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Better late than never: The Social Review Wrap Up

2010-12-12T22:45:00Z

A fortnight after Telstra provided myself, and 24 others around Australia, a HTC Mozart 7 featuring Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 operating system, and I’m pretty much sold on the platform. This wrap-up post should have been completed by last … Continue reading →

#TelstaWP7: Figaro Takes a Bow

2010-12-10T23:43:00Z

Has it really been two weeks since I first got my hot little hands on Figaro?

It feels like it's flown by; and yet, I feel like I've had the phone for much longer.
Is that a good thing, or am I just bored with it?

I was given the device by Telstra for its HTC Mozart Windows7 "social review".

Here are my thoughts on each of those elements.

THE PHONE

Sepia filter on the inbuilt HTC
app "

Zune: Music, Rethought

2010-12-09T15:36:19Z

One of the more fantastic ironies of Apple’s success with its iPod, iPhone and iPad over the last decade is that iDevices, along with iTunes, have become so prolific that using them is no longer about thinking different, but going … Continue reading →

#TelstraWP7: Figaro & Bono

2010-12-09T12:42:00Z

I fell arse backwards into some U2 tickets this week, courtesy of nerdy metalhead and buffet dinner enthusiast Disco Stu.

I left all other cameras at home in order to focus my U2 "360" concert experience solely through the HTC Mozart Windows7 phone prism.

Unfortunately for Telstra, the prism seemed not to be doing its best reflecting on Wednesday night. Of ten photos I tried uploading to

Telstra HTC Mozart Review 20101210 (Final Report)

2010-12-09T20:24:00Z

My final report of the HTC Mozart

I know you’re all asking, will I continue to use the phone after the social review is over?

It’s an easy question for me to answer, but I’m going to make you do some reading first.

I went into this review with no prior knowledge of the HTC Mozart, hell I couldn’t even get the phone out of the box!

The HTC has many features that other phones don’t, I’m not sure if these could be called features or tools.

You have to remember that I do use my phone and use it well, I use it for work and little play. My phone although never far from my person is not something I have to wave around to show people that I have it.

I use the Calender as a reminder from when to get up in the morning, to when to put the bins out and who to see and when. All timed perfectly to go off, so it is impossible to forget.

Twitter the official app, does nothing for me – will try and get Snaptu downloaded as my personal preference.

The phone itself is perfect to use, perfectly weighted, a joy to interact with.

So the BIG question would I USE the HTC as my normal phone?

NO – and that is purely because of the tethering issues – without tethering I have to carry another piece of technology and life is complicated enough

Even if I did share ALL my personal information with Windows Live (thus Microsoft) I still couldn’t use the HTC because of the tethering issues.

Thanks for listening to the rant! – I hope the whole experience allowed you to see inside my mind and thus the HTC Mozart

Telstra Exchange

“I have been given a HTC Mozart with Windows 7 Phone by Telstra free of charge to review. The comments expressed by me reflect my own user experience and personal opinion and are not made on behalf of Telstra.”

This should be my last post on the HTC Moazrt - if I do switch I'll let you know - but doubtful.

Mozart’s Requiem: A HTC Mozart Review #telstrawp7

2010-12-09T21:44:21Z

For the last two weeks I’ve been a part of the Telstra Social Review; where Telstra gives you a phone for two weeks to test out it’s awesomeness. I initially applied for the first round – the HTC Desire- but didn’t win (I pretty much said that I was a girl so you should give me a phone.. so I always wonder why I didn’t get it); so when I saw that they were doing another review, I thought there was no harm in trying and to my absolute surprise I was selected.

NOTE – This blog post is like pretty much 3000 words, if you are all TL;DR – firstly, STFU and read it because it’s totally awesome, however if you still CBF please go to my SUPER AWESOME summary post.

Initially, I really loved a few of the features, but found it quite clunky. Honestly, I think my perception hasn’t changed too much from this, but I am definitely more experienced in using the Windows Phone 7 interface now so a few of the actions (such as the combination of using hardware and software buttons to navigate and using the buttons) but I guess that’s really something you learn with all technology.

As a part of the review, Team Telstra asked the Social Reviewers to look at three parts of Windows Phone 7:

The Hardware: HTC Mozart

Over the last few years, HTC has become quite a player in the phone market – especially with the Android fanboys. I had quite a few people coming up to me and asking if I had an Android phone after noticing the HTC case. When I explained it was a Windows Phone 7, they were like “Oh so like it runs Android?” – so I think one of the big problems HTC has at the moment is changing that perception that they *just* manufacture phones for Androids.

Apart from that perception stuff – I really do love the hardware. Compared to my iPhone I wasn’t concerned about chucking the phone in my bag and cracking the screen and although I didn’t drop the phone (and wasn’t planning on doing so!!) I really felt secure that the phone wouldn’t break just by looking at it.

The screen is fractionally larger than the iPhone (3.7in vs 3.5in) but for some reason that extra screen size does make a bit of difference when using the phone – especially in those features you need to scroll in, like email. However, I’ve found the screen to not be as responsive, and sometimes it’s taken me a couple of times scrolling or tapping for it to register on the phone. Not sure if it’s a #firstworldproblem but it really hurts your fingers continually trying to drag down on the screen.

