no money back - only a replacement.

As always, ladies and gentlemen - Caveat Emptor...

This is just a quick reminder that our next user/developer group meeting will be held tomorrow, February 20th at 6:30 PM at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA. For a map and directions, check out the complete announcement.

The main presentation for this meeting is entitled "What's New For Windows Mobile Developers with Visual Studio 2008". I will be covering language, tool and debugging enhancements which should be of interest to anyone developing .NET Compact Framework applications.

As always, we have some great giveaways this month, so be sure to attend!

After the announcements of Netfix, Best Buy and Wal-mart decision to only sell the Blu-ray products, Toshiba is giving up on their HD DVD players and recorders. However they will keep supporting their current customers with their HD DVD products.

It looks like the Blu-ray and HD DVD battle will be shorter as the battle we had with VHS and Betamax video tapes.

You can read more here

Walking the floors of Pepcom's Digital Experience, one booth that caught my eye was Juice Caster. I remember perusing my literally thousands of emails from CES and finding a meeting request to meet with Juice Wireless and thought nothing of it. Now in hindsight I wished I booked a meeting with them rather than some others that were a complete waste of time, but that is another story...

JuiceCaster is a mobile application that allows users to post content onto their favorite sites instantly and simultaneously.  Social networking sites have grown tremendously; 2 out of 3 persons online visit a social networking site during each internet session.  At the same time, mobile phones have grown to become more than just voice communication tools; they are becoming a means for empowering self-expression on the Internet while on-the-go. 

JuiceCaster is designed to make it easy for consumers to incorporate every day life with their social network by providing the ability for users to capture and upload photos and video with virtually any mobile phone and social networking/blogging site. 

Because it's free, easy to use, and brings your cell phone to life! Use JuiceCaster to post videos and pictures directly from your phone to:

• Your personal JuiceCaster Player which you can put on 100's of your favorite sites like MySpace, Hi5, and Xanga
• Your desktop Player or the desktops of your friends
• And to any other cell phone user!

Plus, you can watch great videos, meet new friends, make comments and more - right on your phone, right now!

As a JuiceCaster user, you are free to select the user networks that fit your lifestyle and reflect your interests. You also have complete freedom over where to view your favorite channels and interact with friends or other members:

• On Your Phone - capture content via your camera phone, download JuiceCaster to your handset, or visit the JuiceCaster WAP site (www.juicecaster.com/wap) to view and comment on your favorite channels, pictures, and videos
• On Your Desktop - download JuiceCaster to your desktop to automatically receive all the latest pictures and videos on your favorite subjects
• On The Web - add JuiceCaster to your personal webpage or social networking site to share your favorite content with friends and visitors
• On Facebook - add JuiceCaster's 'Mobile Video' application and show your cell phone pictures/videos to your friends right on your Facebook profile
• At JuiceCaster.com - create a profile, manage your account, and check out the top JuiceCasts and JuiceCasters right from our homepage

They also have a Mobile Video Search, which is a free service that anyone with a video-capable cell phone can use. By texting keywords to ‘84462’, users can watch desired videos on-demand as the search tool replies with links for the requested content.

I have yet had some free time to use it, but when I do I will be sure to post up a review of it.

HP had a large booth on the Floor to support the many products they produce as well as a large presence at several other press only events like PepCom's Digital Experience and at the Bloghaus.They really are making huge strides in making the PC Personal again!

At their booth they had alot of accessories that brought attention alot of people wanted to purchase the beige bag that was part of a laptop Make Art Contest by HP and MTV, but it wasn't available.

The contest for artist to design a cool laptop look for the dv6000 and we have the winner that had his design imprinted on HP's unique manufacturing process that imprints the image into the plastic via a special manufacturing process of ink. The pictures above are the winning design and the 20 year olod artist Joao Oliveira of Porto, Portugal who designed it. Todd not only came up with that design, but also entered several. Some of which are available via SkinIt as well as some of the other entries. (Note his name tag is that of Todd Bradley, HP's Executive Vice President, Personal Systems Group) The special edition HP Pavilion 14-inch diagonal notebook PC with his imprinted design will be available in Spring of 2008.

This dv6000 had a cool Copper metallic like finish complete with metal fleck and the inside looks like liquid metal, but its just plastic, it looked nice even around the built-in webcam. This version will be sold exclusively at BestBuy. We are slated for a review unit so be sure to come back for that.

