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Magneto: new OS for Windows Mobile - coming at 3GSM? or on 3G PDA phone

Microsoft's contribution to the "super-PDA" smartphone market looks like being one step above the XDA IIi after all; a 3G version of the HTC box has been seen in prototype form. However the excitement isn't the hardware, but Magneto, the software.

All the gossip suggests that the new operating system, otherwise to be known as Windows Mobile 2005, will be announced next week at 3GSM.

Microsoft has sent out invites to a "big news announcement" next week, but my sources suggest this is actually from the communications division, rather than the mobile people.

Many are therefore inclined to suspect the gossip may be off-beam. It's only a month since it was "definite" that Bill Gates would announce Magneto at the Consumer Electronics show, after all. However, it's perfectly possible that Microsoft is going to have more than one major announcement in Cannes.

The HTC device doesn't look like it's going to ship any time soon, reports Paul O'Brien at  MoDaCo - he's found a photograph which clearly tells him that it's still being designed.

But the information he's quoting says that the OS will be new. It's the "Magneto" version of Windows Mobile, already rumoured to be in new phones from LG and Samsung for this year.

Little is known about Magneto. It was blown open by Neowin in early January - but the story was removed, at Microsoft's request.

Internet cache technology being what it is, the removal didn't achieve much. The report actually said: "Microsoft is progressing well with Magneto and is currently running a Beta 2 (v5.0.1512 Build 14207) dogfood test internally."

It went on to predict that the first release candidate of Magneto was scheduled to coincide with  3GSM - the 16th February - with release to manufacture - RTM - following on the 13th April. "Currently Microsoft are only testing Magneto on the Motorola MPx220 Smartphone," the report added. "This indicates that the device will be able to be upgraded sometime this year. It's unclear what others devices will be supported for upgrade."

The meat of the withdrawn announcement was that this release will make Pocket PC and Windows Smartphone the same platform: "Magneto promises a lot of improvements from previous versions of Windows Mobile including some major UI overhaul. Microsoft are improving the contacts part of Windows Mobile. ActiveSync 4 (currently in beta at v4.0.0 Build 4200) will allow the synchronisation of Outlook contact pictures. This will be for both smartphone users and Pocket PC users."

More cacheing appeared at  Engadget, which added the following (now withdrawn) extracts from Neowin: "Pocket PC gets an entirely new interface which uses two soft buttons, just like Smartphone. Smartphone’s interface gets a small overhaul to match the new Pocket PC exactly. Both OSes can be used one-handed, just like the new UIQ 3 or Palm OS 6.1. Also like those, both versions will support a wide variety of resolutions."

Crucially, it added: "Microsoft has added Wi-Fi support to Smartphone, and has added persistent memory to Pocket PC, basically bringing the two OSes in line both feature and application-wise."

The two things that will set Pocket PC apart are continued support for a touch screen, and Office applications, said the report. It quoted sources saying that this Office support included "an improved version of Word and Excel (that finally support charts and text formatting!) as well as a pocket version of Powerpoint."

Other software improvements will include picture syncing for Outlook contacts, a new Pictures application and a new version of Windows Media Player 10, it said.

The code-name Magneto has been around for at least a year; when Windows Mobile 2003 gave way to WM 2004, Microsoft admitted that several technical features from Magneto had been dropped at the last moment.