Windows Phone 7 More Attractive Than BlackBerry?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Windows Phone 7 is in the game.

I'm not saying that just because after a rough start I'm now enjoying my WP7 Omnia 7 VERY MUCH. I'm saying that because every week or so we are witnessing how this new platform is reaching a new milestone.

Last time we checked, WP7 MarketPlace was just about to pass webOS AppStore with the number of apps (~6000 at the moment).

This time, we've been around a survey, showing that more people may consider WP7 smartphones than Blackberries.

Good progress, not sure it's considered to be great news for Microsoft as the numbers are still very low, but there is a progress. What I can say it's that RIM may not like this survey, but using Samsung Omnia for 2 weeks now I can say that even though it's hard to find good apps, and even though there are tons of missing features, in terms of productivity, emails, calendars, OneNote, Todo, etc. – everything is working well. I like it, it's fast, the back button is amazingly efficient when switching from one app to another and the entire experience makes Windows Phone 7 to my opinion – a better productivity tool than BlackBerry.

So is it another milestone? Not yet; in terms of sales, WP7 is still much slower than Android or iPhone (around one tenth!), but WP7 users are happy with it (93% said they are happy with it), apps list is getting bigger, Gil Bouhnick from the Mobile Spoon is slowly becoming a fan, so who knows? Maybe in a few months we will even see sales figures better than BlackBerry as part of Microsoft's slow journey back into the mobile realm?

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Windows Phone 7 is in the game.

I'm not saying that just because after a rough start I'm now enjoying my WP7 Omnia 7 VERY MUCH. I'm saying that because every week or so we are witnessing how this new platform is reaching a new milestone.

Last time we checked, WP7 MarketPlace was just about to pass webOS AppStore with the number of apps (~6000 at the moment).

This time, we've been around a survey, showing that more people may consider WP7 smartphones than Blackberries.

Good progress, not sure it's considered to be great news for Microsoft as the numbers are still very low, but there is a progress. What I can say it's that RIM may not like this survey, but using Samsung Omnia for 2 weeks now I can say that even though it's hard to find good apps, and even though there are tons of missing features, in terms of productivity, emails, calendars, OneNote, Todo, etc. – everything is working well. I like it, it's fast, the back button is amazingly efficient when switching from one app to another and the entire experience makes Windows Phone 7 to my opinion – a better productivity tool than BlackBerry.

So is it another milestone? Not yet; in terms of sales, WP7 is still much slower than Android or iPhone (around one tenth!), but WP7 users are happy with it (93% said they are happy with it), apps list is getting bigger, Gil Bouhnick from the Mobile Spoon is slowly becoming a fan, so who knows? Maybe in a few months we will even see sales figures better than BlackBerry as part of Microsoft's slow journey back into the mobile realm?

The Most Popular Apps In The AppStore (iOS)

So Apple's AppStore reached 10 billion apps download milestone (in less than 3 years), amazing number without a doubt, and another piece in the the Apple revolution puzzle.

Here's a list of the top iOS downloads of all time:

Top iPhone Paid Apps	Top iPhone Free Apps	Top iPad Paid Apps	Top iPad Free Apps
1. Doodle Jump 2. Tap Tap Revenge 3 3. Pocket God 4. Angry Birds 5. Tap Tap Revenge 6. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz 7. Traffic Rush 8. Tap Tap Revenge Classic 9. AppBox Pro 10. Flight Control	1. Facebook 2. Pandora Radio 3. Google Mobile App 4. Shazam 5. Movies by Flixter 6. The Weather Channel 7. Google Earth 8. Bump 9. Skype 10. Paper Toss	1. SoundHound 2. StickWars 3. FlightTrack 4. BackBreaker Football 5. Calorie Tracker 6. BlocksClassic 7. iFart Mobile 8. GoodReader 9. Cro-Mag Rally 10. Ambiance	1. Pandora Radio 2. Google Mobile 3. Movies by Flixter 4. Google Earth 5. Yelp 6. Fandango Movies 7. Remote 8. iBooks 9. Bible 10. Solitaire

(source: MobilityDigest).

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So Apple's AppStore reached 10 billion apps download milestone (in less than 3 years), amazing number without a doubt, and another piece in the the Apple revolution puzzle.

Here's a list of the top iOS downloads of all time:

Top iPhone Paid Apps	Top iPhone Free Apps	Top iPad Paid Apps	Top iPad Free Apps
1. Doodle Jump 2. Tap Tap Revenge 3 3. Pocket God 4. Angry Birds 5. Tap Tap Revenge 6. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz 7. Traffic Rush 8. Tap Tap Revenge Classic 9. AppBox Pro 10. Flight Control	1. Facebook 2. Pandora Radio 3. Google Mobile App 4. Shazam 5. Movies by Flixter 6. The Weather Channel 7. Google Earth 8. Bump 9. Skype 10. Paper Toss	1. SoundHound 2. StickWars 3. FlightTrack 4. BackBreaker Football 5. Calorie Tracker 6. BlocksClassic 7. iFart Mobile 8. GoodReader 9. Cro-Mag Rally 10. Ambiance	1. Pandora Radio 2. Google Mobile 3. Movies by Flixter 4. Google Earth 5. Yelp 6. Fandango Movies 7. Remote 8. iBooks 9. Bible 10. Solitaire

(source: MobilityDigest).

