Smartphone manufacturer HTC is currently weighing up whether or not it should begin to work on its own smartphone operating system.

HTC is perhaps best known for its work on Google's Nexus One

Of course, given just how much headway HTC has made thanks to its adoption of Google’s Android, it’s clear that the decision will have to be weighed up very carefully indeed, especially if you’re to take into consideration exceedingly close relationship that HTC has developed with Google itself. HTC is perhaps best known for the fact that it was the company that built Google’s first phone, the G1, as well as the company’s so-called superphone, the Nexus One.

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Mozilla has ceased development of the upcoming Windows Mobile version of its web browser, Firefox, currently the second most popular desktop browser on earth.

Unfortunately, it seems we won't be seeing Firefox on the nice Windows Phone 7 display

The word from the folks at Mozilla won’t come as a surprise to any who had followed the company’s opening of an exchange with Microsoft earlier in the week, with Firefox’s Rob Sayre writing an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer questioning the lack of a native development kit (NDK) to go alongside the software development kit (SDK) for Microsoft’s upcoming refresh to its mobile line, Windows Phone 7. If nothing else, the tone of the open letter indicated a certain dissatisfaction with Microsoft’s closed-platform approach to mobile development.

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It turns out that, despite the various minimum hardware specifications Microsoft has ensured any devices manufacturers are looking to run Windows Phone 7 on, the OS will ship without the ability to copy and paste.

No multi-tasking and no clipboard? Sounds familiar...

It seems particularly strange to see Windows Phone 7 ramping up for release without the fairly fundamental functionality, especially considering the sheer amount of ridicule Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch lines got for not having the ability to copy and paste chunks of text until the update to iPhone OS 3.0. Indeed, so surprised were folks to learn that “clipboard operations” won’t be supported in Windows Phone 7 that tech blog Engadget went looking for confirmation from Microsoft.

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Details of what we can expect from Windows Phone 7’s multitasking have begun to leak out, and they’re pretty interesting, considering the drive towards multitasking friendly mobile operating systems.

Windows Phone 7, if nothing else, looks genuinely interesitng...

When Microsoft initially unveiled the mobile compliment to Windows 7, the fairly appropriately named Windows Phone 7, people were impressed by its clean aesthetics, the fact that it’ll have minimum hardware requirements, which should help sidestep some Android users’ horsepower issues cropping up. Still, ever since that first announcement, questions have been going around about just what we can expect from Microsoft’s mobile OS.

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The latest beta of the Android-friendly version of Opera’s mobile web browser, Opera Mini 5, with versions hitting for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile too.

It looks nice and crowde, just like other mobile browsers

Cnet’s Crave blog for all things gadget-centric points out that, for those who’ve been using Opera Mini 4.2 on Android, the upgrade to Opera Mini 5 will be a welcome one, particularly for Android users, many of whom have made some fairly unsatisfied noise about the state of the bundled Browser on Android devices. While there are other options out there, including the constantly in flux but often impressive Dolphin browser, the fact is that those other options lack the pedigree of Opera’s mobile efforts.

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It seems that some documents regarding Microsoft’s altogether very secretive “Project Pink” have leaked, revealing a phone that Microsoft has until now been very quiet about indeed.

Microsoft's long under wraps phone finally comes to light

According to the folks at Gizmodo, it seems that some leaked documents have exposed the first phone to have come directly from Project Pink. For those who haven’t encountered Pink before, it seems to have been the device set up after Microsoft acquired Danger, maker of the Sidekick. Curiously enough, it had been rumoured that there were two phones in development under Project Pink, though now only one seems to have shown up.

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It seems that Microsoft won’t be changing too much about its distribution model for Windows Mobile when it releases the genuinely very impressive looking Windows Phone 7.

Now... does it do multitasking?

For now, there’s not an awful lot we don’t know about Microsoft’s upcoming update to its mobile operating system line, apart from the fact that it seems to be a fairly dramatic departure from its previous Windows Mobile efforts, both graphically and in terms of its actual use. Now though, TomsHardware is reporting that we can expect to see Windows Mobile 7 setting manufacturers back a licensing fee.

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TechRadar recently had a good old chinwag with Mozilla’s VO of mobiles, Jay Sullivan and one of the main revelations was the fact that Firefox Mobile for Android is likely to make its debut on the platform later in 2010.

Sullivan was quoted as saying that Android is a “great fit” for Firefox mobile, adding that “It’s a modern OS, and it’s a great fit with us. It’s the type of platform that has a high affinity with the early adopter, and it’s seen a lot of uptake.” He also pointed out that the reason for the delay was based on the underlying code.

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Things have been heating up around Windows 7 Mobile recently, with word that we would see Microsoft’s Mobile OS make something of a departure from previous iterations emerging gradually.

The Zune HD interface has always been lovely, would be nice to see it in WinMo 7

Still, not all of those rumours have been entirely positive, and the latest, which indicates that Microsoft may well nix multitasking for its upcoming mobile release, will likely disappoint some portion of those looking forward to giving the new OS a bash. That said, it’s not all bad news, as OS News is reporting a few interesting new bits and pieces about the new mobile operating system.

In its discussion of the various bits and pieces around the news of no multitasking, it’s noted that we can likely expect to see that applications are “paused” when switching between multiple apps, a situation not entirely unlike Google’s Android OS, which saves the state of various applications as the user switches back and forth. The whole thing gives the impression of multi-tasking quite well, though there are times when it shows.

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It seems that Google’s mobile operating system, the much vaunted Android, is set to see a tremendous amount of growth in the coming years, with analysts predicting that it will outpace its competitors.

The only thing the little guy is missing is a name... I like to think of him as Android Dave

Indeed, according to a Cnet report, it seems that Google’s Android is currently bringing up the rear a little, when it comes to the mobile OS market, at least. Interestingly enough, it seems that there’s still plenty of love out there for RIM and its BlackBerry line, which currently holds the number two spot, while Apple’s iPhone OS rests at number three.

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Not content to be the brains behind the guts of Google’s Nexus One, it seems that HTC could have a hand in Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 release, alongside LG.

HTC does have a bit of a flair for design

While this is all purest rumour and speculation for the moment, the folks at Engadget have pointed to LG’s Apollo and HTC’s Obsession to be the flagship devices for Microsoft’s upcoming addition to the mobile space, Windows Mobile 7. While we’re very curious to see some more official details about Windows Mobile 7, the current rumour is that we’ll see two different flavours of the devices, aimed at business and media use respectively.

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Rumours circulating about Xbox Live making the jump to mobile platforms have now been confirmed, but it seems that the service will be made available only to those using Windows Mobile-based devices.

Word comes from Kotaku of a snap taken from Microsoft’s own marketing material, which indicates that the service, once it’s made available on mobile devices, will be known as Xbox Live Games. This move would see Microsoft expanding Xbox Live in the same general manner as it’s indicated it’d like to extend the Zune brand, making the service available on a variety of different devices.

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