According to the folks at BGR, they’ve learned this from reliable sources that has seen the app for iPad and Android first hand, and it looks very similar to recent leaks from TheDaily that Microsoft has clearly denied as being real. If sources are accurate later this year Microsoft will be launching on Windows 8, iOS, and Android all around the same time — obviously with Windows 8 first.

There is also the possibility that Microsoft Office will be coming to smartphones too. As BGR reports the launch screen said “Microsoft Office for iOS” and not just the iPad. This could be a good move for Microsoft even though they probably would rather not launch their popular programs for the competition, but you can’t ignore the millions and millions of users. Android fans, would you use Microsoft Office for mobile, or just stick to Google Docs?

The partnership comes after the patent suit brought by Microsoft was settled on undisclosed terms, with Microsoft licensing the patents in question for the Nook tablets and e-readers. Barnes & Noble claims that the deal will “significantly expand the [e-reader] business,” though exactly how wasn’t mentioned. Microsoft could be throwing in its licensing deals from the Zune and Xbox Live services to help expand music and video offerings on the Nook Tablet and Nook Color, though nothing’s confirmed at this point. It’s possible that B&N could switch to Windows Phone for future tablets, but given the software’s closed source nature that’s very unlikely.

Barnes & Noble has said that it intends to develop a Nook application for Windows 8, likely taking advantage of the new ARM-based version to allow for Windows tablets to have easy access to Nook ebooks. This probably won’t affect the Android versions of the Nook app – like its competitors, B&N is interested in getting its content on as many screens as possible. Currently Nook apps are offered on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac, but not Windows Phone 7.

[via SlashGear]

WPCentral reported LG’s initial press release, quoting a spokesperson saying that “the total unit of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure.” That statement holds up: in the latest ComScore market share numbers, combined numbers for Windows Phone 7 and the older Windows Mobile together accounted for only 3.9% of US sales, compared with just over 50% for Android. LG’s seen a fair bit of success with the open source platform: their flagship Optimus LTE has sold over a million units worldwide in its various incarnations, including the AT&T LG Nitro HD and the Verizon LG Spectrum here in the US.

LG should be concerned about at least one thing with this decision: Microsoft. The Windows developer has seen fit to sue Android manufacturers like Samsung and HTC, resulting in undisclosed settlements in both cases. These are speculated to contain clauses that encourage the manufacturers to focus more on their Windows Phone 7 devices. We’ll see what litigious developments unfold, but if you listen closely, you can hear the sound of Redmond-area lawyers packing their briefcases.

[via SlashGear]

The contest was to see which phone could display the weather for two separate cities the fastest. Katta was in luck here, since he happened to have weather widgets for two separate cities sitting on his homescreen. When the challenge began, Katta turned on his phone and shouted “Done!” Since he’d disabled the Android lock screen before coming into the store (a feature that’s built in to the OS) that was all he had to do. The Microsoft employee had to turn on her phone and perform the slide-to-unlock function. Katta won by a split-second, thanks to Android’s ability to disable the lock screen.

When he claimed his prize, Katta was told that he had lost, without a real explanation as to why. He demonstrated the weather or two separate cities using widgets, the same way that the Windows Phone 7 device had with its Live Tiles interface. After pressing for an answer as to why he had “lost”, the representative finally said, “Just because.”  When Katta went up the chain he was told that the rules stated that he had to show the weather for two different cities in two separate states, something that was never mentioned at the outset.

Katta left the store without his rightful laptop. While his story is gaining traction on Reddit and other social networks, he hasn’t contacted Microsoft to try and get them to honor the contest. But he was asked to pose for a photo in front of a banner on his way out of the store, emblazoned with the somewhat erroneous phrase “My phone just got smoked by Windows Phone”.

UPDATE: Microsoft’s Ben “The PC Guy” Rudolph (a pretty infamous Android detractor himself) has reached out to Sahas Katta via Twitter, offering him his just reward: a free laptop and an apology. And a free Windows phone, too, though it’s hard to see why Katta would want one – it did get smoked, after all.

