I’ve been working non-stop this week in an attempt to get ahead of my impending deadline for Windows Phone Secrets. So imagine my surprise when Microsoft told me this week that I’d be able to write publicly about my experiences with the prototype developer phone as of today (Monday). Normally, this would be a cause for celebration: I hate keeping secrets, and want the world to know what I know when I know it.
Not so this time. I’m already swamped. And the thought of writing about this stuff, in depth, and outside of the book right now… It’s just bad timing.
I did manage to throw together a three-part article, Hands-On with Windows Phone 7, for the SuperSite, however. It’s woefully inadequate, and incomplete, and doesn’t cover so many interesting features of the phone. But I’m exhausted after literally working all weekend, and this was all I could summon. I hope it’s coherent. I’m not.
As for the book, I’ve gotten six chapters in "completely," with full screenshots and whatnot, which isn’t horrible (I should have 8 in, but I’m getting there). I will hopefully (fingers crossed) be really caught up by this time next week. But it’s going to take a lot of work.
This weekend, I wrote 20 pages for the Music + Videos chapters and completed that. I also finished the Office chapter, which is one of the longer chapters.
Next up, I think, is the Pictures chapter. Which reminds me. The Windows Phone camera software is excellent. I can’t wait to show it to you. :)
See you in the morning…
Glad you like it :-)
I can’t wait to see the camera stuff. Giddy is the word!
Small question, now that you’ve actually playing with a device, I know this is near final WP7 code, but how close to final would you say it is? 80%? 90% Best guess is fine.
And one last thing, have you found the update controls? Like, is there a “Check for updates” button somewhere for OTA updates or will it just toss out a notification of a new update when you sync it with Zune etc?
The big missing pieces are the Games hub (which like 10 percent done) and the (apps) marketplace, which is just missing meaningful content. It’s 90+ percent there overall.
That said, there are missing features/functionality, of course.
There is a Phone Update settings panel where you can configure how it works. Two options: Notify me when new updates are found and Use my cellular data connection to check for updates.
Oh, that 2nd update option is an interesting one. It seems that MS can totally sidestep using the carriers networks to push updates (I figure carriers would rather hold back on updates like they have been so they can sell you a new phone) and just push it all over the PC with the Zune software. That’s a good sign imo.
Right.
I must say, your giddy optimism about WP7 is pretty infectious. Engadget just posted their impressions, and they seem a little more skeptical about whether or not Microsoft can really finish the job. Since Microsoft is launching with an intentionally limited feature-set compared to the current iPhone or Android handsets, I really think they need to get the features that are included exactly right. I hope they can do it, because there’s a lot of fantastic concepts here.
The big question is how/when the updates happen. Release in October and silence until June 2011 is not acceptable.
I’m “giddy” about the Metro/hub stuff. Again, the thing just lights up with your stuff. It is amazing.
It has a ton of little missing bits in v1. I’ve been very honest about that.
Very nice!
Hard work, though…
What do you think of this: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/windows-phone-7-in-depth-preview/ – see their Wrap-up.
This is not insightful. On the one hand, he’s simply raising the same issues I’ve raised. i.e. Metro good, but Microsoft needs to move quickly. Right. Obviously.
I disagree that WP is half-baked. In fact, people are going to love this thing right out of the box. I address this stuff in my own preview.
“The industry has already proven that it won’t wait around for companies to play catch-up.”
Has it now? The iPad was 9 years late to the tablet game. It seems to be doing OK in that “industry”. The smart phone market is growing in leaps and bounds, and it will do so not by attracting nerds who care about whatever niche features, but by attracting real people. WP is great for real people right now. Sorry, Engadget.
Sigh.
I agree. These reviews address the geeks, not the “normal” people.
But still- we want it to also be good for us with advanced usage.
Yes.
The way I see this happening is that Windows Phone will be just fine for most (average) people on Day 1.
Features/improvements will be added. That schedule is an unknown.
For me, personally, I already prefer it. I would like to see some apps. I don’t miss much on the iPhone, but even a crossword puzzle app to fritter away time in line with would be great. Those will be around at launch, I bet.
Have you found it an issue that meaningless content (crap) from facebook proliferates everywhere?
I am giddy with excitement (I have an Omnia with winmo 6.1) for this release so dont think I am a hater, I’m just curious.
I prune my facebook regularly but I am afraid that my mom’s farmville updates and pictures of her “farm” will invade my life more than it has already.
Is there anyway to filter some contacts from not having their photo’s showup everywhere?
My wife got a pre last week, and after getting facebook it polluted her contact list with people without actual phone numbers or email addresses, can you easily filter those people out?
I know engadget raised these concerns as well, but they are asshats.
Is it easy/possible to link a facebook contact to a windows live contact? etc.
for instance I have Outlook 2010 with the windows live integration, but I cant seem to link co-workers IM persona’s(hotmail accounts) to the corporate email. I tried in the address book, but it seems to half work. If I go into the address book I can “reply with IM” but i cant right click on the contact in the from line and click “reply with IM” as it is greyed out.
