Over the past week there have been a ton of rumors in relation to a variety of Microsoft"s upcoming products and services. The folks up in Redmond have been hard at work for over a year on a top secret project codenamed "Pink". We get the question all the time, "What exactly is "Pink"?" The people working on the project have been extremely quiet, not much is known except that the device isn"t going to be manufactured by Microsoft.
A few weeks ago The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft and Verizon were in negotiations on launching project "Pink". Today another rumor has surfaced thanks to our good friend Mary Jo Foley. She"s apparently received the following specifications for the WM7 chassis, which will be the core for Microsoft"s project "Pink".
Core requirements:
Processor: ARM v6+, L2 Cache, VFP, Open GL ES 2.0 graphics HW (QCOM 8k, Nvidia AP15/16 and TI 3430 all meet spec)
Memory: 256MB+ DRAM, 1G+ Flash (at least 512MB fast flash – 5MB/s unbuffered read @4K block size)
Display: WVGA (800×480) or FWVGA (854×480) 3.5" or greater diagonal
Touch: Multi-touch required
Battery: Sufficient to meet Days of Use LTK requirements.
Controls: Start, Back, Send and End are required (soft controls allowed as long as they are always present).
Peripherals:
Camera: 3MP+, flash optional, 2nd camera optional (VGA resolution sufficient)
GPS: aGPS required
Sensors required: Light Sensor, Compass (3 axis, 5 degrees, 100 Hz sample rate), Accelerometer (3 axis, 2mg resolution, 100 Hz sample rate)
USB: High speed required, 20 MB/s transfer rate.
BlueTooth: BT2.1 required, must run MSFT BT stack, CSR BlueCore6 or later recommended.
Wi-Fi: 802.11B/G required, must run MSFT Native Wi-Fi stack, Atheros 6002 or Broadcomm 4325 recommended.
Connectors: Micro USB and 3.5mm Audio required.
Options:
FM tuner: If tuner HW is present it will be detected and supported by the Media application.
Haptics
SD Card (Micro SD recommended)
DPAD, qwerty or 12/20 key keyboards all optional
Microsoft"s project "Pink" isn"t going to be released anytime soon; however sources close to the team have told us that the device itself is ready for manufacturing stage. No word on who is going to manufacture it. It might be premature to say this, but this device is going to rock if you"re a Zune fan: Windows Mobile 7, Zune software integration, Windows Mobile Marketplace, and MyPhone services are just the tip of the iceberg.