[via Reddit]

Bear in mind, these applications are more basic than their fully fledged counterparts. OneNote syncs with the documents located on Microsoft’s SkyDrive. You can still format text, images, and create bulleted lists – but the best part is it renders your projects perfectly. OneNote is also available free of charge in the Android Market

The application is not yet configured for tablet use, although it’s still possible to install – it’s just not tablet optimized. It seems they’d perfect a universal version of the Android app, considering how long its taken to see any member of their suite on the Android Market. Those interested in giving it a try, navigate here.

[via IntoMobile]

Here are Microsoft’s words, exactly:

While the Xbox Live experiences and games always work best on the Windows platform, we understand that some Xbox fans may be using other types of devices. To satisfy that need, we are working to extend a few of our Xbox experiences and titles to other platforms.

Xbox Live integration is a pretty big selling point5 for Microsoft’s own Windows Phone 7 operating system – but apparently not big enough. The latest revision to Windows Mobile has spent over a year in the retail market without any real impact, even as Nokia begins to release its first WP7 hardware. Never one to let pride get in the way of profit, Microsoft is probably looking to solidify the Xbox’s position in the gaming world by letting users connect to the cloud side of things however they’d like.

This doesn’t mean that Microsoft isn’t behind its own mobile platform – they’re still pushing hard to regain the market share they’ve lost in the last few years. But the reality is that the Xbox division makes a whole lot more money than Windows Phone, and with Sony making its own impressive moves towards mobile gaming, now’s not the time to play favorites. With new hires and indications from PR, expect Android and iOS integration for Xbox Live sometime late this year.

Motorola and Barnes & Noble are the only notable companies that have stood up to Microsoft’s heavy-handed tactics. The later will almost certainly fight it out thanks to backing from recent buyer Google, which has still not been directly sued by Microsoft. Barnes & Noble seems to be resisting Microsoft’s civil suite out of sheer determination, protecting its forward-looking business model built on the Nook series of Android-powered ereaders. The bookseller published Microsoft’s Android-related patents in detail for the first time back in November.

As opposed to Apple, which has so far gone with an all or nothing approach to its legal bullying, Microsoft seems intent on making actual revenue out of its existing patents. Estimates of licensing fees are in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year… which is still far less than Microsoft might be making if its paid Windows Phone 7 operating system could get more than 2% market share. Many speculate that the real motive behind the lawsuits and settlements is to force manufacturers into making and selling Windows phones, which seems appropriate in the case of Samsung, HTC and others.

Google isn’t happy about Microsoft’s Android tax, but there isn’t much they can do about it. Since Microsoft has so far refused to sue Google directly over the software, instead aiming for smaller and ostensibly weaker manufacturers, its patents are unlikely to be overturned in the United States. Oh well – if you can’t innovate, litigate.

[via SlashGear]

If you bought an Android smartphone or tablet in the last six months, odds are surprisingly good that you paid a considerable chunk of the purchase price to Microsoft. The dinosaur of the software world has successfully sued and/or negotiated with most of the major Android OEMs, including Samsung, HTC, and lately LG. Microsoft claims that over 70% of the Android hardware sold in the US includes licensing fees paid to the company – a disturbing statistic for an open-source operating system.

Microsoft hasn’t disclosed how much it’s making off of its Android-related patents, though estimates put the amount in hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Tellingly, they’ve stayed away from Google itself and recent acquisition Motorola. Not content with their ill-gotten gains, Microsoft took to Twitter to boast about the agreements. Using the hashtag #anotherandroidlicense, Microsoft’s head of Corporate Communications sent messages like “we are the 70%” and continued the company line that Android is neither open nor free. This seems like something of a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point.

Does anyone else find it off that Microsoft is revelling in the relatively small amount of money it’s pulling by sabotaging a competing product, while its own Windows Phone 7 platform languishes in almost every market? At last count, WP7 had a 2% worldwide market share; that’s just slightly behind the former Windows Mobile, which hasn’t been placed on any new hardware in years. Compare that to a 53% market share for Android in the same NPD report, and Microsoft’s victory dance seems pretty hollow.