My Facebook experience is a problem, and I’ve been turning it off and on, on the phone, as a result. The issue is I have 1000s of Facebook “friends” that I don’t actually know. This was a miscalculation on my part, but it’s too late to fix it now. So yeah, FB is painful on the phone. Windows Live works better for me if only because I really do know those people.
It is both easy and possible to link contacts of any kind on the phone. In fact, it auto-suggests these duplicates.
Super write-up! Hope my phone is in the mail already so I can start drooling and programming as well ;-)
Engadget: “Scratch that; it actually has to be nearly flawless in a world where iOS 4 and Gingerbread play.”
I am really getting tired of this argument. I’ve heard it from Engadget and some of the other big tech blogs out there. Was android flawless when it was first released? Of course not, and it seems to be doing just fine. Is the mobile Market still a fraction of the massive size its going to grow into? Yes.
In my mind there are four things that can make WP7 a “success”.
1. Great Developer Tools: So far MS has nailed this. These are great tools that everyone knows. They have been pretty good with updates already, and have provided very pretty strong documentation and evangelism to the developer community.
2. Money: It would have been a mistake if Google had given up on Android after the lackluster HTC Dream. Having the cash available to stay in the market with a product given lackluster sales of the first generation, and come in stronger with later revisions is a big deal.
3. Advertising: Again this involves putting some money on the table. The best example in my mind is Bing. MS spent a huge amount of money to advertise bing. Did it make them number 1 in search? Of course not. When 1% of the search market is worth $750 million in revenue a year, you don’t need massive gains to make a difference.
4. Enterprise: If MS keeps this platform as one of the top two Enterprise smartphone’s it will be a success. If it does that and is in the top three of Consumers platforms it will be a huge success given where they are coming from. Again in a market growing as fast as the mobile market, you don’t need to be top right away.
I agree, it does not have to be way better than iOS4 or Gingerbread (which btw, is not out yet, nor is FroYo deployed completely, but regardless) … it has to be good enough to get a lot of people started and the first update has to come within a quarter to address key bugs and some enhancements.
The crucial apps and the relative strength of the app store is going to be the biggest factor.
Since you now can talk about the thing, could you enlighten us about some things that aren’t obvious from the emulator?
In the Regional and language settings, there are several localization-related settings: Display language (this one is obvious), Browser language (HTTP Accept-Language header, I presume), Region format (obvious) and Locale. What does the latter set? Is there any way at all to switch languages on the keyboard? The part about “supporting five languages” may actually mean many things – i.e. iPhone supports a different number of languages for keyboard, display and autocorrection.
The second question is something probably even more important. Exchange ActiveSync as implemented in WM has a serious drawback – it doesn’t accept self-signed certificates and throws a connection error. In order to solve the problem you have to install a root certificate separately before setting up your Exchange account (iPhone and Android simply ask if you want to trust it and go ahead). I was scared to see that the current emulator does exactly what WM does – reports an error and refuses to proceed. Given that it’s impossible to install certificates in WP7, it means that there’s no way to use Exchange in these circumstances at all. Do you have any information on whether actual phones behave differently?
Thanks!
System locale is set to “English (United States).” There is “English (United Kingdom),” and in fact many, many other Englishes, and possibly 70-80 other total locales. (Latvian, Slovak, Spanish (Nicaragua), Spanish (Puerto Rico), and many, many others.)
I don’t know the answer to your Exchange question, sorry. I will try to find out.
Do you know if there is Hebrew language supported or when there will be?
No, sorry.
The locale list is a bit daunting, but I don’t see it under “H.”
OK, thanks, the emulator also has a long list of locale settings, but what does the setting do?
Sorry, could you please try to see what the Locale setting does?
Thanks a lot!
What are you looking for exactly? I would imagine this is related to number formats, currencies, and so on.
Isn’t number formats, dates and so on covered by “Region format”? I just want to try to understand what “Locale” does. Looking for hope to see that “5 languages supported” means display languages and there’s a chance to see more than 5 languages supported in terms of the keyboard… Very slim chance I know but this is like THE most important question about WP7 for me.
It doesn’t change the keyboard, I can tell you that. There is a specific Settings pane for Keyboard, with 8 choices, German, English (2), Italian, Spanish, and French (3) keyboards. But it’s five basic languages, as you can see.
Thanks for clarifying that.
Oh well, no WP7 for me then, and no need to try to figure out whether lack of C&P is a problem or not, it wouldn’t work anyway.
I can not wait, to get my first Smartphone, and for it to have a Zune like interface. Windows Phone 7 ticks the boxes.
I just am looking forward to the day when we can discuss this product, without feeling to need to be defensive or protective of it.
Windows Phone 7 is a big boy, and it can stand its own against the iPhone’s iOS and the reheated version with Android!
I think Microsoft really dropped the ball on not having live sync integration at start up. Hopefully this will come very quickly after release. Hopefully these fixes will come before WP8.
