Windows Phone 7 three months on: a retrospective

When I reviewed Windows Phone 7, I’d been using it for a little over a week. At the time, I concluded:

Microsoft doesn’t often get version one releases right, but this time, it has got the release very right indeed. Windows Phone 7 looks great, works well, and is a treat to use. Market success isn’t assured, but judged on its merits alone, this is a platform that absolutely deserves to succeed, and I really, really hope it does.

As of today, the smartphone platform has been on sale for exactly three months—long enough for things that felt like minor flaws at the time to develop into fatal, infuriating, carbuncles. I’ve been using it since launch on a range of handsets: how does it stack up now that the new gadget glow has worn off? Is it still a platform with promise, able to hold its own against the competition? Or are its widely publicized flaws and omissions crippling in longer-term use?

I stand by my original assessment. This is a great platform that fundamentally works well. The Metro user interface is fast and elegant, the applications that are most important to me—e-mail, Bing, and the browser—work well, and the hardware is generally pretty decent. It remains a release that Microsoft should be proud of.

However, not every early impression was accurate. Some things that seemed like problems at the time turned out to be not such a big deal. Other things that I thought I would use often have for one reason or another fallen by the wayside.

Happy surprises and annoyances

Day to day, the smooth animations, transitions, and clean graphics continue to delight. There is often a danger with animations to make them excessive. HTC is a repeat offender in this regard; its applications (for both Android and Windows Phone 7) contain all sorts of cutesy animations (such as windscreen wipers wiping the screen when the weather app says it’s raining) that look fun and amusing the first time you see them—they make great demo apps—but are just downright annoying the 900th time, when all you want to do is look at what the weather is.

Even three months in, I’m finding the Windows Phone 7 animations to fall firmly on the side of “good.” There’s no point at which I’m waiting for the animation to complete just so I can do something useful. The transitions and animations just serve to make the different parts of the software feel integrated and joined up. Microsoft has struck a good balance here.

A few things have surprised me. I use the Bing application a lot more than I thought I would. I didn’t really think I’d need instant access to a search engine all that often. But because the Bing application is smart and “knows” that if, for example, I’m searching for a restaurant, it should find places that are nearby and show them on a map—and not just do a dumb Web search—it is invaluable when out and about. It provides quick access to relevant information—Microsoft’s essential mantra for the platform. It makes the iPhone’s built-in Spotlight and Web search seem extremely primitive and unhelpful in comparison.

I’ve also found that I don’t really care that the Bing application doesn’t search the phone itself. This was flagged by many as an omission at launch time—after all, the iPhone does search the phone—but while I do search my mail and contacts on a regular basis, these things are conceptually different enough that I don’t really want them in the Bing application. So while I suspect that some kind of unified search will materialize in the future, it might not be as desirable as I once thought.

Indeed, the one place where local and remote content is searched in parallel, the Zune application, annoys me most of the time. When I’m searching for a song, I don’t actually give a damn about stuff in Marketplace. Sure, I could buy it. But I ain’t gonna. I just want to listen to what I already have. The Zune application hides local search hits behind an arrow, encouraging me to buy new songs instead, making it optimized for the wrong thing. I suppose I might think differently if I had a Zune subscription, but I don’t, and so searching for music to buy is for me logically distinct from searching for local music. The two shouldn’t be conflated.

What’s worse is that if the phone has no network connection—and hence can’t search Marketplace at all—it also loses the ability to search local music. This is clearly asinine.

In fact, if one weak spot has emerged in using the phone for a prolonged period, it’s Marketplace. It suffers the same conflation problem as searching Zune—if I drill down into “applications” and then search for “Twitter,” it’ll still show me songs and music that contain the word “Twitter.” Who wants that? Nobody, that’s who.

Apps are surprisingly good

Which is a pity, because I’ve been generally pleased with the third-party development on the phone. OK, it’s still got a long way to go to rival iOS or Android, but growth has been steady, with around 6,500 applications currently available. Some are idiotic fart applications, unfortunately, but I have, for example, a good Facebook application, a good Twitter application, Yelp, and a useful travel application (Wipolo). I’ve been consistently impressed that developers have really made an effort to create applications that leverage Windows Phone 7 user interface concepts like panoramas and pivots, and they do so to good effect. This is heartening to see: it makes the applications feel like they’re really part of the platform, that they belong there.

I’ve also found myself gaming on the phone much more than I thought. It’s clear that Microsoft has spent quite a bit of money in this area, to encourage third parties (notably EA) to develop for the platform. The result is a range of games (Tetris, Rocket Riot, Need For Speed: Undercover, Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst, Bejweled, The Harvest and others) that are pleasingly diverting or even downright entertaining. I’m not going to give up PC gaming anytime soon, but equally, I know I’m not going to be bored on the bus; there are plenty of high-quality games to choose from. The development may not be entirely “organic”—without financial incentives from Microsoft I’m sure game availability would be worse—but that doesn’t detract from the enjoyability of what’s on offer.

The trial option (optional in all third-party software, but mandatory for games that want to achieve the more stringent Xbox Live designation) is excellent. Not everything has a trial, but I’ve been glad to see that many developers have gone for the option. I only hope their conversion rates are good, and that they continue to do so. Trials make purchasing essentially risk-free, and the contrast with Apple’s App Store is stark.

Perhaps it’s because I don’t own an Xbox, but I haven’t found the Xbox Live integration to offer much value. OK, I collect gamer scores and achievements from the games I play, but I honestly couldn’t care less about that.

I still want multitasking

One area that third-party software seems to have done less well is tombstoning. Windows Phone 7 doesn’t offer any true multitasking of third-party applications, but it does have a suspend/resume model that allows applications to save their state to ensure that switching back to an application after, say, replying to a text message is speedy. I’m not sure what the difficulty is, but it seems to be awfully haphazard. When it works, it seems to work pretty well, with an experience that’s almost as good as multitasking. But I find that is the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, resuming applications seems to make you essentially wait for them to restart.

I’m not sure where the fault lies here, but I do know that it detracts from the phone experience, and it appears to be a pretty consistent issue in third-party applications. It’s better than pre-multitasking versions of iOS—especially when it works well—but it’s still not what it should be.

The problem is compounded by some extraordinarily long load-times in third-party applications. Restarting programs each time would be tolerable if only it were quick; often, it isn’t.

When I first reviewed it, I found the back button behavior annoying, particularly in conjunction with the browser. Sometimes I want to go back to the previous application, but the browser just wants to take me back to the previous webpage. I felt at the time that if anything about the phone would drive me to abandon it, it would be this.

It still annoys me, but much less than it did—but that’s only because I found a way to kind of work around the behavior. The main problem situation: I click a link from an e-mail (or other program, but typically e-mail), and then navigate beyond the linked page. I then want to go back to the e-mail, but without backing out of the navigation I performed. The workaround is simple and inelegant, but it works: create a new, empty tab in the browser, and then hit back from there. This backs out to the e-mail application directly. It’s still not perfect, because it means that I can no longer visit history items for the e-mail originated browsing, but that’s normally a trade-off I’m happy to make. Well—not happy, but it makes the phone more livable. My worry is that nothing better will ever materialize, because this dual usage of the back button is so baked into the OS.

Some great ideas are undermined by sloppy execution. The camera button, which instantly opens the camera application when you press it, is a great concept. I find myself not using it as much as I would like, however, because of what’s really a very basic oversight: the camera application doesn’t remember its settings, so my preferences for the flash (off), and anti-shake (on), get reset to their defaults (automatic and off, respectively) every single time I press the button to take a photo. I’ve grown tired of flash reflections ruining the pictures after the automatic flash decided to fire, so now I just don’t bother. The entire point of the (well-intentioned) feature is to allow instant no-hassle photography, and if it can’t do that, well, what’s the use of it?

