Microsoft's prototype mobile phone 'Menlo' showcased

Bangalore: Microsoft Research has apparently been working on what looks like a new mobile platform, called Menlo, whose features could be integrated in mainstream devices in the future. The phone, known as the "Menlo" internally, is the latest prototype smartphone which has come up with a touchscreen smartphone with a capacitive touch screen (4.1-inch diagonal, 800x480). Microsoft has published a research paper in which it discusses the capabilities of its prototype Menlo handset. The phone runs Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 which incorporates a Bosch BMA150 3-axis accelerometer and Bosch BMP085 digital pressure sensor (barometer). The paper also comes with something known as "Greenfield", which happens to be an activity-based navigation app that helps users find a specific parked car. While, all this does sound impressive, can we take this development as a hint towards the chance of Microsoft opting to make its own smartphone? True, the Kin experiment proved to be a disaster - but then, that wasn't a smartphone platform. The phone and its spec details appeared on a Microsoft Research Paper (PDF) titled "User Experiences with Activity-Based Navigation on Mobile Devices".