I don’t care how unfinished the developer phone you have is, i would trade my two iPhones for it right now :) i can’t wait until September/October/November/or whenever WP7 will be released.
Compared to Live Mesh, Live Sync is a bit hobbled, so I’m not surprised by this. I’d rather see seamless SkyDrive sync/access of documents, which is also MIA. It should (but doesn’t) work like SharePoint does currently.
your right i would like the skydrive working seamless too. i think of skydrive and live sync as parts of the same thing now (even though there integration is “lacking”) I have a handful of documents that i sync across all of my computers and would love to sync to my phone, especially now that i would be able to edit them if i had a WP7.
Off topic question:
how do you take screen shots of the phone?
This is currently a trade secret. :)
Let’s just say that I have a need for rock solid screenshots for the book, obviously. And while the devices Microsoft gave out to developers (and some reviewers) do not have any sort of output capability, there are workarounds (and devices inside Microsoft that do).
DId you catch MS’s reason for not adding Live Sync/Mesh support from day 1? I think it made perfect sense really, since people who use Mesh (now the new Sync as you know) share whole folders or large files from PC to PC, if you were to add a phone to that, as it is now, syncing that folder/files to a phone would kill it’s storage and drive the data usage up the roof.
I figure we’ll get it in a update pretty quick, with some nice tweaks so that you can add it to your list of devices and not have it flooded with who knows how many files you have synced from PC to PC.
I think they’re busy getting Live Sync onto a new infrastructure, and don’t want to be in the business of giving hundreds of millions of people free online backup. (Which is a charity, not a business.) I think we’ll see something more seamless over time.
I was looking at the videos on the ZDnet review…
I have some questions if you can answer Mr Thurott?
In the options for linking your facebook account, do you have to sync your facebook friends as contacts? I saw when setting up the sync with a google account, the contacts, email, and calendar options were individual options.
I am hoping Microsoft can get their Twitter support back in time for launch, I would love tweets without a separate app. Is there a way to choose which services connect to your Windows Live ID, on the phone? Or do you have to do it online via the Windows Live Profile page?
Will Microsoft be considering allowing the use of Microsoft Points, for buying apps, music, and videos in the future? I do not have a credit or debit card, so prepaid points would be perfect for me, just like pre-paid credit for phone calls.
I’ve had some trouble with Facebook integration because I have something like 1500 Facebook “friends.”
So I agree that every account, at the least, should give you the ability to enable/disable whatever relevant services they provide (contacts, calendar, email).
I can’t get into Facebook settings because I have too many friends, and it can never finish syncing. (It says “attention required.”)
I’m documenting for the book what you can do with each account type. So I’m going to be setting up a new Facebook account for this purpose. So I hope to know soon.
Regarding Twitter, it’s coming. There was some change to the Twitter APIs, I guess, and Microsoft had to temporarily remove Twitter support from the Windows Live feed.
You can use Points now to purchase any content in the Zune/Xbox Live/Windows Phone Marketplace. It’s already there.
I know twitter was supported in Windows Live, and it was a heavily delayed feed, but I know it is coming back. I was wondering if you could connect services from the phone itself, instead of going to your Windows Live Profile page and doing it there?
I am sure Microsoft has said that purchasing from the marketplaces on Windows Phone would be cash only. Unless this has changed?
Only Facebook is explicitly supported right now.
The marketplace on Windows Phone does list items in $ (or whatever) currency. But if you have points in your account, you can use those. (Or use Zune Pass credits for song purchases as well.)
Paul, do you know if the calendar supports displaying week numbers? They are very important in my line of business.
Another thing that has me puzzled is why the People section is called People and not Contacts. I have a lot of contacts that are just businesses (only Company Name) and a lot of contacts that I want filed under the business name even though they have a person name in them. In windows mobile 6.5 the “File As” Outlook name was displayed, and it worked rather well.
But now, it seems only the person name will be shown. Do you know how “People” will display a contact that has only a company name? Or can you control wether to show a contact as a business or person? Or can you display both the person and company name at the same time?
BTW thanks for your nice review of Windows phone and for this informative blog.
Calendar only supports Day and Agenda views (and, oddly separately, a Month view). There’s no week number display, sorry.
Not sure “why” it’s called People beyond assumptions around simplifying stuff: This is where you find out about people you know, and it’s not just a contacts list but also includes a what’s new feed.
There’s no meaningful contacts list filtering that I can see. There are literally just two columns in this hub, All (contacts list) and What’s New. You can change how they’re sorted, but only alphabetically (first, last or last, first).
It has been interesting to read your blog as you write the book and provide updates on other aspect of the WP7 story.
One thing that I haven’t seen much if not any mention of is whether or not WP7 provides any level of support for tethering, be it USB, Bluetooth or by turning the phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Is there anything you can say about this, please?
Thanks.
No, not right now, sorry.
There’s a leaked ROM from HTC Mondrian. It has an OEM package for a WiFi router. Whether it will remain there or not I have no clue, but there’s some hope.
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