You stay classy, Redmond.

[via Beta News]

As reported by liveside, over on Microsoft Careers is a new job posting looking for 2 years experience with software development. Preferably mobile development and it even mentions “Experience of Windows Phone, iOS, or Android development is a big plus”.

It doesn’t really surprise me that Micro$oft would want to bring their features to Android — after all it is the number one mobile OS and is growing every day. They are already making bank from all the patent and lawsuits they’ve settled, might as well get some from the Xbox side of things too. As much as I’m not a fan of Microsoft as of late this would be a great move and I’d love to have Xbox Live mobile gaming on my Android phones and tablets.

It appears that Microsoft is planning to bring Xbox Live experiences to other platforms, including location based gaming, social networking, and avatars — much like we currently see on Xbox Live. Why they’d bring one of Windows Phone 7′s best and exclusive features to other platforms beats me, but we’ll take it. Part of the job description mentions team members will “have the luxury to work with all sorts of mobile devices to create the official Xbox LIVE mobile experiences.” So It seems they’ll be going after all major platforms.

Hopefully we’ll hear more on this from Microsoft but in the meantime does anyone want to apply?

[via Businessinsider]

To be blunt, that seems extremely unlikely. Apple has proven that it’s unwilling to negotiate with just about anyone, instead taking the all-or-nothing approach and going for a sales ban, as in cases with Samsung in Germany and Australia. In the latter Apple flat-out denied a settlement that surely involved patent licensing, a decision they probably regret now that their case against the design patents in the Galaxy Tab 10.1 have been dismissed. Samsung and HTC have already found ways around Apple’s legal eagles in the other cases: in Germany, Samsung released a revised Galaxy Tab 10.1N that the German court recognized as significantly different than the original, and HTC says it already has a work-around to Apple’s software patents in their United States case.

The simple fact is that Apple’s been too hard-headed to accept any sort of compromise thus far, to its detriment. This position probably stems from the late Steve Jobs, who vowed to “destroy” Android, which he saw as a stolen product. (“We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” -Steve Jobs, 1996.) Now that they’ve been handed defeat in Australia and the US and companies have found ways around their overly vague patents, they may be more  amenable to licensing, as Microsoft already is. Microsoft is reputedly making more than $400 million a year in Android licensing fees, and earns $5 from every HTC sale, though that’s the only company whose specific deal with Redmond is publicly known.

Will Apple settle for licensing? Probably not. If they had tried the standard sue-then-settle tactic a year ago they might have been successful, but at this point every major manufacturer has been preparing work-around to their patent trolling. We’ll see what they can cook up in 2012 – and how many Ice Cream Sandwich features magically make their way into iOS 6.

[via Ubergizmo]

Of course, the amount of Android malware that actually makes it onto users’ devices is pretty tiny. Google keeps a weather eye on the Android Market, and most of the platform’s 190 million users never install a non-Market app, the primary vector for software attacks. But then, most of the things that @BenThePCGuy is retweeting are general complaints – sluggish, choppy phones, restarts, and slow updates. Legitimate complaints, to be sure, but not malware by any stretch of its definition.

Still, we’re all tech heads here, and not above a little pandering for free hardware. BenThePCGuy has five free phones of indeterminate make and model to give out, so send him your story if you want to try. After all, Windows Phone 7 has copy and paste now! I’m sure that will make up for its other shortcomings.

Is anyone else chuckling at the thought of Microsoft (you know, the Windows people) pointing out malware threats on competing platforms? Keep that virus scanner running, desktop users.

[via SlashGear]

Microsoft is calling this the official app for all things Halo and we’d have to agree. Waypoint tracks your career and campaign, stats, and more. It breaks things down by enemy or weapon too. You can connect with friends and even make custom challenges all from the new Halo Waypoint. It offers real time tracking so you can see your location on map in real-time during multiplayer sessions. Providing an overhead view that will show weapon, vehicle, and even player locations — making this your Halo multiplayer companion app.