It’s worth using

Three months on, there’s no doubt that Windows Phone 7 works well on a day-to-day basis. The interface and design aren’t just eye-catching razzamatazz. They’re well-thought-out, functional, sensible pieces of design, marrying form with function. The platform’s beauty is more than skin deep.

It’s not all plain sailing, and there are problems. The biggest problem could essentially be phrased as, “the software today is identical to the software three months ago.” In other words, Microsoft has yet to ship a single update, a single new feature, a single bug fix. And we still don’t know when an update will ship: we know that copy-and-paste and faster application launching are coming, but the company hasn’t seen fit to tell us when they will materialize.

If I wanted that kind of update situation, I would have bought an Android phone. With Windows Phone 7, part of the promise of the platform was that it would get better over time. So far, it hasn’t. The early adopters, the people most likely to champion the phone and show it off to their friends, family, and colleagues, the ones who will build grassroots support for the platform, have been left wanting. Apple managed to get its first bug fix release out within a month, and its first feature release out within two months. That’s the standard Microsoft should be aspiring to—but hasn’t.

What do the Windows Phone 7 sales numbers mean?

Microsoft reported, finally, that 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 phones had been sold in six weeks Updated from original “months.”. But those sales, as the online interview made clear, are by handset manufacturers to carriers. So, is that figure evidence that Windows Phone 7 is a success or, as Business Insider’s Dan Frommer just opined,  “toast?”

The number was revealed in an online Microsoft interview, with Achim Berg, Microsoft’s vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones. (Nearly everything else in that interview is being ignored by pundits and bloggers; more on this below.) Plenty of opinionators point out that the business-to-business sales likely don’t correspond directly to Windows Phone 7 activations on AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S., and at other carriers globally.

Neither Microsoft nor its carrier partners have so far released numbers for activations, or for retail WP7 sales. The general attitude of many pundits is “what are they hiding?” It’s pretty clear that WP7 has not achieved the iPhone’s spectacular, and deserved, success. And it probably hasn’t yet achieved the uncompromising standard set by Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, when he told the Wall Street Journal in a revealing interview earlier this year: “Job one here will be selling a lot of phones, and if we sell a lot of phones, good things are going to happen.”

Microsoft has a long way to go, as executives there from Balmer on downward apparently know well. In the last quarter, for example, Apple and RIM each sold over 14 million handsets globally; and sales of smartphones running the Android OS are growing fast.

Dan Frommer, for one, flat out doesn’t think Balmer will sell many WP7 handsets. “Why not? Because there simply aren’t many reasons for anyone to buy a Windows Phone instead of an iPhone or an Android device.”

To me, it seems like you can turn that “analysis” inside out and come up with “There simply aren’t many reasons for anyone NOT to buy a Windows Phone instead of an iPhone or Android device.” Lack of copy-and-paste? Zillions of iPhone users didn’t get that until mid-2010 and seemed to have thrived without it. And for many of the common run-of-the-mill tasks for which you’d want to use copy-and-paste, WP7 takes care of that for you, intuitively.

What about the fact WP7 doesn’t yet enable multi-tasking? I think the question almost answers itself. My impression is there are relatively few first-time smartphone buyers who have “multi-tasking” – or any of the technical features beloved by those that love technical features – at the top of their “must have” list.

Microsoft has fewer apps? The company just announced there are 4,000 WP7 apps in the Zune Marketplace, more than triple the number available on October 30.  But plenty of pundits are dismissive even of that.

What IS different about WP7 is not, as Frommer mistakenly says, that it’s UI is pretty, or prettier than Android. What’s different is…that it’s different: it’s a different experience of working with an Internet device that’s always on. A good example of how Windows Phone is different is this detailed description  by Paul Dawson, with EMC Consulting, of his first two weeks living with a Windows Phone (he’s used iPhone, BlackBerry, and most recently, an Android phone):

“With other phones I have to think about which calendar my itinerary is stored in. I have to think about which phonebook my mum’s phone number is in. None of this with Windows Phone….Windows Phone feels flowing and linear. What I mean by this is that I’m not constantly thinking about menu structures. Any combination of operating system and applications has a means of navigation, to which each of us applies their own cognitive model – “go up to the top level” is an indicator of the type of mental map someone has made of a particular system for example. With Windows Phone, I don’t have a mental model of its hierarchies. Instead, it feels like I have an anchor – the windows button that takes me to the live tiles, but after that, I have no concept of what ‘apps are open’ and it doesn’t matter.”

As an example of how Windows Phone flows functionally, Dawson recounts his first-ever attempt to sync music on his smartphone. He entered a store, heard a song being played, and tapped the Shazam app on his Windows Phone (Shazam http://www.shazam.com/ “listens” to a song or score and then calls up information about the track, the album, and artist).

“Shazam listened to the song, then (much more quickly than my Android used to) told me what it was. Whilst I was thinking to myself “I must remember to go find that later” I saw a little Zune icon at the bottom of the app. I touched it. I was then in the phone’s music player, looking at the album art, a track listing and the first track on the album playing. I could have listened to the whole album for free (courtesy of my Zune pass) right there and then. Being a savvy geek though, I wanted it downloaded in my local collection rather than streaming, and one tap of the screen later it was all downloading….There were no walls in this process. There was no visibility of the fact that Shazam is an app built by a third party, no wait whilst the music player app opened, or even any acknowledgment that I had moved into the music player, or that it had to log in to Zune, or that the music was streaming, no retrying of downloads because the 3G connection dropped… none of that.”

This is what Microsoft is focused on: creating a user experience that flows out of what people want to do with an always-on mobile Internet voice-and-data device. You can see this focus in Berg’s interview, where he repeatedly emphasizes how consumers are responding to the phone. Here’s what he says: “…Early customer survey data on the overall software experience is very positive and the willingness to recommend our phone is very high.”

“With a new platform you have to look at a couple of things, first of all customer satisfaction. As I mentioned before, we’ve seen great response on the complete mobile phone experience.”

“We introduced a new platform with Windows Phone 7, and when you do that it takes time to educate partners and consumers on what you’re delivering, and drive awareness and interest in your new offering.  We’re comfortable with where we are….Our opportunity is to make sure people get to play with a Windows Phone. Once they do, they love it.”

“We have a different point of view than just delivering apps, and we have received great customer feedback on our approach. We are working on updates that will take us to the next level.”

Berg’s comments are only suggestive rather than definitive because, typically for Microsoft, he doesn’t provide either specific details or aggregations of this “customer feedback.” And I’ve been a critic from the start of Microsoft’s advertising/marketing campaign for Windows Phone precisely because, in my opinion, it doesn’t actually show the uniqueness of the Windows Phone experience.

I’ve seen very little written about how and why people buy smartphones; about the difference in buying a smartphone for the first time, compared to buying a replacement for a first smartphone purchase; about how people evaluate phones and value them, or what they consider important in terms of feature; or how those factors vary with demography and geography.

But recently, Asymco’s Horace Dediu analyzed the adoption of Android by handset makers and mobile operators, and smartphone pricing trends. One of his conclusions is that iPhone single-handledly reversed the chronic price erosion in mobile phones: his data shows the average selling price for smartphones, with any OS, is actually trending upwards. He makes two points: one, that iPhone has triggered “the shift to software as the component that drives price power;” and two, that “the competition is not between smartphone platforms but between smart and non-smart phones.”

