LG's Windows Phone 7 Series Early Prototype 103
suraj.sun writes to tell us that Engadget got an early look at the new Windows Phone 7 series early prototype (and included a video). "The QWERTY slider is the first branded Windows Phone 7 Series device the world's ever seen, and while the hardware and software are both obviously early, we can tell you a few things about it: it's just a hair thicker than an iPhone or Nexus One, there are dedicated hardware camera, volume, and power buttons in addition to the back, home, and search buttons dictated by Windows Phone 7 Series, and we noticed a five megapixel camera with a flash on the back, along with a headphone jack. Can't say much apart from that right now, since things are so early and everything is subject to change, but things are certainly moving along."
Re:Another miss (Score:4, Interesting)
That link is being gone over [edwardtufte.com] on Edward Tufte's site, although I wouldn't expect Tufte to have any love for anything Microsoft.
I played with a prototype windows 7 phone about a month ago and they are using the paradigm of making the desktop larger than the screen almost everywhere and it is incredibly annoying.
CEO thinks people love Windows (Score:2, Interesting)
Windows "Phone" shows where MS would be today if they didn't have an illegal monopoly on PC Desktop. They think people love and trust to Windows brand and would use it if they have been given a real chance to choose.
On the other hand, Symbian, iPhone OS (post 2.x) and various Linux based platforms and even ARM (CPU) itself enjoys the popularity which would occur on x86 Desktop if MS/Intel/IBM gang didn't exist. It is like the 80s home computer wars and it is fun to watch how amazing things come from competition.
I guess it is Ballmer who insist on Windows name as you would expect from him. Most of people I know says "Windows desktop is really enough from 9 to 5, don't even think I can stand to it in my personal life when I got chance to choose."
Re:Dreadful UI experie (Score:2, Interesting)
If done properly, I don't see an issue. However, as you stated -- the chances of it being a nuisance are very high if not done properly.
Re:Another miss (Score:3, Interesting)
When I first saw the new WinMo 7 interface, I thought that the UI was chopping off parts of words because it wasn't finished, or wasn't quite designed for the phone they were demonstrating it on. Now that I know that is how they WANT it to look, this has fail written all over it. It is ugly and cluttered, and given that this was *supposedly* a ground up re-write, I don't know WHAT they were thinking.
Bottom line, this sucks. There are 4 (maybe 5) major "smartphone" players:
Apple - iPhone - I have one, and I LOVE it as long as I can keep it jailbroken. But every new firmware release Apple wants to make it harder.
Google - Android - Google had a good idea, but the potential downfall of that good idea has come to fruition -- market fragmentation. I won't be getting an Android phone until I am sure that things will become(remain?) stable.
RIM - Blackberry - A couple of problems with these for me. 1 - They are mainly business phones, and therefore not my forte. 2 - I *like* the touch interface, and RIM doesn't have a decent Blackberry with a touch interface.
Microsoft - WinMo series - It wasn't until WinMo 6.5 that they *finally* got an OK touch only interface. I don't want to have to use a pointer to use my phone. Unfortunately there is still a lot of software that needs that pointer -- so MS came out with WinMo 7, with no backwards compatibility (that has been seen yet -- and I don't think there will be any), but the interface is aweful even for alphaware.
Palm - Pre - This was my "maybe" 5th contender. Palm has a great phone here IMHO, however, they haven't released a GSM version, so it is useless to me. People in other marker areas may hate AT&T, but in the market I am in I can consistently get 2.5megs/sec down and never have a dropped call. So, until Palm releases a Pre for AT&T, they are useless to me.
Re:Another miss (Score:1, Interesting)
You Americans can say you don't like it, but dismissing Symbian as a "major smartphone player" when it holds almost half of the global market is ridiculous. Putting WebOS and its tiny representation before Symbian borders on stupid.
Perhaps you just forgot about it, since Nokia won't bend over, open their ass and say "please" for the US carriers like the others do.
MS has to compete and they fail (Score:3, Interesting)
Monopoly with low quality of code. On a device which requires high quality and efficient code, they fail since there is Symbian, Maemo Apple etc. there.
On Desktop, inefficient code and security issues can be fixed with high speed cpu and security software. On devices, device needs reboot middle of a phone call or has comical battery life. The king on current smart phones is Apple, there is also RIM (Java, imagine!), Nokia (Symbian was developed for mobile) and Google giant. MS enjoys (!) the fact that they have to compete and they really think people like Windows. They don't. It is some de-facto reality rather than choice.