Many of these awesome new features are in what they are calling Waypoint ATLAS although that will be an additional purchase from what I understand but will bring your gaming to a new level. The main app however, is absolutely free and available now in the Android Market. Currently it works on all Android 2.2 and above devices although they do mention no support for qHD devices but will update shortly to include more compatibility. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

[via Androinica]

Looking at my image we clearly have the Android 2.3 powered HTC Sensation but wait are those capacitive Android buttons, is that Ice Cream Sandwich up top? Or wait, maybe it’s just CyanogenMod 7 with my favorite Cyanbread theme. All running with Windows Phone 7. I’m actually sort of enjoying that photo to be honest.

If you haven’t tried a Windows Phone 7 device down at a local store Microsoft aims to get your dollars by giving you a quick glance and personal hands-on time with Windows Phone 7 right from your Android smartphone. All you need to do is go to the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 demo page from your mobile device and enjoy the tasty Mango (name for WP7′s OS). This will load a surprisingly smooth and nice mock-up of Phone 7 and their tiles. You’ll be able to enter a few different areas like the application tray, contacts, calender and things of that nature. It’s actually quite neat and even though I’d never ever consider making the change I did enjoy the quick demo.

Apparently this will also work on those i*hones too if anyone has one of those devices (For Barista’s see this video). It doesn’t give us an extremely close look but either way this was pretty cool and I figured you’d all like to give it a try. It’s an awesome marketing tool I must admit — well done Microsoft. Now stop suing everyone and their dogs in the world of Android. K thx bye.

Windows Phone 7 demo site (click from mobile device)

[via Engadget]

QuickOffice PRo can now view, edit and save Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, including DOCX, XLSX and PPTX files. It can also view (but not edit) PDF documents. The new version also adds a ton of cloud connectivity features, allowing you to access files on Google Docs, Dropbox, Evernote, MobileMe and other syncing services, making it a handy tool for the connected office worker on the go. Other interesting additions include ZIP file support, and an updated interface on smartphones and Honeycomb tablets.

QuickOffice is $9.99 for the smartphone version and $14.99 for the tablet version – definitely not cheap, especially when compared to the free Google Docs. But for the expended functionality you receive, it’s not too expensive, and it’s in line with competitors like DocumentsToGo. If you’re not convinced, you can always try free version for seven days. You can download QuickOffice Pro and QuickOfficePro HD in the Android Market now.

[via Android Police]

Barnes & Noble contends that the patents are frivolous and trivial, most of them containing considerable prior art that existed long before the patents were awarded. There’s nothing to say that the six patents outlined in the case against Barnes & Noble are the same ones that have been used on the likes of Samsung and HTC, but it’s a fair bet that some or all of them are the crux of Microsoft’s arguments across the Android spectrum. In a letter to the Department of Justice, B&N said that the patents “cover only arbitrary, outmoded and non-essential design features,” but that Microsoft is charging extremely high licensing fees, essentially bumping up the price of “free” Android and giving Microsoft the power to stop individual features from being implemented.

Here’s all the patents Microsoft is using, and Barnes & Noble’s rebuttal:

I. ’372 Patent (Web Browser Background Image Loading)

The ’372 patent was filed April 18, 1996. Very generally, the patent relates to an outmoded system for retrieving an electronic document like a webpage that includes an embedded background image, which may have a bearing on very old web browsers connected to the Internet via slow, dial-up connections, but has little application in the context of improved, modern Internet connections….

II. ’522 Patent (Operating System Provided Tabs)

The ’522 patents was filed December 13, 1994. The patent relates to a single, simple tool provided by an operating system (such as Windows) that allows applications running on that operating system to have a common look and feel. Since operating systems provide many such tools, the patent amounts to nothing more than a trivial design choice. In particular, and despite the fact that this concept is in the prior art, the ’522 patent’s method allows for the creation of tabs. The tabs are analogous to dividers like those found in a notebook or to labels found in a file cabinet, and allow the user of an application to navigate between multiple pages of information in the same window by clicking on the tabs….

