What’s worse than getting billed in a foreign currency with an international transaction fee for Windows Phone 7 marketplace purchases in Australia? Getting billed in Australian Dollars (AUD) with an international transaction fee of course.

For Windows Phone 7 users in Australia, using credit card billing to purchase apps and games on the WP7 marketplace could cost much more than advertised.

The issue seems to lie with how and specifically where Microsoft is billing Australian users. Even though Microsoft took the liberty of charging purchases in the correct local currency, however they’re processing these transactions in Singapore (Microsoft’s Asia Pacific head office) which unfortunately makes these international transactions.

Whilst different Australian banks and card issuers specify their own international transaction fees, on average it’s a negligible 3%. But true to the evil nature of banks, these transaction fees could be rounded up to the nearest dollar.

Thanks to Microsoft’s individualised billing of each purchase, the infamous $0.99 mobile application actually incur a 101% surcharge.

I’ve since contacted Microsoft Australia to look in to the issue and hopefully offer a solution soon. In the meantime, Australian WP7 users should either switch to carrier billing or hold off buying more fart apps.

Although I’m fairly certain Microsoft is not intentionally screwing with Australians (because we had universal health care for so long 😛), I wouldn’t blame you if you’re starting to doubt it.

Update: I’m also reading some users are claim not to be charged any international transaction fees for WP7 apps purchased in Australia with a credit card. I’m now trying to find out how those transactions are different.

After it made its blurrycam debut from an internal employee-only event less than half a year ago, the new Microsoft corporate tagline “Be what’s next” is now in the final stages of brand christening as an updated wordmark was just filed to the trademark office earlier this week.

Although Microsoft spokespeople has already confirmed the legitimacy of the tagline shortly after it was leaked, it hasn’t made much of an appearance since. Speaking of which, even Microsoft’s current tagline “your potential, our passion” has faded from the public eyes over the years. The last time I recall it appeared anywhere was in the series of “We see” TV ads Microsoft aired years ago.

With the new year quickly approaching, I hope we’ll see much more of the tagline if not a broader brand refresh in 2011.

P.S. The font of the new tagline doesn’t seem to use Segoe but is Helvetica Franklin Gothic like the rest of the Microsoft logo itself.

Update: Twitter user @JaycobC also notes that the new Microsoft logo is actually less slanted than the current one. With some CSI-like forensics analysis, I can confirm this is indeed the case.

To be honest, Microsoft “cloud” demos usually put me to sleep, but not this one. At the PDC2010 keynote yesterday, Pixar Animation Studio’s Chris Ford demoed a cloud-hosted prototype of their Academy Award-winning Renderman solution that in my opinion makes the best case for cloud computing I’ve seen yet.

The Windows Azure-powered prototype website, albeit extremely polished, is an example of how the company could easily transform its industry-leading product limited in reach by its hunger for resources into a service that would allow anyone from small studios to even indie filmmakers could then take advantage of the powers of Renderman, even if they don’t have the resources to establish and support a rendering farm.

Although the idea of “outsourcing” rendering is neither exciting or new, where the demo really hit home Microsoft’s vision for cloud computing was a simple slider (shown above) where you could balance (in realtime) how much you were willing to pay against how long the rendering job would take.

Those familiar with Microsoft vision videos might remember “Overnight Success” (jump to 1m:30s) where a similar UI allowed for the immediate provisioning of processing power to accommodate extra load.

Both of these examples, although subtle in implementation, emphasizes one important message about cloud computing, that is, it’s not just about offloading the management of servers to a third party or even the ability to take advantage of a lot of potential processing power, but the flexibility to scale (both up and down) at a rate that’s not only feasible with traditional (high performance) computing but not practical.

You can find more photos of the Pixar Renderman cloud prototype here.

In an Oprah-like moment at the Microsoft PDC10 conference keynote today, Steve Ballmer announced to a hall full of eager developers that every attendee would get a free Windows Phone 7 device at the event. As WP7 is yet to launch in the United States, a loud cheer followed.

The device most people received is a retail-model LG Optimus 7. A smaller subset of attendees (non-paying attendees) got a Samsung Taylor preproduction developer device instead.

With an estimated 1,000 attendees on-site (Microsoft would not confirm), it’s quite possible more Windows Phone 7s changed hands today than the number of devices available on launch day in Australia.

Microsoft’s annual Professional Developers Conference 2010 kicked off today within the Redmond fortress walls for the first time ever. Steve Ballmer and co. presented the keynote inside the Microsoft Conference Center otherwise known as Building 33 speaking about but not limited to Internet Explorer 9, Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure.

For those who missed the event live in person or on the web, you can find the video recording here or view my photo slideshow below.

Over the course of the past seven days I’ve had the pleasure of using two different Windows Phone 7 launch devices in Australia. The first being an LG Optimus 7Q and now a Samsung Omnia 7.

Side by side in the photos above, the phones might appear equally impressive on the surface. They are both running Windows Phone 7 after all. Having said that, my personal experience shows there is a world of difference using them.

Since the early days of WP7 speculation, it became well established that all Windows Phone 7 hardware will have minimum specifications set by Microsoft. It was further revealed, Microsoft will even provide guidelines on physical form factors via a number of “chassis” designs.

The news at the time was unanimously supported by the enthusiast community as a sign that Microsoft will be raising the bar for “Windows Phone” both as a brand and as a product.

Fortunately, this turned out to be true and it appears all Windows Phone 7 devices run Windows Phone 7 extremely well. But, that’s not to be said all Windows Phone 7 devices are great phones of the same.

Take the LG Optimus 7Q first, it’s not a well designed phone, period.

Even if you looked past its bulky weight and size for the physical slide-out keyboard, the position and size of the hardware buttons are truly baffling. The most obvious being the Start button which doesn’t align with the back or search button and forces your thumb to stretch to its limits just to reach it.

Other buttons around the difficult-to-grip rounded case barely extrude in millimeters, making what should be obvious tactile interactions both difficult to locate and press. Usability aside, even the size and brightness of the screen is more inline with last-generation’s Windows Mobile 6.5 hardware than WP7.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Samsung Omnia 7 is not just an impressive Windows Phone 7 device, it’s an impressive mobile phone.

It’s light, thin yet sturdy thanks to a brushed metal frame that encompasses the entire device except the front where the flush super AMOLED screen is almost like a single piece of flawless black marble that is equally gorgeous on or off. Of course, the hardware buttons are sizable in all three dimensions with a satisfying responsive feel.

The moral of the story is, as consistent Windows Phone 7 devices may appear, you should still judge each phone on its own merit. In this case, the two phones couldn’t be more miles apart. Whilst this process is a lot easier compared to Android phones where you would also have to take into account the software, it’s an important factor that will have an influence on the whole Windows Phone 7 experience.

For now, I’m sold on the Samsung Omnia 7.