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HTC Mozart and Windows Phone 7 Social Review

2010-12-10T11:56:40Z

For the last week I have had the pleasure of completing a Social Review for Telstra on the HTC Mozart and the Windows Phone 7 Operating System. I would say now that I would recommend anyone to give the two of them a try. I do know that in some cases the Phone and in others the Operating system may not be for everyone.

Hardware

I have found that I do like the phone and it’s little quirks have grown on me. In the beginning I did not think that I would be able to use the phone as it just didn’t feel right. First off the phone was a lot heavier than what I was used to, but this was because the HTC Mozart has a body that was made from a single piece of metal. The good thing with this is that it bounces… only joking, but yes it is a lot stronger than most.

One thing that I did point out on the first day, and again in one of my blog posts is that the Power Button to me wasn’t in the right place. For those who do not know the Power Button also allows you to wake up the phone. I can say that it did only take me a week to get used to it and now I do not have a second thought about turning the phone on. But I can say I do like the hardware button that is on the front of the Samsung Omnia, in cases it makes it easier to turn on the phone.

Camera

I have found myself falling into a habit of using my Phones camera more and more nowadays, and with the Mozart the pictures are of a really good quality. Most of the phones I have had the resolution of the cameras have always been second class and a bit behind the times. I find that the 8mb camera in the Mozart is of a high quality. The camera is by no way a replacement for a stand a lone camera but it does a good job for those quick shots. Just to give you an example there, over the last weekend we had a sporting event where the whole family went. After setting up and getting out the camera and freshly charged batteries ready to take the days shots I found that the batteries I had brought must have passed there used by date and they had not held the charge. Out came the phone camera, and we ended up with some really good shots for the day.

Sound and Audio

To get to and from work each day I spend a good couple of hours on the train, use I use the country train service which at least has a good set of seats for you compared to the Metro trains, but even still you need to find something to take you away from the various noises coming from sleeping passengers and such. To do this I spend a lot of time listening to various pod casts, a small collection of music files and some quality time to catch up on TV Shows that I either miss or we do not get down under.

For a while now I have been using my Microsoft Zune device to provide my needs, that was until the Windows Phone 7 came out, now this is the only device that I am going to use. For one it means that I do not have to carry around multiple devices anymore, the windows Phone 7 system uses that same functions and software that I have been using for a long time with the Zune. Because of this I find the functions on the phone easy to use and easy to manage the files for the media player.

Now in relation to the Hardware and the Mozart, the biggest fail on my part is the limited space, having only 8gb on this device for the storage of the files as well as the storage of the Installed applications, the operating system and it’s cache of data it needs to function for day to day activities is very limiting. I personally thing that it would have been nice to have an expansion card slot on the device where you could store your media files. That way you could have multiple cards with different libraries of media and swap them out as needed. I am sure that the operating system could have been developed to use a secondary device for the storage of multi media files.

Applications

Being a gamer at heart I spent a lot of my application time in the games hub. The thing I did like about the games hub was the choice you had with the launch titles, there is a lot of different titles to choose from that all integrated with the Xbox Live system. The disappointing thing from my side was the lack of quality games from the Independent developer, maybe as the system takes off we are going to see more games drop into the marketplace.

I do plan on doing more reviews on some of the applications that are around, but to get started here are some of the applications and thoughts on the main ones I used while on the review.

Twitter – Always a good start, but in the case of the Windows Phone 7 version of the application i was finding that it seemed to crash a couple of times a day. Most times I would find that the application would run, stop and then from that point on every time you started the application it would just stop without even showing the splash screen… From a Twitter side of things, hurry up MahTweets team and get the mobile version finished and certified.
Facebook – A simple interface and was almost like using the web application, still missed a lot of the applications, but it did it’s job. For those who just use Facebook for updates on what their friends are doing, the people hub on the Windows Phone 7 will do what you need.

Overall, In Summary

Yes I have been using the Windows Phone 7 Operating system for a while now, but it was good to take on the reviewer role for the HTC Mozart and the Windows Phone 7 as a complete unit. I found that over the review period I changed from being a real user and spent some time playing with the settings and the different ways of using the device. During the review period I went through a stage of trying the applications that I would not have even looked at if I was not on the program, one of those applications was Foursquare. The bad thing is that I am now using those applications more, and am actually enjoying using them. So for me the review program has taken me to an area I would not have gone normally gone to, and that means that the program has worked, thank you Telstra for the opportunity.

For those who are interested here are some links to my previous posts on the Mozart.

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.”

#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 "

Telstra Windows Phone 7 Social Review update

2010-12-10T04:46:14Z

Author: Mike Hickinbotham. Today is the final day of the Social Review. Keep an eye out on the #TelstraWP7 hashtag on Twitter to compare and contrast the final thoughts and impressions of the Social Reviewers. If you don’t want to miss out on any of the blogs being published today, we’ve created an RSS feed to make it easy to read/watch the opinions and experiences of the Social Reviewers

Final thoughts and review – HTC’s Mozart, Microsoft’s WP7, and the Telstra network

2010-12-10T04:17:31Z

I’ve spent the last week wracking my brain trying to think of an HTC Mozart recap; after all, two weeks isn’t a huge period of time. I’ve found my first impressions mostly match my feelings today.

