I don't know, it could still be good, but it seems like the opposite of what I want from a phone. The selling point, of course, could be the Xbox Live stuff, which is still not active.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/windows-phone-7-in-depth-preview/None of this is final, so changes could still come. You guys should have a look at the article, and the videos, but here are some quotes:
There are two big omissions here, in our opinion. The device won't support copy and paste, and won't support third-party multitasking of apps. We knew this would be the case given what we heard at MIX10, but it doesn't stink any less now. The former really doesn't make any sense to us, especially since Microsoft did a good job of nailing text editing and selection (at least in Word, and really... you guys make Word), and it looks like it would only be a short walk to a contextual pop-over for copy and paste functions. The latter is practically inexcusable in this day and age -- even Apple (which has been a complete laggard in this area) now supports basic multitasking. When we heard in our meeting with Microsoft that the phone wouldn't even support something as simple as Pandora background streaming, our minds were a little blown.
For me, both of those are deal breakers, right there.
Cut & paste support is just essential for me, even for something simple like messing around on the message boards and facebook.
Being unable to do something like stream an online music radio service is also unforgivable.
Windows Phone 7 doesn't have "contacts," per se -- it has a People app, and there's quite a difference. This is a thoroughly social platform, and it doesn't really seek to make any sort of differentiation between people you talk to / text / email, those you just casually observe, and those with whom you're "friends" in name only. If that kind of philosophy reeks of Motorola Blur or Palm Synergy, you're on the right track; as soon as you add a Windows Live, Exchange, or Facebook account, it pulls in every contact associated with that account and disperses associated content throughout your entire phone -- there's nothing you can do about it. That means, for example, that your Pictures app could have a bunch of shots of your ex's aunt's new boyfriend's dog in it (more on that in a bit), and there's not a whole lot you can do to stop that behavior without completely removing your Facebook account from the phone.
OK this seems so ridiculously wrong, I have no doubt they will improve it.
Android/Galaxy S, allows me to have four categories, for contacts; SIM memory; phone Memory; facebook; and e-mail. I can sync these, or I can choose to display only the ones I want. I also have a choice in not importing any of my online contacts. That's the way it should be.
Currently I have synced all my contacts, and it is really cool, especially when you consider that most of your facebook contacts are the ones you know in real life as well.
Anyway, if they don't change this, then that's pretty stupid of them. Being forced to import facebook contacts is ridiculous, and not allowing people to use a traditional contact list is just idiotic.
I can see their logic. They are well behind Google when it comes to social networking, and if people start syncing their Windows Live contacts with their facebook contacts, it makes MS a little more relevant. They are essentially trying to play catch up. The difference though, is that Android doesn't force anything.
What's strangest about all of this, though, is that as socially-aware as Windows Phone 7 seeks to be, there's not a lick of Twitter integration to be found. For some, Twitter is every bit as important as Facebook -- if not more so -- and it seems like a glaring omission (MySpace isn't there either, but we're far more willing to forgive them for that).
I am not a big twitter person, but that does seem like an odd omission considering where WP7 seems to be positioning itself at.
There are a couple of other complaints in the article, like the lack of threaded e-mailing (again, silly), and a sadly barebones document editor, but the rest of it is full of praise. So yea, if you are interested in WP7, check out the article.
It might be very good, but it just doesn't like my cup of tea, unless the XBL integration is mind blowing.