Samsung Omnia 7 is now in my pocket, and guess what? I'm finally used to it.

When it comes to changes, I'm the ultimate geek. I'm unable to adjust to changes, and always looking for the way back to my known routines. The only place when I am pretty flexible and agile is technology, where changes are actually part of the routine. Well, at least that's what I thought about myself: switching from MFC to .Net, Silverlight, mobile development, web, product management and other tasks which are all around technology.
Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, they were all part of my routine…

But then came Windows Phone 7…

I admit, I liked the look of it since the day it was presented by Microsoft, I was certain that it would be the perfect smartphone for me, and couldn't wait to put my hands on one.

And then I got my first WP7 handset: Samsung Omnia 7.

It was not what I expected.

And I panicked.

The first couple of days with it – were nightmare. Not being able to purchase apps (no US credit card), not being able to connect to hidden WiFi in my office (known limitation), not being able to connect to our exchange (bug), so many missing features…

It was bad (as you can see from my previous posts too…)

But it was also my bad, as I was so busy to whine about the missing things, I failed to see the positive things of Windows Phone 7, and after 2 weeks with it, I now see a lot of them, which is why I would like to apologize to all my readers who didn't like my previous reviews (some of them sent me emails asking me why did I write the things I wrote) and to present an updated impression of WP7:

First, let's start with some explanations: Hidden WiFi indeed cannot be connected, that's a shameful limitation, and I still cannot purchase apps, but I can try them out, and I can now finally connect to our exchange server which finally made my Samsung Omnia 7 a powerful productive tool.

So what went wrong? Windows Phone 7 is completely different than anything we all got used to in the past 2 years: iPhone, webOS, BlackBerry, Android – WP7 brings something new, refreshing, even weird, it requires some time to get used to it, but in general, bringing something new is a good thing.

In addition, there are seriously, tons of missing features, many of them so basic, you end up asking yourself, is this version 1.0 or 0.5? How come an Avatar is more important than having "favorites" contacts?

The answer is something you find after a few days with WP7 – all those missing features are indeed important, but just like iPhone history proved, they do not change the fact we are all looking for a great user experience and user experience is far more important than features. Features can be added, upgraded, or be solved via apps, but user experience is much more fundamental, and so is the "wow" effect that Microsoft was looking to achieve by preferring some features over others.

So here are some of the missing features:

• Ringtones cannot be added or customized
• No File Explorer
• No Tasks Manager
• No computer sync for contacts, tasks, notes etc.
• No copy/paste
• No favorites contacts
• No folders or even pages in the applications list
• Far too little customizations options of the main UI (only 2 themes and a few color skins)

So as you can see, basic stuff is missing, and after a few days with the Omnia, I decided to put it on a sale… but then I decided to wait a few more days… and things started to change…

Finally we've reached to the positive part:

So what are the positive things about WP7? There are a few, but the most important thing is that using the OS is very simple and intuitive, it's fun, and most importantly, it feels right.

First of all, the damn thing is really funky. It has this weird charm, this magical "thing" that makes you want to open, unlock it, slide some tiles, and close it, and then repeat this stupid action after 2-3 minutes…

Live tiles may not be so lively at the moment, but they do give a decent amount of information in a single snapshot.

The email app, plus the keyboard – are a winning combination. In fact I think I can honestly say that WP7 virtual keyboard, plus the auto correction, and words selection – are the best I've ever used, better than both iPhone and Android.

Speed of the OS is freaking amazing. True, it has random lags, but I guess those are bugs, besides them – that's an amazingly fast operating system, every activity is done quickly even with the animations. The touch experience is perfect, and the UI processing is fast. It makes using Windows Phone 7 – extremely fun.

Pictures hub is fun and simple to use, and it has some nice additions to the basic stuff of the iPhone and Android like favorites, recent, etc.

The lock screen holds some important information like new emails, messages, meetings – it's a cool thing as well.

And of course there are other cool things, like the single click to switch to selection mode and check an email before deletion, integration with facebook, live, and other accounts, and more.

Oh, and I do want to say another thing about the keyboard: I really like the typing sound of the iPhone, I do not like the Android typing sound which sounds too old fashion, but WP7 bit them all, the typing sound is addictive and together with the typing speed, and auto-correction – writing text is an impressive but also fun experience.

OK, so what's the bottom line?

Bottom line is that after 2 weeks with the Samsung Omnia 7, I'm kind of falling in love with it… slowly, but it happens. The best proof is  that I now keep my iPhone in my bag and haven't used it for quite a while. It never happened to me before with Android or BlackBerry devices for instance.

True, I don't think I will recommend on buying a WP7 phone to my friends who are mostly looking for one powerful smartphone with zero risks. In such cases I would probably recommend on iPhone or Android – they deliver much more in terms of apps and features. On the other hand, I know many people who are beginning to get bored with iPhone, and Android is not that big of a difference, to them I may say: "it's still limited, but it has potential, and you will probably love the design of it".

So bottom line, I still think that Microsoft did good with Windows Phone 7, but the hard work just started. They must release 2-3 updates this year to make WP7 a decent OS that can compete with the big guys.
Without it, it can probably give a decent fight to Palm or even RIM, but still has a long way to go when trying to compete with with Apple or Google.

