Facebook Plunges Again
Tumblr 101: Tips And Tricks To Get Started
Windows Phone 7: the important bits
So, here's what Windows Phone 7 means for you, the software-enthusiast end-user:
- Using Windows Phone 7 will be very smooth -- there is a lot less emphasis on applications. You won't 'start the camera app' and then 'start the messaging app' to send a photo. You will just take a photo and then send it to a friend. As ZDNet puts it, the emphasis will be on how you interact with people rather than apps -- which is rather fitting, given our contemporary love affair with social interaction.
- The Start screen is still alive -- but unlike other mobile platforms where your home screen is merely dotted with app icons, you can create quick access buttons to almost anything, including your favourite songs or contacts. Being able to open an instant messenger chat with your best friend from the Start screen is pretty darn cool.
- Applications are going to be wider -- on WP7 you will find words trailing off the edge of the screen. Apparently it's a very natural cue that encourages you to swipe left or right to access the next page. I suggest you watch Engadget's video to see how this actually works in practice. Personally, I love the change: moving from a wide-screen desktop display to a hyper-portrait mobile phone is never pleasant.
- Much more stringent hardware requirements -- no surprise here, I guess. Windows Phone 7 has a (very sexy) list of minimum hardware requirements, including a multi-touch 800x480 screen and a flash-equipped camera. (Check the ZDNet article for a full list.)
- There will be no external storage on WP7 phones -- OK, this one's a surprise! I guess this is to please app developers and content providers... but time will tell! (Incidentally, WP7 phones must have a minimum of 8GB internal storage.)
- Hubs -- this is Windows Phone 7's shining glory. There are different kinds of hubs: People, Pictures, Games, Music + Videos, Marketplace and Office. Without going into exact details, these hubs provide easy access to every kind of media. In the case of Pictures, it shows your local camera photos, and your photos from Facebook. Games will contain all of the juicy Xbox Arcade/XNA games that also work on the WP7. For more details on how the hubs work, watch ZDNet's video.
- Configuration, settings -- like Android, Windows Phone 7 has a consolidated, global 'settings' menu where you can alter any setting for any application. Hooray!
Never mind! The iPhone still did very well without either of those features.
Comments
18
Subscribe to commentsSaadJul 19th 2010 11:28AM
hands down the best UI on a mobile phone to date
JayenkaiJul 19th 2010 12:52PM
Lovely stuff.
But the lack of text-wra
really does annoy the f
out of me.
Sebastian AnthonyJul 19th 2010 1:20PM
Very good :P
Not QUITE that bad, fortunately.
kojo87Jul 19th 2010 1:15PM
Windows Phone 7 looks very promising. i'll have to give it a hands on once before deciding between it and Android though.
ChristianJul 19th 2010 3:01PM
Could possibly be that Zune integration won't allow external storage media? DRM music and such?
ArashikouJul 19th 2010 5:00PM
How would that lead to "no external storage"? I mean, you can get DRM'd music files on your PC already, which is a far more open platform.
I can't fathom why they made this decision, but I don't think we can lay the blame at the feet of Zune.
Sebastian AnthonyJul 19th 2010 6:14PM
Yeah, definitely sounds like a vestigial wing of Zune :)
ChristianJul 19th 2010 8:27PM
@Arashikou I'm just guessing, but I assume it has to do with DRM and the only thing I could think of with DRM is Zune right away (Possibly Xbox games as well). Then again iPhones never had an external storage so must be something similar to that idea...
JamesJul 21st 2010 10:15AM
@Christian, gamer24: The 360 added flash drive support to the 360 (for certain types of content, I guess) months ago -- absolutely no legitimate reason not to support external memory on this dud OS. I'll be amazed if this moves more than 100k units by the end of 2011.
DingloJul 19th 2010 3:26PM
Argh! It's so frustratingly close to being really good!
It kinda scares me that MS are becoming so rigid and so Apple-like. I'm all for simplifying things for the morons out there (reportedly over 99% of humanity, take a look at the success of Apple), but give people the OPTION to turn on power-user features/functionality.
