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

My Matrix Pro Smartphone has 2, my Touch Pro has 1, and my T-Mobile Dash has none. What am I referring to? Hardware buttons that can be mapped to different features on a device (as opposed to those which are fixed in function, such as keyboards, power buttons, softkeys, etc..). Five years ago, it was pretty common to have 3-4 buttons on a device that the user could map to. Now you're lucky if you get one. While in many ways better touchscreen response or a full keyboard has reduced some of the need for these buttons, there are times I just wish I had a few more. So what's your opinion - more hardware buttons or is 0 the magic number?

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"Contrary to popular belief, the tip of human fingers is not squared, but in fact circle-shaped when depressed against a hard surface like a touchscreen. When you're space-constrained as you are in something like the applications menu - where there's a fine balance between how many icons can be displayed at one time and how easy it is to hit the icons, large circular hitareas makes it easier for users to touch the desired icons and avoid accidentally hitting nearby icons."

If you checked out our "Windows Mobile 6.5 Screen Shot Walk-Through" thread on the day of said OS' unveiling, you'd have a general idea of why Microsoft opted for a honeycomb layout over the conventional square grid layout. Long Zheng, over at istartedsomething.com, elaborates on this. But there are still skeptics out there, and if you're one of them, we'd love to hear from you. What aspect of the honeycomb layout do you truly dislike, and what would you prefer to see in its place?

"In January, I had an opportunity to hear a presentation by Eric Lin, the Online Community Manager at HTC. Many of the Windows Mobile smartphones on the market today are made by HTC, even if they don't have the HTC name on them, so when it comes to smartphones, HTC is a market leader. The presentation covered several different topics, but the one I found most interesting was the question of how specific hardware design decisions impact the usability of the phone. When you pick up a Windows Mobile smartphone, the shape, size, weight, and feel of it give you an impression about the product - but did you know what kinds of decisions went into the final product you're holding? The answer may surprise you."

Read Jason's column on tethering? Well, here's another one. It discusses the design decisions that go into the phones you're carrying today - from the size of the screen to the feel of the keyboard and the sound it makes. Who knows? You may learn a thing or two that will help you choose the right phone the next time you're in the market for one.