As for myself, I'm planning to keep my WP7 phone. Yep, crazy, I know, but I'm turning it into my primary device… see how that ends up…

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When it comes to changes, I'm the ultimate geek. I'm unable to adjust to changes, and always looking for the way back to my known routines. The only place when I am pretty flexible and agile is technology, where changes are actually part of the routine. Well, at least that's what I thought about myself: switching from MFC to .Net, Silverlight, mobile development, web, product management and other tasks which are all around technology.
Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, they were all part of my routine…

But then came Windows Phone 7…

I admit, I liked the look of it since the day it was presented by Microsoft, I was certain that it would be the perfect smartphone for me, and couldn't wait to put my hands on one.

And then I got my first WP7 handset: Samsung Omnia 7.

It was not what I expected.

And I panicked.

The first couple of days with it – were nightmare. Not being able to purchase apps (no US credit card), not being able to connect to hidden WiFi in my office (known limitation), not being able to connect to our exchange (bug), so many missing features…

It was bad (as you can see from my previous posts too…)

But it was also my bad, as I was so busy to whine about the missing things, I failed to see the positive things of Windows Phone 7, and after 2 weeks with it, I now see a lot of them, which is why I would like to apologize to all my readers who didn't like my previous reviews (some of them sent me emails asking me why did I write the things I wrote) and to present an updated impression of WP7:

First, let's start with some explanations: Hidden WiFi indeed cannot be connected, that's a shameful limitation, and I still cannot purchase apps, but I can try them out, and I can now finally connect to our exchange server which finally made my Samsung Omnia 7 a powerful productive tool.

So what went wrong? Windows Phone 7 is completely different than anything we all got used to in the past 2 years: iPhone, webOS, BlackBerry, Android – WP7 brings something new, refreshing, even weird, it requires some time to get used to it, but in general, bringing something new is a good thing.

In addition, there are seriously, tons of missing features, many of them so basic, you end up asking yourself, is this version 1.0 or 0.5? How come an Avatar is more important than having "favorites" contacts?

The answer is something you find after a few days with WP7 – all those missing features are indeed important, but just like iPhone history proved, they do not change the fact we are all looking for a great user experience and user experience is far more important than features. Features can be added, upgraded, or be solved via apps, but user experience is much more fundamental, and so is the "wow" effect that Microsoft was looking to achieve by preferring some features over others.

So here are some of the missing features:

• Ringtones cannot be added or customized
• No File Explorer
• No Tasks Manager
• No computer sync for contacts, tasks, notes etc.
• No copy/paste
• No favorites contacts
• No folders or even pages in the applications list
• Far too little customizations options of the main UI (only 2 themes and a few color skins)

So as you can see, basic stuff is missing, and after a few days with the Omnia, I decided to put it on a sale… but then I decided to wait a few more days… and things started to change…

Finally we've reached to the positive part:

So what are the positive things about WP7? There are a few, but the most important thing is that using the OS is very simple and intuitive, it's fun, and most importantly, it feels right.

First of all, the damn thing is really funky. It has this weird charm, this magical "thing" that makes you want to open, unlock it, slide some tiles, and close it, and then repeat this stupid action after 2-3 minutes…

Live tiles may not be so lively at the moment, but they do give a decent amount of information in a single snapshot.

The email app, plus the keyboard – are a winning combination. In fact I think I can honestly say that WP7 virtual keyboard, plus the auto correction, and words selection – are the best I've ever used, better than both iPhone and Android.

Speed of the OS is freaking amazing. True, it has random lags, but I guess those are bugs, besides them – that's an amazingly fast operating system, every activity is done quickly even with the animations. The touch experience is perfect, and the UI processing is fast. It makes using Windows Phone 7 – extremely fun.

Pictures hub is fun and simple to use, and it has some nice additions to the basic stuff of the iPhone and Android like favorites, recent, etc.

The lock screen holds some important information like new emails, messages, meetings – it's a cool thing as well.

And of course there are other cool things, like the single click to switch to selection mode and check an email before deletion, integration with facebook, live, and other accounts, and more.

Oh, and I do want to say another thing about the keyboard: I really like the typing sound of the iPhone, I do not like the Android typing sound which sounds too old fashion, but WP7 bit them all, the typing sound is addictive and together with the typing speed, and auto-correction – writing text is an impressive but also fun experience.

OK, so what's the bottom line?

Bottom line is that after 2 weeks with the Samsung Omnia 7, I'm kind of falling in love with it… slowly, but it happens. The best proof is  that I now keep my iPhone in my bag and haven't used it for quite a while. It never happened to me before with Android or BlackBerry devices for instance.

True, I don't think I will recommend on buying a WP7 phone to my friends who are mostly looking for one powerful smartphone with zero risks. In such cases I would probably recommend on iPhone or Android – they deliver much more in terms of apps and features. On the other hand, I know many people who are beginning to get bored with iPhone, and Android is not that big of a difference, to them I may say: "it's still limited, but it has potential, and you will probably love the design of it".

So bottom line, I still think that Microsoft did good with Windows Phone 7, but the hard work just started. They must release 2-3 updates this year to make WP7 a decent OS that can compete with the big guys.
Without it, it can probably give a decent fight to Palm or even RIM, but still has a long way to go when trying to compete with with Apple or Google.