III. ’551 Patent (Electronic Selection with “Handles”)

On its face, the ’551 patent purports to claim priority back to a November 10, 2000 filing date. Generally, the ’551 patent relates to another simple and trivial feature that is not only disclosed by numerous prior art references, but is certainly not central to an operating system like Android — selecting or highlighting text or graphics within an electronic document. The patent provides that a user selects a word or phrase, for example, by tapping on a touch screen display or clicking with a mouse. Such a selection may be shown by highlighting the selected word or phrase. The user is presented with “selection handles” on one or both ends of the selected areas. These “selection handles” can be moved by the user to highlight more or less text or graphics….

IV. ’233 Patent (Annotation of Electronic Documents)

The ’233 patent was filed December 7, 1999. Like the other Microsoft patents, the ’233 patent relates only to one small feature that has long been present in the prior art and is not central to Android or any other operating system. More specifically, the patent generally relates to a method for capturing annotations made in an electronic document (like an electronic book), without changing the electronic document itself….

V. ’780 Patent (Web Browser Loading Status Icons)

The ’780 patent was not filed until May 6, 1997, long after the first web browser came to market. In addition to being late to the game, the patent is directed to a very simple and obvious feature — a temporary graphic element or status icon that is displayed to indicate that a hypermedia browser (such as a web browser) is loading content. When a browser is intended for use with a portable computer system with a limited display size, the ’780 patent notes that it is desirable to maximize the browser’s content display area (the portion of the browser that actually displays a website, not the menus, toolbars, or buttons). Thus, the patent makes a trivial design choice and provides that the graphic element or loading status icon is to be temporarily displayed in the content display area of the browser as opposed to a separate space such as the browser’s menu bar, tool bar, or a separate status bar….

Barnes & Noble also outlined several other patents and points. For a full look at all the legalese (which is far beyond the analytical powers of this humble Android blogger) check out Groklaw’s post on the subject.

Barnes & Noble seems completely committed to breaking the cycle of Microsoft’s patent trolling legal action and licensing. I’d wager that Google couldn’t be happier, since none of the various companies going after Android OEMs have directly threatened the parent company with legal action. If Barnes & Noble succeeds in fighting off Microsoft’s suit and securing and investigation, it might (and this is a long shot here) means that the licensing deals already in place elsewhere are renegotiated or dropped.

The claims seem valid enough. 53% of Android devices sold already pay some sort of royalty or kickback to Microsoft, the result of some extremely aggressive court battles and the resultant licensing deals. HTC and Samsung are among the biggest players affected, and tellingly, they also make Windows Phone 7 devices – one can’t help but wonder what kind of tit-for-tat is going on behind closed doors. One of the primary compaints of Microsoft’s detractors, including Google, is that in most cases it doesn’t actually articulate which of its patents are being violated or how.

Barnes & Noble has a lot riding on Android, and having to pay Microsoft for every device sold won’t do anything good for its bottom line. Every Nook e-reader, from the lowly Nook SimpleTouch to the upcoming Nook Tablet, runs a modified version of Android designed to highlight Barnes & Noble’s digital library. As it continues to trade punches with Amazon in the marketplace, it has to go toe to toe with Microsoft in the courts, something that an official US investigation could only help. B&N hopes it can convince regulators to investigate Microsoft before the February court date.

Device Specifications and Information

Device Info

Device Name : NOOK Tablet

Manufactuer : Barnes and Noble

Carrier : NA

Announced Date : November 07, 2011

Release Date : TBA

Also Known As :

Display

• Screen Size : 7 Inch
• Resolution : 1024x600
• Screen Type : VividView IPS

Dimension & Weight

• Height : 8.1 Inch
• Width : 5 Inch
• Depth : .48 Inch
• Weight : 400 Grams

Battery & Power

Battery Type:
• Lithium Polymer

• Battery Capacity : mAh
• Talk Time : NA
• Stand By Time : NA

Software

Android OS:
• 2.3.x

Audio Playback:
• AAC
• AAC+
• AMR
• MP3
• WAV
• WMA

Video Playback:
• h.263
• h.264 / AVC
• 3GP
• MPEG-4 (MP4)

