Windows Phone 7: First Impressions
My new Windows Phone 7 device arrived today and after playing with it for a few hours, I wanted to give my initial impressions with WP7. To give a bit of background first, I have been an iPhone user since day 1 with my last phone being an iPhone 3GS. After following the WP7 development for a while, and combined with a special sale on Amazon, I figured it was time to make the switch. I ended up going with the Samsung Focus, which seems to be the favorite among the Windows Phone 7 handsets currently offered.
Setting up WP7 took less than 5 minutes. Just answer a few simple questions and it is ready to go. I was excited to get to the home screen with the live tiles that you see so often. The screen on the Focus is simply beautiful, and just makes the WP7 layout even that much better. The one thing I immediately noticed is that the interface is very user friendly and intuitive. Using an iPhone for years, and not having any hands-on experience with a WP7 phone before today, I assumed I would have a hard time getting used to the layout and functionality. I was wrong.
Within minutes of using the device I was gliding through setting up more features like e-mail accounts, getting Facebook setup, etc. It really gave me the impression that there was little to no learning curve which I was very surprised at. Even though I’m not your typical user, I could tell that Microsoft really put a lot of effort into this aspect of WP7. My wife grabbed the Focus for a few minutes, and she was also browsing through the device like she owned it. A real accomplishment for Microsoft if I may say so.
The live tiles have to be my personal favorite so far. Being able to look at the screen and see what the temperature is outside without having to click through apps was refreshing. Reading and creating e-mails is a breeze, and the WP7 keyboard is a step above the iPhone’s. The People hub is quite an interesting concept, and they actually pulled it off quite well. The simple way to describe it is it’s an all-in-one view of your contacts from various places (Hotmail, Facebook, Gmail, etc.), with the added bonus of seeing their statuses and being able to interact with them like writing on their Facebook wall.
Xbox and Office integration are also great features. I haven’t spent a ton of time with them yet, so there’s much more to discover, but so far my initial expectations have been met. I’m really looking forward to exploring the integration with Skydrive and other Windows Live services.
Overall I’m very impressed and very happy with my decision to switch to Windows Phone 7 so far. I’m going to save my small gripes and suggestions for my next article, but every “issue” I have come across is minor, and I still need a bit more time with the device to get more experience with it.
Taking the Windows Phone 7 Plunge
After much debate I have finally taken the plunge and ordered my first Windows Phone 7. I currently have an iPhone 3G and it is showing signs of its age both physically and OS-wise. I don’t have anything against the iOS platform, but my wife has an iPhone 4 and although it has some nice features, there’s nothing there that is pulling me to upgrade to one. It’s time for a new direction and give WP7 a shot.
I have been researching, and discussing with Twitter friends and decided upon purchasing the Samsung Focus. It seems to be best hardware so far, and Amazon currently has it for $50, which was just too good to pass up.
Keep your eyes opened for un-boxing and a review coming soon.
Christmas Countdown Gadget for Your Desktop
Christmas isn’t that far off, and if you want to keep track of the number of days left, here is a Christmas Countdown gadget for you!
This gadget can be used on any Windows PC. No installation or additional software required.
Created with DesktopX.
WindowFX 4–Window Animations Video
The beta for WindowFX 4 is out for Object Desktop subscribers, and the feedback I have seen so far has been great. Still more to do, but I’m happy that people are enjoying what is being shown so far. One of my personal favorite features is the window animations, and I created a quick demo video showing off some examples of them.
View using HD for the best quality.
Didn’t Find My Last PC, I Built It!
I really enjoyed the question of this months Clubhouse Challenge as it made me think of when I actually last found and bought my last desktop PC. Thinking back, it really has been quite a few years since I bought a fully assembled PC to use. After I built my first PC, there was really no going back to buying an off-the-shelf or configured PC from a major manufacturer.
Couple of reason why.
- Customer support and quality is horrible. I’m the family and friends “IT guy”, and I can’t recall how many times someone’s name brand PC was turned to junk because of faulty and cheaply assembled motherboards and parts. Watching them go back and forth with customer support only to be told in the end they couldn’t do anything because “it wasn’t their fault” was enough to decide never to buy like that again. Building my own PC I know exactly what parts are in it, and if one fails I can easily replace it without having to worry about propriety cases or parts that cost an exorbitant amount of money just to get.
- Cost effective. By taking the time and doing a bit of research I can find some fantastic deals on quality PC components. Why pay an extra $100 for generic RAM when I can get quality for half the cost just by researching?
- No bloatware. Take a tour through pretty much any tech forum or social site and you will see countless complaints about the amount of bloatware installed on a “new” PC. Some manufacturers even charge you just not to include it! I get a clean copy of Windows, which I can install and reinstall anytime without tons of bloatware, and without having to use special “recovery discs”, just to install the operating system. It might cost a bit more in the beginning for a copy of Windows, but it is well worth the time spent not uninstalling 20 applications you don’t need.
I’m really not trying to knock big PC manufacturers, but in my experience building your own PC is a rewarding task that I always recommend to anyone with at least a small amount of technical knowledge and understanding.
