You must also be based in Singapore.

Here are the steps to own your Windows Phone:

1. Follow Spiffy on Twitter and ‘like’ the Spiffy Facebook Page to receive information on this program.
2. Submit your three app ideas to yanmf@microsoft.com with subject “#WhereIsMyLumia”. Include the name and description of your app. The application needs to be implemented using PhoneGap HTML5 mobile framework.
3. If your app is approved, you will be informed through email, along with instructions to pick up your loaner device in our Microsoft Singapore office.
4. You are required to submit one approved application to Marketplace every month, for 3 months – to keep the device. Until then, it’s a loaner device.

Developers are encouraged to utilize native phone functions like the camera and geolocation for their apps. The devices are being given out on a first-come-first-served basis.

For resources on how to get started creating your own Windows Phone app, check out these webpages:

Starting Windows Phone developer with PhoneGap
Windows Phone Developer page
Microsoft Singapore Developer Page

Microsoft Singapore will also be holding free training sessions on 8th to 9th February to get developers familiarized with using the Windows Phone SDK.

It looks like Microsoft and Nokia are pulling all stops to make its Windows Phone ecosystem competitive with Apple and Android. In the US, there are plans to give retail workers cash incentives for selling Windows Phone. The marketing budget in the country alone is about US$200M.

We don’t know if all these carrots will work, but we sure hope the Windows Phone develops into a formidable alternative to the iPhone and Android. It’ll only benefit the consumers.

A while back, we reported that a tech blogger discovered some NFC functionality on the Google+ mobile app. Google has also been actively implementing the technology for its Google Wallet and Google Places services.

With our favorite search company placing bets on NFC, it’s no surprise Sony Ericsson wants in on the action. According to Steve Walker, global head of marketing at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, mobile payments will be the “first and most obvious” use for his company’s implementation of NFC. Don’t be surprised to see the technology come to life in gaming and entertainment applications either, since that’s how Sony Ericsson differentiates its phone from others.

He adds: “NFC should be universally adopted across all industries. It requires somebody to take the lead. We saw it happening in Japan where mobile payment and ticketing technology was adopted quickly when the government took the lead. Train companies, banks and retailers followed suit. Mobile phone companies are waiting to make the plunge.”

Looks like Steve found his leading man.

Alongside Google, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications is also a principal member of the NFC forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing NFC technology. The forum boasts sponsor members like MasterCard and Microsoft, and principal members like Intel, PayPal, and American Express (more on membership schemes here).

With other major mobile players like HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia already producing or about to release NFC-enabled phones (see list of phones), Sony Ericsson is late on arrival, although their arrival at the hot tub party will certainly be welcomed by NFC proponents.

The only party-pooper? Apple. GigaOM has a nice article that documents the rumor mill surrounding whether iPhone 5 will be NFC-enabled, although the author also said that it “makes sense” for iPhone 6, set for launch in 2012, to be the first Apple phone with NFC capabilities. That will put it behind the competition though.

Besides Infocomm Investments, which is the VC arm of the Singapore government’s Infocomm Development Authority, other investors include the London-based Atomico, which is the VC firm of Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström (read SGE’s article about him), American “super angel” Ron Conway, and the Founder’s Fund, which was started by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

Endeavour Vision, a VC firm based in Switzerland, and founding investor Charles Lho of Korea also participated in this round of funding.

Quid collects data from the global technology sector, then organizes and visualizes them into information that is actionable. Decision makers can use the software to discover opportunities, derive investment strategies, and identify standout companies. Microsoft is one of Quid’s clients.

“We seek and back companies that are transforming industries, and Unity Technologies is one of these companies. Developers have consistently recognized Unity as a leader in 3D game technology and user experience,” says Michel Birnbaum, partner at iGlobe Partners.

Raymond Yang, founding partner and managing director of WestSummit Capital, who also participated in this round of funding, has this to say: ”Unity’s cross platform solution has been highly regarded as the best 3D game development platform among China developers and enabled them to develop highly differentiated gaming products.”

Sequoia Capital, which is a current investor, has also injected more funds into the company.

Unity Technologies, based in San Francisco, plans to use the investment to expand further into Asia. They hope to help their Asian developer base make better use of the Unity platform.