I think one of the flaws in the phone is the hardware buttons – primarily the search button. I get more frustrated when I accidentally select it and it sends me to Bing – it would be so much better if this was a forward/enter button to compliment the back button on the other side.

Additionally the battery life is TERRIBLE. I don’t think I got the phone to last for more than a day- and as a heavy email/app user I found it draining even faster. Telstra did send out an update yesterday to their credit – but I really haven’t noticed any changes to my phone yet in terms of improved battery life. Supposedly you can change the APN (still have no clue what it is and why it’s important) and it improves the battery life but either way, compared to my old phones it’s been a massive fail on HTC’s part.

One of the other things I found annoying was the notification light – it continually (and I mean continually) flashes when your phone battery is low, and even when you put it on the charger it flashes red until it’s completely charged – this is fine if you have it sitting on your desk at work, but because I charge my phones next to my bed – it became really annoying when I had the lights off and was trying to charge the battery overnight because all you could see was this annoying little light in the corner of your eye.

The Software: Windows Phone 7

Windows. Is. Not. In. The. Game. With. This. Phone.

Honestly, the Windows Phone 7 is so so so different in terms of usability compared to any other phone I’ve used, and it really does take a bit of a mind shift to get used to it. Yes – it is a lot sleeker, ‘sexier’ and minimalistic compared to other Mobile OS I’ve used, but at the end of the day everything has to balance between design and functionality.

In the past Microsoft has really been at the functionality end of things (Think about the heap of menu items available on Word or Excel that you know that you *never* really use) and I think they’ve been really aware of that, but this phone has really tipped too far in the ‘design’ direction. As a first attempt, it’s good they’re thinking in the right direction, but they need to bring back some of the functionality features that are common on all phones – like menu quick links, not tiles.

Speaking of tiles, I actually don’t mind them and having them continually update is pretty cool and brings that whole ‘interactive’ feel to the phone compared to the other phone I’ve used but there really needs to be a limit to one screen of them. The whole point of the ‘glance and go’ thing they’re been promoting in the ads is really pointless if you need to scroll down to get the live updating tiles.

In saying that though, the ‘glance and go’ thing really does work – especially when you have the phone locked. As I used my phone for both personal (Gmail) and work (Outlook) emails – it was great to be able to click a button and it has a small icon down the bottom with the number of new emails – even without locking the phone! The emails also update pretty frequently, so you don’t really need to be concerned that the data isn’t up to date.

One gripe I have with the main menus is that they literally have a list of ALL of the apps – this is really annoying when you download a heap of apps and have to continually scroll down to find apps – unless you use the hardware search button, which does let you search through applications – but this contextual search button is so sporadic with the software that you never really know where the button will take you.

Additionally with the design, the whole circular scrolling really does throw you. What I mean by that in most apps there’s usually three or so key pages that you continually scroll through – there is no end. This is good for user error if you accidentally skip through something because you’re only a swipe or two away – but it means you can never really tell where you are in an application. Personally this doesn’t make too much of a difference, but I know there would be a lot of regular users out there who wouldn’t get this concept straight away.

One other annoying thing is that you HAVE to get a Windows Live ID – I rarely use mine (more of a Google convert) so it was a bit annoying that all of my MSN messenger friends automatically went onto my phone, even though I don’t think I’ve actually properly signed into my account in about a year. It’d be really nice to choose from Windows Live, Google or any other major messenger players in the market.

The Network: Telstra Next G

Seriously, I know Telstra usually costs an arm and a leg more than other networks, but there is seriously no way of describing the joy I had when I was able to check my email from my bed in the morning within a minute or so, instead of waiting a few minutes waiting for my Vodafone Edge (yes – Edge!) connection to sync.I have had seriously no complaints about the Telstra network in the two weeks I’ve been able to trial it out – and although I’ve just started a new Vodafone plan so I’m not going to go anywhere for the next year but I actually might consider transferring to Telstra after this plan finishes.

I thought it would also be important to talk about what I did use the phone for as a part of my life:

Using it for my social life

Email – Seriously it’s awesome. Like I said before, the glance and go stuff really does work well for this, and it’s really streamlined in it’s design. If there was one thing I could take away from this phone and just implant onto my iPhone it would be this.
Facebook – Facebook pretty much exists within the People Hub and it is probably one of the best features on the phone – it’s awesome that there’s so much integration between Facebook and WP7 and you can tell the Microsoft /Facebook relationship has really paid off with this phone. The actual Facebook app which is completely separate is more of a fail – after being so used to the integration on other parts of the phone the app is super redundant.
Twitter - As per my previous blog post – a lot of people have been having problems with this (resetting automatically, freezing) but honestly I haven’t had too many issues with this. I think this app’s major flaw is the bottom icons – they really don’t provide any valuable meaning, and they’re also quite small – even I feel like I have fat fingers when I use this because I have to be so precise pressing the buttons!
Foursquare – I really didn’t like this app on the phone – it was super laggy, would take a really long time to find your location and nearby areas and this is probably one of the best examples of the information architecture being just way too simplistic and not suitable for the phone. Comparing the WP7 app to iPhone AND Mobile Web, there really was a lack of functionality you would usually get.
Phone/SMS – Although I really didn’t use this too much (honestly I rarely use my phone as an actual phone and it was too much of a pain to get people to message me on a completely different number) I found that the phone heated quite quickly when I was on a call and because the hang up button is in such a weird place on the screen, I did accidentally drop a call and it took me a good minute to realise I was talking to myself. However the text messaging is pretty good and the spell check is a lot nicer than iPhone (it doesn’t automatically change it and provides continual multiple options as you type) but the font is too small – which may be a bit of a problem for old people or people with bad eyesight.