He notes also that “iPhone’s traction was always in markets which had been seeded by some smartphones: the US with RIM and Europe with Symbian. Such a smartphone-soaked world will have better mobile broadband infrastructure, users with more demanding tastes and awareness of the value that a smart device can bring.”

It seems to me, if I understand him correctly, that those same dynamics could work in Microsoft’s favor, and more quickly than one might otherwise expect. If so, Steve Balmer will end up selling a lot of phones and some very good things will happen.

(For the record, Didiu elsewhere predicts http://www.asymco.com/2010/12/13/verizon-strikes-out/ that if iPhone comes to Verizon, the carrier could sell 8-12 million of the handsets in the first 12 months).

Muve service includes unlimited music downloads

(AP) – 11 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Recording companies fed up with people illegally downloading music have a possible solution: Add the cost of music to monthly phone bills.

Mobile phone operator Cricket Communications Inc. will introduce a new unlimited plan entitling people to talk, surf the Web, send text messages, stream video — and download music — to their hearts’ content. The service, dubbed Muve Music, is the first of its kind in the U.S.

The service will cost $55 per month when it launches in January with a catalog of music from major recording labels such as Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music. Muve even includes unlimited use of the popular app Shazam, which identifies the name of a song that is playing near the phone.

The plan’s price is reasonable, given that Cricket subscribers already pay $55 per month for all of these unlimited features (minus the music downloads, of course) on a smart phone running Google Inc.’s Android software.

On its own, a comparable music subscription service, from the likes of MOG, Rhapsody, Thumbplay and Rdio, costs $10 a month.

Under the Muve plan, phone owners won’t technically own the music they download. The music cannot be removed from the phone, for instance, and transferred to a computer or a digital music player such as an iPod.

And music will vanish if a subscriber cancels service.

That model dissuades cell phone customers from canceling, while recording labels receive an unspecified percentage of those $55-per-month subscriber fees.

Cricket, based in San Diego, doesn’t require its customers to sign contracts as larger carriers such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless typically do. Cricket has more than 5 million subscribers, which it describes as predominantly low income. Only half of them, for instance, are estimated to have computers in their homes.

Their customers, it says, aren’t likely to purchase songs or albums digitally through Apple Inc. or Amazon.com Inc., nor are they likely to subscribe to digital music services such as Rhapsody. The alternative for many people would be to download music illegally.

Cricket and music labels are hoping that Muve will provide an easier way for people to download music and entice them to begin paying for it.

The Samsung Suede ($199) will initially be the only phone that works with Muve. The phone can’t download apps, but it has a 3-inch touchscreen, much like the iPhone, and can surf the Web and access e-mail.

Although Cricket’s Muve Music plan is the first of its kind in the U.S., other companies have introduced similar plans internationally. In 2007, for instance, phone maker Nokia unveiled its “Comes with Music” plan, whose costs were baked into the monthly data and voice plans that subscribers were already used to paying. Like Cricket, the service was designed so that music couldn’t be loaded onto digital music players. In April, Nokia lifted that restriction, but only for Chinese customers.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Windows Phone 7 Zune Desktop Sync

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Users of Windows Phone 7 have an excellent interface with which to synchronise music, video and images with their PC. The Zune desktop client makes this possible as well as providing a gateway into the marketplace, and makes it possible to purchase and download music, video and apps – particularly useful if you don’t have wireless internet and your network provider doesn’t offer affordable mobile internet.

The Zune desktop client offers several additional configuration tools for your phone, making it an absolutely vital addition for any Windows Phone 7 owner.

Download and Install Zune Desktop Sync

To get started syncing media between your phone and PC, visit www.microsoft.com/windowsphone to download the Zune software. This will require you to sign in with a free Hotmail/Windows Live account, while your PC or laptop must have a 1GHz or faster CPU (32-bit or 64-bit), 1GB of RAM for 32-bit or 2GB for 64-bit systems and a broadband internet connection – the installer package is 105MB.

Once download is complete, installation is simple and straightforward and with the Zune software running on your Windows 7 PC you will be ready to sync your phone!

Connecting and Syncing Windows Phone 7 with Zune Desktop

There are two ways to sync content between your Windows Phone and your PC – via USB cable or if you have a Wi-Fi router you can sync wirelessly.

However the initial sync must be by USB so with the Zune software running connect your phone to your PC or laptop via the USB cable. The Zune software – a music player, shop and sync manager all in one – will launch, and display the Summary screen for your phone. To setup a wireless sync, go to Settings > Wireless Sync and click Enable Wireless Sync, following the subsequent on-screen instructions until the sync is established. This will save you from having to connect your phone via USB whenever you want to sync data with your PC.

One thing you might notice about Zune is that there is no facility to synchronize a calendar as there is with Windows Mobile and ActiveSync. This is because calendars can now be easily synced wirelessly or via the web, and therefore no longer require additional software to manage these relationships.

A Windows Phone 7 device that has been used to take photos and record video clips will send the clips to your PC or laptop when connected to the Zune desktop client, and these options can be managed in the Settings > Phone > Pictures & Video screen.

Installing Apps via Zune Desktop Sync

Windows Phone 7 apps can be installed via the Zune desktop using its access to the Marketplace, a vast repository of all music, video and software for Windows Phone 7; a bit like iTunes.

To access downloadable apps on your computer, go to Marketplace > Apps, where you will find some recommended options and a list of app types on the left hand menu. Here you will also be able to purchase games for your Windows Phone 7. To download or purchase an app, select the app that you want, check the reviews and click on the Purchase or Trial button (or Free for free apps). Zune will then ask you to confirm your purchase.

If you don’t have a payment option setup, you will need to arrange this via Settings > Account in Zune, where you can add a VISA, AmEx, Mastercard or Discovery credit card to fund your purchases.

AT&T Samsung Focus Review

When the brand new Windows Phone 7 OS came to play in the US, only 3 phones showed up for the launch party. Arguably, as the mobile history books are written, these could be remembered as the most important phones that ever use the platform; if they are a letdown or failure of any kind, it could mean an early death for Microsoft’s latest and riskiest investment.

Samsung was one of the first manufacturers to take a swing at the platform, bringing out the Super AMOLED-equipped Focus to make a stellar example of WP7, showing off many of the platform’s capabilities. With a 4” capacitive touchscreen and 1 GHz processor, it’s definitely on the high end of the spectrum, and offering phones like the Focus tells the world that Microsoft is ready to play with the big boys and isn’t messing around anymore.

So while it’s going to be known as one of the very first Windows Phone 7 devices in the US, will it also be known as a good phone? Let’s find out what the Samsung Focus is all about.

Hardware and Design of the Samsung Focus

In hand, the Samsung Focus has a very familiar feel to it because it’s designed quite similar to many of Samsung’s other most recent phones, such as the Galaxy S. With its 4” touchscreen, thin body and rounded curves, anyone who has used a Galaxy S device will feel right at home with the Focus. It has a certain aura of elegance about it, and is a device I truly enjoy looking at. Even though it has a large screen it doesn’t feel like I’m holding a barge; the same cannot be said about other devices with 4-4.3” screens. At 4.07 oz the Focus is very light for its overall size.

I was a bit disappointed that Samsung chose to go with a black glossy all-plastic exterior that would attract fingerprints from a fly, let alone my grubby hands. While it may all be plastic, at least the back cover is something besides a boring flat back. Instead, Samsung designed it with some clever angles, keeping the middle raised and tapering it off on the edges. It adds class and makes the whole phone look solid.

