Rush Poker goes mobile

Rush Poker, a Full Tilt Poker innovation which whisks players away to another table the moment a hand ends (see previous InfoPowa reports) is going mobile, barely nine months from the launch of the concept on the main site.

The online poker company was contacting Black Card members this week, inviting them to participate in a restricted bet test on a new mobile variant of rush poker…but only if they have the right mobile phones.

Players reported receiving an invitation which advised that the tests would be carried out on
mobile devices running Android 2.2, including:

* Acer Liquid Stream S110
* HTC Desire
* HTC Droid Incredible
* HTC Evo 4G
* HTC Google Nexus One
* HTC Desire HD
* Motorola Droid 2
* Motorola Droid Pro / Droid 2 World Edition
* Motorola Droid X
* T-Mobile G2

The invitation triggered speculation on why the ubiquitous iPhone, which uses a different operating system, was not presently being catered for. All the phones listed use Snapdragon or OMAP processors, which have more power, one player surmised, noting that iPhone had experienced weak signal problems.

A Full Tilt spokesman said that if all went well the beta test program may be widened and extended, possibly as soon as December

In related news, Microsoft has indicated an intention to dump its less than successful Mobile Windows product and launch a completely new operating system for cell phones.

Company statements said that the new handsets will go up against the iPhone as well as the expanding number of phones running on the Android operating system.

The first phone with Windows Phone 7 will be available in November on the Samsung Focus, due to sell for $200 with a two-year contract requirement. It will be closely followed by two more phones made by LG Electronics and HTC.

In all, Microsoft has announced nine phones for the U.S. market, including one from Dell, and it has lined up 60 carriers in 30 countries to carry Windows 7 phones.

In the most recent quarter, Windows Mobile, accounted for only 5 percent of the worldwide smart phone market. Reports suggest that from a hardware standpoint, the Windows 7 phones are indistinguishable from high-end Android phones, with big touch screens, and (in a few models) slide-out keyboards.

The Windows Phone 7 software reportedly has an innovative and different appearance, centered around “tiles” on the front screen that provide the user with updated important information, such as e-mail and Facebook status.