Let’s get into this, shall we?

The network

I have to admit that I didn’t notice any improvements in speed or signal strength in Melbourne or Perth as compared to my Vodafone-powered handset. I’m not complaining; I didn’t have any problems placing calls or accessing data…it’s just that service seemed to be equal to what I was used to with Vodafone.

I’ve heard a lot about Telstra being better in remote areas, but I never leave the city. Moot point.

The only complaint I was going to voice about Telstra and its network was the Mozart’s battery life, however this was seemingly corrected yesterday. Since the fix, I’ve noticed a vast improvement on power retention without the need to manually identify APNs. I’ll say that I would have appreciated a faster fix in order to properly test and confirm that this fix is all it claims to be.

The handset

Even with the massive scratch from my mishap outside the Telstra offices on day one, the handset is still sexy. The one-piece aluminium body — coupled with Microsoft’s gorgeous WP7 UI — makes the phone an instant conversation-starter; I pulled my handset out during a Christmas Party and ended up having a two-hour conversation about it with party-goers. Button placement is ideal, the phone has a great weight to it, its specifications are impressive, and the camera is truly a powerhouse.

On the downside, I question HTC’s decision to place the handset’s speaker on the back of the phone. If you use the speaker for podcast playback or for speakerphone in a call, you either have to place the handset with the screen facing down, which means you can’t use the phone for anything else, or screen up, muffling the sound.

Whilst the camera is very powerful, I’m finding myself taking blurry shot after blurry shot; I don’t know if this is HTC’s fault, or Microsoft’s. I understand that I need to press the camera button half-way to focus, and then all the way to take the shot; I’m unsure if I’m using the button wrong or if I’m simply too shaky when taking pictures. I’m curious to know if anyone else had the same problems with photos that I do.

The OS and applications

There’s a lot good, and a lot. My comments about Microsoft’s global billing problems stand, and those difficulties hinder quite a lot of functionality on the device. I’ll repeat that Microsoft needs to acknowledge the fact that its customers will move from country to country; asking them to abandon one Windows Live ID and create a new one based on their new country is unacceptable. If you make Live IDs the driving force of your OS, you can’t expect us to dump our contact and calendar data, Xbox achievements and gamerscore, and so much more – aka, a person’s digital life — into one account and then simply give it up for a new one down the track.

Off my soapbox now…the UI, called Metro, is unbelievably sexy. Having less space on your Start screen to anchor apps takes some getting used to, but I’ve actually found it forces you to simplify how you use the phone – and this is a good thing.

You don’t need to have a tile to access Facebook because it’s in the People Hub; I’m assuming Twitter will soon work in the same way. I had most of my Xbox Live games on the Start screen as separate tiles, but ended up deleting them in favour of the core Xbox app just because it was easier than swiping up and down the Start screen looking for stuff. I had World Clock on my Start screen, and Calculator, and Settings…and then realised this was so purely because that’s how it worked on my iPhone. As soon as I made that connection, I deleted unnecessary tiles from the Start screen and swiped right to go to my full app list when needed. (I’ve barely needed to, by the way.)

The comparison between an iPhone and Windows Phone 7? Completely necessary. The problem? They’re two very different beasts and they’ve been developed to work in two extremely different ways. Apple wants you to know that “there’s an app for that,” while Microsoft’s ads proclaim the phone will “get you in and out and back to life” due to its hubs. Both are valid claims; to me, Microsoft’s is better. Quite simply put, I’m spending less time in WP7 whilst accomplishing the same amount of work.

You can’t have everything. I’m fine with Microsoft subtly changing the way I work; I gained time! I’m DESPISING them though because they’re forcing me to also use MY contacts and MY calendars in a way I hadn’t before…and don’t want to. I’ve explained my predicament here. Microsoft, I don’t use my Windows Live ID as an email client, address book, or calendar. I don’t want years-old information automatically syncing to my phone because you have decided it should. Give me the option to choose to which data to sync from the Live ID you’ve made me enter to start the phone up. Give me the option to sync calendar and contact information from Outlook on my PC without needing ActiveSync. Better yet, let me sync Outlook data from my PC without ActiveSync and instead using the same wireless sync Zune employs.

The one contradiction I can think of to the “get you in and out and back to life” mindset of the phone is that your mail accounts can’t be tied to one interface. I have a tile for my personal IMAP account, one for my business-related Gmail, and another for a POP3 belonging to my hockey team. That’s a lot of real estate on my Start screen that could have been merged into one tile. My iPhone can keep track of mail from different accounts and apply the proper signatures when replying…why can’t WP7?