Using it for work (as requested by @alistercullum and @reebz)

Work Email – In terms of email triage, the only thing you can really do with it is just delete it or move it to folders and it does sync back up which is super handy when you want to delete all those spammy newsletters off your email via your phone. The email design is pretty consistent but it’s good that there’s different icons for the different types – so when you do glance and go you can quickly see if those emails are work related or not.
Calendar – I really liked how it would display you next meeting/event on the home page as part of the ‘glance and go’ functionality – but I didn’t actually use this feature properly for a good week – but when I did, it made my life so much easier. I didn’t create any meetings off it, but using it as a general calendar check during the day was fantastic.
Microsoft Office – using it to create documents was really really annoying – it’s hard to be able to utilise the functionality on such a tiny screen with such a limited keyboard and no clear identifiers to some of the functionality (i.e. highlighting and commenting look the exact same!) – I can see the benefit if you needed to use it on the go with the plan to move it to your computer once you got into the office. HOWEVER, viewing was amazing. As a consultant, I receive weekly emails telling me about the projects I’m going to be working on, and viewing this on my e71 and iPhone was always bad because you could never clearly see the cells – but a native Excel application made viewing and searching through cells so much easier.

Using it for other apps

I already wrote about this and really can’t be bothered rewriting/rewording it, so check it out – but at the end of the day the application variety and capabilities feel more like an Ovi Store than an iTunes app store.

So.. overall

Top 5 favorite things

Unbreakable - if I wasn’t under contract to keep the phone it tact, I would have tried to blend it on day one.
Email - so much easier, nicer and simplistic to use compared to other apps I have used. Glance and Go is so perfect for this.
Simplistic design – It’s nice to have a phone that’s sexy, even though it can be a bit annoying to use
Network speed - Have a couple of regrets that I’m locked onto Vodafone for another year especially with the current network being complete fail at the moment.
People Hub - keeping up to date with my Facebook friends is really good through this, honestly they need to just scrap the actual Facebook app and make everyone use this!

Top 5 biggest problems

Battery Life – It’s not really a fashion statement to take your charger into work everyday.
Windows Marketplace - If Microsoft really wants to be competitive, make an iTunes, not an Ovi
Confusing Interface – I know I said that it’s super simplistic design is great, but in some areas there are really meaningless icons or methods of moving around the phone.
Overly simplistic Information Architecture – three options is not enough for summarising all application features on the phone
Crashing – It’s cute to get a ‘goodbye’ message, but I thought I’d left the random resetting back with my Nokia e71 (that woudn’t even turn off!!)

How did it compare with my iPhone usage?

If I’m being completely honest with myself:

Day 1: WP7 50% vs iPhone 50%
Day 3:WP7 40% vs iPhone 60%
Day 7:WP7 20% vs iPhone 80%
Day 10:WP7 15% vs iPhone 85%
Day 14:WP7 10% vs iPhone 90%

Here’s a graph:

Now this isn’t to say that the phone is completely terrible – I did have more of my life stored on the iPhone than the WP7 – but even with the awesome email (which would have been what I used the phone for the most) I really wasn’t able to get used to just using the Windows Phone 7. I really got sick of having to mentally switch between the usability and functionality of my iPhone and the Windows Phone. Also, if Windows Phone 7 had Lady Gaga Tap Tap Revenge 1 and 2; plus Words with Friends, I probably would have used it more.

The big question – Would I have purchased it as a regular consumer?

Probably not. Because I am such a heavy application and internet user on my phone, I really need a phone that is able to provide me the biggest range of applications and the best customer experience. Nothing can beat the iPhone in that respect. The iPhone really does find a balance between functionality and design, something that Windows Phone 7 really hasn’t found yet.

Microsoft really has been swinging back between pure functionality and pure design (especially with this phone) and I think the whole concept is a really good step towards becoming a more user friendly brand but I really think they are so immature in this area, that they are really going to have to persevere in this area and not be completely disheartened if their first few releases aren’t well received by the public.

So although at the end of the day, although I haven’t been completely won over by the phone, I am really thankful I’ve been able to have this experience – being able to test out two smartphones over the last two weeks has been really fun and I think it’s given me more of a neutral perspective that there is other mobiles out there in the market apart from Apple and Android. It’s also really cool to actually be on the forefront of technology for once instead of the back foot haha.