As for myself, I'm planning to keep my WP7 phone. Yep, crazy, I know, but I'm turning it into my primary device… see how that ends up…

Few Days After… Samsung Omnia 7

Well, it's been few days now, and I'm still unhappy with my new Samsung Omnia 7. If it wasn't for my passion to learn more about this new OS and seek for the good things with it – I would probably put it for sale already, and I'm not kidding!

This time I would like to talk about the camera. Supposedly a good 5 megapixel camera, but the thing is that the end pictures are simply not good.

90% of the pictures are blurred, but it's done in a sophisticated way: It focuses just fine when you are about to take the picture, but then when you take it,  the picture goes from sharp to blurry. 

That's just annoying.

After trying all the options and settings, I found that if I set the picture sharpness to maximum, and set the anti shaking to 'On', the results are much better – but guess what: in WP7 like in WP7, nothing is really that simple: the settings of the camera are not saved (another known limitation).

So dear Ballmer, although you bragged about having a hardware camera button for fast open of the camera – this is actually the slowest device to take a decent picture, as before taking the picture, you need to manually change some settings (which are never saved) in order to allow taking a picture which is not blurred.

H o w.

H o r r i b l e.

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Well, it's been few days now, and I'm still unhappy with my new Samsung Omnia 7. If it wasn't for my passion to learn more about this new OS and seek for the good things with it – I would probably put it for sale already, and I'm not kidding!

This time I would like to talk about the camera. Supposedly a good 5 megapixel camera, but the thing is that the end pictures are simply not good.

90% of the pictures are blurred, but it's done in a sophisticated way: It focuses just fine when you are about to take the picture, but then when you take it,  the picture goes from sharp to blurry. 

That's just annoying.

After trying all the options and settings, I found that if I set the picture sharpness to maximum, and set the anti shaking to 'On', the results are much better – but guess what: in WP7 like in WP7, nothing is really that simple: the settings of the camera are not saved (another known limitation).

So dear Ballmer, although you bragged about having a hardware camera button for fast open of the camera – this is actually the slowest device to take a decent picture, as before taking the picture, you need to manually change some settings (which are never saved) in order to allow taking a picture which is not blurred.

H o w.

H o r r i b l e.

Augmented Reality on Android

The time is nearly here when we can walk down the street, not looking up from our phones, and get an alert every time we're going to walk into a lamppost.



With the likes of LAYAR, you can point at something and find out what it is, where the next nearest one is and how long it'll be to get there.



In this post I 'm going to say my top 4 augmented reality apps that'll allow you to never look away from your phone!


LAYAR (layar.com)

LAYAR allows you to add 'layers' ontop of your phone's camera, to do anything from search for the nearest McDonalds to check the latest bus times. What's more, anyone can create a 'layer', so there are new ones added every day!

PacMap (XDA Thread or Market)

We all know the classic game, Pacman. But have you ever played it in real life? In PacMap, you become pacman, running away from imaginary ghosts and picking up imaginary dots. Need I say more for you to jump over to the XDA thread linked?

Zombie, Run! (XDA Thread or Market)

This game is a bit like PacMap (above), but has zombies instead. You run away from zombies, and they chase after you. Who knows what could be in the next version? Multiplayer? I hope so!

Wikitude Drive (XDA Thread, download from THIS post/Market)

With this app, you won't need to look up from your phone, even in the car! It takes your camera input (as do most augmented reality)and places a 'route' overlay on top of the image. Please Note: I am not actually suggesting you use this app instead of looking in the windscreen. There is a delay, and the most likely result is death.

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The time is nearly here when we can walk down the street, not looking up from our phones, and get an alert every time we're going to walk into a lamppost.



With the likes of LAYAR, you can point at something and find out what it is, where the next nearest one is and how long it'll be to get there.



In this post I 'm going to say my top 4 augmented reality apps that'll allow you to never look away from your phone!


LAYAR (layar.com)

LAYAR allows you to add 'layers' ontop of your phone's camera, to do anything from search for the nearest McDonalds to check the latest bus times. What's more, anyone can create a 'layer', so there are new ones added every day!

PacMap (XDA Thread or Market)

We all know the classic game, Pacman. But have you ever played it in real life? In PacMap, you become pacman, running away from imaginary ghosts and picking up imaginary dots. Need I say more for you to jump over to the XDA thread linked?

Zombie, Run! (XDA Thread or Market)

This game is a bit like PacMap (above), but has zombies instead. You run away from zombies, and they chase after you. Who knows what could be in the next version? Multiplayer? I hope so!

Wikitude Drive (XDA Thread, download from THIS post/Market)

With this app, you won't need to look up from your phone, even in the car! It takes your camera input (as do most augmented reality)and places a 'route' overlay on top of the image. Please Note: I am not actually suggesting you use this app instead of looking in the windscreen. There is a delay, and the most likely result is death.

How Will Verizon's iPhone Change The Mobility Landscape

So by now you have probably heard about Verizon's new iPhone 4 news. Finally, Verizon users can also take part of the game! Finally, iPhone fans are free from the AT&T chains. The phone comes with tethering capabilities, no GSM option, and guess what: some changes in the antenna design… oh, so I guess Apple did find a bug after all and tried to fix it. Let's wait and see if indeed this will be the case.

