If you haven’t heard of “Better Place“, I urge you to first watch this highly convincing TED presentation by Shai Agassi, the company’s founder, about his bold plans to transform the world entirely to electric cars. Their vision alone was enough to get me excited about the company, but what really grabbed my attention was actually what they were planning to use in the cars.

Tamir Khason, a former Microsoft technologies consultant in Israel now software architect at Better Place, has been working on the electronic console for these cars in the past year and has recently revealed that there is serious consideration to use Windows Presentation Foundation as the graphics platform. Suffice to say I never thought I’d see WPF in a car, nevertheless, it looks pretty awesome.

And this isn’t just some pretty mockup on screen either. There is a short snippet of the software in action in a video by WorldFocus, screencapped for your convenience here.

If the consideration to use WPF in a car wasn’t enough to blow you mind, then how about the other consideration to use WPF on top of a Windows XP install? The first thing that comes to mind might be the obligatory blue screen of death jokes, but Tamir argues that Windows XP is not only capable but can be faster to boot than other embedded systems. As a demonstration, he proves a tweaked version of Windows XP on a low-powered netbook can actually boot faster than a Nokia smartphone.

The system however has not been finalized and the WPF/XP combination is one of several under consideration. After getting in touch with Tamir I’ve also learned that other implementations of the same user-interface exists in WPF with Windows 7, DirectX with XP and Windows 7, a UI framework in the Linux platform Moblin, and OpenGL on a custom version of Linux. Currently one of the barriers facing WPF/XP is the licensing cost which adds significant cost to the solution.

Ideally Microsoft could help these guys out with some sort of licensing deal, but even if it ends up not working out, it’s cool to see WPF proposed to be used in such an interesting environment.

Update: I might have originally used the wrong term, “dashboard”, to describe this. Note this is not replacing the dashboard and gauges, but a center console device giving you navigation and other services.

It looks like the days of flashing ROMs for your Windows phones (and nervously sitting on the edge of the chair) are soon to be a thing of the past with a “Device Update” service coming to Windows Mobile. A recent tantalizing Microsoft job advertisement writes,

Have you wished to see your Windows Mobile phone with new features “magically” show up without you buying a new one? Do you want to see greater and better quality and cool software delivered to your love ones’ Windows phones from just a click? If this is your dream, this is a place for you. Come join us to make this dream into reality! With the mobile industry’s strong growth and several competitors playing in the field, we are going to have a challenging but fun time to show customers what Windows phone can become in the next few years.

We are in Windows Mobile device update team. Our goal is to enable customers to anticipate and enjoy a predictable stream of new and improved capabilities for their Windows Phone via a Device Update service that is worry-free and easy-to-use. Broad scope and impact, deep technologies, engineering challenges, partner interfacing with OEMs and MS internal partners, and fast pace delivery are all part of our charter. In the agile development environment, you will be working with PM/architect/test and partner teams to deliver critical stack of the update solution. You will lead a team of smart developers to solve problems in mobile OS, PC applications, and interacting with web services.

Whilst the feature won’t be arriving in Windows Mobile 6.5, when it does come it should solve a huge problem that has held Windows Mobile back from if nothing else than continuous evolution. It’s not that Windows Mobile can’t stay up-to-date, Windows Mobile 6.5 is definitely a worthy upgrade, but the update cycle is so long and update process update so disruptive updating Windows Mobile today for most people ends up being buying a new phone.

Even if this “Device Update” doesn’t install updates like patches on Windows, having an in-OS ROM-flashing service without dependency on device vendors or operators (who aren’t the quickest in the firmware game to say the least) will be a huge plus.

Let’s just hope this “magic” is at least being cast into Windows Mobile 7.

Update: Someone pointed out that ArsTechnica wrote about this story first, so credits to them.

For what it’s worth, Windows Mobile 6.5 is shaping up to be quite a modern-looking mobile operating system, even if its new looks are only skin deep.

In one of the latest builds to have leaked (among the many that has), build 21202 for those of you playing at home, are the much talked about bundled designer themes, including but not limited to the pink and white Gingham by Isaac Misrahi. It is now revealed some of the other designers are Ron Arad, Vera Wang, Rock and Republic and Diane von Fürstenberg. Simply said, they look great.

Without a further ado, the themes. Screenshots courtesy of Patrick from OSNN.net.

From top left to bottom right: Default; Ron Arad (Orange); Vera Wang (Red); Rock and Republic (Black);
Classic (Blue); DVF (Green); Isaac Misrahi (Purple)

Whilst the wallpaper is essentially the most visible element of the theme, a good wallpaper can be all the difference between a great looking interface and a stunning interface, especially if the UI exposes it as much as it does here with all of its alpha-blending goodness. And I’m sure Microsoft is not going to go easy on the number or variety of themes available in the final release. My current favorite is the default one.

It’s nice to see Microsoft paying more attention to design and specifically the user experience of Windows Mobile, but this is a little disturbing. To be frank, I don’t understand the whole fashion scene so when Microsoft announced at CTIA 09 that Windows Mobile 6.5 will feature some exclusive themes from fashion designer Issac Mizrahi, I was highly skeptical. Needless to say this video from the Microsoft keynote reconfirms my doubts.

Instead, I think it’d be better if Windows Mobile 6.5 shipped with a bunch of high-quality photographs for wallpapers. May I even suggest Hamad Darwish.

The Zune, which has sold over (a comparatively tiny) 5 million music tracks, music videos and television episodes, is looking to make the leap from your pocket to your living room according to a very forthcoming Microsoft job advertisement. It reads,

Help shape the future of entertainment in the living room. The Zune team is looking for a qualified software development engineer to help deliver great digital entertainment features into the living room, including on demand music and video.

Primary responsibilities include development of innovative user interfaces for delivering a rich, deep interactive media consumption experience in a living room environment. Experience with online services API development is a must, product will provide a rich online media experience delivering music and video from the cloud. A passion for UX and digital media is a must.

This job posting dated just a couple days ago follows CNET’s report from a month ago that the Zune group was restructured into two separate divisions – hardware and software – allowing a part of the Zune team to focus on potentially porting the Zune to other “tuners”. This obviously is indication of one such device or software on an existing device such as the XBOX360 for the living room. An Apple TV-like device maybe?

The last couple wraps of secret tape around Windows Mobile 6.5 are coming off in a matter of hours at the International CTIA Wireless 2009 Microsoft keynote by Robbie Bach. Some of the announcements already partially revealed include a theme maker for Windows Mobile 6.5, prepackaged designer themes and a general overview of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile experience. Nothing else is rumored or anticipated, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to show off a newer build of Windows Mobile 6.5.

For your convenience here are the links to the live stream webcast of the keynote:

• “Home Premium” quality – 1500kbps stream
• “Home Basic” quality – 750kbps stream
• Starter quality 300kbps stream

The keynote is scheduled to begin on Thursday April 2 at 10AM Pacific Standard Time. Find out when that is in your local time here.