The end.

Seriously a special shout out to Kristen and Mike for running this concept – I haven’t had any problems during this process and that’s been because of the Telstra Social Media guys running this so well.

Thanks to the other Telstra, Microsoft and HTC guys for the training and giving me free stuff. The Xbox is awesome and I’m currently playing Red Dead Redemption but am still open to game donations to assist in improving my Xbox experience

And thanks to the other 24 awesomesauce Social Reviewers – it’s been good knowing you all on Twitter and can’t wait to meet up for drinks to discuss how we’re all Telstra Spamtards.

Finally a MASSIVE THANKYOU for actually reading my blogs and tweets! I have really enjoyed being able to be a part of this program and I hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on the Telstra Windows Phone 7. If you seriously have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me - however the sim card on my phone dies tonight, so this may limit the stuff I will be able to test or try out for you.

PS. A final legal note –

I have been given a HTC Mozart with Windows 7 Phone by Telstra free of charge to review. The comments expressed by me reflect my own user experience and personal opinion and are not made on behalf of Telstra.

PPS.

They TOTALLY did post the video from the introduction day. Glad to know Mike thinks I’m the most awesome person in the room.

WP7: HTC 7 Mozart Review

2010-12-09T19:14:58Z

It has been a fun, interesting and eye-opening 2 weeks of reviewing the HTC 7 Mozart as part of the Telstra Social Media Review. During this period I’ve had to use 2 phones at the same time, with my HTC Desire still my primary contact device, and in some cases I carried around a 3rd phone/device (either my Apple iPhone 3GS or iPad to use Boxcar) to keep up with the tweets about #TelstraWP7. I posted my first impressions about it previously, but here’s my take on reviewing the HTC 7 Mozart in a bit more detail.

Hardware

Perhaps the stand out feature of the phone, hardware wise, is it’s 8 megapixel camera with auto focus & Xenon flash. I’m not a big photographer, but I know not to hold any high expectations when it comes to cameras on mobile phones and this comes at no exception. Spec wise, its “better” than the iPhone/Desire and as you can see with the examples below it does an acceptable job with basic point and shot scenarios. A higher density of pixels compared to the other phones mentioned and the auto focus does help.

The camera can be activated at any time, even when the phone is locked, to take photos when pressing the camera button on the bottom right side. The camera button works just like the ones on regular cameras with a half/full press to focus and take a picture, although the ability to take a photo with either a screen press or a button on the middle of the phone instead, which is missing on the Mozart, gives the user more support when holding a phone in my opinion. If I wanted to take professional looking photos however, I’ll use an SLR.

The phone has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor inside its aluminium unibody. Processor speed-wise, it’s on par with the Desire and the iPhone 4. Sometimes you can even feel this speed cause the phone can produce a bit of heat sometimes. The phone does feels comfortable to hold though, and has a solid, yet light, feel to it.

Accessories that came with the box are basic; just a charger, USB cable and headphones. I should point out that the headphones are crap. The size of the ear buds doesn’t seem to be made for human ears. I recommend to get a better set of headphones and always use the phone’s Dolby Mobile or SRS audio enhancements as the phone’s normal audio by itself is quite bland.

Software

As a smartphone operating system, WP7 has taken a completely different approach and look to the iOS and Android OSs with a simple 2 column, live tile system which is refreshing and eye catching. This basic set up has forced me to change my own mobile phone usage, for better or worse, to a “glance and go” habit which WP7 claims it does in it’s advertisements. Only absolutely necessary apps have been left on my start page, with the only other page a list of apps. Whereas I was spoiled for choice with apps & widgets and X number of pages I could use on the other OSs.

The most outstanding native apps, or Hubs, of WP7 that I found are the Games Hub and Outlook. Games Hub connects and syncs with your Xbox Live account so you can see you achievements, send messages and see who’s online. As for Outlook, it has a very clean interface. Whilst using my personal email account (Gmail/Google Sync) I was able to receive push emails as well as I idid on iOS devices. If you use Exchange, you can use the full features of the Outlook app like flagging emails. However, there is no unified inbox so people with multiple email accounts will have to deal with multiple Outlook/Email tiles for each account.

As for the other native apps, it’s a sense of “close, but no cigar”. Internet Explorer is useable, but I find web pages format much better in iOS’s mobile Safari. Calendar looks good, but can only work with your main calendar account so any calendar subscriptions you have with that account will not be picked up. Zune really needs scrubbing like on the iOS’s iPod feature as holding down fast forward/rewind isn’t accurate or quick enough.

When it comes to third-party apps, the current selection is limited. A unified UI can ensure that most apps would at least look good, but the variety and niche apps that I’m use to with iOS’s and Android’s app markets is missing. Popular apps like Twitter, Facebook and Foursqaure felt very slow and unresponsive sometimes too.

