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

"We actually haven't seen any official shots of the Office apps for Windows Phone 7 Series, but now that Microsoft's emulator has been hacked and unlocked, we've got a glimpse of what creating a Word doc in OneNote looks like -- and while there's a high probability that this a super-early version of the app, it's still revealing in how drastically minimal it is."

There's a couple of video run throughs as well, mostly showing off what's available in the emulator, but with sneak peeks at the Office apps as well. Don't expect to do anything more than basic editing (at least, not yet), but you know - at least they're there.

"Here you go, folks, an official statement from Redmond itself on the perennial Windows Phone 7 Series / copy-and-paste discussion. First and foremost, from the onset, there will be no copy and paste in the traditional sense; Microsoft is hoping to bypass the issue by integrating into the OS contextual, single-tap instances for viewing an address on a map (let's hope it has some good recognition algorithms here), doing Bing searches based on highlighted terms, dial a phone number, and so on. But the book isn't entirely closed here, apparently, as the statement goes on to say the company "will continue to improve our feature set over time based on what we hear." We've also got a statement regarding the hacked emulator, to which a representative told us, "we have been very clear that [it] is based on early code and is not reflective of the final user experience," which is a nice way of saying don't get your hopes up on those fun little surprises (task manager, anyone?). Full statements after the break."

What I find interesting is the statement "will continue to improve our feature set over time based on what we hear." So do they really not hear us shouting that we want copy and paste? Perhaps as we use the new OS we won't find we need copy and paste but I really don't think that will be the case. With all the hype and attention lately, this is a golden opportunity for Microsoft - I hope they don't blow it. So as you post your comments, how important is copy and paste for the Windows Phone 7 series?

First off, let's be crystal clear: this is a work of pure imagination, not some sort of leaked image of the next HTC HD device. What's so impressive so me is the quality of the mock-ups...you'd never know that this was a mock-up of a phone that doesn't exist...until you look at the specs, because that's where things start to look a little too creative. The creator wants a 1.5 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, but as far as I know, that speed of processor doesn't exist yet. The 1 GB of RAM seems like overkill, but the 16 GB of internal storage sounds about right. The 4.5 inch screen running at 800 x 1280 sounds cool, but that's not supported resolution of Windows phone 7. 4G? Nah, we won't see that yet. USB host? Nope, not compatible with Windows phone 7. 8 megapixel camera that can record 720p video? Maybe...just maybe. I've heard rumblings about phones this year being able to do HD capture.

So that's the mythical HD3. What would your dream Windows phone 7 device have on it in terms of hardware? Yeah, I know you want copy and paste, but what about the hardware?

Feeling like getting all crazy this weekend with Windows Mobile 6.5 on your Sprint Touch Pro 2? Then make a backup and have at it - the downloads are now available!

I'm sure this isn't how Microsoft wanted to show off most of Windows phone 7 - in a broken, dysfunctional emulator-based way - but they put out an emulator with this functionality, opting to hide some of the functions, so it's not surprising that someone figured this out. Check out the video for more of what Windows phone 7 is all about, though keep in mind this is unfinished software.

"Many of us who tried out the Windows Phone 7 simulator were disappointed to discover the simulator didn’t contain a lot of the functionality that was being shown off at Mix10. It turns out Dan Ardelean has published a modified or ‘unlocked’ version of the simulator that contains virtually everything that was displayed. The front page is now full of apps that work, the settings menu is a long list of options for those apps."

Australian tech site, techAU.tv, recently posted two video simulations of WP7. The first video (about 10 minutes) shows different apps in action, while the second video goes through many of the settings screens.

One item that stood out to me was a Speech setting. I was worried if VoiceCommand may not make in WP7 (at least at launch) and was pleasantly surprised when I saw a Speech Settings option under General Settings (near beginning of second video).

While Microsoft hasn't officially announced that voice control will be available in WP7 (they may obviously still be working on it), I now have hope that this feature will make it at launch.

Hit the Read link for the videos and let us know your thoughts. What stands out to you?

"One of the most appealing parts of the iPhone is its Web browser. Mobile Safari is powered by the WebKit engine, and this same engine also powers the desktop browser. The result is a Web experience that, while not identical to the desktop experience, is not far off. Windows Mobile, on the other hand, has a browser that's roughly derived from Internet Explorer 6. The result? A decidedly second-rate Web experience. Windows Phone 7 Series will improve things somewhat-to approximate parity with Internet Explorer 7-but it remains behind its desktop counterpart."

I'm finding it hard to put any kind of posiive spin on this - fact is, it's hard to be positive about a lot of the WP7S news that's come out over the past few weeks. I can (probably) learn to live with most of them, but this is one area that I'm going to find hard to gloss over. If we had access to alternative browsers like Opera that's one thing, but it looks like that's still going to be a ways off with the restrictions Microsoft is placing on developers. Getting on par with IE7 may be good enough, but...who knows? WP7S is coming late to the party as it is, and a dated web experience is just one more strike against it.

"HTC Corporation today outlined its disagreement with Apple's legal actions and reiterated its commitment to creating a portfolio of innovative smartphones that gives consumers a variety of choices. Founded in 1997 with a passion for innovation and a vision for how smartphones would change people's lives, HTC has continually driven this vision by consistently introducing award-winning smartphones with U.S. mobile operators."

That has to be the most polite way to respond to a lawsuit I've ever read - who wrote this, a Canadian? Anyway, the press release outlines some of the interesting firsts that HTC has made in the market. I didn't realize they created the hardware for the first Windows PDA back in 1998. That would have been an HPC if memory serves - Palm-sized PCs weren't out yet, were they? I wonder which HPC HTC was an OEM for? Compaq? Philips? HP? NEC?

I read an email on the Mobius list where the idea was that because consumers have already adopted the iPhone in droves, they won't be interested in Windows phone 7 came out. Here was my response (with some added thoughts).

Consumers are fickle creatures; they change their minds all the time when it comes to phone contract renewal time. HOWEVER...I wonder if "app lock-in" will play a role in moving to other platforms? As in, you're Joe Smith and you have an iPhone and you've spent $200 on apps over your two year contract...that app investment, will it make you feel like you need to stay with your iPhone even if there's another phone you like more? I wonder...

The reality is, of course, that the majority of users don't yet have smartphones - so in that sense the market is wide open - yet I think the biggest adoption blocker remains the costs of data plans. If you want your phone to do more than make calls, sent texts, and MMS, you're increasing the monthly outlay by a fair bit - especially if you're a light phone user with a small minutes plan, it can easily double the monthly cost of your phone bill (it does in my case). Until the carriers start to want all these people on their data networks, I think data plans will remain expensive, and the bulk of the population will stay away.

Damn, I wish the phone had that pop-up holographic display - wouldn't that be cool? Even cooler than having copy and paste? ;-)