My Xbox Live love affair still stands. I think I’ve covered everything I want to say in its dedicated post.

All I want to come out of the rumoured February 2011 update is core Twitter integration and copy-paste functionality. I expect that NOW; it was foolish of Microsoft to release the OS without copy-paste. They need to win supporters immediately, and huge gaps in functionality — especially something as simple as copying and pasting — are deal-breakers.

Lastly, I’m happy with the amount of WP7 applications available, considering how long the handset has been on the market. I know some of my old favourites are already confirmed to be on the way (yay for Amazon Kindle!), so I know the future is bright – I feel sorry for those of you hoping for something decent to come through the BlackBerry App World. I encourage developers to get STRAIGHT to work on WP7 versions of their applications – I’m looking at you, South Freo (Quota), and Ricochet Labs (Qrank)! Just think what your work would look like coupled with the Metro UI. Application-y sex, right there.

The verdict

Short and sweet: I’m using the HTC Mozart as my primary phone. I’ve given up my iPhone 4 cold turkey – hell, I’ve already gifted it to my boyfriend (he even got the Xbox Microsoft was so kind to comp to me at the start of this Social Review – full disclosure). I’ll admit that I came to WP7 because of Xbox Live and achievements, but I’ve stayed for Metro and its gorgeous simplicity.

Despite its teething problems, I know the phone is solid. I’ve used other HTC handsets and older versions of Windows Ph..I mean, Windows Mobile. I hated them. My previous HTC handsets were chunky, awkward, and non-responsive. Windows Mobile was all kinds of disgusting, and I’m extremely glad Microsoft did away with the notion that your phone has to behave like your PC does. In the Mozart with WP7, Microsoft, HTC, and Telstra all have something to be very proud of. Just don’t get too happy, guys – go fix the things I don’t like. From other reviews, I know it’s not just me.

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.

The Telstra HTC Mozart WP7 Wind Up

2010-12-11T08:34:21Z

Wow, two weeks flew by. Will be nice to move back to one phone after carting two around with me. Whilst I spent most of the time venting my thoughts on Twitter and Whirlpool etc. I thought I’d post a bit of a wind up here to hopefully summarise my thoughts

The NextG Network:

I’ve been on Optus for the past 30 months, so getting a free chance to test out the Telstra network was appreciated. I found it to be more than satisfactory. While previously I’d have drop-outs, or my phone wouldn’t ring or I wouldn’t have coverage I found using the HTC Mozart/Telstra combination I didn’t have to think about coverage and didn’t once curse a dropped call. Awesome.

I’ll be swapping to Telstra Prepaid now the trial is over, just wish their plans were a bit more clear in what you get for your dollar.

Windows Phone 7:

Making Calls: Was quite phone like, no noticeable echo or distortion. The loud-speaker is great, along with the ability to flip it over to get to turn the loud-speaker on! very useful when driving, just answer and flip.

SMS: Not a huge fan of the way the SMS appear on the screen as a bar up the top of the phone, prefer the iPhone method. The picture below shows how the number counts up and a bar appears up top with the sender’s name and half the message.

e-mails: I like the way it shows new emails in the lock screen, means you can quickly look without unlocking. Didn’t like the way the number on the Live Tile didn’t represent the number of unread e-mails. Entering and exiting the application caused this number to reset. Sending an e-mail on the device however is very easy and it multiple cases used it over a sms.

calendar: The calendar is great, very easy to use, lots of options and the ability to send invites. Shared my Gmail calendar well and having the next appointment on the live tile was handy. I mostly used agenda view, though month was useful for seeing what days had appointments on them.

camera: I took lots of photos, but i’m not a photographer. For a point’n'shooter I found it delivered decent quality. when its low light it was quite difficult to get a good picture though and also if the flash when off to close to people’s faces it made people glow. It’s really easy to upload them to Facebook or email the photos direct. Video quality was perhaps as good as you could expect from a phone, but no way to upload or email which was frustrating!

Office Integration: I thought Microsoft would have nailed this. The ability to sync documents between the computer, phone and sky drive wasn’t present. Basically useless if you don’t have a sharepoint server. Poor as.

Zune: AAAAAAAAARRGGGHHHH! why could a product that looks so great not be available in Australia. The lack of Music Marketplace is crazy! Zune software is miles ahead of iTunes, the marketplace for videos and apps is quick and responsive yet we can’t buy music. Other countries have a product called Zune Pass which gives them 10 downloaded songs a month, plus unlimited streaming for around $150 US Per Year. My other gripe with the Zune Marketplace is that you are forced to use Xbox points to buy/rent media. Meaning you need to log in, use a credit card to buy points then use points to buy media. It’s the same on Xbox Arcade, cut the middle man Microsoft. If you let me strap my credit card to my windows live account you’ll get heaps more drunk purchases off me (like the time I bought Herman and the Hermits greatest hits off iTunes).