In any event, I wonder how will a Verizon iPhone impact the mobile landscape:

Android:

Will it cause an Android slow down? After all, we've already seen Android slowing down lately, and that's before Verizon customers could even choose. The Verizon iPhone will definitely create a massive sales boost for Apple.But no one knows for how long, since soon after the release of it (around Feb) we will start seeing dual-core superphones running newer Android OS.

In any event, Android handsets took 80% of Verizon's sales recently, which means that companies like HTC and Motorola will suffer the most from this move.

Timing:

On the other hand, there is the timing issue. If such a move would have take place a year ago, when iPhone was still considered a superior phone over the Android ones, the impact could have been bigger. Customers were not even considering something else, they were just standing in lines, grabbing a piece of the magic. But today? Today things are a bit different: with the iPhone Antennagate on one hand, and Android superphones that are coming every second, iPhone is not superior anymore, if I were a Verizon customer, I don't know if I would rush into getting an iPhone like 1-2 years ago, when I can get a Nexus S or another dual-core superphone…

RIM:

RIM lost a lot of its' marketshare to Android already. Question is, will the BlackBerry sales continue to drop or will Android pay the bigger price? After all, RIM does have some loyal business users. Some of them might want to switch to iPhone, but some will surely stick with RIM.

In any event, things are going to get really interesting in this endless war between iOS and Android. So far it was not a fair match, as iPhone sales were all AT&T, now it will change, and we will be here to see what happens…

1 comments | Read more...

So by now you have probably heard about Verizon's new iPhone 4 news. Finally, Verizon users can also take part of the game! Finally, iPhone fans are free from the AT&T chains. The phone comes with tethering capabilities, no GSM option, and guess what: some changes in the antenna design… oh, so I guess Apple did find a bug after all and tried to fix it. Let's wait and see if indeed this will be the case.

In any event, I wonder how will a Verizon iPhone impact the mobile landscape:

Android:

Will it cause an Android slow down? After all, we've already seen Android slowing down lately, and that's before Verizon customers could even choose. The Verizon iPhone will definitely create a massive sales boost for Apple.But no one knows for how long, since soon after the release of it (around Feb) we will start seeing dual-core superphones running newer Android OS.

In any event, Android handsets took 80% of Verizon's sales recently, which means that companies like HTC and Motorola will suffer the most from this move.

Timing:

On the other hand, there is the timing issue. If such a move would have take place a year ago, when iPhone was still considered a superior phone over the Android ones, the impact could have been bigger. Customers were not even considering something else, they were just standing in lines, grabbing a piece of the magic. But today? Today things are a bit different: with the iPhone Antennagate on one hand, and Android superphones that are coming every second, iPhone is not superior anymore, if I were a Verizon customer, I don't know if I would rush into getting an iPhone like 1-2 years ago, when I can get a Nexus S or another dual-core superphone…

RIM:

RIM lost a lot of its' marketshare to Android already. Question is, will the BlackBerry sales continue to drop or will Android pay the bigger price? After all, RIM does have some loyal business users. Some of them might want to switch to iPhone, but some will surely stick with RIM.

In any event, things are going to get really interesting in this endless war between iOS and Android. So far it was not a fair match, as iPhone sales were all AT&T, now it will change, and we will be here to see what happens…

WP7: I've Been Ripped Off By Microsoft

After a long absence, a hell of a flu, and other occasional unpleasant matters, I'm finally back. While I was "gone", sick as a poisoned mouse, I had one thing that kept me strong: no, it wasn't the love of my kids or wife, nor my friends, or family, it was knowing that today I'm getting a new Windows Phone 7 smartphone.

And so, after my long endless anticipation, I finally got the new Samsung Omnia 7 – arguably the best WP7 handset to date.

For a few months now I've been fascinated by the live tiles, hubs, panoramic views, the mixture of text and signs, wrapped up in a flat simplified look & feel. As a former WinMo fan and developer, I was happy to see Microsoft coming back with something different, interesting, unique, something with potential to change something in the mobile realm.

My thoughts after my first 24 hours?

I've been RIPPED OFF by Microsoft. Again.

I know, I know, it's too early, I haven't seen anything yet, it takes time to get used to a new smartphone, who am I to criticize after 24 hours – all of it is true and I'm aware that I may completely change my mind in just a couple of days. I'm also aware that being sick as I still am might change the way I see things right now, but nonetheless, I will say it again: I've been ripped off by Microsoft.

Here are my notes from spending 24 frustrating hours with my first WP7 handset:

Omnia 7 In General:

Before talking about the operating system, few words about the hardware:

It's generally great, thin, large, fast, but it has 2 things that bother me:

1. The back cover of the phone is made out of the most slippery material I've ever seen in a smartphone. It's like someone at Samsung said: "what can we do to make people drop the phone every time they pull it out of their pocket?" and someone else came up with this horrible plastic cover. I've never seen it before, and I'm pretty shocked with how slippery it is and how inconvenient it is in the hand.
2. The screen: I know, Super AMOLED, amazing stuff, this is why I wanted this phone in the first place – but guess what: it's too shiny, too bright, and together with the exhausting UI (which I will describe in a moment), and the high contrast between the white text and black background – it's just too much for my poor old eyes. I tried reducing the brightness, but guess what: Microsoft only gave 3 options instead of a full scale so it's not much of a difference… Overall, after 2 hours, my eyes hurts, I cannot use the phone any longer and must get some rest…

Exhausting User Interface:

You see, using the phone for a couple of minutes hides one of the biggest problem of WP7 – the user interface is exhausting! Text, and more text, with different sizes, different fonts, different colors, some is cut, some is not, everything is just so much in your face – it's exhausting. After a few hours with it I just couldn't wait getting back to my relaxing iPhone where everything is so easy, smooth, relaxing.