As mentioned earlier, the Focus has a Super AMOLED display that makes the screen resolution brighter than the competition, helps save battery life, and uses thinner parts so the phone itself can be much thinner at 10 mm. The resolution of the screen is 480×800. In contrast to the LG Quantum, the colors and more vibrant and deep, and it’s easy enough to tell the difference when holding the two phones up next to each other. I did notice at the same time, however, that the screen brightness itself was higher on the LG Quantum when both were on the same brightness level.

Still on the front of the phone, 3 capacitive touch-sensitive buttons are shown directly underneath the screen. These 3 — back, Windows, and search — are the same as any other WP7 device since Microsoft requires this layout on every one of its phones. There are small changes the manufacturers can make: for example, the LG Quantum chooses to keep back and search touch-sensitive but turn the Windows button into a physical button. Samsung opted to go all touch, straight across. Fortunately all three of these buttons are easy to press, and at a comfortable place for my thumb when I’m holding the phone with one hand. I don’t feel as though the phone will just go off-balance and fall out of my hand easily, and that’s a great comfort to me.

The Focus attempts to keep the outside of the phone as minimal as possible. It subscribes to the idea that the less physical buttons there are, the better. On the left side you’ll notice the volume up/down rocker, again in the perfect spot for my thumb when one-handed.

On the right side, you’ll see both the camera button (I believe this is also a requirement on every WP7 phone; Microsoft prides itself in the ability to take pictures no matter if the screen is locked or if you’re in a different screen) and the power/screen lock button.

Up on top is the 3.5 mm headphone jack and the Galaxy S-esque MicroUSB charger port with the sliding door to help keep moisture and dust out without worrying about a dinky plastic flap just coming off the phone. I’ve always enjoyed this small but significant innovation.

Rounding up the tour of the Focus, the back simply has the 5 MP camera with LED flash and a decent-sized spot for the back speaker, as well as logos and the aforementioned angles. The battery cover is a basic snap-on and pry-off cover, nothing new. Underneath the battery cover there is room for a SIM card and MicroSD card slot.

A word about the MicroSD, since it relates to the overall hardware of the phone. This particular issue has been a rather large controversy and source of utter confusion ever since before the phone was even released. Here’s the scoop on it.

Originally Microsoft hadn’t intended any of its phones to have accessible expansion card slots, but somehow the Focus slipped through the cracks and shipped with one anyways. We’re still hazy on the details on how this occurred and why it was allowed to pass through testing this way, but the fact is that while the slot can technically recognize a MicroSD card (I’ve seen plenty of successful attempts), an official memo sent out by AT&T explains that no MicroSD cards currently made are actually compatible with WP7. The memo mentioned that owners of the Focus should wait until Microsoft-certified cards are available, though there is no word on exactly how long this will take. In the meantime, if a card is used, there is a rather sizeable risk to it in that it can severely affect the performance of your Focus. So for now, take full advantage of the 8 GB internal memory that the Focus has, and be patient until the new Focus-specific cards come out.

All in all, the Focus feels elegant, classy and modern. I don’t feel as though the phone’s style will be obsolete within the next few months, which is always a huge plus to potential buyers. Nobody wants to buy a phone that just looks old and outdated.

Software and OS of the Samsung Focus

The Focus being a Windows Phone 7 device (am I the only one who keeps wanting to say “Windows Phone 7 Phone”?) could either be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at the OS. The phone has to somehow get past Microsoft’s soiled reputation in the world of mobile and prove not only itself but the OS that operates on it as well. That’s a rather heavy burden for any WP7 device to have at present time. Contrast that pressure with that of its relative, the Samsung Captivate, which has much less pressure on it than a normal phone just because it happens to run Android, an OS that’s already been proven a hundred times over.

At least the Samsung Focus does a spectacular job of handling this pressure well. As I was playing with the phone, never once did I think I was actually playing with first-generation firmware. The interaction with the OS platform was incredibly smooth and I rarely found any type of glitch or bug. This is a huge difference from that of the T-Mobile G1 running first-gen Android firmware, for sure.

Though there are a few things that I missed having on WP7 (copy and paste, *cough cough*), I know that I could use this phone on a long-term basis and be perfectly happy with it.

More details on my WP7 experience in a future review. But suffice to say, Focus had a heavy burden to bear, and bore it flawlessly.

One more note on the OS experience. Microsoft went polar opposite of Android’s multi-UI approach and actually clamped down on what phone manufacturers could do with the WP7 firmware. Each and every Windows Phone has the same exact layouts, user interfaces, and minimal spec requirements, to ensure that a phone maker can’t go messing up what Microsoft has already “perfected” and try to add in its very own flavor. Microsoft just held its ground and said if you want to play with me, you have to go by my rules. Fair enough, Microsoft, I think it’s probably for the better.

There are a few small changes each company can make. One such leniency Microsoft has granted is in the Marketplace, where each company can feature its very own store within the Marketplace itself. So Samsung has put in a few extra apps that can only be downloaded on the Focus and none other, such as:

Samsung Photo Sharing: Gives you the ability to upload multiple pictures at once to certain SNS sites.
Now: Basically identical to Daily Briefing on Samsung Android devices; shows your essential life information, such as weather, stocks, news, etc.
Three: Exclusive to H3G, gives easy access to customer support.
Network Profile: For any unlocked Samsung WP7 devices. Allows you to switch your active network profile to whatever networks are available, and gives you a list of networks to choose from. Great for international traveling.

Exciting? Not really. I wasn’t too impressed by the lack of choices in the “Samsung Zone”, as it’s called. When using the LG Quantum I noticed a much better selection of apps in LG’s Hub than I did with Samsung. Fortunately, this isn’t really that large a concern since the majority of apps that you’ll be interested in downloading will be available in the main Marketplace on any WP7 phone.

Camera and Camcorder

The camera built into the Focus is a good quality 5 MP that does offer LED flash and autofocus. It was a little tricky trying to find the best way to get the pictures completely focused, but after just a couple practice shots I had it down easy. From that point on it was smooth sailing and I felt the pictures turned out very well.

These pictures below are taken in my backyard under cloudy and almost rainy conditions, so there is a lower light level than usual. But the pictures still turned out great.

The camcorder is 720p HD resolution at the max, though you do have the option to record at a lower screen resolution. The advantage of doing this is in how much space you’ll save between the two different styles. If you’re running low on memory and can’t get to a computer to transfer existing files over, go with the lower res for a small period of time.

Thing is, when you look at this video below, it’s hard to tell that it’s in HD in the first place. Panning around my backyard made the video look slightly choppy, as if it takes a while for the picture to catch up with where the camera’s pointing. So at least outside it seemed sluggish. Using it inside looked slightly smoother but it is not 100% by any means.

You can set the camera to automatically or manually upload your pictures to SkyDrive, making it even faster and easier to get your pictures moved to your computer. It’s always nice to have the wireless upload ability to limit the number of times you actually need to plug your phone into your computer.

Multimedia and Browser

Sideloading the Focus on my PC was a piece of cake. All I needed to do in order to get started was download the Zune app on my computer, and plug the phone in. The Zune app booted right up and took me step by step through the setup process so it could recognize the Focus. Once setup, it was incredibly easy to go in and pick out which artists I wanted to listen to and import any pictures I had taken on the Focus already (and that’s if you never took advantage of the Focus’s ability to take the pics in your gallery and upload them to Microsoft Live SkyDrive).

Once on the phone, the music was easy to find since it was in the “Music+Video” tile. Going into that program, I was immediately faced with the options of music, videos, podcasts, and marketplace.

While I enjoyed the audio quality of the music I loaded into the phone, I was hoping to find an equalizer somewhere in the phone to adjust my bass and treble settings based on what genre I was listening. I couldn’t find any equalizer available.

