What could we possibly have to say about Apple and the iPhone that hasn't been said countless times already? Plenty. Given that Apple has spent the past year largely consolidating its power in the mobile space, and Microsoft has spent the past year making many wonder if they're going to continue in the mobile space, it's fitting that we take a look at the two here in the second week of the third annual Smartphone Round Robin.
There will be no talk of iPhone killers.
There will be no talk of the death of Windows Mobile.
It's back, folks. the Mobile Heist is here for one day only, bringing 50 percent off some of your favorite Windows Mobile software. You're not going to want to miss this.
After the break, we detail the deals and give you the links you need for this one-day sale. Do not pass go. Just save on software.
Well, look at that. Somebody over at Microsoft just won $20, 'cause they managed to get the Bing application into Apple's App Store, making it available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
I gave it a quick run-through and found it more or less acts the same as Bing on Windows Mobile. Can't speak to whether it suffers from the same complaints we've seen recently.
Here we go again. A couple of days before the Windows Marketplace for Mobile officially launched in October, XDA Developers member Chainfire published his workaround to Microsoft's minimal security measures. When you load an app from the Marketplace, it's done transparent to the user, with no CAB file left behind.
This new "advanced" protection was released today by Microsoft, and as far as I know no app available already uses it at the time of this writing.
So I got the code snippets you are supposed to put in your app and it was simply jawdroppingly WTF. While it was not exactly easy to beat, it took me less than two hours to devise a "generic" hack, without modifying any files on the device. (Well hey, at least it's better than the 5 minutes it took for the "basic" protection, right?)
A "generic" hack? Yes, by this I mean that this single hack (actually, running an EXE in the background) will completely bypass the entire code snippet provided by Microsoft that is supposed to check and validate your license code, for all Marketplace apps that use this "advanced" protection.
Indeed, that's no good. But Chainfire says he's no Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the rest of us.
I will not publish the code that performs this hack, so don't ask. My goal is not to crack Marketplace apps, my goal is to get MS off their ass and allow us to use our own licensing systems, like the good little resellers they're supposed to be. I will tell you that it has to do with runtime patching the crypto API, but that's it. All in all, I don't think it will take long for the warez people to duplicate this hack.
Starting today, Windows phone customers can browse, buy and download applications online at the Windows Marketplace for Mobile site. The selected applications are delivered wirelessly to the customer’s Windows phone and install the next time the Windows Marketplace client runs on the device. This creates another way for customers to easily find and purchase applications and gives developers a whole new level of exposure.
There also are a number of improvements for developers, including increased security to prevent app piracy.
Update: Oh, yeah, you folks running Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 are still going to have to wait a little longer ("later this month") for official Marketplace access. In the meantime ...
After the break, we take a look at Flight Commander for Windows Mobile (available for $6.99 in the Marketplace), along with video of the gameplay.
Update: In the course of this review we'd contacted Firemint, maker of the iPhone Flight Control app (see more of that after the break) to see if they'd developed Flight Commander under a different name. Looks like we've poked the bear, as Firemint has replied and says it has nothing to do with this app and "will be investigating further and taking all appropriate actions."
In Phase 2 (planned for late November / early December) Marketplace will also launch a PC environment. Then the user from other countries will be able to choose applications from other countries because of the so-called geo selector for the catalog eg U.S. users will be able to choose from and English-language apps released in other countries for downloaded. Then there will also be hundreds of apps, paid and free. Also nice is that in Phase 2 Marketplace for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 devices will be made available. Then the users of these devices will be able to download applications.
So, more apps, desktop access to the Marketplace (presumably the Web access we've been expecting), and users can download apps from any country they darn well please. Bring it on, Microsoft.
Microsoft threw a little dev camp yesterday at the mother ship in Washington, and there was some interesting discussion regarding app prices in the upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
"It's up to you play your pricing, but we would definitely want to promote that you make more money selling applications than selling your application in a dollar store. ... I know, 99 cents is interesting — yes, consumers like to pay 99 cents for applications. But 99 cents, come on, I think your app is worth more than that."
We've had many a drag-out fistfight rational discussion with our counterparts at The iPhone Blog over this one. (And their argument for a premium app store is worth discussing.) Consumers certainly win when apps are priced at 99 cents. Developers? Not so much. And when one app is priced at, say, $4.99 and a very similar app is priced at 99 cents, well, it's easy to see who's going to win that battle. Price doesn't necessarily point to an app's "worth."
One thing that certainly will be different with Microsoft's app store (and, yes, we're going to be repeating ourselves yet again here) is that a large number of the apps available at launch already are available today, and not at 99-cent price points.
Take Kinoma Play, for example. At $29.99 it's one of the more expensive Windows Mobile applications we've bought — and worth every penny we paid. We have a hard time imagining the price dropping to $1 or even $5, just because it's in Microsoft's app store. (That said, some sort of Marketplace launch discount shouldn't be out of the question.)
Microsoft's point is this: Developers' works are worth more than 99 cents, and they should be going for quality (as in greater revenue) over quantity (selling as many copies as possibly cheaply). And that's why the Race to Market Challenge will have two winners in the paid category: one for most downloads, and the other for total revenue generated.
We made mention of Handmark's Handmarket Apps going Beta, and now the software developer/provider has taken the "beta" tag off its app store. The new Windows Mobile app store can be downloaded over at Handmark's website putting a wide variety of games, themes, applications, ringtones and more a click away.
Commenting on the release of Handmarket Apps, Evan Conway, Handmark's Executive Vice President of Marketing, said, "As a leading mobile content provider, we see the need for a better mobile shopping experience on Windows Mobile phones."
The release of Handmarket Apps places a convenient and simply way to access software titles for you Windows Mobile phone. Definitely encouraging news for the Windows Mobile industry.
Here we go again. A couple of days before the 
