Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"With breaking news about the Windows 7 mobile apps from MIX10, Chris Hardwick talks to Engadget's Joshua Topolsky about what Microsoft is bringing to the table, from Xbox gaming on Windows 7 phones, a preview of their new apps and more."

Sure, there are more than a few things that some people aren't too happy about right now with Windows phone 7, but there's one very important thing that Microsoft has done with the announcement of this new version: they've put themselves on the map in a way that hasn't happened in a very long time. More from me later on this topic, but I think it's really important to acknowledge that fact.

"That's Charles Petzold! Looking stylish with the cover of his free ebook on his tee shirt. It's a draft preview of his upcoming book (to be published in the fall): Programming Windows Phone 7 Series. This preview ebook contains six chapters in three parts (153 pages total):"

A draft version of the upcoming book Programming Windows Phone 7 Series is available for free download. So if you haven't had a chance to start playing around with the new developer tools, here is one more reason to start - and if you have, here is another thing for your development arsenal.

"Sure, we've been pushing Microsoft hard for Windows Phone 7 Series details like copy and paste (no) and multitasking (no), but we just realized that we've never actually seen a 7 Series device... make a phone call. A little running around later and we've got two demo handsets calling each other..."

With all of the recent video coverage of WP7, no video has shown a WP7 device make an actual phone call. Engadget recently posted a short video of two WP7 devices making a call between each other (and please don't call the number shown out of respect) that demos how the phone experience will work overall.

One glaring issue to me is how easy it'll be to respond to a call by applying accidental pressure to the Answer or Ignore buttons with incoming calls. HTC solved this problem in their most recent TouchFLO 3D interface by requiring users to slide a graphic control knob left or right to answer or ignore a call. I LOVE this feature in my Touch Pro2, and Microsoft should learn a thing or two from HTC when it comes to specific features like this, since "butt dialing" has been an epidemic problem with touch-screen smartphones for a while now.

While it's difficult to know WP7's phone features in detail at the moment, what are you thoughts and/or questions about the phone interface so far? Personally, I'll miss having dedicated physical answer/end buttons (it's great when your fingers "know" exactly where specific functions are) and I wonder if voice-dialing (VoiceCommand) will make it in WP7...

"We just spent some quality time with the MIX10 build of Windows Phone 7 Series running on the same prototype hardware sourced from Garmin-Asus that we saw at MWC -- and apart from a few Murphy's Law-style demo hiccups, we loved what we saw."

I'll say this much: anyone who thinks that this is a copy of the iPhone clearly isn't paying attention. Well worth watching - lots of great stuff in the video. Love it or hate it, Windows phone 7 is full of little things that, when taken together, make for a very different experience than anything else out there today.

"Contrary to the controversial report out of Microsoft MIX10 this week that Windows Phone 7 Series will not feature copy & paste functionality, a person close to the den explained that copy & paste is definitely a scenario and feature that the team is putting a lot of thought about and hope to bring to the platform soon after initial release."

This echoes what I know about the topic and have been trying to say in our very lively discussion on the subject (between the weeping and gnashing of teeth). If this rumour is accurate though, Microsoft has done itself a huge disservice by trying to spin this as a by-design feature rather than telling us "Look, we know you want it, we want it, but we just couldn't pull it off in time - but we're making a commitment to do it as soon as we can." Honesty is always better than trickery. This whole thing has made this a day I want to end soon (that photo above is how I feel right now).

"We found out from Todd Brix of Microsoft that Windows Phone 7 Series will eschew user-replaceable memory. Memory cards may still be used by manufacturers and OEMs, but those won't be easily or readily accessible to the end-user. This will allow, as Microsoft puts it, for a better user experience on the device, and we're not sure that the primary motive for locking down storage memory is for a better experience - we're guessing it has to do with DRM though the strategy would go well with Microsoft's move to remove a file management system."

Although I tend to put a memory card in my phone and leave it there - rarely if ever taking it out - I've always like the idea of removable storage because there are two constants in the flash memory world: first, that the cards will always grow to have more storage, and second, that they'll get cheaper. I railed on Microsoft for not putting removable storage card slots in their Zune products, because it would have been a key advantage over the iPod, and now Microsoft is taking a step backwards in my opinion by removing the option for OEMs to offer removable storage cards. According to Todd Brix, this is due to wanting to offer a "better user experience". I call bunk on this point - any modern program not designed should automatically scan both local and removable storage and present the user with the content they want to see. If the user options up the photo application, it should show the user all the photos on their device, and their card, seamlessly. Anything less is just lazy programming and not caring about the user experience.

If HTC and the other OEMs offer devices with decent storage options (up to 32 GB, maybe even 64 GB if they want to rock the house), I personally won't care about this too much - but I know it shuts off a lot of scenarios for some people, and I wish Microsoft hadn't gone this route. I think in this respect, they're trying a bit too much to copy Apple - and that's not a good thing.

And since we're getting all the bad news out of the way this week, there's also no file system. I think the file system is a poorly-suited concept on a mobile phone and creates too much complexity for average users, but I know power users love having a file system.

You may now proceed with getting angry at Microsoft and swearing you'll move to Android.

"Ready for another long, drawn-out copy and paste controversy to overtake your every waking moment for a year or two? Good: Microsoft just mentioned in a Q&A session here at MIX10 in no uncertain terms that clipboard operations won't be supported on Windows Phone 7 Series... so that's that."

This is one of the groan-worthy things I learned about Windows phone 7 about a month ago, but haven't been able to share because it was under NDA. So...uh, yeah, no copy and paste right now in the product. Every MVP in the room had a fit when this information was revealed; it was real "shock and awe". We of course immediately started asking the team how they could leave out something so core to user experience, and the general response was that they wanted to have it in the product, but they couldn't fit it in by shipping time. I know, I know, many of you will feel they should have left something else out of the product and put in copy and paste. But, you know, there's this update thing that might make painful omissions like this easy for Microsoft to fix in the months after they go code complete, but before the products actually hit the shelves. The Zune HD that I took out of the box was missing a bunch of feature until I connected it and got the update so...there's hope. But proceed with your screaming and ranting anyway. ;-)

UPDATE: Todd Brix from Microsoft is saying the lack of copy/paste is by design.

"...I sit down with Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher for Microsoft Research and Albert Shum, Director of Mobile Experience Design for Windows Phone 7 Series to talk about creating compelling user experiences, how developers and designers can work together in harmony and random Canadian trivia."

Bill Buxton is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft, and Albert Shum is a Mobile Design Partner - curious titles, but if you want to understand some of the background behind the user experience of Windows phone 7, this video is a must-watch.

UPDATE: The video embed code from channel9 doesn't want to work, so you'll have to jump over to their site to watch the video.

"In the last six months, Apple and Google have jousted over acquisitions, patents, directors, advisers and iPhone applications. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Schmidt have taken shots at each other's companies in the media and in private exchanges with employees."

The New York Times has a very interesting article on the head-butting going on between Apple and Google right now. Frankly, I think the whole thing is a bit silly and is too ego-driven, but on the other hand, the inevitable distraction this will cause both companies gives Microsoft an opportunity to launch a brand new OS that will need some time to grow.

Lots of development news came out of MIX10 yesterday, and if you're interested in coding up something special for Windows Phone 7 series, here's the info you need.

First you'll want to download the development tools at the developer website. Next, once you've got everything installed, you'll want to hit up these samples, demos, and Channel 9 labs at this Windows Team Blog post. From there on it's happy coding to those who want to get their apps ready for the next generation of Windows phones!