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This article was published on February 21, 2010

The Next Web’s Weekly Recap: Windows Phone, Flash Battle, Geolocation Check-in Risks


The Next Web’s Weekly Recap: Windows Phone, Flash Battle, Geolocation Check-in Risks

The Next Web's Weekly RecapWelcome to The Next Web’s Weekly Recap. Make sure to check out The Next Web’s Podcast (iTunes or XML) where we analyze, rant and have fun with the weekly tech news.

This week Microsoft unveiled its long awaited mobile operating system called “Windows Phone 7 Series”. The mobile landscape also changed this week as Google Android picked up AIR and Flash support. However, Steve Jobs remains adamant about not supporting Flash on the iPhone as well as the upcoming iPad. Also this week came a silly but important site that serves as a reminder about the risks of using geolocation services.

windows7rcMicrosoft Unveils the Windows Phone
On Monday, Microsoft announced their new and improved mobile operating system dubbed “Windows Phone 7 Series”. Beyond what many believe to be a poor name choice, the features look quite impressive. While Microsoft does have some catching up to do, initial reactions have been positive. Perhaps one of the biggest questions people have regarding the OS is its ability to multitask. Although details on this as well as others are uncertain, more info will be released in the coming weeks. Phones with Windows 7 Phone Series are slated to be released by Christmas.

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flashlogorcBattle Over Flash
This week Adobe announced that the new version of Flash Player (version 10.1) as well as AIR will be supported by Google’s Android OS. This news is sure to anger many iPhone users who often cite no Flash support as their top complaint. In spite of this, Steve Jobs is not backing down on his stance against Flash. He recently had some harsh words for what he called a “dying technology”. It will be quite interesting to see how the future of Flash plays out. While Google supports it on Android, they are also the biggest proponents of HTML5 (its potential killer). Meanwhile, mobile heavyweight Apple doesn’t support Flash on its iPhone as well as the upcoming iPad. As long as Apple continues to lead the way in the mobile space, their position on Flash will likely carry the biggest weight in the marketplace.

pleaserobThe Risks of Social Media Location Sharing
This week a site called Please Rob Me was released that attempted to warn people about the risks of using geolocation based services such as Foursquare. The site shows people who are checking in on location-based services (and are thus not home). While the site is a little silly it does bring up valuable attention to the issue of privacy and safety when using geolocation services. This concern will certainly increase when Facebook introduces geolocation check-ins to it’s 400 million plus users. Not only that, but Facebook users often have their physical address in their profile. All in all, a good reminder to be aware of the risks of geolocation.

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