Coverage

As part of the Telstra Social Media Review, I was asked to give my thoughts about Telstra’s Next G coverage as well. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been happy with the coverage and have been with Telstra before the Review. Travelling between Hastings and Karingal, as well as to Melbourne, I always had the impression that I had 3G, if not HSDPA, coverage. However, speed quality was difficult to determine because, as mentioned, the apps can feel slow and unresponsive to determine it. Use of the Telstra Network with the Desire and iPhone has felt fast in my experience.

Final Thoughts

The one truly positive thing that I can say about WP7 is that it has potential. Despite the criticisms in this review, it must be noted that this platform is only a month old and WP7 is still Version 1.0.

I would recommend this phone to the hardcore Xbox gamers and, perhaps, business folk. WP7 supports Office too, but I haven’t looked into that feature that much.

As I mentioned in the start of this post, I also have a HTC Desire and Apple iPhone 3GS. I decided that I will keep the HTC 7 Mozart and will sell the other phones. Hardware wise alone, I see it superior than my iPhone and Desire. Here’s hoping that by January 2011 that a rumoured major WP7 OS update can fix some of it’s problems, but if not, I’ll be looking forward to the Google Nexus S or an iPhone 5.

There were a lot of other features that I may have missed out on, so either listen to the audio of a Windows Phone 7 Roundtable discussion between @fulltimecasual, @smperris & myself or check out the reviews from the other Reviewers via the Telstra Exchange blog. You can also leave a comment or tweet me any questions you have.

Disclaimer: I have been given a HTC Mozart with Windows 7 Phone by Telstra free of charge to review. The comments expressed by me reflect my own user experience & personal opinion and are not made on behalf of Telstra, HTC nor Microsoft. I have also been provided with an Xbox 360 free of charge by Microsoft, but not to review.

Twitter crashing the Phone often #TelstraWP7

2010-11-28T08:22:26Z

Today, I had a number of phone crashes whilst trying to use Twitter for WP7. It was happening so often that I was able to capture it on Video. (please excuse the video being around the wrong way).

Why I’m having difficulty using Twitter on WP7 (video) #TelstraWP7

2010-11-28T08:27:04Z

I’ve taken two video’s, one using Seesmic for WP7 and one using Twitter for WP7. I am finding that I just can not use the twitter clients without much frustration. Often when I scroll down or up, I end up jumping into the next screen to the left or right on the Metro interface. It must be something about the direction I move my thumb or how I lift my thumb from the screen. (I try to use any phone I have with my left hand, as I have RSI in my right shoulder, so try not to use my right arm for repetitive tasks, hence why I use my left thumb to scroll and type on the phone, mostly). There is also a lot of jumping of the screen, and there does not seem to be a lot of distinction from one tweet to the next. The overall result is that it is not easy or fun to use Twitter. I tried Beezz but it was very basic and not very useful at all. When Mahtweets is in the Marketplace it might make it all better. (During the Telstra Social Review, we can not install apps that are not approved apps on the Marketplace). I do not use Twitter or Seesmic on the Android, I use Twicca, which has sooo many features, it is almost to full featured, and I love it. What is it about new Twitter apps? Any app that uses a lot of scrolling must have a quick and easy way to get back to the top (on Twicca, it is fantastic, it uses the volume rocker to jump back to the top). Both Twitter and Seesmic for the WP7 don’t seem to have that. Very annoying. Interestingly, the Email app does not have the metro interface, and you can easily scroll through your emails, and it has a left and right button to get to the next and previous message. Please excuse the video rotation issues. Seesmic Scrolling Issues Using Twitter for WP7

Social Network Integration on Windows Phone 7

2010-11-29T12:50:09Z

Microsoft clearly built their new mobile OS with social network integration from the ground up and that’s a great feature of WP7. It delivers tight integration with Facebook, Google and Windows Live right out of the box. This post reviews how this integration comes together in a number of places in the OS without installing third party apps (that’ll come in a later post).

The People Hub

The People hub (I’m not sure if this is the correct term for it …) is the main place where your social network comes together on the WP7 device. Think of the People hub as a dynamic address book that not only contains the contact information of your contacts but it also brings together their online social activities. The People hub has two main screens. The “What’s New” screen is akin to Facebook’s Newsfeed page which shows the latest updates from your contacts. Just like Facebook’s Newsfeed page, you can comment and like the updates right from this screen.

The second screen is an alphabetical listing of all your contacts. This is a merged contacts list that is downloaded from the various social networks linked to your account. In my case, it’s Gmail and Facebook. This is both a boon and a curse to some extent. The good thing about this People hub is how seamlessly your address book is set up on the phone without having to manually sync it with your computer. The downside is that when it automatically imports your Gmail contacts, you end up with a very long list of contacts, many of whom are people that you may emailed only once in your life. The problem with Gmail is that it creates a contact from every email that you send or receive. There was no option given to me to selectively import Gmail contacts or import only defined groups that I have already created in Gmail to manage my contacts. The People hub also does not have the intelligence to merge duplicate contacts that it has imported from different sources. For example, the same friend who is my Facebook friend and who is also a Gmail contact will be imported twice. Net net, it’ll take some time and effort to clean up this pre-built list of contacts in the People hub.

