Windows Phone 7

[Joe Diaz]

Who has one?

I just got one yesterday. I bought the Samsung Focus. This is my first smartphone. Really all I need out of a phone is to make phone calls (hate texting), but, since my mp3 player is going on 5yrs old now, I thought getting a smart phone and using it as my new mp3 player would be a good plan. Now I have one slim device instead of two beefy devices.

I'm very impressed with the UI on this thing. The first app I got was the flickr app so that I can show people our portfolio of work. My contacts sync up with facebook contacts and uses their contact information and profile pics so I didn't have to manually add all of that crap. Love the web browser, but flash support won't be available until the next update, so I'll have until they add that and copy and paste earlier this year. Either way browsing the internet on such a small screen doesn't really work for me. I've been working on a mobile version of our site, so this will be a great device to test in on.

The music player on this is absolutely awesome. It's only 8GB which is adequate for the amount of commuting I do. But dosn't come close to holding my entire collection. However it does have a SD mico slot. So I could add 32GB more at a later date.

The Camera is awesome. It has flash. My old phone had a camera but It sucked. It was hard to pull up the camera function, took crappy shots, and then was even more a pain to get the photos off of the phone. This bad boy is very intuitive and takes great photos and video. SO there is 1 or 2 more devices I don't have to carry around.

I don't know why I didn't jump on to this smartphone bandwagon earlier. This is great.

 

[wes70]

Thanks for the review Joe. As soon as my old LG rumour goes missing or gives up, a smart phone is in order.

 

[jiarby]

After my Win 6.5 Tmobile TP2 dies (end of 2011) U think I will be looking at an android. I think Windows lost alot of business between WM6 and WM7 and they are now woefully behind.

Smartphones in general are great.... soon everyone will have them.

 

[Bannerday]

Who's your carrier Joe?

 

[Firefox]

Who has one?

...Really all I need out of a phone is to make phone calls (hate texting)

You hate texting now but when you are pressed for time or really don't want to get stuck on a call with some one that won't shut up, but still need to get them a message... Very handy!

I also use it when traveling to Vegas out in the middle of nowhere, send a text and as soon as the phone can log on to a signal it will send the text faster than you can dial the number and lose the signal again! It receives them the same way. Very handy when voice in a moving vehicle is spotty and no traffic to run in to!

 

[Joe Diaz]

After my Win 6.5 Tmobile TP2 dies (end of 2011) U think I will be looking at an android. I think Windows lost alot of business between WM6 and WM7 and they are now woefully behind.

Smartphones in general are great.... soon everyone will have them.

I never owned anything with older windows mobile OSs but I did a bit of research before I went shopping. And according to CNET, which hasn't steered my wrong yet, they actually like windows phone 7 a bit more than android. Acording to them, They started from scratch with this OS.

http://download.cnet.com/8301-20_4-10475182-10084490.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Since I don't have anything to compare it to other then messing around with my friends' iPhones, I can't tell what is better or not. I do know that being a newbie to smartphone, this was very intuitive and very smooth and responsive, I had it figured out in no time.

Who's your carrier Joe?

AT&T, which in our neck of the woods isn't bad at all. My friends in the Chicago area don't like AT&T, but I haven't had one dropped call in years, and the call quality is pretty good. Now that I'm dealing with data though, time will tell. Day to day, the majority of the time, I'm close by WiFi though, so that shouldn't be a big deal.

You hate texting now but when you are pressed for time or really don't want to get stuck on a call with some one that won't shut up, but still need to get them a message... Very handy!

I also use it when traveling to Vegas out in the middle of nowhere, send a text and as soon as the phone can log on to a signal it will send the text faster than you can dial the number and lose the signal again! It receives them the same way. Very handy when voice in a moving vehicle is spotty and no traffic to run in to!

No I'm pretty sure I'm allways going to hate texting. If time is a concern, I'm a pro at making phone calls short and to the point. To me typing on a little keypad seems like a step in the wrong direction as far as technology goes and has always been more time consuming for me. It's closer to morse code in my opinion.

I prefer to hear a persons voice. The tone of someones voice is very important in comunication as is a person's facial expressions. Since you can't always see someones face unless your phone has a camera, hearing their voice is the next best thing. Why do you think people get in arguments all the time on forums? You can't pick up on a person's tone, and part of the message dosn't come across.

And to make matters worst our provided has the nerve to charge me extra to use a more antiquated technology where I have to worrie about my terrible spelling skills. Nah I'll stick with talking over typing.:ROFLMAO:

 

[Joe Diaz]

Coolest app ever.......


The flashlight app. LOL

 

[CES020]

Joe, I think you'll move into the texting area over time. I'm not a big texter either, but one thing that makes a text awesome is when you need to talk to someone but it's not urgent, so you don't want to bother them. I have friends and family that are constantly in meetings for their job. Me calling and leaving them a message is a pain for them. However, I can do a short text "call me when you have a minute" and we're all good.

I don't have conversations on it, but I do send and get small, short messages like that all the time, and it's very helpful. I'd rather get that all day than the phone calls. It's hard to answer or make a call while on the toilet, but it's easy to read a text or send one while on the toilet

 

[Joe Diaz]

Joe, I think you'll move into the texting area over time. I'm not a big texter either, but one thing that makes a text awesome is when you need to talk to someone but it's not urgent, so you don't want to bother them. I have friends and family that are constantly in meetings for their job. Me calling and leaving them a message is a pain for them. However, I can do a short text "call me when you have a minute" and we're all good.