Bing: WTF is a bing? This search engine is terrible, which I had the option to switch the default search to Google. I did like the universal use of a search button though. Press to Search marketplace, or emails etc while in those screens.

RingTones: I wish I could set the vibrate mode to be on when the phone volume is on and off when I’ve got the phone off. Sometimes you want to leave your phone off and have it dead quiet.

The HTC Mozart

I had two main issues with the device while using it. First was the small non expandable storage. 8gb isn’t good enough, not sure what genius at HTC thought it would be, but I filled it up quickly. Price? well the difference between an 8gb and 32gb microSD card is around $80. That would be $80 well spent. It really will end up being the deal breaker with this phone for many people. Luckily there are better WP7 phones out their and lovers of the Platform aren’t stuck with it. Second was the touch buttons down the bottom of the phone, the amount of times I pressed them by accident, it drove me batty.

On the positives, the form factor was great. Feels nice in your hand, the camera and flash was good for a portable device. The speaker is great too, and a lot louder than I found the iPhone.

There are loads better WP7 hand sets out there, the Samsung Focus would be the main one I’d look at.

Final Thoughts

Well, it was a step up from my iPhone 3G, but mainly due to apple crippling it with the 4.x software. I’ll be using it from now on as my main phone, but if someone offered me a iPhone 4.0 instead I’d probably swap. Its obvious the device was only released this year as the applications and features are clearly first gen. Hope that Microsoft stick with it as I think they are on to some winning features.

NB: 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.

Applications on Windows Phone 7

2010-12-11T07:40:37Z

What apps do I use on a day to day basis? So far I have found a handful of apps that I use daily and a plethora of applications that are missing. The main point is that the app store or “Marketplace” is in its infancy so it should get better. But with developers making applications for iPhone, Android and WP7 in that order it will mean that WP7 is playing catch up all the time. Hopefully Microsoft will address this and make it attractive to make applications on their platform, I know they had a similar issue with the xbox when it was released but they are now firmly entrenched in that market. Another gripe I had was the lack of titles using the LiveTile.

Twitter: I use the official twitter app, I tried Seesmic but didn’t like it as much. My main gripe with this application is how easily it moves between screens, you could be scrolling and accidently flick from Mentions to Timeline and vice versa. Also if you have a few custom searches you like to view occasionally (#theashes, #telstraWP7 etc.) it takes quite a few clicks (well presses) to get to them. Would be nice if it was one of the screens you could swipe to.

Facebook: Despite strong facebook integration I missed seeing the notifications you get when other people follow up your comments. So while I use the integration to see the timeline if I want to see my notifications I go into the application which is quite sluggish and overly slow.

Domain.com.au: Great applicaion and very well done, just like its iPhone counterpart

eBay: The eBay application is good, wish there were more selling tools and that it’d completely replace going to their website, but its still good to go to and search/bid on items.

foursquare: neat app, was able to find locations better than my iPhone but I think that was due to better GPS then an App improvement. I think it looks really nice and uses the look and feel of the WP7 well.

Shazam: Same Same

Torrent Applications – Torrent Remote/Torrential: I was trying to find an application that matched well with utorrent. Torrent Remote and Torrential are very similar. Torrent Remote wins due to its ability to download torrents from any site where Torrential restricts you to

Weather AU: meh, an application that could use a live tile to show current conditions doesn’t. its devoid of good information too (max temp, low temp). Was hoping it would be similar to weather apps on the iPhone that use BoM data

Wiki: I found this much more responsive than the iPhone App. Was actually useable

YouTube: disappointed that the application was just a link to their website. Also no way to upload videos onto youtube on the go. Boo!

They are the main ones I used.. ones I would of liked to have seen were

TV Guide
TV Episode Tracking Application (NextEpisode on iPhone)
Words with Friends
miso
Remote
Word Press
Quota (@SouthFreo said he had plans to develop one but no timeline and will come after android)
Weight Management/Calorie Counter
MapMyRun

I hope the apps contiune to grow, if people don’t start using the handset though the Chicken could kill the Egg.

HTC Mozart 7. My Sims Not Dead Yet!

2010-12-11T11:15:02Z

If you haven’t guessed by now, I’ve been participating in a review program through a local carrier, Telstra. They gave me a HTC Mozart 7 to review and keep, and the program finished yesterday, but my SIM is still working, So I thought I’d bring home the bacon, or pork belly any way.

Now the Mozart is a beautiful phone in every respect, and it brings some great features to the table, but it’s on par with a lot of the current smartphones out there, whether they be Android, less so Windows Mobile, maybe the N8 from Nokia, and the Blackberry Torch. The iPhone 4 boasts a higher resolution screen but not much more. All of the acquired, obsessive knowledge that I accumulate from the internetz daily, specs and the like, do not portray how I use my phone, or the apps I‘ve found that enable that use. I still feel compelled to post about WP7, while the phone is running on a Telstra SIM, So usage and stand out apps, as well as some niggling problems.