A+ for concept but B for implementation.

The Me Hub

Again, I don’t know if this is the correct term for this but this is another place in WP7 where social network integration is implemented. For those who are familiar with this term, think of this as your “lifestream” on the device. This is where all your social online activities are aggregated. You can also post updates to your connected social networks from here.

However, in my case, this only means Windows Live and Facebook. My other major social online activity is glaringly missing – Twitter. For some reason, there is no integration at all to Twitter (perhaps licensing issues ?). As the second major social network, this is a big gap in WP7.

A+ for concept but A- for implementation.

The Photos Hub

It was a pleasant surprise to me to find the Photos Hub to be tightly integrated to my social networks as well (again except for Twitter but I think that’s OK in this case). The Photos Hub will not only display photos and videos stored on the phone, but it will automatically download your photo albums on Facebook. Further more, there’s a What’s New screen that displays all recently uploaded photos from your friends in Facebook. This also includes photos not directly uploaded to Facebook but posted as links (eg. links to photos on Flickr). It’s pretty cool that it’s able to identify these links as photos and display them in the Photos Hub as well.

A+ for concept and A+ for implementation.

Live Tiles

One big feature of WP7 is the use of “live tiles” on the home screen to display dynamic content. However, I don’t think live tiles have been used productively for social network integration. The People hub tile just displays a seemingly random list of your friends’ profile photos. I don’t believe it actually shows your friends with recent updates. Similarly, the Me hub tile just displays your profile photo rather than using it to show some of your recent updates. The Photo hub tile is just a static photo from your photo library. Basically, Live Tiles are a big zero for displaying information from your social networks.

A+ for concept but C- for implementation.

Notifications

This is a big gap for me in WP7 in that it doesn’t have any notifications for Facebook or Twitter activities that relate directly to you eg. if someone sends you a message, comments on your photo etc. This a big missed opportunity for Microsoft. Why go through all that effort to integrate social networks into the OS but leave out notifications ? I think WP7 has a better notifications system than iOS because it’s less intrusive as it doesn’t launch a pop up window over what you’re doing, but this is not being taken advantaged of.

C- for lack of concept.

Summary

Having said all that, social network integration is built right into WP7 but is clearly absent from iOS, thus the HTC Mozart is definitely ahead of the iPhone 4 in this department. However, Microsoft hasn’t taken it far enough in this first version of WP7. They need to build on this innovation and enhance it in their next release(s) because I don’t see Apple resting on its laurels with iOS. They must clearly be planning on a major update to iOS to bridge the gap that Microsoft has built in terms of delivering a more dynamic smartphone experience.

Disclaimer : I have been given a HTC Mozart with Windows 7 Phone by Telstra free of charge to review. The comments expressed by me reflect my own user experience and personal opinion and are not made on behalf of Telstra. All my views about this phone are categorised under Windows Phone 7 on this blog.

Posted from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

#TelstraWP7: Figaro Duet

2010-12-07T01:44:00Z

I've been blown away by the response to the "Blogger of Note" nomination. So many people have dropped by to take a look - it's incredibly humbling. It is my intention to pay a return visit to everyone who's left a link back to their own blog - but I think that will take some time, so my apologies if I don't turn up straight away!

In the meantime, I'm still using the HTC Mozart Windows7 phone

WP7: First Impressions

2010-11-30T11:48:52Z

As part of the Telstra Windows Phone 7 Social Review; I’ve been asked to review the hardware, software and coverage of the device. Here are my first impressions:

It’s the one on the left just in case you’re not sure.

Hardware

HTC have made a very solid yet light phone, thanks to it’s aluminium unibody. As a right hander, my index & middle finger fit well across the volume buttons and my thumb can easily reach the power button. Its camera is embedded in the phone, which can be a good and bad thing. It stops a stray finger leaving a mark on the lens, but it’s a pain to clean out any dust that falls in. Personally I don’t like it’s asymmetric design on the back with plastic ends and a V-shaped strip across it, but you’ll be spending most of the time looking at the screen.

The screen itself is very bright and vibrant, and blends in with the 3 main buttons on the bottom of the phone really well. Touching the bottom edge of the screen can sometimes activate one of the main buttons by mistake if you got fat thumbs.

Software

The WP7 OS looks brilliant. It differs to iOS’s and Android’s start screen set-up of 20 apps (4 x 5 apps) by being 2 near limitless columns of animated “tiles”. An arrow on the top right leads to the list of all applications installed. All the tiles can be rearranged, removed or added into the start screen. It’s almost like a blend of iOS’s simplicity with Android’s widget capabilities. An interesting aspect of Metro, the name of the user interface theme in WP7, is its font where the titles in “hubs” sometimes seem to be purposely oversized for the screen, making it partially disappear behind the screen’s borders.

It’s not all perfect though. The Metro UI looks great in portrait mode, but when looking at things in landscape you can sometimes have most of the information shift to the left with a huge empty space on the right. A glaring example of this is in the People (Contacts) hub. Also, if you’ve installed a lot of applications, the app list can be ridiculously long.