Syncing OneNote 2010 with Office Web Apps
I made a quick post about the release of Office Web Apps this week, and I have been playing around with it ever since. My impression so far is WOW! There’s a lot to talk about, but I wanted to focus on my favorite so far, and that is working with and syncing OneNote notebooks. OneNote has always been a great piece of software, but it’s one limitation was that it could not easily sync with the web. OneNote 2010 and Office Web Apps changed that!
Setting up and using syncing was fast and easy, and here is how to do it:
Open OneNote 2010, click File and then select New. Here you will have the choice to create a new notebook either on the web, your network, or as a local document. You want to select Web.
Now just enter the document name, and you will be prompted to enter your Live login credentials. After a moment you will be logged in and viewing a list of your SkyDrive folders. Select where to store the notebook, and click Create.
I created a notebook for my work notes, and added some text and an image.
Without doing anything else the notebook is syncing with Office Web Apps. Now I fire open my browser and head over to office.live.com. Find my notebook and select it, and my notebook has been synced and I can edit it on the web from any location with web access.
That’s it, in just a few minutes I have a notebook synced with Office Web Apps, and no matter where I am or what type of computer I am using, I can access and edit it at anytime!
Office Web Apps Available on SkyDrive
Microsoft has made available Office Web Apps on SkyDrive to everyone in the United States, UK, Canada, and Ireland. You will be able to create, view, and edit files in Word, OneNote, Excel, and PowerPoint right inside your browser.
Another nice addition is you can view Word and PowerPoint document on many smartphones as well. I have been playing with it all morning, and already I like this much more than Google Docs.
Lots more info is available at the Inside Windows Live blog, which can be found here.
Microsoft Tags Comes Out of Beta
Microsoft Tag was introduced about 18 months ago, and I thought it was a unique and interesting concept that could have a wide variety of uses especially in the marketing and social areas. You can visit http://tag.microsoft.com/create-your-own-tag.aspx and “print” your own tag which when read with a Tag reader, can display text, link to a web page, import a contact, and more. For instance, you can place a Tag on your business card and by using the reader on your mobile phone, they could instantly pull up your website or add your contact information to their contacts.
Today’s news is that Microsoft has lifted Microsoft Tag out of beta with a free service along with plans for more advanced business users with value-added features.
These are some features mentioned on the Tag blog about the release:
- A device ID feature will allow marketers to deliver a more personalized consumer experience across multiple Tags. For example, consumers can now receive customized content, such as a coupon or other offer from a retail outlet, based on Tags they’ve previously scanned
- A new .tag file format will make it easier to print and manage a large number of different Tags as part of a broad campaign deployment. Developers of professional printing programs can now generate the Tag graphic on the fly as part of their solution
- Tag has always been available worldwide and has been distributed and deployed globally. We have added localization in five new languages which include: French, Spanish, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Italian
- And finally, we will be introducing a beta Heat Map feature in the next few days, available in the Tag Campaign Manager, that will help companies better measure Tag usage by location and make more informed decisions about their Tag campaigns and overall marketing spend
They also have a really nice reporting feature which can show you the number of scans for your Tags, and other relevant info.
Looking for Another Cool App? Try Fences!
The latest Clubhouse Challenge asks users to try out some apps on their list, and to suggest some that you think should be included on their list of cool and useful apps for Windows. It is a fine list so far, but I wanted to suggest an application that is very popular, and is very useful for any user running Windows – and that is Fences.
http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/
For anyone who likes to keep a tidy and clean desktop, this will probably become one of your most favorite apps to use. It organizes your desktop icons by placing them into “fences” on your desktop. Each of these Fences can be labeled so you can easily sort and group icons by product type, category, etc. Fences can be placed pretty much anywhere on the desktop, and can be sized and shaped to fit your needs.
In the screenshot above, I have three Fences where I keep misc. stuff like links and notes, and two other Fences for blog projects and projects on WinCustomize. You can add as many as your desktop can handle, and the cool part is by double-clicking the desktop you can make all the icons and Fences disappear. When you need them to return, just double-click again!
Fences is absolutely free, but there is also a Pro version with enhanced features available as well.
Download – http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/
Windows Live Writer – My Essential App
The Challenge in the Clubhouse for this month asks a simple question – What Windows Live product can you not live without? This is just too easy for me, and Windows Live Writer is the obvious answer to this one. Sometimes I am amazed that an application this useful is actually free, without any ads or anything else. I would without a doubt pay for WLW if it wasn’t free.
I manage and contribute to several blogs from technology to gaming interests. One of my favorite features of WLW was the ease of use, and the ability to have several blog accounts which can be switched easily from a drop-down menu. This makes blogging for multiple sites a breeze.
Windows Live Writer also does a great job at handling media files whether it is embedding video or images. I have most of my blog accounts setup to publish via FTP, and the added effect such as drop shadows and resizing is essential when writing blog posts.
I really could go on and on about Live Writer, but I think I have made my point that WLW is an essential app for my daily computing.
Flickr Photos
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