First and foremost, my phone serves as my mobile computing solution. That’s a nice clean sentence but what does it imply, in my work, there is no desk, there is no office and there is very little spare time. My phone has to let me, bank, order online, talk to people, text people, read, find resources, document things, and then link all of that back to a PC when I get time at home. More of late, it must also amuse me, games have become a transition from work to relaxing at home since Angry Birds hit Android. That’s a very simple set of requirements for a device that can do so much more than that. SO what would that list require? First, a fast network, as it is heavily internet focused. I now the Mozart has a newer chipset than my Desire, but the comparison between network speed is phenomenal. What takes the Blink of an eye on the Mozart, takes a couple of seconds on the Desire. That would be marking a page of posts read in Google reader. I’ll be interested to see the comparison in time when I put my normal SIM in the Mozart.

Secondly a good browser. Internet explorer has always been playing catch up, and didn’t play well with secure sites. nothing has changed in that respect. I’ve always been interested in mobile browsers, and MIE is still lacking in some respects. So Metro Browser is the thing for Windows phone 7, for me at the moment, you can learn all about it here

The Good, The Bad … Mozart 7. part 3

2010-12-10T10:43:37Z

A lot of emphasis has been placed on the “everything in one place”, and the “glance and go” nature of the Windows Phone user interface. Whilst that may be true of the calendar and email tiles that you place on the home screen, maybe even the pictures tile. The people tile, nicely animated as it is doesn’t really convey much information. So no matter what you do you have to get down further into apps, but many of the apps don’t include a live tile to transmit current activity. The only app I’ve found that hooks into WP7 like that is called Phonealytics, it connects to your Google Analytics account.The Os’s social integration revolves around Windows Live and FaceBook, and they are built in, Let’s face it though, they are not the quick and easy social media choice of most socialites. So we have to look to apps for that! Probably the most important function though a smartphone should have is constant internet access through a browser. It is the most important feature for me anyway. Mobile Internet Explorer [MIE] which is the default browser in WP7 is … how to be kind about it?

There is no support for flash, html5, it is basically IE7 on a mobile phone. This is probably the biggest let down for me in the whole WP7 experience, and it migrates lote of problems from earlier versions, like the inability to access high security sites properly. If a site has a https:// prefix, like internet banking, you’ll probably find it hard to use. There are plenty of browser in the marketplace you can try, The best of which is called Metro Browser

Final thoughts on the #TelstraWP7 during the Social Review Program

2010-12-10T05:00:00Z

There are some very nice features about the WP7. The beautiful hardware, the beautiful screen, and the great Facebook integration to name just a few. The bottom line for me is that I love my Android, and there are not enough features on this phone that will make me keep using it. The main issues for me are:

Calendar - Only one Calendar can be Synced
Email - Not easy to Star and Label emails
Twitter - I’m sorry, but the few Twitter clients there are available in the marketplace just don’t cut it
Maps - Just doesn’t cut it against Google Maps
Widgets - I love my widgets to turn off features on the phone with one touch

However, just because I won’t be using it, I would probably recommend the WP7 phone to any one who uses the following on a regular basis:

Work Email on Exchange Server
Personal Email on Hotmail
Xbox - Lots
Facebook - Lots
Doesn’t use Twitter much
And probably someone who has not previously used a smart phone.

For someone in this category the Windows Phone 7 would be a great phone, and I would recommend it.

I don’t know if I’m going to keep the phone, and use it for games, which I quite enjoyed, or see if there is someone in my family who would love to use it, or even sell it. I will wait for a while before deciding.

Windows Phone 7 Review

2010-12-10T00:42:11Z

A few days ago i recorded a one hour chat with fellow social reviewers @smperris and @TheMonkeyBoy – you can listen to it here. But i realise¹ a lot of people don’t have the time to dedicate an hour listening to our thoughts, so here’s my final thoughts on the latest phone from Redmond. All of this will be on the test.

Hardware.

The Mozart is a nice enough phone. Feels better (softer?) in the hand than the iPhone 4 and a better build quality than the HTC Desire. I hope the next iPhone takes some inspiration here and goes back to the rounded edges of the 3G/s with the aluminium of the first gen Jesus.

The screen is a high res, high gloss beautiful touch screen. The screen is as responsive as Jebus, let down (at this stage) by the bugginess of the software.

Network

Considering every wanker with a twitter account (myself included) has complained about call dropouts and slow data on the Vodafone and Optus network, bemoaned the 24 month contracts they signed, and told the world they’d switch to Telstra as soon as their contract was over, its should be no surprise that Telstra has a kickarse network. Yes, it is kickarse. No, it is not perfect, but its the best we’ve got. I had no dropouts on the phone, although I still couldn’t get data in some of the deeper crevasses of the UNSW campus.

