ChevronWP7, Microsoft team on new Windows Phone unlock tool

The ChevronWP7 team surfaced again on Friday with news of its long promised, officially sanctioned Windows Phone 7 unlock tool in ChevronWP7 Labs. Its solution will give developers and hobbyists a way to run apps without having to sign up for and publish to the Windows Phone Marketplace. Both they and Microsoft's Senior Product Manager Cliff Simpkins saw it as a way of safely experimenting without either breaking Marketplace rules or running afoul of another developer.

The new version will require a PayPal fee to the ChevronWP7 team, but mostly to cover development costs.

ChevronWP7 arrived just weeks after Windows Phone 7 arrived in the US as a reaction to the limitations on what apps were available on the new platform. Microsoft cracked down and demanded it stop, but it decided soon after to collaborate with the team of Windows enthusiasts to make an approved solution in return for taking down the original copy. The bridge is partly a necessity since the $99 fee normally has to be paid whether or not an app is available in Microsoft's store.

Electronista

Nokia exec backs multiple Windows Phone devices in 2011

Nokia's first Windows Phone devices could not only make the end of 2011 but include multiple devices, the company's Smart Devices VP Jo Harlow said in a new talk on Tuesday. She wasn't ready to say for certain that Nokia would make 2011 but told Forbes that the target was "absolutely still this year" and that it "looks good." Harlow also fueled rumors of multiple devices at once" with word that it would start with a "smart portfolio" of devices, not just one.

Earlier hints have suggested that the two first phones, the W7 and W8, would be direct conversions of the X7 and N8 with Windows Phone and new hardware. Since Qualcomm has another Snapdragon exclusive on the platform with the Windows Phone 7.1 update, Nokia will have to switch to the new processors. It's already due to start with the new OS.

Harlow went on to validate rumors and said Nokia was exploring NFC on Windows Phone along with its outgoing Symbian platform. The company was helping carriers make NFC readers along with creating phones to use them.

CDMA was also becoming important. Nokia has had phones in recent years like the Twist, but for the most part has kept it away from its smartphone mix. Harlow explained that Nokia was "working in that direction" to expand the company's reach.

The VP reiterated a cautious approach to tablets and was clear that the company would only get involved if it could have truly unique models.

Electronista

Windows Phone 7, Symbian ads get more hits than iOS

The latest quarterly ad metrics report published by mobile ad network Smaato reveal Windows Phone 7 owners are clicking on more ads than those with iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian devices. This is a large change from last year's numbers, which had Symbian handsets at the top of the ad click-through rates. Smaato's CMO, Harald Heidhardt, helped put the results in perspective.

Heidhardt believed that despite their relative small market presence due to how new they are, WP7 devices are seen as a novelty by owners and this contributes to the higher mobile advertising performance. Because Microsoft's SDK isn't bringing ads outside of the US and there may be less mobile ads in Windows Phone devices, it's likely more attention is paid to the ads in apps or mobile websites, he said.

The Smaato numbers give the click behavior or anonymous smartphone OS owners averaged over the global inventory and is meant to give advertisers an idea of which OS is the most efficient to sell advertising on.

Electronista

Microsoft making it easier to port iPhone apps to Windows Phone

One of Microsoft’s problems in attracting people to write Windows Phone 7 applications is that the user base is much smaller than those of the iPhone or Android, so app developers tend to focus on those platforms. Now, Microsoft is trying to make it easier for people to take the apps they’ve developed for the iPhone and make them work on Windows Phone.

With the iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API (application programming interface) mapping tool, released on Friday, developers have a new online resource for doing this conversion.

Essentially, the API mapping tool works like a foreign-language dictionary, said Jean-Christophe Cimetiere, Microsoft senior technical evangelist for interoperability. Developers can go through the code of their iPhone app and find the equivalent API calls for a Windows Phone 7 app.

“For this first round we focused on identifying the one-to-one mapping when it exists,” Cimetiere wrote in a blog post. “In the following versions we’ll expand the scope and anytime the concepts are similar enough, we’ll do our best to provide the appropriate guidance.

“Of course, this is a work in progress, coverage will expand and more iOS APIs will be mapped soon.”

Seattle PI