Just as I’m about to leave for Mobile World Congress, an interesting video caught my attention that seems to be more timely than ever considering Microsoft’s upcoming announcements about its future mobile strategy.

The video by Barton Smith, a designer from Australia of all places, appears to be a prototype UI for a conceptual “Locus OS” which is described as a “location-based operating system”. What makes it special is that it appears to be Microsoft branded, however without any background information I can’t say for certain if this was commissioned by Microsoft or not.

The video itself presents some very interesting concepts, the main focus of which is a multiple “desktop” arrangement that is location-aware – giving you flexibility in the widgets and applications you see based on your location and what you might be doing. Although some elements of the UX appear inspired by the iPhone, Palm Pre and Android, the designer points out that this was created in 2008 making many of the ideas original at the time. Nevertheless, definitely worth a look.

Without a doubt, Microsoft has set its eyes on the consumer mobile space this year. Unless you’ve been hiding under an iPhone, you might have noticed excitement has been building around the mobile event of the year, Mobile World Congress 2010 where Microsoft is expected to reveal the much anticipated Windows Mobile 7 platform, among other things.

Join Tom Warren from Neowin.net and I as we will attempt to capture the live Ballmer and co. experience for all of you using the magic of capturing light and the English language in a group liveblog of the scheduled Microsoft Press Conference at MWC 2010.

Please check back on Monday, 15th of February from 3-4pm Central European Time (UTC+1) (find out when that is in your local timezone here). Alternatively for the organized among us, download the iCal.

Disclosure: I am attending Mobile World Congress as a guest of Microsoft Australia.

When faced with a buggy piece of software, most users probably work-around the problems in silence, others might voice the issue at the developers, but there’s also a growing minority who whip out their development tools and attempt to fix it themselves.

In the case of the broken Adobe Reader 9.0 PDF preview and thumbnail handler on 64-bits versions of Windows 7 and Windows Vista, Leo Davidson did just that.

For the past two years, Adobe has neglected a simple issue with Adobe Reader that broke the default and extremely useful file thumbnail and file preview features in Vista and 7 under 64-bit. The problem also extends onto other applications that use the preview APIs such as Office Outlook, throwing out the window what would have been an elegant and streamlined PDF viewing experience, especially since you can scroll within the PDF without awakening the beast that is Adobe Reader.

After some detective work by Leo, not only did he pinpoint the root cause of both the preview and thumbnail issues, but today released a dead-simple fix in a neat executable package that fixes both problems faster than you can say “what the hell Adobe”.

Moments ago, Microsoft sent out a press release detailing the February schedule for upcoming events for the financial analysts and investors community.

Whilst usually I couldn’t care less, what poked my interest was that Microsoft is scheduling not one but two Windows Mobile-related events in a matter of just seven (7) days – one immediately after their press conference at Mobile World Congress and another a week later.

Microsoft financial analyst briefing at the 2010 Mobile World Congress
Monday, Feb. 15, 2010
7 p.m. CET/ 10 a.m. PST
Andy Lees, senior vice president, Mobile Communication Business

Windows Mobile financial analyst conference call
Monday, Feb. 22, 2010
8 a.m. PST
Andy Lees, senior vice president, Mobile Communication Business

In contrast to the previous year where they announced Windows Mobile 6.5, there was only one event and that was the briefing at MWC. The next person to suggest Windows Mobile 7 is delayed and they are only showing off WM 6.5.3 (a.k.a. 6.6) will get slapped.

Coinciding with the scheduled Zune.net maintenance today, a new Zune software update was also released (version 4.2.202.0 for those playing along at home). What might appear as just a regular software update is actually hiding a very big secret. The elusive “Zune Phone” is pretty much confirmed.

As some of you might know, an .INF file is essential component of a driver package responsible for identifying the driver and associating it with compatible USB hardware IDs, and in this case, the Zune.inf file is responsible for associating devices with the Zune driver.

New to this version of the driver which was actually generated on October 20, 2009 are several lines which pretty much speak for themselves.

[Microsoft.NTx86]
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\MS_COMP_MTPZ
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0710
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_063E
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0640
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0641
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0642
%ZuneIp.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZIP, umb\urn:microsoft-com:device:mtpz:1

; Localizable strings
Msft = “Microsoft”
Zune.DeviceDesc = “Zune”
…
Phone.DeviceDesc = “Phone”

Moreover, just as how the current three generation Zunes are represented by three different IDs, there are three unique class IDs and specifically Product IDs (PID) that identify three potential “Zune Phone” models (not storage capacities) off the bat. My bet is that they’re not just capacity variants (since various Zune capacities are all grouped under the same PID), but three actual hardware SKUs.

A timely coincidence before Mobile World Congress? I think not.

Update: Whilst it is possible there might be system-wide Zune integration into Windows Mobile 7, this particular driver references specific hardware IDs that are locked to a vendor (Microsoft) and product which under USB body regulations cannot be masked, thus this has to be Microsoft devices. “Pink” anyone?

[See post to watch Flash video]

If you’ve been watching Australian TV lately (I haven’t) then you might have noticed a subtle new Windows 7 advertising campaign custom tailored for the Australian Open broadcast on Channel 7.

Over the next two weeks during the tournament, Microsoft is sponsoring action replays, multi-angle replays and head-to-head profiles that will illustrate how Aero Snap – the Windows 7 feature that allows you to easily dock two windows side-by-side can be practically used.

Even though it looks a little bit cheesy from the video sample above, I think it does a decent job at illustrating a pretty useful feature to an audience that probably wouldn’t otherwise know about it.