The huge amount of text, the endless animations (which some of them are quite nice actually), the areas which are cut (which used to excite me before I actually got the phone) – are just too much for my eyes (which may sound like I'm kidding, but I'm not)! For a while I had teardrops coming and I just couldn't look at the screen any longer.

Live What?

Live tiles? hmm, let's see, so you take a shortcut icon, make it square, way too big, and place a number inside and call it a live tile? Or better than that: you take a bunch of pictures from facebook (most of them from friends I don't care about) place them inside this small square in a completely random order so they actually mean nothing and that's a social media integration? I'm sorry, but if the live tiles are supposed to be a combination of the iPhone shortcuts and Android widgets then I think it's a complete failure. They take too much place, and unlike widgets, they do not provide real value.

Of course, I'm to be blamed here, as I knew this is how the OS looks like before I purchased the phone, somehow I expected more out of those tiles, and maybe there is more and I just didn't find it yet, who knows, but currently I'm under the impression the live tiles are not yet where they should be.

 

Give Me More Hubs

The hubs are great, I'll tell you that, but it's not yet optimized: for example, in my pictures hub, I expected to see more actual pictures I took than pictures from facebook which I really don't want to see on my front page. Another thing that is currently missing is the ability to expand each HUB or further customize it.

Of course I wouldn't mind having more hubs available OOTB, hopefully that will come soon as well.

Some Positive Notes:

But you know what, enough about the UI, as I said, it may be too early for me to judge. Let's mention some of the good things I can already talk about:

1. The Back button is simply huge, I love it. You almost don't need multi-tasking when the system allows you to jump back and forth so quickly and stay in the same context. I think that way that the entire workflows behaves in WP7 is very good, and the back functionality takes a bug part of it.
2. Good camera. I don't want to say super, because it's not, it's good, and I like it, that's it. You get a button for it (no idea why Ballmer was so excited about that at CES) which is nice.
3. XBOX Live seems nice. Unfortunately I never owned an XBox, so I guess I will not be able to enjoy one of the greatest advantages of WP7… what a "joy", someone is really making fun of me now…
4. Touch quality is perfect, well, it better be, as I would expect that 4 years after iPhone 1 was released companies like Microsoft will finally learn how to provide a good touch experience… Nevertheless, I can mention it as a good thing.
5. Keyboard is fine: the sound is cool, the touch, the auto-completion – no complains over there.

OK, now that we went over some of the good stuff, I must go back to whining about how Microsoft ripped my ass:

Too Many Missing Features:

OK, so being a nice guy as I am, I decided to switch to my new Omnia and completely dump my iPhone. Pulled out my SIM card (thanks again Apple for making such a basic task so complicated…), entered it, boom, it's working.

Now what? I need to synchronize it with my organization exchange, just like I did with my previous BlackBerry devices, iPhone, Droid, etc. right? Shouldn't be hard, given that it's Microsoft, right? 
WRONG. The craziest thing happened: from all devices in the world, the Windows Phone had issues to connect to our exchange, it simply refused to use our certificate. How about that? Now what? How can you use a phone that doesn't show your emails?

"OK, screw that, let's connect to my Gmail" I said, and lucky me, it worked instantly. Emails aren't so bad actually, although it's really hard to distinguish between read and unread mails (but you have a dedicated view for that).

What I've immediately noticed is that the phone did not connect to our office WiFi. Since it's a hidden network, I tried 'settings' to look for hidden networks, but guess what – there is no such option! Apparently just another "missing feature", and not the first one I've encountered in those 24 hours.

"OK", I said to myself, "screw work, screw WiFi, get yourself some apps", and immediately started downloading applications from the Marketplace, which also misses some critically important features like showing the price of an app from the search view. I loaded a bunch of nice looking applications but guess what: the apps list is so flat, and is always sorted alphabetically, you cannot really organize it. I'm asking myself what will happen when I will rich my 100 downloaded app, when there are no folders, pages, anything… brrr. I cannot find my settings app already, hidden inside a few other downloaded apps. 

Summary:

Do not expect it to be a review, it's far too early for me to determine but for the time being, I'm totally upset and disappointed with my shiny new toy. I expected a big hit, and for now it feels like I've been hit.

I'm not giving up just yet, and will try to keep on using it for a while, see how that turns out, and who knows I may change my mind over time.

But for now, thinking of my 620$ which could have been wasted over an iPhone 4 or Nexus S, I cannot stop myself from thinking it's not a fair match, WP7 has such a long way to go until it reaches the point it can be competitive with those 2, and so far it doesn't look like the next OS update will be so drastic. I'm holding my fingers crossed for Microsoft, but for now I must honestly say I've been ripped off…

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After a long absence, a hell of a flu, and other occasional unpleasant matters, I'm finally back. While I was "gone", sick as a poisoned mouse, I had one thing that kept me strong: no, it wasn't the love of my kids or wife, nor my friends, or family, it was knowing that today I'm getting a new Windows Phone 7 smartphone.