Fortunately, WP7 allows me to perform other tasks while listening to my music player, so I could easily browse the web, text or email at the same time. Microsoft hasn’t enabled multitasking for third-party apps yet, but at least there is a small degree of multitasking that I do have access to.

Speaking of browsers, the included Internet Explorer on the Focus is rather robust. If you’re not a huge fan of IE, don’t worry too much about this version because it doesn’t look anything like the computer versions; instead, it’s optimized for your Windows Phone. Switching between active windows is easy, you can do voice searches, and the pinch-to-zoom and accelerometer work like charms here. Sadly, I absolutely hated the fact that going into my Google Reader pulled up the same mobile site that you would see on an old Blackberry or messaging phone. It’s hard going back to this style after getting used to the Android and iPhone web apps.

Even if you never use Google Reader, the important thing to take out of this is the idea that while most sites look perfectly fine (and normal) through the WP7 IE browser, those sites that are Android/iPhone optimized won’t be optimized on this OS platform (at least, not yet).

Extra Tidbits

With a 4” screen, typing on the WP7 keyboard was never an issue at all. In fact, going to this phone from an iPhone made me feel at home, because the keyboard was very responsive and Microsoft built an excellent autocorrect feature in with the keyboard itself that exceeds any other platform’s version.

Performance of the Samsung Focus

While having a solid OS and user experience matters a great deal, none of it is relevant if the phone itself is a piece of junk. Thus, it’s time to evaluate the performance of the Samsung Focus doing the most important stuff — its job.

Fortunately I was very pleased with everything on the Focus. For instance, the battery life on it is outstanding, especially compared to any iPhone or Android device I have ever used. I am fairly positive it had the best battery life I’ve ever used in a smartphone, which is saying a lot. The battery life is rated at 6.5 hours of constant talk time, but during my review I used the Focus as my primary device, which includes texting, emailing, web browsing and social networking, and the battery lasted me the entire day with some left to spare. I still charged it up every night, but I personally never had to worry if it would last through the day without getting a spare charger somewhere. Any phone that can start the day at 9:00 with full charge and still have 15% left at midnight is a winner in my sight.

The call quality was also excellent. No dropped calls, no static, and nobody complained on the other end of the line when I made my calls. The volume was high enough for me to hear everything clearly, and the speakerphone was equally impressive. In fact, I never had to bump up the volume to the highest setting, because moderate volume was good enough for me.

Finally, the 1GHz processor is coupled with 512 MB RAM, which makes this phone extra speedy. Scrolling up and down, the screen kept up with me without falling behind. It moved instanteously whenever I moved my fingers. The programs loaded up without major delays and everything I did using the phone was rather seamless. While other similar phones use the same speed processor, they don’t feel as speedy because they don’t have as much RAM as the Focus.

In my reviews I hate to say nothing but good things about a phone, because it’s my job to find little nitpicky things to like and not like, and there are goods and bads with every phone no matter how close to perfect it may seem. With that said, I was hard-pressed to find things I didn’t like about the phone that weren’t related to the OS in some way. The Focus has top-notch specs and carries those specs very well. I am rather disappointed in the SD card slot debacle, and hope it can get fixed soon so the Focus can have more than 8 small GB of storage space inside.

But overall, provided you are willing to venture into unknown territory with an unproven first-generation OS, the Samsung Focus is a great option to consider for your purchase. It is currently available in AT&T stores for $199 with contract and no mail in rebate.

Below you will find my video review of the Focus and a full gallery of pics.

For more reviews on Windows Phone 7 devices, check out my LG Quantum review.

If you liked the post, you might find these interesting too:

• Unboxing the LG Quantum: Brad’s First Impressions
• LG Quantum Windows Phone 7 device now available from AT&T
• Unboxing the LG Quantum Windows Phone for AT&T
• Windows Phone 7: AT&T’s HTC Surround, Samsung Focus and LG Quantum detailed
• IFA 2007 Report: Samsung SGH-i550 with GPS navigation and Google apps

• actually the camera button is exactly where it should be all smartphones have to be rotated into landscape or the video will be sideways when transfered to your computer

• this is a good phone, not because of Microsoft, but Samsung.

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AT&T LG Quantum Review

Windows Phone 7 is brand-spanking new to the mobile OS world, trying to win back hearts of millions of disenchanted WM 5 and 6 users who grew frustrated at the lack of change. With iPhone and Android taking charge in popularity and user friendliness, Microsoft’s reputation in the world of handheld devices grew more and more sour to the point of scrapping the entire WM project and starting from the ground up. Thus, Microsoft has released a completely unknown and unproven OS around the globe, hoping phone manufacturers and consumers will welcome Windows Phone 7 with open arms. It’s a huge risk for anyone to invest so much money in this new platform.

So far only a few players have stepped up to the plate to take that risk. LG is one of those players, introducing the Quantum and Optimus 7 handsets as its primetime investments. Today I will be reviewing the Quantum, now available in the US on AT&T.

While Microsoft has set a very specific criteria for OEMs to follow in making WP7 handsets, the LG Quantum still has been able to stand out of the crowd by offering the only horizontal slideout QWERTY keyboard in the US as of this writing (The Dell Venue Pro is the only other handset in the US with a physical keyboard, but uses a vertical slideout keyboard instead).

To note, I love the choice of the phone’s name. Hearing Quantum always makes me think of quantum mechanics/physics and Quantum Leap. No matter which way you think of the word, it signifies a rather large jump forward in one way or another. This is incredibly symbolic of the goal Microsoft is attempting to achieve with WP7.

Thanks to our friends at LG we have been given the opportunity to review the Quantum for a couple weeks, and it’s time to share our thoughts with you. How does the LG Quantum act and feel, and how does it hold up against its WP7 brethren? Find out in this full review of the LG Quantum.

Hardware and Design of the LG Quantum
In the worldwide launch of WP7, it’s almost as though all the phone companies got together and drew straws to decide which form factor each company would design; there are so many different types of Windows Phones out there that you really have your choice of whatever style fits your needs. LG chose to include a full-sized physical QWERTY keyboard in designing the Quantum and threw it in as horizontal slider.

Doing so does mean that the phone itself weighs 6.2 ounces and spans out at dimensions of 4.7 x 2.34 x 0.60, making it heavier and thicker than its competitors. Fortunately it does not sacrifice style points or even comfort points in the process. When I held the phone in my hands I did not feel like it was too heavy for it to be comfortable. On the contrary, I actually felt that the LG Quantum is the most solidly built of all three AT&T WP7 devices. The Quantum is built primarily with rubber and metal materials. Instead of being the primary ingredient, plastic is only thrown into the mix as a secondary material. Not only does the rubber and metal give it a more solid feel, it also makes the Quantum more aesthetically pleasing. For instance, the back cover is all brushed metal and adds a very classy look to the device. The rubber sides make the phone already feel like it has a case on it, even though it doesn’t.

The Quantum uses a 3.5? capacitive TFT touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. This is small compared to the larger touchscreens of its WP7 brethren, but it does help the Quantum feel more compact than it really is. The touchscreen does not feel too small; on the contrary, it’s just right for the phone’s design. Any larger would cause the Quantum to be a behemoth as a whole that wouldn’t even fit in your pocket comfortably. Fortunately, LG used the right blend of decent screen size with keyboard size and made it work rather well.

Microsoft requires the same 3 buttons be used on the front of every WP7 device: back, home, and search. Both back and search are built into the screen display and are only touch-sensitive, whereas the home button is a lonesome physical button down all by itself, down below the screen. This is a special design technique that LG used, and having a physical home button works very well.