The company’s CEO and co-founder David Helgason adds: “For our next expansion phase, we decided to work with WestSummit Capital and iGlobe Partners because of their incredible understanding of and networks in Asia — our most strategic growth area — and their understanding of the region’s market dynamics. The fact that they’re great people doesn’t hurt either.”

iGlobe Partners is headquartered in Singapore and has a presence in Silicon Valley, Shanghai and New Zealand. The team includes chairman Philip Yeo, who also heads SPRING Singapore. They invest in technology companies in the areas of wireless technology and mobile applications, digital media, clean tech, next generation materials, applications of semiconductor technology and IT/Bio convergence.

Their portfolio includes Singapore-based Sparky Animation, a full-fledged animation production and content development company, Xumii from New Zealand, which develops mobile apps for social networking, and US-based Telenav, a mobile location-based app developer.

In 2010, business magazine Red Herring selected iGlobe Partners as a Top 100 Global VC (see story here).

Here you can find some interesting startup news from China, not only in its capital, Beijing, but also other startup hubs such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, and many more.

(1) According to a local report, Baidu is stealthily developing its own Mobile OS(codenamed Qiushi which means fruits in autumn) which is based around Android and will be released by year-end. Baidu dismissed the rumor by referring Qiushi as an under-developing mobile ad product.

(2) Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service, experienced its first mass virus attack last week. A large number of users posted the exact same new stories with links to their Weibo.

(3) Nut Shell Electronics, the e-reading subsidiary of Shanda, announced a lowering its Bambook e-reader’s price to RMB 499 (US$ 77), nearly 50% percent off the current RMB 999 (US$ 154) price tag.

(4) Douguo.com, a pioneer in China for its food recipe sharing service, announced that it won first round funding of up to RMB 10 million (US$ 1.54 million) from Chinese online game vendor Shanda Interactive, which is a record high in the food social networking service field and the first investment made by Shanda in such an area.

(5) After 54 hours of non-stop sweat, blood, and caffeine, 5 teams and 39 entrepreneurs presented to a packed house of investors and tech enthusiasts at StartupWeekend Beijing. Here’s a round-up of the five startup teams that came out of StartupWeekend Beijing. E-commerce was a theme among this batch.

(6) Baidu officially launched its Mobile Box Computing effort last week in Beijing, which is aiming to offer search engine users with instant and intuitive access to all kinds of features which are “outside of the box”.

(7) Find Japan announced that it would partner with Sina Corp to market its Twitter-like Weibo service in Japan.

(8) Tencent, China’s most used Internet service portal, is shopping again. Lin Nin, CEO of FTuan, a daily deal site in China, confirmed that Tencent invested in the company for an undisclosed sum.

(9) Baidu’s overseas expansion brought about a total loss of over RMB 680 million (US$ 105 million), or RMB 196 million (US$ 30 million) in 2008, RMB 224 million (US$ 34 million) in 2009 and RMB 260 million (US$ 40 million) in 2010.

(10) Jason Zeng, the billionaire co-founder and former COO of Tencent, who is the largest shareholder of newly public Taomee, has been taken away by authorities to “assist in an investigation”.

(11) Statistics released by NYSE show that, by June 30, there are already seven Chinese firms that went public on NYSE in the first half of the year.

(12) Baidu, the largest search engine which claims over 83.6% of Chinese search market share, announced that the company had struck a deal to team up with Microsoft’s search offering Bing in an effort to speed up Baidu’s pace of overseas expansion.

(13) Chinese group buying site Meituan, has announced that it recently obtained tens of millions in US dollars for its second-round funding from Chinese B2C e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, Northern Light Venture Capital and its first round investor Sequoia Capital.

(14) App Annie, the global leading provider of app store analytics and marketing intelligence for the Apple App Store, got Series A investment from IDG Capital Partners.

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.

The service, launched on June 29, offers features like Office Web Apps, which allows users to view and edit Office documents, as well as the ability to integrate voicemail with email, calenders and contacts.

Price plans range from as little as US$4 (S$4.90) per user per month for part-time and ‘deskless’ workers to as much as US$27 (S$33) per user per month for access to the full range of online tools.

Besides Singapore and Malaysia, Office 365 has been launched in 20 languages and 40 countries worldwide, including Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, and Australia.

Microsoft faces competition from Google Apps, which charges users US$50 (S$61) per user per year.