However intuitive and amazing the new UI and core are, it would feel kind of stupid for me to "upgrade" to a new phone that has more limits than my current Windows Mobile phone...
Sebastian AnthonyJul 19th 2010 6:17PM
I would've thought there would be the ability to customize Windows Phone 7 -- I mean, all of the vendors are going to want to make changes. The ZDNet review suggests only a few buttons on the Start screen are mandatory, and the hardware specs... other than that...
Maybe there'll be a Windows Phone 7 Professional... with power tools :P
CLHatchJul 19th 2010 3:53PM
Goodbye Microsoft, Hello Android, for me. Microsoft has lost my business with this iteration of their mobile phone OS. I'll decide how I want to use my phone, thank you very much. Interesting that it's not considered an "important bit" how they are locking it down, not even allowing a device with a memory card.
gamer24Jul 19th 2010 9:48PM
The reason why there is no external storage is because of a few reasons.
1. Zune - The Zune software has its own way of organizing music on a device that keeps clutter down and makes it easier for the device to find the song. This stems from when Zune's had hard drives in them.
2. DRM - This relates to everything from music, to videos, to apps. For music, this is to make the record companies happy. For videos, it is to make the movie studios happy. For apps, it is to protect the app developers and the device itself from harmful code.
3. Internal Space - with a minimum of 8gb of internal space required by OEM's there is not much of a need for external storage. It would be foolish to think that OEM's are only going to put in 8gb. Most phones today that do offer external storage do not allow you to run apps off of the card, IE Blackberries.
The reason why Microsoft has decided to keep to a single design of the UI on the device is to keep confusion down. Most people who are going to buy a phone are not on blogs and tech websites everyday. They are ones who walk into a store, test out a bunch of phones and pick the one they like the most. With past version of WM, there would be phones with the regular UI, then HTC would have their own UI on top, or Samsung, Dell, LG, etc. would all have their own versions of a UI. This created confusion because the phone was advertised as having WM but each would have their own look.
This is also the reason why Microsoft has set a minimum spec list for the OEMs. In the past there would be phones that would run WM great, and then there would be ones that would run it like crap. So this was done to make sure that everyone who buys a phone with WP7 has the same experience.
max_wedgeJul 20th 2010 3:22AM
"so this was done to make sure that everyone who buys a phone with WP7 has the same experience"
Why would we all want to have the same experience? Maybe in Appleworld, where it's believed there is only one noble and holy path to UI greatness, but in MS world? It doesn't make sense.
Give me Freedom or Give me Death (or atleast a Windows handset with DRM free media, memory expansion, and OEM unique UI)
Sebastian AnthonyJul 20th 2010 5:33AM
LIBERTY or death!
mikeJul 22nd 2010 9:40AM
omfg, removing copy and paste or external storage? even apple realized that not having copy and paste was a bad thing and implemented it.
giant steps backwards in innovation, MS... it looks like you're trying to imitate the iphone, when it should be the other way around. hello, android!
PaulBrownAug 4th 2010 6:51AM
Agree that the lack of text wrap seems quite frankly insane on a phone more than capable of such a simple task!
Found a comparison over here: http://www.tangerinesoup.com/developers/comparison-of-smartphones.html which is a nice overview. I'm planning on moving over from an iPhone, as I'm not falling into the 'ok so its broken but its AN IPHONE!! trap' so going to wait and (hopefully) get a phone that works!
coAug 11th 2010 5:24PM
The features outline is rather disappointing and appears to constitute a step back when compared with some implementations of WP6.5 (eg HTC HD2 / Leo + Sense).
It may compare favourably with early versions of iPhone but this was a couple of years ago. Mobile phones progressed in the meantime and iPhones are not the only contender MS is facing. Furthermore, why on earth would someone buy a WP7 phone if this pltaform offers little over the already well established and popular iPhones and Androids.
Hard to understand the rationale for excluding external storage - Zune simply does not exist in Europe.
WP platform seems to pursue its inexorable path to oblivion (market share in 2010 Q1 merely 6.8%)