Touring around the sides of the phone, on the right side you will find a volume up/down rocker and camera button. The bottom has absolutely nothing. On the left side there is a micro-USB charging port that is covered by a plastic flap that can be peeled off to reveal the port; most phones use the flap as a standard to keep dust and moisture out, though I worry that it may be easily torn off if not careful. On the top you can see a standard 3.5 mm headset jack and a power/screen lock button.

The back of the phone has a brushed metal battery cover that displays the LG and Windows Phone logos on it, and you can also see the 5 MP camera and LED flash accompanying it. Seeing this kind of battery cover along with the neighboring rubber shows me that LG was very concerned about making their phone to last long enough to get your money’s worth out of it, and to make it a more enjoyable experience using the phone overall.

In my reviews, one huge deal maker or breaker is the keyboard. If it’s not comfortable enough to use, it’s almost impossible to recommend since the chances of that phone’s keyboard becoming miraculously comfortable over time are slim to none. Thankfully I had a great experience using the keyboard on the LG Quantum. The sliding mechanism is incredibly solid and built strong. There is no looseness whatsoever but yet the slider is easy enough to slide open without considerable effort or strain.
The Quantum keys are comfortable to type on with my average-sized fingers and thumbs. Each key has been separated out and ever-so-slightly raised as to make the keys easier to press. Looking more closely at the keyboard itself, there are four rows; the bottom row is dedicated primarily to the space bar, direction pad and emoticon button, while the remaining 3 rows are for the letters. The number row is partnered up with the usual top row of letters, meaning the Q is also 1 and so forth. There is no .com button. Curiously the “fn” button, the button responsible for shifting your typing over to the blue symbols such as numbers or punctuation marks, has been pushed off to the left side to hang out with the upper arrow button. This took some getting used to, since pressing that button so far to the left doesn’t feel natural to me. It just seems out of place, as if it was just an afterthought.

We don’t see anything new or out of the ordinary on the LG Quantum’s hardware or design; it’s just built to last and knows its primary purpose, and fulfills that purpose well.

Firmware and OS on the Quantum

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the LG Quantum uses the brand new Windows Phone 7 OS. I will be giving a full review of WP7 shortly. In short, the WP7 interface is what will either get you interested in the Quantum to begin with, or cause you to be uninterested in it and be looking for a different phone. Microsoft took a few lessons from Apple and tightened down the restrictions on what its phones can and cannot do, which means the UI you see on the Quantum is the same as you’d find it on any other WP7 device. There are only a few minor differences between the two, which I will cover in another section, but mostly your experience with WP7 on the Quantum won’t be any different at all than on its competitors.

Overall I have been very pleased in using Windows Phone. As a first-generation OS, Microsoft has out-performed the first-gen version of any other smartphone OS ever made, including that of the iPhone (which when it first came out did not have apps, couldn’t send MMS and lacked several key features any self-respecting smartphone would automatically come with). The screen is incredibly responsive; no matter how I swiped or touched the screen with my fingers there was no delay whatsoever. Pinch-to-zoom worked beautifully on the browser and maps.

I was happy to see that the Quantum comes included with 16 GB internal storage space inside the phone. This memory is not expandable, unfortunately, because Microsoft chose not to give users access to the MicroSD slot on any WP7 device (with the exception of the Samsung Focus; even though the MicroSD slot is accessible on the Focus, however, AT&T has acknowledged that no current microSD card is fully functional until new ones can be produced that are Windows-certified). On the Quantum this particular slot is covered up with a secured silver plate and unless you are paying attention to it, you won’t even know it’s there.

Using a sideways sliding keyboard on the Quantum, I quickly noticed another interesting aspect of the Windows Phone OS: landscape mode is limited and not universally used in every application. I definitely could open the keyboard and be warmly greeted by landscape mode on Internet Explorer and Messaging, but several other native and third-party apps could not function in landscape mode even though the keyboard was slid out. For instance, I attempted to go into Slacker and had to type in my user name and password while turning my head sideways to look at what i was typing in portrait mode. This may become more universal with the introduction of new WP7 updates, but currently is rather frustrating. It’s a Microsoft limitation, not LG, but just having a horizontal QWERTY keyboard makes that limitation painfully obvious as you begin to use the phone on a regular basis.

The Quantum is full of great features that aren’t unique to the WP7 world: 1 GHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, GPS, 5 MP camera with 720p HD recording . But the fact that these aren’t unique to Windows Phone 7 is a compliment to the cutting-edge nature of the new OS. No slowpokes or “budget” devices allowed; each device has to include these kinds of specs, if not even better than these, in order to use WP7. This is admirable simply because it shows Microsoft only wants its phones to be high-performance. This will greatly reduce the possibility of a bad phone hurting the OS’s reputation. Wanting to be cream of the crop, LG’s Quantum definitely fits the bill as a high performing device. I will go into more detail on how LG stands out later in the review.

Multimedia/Internet Capabilities
Microsoft has integrated Zune into all of its phones in attempt to give each device the richest possible multimedia experience. Whether it’s watching videos or listening to music or podcasts, Zune is tightly woven into the Music+Video app on the LG Quantum. If you plan on using any sort of multimedia on the Quantum, it will be essential to download the Zune application on your PC (or for Mac users, a beta version of Windows Phone 7 Connector is available for download as well). Plugging in the Quantum you will be able to move music and video files to it from your computer easily, not to mention pictures or videos from the Quantum to your computer. Once I loaded my music onto the Quantum via my PC, the phone automatically started searching through the Marketplace to find artist info, bios, album covers, and other related information to the music I loaded in.

The Zune pass is also available to use on the Quantum. For $14.99/month you can choose to subscribe to Zune pass, which gives you unlimited streaming of your favorite songs and 10 free downloads that you can keep each month. It’s definitely recommended to get the Zune pass and use it directly on your Quantum. Zune access is tied into the phone’s marketplace so that you can search not only for applications, but games and Zune songs and artists as well. Zune also offers support for podcasts and radio as well. One additional option AT&T throws in (again, for a monthly fee) is AT&T radio, which is essentially another streaming internet app along the same lines as Pandora or Slacker. Frankly, Slacker is already available for free through the Marketplace, so it’s hard to argue the need to shell out extra money each month for a similar service.

One cool feature that you’ll find on Windows phone 7 is the ability to automatically upload any picture or video you take directly to your online Skydrive account, which will already be setup for you since you had to create a Live account to begin using the Quantum in the first place. The Skydrive will offer you plenty of space to store and backup all of these pictures taken on your phone so you — or any of your friends — can check out your latest pics. If you don’t want to share your pics with anyone, you have the ability to keep them private or just not upload to Skydrive at all if preferred.

Video playback is great on the Quantum. Taking advantage of the above-average screen resolution I was impressed by the image quality of the videos loaded onto the Quantum. Most major video formats are supported, so there is no need to worry about what type of format to put your movies into prior to loaded it in your phone.
Internet Explorer was fast and easy to use, both through AT&T’s 3G network and WiFi. IE supports multiple open tabs and landscape mode, and the pinch to zoom functionality works flawlessly on it. There is no delay, no catching up. It’s incredibly responsive and quick. I also didn’t have any problem downloading pages or even apps using the Quantum.

