Windows Phone 7 Series - an iPhone beater?
Well, better late than never, I suppose. Microsoft now has a new mobile phone platform that it hopes will rival the iPhone, and Google's own Jesus-phone, the Nexus One. It took its own sweet time -- and you won't be able to buy one of these until this Christmas season. But it looks as though it might be worth the wait.
On the face of it, I have to say that the interface looks most impressive. Microsoft has made a huge leap forward from Windows Mobile 6.5, which was essentially an interim release designed to keep the market somewhat happy until it could finally release this platform.
The idea of user-customisable live tiles, that can provide a real-time view of what is happening in the world on the home screen of your phone is very attractive. You can create tiles for your friends, for example, which keep you updated on their status in services such as Facebook.
The phone platform will also feature integration with Xbox Live, enabling you to access your account, and play Xbox Live games directly on your device, interacting with friends over the network.
For people like me who enjoy working on the go, the access to phone-based versions of popular Office products will be invaluable. I am particularly interested in the idea of an integrated OneNote product -- and so should anyone be, who needs to take notes out in the field. Students, for example, could benefit hugely from this. I still think that OneNote is one of the best notetaking products ever released. And because it synchronises with your PC automatically, you'll be able to transfer between note-taking in the field and a more intensive work mode at your PC
That synchronisation will be made easier thanks to WiFi. In its infinite wisdom, Apple decided not to allow this with the iPhone, meaning that I still had to plug in my cable, even if I still have plenty of battery life left in my device. Microsoft's platform will be able to synchronise while the phone is in your pocket, before you leave the house.
The promise of integrating Zune features into the phone could help the company to establish its position in the mobile media player market up here in Canada. This is something that it didn't really seem to do well with the original Zune.
However, there are still some unanswered questions. It is not entirely clear how much support for Adobe's Flash player there will be on this platform. That is one of the iPhone's significant failings, and stopped me accessing many websites that use Flash for basic functionality. Flash is a buggy, insecure system - Adobe had to patch yet another critical flaw in it this week - but so many sites use it as an inherent part of what they do that leaving support for it out of a system severely hinders its functionality. If Microsoft builds Flash support into this thing, it'll be a game changer.
Microsoft is coming late to the party with this phone platform, for sure -- but hopefully, it has taken its time to get it right. I'm looking forward to seeing what this thing looks like in the flesh come Christmas.
Danny Bradbury, MSN Tech & Gadgets
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Posted by: LINDA | Feb 16, 2010 4:32:47 PM
I NEED HELP EITH LOW DISK SPACE I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF IT,MY SISTER DONE SOMETHING TO MY COMPUTER TO GET IT.SO PLEASE I NEED UR HELP.
Posted by: Danny Bradbury | Feb 16, 2010 4:35:32 PM
Linda. Firstly, take your keyboard in for repair, as your caps lock key appears to be broken. Secondly, assuming you're using Windows, use the built-in utility with Windows that frees up space on your hard drive. How you access this depends on which version of the operating system you're using. In XP, for example, go to Control Panel, then Performance and Maintenance, and then select the option to free up space on your hard drive.
Dan
Posted by: tara | Feb 16, 2010 4:49:14 PM
was wondering what your opinion was on the new ipad??? can you actually surf the web, play games, and access email as well as all the ipod apps? or is it mainly a tablet to read stuff on?
Posted by: Danny Bradbury | Feb 16, 2010 4:56:54 PM
Hi Tara. Thanks for asking. We covered off the iPad here:
http://www.geektown.ca/2010/01/whats-missing-from-the-ipad.html
Basically, the lack of Flash is a show-stopper for me. Others may feel differently of course.
Posted by: Mike | Feb 16, 2010 7:09:07 PM
I for one do not see what the fuss is about. I like the old Windows Mobile because to me it's a mobile computer that also happens to be a phone, media device and has a gps, camera...
I use it a lot as a small mobile computer, way more then as a phone.
What I want to see in the new version is more computing power, more memory and better battery life.
I really don't see how anyone who uses a windows computer would use anything else, easy sync your music, video, contacts, documents and spreadsheets. If you write software for Windows writing for the Windows Mobile is exactly the same. And it can do anything and more then all of the other guys devices. Now the new interface looks good for small things, I just hope we can still get to something like the old interface for the times we want to do computing and not just listening to music or email.
Posted by: iPhone 4 | Jun 20, 2010 6:40:36 PM
I personally don't think that Windows Phone 7 series can beat the iPhone 4, check out the hot feature on this review http://www.iphone-4g-reviews.com/apple/iphone-4g-features-review/