Circuit City will be getting an exclusive white one loaded with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450, 3GB of DDR2 SDRAM,250GB hard drive, Bluetooth, 802.11agn, and a LightScribe DVD burner.

However the plain old model still doesn't look all that bad, but if you think it does you can always SkinIt.

Many people didn't even realize these were vinyl stickers and thought they were actual customized laptops, I guess it pays to read the little placard and signs in the booth area. :)

They also unveiled the HP Pavilion HDX series Entertainment Notebook PC  which offers a 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS video graphics and the latest Intel® Core 2 Extreme and Intel® Core 2 Duo processor technology, giving it desktop-caliber performance. Now it comes with both Blu-ray and HD DVD support, the HDX series plays high-definition DVD or Blu-ray movies on the world’s first 20.1-inch diagonal WUXGA XHD Ultra Brightview display that supports 1080p! HDX Integrated Audio provides a best-in-class audio experience with four discrete Altec Lansing speakers and the integrated HP Triple Bass Reflex Subwoofer.  Its a beast that is more powerful than most desktops with a price starting at $2999.

They also had some other custom PCs and bags to go along with different lifestyles with this product target toward the ladies.

What attracted Eric's attention was the new and improved HP Pavilion tx2000 Series Entertainment Notebook PC, which Eric immediately noticed how well it performed over its predecessor in both speed and functionality via a touch-screen capability and a built-in digitizer into the 12.1-inch diagonal display that rotates 180 degrees and folds flat for easy inking much better than its predecessor the TX1000 series that was plagued with accuracy problems with its touch screen. Eric even downloaded installed Sony Vegas while on the show floor to test out the processor's prowess and was impressed enough to place it at the top of his next must have laptop list. It will be made available starting on January 8, 2008 with base configurations starting at $1,299 and hard drive configurations up to 250GB in size and 4GB of memory.

The unit also had a Notbook stand, which doesn't appear on the HP Shopping site or SKU list.

They had their PDAs on display the iPAQ 111($299) and 211 ($449) series (both equipped with Windows Mobile 6 Classic, 64MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM, a Marvell PXA310 624MHz CPU, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, and color touchscreens-the 111 sports a 3.5-inch, 240 x 320 screen, Mini-USB, and SDIO card slot, while the 211 Enterprise edition sports a larger 4-inch, 480 x 640, 260k screen, 24-pin and Mini-USB connectors, plus SDIO and CF card slots. Their bigger announcement in the iPAQ line is their new HP iPAQ 300 Series Navigator GPS units and they just announced a new website to accompany the device, that provides online trip planning, which allows you to create tailored travel plans, research points of interest and load their custom itineraries onto HP iPAQ handhelds. You can also send itineraries to friends/family/co-workers and edit itineraries on the device. I received a review unit before leaving for CES literally it arrived as I was heading to the airport and I will posting a review of it here after using it for a month. So far it looks pretty good and I really like the high resolution and 3D buildings that help in navigating by landmarks.

They also had their new printers as well, which are more consumer focused and targeted towards printing digital pictures. They had two photo centric printers featured in detail below as well as their new all in one printers (pictured above right) like the HP Photosmart C8180 All-in-One, which delivers the fastest and easiest way to print photos at home and also allows for photo archiving with a 3.5-inch touchsreen for easy navigation and LightScribe technology for etching labels directly onto the surface of CDs/DVDs. In addition to delivering easy printing at home, this feature-packed printer offers lab-quality photos, laser-quality documents, copy and scan functionality, as well as built-in wireless and Ethernet connectivity. With one touch buttons, blazing print speeds, Bluetooth®, HP Smart Web Printing and an automated photo tray it is designed for ease of use for $399.

To its right is the HP Photosmart D7460 Printer which prints at blazing speeds – up to 34 pages per minute (ppm) black and 33 ppm color, and photos in as fast as 10 seconds. It also has built-in built-in wireless and Ethernet for easy network connectivity all for $179 retail.

On the left is the HP Photosmart A626 Compact Photo Printer which allows consumers to unleash their creativity with over 200 creative options including album pages, frames, graphics and effects. This printer features the world’s first 4.8-inch color touchscreen on a portable compact photo printer for easy personalization of 4 x 6- and 5 x 7-inch photos. With a built-in handle, foldup tray, optional battery and instant-dry and smudge- and fade-resistant photos, the HP Photosmart A626 Compact Photo Printer makes printing truly portable and makes prints in 38 seconds it retails for $179.