I enjoyed using the camera on the Quantum as well. With a 5 MP camera, it’s on par to compete with the other top players in the market like the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S. The pictures (and HD videos also) turned out just as crisp and the colors just as vibrant as the aforementioned devices. Definitely right on track to be a top competitor here. Here are a couple pics taken with the Quantum’s camera:

Marketplace Apps on the LG Quantum

Microsoft gives each manufacturer the opportunity to place their own app store into the Windows Phone Marketplace. That way when you use the Quantum to check out the marketplace, LG App Store is one particular option to look at. Inside, LG has developed several exclusive apps that can only be used on the Quantum or Optimus 7. Here are some of the apps LG features in the store:

Play-To: This app is DNLA-based, which means you can connect your Quantum with your PC, Xbox 360, or TV through your local WiFi connection. Through this connection you can stream any movies or music from the Quantum onto any of these other devices, effectively turning your Quantum into its own remote control of sorts.

Look n Type: If you walk and text at the same time, it’s a good idea to be safe and look where you’re going. With Look n Type, it turns your camera app on and overlays your messaging functionality on top of it. This lets you type while seeing the ground in front of you. Clever idea — now only if someone could come out with a Drive n Type app, we’d be set! (disclaimer: texting and driving is very bad. Don’t do it.)

Tool Box: A handy 7-apps-in-one app. It offers a flashlight, level, unit converter, and world clock, amongst others.

Panorama Shot: Just as it sounds, this is a camera app that automatically puts your pictures into a 360-degree panoramic shot. Great for scenic pictures.

Photo Stylist: Much like Photoshop.com, this takes your phone pictures and lets you add extra filters and effects to them, to add style and coolness to them.

A?ll of these apps offered in the LG apps store are free and easy to download.

Performance of the LG Quantum

The shining star on the Quantum is its battery life. We’ve noticed much improved battery time on Windows Phones in general, but after playing with the Quantum for a week I was quite impressed by how long it really does last. I typically start the day with a full charge at around 9 AM and use the phone regularly throughout the day: meaning I make random calls, do texts and emails, use Twitter and Facebook and search around all of my other apps on the phone, and still end the day with around 20% charge. So even though I still charge the phone every night, this is a huge improvement in battery life over most iPhones or Androids that I’ve used in the past.

Making and receiving calls ended up being a great experience, as the audio quality was excellent on both sides of the conversation. I always understood everything on the other end of the line because the calls were crisp and static-free, the speaker on the phone is sufficiently loud, and I never had any concern dropping calls.

As mentioned earlier, the high standard of top-quality specs in any Windows Phone will help it be a good performer, but I was still impressed by how quick and responsive the LG Quantum is. I never had any delays getting into apps, or even moving back and forth through the menus of the phone.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised using the LG Quantum. The only frustration I had with the phone was the on-screen keyboard just simply because it felt too tiny to use; however, this would always prompt me to just slide open the keyboard and take advantage of faster typing that way. Any other frustrations I had were based off the Windows Phone OS (which I will cover in my full WP7 review) and not the phone itself.

If you are looking for a Windows Phone that uses a full physical keyboard, I recommend the LG Quantum as a great option for you. To get more details on the Quantum, check out my full video review below as well as the complete photo gallery that shows off the Quantum.

You can also win 3 LG Quantum and 2 Optimus 7 smartphones by filling out our survey.

If you liked the post, you might find these interesting too:

• Win 3 AT&T LG Quantum and 2 LG Optimus 7 WP7 handsets with us
• Unboxing the LG Quantum Windows Phone for AT&T
• Unboxing the LG Quantum: Brad’s First Impressions
• Microsoft Zune / Pink phone coming in two months, WM7 included?
• “Zune phone” references coming straight from Microsoft

• Best info yet.

• Thanks for the informations. Now I am confuse what to buy if this phone or Samsung Galaxy. What do you think?

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Improved Windows Mobile 7 coming

THE GIZMO: Windows Mobile 7 comes on strong.

DON’T GIVE UP THE FIGHT: Ever hear the gag about the poor inventor who kept trying to come up with a soft drink – starting with a recipe he called “One-Up”? He finally abandoned the cause after six tries. You can guess the punchline. Someone else took it to seven and scored big.

Today, that “someone else” is Microsoft, likely to make a sizable dent in the smart phone market with its vastly improved Windows Mobile 7 operating system.

While ever-persistent and deep-pocketed, prior versions of Microsoft software are found in just 5 percent of the world’s mobile communicators. The big operating system winners are Symbian (backed by global giant Nokia), then RIM (BlackBerry), Android and Apple.

But with Windows Mobile 7, the backbone of several smart phone models going on sale in Europe today and landing in the U.S. Nov. 8, starting at AT&T and T-Mobile, Microsoft shows it’s learned from past mistakes. It could win a big bunch of fans, too, with “ease of use” as its mantra and a reported $500 million advertising launch campaign for insurance.

SMART PHONES FOR DUMMIES: Hate to read operating manuals? Uh, me too. Yet, the HTC Surround phone ($199 on contract from AT&T) with Windows Mobile 7 that I’ve been trying out has proven so simple, so intuitive that I’ve barely made a wrong move or gone down a dead-end street.

The visuals were designed by the same graphic design/interface team that worked on the spiffy Zune HD player. Their home screen is based around preloaded tiles on the phone home page called “Hubs” that are really content aggregators, integrating related “apps.”

Just tapping on one of the “tiles” (or the menu arrow) and then swiping with a thumb in vertical and horizontal directions keeps the traffic flowing more smoothly than it does on iPhone or the (more cumbersome) Android.

Especially well-suited for the social networking crowd are the constant visual updates of incoming text messages on both the welcome and home pages. And multiple feeds like Facebook and Twitter get pushed to the “People” hub. You can easily bounce back with a text message or phone call just by tapping on the person’s name or photo. All their contact information is likewise integrated here.

WM7′s music and video hub currently connects just to Zune, Microsoft’s subscription and pay-as-you go video/audio entertainment operation. But my review phone also had a separate tile connecting to AT&T U-Verse Mobile, usable with a home account or as a $9-a-month streaming service with a limited array of TV offerings (at least it has “Mad Men” and “Rubicon”).

Playing to other Microsoft properties and strengths, there’s an improved version of Internet Explorer and a dedicated hub for Xbox Live (for game downloads, chat and “more”) that should please the user base.

There’s good integration with Office productivity programs and easy access to Microsoft’s cloud-based Skydrive service, where you can also store or share photos taken with the HTC’s decent, five-megapixel camera.

While video conferencing is missing, I love the phone’s dedicated picture-taking button, which works without opening an app. There are also three hard buttons below the screen on every WM7 phone to go back or home or open the Bing search engine, which does good work with voice or text command and GPS navigation.

App tiles can be moved around or replaced easily with a process called “pinning,” already familiar to Windows 7 users.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY: The touch screen on the HTC Surround is clear and bright, and the virtual keyboard is a pleasure to use, with predictive word suggestions that speed the texting process. But if you accidentally swipe the screen sideways, the phone display may go flying to an adjacent page.

Heavy Internet use wore down my test phone’s battery in a little less than four hours. But you can swap out the battery – not possible in iPhones – or recharge pretty quickly (2 1/2 hours).

HTC named this phone “Surround” to emphasize its superior audio quality; a slide-out panel reveals side-mount speakers that play louder than most and with a wider sense of signal throw. Yet high fidelity, this ain’t.

At the moment, Windows Mobile 7 phones won’t let you cut and paste text, and Flash support is missing. Fixes are promised.

This system also lacks “multitasking” support – maybe a deal-breaker for power users. To compensate some, when you slide back to an application after a call, you’re just where you left off.

Launch applications available at the Windows Mobile Marketplace will be a drop in the bucket next to the 200,000-plus apps available for the iPhone and 70,000-plus for the Android operating system. Microsoft argues that it’s building in more “essentials” that other systems make you add on, and trying to keep its guard up for ease of use and integration.

But when a major player like Pandora, available on almost everything, says it’s sitting out this launch, you gotta wonder if Microsoft isn’t pushing the control button too hard and often.