And so, after my long endless anticipation, I finally got the new Samsung Omnia 7 – arguably the best WP7 handset to date.

For a few months now I've been fascinated by the live tiles, hubs, panoramic views, the mixture of text and signs, wrapped up in a flat simplified look & feel. As a former WinMo fan and developer, I was happy to see Microsoft coming back with something different, interesting, unique, something with potential to change something in the mobile realm.

My thoughts after my first 24 hours?

I've been RIPPED OFF by Microsoft. Again.

I know, I know, it's too early, I haven't seen anything yet, it takes time to get used to a new smartphone, who am I to criticize after 24 hours – all of it is true and I'm aware that I may completely change my mind in just a couple of days. I'm also aware that being sick as I still am might change the way I see things right now, but nonetheless, I will say it again: I've been ripped off by Microsoft.

Here are my notes from spending 24 frustrating hours with my first WP7 handset:

Omnia 7 In General:

Before talking about the operating system, few words about the hardware:

It's generally great, thin, large, fast, but it has 2 things that bother me:

1. The back cover of the phone is made out of the most slippery material I've ever seen in a smartphone. It's like someone at Samsung said: "what can we do to make people drop the phone every time they pull it out of their pocket?" and someone else came up with this horrible plastic cover. I've never seen it before, and I'm pretty shocked with how slippery it is and how inconvenient it is in the hand.
2. The screen: I know, Super AMOLED, amazing stuff, this is why I wanted this phone in the first place – but guess what: it's too shiny, too bright, and together with the exhausting UI (which I will describe in a moment), and the high contrast between the white text and black background – it's just too much for my poor old eyes. I tried reducing the brightness, but guess what: Microsoft only gave 3 options instead of a full scale so it's not much of a difference… Overall, after 2 hours, my eyes hurts, I cannot use the phone any longer and must get some rest…

Exhausting User Interface:

You see, using the phone for a couple of minutes hides one of the biggest problem of WP7 – the user interface is exhausting! Text, and more text, with different sizes, different fonts, different colors, some is cut, some is not, everything is just so much in your face – it's exhausting. After a few hours with it I just couldn't wait getting back to my relaxing iPhone where everything is so easy, smooth, relaxing.

The huge amount of text, the endless animations (which some of them are quite nice actually), the areas which are cut (which used to excite me before I actually got the phone) – are just too much for my eyes (which may sound like I'm kidding, but I'm not)! For a while I had teardrops coming and I just couldn't look at the screen any longer.

Live What?

Live tiles? hmm, let's see, so you take a shortcut icon, make it square, way too big, and place a number inside and call it a live tile? Or better than that: you take a bunch of pictures from facebook (most of them from friends I don't care about) place them inside this small square in a completely random order so they actually mean nothing and that's a social media integration? I'm sorry, but if the live tiles are supposed to be a combination of the iPhone shortcuts and Android widgets then I think it's a complete failure. They take too much place, and unlike widgets, they do not provide real value.

Of course, I'm to be blamed here, as I knew this is how the OS looks like before I purchased the phone, somehow I expected more out of those tiles, and maybe there is more and I just didn't find it yet, who knows, but currently I'm under the impression the live tiles are not yet where they should be.

 

Give Me More Hubs

The hubs are great, I'll tell you that, but it's not yet optimized: for example, in my pictures hub, I expected to see more actual pictures I took than pictures from facebook which I really don't want to see on my front page. Another thing that is currently missing is the ability to expand each HUB or further customize it.

Of course I wouldn't mind having more hubs available OOTB, hopefully that will come soon as well.

Some Positive Notes:

But you know what, enough about the UI, as I said, it may be too early for me to judge. Let's mention some of the good things I can already talk about:

1. The Back button is simply huge, I love it. You almost don't need multi-tasking when the system allows you to jump back and forth so quickly and stay in the same context. I think that way that the entire workflows behaves in WP7 is very good, and the back functionality takes a bug part of it.
2. Good camera. I don't want to say super, because it's not, it's good, and I like it, that's it. You get a button for it (no idea why Ballmer was so excited about that at CES) which is nice.
3. XBOX Live seems nice. Unfortunately I never owned an XBox, so I guess I will not be able to enjoy one of the greatest advantages of WP7… what a "joy", someone is really making fun of me now…
4. Touch quality is perfect, well, it better be, as I would expect that 4 years after iPhone 1 was released companies like Microsoft will finally learn how to provide a good touch experience… Nevertheless, I can mention it as a good thing.
5. Keyboard is fine: the sound is cool, the touch, the auto-completion – no complains over there.

OK, now that we went over some of the good stuff, I must go back to whining about how Microsoft ripped my ass:

Too Many Missing Features:

OK, so being a nice guy as I am, I decided to switch to my new Omnia and completely dump my iPhone. Pulled out my SIM card (thanks again Apple for making such a basic task so complicated…), entered it, boom, it's working.