Coverage

I’m based in Hastings, Victoria; nearly 1 hour away from Melbourne. I was originally with Vodafone but with poor coverage around the Mornington Penisnula I decided to go with Telstra several months before the Review. When picking up the handset in Melbourne, I was able to make a tweet under several layers of concrete. Most of this week I’ve been either near the town centre of Hastings or at Western Port and so far no issues with speed or reception.

Any questions or feedback please leave a comment, tweet me or check out other reviews & comments via the Telstra Exchange blog or search Twitter under the #TelstraWP7 hashtag.

So I’m now a Telstra social reviewer.

2010-11-29T06:33:07Z

A few months ago I found out about the Telstra social review program when they offered the HTC Desire to a handful of reviewers. Suffice it to say I was incredibly eager to jump on board. I’m a gadget nerd who has a moderately strong online presence in Australia with a huge ego so I [...]

Syncing heaven: Video Blogging OneNote for Windows Phone 7

2010-12-03T02:59:10Z

As a student, many might be surprised that I don’t use Microsoft Office OneNote that often. I use and prefer Word, or even better, Livescribe’s Pulse Smartpen. However, on Windows Phone 7, the OneNote integration is easy to use and seamless … Continue reading →

Windows Phone 7: Email application video blog

2010-12-01T22:00:00Z

Continuing from yesterday’s video blog on Twitter apps for Windows Phone 7, I have filmed a video that goes through the email application, looking specifically at performance and the various features of the application. It will come as no surprise … Continue reading →

Windows Phone 7: Twitter Apps Video Blog

2010-12-01T10:49:57Z

The last few posts relating to this social review have featured me complaining a lot about the Twitter clients available for Windows Phone 7. The sluggish performance and instability seems to be confined to these clients, for some inexplicable reason. … Continue reading →

Telstra HTC Mozart Review 20101208 (13th Day)

2010-12-08T08:41:00Z

A recap of everything the good and bad points of the HTC Mozart handset with Telstra.

25th November – I was announced as a handset reviewer, couldn’t believe my luck.

26th November – my first software crash and reset and embarrassment at not bing able to get the handset out of the box! Learn that the phone has a very short battery life.

27th November – Map function is cool and I felt like a movie star (Tom Cruise in Minority Report) with the ‘pinch zoom’ Kids don’t need instructions manuals!

28th November – My handset now has a name “IT”

29th November – The handset is quite well balanced and well designed. Learning I can’t tether to my netbook.

30th November – Photo Enhancer (which comes standard) with the phone is cool

1st December – The screen is very tactile and pleasant to use and the graphics for deleting emails is pretty (don’t look at me – I can’t help it if I’m female!)

2nd December – More definitive likes and dislikes list

3rd December – Possibly swayed to using the HTC Mozart as my every-day phone

4th December to 7th December - reviewing different tools within the handset and my likes and dislikes

and Friday at 7.30am - you get my final decision, as to if I continue to use the handset as my normal everyday handset.

For now I'm going to hold you in suspense - I've posted every day and I hope you've enjoyed my hates, like, dislikes, my fame (Tom Cruise moment)

Would love you comments - I know there's been plenty of people reading and for that I say thank-you!

Until Friday......................... (7.30am)

Telstra Exchange

14th and Final Review for the HTC Mozart

“I have been given a HTC Mozart with Windows 7 Phone by Telstra free of charge to review. The comments expressed by me reflect my own user experience and personal opinion and are not made on behalf of Telstra.”

Telstra HTC Mozart Review 20101207 (12th Day)

2010-12-07T08:30:00Z

Software –
I have had some ‘stuttering’ in the tiles, which appears to have gone away, maybe a problem with an update that has now been fixed?
Like all new ‘toys’ you would get used to the HTC Mozart, I find sometimes that until I’ve got some down time, I don’t fiddle and fiddling is where you learn.
Overall I haven’t had too many software crashes, although I did promise that if anyone could crash it – it would be me. I may have been the first, but I wasn’t the most prolific.
Another issue when playing games (Bejewelled) that if you put the phone to sleep, and then wake it up - it loads back to Bejewelled - not an issue, BUT if you want to make a call, you have to attempt to go back to the menu TWICE, to complete the task. Bejewelled tries to force a continuance!
Crashes - when I first got the phone, I had several problems with software crashing, but seems to be okay now. So not sure if issues will continue.

Reception –
Pretty much the same as Optus, no matter where, 40km from CBD no voice or data on Telstra, but voice and data with Optus. Always intermittent with both services.
In the middle of the Toolangi State Forest, no Telstra reception in some areas, but Optus worked and allowed data to be sent.
In the middle of Marysville, no Telstra reception, but had Optus (which is the same as the day after the fires) Only phone not destroyed and working was a Nokia N70.
So for me reception is pretty important, and the quality of the reception for Telstra wasn’t as good as I thought it would be, although would appear to be more stable than Optus, coverage with Optus was better in more places for where I live and travel. Optus being better in that having SMS capability in an emergency is sometimes all you can get.
As I’m writing this, I can only make emergency calls (40km from Melb CBD)

Hardware
The volume button is so big that you constantly find yourself pressing it inadvertently
The off/on/sleep button gets in my way constantly, simply I think due to the fact I am left-handed.
The phone itself, feels lovely in the hand, not cheap and it is well balanced. Which is always a consideration when I’m choosing a new handset.
I do worry about scratching the screen and if I was that way inclined I’d get a case for it, but that is just another piece of stuff getting in my way.
The screen is fantastic, the Nokia (when I’ve had to use it) is clunky and feels old-fashioned
The battery life (or lack of it) is another HUGE issue for me, if I can’t last 12-18
hours on one battery, then the phone won’t work me.