Send e-mail to [email protected].

What’s hot (and not) about Windows Phone 7

After more than a month of living with Windows Phone 7, I have to say, Microsoft’s new phone operating system is starting to grow on me.

Although I liked the general look of the operating system, I suspected its simplicity was only skin deep and that over time I would uncover both annoying glitches and places where the phone was all too much like a little computer.

Instead, there are hidden delights. In the past week I’ve found the cursor, voice recognition, and other things that I missed in my first days playing with the phone. Here are just a few examples of features that I only recently noticed: if you are in an e-mail or other place where one might want a cursor, hold a finger down in one place and a cursor pops up that you can then drag to the place you want to go. Click to the left of an e-mail and it brings up the check boxes that can be used to delete multiple e-mails–one of the most common tasks people do on their phones.

Holding down the camera shutter button lets you take a picture–even if the phone is locked. As for the voice recognition, holding down the Windows button brings up an array of voice-controlled features that draw on Microsoft’s Tellme technology.

A decent case can be made that these features should be more obvious, but what’s nice is that these features are discoverable through serendipity as well as from a manual.

Microsoft often throws around the phrase “it just works” as a design goal for a new piece of software. In practice, however, the products rarely live up to that billing. That said, Microsoft appears to be pretty close with Windows Phone 7. Although the software is not final and it is running on prototype hardware (in my case the Samsung Taylor), its clean look isn’t interrupted by error messages, hiccups, or other form breaks.

Above all, Windows 7 is–dare I say–elegant. Even my foreign-language spam looks beautiful on the device. It almost makes me wish I understood all those messages in Japanese, Korean, and Arabic.

Its beauty is more than skin deep, too.

One of the things I demand in a phone is that it behave like a portable consumer electronic device, not like a tiny computer. It should be instant on, easy to navigate without too much thought, and hide nearly all its complexity. To me that’s what made the original iPhone and all its successors such a hit. (It’s also why I think the iPad poses a serious challenge in the market for highly portable computing, but that’s another story.)

With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft doesn’t make up for all of its years of lost ground in this area, but what it does, it does very well.

The camera application makes it easy to take photos and videos and share them to Facebook or send them via e-mail or multimedia message (MMS). The mobile version of Internet Explorer adds pinch-to-zoom and other features that put it in the same league as other mobile browsers.

I’m not a huge fan of virtual keyboards in general, but the one built into Windows Phone 7 is pretty good, especially when accounting for how good it is at making suggestions for what one mistypes.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though.

Most of what I don’t like about Windows Phone 7 traces back to the fact that this is–despite its polish–what amounts to a new first try for Microsoft. There are some key things missing that one finds in rival products. High up on that list for me is the fact that copy and paste are missing. I do a lot of e-mail on my phone, and one thing I like to do is copy chunks out of one e-mail and paste them in another. On occasion I even write whole stories on my BlackBerry. I can’t do that on Windows Phone 7.

My biggest gripe is battery life. Despite being a vast improvement over the hour-and-a-half life it once got, my Windows Phone 7 device won’t get me through a busy workday–and that’s without listening to music or playing games (I still don’t have any third-party apps on the device).

That said, I’m told that Microsoft and its partners have made further gains in battery life and that the shipping devices should at least reach my goal of being able to be used hard for a full day (and I’m not talking just an 8-to-12-hour workday here).

I hope so, because the built-in Zune player–particularly streaming music over the Web–is one of the selling points of the phone. And, although we haven’t heard a lot about Microsoft’s app strategy, Windows Phone will launch with a whole lot of programs; and it would be a shame if one has to ration use of those programs to conserve battery.

One of the key yet-to-be-answered questions is just how good the final hardware will be. Microsoft has said that the Samsung Taylor units are meant only to show off the software and aren’t indicative of what the first crop of real phones will be like. Several models that are aimed at the market–including phones from LG, HTC, and Samsung–have gotten regulatory approval, but we have yet to get time to see how they stack up to both Android rivals and the iPhone.

Microsoft waves bye-bye to Kin phones
Microsoft waves bye-bye to Kin phonesComment

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Well that didn’t take long. Less than two months after their introduction, Microsoft has pulled the plug on the two Kin phones that were supposed to make the company hip and relevant in mobile. I reckon that’s what happens when you throw a party and nobody attends. Microsoft will now focus on its next of kin, the redesigned Windows Phone 7 devices that are slated to appear before the end of the year.

The Kin handsets played completely against type: Unlike Microsoft’s aging Windows Mobile franchise, the Kins were neither staid nor corporate. They included Zune music players, automatic backup of nearly everything you did (texts, photos, call history) and were targeted at youthful customers for whom being social is almost everything.

Actually, the clever “cloud-based” backup feature—what was called Microsoft Studio–was the best thing about the Kins. My feelings otherwise were decidedly mixed. Among other flaws, Kins lacked third party apps, had no calendar (how social could they be without one?) and weren’t all that easy to use.

Here’s hoping Microsoft will include some variation of the Studio backup with the Windows Phone 7 devices that are Microsoft’s next great hope in mobile.

Indeed, Microsoft has major hurdles ahead in mobile. Though I like what I’ve seen in early demos of Windows Phone 7 devices, time is a wasting, given piping hot competition from Google Android, RIM BlackBerry and the iPhone.

In the official statement announcing Kin’s demise, Microsoft said: “We have made the decision to focus on the Windows Phone 7 launch and will not ship Kin in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our Kin team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from Kin into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon Wireless in the U.S. to sell current Kin phones.”

Translation: no more KINs will be manufactured once current supplies are gone.

Readers, are you mourning Kin’s demise?

By Ed Baig

Sanitize your cell phone, MP3 player, and headphones with Violight

Looking after a cell phone to most people means buying a protective case and a screen protector, but what a lot of us don’t think to do is clean it regularly. That precious iPhone sitting in your pocket is touched by your hands throughout the day, thrown in a pocket, left on multiple surfaces, and placed against your face and ear repeatedly. Even if you wash your hands regularly bacteria will get left on such a device. The same is true of digital music players, earphones, and Bluetooth headsets.

The solution is to come up with some kind of cleaning regime, but then how can you ensure all the bacteria is destroyed, especially if your phone has raised keys? Step up Violight, which is preparing to release a new gadget that kills 99% of bacteria on these small devices using UV light.

The Violight UV Cell Phone Sanitizer consists of a cylinder you open and put your device inside. Put the top back on, turn it on, and wait while the UV light kills strep, e.coli, salmonella, listeria, and the H1N1 virus among many other nasty bacteria. In total it takes 5 minutes to sanitize each device, and you can use it for your phone, MP3 player, earphones, and Bluetooth headset.

Violight is planning to release the sanitizer in October this year at a $49.95 price point. It’s also highly portable due to the fact it runs on 3 AAA batteries which should be good enough to sanitize all your devices at least once.

Read more at ZDNet

Matthew’s Opinion

Violight aren’t new to sanitizing using UV light. Other products the company has released include a toothbrush sanitizer, dental spa, UV wand, and razor sanitizer. So you have to think they know UV sanitizing pretty well.

The biggest problem with devices like a shiny plastic cell phone is the build up of grime from your fingers. That can be removed with the right cleaning fluid and a cloth that won’t scratch, but you’ll never get all the dirt out. Areas like the case seams, in-between the keys, or around the memory card slot are difficult to clean and you risk damaging those areas if too forecful.

At $50 Violight might have the best solution yet to that problem. A multi-use, hands-free bacteria killer that takes 5 minutes to do its job. Are you tempted?