The one on the right is the HP Photosmart A826 Home Photo Center, according to Frank Fellows of HP its designed to be like a home printing kiosk. Featuring a large 7.0-inch color touchscreen with stylus included, the Photosmart A826 allows users to edit, design and personalize photos with borders, text and creative graphics. With the 100-sheet internal paper tray, users can conveniently print up to 100 photos at a time. Print borderless 4 x 6- and 5 x 7-inch photos, holiday cards, wallets and panoramas from the convenience of home and retails for $249

They also had their new high end systems on display as well. like the HP Pavilion m9100 Elite PC- Premium PC delivering high-end home entertainment with the HP Easy Backup button to instantly back-up files, NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT graphics card with support for Microsoft DirectX 1. The Pavilion m9160f and m9180f will also feature Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition,which is nice to see that HP listened to our feedback of shipping systems with 64bit OS on 64bit hardware. These will be available mid-January 2008 starting at $1,159.

Coupled with the HP w2408h Monitor - 24” monitor, providing vibrant colors, convenience, personalization and height adjustment options, dual inputs support true digital (HDMI) and traditional analog (VGA) signals,four built-in USB ports. Available February 3, 2008 for $499.

They also had their HP Pavilion m8330 Media Center PC on display with their Home Servers showing how you can consolidate, organize, and play your favorite TV shows, movies, music, photos and videos. It sports a cool, but fast AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core Processor,NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT graphics card with support for Microsoft DirectX 10 and is available January 6, 2008 for $959.99 and up.These seem to be perfect for the home or work office as well.

Home servers were also out on display the HP MediaSmart Server EX470/EX475 -Price: $599 (500GB model) and $749 (1TB model), which are designed to provides consumers with a central, safe location to keep all their media and files for easy access from any computer on their home network or remotely from any internet-connected computer. We were told by Tom Augenthaler that the HP MediaSmart Servers will have three enhancements coming in February 2008, which will be available via push updates to existing customers:

• Integrated server-side anti-virus software from McAfee for added security both at home and remotely.
• Improved media streaming to DMA devices through Packet Video for enhanced experiences such as thumbnail photos and album art
• Support for Vista 64-bit

HP will also be offering an HP Upline Storage Service that is an online storage service lets the customer put their data in a secure, offsite location mainly targeted towards consumers and SMB customers to quickly and easily access, share, manipulate and store data. It is slated to become available in March 2008.

The HP Blackbird 002 was designed with gamers in mind by the folks from VooDoo, as well as for anyone needing a performance machine. Full System Liquid Cooling – HP Blackbird 002 is the first in its class to feature full system, maintenance-free liquid cooling that draws heat away from the CPU, motherboard and GPUs.Its removable side panel, interior and back panel lighting, and Voodoo-style wiring provide easy access for enthusiasts to fine tune their machine’s performance. All the components, from the CPU and GPU to the hard drives and optical drives, can be removed and installed without tools. Pricing for this masterpiece starts at $2,500 and peaks up out at only $7,100. Needless to say its probably the highest performing PC on the market today with an all aluminum chassis that can support up to 600 lbs while fully capable of supporting future industry standards. The machine can be purchased online at www.hp.com/blackbird.

The also had their HP Pavilion Slimline s3330 PC -which is one-third the size of a conventional tower PC for under $1,000 with a Blu-ray/HD DVD player and NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT graphics card with support for Microsoft DirectX 10. It will be available January 13, 2008 at prices starting at $949.

HP also had their MediaSmart Televisions on display as well that now via flash update for older sets and installed from the factory for new sets can operate as a Windows Vista Media Center Extender. The sets have an ethernet port in the back as well as 802.11 a, b, g & draft n wireless, on-demand movies through CinemaNow, photos from Snapfish and music from Live365 radio, a backlit universal remote control, redesigned speakers, panels and 2000:1 contrast ratio for an enhanced connected entertainment experience.Retail Price: $1,899.99 (SL4282N 42” model) and $2,399.99 (SL4782N 47” model).

When we were in the Microsoft tent Sunday morning (at the time we weren't allowed to take pictures due NDA's and Bill Gates presence) was the HP MediaSmart Receiver x280N, which allows MediaSmart technology to aggregate digital content from multiple PCs and home servers to make any HDTV a “MediaSmart” TV. It also had a built-in HP Pocket Media Drive bay (for offline storage and other uses), two USB ports,HDMI, component out, Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g/n. It also has the sporty piano-black, high-gloss finish with HP's exclusive “Zen” imprint pattern designed to fit perfectly with any home décor however we think it would just be mounted to our flat screen TV bracket. It will also work with older televisions since the output can be toggled on the front between 480i, 480p, 720p, or 1080i with a press of a button.