I don't have conversations on it, but I do send and get small, short messages like that all the time, and it's very helpful. I'd rather get that all day than the phone calls. It's hard to answer or make a call while on the toilet, but it's easy to read a text or send one while on the toilet

I can dig that. I realize there are times and places when texting is the way to go... Not going to argue that one. but I've dated girls and have friends that want to get in these back and forth, long texting conversations, when it is probably more appropriate to just pick up the phone. Now imagine trying to do that on my old phone where you have to press 4 three times for the letter "i" and you can understand why I fought it:ROFLMAO:. At least now I have a full touch screen keypad, but it is still slow going for me and even if I could text like a teenage girl, I find it much easier to just talk to someone.

And I can't stand it when you are watching a movie or eating dinner and you hear: click click click click...... ring...... giggle, click click click click..... ring.....

 

[RJ California]

but one thing that makes a text awesome is when you need to talk to someone but it's not urgent, so you don't want to bother them.

Exactly, I never liked texting either and I thought it was just a kid thing. I have found however that texting can be a good way of keeping clients updated on certain non-urgent business without bothering them with a phone call.

 

[petesign]

The first smartphone I had was an iphone 2g, I had it running on t-mobile, and loved it. Not having 3g speeds running a jailbroken iphone on tmobiles carrier really began to nag at me, so I bought an Android. The mytouch 3g I bought was supposed to be a generation or two newer than the old 2g iphone... and I hated it. I have seen some newer Samsung Galaxy android phones, and they look nice.. but I have since gone back to a newer hacked iphone.

Long story short.. when this iphone 3g runs out of steam, I am going to really consider the new windows phone. They look like they are done really well. How are applications served, is there a store, or can you just download them on your computer and swap them to your phone?

Simple is better to me, when jitterbug makes a smart phone that will run pandora - look out.. i'm there

 

[petepaz]

i am due for a new phone in april and i was looking to android but the windows phone looks useful also
i only have one concern and maybe it's stupid but since it is windows based can it fall victim to any computer viruses
(i know normally you don't have that on your phone but these hackers that have nothing to do but send out viruses might have thought of something new)

 

[Joe Diaz]

How are applications served, is there a store, or can you just download them on your computer and swap them to your phone?

Simple is better to me, when jitterbug makes a smart phone that will run pandora - look out.. i'm there

You can buy them directly on the phone. Or you can use the free zune software to download apps, music, videos etc... (I actually really like the new zune software). If you like simple you will love wp7. In fact, it is kinda of like a jitterbug, in that the touchscreen buttons are nice and big yet they are stylish. The big buttons are nice for this stubby fingered bass player. :Big Laugh

i only have one concern and maybe it's stupid but since it is windows based can it fall victim to any computer viruses
(i know normally you don't have that on your phone but these hackers that have nothing to do but send out viruses might have thought of something new)

Well the only reason windows computers are attacked more is because they are more widely used. I'm guessing the same would apply for phones then, if they were susceptible to virus infection. Except in this case because the iphone is more popular than most other smart phone, you would have more people trying to attack them. But both the apple and ms (not sure about android, both can only install apps through their shops, so they can keep an eye on that stuff, and have control over what types of apps you are installing. But I don't know. I'm sure someone has figured out ways to attack these phones or maybe make non official apps, but I haven't heard may people complain about smartphone viruses.

But really I wouldn't put stuff on my phone that I would need to worry about anyway. Hackers or not, you can still accidentally lose your phone or have it stolen much easier then a computer or laptop.

 

[mrfern]

If you have a smart phone get a smart music player. slacker or pandora are awesome for the smartphone. Paid subscriptions allows you to cache stations. Filtering per artist or genera is awesome. You can block songs or artist and when you opt for Rolling Stones you get other artists that fit the bill of the music station you totally forgot about. It is the next MP3 revolution... my .02 cents

HTC EVO Android - SPRINT - California

 

[tanneji]

I am really jealous! I got an android phone out of frustration with my iPhone 3G when apple updated and it slowed that phone to a crawl. I love my Android but the fragmentation with the updates and all is driving me crazy. I have a Samsung Captivate and am now 2 generations behind in software because the updates have to go through Google, then samsung, then att. This means that I do not have Flash, or any of the neato stuff that Google has come out with lately. There are also quite a few apps that I cannot run because they require 2.2, 2.3, etc. Grrrr. Apple had it right by doing the updates themselves and Microsoft has followed that same model. After I ditch my captivate, Win Phone here I come!

 

[Joe Diaz]

If you have a smart phone get a smart music player. slacker or pandora are awesome for the smartphone. Paid subscriptions allows you to cache stations. Filtering per artist or genera is awesome. You can block songs or artist and when you opt for Rolling Stones you get other artists that fit the bill of the music station you totally forgot about. It is the next MP3 revolution... my .02 cents

HTC EVO Android - SPRINT - California

If you have wp7 phone, it comes with zune for free. My brother pays like $15 a month for the "zune pass" which means he has access to the entire collection of music, and can load those songs on any PC with the zune software installed AND his zune mp3 player. If he had a wp7(which he will probably get when he's due for a new phone) or an xbox 360, he could load them on those too. And he can listen to those songs as many times as he wants whenever he wants as if they were a part of his collection as long as he continues his subscription.

THEN every month he can download any 10 songs he wants, and keep those forever. That is a pretty sweet deal. Now that I have this phone, I'm probably going to sign up.