Software

The software is a very polished 1.0 product, but still very much a 1.0 – The already iconic home screen is very pretty, but some fucntionality is lost from the big blocky icons. To compare this screenshot stolen from another blog :²

The Windows Phone 7 can only have 8 applications available for immediate launch on the home screen. The iPhone, by comparison, has space for 20 apps of the home screen. Making this worse is certain apps (like Pictures in this example) or Calendar for me, take up two whole squares, leaving just 7 apps to access on the home screen. Worse still, each email account takes up its own app square, so in my configuration ((a screenshot would be so handy right now)) the 4 of my 7 homescreen apps are taking up by email and calendar, leaving just 3 spaces for SMS, Phone, and Twitter.

Another disadvantage of the UI is switching between homescreens. On iPhone, a swipe to the left reveals another 20 apps that are easily accesible (more with folders). But the Windows phone UI is not divided into “homescreens”, it’s one long list of apps. So a swipe down in this case scrolls indefinetly, it doesn’t swipe then stop at the next 7 apps. This makes finding and sort apps even harder. And thats before taking in to account every fucking icon looks the same. Big blue squares.

Unified UI

But the phone has some beautiful features too. It appears there are some strict UI guidelines for developing apps for Wp7, which make the experience as a whole feel much nice than the ‘anything goes’ feel of Android. It even looks sexier than Apple’s offering at first (perhaps i’ve just become sick of the same old interface after four years) but within a few days i found myself tired of an interface built around sexy fonts and typography with no obvious buttons to click. But if you may get a kick out of it.

Apps

Not surprisingly, 3rd party apps for WP7 are not even close to the polish of iPhone apps. Very few 3rd Party Android apps match the polish of the iPhone and they’ve had far more experience copying the tastemakers at Cupertino. But wp7 apps have a better chance of becoming polished quicker, as the style guides have already been set, developers can now just focus on function. The best apps on the phone are the Office suite. It makes sense, Office is Microsoft’s strongest brand, and creating the ‘best Office integration’ on a phone should be Microsoft’s killer app.

On the other end of the Microsoft stable is Xbox. The name and colours of Xbox are all over the phone, but really, its just another folder on the homescreen to store games. The Xbox live experience app is mainly pointless, it only allows you to play with your Xbox avatar and see your points. Anyone claiming that changing the clothes of your Xbox avatar on your phone is somehow a ‘game changer’ and ‘immersive gaming experience’ has spent too long reading the marketing material.

The main problem with apps for the WP7 is the lack of apps we’ve all become trained to use on a daily basis on phones like Android and iPhone. There is no Evernote, Dropbox, (decent) twitter app, Instapaper, Simplenote, Tripview, MetroMelbourne, etc, etc. The Bing Maps App looks muted and washed out compared to Google Maps on Android and iPhone.

The App Store itself is pretty annoying too. Like every other part of the UI, its all font no buttons. Every day the background changes to whatever app is recommended by the store, making the interface even harder to navigate, and purely based on the small amount of users, there are very few reviews or ratings on apps to help decided what is decent and what is not.

The Browser, IE 6 Mobile apparently, is good enough, rendering full page sites fast with the standard zoom and click you’d expect on a modern smartphone not made by RIM.³

Wait for January

So my final thoughts would be, don’t buy the Windows Phone 7. Yet. I’m throwing my wp7 into a drawer where it will sit, waiting for the rumoured January update that will supposedly bring the software up to the feature set of the iPhone 4.0. I wouldn’t be surprised if the rumour is true, Microsoft were able to get a very solid 1.0 out the door remarkably quickly after ditching their awful Windows 6 system. They have the money and resources to throw everything at the mobile market, and they must realise they need to – as iPhone solidifies itself as the Mac of the phone world and Android is quickly becoming the Microsoft.

So stay tuned. iPhone’s quality is still miles ahead of the competition, Android’s growth seems unstoppable, and now Microsoft has woken up and stumbled in to the market demanding its share. The phone market over the next twelve months is going to be fascinating to watch.

In a world without iPhone, the Windows Phone 7 may well be the best phone on the market. But then again, in a world without iPhone, Microsoft would probably think Windows for Palm was good enough.

my girlfriend told me to write this
the most frustrating thing about the phone for me the last two weeks was not being able to take screenshots on the phone. Note to Microsoft, screenshots make reviews helpful.
Interestingly, its the iPhone optimised sites that seem to trip up the browser. A screenshot could be really handy here, too.

HTC Mozart: So after 2 weeks…..

2010-12-10T00:09:16Z

So after two weeks what is the verdict? Will I ditch my iPhone 4? Will I keep using the HTC Mozart?

No & Definitely

For users getting a smartphone for the first time this device would be great, however the iPhone (iOS) has had time to mature as a platform and so making the switch to me would be a downgrade. There simply aren’t all the apps available that I need (want) to be able to exclusively use Windows Phone 7 as a platform.

Having said that I’ll be keeping my HTC Mozart and be watching for updates and new apps that will meet or exceed my experience on the iPhone 4/iOS.

