With Apple's iPhone release still set for next month, will the design and user experience win it legions of fans throughout the rest of 2007? Probably, but some folks in Redmond are holding their applause. Microsoft's "Shift" finger-based interface is set to clash with Apple's multi-touch sometime soon as the software titans do human interface battle (again). No, this is not the Microsoft oFone, but is Microsoft's "Shift" a copy of Apple's multi-touch or a homegrown Microsoft invention? The description Microsoft gives for Shift states that it is "possible to use a pointer on a PDA that can be guided by finger motion -- once the pointer is in position, the user simply lifts his thumb or finger to select the target." Does this sound revolutionary or evolutionary -- or neither? Shift apparently not only replaces stylus input but goes beyond it -- just like multi-touch. Still, should the iPhone feel threatened at all here?

Something that has probably caused quite a few Windows Mobile 5 customers to vent some rage lately was the removal of Bluetooth dial-up networking from AKU3. Why did Microsoft do it? According to a blog entry over at Microsoft's Developer Network, the dirty deed centered around Internet Connection Sharing, or ICS (think "wireless router" capability for your WM5 handset) which is technically superior for a handful of reasons. Translaton: Ole' Softie doesn't want all those spiffy WM handsets from becoming Bluetooth-centric access points to newer 2.5G and 3G wireless data networks. Fair enough; Bluetooth's peak data rates don't stand a chance against the best that HSDPA can throw at it, but still, old-fashioned dialup has its place. The good news here? Microsoft has heard the pleas of DUN-less users everywhere and plans to bring back the profile in a future Windows Mobile 6 AKU. Little consolation for the moment, but thanks to the vibrant hack community, we imagine most of us will have no trouble getting in on said AKU when the time comes.

Microsoft dropped a semi-bomb by stating that its next-generation mobile operating system -- Windows Mobile 6 -- will be coming to T-Mobile USA shelves in the second quarter of 2007, according to Microsoft. This just-released information -- which had previously been embargoed by the software giant -- was given after an extensive pre-briefing on its capabilities to wireless industry analysts and press this week. Based on information from Microsoft officials, the latest version of Windows Mobile will be given first to T-Mobile here in the U.S. before any other wireless carriers get their official mitts on it. The question then becomes: Will T-Mobile USA immediately make the OS upgrade available to owners of current-generation WM5 devices? After all, there are "ten thousand" changes in WM6 from WM5 according to Microsoft. We hear some massive testing by T-Mobile USA in the near future.

[Thanks, TJ]