Just thinking out loud, what might have been an even cooler advertising campaign is that if they had all the tennis matches played during the day as buttons in the taskbar, hover over them to see live thumbnail previews and then click on them to switch between the feeds.

On a related note, I find it mildly amusing that the live scores are available on Bing in the United States, but not in Bing Australia, where it is held. Google Australia however gets it right.

After spending a very long day with the the HTC HD2 launching in Australia this week, my expectations for what Windows Mobile 6.5 can do and what Windows Phones can be has been completed redefined.

Having actually came from another Windows Phone and despised the experience of using it, if there’s one thing we should all take away from the HD2 is that it is no longer appropriate to generalize all Windows Phones.

Although Microsoft can still be blamed for allowing and encouraging such a wide spectrum of devices ranging in quality to be produced and ultimately grouped under a single brand – previously Windows Mobile phones now Windows Phones – it’s become a much more of an issue for the platform recently as the gap between generic Windows Phones and “premium” Windows Phones has expanded so wide that the “stigma of Windows Mobile” should no longer be an acceptable justification to dismiss high-end devices like the HD2.

Whilst it is still true the experience inside the “HTC bubble” on the HD2 – the integration of HTC software and services into the core Windows Phone experience – is above and beyond the native Windows Mobile experience, it should also be noted that the longstanding notion that “Windows Mobile will show its ugly face quickly” is no longer true for the HD2 thanks to efforts made by Microsoft, HTC and third-party application developers over the past 6-12 months. Granted not every nook and cranny is perfect, but certainly the day-to-day experience on the HD2 is arguably on-par with the Android or even the iPhone.

As I’m sure a variety of Windows Phones will continue to flood the market in the months to come, I would ask people to judge each device on its own merits. It would be cynical to dismiss otherwise great phones on the basis it’s just a Windows Phone.

Update: The HTC HD2 T9193 Next-G version (850/2100mhz) is available now exclusively from Telstra for $829 outright unlocked (until March 30).

Unix enthusiasts might be quick to point out this type of computing actually originated on Unix long ago, it hasn’t reached the mainstream, yet, it solves a very common computing problem in the home environment – a limited number of computers and everyone who wants to use it at the same time.

Granted the average cost of home PCs have been steadily declining in the past decade, the hidden cost of maintaining, running and eventually renewing a PC for every home user is an unnecessary burden for what might only be light web browsing and emails.

Whilst thin-client solutions has worked well for the enterprise, the complexity doesn’t really make sense for a home. Furthermore, unless CPUs, memory and motherboards becomes free, then no thin-client can ever match multiseat computing by cost.

Compared to existing third-party Windows multiseat solutions out there, Windows MultiPoint Server is a far more elegant and transparent solution. From what I can gather it is no more complicated to set up than any OEM Windows PC. Thereon, each “access point” can be added for just the price of an additional monitor, keyboard, mouse (and user license) and the computing experience would be no worse than what they can experience on a standalone PC if not better with bonus capabilities such as being able to “migrate” between different access points with their user state preserved.

Although Microsoft is not intending to release this particular OS to the general OEM market, I wouldn’t be surprised if it will be easily obtainable via software resellers in the future. If that’s the case, I’d love to see someone deploy this in the home as a test case.

Finally, I must point out even though this product is currently limited in some ways by the maximum length of monitor cables, wireless technology for the mouse and keyboard is already here and it’s not any stretch of the imagination wireless display transceivers are coming soon, in which case, imagine just having to deploy a single Windows MultiPoint Server for an entire household.

Update: Martin in the comments saw a demonstration of the Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 at the BETT conference first-hand. He says,

They had one PC running Windows 7 (Aero Graphics), Video Streaming, Office, Movie Maker. And shared between 5 clients. with NO performance loss.

I wonder if Spielberg is claiming royalty from all the technology that was envisioned in his sci-fi film Minority Report. Cause if he is, he probably don’t have to make another movie.

Shown off today at the National Retail Federation Convention & Expo, an impressive digital signage proof of concept put together by Intel and Microsoft demonstrates that the futuristic clothing store in the movie is not all that far off.

Powered by an Intel Core i7 processor (yes you read that right, this sign has more grunt than most desktop computers), this proof of concept was designed to illustrate some of the new breakthrough technologies supported by the upcoming Windows Embedded Standard 2011 platform that’s based of Windows 7. Noticeably, the advanced multi-touch and high-definition multimedia capabilities have carried through to this small(er)-footprint OS.

In combination with a massive 80″ “holographic” display and a large LCD display, the result is nothing short of impressive. Should this ever make it in actual retail shops, I’m sure people would spend more time in-front of this sign than the products.

In an invitation from Microsoft I received today for Mobile World Congress, teased

Microsoft will be making several exciting announcements during the show. You will learn:

• How the company plans to align its consumer vision and grow opportunities for the mobile industry as a whole.
• How it will tackle challenging times ahead, in the face of economic uncertainty and stiffening competition.

If that doesn’t sound like Windows Mobile 7, then I don’t know what does. Although it should be noted the event’s current keynote lineup does not mention any representation from Microsoft, but I’ve also been told that will change in the weeks to follow.

Even if in the minds of many – including myself as WM user – hope for the future success of this platform withers down by the day, there is still a chance Microsoft can come out guns blazing. After all, you only have to look at the history of the XBOX to realize how Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division can take an underdog to the top of the hill.

Disclosure: I’ll be attending Mobile World Congress 2010 as a guest of Microsoft Australia.