They said it would be available in Spring 2008, but didn't have a price however it was estimated to be around $300 in the MS booth. I see this working much better than the unit from Samsung, which only works with Samsung televisions, which still requires the use of 2 remotes to operate the extender portion and your original remote to switch to the input (really dumb design) and much quieter than an Xbox 360. For us it was the best item in the MS tent besides Microsoft Surface, which we only got a brief 2 minute demo of :(

We also found that HP had an 8" Digital Picture frame out on display as well that looked just as good as the Kodak ones that were in the booth right next door, which we were told retailed for around $179 with 2 interchangeable frames.

Steven Hughes, Johan van Mierlo, Mike Temporale (smartphonethoughts) and I took a tour of the Life|ware home at CES.  To bring the presentation to "life" life|ware used actors to showcase all the rooms in the house.  Everything revolves around Vista Windows Media Center Edition and the interaction between everything in the house gives you that "Jetsons" feel. The exciting thing about Life|ware is that all the components needed to do this are available today, this isn't some "home of the future" where the products are out of the consumers reach.  

**Youtube only allows videos up to 10 minutes in length so I chopped the video into 5 segments which will all play via the link above. 

Today at Mobile World Congress 2008, Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of a technology preview for accessing MSN Direct content on Windows Mobile-based devices. Hey, this has been something the community has begging for for quite a while. I wonder how it will be implemented and if those with watches, GPS, coffee makers with MSN Direct can use the same subscription and how this will compete with free applications sharing the same information like Live Search for Mobile, but after downloading it it looks nice and it costs nothing, but your data connection. I was just thinking of canceling my watch subscription since it is due up this week and just using the free content and this is edging me towards that and saving $59, where I can always resubscribe if I can't live with out it.

It looks really cool on the phone and Microsoft does not charge anything for download or use of the MSN Direct application. (Note: downloading and using MSN Direct requires data connectivity from your wireless carrier, which may charge additional fees. Check with your wireless provider for its coverage areas and service fees.)

I just downloaded and started using the today screen plugin. It is very nice!!!! Download directions here. Granted there are small advertisements on the top of detailed content, but they are done tastefully. With a View Ad softkey, that brings up a larger version of the ad that points you to a browser for more information on the ad. The interface is just as nice as the Yahoo Go! 3 demo we saw at CES 2008.

This is the press release I received on my phone today:

With this technology preview, customers can receive instant access to information such as weather and stock updates; top news stories; and entertainment, sports and business news. The information is presented in a glanceable format, and is easily accessible directly from the home screen of a device. Content is automatically updated so that customers have immediate access to the content that matters most to them.

“This is the first time MSN Direct content has been made available to mobile phones, and it is a strong next step for the delivery of MSN Direct content where customers have said they need it the most,” said Eric Lang, general manager of the MSN Direct initiative at Microsoft. “We are excited about the opportunities this new application will bring to mobile operators, consumers and the industry.”

After installing the technology preview on the device, customers can select content based on relevancy and preference. For more in-depth information on the topics a person is exploring, MSN Direct provides links that connect users to the relevant areas of the popular MSN Mobile portal. Together, MSN Direct and MSN Mobile provide users with quick and easy options for getting current information while on the go.

“The MSN Direct for mobile technology preview is a clear demonstration of Microsoft’s commitment to bringing simple and useful information to mobile customers,” said Alexander Gounares, corporate vice president of Microsoft Ads and Commerce. “We are pleased to offer this preview and look forward to feedback.”

The MSN Direct content is supplied by a number of leading partners, including Foreca Ltd. for current weather information, Comstock Resources Inc. for stock prices, and MSNBC for the wide gamut of news offerings.

Windows Mobile customers interested in downloading the MSN Direct technology preview can use either of the following methods:

· Via mobile browser. From the Web browser on their mobile phone, users go to http://phone.msndirect.com and follow the instructions on the page to download and install MSN Direct.

· Via PC. Users download MSN Direct to their PC and copy it over to their device using whatever software they normally use (such as ActiveSync). On the device, they click on the MSN Direct file to begin installation.

The MSN Direct application is free to download; MSN Direct requires data connectivity from a wireless carrier, which may charge additional fees. Consumers should check with their wireless provider for its coverage areas and service fees.