Hardware

CPU : OMAP4

CPU Clock Speed : 1000 Mhz

Core : 2

Ram : 1000 MB

Internal Storage : 16 GB

Front Facing Camera :

Camera Resolution : NA

External Storage:
• MicroSD
• MicroSDHC

QWERTY :

Cellular Network

Device Connectivity

Wi-Fi:
• 802.11b
• 802.11g
• 802.11n

FM Radio :

NFC :

[via SlashGear]

Microsoft is becoming a huge player in the Android world, albeit at one step removed. Already more than half of all the Android phones and tablets sold include a kickback to Microsoft at some level. The company is estimated to be making $444 million annually from Android license fees alone, although that figure has almost certainly risen since it was reported. As in most of Microsoft’s patent dealings, specific patents and processes have not been mentioned.

In dueling interviews, lawyers from Microsoft and Google have played out the proxy patent battle in the media. Microsoft claims that Google is standing on its shoulders as far as software goes, and is bringing its portfolio of thousands of patents to bear on manufacturers instead of suing Google directly. Google has publicly called Microsoft’s tactics extortion, and called into question the validity of the software patent system. All this is in addition to suits from Oracle against Google and Apple against everyone else.

[via SlashGear]

Harkening back to Microsoft’s previous patent litigation against Linux, Porter accused Microsoft of gaining revenue from other company’s successful products by means of the courts. That’s certainly true: estimates put Microsoft’s Android earnings at more than 400 million dollars a year, and with more than half of all Android devices made paying Microsoft in some way, that’s not likely to end soon. Porter notes that Microsoft didn’t earn a single software patent until the late 80s, after both DOS and Word were already smash hits.

Here’s the full quote:

[Aggressively chasing licensing] is a tactic that Microsoft has used in the past, with Linux, for example. When their products stop succeeding in the marketplace, when they get marginalized, as is happening now with Android, they use the large patent portfolio they’ve built up to get revenue from the success of other companies’ products

Porter stopped short of saying that software shouldn’t be patentable, a view that many are taking in response to current patent wars, but did say that the current system is broken and needs serious attention. In speaking on Microsoft’s assertion that Google doesn’t stand behind its OEM partners and left them vulnerable to IP attack (yeesh, Microsoft, ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy?) Porter repeated the company line that they stand behind their partners. Unfortunately, it looks like the multi-sided pantent battle between Google, Microsoft, Apple and dozens of others isn’t going to end any time soon.

[via SlashGear]

Horacio Gutiérrez, deputy general counsel for Microsoft’s intellectual property group, told the San Francisco Chronicle the following in an interview:

These devices have moved from having a rudimentary phone system to being a full-fledged computer, with a sophisticated, modern operating system. In doing that, they have really stood on the shoulder of companies like Microsoft who made all these billions of dollars in investments.

Microsoft is currently making at least $444 million dollars a year off of Android hardware, putting them in the strange position of making more direct profit off of Android phone and tablet sales than Google, which gives away the operating system freely. Microsoft’s mobile software patent portfolio has allowed it to bully Android manufacturers into submission with startling efficiency, leading Samsung executives to say that they can’t rely on Google for protection. For its part, Google considers the licensing agreements “extortion,” and Motorola Mobility, which is slated to become a part of Google later this year, is one of the only major Android manufacturers left that hasn’t agreed to pay Microsoft royalties.

Elsewhere in the wide, wide world of technology patent litigation, Steve Jobs’ upcoming biography notes that the Apple co-founder had a hatred for Android stemming from a belief that the product was stolen. (“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”) Before his death the executive vowed to spend his last dollar and last breath fighting Android in court, and Apple’s refusal to settle in the Samsung Australian case seems to bear that out. Between Microsoft, Apple and Oracle, Google and its manufacturers still have a long fight ahead of them in the patent arena.

[via TFTS]