Over the two weeks I saw myself using the Mozart less and less. This was in part due to the interface that needs a bit of tweaking to make it easier to use but mostly the fact that I didn’t have available all the apps I used daily or the apps in their first versions are a bit slow/buggy. As the platform matures I expect there to be a lot of improvement this area.

As expected the Telstra Next G Network performed well, just as good as on my iPhone 4. There were a few APN quirks that caused poor battery life if push email was enabled buy these have been ironed out by Telstra engineers.

The battery life of the device is surprisingly good and miles ahead of the iPhone is the ability to carry a spare battery and actually change it. The slim design of the phone should prove to Apple you can make a slim device and be able to change the battery

Disclosure: Telstra is supplying the HTC Mozart 7 free of charge for me to review, however all opinions expressed are my own and not made on behalf of Telstra.

So now the official review period is over I can pass the device on to @BeauGiles who has far more time to fiddle with it than I do I’m sure he will post a review on his website at some stage

My HTC Mozart experience

2010-12-09T14:30:00Z

It's been good and bad. Tears and laughter and happiness.

My Mozart experience has been surprising. Windows Phone 7 as an OS is by far nowhere near as bad as the memories of Windows Mobile x.x - but it's no iOS. That's likely an unfair comparison though, as Apple have had 4 years to get their OS to this stage and this is Microsoft's first iteration of WP7. Sure, there are some rough edges, but over the past two weeks it grew on me.

I couldn't abide the onscreen keyboard. My fat thumbs struggled to type on it accurately, and while the autocorrect built into WP7 is very slick... re-editing a tweet or e-mail afterwards is not what I want to have to do. I prefer it to be right first time 99% of the time. A friend suggested I should just type fast and it will catch up - and it did, mostly. I still found it hard to be looking at the keyboard and having letters next to the letter I want show up in words when I didn't want them to. Oh, teh lulz.

The gaming component of this WP7 device was pretty cool. Lots of great games, lots of cool gamer points to collect. An absolutely productivity killer. But the cost... $4? $6.50? $9?!?! Sure, some of the games were great, but not that great. Being able to stick them as tiles on the main screen was a wonderful distraction, and made them easy to access.

Interacting with the device worked exactly as you'd expect it to. All the normal gestures are accounted for, and scrolling is very smooth and precise. It took me a little while to adapt from just up/down scrolling to including side-to-side scrolling once you're in the app. It does allow for some pretty compelling content to be displayed, & while the Telstra One app starts to hint at that there's a lot more that could be taken advantage of as apps develop.

The battery life sucked - no other way to say it. Advice from the Telstra team yesterday that a fix had been made to the Telstra network meant that we've only had 24 hours at best to really see if the change made a difference (and it needed to - with medium use I was getting, at best, 4-5 hours out of the handset - far from ideal). There has been a temporary fix, but that cruelled your ability to purchase apps from the Marketplace. If the battery/flipping APN issue can be resolved then this device will absolutely benefit. As will the owners of the device.

I saw nothing but goodness from Telstra's NextG network. Solid data bandwidth, no call dropouts, access everywhere. I didn't travel much out of either Brisbane or Sydney during the trial though during this time I didn't have a problem.

As a phone the Mozart works well. Clear call quality, easy enough to use phone component although frustrating when you open the phone part it didn't default to the keypad option, instead going to recent calls. Importantly it worked every time someone called me and I called them.

Overall it's a win. It's no iPhone, but it's a win. I've had some frustrations with apps, but that's not the device's fault. Everything you'd expect a smartphone to do, it does. If I hadn't bought an iPhone I likely would have picked up the HTC Mozart and used it. For the record, I have my quibbles with my iPhone & iOS, not unlike WP7. Given time, WP7 will be an absolutely competitive smartphone OS with a deep and rich app marketplace supporting it. Soon.

DISCLOSURE/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. Or Microsoft. Or AuTechHeads. Or my wife, even.

Telstra HTC Mozart with Windows Phone 7 social review #6

2010-12-12T10:16:13Z

After a great initial impression where the slick looking interface made me think that Microsoft were onto something and HTC had made a nice looking, lightweight handset with a decent camera, the gloss soon started to wear thin.

The Good, The Bad …Mozart 7. part 2

2010-12-09T11:58:05Z

I’m going to preface this post with a little thankyou to Telstra. One of the biggest issues all of the social reviewers have had is poor battery life, this morning we all received an email that eluded to a fix that Telstra had put in place to help.

Hi all,

I’ve got news! Overnight we implemented a fix that will optimise battery life on the Mozart 7 for people using push email.

This was an automated fix and so you will not need to adjust the settings (Telstra tweaked some settings on the servers that support push email on the Mozart and this will optimise battery life). If you have adjusted your APN, I’d recommend you return the phone to its default setting.