Things that gave me that oh-ah feeling
The Tom Cruise moment from Minority Report, where I discovered the pinched zoom WOW
Screensaver and picking the bit you want shown, rather than Nokia that just squishes the photo

Telstra Exchange

13th Day Review

“I have been given a HTC Mozart with Windows 7 Phone by Telstra free of charge to review. The comments expressed by me reflect my own user experience and personal opinion and are not made on behalf of Telstra.”

Telstra HTC Mozart Review 20101206 (11th Day)

2010-12-06T08:18:00Z

Marketplace
Which is where you purchase all the app’s you are wanting to use. I didn’t have a problem using, but I have heard that some people disliked the layout etc, maybe this is not an issue for me, because I’m not a gamer nor wish to show off the number of app I have in my possession.

Photos – storage – both from the phone and also from my PC
I don’t think the memory is big enough. I have external memory cards in my phones for exactly that reason – that’s not possible with the HTC Mozart

Photos – Camera – seems to work well – I have some photos which I’ll load to give you an idea
I love the photo enhancer program – although basic, just changes the tone/colour of the entire photo, I like it
I dislike the fact I’ve had to change the default photo preview program, as it was changed when I downloaded Zunes. I’ve had to change it back to Windows Photo Viewer, which is the program I PREFER.

Zoom

No Zoom

Calculator – when my brain is too tired to work
Seems okay – I just use it for +/- nothing to spectacular

Maps
The mapping feature is great, but there are a couple of draw backs, one is the battery gets extremely hot. The battery charge is shortened when mapping is in use AND the requirement to touch the screen all the time to top the sleep mode. (Yes, you could change it, but this would be inconvenient every time you had to change it back.

Telstra Exchange

12th Day Review

“I have been given a HTC Mozart with Windows 7 Phone by Telstra free of charge to review. The comments expressed by me reflect my own user experience and personal opinion and are not made on behalf of Telstra.”

Telstra HTC Mozart Review 20101205 (10th Day)

2010-12-05T08:30:00Z

Calendar – I live by it, with it and can’t survive without it
Still no joy – but I think this is because I use the Nokia as the main calendar and not Google Calenders or similar
If I was to put everything into Google calendars then I wouldn’t have a problem. My biggest issue with this (was thinking about it today) was privacy – I’m not sure I want everything ‘out there’ somewhere for others to hack/locate if they should choose.

Contacts – a must have
Still no joy - Again because I use the Nokia as the main contacts list and not Google, I think that is where I’m having the problems.
Same as above, (Calendar) I need to import from Outlook into Google and then I don’t think I will have a problem, but again – I don’t like things sitting online, ‘in case of’ I wouldn’t like to be hacked and I do my utmost to ensure it doesn’t and IF it did occur, there would be limited damage.

Internet
Very easy to use – you can see numerous windows that are open, at the press of a button. You can favourite sites and have them as tiles on the ‘front’ page. Altogether a good experience.
The ability to zoom in and out by ‘pinching’ your fingers means even blind people (me) should be able to see the screen and the details without locating their glasses.

Speed dial – I don’t use voice commands
I’ve been referring to the call history to pull up the numbers I need, my brain still hasn’t got used to the contacts list, probably because it/I knows it’s not complete

Social Media
Twitter App - Bulky, slow and I prefer Snaptu, which auto-refreshs
The ‘ME” button seems like a great idea, offering social media updates, literally at the push of a button. Although I’m not a big Facebook – is easy to use on HTC, far easier than the Nokia (But I don’t use facebook often to worry about it)

TelstraOne
Which is a tile on the ‘front’ page, the layout is great, access to many thing from news to account details etc
I’m surprised that many screens don’t offer the pinch zoom and this is one screen that doesn’t.
As this is all provided within the Telstra account data allowances a great idea

HTC Hub
Which is another tile on the front page, the graphics are great, the weather application is great and the fact that it automatically locates the nearest relevant weather is fantastic, but it does make you wonder how much data is actually being collected (PS you can turn this off if you choose)
The Hub is supposed to be the central location for all your apps to be easier found – I found it easier just to swipe the ‘front’ page to the right and access areas that way.

To be continued....................

Telstra Exchange

11th Day Review

“I have been given a HTC Mozart with Windows 7 Phone by Telstra free of charge to review. The comments expressed by me reflect my own user experience and personal opinion and are not made on behalf of Telstra.”