Now what? I need to synchronize it with my organization exchange, just like I did with my previous BlackBerry devices, iPhone, Droid, etc. right? Shouldn't be hard, given that it's Microsoft, right? 
WRONG. The craziest thing happened: from all devices in the world, the Windows Phone had issues to connect to our exchange, it simply refused to use our certificate. How about that? Now what? How can you use a phone that doesn't show your emails?

"OK, screw that, let's connect to my Gmail" I said, and lucky me, it worked instantly. Emails aren't so bad actually, although it's really hard to distinguish between read and unread mails (but you have a dedicated view for that).

What I've immediately noticed is that the phone did not connect to our office WiFi. Since it's a hidden network, I tried 'settings' to look for hidden networks, but guess what – there is no such option! Apparently just another "missing feature", and not the first one I've encountered in those 24 hours.

"OK", I said to myself, "screw work, screw WiFi, get yourself some apps", and immediately started downloading applications from the Marketplace, which also misses some critically important features like showing the price of an app from the search view. I loaded a bunch of nice looking applications but guess what: the apps list is so flat, and is always sorted alphabetically, you cannot really organize it. I'm asking myself what will happen when I will rich my 100 downloaded app, when there are no folders, pages, anything… brrr. I cannot find my settings app already, hidden inside a few other downloaded apps. 

Summary:

Do not expect it to be a review, it's far too early for me to determine but for the time being, I'm totally upset and disappointed with my shiny new toy. I expected a big hit, and for now it feels like I've been hit.

I'm not giving up just yet, and will try to keep on using it for a while, see how that turns out, and who knows I may change my mind over time.

But for now, thinking of my 620$ which could have been wasted over an iPhone 4 or Nexus S, I cannot stop myself from thinking it's not a fair match, WP7 has such a long way to go until it reaches the point it can be competitive with those 2, and so far it doesn't look like the next OS update will be so drastic. I'm holding my fingers crossed for Microsoft, but for now I must honestly say I've been ripped off…

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Windows Phone 7 Marketplace soon to pass webOS AppStore

Hmmm, this is fun: the folks over at WPCentral are constantly following the number of apps available in the Marketplace.

It seems like the 3 months old store is just about to bypass webOS 19 months old store – which means that pretty soon, Microsoft will not be last any longer! While HP is planning to announce some great things related to webOS pretty soon, it still seems like webOS is still stuck in 2008…

Back to Windows Phone 7: I am still waiting to get my first WP7 device (order was set a few days ago and I'm still waiting anxiously).
So far the WP7 marketplace includes around 5500 apps, but it is constantly changing; there are about 100 new apps per day, around 100 updates – which seems like nice numbers. You can learn more in WP7AppList which brings almost real-time statistics of the platform application store.

It will be interesting to see when will Microsoft's WP7 Marketplace pass RIM's BlackBerry's App World and officially become #3 after iOS and Android…

(source)

4 comments | Read more...

Hmmm, this is fun: the folks over at WPCentral are constantly following the number of apps available in the Marketplace.

It seems like the 3 months old store is just about to bypass webOS 19 months old store – which means that pretty soon, Microsoft will not be last any longer! While HP is planning to announce some great things related to webOS pretty soon, it still seems like webOS is still stuck in 2008…

Back to Windows Phone 7: I am still waiting to get my first WP7 device (order was set a few days ago and I'm still waiting anxiously).
So far the WP7 marketplace includes around 5500 apps, but it is constantly changing; there are about 100 new apps per day, around 100 updates – which seems like nice numbers. You can learn more in WP7AppList which brings almost real-time statistics of the platform application store.

It will be interesting to see when will Microsoft's WP7 Marketplace pass RIM's BlackBerry's App World and officially become #3 after iOS and Android…

(source)

Another Samsung killer is out for the kill: meet the Galaxy Player

I was just thinking the other day about iPod Touch. The thing is out there for a few years already, behaving as if it's the only MP3 player in the world. No competitors, no challenges, no threats, nothing!

My car has a special plug called "iPod", people are referring to it as the only device for playing music, but what about competition?

Interesting enough, Samsung recently decided to literally KILL Apple with Android: Galaxy S, Nexus S, Galaxy Tab and now: Galaxy Player.

The Player was launched in Europe earlier this year, and over at CES, a new U.S. version will be announced with some improved specifications including Android OS 2.2, 4-inch screen, 3.2-megapixel rear-facing camera, front-facing camera, 1GHz processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and a microSD card slot. Not bad for an iPod Touch Killer.

So in case you grab your "running kit" and notice your iPod Touch is DEAD, it can be that Samsung is behind it… 

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I was just thinking the other day about iPod Touch. The thing is out there for a few years already, behaving as if it's the only MP3 player in the world. No competitors, no challenges, no threats, nothing!

My car has a special plug called "iPod", people are referring to it as the only device for playing music, but what about competition?

Interesting enough, Samsung recently decided to literally KILL Apple with Android: Galaxy S, Nexus S, Galaxy Tab and now: Galaxy Player.

The Player was launched in Europe earlier this year, and over at CES, a new U.S. version will be announced with some improved specifications including Android OS 2.2, 4-inch screen, 3.2-megapixel rear-facing camera, front-facing camera, 1GHz processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and a microSD card slot. Not bad for an iPod Touch Killer.

So in case you grab your "running kit" and notice your iPod Touch is DEAD, it can be that Samsung is behind it… 

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