It seems though, that this server side optimisation is making all pushed data work more efficiently. I made it through a full nine to five day today, with my usual heavy usage, and got home with 60 % still on the battery. My normal usage is probably quadruple that of an average user, so that’s a big improvement. So Cheers Telstra! SO on with the review.

Camera

I intentionally left the camera out of the hardware overview yesterday, and I know I did a look at video, and photo quality earlier, but I wanted to revisit the camera for a very special reason. It’s ability to do fairly decent macro photography.

All the images above were just random as I was walking home from the train station today. I didn’t take a thousand pics to get a few that looked good to post, These are all just single shots taken on a random basis.

Even though the camera app loads a bit slow, and I would say the dedicated camera button is a little bit small, once you get used to it, you are good to go. The other thing that’s really impressive is that the camera button will wake the phone from standby, directly to the camera. In these days of converged devices, when the camera you always have is your phone, WP7 has made things a little bit smoother.

Native Apps of Note

Native apps included with Windows Phone, should be a no brainer for Microsoft. Ll of your average smartphone apps are there, email, messaging, calendar, contacts and the like. I showed you the people hub and internet explorer earlier. In general Windows Phone is just that, a phone user interface with some fancy add ons. The biggest functionality change for all of the apps on WP7 is SkyDrive sync. Windows phone is built to sync with all of your other Windows Live services. Once you initially set up the phone, all of your info from FaceBook and windows live pulls to the phone. Office on WP7 is little better, than on WinMo 6.5. The big break through is live sync for One Note. It gives you a real time solution, across different platforms, or in the cloud for cumulative text notes that are active, editable on the go.

Zune media player is adequate, combined with the HTC equaliser software, but it gives a simple solution to get any media onto the phone, music or video.

Xbox Live gaming is the jewel in the WP7 crown, and takes mobile device convergence up a level. Gone is that PSP, you got games on your phone. I’m impressed with the quality of the games, and the graphics quality. You don’t have to have an xBox to play the games now. You can play a slew of games on WP7, but they will cost you. The transition from the phone to the console is seamless, you don’t even have to get the console, do it all on the phone

Calendar on the #TelstraWP7

2010-12-09T11:13:46Z

UPDATE: I had to update this post because I was a bit silly and could not find the day view (swipe left from the calendar view), so most of what I was saying is wrong. The calendar looks great, and if you use Exchange it would probably be a great calendar, because you can import all your ical feeds into your main calendar and sync that one calendar. With Gmail the ical feeds are included as separate calendars, so I have 5 calendars that I refer to regularly. All my calendars are synced with my Android phone. The live tile showing the next appointment is good, and way better than the iPhone that tells you nothing about your upcoming appointments, but I’ve got my Android set up to show me my next 3 appointments at a glance. So the “Glance and Go” features of the Android for me are better. The Agenda view is beautiful, the Month view is a bit small, and after finally finding the day view, it works well. There seems to be no Go To Date functionality at all. This is a small issue and doesn’t really detract from the overall usefulness of the calendar. So overall, it is a perfectly functional calendar, but just missing the lovely bells and whistles that my Android / Gmail calendar has.

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

Engagement? This is not the platform you are looking for

2010-12-09T23:19:50Z

Or how the little things destroy the big picture I have written this post over the course of a few days. There are a lot of ideas half-formed in my head, and two weeks has not been long enough to tease them all out. As much as I would have liked longer, I suspect I [...]

A face made for radio…

2010-12-09T23:19:49Z

…and a voice made for blogging. While you may not get to see my face (some things are best left unseen), you can still have the dubious pleasure of listening to me um, ah, interrupt, be distracted and not get around to saying what I was going to say at the start of the sentence [...]

Mini game review – Assassin’s Creed (WP7)

2010-12-09T05:18:55Z

Windows Phone 7 Xbox Live games are miniature-sized, so they get miniature-sized reviews. Say goodbye to ‘meh’ – features are either cool or shite. The next game to get the mini treatment is Assassin’s Creed by Ubisoft.

The cool: If you like the Assassin’s Creed series, you’ll most likely enjoy this HD-enhanced iPhone port. The story itself is actually quite good and is a major improvement over the series first instalment. While this game isn’t essential to understand the series, it is a good side-story.

The shite: Some games just shouldn’t be made for a mobile; this is one of them. You control Altair (from AC1) via a left-hand thumbstick for movement and right-hand buttons for jumping and attacking.

If your control scheme means you’ve constantly got two hands blocking the screen in order to control your character, you’re doing something wrong. This phone has a touch screen and accelerometers; they should have be used in an innovative way; the developer should not be trying to transform your phone into a traditional controller.

The most annoying thing about this game BY FAR is that whenever you start to play it, you’re forced to watch a 45 second introduction video before the game even starts to load. You can’t skip it. You can’t avoid it. Why?

Overall, only die-hard Assassin’s Creed fans or achievement hunters should pick up this title. Anyone else will find it hard to control, frustrating to launch, and a general waste of time.