Note: This article is not sponsored in any way by Microsoft.

Team ElderGuardian took the first spot and will be heading to New York City this July to compete in the worldwide finals against other student teams from more than 100 countries and regions around the globe.

Called the Elder Rehabilitation and Support System (ERSS), the team’s application uses the Microsoft Kinect to aid the rehabilitation and recovery process for stroke patients. Team members include Satrughan Kumar Singh (“Sunny”), Ho Chee Boon, Wong Kin Seng, and Kim Arvin Galutera Evangelista.

They did an excellent job at presenting their idea and the demo went very well yesterday during the finals at the NTUC auditorium.

Team ElderGuardian.

The winning team also won: 4 x XBOX 360 Kinect Bundle, 4 x Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000, 4 x Lifecam HD-5000, 4 x MSDNA Subscription worth more than $10,000 dollars each.

The first runners-up was Team Strides (gait tracker to prevent falls), followed by Team Bliss-Zard (communication for intellectually disabled) and Team Credit Mobile (mobile software for microfinance).

More on Imagine Cup, the premier student technology competition:

“Now in its ninth year, the Imagine Cup has grown to become a global competition, with more than 325,000 students representing 100 countries and regions entering the competition last year. The theme for the 2011 competition is “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems.” The Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Finals will be held July 8 through 13 in New York — the first time the United States will host the final stage of the competition.

The Imagine Cup is one way that Microsoft is helping the students of today prepare for the jobs of tomorrow by generating excitement for science, technology, engineering, math and business. Through its process of working in a team environment, developing a complex project within a deadline and presenting a case to a panel of judges, the competition inspires students with a diverse array of backgrounds to gain critical skills for the future in collaboration, communications, critical thinking, citizenship and creative problem-solving. This year, more than 2,700 students in Singapore rose to the challenge to learn new skills and to make a difference in the world through Imagine Cup. Their submissions cover a wide range of topics that fit with this year’s theme “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems”, which is drawn from the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The Imagine Cup has called on programmers, designers, and technologists to rise to this challenge and use these Development Goals as their inspiration.”

Singapore is also the host of the worldwide Software Development category and the Imagine Cup Software Development category is part of IDA’s National Infocomm Challenge series of competitions.

I first got to know of Imagine Cup last year when I was one of the judges in the Singapore semi-finals and worldwide finals. I’ve judged many competitions and Imagine Cup is one of my favourites because of the problems the teams try to solve. Last year and this year’s theme challenged the students to tackle the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals: (1) End poverty and hunger, (2) Universal Education, (3) Gender Equality and Empower Women, (4) Reduce Child Mortality, (5) Maternal Health, (6) Combat HIV/AIDS, (7) Environmental Sustainability, (8) Global Partnership.

Interestingly, Sunny from the winning Team ElderGuardian was also part of the team that represented Singapore at the worldwide finals in Warsaw, Poland last year.

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Deep dive into the world of Cloud Computing with Microsoft this 27th April as they bring you across a series of topics ranging from Web Applications on Cloud, Implementation & Security as well as Cloud Computing Architecture. Seize this golden opportunity to speak to Alex Chan, one of the leading minds in Cloud Computing, and let him shed some light on your burning questions about the Cloud.

Alex Chan joined Microsoft in 2005 to help establish the Server and Tools Business (STB) in China. He currently serves as the Product Unit Manager of the AppFabric Developer Experience (ADX) team based out of Shanghai, responsible for global product development and local customer and partner engagement in the region.

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About

“There have been so many misconceptions about the cloud and it’s different forms. Our goal is to give you a practical view point on what Microsoft’s cloud is, its components and how you can take advantage of it.

This session will give you a technical foundation in understanding how your applications behave in Windows Azure, as well as how your application can interact from inside and outside the platform. The session is targeted towards developers who are curious to find out whether Windows Azure (or the “cloud” in general) is a platform they can benefit from. It will touch on topics such as configuring, packaging, and deploying .NET and CGI-based apps for the cloud, managing your apps, and your storage options.”

Who: Open to all entrepreneurs, developers, business owner looking to connect.

When: Tuesday 29th March 2011
Time: 630 PM – 900 PM
Where: Microsoft Office 21st Floor Auditorium, One Marina Boulevard

Register here.

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